Reflecting on the past year and looking ahead, the hosts share their favorite automotive experiences, including memorable road trips and notable car encounters. They discuss the impact of their distance challenge featuring Richard Grio, the excitement of upcoming events like their 1000th podcast at Circuit of the Americas, and the evolution of car culture. Listeners can expect insights on various cars driven in 2024, including surprises and disappointments, while engaging in a lively debate about vintage cars and what that means for future car ownership.
Welcome to 2025! The guys discuss their favorites from the past year, and look ahead to exciting projects. They debate fun, first-time cars for new drivers, a request sent from Kevin F. in WA. Social media questions ask what was the most overrated car of 2024, will there be a 911 Turbo Touring, and what does the “Mitsanda” merger mean for the future of Japanese cars?
Please rate + review us on iTunes, and subscribe to our two YouTube channels. Write us with your Car Debates, Car Conclusions, and Topic Tuesdays at [email protected] or everydaydriver.com. Don’t forget to share the podcast with your car enthusiast friends!
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"shoulder to shoulder with Kevin in the garage while the weeks go by and do it yourself clutch project on that 9.11 plus a dozen other jobs, you know, while you're in there, you got to take care of this, this, this course."
"...at we had the Sonata instead of the Accord or the Prius or even the new Camry. We wanted the new Camry."
Select text to request an explanation
This is a car show, but it's also more, because cars connect us to every part of our lives. Families, careers, hobbies, and adventures we never expected. So you should have a car you love, and we're here to help. I'm Paul, I'm Todd, and this is the everyday driver, Cartabay. Happy Friday and happy 2025. I cannot believe I'm saying that, but we are in a brand new year. We've had a couple weeks off. I will admit they were a little bit less, weeks
off than I hoped, but I did get like four days when I didn't know what day it was, and I didn't work. We're 25 years past Y2K. Stuff still hasn't happened. I think we're good by now, right? I actually had a few days. Here's the thing. I worked right up till Christmas, but I was able to get the Grios piece out, and I'm very excited about how many of you responded so positively to a distance challenge. It was a totally different piece for us. Thank you to all of you that watched that piece that was inspired as you saw on the piece by Richard Grio and his ridiculously over-restromated
77 Volkswagen Rabbit. It's completely so cool. So that was desold in the lucid air GT as electric and the Hyundai Sonata hybrid. That was a who dies first. And then what I also like is the folks in the comments are like, well, you know, the way to calculate
Mosper Galen properly is not which one runs out first because you have to take it again. I'm like, yes, thank you. Uh-huh, fine. This is real world drive, and you have to explain that. But just, but just sit and enjoy. This is entertaining folks. It's not that much science.
It's a little bit of science. There's some math, but it's mostly entertainment. And thank you guys for connecting with that piece. And many of you wrote us and said you did exactly what we recommended, which was just like, okay, we've done presence. I've eaten too much. And I talked to you people too long. Now let's watch. And thank you for doing so.
And we're so thankful to Richard and everybody at Grios Garage and Grios Motors, Richard Nick, Forest, Philip, the whole team there. They were just so great to us. There's so much fun to work with. And Richard was like a little kid. He was so prepped, everyone.
You saw the opening shots. Yeah. He had his bag the overnight bag in there. Yes. And he had stuff commentary ready to go written out. He had thought about this. He was prepped. He was ready. The car was fully tip top fuel. I'm surprised. They didn't like fill the fenders and the doors and the tires with diesel. We were expecting. They totally were. Yeah. The whole thing smells like caracene. What is going on here? Is that a leak? No, no, no, no. Don't notice that. And so he was so much fun to do the trip with. And we had such a great time.
And yes, if you haven't seen it, it's a real world challenge. It's not the super calculation. We get down to the, it's how you would actually drive these cars. And which one truly can go the distance.
And yes, there's a crack in the lucid windshield. Every fifth comment on YouTube is a crack in the lucid windshield. We know that happened before we got tossed that way. And it wasn't like, let's send it back. And also, where does that glass come from? It's like the size of the moon.
So it's just like, we're just going to drive it. We're not going to talk about because there's nothing we can do. Crack in the glass. I just got it.
Wasn't our car to worry about for sure. It's a lucid press car. They will deal with it. Probably already have. We're past it. So yeah, we're really had a lot of fun doing the trip.
And we look forward to 2025. We're already huge into conversation with all the road trips. Everything that we're doing for 2025. I will also say,
remind all of you the 1000th podcast is coming. And that is the weekend of May 31st and June 1st, that Saturday, Sunday, the weekend after Memorial Day weekend, 1000th podcast to be done that Saturday night.
And we will be at Coda Circuit of the Americas for a hooked on driving two day track day. It's a big event. Everyone's invited. You're all invited.
You can sign up right now at hooked on driving.com. And we're going to have vendor row there. We're going to have all of our sponsors there. It's going to be very cool.
And then we're going to record the 1000th podcast. We're going to have the podcast right there at circuit of the Americas. In fact, here's what's crazy.
Circuit of the Americas is exciting. We're doing that. Not let alone the fact you and I are excited. Like the track itself is excited. We're doing it.
So it's going to be really cool. That's part of it. Also, and we don't have details on this yet. There will be a road tour adventure film happening prior to that Coda event.
And after that Coda event, we're covering most of the U.S. in this road trip. So more opportunities on that to come, but we're really excited.
And that's just the beginning of the conversations for 2025.
The Hyundai Getaway sales event is on now with awesome deals on their most popular models, including adventure-ready SUVs like the Hyundai Santa Fe and Santa Fe Hybrid.
There's also the stylish Elantra pack with the latest tech or go electric with the Ionic 5 or Ionic 6.
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You guys knew we were going to do kind of a recap and a look ahead because we always try to do that right here at the first of the year.
So we're doing review stuff on 2024. Things we're looking forward to in 2025. Lots of great questions that way.
We also have a small car debate. We're going to run our way through and so many questions about all kinds of things.
Past and future cars we're excited about. People looking to buy cars. People asking about the Grio's trip.
There's stuff all over the map and we just got to dive in.
Starting out with VA groom. What is our favorite experience and memory from the past year?
I've got a few. I've got a few.
You do. Also, we've got the Bruce B saying, how many cars did we drive in 2024?
How many of those were gas, electric, diesel only as we'd like to say electrified?
There was this one 1977 Volkswagen rabbit.
That was the only diesel just so you know.
Okay, Bruce, I did go back through and look at our calendar and I tried to calculate it's not an exact figure.
I think between 72 and 75 cars, approximately.
Okay, wow, that's good.
But see, I can't remember which cars I drove on various U.S. adventures for the
Everney Drive adventures. Do we count our own cars? I guess we can.
And then you have cars we borrow at track days. There's a lot.
Right, right. Stuff adds up.
That's a good point. I can't remember. Did I borrow that car?
Oh yeah, I did have track time in it or I drove that briefly and so I'm saying somewhere around
the 75-ish cars in New York. That's awesome.
We drove 40 just for Test Drive channel. That's the thing I have to think about.
The Test Drive channel put out I think 40 different unique car videos this year.
So there's 40 there and we haven't even started yet on anything else. That adds up quick for sure.
All right, so you've got your thoughts on favorite experience and memory from past year?
Yeah, yeah, I've got a few of these.
Look, the one I have to put that's obvious.
Obvious as a favorite experience from this year is I actually got a Lotus Amira.
That actually happened. It's like currently at my house in the garage.
So cool. I cannot believe it.
It seems like forever ago.
It seems like forever ago.
It seems like you've always had one.
It seems like I've had an Amira forever.
I think it's the car's been out forever.
It's just not here and somebody's telling me actually over the break that
their local Lotus dealer, which is not a common thing anyway,
has multiple of the four cylinder automatics in stock.
I haven't seen one yet.
Now currently they have them all ready.
They had like four on the wall.
They're like, can you believe these are all four cylinders sitting here?
What in nobody wants them?
No, buy them.
Well, it's very curious to drive.
That is the AMG drive line, right?
So it's their crazy four cylinder
that's turboed to 400 horsepower now with their dual clutch.
I'm very curious to drive that end mine and compare contrast.
So that's on the list for this year.
But I have a Lotus Amira.
And here's what's crazy.
Yeah, you do.
Not only am I amazed, but truly, this sounds so stupid.
Every time I see it, I'm like, that's a pretty car.
Yeah, they think I've filtered through my braid.
Like, wait a minute, that's parked in my place.
That's so awesome.
So that was one of them.
Okay.
We had our biggest everyday driver pilgrimage trip ever.
Oh, that's good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That is a trip that has 10, maybe 11 slots
that we can actually fill.
And we've had a few years, it's been filled.
We've had a few years where we haven't even had that many people.
This year, 16 people showed real interest.
That was 10 people on the actual signups
and six people on the wait list.
We were like, that's like two normal, full trips.
So we actually went back to our partners at RSR and just said,
okay, can we expand this trip out?
And we were able to.
We took 16 people with us on the pilgrimage trip.
It was amazing.
Our biggest ever, it worked out.
I had some trepidation about taking a group that big.
I was like, it's still going to work.
I mean, we've got a lot of logistics and vans
and that kind of stuff.
So that trip is coming.
I want to let you know there is an everyday driver pilgrimage trip
coming the end of April beginning of May this year.
It isn't available for registration yet,
but I'm just putting it out there for you.
We are going back, that trip will exist.
But taking a group that big, everybody had a great time.
That was one of the other parts of it.
That still worked.
Despite the size of the group.
It was like when your older child can now take care
of your younger child, you're like, great.
Because we had some people that had bid before.
You're right, they kind of spread the wells a little bit.
You're right, we had some repeat offenders.
It was awesome.
I think it worked great.
It was really good.
So that's what I'm there.
And then I have to say, my favorite kind of event
or adventure this year, in spite of how much fun
the distance challenge was, was our trip to the CRS.
And in spite of the fact that the Amira decided
to not start one morning and then it decided to start
and then it's been fine ever since.
Well, here's the thing you have to know.
The issue that happened that morning has never happened again.
Ever.
That's what's so crazy.
On one hand?
Good.
On another camera.
What the heck?
Why on that trip?
Yes, exactly.
On that morning.
It knew it was on camera.
I guess, it got all nervous or something.
I don't know.
It was too hot today.
It was hot.
I don't know what happened.
It knew it was on camera.
But that trip, it was this great combination
of nostalgia of you and I kind of reliving roads
and experiences we've had practice.
We've been there 10 years prior
to make one of our first ever road trips, which is crazy.
It had that element.
It had new fresh elements because of cars we were in.
We knew how to film it better, which was also helpful.
And then we got to see cool places,
some of which we'd seen before, some of which we'd never seen.
Fresh roads and then to wind up at Sonoma,
which we'd never driven.
Yes.
That was an event that was being run by a company
we now own madness.
Madness.
And to pull it in, I think what at that point was probably
the highest mile in the U.S.
dirtiest Lotus Amir on the planet to do Sonoma was
a little bit of pride there.
A little bit of pride.
Yeah, especially when I got in and it started every time.
That all of that work.
That was key.
It's yeah, I've smashed some bugs with it.
And, you know, for sure, yeah, take it on trap.
What else is on your list?
I have one more and that is I have to bring up
the high points of our first year of ownership
at Hookdown Driving.
And you and I've talked about this
because we love owning this tracking company.
If you don't know already, we bought it in February of last year.
We had a backer that helped us get into this.
And it's been an amazing stretching.
Sometimes painfully stretching exercise for you and I
to run this track organization.
But we're expanding.
We're doing a lot more tracks.
It is the premier place for you to take your car
and learn to be on track.
We're just excited.
You can be a full newbie.
You can be a person that's done tons of track days.
It doesn't want to race anymore.
You like to keep your car nice.
And no fenders being bumped.
Yeah.
So all of that happened.
So we have track days all over the nation.
But you and I spend most of our time with Hookdown Driving
worried about making the company run or altering things
in the company to make them run better.
Stuff that let's be honest is just
this is what we need to do as owners of the company.
Yeah.
But it isn't fun stuff.
It's business stuff.
Of course it is.
It's all behind the scenes business stuff.
So all of the best stuff of Hookdown Driving
has been the, and this sounds so ridiculous.
The few times you and I have gotten to go to track days
that are our track days,
and go, well, this is really fun.
This is kind of a cool event.
Hey, we should do more of these.
There are three in my mind, April at Laguna Seca.
Yes.
We had Ross Bentley there.
It was a gorgeous day.
You were there.
I was not.
Yeah.
Tons of people very happy to be on track at all levels.
Garmin was there with the Garmin Catalyst.
We had, it was just one of those perfect days at the track.
I remember actually saying some of the track day meetings
was like, you're here today.
Nobody should have a bad day to day
because it's just amazing.
We're here.
There was that one.
There was our local track.
Utah Motorsports campus at the end of September.
We had our first ever hooked on driving event out there.
That was amazing, really low car count.
But we had a drive day before a really fun day on that track.
And it was cool because right in our backyard.
And then in October, we had the chance
to go to Watkins Glen.
Never been there before.
No idea what to expect.
You heard that podcast that was driven
while we were driving in the night before
in the pitch black like the darkest drive
I've ever done in my life.
Street lights have not been invented yet.
Darker than the inside of a cow.
Yes.
And trying not to hit animals on the side of the road.
But we got to go to Watkins Glen.
Barrow some cars.
Drive Watkins Glen on an absolutely perfect fall day.
Those three milestones in the year
and there were others with those three milestones
in the year was like, OK, this is the company we own.
This is what we do.
This is the community that everyday driver is
and hooked on driving is merging.
It was just so much fun.
You're right.
And a huge shout out to Mark Cody and Santi.
They are the franchise owners.
They are the region owners for the Northeast.
And they put that track day on.
And so we were, we were their guests, really.
And they were also generous.
They shared cars with us.
They were enabled us to get on the track.
It's so, so funny.
Everybody on the East Coast has heard of the West Coast tracks.
You've heard of Laguna Seika.
Oh, I'd love to go on the track.
Simnoma Raceway.
Yes, yes, yes.
You've heard of these tracks and no idea where those are.
I'd love to go someday.
And then all the people on the West Coast
are sort of like, Watkins Glen.
I think that's in New York, but I'm not sure.
VIR'd be cool.
Where's that?
Atlanta.
I'm not sure where that is.
Yeah, totally.
The glittering East Coast tracks.
It's so funny.
And we are working on ideas and wanting to encourage people
across the nation to swap ends of the continent.
Yes.
Everybody on the East Coast.
Come on out to Laguna Seika.
Everybody on the West Coast.
You've got to try Watkins Glen.
It is superb.
That's the whole purpose of CODA in the center of the year
we're bringing people from everywhere.
Yes.
Nobody else in all of Hookdown Driving National
has an event that weekend.
No other regions.
The only place Hookdown Driving will be the end of...
The Burgess.
That's everybody right there.
May 31st, June 1st, Circuit of the America.
Everybody's going to be.
That's going to be awesome.
Well, I would like to remind all of you that we started out
the year driving Maserati's.
Does that seem like forever ago?
Well, what?
That seems like years ago.
I know.
Not just a year ago.
MC20, the grand teresmo and even the Grecale Trophyo
with its $19,000 yellow flake paint job made out of whatever's
better than gold flakes.
I don't know.
Dice lions, apparently.
Yeah, for sure.
Seriously, so we started driving those Maserati's and I thought, all right, if this is how
2024 is starting out, it's going to be a good year.
It was a good year.
It was a trying year.
We learned so much as you said with Hookdown Driving.
It's a people business that just happens to involve cars.
I say this a lot.
But it's true.
Yeah.
That's what we do.
And then the ski car videos, thanks to Vretestine for providing the wind track
pro tires on both of our sports cars that enabled us to do the thing we always talk
about and that's drive your ski car, your sports car, to the mountain to go
skiing.
Yeah.
They enabled us to shoot that in February.
It didn't come out until, what, October?
October.
October.
Yeah.
We felt it in a blizzard snow storm at the prime time of skiing.
We told them it was not like that when you have to shoot it.
Yeah.
So, you know, at the beginning of winter, there's no snow and somebody's like, there's
that much snow in Park City already?
No.
No.
But the ski car's episode still sticks in my mind.
It was so fun.
So I've gotten the Cayman out just recently.
I've been driving the Elise a lot, actually.
People are boggled.
They have no idea where to put it.
White out back.
White out back.
Yes.
White out back.
Cyber truck.
Cyber truck.
I mean, you kind of see those a little bit last night, but Cayenne, Cayenne, Ranges, all
stuff.
And then little sports car drives by and I have turned people's heads.
It's very satisfying.
The Elise baffles people in the summertime in the winter.
I think, I actually think people are worried for me when they see me.
The look on their face is not like, that's cool.
It's like, what are you doing?
It's, I love it.
Exactly.
The C8 versus R8 is an unexpected piece that I really enjoyed.
Yeah, I agree with that.
That's good.
It was a new road for us.
But really experiencing the R8 again was really cool.
And then doing that comparison, I've got fond memories of that trip too.
The Sierra trip is very high on my list.
I love it.
It's way up there with the Griot's trip with Richard, the distance challenge.
But the Sierra trip was so intriguing to make this discovery and turn it into kind of
memory lane.
We kind of did some of those same roads and it was just as good as it ever was and I can't
believe it's been a decade.
And I'm proud of that film.
That film did not really well.
If you haven't seen it, we'd love for you to watch that piece.
That's really cool.
The Amira and the C8 doing the Sierra's.
That's really awesome.
I got to drive a manual Ferrari 360 Modena.
Yeah, it was an okay day.
It was good.
And you know, something about that car I thought it was going to be more fragile than it was.
It kind of allowed you to beat on it a little bit, which was encouraging.
Yeah.
And then Moab with your Rubikayan, that is upcoming.
That's coming up too.
Yeah.
That was a cool trip.
I really love Moab.
And it was cool to do the rock crawling thing.
It was.
We had a great time with that.
Really enjoying that.
Danny Hahn has a question that kind of transitions us to looking ahead.
He says, what car surprised us most this past year and what are we looking forward to
most the next year?
He expounds to say, what car are we talking about this time last year?
Like, I hope we drive this.
How did that turn out?
What are we excited for going forward?
I've got a couple here.
First off, I have to say, one of the cars that I talked about as most wanting to drive
was also one of the most kind of surprising for me this year and that was the Cybertruck.
I wanted to drive it.
Yeah.
I knew it was coming out.
Finally got in it and it was far more impressive in person and to drive than I ever expected
it to be.
We'd seen plenty of coverage before we drove it.
Far more impressive.
It was a beast version and I just, I said it in the piece.
We did a piece for test drive.
There was no question.
It is kind of an engineering throwdown.
Look at all we can do.
But it should have just stayed a halo concept car.
We're seeing that from all these manufacturers and they're like, here's everything we can
do.
That car is not coming out, but we're going to take all that technology and put it
in our lineup.
That's what Tesla really should have done with the Cybertruck because it has that kind
of moonshot thinking, but it's ridiculous, okay?
And I think, I feel like, maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's just my impression, but I feel
like the hype has died down and the general consensus is you either own one or it's ridiculous.
Those are the only two camps.
I don't even think you could hate it.
I just think they think it's absurd.
So there's that.
So that was one that I was genuinely more impressive than I thought, but it was going
to be, but still just should have been a concept vehicle.
A car that had no business being as good as it should have been was the Maserati Grand
Terizmo.
Okay.
That's lured by that car.
That is a car I have always kind of overlooked as like, why does this exist?
And the current new one that we drove, surprisingly usable two plus two space and sports car
feel.
I was so impressed.
I guess I didn't realize how I drove it a lot.
What's that resonated?
Here's the thing.
It resonated enough that I'm wondering what, how many decades down the road, it becomes
a challenge car where I get to get one at stupid cheap and drive it anyway because it
was so very right.
It has no business existing.
So that car genuinely surprised me.
And then most wanted to drive also, another one that came up this past year was the Mustang.
Dark horse Mustang.
That was quite disappointed.
Yeah.
I was big.
It was mute steering.
I just, I wanted it to be better than it is, which is so disappointing.
And then another one kind of in that camp is, I'm struggling right now a little bit with
the Toyota truck lineup.
Okay.
There's some good stuff going on there.
Land cruiser, Lexus GX, forerunner, Sequoia, Tundra, Tacoma.
The reality is, there's not a lot of variation.
You climb in any other one of them after the last one and it's pretty close.
It feels like the C of five Cd SUVs you see from most manufacturers where you go, how
are you selling all of these?
Shouldn't half of these not exist?
Now I know most of those are brand names that have existed for a while but they're all on
shared architecture now.
They're on shared engines now and they've started to really blur.
And while I think some of them are standouts, other ones I'm going, this one too, really?
So I'm struggling a little bit and then of course Toyota has this whole separate thing
about issues with their engines and I'm not even going to get into that but it does
exist.
There have been issues with engines, issues with transmissions.
I believe that Toyota will be solving those but it was a black eye they didn't need coming
out of these tried and true naturally aspirated engines that were beloved.
The first thing they needed was for these new engines to be faultless and then they weren't.
So it's created a black eye in Toyota perception.
It may not be deserved but it's absolutely true and we'll see what they do to continue
to solve these going forward but there will be no way to post under content going forward
and somebody will not bring up, well these were engines were recalled.
Yeah, the first ones were, they were.
So there's all those kind of things but there's so much overlap in their lineup now.
I'm a little confused.
The only way they've been able to do that and offer so many is because of the platform
sharing the engine sharing.
The business-wise they figured out how to do it but do we need all of them?
That's the next question.
Agreed.
Agreed.
So I sat next to a woman on my return flight from Seattle and got to talk and I tried
to steer the conversation back to cars and it was just one of those, you know, sometimes
you talk to your seat mates on airplanes other times you don't.
And this is one of the times I talked the entire flight.
Whoa.
She is really incredible.
She does, she's an educating teacher so training teachers for education, doing it around
the world and the program she set up is quite amazing.
But she also found out I'm a car enthusiast and it comes out, she loves four runners.
Okay.
Got it.
Oh, three.
Remember at the V8?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
She had one of those and she bought it during COVID and kind of sight unseen and was so
excited to get it and loved it and had it.
She lived in Colorado at the time and the frame rusted through to the point where it was
undrivable.
Okay.
All right.
So even Toyota has issues with various things even though we hold Toyota up to be unassailable,
they're still making cars.
They're still making these same things that everybody struggles to make.
Yeah.
When it turns out great, it turns out great, other times not so much but that doesn't
mean that, you know, Toyota is generally the trend is still there.
They're still reliable, incredibly built, great to own, great price, all those things.
But that doesn't mean that other car companies aren't making good things through or that
stuff can't happen to Toyota.
It was almost like, clearly it can.
The frame rusted through but she was like, that's okay.
I still really love them.
Well, but the frame rusted through, other people do this with cars.
We all do this with cars.
We have a car that we are in love with and we overlook, look, I'm a Lotus owner, a
multi-lotus owner.
I own low-tie.
I am supposed to be the poster child for overlook the problem even though mine have been
pretty good to me.
I mean, people would say, well, what are you doing?
People can't do that.
Look, people watch the CRP's and the car didn't start, I love this, people like justified.
I'm vindicated.
Well, but here are my favorites.
There were a few of these.
The CRP's day two.
The car fully doesn't start and watch us battle with it and be frustrated.
It absolutely is terrible.
It's not a fun experience.
I don't wish it on anybody.
But again, it's never happened again.
There were people in the conversation, well, you better limit the law of that car.
It's like, I don't think you understand how limit law works.
It's like a recurring problem.
Right.
Okay, recurring problems.
But anyway, on we go.
Danny, I felt like the Volvo XC60 was such a surprise.
It was a hybrid that I didn't think I'd really like driving.
And we've recommended it extensively now and interestingly enough, that particular video
on our test drive channel has way past 120,000 views.
It's blown up.
Here's my question of all the other videos.
We get a varying amount of views.
And of course, it depends on the car.
We like to think if it's a cool sports car that you haven't driven, well, of course,
that's going to equal more views.
That is not the case, especially with the XC60, we had the nightshade edition.
And it was fast.
It was kind of fun to drive.
It handled great.
It's a standout car.
And that video has so many views.
It's astonishing.
For reasons I don't entirely understand, look, I'm going to do it, I'm going to blame
the algorithm.
Apparently, YouTube has decided that Volvo fans get their content from test drive.
Because the funny thing is, if you look at the trends, all of our Volvo cars do better
than everything else.
And it's not like you and I are big Volvo profits out here or something.
We're not evangelists for the Volvo brand, but for whatever reason, anything we drove
Volvo this year got watched.
So apparently YouTube goes, oh, it's a Volvo video from test drive.
We need to sit it out to the entire world that happened.
The other car was the lucid air.
I really appreciated the opportunity to drive that, so thank you to lucid.
And thanks to Jordan and Kyle at OutaSpec because that was in the middle of their press loan
of that car.
True.
Yeah.
And it's the 2025 GT.
So it was the upgraded, updated new car for 2025.
And one of those cars that you think, okay, we've got to drive that.
We think that a lot about many cars.
We think about most everything.
We have to drive a can't wait.
And some things about it were disappointing.
And then looking back, I think, okay, cool.
I was very impressed by it.
I don't want to run out and go buy one right now.
I'm not compelled enough, but what an effort.
And why isn't that getting enough attention as like Tesla's do?
Why isn't that just accolades?
Go lower.
And if you're even considering an EV, you should just go buy one because it is in so many
areas different thinking and does do better than Tesla's.
Well, and people have called us out because we were struggling with the one pedal driving
in the lucid.
And actually, there's been a software update that addresses many of the things we asked
for since we filmed that piece.
This is one of the cool things about not only EVs and download updates, but just companies
that are listening.
I always respect that when it happens.
Well, I told you the marketing director for lucid saw the test drive and sent us an
email saying we know about the pedal and he didn't realize you guys are so annoyed by
it.
But that change is coming.
We've heard enough about it and that's solved, but they were paying attention and it
was really cool.
Yeah.
And also love something you said just now reminded me.
Not only do we drive a lot of things, but I love how much we try to keep our brain, I
guess, flexible to all kinds of cars.
And I try really hard to notice everything.
And when I was driving over here just now, I pulled it to a light, two lanes.
Pulled it to a light, I'm second car back.
And the car in front of me, a loaded F-150 Raptor loaded out full park city spec.
He had everything.
That just means it was super clean.
The loaded, yeah, the loaded Raptor.
And next to it was a Honda HRV in that same slate blue color.
We got a press car and I'm sitting there at the light going, you never see HRV.
This loaded Raptor is in front of me.
Like, it's really cool.
See what?
That's the same color we had as a press car and I'm realizing how bizarre is my brain.
That's funny.
You never see HRVs.
Like, one of the lug nuts has as much horsepower as the HRV.
Totally.
Yes, the Raptor bombed away from the light after that happened.
Hey, what's up, y'all?
Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair.
My favorite thing about the holidays, decking out my whole house.
It's not a competition, but if it was, well, I'd win the season with Wayfair.
Outdoor inflatable Santa, got it on Wayfair, trees, lights, and ornaments, Wayfair, hosting
bus tabs like dining sets, beds, sheets, and towels, Wayfair.
For everything in your style, delivered with fast and free shipping, visit Wayfair.com
or the Wayfair app to win the season.
But again, it's not a competition.
Wayfair every style, every home.
Kevin F. writes to us just recently.
He's in Washington outside the Portland metro area.
And he daily's a Lamablu on Bamboo Beige, E90M3, manual transmission, ooh, that's a nice
car.
That's a nice car.
Kevin, that's a nice car.
He writes his time with a Silver 996 Turbo, also in manual.
Also a nice car, yeah.
His wife and daughter are like peas and a pod.
They spend their weekends on various horse activities.
I hear horses are expensive, Kevin.
Oh, I think they pay.
More so than cars.
They recalibrate what you're spending.
It's like cars, then airplanes, then horses, nothing's above horses.
Yeah, it's maybe, but beyond that, they take a point, yeah.
But while he wiles away his time in the garage on the driver, planning his own adventure
on blue highways of the West, he says he's so glad
to discover our podcast.
He says we're his people, Kevin.
I'm so glad about that.
That's awesome.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for writing.
In July, his wife and daughter dropped in on him at a hooked on driving event at Portland
International Raceway.
Oh, very cool.
Glad you did that.
They spent a good few hours taking it in, watching from the grandstands.
And little did Kevin know, but the time left a deep imprint on his daughter and she now stands
shoulder to shoulder with Kevin in the garage while the weeks go by and do it yourself
clutch project on that 9.11 plus a dozen other jobs, you know, while you're in there,
you got to take care of this, this, this course.
But what I love about this story is it goes a level deeper because she's 14 and she
decided to get her hands dirty.
And she has decided that she's a little bit annoyed because changing spark plugs on
the BMW was so easy, it was too simple.
Her comment was too boring, we didn't even have to take the wheels off.
She's enjoyed actually changing the spark plugs on that Metzger flat six in the 9.11.
So she's involved now getting her hands dirty and trying to find something more complicated
to do.
I love this.
It's amazing.
He says, you know, this is all heading Kevin and his wife want to make that first car
experience for his daughter, a manual transmission as it was for both of them, love it.
And his daughter is game as he ponders the perfect car to put a too soon to be 16 year old
into.
I relate.
That sounds the lack of 90s to early 2000s BMWs on the market.
One car that is available is an E36 M3 coupe.
Hmm.
Kevin says, I know an M3 for a teenager.
What could he be thinking?
But here I'm out.
They're talking about a well-built coupe, a solid driving dynamics and a mere 240 horsepower.
Yeah.
The lightweight car and still, I mean, it's still an M3.
Yes.
His point is in modern perspective, this is not like this is going to leave everybody
at the light.
It's going to leave some things, but it's not a rocket ship, certainly not by modern
standards.
True.
Yeah.
Okay.
He says, you know, modern pre-i or last gen ultimate still will, you know, it'll take
some of them for sure.
Take some of them.
Not all of them.
He says, all right, I know it's a bad idea.
So let's go retro.
We need to help him find the perfect car up to $20,000 available in manual for a 16 year
old girl with a smoldering interest in performance and vintage cars.
That's a new one.
Vintage.
Vintage is not a word I've seen written before.
I had to read it a couple times.
But there it is.
That's how that goes together.
To his wife, Shagrin, another family member with the disease.
Love it, Kevin.
This is really cool.
Vintage cars.
I mean, you're right, Kevin.
We got to look back at the 90s, 2000s.
And you know, I was thinking, oh, those might give you a lot of mechanical trouble.
But wait, she changes ignition coils on the Metzger 6.
Yes.
She's done a few things.
And those are easy.
So if we go, I mean, you kind of had me, Kevin, E36 M3 coupe.
The big issue is not power.
It's not perception of a 16 year old driving M3.
It's your insurance bill, my friend.
Well, and there's another factor here too.
I think that's one factor because it may be old enough that insurance is not a problem.
That's one that you're old enough and it starts time.
I mean, on M3, your insurance agent is going to rub their hands together, M3, at least
it's 30 years old.
Yeah.
That's only hanging out.
But here's the thing I wonder about, Kevin, I do, I like the E36 M3 for all the reasons
you've stated.
It's good.
However, is it also going to be reliable enough?
I mean, I know your daughter's getting worked on, but there's also going to be her car
meaning she needs to just drive it and get just getting used to work.
Is it going to be reliable enough?
But then I think the question that is the elephant in the room question for a car that old is,
are you and your wife comfortable enough with the safety features available in a car
that old?
Because you are into airbags, yes.
But in the beginning of mandated airbags, technology of safety has come so much further
in the last 30 years.
Are you okay with the safety level of the E36 M3?
Because we know it's a performance car and look right dynamics.
I don't know about the insurance question, it's a big wild car at all the time.
Luckily you have a 16-year-old girl coming, not, like I will have a 16-year-old boy whose
car obsessed, that you want to really blow up your insurance bill, that's what you need
to do.
Anyway, he will not be getting an M3, but I really wonder about what's, and this is a conversation
I have to have with your wife because she's not car diseased.
So she's going to look at the safety question very differently than you are.
I'm wondering if she's envisioning like suburban with a manual.
Okay?
You know what I mean?
Like how big can we get?
It's slow too.
It's very insurance.
I have ideas for you, but that's my big question.
You know, you're talking vintage-y, and I have to sort of reconcile that in my brain
because coolness, when I was growing up, I'm thinking, well, vintage, that's vintage now.
It's a relative.
You're right, yep.
Vintage-y.
A Z32 Nissan 300ZX manual is vintage-y.
It is.
It is vintage-y.
It is vintage-y.
You get the non-turbo.
They are cheap.
Correct.
They're inexpensive.
If you get a $15,000 to $20,000, 300ZX.
Oh, that's the nicest.
That's the pristine non-turbo out there.
Yeah, for sure.
So here's the other question.
When you say vintage-y, do you want something that runs now and just needs the basic maintenance
or because of her smoldering interest in performance that you mention here, is she
going to take something even cheaper?
Maybe something that's a little bit beat up.
The body panels aren't perfect, and it's solid.
It's not a looker, but it's solid, and she might be doing performance upgrades to
it because you also mentioned a mere 240 horsepower.
Do you think it's going to stay at 240 horsepower with a smoldering interest in performance?
Excellent.
Brakes, wheels, tires.
Oh, you found a kit.
You can supercharge a turbo or whatever, and then you're off to the races, maybe literally.
Be careful.
I know where you can go though.
Hope done driving.
We'll get you proper instruction for your daughter.
You already know this.
I like the Nissan idea, and I was thinking more towards that as, I guess, vintage-y, but
somewhat reliable.
But I'm channeling our 90s supercar film, and I just thought, what if she got an RX-7?
All the work on.
All the superb driving dynamics are there.
Superb, yeah.
They're not getting one for 20 grand that they like, though.
Rotary, she can wrench all day on this thing.
Yes.
May have to wrench all day.
Yeah.
The engine only spins in one direction, so it's got a 9,000 RPM red line.
I mean, RX-7, we love those RX-7s.
They're superb at FD.
She'll fit, which was my problem.
The issue is you're not getting the one you want for 20 grand.
That's the issue, yeah.
No, I'm just saying.
You know, that's why I was trying to explore, what does vintage-y mean by a, is a junk and
build it back up to what you want?
She might have that perclivity in her, I'm just wondering, and I do like the E36.
It doesn't necessarily have to be an M3, though.
The cheaper ones could be, how about an E36 coupe?
And she's rocking a BMW still, it doesn't have the power, but does she need it?
Because she's going to be doing all the wrenching stuff.
And I feel like if you start at lower power, if she wants to eventually add power, she will
figure out and know and have the pride of doing it herself rather than buying one fully
built already.
Interesting.
I've got a few for you, Kevin, what the problem is, that this is where my head is at, because
my son just turned 15.
He is driving regularly with me riding really, don't you?
So I'm thinking about this all the time.
I am thinking about what am I buying him or is he helping us buy in the next year?
So I kind of feel like I'm blowing up what I'm already looking at, but I'll talk about
it anyway, because the big thing for me, Kevin, also is, look, I am fighting this battle
with my wife.
I mean, it's not a war, but it's a battle.
And that is, she is concerned about the safety aspect first, which I understand, and
I'm concerned about the proper dynamics first.
And we meet in the middle on manual transmission.
We both want that.
Okay.
So it changes the dynamics.
So for example, she has said, no meadas, and I'm like, but which meada, because like the
NC meada is big, so that one might be big enough to get past.
So there's a long discussion, but like the NA totally out, not happening, old, bad safety
gear.
So Kevin, I want to bring you into the 2000s for safety gear mainly.
Here are my ideas, early mini Cooper, kind of like the one I had.
You can find one as clean as spot that I had.
That is the buy right there.
That is chuckable manual transmission front wheel drive.
They're cute, which works.
They're fun to drive.
They're great.
Early mini Cooper's are very, very fun.
I already mentioned the meada, the NC third gen, which is 2005-ish and newer.
And the ND, latest one, believe it or not, some of the early NDs you can get for under
20 grand.
Now be careful of the very early ones, because some of those had manual transmission issues.
But you can get one of those.
Think about this somewhere.
Your wife is saying right now, a meada is too small, it's going to be too dangerous.
I submit to you that car with modern safety tech, the ND meada is safer than the old BMW.
Yeah.
I mean, we can have the safety discussion.
What that means, but you know, but what I'm saying from safety tech, that new meada is
that E36 is not a big car either.
So if I was just debating safety, I would potentially argue that the meada, the new one, might be safer.
So there's that, there is the 86 twins, the first gen, the FRS, BRZ, and GC-T86.
That's good.
That's good.
Those are low power.
They are perfect dynamics.
They're easy to work on.
That boxer is just presented right there.
It's like the easiest oil change on the planet, that car, talking about boring your daughter
with car work.
That is that oil change for children.
So anyway, so there's that.
That is excellent across the board.
There are a lot more modern and everything else we're talking about.
But the last one I want to say here is you brought up BMW, so I'm going to go here.
I looked up on Autotempest, I looked up the BMW two series base.
That's the 228 or the 230i in manual, found multiple all under 20 grand.
So you're getting a modern BMW that's not that big, manual transmission, modern tech,
modern safety, still within your budget, and the thing is it's probably just going to run.
It's like the modern size of that E36 series.
It is, yes, for sure.
Like the new reincarnation.
It's probably going to have a lot higher insurance because it's much newer, but it also is
a lot.
I mean, it's newer and it's going to run.
I think that's a really good place to go.
I always thought that the early two series, the 228 and the 230 with that four cylinder
in there were surprisingly overlooked performance cars when it's spec'd right.
Light front end.
I drove on track ones.
It was quite impressed.
And you know, I hate to run to GT86, but that's really a perfect car too.
It's a great car.
Power.
I mean, she's learning dynamics.
And what I'm searching for, Kevin, is rear-wheel drive.
Although your many Cooper choices are excellent and superb.
We could look at all the hot hatches.
We could go, you know, GTIs.
You could go with a Golf R from 2012.
The early Golf Rs, you know, those are cool too.
Totally agree.
And those are all viable.
All excellent.
I was just thinking rear-wheel drive.
If she's really into it, dynamics, manual with a rear-wheel drive, and that GT86 cannot
be ignored.
So, all right, you've got some good choices there, Kevin, please let us know how that
turns out.
I'm glad you go to the Pacific Northwest hooked on driving days.
They've already got a lot on their calendar.
They do.
Excellent.
Well, let us know every day driver TV at gmail.com, topic Tuesdays, car conclusions, and
those car debates like Kevin's.
Hey, this is Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons podcast here to tell you that Michelobaltra,
the official beer partner of the NBA is bringing NBA fans closer than ever this season with
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Some cool questions all over the map, some of the reviewing the year stuff, but also some
other stuff as well.
I have to start here with Collins question on Facebook.
What was the most overrated new car in 2024, and I think pens down.
Nobody else is in slot two through like ten.
The winner is Cybertruck.
It's Cybertruck.
It's overrated car of 2024, yes.
I saw one today, it's so crazy, there's such weird things, and I think everybody's over
it.
It's the weirdest thing.
I am over it.
I see him and I kind of recoil now, like half the ones in Park City have just been turned
into rolling billboards.
Yeah, they're all construction companies or something like that.
I see him and I'm just going, no, I finally made my decision, everyone.
I don't like them.
I respect them.
I respect the bill, as you covered the engineering aspects, the features are amazing, and no, no,
no, no.
Over here on Facebook, Ted Adam Green is kind of bummed, he's not looking forward
to anything.
Says there's nothing new that he's looking forward to for this new model year, is he missing
any new car for the year that is under 40 grand that could be a fun daily or a used car
that's falling under 25.
We noticed that our friend Matt just got a TyCon, we've been discussing TyCon.
You and I have been talking about how much they plummeted for a while.
I think it's really interesting he got one of the fastest seats.
That was 65.
I think he paid for that.
But like less than half what it originally cost, I think it was a great buy on his part.
I'm fascinated to see what his experience is.
You know, I am waiting for the announcements, and I don't think that any, there hasn't been
an announcement in 2024 that we're waiting for to finally go into production.
Like the Z car had come out, like the dark horse Mustang or just the new Mustang in general,
there wasn't that announcement towards the end of 24, like, okay, sweet, can't wait till
it goes in production in the spring time.
But I will pivot to what's coming next for Toyota.
And I still have high hopes for an MR2.
I am obsessed about the MR2, which is interesting because it's not really your kind of car,
but small, lightweight, I mean, mid-engine, it's like the Cayman, it's like Toyota
builds a Cayman.
All right.
I'm actually quite intrigued.
Okay.
I am waiting for whatever they announce, the problem is anything like that they say is
coming, it won't be till 26, by the time we finally see it.
But I also feel like, to some degree, this happened to us last year and some years prior,
where we get into January where we go, there's not much coming.
And then the year fills out.
Stuff does get revealed.
So, I'm very curious about new reveals.
Plus, we've seen so much in the last six months, maybe even three months, manufacturers pivoting.
I mean, Porsche even said they're going to put an internal combustion engine in every
one of their electric-only cars, which I don't know how that's going to work, engineering-wise,
but it's not my problem, and Porsche will figure it out.
But that'll be the thing, is that so many of them are pivoting.
That means cars that weren't on their board two years ago are on the board now.
That's crazy.
So, I'm very curious to see about a lot of those.
Ralph is writing in and saying how much he enjoys that road trip distance challenge we took
with Richard Greo.
Thank you for watching that.
He said he was fascinated by all of the amazing cars Richard had in his garage, and he'd
just stop you right there and say, hang on, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
That was Greo's Motors, which is the pristine, let us build you a restomod shop that has
grown out of Greo's garage car care products.
The majority of cars you saw in that garage are not Richard's.
Most of those are client's cars.
The McLaren from the Senate era is Richard's.
That's like the jewel on the crown of his collection, and you can understand why because
it's an old F1 car, and it was driven by Senna.
So there is that there.
But most everything else you see there, those are not Richard's cars.
The 77 rabbit was Richard's and was done up at a level I couldn't believe.
Everything else there was a client car, and they do some amazing work there at Greo's
Motors.
On Instagram, Eugene Wang asks, if I've been hearing the rumors about the Porsche Turbo
Touring, a rear-wheel drive manual turbo, the everyday man's sport classic, what would
I like to see as a turbo touring?
A price under six figures?
Zing, I had to go there, I'm sorry, but the cheap 9.11s now is a figure car.
A price under quarter mill craziness.
I would say, okay, I'm seeing the same things.
They're talking about a 9.11 Turbo S with a touring model, and those touring models might
have a hybrid powertrain, which means they could rely on the GTS announcement, to do a
different kind of powertrain, which would make it very easy to make it just rear-wheel
drive only, and I would like to see that.
What I'd really like to see is something, I mean, they're channeling a GT2, making it
lighter rear-wheel drive turbo with hybrid tech is like the modern day GT2.
It have gobs of horsepower, but they already have kind of a lightweight version anyway.
The point is, they need to make something that that touring model handles brilliantly,
and it's different.
I feel like the turbo is awesome.
I want one.
I would totally take one.
But it seems like the 9.11 Giant GT car to me.
It seems like a, you know, the 9.11's got big.
Get out of its way, it's got all the speed, all the power, it's amazing at everything,
but the driver involvement is a bit missing, and I hope that the touring could come back.
But then again, they've made a 26th variant of the 9.1.
25 was not enough, Paul.
They were 26.
Is it just a money grab?
It's the turbo, but it's the S.
Oh, I want something more than the S.
Better, the touring.
I feel like, I feel like this is what happens.
I feel like the touring GT, turbo S, touring GT.
I feel like whenever somebody, what is it called, Sundrovinch?
What's the special wishes thing that they do?
I feel like what happens is whenever some 9.11 freak fan with an enormous bank account
beginning with a B, shows up at Porsche and says, I'd like a 9.11 to do X.
I think a good percentage of the time Porsche goes, huh, we could just make a bunch of
those and sell them.
We didn't think of that slightly super niche.
Yes.
And people show up because now they're buying them because they're speculating that they're
going to be worth something later because there's not very many, and then I might just
start to cry.
Anyway, yeah, all right.
Up here we have Timothy from Facebook says he's looking for a new Audi Q8 or a Porsche
Cayenne for his wife and his question, and it's a great question, is why on earth does
it seem like nearly all the luxury SUVs have 22 or 23-inch rims?
I mean, mine has 21s, he mentions that as well, like huge, he's like, how on earth is it
possible that that's how they come?
And then while we're talking about that's how those come, why can't you just get massage seats?
His question, actually, his throwdown, as he said, aren't you guys influencers, can't
we influence the manufacturers to just have different stand-alone options available?
Timothy, I would love to think we had that power, but I also agree with you.
You should be able to just mix and match.
I would like massage seats in cloth, you know, just like these, you have all the tech
essentially to some degree, they are all Legos, but they're trying to actually amortize
and make things work, and so that you can only get this with that.
But back to your wheel question, which relates to the massage seat question, and that is there
is a general assumption on the part of manufacturers, why we get press cars that are loaded with everything
they can put in them, that if you're wanting to spend more for the luxury variant, you
want all the things.
They don't assume that you now want to take anything off.
If you want to get the upper level trim, you just want all the things.
We're going to give you the biggest, nicest wheels, and all the extra tech, and all the
extra things.
And it's really hard to get, and this is why Porsche makes 26 variants of the 911.
It's really hard to get the, I'd like some of the upper level trim stuff, but not the
rest of it over here.
And I agree with you.
I wish you could be more bespoke, but it all has to do with volume and speed of making
them.
So back we came up with the name of Sonda, that is the merger between Sonda.
We have the Ponda, the phenomenal Nissan Honda and Mitsubishi.
That was the thing.
And somebody, one of you actually sent us a logo and I have to admit, it was kind of awesome.
A mash-up logo.
It was great.
We should publish that.
It was really, really good.
We have to publish it with credit.
Well, our friend, Devon Bane, from 41 to 26, says, what do we think the Sonda merger means
for the future of Japanese sports cars, the Z-Car, a resurrection of the EVO, a new S3000,
something completely different?
I think they will try to do something different because all of those companies, all four
of them, Mitsubishi Renault, Nissan Honda.
What?
What?
Personally, everyone, I don't think Honda needs Nissan.
No, I don't think there's very much the case.
I don't think they need them at all and I think Nissan tried to throw in some sort of something
to sweeten the pot.
Something like, we'll allow you access to something, but Honda doesn't need any of Nissan's
tech.
They don't need any of their racing history.
They don't need any of their cars.
I'm not seeing it.
I think there's something going on that they promise, like platform sharing and, you know,
you get access to that factory in the Sonda.
No.
But I think, Devon, that they will resurrect some kind of sports car.
But the problem is, what kind of car is it going to be?
And what do you call it?
And is it going to be badge engineered?
Are we going to have the Nissan version and the Honda version?
Oh, yes.
Is it going to be the G-R86 and the BRZ, same kind of thing?
It's going to happen.
It's the same car, right?
But choose Nissan, choose Honda to keep the enthusiast happy.
We'll look at this right now, though, with the current Honda lineup.
What is it?
The prologue?
They're EV, SUV?
Is the Cadillac lyric and the blazer and a bunch of other things.
And the blazer and the Cadillac lyric makes sense.
But the Cadillac lyric and the Honda SUV, talk about bad sharing and platform sharing engineering.
That's craziness.
It'll be very interesting to see what Mitzanda comes up with.
You have to see that logo.
It's great.
We got to pop her set.
You're right.
I think it's going to generate some kind of rethink of the entire lineup.
But it also gives them an excuse to try new things and be like, well, we didn't really
know.
And we're just trying cool things.
Whoops.
We got a bunch of names.
I don't know what to do with them.
I mean, I don't think it means like bringing back a sweet new EVO or an awesome lightweight
C car that we all go, you've got to be kidding me, yeah, which is called the S3000 to Devon's
point here.
Yeah.
Yeah, fair.
The C car is the S3000 or the S2001.
The S2001.
We really missed the motor with the should have been released.
But there it is.
Yeah.
On Instagram, Big Zamboni has questions about our distance challenge.
He said, what other long range were considered for the piece and why no Sonata or Accord or
maybe just a truck with a big fuel tank?
We considered getting as a support vehicle a truck with a big fuel tank and having like
a surprise reveal at the end that the actual truck with the big fuel tank outlasted everyone.
It's going to be a Pacifica hybrid.
We talked about Pacifica.
We were also talked about getting one of those long range super gas tank suburbans that
isn't efficient at all, but it just has so many gallons of fuel that doesn't matter.
That's what we really wanted.
It seats one.
Exactly.
Trying to source them all at the same time and that gets harder, which is the reason that
we had the Sonata instead of the Accord or the Prius or even the new Camry.
We wanted the new Camry.
We done plenty of coverage on the Prius.
We didn't want that again.
We wanted the new Camry since it had just been released and we knew it would do well as
a hybrid, but Toyota was not able to get us one in the time frame, so we thought, all right,
what is the atypical choice in hybrids that is like the Camry and that's why we settled
on the Sonata.
It worked out pretty well.
That's why we did that one.
We didn't do the big fuel tank trick because, of course, ultimately, we wanted all cars
to put together already, the lucid and the Sonata looked like spaceships compared to
the little rabbit.
Can you imagine how a big monster Chevy product would have looked?
That was a little bit out of the ballpark.
I have one more and that is from Marvin 47 says this might be a good talking discussion
point.
What is our favorite car related and non-car related memory of 2024?
Our car related memory, I am going to say that I got to have my wife join me in the
Amira on our bear tooth trip because I mean, I leave and I go on these crazy road trips
and she's not part of it and I get back and I'm all a little kid excited.
I'm gone for a while and she's dealing with all the life that I've left behind, right?
Dogs, kid, just life, right?
So her partner's gone and I'm talking on the phone and I'm excited and tired every
night, but I get to drive fun cars and she's not part of it.
So she got to come, which was really cool.
We got to take the Amira which was awesome.
We went over bear tooth pass in the snow, which I don't recommend, but it was just really
cool to have her.
That was my favorite car related memory and it just so happens, my favorite non-car related
memory is also my wife who celebrated a big birthday this past year.
We went to the Dominican Republic with a bunch of friends.
That's not really my thing.
I got to be honest.
Let's go sit on the beach with a bunch of people, all of whom but me are going to be drinking.
It's not really my thing.
I got to be honest, but I had a great time.
It was very cool and it was fun to be there.
It was very, it was so different than everything else we do that that was a nice brain reset
in its own way.
You know, my non-car memory favorite thing was mountain bike with you and Bode.
Cool.
We did some great riding this year.
Under 18 mile ride outside of Moab.
Yeah, we did.
And it was spectacular.
It was phenomenal.
It was exhausting, but phenomenal.
Practice.
Yes.
I mean, we were all kind of regretting that last mile, I feel like, but it was so great.
If I started to be with a lead to the parking lot, he was like, why does it matter?
That was pretty cool.
That was cool.
Yeah.
And then I think my favorite car memory, there's there's a lot was a big year.
I think it was the HOD Germany and Belgium trip because it was really good two days on each
track.
Yeah, true.
And I really enjoyed having one day as a, ah, just shaken off the cobwebs and getting
used to things.
And then the second day just really things jelling and sperm on both tracks.
That's true.
Yeah, that's good.
That's good.
Really having that.
Of course, the camaraderie was great.
The meals were out of this world.
The phenomenal.
Yeah.
The hotels were quite astounding too.
That trip's coming later in the year as well.
We got that happening again.
An HOD multi track Europe trip.
It's going to be amazing.
Two F1 tracks and the ring.
Zandvort, Spa and the ring.
That trip's coming in tomorrow.
Yeah.
We have that one to tell you more about soon.
Yeah.
So guys, thank you.
Really, really appreciate all the interaction.
2025.
Oh, my gosh.
Cannot believe we're here.
Lots going on this year.
We've got the 1000th podcast coming at you.
It's amazing how much we've already got planned.
We're looking forward to sharing it.
Yeah.
All of it with you.
And we'll post from here.
We'll definitely keep you posted on all those events coming up.
But we're looking forward to already a ton of stuff.
It's amazing.
Really appreciate it guys.
Cheers everyone.
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