Austin Cabot returns to Slip Angle to share his recent car purchase, a 2004 Acura TSX, and reflect on his shift from aviation back to the car community. He discusses his adventurous motorcycle trip to Alaska, the challenges of airplane ownership, and the differences between car and aviation cultures. Austin also talks about re-engaging with track events, the evolution of tire technology, and upcoming #GRIDLIFE events. The conversation blends personal stories with insights on motorsport and vehicle enthusiasm, highlighting the balance between passion and practicality.
"Dang. I was considering the 911 the car. The car is like, the 911 is like a coll..."
The Porsche 911 is a famous fast car that looks unique and is fun to drive. People talk about it because it has been popular for a long time and is known for being really good at driving on roads and tracks.
The Porsche 911 is an iconic sports car known for its distinctive design and exceptional performance. It has been a benchmark in the sports car world for decades, often praised for its balance, engineering, and driving experience. Discussions about the 911 often highlight its status as a classic and highly desirable performance vehicle.
"And then this summer, we bought the 2019 Ram 1500 from my mom that my dad bought like a month before he died."
The Ram 1500 is a big truck that is good for carrying heavy stuff and driving comfortably. The 2019 version has new looks and better features.
The Ram 1500 is a full-size pickup truck known for its comfortable ride, strong towing capabilities, and modern features. The 2019 model introduced updated styling and technology improvements.
"...e was ready to buy a boat and wanted out of this TSX that he's had for about a year. But one of our o..."
The Acura TSX is a small fancy car that is comfortable and fun to drive. It has nice features inside and is made by the same company that makes Honda cars.
The Acura TSX is a luxury compact sedan known for blending sporty handling with premium features. Based on the Honda Accord platform, it offers a refined driving experience with reliable performance. It's often discussed as a value-oriented entry into the luxury segment with strong resale value.
"I'm actually going to a Jay Zilla day, March 28th, that wrote Atlanta. My flight instructor that did my instrument rating is doing his first track day. And when he was talking to James, he mentioned that he knew me and James was like, Oh, bring Austin like he can ride in the car with you and help you out like, OK, cool. Yeah, that's cool. So yeah, so it's it's going to be fun."
A track day is a special event where people can drive their cars fast on a race track safely. It helps them learn how to drive better and have fun without worrying about traffic.
A track day is an event where car enthusiasts can drive their own vehicles on a race track in a controlled environment. It allows drivers to experience high-speed driving and improve their skills without the risks of public roads.
""But even now, like people are talking about tires. I'm like, dude, I have no idea what you're talking about. Like, what is that? Like, give me my my Dunlop Star Specs back.""
Track tires are special tires made to help cars stick better on race tracks. They let you drive faster and safer when racing or practicing on a track.
Track tires are specialized tires designed for use on racing tracks or high-performance driving events. They offer improved grip, heat resistance, and durability compared to regular street tires, enhancing vehicle performance during track sessions.
""Like, give me my my Dunlop Star Specs back. I was just talking about Star Specs with somebody, man. What a great tire that was back in the day.""
Dunlop is a company that makes tires, including ones good for racing and driving fast on tracks. Their Star Specs tires were favorites for people who liked to race.
Dunlop is a well-known tire manufacturer that produces a range of tires including performance and racing tires. Their Star Specs line was popular among track enthusiasts for its grip and performance characteristics.
"We sort of we gave TC a horsepower cap to to like sort of nudge some of the big horsepower stuff to to GT or to have it detuned some more."
A horsepower cap means there is a limit on how powerful a car's engine can be in a race, so all cars compete more fairly.
A horsepower cap is a limit set on the maximum horsepower a vehicle can produce in a racing or competition series to ensure fair competition and balance performance among participants.
"What do we do in time attack? I can't even quite remember. My brain's my brain's been a little scramble lately. Well, actually, I would say that if we wanted the answer to that question, we should probably talk to you and John. I was more removed for the rules revisions this year than I would typically be. I have been in do a ton. We didn't really do a ton in time attack."
Time attack is a kind of car race where the goal is to drive the fastest lap around a track, not to race other cars side by side.
Time attack is a motorsport where drivers compete to set the fastest lap time on a race track, focusing on speed and precision rather than wheel-to-wheel racing.
"Well, I got my six sigma black belt certification, I guess, in October last year. And kind of what I'm working on now is more problems of a similar type, I guess."
Six Sigma Black Belt means someone is trained to find and fix problems in how things are done, making them better and less likely to have mistakes.
Six Sigma Black Belt certification is a professional credential indicating expertise in Six Sigma methodologies, which focus on improving business processes and reducing defects or errors.
"in the 70s, I think for like process optimization and lean manufacturing, all of those things."
Lean manufacturing means making things in a way that wastes less time and materials, so the company can make better products faster and cheaper.
Lean manufacturing is a production methodology focused on minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency in manufacturing processes. It aims to deliver value to customers with fewer resources.
"which is like a common problem. They cracked the heads."
Cracked heads mean parts of the engine got tiny breaks that can make the car overheat or stop working well.
Cracked heads refer to damage in the cylinder heads of an engine, which can cause coolant leaks, overheating, and engine failure. It's a common problem in some engines, including certain Porsche 911 models.
"that's the motor that was in like the V five S four and S four and like all."
The Audi S4 is a sportier version of a regular Audi car, with a stronger engine that makes it faster and more fun to drive.
The Audi S4 is a high-performance variant of the Audi A4, often equipped with powerful engines like the 2.7-liter V6 mentioned here. It's known for sporty handling and strong performance.
"like you put the metal coolant pipe in the back instead of the stupid one. And like you change this, you block off that port."
A metal coolant pipe is a strong pipe that carries engine coolant. It lasts longer and is less likely to break than plastic ones.
A metal coolant pipe replaces plastic or rubber pipes in the cooling system to improve durability and reduce the risk of leaks or failures under heat and pressure.
"The wiring, like they have the same plugs on the wiring harnesses. You just got to like swap around half a dozen plugs and it plugs into the Porsche factory like body harness."
A wiring harness is like a big bundle of wires in a car that connect all the electrical parts so they can work together.
A wiring harness is an organized set of electrical wires and connectors that transmit power and signals throughout a vehicle, connecting components like sensors, lights, and control modules.
"It's got fricking rolling anti lag. It's got all the cool things, a couple of big GT turbos"
Rolling anti-lag helps keep the turbocharger working even when you let off the gas a little, so the car feels quicker and smoother.
Rolling anti-lag is a turbocharger system feature that maintains boost pressure during gear changes or partial throttle to reduce turbo lag and improve throttle response.
"It's got all the cool things, a couple of big GT turbos and it's laggy and it's so fun to drive because it's like exactly the street car"
GT turbos are big turbochargers that help the engine make more power and go faster.
GT turbos are a type of large turbocharger designed to provide high boost and power, often used in performance and racing applications to increase engine output.
"So when it's registered as an antique in Illinois, can you like, do you have to do emissions or no? No, you're not supposed to drive it between December and February, unless it's like going to a show or going to a to a service center. But those are the only restrictions is like December to February, which like, I don't know why they would care, but no mileage restrictions, no emissions, cheap renewals. I think renewals are 45 versus like 112 or something."
This is a special way to register old cars that makes it easier and cheaper to keep them legal, but sometimes you can't drive them all year round.
Antique vehicle registration is a special classification for older cars that often exempts them from emissions testing, limits their use during certain months, and offers reduced registration fees.
"...but like it's a multi it's like multi graded pink civic fit. I mean, like it's a Honda fit that's like 2..."
The Honda Civic is a small, reliable car that many people use every day. It's known for saving gas and being easy to take care of, making it a favorite for lots of drivers.
The Honda Civic is a compact car renowned for its reliability, fuel efficiency, and practicality. It has been a popular choice worldwide for decades, often serving as a versatile daily driver with a range of trims and engine options. The Civic is frequently discussed due to its widespread use and strong aftermarket support.
"...multi graded pink civic fit. I mean, like it's a Honda fit that's like 27 different colors of red. And like..."
The Honda Fit EV is a small car that runs only on electricity, so it doesn't use gas and doesn't pollute. It's good for city driving and is a special version of the regular Honda Fit.
The Honda Fit EV is an all-electric version of the popular Honda Fit subcompact, offering zero emissions and a practical urban driving range. Produced in limited numbers, it represents Honda's early efforts in electric vehicle technology. It's often discussed for its unique combination of compact size, electric powertrain, and versatility.
"Front mount radiator. You got to run three quarter inch coolant lines."
A front mount radiator is like a big cooler at the front of the car that helps keep the engine from getting too hot by letting air flow through it.
A front mount radiator is a cooling component placed at the front of the vehicle to maximize airflow and improve cooling efficiency, especially important in high-performance or modified cars.
"But like that's all controlled by the DME. Also, like the water pump isn't like, I don't have like a big dump switch. You know, like it's literally controlled by the computer."
DME is a computer in the car that controls how the engine works, including turning the water pump on and off.
DME stands for Digital Motor Electronics, which is the engine control unit (ECU) managing engine functions including fuel injection, ignition timing, and in this case, controlling the water pump electronically.
"He repurposes the secondary air injection air pump thing off the M96. And now that wiring runs the electric water pump and like it's really well thought out."
This pump usually helps clean the car's exhaust, but here it's used to power the water pump that cools the engine.
The secondary air injection pump is an emissions control device that injects air into the exhaust to help reduce emissions, but in this case, it's repurposed to run an electric water pump.
"Cuts the rear bumper beam like cuts most of it out and then welds in a giant huge box and that's the water tank for the air to water. So it's got a huge water tank and a big, big, big radiator up in the front. You got to cut like the little it's got side radiators, but it's got an area you can put a center radiator in if you like cut the grill out for it. So we had to cut the grill out and we mounted a center radiator, but that's just for the air to water."
This system uses water to cool down the air going into the engine, making the car run better and faster.
An air to water intercooler uses water to cool the intake air after it passes through the turbocharger, improving performance by reducing air temperature more efficiently than traditional air to air intercoolers.
"Because like the M96 motor has the IMS like curse in people's mind. It's really not in that many engines that the IMS bearing his problems. But the more they're driven, the less they have the issues."
The M96 motor is a type of engine Porsche used in some cars. It has some parts that can break, so people talk about it a lot.
The M96 motor is a flat-six engine produced by Porsche used in the 996 and Boxster models. It is known for its innovative design but also for some reliability issues, including the IMS bearing problem.
"Because like the M96 motor has the IMS like curse in people's mind. It's really not in that many engines that the IMS bearing his problems."
The IMS bearing is a small part inside some Porsche engines that helps support moving parts. If it breaks, it can cause big engine problems.
The IMS (Intermediate Shaft) bearing is a component in some Porsche engines, particularly the M96 engine, that supports the intermediate shaft. Failure of this bearing can cause catastrophic engine damage, leading to a reputation known as the 'IMS bearing curse.'
An air-cooled engine cools itself by air blowing over it, instead of using water or liquid. Some older cars like early Porsche 911s used this kind of engine.
An air-cooled engine uses air flowing over the engine to dissipate heat instead of liquid coolant. Early Porsche 911 models used air-cooled engines, which have a distinct sound and cooling characteristics.
"...st, but they're not that slow either. I mean, my S2000 was faster. What, how much power does that, your..."
The Honda S2000 is a small sports car that is really fun to drive because it can go fast and turns well. People like it because it feels exciting and sporty without being too expensive.
The Honda S2000 is a lightweight, high-revving sports car celebrated for its sharp handling and powerful naturally aspirated engine. Produced from 1999 to 2009, it has become a modern classic among enthusiasts who appreciate its driver-focused dynamics. It's often mentioned in conversations about affordable, fun-to-drive sports cars.
"And they don't want to do anything to change anything that grid life does, they just want to amplify it and and like make it better and make it better. It's not private equity. It's it's it's like a family of like actual IMSA racers that is some of the funding behind this."
Grid Life is a fun event where people who love cars and racing come together to watch races, enjoy music, and hang out with others who like cars.
Grid Life is a motorsport lifestyle and racing event series that combines car culture, racing, and music festivals. It focuses on grassroots motorsport and community engagement.
"It's like a family of like actual IMSA racers that is some of the funding behind this. And like, they want to build motor sports for the next generation."
IMSA is a group that runs car races in North America, especially for sports cars. They organize big racing events where drivers compete on tracks.
IMSA stands for International Motor Sports Association, which is a sanctioning body for sports car racing in North America. It organizes various racing series including the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, featuring professional and amateur drivers.
Select text to request an explanation
Welcome everybody to Slip Angle Show.
I'm Austin Cavett.
Man, that's a familiar voice.
I think I've been on the podcast with this guy before.
It's almost like you guys like prerecorded it.
You just drop it in.
Yeah.
That would...
AI Austin.
Austin Chatbot.
Austin Chatbot.
That'd be great.
What's going on, boys?
It's been a long time.
I feel like you do like maybe one show a year with us
at these points or at this point.
Yeah, if we're lucky.
Though our release schedule is pretty sporadic.
So maybe we only do two or three shows a year anyway.
Well, when we get through this show,
if we talk about all the topics that we have,
like people might understand why our release schedule's
a little sporadic.
There's a lot going on, guys.
A lot going on.
So where do you want to start?
If I sound even worse than normal,
it's because I'm on the backside of a flu.
So that's fun.
I think everyone on the planet has the flu right now.
Everybody has the flu.
Like, the amount of snot that's came out of jubei noses,
in the past three weeks, is not tiny enough.
So where do you want to start?
Alston bought a TSX.
I didn't buy a TSX.
My first car in nine years.
Dang.
I was considering the 911 the car.
The car is like, the 911 is like a collector piece.
It's like the Pokemon car that you have on the wall
that you take down and look at occasionally.
Is that the only other car you have, then, is the TSX?
No.
We still have the Mercedes.
Yeah, just across 200,000 miles.
And then this summer, we bought the 2019 Ram 1500
from my mom that my dad bought like a month before he died.
So we've got a couple cars.
But I wasn't planning on buying a car, to be honest.
Like, I was completely happy with motorcycle stuff.
And one of my friends decided that he was ready to buy a boat
and wanted out of this TSX that he's had for about a year.
But one of our other buddies had bought it in 2019.
It like 90,000 miles in 2019.
It's a royal blue purple.
So sorry, royal blue pearl.
So like the really dark blue TSX, not the Arctic blue
that you see a lot, black interior, six speed,
has some nice parts on it, the body's straight, no rust,
134,000 miles on it.
So that was kind of hard to pass up.
And right now, some days I'm driving 80 to 120 miles a day
back and forth to the airport a couple of times.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's 40 miles around trip for me to go to the airport.
Oh, OK.
Where are you flying out of?
Mickey Tyson here in Knoxville.
Who's that at?
Oh, OK. Yeah, it's just I heard that.
I've seen that on a map.
I just like couldn't.
Yeah, it's such a memorable, memorable name, but I can't remember where.
So so what's what's flying look like nowadays for you?
I haven't been flying a ton, to be honest.
Right now I've been working for a company that contracts with Cirrus
detailing airplanes.
So I'll go like five in the morning and be done by eight thirty in the morning.
And then I'll go in again in the evening
because during the day, the delivery hangar
where people are presented with their new aircraft is pretty booked up.
So we can't really do any work and literally like the planes are already washed.
They've been slightly detailed.
And then me and my buddy Daniel Daniel does it full time.
I just do it part time.
But we go in there and do a full paint correction on the plane
before it gets delivered to the customer.
Really? So yeah, it's pretty easy.
I mean, the hangar is air conditioned and heated.
And we're just running nice, nice buffers like wide open.
What made you step away from full time at Cirrus?
It just things were a lot different there than they were when when I had started.
The company was growing, so things were just changing a lot.
The flying club changed a lot.
Prices went up, availability was going down.
So it just didn't make a whole lot of sense.
Plus, I couldn't do that Alaska trip if I would have stayed.
So six weeks of time off is kind of hard to string together all in one go.
And you still got to do Austin Cabot things.
You got to be yourself, man.
Yeah. What what was the trip to Alaska?
Would you would you end up doing?
I ended up I left here and just rode all the way.
Trying to think all the way up to this was back in like 2024.
So it's been almost a year and a half now, but went all the way up.
There's two highways.
One's called the Dempster Highway and the other is called the Dalton.
They're both dirt and they both go to the Arctic Ocean.
One's in Northwest Territories of Canada.
And then the other pretty much goes to Dead Horse Alaska.
And I ended up doing both of those on that trip.
Couldn't pick couldn't pick one.
So I did. Well, it's only an extra only like an extra 10,000 miles to do both.
Honestly, I only knew the Dalton Highway existed in Alaska.
Granted, like I didn't really plan a lot of this.
Like about three weeks before I left is when I seriously started
planning and figuring out like where I was going to go.
And even then when I left the house, I didn't really have a route.
I was just like, OK, how am I going to get out there?
That's so crazy.
Why is that bad?
I mean, it's just to get on a motorcycle and go. It's so cool.
I love that.
Well, the hardest part is leaving the house, right?
After you leave the house, everything else just kind of falls in place.
And if anything bad happens, like I got a credit card, it's fine.
And you camp most of the time.
Yes. So I was gone for 36 nights and I camped 28 of them.
That's so I upgraded all my camping, camping kit and everything.
But it was a really good time.
Good. So what's your wife?
What's your wife think nowadays about a trip like that?
Probably won't be able to do that again.
No, too far. Maybe, maybe.
But at the moment, probably not.
I I got to start working and put some additional money in the bank.
Yeah.
Like that's the thing, like I'm not really making it.
Like I'm making part-time money right now.
So buying a TSX was kind of like, you know,
spending a chunk of my savings that I probably didn't need to.
Yeah. But I got to thinking about it.
Like I cars brought me so much joy
and brought me into such a strong community.
And then all of a sudden, like I just didn't have that anymore.
And I felt like something was missing in my life
and I didn't quite know what it was.
Like I love flying.
Don't get me wrong.
But like the type of people you meet at the track and around cars
and stuff are just different than airplane people.
And you think you're going to plane people,
but like the amount of money that people spend like.
Oh, it's nuts, dude.
Yeah. I mean, I feel like the the car thing is so much more approachable
to all walks of life than aviation is talking with my brother about planes.
My brother's like very DIY, like he's very good at it.
But like the money that flows into an airplane,
like even the low side is like, OK, well, here's a small addition on any home.
Here's a new car.
Like that that's the level of dollars you're talking about.
It's out of control crazy.
Yeah, it's it's ridiculous.
And I mean, like you can't if you have an airplane,
you can't even really find a hangar right now.
The wait list are ridiculous.
Yeah. And you know, if you're buying a nice airplane,
like you don't really want to like tie it down outside on the ramp.
No, no. So I don't know.
Yeah, it's a sport that keeps growing.
Airplane ownership could be in the future.
But I don't know.
I feel like I have a lot more in common with people that are into cars
than I do people that are in airplanes.
Do you think you're going to see yourself back at a racetrack?
I mean, I'll definitely see myself there.
I'm not sure if I need to drive on the track because that's just a bad idea.
Just knowing knowing me like all of a sudden this TSX will be fully caged
and it'll be a race car and I just don't need that in my life.
Not at the moment. I can be there and be around it.
I'm actually going to a Jay Zilla day, March 28th, that wrote Atlanta.
My flight instructor that did my instrument rating is doing his first track day.
And when he was talking to James, he mentioned that he knew me
and James was like, Oh, bring Austin like he can ride in the car with you
and help you out like, OK, cool.
Yeah, that's cool.
So yeah, so it's it's going to be fun.
But to be honest, like having been away from it for so long,
I feel like like that movie blast from the past or like I've been underground
for years and I pop out and like everything's different.
Now, that's a good Brendan Fraser movie.
Yeah, thanks. I can't remember that movie.
But I remember the I remember like the poster for it.
So essentially Brendan Brendan Fraser's parents
like they had an underground bunker during the Cold War
and like an alarm went off and they went down to the bunker
and they never got word that all was clear.
So they lived down there for like the first 30 years of his life.
And then he like he comes to the surface
and everything is like completely different from what his parents taught him.
Yeah. So but that's that's what all this stuff feels like to me.
Like, yes, the tracks are the same, but there's some new tracks.
Some procedures are different, tires, technology.
Everything is just so much different than it was,
especially back when I was driving.
I didn't really drive on the track much after like 2015.
Yeah, the it was you have
it's probably about 10 years ago when you stopped driving, driving.
Yeah. And then just started running events.
So I was still around it.
But even now, like people are talking about tires.
I'm like, dude, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Like, what is that?
Like, give me my my Dunlop Star Specs back.
I was just talking about Star Specs with somebody, man.
What a great tire that was back in the day.
Oh, yeah.
And like turns out doesn't even make anything in that like category anymore.
Yeah.
That's my first set of track tires were Star Specs, actually.
Dude, does Star Specs were great.
It was a really good all around tire back in like 2012, 13, 14.
Like the Z1 Star Specs I bought and did my first track day on in 2010.
And those things were freaking awesome.
At least for back then.
Yeah, I mean, they were the 200 treadwear tire wars were like
way different than they are now.
Now it's like the the amount of stuff that is like so good and so fast is ridiculous.
And you're getting that a minutia like, oh, I really they both run the same
lap time and one does this different, like it's or this does that different?
Or like it's dumb.
Like it's kind of like the new vehicle landscape where everything's pretty much
the same, it just like you're just buying it for in for infotainment.
Yeah, yeah.
Which one will rub which which one has seats that'll that'll heat nicer?
You know, that's how you choose your car nowadays.
So but I do think I'm going to make more of an effort this year to attend
more events just to be there.
Like I don't necessarily need to drive, but just to be there and hang out.
So think about potentially coming to CMP.
Cool, because it's I mean, that's one of the closest ones aside from
Rhode Atlanta, Rhode Atlanta is going to be wild.
I don't know if I'll be able to make it to that one.
But it's a bit.
It's a busy one with all the FD stuff and with we're trying to do like
10 pounds of things in a five pound bag, two really busy days.
But that was a cool event last year.
If it hadn't rained, it would have been like actually completely awesome.
It did rain quite a bit in Saturday.
But it was a fun event.
Any any big changes to any of the rule sets this year?
Not a ton ton.
Like we what do we do in TC?
We sort of we gave TC a horsepower cap to to like sort of
nudge some of the big horsepower stuff to to GT or to have it detuned some more.
But that's kind of like the biggest change.
What do we do in time attack?
I can't even quite remember.
My brain's my brain's been a little scramble lately.
Well, actually, I would say that if we wanted the answer to that question,
we should probably talk to you and John.
I was more removed for the rules revisions this year than I would typically be.
I have been in do a ton.
We didn't really do a ton in time attack.
The last couple of years, Austin, for me have been quite busy as I'm like
I I took an assignment out of R&D a couple of years ago
and worked on a big, annoying problem for a couple of years.
And just recently got reassigned to a different big, annoying problem last month.
So yeah, it's day job is like a real day job now.
Doing my best, man.
Are you are you I guess you're having success at solving big problems?
Well, I got my six sigma black belt certification, I guess, in October last year.
And kind of what I'm working on now is more problems of a similar type, I guess.
OK, yeah, and you can kick your and you can kick your ass.
No, not that good.
But yeah, it was weird for anyone not on the production
and manufacturing like universe.
Six sigma black belt is like rooted in the
like Toyota process engineering scheme that they developed, I guess,
in the 70s, I think for like process optimization
and lean manufacturing, all of those things.
Big companies that make things can sponsor employees to like run
pretty significant optimization projects to
like demonstrate competency, but also certify that you're
now an expert in process optimizations and things like that.
So when I started my career, this was something I really wanted
for my own personal development and I've been now a professional for
12, 13 years and I was able to accomplish that goal in October.
So that felt pretty good.
So is grid life going six sigma now?
Probably should.
Yeah, 100 percent.
100 percent.
I actually talked to Michael Herschin about process optimization
on the selling of merch at Midwest Festival, because I do think
there is an incredible opportunity there to make things go fast.
Yeah, long lines aren't the best thing for selling.
Now, having having a line is good, but having the line be so long
that some buyers would say, no, man, that line's too long.
That's bad. Yeah.
So is it going to be like Jimmy John style, like freaky fast?
I mean, that would be cool.
I would love it to be. I would love it to be.
I mean, practically, you want everybody to have the ability
to buy the things they want to buy without the headache, right?
Yeah, we would love if they would become walking billboards for our company.
That would be awesome.
Yeah, we'll love it.
Nice nuts. What's new with you, Adam?
We talked about what was the last show we did.
I confess that I bought a crappy old Porsche.
I think so. Yeah.
And you had not told your wife, actually, that was around the same time
that I had bought a bike. Oh, yeah. Well, I told her.
Yeah. And in our group chat, I told Austin a couple of weeks ago.
But yeah, I bought a 99, 9, 11, the Unloved Generation.
Engine was out of it.
Sold the engine when I got it back here.
The engine wasn't 100 percent, but it had just had the heads redone,
which is like a common problem. They cracked the heads.
So I sold the engine for a couple grand, which was great to replenish the monies.
And I was going to put an LS in it.
And my buddy, tall Kyle, who's been on the show a few times, years and years ago,
he's recently got into these things a couple of years ago, like three to three years ago.
He bought one and he swapped a 2.7 Audi motor into his,
which is a kit that's made
by a company called Ren 27.
And so it turns out the 2.7 Audi motor, like if you're a Volkswagen or Audi guy,
you're like, no way. That motor rules.
It turns out that motor is like loved and people swap them into like
all kinds of different Audi's, too.
But to five valve V6, it sounds so good.
And they're like essentially free because the cars that they're in,
like a plastic coolant lines that are hard to work on,
like the timing stuff is dumb and they develop a bunch of leaks
and like, like they become effectively like free engines
because you like buy a thousand dollar car with a bunch of problems.
It's not like the long block. It's sensors. It's dumb stuff, you know,
that's the motor that was in like the V five S four and S four and like all.
Yeah. And yeah. All road and I think a sixes had them, too.
So of that, of that same era, but they're good for like 500, 600 horsepower.
And so we put in the car with the with the adapter kit.
I think I think we had six hundred bucks into the engine.
A couple of like six hundred dollars for them.
Yeah. These motors are like free. You buy a thousand dollar car, you part the car out.
You could be like, you could be into the engine for negative money.
That's how that's how that's what that's the big and the strong.
And they're still like sick engines, actually.
Well, the hardest part of like maintaining them is pulling the motor out
and having to work on it. But if you actually the hardest part.
Yeah. Yeah. But if you actually already have it out to put in another car,
it's like the perfect time to refresh it.
Yeah. And from from the bottom on the nine eleven,
like you can touch every inch of the motor, basically, like they're easy to work on.
And I love it.
And you like you upgrade all like the dumb little stuff,
like you put the metal coolant pipe in the back instead of the stupid one.
And like you change this, you block off that port.
You eliminate some of the sensors that are a problem.
The wiring, like they have the same plugs on the wiring harnesses.
You just got to like swap around half a dozen plugs and it plugs into the Porsche
factory like body harness.
This company sells.
So this was a new new freight, a new like term to me, a DME,
which is like basically your body control module for anything Volkswagen
or anything German, I mean, so they they sell a custom DME
that like integrates all the things so that like all the gauges work.
I have the first microprocessor one and so like it's like fully controllable.
It's basically like a standalone for like the chassis.
And they're like still kind of in development.
And it's like everything works great.
It's got fricking rolling anti lag.
It's got all the cool things, a couple of big GT turbos
and it's laggy and it's so fun to drive because it's like exactly the street car
that I like daydreamed about when I was 19.
And it's like pretty and it's like in good shape and it rides really nice.
It does have feel coilovers on, but like they're they're incredible.
The best coilovers ride wise that I've ever had on a street car.
I'm like really, really into it.
And we went to Sarah and I went on a date on Friday night with it.
Like she liked it.
Emma thinks it's the coolest thing in the world.
She like wants me to take her all over the place in this dumb car.
She calls it the wiener dog.
Why it's the fricking she says it looks like a wiener dog.
It's got a long face or something.
I don't know that's a custom plate, dude.
It just needs to say wiener.
Yeah, I'm getting extended antique plates so that it's just got like cheap
renewal and everything, but it's going to be my it's going to be my 365 day
year car and just don't tell the DMV.
So when it's registered as an antique in Illinois, can you like,
do you have to do emissions or no?
No, you're not supposed to drive it between December and February,
unless it's like going to a show or going to a to a service center.
But those are the only restrictions is like December to February,
which like, I don't know why they would care, but no mileage restrictions,
no emissions, cheap renewals.
I think renewals are 45 versus like 112 or something.
Well, and I don't drive that much.
I walk to work every day, but yeah, I'm really into having a street car.
I didn't realize how you had said something about like missing, you know,
part of it, you know, like it's been so long since I've had a car
that I was like, stoked to like take Sarah out on a date in or like,
go drive around with my buddies and meet up in a parking lot.
It's been so long.
I didn't realize that like I miss that part.
It reminds you what it was like when like you first got into cars.
And also like you just get to have all those like all those conversations,
just like BS and with your friends in parking lots.
Like those were some of the longest best nights that I like ever had growing up.
And like, you know, you get the group of buddies who like,
oh, we're going to go to the cruise over the cruise night over at Tinley,
which happens every Tuesday night in summer.
And I'm like, yeah, I should register the civic.
I'll take the civic over there.
And like that hurdle of like registering the civic like kept me from doing it.
And I didn't like the fit that much.
I liked it, but like it's a multi it's like multi graded pink civic fit.
I mean, like it's a Honda fit that's like 27 different colors of red.
And like it drove great by the time I got it done and I sold it.
But like sold that sold my trailer and like I got a street car again.
And I think I really needed that.
I needed that to be like stoked about the sport even or like the concept
of like being in the cars, because that was like most of what got me
stoked about it was cruising around with my buddies, you know, like,
so I'm really excited.
I'm really excited about it.
Like today, Sarah forgot a bag.
So like before work, I like drove to her.
I drove 20 minutes to her work and brought her her bag.
And it was like a great way to start the day.
Just getting this getting a loud old Porsche driver.
It's so fun.
So in like the scheme swaps that you've done in the past, though,
this one actually sounds like it was one of the easier ones.
It we did like so Kyle, the reason Kyle sold it sold me on it was like,
he's like, I got all the stuff here.
Like, you want to just bring the car out?
Well, like put it all in that car instead of this other car,
because he had bought a 996 cab like a convertible
and he was going to 2.7 swap it and then sell it.
Like he had bought it with the engine.
The engine was out.
The trans was bad.
Like he bought the car cheap and I was just going to put the
he was going to build it and then sell it and try to make some money on it.
So he literally had like all the stuff and he even had like the charge pipe
mocked up he had the intercooler was mocked up.
He makes his own intercooler for its air to water.
Front mount radiator.
You got to run three quarter inch coolant lines.
There's a water pump under the chassis.
But like that's all controlled by the DME.
Also, like the water pump isn't like, I don't have like a big dump switch.
You know, like it's literally controlled by the computer.
He repurposes the secondary air injection air pump thing off the M96.
And now that wiring runs the electric water pump and like it's really well
thought out.
And this is the third set up he's built for one of these.
So he's figured out a lot of little details.
Cuts the rear bumper beam like cuts most of it out and then welds in a giant
huge box and that's the water tank for the air to water.
So it's got a huge water tank and a big, big, big radiator up in the front.
You got to cut like the little it's got side radiators, but it's got an area
you can put a center radiator in if you like cut the grill out for it.
So we had to cut the grill out and we mounted a center radiator,
but that's just for the air to water.
So how much weight does it add to the car?
Or is it lighter?
Supposedly it's the same weight even when you add turbos and air to water.
It's probably a little heavier when you factor in the weight of the water.
But didn't really, it's very negligible.
The swap, like with a air to air, supposedly the swap is the same weight
like an air to air on one side and a single turbo on the other.
Supposedly the swap is the same weight as just an OEM, an OEM like 996.
That's pretty rad.
It's a very compact motor.
What's up?
Is AC and like heat and all that stuff hooked up?
Yeah, AC is hooked up, heats, everything's working.
So cruise control works.
It's freaking so good.
It's perfect.
Yeah, I'm real stoked about it.
It's got me like actually like into cars again.
I didn't realize how far down the like sick of it rabbit hole I was until semi recently.
And yeah, like I saw you put your race car up for sale.
We should talk about that too.
I did.
I'm probably it's probably not going to sell.
But I mean, I'm sure it's not going to be here.
But like I was really sick of racing.
When I put it up that day, I was like mad at racing about something.
But I mainly put it up just to see if I see if there was any actual interest.
You're kind of a moody bitch.
Did anyone ever say that to you?
Yeah.
Yeah, it might be a bit of a moody bitch.
But but also like everything's for sale for the right price, I assume.
But you sold your race car, Abe.
Austin sold his.
I did.
Like I can't even list mine.
I list mine and I get 300 comments of like, don't sell it.
Somebody hide it in the garage for him.
Oh, that's fine.
It would really bum me out if I went to Honda meet and I didn't have my car.
But so when you talk about like selling your race car, which one?
Well, the Porsche won't ever be a race car.
I'm not going to check.
Yeah. Yeah.
But like selling a car, which car were you talking about?
Well, my EF hatch.
What?
That's you're selling that?
Well, it's listed for sale and it's not to sell.
I never thought I'd see the day, man.
Yeah, I've said many times like what would be the point?
I could never sell it and I probably can't.
But if somebody dangled 22,000 bucks in my face, it'd be hard to say no.
Yeah.
I mean, you could you could build a couple more of these 996s.
No, you probably go one.
Like you could you could build an ice racing one.
I don't know.
I don't have the ambition to compete right now.
Does the kit work on a Carrera 4?
Like could you do an all-wheel drive one?
Yeah, Kyle's is an all-wheel drive.
So dude.
Yeah, this is an all-wheel drive and it's fricking.
It hooks so hard, dude.
It's out of control.
That'd be so sweet.
The thing that I really so like when I was when I was 19,
like I think I said this last time when I was 19,
like I saw one of these brand new maybe 18, you know,
like senior year high school in 99 or 2000 or whatever.
I saw one brand new and I thought that because it had the unique headlights,
which some people really hate and like I've never hated them.
I think they're fine.
But like there was something about like the fried egg headlight.
Yeah, there was something about like the body shape that like really got me
and they kept that same basic shape for like 10 years with the 997 as well.
And the more I looked into them, I was like, man,
they're really getting like five years ago.
They were getting pretty cheap and like they came up in value a little bit since then.
But there's like there's swapped ones selling for drastically more money than stock ones too.
Because like the M96 motor has the IMS like curse in people's mind.
It's really not in that many engines that the IMS bearing his problems.
But the more they're driven, the less they have the issues.
Yeah, they're like they're a pretty good motor.
But you know, they don't like the factory one isn't super trusted in the aftermarket
or in the resale market, I mean, so like you're going to get 20 to 30 to 40,000 bucks,
but swapped ones. There's been like swapped 997s going for like $120,000.
Really?
Yeah, swapped 996 has gone for like 60, 70, 80,000 bucks. It's so crazy.
So yeah, it feels like a safe place to like cost a little bit of money.
And I needed like after I sold the fit, I was like, I'll just like use my truck,
my work trucks for like my, you know, for getting groceries and doing stuff.
And like actually, and kind of kind of sucks because my work trucks always tied to a trailer.
And that was a dumb idea.
Like my buddy's son bought the fit because he wanted the fit.
And I thought, well, fits for sale if somebody wants it.
But yeah, fit was a good car.
I kind of miss like how useful they are as like a car.
But I really, really needed to be stoked about something.
And I think I'm there.
Yeah, I think he found it.
Now I want one.
It might be my last, you already have one.
Yeah, it's just different.
Air-cooled 911 is not fast.
No, no, probably not that fast, but they're not that slow either.
I mean, my S2000 was faster.
What, how much power does that, yours is what a 964?
No, no, it's like a 930 style chassis.
Like it's a G body. So it's an 84.
Oh, really? I thought 84 was 964.
964.
No, that was, that started like 8990.
So the 964 has coral overs.
This still has torsion bars.
It's like the last generation of torsion bar car.
So I just, I actually just put a Yakima roof rack on it today.
Nice. You drive it a lot or no?
Not really. I put new wheels and tires on it last year.
But really just don't drive it a ton.
Like it's, it's okay, but like it needs all the bushings.
It needs a lot of work for me to get it to where I want it to be.
Right.
And it's just not a priority at the moment.
Right. Is that what, is that where like the TSX will come in
and you can go rip up the tail of the dragon, all that crap or no?
Oh yeah. It's already been up there three times and I've owned it.
Good for you.
So it definitely, it's definitely camber deficient.
Yeah.
So like the factory camber on the TSX is an adjustable.
So it's got like a half a degree in the front
and that doesn't make it the most fun.
No, you might need, you're going to wear the outside edges real fast.
Yeah. So I actually, I talked to James Houghton like twice last week,
once for like an hour, and then another time for like 30 minutes,
where essentially James, James told me, he goes, you know,
if you're going to be at the dragon more than like once a month,
like maybe you should sell it and buy an SI, like it's like it's 500 pounds lighter.
You can easily make power. The aftermarket's way stronger.
Yeah.
So pretty good chassis.
Yeah. Yeah. I just, I feel like such an adult driving a nice like comfy TSX.
TSX's are pretty great though. They're pretty great.
I'm pretty impressed with it.
They were unique. I've never actually driven one in like myself.
Saddened.
Come on. Come on down, dude.
The road trip like desire to like go to the dragon is very high now.
Yeah.
Much higher than it was in the past.
It should be.
I've got almost 500 miles on this car. I kind of trust it.
So we're getting there.
We're getting there.
I mean, what's the worst that could happen?
You have to call a tow truck. No big deal.
I just like fill the whole frunk with tools and yeah,
call a tow truck if something breaks.
Yeah. It's like your own personal one lap of America.
Yeah. The last time I've only driven and tailed the dragon one time
with Matt Williams, the greatest tour guide of all time.
Early, early morning at like we left at like six o'clock
and then like went to what is it?
Topoco Lodge and then drove around some of the other roads
and like one of the greatest mornings like ever and he had his fit.
I had mine and I just I had no idea where I was.
And I knew I could hit if I hit the same like line as him,
I'd probably be fine.
And so I just did everything that he did.
It was so it was so fun.
Like it was like that was actual, actual fun.
I love it down here.
Like I can, you know, leave the house and within 20 minutes
be in like some of the best driving roads in the country.
Yeah. So pretty.
So even if you spend much time there, I have spent no time.
Oh, you should probably go down there sometime.
It's so pretty.
So the whole area is just unbelievable.
I can't go because I would want to ride my bike
and all the car people would make it lethal for bike people.
Actually, so there there's one ride they've been like May
called the Charahela challenge.
It's like 120 mile loop and you go and you do like the main driving loop
essentially, but on a bicycle.
That sounds excellent.
It's as a car and motorcycle person.
It is my least favorite Saturday of the season
because there's a bike streaming through there for like hours.
Did you get people from like all different types of skill?
I'm into that decent amount of climbing.
You were through the dragon.
And then you go the back way over to the Charahela Skyway,
which last year Hagerty named the Charahela Skyway
as their their road of the year, which is a really good road.
You go up to almost 6,000 feet.
It's like 5,800 feet.
So yeah.
So yeah.
It's so cool up there.
Yeah.
So you were talking about James Houghton.
I talk with James.
I don't know three, four times a week probably.
And all we all we do is talk about exercise
and he said that man's been running so much.
He sent me two texts today
because I had a new achievement unlocked.
My current recorded resting heart rate today was 47.
And he and I are in a competition
to see who could get it to go the lowest.
Yeah.
That's a pretty good competition.
Yeah.
That's it's been so impressive watching you guys
go from being like regular old dads to being definitely better
than regular old dads.
So very, very impressive.
We need to do like a grid life to Cathalon
where like you have to do some physical stuff
but you also have to like change an intake manifold and like instead of the shooting
you have to like swap a K motor into something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's the Cathalon.
That'd be a pretty fun.
Yeah.
Sponsored by K Power Industries.
Oh, there we go.
He tells how to toss a few bucks at it.
Yeah.
It would actually be a really fun thing to do
on like a night at the track.
Do 100 miles on whatever racetrack we're at
and then yeah, then you have to rebuild a K24.
Or like you put together a team, right?
And it's like a relay one.
You know, there's been a lot more running and biking in the paddock
as like our general paddock age gets older.
Like the amount of drivers like consuming crazy amounts of alcohol has gone down
and the amount of drivers like putting on exercise gear at 5.30 or 6 o'clock
and like running the track or whatever.
I think that might say something about the level of competition at the events though.
Like I don't for sure that the driving is generally really, really good.
And I don't think people are just winging it anymore.
No, this is not 2019 anymore.
Kind of wish it was 2019 was pretty fun.
But that people are taking it very seriously.
Thinking about how out of shape I was when I was driving was pretty quick.
I wonder how fast I would have been if I was actually in shape.
Yeah, and if you were like mentally all there and you and I weren't staying up till 5am playing
with the PA.
And me not having a machine gun cough.
Yeah, you were smoking like crazy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, very different times, very different times.
So what?
I think Houghton's, while continuing that thing, I think Houghton's down probably 50 pounds.
He went from like 147 to like 199.
Yeah, that's what he told me when I talked to him last week.
Yeah, it's since like the last time he's been to an event, which is insane.
Yeah, yeah, he's going to need more ballast.
Yeah, Abe's training for like his big crazy bike race, which I think we talked about last time.
Yeah, the last time we recorded a show was in December.
So yeah, it's been a few months.
Yeah, I'm like, you know, I was telling Austin, I'm in a little bit weird spot
because I'm still trying to bring my weight down a little bit, but I'm having to manage
like the biggest and most challenging workouts of my life multiple times per week.
So like every workout that I do, I do three hard workouts a week
and usually I'll hit a personal best in something during that workout.
And so like, imagine, you know, six times a week you do some of the hardest workouts
you've ever done and you're trying to lose weight, it's hard.
Yeah, that sounds brutal, dude.
So, you know, Abe, when you start riding outside in the heat,
I think you probably have a couple more pounds of water weight you could lose.
I mean, I'm like, I know my sweat rate at least inside.
And I've got a pretty good idea on how much I need to take in.
And you're like, you're talking to a person that thinks compulsively for a living.
And so I try to prepare for everything, but we'll see.
I think it's compulsively.
No, like I have to analyze everything.
I mean, I have never heard.
I've never heard you put it that way.
That's where that's that gives me insight into the mind of Abe.
You have compulsive liars and then you have compulsive thinkers.
So yeah, you're still excited about about the big race.
Yes, I told us and I'm not maybe I should be more worried,
but at the moment I'm not concerned about being able to finish.
I think right now my head is at how fast can I go?
The competition in you, you haven't like competed in much in like the last eight,
nine years.
How intense is like your desire to compete versus like back when you were trying to do
one lap America?
I mean, like this is relative, right?
This is a this is a professional bike race and the some of the best riders in the world
will be there.
It's not like I'm going to be an also ran relative to those things.
But maybe within an age group or something like that, I'll be pretty strong.
Probably.
I mean, like I would guess upper 50 percent.
I mean, just finishing this race is a big deal.
So, so Austin, right now my threshold power like my watts per kilo is like 4.25.
Yes, you should be at five pretty soon.
I mean, five would be like a serious, serious accomplishment.
I don't know if I can get there or not.
My power is pretty close, but my weight I'm about, I don't know, 15 pounds heavy.
So like it'll be if I can get there by May, that would be a surprise.
It's too bad cycling doesn't put you in a like a power to weight class.
I mean, it sort of already does, right?
This this ride is this ride is about 11,000 feet of climbing.
So being high watts per kilo is already an advantage.
Yeah, power to weight brings you from Sunday Cup up to like GLGT.
Yeah.
So I was listening to a podcast recently where like,
I think Bogacha was like accidentally posted some of his training.
Yeah, it's it's a bonkers and I'm like a zone to ride.
He was like an average of like 320 watts.
And you're just like, wait, what?
So for context, I have my zone to ride for tomorrow is let's see.
Where are we at?
I'm looking at today's my zone to ride tomorrow is 218 watts.
Yeah.
And that's this.
This is a pro world tour rider, but he's he's riding the same level of effort,
but 50 percent more.
Yeah, it's just insane.
That's how conditioned he is.
Yeah, the guy weighs like 145 pounds and he has the output of a like,
I don't even know, like a linebacker or something like that.
It's it's crazy.
And he can put it out for hours on end.
Like I think this was like a five hour ride that he could accidentally like posted his steps.
That's so that's crazy.
Some people are speculating that he didn't post it by accident.
He posted it to like mess with other riders minds.
Yeah, just just a flex.
It's I mean, I've really, really gotten to enjoy watching professional cycling and the
the the strategic element that comes from your body being the motor
makes the racing so unbelievably interesting.
Like racing cars is absolutely interesting.
I love watching automobile racing.
But when you when you add a person to it as the primary like force to move,
like managing fatigue and when to attack and how to to pace and all of these things
is another layer of complexity that is to me just really, really cool.
The the first time I heard you talk about bike racing, I think was at CMP this year.
And and you were just describing and you got me stoked about it in the way you were talking about it.
It's it's fun to see my friends be into a thing.
I haven't obviously watched a lot of competitive cycling, but it's it's cool to hear your friends
be into stuff like that.
And I can understand why you would be.
Are we are we going to go to Kansas and cheer a bond and that would be great.
Kansas, I'm not opposed to going to Kansas.
It kind of fun.
There's some racetracks kind of out that way.
It's not that far from the heartland, but I'll care about racetracks right now.
Wait, did I hear that Heartland's like going to be a track again?
The dragster for sure, TBD on the road course, but probably.
Yeah, the the IHRA, I think, bought it up, which is funded by a dude who builds
all kinds of crazy stuff for AI.
That's weird.
Hopefully he's not just buying everything up and holding real estate so that he can convert
convert it all to data center someday.
Oh, that is like that.
That is a couple of people's theory is that like because this dude builds data centers
like for a living, that maybe he's just converting that money into long term holdings
of like, hey, look at this great place we could build a data center.
Probably not.
It seems like he's actually into racing.
He actually bought IHRA, the sanctioning body.
The whole sanctioning body.
Yeah, he bought the whole thing.
Nice.
Yeah, so so you could say things are getting a little serious.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Well, what else is new?
I got I got one more thing to talk about it because I want me to tell you a story.
Yeah, I want to hear a story.
And I have I've told the story in one way or another to both of you, but I haven't.
It's going to come out tomorrow in Forbes, Forbes online, I think they're writing an
article, they have an exclusive article about this new group that's being formed.
But so we met this dude at Midwest Festival.
I can remember where I met him.
I was sitting on a golf cart.
I think I was trying to tell a couple of rush drivers like how to drive better and not crash
into each other.
And like, and then Hershen, Michael Hershen walks up to me and he's like, hey, this is a
guy who's telling me about James Schieffer's.
And so this this dude James Schieffer, his background is that he he ran a big ad agency
and they did a ton of automotive stuff.
His he's like third generation automotive dude, his day, his grandfather like was one
of the founders of SEMA and the first SEMA Hall of Famer, like founded like the first
aftermarket and like biggest aftermarket clutch glomerate, you know, way back in the
I don't know, 40s, 50s.
His dad was a national drag racer.
Like I think he was a national champion in some class.
But yeah, kind of the ad agency world worked in and so people that don't know about ad
agencies, like often they are like kind of the they do so many different things like
Partly an ad agency because like we have customers and clients that like use our events as
like activation platforms to like create content and like generate their advertising
and to like market to their perspective customers like, you know, our spectators,
our drivers, our live stream viewers or whatever.
So like we're part agency, I guess you could say and that's like Chris's background.
So this dude had gotten out of the ad agency world.
I think they sold the company and it was like trying to figure out the next part of his life
is like want to do something fun, had a bunch of friends who like wanted to do cool fun things
and put together a group that has like paired up a few different companies.
Good life being one of them.
And the other one is ID agency, which is like Ford's agent, one of Ford's ad agencies and
they're like run the Mattel, Mattel Hot Wheels tour thing for the last, I think this is their
ninth year run that which was supposed to only be like a one year project and turned out to be
like a big car culture thing. And yeah, just does they do a lot of stuff in like the same
kind of spaces that we do and they work for a lot of our partners and stuff like that.
That's how we've got to know them. And then Racer Magazine slash like MAV TV, Racer TV.
So this new group, which we'll be a part of is hopefully going to kind of stabilize and solidify
grid life long term. That's kind of like the goal, which is like grid life forever,
grid life for the next 20 years is the goal because we see how much the drivers and crew
and everybody has built their lives around this. For a lot of people, grid life is what they do
and the rest of it is just getting to grid life, which when you see that, especially up close and
in person, which you guys have both seen that for years, it's not an insignificant thing. So
we take it pretty seriously. And being a small business, especially the last three or four years
has been like really hard. And now we are a small business that is part of a bigger business.
And they want to take us to like the next level, spectator wise, presentation wise,
grid life is going to be on cable, grid life is going to be on the fast app.
It should be a much better opportunity for like all of our drivers to like sell partnerships
and like blow this up for them so that they can get the cost of racing helped out by the people
that they partner with, which a lot of our drivers have done. But yet, the long and short of it is
like grid life forever versus like, hey, we're trying. So really, like, I haven't been this excited
about something in probably since COVID, since like, you know, that kind of took a lot of the
wind out of the sales for for event business. And I feel like I feel like the sky isn't falling,
I feel like the clouds just kind of parted and I'm really, really excited to have, you know,
to be working with a lot of these people are like, like, it feels like we've known them forever.
And they don't want to do anything to change anything that grid life does, they just want
to amplify it and and like make it better and make it better. It's not private equity. It's
it's like, actually, there's like no debt involved. It's it's it's like a family of like
actual IMSA racers that is some of the funding behind this. And like, they want to build motor
sports for the next generation. And they saw us as like, one of the places to do that or like the
place to do that. So I think grid life might keep going guys. It's pretty pretty awesome.
So you're telling me if I would have kept announcing I could have been on MAV TV.
Yeah, dude. Yeah.
Kyle is the most stoked about like the opportunities in not not just like in that world,
but like just to just to like legitimize and like just because I mean, Kyle cares about our
drivers like probably more than he cares about many things in the world. And he cares about the
broadcast so much. It's like his heart and soul. And I hear he's really, really, really stoked about
it. Yeah. So this is like the culmination of like a lot of hard work from a lot of people.
And like this, this, this, yeah, just it makes it to where it can go on forever. And like,
and we get to actually run it instead of just like stare at the books all day and be stressed.
It, yeah, if we're going to, if we're going to have fun doing this again, this is how we do it.
We do it with like the backing and partnership of like some, some really smart and really
talented people. Just it's very exciting. So let me give you a canned question.
What can grid life drivers expect to be the same? And is there anything they can expect
that it will be different? The same
in all the good ways, like hopefully everything in all the bad ways, like we're changing up,
ticketing, obviously we, we have the new driver portal, all the stuff that we talked about at
state of the grid, which has been way better already, like already it's so much better,
which that's, that's been a ton of work by the aforementioned Kyle, especially building out a
lot of the, like the boring parts of interacting with grid life as a driver, like the, the registration
and, you know, the stuff you have to do licensing, blah, blah, blah. He's done such a great job on
that. And what can they expect to be different? I mean, hopefully crowd sizes, spectators will be
bigger. Music acts, hopefully long-term get bigger. Racer and, and the team and ID have,
like they've really wanted to like get more into like the event space. HPDEs coming back
are a thing that, that will probably be rolling out in the next year or two or more like club
style events. That's a goal. Like one of our big goals is sort of to like in the proper way do what
we really swung really hard to do in 22, 23, 24, you know, support some of the festival rounds
with like a couple of club style rounds. And that's, that's really hard to do in your tiny team.
But growing the driver base as well, like bringing the community from, you know, from all over
together at, you know, a Laguna or a Lime Rock is, is still obviously going to happen. But like
building that community and supporting that community and keeping ticket prices as low as
possible versus like, Hey, this is hard to make money. You guys want to give us another 500 bucks
this weekend? Like we can't keep doing that even though tracks are like trying to demand
five, 10, 20% more year over year. So yeah, it's going to take a certain level of effort.
And, and now I think we might have the team to do that, which is so cool. It's, it feels like
Chris keeps saying it's like, it's like serendipity, like it couldn't have happened at a more perfect
time with more perfect people. And like, we don't, it feels lucky, like it feels like we're way too
lucky to have this happen because, because we haven't had a ton of luck. We've had to like make
all of our luck. And like, this wasn't something we sought out. It was something that like some
people were like, Hey, let's go talk to them. And them was us. And this is like eight months in the
works. And like, if it wasn't right for the drivers, if it wasn't right for the team, if like, we
wouldn't have done it. But yeah, it gives you know, gives a lot of gives a lot of things to be
smiling and hopeful about which I've had to fight for smiles out of myself lately. And
yeah, I'm like, it feels like it's exciting. Like I haven't been excited in a long time.
Really, really stoked to be excited.
That's a huge. Yeah, gigantic.
Yeah, whatever, whatever, whatever people want to take from that, they can. But
I think a lot of the success and like the cool parts of grid life are because the people behind it
really wanted it would like a lot of us, we wanted to make the best possible weekend ever.
We wanted to like build the event that we wanted to go to. And when you like,
when you like owe the world a couple million dollars, it's like hard to be stoked about things.
Yeah, we needed a little bit of, we needed a like, we needed serendipity. And I think it,
I think it showed up, which is so cool. So I'm excited to see the changes.
Good life forever is the plan, man. It's going to be awesome.
It's a new hashtag.
Yeah, yeah, we're throwing big expensive events, you know, like these big expensive events,
like they need to be successful. And when you compare with like the longest term,
like serious motorsports magazine and a cable TV channel and like a giant ad agency
to make your and like the number one thing that they want to do is like build youth,
you build young motorsports and like enthusiasm and like,
and not capitalize, but like keep growing kind of a wave that like Drive to Survive started to
make. And like F1 is experiencing like Liberty Media has like changed F1 so much. And like,
you know, you're walking into like TJ Maxx and there's like, you know, car t-shirts everywhere
and like every target's got car t-shirts and like motorsports is really cool right now.
And young people think it's cool. All the grid life stuff, it's like one of the most
approachable forms of motorsport. Like F1 is cool, but like it's so far out of budget,
even just to go to an event and watch. Yeah, those cars don't look like anything in your
driveway. And there's, there's a layer on top of that too, Austin. Let's say you buy a ticket to
an F1 event, unlike going to IMSA or NHRA or anything else, literally the only time you see
the car is during an active session. And unless you have a lot of money, you're not going to get
anywhere near one the whole weekend. Yeah. The thing that like made me think, oh, maybe they're
right because we've been talking with this with these people for a while. This like just came
together a couple of weeks ago, finally came together. But I was, I took Emma to an Emma's
11. And so she's, you know, sixth grade took her to a skating party. Her school had a skating
party at the local roller rink. And so there's like hundreds of kids just skating in circles.
And I didn't have enough fingers to count how many kids are wearing like car t-shirts, like
our 32 or 34 GTR t-shirt and like Honda t-shirt and a Mazda t-shirt. And like,
it was very eye-opening to see like a little bit of like car curious automotive enthusiasm
in like grade schoolers. It's pretty wild. And like, every time I go and like go to, they have
like a doughnuts for dudes thing for dads or for, you know, for the dudes in the kids' lives
before school a couple times a year. And like, there's like a bunch of car guys there. And like,
we just talk about car BS. Like, cars are still cool. Cars are, the sport's not dead.
And I had started to like kill it in my mind. Like, I was personally like,
rebelling against some of the drama of 2025 and 2024. And like, I was, I was kind of getting
done with it. I was mad about a lot of it. And a lot of it is just like, just being, you turn it
into your job. And like, so it's not the thing you love. If it's not going great, or if it's really
hard, like you're going to start resenting it, right? And it has been really hard ever since
COVID especially. It's been hard. It has not been easy. And like, when our prices have effectively
like doubled since then, because our input costs have doubled, because insurance is insane and
track rentals are insane. And ambulances that, what an ambulance cost at Willow Springs in 2019,
Austin, like $200 a day. Yeah, it really wasn't that expensive at all. And now last time we went
there was $1,100 a day. Like, everything is getting insane. Like it's, and this is for
like talking about like the blast from the past stuff, right? Like my buddy told me what he paid
for the Jay Zilla day that he's doing in Rotolana. And that's what I used to pay for a weekend for a
two day event. There was, there's a small like small track event at Audubon North. Audubon North
it's just Audubon North. So what five turns? Yeah, it's the one that it's the basic track.
Still fun. Yeah, it's fun. That's pretty high high speed in a couple spots actually. But Audubon
North days, like off season, we're talking like early April, or like $300. And there's so many
like $600, $700 track days now, just because like that's kind of what it has to cost if you want to
do it a certain way. The old gingerman like Tuesday test and tune days for like 80 bucks.
Yeah. People are, people are wondering like, oh man, camping is expensive at gingerman if you buy
power. Well, yeah, like to buy out all the power to my recollection, like buying out all the power
used to cost was like $7,000. And like it's like four times that now. It's just like it's getting
expensive. It's like everything in the world. Yeah, it's just expensive to have people,
property taxes have doubled, tripled, quadrupled, insurance is nuts. Like, okay, we want to keep
doing this. Let's keep doing it. But I was starting to get like worried about sustainability
of any of this. But if we can make it really cool, then it starts to work again. I mean,
if we can make it attractive and a place that these companies want to be, because they can make
money too, we have to keep building this economy. You know what I mean? But I think too, based on
like just the cost of everything, tires, entry fees, all of that, you're seeing a much larger
dedication from the people that are actually doing it. Oh yeah, yeah, it's a lot less casual.
It's yeah, it's a lot more of a financial burden now than it was back 10, 15 years ago.
So yeah, we'll see where it goes. But I think good life might be in a really good spot,
like long term, to be the place that we all kind of daydream that it could be. You know what I
mean? So is there going to be coverage of good life events in Race for Magazine now then?
There already has been off and on, but yeah, there will be consistent coverage.
We'll be on the cable channel. A lot of little details being hashed out, but yeah, very excited
about that. I mean, that'll be a huge upsell for drivers that want to go to sponsors, you know?
Yeah, for sure, that. There's just so much more, there's so many more companies that like those
companies also work with that would fit really good in our paddock and companies we work with
that could use the other company's services. The Venn diagram overlaps, but it's not all
just one circle. Between the three companies, we work with a lot of people and we know a lot of
people and yeah, we need this influx of talent and enthusiasm and it's coming at the right time.
I'm most excited about it for the driver's sake, for long-term stability sake. I'm most excited
for like our team because like they see our team as being like kind of like a super group,
like they're really excited about the people that work with us and for us and yeah, it's
going to be really good. Ask them if they want to partner with the podcast.
We have to keep doing the podcast. We did that.
Well, Austin's back now, so it should be easier. Yeah, we'll keep going.
It might be a lot easier to do a car podcast when I'm stoked about cars that might actually be part
of it. I fixed one part of it by having a car that I'm kind of stoked on and being able to go
street drive and I might have fixed the other part of it or had the other part fixed for me
by like taking away a lot of this pressure that like I felt, Chris felt, Michael felt like we're
just kind of battling against a lot of years of swinging really hard and trying really hard.
Yeah, there was a lot of pressure. It became like daunting and overwhelming. It was hard.
It's not fun anymore. I mean, that's kind of where I was like in my life when I was doing all the
speed venture stuff and all the grid life stuff and the podcast and like it was a lot.
Yes. And like one day suddenly you just wanted to run away and get motorcycles.
Like one day you just thought, I remember the day of texting with you. It was like a switch
it flipped for you. Yeah, I remember it like distinctly. I was sitting at Laguna Seca at a
speed venture event going like, yeah, I just don't, I'm not enjoying this anymore. Like I do.
And I texted Abe. I was like, dude, Abe, like, do you want to start doing the podcast with Adam
like instead of me? Man, I've been on this show quite a bit longer than you have. So.
I've been on the show quite a bit too long. So I might say.
Boys, I have to get ready for bed because my work day tomorrow starts at 7.15. So I got to
get some sleep and Austin was telling me I got to prioritize my recovery a little bit more than I
currently. Yep. Yep. You're going to hurt yourself. I only got two more months, I think.
Well, three months and end of May is the race and then May. Yep. So Austin is that Memorial Day
weekend? I don't know. Is it okay? I think it might be. Okay. So Austin, last year I set a goal
for myself that I would ride 4,000 miles by the end of the year. And that was up from 1100 in 2024.
Okay. In October, in October of 25. Did you hit 4,000? I hit 4,000. So I bumped to like,
I just pushed myself to try and do more than five. And I finished at like 5100 something.
And if I keep pace with how many miles per week I'm doing below that out of the water,
that's only 100 miles a week. Yeah. I'm averaging like 160 a week now.
Yeah. So that's what I was doing at my peak. And I think now I'm only doing like a little over 100.
So so far this year I have done, let's see, year to date, 1500 miles.
Okay. So yeah, I'm we're only at the beginning of March. So my volume is up 131 percent.
Now the battle is going to be once it becomes outdoor riding weather, are you going to be able
to sneak in six days a week riding outside? Are you going to be on the trainer? We're going to
sidestep for a little bike talk here, Adam. I had to go to bed. I do, but I do like to talk about
bikes. When it comes to bikes, it'll stay up all night. So I think about my riding as the
training happening happens on the trainer indoors and fun leisure like joy that comes outside.
And so probably one to two big outdoor rides per week, but most of it inside because
Austin, do you know, do you know the training figure, the like the training stress score,
the TSS? No. Well, relative to your FTP, your TSS like assesses or the TSS of a workout assesses
how much like fatigue or stress a ride gives relative to your current level of fitness.
And so the higher the number, the more volume per week you're doing. And right now my TSS is as
high as it's ever been and my T my FTP is as high as it's ever been. So like I'm doing most workouts
for 90 minutes and I'm doing between four and six of them a week. And so like if I need to make
best use of that time, it's easiest to do it on the trainer because it like all of that work is
structured. It's quite a bit less fun, but like, yeah, you're a lot more efficient with your time
though, like you don't have to load the car up and drive and then go ride and then pack everything
back up. Yeah. And like, I can say this now, I know that I'm not like fast, but I am faster than
I have ever been. When I go out and like I'm just kind of pushing a little bit, I'm going fast enough
that there aren't that many places around here that are so unobstructed that you're not breaking
for a stop sign or an interchange or like having a car pass or do this, that or the other versus
like right now when I just do it on the trainer, I can I can do 220 Watts or whatever for 20 minutes
and not have to worry about slowing down. Do you have any big bike trails and stuff around here?
It's mostly road stuff around here. The big gravel route that I want to take is the one I did at
Christmas time, but it's about an hour from here. So later in March or April, come down,
we can go do some gravel stuff. I'll follow you on my motorcycle because I'm not in this
but don't you don't you have a gravelly bike? The range. Yeah, but like if we're going to go for
like 40 miles and we're going to do like 5000 feet of elevation, I'm going to kill that battery
about halfway through. I want to do like 100 miles and 10,000 feet of elevation.
Yeah, I'll just I'll be your SAG on the on the motorcycle. Sick. But we can totally do it. I
mean, there's 200 miles of gravel road 20 minutes from the house. That's awesome. So
like support vehicle. I'll even carry spare tires for you, spare wheels.
Sick. So if you get a puncture in two weeks, I leave. I'm going to Italy just outside of Milan.
I'll be there when I heard you're taking a bicycle to from somebody named James Houghton.
I'm taking my bike. Yeah. So I'll be there. I'll be in Italy the 15th, 16th and 17th.
If the weather is nice, I'll ride north like toward Lake Como, but it'll probably be cold.
But I bought some winter gear to hopefully ride and then from the 18th to the 24th,
I'll be in the south of Germany and I plan to do a whole bunch of training rides on my indoor
trainer, but also ride in the Alps. Are you taking your trainer with you?
I have a unit that is semi portable. Yeah. So like, I mean, rollers are a little more portable.
It's more portable than that. Okay. I'll send you, I'll bump the chat with a picture,
a picture of Sloan riding actually. But this like collapses so that it easily fits into a
like a carry on. So nice. I'm going to be gone long enough that I can't take two weeks off to
do work stuff. No, even taking a week off without riding like at that level is very detrimental.
Agreed. So I just bumped the chat. This is the portable setup and it packs super nice actually.
Oh, well. So it's like a progressive resistance. As the wheel speed goes up, you've got an
exponential increase in power required. I took this to the hotel with us in January and like
can easily like a steady state do 300 Watts. It's not too loud. Like it's a little mini,
mini rollers. I mean, and feedback sports. That's good stuff. Yeah, it's super nice.
So this will go into my check luggage and then I've got a bike bag to take the bag and all that
stuff. So okay. So then I don't have to take two weeks off because two weeks off is a killer.
Nerd. I love how stoked it is. I know. Well, Adam, you should know that I'm like particularly goal
oriented and you know, I have a goal and I am basically singularly focused on it. I want to
get it done and then we'll find something else to focus on. Yeah, what happens June 1st? I might
sign up for big sugar. Big sugar registration opens today and has another big ride that I'd
like to do. Yeah. Where's that at? Bentonville, Arkansas. Like bicycling capital of the United
States now. Bentonville is really cool. I've never been. It's really sweet, man. Like you could hop
on your bike there and not even have to have a car to get anywhere. Sick. You should probably go
ride by Austin's house though. Some of the coolest roads, man. So beautiful. I think I should go
ride by Austin's. It's probably not even that far. It's probably like what, sub four hours?
It's probably about five. I'm into it. I'm picturing it being closer than that.
So you go over to Lexington or down to Nashville and then over.
Nashville is three from my house. So it's probably faster if you go to Lexington. To me,
to get to my mom and sister's house, it's three and a half to get to their house or about three
15. So because you're on the, you're on the east side of correct. So I would just go toward Lexington
and then south on 75 door Knoxville. Yes. So it might only be. Yeah. So go, go to Lexington and
just 75 south and once you get to Lexington, about three hours, 15 minutes. Okay. So it's
another hour. Yeah. It will drive them there too. I don't have any fast cars. I only have
minivan. You have a Tesla. Tesla runs like at 11 second quarter mile. Yeah, I know,
but minivan can fit bikes inside. So that's true. Minivan's probably faster. Probably faster.
Minivan will readily do a hundred on the way to road America and I'm not driving. Ashley's like,
I guess I should slow down. Ashley's a bad bitch, man. It's a good one. All right, man. It's good
to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us again. I hope that we record many more and
good night, everyone. Thanks for listening. Cool. Slip angle was created by Austin Cabot and Adam
Jubay co-hosted by Derek Yarbrough and production by Abram Schmucker, who mixes all of our terrible
audio. If you like the show, please rate it and review us on iTunes and come and find us in the
pit of the grid. Like to say hello.
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