GT4 is a racing category for cars that start from regular production models. The rules usually keep the cars closer to stock than the top-level race versions, so different brands can compete more fairly.
Rally prep is the work you do to get a rally car ready before the event. It’s about making sure the car can handle the rough driving and still work reliably.
“Plug-and-play” means you can install something by connecting it, without a lot of extra work. They’re saying the swap parts are made to fit and work together.
A “steering unit” swap means replacing the main steering assembly with another one. The idea is to get the steering working right again using parts that are meant to match.
The steering rack is the gear-and-valve assembly that converts the steering wheel’s motion into left/right movement of the wheels. In hydraulic power steering, pressurized fluid helps move the rack with less driver effort.
OEM means the part is made to match what the car originally came with. The speaker prefers OEM because it’s less likely to be a cheap or fake replacement.
The Acura TSX is a regular passenger car (a sedan) made by Acura. In the podcast, it comes up because someone is dealing with a power steering pump issue and talking about the right part. It’s basically a maintenance/repair topic tied to that model.
Car
TSX
The Honda TSX is a Honda model. Here it’s mentioned because the speaker is trying to match the correct power steering pump for that application.
Car
RSX type S
The Honda RSX Type S is a Honda model. The speaker is saying the power steering pump they’re looking at is the one used for that RSX Type S application.
Denso is an automotive parts brand, commonly associated with sensors, alternators, and other components. The speaker specifically mentions “fake Denso” parts, implying counterfeit branding is showing up in the parts supply chain.
NAPA is a store where you can buy car parts. The speaker is saying they went there because they didn’t trust the online parts they were finding.
Term
sketch
“Sketch” here means it feels a little sketchy or unstable. They’re saying they wanted to make the car more exciting or less safe-feeling, not totally calm.
A skid happens when the tires don’t grip and the car slides. They’re basically saying they wanted a bit of that slide to make it more fun.
Term
firewall installation
The firewall is a wall between the engine area and the inside of the car. If they’re talking about installing something on it, it usually means mounting or routing parts/wiring so everything fits and works safely.
Term
fire right up
It means the engine starts immediately and runs. They’re basically saying the car was ready to go without any trouble.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a small SUV-like vehicle that also has a cargo bed area. It’s meant for carrying gear while still being comfortable for daily driving. The podcast mentions it because the speaker connects it to living in Santa Cruz or similar beach towns.
Topic
air water
“Air water” sounds like a specific event or meetup they went to. It’s part of their car-show day plan.
“Show at 930” indicates a scheduled car-show start time, which drives their route planning and how long it takes to reach Paul’s car. It’s a logistical detail rather than a technical automotive concept.
Porsche is described as the focus of a German brand/site and its events, including “the big Porsche stuff.” The hosts are framing the scene as Porsche-centric, which helps listeners understand the audience and culture around the gathering.
They mention “10% studio” as the agency/studio where the event happened. It sounds like a cool, themed space tied to their car work.
Concept
anthology
They call the book an “anthology,” which just means it’s a collection of different pieces in one book. In this case, it’s compiled from the magazine/site.
The BMW 1 Series is a smaller BMW designed to feel sporty and easy to drive. The podcast mentions it because one was set up with a very specific look—how low it sits and how the wheels fit. It’s basically about the car’s appearance and setup.
GoPro makes small cameras that you can mount on a car or helmet. Rally and track drivers use them to record what it feels like to drive.
Brand
ether
In this context, “ether” appears to be the name of an events-running brand or organizer. The hosts connect it to a specific car project and rally involvement.
The Alfa Romeo GTV is a sporty two-door car made by Alfa Romeo. People talk about it because some versions have racing connections. In the podcast, it’s mentioned in the context of a rally-style GTV.
A “shake down” is an initial test session to confirm a car is sorted before a bigger event. It’s used to check systems, driving feel, and any issues that only show up under real load.
Term
shuttering in the panel
They’re describing a vibration or shaking sensation in the car. In this case, it seems to happen as the brakes get hot and the rotor/pads start interacting.
Brake pads are the parts that squeeze the rotor to slow the car down. Brand-new pads can behave a little oddly at first until they wear in and match the rotor surface.
Term
scrubbed them
“Scrubbed them” likely means lightly bedding or cleaning the brake surfaces to remove deposits and restore consistent friction. In track driving, this can reduce vibration/shuddering once the pads and rotor surfaces are re-conditioned.
Wilwood makes upgraded brake parts. They’re using Wilwood rotors, and the key detail is that they’re a two-piece design, which can help the rotor handle heat and be easier to service.
A two-piece rotor is a brake rotor made in two parts instead of one solid piece. That can help with heat and can make it easier to replace just the worn braking surface.
Drone is that constant, humming/boomy sound you hear while driving, often from the exhaust. It can make long drives tiring even if the car isn’t “loud” overall.
The caliper is the part of the brake system that squeezes the brake pads against the spinning brake rotor. When it works well, braking feels smooth and consistent.
Modulation is how smoothly you can control how hard the brakes are working. With good modulation, you can brake lightly or firmly without it feeling jerky.
“Progressive” here means the brakes feel like they build up slowly as you press the pedal. The speaker says they prefer a more even, predictable response.
The gas light comes on when the car thinks you’re running low on fuel. It’s a warning that there may not be much driving range left.
Term
flickering
Flickering lights can mean something electrical isn’t stable. Here it’s happening alongside the fuel warning/gauge situation, suggesting a possible sensor or wiring problem.
It means the car ran extremely low on fuel. When that happens, the engine may start cutting out or won’t restart, which is what they were dealing with here.
The fuel gauge is the dashboard light/number that tells you how much gas is left. If it gets stuck or wrong, you can think you have plenty of fuel when you don’t.
Term
reserve, right?
Reserve is the last safety margin of fuel. It’s the amount you have left when the car is already warning you that you’re low.
They’re trying to move the car by hand because it won’t drive normally. Doing that uphill is much harder than on flat ground.
Term
impact bumper rubber on rubber
They’re describing the bumpers touching in a way that’s cushioned by rubber. It means the cars were pressed together while trying to move the stalled vehicle.
They’re saying the Urus is related to Audi in the sense that both brands are part of the same big automotive group. That can mean they share some engineering ideas or parts.
The Porsche Cayenne is Porsche’s SUV. They’re describing a “turbo EV” version that uses electric help to make it feel faster and more responsive than a normal gas-only SUV.
The Ferrari 400 is an older Ferrari model. The podcast mentions it while listing other rare Ferraris, suggesting it’s part of a special car lineup. It’s brought up because it’s a notable, collectible Ferrari.
The Ferrari Mondial 3.2 Cabriolet is an older Ferrari that you can drive with the top down. It’s a specific convertible version of the Mondial model. The podcast brings it up as part of a list of interesting, rare cars.
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL roadster is a famous classic Mercedes that collectors really chase. The hosts are saying this one looks rough outside, but the important mechanical parts were rebuilt and it even got a new top.
This is a famous old Ferrari called the 275 GTB. It’s a classic “grand touring” car—built to drive long distances with style—and collectors really love it.
Hagerty is a company that focuses on classic and collector cars. They also run events, so if they “acquired” the event, they likely took over planning and organization.
That’s a lot of driving—about a thousand miles over four days. For a rally, it means they have to plan breaks and routes carefully so the cars (and drivers) can handle the schedule.
They’re comparing it to the Monte Carlo rally, which is known for driving on narrow, twisty roads. The point is that the roads are rally-hard, with lots of tight turns and little room for mistakes.
The Chevrolet Monte Carlo is a classic American two-door car. It’s known for a sporty look and feel. In the podcast, it’s described as having a rally-style, tight handling setup.
Topic
Palo Alto
Palo Alto is the starting location for the rally route described in the segment. It’s included because the host is narrating the route and how the driving conditions changed as they moved through different roads.
Topic
Mines road
Mines Road is one of the roads on the rally route. The host is listing the route stops to explain what kind of driving they did.
They’re talking about the BMW M5, a very fast BMW made by BMW’s performance division. The point here is that it feels powerful all the time and sticks to the road without you having to manage it much.
Ceramic brakes are a higher-end brake setup that can handle repeated hard stops without getting as hot and losing stopping power. The tradeoff is they often cost a lot more if you need new rotors.
Air suspension uses air-filled springs instead of metal springs. It can raise or lower the car and change the ride feel depending on the mode you pick.
LIVE
Can you imagine like his I be inside his little white on gray Toyota camera?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Egocidal vehiculum.
There's no doubt.
Corriettes are fast.
But I'm riding dirty right now.
The Kroc GT4.
The one and only.
Hashtag Don Patrol.
Hashtag senior citizen.
All right.
Hearts fired.
Welcome to Driving Well Awesome.
My name's Warren.
My name's Lane.
And my name is Art.
He's here.
Art.
Hello.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Good.
That's great, man.
Good to hear.
What's going down in Santa Barbara these days?
Good weather, good food, and a lot of rally prep.
Good forecast is good food.
I like a lot of rally prep right now.
Yeah.
My car is sitting at Schneider Auto House right now getting power steering
installed.
What could go wrong?
Yeah.
Yeah, dude.
Just like what?
How many days until the rally?
Two weeks.
Two days until the rally, and that means, you know, tested mother, kid tested mother
approved.
You did drive the car on 33 the other day, so that's a good test, but now you're cutting
your open again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is a yeah.
It's a it's a warrant.
It's plug in play.
Okay.
Plug in.
Famous words.
It's kind of never learned, you know, it's from k power industries, right?
Because they all that's all they do.
Plug in play, right?
Just like the little swap.
That's right.
I think you go wrong.
It's a brand new car.
You're putting it into which is good.
Yeah.
The guys who are doing it have done it all the time.
That's all they do.
That's all they do.
They do a swap steering units.
And the parts are never wrong.
Like they're never wrong.
No, they're always the right.
Especially when you get an auto parts power steering pump, like, you know, everybody
knows that those always work and never remanufactured by some random, yeah.
So I actually and yeah, it's, I mean, it is in terms of power steering, it's like a
simple as it gets.
It's like power steering, right?
You have a reservoir.
You have lines that go into the rack that go into an oil cooler and then back into the
reservoir.
Yeah.
But the reason I didn't do it is because I've had issues with bleeding the fucking system,
which has ruined a pump on me once.
So that's why I was like, here, please, like, and also just when am I going to squeeze it
in?
So that said, I was, I did go down the rabbit hole of like, you know, looking at different
power steering pumps.
I wanted an OEM one.
Originally, of course, like $700, right?
Like if you want to let one through the accurate dealership, because it's a TSX or no, it's
an RSX type S power steering pump.
And I went on eBay and I'm like, okay, like, you know, there's a bunch of Honda, you know,
and a bunch of OEM parts on eBay, 90% of them are fake.
Like it was unbelievable, dude.
I like, I started looking at it.
I'm like, why is this one like, you know, $350 versus the 700?
And then I started looking at the labels and I'm like, this, something seems off.
And then some of them were like, pixelated because they have Japanese penises in them.
And so I, um, I went and like did some research and it turns out that when they do that is
like, they don't show the Honda brand because they, they're actually not real.
And then people buy them and sure when you receive it, it says Honda on it.
Um, yeah, just tons of fake shit out there, including fake, um, uh, Denso fake, like tons
of fake stuff.
So I gave up like, you know what, I don't trust any of this shit.
I'm not going to pay 700 bucks.
So I went to Napa and I learned that the Napa new stuff is manufactured by, um, is it
Cardone, uh, so, which is like, you know, pretty decent for these types of stores.
So, um, no other options.
There's no Bosch.
There's no, you know, anything else.
So, uh, I went with that and we'll see how it goes.
Okay.
So the car was working great.
You could have done the rally as is.
Yeah.
But you know, it was, I had, I had already wanted to try to make it a little sketch.
He needs a power building cars from scratch before the rally.
I'm like, let's, I want to get a little skid in the game.
You know, a little, a little excitement, you know, I hear you, I hear you.
That's good.
That's awesome.
I know I didn't even, uh, I was had dreams of fixing this firewall
installation on the car and some other stuff and just said, you know what, we're
going to just rock it as is.
When was the last time you drove your car in anger, Warren?
Angerly, um, Shangri-La.
I don't even remember.
I don't know.
Hard to say.
I mean, yeah, cause it's fine.
You know, the car will just fire right up and you'll just drive it and it'll be
okay.
Right.
I mean, it's just, uh, you know, I'm going to give it some shakedown miles today.
I'll just put it down, check some oil, check some tire pressures, you know,
shake it like a Polaroid picture.
Yeah, that's right, shake it at down and laying.
You got a little run in for your car.
It's a dude.
That's like, it's dirty, man.
I got a nice run.
Yeah, I did, uh, I did highway one to one sixty six and then one thirty and then
thirty three down through Ohio and then did the coast down to Malibu.
It's good Malibu Malibu.
What you're going to do exactly.
Yeah.
I did it all for the most.
Is it Malibu, the most overrated place in the world, maybe Vegas.
I kind of like, I mean, I don't mind.
I kind of like being in Malibu, but you're right.
Like the Malibu coastline is the worst.
It's better now since the fire though, because, uh, because there's no houses.
So you can actually see the ocean now.
I just think from what you're sold in movies and songs and stuff to get there
and you're like, what the hell so we I stayed at a house like right next to
Zuma Beach in the little neighborhood right above Zuma and it's like Point
Doom area and it's like a block.
It's like I stayed like a block away from the beach right there.
Kamala Harris lives right across the street.
And yeah, I said what so I hollered.
I hollered at her portion, Mike, Mike D lives down the street.
Oh dude,
Rick Rubin, all the people, Emilio, I was like Emilio
shangra law, but walk walk to the beach right there at sunset and it was pretty
awesome, like you know to the stairs right there at Point Doom.
It's like it's pretty nice and peaceful there and the house.
I stayed at was like on an acre one block from the beach,
like a 1972 ish house modern. It looked like a it looked like that house.
So it would be up in what's the now I'm drawing a blank.
What's the little community up in Northern California on the beach?
Ranch. It looks like a sea ranch house with like a pool in the backyard and
everything like very pretty nice dude to be like that close to everything and
great driving roads and then why'd you stay up there?
I mean, it wasn't the show you're going to in Orange County.
Yes, it was, but it was awesome to not be in Orange County and to just go to
go to the show. Blanket statement. Yeah, I mean kind of and to to to drive down
there and to be there that to not have to forge through Orange County that
night to stay there and then we actually woke up, you know, barely early and
just drove in the the first I stayed with in their Range Rover to the show the
next morning went to the show. You didn't you didn't put your car in the show.
No, no, yeah, and then came done that in the past. I did it. I did do it once.
You're like hell, no, but I did do it once and it's it's it's not that fun,
right? Because your car is stuck in the show. You know how it is. There's Radwood.
You put me doing stuff all the time, but definitely yeah, and then I did do a
Malibu Canyon, did the whole thing like the old place and Scots and all that the
next day and that's pretty rad. So I could I could see an angle of living in
Malibu and having all that accessible. Like if you do live anywhere, it's like
having those roads right right there and we went to yeah, yeah, and yeah, it's I
mean, so it was there was there's some there's some angles there, dude. Oh yeah,
I think I think living there is one thing, but the just the Hollywood
isation of Malibu is just silly. It's so silly. Yeah, yeah, for sure,
especially being from Santa Cruz or any beach town really that you're just like,
yeah, this is just the beach, the beach townness. There's not really a beach.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's on a highway, right? And then and then it's all brown kind of
and yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's cool. And then I was and then I
wanted to meet up with art. I wanted to meet up with Matt Crook and do this
drive that art did, but we had to get home. So which was on 33 as well.
But yeah, did our air did air water air water was it was I went to we went to
air water. My whole goal is I wanted to put the croc duck stickers on Paul's car.
I want to find Paul's Paul's car, put them under on his windshield or something
and announce that they were there so people could get them got to the got to
the show at 930.
Like we were in a group. It was Chris Baca, Nick Quarta, John Cowell and me.
We're like trying to go trying to go that way. It's like running into people,
right? It's like and it took me two and a half hours to get to Paul's car
without really looking without looking at cars. I was just like
not taking pictures. Yeah, go dude. I took I took. I probably took 20, 25
pictures of the show. It's not. Yeah. It's not like for one. It was like sunny.
It's crowded. It's not actually not very crowded. Oh, I wish it was more crowded
for pictures and so a sunny, not very crowded, big, just big open area, kind
of boring photo opportunities like just not like I just wasn't inspired to
really take photos. So got it. But yeah, I was a saw a bunch of our friends
and stuff. So that was cool. Just seeing everyone. You know, that was kind of
like the show for me. It wasn't really looking at. I didn't really remember
seeing many. You know, I didn't really look at many cars. Right? Yeah, that is
that is like a big part of I mean looked in particular, but a lot of these
bigger events, right? It's just it's a who's who gathering. So like you're
going to see everyone there. So it's an opportunity to mingle. It's better than
a SEMA, right? So yeah, for sure. Yeah, but that's cool. Yeah, you're outside
and kind of hanging with people. Was it the whole? I don't remember what they
do there. Do they take over the entire property? I think it's it. I'm pretty
sure it's yeah. It's basically the entire property, the whole fairgrounds or
even use the they use the dirt circle track art for a display. Sweet. Do they
do anything on the amphitheater side?
Yes, they do. Oh, they put that's where that's where Paul was. And then there
was some there was like three nine, six, two race cars on the amphitheater
stage. Okay, so there was a Layton house car, a shell car and a fat car. And
that was actually that was kind of the coolest. Those are the coolest cars
there, I would say, and then they use the barn and that was probably the coolest
display that was over Crest had some cars there, and then they put like the
off road stuff in the on the circle track area. So it's kind of like the rodeo
kind of you know the yeah overland overland stuff. But yeah, it's just
not it's not the most like I don't know it's it's you know it's a big parking
lot show for the most part. So it's not but it's cool. It's like a bunch and
then they have a big like a
exhibitor area as well. Like so people, you know, like people like companies
like red line and, you know, build, you know, all these companies selling
stuff basically. Yeah, nice showing product basically so kind of like
almost. Yeah, you have vendors and stuff. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But it's cool.
So I went and you mentioned a little bit about me going on 33. I went to this site
magazine and book launch party and it's the same dude who does on asses in
Germany. Oh, yeah, familiar with them. They do the big Porsche stuff. I mean,
they have events and it's a big Porsche centric brand, very artistic. It's kind
of like a Porsche race service in Germany. And so he's in the dude runs an agency
and I guess he's been partnered up with Matt Kirk formally of 1552 now with
Petrolicious and he also has his own agency. I think it's called 10% right?
Yeah, 10% studio. And so this is it was kind of a hybrid, you know, mostly
focused on doing this book release, which is like it was an anthology of like the
magazine of the site magazine. But the reason I say it was like a multi-pronged
thing is that this is the first time that like 10% studio had an event at their studio,
which is like Matt Kirk's like agency. And it's a really cool space. It's like
an old service station with like, you know, the two garage doors with the glass,
like, you know, they're like the grid style, you know, glass that you would see on old
service stations. And it's got like this big outdoor area on the back with like,
you know, just like with gravel and he had a taco bar set up and he's got a bunch of
his old projects back there. You're like Mark Winsoroco is back there, you know,
a couple of golfs and he had his super rad rally golf, which was inside.
You know, it's all stanced out like his style, but it was so cool. It had, I love the Hela,
like, you know, headlight covers, like super like Euro race car style. And, you know,
they had like a cool set up inside, you know, some speed line wheels on display and like,
the office is pretty cool too. They had like a like an area that's like super artistic,
as you'd expect, right? With a lot of like, you know, trinkets and knickknacks on the walls.
But yeah, it's a cool spot right in the middle of like Ohi, like just downtown there off of
a little side street, which is, you know, just a hop skip and a jump from 33, which is like one
of the best roads in the world. And so the idea was, you know, we'd all meet up first,
go for a rip up the mountain back down and then do, you know, tacos and then the launch party.
And so a bunch of people were out there from air water who came out to this thing and
was it former works? They do like the keys. I think they activated at Lyft. So I met with him.
He actually wants to talk Radwood. He was a really nice guy. The marketing guy who was there
has a super nice 9971 Carrera S that's like perfectly stanced on E88s with like just the
right amount of meat and like just the right, like just the perfect offset. And there was,
it was a good mix of cars, you know, you know, several GT4s, multiple GT4s. And then Matt had his
spider RS. So it was fun because I showed up in my E30. I was the only BMW there until the
motorcycle showed up. There was that Dakar, you know, off-road, whatever that's called that
motorcycle. That's pretty iconic. You know, I forget what the model is. It's an airhead kind
of thing. And so I roll up and I'm just, you know, it's kind of like bringing a knife to a gunfight
with a lot of these cars, but like, you know, those roads, they're, they're, they're,
it doesn't matter. So I was like ripping with like, you know, with Matt Crook and a spider RS
and, you know, Derek Powell from everything, you know, he's, he's done top gear work and produced
for a bunch of different things and written for everybody. And so I had like, it's one of those,
one of those things where we were just talking about how in the industry, we've all been like
in the same room with a ton of people multiple times, but you just never interact. And like,
and I finally ended up talking to him. And then somehow GoPro came up and he's like,
he's like, oh, I am a friend, Tim Bucklin. And I'm like, yeah, he's like one of my best friends.
And he's like, what the hell? And so, and it turns out they're super close. Like,
because they do, they track a ton together. And yeah, so just like started like mingling. And
like the more I talk to people, like the more I realized, like we've like been like adjacent to
each other a bunch of times, like this girl who runs the events for ether, remember the ether
brand that made that that Cheyenne helped with with that alpha GTV six that they made
like a rally six. Yeah. And we had them. I think, you know, I had interviewed the twins who are
now doing, you know, oil stain lab work because they built the car. Yeah, they came to our second
Radwood ever. Yeah. And then they, and then they ruined the car, race service the next week,
jumping at alpha thing. Alpha thing. Yeah. So it's just, yeah, such a small world. So it was
a lot of interesting people there, a bunch of people from Europe too. But yeah, so it was a
good time. And then you had drove up 33, which was fantastic. Cause I mean, speaking of shakes down
shake down miles, you know, good road, good, basically the type of stuff we're going to be
doing. And then also, you know, driving with a faster group. So I was able to push the car a
little bit. Yeah, it felt good. I got a little bit of shuttering in the panel. I think it's
because of the new pads. They started like the leave deposits once the pads got hot. So once I
scrubbed them a little more, they were fine, but it was the steering wheel was getting kind of shaky
there towards the end, which was super annoying. And I was like, fuck, I mean, like temperature wise,
they felt fine. Like, you know, I didn't get any, like the pedal wasn't going. What kind of rotors,
what rotors did you put on? It has the Wilwood rotors. They're like a two piece rotor. Oh, okay.
Yeah, they're big and they're really thick. They're like, I didn't warp them. Like, and, you know,
once, once like I, I was coming down the mountain and like, just sort of like not getting
hard on the, on the, on the pedal, but just like sort of scrubbing it, just like, you know,
giving it like solid hard taps, but not like fully on the brakes. It went away. So I feel
like it just was leaving deposits and it was like shuttering, you know? So that was annoying, but
like, I'm hoping that doesn't happen again on the rally. I, I, you know, I've been driving the car
for the last, you know, day and a half now and I didn't experience it again. But otherwise,
everything was cool. No issues with temperature, no leaks, no rattles. I had, I think I had mentioned,
I don't know if I told both of you guys, but I think I told Lane, I put like the biggest muffler
on the car that you can fit in there. So yeah. And from the last time, you know, verdict what,
so it's good. I mean, I'm happy with it. It's basically, you know, this is as good as this
setup is going to get. It's the, the muffler body itself is five inches longer than the,
the one that was on there before. And it is a, it is more of an OEM style instead of like the
straight through that was in there with like, you know, with, although the one that was in there
was kind of turbo, which does have a bend inside, but and yeah, it's much quieter. It's like zero
drone and it's not farty how it was before. So, you know, it sounds like a Honda, but it's like
not, it doesn't sound shitty. And so I'm fine with it for now. It doesn't look very cool because
it's gigantic in there, but whatever it's a good compromise and it's a stainless steel one that
I found. And I tried to find basically an OEM muffler that was three inches in and out because
I wanted like an OEM level, like of, of, of muffling, right? Like I didn't care too much about
losing some power and this particular muffler is an OEM replacement Walker quiet flow stainless
steel for Ford F 350. So because they use three inch, you know, piping stock, right? Because
there it's a, you know, it's a beefy ass motor. So that's why it's a gigantic fucking can, you know,
but it totally works. I mean, I'm happy with it and nice and that's, that was the last of it. So
there's that. And then I am, yeah, as I mentioned before with the brakes, I did new pads, zero
squeaks. You I want you guys to drive it zero screens. No, I believe you if you're saying zero,
zero means zero zero. I actually made a video, but I didn't care to share it because it was annoying
like the first moment I drove it out of the garage and like here's the video like because I
used like high temp ceramic grease on all the contact points and I showed a video of the
caliper. I'm like, this is what I use here. I'm driving the car out zero squeaks and still zero
schools even after the hard driving. So nice. So I'm very happy with that. Very dusty, of course,
as you know, aggressive pads are, but I'm very happy with the best, best wheels for dusty brakes.
Well, it's good to clean those things. So easy. Yeah. I also, I don't know if I ever mentioned
that they're ceramic coated. So I literally just pressure wash them off. I don't even have to
spray with anything, but nice. Nice. Yeah. So all good there. I'm very happy with the brake
feel now. It's a have a Hawk DTC 30 up front, Hawk HP plus in the back and like it's just
they're very I want a good strong initial bite. So you have that and then the modulation is
really nice where you can actually it doesn't like it's not like it's very progressive. You know,
you can it's all on you and how much pedal pressure you put. Sometimes they're super
grabby initially, then they go dull. Like these are pretty linear all the way through,
which I'm pretty happy about. So yeah, I'm stoked. And then my power steering is going
to be super dialed. No issues at all. So zero issues. What could go wrong? I love it.
Ray roll issues, dude. Oh, I forgot I had one. We had one little hiccup on the way down to down
south. So we were when we left Santa Cruz. So I was in my 87 career and Nick and Chris
were in Chris glass glass kowskies 74 career or 74 9 11. They borrowed it. And then a couple other
we're with another crew of two people in 997 and 996. But we're driving down and we get to
we get to Carmel and Nick calls me and he's like, Hey, we need to stop and get gas. And I'm like,
Okay. And he said it's reading full, but the gas lights on. Okay. Okay. So we go to that last,
you know, the Chevron and Carmel and he fills up where he puts the gas in and it takes like
three and a half gallons and clicks off. And so the light goes off. And it's still showing full.
And we take off. And I guess the lights kind of flickering at some point during that drive.
I mean, we're doing pretty well going pretty good. By the way, that rhythm section before
ragged point is so good, dude. That is like that. That's like better than 33, dude. That
section is so sick, dude, especially if you can hit it without any traffic. We hit it early
morning and it was it was beautiful. Yeah. And so we're, you know, we drive all the way down. We
stop at this elephant seals do the whole thing and we're driving down and we get
almost tomorrow. Bay and Nick calls and goes, dude, the cart is stalled when we're at the
light and I think I'm out of gas. Like he's like, I, I, you know, click likes, you know,
snap the, like hit the thing and it dropped all the way to the bottom.
Oh, so the gate was stuck. The gate. So the gate has a stuck gauge.
Yeah. So the gauge is a whole tank of gas. So he base. No, it just did a click off thing.
So he was running. He did the whole drive on basically three and a half gallons plus
whatever was the reserve, right? Which is so about five gallons, which is about, you know,
so I'm like, okay, well more obeys and a mile, two miles up the road.
Let's see if we can make it. We pull off, you know, it's a, and it's a downhill and I can't
tell if the car is running or not. He's right in front of me. Get to the bottom. He's like,
out the window, like no dead and they're trying to push it and it's like a, it's an uphill and
they can't, they can, they basically can't budge the car. So I 80s impact bumper rubber on rubber.
Nice. I push, I push them through the intersection. 911 on 911, dude. And
yeah, it was pretty awesome. So there was a, there was a video. I think Chris shared it.
Baca shared it, you know, the story and so I pushed them across the intersection and almost,
you know, almost to the gas station and then they pushed it the rest of the way. And then I got,
I drove to the gas station, got out and help them push it into the gas station. But yeah, it was a,
it was a, you know, a little bit of that full, but kind of made the made the trip a little more
car shit. Yeah, a little more of a story, right? I had the same thing happen with this on the
California melee, which I guess I could get into. Yeah, let's go. Let's go. Um, all right. So
California melee, I was, uh, what did you drive chase vehicle? I drove a 2026 Lamborghini Urus
S E. Now you're probably all familiar with Lamborghini Urus. It's basically a sibling of the Audi.
What is it? S Q8? I believe so. Oh, eight. Oh, I thought it was a five. I didn't realize it was
that. No, no, it's an eight. S Q8 and a Cayenne turbo EV. So this is a hybrid folks. This is now
a hybrid and in all their infinite wisdom, they've decided to make this electric assisted
performance SUV and, um, that part of it I absolutely hated. Oh, words. So were they
they weren't always the one? I drove wasn't a hybrid, right? No, this is new. Oh, okay. They're
trying to, they're trying to do the like, Hey, this is what F one cars are doing. They're using
electric power to give you, you know, instant torque off the line and I appreciate that in some
ways, but you don't need it, dude. They're so fast and it's constantly going in and out of
hybrid mode. So anyways, I'll start from the beginning, but, um, that was our, that was my car
and, um, I'm curious to hear your take on it as well, but California melee, uh, for those that
don't know is been around about 30 years and it's a tribute to the melee, Amelia, uh, which stopped
in 1958 because it was so unsafe and crazy. Um, and then 30 years ago, these guys up in
the San Francisco area decided to do sort of a tribute to it and cars have to be, uh, 1958 or
older. And in the old days, it seemed like it was mainly Alfa Romeo's, right? Like old Alphas,
three 56s, some Jaguars, you know, pretty reasonable classic cars. You get your outliers for sure,
but then as it went on, you get a lot more heavy hidden stuff. So at this year, uh, the standouts
for like, I don't know, a dozen 300 SLs and all different configurations, uh, eight C, uh, 2300
Monza Alpha 400 Mondial Ferrari, uh, TDF Ferrari, um, a bunch of cool stuff. A couple of guys in
Corvettes, which I thought was cool, like 57 Corvette, two, two of those, a lot of Jags, uh, XK 140s,
um, 356s, even some Emory Outlaws and stuff, which is kind of funny. They do have some wiggle
room. They'll even allow like, it's kind of like the Radwood rules where it's like, if it was made
in 57, but they had the same body style till 61, you could like get away with it barely.
There was a big American like Coop too.
Yeah. So that was a, that was an icon built, um, uh, Ford Coop, um, with all the patina.
So that's car, that car I've seen around, um, it's got like alligator interior and it's,
you know, Jonathan Ward special for sure. And then, uh, so the McNeils who own Weathertech and
have a crazy car collection, including a 250 GTO came on this event with three cars. One was the
icon car, um, that cool Coop automatic. The other was a Bentley, uh, Continental R type,
which was, you know, the fastest saloon or sedan type car for a while back in the fifties,
all black. And then he brought a 300 SL roadster, which had been purchased at that junkyard sale
back a year or whatever ago. And, um, it's totally rough, completely untouched, external,
but had a full mechanical restoration every single part, uh, underneath, including a new
top. And like, I think he replaced the seat pad for the driver as like a, it's actually
removable. So the, they could put it in and out with the original if they want. Um, but other
than that, it's like looks as, as it was in the junkyard, which is super cool. And they were
just switching between the three cars. He brought his daughter and his son and then they had their
partners or friends. And so they were like bouncing around. They also had their golden
retriever, Luso with them. And they were just like on a family vacation. Oh, yeah. And they
would go, they wouldn't even like go to the lunches. They'd like stop at the lunch spot and
then like drive off and go do their own thing. It was like, yeah, all right, you guys can do,
do your thing. Um, the SL was awesome. It just had so much presence and super cool to see. There
there. Uh, this is the couple that brought the Luso, uh, the, the new Luso on our driving
awesome rally in the mud and Paul at auto kennel, uh, took a test drive and blew out their tire,
which we talked about that story, but they have a 300 SL roadster. It is a beautiful blue with a
silver hardtop and the whole thing is just perfect. It's like a beautiful car and Jay,
who was driving absolutely flying really like almost keeping up with me in the Lamborghini
on Carmo Valley road. Wow. He, it was hustling and he had another 300 SL with him that was trying
to keep up. And, uh, once he passed, what color was that car? J J and gingers. Yeah. It's blue.
It's like a, um, like kind of like a sky blue with a little bit of like grayish in it and
then a silver hardtop and it's a really, really nice car. Speaking of which, those guys are living
the dream, which isn't too surprising, but the reason they're not coming on our rally, which
they really wanted to this weekend is that last year at the broad arrow auction in Belgium,
they purchased the cover car, which was a green on, uh, like tangerine almost brown leather
275 GTB and they're going on the Ferrari 275 rally in Italy, which sounds insane.
And then they're going to spend time like all around the back roads. And I think they're doing
a Fiorano like test day and like all every 275 around is going to be there. And so that's where
they're headed straight from the Calomile to go to that rally. So anyways, had a good, uh,
couple chats with those guys and ginger's amazing. They were always the last to arrive at every meal.
They would stay the longest and then like catch up to everybody at the end. So
as a chase vehicle, I was always kind of around them and they were doing their thing. So
that was cool. But anyways, so this event was, uh, acquired by Hagerty, I don't know, art five years
ago, something like that. Yeah, sounds right. And, um, so since then they've kept the, uh,
you know, the ethos of it alive, but they've definitely taken it up a notch. So
better, you know, nice lodging, good meals, these, you know, extra stops along the way and stuff.
But the, uh, the roads, um, are pretty much driving while awesome roads, which isn't super
shocking considering where we're, where we're going, uh, all through like basically Bay Area,
Santa Cruz, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, and there's only so many roads to connect all those.
They try to keep to about a thousand miles in four days, which is a lot. And the driving,
like for driving while awesome, we try to like maximize the hang. Like we're after lunch, you
know, you don't want to drive like four hours and get there at dark. Like you want to be able to
cruise in and have, you know, time to chill and stuff. This is more extreme, which is surprising
because the clientele is obviously older, driving very expensive cars, um, and maybe not as
experienced with it. So I'll give him props for that, but, um, it was a lot of driving. And I
talked to a mechanic who for this year, the featured mark was, uh, Karatsaria Zagato. And so
they had a bunch of Zagato alphas. Um, there was supposed to be an Aston Martin Zagato DB4.
I think it got swapped at the last minute, but anyways, Zagato was the featured mark. And so
there were some really cool alphas and there was a guy that just specialized in them as a mechanic.
And so part of this event has mechanics traveling along behind it, which is really cool. Um, and
so this guy's just a pro and he knows these cars inside and out, restored them, maintains them,
delivers them for the owners, all that stuff. He does the real, um, like the Targa Florio in Italy
and the Miele in Italy. And he tells everybody there in Europe, he's like, if you want to get
your car ready for this, go to the California Miele because this is a much harder event. So
it's like extreme and dude, like based on the roads, it's crazy. Like we're talking about people in,
you know, uh, uh, like thirties, uh, Alfa Romeo or like a fifties Siada, open top little tiny
Italian car doing Nostume Anto Ferguson after lunch. Like that's, uh, and for those that don't
know, that's like the most extreme road like around. Um, it's no joke. And just from like a safety
standpoint, it's crazy. It's rough. It's gnarly. Yeah. So for those who are not aware, it's like
basically like Monte Carlo rally style where it's like a super, super tight twisty road. And you
have for, I'd say about half of it, just sheer cliffs that you're probably, what is it like
thousand foot drop? Yeah. Um, honestly, yeah. And like no trees to stop you if you were to like
get loose on that or lose your brakes. Like it's, it's intense. So, you know, props to the
organizers. We were consulted very little on some of the roads, some of the stops and stuff.
And that's okay, but definitely surreal for me being in the chase vehicle on all these roads
that we know and are actually going to run a lot of them this weekend. So sort of a built in chase,
uh, wrecky as you will. But, uh, so we started in, uh, four seasons in Palo Alto, which is a
terrible place to start a rally. And then it proceeded over, uh, Mines road up to Hamilton
and then back down around and into Santa Cruz. But, um, I haven't done mines in a long time
and I had a completely free, clear sunny stretch in the Lamborghini. So it was like my first sort
of like, all right, let's see what this thing can do. And it's an absolute beast. The thing is
it's just like all the cars that we've driven, like the new BMWs, the new AMGs and stuff where
you just like put your foot in it and it just like shifts on it like millisecond. It has all
the power all the time. You never have to think about it. It's like that M five we had. It's just
like super capable. It doesn't really ever lose grip. It has great brakes, ceramic brakes, air
suspension, um, all the different modes, right? So it's super capable, but it's the UX and all
the gadgetry is absurd. It's completely absurd. And it's so frustrating. The first day I'm like,
I fucking hate this car. Like, dude, the only way you can engage drive is by the paddles.
There is no drive in the center console. So there's a park button that's impossible to touch,
especially if you have a drink in the cup holder and there's a manual button on the other side
of this stupid thing. And there's a the start button with a little, you know, the flip thing is so
dumb thing is so dumb for us. And then this one, imagine a mom driving that thing. Exactly. And
then it's got this like big lever to go through all the different sport modes. So you got strata
and it's all in Italian, by the way. None of it has any meaning to if you don't know Italian
nieve or snow, huh? Well, snow, right? But so you have to ratchet through these different
profiles. You can do in the touchscreen as well, but that's not any better. But you ratchet through
them all and you have to cycle through them to get back to the first one. It's not like a lever.
It's just a and then the other side is a lever for your hybrid modes. So you've got
six or whatever different shift pattern and sport modes and you have three hybrid modes.
So between that, it's like, I don't even know what's going on. So I'm just in sport most of the
time, which disengages traction control immediately, makes it bark and crackle the whole time. So
that's super fun, right? That's what you're looking for. And but other than that, it's pretty
amazing. It's a very, very capable car. There was four choices. There was two lime green, one
tangerine and a dark purple. The tangerine was spoken for and the dark purple had the most meat
on slightly smaller wheels, which I come to find out later from our buddy, Angry Bird GTI, who's a
Lamborghini technician out in Arizona. The wheels are like special forged by the same people that
make them for the Mercia logo. This, when you get that package, it comes with all seasons,
P zero all seasons and a skid plate. So it's like their rally spec, nice, which is, which is
interesting. I had no idea, but I was just picking it based on the roads I knew we were doing.
It was also going to rain and I'm like, I'm fine with this, this setup and also the lime green
cars had one had lime green interior. Oh, and we're going into these little towns and like,
you know, stops and stuff like through these neighborhoods. I'm just like, I don't want to
be, it's already bad enough. This thing like is so loud. It's like a chainsaw. But so anyways,
that was, that was kind of the introduction to the Lamborghini. At first, I'm like,
I do not like this car. By the end of it, I'm like, I know how to use most of it. Most of the
stuff. I know how capable it is. And I have a question for you two, which is if you were to
do this, you're chasing these cars and you're going down the rally, it has to be a four door
because you're going to potentially pick up anyone who's broken down and take them to the next stop.
And it's got to carry some luggage, right? Like my luggage was in it plus whatever else I might
pick up along the way. What is the best rally support vehicle? And I'm saying any generation,
even if you were to say like, I want to, I want to Mitsubishi.
Quick question before we get into that. You mentioned sidewall, you mentioned air suspension,
lots of modes. And then we're talking about roads that are not all perfect, right? How did it ride?
It rode very well. However, it is a sports SUV and all the way down to the seats, right? The
seats are pretty stiff and rigid. They're not a Mercedes supple, comfortable seat. No Volvo seats,
which I would love. And the seats are very supportive and great for those roads that
you want it to be, but pretty stiff. Otherwise, they do have the heated cooling and massaging.
So you have that. And I did dabble with the massaging quite a bit. But at the end of the day,
it is a sports, you know, car, so to speak. So also a couple stats here for you, according to
car and driver. Lamborghini said about three and a half seconds, zero to 60 car and driver got 2.9.
The thing weighs over 5,600 pounds. 2.9062, right? So I think it's a eight speed,
but that's 789 horsepower, 700 pound feet of torque. And it gets 30 miles on EV only.
So we can get back to the best rally support vehicle that you can imagine. But one thing that
this car does, and a lot of these new hybrids do, I mean, even Priuses and stuff, is that
the hybrid, I think, is like kind of bullshit, right? If you're going to go for it on a Lamborghini,
like what are we doing here? However, the one thing I can think of that's nice is this quiet
neighborhood mode. You want to leave in the morning and you want to get out of the garage and drive
down the street and not have this fucking barking motor and crackling exhaust every day. That's
kind of nice. I get that. The power delivery and all that stuff, sure. I guess there's a place for
that. But my issue with it is in the regular strata mode, which is like the street mode,
it's hybrid. And you don't have any indication on when the engine's going to kick on. So imagine
you're leaving the house, it's cold, right? It's 30 degrees and you're driving, driving,
driving. It's all electric. And then you have to accelerate to get on the highway. Boom.
Ice cold. Instantly, you're ripping through the rev range. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, no warm
up, huh? What is that? Yeah. Is it circulating coolant and getting it warm? Is the oil, does
the oil have a heater? I don't know. I have no idea. I cannot be good. Even if it does,
it's not circulating oil through the motor. No, I didn't think about that.
So immediately you're going like, like this happened to me. I was in
Paso Robles. I got gas. It was all electric. I got gas. I went back and I had to merge onto
highway 46 and I went, boom. And I realized I'm like, this engine is ice cold. I've driven
six miles or whatever, but it has not fired up once. That cannot be good. I don't know.
Turbos, oil, like all of it. Like what is that? What's the deal? What's the deal, dude?
The choice thing is hard. Yeah, my mind immediately goes to Mercedes AMG wagon,
but I think that's where I went. I think that's fine. You have enough ground clearance. You can
also, you don't have to get the skinniest tires. You can get some sidewall and they're super agile.
They're small enough. So I have smaller. Yeah, smaller. And you have plenty of luggage space.
So I feel like that's a good option. Only thing here is if you're dealing with old people,
ingress, egress, obviously SUVs are a little easier, but not absolutely essential.
Yeah, pretty rare on that front too. If they are getting in, it's not getting in and out a lot.
Yeah. My mind went to an Alpina wagon or an AMG wagon as a better option. Just a little bit more
agile, sporty, and can do it all right. And not as obnoxious, right? Just as you're describing.
Exactly. Exactly. Like a silver AMG, even if it wasn't AMG 63S or whatever, just a nice sport wagon.
Anything like that or an RS6 or something. Yeah, RS6. Yeah, that's probably the equivalent
station wagon. So the event was very cool because they also will allow for certain
cars to be featured. In this case, it was the new Gordon Murray T50, which by roundabout way,
Bruce Kanepa was on the rally with his friend Bruce Myers, and that was really funny. Kanepa
driving Bruce Myers, who was like 80 years old, sitting in the back and Kanepa's girlfriend or
partner or friend, whatever, on the other side. So three of them, T50 the whole way, Bruce Myers
in a cowboy hat, and I go, how was it in there? Because I've talked to them a lot now. We've
seen each other at Radwood and Laguna Seca and Peterson, all sorts of stuff. And I was just
asking him, how's it going in there? Day one, he's like, it's not that bad. Once you're in
there, it's pretty good, but fucking a Bruce has one speed. It's all out. He is just ripping it.
So I just was laughing at that three, three deep. Some of them had two. I think one of them,
one of them had one. The gold car was a nice, super nice, normal dude. I mean, as normal as
he could be. I asked him where he lived, San Francisco, but and he asked me and I said,
Oh, I'm in Santa Cruz. He said, Oh, I have a house on West Cliff. Oh, awesome.
I'll tell you offline, but he's around and he's very much like, Hey, dude, life is short. Like,
I'm doing it, like getting this car and ripping it and having fun and it's like, awesome. So he's,
we might see that car around maybe, maybe even at a morning motor. So I was talking to him about
that. So that would be cool. And these guys are all basically driving the cars for the first time.
They are extreme cars. They have a very difficult off the line clutch. They have to
feather and give it quite a bit of revs. I saw them stall multiple times
and getting the view. So like passing and stuff, even in pretty easy roads, like seeing around
cars, we're talking about kind of like the JDM scenarios here where you're on the middle of
the car, but to see around you'd like really get out there. So yeah, some interesting like
learning curves. They were talking about it being a little quirky with certain things like the
alarm system was kind of acting weird and some other things, but Gordon Murray and through like
Canapa provided two technicians from England, or at least one of them was from England,
to basically just make sure the cars were all dialed.
Yeah. Any stuff along the way that there was an issue, they would explain things, they would,
you know, help them, you know, point out stuff, check fluids, all that, just making sure the
cars are good because obviously this is sort of their coming out party and they don't want it to
fall on its face. So it was pretty funny. We did, like I said, Nostomanto Ferguson road,
so up highway one from Ragged Point was lunch, head up highway one, turn up onto the fun twisty
road. And there's this truck just parked like kind of in the road like waiting. And I didn't
recognize the truck at all, but it had a jack in the back in the bed of it. And I'm like,
well, he must be with us, but he doesn't have all the decals we're just supposed to have and
whatever. Maybe it's just a rancher. So it starts going and he starts to try to like pull away from
me. He's in a full size Silverado and I'm in a Lamborghini Urus and I know the road a little
bit. And so he's not getting anywhere, but he's like, you know, sliding, spinning a wheel around
turns, he's shifting and stuff. And finally he pulls over, I'm like, Jesus Christ, man. And I
pull up next to him just to kind of like and stop and look. And it's the kid from England,
the Gordon Murray tech. Nice. He's like, I tried to, I tried to keep up, you know,
sorry to hold you back. And then he tried to follow me and I was just like instantly gone,
you know, and then later we talked about it the next day. I'm like, that was even the truck,
right? He's like, Oh man, I thought I could hang with the Lamborghini, but no chance.
That's awesome. Dude. So I'm not happening. You guys will appreciate this. So on the way over to
this book launch, I took highway 150, which is a really fun road between Santa Barbara and Ohio.
And I got a clear run by myself, super rad just cruising. And then I came up on a Dodge Ram
truck, local, you know, like a local farmer or something. And he was stuck behind a Toyota,
like a new Toyota Corolla. And there's no passing zone for like until you get to the lake,
which is another, you know, three, four miles. And immediately as soon as I came up on him,
he double yellows this curl. And I'm like, I'm not going to do that. You know, I'm in this car,
you know, if they, if the fucking crew has to call a cop stall me. So I waited and I'm like,
all right, as soon as I get a chance to pass this guy, I'm going to like haul ass and catch up to
this guy. And so I catch up to him. And then of course he does the same thing. He's like,
I'm going to show this E 30, but like, and it's a local guy. And I'm like, you know what,
realistically, I'm like, this is actually quick enough. Like I don't need to go faster than this.
And it's entertaining because the guy is actually driving well. And you can tell he knows the road,
but like once before, right before we got into Oh, I turned into like one of those almond orchards
or something, you know, but like it was fun because I, and we've experienced this a ton as we go on
these rallies, like you go on these little farm roads, like, and these dudes know their road
really well. And they're in these huge trucks that are super wide and have quite a bit of traction
with a ton of torque. So it's pretty fun to like cruise. Is that a reason? Yeah. No reason to push
them. And you're like, yeah, this is fine. Just keep going like UPS drivers and stuff. Oh yeah.
Yeah. So, so I was a support vehicle. Our job is to basically chase the pack. If someone breaks
down, we help them out, you know, and can give them a ride or whatever. And it was pretty awesome,
though, with the support. So they have a crew that have been doing this for a number of years that
work at different shops. I think one's out of Arizona, one's in the Bay Area,
two flatbed tow truck drivers, and then the Alpha guy that was kind of supporting those cars,
the Gordon Murray guys and Mercedes sent their classic center sprinter van, which is super rad.
The guy was awesome. This guy Nate, he had a little long hair doxend with him named Otto,
and they would pull up and help any Mercedes that had an issue 300 SL. And he had all the tricks,
all the tips, all the tools, every spare, I mean, ready to go. That's awesome. Fuel pumps.
Yeah. I mean, anything you need, like he's super dialed and he could pretty quickly say like,
I can fix this really quick or get on a tow truck. We'll figure it out later. So on the last day,
was this last day? Second last day, we, we did some of the Paso Robles winery stuff, wine roads.
And I come upon a black 300 SL with Rudge knockoffs and two dudes, nice guys from Canada,
and they're kind of looking at it. And it would fire up and start and run and run well.
And like you could rev it and it was all good. And then we just turn off like a switch,
like after a minute or 30 seconds. So that's so weird. So we're kind of like tinkering with
a little bit looking. And my other colleague Evan pulls up in the other Lamborghini. So it's the SL,
two Lamborghinis. And then Nate in the Mercedes sprinter shows up. And so he's looking at it.
And then the flatbed tow truck. And so for this one little issue, we have two Lamborghini Uruses,
a full Mercedes classic center support van and a flatbed. Like that is a next level of support.
That's why these things cost a lot of money, but it turns out to be a resistor that is related
to the ignition. It's overheating. And once it gets too hot, it's dying. We even, it even fooled
us though, we let it run for a while and they were revving it up and he's like, yeah, let's see
if we can make it. And they drive it, pull out onto the road and it immediately dies with the push
back into this turnout. So this is, this is the type of thing that you get on these rallies.
They decide to put it on the flatbed and then Nate's going to fix it. And then they deliver
the car to them at lunch. So I took them in the Lamborghini and we took just kind of a straight
road till ragged point. We didn't do the whole route. And then when they got to ragged point,
the car was being unloaded, repaired, and they got to jump in it and continue on the rally.
So yeah, it's a, it's kind of a next level event. I mean, that's pretty sweet. I mean,
it just sounds like the beeline boys coming on DWA rally, right? They just,
I was going to say like a beat up old Volvo and like, and they have their snap on tools in a bag
and yeah, they need, they need a flatbed and a yeah, like a wagon or something.
You know how much it costs? Last year, I think it was about 17,000 including hotels
and meals and gifts and all this stuff. Like it's almost like
I was telling art the other day. I'm like, almost feels like a deal because well, first of all,
when you consider the clientele that's coming and I'll have one more story related to that.
Everyone's very wealthy, as you can imagine, a lot of car collection and people who run their
collections and deliver cars and all that stuff. But one of the dudes, a very nice guy,
brought a Porsche RSK and they were ripping, ripping around with his wife or I think it's
his wife. And the first day we had the afternoon and then the next morning was pretty terrible
weather. Unfortunately, when we came to the Santa Cruz, it was very, very gloomy and rainy and horrible.
And so you can imagine an RSK is like a pretty extreme choice for these things. You're wearing
like a helmet, goggles and all that stuff. And so during the rally, Broad Arrow was auctioning off
a T50. So this is the first time that one's been offered for sale and it's a red car
and it traveled along by carrier to each stop and they would unload it and have it displayed
and all that stuff. So anyways, in Paso Robles, they were going to do a live auction plus like
online bidders. And this guy with the RSK bought the car for eight million dollars
and drove at the rest of the rally because the RSK was just a little too cold for his wife.
So he bought his wife a car. He bought his wife a car. He was super stoked, all smiles,
nice, super nice guy. He was probably around 50 years old. And he was at that time was going
to be taking it over to Ragged Point and up Nascimento Ferguson Road. Day one.
Oh, right, dude. And like we said, like Nascimento Ferguson is, as Warren says,
double black diamond, gnarly. It's gnarly. And you're just learning the car in general,
like how it shifts and how it grips and it's a very extreme car. I don't even know if it has
traction control, to be honest. But at the same time, it is a slower road. So that's at least
it's helpful in that sense. It is a slower road. Yeah, but you have so much roads leading up to
that. And then after and yeah. And so I was just, he was very stoked. I said, I was like,
dude, congrats, like this is awesome. And he was getting the full like delivery presentation by
the technicians and they were showing them all the stuff, how to work everything and open the
panels and stuff. Yeah, it was a trip. Couldn't have been happier. Super nice guy. And then when
we got to Santa Barbara at the Ritz, he had his beautiful like ice blue Cadillac Celesteak delivered
to then continue on his way. And his sports cars should be loaded up and disappear. And so
I've only seen two of those cars in person. They're super imposing and awesome. And what a choice.
It's almost a car you forget about. You're like, Oh yeah, those do exist.
So that's the Cadillac Rolls Royce competitor. But California Mealy was awesome. It was a lot of
work. The team, our events team at Hagerty put a ton of effort into it. It's like four weddings.
And no funerals. No funerals this time. Strudel moments, little stops and gifts and finish lines
and yeah, lunches and dinners and breakfasts and man. A lot of Porsche moments.
A lot of Porsche moments. And the only bummer is that as a chase vehicle, I'm in the car a lot.
I'm not getting a lot of like, Oh, I'll stop here for a while and watch the cars go by.
That's not really happening because I'm in the back, you know, and I'm having to
like catch up a lot. I had a couple really clean runs like the Mines Road run was very clean 198
and then Nassim Anto Ferguson and that whole zone. So definitely got to explore the studio space,
as they say, had a lot of good chats and convos with people and yeah, it was a good time. So
after that, I jumped in a Sprinter van and hitched a ride with some Hagerty folks up to Monterey
and then took an Uber back home and made it in time for my son's baseball game. So that was it.
Yeah. And nice also to be able to see the roads that we're going to run some of them
next this coming weekend. So gosh, when this comes out, we'll be heading down on day zero.
It's good times. Yeah. Good times. I got some trivia if you want it.
I'm down. I was able to see a couple of the cars leaving the hotel that morning.
Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. I know you were texting me like right as they were like,
dude, I was like, I dropped my daughter off and I was like, I was just hoping, you know,
so I scrambled over there and was able to catch some of them.
Let's see. A lot of, a lot of, a lot of 356s and a lot of 300s though. Yeah. It's the majority.
I'd say probably 70%. Right. They make some 70% cars. Yeah. I know what they're,
the joke is like, if you let them all in, it would just be a 356 rally. Yeah. They're the
most capable rally is right. It's like, it's all substitute.
366s with 911s. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. It's like, you almost want it. Yeah. I mean,
I don't know how to encourage people to bring old ass cars, but this, there was a Japanese
contingent, which had the eight C alpha and they had a 300 SL Roadster and some other stuff, but
they kind of stuck together. And the dude in the eight C then his wife, they had like the
rad old school visor helmets with the intercoms and like the, you know, the killer driving gloves
and just like definitely living it. And like I said, dude, these are extreme roads and that
is in a very extreme car. I mean, it's, that's as crazy as it gets. And it's a Formula One car,
pre-war Formula One car that is, was the fastest car in the world for a minute and
is still super, super, uh, gnarls. That's cool. So they're out there, man. They're doing it.
But to encourage those cars to come, like, I don't know what you'd have to do to like say,
you know, how to, how to make it more like 50, 50 pre-war and then post-war. Well, it's also like
95%. Oh, I mean, they're, it's pretty extreme, dude. It's more extreme than our rally.
It's a lot of miles and it's not always good roads. I mean, no, no shade on the, the route
planners, but they have to connect these places and there's a lot of transit sections way more
transit than ours. Like they're driving like they're driving from Santa Cruz to the places. We
don't do stuff like that. Like that's a crappy, that's a drive, dude. And they're just at speed,
especially in those old open cars where you're just getting beat up by the wind and like,
you know, they're tram lining everywhere. Yeah. I mean, I think it's, it's also a tricky thing
because if you start looking at it, like basically, if you're looking at fifties and older, like
the American cars were not really up to snuff, right? Like in terms of like, you know, all the,
the performance and the brakes and all the stuff. So like there's very few options. I did see,
there was a Hudson Hornet on the rally, which was kind of was a Hudson's pretty cool. So you have
to kind of look at the Pan America stuff, right? Like, well, or Pan Americana, I should say. Yeah.
And yeah, I like the Cadillac Le Mans stuff that was going on early fifties, you know.
Il mostro? Yeah. Il mostro. And then you get into that clientele,
usually not wanting to spend as much money. Right. Well, also the thing about this stuff too is,
you know, it's not a lot of young people that are into these pre-war machines. And
these are old folks and they're, they were doing some amazing drives, but they were getting out
of the cars at the end of the day and just like exhausted to see it. You just see it in their
faces. Oh, and the story that I was, that reminded me about the, your gas station incident is this
guy in a Jaguar XK 140. Oh, what was it? Yeah, it was a 140. He broke down at the worst possible
spot. If you leave from a task, oh, no, I'm sorry. If you leave from a Royal Grande and you get on
Highway 101 South, it's an on ramp into the fast lane. It's a very few of those in California.
And so you, oh, the last one, yeah. You have to merge into fast traffic. And right at that moment,
the car ran out of gas and he puttered to a stop on the fast lane shoulder in a merging zone.
It was worst case scenario. So the mechanic pulls up in front of him and I was behind all that. So
I pull up like behind them quite a ways back, put my hazards on and just wait in the car. I'm like,
I'm not getting out here. They figured out that it's out of gas. He has a gas can. They put some
gas in it. I think they put five gallons or something, three gallons. And he goes to merge,
but can't see anything. Mirrors are the size of your watch. Like there's no, you know,
just not looking and almost causes a huge accident. These people like swerve off into the slow lane
and it's like, holy crap. And we're watching it from, I'm with this other guy. We're like,
dude, please don't die right now. And so they finally get going. All good. They continue on
the road and I'm like, why aren't they stopping for gas? Because I'm kind of following. I'm like,
dude, you only have whatever is three gallons. Like you need to stop and they don't stop. They're
going towards to pescat and all that zone. I'm like, there's no gas out here. What are you guys
doing? Finally, he pulls over again. I pull over with him. He's like, Oh, I need to go get gas. So
I'm going to go detour to this gas station. Like, okay, yeah, well, I can't follow you because I
have to stick to the route. So he goes long story short, finish the whole day, get to the
hotel. Everything's good. I'm out of the car. I'm like, Oh, finally, like finish line. I wave
to art. That was our only interaction. He was at the finish line. I wave to him. I go park. He
has to leave. So we didn't even talk. Art was gone. And then I get a freaking message. They're
like, there's a jaguar broken down on the highway right by the hotel. Can somebody go rescue them?
I'm like, are you kidding me? Is it the same dude? So I go and yeah, sure enough, he's on the last
exit. He had taken the highway to the hotel. He made it to the off ramp, which is like a block
from the hotel and the car died out of gas again. Come to find out. It's like some sort of vapor
lock thing where it's only once he gets below of like three quarter tank. It like doesn't have enough
pressure. I don't know. I don't know what the hell was going on. But the thing had to be flatbeded.
And I had to take them through the finish line, which is equally awkward because they were like,
they were so confused on what was happening. And then we were getting like handed gifts and
caviar. Oh my God. And I'm just sitting in the, you know, driver's seat like, here you go. Here's
all your stuff. Oh yeah. The thing that reminded me to go to the start actually was I was dropping
my daughter off and I see a jaguar fly by me or go by me and on the west side and it was like
the beeline guys fixing a car and they were fixing one of the Jaguar convertibles
like a 140 or something like that. And they put new shocks on it and because it was like rubbing
or something and they put some like old, they put some like Porsche shocks they had or something on
it and like retro like made it work. And so he could get on his way and and that was that they
honked at me. And I'm like, why this melee, you know, this melee car honked at me. And then I'm
like, oh, shit, I forgot. Like I need, I could probably go hit it. I could probably get there
on time. Yeah. And so I went and did it and it turned, yeah, they were getting the car. So that's
what that's what reminded me to go to the start. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. And I guess at the night
before they were asking around and someone someone was like, oh, there's a shop beeline and then the
guy who was on the rally with his dad was like, oh, I went to Oh, I think my friend Philip like
works there or you know, as part of it or something. Oh, funny. Went to school with him. Yeah. So I
saw that Jaguar later. And as it drove by, it had a freaking beeline sticker on it on the like the
number. And I was like, what the hell? And I never like followed up on it. I was just like,
oh, I was weird. That's funny. I wish. Yeah, I really wish I was like more in the front of the pack
to like watch all the cars go by and take pictures and video and stuff. And like here the T 50s at
speed. I only followed one into San Juan Batista. And he was having a great time and I was keeping
up. But I didn't get like that, you know, fly by and 198 that you want or you see him come around
Nacimento Ferguson Road and like really check it out. So it was more of like behind the pack,
but all good. Yeah, I think there's also like for a lot of these guys when they're out there,
I'm curious to see like how many are just because you didn't get really get to see it right. But
how many are just out there sort of parading along and how many are really mobbing, right? Like,
I don't know how many of these people actually push these cars. I think there was a group sort
of like our rallies that were really eager to get going in the morning and after lunch. And they
would like, Hey, let's go. Let's like, let's go hit it. And I think they were getting on it.
McKeel, our CEO was in a 300 SL and his wife. And I think they were part of that group. And
the T 50s certainly were like kind of in the front of the pack, as you can imagine.
But yeah, that's a good question. Like, was the eight C like sliding around, you know,
wheeled like I didn't see a video like maybe today or yesterday or I don't know who knows,
but on Instagram was like a silver 300 SL kind of doing booking. It looked, you know,
it's kind of going for like seemed like the revs are pretty high and nice going pretty good.
I can't really come up with a better car than a 300 SL roadster. I mean, it's it's modern. It was
like a modern car in the era looking forward. It's super capable. It's comfortable.
It looks fantastic. It sounds good. Like, I don't know. That's like,
and then those 350 sixes would be good too. But the patina three, the patina silver 356s were
both two of those were at left or air water. Yeah. So that's our colleague Trent's car.
Oh, okay. And he did the Miele and then ran it down to air water and then had it shipped home.
And then I can't remember what the other one was. That's right. Nice. Yeah, Trent Abbott. Okay.
Yeah. And there's a, there were some really cool porches for sure. I mean, real speedster and,
you know, like nice. Yeah, 550 makes a lot of sense for this sort of thing too, right? Like, I
can't remember the name of the production company that did the work, but it was a Canadian team.
They did a really good job. Like I was watching all the content come through and like, you know,
as someone who was, you know, all of us like understand these roads and vantage points and
photos. And I'm like, man, they really chose really good locations to set up and camp out.
And I asked one of the guys at the end because, you know, what, because I helped set up the
sort of the finish line. And, um, I was like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't
And I talked to him for a little while and he said that they actually did a scouting trip,
just specifically for that, like to go. And so they did, they scouted the entire route
and show spots. And then they had some stuff on the fly too, but like, they, they did a really
good job, but very thoughtful of where they were going to be positioned and what they were going
to capture. And they had a lot of equipment. They had a drone on the beginning of Nassima
de Ferguson, which is exactly where you'd want it because you get the water in the background
with like the, you know, cliff side road and 300 SLs coming up. But yeah, like they had it
pretty dialed and they had it edited and ready to play by that evening cocktail hour at the
finish line, which the video, I mean, it's only a sizzle reel kind of thing, but it was great.
It was very like heartwarming. People were super stoked to see it and that was, that was awesome.
So, um, without further ado,
do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. All right. So I made a mistake. That was a 2025
Lamborghini Urus, not a 26. Um, the car costs $337,000. Uh, and it had special paint Viola
Galaxias. What did that paint cost? Oh, Galaxias.
Dude, that's where it basically, basically a dark purple. I mean, for my eyes, it was a very
dark purple. They didn't have a lot of metallic. I think that's different. The one I drove that
one time was like writer purple. Yeah, yours was like high risk. Yeah, it was like, that was
embarrassing, dude. And that's exactly what I was thinking. Um, that, that's where it gets me
because driving that car just feels like kind of like driving it out of you or something when
you're in it, but like more obnoxious. We had to go to dinner in downtown Palo Alto and I'm
driving through. It's like congested. You know, you're going five miles an hour and all things
going, yeah, and it has that annoyingness too. And you're like, do you need any of this? And
then you look at the price and you're like 300, like, I'll just like, give me a, give me like
a hundred thousand dollar car and then give me some sports cars. Like it's so ridiculous. The
SQ eight is a hundred thousand dollars cheaper and I'll, yeah, I'll take that all day long.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, dude, the pain, I'm going to say, I don't think I doubt it was that much.
Uh, 11,000. Oh, that's a good guess.
I'm going to go, it's this Lamborghini bullshit. So I'm going to say 15
dude, you guys are really, really good. Art wins 13, 384. So a $13,000. Does he win though?
Well, this is the price is right rules, right? He didn't say he's under and closer. What do you mean?
Oh, no, he said 15. Oh, sorry. Sorry. He's, he's, oh, he's closer, but yes. Does he win? Yeah. I
think lame. I went real quick. Speaking of which, I just saw a thing on Instagram yesterday that
there's a paint. One of these paints, uh, it's like it has a tremendous amount of depth and
shifting and shit that Porsche has. That's a hundred thousand dollars. Have you seen that one, Lane?
Yeah. I've seen that or something. It's some weird. It's not a pearl. It's like it's magnetic or
some. I don't know what the fuck gets away. What a stupid ass thing. Imagine getting an accident,
dude. Oh, God. The one thing I will say about this car is that it had an amazing stereo that
was Bang & Olufsen advanced 3D. So I think a lot of the Porsche, maybe Porsches have it,
or Audi, no Audi, I think uses Bang & Olufsen as well. So anyways, fantastic sound. A couple
of things. If I engage traction control, I'm sorry, if I put it in street, it was traction control
was on. There was no way to disengage it otherwise. So which if you put it in street, it's now back
in hybrid mode. So that was really annoying. If you put in cruise control, it engages
lane keep assist jerking the steering wheel out of your hands, which is super annoying.
It would turn that on intermittently and I'd have to go into like three menus to get it to
turn off, which I finally discovered on day two. And then when you get out of the car,
I have the keys in my pocket and you walk like five feet away. It turns the whole thing off
and you get back in and your phone's disconnected and the settings are all fucked up. And it did
this like five different times where I would park the car, it was in hybrid mode, and then I would
get out and I think it's still on. But because the key leaves far enough away, it says, well,
you're clearly leaving, even though I'm just taking some pictures, I get back in the car,
the thing is completely shut off and I have to start over with all the stuff.
That's right. So there's got to be a setting for that though, I imagine.
There's got to be a setting, but at the same time, why? Like, come on guys, what are we,
doing here? The lane keep assist stuff is so irritating. I hated flipping the thing to start
it every time. That was so annoying. And then the park button is a little button.
It's crazy. I made a three point turn. I was like in a panic because I'm like,
fuck, how do I get it to go like shit? All right, last question here.
This is on motor one. Ram is being sued for lying about what in their vehicles?
Having good trucks.
Just for saying they're good. Yeah.
How dare you, sir? Okay, so this is not a diesel gate thing again, is it?
No, but something similar.
Oh, is it MPG? Kind of tangentially. It's related. Yeah, it's a total range then.
No,
I don't know.
Oh, it's potentially related to that.
Let me see if I can. I'll give you some hints here. They claimed the car did something that it
does not do. Telling capacity. No. This is related to their
the vans, the pro masters primarily. It does not do. Is it? Oh, it does it not do like cylinder
deactivation or something? No, it's lying about its transmission. It's saying when you buy it
that you're getting a nine speed transmission, but it is only seven. Wait, that's a crazy lie.
They've deactivated the eighth and ninth gears because it can't tow or do anything work related
in those gears. It's only for MPG, but because it's not going to work with what they're selling
it for, they just turned them off. So they're there, but you just can't access them.
Exactly. That's crazy, dude. And apparently this isn't the first time. This happened like in some
cars years ago where they claimed it was a nine speed and only seven speeds work.
Wow. That's bizarre. It's like they're overdrive or something probably, right? So they're
like not strong enough. Exactly. We just said, no, we'll just turn those off because that won't
be good. Now you only have seven speeds, which is just hilarious. I don't know. I don't even know
where to say about that. Yeah. So word of the wise in your pro master. He only got seven there dog.
Seven seems pretty good. Seven seems fine, but yeah, it's not nine.
You know why you're right about that? I think you're right. Who wants three kickdowns anyways
or whatever? You know who wants five kickdowns when you give it to us? Seriously? Yeah. All
right. That's podcast. We'll see you down the road. Bye. All right, masters. Peace.
About this episode
The conversation bounces from last-minute rally prep to a loose, social recap of Air/Water and a longer California Mille debrief. They talk through a Malibu drive, a crowded show where they mostly saw friends, and a shakedown on a modified E30 with new brakes and a bigger muffler. From there it moves into the Mille’s brutal roads, support logistics, memorable vintage cars, and a few modern-car gripes, including a Lamborghini Urus and a Ram transmission lawsuit.
Lane drove the long way to Air/Water, Warren drove a Lamborghini on the California Mille, and Art is doing major surgery on his BMW two days before the Camping While Awesome Rally. All that and more on this episode of the DWA! Podcast!
If you like what you hear, consider reviewing the show on itunes, spotifiy or wherever you listen
