Brett Berk

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All right folks on this episode our old pal Brett Burke is in studio. He writes for vanity fair Esquire

All kinds of different very important print

Publications and as we learn on this episode also super yacht weekly or monthly or the magazine where people buy yachts in

It's Brett Burke on the smoking tire podcast

It's like I can't take vacations during the month of September and October because it's just like all the new cars are out

Yeah, all of the of the year tests all that bullshit. Yeah, and like they don't plan that shit early enough

For me so I just I have to leave them on soap and it's like same for you right kind of I mean it just depends, you know

Yeah, I mean I never really think about

Things being busy or not busy like certain times a year. I guess they're busier than others

But I want a really long time before observing that I shouldn't do

18 years before I was like, hey, you know, maybe I never

Think about it October

Fucking busy. I get a little crazy if we start right start taking vacations. Yeah, that makes sense

I never really put it together. Maybe I yeah, maybe I should track these things more carefully

No, but you do the thing don't you do the thing where you go?

You plan for like being somewhere for three months and just line up all the press cars

Yeah, I'm out here for like six weeks right now. This is the end of my time

And you just did it did it did it did it? Yeah, so give me your six car lineup. Okay this year good

Cuz you write about you write for rich people

Week one

Was Mercedes E 53 AMG wagon. Oh

That's probably lovely. It was really really nice

53 is a real sweetheart. Yeah. Yeah, it's got like yeah, like yeah, and like you know

40-50 miles of electric range or something. Yeah, if you want to plug it in, okay, then

I'm McLaren Artura Cabrio or whatever spider. Yeah, yeah, lovely

Lamborghini Timurario, that's a good time. Yeah, that was fun

Which is of course sprung a coolant leak and was oh, no

Smoking the entire way down the down the edge list crest. It was like pointing at me like your cars on fire

I was like, it's it's it's it's a story begin. I don't think I'm not fire. Yeah steaming. It was steaming

But it looked like it was on fire someone once thought my coontosh was on fire, but it was steaming

Rare occasions when it wasn't on fire, right?

Yes, there's my ancient steaming still still still still um off Instagram since the

It's a placeholder. I'm still I still exist as a person of someone wants to find

No

Yeah, it's been great actually. Yeah, that's how come I don't know what anyone's doing use any social media. Mm-hmm

Yeah, it's kind of exciting

Yeah, it's great. I live my life entirely incognito like no one knows where I am or what I'm doing

But you also have an attention span. Yeah, I mean I'm already quite I'm already quite

Efficient and productive because I write for million outlets and have a lot of work to do all the time

But yeah now I like to finish up finish up my work sooner and I can do other things that I'm interested in

Wait, let's go back to my Mario because I have no attention span

I don't have social media on my phone. Yeah, I do know I don't know

But I but I do still exist on Instagram and you have to yeah, that's your job

I don't exist on Twitter anymore. Oh, yeah, I got rid of that

Yeah, I'm bought it deleted that and deleted all my tweets had all my tweets retroactively deleted. Yeah

I think I got there was a period of time when I got kicked off of one of those for some reason

I couldn't log back in it was like an old email account

I had to start over and then I was like fuck this doesn't make any sense, but okay, so okay, I'm Mario

Dodici Chilindri spider

Then

Was after I think I had a RS3 new RS3 and M2

Oh, wow, okay, right at the same time and now you drove up here in a Bentley

And I had to specter before specter black badge

Luxurious six weeks, that's pretty good lineup. Yeah, that's a pretty high quality

Automotive lineup. Yeah for the whole the whole time. I mean these are obviously very different cars, but totally

Yeah, give me give me a one love and one hate for each of those cars. Okay, he's wagon Mercedes wagon three hybrid

Let's see. I mean, it's a great all-arounder like you can do anything. Yeah, right

It's quick. It's luxurious. It's not it's not flashy

I

Missed the V8, you know sure so maybe that's a negative

It's better than like the four. Yeah. Yeah, I drove the the the C 53

Cabrio, which is a on the sly

Awesome car. Oh, okay something most people probably wouldn't can think about yeah when going hey actually like what's a pretty awesome

Car that nobody would think about yeah, the one I drove was a hundred thousand bucks right loaded. Yeah, every option imaginable

C53 and not a hybrid right, so it's that slick six on all the times yeah 400 and whatever horsepower

Lovely. Yeah, yeah

Okay, okay, what's not good about it? I'm kind of missed the sound of the VA sure right

Yes, of course

Let's see

A million times okay new shit

Temerario, I mean

Yeah, it goes yeah, it looks great. It revs so high

Super fun to drive up on Angeles Crest, and you know me. I'm not very strong driver

But every so often I take a car up there. It's a hero maker. Yeah, Temerario is a hero maker car a

Medium-grade driver can go real fucking fast in that thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's really easy

Really easy to go fast exactly and so that's the kind of car. That's good for me

How nice is the jump from a hurricane to Temerario?

Ergonomics yeah space. Yeah, so much more room in there and see yeah, it's awesome

Yeah, I got a road trip in that yeah

I thought it was very comfortable and yeah, you could put stuff in it

Of course it you know had a little issue with some sort of leak so that was

Spraying or spraying clouds of steam

Yeah, it keeps your food warm. It keeps your food warm. Exactly. You know, I put it in EV mode at the end and that's it's that's

It is a rice cooker right it was you know it's a challenge when something goes wrong up there

Angeles Crest because yeah, there's no reception. You know now that I have you did you have a do you fucked with the iPhone?

Satellite

That's what that's the game. Yeah, now you get a flat up there or something just just call text triple A from up there with

The iPhone satellite. That's true. I do you can see everyone at good vibes walking around

You should you should try it okay, I'll try that out. Okay, I'll try that out

I was like regular texting to you know not for emergency. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm like I don't want to use this

Like the first little minute it was for emergencies only okay, and now you can use it all the time

It just like rips through your battery. So you have to like seeking out. Yeah star link or something like that

Apparently the difference between I could communicate with towers and I can communicate with satellites is like juice

All right

Takes away all your batteries. Okay. Okay, so the 12 C we drove that as well. Oh, yeah, you love the 12

I loved that car. Yeah, I think that's probably my favorite of the whole run this time. I hadn't driven it in

Where were we like Luxembourg or Liechtenstein on the on the on the launch?

But it was the regular

Berlinetta or whatever as it was a spider. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was fantastic

It's so I mean, it's you know, it's crazy the proportions of it are crazy

Yeah, like the length of the hood and all that kind of stuff and then it's like not that big inside

Right. Yeah, there's not that much room inside of it at all

And it's like not much truck. Yeah, the trunk is small because the top goes to back there or something like that, right?

But yeah

You know feels much no does not feel small in the Trader Joe's parking lot for sure

You're like, well, I'm already at the barricade. Wow. Yeah, I'm way back here

You get that carbon splitter and you have a curb stop. Oh boy yikes. Yeah, it's but but you know

I know it's like a windy road or whatever like mmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, really is really a great car

Although if I'm honest, yeah, I think I think I like the 812 better. Oh, really?

I think I just like they drive pretty much the same. Yeah, I feel like the

The 12-seater to ditch each lingerie or whatever you want to call it

Is more is more my my speed for some of the 812 felt too aggressive

It is I'm always looking for a car that I can like wear an Ascot

Imagine myself in an Ascot and a captain's hat for sure and I feel like that

You should have got the Morgan plus four you could have asked God in the fuck I tried I tried to get them to bring me one because

Wherever it is if they keep it in Long Beach or you guys

So I was like it's a schlep, you know like I have to like have a have a separate car or someone get me

Give me a ride out there. It's like you guys can bring me one. Maybe like oh, yeah, we'll look into that and that was you know

The bill it's not that expensive to have us deliver the car. We do it all the time. Yeah, that's what I figure

Not your fault. I was just you said escot, and I

I go to your right right exactly straight at Morgan that is a flat cap escort looking kind of thing. I'm staring at that thing

I thought it's great. Yeah, I would like to drive it. So hopefully now. It's a bit now. It's a BMW a little bit

Right. That's right. Yeah, and the last one Ford one

No, I don't think I drove that one. Uh-huh. It was a riot. Yeah, it was great fun

Yeah, I had such a great time with it Zack and his wife went like full costume

Yeah, I had the little you know newsy cap on the vest and stuff. She got kind of dressed up like

You know pin-up style with lipstick and we went for a fun drive

And that's that car is great for six tents and lots of smiles. Yeah, people like seeing it. They wave to you exactly

Yeah, it's like a yeah, it's like a factory Resto mod essentially people

People have absolutely no clue. Yeah, here it is. No, that could be a

Someone might say the same thing about the people at Morgan, right?

To their to their credit, I guess, right? I love Morgan

They're just they're the fuck yeah, 12 C was awesome

But the one I drove was the red one. Did you have the red one? No, I had the like the kind of olive green

Okay, that's the one Johnny had. Yeah, yeah, mine started with a six. Oh, yeah sticker. Yeah, and

Look

There I will pay an enormous premium for a naturally aspirated V12. Yeah, a really really big one. Yeah

But a front engine Ferrari the price tag starting with the six

Maybe a little adjustable lumbar. Yeah, can we get a can we get a lumbar in this motherfucker? Yeah for 600 G's

And maybe something to if you're wearing shorts protect your knee from those speaker grills

Which are like a cheese grater, you know, I was like I've got little little skin left on my knee

Oh, what was it? I had it was it had to have been my Corvette

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I think it was my C5 Corvette that had speaker grills that were so cheese-gradery

And I had the car for so long that like and I you know, obviously would wear short over the 18 years

like and like a

Like a stain from my skin

Metal speaker girl was like the size and angle like

Like how to clean skin off a car

Shows up like all right, okay, we all know right yeah speaker girls literally like that tool they use when you're getting a pedicure

It's just that yeah, but it's all bows on it. No, it's totally true

What was after the the oh, I had the

RS3 and and those are a good time. Yeah, yeah, probably feels like a real downgrade after the Ferrari

But I mean yeah in some ways, but also like, you know easy easy to get around

Exactly much easier to park a trader Joe's for both of them and then I had the

Specters the opposite of that specter is opposite. I know it's like driving it like a you cut like a two-door Yukon

You have to yell tacking every time you make a right exactly which it was it painted an insane color. It was like a kind of crazy

kind of

Caribbean blue kind of well, I do like I do like that. Yeah metallic Caribbean blue. That's a good time

Yeah, with some black gloss wheels. I was like these wheels are batshit. I'm like, no they actually look like bats flying around trying to take a shit

Fucking I hate I am I kind of hated the specter until the very last day. I had it

I didn't hate it. I just like a gas Rolls-Royce is so smooth already

Yeah, then as much as an electric Rolls-Royce makes obvious sense

It's such an incremental change in refinement

But the car has to be like because we have a we have two wraiths that live here

Yeah, saw you park it next to a wraith and you go. Oh, wow, this rate is awfully tidy

you know and

But then the last day I was going home coming home from something late at night

And I put all the windows down. It was like a warm night coming down the highway from Hollywood

Yeah, and I was like blasting something at full fucking volume

Yeah, and like I had like the shooting star ceiling going and I was like

Yeah, like I could I could

Press people for this. Yeah, it's it's it. I think it's I mean I I love the idea of electric rolls

you know, I just think it makes makes perfect sense and

I was talking to that actually to the chair of rolls this morning because I'm doing a story for the Times about their current

Product strategy, you know, they're expanding expanding Goodwood significantly

But not expanding production. They're just expanding like bespokery

Which is you know and a device for extracting maximum profit from there from their from their clients

so I

Maybe by the time this show goes out to the public the I just wrote my column for road and track this month about

My opinion that income inequality is kind of ruining cars

Yeah, and it's not ruining cars just because rich people are buying shit. Yeah, that is that's a thing, but also it's it's when

automakers

Realized that like yo, there's like 1500. There's like 3,500 billionaires in the world

Yeah, let's say half of them are quote car enthusiasts. That's generous, but let's call it half

1500 700 people 700 families

When you're pivoting an entire business model to service that few people globally with corporation that size

And it's not like Rolls Royce ever made cars for everybody

But like when you're when your regular customers are like, you know, not being invested in for these very small

And it's happening at Aston Martin. It's happening at Ferrari Lamborghini and lamp, you know Ferrari just

bonused out their workers

And because they made so much profit, but but they made it on light on fewer cars. Yeah, it's so like

You know

When all them them companies start to chase this very small number of people to just buy everything

Yeah, everyone else even the normally rich

Yeah, no, it's a really interesting point and you know, that's

It's the money grab obviously, right like this is where the money is right now

I'm sure and you know the horror of it for the foreseeable future

Body opens in even more bespoke. It's like this company there. Yeah, I know

This is what's going on. Yeah, where a fucking, you know a special version of a sharon

The tech noir jack-off edition isn't enough anymore

You know, you can't have the special version of a car. We make a hundred a year of

Instead, there's this new division. Yeah, and we only make three right or one

Exactly and then they're like, yeah, and yeah, I was talking to an analyst for a story about just this

I think it was for road and track. Actually, maybe it was for car and drive. I can't remember

But yeah numbers issue of road and track we just came out with

That sounds number never it might have been whatever it was

It was just numbers issue of right track on newstands. Yeah, but yeah

It was essentially like, you know profit on on that segment is like 50 to 80 percent or something like that

So it's like why would they why would they they're just you know, they realize like oh we can we can extract another

You know one to two to three hundred thousand dollars per transaction per client. It's like they've started a patreon

Businesses got a business. Of course. Yeah shareholders need maximum value like I get it

No, I'm not saying it's good. It's just it's crazy to me that like for for fifteen hundred families globally

There are more choices in seven figure

Vehicles right now then there are in like five figure enthusiast cars. Yeah, what the fuck is that about like that's crazy

No, I just want to discourage

You know, it's like it's like I get it

But it's also like sort of morally objectionable to change your business model to that. Yes, I agree

And yeah, and you know, obviously this is driving up everything right like there's there's very few affordable vehicles for people

Who need cars and most Americans do and don't worry bees. Oh, so solve it. Oh, yeah

I trust that guy. He's got your best. Yeah. Yeah, he's always thinking about me

He's always thinking about others. That's what he said. Yeah, those guys are all the best

Like when I was driving the specter

I found unlike any other car you drive the craziest car you can imagine on people like what the fuck is that?

How fast is it go blah blah the specter? It's what do you do for a living?

How'd you get that money? That's what everybody was asking me when I wow, that's interesting that not happen to you

Guys taking a break from the action because support is coming in at fast like Jim Farley the CEO of Ford

Who's now got a podcast and you're always asking me what I'm listening to when not recording this show and right now

It's this the new season of drive with Jim Farley in it

The Ford CEO talks to some of his favorite people about what they're driving and what drives them to succeed like formula one

Diver Daniel Ricardo listen

There's a well-worn trope about

racing drivers

Not being interesting to listen to but if there is one that is

Interesting to listen to it is Daniel Ricardo

I think this guy's takes on stuff and life are great and look Jim is a racing driver also

I personally raced against him like two months ago and

For me a CEO that drives race cars on the weekends is about the pinnacle of

CEOdom when it comes to car companies so the two of them together

Obviously have a lot of things to discuss on drive with Jim Farley, which you can get on your podcast app

It's very easy to find drive with Jim Farley. Check it out

People were asking is that electric like when I'm parked at a charger with it plugged in

Yes

Otherwise are you just a rich person taking a spot? Yeah, exactly. I know that's what I was thinking

I was like well. I want to make sure everyone sees me plugging this in. Yeah

I'm not a dick bag. Yeah, exactly. It's not mine

Yeah, I saw a guy with a fucking event

Did I try a guy parked in a vented door at an electrify America charger the one in Malibu? Yeah, right behind?

We're the like the lobster place over there and I saw a cop yelling at this guy

And he was trying to tell the cop no, it's a hybrid and he's like show me the charging port

Yes, the charging port

Obviously, it didn't have one right. Oh, it's in the trunk and I just walked by I yelled they don't make that in a hybrid

Under the bus

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and then I just got the this Bentley

Continental GT convertible as you

I

This is lovely, but it says Azure on it

Yeah, which is a revival of the name. It's a package or so of some sort right cool wheels. Yeah, it's got cool wheels

Cool top cool top really nice color. It looks like it's black, but it's a real dark metallic green

Yeah, it's Hampton's a real Hampton's a pretty pretty dark green and cream colored interior

It's got piano cream like instead of piano black so you can touch it all you want it

Piano cream, right? Oh, that's what it's called. I have to look on the spec sheet my favorite Bentley dash materials the granite

One with granite. Yeah, that shit's crazy. I love the idea of stone in cars

It's probably like what the fuck did they figure this out? Yeah, what happens if your head impacts the side?

I don't know it looks yeah. Yeah

some of it is

But there were some car where they had it like backlit like it was like really thinly sliced and some sort of stone and it was back

That maybe was maybe there's something rolls. That sounds like rolls. Yeah, that's crazy

That's like when you when you go to like a

Like a spa a spa and they have like the wall made of salt rock. Yeah, exactly

Yeah, there's salt. Yeah, exactly

It goes from a ready got a salt rock wall in his in his house. He built us. It's like that's a thing people do

Yeah, yeah, it's supposed to heal your ions or something. Yeah, and you can lick it

Exactly, yeah, I think that I think Rob did get a salt grinder margarita glass in there, right?

That would be yeah, right. I

Wonder if there's a way to do that. I don't know you're probably not supposed to be drinking in the sauna

No, I don't think you're right. It's probably not not awesome. It helps with the schvitz. It helps with the schvitz

so all right

In this in this insane, you know line-up of cars. Yeah, we parking them on the street

Yeah, everybody near in your Airbnb in my area be in silver like silver like okay, and the so there's you know

And the neighbors are they being they've been inquisitive the neighbors are somewhat inquisitive

This is our fifth year in the same spot

so they've gotten a little bit accustomed but there's a there's a family lives across the street and

The woman had the family of like three kids

Maybe two boys and a girl or two girls and a boy whatever it is the girls sell Girl Scout cookies

So we always arrive around this time of year

So I ran into the mom and I was getting some Girl Scout cookies from her and she was like oh

You guys are here the boys have been looking up and down the street for the past few weeks to see if you're coming because they know

You come during cookie season

So you take them for rides and read on I've offered but you know

From those I think yeah, I know exactly this kid this guy's got cookies

Like now we've gotten in that van before you're like no no, I'm an auto-drillers right yeah exactly

But yeah, no the and the yeah the neighbors are sort of like I mean when I had I had the M2 in the RS3 at the same time

One of the neighbors was walking by he was like are these both yours and I was like yeah

You know this week yeah, and he's like well

I had a first-gen RS3 and I'm thinking about getting a new one like but I'm also cross shopping the M2

Which would you like better? We had like a whole conversation about you know, it's part of the job, right? Yeah, of course

Yeah, you have to be that guy. Yeah, I every time I have any new electric vehicle

There's an older woman who lives up the street for me that drives like a real old model s that she got new

Yeah, and so any time I have anything electric she like within ten minutes of me parking

House to get to mine she sees you some kind of alert set up. Yeah, she

Got your face loaded into it is that the R1s oh and she got to know everything yeah everything about it

Yeah, so it's funny. It is funny. Yeah, one of the neighbors asked

He was like do people look at you funny when you drive around in these cars

I was like a middle-aged Jewish guy driving a fancy car Los Angeles isn't that weird

You know and he was like what about here in silver like I was like yeah, you know they look they

Sneer but I can tell that they love it. It's funny when you drive cars like that around this town or New York or Miami

Versus like a lot of other places. Yeah, it's like the you know, you drive a Carrera in Ohio

Yeah, people are rock stars that you know here versus, you know, whatever that was like us

That was like us on the boat in like this boat that we rented, you know

It's like a million dollar boat, right and like holy shit. There's a million dollar boat, but there's like 10,000

No, this is the Ford tour

Some boats that were like

200 foot yacht with tender boats and all this crazy stuff. It was wild same parking lot, right

Yeah, when you watch a mega yacht roll up, yeah, you know open

It's like thing like the space shuttle and like drop out

Yeah, like a huge boat that's like twice as big as the boat you've been living on yeah

46-foot, you know, like ribbed boat that like Navy Seals use and they're using to like go to dinner on shore

I would used to write for this magazine called showboats international at the fuck out

Yeah, that's living. I did their car column for years. You're all about cars for showboat

Yeah, I'm gonna say you wrote about boats

No, I've done a little bit of boat riding here and there but not that much

but um, yeah, they had we did some feature one time it was about like

The kinds of cars that you would have on your super yeah, like to drive around the boat like

I think you need like a go-kart. Yeah, I know showboats

Yeah, I was gonna say it's a real airport reward paradigm for people. It's got yeah

It's got like, you know thousands of pages of like, you know

Eight nine ten feet what size car would fit on a boat and be able to drive around a boat

You'd need a boat that's they had like, you know, people would have like a jolly or electric jolly

50 yeah, exactly little yeah a little like electric thing. I can't remember there was another there was another vehicle, right?

Yes, Jim, I'd like to have like an earnest goes to camp three-wheeled golf cart. Yeah, I'm like the late 70s

That would be appropriate with a with a Rolls-Royce grill

You need the tellers a guy in the front

Do you remember the guy from Venice when I was living in Venice like my neighbor? He was buddies with Nino

There's just this guy. He was about our age real meathead

He looked good big fucking guy, you know pointy beard of that okay. Yeah

And he rolled around he got he got like a 70s Rolls Royce golf cart

Okay, and upgraded the powertrain to be something a little better, but it was a golf

It was a full-on 70s on the roof. It had tassels. Yeah the whole way

And this dude just rolled it around Venice like it was his car

Registration parked that motherfucker wherever he felt like. Yeah, nobody cared the cops let him do whatever

Yeah

He does right it was great you see him roll with like three four girls on that thing it was it was a good time for him

Yeah, I guess they have those laws now right where you can have like one of you can license some of those

Yeah, you can drive him on roads 35 miles an hour and less right so like all of Manhattan Beach or all of like Santa Monica and shit

Yeah, yeah, yeah

That's what the electric Manx is eventually going to be right when if that comes to fruition or is I think it will

I just think it's it's more like building a car than it is like building a golf cart

Yeah, because like despite those laws there

They intend to sell them in places that don't have those laws and you can it's gonna be a thing that can go 80 miles an hour

Right, it's gonna be restricted where legally required

But like they're building like mostly a whole car. So so it takes just like hard

Didn't you buy a mix? Yeah, I have the I have the airplane engine right which is just the greatest thing ever you should drive it

Yeah, I would like to so I'm a lot much longer you here. Mmm. I leave on next Monday. Oh, you have time. Yeah. Oh, yeah

Yeah, no you should drive it. Okay, it's the it's the best thing ever

Your rich people will like it. Yeah, people like it. I know it's amazing. It's amazing

It's the bits by far the coolest thing I've driven in a long time. Well, that's exciting

Yeah, sometimes we got to make it real weird, right? Do you and I mean once you've tried everything else?

Yeah, what's what's left airplane engine fucking do

Sense, you know, have you had it out on the sand and stuff? No mine set up for road driving

Okay, mine's like a they is they call it the tarmac height

So it's it's got independent reservoir shocks all this good stuff, but it's it's lower

Yeah, it's on like regular road tires, so

And is that license to drive wherever you want or is that one of these like

No, it's some

gasoline-powered Manx's are all

Classic beetle rest of us. Yeah, it's a 71 beetle. So no emissions. No anything. Yeah, it's on a Cali black tag

It's proper. Yeah, I don't pay taxes on that motherfucker

Here no, we're going when it was full California. I got the license plate radial. Oh, it's awesome. Yeah, that was available

I guess yeah, all the for a plane

So anyway, yeah, you you must drive it. Okay when you have

Written about boats. Have you done it from experience or have you just seen a spec sheet and a release most of the time?

It's something like that and then I'm not really a big boat person

I did go on a like a cruise on the biggest boat the biggest cruise ship in the world

Yeah, yeah, I kind of disease we called it, right

Was it the Gary Steingart piece about that? Yeah, yeah, I'd swipe you but exactly so fucking funny

He did a story about that a little while ago. It was called like crying or something. Yeah, it was really it was quite sad

experience

I would I like to say yeah, I brought my my my partner with me on there and he and I

We were like we came back and people are like, what was it like and we were like it was terrible, but we had a great time

Yeah, yeah

Yeah, if you're just there to observe the garbage. Yeah, then there's joy in that

Yeah, it's kind of never anyone there to laugh with exactly. That's why Gary was so sad

I had time there with me and we were just like, you know, we started drinking as soon as we got up and

We didn't talk to anyone else and I think that was the way to do it. Oh, he tried. Yeah, he tried interacting

Oh, I'm not there to make friends. I'm not in most places to make friends. That's certainly not on a cruise

Well, if you're stuck on one by yourself, you really have no choice. I guess that's just like a setup for sadness

Well, our our good friend Christian hand who is you know fucking amazing it at what he does

You know does his like music breakdowns. He's he now he just went on the I love the 80s

Cruise and I love the 90s cruise to work to do to do shows

And he said like the shows were amazing and a cruise ship full of people who love music is

The best possible version of a cruise ship. Yeah, you know, but he said he's like when I was on stage doing the gigs

Like 400 seat room great audio engaged audience like loved it. He's like

Then I was on a cruise

He's like and they tried to throw me like a bone like I only had to do a gig every other day

And he's like can I do seven gigs a day?

I'm not like standing around here this all day long and he showed me his like Apple

Health thing and he walked 20,000 steps a day

Boat yeah, but I was almost like a quarter mile long or something like that and 20 stories tall

I mean it was there's like 10 they could sleep 10,000 people or something like that

We saw even small cruise ships on our like little boat. Oh, yeah, and we're just like fucking. Oh god

No, it's like a skyscraper turn on its side or something. They're gigantic. I understand why people love it

Yeah, I just can't do it. No, it's not it's not really for me

I every time I get on a boat actually I feel like I'm someone's captive

And I feel like that's what people who have boats want you to feel like

Because of the implication. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's why I

became the captain

It's implied if you're on the boat right you work for me. Yeah, exactly

Is that how you felt back when you're on the boat with Matt?

I mean a little bit in a good way

I was like, I don't know how to sail yeah, and you know how to sail so I will learn from there

A couple things that need that need doing yeah on the boat, right?

You know, it's a team. It's usually like anchoring mooring things like that. Yeah, like yeah, plus the implication and you know

The implication

Who would know except for the other five people on the boat? Yeah, and you know the the drugs

Right, if you keep them if you keep them down here

Sorry that turned dark, okay

Let's go to the people we've got a lot of questions from the folks over at patreon

And let's see what they have to say patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast is where you get her done

You can get the show live you can get the show early you can ask questions of the show

you can get the show without ads you can get extra show and

You can support the show that you were already prepared to do all of those other things for am I right patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast

Do it. Oh, can you just made those small? Can you make them big again? No, the other there we go. Well, not that big goddamn it, okay?

Bad PPI eight says oh, there's a sort of an informal competition for like filthy usernames. Oh, I think prepared

What AMG do you buy for under 40,000 that makes the right sounds and power first and foremost, but with good styling and decent handling oh

Seven C63

Yes, something with that naturally aspirated V8. Yeah, what's it? What's a 63?

That most people wouldn't think of

That would have good like yeah, but in C63 is the obvious one, right? Yeah

I mean they put that motor and pretty much everything. Yeah, they put it in the wagon, right?

Yeah, I mean do decent handling like if you want you probably get an ML 63 for fucking

Like if you if you're willing to go SUV on this bitch

You can you can get with a 63 and it that'll sound the business for good

I mean upshift speed is pretty quick in these things downshift not so much

But for 40 could you get a CLS? I bet you get like a 2013 CLS 63

Turbos to be one. Yeah, CLS 63 twin turbos

Rentec tune that thing to 900 horsepower

Yeah, something like that, I mean you can get a 07 CLS 63 for 13 grand. Oh, yes

180,000 miles on it 40k you probably an SL 63 shocking like you could probably like it's like an

18 or 17 SL 63, right? That's probably true. Do these CLS's are cheap cheap cheap. Oh my god

A few years ago, but like dude here a 2017 for 45 grand

That is a lot hell. Yeah

577 horsepower twin turbo all-wheel drive. Let's go

That's a that sounds like a

Value proposition seems like it. Yeah. Yeah, it's sometimes surprising how

Inexpensive 10-year-old 15-year-old cars that were you know, crazy

Six-figure cars can be I kind of like it. Yeah

Make me nervous to own now

Do you know how many we me and my wife like you know like punch buggy? Yeah, you know the game punch buggy

Yeah, my wife and I have a game that we play pretty much just within the confines of our neighborhood

That's blown out bags and it's when we see an

And it's there for you know, there's like gold grass growing around and it's very clearly

We'll get around to fixing that

Decade, you know, and then it just returns to earth

Front-wheel drive NSX says

Somebody drives a lot for work. Is there a fix to bad drivers beyond expansion and promotion of public transit?

Of course, there are education. Yeah, these things work enhanced driver education is probably not a bad idea

We're pretty yeah

Retesting maybe at a certain age. Yeah, I mean if we're gonna be driving into our later years like exactly not against that shit

Yeah, I just worked on a big story for the AARP, which is one of my regular outlets about

Trying to figure out, you know, what what to do if you're thinking about getting rid of your car

like how to be proactive and and

Forward thinking about that and yeah, there's a lot of stuff that they strange

It was interesting like the I talked to the head of the New York State office on the aging and

Their

Stated strategy is really like we want to keep old people in their cars as long as possible

Like they don't they don't drive that much. They don't drive at night. They're safe

They're the safest category of drivers, of course if they do have accidents

They die at much higher rates because sure more fragile, but essentially like is that are those other bits true?

Yeah

I don't disagree that if they're physically capable and can see like I'm not against it. They're like

Retesting is not the worst

Yeah, the ones that can't yeah, like no, I drove with my grandmother toward the end of her life

She was still driving up until she was like 98 or 99 and she was like I don't understand why these people are always

Hunking at me in this roundabout

She's like drives through and it's like just cuts off

My grandma got it didn't get a new car at like I think 99. Oh, wow

Yeah, and like it was like it was maybe lease grandma, right?

It was not an expensive car

But but she had her other her car before that was a she had purchased it knew a cat a Cadillac Katera

Mm-hmm, and the caddy that Ziggs did it zigged and I was sort of hoping

This was maybe 2015

I was gonna come to you she would give it to me

Yeah, and we could turn into a race like a like a lemon's car or a champ car or something like that

And I think she ended up just trading it on like whatever shitty Corolla

She ended up getting and who even knows what happened to that car, but I was sort of

Grandma there's a thing called lemons, right?

Let me teach you about this

But yeah, she was driving up until I guess almost a hundred but like you know a mile

Yeah, it was much more about I don't want to be trapped

Exactly and actually a real and that's the this you know the studies are showing that like the social isolation

That comes with you know not having that independence or the loss of independence that comes without having a vehicle is you know

Yeah

Tim a says is there room in the Aston Martin lineup for an entry level mid-engine supercar

Would it outsell the current advantage at the 250 to 350 price bracket?

I mean having talked a lot about and with

Executives at Aston Martin. I mean they kind of tried that with the with the vantage

You know maybe ten years ago, right like you could get those kind of a stripper vantage GT

Do you remember this that was like 99 K or something like that sure?

And I mean I think that company has enough trouble staying in business

You know with with large profit margins on more expensive vehicles, which has been their intent to like drive drive up the the transaction price

So I mean from a like would that be great if there was a you know entry level quote-unquote Aston Martin

Sure, that might be fun

But like is it a viable thing for them as a business? I think especially probably not I mean they have the tub technology now

Yeah, it means like well, maybe it's possible, but that price point would compete with like

Fully option vantage or like the vanquish right is around 300 well so what I've heard is the vantage is going away

Or sometime around 2030 and not being replaced. Hmm. They're just going further up scale

I think the thinking was the DB 12 is very similar to the vantage and they could overlap

You know and and they want to move that transaction

So by getting rid of the $200,000 car and introducing a 1.2 million dollar car the Valhalla, right?

That will do it. They also got rid of the base DB X now the 707 is the base and they've got the s above that

Which you should drive if you have I have yeah fucking yeah, I like the DB X

I wouldn't surprise me at all because they got the McLaren guy there

So he knows how business works you go P1 and 720 all the other ones. I couldn't maybe see a

Five or six hundred thousand dollar mid-engine car that would be

Around the performance of the vanquish

But with the engine in the middle I could see that more than I would ask the marn's not making now

They're not interested in affordable cars. Yeah, that's a bad move for them. I think yeah

Yeah, the Porsche hatchback that I you know the platform shared GTI that I want Porsche to build is like never

You know

Uh Christian says oh boy here we go. Is there a big difference between automakers using cameras versus LiDAR?

Why is it just Tesla using cameras and they get so much praise for autopilot? Okay?

There's a few different things. Yeah, right. It's not camera versus LiDAR. It's camera versus camera and LiDAR

Yeah, and radar. Yeah, and so you've got Tesla which is camera only and you've got pretty much everyone else

Which is what they call sensor complete, right?

and

Why is it just Tesla using cameras because it's cheaper

And and they get so much praise for autopilot. I mean because that's a

Media problem

Yeah, and and a Tesla fan person

Right well and also when you have a financial reinforcement from being an occult and repeating their message

There's that and look cameras

Cameras can work pretty well on the highway in the right conditions

Yeah, and cameras can work pretty well in the city with good software in the right conditions, but it's like when they fail

There isn't a backup and then you have a crash and when they get confused in something like a Waymo

There are other sensor suites that go what is that?

Do we see it too and and you have a much safer product not perfect? Yeah, but much safer

So have you ridden Waymo's much? I have a few times. Do you enjoy them?

I don't dislike it like I thought I would dislike it more

Uh-huh. I feel like they do a pretty good job like they do a pretty good job of driving

They drive pretty well. Yeah, they drive well

I was in one and it like it went through a couple yellow lights. I was like, okay way a mile

I think the last six months. They've turned up the aggression a little bit

I think they were a little too passive and they dialed they've dialed up just a little

I think some of it comes with just you know more and more miles and more and more experience

I mean, I'm not you know, I'm not like a huge fan of the whole thing necessarily from a systemic point of view

but I understand the use case and

You know, we've got to I guess they're taking this technology out for a spin, right

Well, look at least it's a commercial product

That's running a commercial insurance policy at the very fucking least the very least there is a company

Evil as they may be on google

That's backing this it's not here's the technology

It's gonna do this thing 99 percent. Yeah, perfect. And then when it goes wrong, it's on you fucking fault

Like come on. Yeah, that's crazy shit. Yeah

And so I but also way most have very fun limitations. They they'll drop you in weird places

They can you know, and it's they could come like I did when I first took them

They were only like on the surface streets and like in the valley, you know

I mean the flat parts of the city now they're up in the hills and stuff like that

Yeah, freeway they added freeways like maybe

Maybe six months ago. Yeah, but they're they grow the map. They can't do the airport pickup

Airport is yeah airport is it is a mess. They'll they'll they'll launch lax around the same time they launch riyadh

About that level of of aggression

I just worked on a story for playboy, which apparently still exists. Yeah. Yeah relaunched right relaunched

And he's not still there. No, he's not. Okay. No, he's not. Yeah. Yeah, he didn't he didn't uh that that part ended

Um, but uh, we did a story kind of pegged to Waymo's about uh, the history of sex in cars

On sort of this idea that you would think that um, you know, this would be a new

Uh, sort of golden age for sex in cars because there's no driver and no one no one to see blacked out windows and stuff

But of course it's google

So there's tons of surveillance of course in the vehicles and more or less titillating than having a human driver

I think for some people more and for some people less although, you know, Waymo is like, yeah, we

Uh, we monitor the footage and like if people don't you know, abide our safety and cleanliness standards

Uh, not only will they be banned from the app, but we will can turn those if they do anything

That's illegal. We'll turn those records over to law enforcement. So what league like elite where we draw the line

Yeah, I mean you signed that you signed the uh the agreement or whatever right when you clicked yes on the

Also, if the footage is really good, we you know, share it around the office and you know, right? Yeah

Dungeons and Datsons says I've been listening to several ai experts on the diary of a ceo podcast one aspect

That most seem to agree on is that middle class and upper middle class white collar jobs are going to be affected first and worst medical accounting, etc

If this is the case how much of an effect might it have on the sports car market?

Since these would be the ones that typically purchasing the ones

All these questions circle back to exactly where we just were the fucking automakers are targeting billionaires because they see

This customer coming what's coming right?

Not necessarily because they see this specifically coming, but they're just going we could build

5 000 cars yeah for 200 grand each

Or we could build 500 cars for 2 million each and have the same amount of money

And those 500 people would be easier to please than these 5 000 people

And we wouldn't have to do certain regulations and we wouldn't have to do this and we wouldn't have to do this

They're just doing it. Yeah, they don't they don't need an ai kick. They're just doing it

I know but I think it would like I just looked up Porsche last year sold about 20,911's and 718's so sports cars

so

You know this if this happened and got rid of a lot of white collar people off their jobs

I think you'd see a huge shrink in the new sports car market

But also the used market would follow fall a lot because anyone who was like, oh, I got money. I can buy

Yeah, a six-figure forming ass air-cooled car like they're gonna have to let that go

Yeah, I think we'd see a lot of things fall in price. Yeah, if you thought your Carrera s was an investment

Yeah, yeah

Yeah, I think that's gonna do it move your money to dubai right that's like real financial freedom super safe there right now

Yeah, why don't you what let's buy a buy a second home in dubai? It's like it's a no brainer

Uh, the road is my expense the cost of my desire very good

After 25 years as a preschool director

Who throws a more impressive tantrum? I should have read the second half of this before for the first time

A 23 year old who missed that nap

Their nap or a luxury super car owner who found a scratch on their bespoke leather interior. Oh

I'm gonna say a three-year-old. I don't think most people are that big of a weenie now

I we I in my company we accidentally

Scratch someone's interior. Yeah, like you know how it happens, dude

Right rivets on your jeans the rivet on your jeans if you don't give that steering wheel or the bolster a little room

Yeah, so I had to pay to fix a guy's steering wheel

I mean I had to pay to fix it. Yeah, like he wasn't you know, right super mad like that should happen

Yeah, most people it's another fix that do they do they smooth it out grind it down or something

I mean that's that is the way you would do it if you don't want to

Literally replace the entire steering wheel. Yeah, fortunately this customer did not ask us to do so. Yeah. Yeah, it was all right

Um

Wait, wait, uh, matt you influencing son of a bitch

Uh with respects to mrs. Farrah. She's a lovely person. Okay. I had to go out and buy a pen

I didn't need a pen and my writing looks like unwiped asshole

But I got a pilot fountain pen and I don't feel like the feel very much

Is there something uh else I should try before diving first into another useless hobby?

Wait, this is a fountain pen question. There's this a failed reference to something else

Because I don't want to feel any of the fountain pens and he has influenced this person

I think to be into pens

But he bought the pen and doesn't actually like it that much if you don't like fountain pens

You don't need to go down the roll of fountain by the way

You should watch the last two minutes of the daily show from monday where uh, john shows footage of trump discussing fountain pens

Oh, no, I'm not gonna throw away my fountain pens

Is he actually like a savant on fountain pens that would be a really interesting thing to learn

I can't imagine that he's a little really

I mean, he's into it

He's talking about how they write and the cost of them and and he talked about the material and how he doesn't want to

Be holding one that feels like this or that

It's now only writes in short cabinet meeting. So he's like you should got back on

So it was the rambling of someone who could

Yeah, it's a madman. What are you bracelets made of they're shining in such a

Yeah, they're they're like yeah, they're springy metal. They're my grandmother's no fucking way. These are awesome

These are really great. They're like, uh, they're like slinky bracelets. Yeah, this is very risky with my syrian arm hair, though

Yeah, same

Oh, it is. Yeah, it's a little it's a little pinchy. Yeah, it's a little pinchy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but fuck is that cool

Thank you. Those are your grandma's. Yeah, wow grandma was awesome grandma had some good stuff grandma was awesome

Oh, man, I gotta give a shout out to my boy adam his grandpa just is 94 years old and just sold restaurant depot

for 29

Billion dollars. He started restaurant depot in 1976. So that friend adam not this adam

Yeah, it's that friend that that friend adam, you know, I went to high a guy I went to high school with like just

He's just a dude. Like he's just a he's just a dude

But like, you know, his grandpa always was the guy who started restaurant depot

But like he just sold that shit and like

Whoa, wow

Whoa

Oh

Fountain pens, I don't know dude if you don't like uh

A pilot fountain pen is a very cheapy fountain pen. Like you might if you really care like go get yourself a

lamby l a m y that's like a

30 dollar fountain pen

And like that's much nicer than a five dollar pilot fountain pen

And if you don't like it then then bail cut the cord and cut the cord and bail

Maybe try a gel writer pen. There's a bunch of dope pens that aren't fountain pens. Yeah

Do you have a million pens now? No, okay. I don't um, but I did

I do like fountain pens a little bit because of how little I have to press. Yeah, they're so light and we went to this

Um, I'll show you afterwards. We went I went my wife like finds this shit. We went to the california pen show

Oh, wow, which is a thing you should see. Yeah

I love any anything like that where people are like obsessive and not like they're not like trying to kill me

Yeah, that's not what they're obsessed about very deep deep level of nerdery about this kind of stuff

Which I love. Yeah, and I just like if I see something maybe I'll get so I got one

What most people would call an expensive pen, but it didn't

It didn't scratch the surface of where you can't go right at the california fucking pen or whatever fucking trump is right

He's probably ready. He's probably got a montblanc. It's probably not even not even that good, but pen. Yeah

Matt matt's wait, holy shit

belly

I matt's something something tow rig. I'm sorry. I can't whatever that's supposed to be a military vehicle again. Okay, fine

Question for all three of you

Best bang what is a great bang for the buck car related experience?

You recommend listeners to try to do slash have slash achieve. That's a good one. Yeah affordable car related experiences

um, I often

Suggest the lane motor museum in nashville

Dude, just lane rules is the best guy. He is the best. He's the nicest guy. Yes. I've driven like dozens of cars from there

I drove the uh, the propeller car. Oh, yeah, I drove the propeller car. Yeah, I can't remember what that's called

It's just an airplane without wings. Yeah. Yeah, it's just a thing for taxi. Yeah sketch. Yeah very sketchy

But yeah, some like so many weird micro cars so many weird like french cars

So many weird italian cars like such weird stuff

Nissan has its archive, you know a heritage collection in the basement

Like all the cars run like he's has the strangest, you know, strangest taste finds the weirdest stuff. Yeah

So I feel like, you know, nashville is not that far from most places easy to get to drive. Good roads. Good roads around there

Exactly. I mean driving, you know driving the smoky mountains tail of the dry

There's like there's a dozen road trips, but like i'm yeah, I don't think that's what you want like

We talk about this every single year, but you can have a full week of excitement at car week

Without spending a dime outside of whatever your hotel accommodations cost

Yeah, there's so much free shit to do and to see during car free or very cheap

You know, you can get into r.m. Auctions with a $25 spectator ticket. Like that's what I mean, but yeah

Um and just standing on the road, you know what I mean? Like you'll see

Down time

You'll be you'll be sick of seeing the world will come to you the best cars. Yeah, we happened upon pagani street last year

Uh, I think this year we're gonna do the woodward dream cruise. Oh, wow. We haven't done in a while

I have never gotten you know, I'm from detroit originally. We went like 15 years ago

God, was it fun? Yeah, it was great. It seems like it would be fun. And I think maybe they're separate weeks this year or something

Right. I think they pushed pebble back or forth with one week. I can't remember. Oh, I have to double check that schedule

I might look into that august. Yeah, but I've been talking to

Ford okay about do I have one idea that is something I've been really wanting to do that

They said they might be able to make happen. There's a very personal thing. I don't even want to say yet. Okay

I'll tell you but but um, I also said like hey, man

Nobody from la gives a fuck about car week if I came out there got a big house. I was like

What do you got? Right? Well, you know, what what go ask go ask Jim?

What can I drive? Right, you know, like what can I go cruise in and he was like, all right. I will get back to you

We got something. Yeah, so I mean they have a heritage collection. Oh, yeah

I got some dope shit. Yeah, but like there's dudes like

You never go at car week. You never hear the word contraption

right

Yeah, but like it's like, hey that there's a boat driving down the road

One more dream cruise is like it's like the purge

for uh, non-street legal vehicles, you know, I mean it's like for this weekend

Right, you can drive whatever you want. Every thing is street legal. Nobody gives a fuck

Well, and one of the you know, one of the things about growing up in michigan in general is you know, the the the state

Regulations are so behold into the auto companies. That's like, you know, there's no inspections. You don't need a front license plate

You know, there's no inspection at all

And so you will see like the shittiest cars you have ever seen in the world going down the road, you know

Things that people build where you're like, I don't know where that started or what this dude was thinking

But like, yeah, it's probably a Pontiac Grand Prix chassis under there

I got a secret for your kid. It's always a Grand Prix under there

That's your that's your that truck is it's like it's like the largest heaviest dump truck in the world

Mining truck exactly. Yeah, those those wheels those tires are like these three stories

These children

Working in this pit federal investigator. Love it

Did you see this story the the epa approved 15 percent ethanol content and gasoline?

They want to let people water down the gas

An important thing to add is that the epa doesn't usually do they usually ban this in the summer

Because of the evaporation to do the higher temperatures and they're making an exception

So that's like the thing

It's in theory to ease the price of gas right from what I read maybe you don't start senseless wars

There are other things that could do this

But apparently they're going to label it 88 octane

So if you don't want the fifth, you don't you shouldn't get the 88 octane

If you don't want because it could depend on your car like it could cause problems with seals or with detonation

It depends. It you know could have a lot of effects on your vehicle

But yeah, so don't try to avoid it if I would say again

Yeah, I will

If I can find ethanol free for the older cars. I prefer it

But also like you're you're empty down a lot with higher ethanol

So the price may be lower, but you might actually burn more depends on how you have of course. Yeah

Ll. Cartier, can you scroll down please Zach?

Does alpina do anything to improve the reliability or the base vehicles or do they just compound the complexities?

I've thought about getting a depreciated sedan as a sometimes daily, but scared of bmw's. I mean, that's an interesting question

I really sure

Be alpina. Have you ever been there? Uh, no, I haven't been there. I've I've written about them and I have interviewed executives and stuff like that

Andy

Bovenceepin. Yeah, he was he's the man. He's not he's now moved on

He's got his own little thing because they were acquired by bmw. I went there though and andy toured me around

God, was he the coolest? It was the coolest place. Yeah, they

Did a lot more than I thought they did. Oh, yeah

You know, I thought the engines were just tuned, but they were doing they were doing pistons. They were doing they were casting their own

Air to water intercoolers and stuff

They did a lot. Yeah, they do a lot like like both

Like it's it's about I guess it's more like about like high speed

Comfort and driving than it is about all performance. Yeah, Andy said the cars are designed for people to do 40,000 kilometers a year

Which is I get that totally but like

They're starting with brand new cars. So like what what are they gonna do to improve the reliability of the base vehicles there?

they they put in supporting

modifications to handle the horsepower and and those types of increases, but like

Yeah, what else are they gonna do? I mean, I would say unless it's in a press release where they go. Hey, we identify that this

Water impeller fan sucks from the factory and we make a different one. That was a big problem. It's bmw's in the 90s

Just as an example. Yeah, see Mike, but I would say unless it's in their press release

They probably just take the engine and they turn the boost and they fiddle with this a little bit and then they dress it up

Yeah, I mean our buddy Vinnie bought a 2011 alpina b7 with like, I don't know

100,000 miles on it. Yeah, how did that go like 11,000 bucks and it burned oil. Yeah, um

But aside from and and to fix the oil burning problem. He got an estimate that was like 12,000 dollars

I mean, there's an engine out. There's a full engine out

And they were like

Put oil and they were like

Check the oil once a week. Yeah, you know

And it really only burned oil like if it was sitting for a long time. It wasn't all the time

And so for like a year he just fucking drove it. Yeah, and other than that it was like fine

And uh, so what are you willing to put up with? Yeah, exactly. It could get lucky. You could get on like I've been he got

Yeah, yeah, he got pretty lucky. Yeah. Yeah, I think they're really nice vehicle. I like what they do to their

Oh, yeah

Find and like they drive great. Yeah. Yeah

Dude, Andy picked me up at the airport in munich and between I think it was munich. That's the nearest airport to there

I think yeah, munich or stuttgart, but I think it was munich

And he personally picked me up at the airport and hit 200 miles an hour on the way back to alpina

And then he and then you know, we go and then he goes because this will be your car for the week

We had just done to him. I was like, that'll be fine. Yeah, that works for me. Yeah

Tell me robinson 57 and oh says

What are some cars in y'all experience that are one fatal flaw from excellent?

For example, the outie rs5 cut the rev short before the fund started. Oh, I I wouldn't have said that one

Uh, the rcf with intrusive nannies. That was the least of the rcf's problems

Lfa with a single clutch the all the phase gearbox, although I'd still take it

Yeah, but I'd still be bombed every time one fatal flaw

I mean almost all of these hyper cars that use that single clutch extract gear backs gearbox

That's 296 has all the capacitive hapticky things, but farai said that they will now retrofit

Yeah, so I was just gonna say the farai student. Yeah, but yeah, they've they've got they've worked that out

It's not in the new it's cool. I can back date it exactly

They're like we're starting with like the most recent cars and we're going backwards from there

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm glad that they that they admitted that that was sure that that sucked

After six years of people bitching

Okay, you're right. You're right. We re-amortized this now. We're gonna say it's we're moving on to something else

One it's hard one fatal flaw from excellence. Hmm

I mean, I think

There's a lot of vehicles that have like this drives me crazy

And I'm sure you guys have talked about this before on the show like the vent control the ventilation controls in the screen

Touchscreen vent controls. This is not good. This is not good at all

And then someone was like I brought this up to a manufacturer. They're like, why are you adjusting your vents so much?

Have you been outside? I do a lot. Yeah, exactly like sometimes the sun's shining through and you want that, you know

It's like

Why are you having a coffee while driving your car, brad? That's crazy. Yeah, it's none of your business

Right, like it shouldn't be this hard

That's unbelievable. I love that

Mark Ferrar the tired smoker says

I wait, okay

I heard at high-end uk car dealer claimed that the only two collector cars where the coop was worth more than the identical convertible

Is the sl 300

So it would be going the 50s one and the sls going

Uh, I do not agree with that assessment at all. I think most late model 9 11's the coop is going to be worth more than the convertible

Corvettes

Corvettes absolutely on the second hand market. Yeah, I think in most cases

Yeah

the I mean

there could be

I mean, I mean if maybe if you're talking about like, I don't know

Muscle cars and they only made some small number of convertibles with the huge engine pack or something and so

Rarity comes into play. I think that's the thing like you have to go with rarity has to be a component if it's just

You know equal production numbers. I'm sure the coops are worth more money just based on the cars we've listed

Yeah, oftentimes certainly there's ones where spiders are worth more money as well

Um, almost anything with a carbon tub, for instance, the spider will always be worth more money

But like most 9 11's yeah coops hold their value better than that makes sense convertibles. Yeah

Hmm. All right interesting. I wouldn't I wouldn't listen to that uk dealer. She only wanted me for my turn in

Um, I've been listening to you guys talk cars for 10 years now. Thank you the valhalla review got me thinking

How long does a car keep your excitement after the first go?

uh

What generally happens. Oh, so like I'll I will say that there's a it's not necessarily like

How long but it's like did you drive it in?

Context of a group test or by itself. Yeah, press launches are designed to make the car look really good

Yeah, they've chosen a good road. Yeah a complimentary racetrack, you know other cars aren't there, right? Yeah, there's no one else around

Yeah, exactly. You're driving. Yeah. Have you ever really changed your mind from a individual drive to a group test?

You've participated. That's a really good question. I'm trying to think of a good example. I definitely have

Uh, where like I drove a car

At you know at launch or something like that and I was like, I'm not sure about this thing

And then I had it on my own for a little while

And I'm trying to remember like a specific example right now where I was just like I'm just not feeling this car

I'll have to think about it. I've had a few cars where I thought they were pretty good

By themselves and then I did a in a in a performance car of the year test and I was like, oh god without this other stuff

All the way around. Yeah, no go. Um, and sometimes that was a pretty quick

I drove a car and then a week later did performance car of the year. Yeah, shit. I can I rewrite my

This thing beforehand. Fuck. I know that's one of the benefits that they have of getting us to write these things quickly after

We drive the vehicle. Well, no, but all but the context of a group test is like, man, you can't replace that. That's the shit

Uh, wheat city night court said if you owned and brett if you owned and road trip to ferrari lamborghini

Oraston would you pack your things in the corresponding fitted luggage?

Or is a car logo on your suitcase to gosch? Good question. Good question. I've I would totally go for the luggage

I would go for the luggage. I think it's like it's custom designed to fit in the vehicle

Usually it's pretty nice. It is. Yeah, that shit sells on bring a trailer like 15 g exactly

So i'm not opposed to the i'm not opposed to the luggage if there's any in the car. I usually steal it

If you wanted to really be a boss though, you'd you'd take the luggage to your guy, right?

And you'd have something stitched over it. So it didn't have my own monogram on there, right? Yeah, the double b

I did dude. I had a guy

I had a guy chase me the fuck down at a car show

And it was hot as hell outside

And this dude was wearing a full suit, which I thought was so weird

Yeah, and he said you have to see my new singer

No, okay. He goes I've got just got it. Yeah, nine eleven reimagined

Yes, nine eleven imagined as product of the singer classic restorations division trademark. We are not affiliated with Porsche

et cetera

So all right, we're it's any drives me and and okay. It's you know, it's a singer. We've seen them there

It's lovely

But then he goes I had the make

The this this luggage and he like folds the seat and he actually did have to make this crazy like nine piece set of

Is it like woven like that? Yeah, it was crazy and I was like, oh my god

And I later asked I saw mass and I was like dude. I met the guy with the fitted luggage. Yeah, like

You know, he kind of like rolls

And I was like, how much was the luggage? He's like 250

Wow, the luggage for luggage to have one one set made from nothing

It's not the design is that you're gonna sell people. Yeah to have one set made

Jesus wow, that's crazy. Yeah, I I don't think I would like if it were up to me and I'm buying the luggage

I don't think I'd pay 230k for that extra luggage

But I don't it doesn't I don't think it costs that much in the something tells me

No, no, no, no, certainly not but something tells me singers customers are like, yeah, that's some other fucking planet

I mean, certainly the guy wearing the suit at the cars and coffee

Was like whatever planet that guy's out. I don't fucking know and an attention seeker. Yeah, I think

USS hander thighs. It's pretty fun

From a chassis perspective are the 86s the best you can get for under 100k brand new before buying a Cayman

I think close to it

Yeah, that's a really I had one of those recently and I had driven one on the launch and I'd driven one since then, you know

Um, and it was fun as hell. You know what I mean? It was so much fun

It was just like I'd forgotten how much fun that that was they had a manual like it was just a

Such a fun light car easily easy to easy to move

Yeah, you're driving it on a yacht around. I was driving on a yacht. Yeah, I was just drifting on a yacht the whole time

That was a new record for lapping the ss

USS enter throughout enter size. I mean, it's a great car, but 100k is a lot of money. Yeah, so it includes shit like the

Dark horse the m2 the nismo z

Oh, yeah, uh, the supras. Yeah, I mean the gr. Corolla

I mean, so there's I think I think he said chassis. I'd still say this is the best because I drove

I drove the new one at sonoma versus the gr. Corolla and the supras supras faster

But when you get into this, it's it's the balance. It's the touch. It's the the conversation you have all that shit

That makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. So sure. Okay

Brand new. Yeah

Well

Might I just throw in that you can get a z 51

under a hundred thousand

and I

Don't know. I think there's an argument to be made there. There is that would be a good comparison. We have mid-engine v8s

Yeah, that would be a good argument to be made. So if you actually have the hundo, you know

Wider than the nascar racing line at kota says I got

I got to see the american motor drum company and they put on an amazing show. What the fuck is that?

Oh, do they do are they doing like barrel riding like back in the day?

Really they are. Oh fun. What is your favorite kind of stunt driving slash riding?

There was a year before the 2018 fire where in malibu

The motorcycle riders that were riding the snake

Got tired of their sport bikes and all bought baggers and started doing stunts up

The snake

On baggers like dragging pegs huge sparks and like big fucking wheelies on these huge baggers

Wow, and honestly that was a good time. Yeah, they started doing bagger racing at lagoona

Well king of the baggers is right is what kind of came out of bikes are fast

Like they put down some serious time has that circled back now do those manufacturers now sell

fast baggers like

Something for the road that's based on their bagger race bike. This is now. This is the x6 m

Is now coming back

For us

Oh american motor drum am amdc wall of death. Yeah, yeah, this is like some old school. Oh, wow

Oh, I'd love to see this. You know, this is great. Wow. All right. Oh, it's gotta be such a good time, dude

No hands. This is board track. This is this is like it's like racing was in los angeles in 1915

Just born like where the grove is was like a board track. It was in beverly hills speedway. Oh cool. They travel with it

Set it up. Ah, that's

There was something I read about this might have been a car and driver article 10 years ago

I think my friend jared gall read it and it was about this crazy

Uh, you know mayhem race event that they would do I think somewhere in michigan or in the midwest

Where they would like chain two school buses together

Yeah, yeah, and then like like put like a blank

Like stainless like metal plate behind the back wheels of one of them or something. So this is like throwing it

Play racing. Yeah, so the front one. Yeah

Does not have brakes. Okay. The back one has brakes. Okay

And so it's like throwing nunchucks into a crowd or something like that. All right. Yeah, so it's change school. Let's figure it

Yeah, it's bananas. Yeah, that sounded like it would be fun to watch. Oh incredible

It's beyond. It's one of the best spectator sports ever. They used to do skid plate racing at um, Irwindale. Yeah, Irwindale

Granny shifted not double clutching like you should

Uh, wait, did you buy a gt3? No

Maybe they're thinking maybe there's someone else. Yeah, I don't have a gt3. Yeah, uh

Oh, wait, uh, mark furor the tired smoker says, uh, toss in a watch question here rec watches dna series cool or not cool

Can you pull that up? I'm not I don't know this. I know the company

Don't they make companies out of watch? Excuse me. Don't they make watches out of crashed cars?

I'm pretty sure they make watches out of crashed cars

huh, uh

Yeah, so this is their thing they take the metal

From crashed cars and then they make a watch out of it

Which like okay like that's a vibe. Yeah, um, and they're not the watches themselves

Aren't super shouty about like what they're made of which is cool

Is it just like melted down metal? I think so. I think it is

Or it might be uh, click on like, I don't know the the bullet or one of one of the other ones that we can little tiny piece

Of this is like, what's the part? I don't know. Let's let's see. Where is it?

Can you can you scroll can we see what part it's made is made from it? It's a pure gray

It's got to be the dial right uh sub a sub dial crafted from the repurposed brake disc. Okay, so go back up

Come back up. Let's see what the sub dial is that is scroll down

Okay, so the top sub dial on this watch is made from a brake disc from this portion

Huh, you can kind of see it. I mean look dude, but the rest of the watch is made of watch, right? Correct

So I mean, yeah

I haven't heard any horror stories if the idea of having a small piece of whatever that car is makes you horny

Then like go for it. Yeah, I like that. It's not super shouty the rest of the watch

It's just a watch the rest of it, which I think

If you're doing a car watch collab, you really got to tone the car

Way as far down as wheels, right?

The back the back of this watch did have a dbs looking

Yeah, the fronts are you know, they're not it's not immediately obvious. So

So, okay, cool. They're not really for me. I don't need my car watch collabs to be that tight

But like if you're into it like, okay, cool, right? It doesn't look too bad

Uh, it's got a swiss movement manual winding flyback chronograph like, okay

Yeah, but like this one is

They made this watch from the coolant resourced coolant pipes

Of a gt40 chassis p1001

So someone was throwing away the coolant pipe someone told someone this is definitely the coolant pipe

And then they made a watch which not a bad look at watch, but

You know like I can't see the coolant pipe in this

I can't I can't either but like dude, maybe that's for the best, you know

It's it's honestly, it's a it's a it's a swiss flyback chronograph with an integrated bracelet for $2,500

That's not ugly. Yeah, so

Points to them. Yeah, right if you're into the story could be worse. Yeah. Yeah, it's what we call a lecturer's watch

Can I tell you about my watch? Yeah, please don't

You'll have to come over and drive the manks to try it's it's it's I mean there is no better Hamptons vehicle

So you'll have to do other six weeks on the other side

Anything you want to plug let's see working on a bunch of stuff recently. It's been a lot of fun. I just drove the new

Jag

Oh, the actual jag. Yeah, I mean still still a still a you know a prototype or whatever, but

So that was kind of exciting drive like an EV

No, it actually had like a nice feel to it. You know what I mean like it had a different

I don't know what they've done. I don't really understand it, but like

It has that I mean it almost feels like and they they said they said this and they had some some of these

heritage vehicles for us to test out

to

Check out like a v12

Jags go like the 70s and 80s and it has a little bit of that feel to it

Where it's like there's always like more power

So it's not like you flat out and you're like, you know, you break your neck

But like it feels like you can keep going, you know

Does it? Oh, it looks it looks like that. Yeah. Yeah, it was still zebra. You were paul neumann. That's me

Is it you that from that angle? You've got a very paul neumann vibe happening there. Yeah, I guess that's a good thing. There we go

Yes, it is. Um, and we didn't have anything resembling a production interior. No, it was all covered up in like magicians black, you know

felt um

Some elements of it you could sort of see no no hard switches. Okay, no hard switch. That's although they'll have to change that

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm like, let's hope that the future that jaguar imagines somehow comes to fruition

Wouldn't it be a bummer if only billionaires got to have real switches on stuff?

If like the only way to get a real switch and something was to have a bagani

Yeah, well, I did a story about this recently. There was like, uh analog is the new luxury essentially, right?

That's talking about it exactly that

That that's uh, that's where that's where automakers are seeing the demand

So the most first nobody wants a evi hypercar for obvious reasons

Why would you when you can get a tesla or lucid that's like also fast?

uh, and yeah, it's the oh look at that photo and uh and and the um

Yeah, anal analogue and and tactile and exactly engagement. It's record players and like us and fucking

You know pour over coffee and watches and it's the same as all that shit. Yeah, if you're rich, you can feel things

Yeah, exactly the rest of us are stuck the rest of us have the virtual version. Yeah of

What else yeah, yeah, sure good to see you good to see you too. Um, where can people find your writing digitally just your newsletter?

Yeah, just uh bret burke.com. That's it. Yeah, burke.com. Yeah, I go to my go to my site and uh has everything there uh hit on

It should just be

The man the man who abandoned social media successfully. Exactly. It looks like there's a few things that are missing from here

I gotta update. I've got to update that's a few that's from a couple weeks ago

I found the other site, but I don't do you not want to plug that one the the muck rack one

Oh, yeah muck rack is just like uh, yeah, that's true. Also. Yeah, that works also bret burke on muck rack a lot everything recent

Yeah, there's everything there, right? Yeah, story about

This article is very good. That was a fun one. We'll do one good colors. Yeah, we should get them. Yeah, agreed

There was a fun story we did for

With vanity fair with lebron

James about his new my buck. That was a couple weeks ago

Uh, yeah, I don't know. That's all over there, right? Did you interview lebron from those my buck?

Yeah, was and and is there something particularly special about this my buck?

I mean, you know, it's a highly customized my buck

He's they made a second one that he's auctioning off for his charity. Cool, which is pretty nice his garage. This photos are in this

Uh

That is a really good question. We were not I was not in person with him for this story

But um, yeah

He the one one hilarious story that he told is that you know his first supercar

He bought a Gallardo and um, he must have been pretty young right because he started playing when he was just a kid

Yeah, uh professionally and um, he said he bought the car and then he realized he doesn't he didn't know how to drive a manual

Oh, we bought a stick Gallardo. Well, good for him. Which is great

But then he bought another car like a cheaper car with a manual to learn

Oh, I bought a beater. Yeah

Oh, wow

Learn how to drive a manual before he drove his Gallardo. I don't want to blow up his spot

In a way, but a guy a vendor that we use here at the shop also works for him. Okay, and

A couple of cars have just shown up at this vendor shop

And they're like cool. They're there. They're there. It's a cool car. Yeah, but a fairly shit example

And he'll go oh well, that's that's for LeBron and I'll go

What the fuck and and I'll go why is he buying a shit example? Yeah, he could buy the best example

And he's like, you know, you don't you don't really get it

He's so rich. He doesn't even take the time to look for other examples

He just sees some shit, right? He's like clicks clicks buy and then it just shows up here

And I'm told to do you know, whatever and he doesn't care what it costs to fix it. Get it right

He's on the one right here's the one I bought right. Yeah fix it up

And so I've been like wow like he clearly has good taste

But like somebody should be like hold on. Yeah, just wait a sec. Give me like

10 seconds, right? Yeah, one of these it isn't a complete shit pile and we can do something here, you know

Very funny, but clearly he has he has good good taste in at least the right direction. Yeah. Yeah, very cool. We appreciate that

Yeah, very cool. Thanks for having me out. Thanks for coming

Happy west coasting. Thank you. We'll talk. We'll top it off with a manx drive before you go home

Okay, I'll try to make that I'll try to make that happen. If not

You'll plan for the next six weeks six weeks blocks. Thank you, uh, Brett Burke get him at bret Burke.com

We'll see the rest of you guys next week. Bye

Brett Berk

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