The Toyota GR 86 is a small two-door sports car. It’s built to be fun to drive, especially on twisty roads. The podcast mentions it because it’s part of a lineup change and may be for sale.
The BMW M5 is a fast, performance-focused BMW sedan. It’s meant to drive like a normal car day to day, but with much stronger power. The podcast brings it up because it’s being moved or replaced in their lineup.
This is a classic BMW coupe (the 633 CSI) from around 1980. It’s a rear-wheel-drive BMW with a smooth, old-school feel, and the host says theirs is mostly original and not heavily modified.
This means the car uses a stick shift with four forward gears. You have to shift more often than in newer cars, which can make it feel more hands-on while driving.
In car-speak, “original” usually means it still has a lot of its factory parts and look. The host is saying this BMW still feels very close to how it was when new.
The head unit is the car’s main stereo screen and controls. It’s what you use to play music, and older ones may rely on CDs instead of phone streaming.
A CD changer is a device that holds several CDs and lets the car automatically switch between them. It’s an older type of music system compared with Bluetooth and streaming.
The BMW M6 is a performance BMW meant for fast driving with more comfort than a typical sports car. It’s a bigger, more “grand touring” style car. The podcast brings it up because someone saw one at a classic car dealer.
The odometer is the number that shows how many miles the car has traveled. If it’s broken, the mileage display may not be accurate, which makes it harder to judge the car’s history.
Term
force speed manual
They’re describing a manual gearbox that feels strange in how the gears are spaced. It sounds like the car doesn’t change engine speed the way you’d expect, so it can feel like you’re mostly stuck in one “main” gear.
RPM tells you how fast the engine is spinning. They’re saying that at normal city speeds, the engine isn’t revving very high because the gearing keeps it calm.
Term
gears make no difference
This is describing how the car’s power/torque makes it easy to drive without worrying much about which gear you’re in. In practice, a torquey engine can pull strongly from low rpm, so the driver can stay flexible and “just get it going” rather than constantly shifting.
“Keep it stock” means leaving the car’s factory configuration unchanged—no aftermarket engine, suspension, wheels, or other modifications. Enthusiasts often choose this to preserve originality, maintain predictable behavior, and protect the car’s value.
BBS is a well-known wheel brand (German-made) that’s popular with enthusiasts because its wheels are typically lightweight and strong. When someone says they want “BBS wheels,” they usually mean upgrading the car’s look and handling feel with a higher-quality, performance-oriented rim.
“Slam it” is car-culture slang for lowering a car’s ride height so the wheels sit closer to the fenders. It’s usually done with suspension changes (commonly lowering springs or coilovers), and it can make the car look more aggressive, though it may reduce ride comfort and increase scraping risk.
Hail damage is when hail hits the car and dents the metal. It can also hurt the paint, and repairs can get pricey even if the engine and drivetrain are fine.
Term
clear code issues
This sounds like the car is throwing error codes on its computer, and they’re not going away cleanly. That can mean something is wrong with a sensor or another electronic component.
The BMW M3 is a high-performance BMW made for driving hard and handling well. It’s the kind of car people talk about when they care about how it feels behind the wheel. In the podcast, they’re saying it’s working and ready to drive again.
A shakedown is like a first test to make sure everything is working before you push the car harder. It’s meant to find issues early, not after you’re already committed.
Elkhart Lake is the area in Wisconsin that’s home to Road America. If someone says they might not make it to Elkhart Lake, they mean they might not be able to get to the track.
A regular track day is when people go to a race track for driving sessions. Here, they’re saying the car got more hard use than it normally would in a typical day.
A booster delete means removing the brake assist that helps you press the brake pedal. After that, you have to push harder, and the pedal usually feels more direct. It’s a common mod when someone wants a more “mechanical” driving feel.
The master cylinder is the part that turns your brake pedal push into brake pressure. When it’s the main thing doing the work (like after a booster delete), the pedal can feel firmer and more direct. You’re relying more on your leg strength.
ABS is the system that stops your wheels from locking when you brake hard. Without ABS, it’s easier to lose traction and slide, especially on wet or loose roads. On track, some drivers prefer the more direct feel.
Stability control is the system that helps stop the car from sliding or spinning out by automatically braking individual wheels and reducing power. Turning it off means the car won’t correct itself as much. That can make driving feel more direct, but it’s riskier on low-grip surfaces.
Traction control helps prevent the drive wheels from spinning when you accelerate. If you turn it off, the car can spin the tires more easily, and you’re relying on your throttle control. That can feel more connected for experienced drivers.
“Basically manual” here means the car isn’t using as many electronic safety helpers. So you have to control braking and traction yourself. It can feel more connected, but you need to be careful because the car won’t step in as much.
It means you press the brake pedal yourself, and the car doesn’t do as much of the work for you. That can make the pedal feel different and require more leg effort. It’s the kind of setup you might see on track-focused cars.
When you brake too hard, the wheels can stop spinning and start sliding. That usually makes the car harder to steer. The host is saying they couldn’t make the wheels slide like that.
“Sticky tires” are tires that grip the road really well. When they’re warm, they often grip even better. That extra grip helps the car brake and turn without sliding.
All-season tires are made to be decent in many kinds of weather instead of being best in just one season. They usually don’t grip as aggressively as performance tires when you drive hard. The host is saying tire choice can change how the car behaves.
Front rotors are the metal discs the brake pads squeeze to slow the car down. If you brake hard over and over, they can get damaged or crack. The host is saying their front brake discs cracked after heavy use.
Term
dead brake
A “dead brake” means the brakes aren’t working right, so you don’t get the stopping power you expect. If you keep pushing the pedal anyway, you can overheat and damage the other brake parts. The host is implying that’s what happened.
The windshield is the front glass you look through while driving. If it cracks, it usually needs replacement for safety and visibility. The host is saying the crack was bad enough to replace it, but it wasn’t a bigger problem.
Track days are events where people drive their cars on a real race track instead of public roads. Since everyone’s going fast and there can be debris, small damage like windshield chips can happen.
A “chip” here means a small spot where something hit the windshield. On a track day, that tiny spot can grow into a bigger crack because of the stress from driving fast.
Road America is a famous race track in the U.S. It has lots of twists and elevation changes, so it’s a great place for track days and events where people drive their cars hard in a controlled setting.
The Mazda RX-7 is a sports car made by Mazda. It’s known for having a rotary engine, which is different from what most cars use. The podcast is praising it as a great-looking, desirable car.
The drain plug is where oil comes out during an oil change, and the gasket is the rubber/metal seal that keeps it from leaking. If you see small oil leaks, checking the drain plug gasket is a good first step.
A metering pump is like a fuel “measuring” pump—it helps the engine get the right amount of fuel. If it doesn’t meter correctly, the car can stumble or run poorly, especially when you’re asking for more power.
A carburetor is the part that mixes fuel and air for the engine. If it’s dirty or out of adjustment, the engine can run unevenly or stumble, especially when you accelerate.
The catalytic converter cleans up exhaust gases. If it gets clogged or starts failing, the engine can feel off and the car may show warning lights because the exhaust isn’t behaving normally.
That light is the car’s way of saying the exhaust is getting hotter or behaving differently than expected. If it only flashes for a moment, the cause may be intermittent—like a sensor glitch or a temporary fueling/misfire issue.
This sensor checks how much coolant is in the cooling system. If it’s leaking or not reading correctly, the car may warn you and you could run low on coolant, which can lead to overheating.
The radiator is what helps keep the engine from overheating by cooling the coolant. If you see coolant residue around it, it often means something is leaking.
Rotary engines are a different type of engine where a spinning rotor does the work instead of pistons. People often say they feel smooth because the motion is steadier than a typical piston engine.
The brake caliper is part of the braking system that squeezes the brake pads. If there’s a caliper issue, it can mean the brakes aren’t releasing or working evenly.
That means the exhaust tip comes out near the middle of the car instead of the sides. It’s mostly about how the car is built and how it looks/sounds.
Term
blast pipes
“Blast pipes” is a nickname for exhaust tips that make the exhaust come out more aggressively. People usually mention it when the car sounds louder or more dramatic.
Power rear windows are electrically operated rear side windows, not manual. In some older coupes, the rear window mechanism can be a quirky detail worth checking because it may use different regulators or linkages than the front windows.
Term
windows roll up and down
They’re talking about how smoothly the window glass moves when you open and close it. If it’s slow or makes weird noises, something in the door mechanism may be wearing out.
“Premium used” basically means the seller is charging more than you’d normally expect for a used car. The host thinks the price is unfairly high for the GR86 listing.
The Dodge Dakota is a pickup truck. It’s designed to carry things and handle everyday truck tasks, but it’s not as large as the biggest pickups. The podcast mentions it because they’re talking about how big it is compared to something else.
The Toyota Supra is a sports car that enthusiasts love. Here, they’re mainly talking about how big it looks compared with other coupes when you park them side-by-side.
The Mazda RX7 is a sports car from Mazda that’s known for being small and fun to drive. In this clip, they’re pointing out that it looks much smaller than the Supra when parked next to it.
A clay bar is a special detailing “rubber” pad that you wipe over paint to pull off tiny stuck-on grime that normal washing misses. It helps the paint feel smooth and makes wax stick and shine better.
Wax is a protective layer you put on your car’s paint. It helps the paint look shiny and makes it easier to keep clean by adding a barrier against grime and water.
“OE plus” is a style of modifying a car so it’s better than stock, but still feels like it belongs there. You use aftermarket parts, but you try to keep the vibe close to what the car originally was.
“Period correct” means the changes you make should look like they fit the car’s original time period. The idea is to keep it feeling authentic to when the car was new.
ECSO2 is a particular tire model from Continental. The host likes it for everyday driving and says it works well even when you drive more enthusiastically.
DWSO6 Plus is a particular Continental tire model. The host says it’s great for regular commuting and can also handle harder driving when you want more grip.
Track driving is when you drive on a race track instead of regular streets. Tires that are good for it usually grip better under harder cornering and heat up in a controlled way.
The Honda Accord is a normal daily car, but some versions (like the Accord Sport) are popular with car people because you can modify them. The host is saying the newer Accord Sports are fun to drive and still practical.
“Tune ability” means the car is easy to upgrade and adjust with aftermarket parts. People can change settings and add parts to make it feel more fun to drive.
“Lowered” means the car sits closer to the ground than stock. It often looks better, but it can make bumps and parking harder because there’s less clearance.
Multi-piece wheels are constructed from multiple components (typically separate rims and barrels) rather than being one solid piece. They’re popular in enthusiast circles because they can offer more customization options for fitment and appearance, and in some cases can be repaired by replacing a section.
Here, “air” means the car uses an air suspension system. That lets you change how high or low the car sits, sometimes at the push of a button.
Term
Honda reliability
“Honda reliability” means people generally expect Hondas to be dependable and not break down as often. The host is using that as a reason the Accord is a good daily car even if you modify it.
“Modability” means how easy it is to upgrade or change the car with aftermarket parts. They’re saying the Accord is a good base if you want to tinker and make it more fun.
A daily driver is the car you use most days for regular driving. They’re saying these models can handle everyday life but still be fun enough to upgrade.
The BMW 3 Series is a popular BMW sedan that’s known for handling well. The “340i” is a stronger version of the 3 Series with more power than the base models. The podcast mentions it because they think that particular version is especially good.
Term
B58
B58 is BMW’s engine family used in a lot of their “i” models. It’s a turbo inline-six that’s known for being quick and pleasant to drive day to day.
A convertible is a body style with a roof that can be opened to let air in. It’s a specific category of car configuration, and the host is using it to highlight how many different 3 Series variants existed in that era.
The host means the car can change its personality fast. Many cars have drive modes that you can switch between to make it feel more relaxed or more aggressive.
“Eighth gear” refers to an 8-speed automatic transmission’s gear ratio steps. More gears can keep the engine operating closer to its most efficient range during steady cruising, which can improve fuel economy.
A “four cylinder” engine has four combustion chambers. It’s usually a simpler, lighter setup than bigger engines, and that can make the car more affordable.
Term
B48
B48 is the name of a specific BMW four-cylinder engine design. The point here is that the smaller Supra is using a BMW-sourced style of engine, not a bigger, more expensive powerplant.
A “BMW engine” here refers to using an engine from BMW in a different car platform, which changes the car’s character and engineering balance. The host is specifically criticizing the idea of putting a BMW four-cylinder into a Toyota and questioning whether that still feels like a proper Supra.
This is a Ford Mustang from the S550 generation, and the “GT” means it’s the V8 model. The host is saying it’s a popular car with lots of aftermarket support, so you can use it for normal driving but also do more aggressive stuff if you want.
When someone says a car is a “well supported platform,” they mean there are lots of parts and people who know how to modify and work on it. That makes it easier to customize for different driving styles.
Drifting is when you steer the car while the rear tires are sliding, so the car goes sideways through a turn. It usually takes the right setup and tires so you can do it safely and consistently.
Drag racing is racing in a straight line where you accelerate as fast as possible over a short distance. The car needs good grip and strong acceleration to do well.
LIVE
Welcome back to the Martini Works podcast.
Happy Friday if you're listening and I'm Dakota
and I'm here with Lars and Gels.
Let's go.
We got the crew baby and we got some good news
that we're gonna be hopping into right away
but we got some bigger news I wanna drop right away.
We are getting the opportunity to partner
with the Drifter movie.
Hey yo.
We're gonna be hosting a pop-up meet at US Air
on July 8th dang.
So it's a pretty cool thing.
Yeah, it's gonna be insane.
It's gonna be free to enter so you can just show up.
So if you're interested in any of that stuff
make sure to follow us on all of our socials on Martini
where socials will be posting about it
so that way you can find the address, the direct times,
everything like that but I wanted to get it out
in front of you guys because that's coming up really quick
especially if you're listening to this on Friday.
So come hang out, have fun, have a good time
and get a chance to hang out and meet Soon King.
It's gonna be crazy.
They're gonna have like the car there from the movie
and be promoting the movie so you can get a first look at it.
I think it's like an exclusive look
at like trailer or something, right?
Yeah, so a lot of cool stuff going on.
So insane opportunity.
We're still like at US Air of all places.
I can't believe it's real.
Like we're getting the opportunity to partner with them
so it's super neat but cool other than that
we have some bigger news but I ain't dropping that news.
I think we gotta let Lars drop that news.
It's not as big as...
I mean it's pretty big.
It's pretty huge though.
It is huge.
I bought a car.
Let's go, what is it?
So there's been a lot of shuffling.
The M5 is gone, GR86 out of here.
I think they have that for sale at the,
did you sell it back to the dealership?
No.
Oh, okay.
Wait, no, no I traded that one in.
Traded it in.
Yeah, okay.
So then M3's alive and I bought finally an E24,
a 633 CSI.
What year is it?
It's a 1980.
Let's go.
Welcome to the gang.
Is it got a four speed?
Four speed manual, chestnut red.
It's a really, really pretty old color.
I've never seen before in person.
It is stunningly original.
I think the only thing aftermarket on there
is a little head unit on there.
And that's even old
because it doesn't even have Bluetooth or anything.
Still has like a CD changer in it.
But yeah, the car is awesome.
I'm super stoked.
I've driven it like three times since I got here.
It's pretty fresh though, but.
So what made you want that car?
So this car, I've had this like,
I've had this obsession with,
they're called sharks because of the underbite
that they have.
I've had this obsession with them for years.
So there's actually a picture I've found
as I was listing them five for sale.
I was screwing through some old stuff,
like what's next, you know?
And I found a picture from like 10 years ago
in La Crosse, Wisconsin of an M6
sitting at this like classic car dealer.
And it just reminded me how much I love those cars.
And Gels had just bought the ARC7 on Bring a Trailer.
And I became hilariously addicted to that.
I got about half the office addicted to shopping
on Bring a Trailer.
I'm sorry.
It's bad.
It's bad.
So I spent weeks on that site.
And while I was in Florida for a week a little bit ago,
this one car I was following was, you know,
coming up for a do or whatever.
And it just, everything just fell into place.
So I got the car, I got here like a week ago,
and it's awesome.
It's so cool.
It is.
It's very old.
It's very cool.
It's very nice.
It's such a unique red.
It's like a vodka sauce red.
That's what we claimed it in.
Yeah, I've heard marinara, lasagna.
It's creamy.
Yeah, it's creamy.
It's a creamy red.
But it's such a dope car.
I absolutely love it.
Like the look of it and the interior.
It was in phenomenal shape.
Yeah, so the owner I just bought it from drove it
for 300 miles over six years.
That's crazy.
So the car is, I mean, mechanically,
it's in really good shape.
Like all the hoses and stuff that I expected to be rotten.
Everything's still like supple and ply.
And then like the interior is really nice.
The dashboard isn't cracked,
which all old BMWs have cracked dashboards.
There's the odometer works, even.
Which, again, on these cars,
all the other ones I was looking at had broken odometers.
But that works on this one.
I tested that.
So yeah, I'm just, it's got some quirks, of course.
The force speed manual.
I was gonna say what's weird about it.
The force speed manual is bizarre.
It's so weird.
Like the gears make no,
I might as well be a two speed.
Honestly.
Okay, it's crazy.
Yeah, so what is it?
What are you like,
so is it, do you cruise around in a really lower gear then?
Or is like fourth gear just like really long?
Like how does it, how does that work?
I fourth gear must just be really long.
The fast I've gone at so far is like 50.
And it's, I'm at like, I don't like 3000 RPM or whatever.
But just driving around town at like 30 miles an hour,
I'm in fourth gear.
So it's a, it's a torquey old engine.
It's a 3.2 liter inline six.
So like classic BMW stuff.
But yeah, the gears make no difference.
You just get it going at first and put it wherever you want.
So what's your thoughts are there?
Are you going to keep it stock forever?
You might do a couple of things to it.
What are you thinking?
I met a, I met a sort of impasse with this.
I, I love the car.
And when I used to always dream about owning one,
it was the, it was the newer model, you know,
with some of the updates and stuff.
And my goal was always to like get some nice BBS wheels on
or something and slam it and then just do like simple stuff,
just cruise.
But now that I have this one and having a car that old,
that's this clean, I kind of just want to leave it alone.
Yeah, it's tough.
You get, you get that.
I think it's because like,
especially with older cars, like it's made it this long.
And it's like, it kind of feels almost sacrilegious to do it
to something that nice.
It's, but it's also like the perfect one to do it to
at the same time.
The result would be so cool if I did it.
So I don't know, I guess I, again,
I haven't really driven it much.
I'm right now, I'm just trying to make sure everything works.
Yeah, right.
Like I had a, I think I have a sticky caliper that I'm dealing
with and I need to like clean it and stuff like that.
You're in your break issues, man.
Dude, you have enough great songs.
Stop it.
It's crazy.
But ironically enough, one of the other cars,
I was, I just found out about this today,
one of the other cars I was shopping for
while getting this one dropped in price again.
So I'm really, it's-
You're gonna get another one?
It's like half the price it was when it was listed
and I was considering buying it.
You're buying another car?
I'm really-
The same thing?
So it's a more modern one.
It's a 1986 M635 CSI.
So there's a bunch of updates that happened to this platform
in those four or six years.
So it would be drastically different.
Interesting.
But the problem with that one is it's got a bunch
of hail damage and aint fading and clear code issues
and stuff.
It was pretty bad.
But mechanically, it's apparently in great shape.
If I can get that for its steel,
that would be the one I would modify.
This was the one that was in Texas, right?
Yup.
Yeah, it's Texas hail damage.
That's a whole another fucking ball game.
Just had a bunch of softballs rocked on.
Yeah, it's bad.
It's definitely, it would need a lot of love,
but it'd be fun to have one to just beat on.
That's true.
Yeah, if you can get it for cheap enough.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, but the M3 is back up running and driving
yet at Road America, I believe, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Imagine by the time this goes up, if I finally do this,
I'll have an update post live on what happened with it.
Kind of a summary, but yeah, it's back.
We, Alex hit me up randomly on a Tuesday and said,
hey, can I borrow your car on Friday?
And I was like, I guess,
we haven't really done a shakedown yet.
So we changed the oil and drove it to Road America,
nothing broke and we took it,
I took it out for a session by myself
and just immediately fell back in love with the car.
That's good.
Like literally went from,
I don't think this can make it to Elkhart Lake
to I love my car and then we ended up beating on it.
Both of us drove it.
So it took twice the beating it would normally take
on a regular track day with me.
And absolutely superb.
Like the car is perfect.
I'm very glad that that's up and rocking
cause that dude, I know how it gets like with vehicles,
like they're down for so long and you're just like,
it's just as a fucking paperweight.
It's in the way.
I don't want to work on it.
And then you do get it back together and like,
oh, that's why, that's why I like it.
That's why I love this thing.
That's right.
I'm very excited that you got out there on the track again
and it did good.
Yeah, thank you.
And there's like layers of this stuff too,
because we talked a bunch about me having to like relearn
how to drive the car and all this stuff.
And at the end of the day, it literally felt the same.
Yeah, you said that like on the track,
like you'd notice no difference in the brake feel, right?
Cause for those that don't know, you went for,
you did a booster delete.
Yep.
So it's just the master cylinder.
Correct.
No ABS.
It's like a direct, yeah, no ABS.
No ABS, no traction control, no stability control.
Everything's gone.
So yeah, it's basically manual.
It's just a manual brakes like any other full on race car
would be, except, you know, in an older platform.
But yeah, at the limit, it felt identical to before.
I could not get the car to lock up.
So, of course, very sticky tires, hot and all that stuff.
So slap a bunch of all seasons on there or get it wet,
you know, raining might be a very different story.
That's true.
That's true.
But the weather was perfect and everything just went awesome.
We lost two, we cracked both front rotors,
beating on a dead brake.
Yeah, but I need better rotors.
And then I cracked a windshield,
but that's all replaceable stuff.
Nothing of the world.
Windshield's a rough one.
Yeah, how'd the windshield crack?
I don't know.
Alex says he didn't do it,
but when I got in the car, it was cracked.
When I got out of the car, it wasn't.
So I was like, oh, let's do it.
He'll do that.
But I mean, it happens, honestly.
He's known to do that.
No, it happens.
It's a thing with track days, right?
You get stuff thrown at you.
Yeah, that's fair.
Right.
You're going that fast.
And yeah, a little chip can happen then it spreads.
What was the track day?
You guys said it was like a charity event?
Yeah, yeah.
So it's called Drive and it was at Road America
and it's in partnership with the American Cancer Society.
So I didn't even know what I was going into,
but obviously the cancer research and stuff
is very near and dear to my heart.
So when we showed up, we started talking to people
and really understood what this is about.
It meant a lot to me to be there
and to help them promote that event.
And the footage and the content we created there
will be used to promote next year's event.
So I hope we get to go back and do more of that.
But they had Randy Popes there.
They had some people telling really cool stories.
It seemed like all the staff had some impact personally
with cancer and all that stuff.
So really, really cool thing to be a part of that
and just a fun event to host and raise some good money
for your cars.
You guys got a lot of track time in too, right?
A lot of track time.
Yeah, the whole day, the track is basically open all day
and there's no run groups, no nothing.
You just go out whenever you want.
So I think it was something like 33 cars,
which is by far the least I've ever had on one of these days.
I was going to say, how many cars are in a session normally?
Usually be a 30 in a group.
So I think the most I've seen is like 140 or something.
It's usually like 110.
So yeah, about 20 to 30 cars per group at once.
So this is 30 cars essentially throughout the day,
just randomly.
And they're never on the track at this time.
Yeah, it basically felt like a private track day.
That's nice.
Actually, as a matter of fact, when there are private track
days for indie practice or something like that,
there's more cars on the track.
That's nuts.
So it was cool.
It was a great time for Alex and I to drive together
and compare styles and learn from each other.
It's a good way to go test it out too and make sure everything's
good.
Yeah, really, again, really great cause.
Happy to be a part of that and hope we get to do that again.
That was really cool.
I'm sure I'm happy that the M3's up in rock
and doing good, a couple of little things to do now.
But you get to beat on her again.
That's good for it.
Makes me happy.
Gels, how is the RX7?
Beautiful.
We're doing an RX7 chicken.
Absolutely beautiful.
I know I knew this when I picked up the car.
It is leaking just a little bit of oil.
But I mean, it's a 40 year old car at this point.
I mean, I think that's probably known.
Good news is rotary, like rotary engine oil leaks
like typically only come from like one or two places.
So it's probably just like either the drain plug gasket
or the gasket for the oil pan or maybe something
with like the metering pump or that system.
So it shouldn't be too bad to really track down.
But it's like a drop here and there.
It's not like after sitting for a weekend.
OK, it's just a oil check.
Yeah, I'm like, oh, I've got oil on it.
So I've got oil on it.
So there's that.
And then it's breaking up a little bit between 4 and 5,000
RPM randomly.
It doesn't do it all the time.
But every now and then it'll break up
when I'm getting on it like randomly.
So I don't know if it's just something with a carb that
needs to be adjusted.
I don't know if it's just like needs clean.
It's something with the catalytic converter
or something like that.
It's getting clogged or something because I
notice randomly the exhaust temperature light
will come on for a very short amount of time.
And then it'll randomly go away.
What a weird sensor.
It is.
So it kind of leads me to believe
it's something with the catalytic converter, which
I plan on getting rid of anyway with an exhaust
once I get to that.
But otherwise, it's been a treat.
I think the coolant level sensor on top of the radiator
looks like it's been leaking a little bit of coolant
for some time because there's like dried crusty stuff
around it.
So probably swapping that out or trying to reseal that.
But other than that, that car has been just an absolute gem.
It's been so fun to drive.
It's just such a good cruising car.
I don't know how else to put it.
100% is it.
It's smooth.
It's so interesting how those rotaries
are just fricking smooth.
Yeah, I took it on the highway for the first time.
It was last Friday.
We went out to lunch.
And I was like, all right, we'll try her out.
I haven't noticed any issues with anything.
Let's get her going.
And dude, it was perfect.
I'm so nervous to do it.
It rides so good.
It does.
It really does.
I'm so surprised at how good it rides.
For being such an older car, it's got 185,000 miles on it.
Like, it rides so damn good.
Like, it is smooth.
There's no creaking.
There's no clunks.
There's no nothing.
It's just smooth.
It feels like I'm driving a brand new car.
It's insane.
That's so cool.
I love that.
I think yours will do great, too.
Yeah, again, I don't know what's going to be in terms of.
I don't know why it's so scary.
I know it is.
I took it on the highway for the first time, but it is.
Like I said, I only took it above 50 one time.
Slow car summer, not fancy cars.
Yeah, but the funny thing is the six series,
a little bit of history on that car,
this replaced like the iconic E9,
which was the big grand touring car.
So when BMW made the six series,
it was basically supposed to be like the Autobahn car.
This is the car you hopped in and drove across Germany,
and it's kind of the idea.
So it's made for high speed cruising with four gears.
Yeah, with four gears.
So I imagine it'll be just fine once I get that
caliper issue fixed.
And I think, honestly, it might just be stuck.
Because I like stomped on the brakes.
Last time I drove it, they get coffee or whatever.
And when I got to the coffee shop,
it wasn't as hot as it was last time.
Yeah, it might just be more that.
Or that had some like build up corrosion or something.
And it's like grinding away.
Could be some weird things.
Like you said, didn't drive that much
in the last couple of years.
But just getting it out and giving it some air,
like some sunlight, it's so cool.
Like the car sounds incredible.
For what it is, to me, it just sounds awesome.
It's just a little old cylinder.
It does sound really good.
Like you started up, you're like, what is that?
Also, it's got like a center exit exhaust on it from factory.
Like that.
It's kind of cool.
Some really quirky stuff.
Looks like it's got blast pipes on it.
It's got like weird modern stuff, like four wheel disc
brakes, which is pretty modern for 1980.
It's got power windows, power sunroof.
Yeah, and it's a coupe.
It's a coupe.
And it's got power rear windows.
Power rear windows, yeah.
It's a coupe.
And they're like violent.
Like when you press the button, it's just like whoosh.
It's like the windows falling.
One thing I've noticed is Lars, make
sure to check out how the windows roll up and down.
And any vehicle he gets, it's very important about that.
They are quirky.
So many cars do it differently.
They don't squeak and yell at you?
No.
OK, that's good.
No, I don't like to introduce you.
No, I asked where you sold it before,
because I know you got it from the Toyota dealer by my place.
Yeah, yeah.
And now suddenly, after you sell yours,
there's your exact car listed as premium used out
on the corner.
I'm like, if they're set, like, and it's a 34,000
for this used GR86.
Yeah, that's probably it.
I'm like, if that's your guys' car,
34K for a used GR86 is fucking insane.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is the car, because the dealership
I sold it or traded in on, they said they were selling it
to a Toyota dealer.
Oh my god.
So I fucking guarantee it's your car then.
So they just they literally selling the car
twice for what it was.
I'm going to go rant.
Oh my god.
Whatever.
$34,000 for a used GR86.
For what it's worth, anybody local wants to check it out.
The car is great.
Like, I have no issues except for what I've talked about here.
Well, I was never driven.
He hated it.
Go buy it.
For what it is, the car is great if you're into that.
If you're into what?
Slow, modern, expensive cars.
Slow cars, that's what it's all about.
The summer for it.
The E24 has more horsepower than the GR86.
Really?
Damn.
That's crazy.
It weighs less too.
No way.
It's damn close if it's not less.
That's a big ass car to be weighing less than a GR86.
I'll have to fact check myself on that,
but I'm pretty sure they're right around the same.
It was funny too.
The RX7 here and Chris has her new super that she got.
We were like parked next to each other.
It's like, Dakota pointed out, it's like, dude,
the size of like, they're both coupe sports cars.
And the Supra is like twice the fucking size.
I don't know.
I never thought of the Supra as a big car.
No.
But when you put them next, it's like that thing is massive.
Yeah, it's gigantic.
The RX7 is just tiny.
The RX7 looks like a matchbox car compared to the Supra.
It's crazy.
It's like, how modern to, I mean, we say that,
but Lars's new coupe, that's a big coupe.
That's a big coupe.
But still, it just seems like cars just keep getting bigger
and bigger and bigger.
That's nuts.
Yeah.
Yeah, mine would have been considered large in its day.
And it's about, it's still smaller than the Supras by quite
a bit.
Wow.
Oh, we should put those next week.
Yeah, I'd like to line them all up.
I want to see.
Yeah, but yeah, it's been fun with the golf.
I've been, I pretty much, I'll take it out for a quick spin
and I wipe it down every time I get home.
Because now I have it in the clean state where like everything
is like as clean as I can get it.
So now I'm super paranoid, but it's been fun.
Do you like wash it down or do you just like quick detail it?
Quick detail it.
Like I did a full wash and then clay bar and then wax.
So it's like, it's set now.
Yeah.
And then yeah, now I just quick detail it when I get home.
What you've been doing with the Harlequin though is like,
to me, this is like my standard now of what I'm trying to meet
with the E24.
It's like all like logical, high quality, like cool mods.
They're like, like pay homage to the original car.
It's like OE plus, but it's aftermarket parts, you know?
So I love what you've been doing with that car
and the amount you've been driving it, I think it's just.
I love seeing the videos and stuff on it too.
Yeah, it's so fun like trying to think how to mod.
It's so different than any other car I've modded
and what mods I want to get.
And I realized I just want to like fill it with stuff that I love.
And it is somewhat like period correct to that time era.
So I'm just making it like a little Ford or nostalgic
been essentially, which has made me really happy.
And I just like, I get in it and I'm happy immediately.
So it's been, it's been really fun.
And I got more stuff that I'm working on.
I'm working with Johnny across the street,
he's painting up some parts for me right now.
Got some more German goodies for it.
I'm really excited to get on, but we might have to drill
into the car, which I don't know if I can physically get me
or anyone else to do.
I don't know if I can, but we'll tell him to do it
and then just shut your phone off for like a day
and don't think about it.
Oh, I don't know.
Just enjoy when the process is done.
I don't know if anything can be a panda wide body.
Harlequin. Yeah, yeah, gonna do a panda wide body.
That would be kidding.
I'm kidding.
But no, it's remaining stock body, but I'll show you guys
should be done here soon.
And we have utterly Euro coming up this weekend.
So it'll be tomorrow, Saturday or is it Sunday?
I think it's Saturday.
Was it?
Saturday, so it'll be tomorrow.
Tomorrow, yeah, check that out if you're in the area.
We'll be there.
It's such a cool show.
It's such a neat show.
We're going just to hang out, have fun.
We're not like having a booth or anything.
We just enjoy going to that show.
So if you guys want to come hang out
and if you see us wave, say hi.
If you want to film a video, let us know.
I'm going to take the Harlequin there.
And you can check it out there too.
So that's super cool.
I love that's one of my favorite little local shows.
That show makes me want to get a Euro card to bring.
It does.
It's such a good time.
Yeah, when you go to that show, it gets you in the mood.
Funny enough, that's the show that when we went to,
and Maggie was like, man, I really want a card
to bring this stuff like this.
I'm like, that's sick.
And then we got the type R. And it's like, well,
you still can't bring it to the other year
because it's a Japanese card.
Oh, there is something about the vibe of that show.
I don't know what it is.
I think it's so sick because it's like right downtown.
It's like the way that the cars are set up are super cool.
And it's like the Euro side of the car scene
has so many fucking neat, just quirky car.
Like the Harlequin is like the perfect example of it.
But like outside of that, there's so many other things
like that with BMW and Audi and Volkswagen.
It's just like the perfect show because everything's
like parked in a park, basically in a little parking lot.
So it's a perfect show to just walk with your friends
and just nerd out over random shit you know about.
100%.
And it's like right in our backyard.
Yeah, like weird shit shows up to it.
Me, that's part of it too, is like you always
see something and you're like, what the hell?
That's crazy every time.
That's a show that inspired me to get the M3 back in the day
because I saw two of them parked next to each other
at Utterly Euro a few years back.
Hell yeah.
Maybe you finally go get one.
Well, I'm glad you got your slow car for this slow car
summer, Lawrence.
It's going to be sick.
I'm so sick.
You should go for a cruise sometime.
We need to.
We 100%.
We can hold up traffic.
I wish I could go.
I could take it to Utterly Euro, but I won't be there.
Yeah, where will you be?
Poland.
I guess that's kind of cool too.
Yeah, that's fair, I guess.
You're going to another Euro car show in Europe.
Same, same.
Yeah, I'm going to Old Trace in Poland.
So I figure we complete the circuit here with them.
Super stoked for that event.
Look, everybody in Germany told us
how crazy the Poland event is.
So I'm off.
You got to go see it for yourself.
I'm jazzed for that.
Because that's the OG show.
That's where the show originated and started, right?
In Poland, yeah.
So this venue that they're at is brand new as well.
Oh, OK.
OK, got you.
But they're going to this venue because the last one,
they outgrew the last one.
It's crazy because that was huge.
This might be just bonkers.
I'm excited for you.
I can't wait to report or hear you report back.
And then also you'll be filming some content over there.
So if you guys are listening, you can watch and check out
what Lars all finds over in Poland
and checking out the car scene there.
It should be very interesting.
But yeah, everyone told us while we were in Germany.
They're like, this is really sick.
This is dope.
I like this.
But Poland, that's like where all the aftermarket car builds are.
Yep.
So it's really cool.
But that leads us to the sponsor of the Martini Works podcast,
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And you can pick those up for your car.
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I absolutely love them.
They're great for just daily driving.
And or if you do some spirited driving, track driving,
they have been phenomenal.
And we've put them through their paces.
So we can talk confidently about them.
So a huge shout out and thank you to Continental
for sponsoring the Martini Works podcast.
We'll be right back with the second segment.
All right, speaking about everybody
getting new cars and whatnot, I want
to talk a little bit about what you guys think
is the best daily driver sports cars.
Or cars that are at least still fun to drive
from an enthusiast perspective that make a good daily.
Because I think it takes a bit to get to a point where it's
like, OK, I can have multiple vehicles,
have a fun vehicle and a daily driver.
So sometimes it just needs to be all in one.
Yep, yep.
What do you guys got?
You first, Joe.
OK, honestly, I really love what I've
been seeing with the newer Accord sports.
I think those cars have been fucking awesome.
Big ol' four-door cars, lots of tune ability.
The mods for them go crazy.
And they look insane lowered on some wheels.
We've seen a couple people even here
that come to our shows, have bought wheels from us,
threw them on some multi-piece wheels or something
like that, throw it on air.
It looks so good.
And then you've got Honda reliability,
you've got the tune ability for it,
because they all share the same freaking stuff nowadays.
And they just look awesome.
It's a good call, because I think a lot of people
here at Accord may just think.
They're turbocharged.
Yeah, traffic.
But it's like, yeah, a lot of it's sharing parts
with a lot of other platforms.
And now there is so much modability to the Accords
that it is, I wouldn't say sports car, but it is definitely.
That is definitely one of the ones where it's like,
you can have fun with, modify, it's going to fit right in.
But yeah, not maybe sports car-y,
but you can do sports car things with it.
You can have fun with it.
I also wouldn't let it scare you off entirely,
because Accord is the size of a three series.
And people, obviously, that's definitely,
I would call it a sports car.
So yeah.
Very true.
Which is actually my first entry to this.
Some of the, not the new news, because I think
they're a bit expensive still, but some of the last two
or three generations of three series,
I think, are phenomenal for this.
Like that's the epitome of what I think of as a daily driver
that you can go do whatever you want with.
And I think like all variants, the 340Is are awesome
because you have the B58, but there's diesel options.
There's automatics, there's manuals,
there's all-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive.
It really is every convert-election.
Yeah, convertibles, sedans, like you can literally
include in the four series in that.
There's any version of that car you can imagine
you can get out of a three series.
It's insane too.
Look at like the E90X generation too,
and it's like you had literally every fucking option
that you wanted.
The three series was so expansive in that generation
because like, yeah, like mine's like E90,
it's just four-door, X-Drive, all-wheel drive,
but it's automatic, or it's like,
or if you wanted a turbocharged one,
or if you wanted a manual one,
if you wanted a rear-wheel drive one,
if you wanted a convertible, coupe.
Every option is...
You could literally get it all.
I had a diesel wagon.
Yeah.
I mean, like that was...
Wagon too, yeah.
So yeah, I would say definitely,
definitely take a look at those.
Yeah, it's a great call.
Speaking of BMWs that make great dailies,
I would say the GR Toyota Supra.
Is that daily?
Yep, I would say it is daily
because I dailied it in the winter.
True.
And it was amazing, I loved it.
I thought it was gonna be horrible in the winter
and it would not have made this list,
but the thing is I absolutely love driving in the winter
and I would literally see like it starts snowing out
or getting a blizzard and I'd go hop in the car
and go drive because I was having so much fucking fun.
So I have to say like it does everything.
Not only is it, like it's got the sports car stuff down.
We know that, but it has the daily driver stuff down.
And I think this is where BMW comes in
because they're really good at making a flip of a switch
and then transforming your car essentially
while you're in it.
It has all the like proximity sensors
and everything you need, adaptive cruise control.
I drove this car from Texas to Wisconsin
when I picked it up
and it was one of the best road trip vehicles.
They're very fuel efficient too, right?
Yeah, I was getting high 20s, low 30s with it.
For what it is, that's incredible.
Yeah, and that's driving kind of fun too.
I'm not like in fuel saver mode.
But yeah, I mean, if you have the automatic,
you can go up to eighth gear and just cruise
and it's super comfortable.
We took it to Tennessee multiple times in back
and no issue.
Like if you didn't swing it,
I think it is a phenomenal like daily driver's sports car.
Very comfy car to sit in.
It really is.
There's tons of bedroom.
I was gonna say the hatchback.
So it's like storage wise too.
It's like easy to get stuff in and out of there.
I've had some planes in there.
Oh yeah.
I loaded a bunch of stuff in there.
Yeah, it's convenient.
I would say obviously if you need more than two seats,
that's where the negatives start coming in.
But everything else, I really can't think of any cons.
It just, it checks every damn box.
And if you want to get, you're like,
oh, that's too expensive.
Okay.
And I'll probably get killed for saying it,
but there is the four cylinder Supra too,
which those come, yeah.
And they're very affordable.
I didn't know.
Honestly, I didn't even know that.
They're two liter, right?
Yeah.
They're four cylinder.
Oh, it's the little B48 or whatever.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're in the minis.
Yeah, the Mini Cooper engine.
Nice.
Those are good engines too.
I'm sure that's just fine.
I mean, you can get those for 30K.
I honestly, I learned something new today.
I genuinely did not know they came in a four cylinder.
I got that with the GR86.
Probably better.
No.
But I wouldn't personally never go that route
just because I think it's already,
you're playing a lot with the BMW engine in the Toyota.
And then you take it even further away
by putting a four cylinder BMW engine in a Toyota.
And it's just like, is this even a Supra?
Yeah.
But I mean, I'm just saying,
as a daily driver front car,
I've heard of people that have owned a being
on the Supra pages and they love them.
And a ton of people were picking up
as like autocross weekend cars and stuff.
And they're like, this shit's perfect.
And it's super affordable to get into
compared to other stuff in the price bracket.
So yeah, that's my first pick.
Gotcha.
My second pick, kind of throwing a random one out there,
but I feel like there's a reason I see these all the time
is S550 Mustang GT or even the four cylinder
for that banner.
I think those cars do an incredible job
of being an all around vehicle,
especially even up here in Wisconsin.
Like we see them all over the place,
all year round, all the time, modified or stock.
So obviously, the potential with them,
they can sound absolutely crazy.
You can do some crazy mods with them.
It's a super well supported platform.
You can track them, you can drift them,
you can drag them, you can daily drive them.
I think they do a really good job in that.
And as they get that generation gets a little bit older now
and the new generation is here,
prices I think have continued to kind of slowly drop on them,
which is cool.
And I think, you know, like I said,
there's a reason we see them everywhere.
So yeah, we got friends, I have them.
Yeah.
And I think in the daily driving category,
the four cylinders do not get enough respect.
No, 100%.
They are, they get shit on, but it's like, dude,
I drove Gretchen's, we went down to Riverside one year
and I drove hers back for a little bit
because she wanted to take a breather.
And it was a nice driving car and it was decently fun still.
Like they can be quick with the tune and stuff.
Yeah, they got the Boltons.
I think there's a tune on there too, possibly,
but it was a fun car to drive.
Yeah. And again, fuel efficient.
I know some of the newer ones have like the 10 speed
and all that stuff.
So yeah, I mean, that's the stuff we're looking for.
I'm looking for out of a daily driver.
100%.
I think it's a good one that kind of gets slept on
a little bit because it's, oh, it's American.
It's not a sports car.
Well, it can be.
Yeah, I think they're fun.
The second one I got is actually the R34.
Damn.
I think the GT-T.
You want a daily?
Yeah, I think you totally could.
I don't.
I'm bold, but I'd love to.
But I think it's another, it's a, I don't know.
I was thinking through cars that I think you could drive
every day in that price range that you can still do
everything with that describes what we've done
with R34.
Yeah, I think, I think, you know, maybe not the GT-T
specifically, but in that realm of like the skyline,
like subcategories, you know, it's like not the GT-R,
but maybe it's the GT or it's the GT-ST, you know,
maybe it's a four door, maybe it's, you know, whatever.
No, I think there's some absolute gems in there
that you can still, you know, modify like crazy
and be just as reliable.
You get all the, you get like 85% of the experience
of driving a car like that, you know, every single day.
And we know how fun it is.
Like know what everybody's constantly taking pictures
of you when you're driving that car.
That's true.
And that's, that's part of the joy of it.
You know, people talk to you about it and stuff like that,
but it's affordable.
It's, it's comfortable.
Yeah, we just had our friend, Brian Janis.
She came in, took it for the weekend, did a rally
around Wisconsin with it.
It was a, I don't know, I can't remember what rally it was,
but it was like a, basically just like a tour of Wisconsin
with a bunch of like old Porsches and stuff.
Yeah, I think it went into Minnesota and stuff too, even.
But yeah, all of us here that have driven the GT-T,
we all have, it's such a solid car.
I take that thing anywhere.
Anywhere, it feels so good, planted, solid,
and on the other side, it's a good daily driver.
The only con I'd give that one is like,
that fucker would rust so fast.
Yeah, don't drive in winter.
In one winter, it would be gone, decimated, destroyed.
That's really fair, right?
Any old vehicles, it's not a fault to the GT-T specifically.
It's just any of these old cars just were not like wrapped,
especially ones that were exclusive to like, not America.
They're not prepared for the salt.
They just get ate alive.
Fortunately, yeah.
But if you're in a warmer climate, 100% loved in like,
Florida or something, dude, I'd be whipping the GT-T
every day of my life on Christmas.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Skyline and up.
First, second one, and I swear I'm not gonna say
just cars I've owned, but I am going to say
this is one of the best sports car daily drivers of all time,
is either the Golf R or GTI.
Yeah.
I think that's the point of it.
Dude, that's why they made it.
It's really hard to beat like a Mark 7, Mark 8 GTI.
Yes, GTI too.
I think it's the sweet spot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, the GTI keeps things a bit more affordable,
but you get all the nice bits that you want.
Also, those come in multitudes of trims.
You look at other platforms, kind of like a,
let's say a Civic SI, for example,
there's just the Civic SI,
so you're kind of stuck at that price point.
But with like a GTI, they have the GTI SE, GTI Autobahn,
all these kinds of different flavors you can get.
So you can really kind of choose what you want
if you want the bigger touch screens,
if you want the sunroof, you don't want it,
you don't need it, you can play around.
And then they're built for comfort.
You get in those cars and you get more luxury
than you get out of some of the other competitors.
Like if you were to get into like a GR86
or another platform like that,
these just feel a bit more luxury and comfortable.
So you get that daily driver,
but then endless mods, tons of modifications you can do.
And people modify these things
and they take them pretty dang well,
as long as you stay up to date on your maintenance
and do everything, these cars will treat you well.
And they are just a frickin' blast driver.
Remember back in the day,
I got the chance to drive a modified Mark 7 GTI
that had, I'd say it was like full bolt-ons and a tune.
Dude, it was a ripper.
I was giggling driving that damn thing.
It was so much fun.
And with the hatchback Ford, I mean,
you got people in the bag and put the seats down,
take whatever you need.
It is like the best of everything.
Yeah, it truly is.
So, and then, Golf R, I would say,
definitely one of my favorite cars we've ever owned,
and that covers everything.
You get all-wheel drive, more power, more luxury,
fancy seats, and all the good stuff in there, too.
It's just a more expensive GTI, essentially,
with some better bits.
But yeah, either of those can't go wrong.
I think generationally, too,
like there's never been a bad GTI.
I know the Volkswagen community is conflicted on some of them,
but as a quote-unquote outsider of it,
I can't imagine, they're all good in my eyes.
Yeah, I truly think that, too.
And there's even, yeah, there's generations
that are not as welcomed.
I would say the Mark V gets a lot of hate,
but I think more people are coming around to it
because it's like, the price is plummeted on those,
and it's like, damn, well, look what you can get
for this much, yeah.
Prama is just, a lot of times,
the GTI platform is a person's first car,
and a lot of times, people are learning on that,
and they make a lot of mistakes,
and they're either destroyed or bad parts,
or just not, maintenance hasn't been done,
and that is the biggest con.
So I'm thinking, if you can get into, like,
almost a bone stock GTI or one with service records,
and it's well taken care of, you're gonna be good.
You're gonna love it.
Yeah, I got third one.
Okay.
I'm gonna take the same recipe.
Yep.
Four-door, four-cylinder, turbo-charged,
front-wheel drive, manual, FK8 type R.
Ooh.
I think it's really hard to,
it's the same recipe that may,
everything that makes like the GTI great,
I think comes in a little higher price point,
so it's kind of hard to swallow,
but with the FL5 and stuff,
I think the FK8s have come down a little bit,
and I can't really speak on the FL5.
I've heard they're great, but I've never driven one.
I don't know what's different,
but I do love the FK8 because it is the hatchback.
Like, I have fit a shit ton of stuff
in the back of our FK8.
We've driven it to Tennessee.
We've driven it all over.
It's been a fantastic car.
A lot of things that made, you know,
why I chose like the Accord Sport,
you know, transfer over to this,
but it is just an absolute blast of a car to drive.
Like, it does everything so well.
I love the interior in it.
The only thing that I gripe about
is the overuse of red in some areas.
Like, any trim and spot that they could paint red,
they did, so if you're not a fan of that,
that's about the only thing.
But dude, that car's been great.
I got nothing bad to say about it.
Yeah, it's really good cars.
I've still yet to drive one,
but I haven't heard nothing about good.
I think you'd let you drive it.
Would she?
Oh yeah.
I'd be fun.
I think you'd like it.
I think you'd like it.
I think you'd like it more than the GR86.
That's not a very high-pitched.
I was gonna say, as my third pick,
I was gonna use actually the Civic Si
because for all the same reasons,
but we covered from the drive,
turbocharged, forced under quite a bit here.
So I'm gonna throw a wild card out there.
I was also considering for this list.
And that's the Corvette.
For daily?
Yeah.
Daily?
Daily, so.
What generation?
I honestly, like C5, C6 is kind of what I picture for that.
I mean, Ben Renchino works with us here.
He had one for a couple of years
and he was telling me he'd let 30 miles per gallon on it.
He drove his every single day.
He's got the big ass hatch in the back,
so I know it can fit stuff.
He drove it in winter.
They don't really rust, to my understanding.
Right, some of them have fiberglass bodies and stuff.
I don't know, even in parking lots and stuff,
when they're cammed, exhaust,
they're kind of rowdy and obnoxious and stuff,
but the ones I've driven,
it's almost like when you're cruising at highway speeds,
they calm down.
So I don't know.
It seems like a great, great option
if there's one in your price range.
I say go for it.
Yeah, I think that'd be a fun one.
Definitely more on the enthusiast side,
I think, but I think it would be super fun.
I think it's doable.
And if you commit, oh, you can do it, you make it happen.
They're very comfortable.
Yeah, they're cool.
Yeah, they're made for old people.
All right.
Last one I'm going with is the Acura Integra Type S.
Damn.
Bit more expensive.
Honestly, I feel like a little bit controversial
just because I wasn't a fan of the new Integra initially,
but with the Integra Type S and seeing them out in person,
seeing them modified, I've really come around to them.
And dude, you get over three inner horsepower.
It is front-wheel drive,
but then you get a manual transmission,
big old Ford or their big cars.
Really cool modifications available for them.
I've seen some of them done up and they look amazing.
And I've just heard a lot of really good things
about the cars and I've got the chance
to check out a few of them at shows.
And it's like, honestly, that would be up there for me.
If I were looking for more of like a all-in-one package,
I would probably be checking one out.
I think it would be really sick to own it.
Another car that just checks all the boxes.
I agree.
All the ones that I've seen too,
I don't know what they're putting in this stuff right now,
but the paint quality on them has been insane.
Yeah, they're doing really cool colors.
The yellows, the blues, the reds, and like they're vibrant.
Yeah, they're so vibrant.
The one that they did and it looks incredible.
It's like a rip beer, like metallic brown.
It's fucking sick.
That's the first thing,
when I see one like a parking lot across or something like that,
that's the first thing I was noticed,
how vivid the colors are.
You're 100% right, yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Wow.
That's what they're doing.
Gels, that leads us to the next sponsor of our Teamworks
podcast, who do we got?
We got a good one.
Who's that?
I'll tell you about it.
All right.
I'll tell you all about Fortunato Suspension.
Oh, yeah.
You're getting a daily car.
I tell you what,
you throw that thing on some Fortunato 500s,
you ain't gonna look back.
I tell you that Fortunato has been making
some incredible suspension components
for many, many years.
Like I said, 500 series,
they will handle pretty much anything you can throw at them.
They'll handle track days,
they'll handle drift events,
they'll handle, like I said,
majority of what you're gonna do with your vehicle.
But now, if you are looking for something
a little bit more track specific,
you can work your way up to the 510 series.
You can upgrade to Swift Springs,
you can change out the valving,
you can work your way up to some actual
like two-way and three-way adjustable coilovers.
They do an incredible job.
They'll make coilovers specific for your vehicle
and what you are doing with it,
which I think is absolutely awesome.
I have them on my 240SX,
a shot of a message,
I'm like, hey guys,
I street-drive this car,
I drive it to and from the track,
and then I drift it at the track,
what do you recommend?
And they're like, we got you.
Every set of coilovers gets hand assembled,
right in-house, right here in the United States,
which is super cool.
And before they get shipped out the door,
they go through in-house dyno tests,
like we've seen it.
It's a crazy machine that they have,
that they put every shock through
to make sure that it meets exactly
what that customer is looking for for their car.
And if it's not, they tear it down
and they do it all over again
until it's just perfect,
then they box them up, send them out the door.
So you know, you're getting some quality,
hand-built suspension for your cars,
definitely worth a little bit of price increase
over some of the other stuff out there,
and they support a lot of really good platforms out there.
And even some off-road stuff,
they move it into some of the,
like the over-landing style stuff
with some of the Toyota's things.
So if you wanna check out Fortunato,
make sure to check them out over at Martiniworks.com.
All right, well, it's my favorite time with the podcast.
We're gonna get to look at some of your vehicles
that you all submitted
over at the Martiniworks build threads,
which if you haven't submitted your build
to the Martiniworks build threads,
what the heck are you doing?
Please do so,
because then you can get featured on our socials
or even the podcast for Pete's sake,
because we got a really cool one to take a look at today,
which is Alex Fox 337, 2002 Volkswagen Golf GTI 337.
Now, Dakota, tell me what the heck the 337 GTI is,
because I needed to do a little history lesson on these.
Yeah, sure.
And these are really cool.
They are.
It's kind of similar in a sense to the 20th anniversary,
Mark Ford's that we all know and love,
except it's the 25th anniversary that we all know and love.
So it just came with a few goodies.
They were all in like a reflex silver metallic.
The paint code was called.
This one's blue.
Yeah, so this is custom painted.
What's really interesting about Alex's story is
he kind of had the whole VW kid lore with this.
This is his first car.
Damn.
And he took it from being a stance static build
that I went and checked out.
Like dude, the whole nine years,
like mirror tint, hella flush wheels,
just static as hell to being repainted
in BMW Laguna Seca blue.
I love that color so much.
Being bagged, going on air with multi-piece wheels.
And then now to its current setup,
which is back on coil overs and tracking it.
I thought that was so dang cool that he literally has done
like everything with this car.
So it goes to show too,
like if you've had a car for a while,
don't be afraid to switch it up and try something new.
He said he went to his first track day
and he was hooked after that.
So he kind of converted it over
and now it's a track rat.
It looks dope.
I love it.
I absolutely love that you can still kind of see
like the show car built in it.
Cause like you look under the hood
and it's like completely like wire tucked,
shaved and like painted.
And it's like,
dude, seeing that on the track is so sick.
That'd be so bizarre but in like all the right ways.
Yeah.
I saw this thing come in
and I thought it was really cool
and seeing that it was like,
like a limited edition,
like GTI and the story of like coming from a show build
all the way to a track build,
change some things up.
I think it was really cool.
And a really cool car to do it with too.
Like I feel like when's the last time you've seen
like a mark four on a track?
Not often.
I've never, I've only ever.
Yeah. It's not often at all.
And it's cool too.
There's a lot of goodies on this car,
like the Euro front and rear bumpers
and different headlights.
And then also to the custom,
old hood that it's kind of like got like what
Alex's Ferrari F430's got going on
with the big induction in it.
But it looks sick.
Yeah. I love everything about this.
I think it's so sick.
So Alex, well done and cool to see someone
stick through with a car.
Like even though maybe some of your tastes change,
you're able to do it through your car.
And if you go back and look at his Instagram,
every iteration was really good.
Like you didn't have a slow point with the car.
It always was a banger heater of a car,
but very different at the same time.
Different styles.
So very cool car.
Make sure to hop on over to the Martini Works Build Thread.
Check it out along with the 1,500 now,
over 1,500 cars that are in there
that have stories pretty much all like that.
So if you haven't checked it out yet
or added your own car,
put a link down in the description.
Go do so.
Yeah. And now going over to some breaking news,
I feel like we got to start off
with some not so great breaking news,
but it seems like it's getting better.
As we know, Jeremy Clarkson
made an announcement that he had cancer
and they're working through it.
And it seems like stuff is on the right track
and right path with it,
which is really exciting to see,
but horrible to hear.
I think anybody who's a car enthusiast
has respect and love for Jeremy Clarkson
and what he's done throughout the years.
I think that news broke last week or whatever
and collectively the entire automotive scene
just took a moment of silence
and stuff just like shit, you know?
I was seeing it everywhere and obviously like,
let's go out to him and his family
and all the stuff that goes along with that,
but good news to hear that it seems
like they're getting taken care of.
Yeah. Yeah.
So I just want to shed some light on that
because he's a pillar.
I can't say big enough words for his impact
on the automotive community.
And I think we all grew up watching.
If it wasn't, you know, Top Gear,
it was, you know, something else that he was doing.
Yeah. He was always very involved
in the motorsports community and still is.
I also think like huge respect to him
for like taking that moment and like handling it.
Like in my opinion, like the perfect way, right?
It wasn't about a, like,
because we heard on the show, right?
It was like part of the scene from the show
about his farm, but when it finally,
that was filmed like a year or two ago.
And then now that it's out,
he didn't like shy away from it.
You know, he made a big post about getting tested and stuff
because, you know, it's uncomfortable to talk
about prostate cancer and all that kind of stuff.
But he said, just go do it.
And, you know, with the vibe from earlier
from the cancer event we did before,
I'll just echo that. Just like, just get it taken care of.
If you're over 40, especially, just go get checked out.
Yeah. Sure.
All right. Let's switch her up now.
Cool. I found a cool thread that I think is kind of funny.
What car looks great and is awful
and what car looks awful,
but is actually great.
And I thought there were some good ones in here.
You guys start thinking about ones if you have any in your...
I already got one.
Are you going to say...
Yup.
Yeah.
I still, like, I still disagree with Lars, I think.
I get it's expensive.
Buy one and tell me otherwise.
Yeah. I get that it's expensive,
but we went back and we looked
and it's like comparing the market now though.
Yeah.
For that it's in line with kind of how everything's priced.
I think we're just not used to these...
Justifying the market.
Yeah. Justifying where it sits in the current market.
Yeah. And I do think it is a good car.
But one of the top comments here is,
looks great, but is awful.
Kuntas.
Yeah. I hear that a lot.
I hear that a lot. Nightmare to drive is what they said.
I've never had the chance to be in one,
but by looking at it, totally get it.
Yeah. I could see that.
I could see it.
I got a chance to ride an Aventador.
And yeah, that was not fun to get in and out of.
I had to ask how to get out of.
And the owner literally said,
make sure no one's looking and then get out as fast
so you can just kind of roll out and then like stand up.
I was like, are you...
He's like, yep. I'm like, oh my God, I did.
I literally fell out of it.
I think that's a Lamborghini theme though.
The Huracan I drove on the track
and one of those extreme experience things, I didn't fit.
I had to drive it with my head cruelly.
Yeah. I was just saying, I did the same thing.
And it was like, I kind of squished myself down in the seat.
It's not because you're wearing a helmet too.
And it's just like, OK, yeah.
I hope we don't hit any like big bumps
or go off track or something because, holy shit.
Yeah. Another one is looks awful,
but it's actually great. The clown shoe.
Yeah. I love those cars.
BMW Z3.
Yeah. Z3M.
The hard top. Yeah.
I think those things, those, those really grew on me.
Cause yeah, I think I remember when I first saw him
like, dude, that is such an ugly week.
We are polarizing.
But then it's like, no.
Now I kind of think they look good though.
I kind of like the weird quirkiness in how they look.
I don't think it's a bad way.
I think clown shoes an appropriate name.
That's a perfect name.
Manual Nissan Juke Nismo RS.
Get out of here.
Super light with a turbo fits in compact spots.
Decent trunk space.
And no, no, not getting away with it.
I don't care what you put in it.
The Juke is awful.
Well, I am just reading the comments.
Sorry, don't shoot the messenger here.
Sion XD, basically a hatchback curl underneath,
but it's super ugly.
XD. Yeah.
I don't know what that is.
Yeah, I don't.
I think I think it's like the kind of like the SUV one.
Can't, can't think of that off top of my head.
XB though.
I'd rock an XB.
Can you guys think of a car that looks bad, but is good?
Looks bad, but is good.
The one for me that this has always been is the Panamera.
I'm actually, actually, I think it was Jeremy Clarkson
that said this, a funny full circle.
They were testing that, a Maserati,
and I think it was like Aston Martin or something.
And they, him and all three of them kept picking the Panamera
because it was the best to drive
and they didn't have to look at it.
That's funny.
Man, I'm trying to think.
It's a, it's a tough one.
I, I feel like I have a lot of these,
but the problem is that I ended up liking
how these weird quirky cars look.
So it's hard for my brain to come to you.
Like, you know, the, the neon SRT four, like in base form,
like obviously we like them, but it's, I'm a pistol up here.
It's still a neon, like it's got the round buggy headlights.
It's, you know, it's very 2000s Chrysler Dodge.
Like the interior is straight from the same
like minivan from the year.
Like, but it is a fucking blast of a car.
You're not far off because one of the threads,
that's one of the top like comments is the SRT four.
They, they said it's a bit meh to look at,
but then man, is it a blast.
I think like the four door cobalt like SS is too, Mike,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I've loved your car.
I think, I think it's like it's the kind of look better
than cobalt SS is personally.
And that's as a cobalt SS owner.
I always thought that they looked more mean and aggressive.
I think like the coops like obviously like balance it
a little bit more.
And I don't hate the four door SS cobalts either,
but they just, it's like the same thing.
It's like, okay, it's just the, the, the regular one
that they upgraded the HHR SS.
I think that looks ugly, but it's great to drive.
Yeah, yeah, I would take the same thing.
Yeah, the four door cobalt SS over the HHR SS.
It's like everything from that generation.
They're like, listen, we know that this is this,
but if we put a really cool engine in it,
it's going to do good.
You know what I would say?
I would say mini coopers.
Yeah.
Personally, I do not think mini coopers look good.
I do.
I do not think they're good looking.
The modern ones are getting kind of ugly.
I would agree with that.
Yeah.
And I even understand the older ones.
It's like an iconic look.
But I don't necessarily like love how they look,
but driving them and being in the, I love them.
Yeah.
They're really fun.
I think they're, they're fun cars.
We have to like autocross those ones.
Yeah.
One kind of event and dude, they were so much fun.
Do you remember which ones those were?
So they were like, not the newest ones,
but I think like they were still newer.
Is it like at the truck event or something?
No.
The clubman's?
Were they?
Clubman, countryman, clubman.
I don't know.
I thought they were coopers.
I thought they were coopers.
So they were JCWs.
Okay.
Oh, then yeah, those would be coopers.
Gotcha.
Yeah, those were a blast.
But yeah, I looking at it,
it's like I would never purchase this vehicle.
I have no intention.
And then I drove it.
I'm like, oh, this is a blast.
They were fun little things to just throw around.
And it was fun competing with them too,
because like they're, they're so like evenly matched.
So it's like, it really comes down to like your driving.
Speaking of that event, it's not inherently ugly.
And it's not at all actually,
but it's, it's not as sporty as its counterparts.
I would say the M240i is just kind of like,
it kind of looks like traffic to an extent.
If it's not coming in one of the really cool colorways
that they have, but then driving it.
Oh my God.
It's one of the funnest cars I've ever drove.
I absolutely loved it.
Those are great.
Cause those had the B58 in it too.
Yep. Yep.
Another one for me is the Honda Beat.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, that's a good one.
I think they'd be really fun to drive,
but looking at them, I'm always like, you know,
they're kind of squished in all the wrong areas.
Yeah.
Yeah, some of those K cars and stuff,
they get a little, get a little goofy looking,
but I've heard they're just a blast to drive.
What about a car that looks good, but meh to drive?
Yeah.
That's, that's.
I said mine.
Yeah.
Lars got his, I'm trying to think back
of like things that I've driven.
I'm saying the Q 50.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a, that's a good one.
I think it's a good looking car.
And then mine, the one that I drove was extremely modified
to make it like 500 horse.
I did not have fun.
Didn't really like it.
Yeah.
And that same realm, I think that you see.
I don't know why really.
It's in there.
It usually suffers from the same drivetrain.
It didn't feel sporty.
Well, it felt sluggish and unresponsive
and not driver oriented.
It felt like just like a, I don't know, a tool or something.
I don't know.
It would just didn't make me happy when I drove it.
Yeah.
I think Maserati as a whole.
Yeah.
Like they, they look pretty good.
And then I just hear horror stories of them
and it's just, it's just, they're glorified.
Hey, the first one pops in my head is,
and this might piss some people off too,
but the, the new edge Mustang, sorry, Kate,
her car specifically actually is the one I drove.
I drove in, there was something just awkward about it.
Like the, the way my feet like sat in where the pedals go
and then like driving around,
I expected something that, you know,
big ass V8 and all that stuff.
I just, I don't know.
It was very, I won't say it was bad.
It was just very disappointing to me.
Sure.
I don't know.
I think you got to ride with Sean Berger,
one of those, our buddy.
He'll get you smiling and giggling.
And then I used to have a new edge Mustang as well.
I don't know.
I thought it was fun.
That was a good time.
Drove her off the road a couple of times on accident.
On accident.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice.
But yeah, I think those are a solid list.
I hope you guys appreciate the podcast.
Drop in every Friday.
If you do, it helps out the podcast.
If you like and comment and subscribe to the channel
or the best way to support is by going to Martini Works
and picking up your next set of car mods,
like maybe a set of Moteggis,
who's the third sponsor of Martini Works podcast.
So you can head on over there.
Take a look at all the designs and finishes
that Moteggi offers.
It's a great, I would say, affordable wheel
that still has really dope designs and dope finishes
that you can get into.
And guess what?
We've been testing them out.
We took the S15 out to US Airs.
They're beating on it.
And I think you guys had it at Road America.
They're beating on it too.
Moteggis still look like day one on there.
And they've been doing absolutely fantastic.
And we've gotten tons of compliments
on the three spokes that we got on there.
Yeah, their vibe on there.
Yeah.
So Moteggis doing some really cool designs.
And you can check them out over at Martini Works,
see if some of them got quick shipping
and check that out with the filter we got going on.
But Lars, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Thanks for having me.
And Gels, you too.
Mom, he's here.
That's right, buddy.
All right, have a good weekend, guys.
Thanks for listening.
About this episode
MartiniWorks Podcast runs a fast tour of “still fun” daily drivers, mixing real ownership stories with track-day lessons and practical buying advice. They swap lineup updates, then geek out on classic BMWs, rotary quirks, and mod philosophies like “OE plus” and period-correct upgrades. The show also lands on modern daily picks—Accord Sports, Golf GTI/Golf R, and even a winter-daily Supra—plus tire and suspension recommendations. Between Road America track checks and windshield/rotor/brake talk, the theme stays simple: keep it usable, keep it engaging.
Enjoy the podcast every Friday? Support it by getting your car mods at https://bit.ly/4vtk1kySometimes you just need 1 car that can do it all. What are the best daily driver sports cars? As car enthusiasts having a car that scratches the itch but is reliable enough to get you to your destination is important. We talk about that and more on todays episode of the MartiniWorks podcast! #cars #podcast #automotivePick up our Coffee here! https://bit.ly/3PIFl6JA HUGE thank you to Continental, Motegi, and Fortune Auto for being the official tire, wheel, and suspension of the MartiniWorks Podcast! Let us know if you need a set of tires or coilovers.Shop Continental tires here https://bit.ly/4ecbfAKShop Motegi wheels here https://bit.ly/4vp7VcgShop Fortune Auto suspension here https://bit.ly/4fnfqM8Check out the main channel! @MartiniWorksOfficialWe also have an unboxing channel @MartiniWorksUnboxedFollow Lars @lars.martiniworksFollow Dakota @dakotastoneeFollow Gels @akagels
