A nostalgic look back at the early pandemic days through the lens of automotive experiences, Ian and Dave reflect on their past selves while introducing a new podcast from friends. They share garage updates, including Ian's successful emissions testing of his Fiat and Dave's innovative Raspberry Pi project for live-streaming track days. The episode also features a fun license plate game and a poignant song of the week from Bruce Springsteen, addressing current events. It's a blend of humor, personal stories, and automotive passion.
This week we reflect on the past, Dave shows his full-blown nerd self, and Ian crushes a License Plate Game! Stay strong and hang in there folks. We love you.
A 'BMW truck' usually means a BMW SUV, which is a larger vehicle designed for more space and utility. BMW makes several SUVs that are popular for their performance and luxury.
The term 'BMW truck' likely refers to a BMW SUV or crossover model, as BMW is primarily known for its cars but has expanded into the SUV market with models like the X3 and X5.
"Let's talk about where we last left off with the fiat. Because it, we weren't able to get it emissions tested."
Fiat is a car brand from Italy that makes small cars. The specific model isn't named in this segment, but they are known for their compact vehicles.
Fiat is an Italian automotive manufacturer known for producing small cars and city vehicles. They have a range of models, but the specific model being referred to here isn't mentioned.
"They'd plugged in the OBD stuff and the, and it just, the car said, nope."
OBD means On-Board Diagnostics, which is a system in cars that helps check how well the engine and emissions are working. Mechanics can use it to find problems by looking at codes from the car's computer.
OBD stands for On-Board Diagnostics, a system that monitors the performance of a vehicle's engine and emissions system. It allows mechanics to diagnose issues by reading error codes from the vehicle's computer.
"It's the EVAP tube is like clogged or something. Usually that's one of the causes."
The EVAP tube helps keep gas fumes from escaping into the air. If it gets blocked, it can cause problems with your car's emissions and might even make it fail tests that check for pollution.
The EVAP tube is part of the evaporative emissions control system in a vehicle, which prevents fuel vapors from escaping into the atmosphere. A clogged EVAP tube can lead to issues such as failed emissions tests or fuel smell.
"The other is a rollover valve. Um, so if your car rolls over, gas doesn't come out of the fill tube."
The rollover valve stops gas from leaking out if your car tips over. It's an important safety feature that helps prevent fires and keeps the environment safe.
A rollover valve is a safety feature in fuel systems that prevents fuel from spilling out in the event of a rollover accident. It ensures that fuel remains contained within the tank, reducing fire risk and environmental hazards.
"...the valve that you're, you mentioned is inside the fuel pump. And do you know how you kind of fix that?"
The fuel pump helps send gasoline from the tank to the engine. If it has problems, the car might not run properly or at all.
A fuel pump is a critical component in a vehicle's fuel system that moves fuel from the tank to the engine. It can fail or become clogged, leading to issues with fuel delivery and engine performance.
"...I took the fiat for emissions testing today. And your boy passed you."
Emissions testing checks how much pollution a car produces. It's done to make sure cars are not harming the environment too much.
Emissions testing is a procedure used to measure the amount of pollutants a vehicle emits. It ensures that cars meet environmental standards and regulations.
"Then we have a Hyundai Santa Fe, maybe D badge though, in bright, yellow, taxi cab, yellow and a blue Toyota Camry."
The Hyundai Santa Fe is a type of SUV that is roomy and comfortable, making it a good choice for families. It has a lot of space inside for passengers and cargo.
The Hyundai Santa Fe is a mid-size SUV known for its spacious interior and comfortable ride. It's popular among families and offers a good balance of features and value.
"Okay. Just a relatively modern Camry. License plates are big bird, bird up and blue b..."
The Toyota Camry is a popular car that many people drive because it's comfortable and lasts a long time. It's a good choice if you want a reliable car that doesn't cost too much to keep running.
The Toyota Camry is a midsize sedan known for its reliability, comfort, and fuel efficiency. It has been one of the best-selling cars in the United States for decades, making it a popular choice for families and commuters alike. Its reputation for longevity and low maintenance costs often leads to discussions about dependable vehicles.
"...So up top, we've got a Mini Cooper S. Is that a clubman, maybe?"
The Mini Cooper S is a faster version of the regular Mini Cooper. It has a more powerful engine and better handling, which makes it fun to drive.
The Mini Cooper S is a sportier variant of the classic Mini Cooper, known for its enhanced performance and distinctive styling. It features a turbocharged engine and sport-tuned suspension, making it a popular choice among driving enthusiasts.
The Mini Countryman is a small SUV that looks like a bigger version of the classic Mini car. It's designed to be fun to drive and has more room for passengers and cargo.
The Mini Countryman is a compact crossover SUV that combines the classic Mini styling with more space and practicality. It's known for its fun driving dynamics and unique design.
"And then we've got a Honda Civic, a newer Honda Civic."
The Honda Civic is a small car that many people like because it's dependable and gets good gas mileage. It's available in different styles, like sedan and hatchback.
The Honda Civic is a popular compact car known for its reliability, fuel efficiency, and sporty design. It has been a best-seller in many markets for decades.
The Jeep Cherokee is a type of SUV that can handle rough terrains and is great for outdoor adventures. It also has a comfortable interior for everyday driving.
The Jeep Cherokee is a mid-size SUV that offers off-road capability and a comfortable ride. It's known for its rugged design and versatility.
"Because like the whole point of the mini Cooper is that it's small and zippy and fun."
The Mini Cooper is a small car that's really fun to drive. It's known for being quick and easy to handle, making it a favorite for city driving.
The Mini Cooper is a small, sporty car known for its agile handling and distinctive design. It embodies the brand's philosophy of being compact, fun, and zippy, making it popular among enthusiasts and urban drivers alike.
"...t would be. Or the, or the, the, the little Jeep renegade thing or whatever. Or that little Buick thing."
The Jeep Renegade is a small SUV that can handle rough roads and off-road adventures. It's a good option if you want a vehicle that can be used in the city but also take you on fun outdoor trips.
The Jeep Renegade is a subcompact SUV that combines the ruggedness associated with the Jeep brand with a more compact and urban-friendly design. It offers off-road capabilities along with modern technology and safety features, making it appealing to both adventure seekers and city dwellers. Its unique styling and versatility often make it a topic of conversation.
Select text to request an explanation
Ian.
Dave.
You know, Ian, I got to tell you, buddy, car show Apex adjacent.
There is a thing that I've done before on the show, and I would like to do it again.
But first, I would like to introduce you to two people, Ian.
Okay.
All right.
Now, I'm going to stop you right there because I am full up on friends.
43, and I think I've, I think I've reached my quota lifetime.
I now understand why you don't reply to my text messages with anything other than unsubscribed.
But Ian, I think that, I think it's appropriate that I introduce you to a couple of folks
that have kind of been in a similar situation to us, right?
I think that we, you and I, a lot of folks agree that there is a lot of rough shit happening
right now.
Yes.
That we are not cool with, right?
Mm-hmm.
Really, really bad things.
And I think that these folks have been through the same thing, just kind of like it was different,
but similar.
Okay.
And so, Ian, I would like to, let me make sure I'm sharing the right OBS screen.
I would like to, I would like to introduce you to Dave and Ian from episode 239.
Uh-huh.
Ian, I'd like to introduce, I'd like to you to witness Beardy Ian and Babyface Dave because
I look like I've aged 90 fucking years since then, and this was five years ago.
Yeah.
This was you and I when the pandemic was like really going.
This was in August of 2020, or not August, April of 2020.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And why are you doing this to me?
Well, first of all, you somehow look better.
Okay.
I don't think that's true.
I look like I'm not even old enough to rent a car in this, but those two guys were going
through a tough time, right?
These two guys are going through a rough time, right?
And they helped each other out, they helped their friends, they helped their loved ones.
We help each other, we help our friends, we help our loved ones, right?
We're going to remember that, we're going to stay true to that, and that's what we're
going to keep doing, right?
Okay.
Um, but I do just want to call this out because I want to make a habit of doing more of this
to kind of shout out a show that's about to go out of the main feed because we're at
the 300 episode retention, right?
Oh, right.
Yeah.
For audio listeners, if you're listening on most audio like podcast platforms, yeah,
it'll go out of return, but I mean, on YouTube, it'll still be available, right?
Yeah, on YouTube, it'll still be available.
If you look in the comments, you can get a XML feed that has everything.
You could also join our Patreon if you want and give us a dollar to get that same link
and a shout out on the show, sure.
But also the feed is in all of our YouTube descriptions, but pardon me, you know, I,
this was an interesting episode because when I'm editing the RSS feed, the XML file, I'll
see like what the previous title was, right?
And so this one was, um, gazing back into the car stands of this because you and I needed
to go to a mental happy place, right?
And we went back and revisited that April 24th, 2020.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Okay.
We revisited that BMW truck.
I just wanted to point out, this is not that far into the pandemic.
This is just over a month into the pandemic.
It looks like I've been living on the street.
I've normally, I normally don't walk around with a beard.
I'm a hairy man.
Anyway, sorry about that.
Was there also a very close correlating time where Jenny was out of town for a while and
you grew the goatee and did the painted goatee faces on your kids?
I, no, I shaved.
So I was, I knew Jenny was going to be going out of town.
So I let my beard grow as bushy as I could get it without, it drugged me crazy.
Right.
Right.
And then as soon as she left, I shaved it into a mustache, but like, oh, it's a Foo Man
shoe.
Yeah.
Big Foo Man shoe.
And then we went and got face paint and I've face painted the kids with matching Foo Man
shoes.
And then we taught some pictures.
Yes.
That's it.
And we walked around for like a day like that.
As you should.
You're a good father.
Yeah.
So I like that.
That.
Yeah.
A beard looks great on you, Ian.
You look good as a, as a beard, though.
Yeah.
Well, thanks.
But, but so we, we talked about this car stanza, Kelly and I were fostering some kittens.
So we had, we had some kittens at the time.
Uh, you know, we just did our normal, like, you know, kind of dick around, but then we
also did end on this pick them up truck that had another little baby power wheels in the
back.
Right.
Like we were talking about last week or the week before, but yeah.
So I just wanted to call out that this episode is going to go out of the main feed.
You can still get it still on YouTube, all that stuff.
But, you know, maybe, maybe give 239 a listen, just to kind of, I don't know, blast from
the past, see where you were, you know, five years ago, how you doing and, uh,
a happier times, happier times, lockdown.
Yeah.
A global pandemic was happening and like we're looking back fondly on this time.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know.
But.
Yup.
So bringing us in on a real up note, you know, up notes are a few and far between these
days.
Yes.
Yes.
Episode 239 everybody.
So.
Thank you, Dave.
That was cool.
Of course.
Yeah.
No problem.
No problem.
Um, what else are we talking about?
Oh, buddy, I got garage updates.
I have a Dave had Dave's ADHD meds have been, uh, on full blast and I've been doing some
super nerdy shit that you're going to like wheat, uh, I got a license plate game.
We're going to talk about a friend's podcast.
Yeah.
And you have a license plate game.
I have a license plate game.
You have an album.
I'm sure.
Mm hmm.
There we go.
All right.
Yeah.
Thus.
And so, um, you did mention we have another friend who is launching a podcast.
Uh, dear friend of the show, Victoria Scott, um, is along, um, along, um, along with, uh,
her friend, Jordan Jamboree, uh, launching Trin girlies mo, which is a fucking fantastic
title.
Um, the first episode's already up, I think we're going to try to make some, some, some
things happen and maybe we'll be able to hear this right from the horse's mouth.
But, um, yeah, definitely check that out because, uh, Victoria is awesome.
Yes.
Yes.
Greatest name for an automotive podcast.
Period.
Yeah.
Fucking everybody else stop trying.
Like, look at the cover art.
Right.
Yeah.
It's perfect.
Trin girlies mo.
Yeah.
Uh, oh yeah.
So we'll put a link to the YouTube, uh, in our YouTube description, uh, where you can
find their show for sure.
We saw the announcement for this, I'm going to say 30 minutes before we started
recording.
So I have not listened to it yet, but I am 100% sure that it's amazing.
Oh yeah.
Right.
How could it not be?
Yeah.
So they, um, all right.
So I want to hear some garage updates, Dave.
Yeah, buddy.
Okay.
So stuff has been happening, man.
Okay.
Let's talk about where we last left off with the fiat.
Right.
Because it, we weren't able to get it emissions tested.
Remember?
Right.
Right.
They'd plugged in the OBD stuff and the, and it just, the car said, nope.
Right.
Um, so I put the stock tune back on it and I needed to drive it.
But then Ian Fiat things happened.
Oh no.
I went to the gas pump and it was doing that thing where you can only put in like
one drop and then it pops.
No matter how slow I was trickling the gas in, it wouldn't let me put more gas in.
And so I just, I was able to get like a gallon here or a gallon there and like
just drive it for a little bit longer.
And so I'm reading a whole bunch of things and you're going to be so happy
because this is how you would have fixed the problem.
It's the EVAP tube is like clogged or something.
Right.
Usually that's one of the causes.
The other is a rollover valve.
Right.
Um, so if your car rolls over, gas doesn't come out of the fill tube.
Oh, right.
And I never thought about that being a thing, but of course it's a thing.
Right.
Um, that can also get gummy.
Okay.
Um, and the, uh, the valve that you're, you mentioned is inside the fuel pump.
Mm hmm.
And do you know how you kind of fix that?
Uh, is it drive real fast?
No, it's not, which I didn't want to do because I couldn't put gas in it.
Right.
It's you gently tap the fuel pump with a rubber mallet.
Oh, I want to hit that shit.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
So I did that for like one minute, slowly increasing like my tapping velocity.
Do you hear something when it opens?
That's a great, great intuition piece.
Yes.
You're supposed to hear a click.
And at one point I thought I heard a click from it kind of freeing itself.
Uh huh.
And I was like, well, let's give it a try and took it to the gas station and I
could fill it up.
Nice.
Now for the ECU to mark itself as ready for emissions testing, you have to go
through like a cycle.
So like you have to after fill up, then there's like, you know, you have to drive
it over, you know, 15 minutes over 20 miles an hour average.
There's like all this math that your computer does to like, say like, okay,
yes, that you have to pass.
That's exactly it.
Right.
Yeah.
To show like I am a normal car who's doing normal car.
Things not just something that's like, I just had a paper clip at the back of
me for four, you know, four seconds ago.
Just take a stage three tune off of me.
Right.
Yeah.
Yes.
I'm not that fish in finding Nemo.
So, so I went to see me in a Jirachi up in Fort Collins and met up with our
buddy Sam who drove his Volvo.
I had not seen his Volvo wagon before.
So I had dinner with Sam and I, Sam was like, what the hell?
Like you drove the fiat.
I wanted to see the GSF and it was like, well, it's a long story.
So I gave him the whole rundown about like, why I needed to put miles on the
Nuggy and all that stuff.
The needed a Jirachi show fucking slapped.
Um, it was so good.
Crazy energy.
Loved it.
Um, I got sick.
So I'm coming off a cold because of course, because we all have
colds and stuff now.
Um, but I took the fiat for emissions testing today.
And your boy passed you.
Nice.
How many, how much pacing did you do?
I did not do any because they didn't put it on the rollers.
They just did the OBD plug and that was it.
Okay.
Good.
Yep.
Even better.
Yeah.
Have you already put the tune back on it?
No, yeah.
No.
The, the baller move, the real baller move would be to do it as you're getting,
as you're paying, like just like get back in the car.
Uh-huh.
Yep.
Flash.
Right.
Do you want to add the emissions place?
Just like, hang on.
Yep.
The light's still red, Brian.
And then you're like, I got to test it.
And you just like, what?
You test your burble tune at the emissions place.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think you're right.
I think you're right.
And I have figured out the butter zone of second gear downshift,
like high rev second gear downshift to get a single pop.
Oh, nice.
It's the most adorable, tiny little backfire you've ever heard.
Mm-hmm.
Um, also, uh, you know, when they're putting the car through the emissions
testing, when they're about to pull through, what do they do?
They honk the horn.
Oh yeah, they honk.
Oh, which horn do they do?
Oh, that's right.
They did yours.
Yep.
Yep.
So that, that made me jump while I was in the booth.
I was like, gosh, I wish you had been watching to see if the guy behind
the wheel jumped like, ah, yeah.
That's really funny.
I didn't even think about that.
I thought, I honestly, I thought you had done it in reverse.
I thought your normal horn was the quiet one.
And the big horn was the other.
Oh, that's really funny.
Because when panic happens, you hit the wheel.
Right, right.
And that's when, that's when I don't want the ador-
Hey, buddy.
Horn, you know.
Right.
Right.
So yeah.
So that is how the horn that you got me is the gift that keeps on giving
because I legit forget that it exists.
Until I'm cleaning pee out of my pants.
Yeah, that's so funny.
Yep.
It is.
It is.
Yeah.
So there you go, buddy.
So that's, that's the latest with the garage updates.
I haven't driven the GSF in about a week and a half, two weeks, just because
I've been trying to figure out the Nuggy stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, congratulations on passing emissions.
Thank you.
You know, it's a proud, proud papa moment.
Thank you.
I, yeah, appreciate it.
Appreciate it.
Yes.
Cheers.
Yes.
Here's to another two years of keeping a stage two, a stage two down there.
Yep.
So there you go, buddy.
I love it.
Yeah.
Um, what is this real nerd shit that you have on here?
So I have a vision for what a track day looks like with you and Pita and, you know,
Hofstra and the boys, right?
And you know how I like to do my stuff.
You know, I like to be at the track with you guys.
You know, I get car sick now after riding for more than two laps.
Yeah.
Right.
So my,
It might be my driving.
No, it happens with Pita.
It's, it is the braking zones.
The braking zones do it no matter who's driving.
Yep.
And it happens in very tiny amounts on the sim whenever I have to go in reverse.
Oh, I don't know.
Yeah.
You know what we need to do?
We need to get your rear facing car seat.
That'll help.
Hey, Gerber.
Riccaro, here's the deal.
I have a giant ginger friend.
It's gonna end up just being, it's gonna be, end up being a guy in college's chair
so you can have stirrups just mounted backwards in the car.
Yep.
I don't know how this is approved for track use, but he seems to like it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I have this vision that I want to be able to just give you a thing and you
tether your phone to it or you hotspot your phone and the sync connects to it.
And it live streams your like video and maybe some telemetry if you want.
Okay.
Okay.
And I want it to be the easiest thing in the world.
Right.
I don't want to like wire in power.
I don't want to do anything.
I just want it.
You just stick a thing on your windshield with the suction mount, right?
Like one of the, like, you know, one of these buddies, right?
Yeah.
And you go, right?
So I've been doing what I do.
How much money are we into this vision already?
Maybe about a hundred and forty bucks.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah.
So as Dave, as, as Dave tech projects go, yeah, we're still in okay territory.
Yes.
Okay.
So here's what I've come up with you.
This.
Whoa, what?
So this is a, this is a raspberry pi zero two.
Okay.
Okay.
With the raspberry one of, one of the options for a raspberry camera.
This is an ardu cam.
I don't know how to say it.
Yeah.
Ardu cam.
This is the one that has a hundred and twenty degree field of vision.
And it actually works pretty well in low light situations too.
This, these are 90 degree USB adapters.
Uh-huh.
This is where power goes.
Okay.
This buddy here is a microphone.
Yeah, I can pull the.
Yeah, here's what it looks like on another one.
Okay.
Okay.
Right.
Just a little USB microphone.
Yeah.
Okay.
So this wifi hotspots to your phone.
Okay.
And runs a meet this runs a media server on it called media MTX.
This can do a whole bunch of streaming protocols.
Uh, all of the stuff like WebRTC, RSTP.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All this stuff, HLS, everything.
This streaming at like, um, you know, not like 720 or anything, but like fine
enough only uses about 30% of the CPU on this, including the audio stream.
And, uh, a thousand, uh, yeah.
A thousand kilobit stream back to my house to land in OBS.
Oh, cool.
Uh, it uses tail scale.
So I have a private VPN.
Right.
Nice.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Um, and I have a webpage on my OBS machine.
So I can serve up anybody that's on tail scale.
I can just serve up a page and we can all just pull up streams of our friends at
the track and see where we all are on the track whenever we want.
That's awesome.
That's really cool.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I got a lot of inspiration from the guy from Temerity Raising, Sean, that has
like their live stream really dialed.
He said he's been doing a lot with Raspberry Pi's the last time I talked
to him at a Limit's Race.
Yeah.
And I was like, you know what, like he's a bright dude.
I'm going to go down this rabbit hole and see what I can figure out on my own.
And so these are all running the Raspberry Pi OS 64 bit, medium TX for the streaming stuff.
Um, but yeah, so this, like it doesn't have a battery.
You just use a battery pack, you know, like any portable battery pack with USB.
Yeah.
Right.
We all have more cigarette lighter.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah.
It, the stream starts in under one minute.
Whoa.
Okay.
That's awesome.
And so now, thank you.
Yeah.
So now I'm dialing in and kind of figuring out parameters to make it like the most
reliable in like sketchy bandwidth situations.
Right.
Yeah.
That's always the, that's the, the really hard part, especially the race tracks.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Oh, and it records to the device as well.
Oh, that's cool.
So you get, is there like an SD card slot in there or something?
Or yeah, it boots off an SD card.
I have a 128 gig SD card in there.
It records a full res stream as well as serving a stream back to my home machine.
Oh, that's sick, man.
That's, thank you.
Really cool.
I'm very pleased with the enclosure.
So the, this is just a Raspberry Pi to case, but these are, you've seen these before.
These are like the phone things you can get to hook your phone for a tripod or whatever.
Right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And then I just have a tripod adapter in this Raspberry Pi camera case has a thread in
the back of it, and then this has another thread that those phone, you know, clips.
Yeah.
Usually have two threaded slots, one on the bottom, one on the back.
That's so cool.
And so then, yeah, the rest of the ribbon cable for the Pi camera is tucked underneath.
There's a 3M adhesive tape holding it in as well as the clamping force of this.
Yeah, a little heat sink.
This runs at about 63 degrees Celsius when it's been going for a while.
There's gonna be one of my things is like, we got to see how it holds up to a sun beating
down on it, you know.
And being upside down, right?
Right.
You know, right.
But that's awesome.
Thank you.
That's really cool, Dave.
So I've got a couple of these.
I've been testing them out and I, you know, like, I just want to be able to just like
make streaming easy for my friends.
I want like Chris's dad to have a TV and just like cast his phone to it in the
trailer of the paddock and he just, he sees the sun on the TV, on the track.
Well, and the other thing too is that is user friendly enough and probably cheap
enough that you could, like if like lemons wanted to do like in race commentary,
yes, you could be like, you could select a couple of teams like give this to
and have cameras to go to, you know, and have like multiple streams to pull from
as people are doing commentary and stuff.
Like, yeah, like that's that now you're in the realm of like, oh, that's doable.
Yeah, right.
Because you can just hand it to some idiot and just be like, here, put that on
your windshield and, you know, give us an internet connection and some power.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
What's your, what's your phone's name?
And like, I just put it in the, an MT UI.
Right.
Wifi config, right?
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
That's super cool.
Yeah.
So they can run track addict on their phone.
We could pull in the telemetry from the track addict live feed.
We can pull in the camera from that.
There you go.
That's, that's really cool.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Don't need a whole, you know, OBS computer running in the car, you know,
stuff like that.
Right.
Like, that's all cool, right?
But remember all the USB craziness that we had happen over and over?
Yeah.
One computer, one camera.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like a, it's, that's a thing that you never think about.
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