The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that many people admire for its speed and style. It's been around for a long time and is known for being fun to drive and very well-made.
The Ferrari 308 GTB is a beautiful and powerful car that many people dream of owning. It became famous from a TV show and is loved for its stylish looks and speed.
The Citroen Axel is a small, affordable car from the 1980s that has a unique look. It's not very common today but is interesting to those who like unusual cars.
The Chevrolet Captiva is a family-friendly SUV that has lots of room for passengers and luggage. It's a good choice for road trips and everyday driving.
An Audi five-cylinder engine is a type of engine that has five cylinders. It gives the car a special sound and can be powerful while still being efficient.
The Subaru WRX is a sporty car that is great for driving fast and handling well on different types of roads. It's often used in racing and is known for its powerful engine.
Throttle modulation is about how you control the gas pedal in a car. It's important for driving smoothly, especially when you're learning to drive a manual car.
The Pontiac Chieftain is an old-fashioned car that many people find beautiful and interesting. It was made a long time ago and is popular among collectors.
Car
No Reserve: Porsche 911 Cabriolet-Style Go-Kart
Featured on Bring a Trailer: No Reserve: Porsche 911 Cabriolet-Style Go-Kart
Car
The Winner: BaT People's Choice Best Feature of 2018
Featured on Bring a Trailer: The Winner: BaT People's Choice Best Feature of 2018
Laguna Seca is a well-known racetrack in California where many car and motorcycle races take place. It's famous for its tricky turns and is loved by racing fans.
Dirt roads are roads that aren't paved and are usually found in the countryside. They're often used for fun activities like driving go-karts or off-roading.
Car
Yamaha 50 CC
The Yamaha 50 CC is a small dirt bike that's great for kids or beginners. It's light and easy to ride, perfect for learning how to ride off-road.
Car
Honda XL400
The Honda XL400 is a type of motorcycle that can be used on both streets and dirt trails. It's known for being dependable and good for different types of riding.
The MG Midget is a small, fun sports car from Britain that many people enjoy driving. It's light and easy to handle, making it a favorite for those who love classic cars.
Sport seats are car seats that are made to hold you in place better when you're driving fast. They are usually more comfortable and supportive than regular seats.
Formula One is a popular type of car racing where teams compete with very fast cars on special tracks. It's known for exciting races and famous drivers.
Bring a Trailer is a website where people can buy and sell interesting cars, especially classic ones. It's popular among car lovers and has a friendly community.
The Ford Mustang is a classic American car that's known for being fast and stylish. It's been around for many years and is loved by people who enjoy driving powerful cars.
Collector cars are special cars that people like to buy and keep because they are rare or have a lot of history. They can be worth more money as time goes on.
The Honda Civic Si is a version of the Honda Civic that is designed to be more fun to drive. It has a sportier engine and features compared to regular Civics.
The Acura NSX is a fancy sports car that is known for being really fast and fun to drive. It was one of the first cars to use lightweight materials, making it special and exciting.
A pre-selector is a special kind of gear system in some cars that lets you choose the next gear before you actually need it. This makes shifting gears easier and smoother, but it requires a different way of driving.
Drum brakes are a type of brake that works by pressing brake shoes against a round drum to stop the car. They are older technology and not as powerful as the more common disc brakes used in modern cars.
RPM stands for revolutions per minute, and it tells you how fast the engine is spinning. Each gear in a car works best at certain RPMs, so knowing the right range helps you shift gears smoothly.
A CVT is a special kind of automatic transmission that helps the car change gears smoothly without any noticeable shifts. It can make driving feel more fluid and can help save fuel.
A side-by-side is a type of vehicle that you can drive off-road with friends. It has seats next to each other, unlike most cars where the seats are in a row. They're great for adventures in rough areas.
The Ford Bronco is a sporty SUV that people use for off-roading. It has a strong history and is known for being tough and fun to drive on rough terrain.
LIVE
Hello everybody and welcome back to the bring a trailer podcast. My name is Alex Porter.
Today I am joined by Beck and Tyler here in the San Francisco headquarters of bring a trailer.
How are you guys after noon gentlemen to the beer afternoon. We were discussing beers.
It is 103 in the PM. It was considered pubs open pubs open pubs are open but
it might be just a little early. Well hopefully so this is we're not recording on Thanksgiving
but this is our Thanksgiving episode so happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there listening.
Hopefully there are folks imbibing a little bit early on their well-deserved and well-earned
holiday. Is there a holiday cocktail in your house for Thanksgiving?
You know what my dad I think about this a lot. I don't think I've ever had a high ball.
I don't even know if a high ball is a real cocktail. I mean it is a cocktail and that it's got booze
but I think it's just kind of two things put together. It could be like it's like a gin and a
hundred percent. I think it's like a fancy name for a gin and tonic and maybe I'm offending a
cocktail fanatic out there but my dad and my grandmother rest in peace used to drink a high balls
on Thanksgiving so I think about that and like the big tall it was like the water glass you know
with ice all the way up and it just looked like sparkling water but they seem to enjoy it.
Just a big cocktail for when the families around it sounds like totally.
This is what I was a kid. He's easy fast got correct and now that I have kids the age I was
when they were drinking I get it. I get it hit it hit the bottle early and often.
ours is eggnog. Oh my father makes it say it a big giant jar same one every year but when
we were kids he had to make with them without. Oh of course. And but now it's all with but he
makes it from scratch. He's not buying the carton of nog. Yeah no carton of nog it's definitely
making it from scratch and part of that recipe because of the raw egg it's in it you have to let it
like sit for a while actually overnight. Does the blues kill it is that the idea? I'm guessing so
I remember once while I was living in Illinois I reached out to him like everything was on Thanksgiving
day I was like hey I'm going to a party tonight I'd like to make eggnog what's your recipe
and he goes oh you're way too late you need to have started like two days ago. You're going to kill
all your friends right exactly but yeah that's ours with a little bit of nutmeg on top yeah big
deepened buck tradition there. I'm really jealous of these cocktail traditions you guys this is
you can start your own start one this this Thanksgiving I just drink a lot of wine. I got to
know if that if that counts as a tradition it does it does that's in between each glass of eggnog
you need a glass of wine. What are you guys doing it this year? Where will you be when this podcast is
live? Let's see Thursday morning of Thanksgiving I'll probably be unfortunately just doing some
chores around the house a little relaxing um otherwise uh my wife and I like to go out for
our couples Thanksgiving so it's only the two of us. So let's go out. Dink dink dink people.
Do we income no kids? Yes yeah yeah you got you get to actually enjoy it you don't actually need to
start boozing at 11 a.m. to maintain your sanity. No and this year we got a little bit of a later
reservation we've been stuck with a noon reservation which means the drinking does start kind of early
this year I was I called early enough thank goodness and got like a two o'clock reservation.
You're going to Carmel Valley where you guys going? Carmel Valley. Yes a little spot called
Barrelli's Lodge um it's kind of a nice home style old school Carmel Valley spot uh just great
Thanksgiving type of food nothing fancy and that'll just see shit us for the rest of the day
and no cleanup afterwards. Fantastic yeah are you gonna take a motorcycle or you don't know yet?
Well I would love to uh but the amount of wine that I referenced oh yeah okay good good
would uh that's not the best idea totally great call great call what about you back where you're
gonna be we'll be pretty close by my sisters over in Bernal Heights they have a house it seems
kind of large from the street but it's actually very short but it's three stories but very very small
so we actually have three different family tables that will all be sitting at extended family
and then her husband is built a small British pub he's in England uh in their house sick in the back
with the dart boards there's a darts competition as well drink warm beer drinking uh I don't think
there's many takers of warm beer uh lots of wine at that one as well ignite at that one
in the pub opens to the garage where his 914 project which has been sitting for looking
at my watch multiple years yeah yeah in various states of repair but it's basically a bear chassis
at this point still but we all got to sit around and screw with him on L it's just taking much
long give him give him suggestions you don't really recommend it as a four cylinder car four
cylinder car yeah uh did you see the really nice green 1.7 with folks that sold for like 35
grand the other day no I saw the six cylinder white that was oh that was also nice excellent I'm
having kind of a 914 renaissance right now the 914 car it's like a factory six bait just regular
two two two liter yeah that would be that's all I needed that's gonna be great but there's one
sitting right by one of my favorite hiking spots in Carmel Valley it's like a race car and it's just
been sitting in this guy's driveway for at least five years I've never seen it move and every time
I drive by I look at and like that looks like a really fun car yeah your gears just gets the gears
turning and I think I finally popped up for sale somewhere I think I saw it recently there's
like a for sale ad for it you driven one before I've never driven a 914 they're really really fun
it is the car and I've driven a lot of low cars that feels the most like you're sitting on the ground
you've driven one before road in one but yes you feel very low to the ground you basically kind of
feel like you're in a go-kart it's like the difference between you and other cars on the road
it's surprisingly different feeling than a 911 it doesn't feel like one at all actually it doesn't
really feel like any other car I've driven it has maybe a little more Volkswagen feel than anything
from the engine but also just from I mean it feels a little bit like an old Volkswagen you know
the floor board is all open you know the shifter and all that it has a little bit of Volkswagen
vibes too I mean it was designed to be a Volkswagen so that makes sense but man they're fun
you just can feel that the engine is flat and low too it really does feel like a go-kart you
just feel like you're you're planted to the ground I hate using all those phrases that everyone
use the ground yeah yeah you're just on rails dude yeah right yeah that's what's your tradition
we usually go down to San Luis Obispo and hang out with my mom or my aunt but my mom
is pretty over hosting things my dad's in his mid 80s my mom's in her early 70s and so she's
just like you know her youngest kid is almost 40 she's just like I'm done hosting things
and cleaning up she also doesn't love turkey and stuff so like she would make hams and stuff for
she did the traditional thing for a long time but my aunt her sister has been doing it down there
a little bit but this year we're really mixing it up we will be in Phoenix Arizona at the Arizona
built more the Frank Lloyd Wright or Frank Lloyd Wright at Jason hotel where you and I had some
drinks earlier this year during auction week was your second time in one year right yeah well I've
actually been to I'm really turning into a middle-aged white man like I'm ready to move down there
because I we also went to a family and I went on vacation in Sedona so we put right it's like my
third or maybe even no fourth because I dropped the NSX off there too it's my fourth time
if you've got to get out to the desert for your skin and you're 100% but this is actually because I
will be on the way back from picking up my white car tells what you got it's a 1978 yeah I'll be
in it it will either be broken or still running by the time this goes like ideally you will be in
the car yeah so it is a 1978 Ferrari 308 GTB Euro spec cars that means dry sump motor white allegedly
owned by Axel Rose at some point sold new in Italy restored in France which is weird for a 308
to be restored at a pretty well-known Ferrari restoration center to the tune of 130,000 euros in
2019 this is like my dream car that I've been talking about for so long as you both know it's like
all the charm of a Vettoracina but with a steel body which I really want right so it's hard top
it's got the little single exhaust still you know not everyone puts quad exhaust on it but it's the
Euro dry sump motor it's white black it's really nice but it's kind of high kilometers it's got like
70 or a thousand kilometers got like almost 50,000 miles on it but it's perfect so like I can drive
it but also have a really nice car I'm not not have to worry about like you know preserving it
because I'm picking it up again I am picking it up in Baloxi Mississippi my plane moves in
life in like 36 hours and I've taken my teenage son he's pretty excited we're going to do four
to 500 miles a day get to Arizona my other two kids are jealous but there's only one other seat in
the car and so kind of came up with the idea of like hey everyone come out and meet us you know
halfway across or two thirds of the way across so my wife my other two kids and my parents are all
gonna fly out we're all gonna stay in this hotel and we just got a reservation for the restaurant
in the built-more which is like Mexican themed and they have like blackened turkey and like oh
amazing though they have like pumpkin cheesecake but with toasted papitas on it so it's a Thanksgiving
meal specific for that day but all like Southwesters will be talking about it for years I think
it's gonna be really fun for sure we're probably never gonna do another destination Thanksgiving so
it's interesting Tyler you go out for Thanksgiving I don't normally I never I always think about being
on home right so yeah we almost always have I mean our tradition growing up was going to Florida
for Thanksgiving to Sanibel Island and Captiva Island I don't know where the west coast or east
coast where that is west coast and Florida Thanksgiving is just fun I mean to see like they do a whole
like tree lighting ceremony so there's like the lights the Santa clauses the fake snowmen meanwhile
like there's palm trees and if you boys you'll be in November oh yeah I mean it's still 70s 70s hot
that was always kind of our fun thing and for the food it's like fish oysters everything so I've
just become a big fan even though I now do a very traditional Thanksgiving meal I'm a very big
fan of the alternative meats Thanksgiving I love it Alex do you think you're gonna let your son
take the wheel at all did I tell you I let him drive the Civic in a parking lot the other day oh good
uh he was pretty nervous in a way that's rare as he was his first time driving anything yeah he's
not he hasn't quite turned he's gonna be 15 in about a month that's tough of a manual as literally
your first totally and the Civic's actually like you guys would be fine in it but it's like not
is like I taught people how to drive stick in my 912 I tell a lot of people in our Euro van
five speed which was actually a really good car to teach people in because the shift action was
really slow the clutch was really forgiving I had no power it was actually kind of hard to stall
oh yeah we had two manual Eurovans they were Audi five cylinders with 108 horsepower and then
they had five speeds with like a truck shifter you know like three feet long I used to power shift
into second gear their front wheel drive yeah you really can't screw those up totally they were
actually really good for teaching stick but the Civic I think partly because it's so modern it has
all these safety you know clutch stations which is the friction point is weird the shifter is fine
but all that other stuff is weird you also sit low in it you know like in the Eurovans you're like
hooking up out of the top of that and just the sills the windows those are so high on modern cars
you just imagine you're actually sitting down low well you saw a few Felix is like a man now you saw
the other day back was like oh my god this is the same guy yeah he's really grown up but we did
in that little movie theater parking lot over by Stone's Town Mall I always get that hold a band
an AMC way in the back and every time I see it I'm like that's the perfect place to teach somebody
to drive stick and in fact there was a WRX there when we got there and I'm like oh somebody else is
learning how to drive stick does it have those like concrete lamp posts yes it does it all throughout it
that it's an open parking lot but you also kind of and it's also like a lot of flat it's like not
super steep but it's like a gradual slope everywhere but anyway WRX parking lot lamp posts
just sounds like it's just a magnet for grabbing from totally luckily that guy didn't last too long
he left pretty soon but he was excited to do it he got it going it took him a while to actually
get it going and when he did the thing that was actually interesting is he like kept giving it too
much and that that's another part of this car it's like pretty fast and in first year you can go
35 miles an hour so he'd get it going pretty quick and I'm like the hardest thing was teaching him
throttle modulation you know what I mean which is I don't remember ever having that be an issue
with all the people I taught how to drive stick 20 25 years ago right like we were cook at I was like
oh dude but now I need to teach you how to use the brakes yeah well I mean first gear in any
manual car I mean it jumps I mean I've driven some very low power cars and that first gear if
it's kind of short I mean the stil just stil puller yeah yeah Tyler have used taught many people
how to drive stick no I'm still learning myself honestly no I haven't I've been taught how to
drive stick a few times but no otherwise I kind of just taught myself I wanted to teach my wife
how to drive and now I got my car back I like now would be the time to do it but like when it had
320 horsepower maybe that made more sense and now at like 380 she might be experiencing the
same thing that your son did Alex heck yeah with the top down I actually have got the hard top on
oh no oh they look so yeah man I couldn't resist good with the hard top on I put the hard
top on I kind of love it like that yes I think they look fantastic like that well I was hoping to
we I want to do a bunch of things I want to talk about what's on the site and we can talk about
results and other things but I thought in the spirit of the holiday we could start with talking
about what we're thankful for if you guys are down for that pretty much everything we've discussed
so far I'm thankful for I'm thankful for you guys I'm thankful for being here and doing this with you
which is fun but we could do car oriented things or even bring a trailer oriented things this
has been a banner year for bring a trailer you guys both look tired and I bet I do too we have
had high volume later into the year than we ever have before how many listings are live right now
that was just thinking of it I mean we had 1100 live a week even until very recent we've been
dipping below a thousand here there 906 at the moment that's because we've got auctions closing
yeah we have with a Thanksgiving schedule happening but it was a thousand plus basically
and sure might actually be again after the Thanksgiving break which is crazy this late year
we didn't anticipate it our staff has done an absolutely amazing job keeping up but folks are tired
and I'm a little torn on this because like we all want to break but I'm also so thankful that our
businesses thriving in a time when that's not true for everyone yeah I mean that's kind of what I'm
hearing just talking all of our colleagues like you're saying everyone's tired everyone's like
when will this end but on the other hand everyone's also really enjoying what's going on so it's
kind of little bit of a double edged sword but I think the consensus is better this than the other
direction one thing I'm really thankful for is how diversified the cars are on our site because
just like how the economy is not really equal for everyone right now the same goes for the cars
that are being offered and if you look at the average haggity just posted a big story yesterday
the day before about sort of an average index for where the market is looking and it's basically
back to 2019 like if you are interested in all the markets together however that's obviously not
the case if what you bought maybe in 2019 was a 4GT or a Z8 right that means there's some big winners
and some big losers right exactly and what helps is that we're just that diversified and that's
really community I remember years ago how we're talking about how thankfully was that that our
marketplaces were so diversified the sellers that we have are so diversified we're not so
dependent upon just like one or two dealerships that use our platform or something like it's
incredibly expensive yeah I mean one of the along those lines I mean one of the big BAT things
that I've been thankful for off of the last couple of years certainly but definitely within the
last three four months I would say as well and I think going into this winter season diversification
but it's like the things that we've got for sale the automobile oh yes this is your department
title cars the tanks that we have right now the tanks yeah we have two live at the same time
I think no I think they did I think they were live at the same time it's pretty different
amazing there's a chieftain but then there was also a steward there was a World War II air tank and
I think they were live at the same time how amazing do we have a tank model page I believe it's
under military vehicles how soon do we can bring down I kind of think we should have a tank model
maybe let's talk to Ryan yeah it's all under military vehicles which you know rightly so it's
a good follow by the way whether or not you actually want to buy one I recommend following it
just like you know you don't you don't want to discriminate against the half tracks the half
tracks are strong what else we got we got quite a few vehicles live there right now land rover 109
in some camo uh hummer and a World War II Jeep along with the Humvee's got a camper on it yeah
some sort of camper conversion thing it's probably an ambulance originally I don't know it's
a part of a pickup with the thing on fiberglass home made home brew home brew action going on I
think that someone who buys this you are looking to be a little anti-social yeah this is your
your terror whatever xd 44 from the 2012 year yeah that's true all over I think these are
going to go for the slightly different people yes correct that person's armed and ready yeah not
with a shoulder I was not saying that they're shoulder harness shoulder holster will not hold what
that person is armed with no that is that gun would be something held by his wife correct that's right
yeah yeah yeah yeah that would be a belt fed uh I talked just about some of the stuff Tyler you were
working on a funky golf livery boat cart this morning when I walked in I just I I can't get enough
of this stuff and I'm curious to know what percentage of the site those kinds of vehicles are right
now just because we've been listening so many but yeah just a fun little like two third scale 74 to
would that be 77 9 11 and it's a it's a go cart but it's for adults so the seller is sitting in it
as a full size man how yes brother and I'm just like picturing this and like that's kind of
all it's got six and a half horsepower no idea I've taught my head what's worth but is it a
single speed single speed forward and a reverse gear too electric start uh we need that in the office
yeah we've got added to the menagerie of micromability items we have down
right right there's seven go carts live on the site right that's amazing right uh the lead
image by the way if you go to the go go carts does have its own model page yeah sure now it used
to be all just automobile so many twin engine rough go cart which by the way you have to pay car
prices for this yes so the image if you go to the go cart model page there's sort of a lead
image for the whole model and it's a rough go cart gold I was one of the earliest ones we had
in it was the one that went gang yes 2018 the one listing of the year has voted by the readers I
wrote that listing back when I was a regular writer for the site and I was given a lot of the
weirdest stuff to write up uh and notably I remember having professional sellers who wanted to
learn more about bringing trailer and they were like curious what does well on us I said you know
weirdly the most popular auction voted by our community was this go cart and obviously it has to do
nothing with the value of it or the usability of it or the events you can take it to
it's purely nostalgia yeah there is genuinely nothing else it's essentially at that point it's a
sign you put under wall but even better so this one connects to your youth right I was actually
never in a competitive go cart thing I grew up in the city so like I didn't have that opportunity now
with like K1 speed I'm hoping for my son to get a little more outlet to get more readily although
we've gone to K1 twice now just to watch because he's gotten two nervous he's seven he's just a little
too nervous to hop in just yet but he knows he's big enough down he's got a gift card for it
not ready for the shifter yet not ready for the shifter yet but I imagine once I put the helmet on him
he'll like all of a sudden get in the zone he'll be fine he'll be fine Tyler did you grow around
go carts at all were you no I grew up in Manhattan right so no right no not go carts that's one thing
got him so jealous of a lot of the people that I live around now with having Laguna Saka so close
by and Alex maybe saw this in your youth is like there's a little go cart track at Laguna Saka I mean
kids are doing like I don't know like 50 cc motorcycle track days yeah there's just a lot of
really fun automotive things out there for kids if you live in an area where you can do that totally
or you have the privilege to have all that stuff yeah I grew up out in the desert and go carts were
like a thing you messed about on out on dirt roads or like golf carts or like whatever like
whatever you could dig up and put a motor on it was like for messing about it was much more like
the stuff that we list on the site like it was not for going fast it was for acting a fool
and that's like what I would still like to do you know someone who's asking down stairs about
my dream setup when we were having our delicious little Thanksgiving team lunch which was amazing
and it would be enough property to like have one of these things just to like really just
mess around I mean how much property you think you need I think five acres I think even a little
bit less probably you could do it on my I think all the time about my buddy Jeff they live up in
Lake County where I used to live and they bought I think it's only three and a half acres but it's
like in between a bunch of wineries it's very pictures got a beautiful home and they've done a lot
to improve it it's got lawns around it and they can have outdoor movie nights for everyone they've
got a garden and a horse and stuff but then it's an old some kind of nut tree farm all the pecan
pecan it's not almonds it's bigger I think they're pecans or walnuts it's walnuts okay so there's
about 30 big walnut trees and then the guy had restored cars so he's got a shop in the back with his
dragster in it and a couple other cars and it's long enough that he has a golf cart to drive
out to a shop I mean it's probably like a hundred and 150 yards away from the house but you could
definitely put a go cart track on that that's like all you would really need you know I mean that
would say she had so much like the racing just desire and need to have and you can have
friends over all that's three and a half acres is not enough for an air street for something you
I can I can tell you that one of my favorite automotive memories from this past year in terms of
things I'm thankful for my friend Tim has one of these little mini ranches up in Idaho so it's
about four and a half acres there's horses maybe like three and a half acres or pasture and the
rest is for the house and outbuildings and one of the best times I had this year was messing around
with him and his son Mason who is maybe four or five and I was just ripping around this little
Coleman mini bike in the pasture in just like getting my left foot down trying to spin it a little
bit going around the corners lending Mason was on his little 50 CC Yamaha dirt bike
Tim was probably on his XL400 Honda but it was so much fun doing what really amounts to nothing
like if somebody drove by and saw the three of us doing it they would be like what is going on
over there and yet I had a smile on my face the entire time love it it's pure excess but it's
pretty darn cheap that's not an expensive thing to venture into that's like totally doable
yeah I can't remember BAT ranch trade oh my goodness Alex now that you said it well you know
the guys I can't remember his name I've stumbled across his YouTube the guy who bought the race
track down in Florida and then he just bought a grass strip too like and he's like building his
house there because he's gotten into aviation he's like a big YouTuber but he like bought like an
old oval track like a little midget race track and now he's into like carbon cubs and stuff
piper cubs and he bought like an old grass strip is it this guy clearest that's who yeah yeah
so he's living the dream and you know every once in a while we see this people will sometimes
even submit these to us like these old race track they're often in the Midwest place where land is
cheap where it's like a whole facility so sometimes they have a drag strip on them and like a little
oval track or sometimes there's even a little mini road course for go carts on them and some of those
are dirt cheap but you know you got to restore them and they're out in the middle of nowhere and
there's all that stuff so yeah and like you know if you go a little too hard there's not an ambulance
outside like during a track day there is an advantage to taking advantage a hundred percent so yeah
just a little piece of land like your buddy a mess perfect that's the dream perfect right I think
that's one of the things that I'm most thankful for is just I mean even got just ripping around on
your little Honda scooter the your your moto compacto every time I need to stress my own more on that
anything I think it's promise we need a second one we do we need to we also we also need to
like plot out a correct track around the office like that's the other thing then you can
see then you're gonna find you can start naming corners and you can start you know naming
quarters a timing system would be helpful yes correct we need to have some lab times here to really
start competing because right now we've just sort of been just looking at who do we think is sending
at the most but the problem is then you get to a point where like how we actually quantify yeah and
then somebody wipes out and like I get fired and the company gets dissolved were you ever an RC playing
always wanted one couldn't have one I built an RC dragster a nitro car an RC dragster in high school
it weigh on a I want to say like a I don't know point one five cc two stroke I was an
o-line chassis with a carbon fiber o-line chassis I want to say it was called I had little o-ring
tires on the front end that it could not move the car at speed like basically once it started moving
forward there was not enough traction and so you pretty much could only like you had to like line it
up launch it and then hope at the break which was just a literally a piece of cork on the outside
of a bell housing on the crankshaft would like gently push against it in hopes that you could slow
this thing wow yeah that was that was a brilliant project yeah well maybe for Christmas I will
gift the office with a couple vapors they're these little I think they're six ounces or something
like that they're little single engine RC plans and they only have two axis of control so you
don't have to use ailerons they're just rudder an elevator so they're simple to build out of
foam like these aren't even foam they're like little wire skeletons and then they just have like
not cellophane but some kind of like you know plastic type material to do that there's no fuselage
fuselage just a carbon rod they have a little electric motor on them and when I used to work at
Jennings engineering the place where I worked before I worked at BAT we built UAVs or drones as
everyone calls them now but these were actually small airplanes all those guys were
aeronautical engineers out of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and they were all RC aviation outs one
of me was even building a van's RV for in the shop but we got really into office competition
and we would do air races everyone bought vapors and we would do air races and we have style air
race we have built in pylons here we could use our our poles as like the that was part of the
problem in our big warehouse we didn't have them yeah totally there you go they're really easy to
learn how to fly cool and then of course these guys because they were aeronautical engineers they
started hot rotting so guys started taking the landing gear off and putting bigger motors and
bigger better we're doing a 30 version of this for RC planes inside the office dude we should okay
so that's happening yeah okay I'm thankful for that idea you guys are thankful for that idea
definitely next time we're here we'll do it live heck yes what's nice is they're really simple they're
really easy to learn how to fly amazing thing is that this is I'm looking to add for one right now
vapor RC plane $120 when I was a kid an RC plane was $120 correct but that was for like a real
point these are like the size of this legal they're little see like this is the kind of thing that
podcasters get paid for sometimes Alex I know we need a vape like sponsorship we know that
here's a little a little thing I don't know if there's a list of listeners of notice no ads on the
VAT podcast the only other podcast that I really listen to it was like that was the early always
sunny and Philadelphia podcast they had no ads I don't know if I've ever they were just never
audience yeah because unlike us they were probably offered huge sums yeah we we will take the money
we just totally well I take a few papers I don't think they're coming our way but I'll buy a
couple we'll have fun with those back what else should we mention I mean I would be remiss without
saying that we're thankful for our community in general and specifically to anyone who takes
the time to listen to us be knuckleheads on this podcast so thank you to anyone who's listening
but really just like another year of huge massive user growth for BAT we've done our first ad
campaign which some of you have maybe seen ever as a little bit of an experiment and by the time
this airs we will have had our kind of interesting formula one experiment in Las Vegas right can we
talk about that yes because it'll be and Chris is editing this anyway so he doesn't like he can
cut it all out but I I've not I've heard very little about this what is it so did you see Diane
from 16 and located you see her car which is like maybe the most perfect we were talking about it
yesterday maybe the perfect you're talking about it yes I've not seen it though you should pull
it up it's live right now it's an 86 9 11 it's paint a sample beige it's turbo no it's a last
year non G 53 2 Carrera 86 it's like a perfect car a sand beige 86 and then look at the interior brown
with sport seats I mean it's just spectacular it's low mileage I actually like that it's not G50
has a career tail on it I just that's maybe my perfect late model air cooled 9 11 right there
seats are for anyway Diane as you all know she's the kind of the other half of 600 below
chase and Anthony run it all together she's wonderful that's her like personal car they're selling
it through their account but this will have been by the time this goes out the feature of a kind
of interesting gorilla campaign at the Formula One race in Vegas where it'll be on like
coasters and bars and like ads are gonna pop up that just say like by Diane's car and it's just a
picture of that with bring a trailer logo labeling under it it's like a broad awareness play
just to get people who are I think it's fair to say at a Formula One race tangentially
interest in cars right these are not like hardcore collector people but just get the name
out there get the brand out there but anyway there's a lot of new people that have been coming
to BAT because of the ads we've done and that's really exciting and these aren't necessarily
sellers or buyers I mean BAT is above all things a community and a community site and most people
are not buyers and sellers they're just checking things out enjoying the listings and our content
and our delightful podcast and our commenters it's been definitely felt on the lead side of things
for like love for like love yeah the number of people basically like essentially start of the
pandemic it was a ton of people who had never heard of us but they're basically forced to find
a platform to sell their car and we were you know massively expanded to try and accommodate for them
then there was a sort of a turn around 23 24 where a lot of our user base had experienced with us
for they sort of knew about us and so getting cars on the site was a lot lower effort for us
like we were just basically they just like accepting our reserve price we produced the auction
get it live and go now it's back to sort of honestly a little bit of what was in the early stages
where there's a lot of people who are like I just sort of heard about you yeah you know or a friend
of a friend recommended you and now tell me everything about this that they're a little bit less
informed but what's been helping with it is honestly I think there's obviously going to be a reaction
from the advertising that we're doing is helping pad all those listings that we were sort of
leading off the podcast with the fact that we've not curtailed from our usual peak which would
be maybe or like early October is still like holding out correct is possibly because of some of
that outreach yeah almost certainly is a result of some of that and we also had a monster year and
back you know this from being here for so many years like volume kind of begets more volume right
so like we just had a huge year and I mean go ask Google Gemini where to sell your classic car
they're gonna send you to bring a trailer that seemed like last few years has been very much volume
begets volume but just the ad campaigns and just this last year I mean we seem to be working
with a lot more new folks who are trusting us I love that man and it's hope there's been so many
amazing stories that we've had from this past year of typically no maybe starting with the sad
story but like a widow selling her husband's you know modified Mustang whatever she can come to us
and will help her every step of the way and that's 100% and there've been a couple stories like
that I do love seeing some of the back end conversations going on on those and you know we really do
make it easy for I mean we spent so many years you both know this better than anybody refining and
doing all we can to give real human support to people and make this process it's still tough to
sell your car online but to make it as pain-free as we can and to really truly help people it's all
the same people who've always believed in the same values here in terms of helping people and by the
way not resting on our loils I sounded like a d-bag there saying like how big bring a trailer is
like doesn't mean that we should be I mean we can pat ourselves on the back a little bit but we
shouldn't ever be like oh well that's it you know problem solved we're the best we always want to try
to do better for people and help people where we can and and educating new customers and answering
questions for folks who don't know what bring a trailer is or why it would work for them is actually
like I think really healthy for our staff and for all of us to kind of be thinking about folks who
need our help and don't understand what the value proposition is and there's new competitors still
coming uh every day yeah I was thinking for a while they're like clearly that no one's going to
try a new one right there gonna consolidate all the other ones but no there's there's still coming no
we're still no street nobody would be stupid enough to try this it's still the streaming wars thing
well I mean the reality is and I don't think this is a secret it's just freaking hard to do well
I've heard old Doug DeMiro himself say the same thing right like he used to sell his cars on BAT before
he started a BAT-esque site and it's tough it's tough to run these things right like selling cars
is hard car people can be tough I mean you can hear anybody who's anybody has an opinion about bring
a trailer commenters and like that's just the car world you know there's people who have strong
opinions about these things sellers don't always want to tell the truth about what their car isn't
is not buyers are educated and want the truth and there's people who know an awful lot about
bullet Mustangs and 440 wedges who are out in the comments of listings who are sharing those
thoughts and opinions and you know it is a complex business to be in as you guys have alluded to
it certainly isn't you wonder you know each one that comes out these different shops are trying
a different trick like what is the thing that we're gonna change in the algorithm that's gonna make
us be sticky yeah and you're welcome to look at these places and see what they're doing slightly
differently but the only ones that are really stuck around you know some success obviously dogs
site as well and ours the biggest one was community first of course and I mean Doug had all
his YouTube people right so top to their so loyal to him like you can go anywhere on the internet
and find people who love Doug I love Doug watch a lot of Doug's videos and I mean left my favorite
comment ever on bring a trailer as you guys know the old man-tucket comment still my favorite he
also has a nice looking website and it's slick and it's smooth I have a lot of empathy to anyone
out there trying to emulate us because it's hard we all know how hard it is behind the scenes we
were learning about that a little bit more today we had a call hands call and something I'm thankful
for is how all these different teams work which seems like for me like I guess I'm a little
siloed but it seems like it works so perfectly well together and handing off when there's issues
and probably my most thankful team I'll call him out there is read in his post-docs and I was
thinking that too that is a team that like they swoop in and they've got all the best experience
when it comes to solving those post-docs and issues and that's probably the team that helps
define the reputation of a site almost better than anything else and if you're starting a new
classic car auction site and you've not already predetermined like what your approach is going
to be to these situations that's going to be extremely chill 100% you're totally right back that
reputationally like that's maybe the it's certainly the most sensitive part of the process
there's a lot of sensitive parts of the process when something goes not great after the auction
but we're able to resolve almost all of those and I mean and you've spent a lot of time
in effort to get there so go ahead and you're talking about things that are like really simple too
like a registration but you live in a title state yep and this car comes with a New York registration
totally legal and transferable in all 50 states but it's just a little different so like a lot of
what our post-docs and team is doing is just kind of helping people sort through those kinds of
questions yeah absolutely educating yeah educating and hearing listening to people as you both
know in the old days when we were tiny I used to do that job and I was the editor and so a lot of
the reasons we write listings up the way we do is still put it as much of that information as we
can out there had a time no surprises we don't ever want to surprise a buyer if we can avoid it
and that's just not baked into the car selling world most people want to say a bunch of BS about
their car and almost almost something we're like trick people into buying it and spending too much
which is like man what a terrible build reputation yeah something I love reminding my team from time
the time you know we for the most part work for the buyer we want to make sure that the buyer gets
we do a car or whatever they're purchasing that unless you're back in his team we are losing money
yeah you know we love our sellers of course and need to support them but really I think the
success of bringing a trailer has been because we're listing things in a way that when you buy it
and actually see your car for the first time it's pretty much what you expect yeah we do our best
and the quantifiable switch for that was when Randy and Gentry imagined there's the two of them
designed the original formula for where the the comes from the close of auction yep was off the
buyer and that's when the eBay was the opposite of and thus meant you had no skin in the game but
it also means yes we are essentially dependent upon the buyer following through at this point yeah
I've said this many times so really bizarre business model that we've backed ourselves into
this cleaning what I do is exhausted it's just that that's one of them for things giving having
to like see the people who you see for a long time and after you just say I sell used cars
I definitely do I mean I run into that from time to time you guys do too it depends who the
audience is yeah yeah I say collector cars I came but then I think they think that I'm like you
know even still like I say whatever I actually I think of collector car dealer you know what comes
up is who is the guy in true lies oh it's packed with the Corvette I think of that guy every time
where he's even wearing like a bad jacket it's like every scary last year round town and then like
he parks it you know he's clearly been like to drive with the tires flying off and he throws
the four sales sign back in the dashboard for 24 995 like he's used it as his daily that's
I think of every time I say classic car so it's like no I I work in a used car website
I love that really yeah I really appreciate during car week when the whole area in all
the ordinary county is like flooded and I could say I work for bring a trailer and everybody knows
what it is everybody wants to talk about it but uh you know for the rest of the year yeah a lot of
times I've been asked if I know if any good deals on trailers yeah totally I mean a lot of times I
just say an online auction company or if it's somebody who I definitely know doesn't care about cars
I'll just say I work for a website I've started doing that I've done that a couple times yeah
in San Francisco it also works pretty well it totally does it just like oh no but I want to hear
any more of that yeah no follow up that if anything if anything they get are you hot or
interested yeah they have get a little more interested when you don't follow up on that I can't
do follow up because if they ask two technical questions I have to then be like I have a liberal arts
degree I don't actually do the website totally totally I don't do any of the actual things that
matter um any other I was gonna do a bunch of other stuff here but we're kind of deep into the
podcast just BSing I knew we would be able to we kind of cobbled this one together for anyone who's
still listening we did about one minute of prep and launched in you guys got a minute I mean I know
we didn't even do that much for you Tyler sorry I didn't want to run through a couple auctions but
any other thankful things any other topics you guys wanted to hit quick shout out for thankful that
the hot rod jackets are back oh hell yeah did you snap one I have not yet but I need to I need to do
it ASAP because they're gonna sell it quick I can tell you I bought two because my dad's wanted
one forever and I know I promised one to somebody else too and I'm like I know I'll be able to give
this to somebody a couple of cards on the site that I wanted to mention Tyler you brought up
this nine nine three that was owned by or ordered yeah cool right by somebody from the Porsche
family and I've been staring at it this whole time that we've been recording its viola metallic it's
like a purple color um glad Randy's not here because you would tell us why that's terrible but it has
like a leather disample interior it's like purple on purple has turbo twists I think those are
the turbo twists are painted to match the color of the car was it purple it is I think they are I think
they're purple yeah you're right their body color body color match who's the star look at the
option code sticker on this it's like just one of the log it's like one of the longest option it takes
a full screen when you see a bunch of x's on the option code sticker you know this car cost a lot
it's car is fantastic it's not that I don't like nine nineties I just haven't really been thinking
about them much recently but man this car is hard to deny any other standouts any other twin
engine go carts we need to talk about do you see we have had over a thousand to go carts yeah
yeah and I'm not shocked at that we haven't talked about this but we hit 10,000 motorcycles on
the site earlier this year oh yeah yeah we uh we moved 10,000 bikes since the first one in 2017
and half of those have just come in the last two years as with a lot of our volume but that's
something I'm thankful for that was kind of a cool one we was just thinking about this yesterday
right before the end of the year we're going to hit lot 222 222 we're gonna be at 222 222 and
only happens once uh it only happens once I bought a new wife uh new car for the wife
Freud was right uh I um bought a new car for the wife and it crossed 10,000 but do you guys
still geek out on odometer's when they turn a certain number or is that sure I did that actually
on mine at 11 when it was still my dad's car and I came home told my mom she's like don't tell you
okay she thought he would want to have been present for it okay so yes yeah maybe for dudes you
never outgrow the odometer turning over to an interesting number I do I do like every every time I
get three zeros on the end I get kind of excited 61 my wife's car just hit 61,000 and I'm like how
we bought that car new and I'm like this is so cool I put we put 61,000 miles on this thing
I'll be just as excited at 62,000 miles for sure one of the recent questions the week that I was
gonna hit you guys with but we're not gonna have time as what's the most satisfying transmission
that you've ever driven and like we don't need to like rant and rave about Porsches and Honda's here
so that's fine I wonder that's 2000 and NSX and Civic SI so I've had a lot of good shifters
but I really enjoyed the shifter in the cord which when I get it up here sometimes I'm gonna have
to show you guys that pre-selector it also like snaps into place in a really satisfying way
and you have to change the way you think about driving when you're pre-selecting which is really fun
once you kind of have been around cars a lot and you actually have to like shift your thinking it's
it's really enjoyable let's say you're in third gear car has terrible drum breaks from the 30s
and you see that the light ahead is red you need to be thinking half a mile ahead
because it's an un-sincred first and you have no mechanical connection to the gearbox you're like
am I gonna have to come to a complete stop for that light or am I only gonna have to slow down
if you're only gonna have to slow down you pre-select second and you start decelerating
and then when you get to the right kind of RPM range you then shift it down into second
and shift the gears and then you start accelerating so you're like driving in the future kind of
but then the movement of the shifter is also very very satisfying I say all that because it also
has a really cool old odometer on it and my five-year-old son Enzo who's riding with me up
front a lot of the time he spent most of the hours in the car watching the odometer turn which
is something most kids in modern cars don't get to see and he loved it and he kept waiting for it
to get to 300 to see all four numbers turn you know fun yeah really interesting right it's
something that we all take for granted but like the youth don't get to see that anywhere everything's
a screen now everything's a digital screen yeah I'd have to say if we're just going with kind of
out there transmissions not your typical Hondas and porches which is kind of in terms of manual
shift transmissions that's about all I've ever had but there's something to be said about a CVT
belt on a two-stroke snowmobile well when you hit the power band just right how it just launches
and and that's pretty unreal I'd say that's a bit of an experience too not one I've experienced
back of your wordness snowmobile yes I did it with my father when I was a teenager I had a pretty
scary incident but we survived and actually I haven't been on one since but not not out of choice
more of just a really fast aren't they get there yeah yeah real fast snow machine that's what I
always think of Sarah Palad remember her husband would operate the snow machine all the time I love
that I think it's an Alaska thing a part of the difficulty with the snowmobile car if I'm wrong
but you don't lean it right so like you're that's the danger on a mountain sled you actually
surf it so it's the same contact to the snow as a surfer on the water so it's like an a
reverse lean otherwise trail sled you're drifting they don't have they don't have suspension on the
paddle on the back on the tread do they they do but it's it's a just up and down it's like a
mono yeah right okay yeah and the front doesn't lean at all or it does it can you can okay it can
but it doesn't in the way that you're kind of it's not the way that you would expect it to yeah okay
yeah it's it's all it's opposite and don't the original snowmobiles have a single ski in the front
isn't that the original style they're like a tricycle almost oh yeah I want to know can we
sell stuff like that yeah yeah we've sold how many Chrysler snow skis if we look oh well that's
what I would actually like to ride is the the Chrysler you know we haven't seen any of those this
year and we were just taught my team a while ago about this crazy though didn't we list like 20
oh yeah but we were thinking that everybody who ever wanted one now has one totally and we're
never going to see one again I think that happens with some of these trends like are the
twin bicycles still popping up all the time yeah yeah and talk about weirdo things that we've
been listing and having fun with a lot of bite we have a bicycle category one of my favorite
new categories actually just to kind of piggyback on my own bringing up ATVs is our new side-by-side
category oh side-by-size and that is a fun marketplace that market seems to be really fun in general
seems to be good when I was up in Sedona it's like every person has given up their their jeeps
and they're just driving oh yeah it's probably crushing Wrangler sales right because these
sales are down in general the Bronco is nearing surpassing the Jeep interesting plus everyone's
buying a side-by-side anyways right because that's what you actually I mean if you look at our side-by-side
page which will post up on the podcast page for this I mean you look at some of these things and
they're about the size of a Wrangler yeah and are probably way more fun in Cape Bull offroad
and don't have to go in for recalls every two months yeah that's right you might need to see the
start from time to time they started as glorified golf carts kind of and that's really evolved quite a
bit back to I'm sorry to the Chrysler snowrunner snowrunner thank you uh yes not a snow ski snowrunner
great model page by the way another good follow we've got a whole model page for a can you guess how
many snowrunners we've listed oh 20 was my guess I bet I'm light 55 whoa hold on does that
include the ones that are multiple yes and there's are multiple one of them has a good five we sold one
with five there is a lot of five 1980 Christ look at that so we've so like more often than not it's
multiple in the single watch which is honestly is perfect this we've been listing a lot of the
one mini bikes and and things like that as pairs because what's the point I mean do you really
want to just be on a Chrysler snowrunner by yourself right you get around your house but hilariously
when you look at the plotter graph it's the opposite of what a lot of other cars do which is they
tend to disappear during the winter months oh yeah everyone chooses to sell these they assume
strategically yeah just during the winter you'll see this whole gap where for eight nine months nothing
happens and all of a sudden right around the change of the new year you'll have you know maybe you
look like seven or eight of them all be listed back to back to back and then a gap for several
months and then over and over again very interesting god I need to get one of these when I don't
go anywhere with their snow yeah well you gotta snow first yeah no that's never gonna happen
they're so cool well boys we really went all over the place what else do people need to know on this
hopefully beautiful and love filled thanksgiving day oh man it's just been a wild year I think
for everybody a lot of things going on and I'm just thankful to still have all the kind of same
people in my life that I started this year with a man brother we're thankful to have you in the
office more often that's been really nice you're thankful for the Cal train thankful for the Cal
train that's right you can thank Cal train for me for me coming in yeah good to have everybody here
in the office today we had a little Thanksgiving lunch but downstairs thankful for the ops team
thankful to the ops yes memory and tabata who made it happen that was fantastic I mean it truly
honestly feels like a little bit of a family happening which is a good tee up for our next podcast
that we're gonna be doing oh yes me familiar I teased it on the last one and now I have to tease
it again but fast and furious coming soon I watched it last night the wife really enjoyed it
didn't think she was gonna say for the whole thing and she did so I'm actually really excited
I'm having a hard time keeping my fast and furious taste because every time we're in the office we
have so much fun and there's so many jokes I want to make about all the sweat and muscles and it's
just and and I've said there were terminologies that don't mean anything hundred percent hundred percent
my wife also watched it with me and not only she'd never seen before she's never seen a single
fast and the furious phone before and I have jotted down her quotes oh my god okay all right
that's a heck of a teaser we can leave it there that's perfect well thanks gentlemen as always
always a treat to do this with you always a treat to do a podcast in general and to have anyone
who cares about listening to it thanks all of you out there yeah we are thanks giving guys happy
thanks giving we are thankful for you as always feel free to reach out to podcast at bringethrailer.com
happy holidays and we'll catch you next time
About this episode
A lighthearted Thanksgiving-themed episode where hosts Alex, Beck, and Tyler share their holiday traditions, favorite cocktails, and plans for the day. They discuss personal anecdotes about family gatherings, including unique Thanksgiving meals and the joys of teaching kids to drive. The conversation also touches on the Bring a Trailer community, recent auction highlights, and the diversity of vehicles listed on the site, including go-karts and military vehicles. The hosts express gratitude for their experiences and the thriving BAT community.
Our friends and compatriots, Alex, Tyler, and Beck, give thanks for a multitude of life's riches: family highballs, eggnog, and other Thanksgiving lubricants; Porsche 914s in various states of being; Alex's holiday trip to introduce the newest member of his family to Arizona; teaching kids (and adults) how to drive stick; Porsche 996 hard tops; a banner year for BaT; the diversity of cars and sellers on the site; go-karts and minibikes, new and old; the BaT fantasy ranch; tiny tiny airplanes; Diane's car; Bill Paxton in True Lies; the limited edition BaT Hot Rod jacket; passing the 10,000-motorcycle mark; Cord pre-selector shifters; the analog odometer; and much more.
The crew also briefly touch on some of the listings, models, and fun new category pages that have most caught their eye of late. Make sure to subscribe to our Make and Model Page Updates, one of the key tools for all the most well-informed BaT followers. You can rest easy knowing there are over 50 Chrysler Sno-Runners to peruse on BaT while taking a social break and digesting whatever decadent meal the day brings you.
