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515-Spite Promotion
About this episode
Exploring the journey of car ownership, Dave and Ian dive into the quirks of their Volkswagen Cabrio project. They discuss the challenges of finding the OBD2 port, share humorous anecdotes about previous owners, and reflect on the unexpected discoveries made during their modifications. The episode also features a lively debate on automotive history, including a game about iconic vehicles and their significance. With a mix of technical insights and lighthearted banter, this episode captures the essence of automotive passion and the camaraderie of working on cars together.
Topics:
volkswagen cabrio
obd2 port
previous owners
automotive history
project cars
car modifications
license plate game
album recommendations
Cars:
BMW X3
Cadillac XTS
Chevrolet Spin
Ford Explorer
Ford F-150 Lightning
Ford Mustang
Ford Taurus
Honda Civic
Lexus LX
Lotus Elise
Mercedes-Benz CLK
Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Mercedes-Benz G-Class
Subaru Uncharted
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota Supra
Volkswagen Cabriolet
Car ownership can inspire some wild journeys, and in this week's episode Ian and Dave discuss the voyage into the depths of the Lemons car dash, where hopefully OBD treasures await. We love you!
Filter:
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Subaru Uncharted
"...hacking through the jungle of previous ownership. Uncharted territory. Mm-hmm."
Car
Volkswagen Cabrio
"...were we talking about? Oh yeah, the wiring in our Volkswagen Cabrio. Yes, yeah, me somehow."
Car
G-Class Gwagon
"Chrysler. Uh, and so he submitted, uh, 20, uh, 2006 Daimler Chrysler with a G-wagon, a, uh, a Viper, uh-huh."
Car
Lotus Elise
"...in a vehicle. Also I came straight out of a Lotus Elise and into a Viper. That's a wrong combination."
Car
Honda Civic
"...ay, like a more reliable sports car, like a Honda Civic SI or something like that, that wasn't, that the ..."
Car
Chevrolet Spin
"... hard in the pick-em-up truck and puts an awesome spin on the sedan for sure."
Car
Cadillac Xts Cadillac
"... fast VP on that. And I think excellent is on the XTS Cadillac. Yeah."
Select text to request an explanation
Dave.
Ian.
Sometimes car ownership and car things, it's a real journey and it's a journey of discovery
something.
Yes.
Yes.
We discover things about ourselves and the cars.
Uh-huh.
Mm-hmm.
Sorry.
You were saying usually?
It's an internal, introspective journey where you're like, I didn't even know I knew that
word until I sheared that bolt, right?
But occasionally it's a journey of literal discovery where there is no map.
Right.
You're bushwhacking through the jungle of previous ownership.
Uncharted territory.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
You just, you're like the Robinson Caruso right now or, I don't know, some other person who
bushwhacked through a lot of stuff to then colonize and take advantage of Volkswagen
Cabrio.
Yeah, I was going to say, I hope that there's somebody that's done this in a non-problematic
fashion, but I highly doubt that's ever been the case.
No, I mean, at the very least they left their wife and kids for like 18 months at
a minimum.
Minimum.
For a dude's trip, essentially.
Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
That's the part I always say, I know everyone always focuses on like the pillaging and exploitation
of whole groups of people.
No, no, no.
I'm like, who's doing the fucking dishes right now?
Exactly.
Yeah, you're not sharing the load.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
18 hours and my phone's blowing up.
18 months?
Are you serious?
Yeah, and then like when things come out about these people being like complete assholes,
it's like, yeah, you don't say that everybody wanted them gone from the city and area
that they were in.
They were like, here's the deal.
How about you go?
Mm-hmm.
Right?
You're an explorer now.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a really good, I like the idea that all these motherfuckers were promoted
out.
Yeah?
Yeah, they were given red shirts.
It was Star Trek.
They were spike-promoted, they were spike-promoted to explore.
I like that.
I like that there.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm with you co-workers that I'd like to do that with.
Let's go, yeah.
Episode title, Spike Promotion.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
What were we talking about?
Oh yeah, the wiring in our Volkswagen Cabrio.
Yes, yeah, me somehow.
Okay.
Dave, do you want to tell the people why we were talking about spike-promoting 18th century
explorers to go exploit the people of the Global South?
Yeah, the correlation is the uncharted territory for sure and certainly not the problematic
asshole territory, hopefully.
Right.
Right, right, right.
Yep, yep, yep.
Yeah.
You know, they always say like with home ownership, with, you know, projects, with anything, like
a used PC on Facebook marketplace, you never know what you're going to find inside, a storage
unit auction, et cetera.
There's highs and lows and oftentimes way more lows than highs.
And as we've established on the show before, there is no bigger idiot on the face of
the planet than previous tenants.
Yes.
Whether you are the one saying that or you're just telling that to someone else to escape
go what you've done.
Which I have done before and will do again.
Absolutely.
Same here.
I was talking to an arborist that was doing some work at our house one time and it was
like, oh no, the previous owner trended that branch and they just looked at me and
they were like, yeah, and they were like, yeah, previous owner.
Okay, the fact you're not rousing me about this means that like you're going to get the
work.
Right.
Yeah.
But yeah, so we have our delightfully lemony Volkswagen Cabrio.
And for some reason, I don't know why the OBD2 port was, we were unable to find it.
It wasn't in the typical location, like kind of down in front of the shifter in the
center Volkswagen had a hilariously obtuse way of accessing it where you had to like slide
a thing to the side and whisper a password into one of the air vents and insert a five
volt fuse or five amp fuse into, you know, yeah, a window frame to expose it.
But you had to fan toll to a German troll.
Yes.
Yeah.
I'm out here answering riddles.
Right.
Um, and we need the OBD2 port because we'd like to get coolant temperatures and all of
the delightful stuff and then on top of that layer that info into the live stream.
So there's like a primary need, which is peace of mind and visibility into the car and then
a secondary need of like wanting to provide that stuff for anybody viewing remote, including
us from the pits so that we can keep an eye on things while people are focusing
on driving.
We couldn't find the OBD2 port and we just hoped it was somewhere behind the metal dashboard,
the sheet metal dashboard that was kind of like two giant bent pieces that they had kind
of put together to form a dashboard, which I think they did a very good job.
They did a very good job with the wiring and all of the stuff on this car.
Yeah.
For some reason, they just never decided to leave the OBD2 port dangling.
And so we needed to find it.
I took apart the dashboard.
I have a picture here, Ian, I can show you of what it all looked like disassembled.
This is called OMGOBD, but yeah, here you go.
Here's what the dash disassembled.
Here's kind of like the, those are the gauge wiring connectors, the white and red ones.
And then here's all the other stuff that wasn't connected in the car.
So like things like the AC, like the, not all the HVAC stuff.
Yeah.
HVAC, window controls.
Right.
Yeah.
All of that kind of stuff.
And so I did, I had to look on YouTube to find and what the OBD port looked like because
like nothing was jumping out at me.
You know, like you and I have this connector in our head, but I finally found it and it
looked like this.
Instead of it having that kind of like, that's not a rhombus, like the trapezoid
kind of.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
It actually just has two little wings on the upper part to make that kind of like, you
know, trapezoid shape.
And I saw somebody on YouTube holding it and it had the color of the connector.
And I was like, I saw a purple connector earlier.
Like I can find this, you know, and so I did.
I haven't tested it yet because there's not a battery in the car and stuff like that.
But yeah, that's going to probably happen sometime this weekend is testing the
port, but our fears of like them cutting it out of the car or something like that.
Right.
I think are, what's the word, assuaged?
Is that the word?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
That's great.
Yeah.
I was, I thought for sure it was gone, like that it was just going to be like dangling
wires someplace and we were never going to like put the work in to figure out how
to make a new one.
But hopefully it's just working and for whatever reason they decided they didn't need it.
Yeah.
You know, and I think even if we had to wire pins out from the ECU, I think we could have
done that.
I was before I like actually looked for somebody that had the connector like in their hand
or something.
I was looking at the wiring colors to look at what I needed to look for from the ECU.
And I think we would have been able to find it because after that it's like there's nothing
special about this connector other than the shape we could buy or just cut a connector
out of a car at a junkyard, any OBD connector and just pin it to pin it out for what we
needed.
So.
True.
Yeah.
I've got wire crimpers within reach, man.
I can crimp and heat shrink wrap and do all that as needed.
So.
But yeah, we're going to have some hopeful data insights.
I did find one thing when I was pulling out the dashboard or the gauge cluster that they
have removed a couple bulbs from the gauge cluster so that they don't show up.
The check engine light bulb is still in there.
Okay.
When I pulled it out, I saw a couple bulbs missing and I was like, oh boy.
So I held it up to like the light in the garage and I could see what was coming
through and it's the ABS light and attraction control light.
Right.
Those do things.
So yeah, sure.
Who cares?
We don't want those flashing on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you have any theories about why?
Because one of the things that was going on with the car was that the gauge cluster
would sometimes work and sometimes half work.
A lot of times we didn't have a tachometer, which wasn't really a big deal because
we weren't shifting anyway.
Right.
But more fuel.
Right.
Right.
Or fuel like sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.
Did you have any theories as to why that was?
I don't other than what we were working with, which was kind of like the order of
the kill switches and making sure if like things got powered on in the correct order.
Because all of the connectors and stuff like that back there are very solid.
Like there is, this is kind of a best case scenario for us in that like there's a lot modified
but not a lot like compromised or removed or anything like that.
Like I'm not really too concerned about like spliced wires or anything like that.
So I think it is going to come down to like finding an order of operations for like making
sure that gauge cluster works.
And then maybe I could, I have this for my Apple CarPlay unit in the nugget where sometimes
it gets stuck.
It will freeze up every now and then.
Like especially like if I start it and I think like it's in an area where there's no cell
phone coverage and Wi-Fi coverage, it kind of gets into this weird little thing.
And I actually put like kind of a reset button on my center console down on the side.
This is one of those normal on push off instantaneous buttons.
And so it just kind of like interrupts the ground to the device, which power makes a power cycle.
And so we may be able to do that.
We may be able to like power cycle the gauge cluster, you know, and we could try that.
Like what we can do is we can like kind of have everything on, see that the gauge
cluster isn't working.
And then we could actually just pull the fuse for it and put it back and see if
that brings it back.
That's good idea.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So yeah, that's working theory at this point.
But I didn't see anything that caused me to be like, oh, well, this is why our gauge
cluster isn't working.
So yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It does seem like everything is reasonably well sorted.
Like the more we dig into it, it doesn't seem like, I mean, there's like race car
nonsense stuff.
But like, yeah, it's not like they just hacked at the wiring, which is good.
Yes.
But even the things that like we don't agree with or we wouldn't do ourselves, we can
see why they did it.
Like those heavy weights in the back, the tractor weights, they just, they probably
didn't like how a front wheel drive vehicle handled.
They chose not to manage it with air pressure or anything else and just
wanted the rear to be more planted, you know, or they had like some really
heavy footed drivers, some drivers that weren't used to front wheel drive.
So they threw some weight in the back to balance everything out.
Cool.
And then they drove it another track where like it was more high speed than
high planes and like straight line stability was a concern.
Who knows?
Like do we want that?
No, but like we can at least reason out like somewhat logically why they
would do that.
You know?
Yeah.
So it seems like that's kind of where we are with this car.
I still don't know why you would hide an OBD port on a Volkswagen of all
things.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But at least it's there.
At least it's there.
In my hands, I put an extension on it so that and then I'm going to just
kind of zip tie it in a very convenient place.
I have a Bluetooth adapter and the tablet ready to go.
So we'll be good.
Sweet.
Yeah.
On that note, let me let me actually step away from the mic and grab
you kind of the board that I've been working for for the computer
in the car.
If you want to see that.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Dave has been daving.
He's been daving real hard.
Here we go.
The electronics for the.
Okay.
Okay.
Headphones in.
Okay.
Hello.
Okay.
I'm back.
Hello.
Okay.
So we have our little battery unit, the Jackery 300 thing.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
That thing's awesome.
What's that?
That thing's awesome.
Probably going to put in some work on the 24-hour race kind of.
Yes, it will.
Yeah.
But I have a new PC for us that is much lower power and we can
power with DC instead of having to do a DC to AC conversion.
So here's the board that I have made.
Okay.
This is a quarter inch ABS plastic and I have made this board and like done everything
with like rib nuts and stuff like that.
You can see.
That looks so cool.
Thank you.
So we have a power connector in.
So I'll wire the power in here and this is just, you can just remove this whole
thing.
Mm-hmm.
And then we have our stereo stuff.
That's smart.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we can take the whole thing out.
We have a few integrated fuse block.
Mm-hmm.
I put some USB outlets here.
Nice.
So we have nine USB outlets to power various things.
We have our cell modem with a cast with hard hat sticker.
We have some power switches to control things.
So this controls the USB outlets here.
We have the cellular modem.
We need to reset that easy.
And then this is for a 12 volt connection that will charge the battery.
And I have a diode that will allow voltage to only flow one way.
Oh, nice.
So the battery.
So it won't try to backfeed should the kill switch get pulled.
Right.
Yeah.
And then the PC is going to just be straight DC power.
I have a two pin Deutsch connector that I have put a USB-C port on the other end of.
And so that will plug into the USB-C port on the jackery that can provide up to 100 watts
out.
Oh, wow.
And I've run the PC on it with a couple cameras going for about two days.
And this thing only went down like 60%.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
It's a very power efficient PC.
It's the Intel N150 platform.
Okay.
How will it do?
I mean, I'm assuming though, when it's like streaming and all that, that's going to be
a much higher load.
It will be.
Yeah.
So I'm going to do like a full on testing, which is why I wanted that like AC, like
the ability to charge the battery while we were using the battery.
Yeah.
Because the other PC, just like a standard Intel PC, pardon me, with like a seventh
or HN Intel, that runs at about 65 watts for its TDP.
And this PC, it's 12 watts TDP.
So the power consumption is going to be much less.
That's great.
Yeah.
And it's all hardware-based encoding for the video.
So like the processor will be cooking, but you know, yeah, it's still not using as
much power as the PC beforehand.
So is it also, is it fanless or is it?
No.
There's a fan.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so I put a couple posts on the back here.
These posts, just some PVC conduit, electrical conduit, and some holes here.
These actually line up with where the rear seats were mounted in the fiat.
And so I have some long bolts that I can mount this directly to the, in the hatch
of the fiat.
And we'll find a similar place in the Volkswagen Ford, or we'll do that thing
where we just hang the whole thing upside down again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, yeah, before we had it hanging upside down from the trunk.
Yeah.
Which worked well.
It protected it from rain and stuff like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was thinking, you know what I was thinking though, is if we're doing that again,
we should get another copy of the key made.
Yes.
Yes.
So that way you can get into it without having to take the key out of the ignition.
Yeah.
Or we could just drill a hole and put like a pull release in or something, right?
That's true.
Yeah.
They just do that.
Yeah.
Okay.
But yeah, you're right.
Because like being able to open the trunk while the key's in the ignition and the car's running,
et cetera.
That's important.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm amazed we didn't lose the key, like trying to pass it back and forth like quickly.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
Exactly.
Yeah.
We need like just like a boat anchor key chain on that thing.
Yeah.
We somehow need to incorporate the key chain into the PC board I made.
Right.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So yeah.
So that's the work that I've been doing on the lemon stuff.
And I got some plastic to make a roof for it.
So I'm going to work on that probably tonight and tomorrow to make a roof for it.
So.
Okay.
Yeah.
Because we have to have the lighted number up on the roof for the 24 hour race.
Right.
We don't have a roof right now.
So.
Yeah.
True.
Right.
Yeah.
Okay.
There you go, man.
What else do we want to talk about today?
Oh, man.
Yeah.
We got some other stuff.
Um, I have some my eyes.
Uh, I have a license plate game for you and we have some Mount Carmore submissions.
We do.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Up to you, buddy.
For sure.
Okay.
So, um, remember this was Dave's big, uh, proclamation the other week that, uh,
no automaker had had a better, uh, year than Toyota in 1998.
If you take the, uh, the, uh, the criteria that it has to have a sports car, a pickup
truck, a sedan and an SUV, which there are a few people on Blue Sky who were very upset
about this for me because they're like, well, this precludes all the Germans and obviously
this would be the correct.
And they're like, it's a game.
We're having fun.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
I guess what we made it up, which means we get to make the rules.
Yeah.
Also, I do think it speaks to an automaker's breath if they're making trucks and cars.
Right.
Yeah.
No, I think it's a good, it's a, it's a good game.
I mean, I don't think anyone's going to, you know, develop any real awards based
on this or anything, but you know, it's fun.
Right.
Exactly.
Um, so we had a couple of other submissions.
So, uh, yeah, let's, uh, let's get in.
Here's the first one in from the talk about stock that you said, yeah.
Okay.
Oh boy.
Rustle.
And I was very intrigued by this.
Um, this was a way to get around the German, uh, problem.
Ooh, maybe not.
Maybe not.
Let's call it the German problem, but, but for a brief, let's not say a shining
moment, but for a brief time, uh, Mercedes and Chrysler were one company, Daimler
Chrysler.
Uh, and so he submitted, uh, 20, uh, 2006 Daimler Chrysler with a G-wagon, a, uh, a
Viper, uh-huh.
And then this like Unimog, like huge pickup truck and, uh, an E-class.
Yeah.
Like an AMG E-class, E-55 maybe, I think.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
It might be an E, um, 63, I can't remember, 2006, but that's a strong contender.
It is.
Strong contender.
It is.
You're right.
E-55, yeah.
Yeah.
And I mean, you could get the E-55 in a wagon as well.
Um, yeah.
And I mean, I guess the Unimog is a, uh, is a pick-em-up truck, I guess.
I, I mean, this thing looks bananas.
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
I, yeah.
Okay.
So let's get through it.
Okay.
Okay.
Unimog or Unimog.
It depends.
Do I have like literal military duties to do?
You know, like do I have land, you know, that needs managed otherwise it's a Tacoma.
Yeah.
I kind of agree.
Right.
All right.
Uh, Land Cruiser or G-wagon.
Or the LX or the G-wagon, sorry.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The LX or the G-wagon, that is, that is tough because I think if there's, the G-wagon falls
into this weirdly desirable, not desirable area of Mercedes.
I think for both you and I, right?
We're like, we like the vehicle, it's the Metallica of cars.
We may like the music, but we don't like the fans, right?
Right.
Yeah.
I think what is hard about this is that it's a 20 year old G-wagon, which I think is cooler,
right?
Yeah.
Like I'd be more willing to be seen in a 20 year old G-wagon than a brand new G-wagon,
right?
True.
Yes.
So I think, I think I would take the G-wagon here.
I think I would still go LX, but I think that this is, this is coming pretty hard
at the, at the SUV portion.
Yeah.
Both are really, like that is a capital U in SUV for each of these vehicles, more so
than Mercedes, I would think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know.
All right.
Sports car.
Viper Supra.
Yeah.
So I've driven the second gen Viper.
Have you driven a Viper before?
Never driven a Viper.
I did on the Pikes Peak Raceway where they had the road course thing at like
one of those automotive festival things.
Yeah.
And it is terrifying.
It is, it is probably the most scared I've ever been in a vehicle.
Also I came straight out of a Lotus Elise and into a Viper.
That's a wrong combination.
Right.
So I had all of the feel and then absolutely none of the feel.
Right.
And so I think like if you were at 10-10ths in a Viper, I'm sure you're getting
a lot of stuff you can read.
But other than that, you get like almost nothing.
And if this is like, if, if anybody has more experience with Viper's and like how
they feel like, you know, when they're not on the limit, please let me know.
But like this is just my experience.
So I would say Supra just because I know I would be getting more feel all of the
time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How about you?
I think I might go Viper just on the strength of those fucking stripes.
Yeah.
Oh, looks.
I would almost take the Viper over the Supra if I'm basing it on looks.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Last sedan.
I've legitimately looked for used E55s and E55 wagons before.
They're good.
You probably have to.
I've driven.
Well, and I driven, I drove a CLK with that same engine.
Yeah.
And I was like, Oh, I might need this in my life.
I was driving.
I was, I was with a friend who was shopping for, for one, for a bird one on that one.
I was like, Oh, let's go check this one out.
And I drove it.
I was like, Oh, I might need this because this is pretty fantastic.
This is you going Christmas shopping and finding the thing you want to, you want
for yourself.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
They're great.
And they're pretty cheap now too.
Like, well, there's a reason and there's a reason.
Just find it.
No way.
Whoa.
Oh my God.
That YouTuber Sam Crack has essentially made his livelihood on cars like these.
That's so funny.
Yeah.
Oh, dude, I, I would go LS just because I, one of the great things about my sedan
is, is the amount of things I just don't have to worry about.
Right.
And I would be so concerned about, I would rather be worried about a Supra and have
an LS than to like have a, like say, like a more reliable sports car, like a Honda
Civic SI or something like that, that wasn't, that the management was removed
from and have the daily something I needed to be more worried about or manage
more.
Well, see the, the, the advantage with this, because you're right, as a four-car
garage, this is way less reliable than the Toyota one.
True.
You could tow the other three vehicles at the same time.
You could.
You absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You could tow the four Toyotas, the three from this and the garage.
They all fit in.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's great.
Yeah.
Thank you, Russell, for sending that in.
That's really good.
I think that's an intriguing one.
Okay.
It is.
All right.
This is also interesting, I think, obviously, after my own heart here.
Yes.
And so this is like 90, I think this is 91 probably.
That seems about right.
Oh, click on the picture because there's alt text.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
Let's see what it says.
92.
Okay.
So 92.
Yeah.
Taurus SHO.
Mm-hmm.
92 lightning.
Ford lightning.
A three-door Explorer, we're getting a little off the plot, but then we bring it back with
an LX, a Foxbody LX Mustang.
Yeah.
One of the last Foxbody, yeah, Jens, because when did they switch that over 94, 95, something
like that?
94, I believe.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I think that this is, the SHO, I think is awesome and such a cool sedan.
You, of course, you had, did you have two different SHOs?
I had one, my dad had two.
That's it.
That's it.
Okay.
Yeah.
Within the family, there were three total SHOs.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Show enough.
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's go through it, Ian.
Would you take a...
SHO.
I would take the SHO.
Obviously.
SHO over in LX?
Would you do the LS?
Yes.
Okay.
Oh, LS.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I would too.
Yeah.
Okay.
Exploder or non-exploder?
Non-exploder.
Yeah.
I mean, you have to take the Lexus LX in this case, right?
Yeah.
We have all spent high school years in Ford Explorers on the way to try to convince someone's
relative to buy beer for the group.
Right.
That is the official car of underage drinking.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
And then the FoxBody versus the Supra.
I'm taking a Supra.
Yeah, me too.
Me too.
Yeah.
I think that this hits real hard in the pick-em-up truck and puts an awesome spin on the sedan
for sure.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I agree.
I agree.
Two out of two, though.
Two out of four?
Yeah.
Okay.
Now, Ian, for the audio listeners, Ian has a bunch of exclamation points after
this one.
This is the most...
This was the one...
Remember I said I thought I had the oldest one possible?
Uh-huh.
This beats me by nearly 10 years.
Oh.
Wow.
And it goes pretty hard.
Okay.
Michael submitted this in all capes.
All caps.
All caps.
Alfa Romeo 1954.
Well, real quick.
Who submitted the last one?
Did we give him credit?
Don.
Don did.
Yeah.
So thank you, Don and Cognito.
Alfa 1954 by Michael.
Yes.
You're going to have to click on the pictures because there's all text, but...
Yes.
So there's the 1954 Alfa Romeo Bat 7.
This is the...
This is a concept car.
This is the...
This is the sports car.
Wow.
Edition.
Okay.
Center driving position.
Oh, look at that.
It is.
I didn't notice that.
Okay.
Super crazy looking.
Yeah.
Very cool.
Like literal Batmobile looking.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
All right.
Just an Alfa Romeo Romeo truck.
Hey.
You know, Alfa Romeo Romeo truck.
I love that.
Super cool looking.
Yeah.
I like that there's an alpha in the background of this picture too.
Oh yeah.
You're right.
Right?
Yeah.
It is really cool looking.
Just like a little cab over pick them up truck.
They have like some scaffolding or a ladder affixed to this.
I think it's a mini crane.
Oh yeah.
I think you're right.
Yeah.
Look at that.
Okay.
All right.
And then for the SUV.
The Mata SUV.
Oh man.
It looks like a little like Willie's Jeep type thing, which is appropriate for 1954.
But of course it's, you know, it's stylish and cool looking because it's Italian.
Right.
It's like that.
Just that extra.
Like Guacamole is extra.
You got that with this.
Totally.
Yeah.
Totally.
Okay.
And then the Berlina 1954 Berlina 1900 Berlina, which is a gorgeous car.
Yeah.
I'm going to pull up images of it just because I want to see more of them.
Yeah.
You got it.
Yeah.
Oh, look at that.
Yeah.
That's a beautiful sedan.
It is a beautiful sedan.
Oh wow.
I like that.
There's an FCA heritage site.
All right.
How's this?
Yeah.
We're not allowing Cookie Stalantis.
You, we wouldn't, you wouldn't know what to do with them anyway.
Wow.
After winning the first two Formula One World Championships, Alfa Romeo left the highest category
of motor racing undefeated with an achievement that most constructors can only dream of.
Okay.
And so they made the Berlina.
Okay.
So let's, what do you think?
1954 Alfa Romeo versus 1998 Toyota.
Oh boy.
Okay.
Um, let's see here.
Okay.
So let's do the sports.
So the, the Batmobile B87 versus the Supra.
I mean, I'm rolling in the bat, baby.
Hell yeah.
Right.
There's a 0% chance you fit in this car.
Correct.
But it's worth it.
I would have to have like the Homer Simpson car dome.
Right.
It doesn't matter because you're going to be pushing it everywhere.
True.
True.
Yes.
The little pick them up truck, the Romeo truck.
I think I would take the Romeo truck because that's what I want out of a truck.
I want it to be cute and cool looking.
But I don't know how functional this would be.
Here's the deal.
You take the Romeo, I take the Tacoma.
I let you borrow the Tacoma to haul parts for your Romeo anytime you need it.
Okay.
Okay.
Yep.
Yep.
The Mata SUV.
100% I'm taking this.
This is amazing.
Look at it.
Yeah.
I'm still going Alex over this.
Okay.
But you know, you know me.
Of course.
With your need for suspension.
And creature comforts.
Yeah.
And seat belts.
Exactly.
Uh-huh.
And then the Berlina 1600 or 1900 Berlina.
I mean Berlina.
Yeah.
I'm taking the Berlina as well.
Right.
Yeah.
It's beautiful.
I mean, as a four car garage, I am taking the Alfa Romeo 1954 over 98.
Over 98.
But also I'm a moron.
Yes.
The idea to reality convergence.
Yes.
You're sticking with Toyota?
I am.
I am sticking with Toyota on this one.
So none of these, none of the other, you have yet to be convinced.
Yeah.
Individual components.
Sure.
But as a whole, if it's an all or nothing, all four versus all four, nothing has convinced
me to, to not take the Toyota offering.
Which has gotten closest.
This or like what I've, because I had that 76, like the 1976 Nissan one that I
think you were tempted by.
Yes.
That was very close.
That was very good.
Yeah.
I think that that is the closest one.
The Ford one besides an Explorer.
Yeah.
I mean, that's also getting pretty close because lightning, that lightning was bad ass
and flies under the radar.
Yeah.
And they look really cool in that when you see them on the radar.
They do.
They do.
Right.
Yeah.
So I think that's, that's the closest for me, but nothing has truly like,
you know, dethroned what I, from an all or nothing perspective.
Okay.
They're the 1998 Toyota.
Okay.
Well, better luck next time, losers.
Nice.
Okay.
All right.
Should we do a license plate game and then an album of the week and wrap it up?
Yeah.
You bet.
I do want to show you one quick my eyes because I think you're going to
like this.
I did kind of want to try to work a minivan into the Toyota Alexis
offering and I, you know, like it didn't really work out, but I do want
to show you a minivan that I like as soon as I was being driven into a
Lowe's parking lot.
Yeah.
And as soon as I saw this, I was like, shut up.
I'm taking a picture of this.
Like I am actively walking away from the task at hand.
I'm walking to this car.
There could be seven Ferraris in the parking lot.
And I'm going to this, Ian.
Here you go.
Oh, yes.
This is Oldsmobile's silhouette.
Right.
Yes.
Wow.
I haven't seen one of these in forever.
What is this?
It's got to be like 93 ish.
Probably.
Yeah.
Let's look it up.
Yeah.
It's like a real like wedge shaped minivan.
Yeah.
Because they call it the dust.
Pontiac, whatever it was.
Oh yeah.
One was like the.
Oh crap.
Yeah.
Here.
Let's go on Wikipedia.
It'll tell us Pontiac Montana.
Yeah.
And the Chevy Lumina.
Yeah.
The APV.
Yeah.
And then, but there was also the transport.
I think that was the one that was the transport.
Yes.
The transport.
Yes.
That's it.
Yeah.
The Oldsmobile definitely looks the best of all of them.
I think so.
That for picking first, Jen.
I think it looks like a spaceship.
Like it legitimately does.
It does a little bit.
I mean, it looks a little like someone left a Saturn at the
bottom of a lake.
A real low time.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
But they look, they look bonkers in traffic now because
nothing looks like them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like if you go back and watch like back to the future
too.
Like this is one of the cars that they like dressed up
to make it look like a futuristic vehicle in that.
Right.
Setting.
You know, like there were Ford probes in there.
These vans.
Yeah.
I just assumed that all of these were made of just rust
at this point.
They are.
I have, I mean, this is a Colorado car.
I assume it's lived a long life here and rust is probably
present, but much slower than anywhere else in the
country.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I used to see these all the time in the Midwest and
they were even then, even 25 years ago, they were
just already made of rust completely.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Yep.
I've driven or I've ridden shotgun in one of these.
The guy that I used to work with at the music store
was a drummer in a metal band and we would go to
concerts every now and then.
So we went out to Lawrence, Kansas to see, I think
like clutch and then Columbia, Missouri to see
clutch.
Here's the opening system of a down when they were
nothing clutch, you know, when they were not
bluesy yet and then Slayer.
That was the lineup.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a bad ass show.
That was a bad ass show.
Yeah.
But yeah.
So he had one of these.
He was a drummer in a metal band and needed to
hold drums and there you go.
That'll do it.
Right?
The only problem that I knew that he had at
the time was the transmission wouldn't shift
out of first one day and he took, there was
like a lube shop across the street and he, I think
he got it over there or some, like somehow somebody
took a quick look at it and just found like one
vacuum line disconnected and reconnected it and
everything was back in working order.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
My assumption was that these things were always
like unreliable to hope he's crap, but I think
it was probably they just rusted out really fast.
I think, yeah.
I think that that's the thing that got it.
It's like interior part decay and rust.
I think that those are really the things that
ate them up.
And you know, I think that like used minivans
often fall into like a segment where they are
purchased almost as a disposable vehicle.
They'll just be run as long as they possibly
can because there's like such a broad demographic
of people who could make use of a cheap
used van, you know, all kinds of trades and
you know, families.
Families.
Yeah.
Right.
And so I think that they, there's a potential
for a lot of like deferred or neglected
maintenance and stuff like that.
You know, so I think that they've been
subjected to that as well.
But rust, I think it's the big boy with these.
For sure.
Yeah.
Man, good spot though.
Thanks dude.
It was pretty clean.
I mean, like, you know, it wasn't too
bad.
Like all the body molding still pretty much
lined up, you know, the decals still
looked pretty good.
I don't know if they ever reapplied them
or anything, but yeah, you know, that's
awesome.
Yeah.
So there you go.
Thanks ma'am.
What else do we got?
I have a license plate game for you.
Let's do it.
Okay.
Here we go, buddy.
This one is license plate game 128.
And this one is called.
I am a very important person with money.
Okay.
All right.
Let me just make sure.
Okay.
Here we go.
All right, Ian.
Go for it, buddy.
Oh wow.
Okay.
Oh man.
I just saw the license plates.
Okay.
So we've got a BMW X3 up top in white.
We've got a Mercedes GL 350 also in white.
And we've got a silver Cadillac.
Which one is this?
This is the XTS.
Okay.
Okay.
In silver.
Right.
Okay.
And then the plates.
One fast VP.
Oh my God.
We flip an excellent, excellent.
This could be somebody who ended up going back
on their promise not to have any soda.
And for 40 days didn't make it through Lent.
But I think it's probably excellent.
I think you're right.
I thought the same thing.
Oh man.
Okay.
There's some zoomies in the hands.
It doesn't look like there's much because Illinois.
Oh, there's like a bedazzled sort of license plate frame.
And not like the typical where there's like three or four
wide bedazzling around the edge.
One kind of like thing of gyms in a black license plate frame.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Okay.
And it's not like an M sport or anything like that.
Nothing crazy.
They are driving it in the rain.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
We've got the GL 350 with Montana plates.
Mm-hmm.
What is that sticker?
I'm not exactly sure.
Marin, M-A-R-I-N.
Is it a boat brand?
Enhanced.
Enhanced.
Marin Buy.
They make bikes.
Logo.
Marin Logo.
Doesn't...
I don't think it looks like that where the VPG go.
Here it is.
Yeah.
Marin.
Oh yeah.
No, it's Marin Bikes.
That's what it is.
Okay.
Okay.
So they're a bicycle enthusiast.
Yeah.
And I'm picking that up just from the R in the emblem here
with that, whatever that font is.
I think you're totally right.
I think that's it.
Okay, cool.
Okay.
And they've got a trailer hitch on it.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
And the chrome rear diffuser, like I think on some of these
you could get black plastic and then maybe like an appearance
package.
Mm-hmm.
This is also the Blue Tech.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Did you already say that?
I'm sorry.
No, no, no.
I didn't know.
Okay.
All right.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
So the window, could that be from a handlebar?
Okay.
Yeah, let's see.
Right?
It does kind of look like it.
Yeah.
Right?
Some kind of mark there.
No.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
And then, okay, New Mexico plates, man, we're all over the
country.
Mm-hmm.
Got a silver license plate frame that that might be a
Cadillac dealership frame.
Yeah, I think it is because I think they have the Cadillac
emblem up on the top and then whatever.
And I think it says Cadillac, yeah.
Yeah.
And how much to go on there?
Some dark temper there in New Mexico.
That's kind of what you do.
Yep.
Huh.
Okay.
Man.
Yeah.
This is a tough one.
Yep.
We flip.
I'm kind of concentrating on that one because I feel like,
I feel like house flippers are the most like striving like
people in our society now, right?
Like they're, they're, they're, they're very like, they watch
the whole, they watch an HGTV show and they figured out a
formula and they're going to go get theirs.
And, and I think they, they like to look like they've
made it.
Yes.
And I'm kind of between either the BMW or the Cadillac
for we flip.
Okay.
And I think maybe I'm going to go on the BMW with B flip
because I think it's probably, it's usually a little bit
younger demographic.
And I think the BMW is a more like that fits more.
Sure.
And I think younger demographic because their knees aren't
blown out yet.
Right.
Uh-huh.
Right.
I think that one fast VP is on the Mercedes.
And I think that that VP maybe does some bike racing.
And this is just a, just a rolling midlife crisis that
transports a carbon fiber midlife crisis around.
Yes.
Yeah.
Imagine the amount of conference calls taken in each of
these vehicles and which one do you think would be the most,
right?
Right.
Okay.
I'm going to go one fast VP on that.
And I think excellent is on the XTS Cadillac.
Yeah.
I see your reasoning.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Well, Ian, I think besides like knowing that you
probably would never want to be friends with some
of these people, you're going to be very happy
because you got it all correct, buddy.
Oh God.
The image isn't coming up.
Why isn't the image coming up?
I don't know.
Let's try it again.
Boom.
There you go.
Uh-huh.
Ian, one fast VP.
We flip and excellent.
Uh, Eric sent in the we flip.
Tim sent in the one fast VP and Ben sent in excellent.
So thank you, Eric, Tim and Ben.
Yeah.
That was a good one, Dave.
Thanks, man.
Cheers.
Just a bunch of douchebags.
Uh-huh.
Yep.
Yeah.
Also, I think like people flipping houses.
It's getting to the point where you don't want to brag
about flipping houses.
Like that's like bragging about being a landlord
in today's society.
Like nobody.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nobody's proud to be a landlord.
Like people want to obfuscate that stuff
because people are mad at landlords.
People are like, especially people in the trades
are mad at house flippers, home inspectors.
Like all the, all that stuff.
Like there's so much like downstream BS that I see on
Instagram reels and stuff like that.
Yeah.
That are so like, you know, anti landlord, anti flippers,
all that stuff.
So yeah.
Crazy.
But good job, Ian.
Good job.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Um, shall we wrap it up with a album of the week?
That would be awesome, buddy.
Yeah.
What do you got for us this week?
Are you still digging into some vintage stuff?
So no, this is a brand new one.
This one is sort of like, uh, the album of the moment
that people are kind of talking about right now.
Um, it is by Dijon, like Dijon mustard.
Okay.
Uh, and it's called baby.
Okay.
And it's kind of like, I was trying to think of a way
to describe this.
And I think it's, it's like if, uh, perfume genius
and Prince got together to make a Boys to Men album.
Oh, okay.
It's very like, at times it's very like straight ahead,
R&B-ish, but then there's like weird like funk things
that happen and weird kind of electronic flourishes.
Um, a little bit of hip hop, like sprinkled in there.
Like it's very interesting.
And I've only listened to it through, uh, like once in a
half, one and a half times.
Um, so I want to spend some more time with it,
but it's, it's really, really intriguing.
And I really like it.
Nice.
Okay.
I will check this out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice.
So those ones were like the base genre, isn't my thing,
but it's got just enough, like other things going on
to kind of pull me in.
Sure.
I like it when that happens.
Nice, man.
Nice.
Okay.
You know, like, uh, like Sturgill Simpson,
like I wouldn't know, I wouldn't normally listen
to a country record, but his stuff has like
enough other things going on where I'm like,
Oh, that's interesting.
Sure.
Yeah.
I like that.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's awesome, man.
Okay.
Dijon baby links in the YouTube description.
Nice, man.
Okay.
I'm going to give this a listen for sure.
Yeah.
I think, I think you'll dig this.
Yeah.
Nice.
This will be on in the garage when I am trying to
figure out how to make the plastic roof for the
limits car tonight.
I promise you.
Yeah.
I think you'll take this because I think this is
kind of goes towards your like Frank Ocean.
Nice.
Sort of things that you like.
So.
Okay.
Awesome, man.
Okay.
Nice, dude.
Yeah.
So if people want to submit their quad effect of
Mount Carmore, I think the best place to do it is
on blue sky.
So, yeah, I'll put a link to the post in blue sky
and you can reply there.
Yeah.
And it's actually our pinned.
Oh, a skeet right now.
Our pin.
Oh God.
They're still going with that, aren't they?
Still saying skeet.
So you just go to, yeah.
If you go to our profile on blue sky, it's
the first thing you'll see.
Yeah.
Okay.
How do we, how do we do that?
There it is.
Okay.
There it is.
Okay.
Dave, what else should people do?
Oh, yeah.
If you want us to, if you want to include your car
in our annual show, it's your car special at
the end of the year.
Email pictures and anything you'd like about your
car.
Don't send parts, please.
But yeah, just email.
Apex adjacent to gmail.com.
And we'll put it in our year in special.
Show us your cars 2025.
Deadline will be sometime early to mid December.
But yeah, I want to get in front of that.
And please show us your cars.
Yeah.
License plates, everything else, 720-515-1391.
You can leave us a voicemail.
We'll maybe plan on the show.
Everybody, thank you.
We love you.
Goodbye.
Thank you.
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