Bronco Raptor upgrades, 1970 Dodge Coronet project, RAM truck project and more.
CarCast
Bronco Raptor upgrades, 1970 Dodge Coronet project, RAM truck project and more.CarCast · Jun 11, 2026
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Term
drain pans
Drain pans are like little trays that catch water and help it drain away. If they’re damaged, water can get where it shouldn’t and cause problems.
Term
water test
A water test is when you spray or pour water in a controlled way to see if anything leaks. It’s a way to confirm repairs before putting everything back together.
This is a Ford Mustang with a roof you can open and close. Newer convertibles can do it with a button, so you don’t have to manually fold or latch everything yourself.
The Tesla Semi is a large electric truck used to move goods. Instead of using diesel fuel, it runs on electricity. The podcast brings it up because people are paying a lot of attention to how these trucks are being used.
This is a 1970 Dodge Coronet, a classic American muscle car. They’re building it as a serious project by putting in a high-performance engine and adding race-style safety and styling so it looks and acts wilder than a stock car.
“Trannies” is just a casual way of saying “transmission.” It’s the part that sends power from the engine to the wheels, and they’re talking about getting it ready as part of the build.
“Fully caged” means the car has a roll cage—basically a strong safety frame inside the cabin. It’s something you usually see on cars built for racing or hard driving because it adds protection and rigidity.
“Six pack” is a performance setup that usually means multiple carburetors working together to feed the engine more fuel/air. They’re saying this Coronet is built around that kind of performance hardware.
They’re saying this Coronet has an automatic transmission. That means you don’t shift gears manually, and it changes how you drive it compared with a stick.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car made by Chevrolet. The “convertible” means the roof can open, and the “327 four-speed” refers to the engine and the manual transmission. People talk about older Corvettes like this because they’re collectible and built for driving performance.
The Ford F-150 is a large pickup truck. The podcast mentions it because it’s a common base for special performance versions and projects. People talk about it a lot because it’s widely used and easy to find parts and upgrades for.
PPF is a protective film put on your car’s paint. The “stealth” version is meant to look less shiny (more matte/low-gloss) while still protecting the paint.
A cat-back exhaust is an exhaust upgrade that starts at the catalytic converter and goes to the back of the car. People do it to change the sound and sometimes improve exhaust flow.
“Plug and play” means the part is made to install easily using the car’s existing connections. In this case, the exhaust mostly went in without extra work.
These are exhaust flaps controlled by the car. They can open or close to change how loud the exhaust sounds, and the host says theirs wasn’t closing fully after a reset.
A factory reset is like putting the car’s settings back to the default. They tried it to fix the exhaust valve behavior, but it didn’t work as the paperwork said.
“Codes” are warning messages the car’s computer stores when it detects a problem. The host is saying that after plugging something in, the car threw a lot of warning codes.
A V8 is an engine with eight cylinders arranged in a V shape. The point here is that even with an exhaust, a V6 can’t truly sound like a V8 because the engine is fundamentally different.
A V6 is an engine with six cylinders arranged in a V shape. The host is saying you can change how it sounds with an exhaust, but it won’t sound exactly like a much bigger engine.
Twin turbo means there are two turbochargers feeding the engine. The host is saying turbo setups can change the exhaust sound and make it feel different than a non-turbo engine.
“Baja” is a mode setting that makes the exhaust sound more aggressive. The host is saying it’s the loudest/sportiest sound option, but it still won’t make a V6 sound like a V8.
Upper control arms are parts of the suspension that hold the wheel in the right position. If you upgrade them, you can often adjust the wheel angles so the tires sit better and handle more predictably.
Alignment is adjusting the angles of the wheels so they point the right way. After suspension work, you usually need an alignment so the tires wear evenly and the truck drives straight.
In suspension context, “geometry” refers to the alignment and wheel-position angles created by the suspension setup. It’s what determines how the tires contact the road under braking, acceleration, and cornering.
A manual transmission swap means changing the truck so it uses a stick shift instead of its original automatic setup. It’s more than just bolting in a new gearbox—you usually have to change the parts that control the clutch and shifting.
Suspension is the system that connects the wheels to the vehicle and controls ride quality and handling. Replacing it with “new suspension” typically means refreshing worn components and improving how the truck rides and absorbs bumps after upgrades or heavy use.
Term
360
The “360” is the engine size—360 cubic inches of V8. The point is that it didn’t make enough power for the bigger upgrades they wanted to do.
A “crate motor” is an engine you buy as a complete package to install in your car. The 392 is a bigger V8, and swapping to it is how the host boosted power for the truck build.
Turning it into a manual means changing it from automatic shifting to a clutch-and-gear setup. That usually requires swapping several drivetrain parts, not just the gear lever.
When people do a transmission swap, they’re trying to replace the gearbox with another one. “Viable” means it can actually be made to fit and work properly in that car, not just bolt in.
“TKX” is a name people use for a particular aftermarket 5-speed manual transmission. In this conversation, they’re comparing it to other gearbox options for a swap.
A “six-speed” gearbox has one extra gear compared with a five-speed. That can make driving smoother or more efficient, but it can also be harder to fit into some cars during a swap.
The Dodge Magnum is a Dodge car with a wagon-like body style. The podcast mentions a six-speed manual transmission, which is the part that controls how many gears you use while driving. People talk about it because the performance versions are interesting to enthusiasts.
“E56 Magnum” is the name of a particular transmission they’re planning to install. They’re talking about it being physically bigger, which matters because the car has limited space where the shifter and drivetrain go.
The “tunnel area” is the part of the floor where the transmission and drivetrain sit. If there isn’t enough space there, a certain gearbox (like a bigger 6-speed) may be difficult to install.
This is the big car company the hosts are talking about. They’re saying the company held a presentation to investors about what new cars it plans to build.
An “investor day” is a corporate presentation where a company shares strategy, product plans, and financial outlook with investors and media. Here, it’s used as the source for the hosts’ discussion of Stellantis’ vehicle launch and refresh targets.
This phrase means the time when American cars and trucks were marketed as big, powerful performance machines. The hosts are saying the company moved away from that style and upset fans who bought in expecting it to continue.
The Dodge Challenger is a performance car with a muscular, sporty design. The podcast mentions a Hellcat, which is a very powerful version of the Challenger. It comes up because people get excited about how strong and fast it can be.
The Chrysler Pacifica is a minivan—basically a family vehicle with sliding doors and lots of seats. The hosts mention it to explain that Chrysler has mostly been selling minivans, not a wide SUV lineup.
The Chrysler 300 is a large sedan—more of a traditional “big car” than a minivan. The hosts bring it up as another model they think Chrysler should be selling instead of only minivans.
The Chrysler Airflow is a car name the hosts say Chrysler might use again for a small SUV. They’re talking about rebranding—using an older name for a new or reused vehicle.
A rebrand means the same basic vehicle gets sold under a different name. The hosts are wondering if Chrysler’s new SUV plans are really new cars—or just the same thing with different badges.
The Cadillac Escalade is a big luxury SUV. It’s designed for comfort and space, especially for families or people who want a high-end interior. The podcast mentions it to explain how it fits among other large luxury SUVs.
The Navigator is Lincoln’s big luxury SUV. They mention it to talk about how luxury versions are kept distinct from other SUVs in the same size category.
The Excursion is a very large Ford SUV that’s built like a truck. They bring it up to explain how Ford and Lincoln avoid selling basically the same thing.
“Active aero” (what they likely mean) is car bodywork that can move to help the truck stick to the road. It’s part of the performance features they’re describing.
“Track mode” is a driving mode that makes the truck act more like a performance car. It usually changes how the throttle and traction systems respond when you drive hard.
“Drift mode” is a setting that makes it easier to slide the car around on purpose. It usually relaxes the traction/stability controls so the vehicle can rotate more.
The Dodge Dakota is a midsize pickup truck. The podcast mentions it because it’s been missed for a while and because used Dakotas tend to sell for good money. It’s brought up as a truck people still care about.
The Ford Ranger Raptor is a tougher, off-road-ready version of the Ford Ranger pickup. The hosts are basically saying they’ve seen this kind of “Raptor” idea work in other countries.
Ford Super Duty is Ford’s bigger, heavy-duty truck line meant for serious towing and hauling. The hosts are pointing out that it’s the kind of diesel-powered truck that feels “beefy.”
The Plymouth Superbird is an older performance car from the 1960s. It’s known for its unusual look, especially the large wing on the back. The podcast mentions it because that design is so extreme and memorable.
“Hellcat” is Dodge’s name for a very powerful engine package. The hosts are saying that putting a Hellcat engine in the Charger is the big headline, but it still doesn’t automatically fix everything about the car.
EV means electric vehicle—cars that run on electricity from a battery. They’re saying that even if Dodge focused only on the Hellcat version first, it might still have had trouble selling.
The Dodge Charger is a popular American car name that’s usually associated with strong power. Here they’re discussing the EV Charger version and how a price increase could make fewer people want to buy it.
Ram makes pickup trucks. In the podcast, they’re talking about Ram providing smaller trucks for their lineup. It’s mentioned because Ram is known for trucks that people use for work and everyday driving.
They’re talking about a strategy for releasing new vehicles. The idea is to start with the biggest, most exciting trucks first so people pay attention, and then the smaller models do better afterward.
Tim Kaniscus is a person mentioned in connection with Dodge’s messaging. The host is basically saying that hype from him won’t solve the bigger issues with the lineup.
Front suspension is the system that connects the front wheels to the car’s body and controls ride, steering response, and how loads are handled. The speaker is arguing that only relatively small suspension changes would be needed to make an engine swap physically work—at least in their scenario.
EVs are electric cars. The point here is that the battery pack is built into the car’s structure, so it can affect how the car is designed and what other parts can be changed.
“Load bearing” means the part helps support the car’s weight and forces. They’re saying EV batteries are often built into the structure, so they can’t be treated like a simple add-on.
Term
rocker rails
Rocker rails are strong metal parts along the bottom sides of the car. They help form the car’s frame, and the speaker is saying the EV battery can be integrated into that same area.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a popular Jeep SUV. The Trailhawk is the off-road version of it, meant to handle rougher terrain better.
Car
Jeep Trackhawk
The Jeep Trackhawk is the super-fast version of the Grand Cherokee. It’s the one you’d pick if you want a performance SUV rather than just off-road capability.
Hyundai is the car company the host says is bringing out a new SUV/truck idea. The host’s point is that a good new model can take buyers from other brands.
A range extender is like a backup power system for an electric vehicle. When the battery gets low, it can generate electricity so you can drive farther without plugging in right away.
The Lucid Air is an electric car, meaning it runs on electricity instead of gasoline. It’s a luxury sedan, so it’s built for comfort and a smooth ride. The podcast brings it up as part of a conversation about EVs and naming/launch details.
Motor Trend is a well-known car magazine/website that tests cars and publishes rankings. The host is saying these new vehicles need to score well in that kind of testing.
The Honda CR-V is a compact SUV, meaning it’s a family-friendly vehicle with more space than a sedan. The podcast brings it up because it’s been very successful in sales. It’s often mentioned when people talk about the most popular SUV choices.
The Toyota RAV4 is a compact SUV, which means it’s a family-friendly vehicle that’s smaller than a full-size SUV. The podcast mentions it because it sells very well. It’s often brought up when people talk about the most popular SUV choices.
The Hyundai Palisade is a larger SUV with three rows of seats. It’s designed for families that need more room. The podcast mentions it because people have been buying it and reviewing it positively.
LIVE
Hello, welcome to CarCast. I'm Matt, the moderator, D'Andrea here with Bill Goldberg.
Alright, before we get into it, a word from Fanduil, and right now new Fanduil customers
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call 1-800-Gambler. How are you? See you in the warehouse? I'm tired, man. I'm tired in between
having to fix my flooded office and sitting on the tracker for four hours this morning.
Pretty well beat, and it's 11 o'clock. But yay. Another day at the Goldberg Garage.
Liz, the garage looks good. You sound good. I see you got the cars lined up back there. So last week,
though, you were out last week because issues with the garage. A little bit of growing pains,
I guess, you will, with the garage. You built this amazing place, but when weather comes in
a couple of times a year, you kind of have to look and go, where are the flaws? What's
happening? What's Mother Nature doing? Yeah, Mother Nature was the cause of it, but
what ultimately was the cause of it was the smart tent guys when they came out and they
installed the tent on the windows. They drilled holes, the electrician drilled holes in my drain,
each drain pan for the windows. So when the drain pan fills up, it unloads into my office now.
So because the drain pan is not functional, right? It fills up and it spills out. Well,
this doesn't fill up anymore because there's a freaking hole at the bottom of it. So gravity's
gonna go and water's obviously gonna find that spot. Oh, I see. The two areas where it was coming
in. Now granted, I didn't want it to come in, you know, from the, I don't know, all the panel.
We ended up taking off all the panels and recalking everything and there was a hole in between the
but at the end of the day, those drain pans have a job to do and they can't do their job
because there's two holes in it. But I would never have found that out if we didn't take
the panels off of the garage of the office. So needless to say, fingers crossed, we're gonna
do a water test today and if that's fine and dandy, then, you know, we're gonna reinstall
everything in my office that hasn't been there in the last two weeks. So it's just been a pain in
the ass, but it is, but it is. Yeah, flooding, I tell you, weather. Yeah. One thing after another,
but it's all good. It's all good. Went down to St. Augustine to the signing last week, spent three
or four days off the, you know, unplugged on the beach to chill out a little bit and Wanda needed
it exponentially and as did I, but rented a nice little Mustang convertible down there.
I'm a big fan of the ability to unlock the top and press a button and have it,
you know, open up and close by just literally pressing a button. So convertible tops have
come a long fricking way. The car was nice. It was fun. Yeah, that's good. Who knew that
semi retirement would be so busy? Yeah, I mean, there's no such thing as retirement. I think I'll
be retired when I'm dead, but I mean, you're never gonna put a, you're never gonna retire from the
car business and there's so many facets of it that you can get involved in and, you know,
whether it's still doing commercial stuff for the actor of the Rio Grande or, you know,
I'm going to do some more stuff with Chapman coming up and the Chapman stuff was funny, by the way.
I thought it was great, man. It was a lot of fun and they want to do more and they got some good
feedback from it. So we'll see if I could squeeze another motor out of them because DSR is not
calling me back. So yeah, over chat over there is going to get not only blackballed, but I'm
going to, I'm going to headbutt him the next time I see him. So we did that collectibles episode and
went up there and put my engine together for that coronet project and, you know, 0001 and,
you know, put the damn thing together, put it on the dyno. And now he like ghosts me. So
I'm going to put him on blast here in a second. Okay. And speaking of those projects,
Mark Warman is still working on a car for you, or is he done? He was working on something, wasn't
he? Yeah, he's doing the coronet that we were, that I was just kind of talking about where the
motor was supposed to go in. But now it looks as if that car, it's ready for the, for the
trannies up there already. It's just, it's ready for the motor. Okay. So I am going to pull my
demon 170 motor that's in the crate. Yeah. I'm going to ship that out to Mario
and that's going in the coronet. There's not going to be a DSR motor going in there. There's
going to be the demon 170 motor going in there. Okay. So what's, you're going to ship it to Florida
to, to Gear Heads fabrication to Mario over there first. What's he going to do to it? I mean,
why not just throw it in as a crate? Does he have to do something to it first, or are you
modifying it? Well, I'm going to modify it. I mean, why are you going to put a stock motor in,
no matter if it's a well, it's a demon. Yeah, it's already a demon. I've got to modify it.
Okay. If I'm going to put it in, if I'm going to use it for this car, I'm going nuts with it.
Right. Okay. Same thing that I wanted to do with the other, with the other motor.
I'm pretty much going to do, it needs to be like a rat-fink looking car. It's got to have
a big Huffer coming out and it's, it's, it's going to be all out, man. It's going to be a lot of fun.
So, so, you know, the, the message from Chapman about them wanting to do more work together gave
me the idea of, you know what, let's, let's see if we can pull another motor out of the relationship
and I'll just slap this demon 170 motor in the cornet and, you know, uh, uh,
What year was the cornet? It's a 70. Dave's got it. It's up in, up in Wisconsin. And he made it
the body with the, the frame, you know, because he's got a rowing chassis for the
damn thing, fully caged. And so I think what he'll do after that's all made it together,
he'll ship it down to Mario. Mario will get the motor, you know, plaster it,
you know, put in there and have some fun. So, I mean, the deal is that I've got the 70
cornet six pack car here, but it's an automatic. Yeah. Right. And it's a triple black car, one of
18 triple black, you know, RTS six pack cars and 70. And I love the car, but, but I'm trading it to
Mark motors for a 64 and a half, you know, convertible Corvette 327 four speed original car.
And I had to fill its spot. Right. And so I'm filling its spot with the car that I traded
Mormon for that's being built by, uh, Salvasio and Gearhead. Yeah. So that's where we're at
with that. Now we can finally, we just been waiting on a motor and I've been waiting patiently for DSR
and, uh, to be perfectly honest with you, they, they haven't, uh,
completed the agreement that we had originally, but I'm not going to stress on it. I'm just
going to move on. And that's why I've got this DSR or this demon 170 motor here to put it in a
bad ass project and what better project to put it in than that. So that I knew you had that
crate engine. Is that the only crate engine you have in, in the garage right now? Or is there
more? Hopefully, hopefully working with Chapman more in the future will garner me another crate
engine. Yeah. Okay. That's what I'm, that's what I'm looking for with the relationship. Okay.
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. It's cool. Yeah. Why not have some fun. Yeah. Have some fun with it.
And I left off with my front with the Gage Goldberg Raptor project,
which is right there, right next to you. Right, right next to me. So phase one was the
expel PPF stealth treatment, which we got that completely changed the appearance of the car.
When I drove it down, I felt like everybody was looking at me because I had that shiny
gloss paint on it, but driving it back, uh, it made a huge difference in the,
the overall feel of this vehicle. And so we got it back in the Magnaflow, uh,
cat back exhaust for the Raptor was sitting in here. So I pulled it out. We pulled the original
exhaust out. Um, it was easy plug and play. The only issues I had and I stopped, I stopped at the
valves was that, uh, the factory reset that we were doing with the valves didn't close the valve
completely. And in the paperwork, as I went over it with, uh, Richard and one of their lead techs,
the paperwork says, absolutely don't go forward until the, until the factory reset has closed
the valves while in talking to he and the lead tech, that's not really the case. So they're
going to redo the instructions because the valve was opened, you know, a tiny bit. I mean, a little
bit and knowing me, you know, knowing me, I didn't want to complete the exhaust with it being open
and then plug the son of a bitch in and have 50 codes flying at me. Right. So that gave me the
talking to them gave me the ability and the confidence to go ahead with it, put the valves in,
bang, bang, boom, finished up the exhaust, freaking awesome. Uh, the, the fact is that
as awesome as it sounds, you just, you can't turn a V six into V eight. So you just can't do it.
And, and, and these exhausts are probably the best chance you have of accomplishing that. And it
just doesn't, it, it, it, I'm not going to say it sounds like a washing machine because it sounds
better. It sounds like a twin turbo washing machine, but, um, there's just a very limited amount of
sound that you can garner from a V six. It sounds like to me. So yeah, especially with turbos on it,
where it's already kind of muffling the sound, it doesn't have that, that, you know, what you and I
like, we have more of that big block sound to it. It doesn't really have that. And you're just never
going to get, it's always going to be a little anemic. So you're, you're, you're, you're changing the
tone of that V six sound with the exhaust. And if you like that change, then cool, but it's not
going to go, Hey, we're taking a turbo V six or we're making it sound like it's a naturally aspirated
big block. It's not going to put a hair on the balls of the truck. Right. It's what I'm, what you're
saying. Yeah, it's just not going to do it. And, uh, Hey man, I've been, uh, uh, over the moon with
the performance and sound of all of these exhausts, no matter what we've put it on. But this is the one
I think that, that you can't tell the big difference on this vehicle. You can't. I mean,
it has three different settings for the, for the exhaust anyway. So when you put it in Baja,
you know, you're going to get your most guttural sound, but still you just can't,
you can't grow nuts on a V six. You can't, you just can't do it. So at the end of the day,
it's wonderful for gauge. Um, I can hand it off to him and he can enjoy it, but, uh,
you know, um, that's why I got him to be six.
Yeah. Well, also in the Bronco, like that's kind of the only option right now, unless you go spend.
Well, yeah, but I could do, you know, you know, me, we get this vehicle, no one says that I can't
upgrade it, that I can't make it bigger, faster, louder, you know, stronger, but it's not mine.
And that's not, not necessarily by any stretch of the, uh, it's not necessary by any means right
now is to put more power. It's got 450 horsepower as it is, I believe. And, you know, he doesn't
need anything more than that. So it's, it's absolutely perfect for, um, we got, this is next.
So later on today, um, I'm probably going to install these.
Oh, the camber camber camber, upper control arms. Yeah.
Um, that's nice. That's a nice piece. That thing's really nice, really nice. It's going to be an easy
fit. And, uh, as you can see, we got it right next to the lift. We're going to put it up in the air,
take some more pictures of the exhaust and put another video out for the completion of the
Magnaflow exhaust and then start with the, with the A arms. Okay. Probably going to end up doing
an alignment after that. Oh, a thousand percent. I mean, you could take the stock A arms and set
that up to be as close as possible. But if you, you want to change it up a little bit,
maybe in the, in the instructions, it'll tell you how to set it up properly, the geometry on it.
But yeah, you're going to have to do the alignment stuff on that afterwards. Even I just hope,
I just hope it's going to be fine from here to the alignment shop. That's all.
Yeah. I think you can get it. You get it close. I'll get it. I mean, is the alignment shop 50
miles away or is it five miles? Oh no, it's 15. So I mean, we're, we're, we're good. Yeah. Yeah, you'd
be good. Uh, and then when is it, when's the truck go out? Cause didn't cage go home? He went back
to sleep. Oh yeah. He's been gone for two, he's been gone for two weeks. But the fact is, is that
you know, the longer it stays here, the more, more cool stuff I can plaster on it.
Yeah. Right. Um, you know, we're the Nitto, uh, thanks to, thanks to Harry, man,
ship those tires, man. They're bitching. They are, uh, monsters. Oh yeah.
Yeah. Oh, I see the satin PPF on it too. Yeah, it looks good. That's a bad ass truck.
It's really cool. It's, it's, it's, I mean, the thing is exactly what he wanted. You know,
it's not over the top. Um, and it's, it's, I think it's a pretty safe vehicle and there's
no question he's going to have a hell of a lot of fun in it. And you know, I'm, uh, I like the truck.
I've driven it a little bit and, uh, it's got a great track on it. Stability is there. It's got
enough power and it's cool looking, man. You know, and it's, it's, it's what he deserves. He's been
working his ass off and that's the least that I can do. Yeah. And again, thanks to, uh, uh,
actor of the Rio Grande, man. None of it would have happened if it wasn't for them. None of it. So,
um, I'm very appreciative and, uh, thankful that they did what they did. Yeah. Um, it's going to
be fun. It's going to be fun. Hopefully I'll get the, what I'd like to do, see if we're waiting on
the wheels. So, um, I could, I could wait on the wheels have, I, I've got the tire changer here now,
so I'm going to mount them myself, uh, the tires on the wheels. But the fact is, is that, you know,
these are, these are 17s with brand new BFGs on them. Why not just blow those up, you know,
put a couple of thousand miles on them. Yeah. And then have another set back here, you know. So,
I made, I'm probably just going to install these upper control arms and then put it on a truck
next week and, uh, get it out to him because he, he needs to, needs to enjoy it. Yeah.
That'll be good. That'll be exciting for him. Yeah, definitely. How could it not? Jesus Christ.
I mean, the thing's pretty wild, man. It's, it's, it's really cool. He's, he's a lucky kid. But like
I said, and you know it, he deserves it. He really does. Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's putting in the work
out there, by the way, you know, not just on the field football, but the school work as well. He's
got a hundred percent. His grades are, I mean, I don't know how they do it or how he does it,
because I sure as hell couldn't have done it when I was in college, but, but, uh, you know, he's,
he's really regimented and he's focused and that's his life right now. So I'm, I'm very proud of
we are very proud of him. Yeah. That's good. The, the other project I wanted to ask you about,
I just don't, because we just haven't touched on it in a while, uh, was the, the old Ram truck,
the, the ranch truck with the, you were going to, you were talking to my kid from Tremac,
we were going to do that. You were doing the manual transmission swap on it. That's the one,
you guys listening, you remember, this is a, it was an old kind of beat up truck,
ranch truck. And then you did like an entire like bed liner on the outside, just to make it
kind of bulletproof on the, well, no before. So it was a show truck when I bought it, right. It
came with a matching trailer. The thing was absolutely gorgeous, but I, it was my first truck
really. And I beat the hell out of it. I just beat it up. And you know, the famous story is that
during the filming of the longest yard, I've, I would grab some of the football extras
and bring them back to the house with me and we'd, we'd cut trees down.
And I'd use it to haul the trees. And so it's all, it was all dented and this and that.
And then I got contacted by a place out in Corona that wanted to completely restore the truck for
me. And I'm like, you know, are you guys really sure? I mean, I could buy another truck at this
point that would be a hell of a lot easier for you guys to build up than this one. I said,
but I would love for you to rhino line it regardless. And they're like, hmm, we could do some body work.
And I handed it over to them. It was a, I can't remember the, the name of the establishment,
but they did a hell of a job. They really did. They completely new suspension, rhino line,
the whole thing, you know, bumpers, new wheels, new tires, you know,
the thing was nice, but it's, it was still kind of a big pig. And the 360 that came in that truck
did not possess enough horsepower for the, for the upgrades that I did. So
that's when I did the deal with Warman and with Mopar. And I got that 392 crape motor.
I sent it up to Warman, sent the truck up to him. That was an absolute debacle because
they'd never worked on a truck before. And, you know, I, I thought it was right in their wheel
house, but they ended up completing it and getting everything in there nice and clean and functional.
And then I got it back here and we had to do some work on the transmission. And then I got it
back again and then the transmission took a crap and then I had it rebuilt and I was talking to
my kid along the way and I brought up, Hey man, can you guys help me out by turning this thing
into a manual? And then Dingleberry got involved and I'm still waiting on Dingleberry to fulfill
the order, right? So Dingleberry would be, take a guess. Will Beatty. Will Beatty. And, you know,
but Tremac's in, Mike's in a thousand percent, but Will has to provide a number of the parts
to make the transmission viable for the swap, right? And so, and I know right now is, you know,
right in the wheelhouse of the busiest time of year for all of these manufacturers.
And so I'm waiting patiently. It's not like I don't have a lot of other things going on.
Yeah. So, you know, it'll be done. I'm just waiting for them. You know, when you, when,
when people agree to do stuff on them, the last thing you can do is pick up the phone and go,
Hey man, where's it at? Yeah. When are we going to do this? So, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm patiently
waiting, Mr. Beatty, Mr. Clutch. That's what they call you. Mr. Goober is what your name should be.
But I love Will. You know, I mean, Will's been with us for since the beginning. So.
And he's, he's, you're right. Like he's, he's all over the place every time. I mean, I barely see
him on social media these days. When I do, he's on another plane or driving out to someplace. Like,
he is definitely putting in the work. The transmission for that one, because we had so
many conversations about the TKX, the, you know, the new five-speed, but you guys did the six-speed
on that truck or the, I think it's the Magnum, right? It's the Tremac. The E56 Magnum.
Yeah. I think that's what we're putting in. I think that makes more sense. I think that was right.
Yeah. Yeah. Because it's, it's a little bit bigger and the five-speed makes more sense,
you know, for the smaller tunnel area. Like a lot of the muscle cars and stuff need that five-speed.
It's easier to get it in there. You could, some of them you could fit the six-speed, but
it's just a little bit easier with that five-speed. And you don't really need the six-gear on a lot of
those other cars, but the truck, I think, makes more sense with that. I do too. And we, you know,
like you said, we don't have a constraint for area-wise. So I think it'll be, it'll be perfect.
I mean, that's exactly what he suggested right from the onset. So.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's just take a quick break. We'll be right back.
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first bet today. Okay, we're back. So a couple of weeks ago, because we were off, we didn't get a
chance to do this podcast together, but I kind of want to just pick your brain about this. Maybe
you've heard some more stuff from your friends, insiders and stuff, but Stalantis did their
investor day a couple of weeks ago, and it was a big presentation. Invited some media up there.
And we've been talking about for a while on the podcast going, yeah, launching the Charger EV,
and they messed that up and whatever. And they kind of lost the sort of the backbone of this
muscle car, muscle truck era that they've been building. They lost their base. They turned
their back on the base. Right. And you're right. It was disheartening to a lot of the customers
who had invested buying products with this going, we're going to do this electric stuff.
I like how you describe stuff on one end of the spectrum, and then there's me that goes,
yeah, they just screwed us all for the last year and a half trying to shove an EV down our throat.
And then, oh, yeah, you can fit a Hellcat in there and getting people excited and then going
with the hurricane motor. And I don't believe anything that I see online. I truly don't.
Now, granted, I got an invite to that thing. I couldn't make it. The people that were there
are obviously going to report what they saw. So it looks as if it's finally happening that
they're going to reenter the market and actually give the base of their brand what they truly want
and deserve. But time will tell. So this was interesting, though, because this is,
the presentation was much bigger than we would have thought. They were talking about going,
hey, we're looking like Stellantis across the board. So Jeep, Ram, Pujo, Fiat, Dodge, Chrysler,
everything that's under their umbrella. They're talking about 60 new vehicles and 50 refreshed
vehicles by 2030. Good luck with that. Like already, that seems ambitious. And
my and listen, I'm sure they have a plan for it. So I'm not doubting what their plan is. But we've
seen we've seen long ago, 80s and 90s before like the big bailout was car companies would just throw
out models of cars. And who is it? Lutz was a John Lutz. What's his name? That was like the head of
GM. And he was saying, he was saying back in the day, he's like, we can release 15 models of things
and of three of them were ahead, we're making money. So who cares? That has changed. That's gone. Now,
you want to release 10 models, and they all have to do well, or it's going to get axed. Like that,
that's it. So looking at this and going 60 new models, 50 refreshed, now they have lots of brands
all around the world. So maybe this kind of makes sense. But those numbers initially hit me as,
is there going to be too much? Are we going to be just peppered with too many,
you know, too many small, medium, large, like, sure, we have a lot of that trucks, we have SUVs,
we have them with the cars, you know, and it's always kind of been that way, right? You look at
like your three series BMW, your five series, your seven series, right? Audi has it, Mercedes has
everybody has it, especially in the SUV market. But now we have like super small and small and
medium and medium, large and large and extra large. And basically, is it going to be too much?
Is there just too much that's happening? And it's sort of a choice overload. So I guess we'll
have to see how they're going to roll that out. Now, interesting stuff. Chrysler, you and I have
talked about, it's never really in the conversation because it's just a minivan. It's like, there's
a Chrysler brand, not even a dealer, it's just sort of a Chrysler brand at a dealer, and they sell
the minivan. So they want to write like, well, we talked about it like two months ago, we laughed
about it going, what's going on with Chrysler? Like I was just a Pacifica. Give the fricking
Daytona to Chrysler and have them do the 300 out of it.
Yeah. They're going to get into, they're going to take some of the small SUVs from Europe,
probably from the Fiat brand, and bring that here and do a couple of small
SUVs as the Chrysler. There's going to be a Chrysler arrow and like an arrow cross.
And it's based off of what's called the Fiat Grizzly. So they're going to bring that back.
A Chrysler air flow, it's kind of a nice looking small SUV. But again, it's,
is it just another rebrand of the same thing that they're, you know, like you have Dodge,
you have Jeep, you have these other brands. I think we're kind of done with the day of going,
we're going to take this SUV and we're going to make it into a Lincoln and a Mercury and
a Ford. And it's going to be the same vehicle with slightly different trim and it's going
to be across all three brands. Like we already found that that's no longer profitable. So they
have to be different. Unless it's a fantastic vehicle. Right. You know, then, then you've
accomplished what you need to accomplish. Or have enough separation, like look at the separation
between, you know, like a Yukon and an Escalade or a Ford Excursion and the Lincoln Navigator,
you know, and actually the Excursion now is nice enough that you might go, I don't know if I need
the Lincoln Navigator. That's pretty nice. So interesting thoughts on the Chrysler side of
things. I mean, hey, the stuff you hear, it's exciting, right? The Rumblebee or whatever it is
that's coming out. The Rumblebee is three trucks, which are cool, right? Because it's a V8, it's
392 V8, it's Hellcat V8, you know, 700 plus horsepower, active arrow in height adjustable
suspension, you know, like it'll go into its track mode. That's kind of cool. What are they going
to cost? That's the question. We don't know yet, but, you know, it's going to be a lot.
You know, I don't know. But it gives them an opportunity to dominate the street truck market,
which nobody else has really gotten back into. Now, is there a reason for that?
I mean, you never know. We're going to see. I mean, I think it grabbed a lot
of attention. And, you know, all it is is a lowered TRX with front wheel with two-wheel drive,
basically. Yeah, which is kind of on and off. Like it has like a drift mode, but you can do all
wheel drive. So yes. Now, but you're right, though, they didn't have to do a very big leap. They were
like, oh, we're just we're changing the suspension to an air suspension. We got the same engine,
we're giving it active arrow. We're going to make it look different. So it's not quite like a TRX.
I like it. You know, I'm kind of a street truck guy, obviously. And I think those are cool. I mean,
is it cool for $100,000? I don't know. But trucks are expensive these days.
They've also kind of slept on the midsize and small truck market and Ford saw successes with
the Ranger and the Maverick. Toyota Tacoma crushes, right? Yeah. And it continues to crush,
has good resale value. So the the Dakota, which we've lost for a long time, that's going to be
coming back as a midsize truck and a smaller truck. So instead of going, we're going to ease into this,
they're going to go, we're just going to do both. So we're going to get you the small, medium,
and large of trucks. And like you said, I think that's based upon competitors' sales in that in
that niche. Because the midsize trucks, they have, they've had them, you know, in Australia or
whatever. You know, and we just, they've been slow. The Ranger like never really went away globally,
just here. And then when we brought it back here, it was doing well. Well, remember when I said,
I told you, I saw that Ranger Raptor over in London. Yeah. With good whip. Yeah. You know,
it was a great idea. They have a Ford has a Ranger Super Duty, like a beefy Ranger diesel.
It's it's bad ass. It's just that's not going to come here. It's not going to come here. And Ford
does a two door short bed standard cab diesel Super Duty, like an F-150, which is also a bad
ass. We won't get here. So the thought on the Dodge Charger SRT, the one they
showed had this big, crazy like super bird wing in the back on the modern car. That's dumb. I'm
just going to tell you right now, like it, it's if the car, if the car doesn't sell as it is,
why would you do that? I mean, if it was some kind of option because you wanted it and put it in
your car collection next year, actual super bird, that's fine. But you're going to drive that thing
on the street. It's it's goofy looking. It's it's too it's too goofy. But I get it in their
announcement. Maybe it's an option and you can get it for your collection. It got attention. It's
it doesn't make sense. Right. And the headline there is Hellcat engine in the Charger. Like
that's all we need to know. Like finally, yeah, we fix the glitch if you will.
And there's still issues with that vehicle, even with the Hellcat in it. You know,
there's still some issues that they need to work out for sure, even if it would have come
straight with the Hellcat motor and nothing was ever even going to be said about the EV.
I still think it would have struggled.
Yeah, possibly. I mean, I, I agree, but it's tough to say because they went with the EV first.
And the whole thing was like, I think there would have been some excitement from it going,
we've got a new Dodge Charger. We got a nicer interior. It's roomier inside.
It's got 770 horsepower, you know, and and we're going to do some variance from here. But instead
of going from the bottom and working your way up like they did, you know, we they probably
should have went from the top down failed experiment. The interesting is nobody is buying
Alistair and I talked about this last week, then last week on CarCast. I don't know what
this move was, but nobody's buying the EV Charger and and Dodge just raised the price $12,500. I was
like, now you really don't want people to buy it. From what I was hearing, the only people that,
the only Chargers that were on Daytonas the street were basically leases from employees
to get the vehicles out there. Yeah, that and probably the Radford School probably has a few.
I don't know. All right. So more trucks. We're getting new stuff
from Chrysler. We're getting mid-sized trucks. We get small trucks from Ram. We're getting a
number of things from Jeep. We're getting a refreshed Jeep Compass. We're getting the new Jeep
Recon. We're getting a refreshed Jeep Wrangler, a new Jeep Gladiator. I think all those are fine
and dandy. Just come out with the with the heavy boys first and everything will trickle down. The
sales will all trickle down. You need to get the attention of the public and the attention of the
people who made your brand what it is. And you need to satiate those people and then people will
flock to you. But they've got a lot of mending to do, man. A lot of mending. And you can hear it
in my voice. I'm not 100% Dodge Guy right now by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not.
As I'm sitting here being surrounded by three basic fords, my allegiance will always be there
with the brand because of what it meant to me in the beginning of my car collecting days.
And it'll always mean I have a special place in my heart. But at the end of the day,
you know, your your love is represented by what they do in the now. And their now has been they've
been running on a treadmill going backwards for the last year and a half, two years. And it's
going to take much more than Tim Kaniscus, you know, bragging and boasting about what they're
going to do to make it change. Yeah, it just is what it is. And it pains me to say that as much
as I'd like to be, you know, Dodge and ran and hey, I'm standing up for the product that I can't
stand up for, not at this point. And I haven't been able to for a year and a half. And I've kept
my mouth shut because I don't like to, you know, it's not my place to browbeat people by any means.
But, you know, I can't lie. And I'm very disappointed as to what they did. And I'm
I'm pretty disappointed as to the remedy that they said that they've come up with because,
you know, actions speak louder than words. So let's let's let's see what rolls out
soon because they're losing time. They really are. I believe that's just my opinion. But,
you know, again, it comes from a from a diehard Dodge guy. I think that's why they needed to
to not just talk about what they're going to do between now and 2030. They had to get that
Rumblebee out there. They had to get that on the track. They needed to grab Tony Stewart and put
him in a commercial like like all the they're getting there. They're trying to make the right
moves as quickly as possible. But also, it's tough. They look at that truck and go, Oh, well,
we've already got the TRX. And what can we do? How about we? How about we make a street truck
version because there's a lot less R&D involved like to but to go from the charger and go,
Oh, we can fit a V8 in it. We didn't really plan on at the beginning. We the six owners
can be in it. Can we fit a V8? What do we got to change? Can we put a Hellcat in it? What does
that mean? Is the car strong enough? Is it beefy enough? Do we need you know, that's a lot more
a year ago. We knew a year ago that it would they were this close to being able to change a little
bit of the front suspension and fit that Hellcat motor. It fits but doesn't tear it apart.
Probably not. But no. So, you know, when I say that, it's because so many EVs that the battery now
is sort of load bearing like the battery goes in, it's in a frame and it goes in and it becomes
basically the floor panel, you know, in the frame and between like, you know, rocker, you know,
rails and that kind of thing. So, if that's kind of what the charger was doing, that's where you go,
Oh, what do we do? I don't think that was the case. I'm on the brakes and you retool the
retool the freaking frame. That's what you do. Yeah. And you know, whatever it costs,
once you rectify that issue, then you're full steam ahead. I don't know. I'm simplifying things.
It's just I'm extremely frustrated with where they are. I mean, they were going to put the
six cylinder in it with over 500 horsepower. So, they were already planning on, you know,
it's still a doll. Yeah. Again, let's go back to the Magnaflow thing. You can't make a six cylinder
sound and or feel like a VA. You can't. So, I don't know. I drove that car. I drove this thing.
I told you I drove that car eight months ago. You know, I can't remember what it's called,
whatever, but it didn't impress me, but it's not apples to apples. It's not. I drive a thousand
horsepower cars every day, which are what sold me on the brand. You just don't get that feel
in that car. You don't get the sound. You don't get the feel. You know, you just don't. It's a
mismatch. So, I don't know. You know, and across that lineup, you know, we're going to get a
refresh Dodge Durango, probably getting an SRT version of that. They talked about the
Grand Cherokee and they're going to do the Trailhawk version. They didn't mention the Trackhawk,
which is the fast one, but that was a badass SRT Jeep. It was awesome. That thing was cool as
shit. Both generations, even the first one, the early one, the kind of flat nose boxy one,
like that thing was cool. Oh, it was cool as hell. Yeah. I thought it was great.
But I would expect to see an SRT version of the Jeep as well. And, you know, speaking of Jeep,
Wrangler, Ford certainly took a bite out of their sales with the Bronco. That's been successful.
Hyundai's got the really cool kind of Bronco Jeep-ish concept that they're going to start rolling out.
They're going to get into the truck market as well. So, you know, it's nice to sort of rest on
your laurels and go in, ah, you know, it's, you know, when it comes to trucks, there's only a
few options and they all do well. But, you know, all you need is a couple of other companies like
a Hyundai or whatever to come in. And if it's a pretty good product, you start taking some sales
away from everybody and that hurts. Oh, yeah. And it blows up the market. So, you need to innovate
and you need to keep revising, you know, your trucks, your Jeeps, you know, things like that.
So, definitely. Just overall, just kind of, I just put it all out there because
thinking about, yes, the conversations we've had over the last year and a half of what
Solantis was doing. I mean, a lot of talk about the high-performance vehicles and the SRT stuff,
which they didn't have. But an interesting strategy from Solantis and investing $70
billion into all of this stuff and launching all of these new vehicles, it is interesting.
I'm excited about some of a lot of the things, not even just all of the performance vehicles.
I think there's some really cool off-road stuff that they're going to be doing as well. That's
kind of interesting. There was an electric truck, there was an electric truck and there was the
range extender truck, which they're not doing. Now, they sort of figure out what that is, is
the Ram 1500 rev is a range extender version of the electric truck. So, it's got a little
generator. But the Ram charger, which was going to be the electric truck, is now the, like,
it's going to be an SUV. It's going to be a large SUV. That's like a range extender SUV. So,
the platform they're doing with the truck, the Ram 1500, there's going to be an SUV version. So,
it's a range extender version of that truck, which could be interesting because Scout has
been getting a lot of eyeballs on it because of its sort of range extender SUV and truck.
So, we'll see how that plays. But now that they sort of clear the air on what's a rev,
what's a Ram charger, it was very confusing for a minute there. They kept changing their mind,
changing the name. And I'm sure lost a lot of money in the process in doing that. But,
all right. But overall, it's interesting. I think there's probably a lot of vehicles,
and it's going to get a little lost in everything that's being released. But at the end of the day,
as you say, they need to perform well. They need to rank well in the tests when they,
when Edmonds and Motor Trend and everybody else puts it out there, they need to do well. And
they've got some stiff competition, not just in the hyper form stuff. Yeah, they do now. They've
lost that serious ground over the past two years. Everybody's going forward and they've been spending
their wheels and actually going backwards. And so, yeah, a brand new refresh of everything
across the board, 100% needs to happen. Just needs to happen in the now.
They need a home run with a mid-size SUV. They're just not even in the conversation.
You look at- Oh, and I guess they've dabbled with a small compact vehicle to compete in that
little niche. For sure. But you look at the success of Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V,
even the larger ones, Kia Telluride, Hyundai Palisade, the sales numbers, the reviews,
everything coming out of that. Stalantis hasn't been in that conversation for a while. Honestly,
Ford hasn't really been that much in that conversation for a while. On the luxury side,
BMW, Mercedes, Audi, they're in that conversation a little bit on that side. But
just look at the, from a financial standpoint, Ford, Stalantis, they need a home run in that
compact and even subcompact, two-row, three-row SUV.
Yeah, because it's being dominated by those other brands, completely dominant.
Okay, I think we're going to wrap things up. Good luck.
Oh, sorry about that.
It's all right. Good luck with the water test on your windows
before you get hit with more weather.
Yeah, looks like it's going to come tonight. But yeah, hey, man, the more shit you got,
the more shit can go wrong. So it is what it is. I just have three special forces
guy coming into her in the garage later. And so it's neat going to have my, yeah,
it's just a pain in the ass. I know, but having guys like that come over,
I know you love that part of it. That's fun.
Oh, it's 1000%. I just like to have the place presentable when they're here. But you know,
it is what it is.
One more thing I want to add, car fans, this is your weekend. Fuel Fest is back in Southern
California this Saturday at the OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Check out hundreds of amazing
builds, live drifting, special guests, live music and more. Get tickets at fuelfest.com.
All right, we're going to wrap things up and thanks so much. And until next time,
keep the air and the spare in the bag and the wheel.
About this episode
After the ad break, the hosts dig into Goldberg Garage flooding, tracing it to window tent installation and non-functional drain pans. They then pivot to project updates: a leak diagnosis with a water test, a Coronet engine build that gets run on a dyno, and a Bronco Raptor upgrade path featuring expel PPF, a Magnaflow cat-back, and valved exhaust sound modes. The conversation broadens to a 1970 Coronet and older Ram manual-transmission plans, then shifts into Stellantis/EV strategy and SUV competition.
