2026 Starts Off Strong for Avants, but Weak for Honda

Welcome to the Avant's Podcast. I'm Dan. I'm Nick. We're in the same place. We're in the same place. We're in the same place. You're home.

And you're never ever leaving again. Ever, ever. No. Yeah.

Not as soon as possible or anything like that. Oh, come on.

This is a great place. All you missed was, you know, the great flood that Noah was looking for and it apparently hasn't stopped,

but that's okay. It is, it is tending to go on and on and on. We're getting a ton of snow on the mountains.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to going to play in that. That's that. I was just saying, I have not had a chance to go yet. Every time Brian goes, I'm busy.

Yeah, I think you and I should talk about that. It's a, it's a definitely for all you snow people out there, it's a great time to drive from the mountains.

They just reopened I-90s of recording this. It's been closed. There was so much snow, snow tires required. I mean, if you're in off,

playing in the snow, that's, I think that is some of the most fun off-roading you can possibly do, especially with the group,

because you'll get stuck, but it's beautiful. It's fun. The Avons Off-Road group did a little impromptu drive up north.

I saw that. A middle fork.

I don't know if it was an actual Avons event, but it was a really cool event put on by Avons members.

Yeah, just the Avons Off-Road community decided to get together, do a drive, and a bunch of people came out,

saw some cool cars as always. I mean, you always see good stuff with the Avons group.

Yeah, so cool to see them doing that. It's a great time. Again, great time of the year to go out there.

Do not go out in the snow alone. Around here, our snow is sticky and wet, and Nick and I have both done

plenty of vehicle recoveries for people who thought they were well-equipped in their Broncos and Raptors

and Jeeps, and no, you can get stuck really easy out there alone.

Actually, I was going to say this in accordance to the route they went out, because I noticed they

were some great video of them going through some puddles. I have seen more people hydro-lock

their engines going out that road than anybody anywhere else. The puddles out there are,

and there's a set of puddles that are almost to the end, and they are so deep you do not realize.

They're long and deep. And it looked like they were doing everything right. They were playing

it at great. They had a lot of the cars, I think a couple of cars were going through,

had snorkels and stuff like that, but it's just one of those things that made me

remind me. I mean, I remember being out there, I forgot, we might have been out there on the

Monkeys, and there was a gentleman that unfortunately took it too fast. And a Tacoma.

And a Tacoma. Yeah, so you got to watch out for that. I'm noticing something happening

in my life. I got in the truck yesterday and I had to go down to Rainier Avenue to visit a client.

And I noticed myself, I was prepared. I noticed myself, I put the cruise control on and I just

sort of drove there. I drove at the speed limit. I took my time. And I feel like now that I know

how fast I can drive in my life and how much experience I've had, I tend to drive more normal.

Like when we were kids and we didn't know how to drive cars, we drove stupid fast.

You are correct. And I just, I'm sitting there and I'm like, I didn't try to beat the GPS. I just

sort of like, you know, I knew when I needed to leave and I got there right on time. By the way,

if you put something into GPS, the GPS gets you there right at that time. It's so weird.

It's getting more and more and more accurate too. Well, but we all play the game of,

oh, 45 minutes. I can do it in 37. So I, yes, yes and no. Okay. Yes and no,

dramatically no. I find myself doing that more and more when I have errands to run.

If I'm just going around town, I've taken my time. I'm not in a hurry. It's just not worth it.

If you look at the data, empirical data on speeding tickets, they happen mostly around

busier urban areas. And mostly it's because you're just going too fast for conditions. And that

doesn't just mean weather. Too fast for conditions may just mean traffic, things like that. And so

I have just slowed down. Part of it is me being defensive because of people who don't

ball tires, bad braking distances. I try and be more aware. And my vehicles have gotten more

expensive. My responsibilities have gotten larger. And the implications of tickets and

accidents has gone up for me. Like it's a much bigger inconvenience. I have work to do. I have

a house to take care of, you know, there's things that let alone the amount of uninsured

motorists on the road. Exactly. My responsibility has gone up. I think it's really all it

comes down to. You're a fur child. Exactly. You have to come home. My puppy needs me.

Absolutely. That's incredibly true. And then the other side of that, when I was down in Utah

and in the middle of nowhere on these open roads, let's just say the GPS and I did not

agree on the predicted outcome by significant difference in margin. And that was a lot of fun.

Is this a 60 mile an hour road or not? Maybe it's higher. I feel like it could be higher.

I've heard they're safe if you double the speed limit. Those yellow signs are suggested speeds.

And you can change them. We all saw the beginning of Cannonball Run. They wrote a one in front of

it. It's like White Rim Road. It can be a six hour drive with stops or it can be a two day

adventure. Depends how you look at it. It's a long six hours. I'll be honest. It was amazing

six hours. It had to have been more. It felt like two days. It was six hours. It was six hours. Okay.

And it's normally a 10 to 12 hour drive. Yeah. And I mean, and we weren't really

bahaing it. No, we just didn't need to slow down. Yeah. It's technically a 35 mile an hour

road. Yeah. Literally. It's the speed limit. If you can call it a road is 35 miles an hour,

but you often have to slow down much lower than that. And, well, we didn't because our vehicles

don't need to. It's funny you say that not to get off on something, but I, you know, I have all

the patches in the truck and I was, I had the truck in for a sensor replacement and

they always question me about the patches. Oh, yeah. He's like, what's, well, he was like,

what's right rim? It doesn't look like it's that bad. And I was like, Oh, it's not if you

take your time, you know, and another one of the mechanics is like, it's two days. And

I was like, I don't, we did it in a day. And in my mind, I was like, it felt like 12 hours.

Yeah, no, he was six. So, yeah. Yeah. No, I just was noticing like, I'm becoming that person

like I was just like, okay, I'm, I need to be someplace. Even though gas is coming down a

little bit. I mean, I played close to $3 for gas a couple days ago. Oh yeah. There were times

that it was a, it's dropped below two in several states. Yeah. Weird how that worked out.

I wonder what changed. Who knows. But I'm just finding myself doing that more. And it

makes me actually look back on my childhood and think, God, I did a lot of stupid stuff that I

shouldn't have done. Like really stupid stuff in cars that really shouldn't have been had stupid

stuff. You shouldn't be taking hard corners on a dirt road in a 79 Ford Granada. You just

shouldn't do it. So it's probably more equipped than modern cars. It was on a ladder frame

chassis. Oh, I could, I could have hit every tree in the forest and been fine and probably

wouldn't even dented the, you know, the bumper. But yeah, I was just noticing that this

week. So yeah, that's funny. Yeah. Oh, let's talk about our friends at Carter Automotive

Group. And then we've got some avance news and some other things. What's so our, as always,

the Carter Automotive Group tips brought to you by Carter Automotive Group, Subaru Volkswagen

Acura, sorts of good stuff. Yeah. We're talking about Honda's coming up a little bit,

not Acura's, but anyway, I want to talk about just a crossplane versus flat plane

crank v8. This is all the rage right now. It's funny because they've been

for a long time, but Corvette putting the the flat plane crank v in Mustang, putting the

flat plane crank, flat plane crank in everybody's like, what's the, what's the difference? Is it

just the noise? Yes. But they're spelled differently. Right. So a crossplane set up the crankpins

where the connecting rods attached, they're arranged in two planes that are perpendicular

to each other resembling sort of a cross or a plus sign. We're talking about crossplane v8s

or inline fours like Yamaha's got this CP4 engine. The first and second pins are 90 degrees apart

as are the third and fourth pins. So if you can picture that. However, the second and third

crank pins are 180 degrees apart from each other on a flat plane crank. All the pins are

resting in a single plane in 180 degrees apart. That's it. So kind of like a flat plane that's

kind of a not a boxer engine, but they're that's the easiest way to visualize it.

Visualize it's like if you were to lay it down on on a flat table, it would lay flat. Yep. Exactly.

The crank would lay flat. That's exactly what we're talking about. So it versus a regular plane if

you could. Yeah, a flat plane. If you look at a crossplane crank, and you put it straight on

a table, like you're looking straight down at the very end of it, it's going to look like a

plus sign. Okay. Simple as that. And with flat plane crank v8s, you have that really high

pitched wine versus the the rumble of the classic American v8. That's, which is hard to beat.

Yeah, they're both great sounds on their own right. The uncommon to popular belief,

the R8 v10 is a crossplane crank. It's not a flat plane crank or what he seems to think that

it's just tuned really nice and tight. I just thought I'd throw that out there since this

is what got the discussion going about the because we're looking, we went look at the new

Z06 down there, just sat in it, check it out. It doesn't fit. You know, did you like

loved, fantastic car, man that Corvette has Corvette has done this pretty well for a long time.

Because you haven't been in one either one of you, right? I've been a C8. I have not been in the Z06.

They're virtually identical, just way nicer interior. And the idea is that that's something

like that could replace the R8. Yeah. Okay. Zero one X is well, who knows. Now they've got,

there's, I was talking to Garve about this, there is high speculation that there may be a

Z06X on the way as well. Naturally aspirated hybrid. Who knows. Man, Corvette's putting out

models like it's its own brand. We talked about the market being flooded. I think that would just,

yeah. And they're still, they're still saying there may be a product Zora as well. That's

not the zero one X. So who knows. Anyway, fantastic car, fantastic interior layout.

Corvette has really done a nice job of making layouts for drivers. I've always loved

that. Like you get in it, you just feel like you're in the driver's seat. Like you're in

the spot to take control of the car. Even more so than I think even Lamborghini or,

and you know, those others, like you get in there and that thing is super driver focused.

I've always liked that. Some people find it a little claustrophobic, but I'm six one and I'm

not small and it fits really well. Oh, nice. Shanna's five three. And it says something

that they're, they're sitting on the showroom floor too. So many models and that, you know,

go down, this is in St. George's had, they had two in the showroom floor,

both under George. Yeah. Oh, okay. Both under MSRP. And as I was sharing with the group,

bring a trailer, you know, 25% off. If you bought a used one, you're hurting. Anyway,

so, huh, look at car crossplane, flatplane crank V8. They sound amazing. If you haven't

heard of zero six, the C eight zero six with exhaust go look it up. They get definitely

for sound. They're giving Ferrari well performance as well. They're really giving

Ferrari a run for their money. And that like Ferrari is really known for that crossplane,

flatplane crank V8. Man, I cannot talk today. That flat, they're very close. Yeah. The flat

plane crank V8 is like distinctively like, Oh, what does that sound like for a classic Ferrari sound

like that? Yeah. Yeah. I really, Ferrari has been an enigma in my mind. Obviously,

it's not in my budget, but I say that, but it's been a while since they're bringing out

something that really piques my interest in that two, nine, six speciale really kind of

gets gets my flatplane crank running again. So yeah, that's a really good looking car.

It is. It is. I'm kind of impressed by that. But again, out of my budget and probably my

children's budget. So yes. Yeah, that's a pain. I don't have any kids. So it just

tells you your dog cannot afford that. You know, my dog has a now has a stroller

for them all and a Pendleton blanking in it. So she's traveling better than I am. So

I want that. So do I. I mean, that's what you do when you want to get in an airline

and you don't want to walk around the airport because you're fat. Pretty much. Yeah.

I told you there's a trend in people who do that. I'm just saying almost ordered it.

It was a shirt. It was a workout shirt and it said kind of fit kind of fat and it was

like a bear. Kind of kind of me. So I ran into this article and I've done some research on it.

I watched the video. You've heard of. Is it Ganasi? Ganasi racing? They're in India. India.

Yeah. So and we will link the video that where I got this from. It's the latest

Vin Wickey video, which by the way, I love all their videos. I think Ed Boolean does

a great job in bringing people in. But it was along the lines of wind tunnel testing and how

when you wind tunnel test a car that's sitting there and not moving, you don't get as good

of data. And then, yes, there are the rolling roads and things like that. But there is a rumor

slash truth slash. We know it exists. They don't talk about it. In Pennsylvania, there used

to be about seven tunnels that the state of Pennsylvania shut down because they decided

they needed to widen the road. It was a two lane tunnel and it was cheaper to just take the new

four lane road and run it around the tunnels than go through the tunnels. So the tunnels were shut

down and there were starting to be these rumors where people go, you know, there's something

going on in the tunnel. There's something that's happening. And the journalist who was in this

video actually, God in 2013, I think, went down there and it was a little hard to find

because you're not really supposed to be able to get to them. And as he walked up to

these tunnels, which is obviously closed and the no trespassing sign, there were all these

used NASCAR tires sitting outside, which is very random to see outside of a tunnel, right?

Right. So the rumor is slash has been confirmed by people who have been in the tunnel and

crashed in the tunnel. The Ganassi Racing, it's a four had had low owned least used

this fourth out one of the 4000 foot tunnel to do live wind tunnel testing on their cars

where they would there was a turnaround at each end, literally like a one of those like drive

on platforms that turns the car around. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. And they would put all the stuff

on the car and the car would zip down the tunnel. And then the car would sit and if this is how

they were getting all of their data to make these little adjustments to the car and I didn't

go into the there, how much they want or stuff like that. One of the racers that has

been in the tunnel and crashed in the tunnel kind of spilled some of the beans.

But even the town around that the journalist went into the town was was talking about it

and nobody in the town went it's sort of it's sort of a known not known secret.

Yeah. It's kind of interesting. So maybe but we're not going to tell you. Well,

no, they literally looked at it like he was in the town and in classic story was sitting in

the diner and he goes anybody know about this and everybody's like we don't know anything.

And so he did some more research and he figured out who built the tunnels back

of the day and the construction companies still exist. He walks in the office and this

then let he goes you the reporter looking to talk about the tunnel. We're not telling you anything.

So there's something, you know, obviously going on there. I think it's kind of a fun.

I love it. If you know about racing a NASCAR it's it's it's not cheating until you get caught.

It's like when I forgot his name, he put he put the fuel line into his into his NASCAR with

the line held an extra two gallons so he could go longer or the fact that he's super chilled.

You know, it's not legal until you get caught. I don't think they were doing anything illegal.

I think they were just using a wind tunnel at speed. So yeah, that's a closed road. Oh,

no, no, yeah. I mean, but but it's this is like Area 51 kind of thing. Like, you know,

so apparently there's like six other tunnels. So who knows what are the racing teams are

doing this? But yeah, that's really cool. But yeah, basically, the gentleman, one of their

drivers was in the tunnel and they it is known that they test there. They just don't talk about it.

Yeah. And he used to laugh because he was laughing about it in the interview. He said,

well, he said, I would call the the the the Department of Transportation and leave them

a message. And all of a sudden somebody from the PR team at Ganassi Racing would call me

back. He goes, you start to think things might be associated. So again, we'll post the

video. I'll post a link to the video in when we post this. And it's a it's kind of a fun little

listen. That's a yeah, that's a I love stories like that. The the fun ways racing teams have

got to do things. It's you know, from shaping bodies with a hammer on the fly,

like that'll fix it. And it does. I love stuff like aerodynamics aerodynamics. Yeah.

Yeah, good stuff. I want to talk about little of Vance news before we go in. So

so we have a new member, not just new member of the off a new director, a new director,

our San Diego director. We have expanded again. Kevin Nielsen. Welcome to the club.

Kevin is a huge, huge car guy, car dork, as he likes to call himself. So and he's had

about he's 30 cars talked about his favorite being a boxer spider that he shared with his

dad. And as we have mentioned many times in this show, the Porsche Boxster,

it works. It's a great car. Well, didn't it kind of start a Vance? Didn't Adam have one of those

for a while? Is I mean, kind of a beat around kind of fun car? Yep. Yeah, exactly. The boxers

live up to the hype. If you're a car person, boxer came in. They're so fun. The older

used ones, if you can find one in good condition, they're pretty reliable. They're

cheap and hear it from you know, listen to an expert. Definitely way to go. But Kevin,

welcome to the party. We share your opinions. We welcome you to the group. Kevin, I mean,

I haven't met him in person yet. He's really charismatic, seems like a nice guy. He photographs

really well. He does. Yeah, I also want to call out. Have you noticed some significant

improvements on the Avant social media on our webpage? Yeah, that would be our friend,

Daniel Piker, of course, who has been on the show. All those wonderful videos are coming

from all of a sudden. Yes, we have a new creative person and Daniel is extremely well

established and very talented. He's been on the show. He's been on the show. He has been around

for a long time. We had him before Avant did. That's right. Yeah, that's right. And yeah,

we're big fans of his work and obviously he is stepping up and showing everybody like

how much of a value add he is because our social media has taken off. Huge thanks

to him. I mean, I don't know about you, but he won't return my calls. I know, he's

too big for us now. Yeah, that's what I think it is. Now that he's with Avant,

it's just like, oh, I'm kidding, by the way. Obviously. One of the nice people on me.

Exactly. Yeah. In some other things that we have some voicemails. We do? We do,

actually. There's text messages. People were at home for Christmas and they had nothing

better to do than listen to us. Remember, we're 425-298-7873. I'll tell you that again. It's

in the show notes of every episode that we're not hard to find. Send us a text.

Should leave us a voicemail. Nathan Muntz, who we've had on the show. Ah, yes.

I told him he needs to come hang out. He messaged me while I was on vacation. I didn't get his

message earlier. So, if you're looking for folks to join the pod to help fill in the schedule,

I can help. Yes, he can because this guy has a million great stories. He has some awesome

projects. Yes, he does. He's always got some project. He's got his vintage race season

coming up with his Volvo, his two-months jets. The Morgan is getting a new

modern engine put in. His Land Rover truck is hopefully heading off soon to get

its engine swap. Is anything running of this poor man's?

I've got a tune and an X-byte coming for the DB9. He's done trips to Le Mans and Goodwood.

He's always got something going on. He's always got great stories. So, Nathan,

I got your message. I can't wait to have you in the show again. We just think you're a good

dude. I forgot that. I mean, I remember that you've been on, but it's been a really long

time. Yep. And I'm not going to reveal the source on this, but did you know Amazon is

doing Amazon autos? Is there still doing their Carbonacarmax kind of competitor thing?

No. Yeah. So, you can buy a car through Marketplace.

I had known that, but I didn't know it had sort of faded.

Well, it didn't really fade. It's just they were getting the partner stuff worked out.

And so, now it's come back. Our CarMax episode started a real good conversation online.

Yeah. There was a lot of people that were talking about that. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. We love it when you talk about the show. We love it when you get feedback.

We love it when you give us corrections too. Oh yeah.

Please correct this if we get something wrong. We love that feedback because that's just

learning. Yeah, if we're wrong, you tell us. Yes. Tell us. Say, hey, actually, you said this,

but what you meant was this. Speaking of, not us being wrong.

You'll get a few of those on flat playing. Oh, well, I think I got the description.

I know we said one of them wrong, at least. There's obviously more info there,

but let's talk about moving on from that. Let's talk about a new car,

which unfortunately is not doing very well. And I hate to say this, it is as expectedly not

doing very well. And I'm disappointed in that because I liked what they, I love the look of the

car, but it's a terrible car. And that's the new, that's the new Honda Prelude.

I'll be honest. You know how I know they're doing horrible? Because I knew that it was

coming out, but I hadn't had no idea that it was even out yet.

Yeah. So they have been out since November. And they have sold 174 Preludes

in the first month. And the fact that the car starts at 44,000 is a huge problem. And then it

goes up to 60 when you option it all out, which is a bigger problem because the car is...

Yeah, but I'm sure it's got like a ton of horsepower and it's really fast, right?

Yeah. No, not at all. It is a basically a two door rebodied Civic. It shares the same

drivetrain as the Civic EX. It comes, it does not come in a manual. It's not very quick.

A lot of the reviews on it say it's a fine car and it drives nice.

It's pretty. Yeah, it is. I think it's a good looking car.

Yeah. There's also due to the tariffs that's costing about another 5,000 on top of it,

which Honda, you make a ton of vehicles in the U.S. Why don't you just make that one here?

That's not doing very well in Japan either.

Interesting. So it's got some mix of parts. It's got good suspension. It's got good brakes.

And I'm... Here's where the problem is. Have you seen the Civic Type R, the new one?

The both the three tailpipes, it's really distinguishable. Yes.

Okay, so if you've looked at one of those, it's actually a really good looking car. It's

about the size of an Accord now, like everything small, but it's still... It's a good looking

car. That's the next generation. That's not the one where it looks like Optimus Prime.

No, the very latest one. I've seen a couple on the street and I am a huge fan.

Surprisingly, I actually think it's a great looking little car. It's not the hot hatch. It used

to be. It looks about the same size as the 90s Accord now, but it's got great wheels. It's got

great brakes. The aero actually looks decent on it. I'm a big fan. I think it's a really

nice looking car. I think Honda did a really good job at it. That said, it's not priced

much different than this. And you get way better car. Why doesn't the Honda Prelude

have the Civic Type R? If you're going to re-body a Civic into a two-door,

make it the Civic Type R into the Prelude Type R. How long has the Prelude been gone? Because I

remember when we were kids, like the late 80s, early 90s was the first Prelude, I think, because

it had that really narrow flat nose. Then they changed the headlights throughout. I always

preferred the pop-up headlight models. But I mean, it was like in the 15s to 20s,

and I understand inflation. I do. Yeah, it should be like a $35,000 car.

That's what I was going to say. That was what I was going to say. Yeah, it's like price-wise.

This is the 6th gen Prelude. There was five generations of Prelude before that. I know that.

I remember what the years were. But they were never high horsepower cars, but they were a lot

lighter, too. 220 horsepower for the Type SH, the top of the Line 1 that was in the 5th gen.

And then the 2nd gen, which is like the pop-up headlight, or the 2nd and 3rd gen,

the 2-liter, they were both at 160 horsepower, but those cars were like 2,400 pounds.

Yeah, but it had to have been the 3rd or 4th gen that was the ones that were all modified,

like Fast and the Furious, like early 2000s. I understand a lot of them were the Acura,

RSX, or whatever it is, but... That's the 5th gen. 5th gen, okay. Yeah, I don't remember

what years those were. In the 2000s? Yeah. So it's been gone for a while. Yeah. Oh, okay.

Let's see here. Interesting. Trying to find the... The 2001 was the last year.

Okay. So it's been 25 years. So the 5th gen was the one that we saw on everything. Okay. Yeah. Interesting.

I... Oh, MSRP, or let's see, used prices on those have gone up quite a bit. They're in the

low 20s, if you can find a really nice one. Well, I mean, what was that? What did that

Type R go for? Like that fully... It was an Integra. But I'm just saying...

Totally different car. I understand that, but I'm just saying price wise of more vintage...

Well, those are like 50,000, 60,000. I thought there was one that went for stupid money,

like a yellow Type R or something, low miles. Yeah, there's one with like 100 plus, which is just

done. And I'm just saying, I'm thinking two door coupes, Honda, Acura, things like that.

It's funny. I always liked the Pralio more than the Integra, even though it was heavier.

It was less of... It was more of a touring car, I think. Nicer interior to me. It got really

big. I remember that. Well, it's still... I mean, I guess for the time it grew quite a bit,

as everything does. But I was saying... The Pralio has always been like a sport compact,

fun car. And now they've turned it into a hybrid commuter, which is... I see the appeal in that,

but that's not that car. Yeah. That car should always be a fun, sport compact car. And it

doesn't mean it has to have a manual in today's terms. I understand that. The manual's

going away. I should. The BRZ pulls it off. There's no reason Honda shouldn't, but it

should be front-wheel drive, lightweight, and have 250 horsepower. Let's just say that should be

250 to 300 horsepower. I'd still just... I think they totally missed the mark by not making it a

Civic Type R competitor. If you're phasing out the Type R, make the Pralio the fun car,

so it competes as like a not quite Z, but also not underpowered like the BRZ FRS.

So do you think because of the price that they don't know where their audience is? Because

if it's lower, you're going to get kids that are coming out of high school college that have

saved up and maybe won a new car. But also people, our generation, that's a price point where

more than I want to pay for a commuter car. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking. If you're

going to do it, they should have directly competed, I think, to me with the GTI people.

Okay. Even though it's not because it's a two-door coupe, like that's the price point,

I think. Is the GTI gone? I don't think so. I thought somebody... I thought I had heard

somebody say that they weren't going to make it anymore. Or maybe it's the Golf. I don't know.

Maybe I'm crazy. No, it's not gone because they just finally fixed the interior and

got rid of the stupid non-haptic... Oh, okay. Yeah, they've got a car of the year.

Golf R and GTI win Motor Trend car of the year again. Never mind.

And see, that's starting at 35, but that's 241 horsepower, 273 foot-pounds of torque. Got it.

See, I don't think it's got a CBT, so that's good. It's got a... Yeah.

Okay. I was wrong. Fake news. I apologize.

Yeah. So, I mean, that's the... I think that's the market they should have gone after, though,

is the GTI, that 35 to 40 range, and actually make it a fun performance car to drive,

because the GTIs are a lot of fun to drive.

I would be interested if any of any of Vance members, and I'm sure

knowing our car community, somebody ordered one, why you ordered it. And I'm not

criticizing it. I'd like to know what it's going to fill in your life. Like,

is it a commuter car? Are you buying it as a fun car? What do you plan to do with it?

Yeah. Like I said, it's a really good looking little car for what it is. It looks like...

What was the CRX replacement that they did? That one missed the Mark II. It really died fast.

The CRX. The CRX was the two little hatched back.

Yep. Okay.

What was that thing called? Somebody did a nice reimagining of one of those that looked

really good. God, they started production of the Prelude in 1978. I was way off.

Yep. Anyway, I think we need more... We need more fun, cheap cars.

Yeah. Because you don't need to have, you know,

400, 500 horsepower at a good time in a car. You just need something fun and little.

Yeah. 89. That's the 89 Prelude is what I was thinking of.

Yeah. I love those.

Yeah. Interesting. I mean, the car world is changing. I don't know if you saw the

latest... We knew it was coming, but the TRX is back and back meaner than ever.

777 horsepower.

And have you followed that whole diesel brothers thing?

Not past as we talked about it.

With his lawsuit or something like that.

Well, the funny thing is, the diesel brothers are in the Dodge video.

Oh, nice.

And he jumps the truck. The truck gets jumped over the CEO of Ram and up pops Dave Diesel

Dave and goes, don't do that. You know, it gives the big law speech.

Yeah.

And his sidekick goes, well, how do you know about that?

He goes, I know a lot about legal stuff right now.

It's like, that's a good way to put that out there.

But yeah. Glad to see that. Glad to see the power wagons.

Bring them back to power wagons with a diesel now for towing and things like that.

I'm not getting rid of the Raptor, but...

No, I love the competition though.

Yeah. Well, especially, you know, with... I think it's smart with...

Because what does the Raptor R have right now?

I can't remember. Not that much.

I'm willing to bet it's less than 777.

Oh, it is. It is.

That's why it's 720.

Okay. My point is, I knew they were going to come out and give it more horsepower than the Raptor.

720. Yeah.

Okay.

And that's a supercharged 5.2.

So we've got 50 more, 57 more horsepower.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. Bring on the competition, especially with Stalantis hurting for customers right now.

Your odds of getting one of those at not the astronomical rate of markup is pretty high.

So it's a good time to be a Dodge fan.

We're glad to see they're back.

We hope to see them succeed because we want more.

I'm sick with it and I got some flak for it last time.

I'd like to see them bring back to Magnum Power Wagon.

Hell yeah.

Because there's been a couple of people that have made them

out of the new chargers and the new challengers.

And I think that would be so insanely cool.

They need, you know, yeah, if they're listening, you never know.

Because we've had people listen to our show and never thought would.

If you're listening, give me that on an all wheel drive hybrid platform.

Yeah.

In the Corvette.

All the Corvette.

That'll take on the new M5.

Exactly.

Put a Hemi in the front or put a Hellifit in the front.

Yeah.

Give me that 777 horsepower all wheel drive with a hybrid kick.

So it puts it up to like 1,000 with like 250 horsepower motors on the front.

Hell yeah.

So in news of, I don't have the money for it and I don't know what I would do with it.

The throttle channel is selling their Dodge Viper that they put the Hellcat engine in.

Oh.

It's a drag car.

It's like a Gen 1 or Gen 2 Viper.

I feel like that'd be kind of fun, right?

That'd be great for getting around in the water around here.

Yeah.

I don't know.

So I want to bring out some previous guests.

Nico Pogonis, we have on the show from Amoxia Autosport.

He was talking about 3D printing car parts.

And I have been going down that rabbit hole a little bit.

I have no need to 3D print things.

But I loved what he was doing because I think that is a untapped market.

I was looking at our friends at Golden Rovers.

He does a bunch of 3D printed stuff for fixing those Rovers.

By the way, his engine kit is now available.

He has a really awesome...

The video series we talked about it for is absolutely worth a watch.

Just even if you have no care about Rovers at all,

watching him go through the process of how he made this engine swap kit

is really, well, it's admirable for one.

Just the amount of work in R&D he's got into this.

But also he did a video series on not just how to do the installation and everything,

but also how to order the additional parts he's not carrying.

Like how to build a custom wiring harness.

Not just for that, but he goes through the options for buying a custom wiring harness.

How to get parts you wouldn't expect.

Like ordering an engine complete from Jags or whoever.

He goes through the process of what that's like.

And if you've ever gone through the process of trying to order an engine

and you haven't done it before, it can be pretty intimidating.

So like I said, even if you're not into Rovers,

these kind of video series can be really helpful.

Just when it comes to fixing your car and knowing...

Because it covers his V8.

Like because it uses the standard GM 5.3 basically for most of it.

The differences between those.

It's a really well thought out video series.

Did we sign a royalty contract with that?

We did not.

We grounded his first one.

We did not.

Which caused him to probably...

I mean, I think we're the reason.

Right.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

But he was talking about 3D printing car parts.

And how he did this for prototyping and things like that.

Well, a new website has popped up that we have no affiliation with.

We always tell you if somebody's paying us to say something.

But 3dcarparts.org popped up.

And this is a new site where they are basically...

It's sort of like send cut send for 3D printed parts for cars.

And it's little stuff that you wouldn't expect.

And it's super handy.

Trunk hooks for a Mitsubishi Pajero.

Charging locks for a Tesla Model 3.

Charging adapter holders.

A trunk fence.

It's all sorts of cars.

It's not very big yet.

But this is a really cool start.

Hatchback stops.

Like a washer fluid funnel for the Tesla Model 3.

Because it's paying the butt.

The washer fluid apparently.

Center console trays.

Cup holders.

Trunk retainer pins.

Like these weird hard to find parts that if you don't have

are a real pain.

Like the headlight screw covers for a 2004 Hyundai Elantra.

And these are...

The best part of this stuff is not only is it not available,

but it's 3D printed so it's dirt cheap.

Like headlight cover.

$5.75.

Car mat clips.

$5.75.

Internal door handle mechanism.

You're going to pay more for shipping.

$5.75.

Like they're really charging you basically a basic materials cost.

And if you've got one of those really nice bamboo 3D printers

that can 3D print.

And by the way, if you're looking at 3D printers,

which I went down the rabbit hole,

they're the only ones to go with.

Nico started talking one of the podcasts and I was like,

oh, because the last time I looked at them,

they were always dealing.

Like we had a maker garage at Microsoft.

And they have all sorts of 3D printing stuff.

CNC, you name it.

And it's all for just learning.

But it's always like, they're always a mess.

I mean, technology's come a long way.

I looked into it.

I thought it'd be kind of fun to start playing around

and printing things.

And then I realized,

I don't know if I want to go down that rabbit hole.

Yep.

But now, thanks to that company,

like they've really changed the game.

I did it online.

Did it just pop up because you were searching for stuff?

Yeah, I just went down the rabbit hole

of 3D printing car parts.

Not for a need.

Just every time he talked about it,

I was like, man, that sounds really cool.

Like I wonder, because the last time I looked at them

was like 10 years ago.

But we've opened like that where you're in your car

and like typical like the mirror switch breaks.

Yeah.

And you go to the dealership and they're like,

oh yeah, we can do that.

It's going to be the parts.

It's going to be $75 and then the labor.

And you're like, yeah, but I can literally take this

and just look and people have gotten that.

Like people like Michael who just go out

and make his own car parts and Nico.

So I think that's a really fun,

and you can kind of prototype it.

Like I've seen a ton of automotive prototyping

with people coming up with cup holder solutions.

Oh yeah.

For cars that aren't necessarily built with them.

Yeah.

It's well, and older cars that older plastic gets old

and brittle.

Yeah.

And that's just, and it's, and now you can like,

I mean, there's different,

there's so many different types of 3D printing.

It used to be, if you haven't looked at it in 10 years

like I hadn't, you remember all the old,

like seeing all the lines of the mold

and it looked kind of rough and you had to sand it down.

New printers are way better.

They handle multi materials really well.

And they, I found a video online

of like explaining the different types of 3D printing.

Like maybe you want something that's a lot more flexible.

Maybe you want something that is really thin,

but really hard.

So it's going to be brittle,

but it's not a load bearing piece.

It's just like something you need for a trim piece.

So you can make it really, really clean,

but it's not going to be as strong because it doesn't need to be.

It's just like, you know, it's a pretty thing.

And then you've got like carbon fiber reinforced stuff

in the resin that's super heavy duty.

Like, you know, that can, you know,

you can stand on it and it's just fine.

And there's so all sorts of options and, you know,

it's cool stuff like this that I'm seeing pop up

is like, Hey, 3D printed car parts.

And remember having to cut out ABS plastic back in the day.

Yeah, you don't have to do that anymore.

Yeah.

So gears for like, you know,

we're sitting there with a Dremel trying to shape it.

Yeah, okay.

Power window gears, old plastic power window gears,

like a Mazda 3, like there's one here again, five dollars.

So anyway, check that out.

Have you ever been driving a car in your window

all of a sudden drops into the door panel?

You'll understand.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So reach out to Nico if you need something designed

that's you can't find online.

It's pretty quick and easy now to 3D scan.

It's not like it used to be, it doesn't take very long.

It's not like, oh, put it in there

and hope it's done in the morning.

It's like put it in there and 30 minutes later,

like, yeah, it works fine.

Yeah, because I think that a lot of people think of that

as 3D printers.

It's like people go, oh, it's going to take 12 hours to print

and then they leave and they come back

and somewhere halfway through it's fit up.

And then there's a, there's a spider web of, of shell.

And even the new programs even show you like,

oh, hey, if you print this in two pieces,

you can do a lot less material and it'll be stronger.

Like it's starting to figure that out on its own now,

saying like, oh, instead of building it upright,

lay it on its side and that'll be better for your support.

So you'll have less supports to pull off.

If you want a fun video, go out and look up

3D printed Lamborghini Aventador.

Oh, okay.

It's a great video.

This dad and this kid figured out the,

and they literally printed an Aventador

and Lamborghini got ahold of it.

And in a good thing, the kid was sleeping at Christmas

and they replaced the 3D printed one.

And they pretty much printed the whole car.

They replaced it with a, they let them borrow it.

It was a really cool video.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

But I mean, again, they're hot.

What do they call it when you hot glue them together?

When you take two 3D printed parts and you heat them

and then you put them together so that they bond,

the heat bond them.

Oh yeah, you bond them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a neat little video.

So yeah.

That's cool.

Yeah.

Things you find on the internet.

Yeah.

When I was down in Utah, I,

In Utah?

I know.

Oh, okay.

I pulled the S-Tec windshield off my F-150.

Why would you do that?

Well, it just, it had been there for a couple of years

and it's stretched and things like that.

I just worn.

And which I was fully prepared for.

Did you crack the windshield on the way back?

No, no, no, no.

I did not.

Really?

Yeah, it's shocking.

This is as long as you have gone.

It was one of those things where it was starting

to get to the point where I could,

like the sun was hitting it.

I mean, it wears down.

It wears down.

It saved my windshield.

God knows how many times.

If you'd have a car, I've said this before

and just after my experience of this

for over a year on the truck,

if you have a car that doesn't see a lot of rain

or you don't use your wipers all the time,

I would, it would be stupid not to do this.

Especially if you have a car with a hard-to-replace windshield.

Mercilago, some vintage car.

You can't see this stuff.

It works extremely well for rock protection,

just like it does in your paint.

If you have to remove it, it was really easy.

I heated it up a little bit with a hairdryer,

not a heat gun, and then pulled it right off.

It came off in like four or five sheets,

like I accidentally tore it.

If you were really, really slow,

you could probably do it all on one go.

You were impatient?

That's weird.

I actually wasn't.

I was just cold.

I was outside and it was like...

That's right, because I keep thinking,

oh, you were in the south.

It's warm.

You just set the truck outside.

It'll heat up.

You'll pull the peels right off.

No, okay.

Yeah, it was getting down to freezing at night.

I did park the truck in the sun facing the windshield.

That actually did help quite a bit.

But I pulled it off.

It didn't really leave much residue.

And then I grabbed some steel wool

and cleaned it up and got as new.

You steel wool?

Yeah, so if you're going to clean glass with steel wool,

you have to use a very specific type.

It's 0000 steel wool,

which is the most common type you can find

for most hobbies because it's the least abrasive.

That is the only steel wool you want to use on the glass.

No, I know. Remember I had to replace a windshield

on the Ranger because I used the wrong...

I used an SOS pad.

Yeah, you can't do that.

I'm aware.

Yeah.

My insurance company is aware.

Don't use Scotch Brite.

Don't use the blue Scotch Brite that's safe for a non-stick pan.

Don't use an SOS pad.

You want 0000, four zeros, steel wool.

That's it.

You don't want to use anything else.

And I used it with a little bit of glass cleaner.

You can run it on there dry.

It's fine.

But I cleaned the windshield really well with some glass cleaner.

Then I left a really light layer of glass cleaner,

like almost like an indirect spray,

just for a tiny bit of lubrication on the windshield.

That was a great job of cleaning your windshield, by the way.

But that's it.

That scares me, but I trust you.

Use it in a test area first.

I did just to make sure.

I've done this, I don't know how many times over the years.

It was like...

So I did this all the time because in the body shop,

if you had any overspray,

like there's always overspray on the glass,

you would use that steel wool to get it off.

And we'd buy it in massive rolls.

I think you can buy a 12-pack of the stuff at Walmart

for like four dollars.

Super easy.

Anyway, but the SSEC stuff worked awesome.

Like I said, if you have a car that has a windshield

that doesn't get a lot of heavy wiper use,

this is really...

Because it, like anything, it is a film under a windshield,

so you can wear it down.

I would say it's a must-have.

It did its job so well.

I've been endlessly happy with the SSEC products on my truck.

And yeah, big shout out to the guys at Metropolitan

for doing that.

It was just time to take it off.

So...

Should have put it on the bed of my truck.

Should have put it on the...

That question actually came up on Facebook today.

I was in a group.

Somebody's like, oh, I like your tires.

Are they throwing a lot of rocks?

I was like, yep.

Yep.

John told me you should put down on the bed of the truck.

And I said, nah, that's okay.

I'm gonna be a cheat.

So yeah, that was stupid.

Yeah.

Well, welcome back.

Yeah.

You know, welcome.

Yeah, I'm here.

Hey, some of us still live here, okay?

So...

I still live here too.

I'm just not happy about it.

Yeah.

I'm just not able to weather.

I know.

That's it.

I just, it was so nice to be in the sun every day,

go for walks every day.

That's a hard thing to come back to.

I get it.

That's all.

I get it.

Well, cheer up, Buttercup.

I'm good.

Okay.

Good.

I'll go eat my pain.

It's all the Twinkies, yeah.

Well, excellent.

Well, I'm glad to have you back, you know.

It's good to be back.

You were missed.

You know, again, had I been able to get out of here,

I think I would have come down.

It was just...

Those of us that live here too would like to get the heck out of the rain,

especially, you know,

you missed all the fun stuff, all the flooding and...

Yeah.

Good luck with that.

Well, now it's snowpocalypse.

So, hopefully that will hit the lowlands.

I always love the snow.

Cut the vehicles for it.

Well, we need to go out snow-wheeling.

So, we'll talk about that.

Yes, we do.

All right.

Well, for this episode of the Advanced Podcast, as always, I'm Nick.

I'm Dan, and don't just get there.

Enjoy the drive.

2026 Starts Off Strong for Avants, but Weak for Honda

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