The Smoking Tire Mar 24, 2026

C8 Grand Sport revealed; Gas Prices; Odd Volvo; Racing!

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Car

press launch

A press launch is when a car company invites reporters to an event to show off a new car. The goal is to get reviews and attention right away.

Concept

federal taxes

If you win a prize, the government may treat it like income. So the giveaway organizers may include extra money to help cover the taxes you’d owe.

Term

touchscreen

A touchscreen is a screen you tap to control things like music, navigation, or climate. Some cars use it instead of physical buttons.

Concept

exhibition racing

Exhibition racing is when cars race mainly for show. It’s usually not about winning a season championship—more about putting on a great event and letting people see the cars run.

Concept

kink

A kink is a small bend in the track that you have to thread carefully. It can be easy in a normal car, but it can get tricky when you’re going very fast.

Term

gravel trap

A gravel trap is a gravel-filled area next to the track. If a car goes off, the gravel helps slow it down and stop it more safely.

Term

red flagged

A red flag means the race is stopped because something unsafe happened. Everyone has to slow down and wait for the track to be cleared.

Term

Telemetry is the live or recorded data a race car sends back (or logs) during driving—things like speed, throttle/brake inputs, and sometimes suspension and tire data. Teams use it to compare laps and refine driving and setup.

Term

curbing

Curbing is the raised edge at the side of the track. People sometimes ride it to help turn in, but if you hit it wrong you can break parts or lose control.

Part

control arms

Control arms are parts that connect your wheels to the car’s suspension. If you slam a wheel into a curb the wrong way, these parts can bend or break.

Term

torque

Torque is the engine’s “twist” that helps the car move strongly, especially when you’re getting going. The discussion is about how some model names are tied to torque numbers.

Term

Newton meters

Newton-meters are a way to measure twisting force (torque). The speaker’s saying some car “numbers” are based on that unit, and Americans don’t usually think in Newton-meters.

Concept

gas prices

They’re talking about how expensive gasoline has gotten and what that might do to how Americans buy cars. When gas stays expensive, people usually start choosing cars that use less fuel.

Concept

national average

Instead of looking at one gas station, they’re using an average across the whole country to understand the overall trend. It makes it easier to see whether gas is getting more expensive or cheaper.

Concept

upside down on a loan

Being “upside down” on a car loan means you owe more money than the car is worth right now. If you trade it in, that gap usually has to be paid off or added to the next loan.

Concept

fuel economy

They’re talking about fuel economy—how many miles you can drive on a gallon of gas. Lower fuel economy means higher costs, which is why they’re comparing different trucks and SUVs.

Term

miles per gallon

Miles per gallon tells you how efficiently a car uses gas. Higher MPG usually means you spend less on fuel for the same distance.

Term

hybrids

A hybrid is a car that uses gas and electricity together. Because it wastes less fuel, it can help when gas prices are high.

Term

V6 engine

A V6 is an engine with six cylinders arranged in a V shape. It’s a common engine layout, and on a track it can sound very loud and different depending on speed and where the mic is.

Term

B pillars

The B-pillar is the vertical bar between the front and rear windows. Designers can make it body color or black, and that choice affects how the car’s lines look from the outside.

Concept

high beams

High beams are the really bright headlights you use on dark roads. If you leave them on around other cars, they can shine right into someone’s eyes and make it hard to see.

Company

Faraday

Faraday Future (FF) is an EV company that has shown concept vehicles and experimental tech in the past. The hosts refer to a “van” with a TV-like front as an example of using vehicle displays for communication, though the exact model/feature isn’t specified in the excerpt.

Term

dual overhead cams

DOHC means there are two camshafts in the engine head working the valves. The speaker is saying the cars he’s listing don’t use that setup.

Car

Toyota Tacoma

The Toyota Tacoma is a midsize pickup truck. Here it’s mentioned as another practical, easy-to-live-with choice.

Term

EV

An EV is an electric car that runs on electricity stored in a battery. The speaker is joking that it might be hard to rely on if the local power system isn’t dependable.

Term

power grid

The power grid is the system that delivers electricity around a country. The joke is that if the grid isn’t reliable, EVs become harder to use.

Concept

license plate blurring

People blur license plates so their car can’t be easily identified from a photo. It’s basically a privacy move when posting online.

Brand

Cosworth

Cosworth is a famous motorsport engineering company known for designing and building high-performance racing engines and related components. The speaker’s point is that Cosworth has worked with major automakers like Aston Martin and McLaren, showing how specialized engine builders support top-tier racing and road-car programs.

Term

radar detector

A radar detector is a device that warns you when it detects police radar for speed checks. The discussion is about how to set it up so it’s helpful and not constantly annoying.

Term

M badge

The “M” badge is BMW’s way of saying the car is a performance model. The debate here is whether using the badge on more cars makes it feel less special than it used to.

LIVE

What up everybody Matt Farah here welcome to the smoking tire podcast today's episode is brought to you by off the record

We love off the record here because they are looking out for you everywhere in the country

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It's relatively affordable and if you use code

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TST you get 10% off all legal services from off the record don't plead guilty get off the record

They can only help off the record comm slash

TST all right folks on this episode of the podcast

Zach and I talk about

The new Corvette Grand Sport crazy high gas prices the silly Cadillac torque badging is going away

Racing it wrote America and did you know?

Buttons cost more than touch screens. It's the smoking tire podcast. Let's go

What's hat nin hi everybody hello

Good afternoon

Good evening and good night

Maybe if it's late night for you good night East Coast you have never in Iceland right Iceland

If you're in yellow knife, it's night pretty much most of the time right now

We're doing we're doing a one-gram of Japanese of skate on this one and

Boy are there things I have a fucking long list of things to talk about today

Starting of course

Reminding everybody that we are giving away a 9-11 turbo s. This is an important assignment is anything

there are

Not a lot of chances we're gonna have because like this is a pretty pretty

Porsche-centric show like it's outsized

Versus right sure out actual market share the Porsche fandom the the kind of questions that we get asked about

Subtle nuances between one Porsche to another like that's clearly important to people. That's true Porsche also releases or used to release more

Sporting models per year than any other company

Mean they mays there's like a fucking press launch for every variant of the 9-11 right and there's like 32 of them. Yeah

Actually sidebar had and I were talking about now that we've we don't have a we like to always have a

Big vacation on the schedule even if it's far away

So now that we've done our boat trip. We don't really have anything

So like what we want we're trying to figure out what to do next the New Zealand road trip is high on the list

But we've we've repeatedly talked about Spain and so

We were like should we just do Spain and it was like well no because the odds of a manufacturer

Inviting me to Spain in the next 12 months are like

97 fucking percent. Yeah, and

So we'll just wait till someone invites me somewhere and you know, there's one plane ticket and you know

I mean like and by the way those in the audience like that is a sort of potential hidden perk of the business is if you go

Somewhere on a launch you can always ask the manufacturer like hey

Can you just book my return trip ticket home like five days later?

And then you don't ask them to pay for the hotels. It's it's the same amount of money

They're just and they don't give a fuck. They're like sure so you could if you're

Flexible or you want to have your spouse come out or like whatever

You know people I've seen people do that. People do a lot. We'll do it all the time. Yeah. Yeah

Some people push it and bring the spouse on the launch, which is a little like come on

I don't like personally care. I won't talk shit about that. But like it's like a little come on

But anyway, there is a non

We're gonna get half of our Spain flights paid for yeah

I was at a thing and I and some people they they're there's their partner is their business partner

And they make the videos together. So when they're both there, I get it sure but I was at a launch and

The the wife came along as camera operator. Oh, yeah, did not know how to turn on anything. I like

I've seen that. That was funny. I've definitely seen that

So anyway bringing it back around we're giving away at 20 25 9 11 turbo s

It is it is brand new except for the few miles that Zach and I personally put on it

It is well, we haven't put the video up yet of what we've done to it

But in order to make the contest work, they put the video they put the photos of what it looks like now

So you can clearly see it has a beautiful set of HRE wheels on it

It's a very amazing spec and we just put up the first video. It's up on the YouTube channel

We go through I go through every option on the list on the car

So you can see everything that's in it

and

Yeah, you can win it. There's it's very easy to enter the the rules are up on the thing

there's a there's photo gallery of the car and

We're gonna be you know talking about it a lot. So

Get in the game. What's I forget? What's the closing date? Does anyone it closes?

It says it was it runs for almost a year. No, it's not that long. Oh, it's not it's actually not that long

What is the closing date? I probably should know this and I will learn it for the next show, but it is not

Official rules FAQs FAQs, maybe

Sheet I think it might be alright. Well

You figure it out you can find it something we'll find it I promise

There's no there's no weirdness here

Probably just should know the exact closing date and I don't want to say it wrong because you can get in trouble if you say things wrong

about giveaways

But it's not it's not it was originally going to be the entire year it then became shortened

I think it I think I

Had to guess I think it's like five six months, but I forget the exact thing anyway

It's up there everything else is straightforward and by the next show

I will have the exact date of when of when the drawing is

It's fucking sick though

Also the rodentrack ends on August 20th, thank you very much Zach August 20th

Okay, and you get seventy five thousand dollars to cover the federal taxes that you would be

Assessed for because these are considered income when you win something like this, so they cover that

anyway

Also come drive with me rodentrack Pacific Northwest event this June entries are open

It is going to be extremely beautiful. We're talking Cascades

Mountains we're talking absolutely

Stellar fucking hotels real banger

Proper hotels it's at experiences dot rodentrack.com

It's gonna be super super fun

and I'm gonna hook up a really special car for it and

Yeah, so that's up at experiences dot rodentrack.com right now entries are open and yeah come drive with me

Okay, do you want to talk about the new Corvette Grandsport that was revealed do you want to talk about something?

That the Ferrari CEO said that everyone already knew it was true. Yes, let's do that one

Okay, so the for the CEO Ferrari basically said an interview that

touchscreen

Interfaces and haptic interfaces are 50% cheaper than making buttons and that is why sure buddy

Did we do this but he said that's the first time?

I think someone has really said publicly the 50% number that is that's a really high number

I would expect that from a screen, but actually the haptic capacitive stuff. It's amazing that I guess they can just

There's no I guess there's no springs. There's no action. They have to like decide. There's no reliability

There's just like the connective circuit. That's pretty wild 50% though so much and I mean he when I read the headline

I was like fuck this guy. He's like whining about the cost of of going back to you know

To buttons right and these guys are for our for always making like so much money

But I read the actual quote in full, which is why it's important to read it important full

And he was not actually complaining

He was said he was explaining, you know in the entire an industry-wide transition and and actually

He said that like for his customers like he was happy to go back to buttons

So like he wasn't actually complaining, but yeah 50%

But you know if you read David two weeks book which we have inside the machine, you know how much

Small bits of profit matter. Yo, yeah

Imagine if someone comes you and says this will save you 50% on your interior button construction

Like no wonder so many companies jumped on that that is a huge one once two or three companies do it

It's will save 50% and everyone's doing it and by the way

Everyone's gonna be Tesla anyway

Of course, yeah, of course

I'm driving a

I'm driving a Volvo EX 30 right now, which is not a review

We're gonna come we're gonna do a review of this car because Zach's gonna drive it for a few days

I haven't posted a picture of it. It's just hilarious that I booked this car a few months ago because I thought it looked interesting a

Week before the the thing showed up

that white one on the screen is exactly what the one looks like it's sitting outside right now and

Week before this thing shows up Volvo announces. They're killing the model

So I'm reviewing it. I'm reviewing a dead car. Like what are what am I even doing?

Do you think you keep it cuz they don't want it back? Yeah, like what am I supposed to do with this now?

Like so, I mean, I don't know do an Instagram review like we'll talk about it. I guess but like I

It's it's real touch grainy. It's so touch first off

I I do not understand if Volvo is building full battery electric vehicles

What exactly is the point of Polestar?

Like I thought it was gonna be

Polestar was the electric and and well wasn't Polestar their quote skunk works like where they basically developed

Their new technology and they kind of developed the EV tech and now they can hand it to Volvo

I think that was how Polestar was kind of

Avertized yeah, all right, I'll buy that but like

They're not that innovative

Yeah, yeah, so I'm not really sure but but this is it's extremely touch screeny

There is no forward gauge cluster at all

It's the interiors like basically like I'm you know like a copy of a Model Y

Although I do think it's like it's Volvo. So it's like put together a little nicer than a Model Y

but

Square square steering wheel and certain things in the touchscreen that like you know when you're

Trying to figure out how to drive the car. You're just like stuff's buried. It's all hand-droid like shit

It's just like buried in menus. It's it's it's not terribly confusing once you know where everything is

But they dropped this thing off and it was like 90 degrees outside

And I'm like trying to figure out how to like get find like the max AC and I just

Cannot and it's so hot in there. There's actually they actually gave a quick reference

They gave like a quick reference guide, which is not something most manufacturers give out

So I guess they know it's not

Instantly into that's handy. That's like the ineos that gave us that for the off-road stuff really really helpful

It's just funny that a normal car needs that but yeah this prevents the journalism journalist problems

It does it prevents you and we're

You know, but like it's it's very touch-screening. We'll see what I I have some interesting

I think they're interesting thoughts about this car and like what exactly we're doing here

But but I'll wait till you drive it first because I'd like I like you to experience. It's an odd duck

All right, just like the one I'm driving. I think we'll talk about that on another

Yeah, you were we both drove also the M2 CS

But I think we'll save that for next show because I want to drive it a little more

But uh, dude, you know what? Oh also

If you want to come see us or me in person

We are going to be doing a live podcast that you can buy tickets to actually discounted tickets

I think right didn't Graham send us a link for discounted tickets. Didn't we get a link today?

We're gonna have a link for discounted tickets to the heritage invitation

Computational at the 10 tenths Club in Charlotte. We're gonna have a live podcast. It's going to be Friday night

I think it's April 10th, right Friday night April 10th

and you will be able to buy tickets to

To the festival that are good for all day

In up to and including and after our podcast so it's not an expensive ticket

I think I think with a discount

It's like what we charged for just a podcast in Texas and you get a whole bunch other cool stuff

They're doing exhibition racing. There's gonna be a car show

So we were there last year. It's a great time. It's gonna be really fun

Serious metal is brought out for that and then the train was it trans am racing was pretty fun to watch a lot of old

Stuff moving around and getting real loud

Pretty cool. It was a good time. And so we're doing a live show on April 10th there

That's in Charlotte. You can come see us and also I am racing at Road America

April

23rd 20

23rd 24 25th 26th with WRL

racing again with Tato Siderman and Tommy Kendall

Actually, Johnny just told us today that he has a gig and cannot make this race weekend

Which I have I have pitched in for Zach Klattman to fill his his seat

I appreciate that you lobbied well. I've lobbied for Zach and the ball is in the air

We'll see we'll see where it lands because the race is eight days, right after I go to school for my comp license

There's no

Literally no better time to do a race rather than like the very next day. It's true. Your concepts will be so fresh

I think they say people just out of med school are better doctors than people have been in the game for 20 years

That's like that makes absolute sense. Totally. Yeah, yeah

Sonoma and do skip barber get his comp license and

Maybe come race, but like I don't I think there's no better time than then have right after a comp license

It just means the pressure to pass the the comp license test is

You have to you know, I mean, I think I think if you crash you fail

Yeah, like you have to have a colossal fuck-up to go get a NASA complex. Is it NASA or SCCA?

I think it's SCCA and JF who did it

He just said that they really frown on going off

You know if you if you go off if you go off four wheels twice, you're like your class is over

Well, yeah, I want to protect the vehicles. Yeah for two four off twice. I mean, that's a that's a big old whoops

Yeah, very very much so and I mean, yeah, like really I mean you can go off once for like you should probably you probably shouldn't

And I say I say that is someone who has crashed a literal skip barber vehicle

It was not great. No, I'm very excited. So yeah, I'm gonna go up there on Saturday to do some sim training

And then and don't put too much faith in that

Well, yeah, I I want I just haven't been to road America for like last night

I was there was shooting for Hagerty like eight years ago. So I was driving a minivan for camera car

So I know where it goes. I don't know the braking markers at all. Oh, yeah, and there's there's only like

First off road America in my opinion is the best country is the best race track in America

They're there I don't think I think it's our spa guys taking a break because support is coming in hot from

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We'll get back to that you give them your personal information and I understand the irony there

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In my opinion, yeah, I agree with that. It's it's as close to driving spa as you can get without going to fucking Belgium

It is the only place that I know of in America on in motorsport that you can

In a fast car hit 150 miles an hour three times a lap. You're not gonna do that in

In a BMW M2 to 235 IR you probably hit 125

120 maybe 125 three times a lap well because the front straight is uphill for most of it

But it's so long. It's very long

It's so my struggle until that crest

Yeah, and then the second straight is shorter, but it's downhill. Yep, and then the third straight is also long as fuck

Yeah, um this back section right with a little slight kink. Yeah, yeah, that'll be flat through this probably right?

Oh, yeah, and in a car that's like a medium speed car. It's like that's not a that's not a problem

Yeah, where that where that kink at the back of that is like is

In like a 600 horsepower car with insufficient arrow

When I drove it in a one lap of America in the X5 M, you know you get like I

Think it was I forget if it's like I think it's an out lap and three flyers

Dude by the end of the but the brakes were

Nothing

Nothing and you're coming into this tight right they call it Canada corner and that's crashy corner, right?

There's a special bleacher right there. Yeah, look at the size of the gravel trap on the outside of that corner

Yeah, like see it from space because then it for you listening

There's a large gravel trap a wall and then this is actually a very steep hill covered in trees

Yeah, so if you hit it fast enough you go up the hill and launch and land in Canada. Yeah, it's it's

Yeah, but what a place to it's gorgeous. Yeah, it does it does not get better than that in America if you ask me so I've

I raced a Fox body there in the very first season of champ car whoa and it was a

Really shitty Fox body and it was so slow and the race was was red flagged for snow

What and what what month was it like March?

When they were finally like okay, it's all right to race again

Farrah you're in and I'm like what

Had to go out there and like this snow-clear II lap. Yeah, like 30 degree track temp crazy

Yeah, whoa, so that was a good time

Yeah, and then the one lap of America and then I filmed

Something else there was a there was a press launch of something else there that was like I don't recall what it was

But I remember it being really fast. Didn't you go to like a zr1 launch there zeroes wrote Atlanta

But I went on some launch for something there that was like where the car was super super fast

So I don't really remember what it was but

But I'm very excited to drive it again me too. It's a spicy track

I'm excited to see what tail does on this huge right-hand sweeper

the key is on we get Tato to drive the car first on Friday and

Lay out a telemetry line that becomes a ghost car for us to chase perfect and then and then because like

If you're if you're like a halfway decent student and you've got a fucking savant to follow

Like no problem do what the kid does like just do that

Like it's actually not hard to watch someone greats data and then just do that until you get to the point of

This person is so skilled that what what is on that is actually seems impossible

Yes, and or this person is 21 and doesn't think he can die when you mix those together

And there's also like like when I did this spring Mountain School

They they had overlay data with the pros

Yeah, really really helpful and my line would be like one foot off from there's or two and you go well

I'm close enough like no no two feet matters one foot matters

And they had a great then overhead drone showing where everyone was on these two apexes

And you're you would think that you're on the right spot, but then you watch that thing you know I'm

14 inches away

And it all adds up a little bit so yeah like and like the shape of a corner

With you

Not hit not taking curbs. Yeah versus the shape of the corner with him taking like as much

Curb as is legally possible right like you're driving in the fucking lawn

Yeah, you know those the the arc of that corner

Allows for you know a three mile an hour higher exit speed that at the end of the next straight results in it in a nine miles an

Hour difference, and you know there's three tenths totally

We've all watched the V8 supercars

There's a head-on shot from like I don't remember the track

But there was an SS and the way they were hitting the curbs so that the only

Tires that were on the track surface still were the outside tires the entire inside 90% of the car was flying

Yeah over what would effectively be the infield? It was crazy. Yeah, that's

That's the line. I really like it road Atlanta. Have you driven road Atlanta?

Decade ago road Atlanta. It's got the very long front straight and then a big right sweeping uphill right-hander

That's got sort of a jog on the top and if there isn't a cone place right there

Or if that cone has been taken out by somebody else you can effectively jump the chicane

Which when I tested the track-hawk there at grid life

I did repeatedly and got like serious air over it and if you can't do it in a low car

But in a car that's got some ground clearance. It's like, uh-huh. There's a tenth here. Let's see

I wonder is there anywhere on this track for hitting curbs with this car?

I mean look this this

Maybe there a little bit. I don't know you know

I can't it's been it's been a few years since I've been there

So I don't really recall the shape of the curbs. Yeah, specifically where you could really

Cut I don't the end of the end of that straight there. I don't really think you can so much

You oh, you know what you on the exit of that corner, which is turn six

Oh look Google Maps has put turn six there

Wow, you can take a pretty wide exit there

So, you know, you can you can pretty much be you know deep into the paint on that we got street view

Yeah for the track, but WRL like at Coda was pretty strict about

What you know at Coda of course where they're the track limits, right?

So because in Coda you can like you can drive like well outside the track

They were like they didn't really dock a lot of people, but they nailed Tommy Kendall for it on like the second to last lap

He admitted he started to push it and get a little greedy

But like using the NASCAR lines as far as we knew they didn't hit anybody else with it

But they hit Tommy with it with a fiver. They gave him a five-second. These are these big rumble strips. Yeah

All right, so you don't want to touch those now. You could drive on that. Really? Yeah, you could drive on that. Okay, I think

Pretty sure as long as the control arms aren't built by Nissan, right?

What you didn't want. Yeah, what you didn't want to do at Coda with this car was hit the ends of the hot dogs

That's where you like break shit like in the S's if you you can you can use curbing

But you need to like run up on the angle of the curbing not hit the end of the curbing because apparently you can snap

Control arms in these cars if you hit the end of the edge of the hot dog

Like meaning the in the outside edge of the curbing where there's like a vertical shelf

The curbing is like a long thing that has like rounded edges at the end like instead of going up on the curbing and down if you hit

The end. Oh, right. Right. Right. Pointed end of it. Sure. I call it the end of the hot dog

It's like round it off. But like if you hit the end of that, it's a much more abrupt transition

I'm going up on the curve and then back down. Yeah, totally fine. Okay. Yeah, cool

Anyway, I hope you

Go fast enough in a video game that you are confident that you'll be able to drive and I'm already I'm already more than confident

That you'll be able to drive. It's appreciate that this car is

You know, if you were able to safely lap willow springs in that fucking

Silly little thing outside. Good point. This is this is effectively the same car with the same gearbox and half the horsepower

No, yeah, let's stick your tires. Oh, no, same tires. Uh, the same tires. Yeah. All right. Yeah

No slightly worse tires than this but but still don't worry about it. All right

Corvette announcement you said well, yeah, they revealed that the new Grand Sport kind of at this at Sebring, right?

They also they also said that that

Manual Tremac Transaxle was not real Tony. Oh, Tony Robles said that shit

Uh, but it looks so it's this this is a great photo actually of all the Grand Sports

I was thinking about it. There's never been a bad Grand Sport Corvette. That's true

They've all been good you go back to the the cool one from the from the 60s the race car fucking crazy

Yep, love it. Awesome, right the C4 Grand Sport actually

Pretty exceptional. That's a quality on their dream one nerds. I see one. I see more ZR ones actually

Yeah, if you

If you because of I think because of where you were at that time where I was in

Where I was in

98 or seven or wherever whatever what you know seven notes would have been 96. Yeah, where I was

These were very popular gotcha this these the Grand Sport took over Long Island

Everybody everybody either had one or wanted one

And and it was a very good car C6 Grand Sport fantastic fucking awesome car

Awesome car and the C7 Grand Sport is

One of the best bargain performance cars out there almost almost no notes on the C7 Grand Sport

That's fucking that's an exceptional automobile

For a driver of any skill level. Yep. That's that's a nearly perfect sports car actually very very good. And so the new one

It's the same color

Because of course it is

The blue which is a nice color actually the blue the blue white. I fuck with it, but you know what I don't love I

Grew up in the school of Ralph Lauren

blue and black are

Clashy and I don't like blue cars with black wheels. Oh

I mean, sorry blue and black clash when they're paired together colors clash when they're together

Yeah, Ralph Lauren designers try to avoid blue and black black wheels

Mostly a mistake. I'm just I don't like them on pretty much anything. They can work on some they work on gray

They work on white. They were on black. They go black. Well, that's fine

But they I think on blue cars. They're particularly clashy just like wearing, you know

A blue tinted outfit would be with a black belt and black shoes. I would go brown

True with you know, I agree. So I don't love

I don't love the wheels. You can probably hopefully maybe get them in a silver the wheels will look great in silver

The C4 Grand Sports look better with silver wheels. I agree

But they're saying it's a punched out motor. They're saying it's like a maybe like a 6.7 liter

Whoa, that's still rumor mill that that's it's gonna be a 6.7 liter and then there the other rumor mill says that the

There'll be a Grand Sport X

That will replace the e-ray

Which that that tracks that makes sense

Because e-ray is to Corvette people. Yeah, Ray is not cool

Yeah, but I feel like that'll be the same thing Corvette people won't want a Grand Sport hybrid either. No, no, it's just not called e-ray

If you don't call it hybrid

People you never know I drove this thing around for for six days

You never would know it's a hybrid if you call it something tough instead of e

E means like green call it X

That's true

You know you gotta lean on the zero to sixty time and what you know the performance benefits because I have the new motor with

With the you know the e-ray effectively hybrid system, which will be pretty pretty cool. I drive great

That's the thing it will drive great

But will anybody will the majority of people care where they just go by the normal Grand Sport with the punched out engine?

It'll be slightly lighter because no battery

Sure, you know the majority of people will do that regardless, but I think more people

Would get a Grand Sport X than would buy an e-ray

That's probably true. Just front you mean just from the marketing

Just yeah, just the name just the name. Oh and speaking of the name

Did you see the fucking story that?

Cadillac is dropping their metric Newton meters of torque rounded to the nearest 50 branding because it's stupid

They I I

I thought they would ride this one directly into the mountain, but they actually they bailed on it well

Or did they did they wait until?

Like how they canceling a bunch of these models, you know because no no no no no it's it's it's all

Yeah, all across the brand there. They're not it's not about canceling models. It's just about getting rid of the number

There's they they're sort of like tiptoeing around it like they're saying

It's part of it. It's part of a global strategy, but our American audience didn't really understand it and also

It's we're trying to like declutter the back of the cars and have like fewer badging

Okay, but also like the the numbers didn't like

mean anything

Like a they're in Newton meters, which to Americans don't mean shit. I do this for a living

I couldn't fucking tell you what the the conversion is from a Newton meter to a thing. I'm sorry

I just I don't have room my brain for it and also it's rounded to the nearest 50

Like it's not even like an act like at least like the Mercedes 63 was like a six point two nine

For a while

But I know I know you're saying like they wanted it's just not as they wanted bigger numbers. You know, it's made

From the back well, they just started backwards

They go behind the ball. How can I put a 600 on the back of this?

Yeah, but what combination will yield to be a six hundred, which is funny because if it was

550 still a good number Mercedes uses it. I mean, it's still a stout large number in simple America brain

550 is big number like on the escalate if it was actually like I think the escalate is like

480 horsepower, right? It's a fucking Corvette engine effectively, right? I

Don't know. Sorry. I don't know the exact horsepower of the escalate, but it's basically 480 if you just called it the fucking 500

It worked for a Mercedes for like three decades. I wonder do you think Mercedes owns 500? No, I guess

Lexus Shelby. Yeah, you can one

One cannot own

500 one may only use it until Carol Shelby needs it again

Well, that that's a good change, so what are they gonna do instead forgive me for not reading this I was

This is the kind of thing that excites me and no one else. Um, they're calling it like

like for on the on the on the

On one of the other crossovers are like the Lyric or something. They're getting rid of like 600 and they're just calling it like

A4 or something just something that indicates. It's the four-wheel drive one. Okay

So kind of like the GMC truck thing like AT4 is

Yes, it's like kind of similar to what the GMC thing is. Okay. Yeah, the most important thing is they're stopping

The dumb thing that they were doing for three years and made no sense. Yeah, I

Good change this. I can't believe they watch what you know infinity did

And they said no no no we can do it better

Wait

Was it Johan?

Denition it might did he get did they get to nice? No, he was at Audi and he was in infinity and he was also a Cadillac and

He was there with a lot of bad things

Did all of those companies?

Where is he where is Johan right now? Let me see where was he three years ago was really?

Not where is he now?

But on 2014 he quit

Infinity and went to Cadillac

Is he and then and then it's just 2014 dash blank. I got a link in yeah

That would be funny if he I mean look he he he is the one that did the key

He's the reason that we don't know what infinities are what anymore

He's the reason you have absolutely no idea when I tell you that this is a

Qx 60 you like you don't know what that car is that's because of his leadership. I believe

According to Jalop nag this article is 12 years old

But he was behind their product expansion plans and the switch to the controversial q-based naming structure. Yeah, so you're welcome

Yo welcome and

You'll get to do it again to Cadillac. Yeah. Wow. Yeah interesting

what

Okay, how

Expensive

Because I saw we saw some $7 gas in California

Yeah, we did see some seven. Do you see sevens? I saw a lot of sixes a lot of sixes

I think I drove past oh down the street premium was like seven ten and then front of mine

in front of CMS

Down the street. No that place

Or the Jeff the place that's like scamming Amazon over here. Oh

Yeah, no, it was the one down the street the one by CMS that was expensive seven

I think it was 692 and whatever we bought yesterday was that's $5.99 buy out of the track

Yeah, the track was I mean dude $5.99 and by the that Rosamond does there. Yeah

And it's over six in Arizona at least parts of it. Yeah in front of mine how a lot

How high and for how long do you think gas will have to get for like actual?

American car buying habits to change away from like big

Fucking thirsty cars

That's a very good question

Couple do you think I think a couple like to I think like two years

I think that I think the price would have to stay at like six seven dollars

Possibly nationwide for like a couple of years. Well, it's never gonna be six bucks nationwide. It's always like that's probably true

You have to look at like the triple a now they track the national average. What's the national average like four probably four

That's still like

Was a national national average three ninety five

National average

So let's see the wreath on the entire West Coast from Arizona to Washington is

between four dollars and

579 and I mean obviously California is a little special because it has its own type type of gas

Yeah, yeah, which is more expensive special we special

It's also special in the way that mean people use special

It's both special in the way. It's more expensive

But they have to make it at certain refineries so we can't we can't bring our gas over from like

Nevada or Texas like a shitty octane rating. It's shitty octane rating, but you know, it's a little bit cleaner

I don't know the intricacies, but the national average is a good place to look and

Let's see yesterday average. It's funny our country broken up this way almost looks like the flag of France

Here's what you want to look at then the month a month ago the average across the country was two ninety three now

It's three ninety five, so it's up a dollar in a month. That's a lot now. What's well thirty five thirty three percent increase

It's big now

I was one of those people during the last election campaign when people would be like

The gas prices are high go the president doesn't set the gas prices, which is true

but

But if the if this person starts a fight and then closes a straight right that does affect the gas prices

So when people would when when when we're operating in a vacuum and there's no conflicts happening

The gas price is not set by the president United States, right?

No, but the president could certainly

Fuck enough shit up sure, you know as a side effect of all that shit being fucked up the right that yeah

Yeah, yeah, right so back to your question. I think you make a good point

I think if gas prices were elevated for two years

I think that's a good number because that's like the length of a normal least yeah, yeah

Truly because I'm gonna trade this in how long and now I get something more efficient

Yeah, how long until I can get further upside down on this loan payment?

I have now rolled four loans over right. I am at a hundred to roll my TRX

ES hybrid please at 36 percent interest

I was sitting next to TRX in traffic like two weeks going went this person's getting eight miles per gallon right now

Yeah, and it's so expensive to operate that truck in California

I hope you're rich because you're about to not be yeah, you probably are if you're fucking with the TRX in LA for sure

You're taking up space, baby

But it's a good question. You know how long is the the memory like

Like we think some of the new Land Rover's they get like 26 miles highway, which is not

Phenomenal and that's not that did that different from what they were getting 15 20 years ago

Like I think it's better than what Land Rover's land Rover specifically we're getting 20 years ago

I think like four hours like they haven't moved that much

But people they just kind of oscillate their purchase. All right, look up look up the fuel economy of a

1997

six

Land Rover Discovery, okay, because that's if we're talking about the closest thing to the Defender

It's gonna be the discovery not the Range Rover, right?

No, I was thinking Land Rover look up the

You are going to be shocked with the factory

Good running I might have to walk back my statement. Yeah

This is this is not gonna be great. Well, see 96's got 16 highway

2006's got 17 highway

An improvement of 10% and so and so from and so now we're getting 26. That's true. That's pretty good

Yeah, that's pretty good. I learned good, you know, thanks Tata like and you know nice nice job. Yeah, yeah

That is much better Ford Ford and Tata combined. Yeah, so they so that is an improvement. That is an improvement. Yeah, I retract but like

Well, like what would it take for someone?

To like

Not get

An F-150 inside and

Inst in like a Maverick and yeah, you know Maverick instead

I'm genuinely wondering I'm not saying no one should have an F-150

So you're saying Pierce the bait their purchase we base purely on price of gas like not like they're their job change

They don't need to tow things or whatever. They're driving too big a transfer gas. Yeah

make somebody who is

Would typically buy a very big very powerful vehicle by a smaller less powerful one like I wonder how

Like in Europe, that's why people don't for the most part buy bigger vehicles

Like they're either too big for whatever tiny little village you live in or the gas is so fucking expensive that it's insane to buy

Something that has a huge engine don't they also get taxed on there is tax undisplacement also. Yes

Let's in general. It's like it's much more. It's just much more expensive. It's not cuz they don't like ever want it

It's just cuz like it's really expensive. So a 3.5 liter power boost

Then that's the hybrid one like F-150 gets about 25 miles per gallon highway

Think Mavericks can get in the 30s, right? Yeah, let's see. I'm pretty sure they can

I think I think I think some people would

Some of Mavericks get 42. Oh, that's probably the hybrid right the hybrid. Yeah

I think some people would of course, I mean how many who when I don't know

But I think if anyone's feeling the squeeze on their wallet and they have to get a new car and they go

Well shit this truck this little Maverick truck does a lot of what I needed my truck to do

Mm-hmm, and it gets 10 miles per gallon better, which at these prices will save you, you know

10 miles per gallon better

Well, look if I'll tell you what if get if it gets 10 miles a gallon better that is

30% better

Okay

So if gas goes up 30% a 30% improvement in efficiency would offset it sure so it costs you the same today

To drive a Maverick as it costs you a month ago to drive an F-150. Yeah gas. That's like that's a way to look at it

There's some fucking Roger Ferraman. I was not Roger Ferraman Roger Ferraman

He would just calculate this entire thing and tell you how to solve that problem. Yeah

I can't do that shit. I need a calculator for it

I don't know. We'll see some people some people asked in the comments in the patreon comments

What it will take for people to move to hybrids and I think gas prices definitely has a

An effect if gas prices went up 50 percent 75 percent a hundred percent for the length of their of

Their lease like also

Also Americans are not good long-term thinkers obviously and so it might be as simple and as stupid as

How much is gas

when my

lease runs out or my you know what I mean like

How much is gas this week when I'm thinking about buying a car versus like

if it if it goes up if gas goes up for six months and

Then and then for whatever reason shady

Somehow this war is over. You know whatever like some some miracle causes it to go back to where it just was right in like month seven

You'd be like f-150

Raptor are please you know what I mean like I think I don't think like because that kind of has happened

Yeah, like in the past with with us

I think a lot of people it is I think it's kind of a national problem is the lack of

The lack of financial education in grade school in high school

Leads to so many problems people over finance everything. Yeah, and the short-term thinking like you said they go

well gas is coming down and I've really wanted this truck or this exciting sports car, whatever

I'm really excited about it, and I just I really want to have that thing and

You'll find ways to justify it and then you buy it and then two years later if something happens and gas goes up a lot

You're like, oh shit. I can't really drive this thing. It's gotten really expensive. It's my my

My color blindness. Oh makes me sort of unable to see how big the spike is at the far right of this chart

Is this is the spike?

It's it's not as high as it was like no, it's right here that that the next top spike to the left the big high spike

Yeah, that I remember that that was when it was like for a minute

It was like eight bucks in LA for a second. Yeah, so this is we're looking at macro trends net and in 2022 June 2022

The national average was 484

Yeah, and this right this spike that we're looking at now from this month

It says 357 which is slightly behind what AAA shows but this chart is a little less detailed

But I remember the 2022 one because someone went all around all over the city putting fucking

Joe Biden did that stickers on all the gas pumps and now you see the the Trump I did that meme is in a lot of

Stuff on social media today. We we reap what we so except if you're Donald Trump, then you actually don't

So those are the things really I mean

I think those are those are the things that that I wanted to talk about today

There's something that you wanted to know I spent the day editing the video

So I didn't really read much car news which video

All right. Yeah, except for the audio situation, but

The fan the ghosts are sometimes in the machines, right? So Zach Zach has me literally on video

Turning the audio recorder on hitting record

Saying it doing the slate driving talking and

It should have been file number four trim in file for except there was another file called for which we recorded after this in car

which was recorded afterwards and

The file does not exist. Yeah, and so

There will be a section in the Maserati MC 20 GT to Stradale video

Where I hope my audio isn't noticeably different, but it might be slightly different the adobe software

I'm gonna be I'm handling it gently like it what it can fish out is amazing

But the more processing I use the stranger it makes you sound. Yeah, and it's fighting with a v6 engine

It's on a race track on a racetrack. You know GoPro audio

It does a pretty impressive job

But I'm trying to find that balance between where you sound like a totally different person and where we can't hear you at all

But either way this file

It's not that it's it was like it's not that it was like not transferred or something like I didn't get them all

It's like it seems like even though it was there. It was not it was what it was recorded into thin air

Yeah, I captured the footage that this would be my fault, but I looked at the file numbers

I'm like one two three four, but four was created after the fourth shoot

How is that possible and you have me on video have you on video?

Look at it look at when you're done

You're done driving in car

Yeah, and you pick up the recorder and look at it and this is what I expected your eyes to go fuck

And you go boop, and you're like on speed and you set it down

So that's why I wrote you this in a tank like I have no idea what happened. Yeah, I mean look

This is what we discovered so I mean look if it sounds a little funky. I'm sorry in this life

We do our best and sometimes it doesn't always work. Yeah, and then we fucking move on

That's that's that's we used to get really sad and stressed. Yeah

Oh, I used to care very much about these things and now so bad

But it's like well we made 2,300 videos and

Sometimes the recorder doesn't record. Yeah, and like you know what happens like four people notice because they're listening on their like

Fuck there's so no system. They have a private movie theater in their house just for watching YouTube videos. Yeah. Yeah

Let's go to the people. I'm sure they have a lot to say they usually do

patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast is where you

Ask the questions for the live show and then subsequently watch the live show to hear their answers

It's where also you can get the show before everybody else. It's where you can get extra show every month

It's where you can get the show without ads and it's the best way honestly to support your favorite podcast creators

And also entering to win a 992 turbo s that is but patreon is recurring

What can I say?

But we love you folks and so we're gonna get to your questions

Two new patrons coming in hot hamdan hamdan hamdan. I assume it's hamdan

That would make sense. But also

If it's hamdan

Respect or hamdan would be nice cuz like that. He's like the dawn of ham

That is true. It probably is not compatible with someone named hamdan

All that work is true

But I'm just saying whether you go one way or the other on that issue. I'm with you

for fun weekend driving would you suggest a manual swapped Ferrari f430 or

Pay up and get a scooter Ria

I've driven a speciale and a pista and as much as I love the rawness

It wasn't great for long drives or when you're not in the aggressive mood. I'm with you

manual 430 swapped maybe making a spider and

You are very much in the weekend driving business my friend. Yeah, absolutely. All right

That's what I never drove a swapped one, but I've that's not true. I drove that that scud

That was built by those shady people, but I drove a factory

430 spider and it was absolutely a delight

Everything you could in a stick everything you could want and I assume if the if the Swaperoo is is factory level feel

Then you'll have a really really nice time

They're good. They're fucking good those cars. They're stout so you could beat the shit out of them. It's a sturdy Ferrari

They are very very sturdy. I really like that about them

base trim also coming in new this week

wants to talk about B pillars as a design element

I think we've moved beyond all B pillars being black

Would a body colored B pillar be better?

I don't like when the exterior of a door is made of one material, but then plastic is used for the B pillar

I think they're trying to

make that space in between

those two windows

Smaller to the point of disappearing. I think that's the point of making it

Black right I'm trying to pull some profile pictures, but yeah, I think it's

It's like making it neutral

Yeah, it's where black shoes with a suit because you can wear them with almost any colored suit or something

I just it's just it's kind of like let let the lines of the car speak and you don't need these things to hop out

Yeah, and I think I have a feeling that

In manufacturing of these cars if you think about like a unibody that's being assembled

having that B pillar

B body color would be like

Fuck all expensive. I think you that's a great point

I have to make it out of metal

Yeah, same metal because if you painted it if it wasn't metal to say it wasn't the same materials the door

It would fade at different rates probably so it would look different after a year or five years

And I think a good point Matt is that painting it it alone painting smaller things

Yeah more difficult painting the edges like the way the thickness of the paint adheres to a corner versus a flat surface

So the door they can just shoot that it's probably more a little bit more consistent than painting this tiny strip. Yeah, I

Agree that in some cases it would look better painted, but I also think I understand why they don't do it. I think I

I'm also an idiot. So who knows Drew Moog says

Okay

the other

Do you have okay?

Do you have a reliable way of informing someone their high beams are on without yelling at them?

No, and I wish I had one and their example like I've been on at you know

Whatever intersections where I think the other car is facing up a hill slightly so their beams are shining in my eyeballs and

And sometimes you'll flash your high beams and they have their lows on it's just they have all four lows on like an Acura or a BMW

It is what it is

But no sort of a bullhorn. There's no way. Yeah, I agree. I don't I don't think there's a great way

I think you I think um

There's been some funny attempts at like vehicle-to-vehicle communication

Including this one company that's basically made the whole front of their car like a TV

You've seen that thing is it uh, is it the Faraday?

The van yeah, yeah, so I don't but they didn't say in the press release

That's for telling people to go fuck themselves and then they're like you know, they would world finds a way

Five seventy five super Dave America says after

After misreading one of your posts about Trump

He thinks you're glazing him and appoints you ambassador to Cuba. You're in charge. That's that's actually

Possible

You have the power to bring five

Vehicle models from around the world to take over from the aging 50 cars

These models and no others will be available in Cuba for ten years

What cars this is so easy this is so easy

The the the 1990s Toyota Corolla

Absolutely fucking unkelebral

Runner the forerunner from the same era the forerunner, uh-huh, right? Yeah, um the

The Honda Civic sure 1999 1990 late 1990s early 2000s Honda Civic all single camps

No dual overhead cams all the all the single cam engines the V8 powered tundra would be a great one

But I'm I'm throwing that as a sixth option because it's another boring Toyota option

I would say the like the like

The the taco like the the Tacoma sure right I want to I think I actually think an EV

Was like a simple really one about their power grid. No, but they don't have any

All you need and you don't need to read they don't have they don't have one

No, they have their whole country apparently runs on generators or something approximating generators and they don't have any

Yeah, no, you need a you need a car that can effectively run on urine. That's like really where we need to be

I saw a video

I think it was from Cuba this guy converted his car to run on coal

But I think it was like a steam a coal fired steam situation very very clever

But he did say he would prefer gasoline

Yeah, he's like it's easier

But he's like hey, buddy made it happen. Yeah, bro, that's crazy

Jeep Wrangler Dragon Edition allegedly

Have either of you tried careers that disappointed you would require to pivot Zach was a waiter yo I was good at it though

Yeah, but it had a ceiling I sold shoes and I'm feeling yeah, yeah

um, I

Mean I mean I've been doing this for 20

Something 20 years now. So I mean now I don't my career changes were in youth. I don't have a good one. I produced I

Worked as a PA on a reality TV show for two weeks and I immediately knew I never wanted to do that again

Sure, that would be the closest thing. Sure. Yeah, I mean I I wanted to be a photographer

That didn't work out. It wasn't that it disappointed me. It was that I couldn't make any money

I want to be a graph and then I was gonna be a graphic designer. I was bored to tears

I then was gonna run a car wash

no and

And now we parked cars. So it's okay

Ball caddy if you could eliminate two bad driver habits one for safety and one annoying

What would they be? I wrote down?

ball caddy

This one is not this is a driver habit the car is not necessarily in motion, but

Things that really grind my gears and I wrote this down for today's show

I didn't we didn't do it as a topic, but it's a really good answer your question

People who drive their cool cars in public and if you take a picture of the car they ask you to blur the license plate out

eat a

Dick you get to choose bringing your toy out in public and taking everything that goes with that or

Leave that motherfucker at home

Did someone send you a picture of a green Ferrari that had this yep

and

I told the person who sent me the photo cool spot

Why did you blur the license plate? I'm they said they asked yeah

I said that person's a huge loser and I said Montana and they said yes, and the car was not in Montana

No, you don't get to you don't get that deference dude

You don't get to be shady and then I I have it's my responsibility to fucking cover you cover for you in public

He brought the car to a car show you that's the thing like the car is out

It's out of thing to be seen fuck let people just post the photo

It and it really doesn't matter and like if the AG wants to find you they're gonna look they're gonna find your car through

Registration through a dealership. They're not gonna find you on Instagram on

Joe's Instagram page. So I would add if you're at the front of a line in traffic for a light

You cannot look at your phone

You're not allowed to look at your phone if you are the first person in line in a stoplight because there are people

That mess that up. Yeah, they can look for the big cue of the car moving

But you need to focus on that light, right? It's your job up front. You have one job, right? Yeah, right

Go in top down with the top down

I'm not a topless with the top down going to a topless. Oh titties. Yeah titties, right

What do you think the values of the f90 m5 cs and f87 m2 cs are going to do in the near future

Is the f90 the vote the last one? Yeah

Well, that one you know, I'm valuable because people won't want the hybrid. Yeah, so a car drove awesome

It did drive awesome. I just thought the seats were stupid. The seats are stupid. Yeah, the rest of it's great

Think in the short term they will hold I think the long term they may not

Like all computer-controlled probably true the the the m2, you know, it's kind of a legend and the legends tend to do pretty well

Yeah, I think it might just hold like the one m did mm-hmm, especially now that the new m2 cs is out

Yeah

Front-wheel-drive nsx in a recent cletus video. He found out that Richard Childress Racing builds some singer engines

Any other odd crossovers from race teams the streetcar stuff that you know of

I mean Tom walk-and-shaw racing did a lot of stuff Jag ex-j2 20 things like that

Obviously Cosworth has done a ton of work for people like Aston Martin

McLaren McLaren and

Gordon Murray's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, GMA for sure

I mean, I'll also I mean singer has had a lot of different

Very very well regarded people build their engines from portion Motorsport North America to ed pink racing engines to

Fucking Williams. I mean there's there's been a ton of stuff from them

I'm curious if they have multiple people building engines at the same time just because they have so many cars that they need

The class for the classics they were okay when they were when they had the tiny shop

Yeah, they were doing all the classics

There was like a couple different ways you could get engines and then they were trying out some different people I think

As they were growing and I think they've got good

They're not their vendors have always been good. Yeah, there've been a few different. Okay

Wonder if you know like NASCAR teams do R&D for people like Chevy or Ford, you know Mustang stuff

And then once they can because they can just move more nimbly and just R&D it and then I think it's approved

It gets put into like the assembly line HWA

Which recently was in the news because they're doing this 190 EVO sort of repop thing

That's like a completely new like car like you've seen that thing look up the HWA

EVO I guess it it it looks like a Mercedes 190 EVO 2, but it's like

it's like

Fully fully everything. It's everything. It's one of those. Yeah, but then this company

Which you may have if you weren't like deeply nerdy thought thought maybe the company sort of came out of nowhere

They actually build the engines that are in the YRA are race cars. Whoa. Yeah, they don't use because those Mercedes V12s

Are like cool, but they red line and like 60 like that's not that like

Yeah, like for those engines like you can't actually do that with the Mercedes motors. Yeah

Yeah, so that's each so they're doing these which is pretty cool

There was that Pratt and Miller C6 RS thing that was

There was a red one the red one that one just dug that would that car just sold at auction

I don't really got but I it was at auction. Yeah

Matt's Miller Industries

century and 100 tow rig

the

The monoxide podcast likes to ask all their guests get give us a show car a daily and a track car

Unlimited budget

What's yours and Zach? How do we define show car? Does it work can be driven? It has to be driven

I think it has to it has to physically work as a car, but it could be a show car. I could do this

I could do this a show car. I

Mean unlimited budget it would have to be something French from the 1930s

You have to be a delage or a deli hay or a Bugatti Atlantic

You know or something looks like a bunch of teardrops with an engine, you know some crazy ass French shit

That like is like Pebble Beach level show show car, but that you could drive

track car

The that Gordon the new Gordon Murray thing that's whatever second 50 GT 3 you think one of them

Yeah, that's kind of perfect and ultimate daily

Nothing beats a tycon

I'd say that tycon

No, I would say a Panamera turbo se hybrid with active ride

Okay, I would go I'd go low rider. I think like six one Paula good choice and then daily

I'm gonna go with ranger raptor

And track car

God that's really hard

I'll go who no corn even though it. I don't know if you can really drive it. That's actually a pretty good track

But sure. Yeah, can you set up a road course? They'd be like, what do you what do you want about? That's true

My track car. I mean as cool as that Gordon Murray thing is my track car might have to be a drift car

I don't think I I think your choice is near perfect

I just didn't want to have the same choice, but it's like it's a Gordon Murray car

You kind of want to have a drift car. Yeah, but if you want to be gripped up also

Just learn to slide that thing

Pts normal. Do you have a favorite autocross and or track tire?

That's hard because I I don't have the same car that I drive on like eight different tires like a regular person

every car

Has like its own tires like their own even their own compounds like a pilot sport cup to

Porsche and a pilot sport cup to BMW and a pilot sport cup to like, you know, whatever fucking Corvette are

Actually kind of different

So I don't really have a good choice for that

I mean, I went I went on the Hoosier launch for the track attack pro

Which was a very good track and autocross tire, but I don't want to be biased and say like that's the best one

So I would say pts normal should go read like grassroots motorsports. Yeah, those folks

They know tires inside and out and they will have all the comparisons for tires in that class that you need. Yeah

I would say if I know an underrated tire that I liked I that I've net I've not really taken on the track

But my spider came with those Dunlops the SP Sportmax 2 and I thought they had

Equal grip

over a longer period of time and

Better long-term wear than Michelin Cup twos. Hmm. I'm not a huge cup two guy

I love the pilot sport 4s and s5, but I I've never like loved cup twos

Including on this BMW those those tires did not impress me at all that they might have been

Pre-tracked before we got the car

Gigety Airlines the says the cars and bids crew were struggling to define a sports car

What's your definition?

I mean, I think it's a car whose main objective is to be enjoyable to drive and have you know perform

Yeah, track roads, etc. Yeah, I'd say it's any car that puts driving dynamics above things like

practicality and

space

You know what I mean?

It's really it could be any car could be a sedan

I would say probably can't be an SUV by nature

But like it could be a coupe convertible sedan and you could be in the front in the back in the middle

That doesn't really matter matter, but like

the car

Should have should be compromised in other ways in order to be good at driving

That might mean a stiff suspension that might mean it's small that might mean it's doesn't have certain features

Right. Yeah, I think so. That's what I think. Yeah

Tickle your pickle for a triple nickel wants to get a radar detector

Do you use radar detectors? What do you think? How do you set them up and what is the move?

I'm not a there's a there's a

What's the radar guy we had vortex radar that that was at him

The YouTube channel where the guy tests radar detectors. Oh, I believe it was vortex radar

Who is like a guy who's just test radar detectors? And so he's very objective about this kind of stuff. I

Have had a pretty foolproof methodology for the last

10 plus years which is I have a valentine. I now have the two I used to have the one I now have the two and

I combine that with ways and

Honestly them two together. That's pretty foolproof

You're you're you're pretty rarely gonna get caught out if you're running both of those together

I think the only thing to add to those two things is attention

You just you have to look at ways

Oh, yeah, look for those alerts and you have to have long vision down the road

Yeah, and you have to know how to listen to the language that a radar detector

Because like radar detectors are like chirps and boops and beeps and shit

I don't like radar detectors that have like a lot of app integration

But I don't like I liked I like a radar detector to operate standalone without the need for a phone. Yeah

Oh, God, yes, absolutely, and I use the

The logic modes, I think it's called advanced it might be called advanced logic mode in the valentine 2

It's the small L not the big L and it effectively filters out

almost anything

other than very strong k a bit, excuse me very strong k-band and

K a it filters out all x and

Weak K signals what you want because x was basically 711 doors that open automatically

Which would go off a lot in the early days of radar and then a lot of cars nowadays with the park with the proximity sensors

That was setting off a lot of these like that's like k-band light

Yeah, and so the newest valentine 2s ignore those and I know I've heard the passport is good

There's people like that. There's people that like other brands escort has arrows now

Yeah valentine had arrows proprietary for a while and now some other one. I think they're whatever their patent ran out

Or the time that they were allowed to have that but um

But yeah, the combination of a quality radar detector

Which will be a couple hundred bucks. I mean, you're probably looking at 500. Yep

Combination of that in ways is pretty foolproof and if that doesn't help you off the record, baby off the record comm slash tst

Well, I

Do I want to read that one? I don't know if that one's I agree accidents or reverse entry says that we we we appear to be pretty

Grounded while being somewhat successful and having financial means

Don't know man. I don't think we have as much money as you think we have

It's not that I have a lot of money, it's that my spending habits are incredibly reckless

I just saw that meme on a watch forum. It's like you think I'm successful

Actually, I have incredibly reckless. Yeah, it's a good account has less than $500 in it. I

mean

But yes a

The example that she used of the $1,400 rental car being expensive like that was expensive for that rental car for four days

We're right race

20 it was six days with a Chevy Blazer

Straight trail blazer. No blazer blazer. Yeah, and it was 14 hunch

Ali a Danish var says can you enjoy going to the track without being a competitive person 100 per cent?

Going to the track

Can be about your lap times if you want it to be mm-hmm going to the track can also be about

Finding the limit of your car

sliding around a little bit maybe

Just just going faster than you would be legally allowed to go on the street. Sure driving in a manner

You can't on the street. Yeah hanging out hanging out with your buds

Yes, of course

Learning something you can be about learning. I mean you you can go and there's instructors who will help you get better at

Driving and those skills will back translate to the street

And I think you can be competitive with yourself in terms of trying to learn and improve those lap times

But you don't have to be competitive with other people and go. Oh, you said a 201. I'm at 207

Do I need to buy parts or come out here more like, okay? Good for you. I'm just trying to work on me

Yeah, that's also true like a track day isn't an actual race

Like you're you're effectively racing yourself an attract day and if you're in one of the advanced groups where it's open passing

And you're like dicing it up with somebody like okay, cool do that, but like you're not racing them, you know, so

You like

You can you can and also I

Suspect that once you are on to the racetrack and have a lap time and have a time to beat people tend to get

Competitive shorts presented. Yeah, I don't know if I said it on the podcast

But I certainly said it to the team that I race with which is that I don't give a fuck if we win this race

Or if we finish dead last and less we might be on podium

All of a sudden nothing else matters. Yeah, you know, I am out here racing for funsies away

You mean we could win never mind. Yeah

Blue chews and blue clues I've been driving my ND Miata with an exhaust

Wearing air pod pros with the in the adaptive sound noise cancelling mode

They seem to filter out so many unpleasant frequencies of NVH and wind while making the exhaust sound even better

Have you ever had the same experience? Yes?

100% yes

When I drove my Ferrari 328 to Pebble Beach

I did it with noise cancelling earbuds the whole way and it made the engine sound beautiful

Really it eliminated every squeak and rattle in the car and I listened to the and it complimented

The level of the music

Perfectly with the volume of the Ferrari engine and it actually was one of the best drives I ever had in that car Wow

Yeah, I drive with noise cancelling. I actually fuck with Ray cons now

The air pods don't stay in my ears. The Ray cons actually stay in place. So we are not sponsored by them right?

We're not although they didn't have wire about a month ago

Okay, so you may hear an ad but either way that's not why I have these didn't send them

I've had them for a while they fit in my fucking ears

So anyway, I I wear them in the max a lot like obviously because I just don't have a radio anyway

And this I have the same exact experience and yeah, it filters out all the high frequency shit

Yeah, totally totally happen and if you're driving an old car could be a Miata could be a muscle car could be whatever

Try it because it will make your car sound like it's got a bunch of dynamite in it. Yeah

Lettuce Erdogan shopper says you can steal one car from three friends. What are you taking and from whom great question? Yeah

I'd steal your spider. Okay

That makes me happy. I would steal Vinnie's Cadillac assuming it's in good working order

It was last I saw it

And I would steal Larry Chen's

Might actually steal, you know

I still three is correct. I would steal three of Larry Chen's car. I would steal his r34 because it's perfect

Okay. Yeah, okay

I would I would take

Matt cats is f40

Would then take

The I don't know we forgot sorry. I would then take the gold singer DLS that I drove on Sunday. Mmm. That was

mind-bendingly good

and

Would then take

Fucking who's got something like just the titties I

Mean Larry's Larry's r34 is a great one

Got the 32 which is California legal. No, it's not the 34 is right there. That's right there

I would then have to take Leno's McLaren f1. Oh, sure, right?

He's he's friend enough. I could I could call him a friend. He's been kind of fun. Did you see his?

His commercial for the Yamaha Corvette giveaway. It's on like it's everywhere. I don't think they must be running this shit now

I'll probably hear it. Honestly, I'll have to ask him if I see him

I might have to even text him it sounds like it looks it. It sounds like it was made by AI

Like there's like a there's like a shot of him walking up to a Corvette and getting in and like giving a thumbs up

But the voiceover sounds like if you had AI do

Lennon and there's no shot of him speaking. Oh, yeah, I wonder if they did. I don't know

Guys, I can't make it. Just fucking just chat GPT. It's fine. I don't know. I have to text him and ask

Listen and sometimes watch what mileage and condition of car makes for the best

Manual swap the nicest one you can find or something with some while you're in there is good question

Very easy answer one with a blown e-gear pump or f1 pump or a blown clutch

Like it needs to drive train work transmission work. Anyway, that's the best one. Yeah, yeah

Particularly because the clutch you're replacing anyway and the e-gear pump you're throwing in the garbage

So if someone's dumping their

Gallardo or r8 or Ferrari because the f1 the hydraulic pump that controls that is out you that's your gold mine right there

Wheat City Night Court says is there a new car on sale today?

Which if seen in the wild is almost certainly owned by a car nerd? I would say the GR Corolla

I've never met someone with a GR Corolla that didn't really like driving. Yeah, that's a good point if you have an Ioniq 5n

You are a pretty big nerd

I've seen people on the mountain like mobbing Ioniq 5 n's they are

Fucking so fast on the mountain. They will they will walk away from a BMW m3

No problem. It's Torg is ridiculous. They're so fucking fast dude

Like a BRZ TS, I don't think so. So that's like if you have some special special edition of a

Fucking really low powered car. I saw the one was a green one

They did that was sorry with an H was named after that road

I saw one of those in the wild the other day. I reviewed one like six years ago

I went oh wow someone spent the extra six grand for the green if you have a Nismo Z

That's pretty you're pretty you're pretty car nerdy if you have a Nismo Z, right? I think so

But then the Nismo is gonna come out. That's also that's what I just said. Oh, I thought you meant oh, I got it

Oh, I just write it on a nice Nismo. Yeah, Nismo. Sorry. Did I thought that I did I I I have Nissan Z

Performance stuck in my head from last week, right

Jacking off the record if you could gift each other a

$25,000 car, what would you pick for each other 25 used?

I assume do you want do you want a daily or do you want a drift car drift car?

I would get I would get you a pretty decent Nissan Z drift car from somebody

What are you like a 240 with an LS that someone's just tired of and has no like has those bumpers that are just a bar

Just one sure one way. Yeah, we use with the center jack point. Yeah, yeah, do you want a drift car? You want it a daily?

Legends no, okay, I want a new legends car

Legends car wagon. All right. Yeah. Yeah, the wagons the good one the long roof. Yeah

Randy says

Besides the obvious fascism thing. What do you think of the Indy car America 250?

Well, they asked because the track map proposed map was laid out. Um, I

Will I will absolutely I will admit that my

Political bias here sees this event in a certain way totally does if it was

Not even necessarily like a Republican president like just a fucking normal human

You know what I mean where everything wasn't like an assault on

Freedoms if it was like if it was like our country's

250th anniversary and it was like even fucking George W. Bush was the president and they said yeah, we're gonna have a

We're gonna have a race in DC. I'd be like alright like cool, right?

When would you Zach? Yeah, when they proposed this a few weeks ago. I said on the show

I was like of the like this is a pretty cool idea. Yeah as far as the mandates go

This is pretty rad and we looked at the map and I said, I think they have a lot of

Good opportunity here to make a good track and that's why I want to pull up the map because I don't think they did as much as they could

I I have to say that map and I

Don't know that it doesn't to me

Look like an expert level racetrack. It looks

Pretty fucking Mickey Mouse the shape of it. Well, yeah, so I'm gonna put it on the screen for everybody

It doesn't we cover a little bit look

Great, it's just so for people who are listening. It's a lot of one, too

There's three ninety degree corners a sort of I guess I'd be like 120 long straight away 120. There's an open one

I mean, what does this look like this looks like a map of

Oh, what state is this this looks if you rotate it. Yeah, oh, it looks like Alabama

It looks like Alabama has fallen over. Yeah, that's exactly looks like but with less curve

So I was just I looked at this and I got kind of disappointed because when we looked at the National Gallery like area map before

When this was all proposed. Yeah, I went, okay, like you got some like you could why not incorporate these bridge roundabouts here

Yeah, we had we had things with curves in there's a lot of natural curves

Yeah, there's a lot of opportunity like this lower Senate Park. This is a nice curve to it

There's just a lot of cool stuff and they ended up with this I

Mean this makes the Vegas F1 map look amazing look amazing

Yeah, that has a little and that's a pretty like, you know straight turn straight turn kind of place

No, it was but the Vegas track, you know as one of a very few people who drove it

It had a flow it did have like this this to me says straight away corner straight away corner

I drag races, right? Like it's kind of like Long Beach do like Long Beach like I'm sorry

I love that we have a race, but I drove the Long Beach track and it sucks

It's not a fun track because of the same reason. Yeah, so

And yeah, do I think fucking Donald Trump's a fucking dick bag like yeah, I do and if this was a

Normal president even a normal Republican one I'd go, okay

All right, cool, but I I'm still in the process of wondering just how the fascism will be attached to this particular event

Which flag will they find away the swinging tire says favorite BMW CS car

Oh, so easy the original of the original you know the 3.3 point CSL

Babobile

Granny shifting not double clutching like you should is the fear of exorbitant and frequent maintenance for McLaren's

Justified or overblown if it's if if overblown would you still purchase a 720 s

Or would you stick to more mainstream brands like Porsche with palatable maintenance? I?

Think McLaren's work pretty well when they're driven a lot. I would get a McLaren and drive it use it as my car

I would not want a McLaren that I drove once a month

We have a couple customers that drive their McLaren 570s mind you all the fucking time

One guy in particular has a bunch of miles on that orange one down there

Cars ace always works Wow nope not like changes the oil Wow puts tires on it the car always works

We had another one that sat and sat and sat always fucking broken

That's it's I think even more. There's a lot of cars like that McLaren's in particular

They need to be driven like a ton that 13,000 mile car. I took the pebble that year

Fucking ace. That's the car

So I would buy one and I would drive the shit out of it

I wouldn't want a McLaren unless I could use it as my car like my everyday car

I would not want to you have to get if you had two cars

You'd have your you have a tycon and a McLaren. You couldn't have six. Mm-hmm. Yeah, or you ball out use it as a daily

Or that I'd keep my spider in the garage for weekends and daily the McLaren. I

Think you'd get tired of that after a couple of months

I think because the car is twin turbo like you had to warm it up, but you know your your errands are short

You're daily. I know they're very comfortable

Many times they're so easy if you get the comfort seats and you get a coupe so the roof cutouts

So you can plop down in there. It's got a nice trunk. I've daily these cars for weeks at a time. It's no big deal

They're easy. They're so easy. That's why it's so lame when people don't daily them. It's a part someone around the corner

Day this one. Oh, yeah, I know that dude. Yeah, yeah, he's chill

He's he's fucking great, but man is with his is the blue color

And it's the same color as the the like launch color for the C8 Corvette and

Man when the fucking Corvette came out and people and people asked him if he his was the Corvette

I felt like

His car is so sick. Yeah, it looks nice. He's on his second one

The money or the hammer you can't have both what's an example of a reliable car from a historically unreliable company

We talked about I think the alpha Julia 2.0 is known for being pretty good and alpha's not so great reputation. Yeah

The F4 I mean the F4 30. Yeah, I think both the 430 and the 360 Ferrari are very

Actually like the 458 is really reliable. I think that's more reliable. Yeah, also Huracans are fucking great

Huracans are super super reliable

Yeah, I mean I actually I think the the I don't know if there's a better example of

Reliable car from an un a car a company known for unreliable cars than the Huracan

That's a fucking that anybody could daily drive a Huracan and if you don't do if you drive it like once they still work like fine

They're so easy

Bad PPI eight

Matt you recently bought a relic guitar the Mike McCready signature

Which has been a popular offering for a couple of decades now among guitarists though not without controversy

Do you think the same concept of making a new thing look like an old and well-used thing will be popular among car enthusiasts?

Now that vintage cars with Bettina are commanding what seems to be the same or more than a restored example fake Bettina I

Don't think that would pull a lot of money also

Also for bad PPI eight like the Bettina thing isn't new this was this term got thrown around a lot in the early

Ots like as the pro touring thing came about

You know people will take muscle cars that look old and they would refurb all the suspension chassis etc

And it would have Bettina and then they'd rip so but I I don't know if putting fake Bettina on something would probably never

Command a higher price than clean paint or real Bettina sure

With my guitar, I really like it. I but I I care less about the Bettina

Then I care about the fact that when I plug that guitar in with no pedals or anything else

It sounds exactly like Pearl Jam

It sounds exactly like Mike McCready's guitar sound

So like you fucking play the opening notes of yellow lead better on that and like you're in Pearl Jam like so to me

for after many many years of like

Playing

What is effectively 90% Pearl Jam songs on like other guitars?

Because I liked them for one reason or another having this one that

Pearl Jam is like oh, yeah, this makes a lot of sense actually

Think if it was mechanically or electronically what it is and didn't have the aesthetic Bettina

I'd probably still be into it

But I get it I don't think I'd buy fake Bettina on a car, but like

This guitar isn't designed to look like any

1959 strat it's designed to look and play and sound exactly like one person's specific

Guitar 59 strat. Yeah, like Mike McCready, right, but like that. He's been playing with since like

It's like in the I don't know if it's in the alive video

But I'm pretty sure it's in at least one of the music videos from 10

Like he's been playing this guitar forever

And if you look at music videos and live performances over the years

You can see this guitar getting like more and more and more weathered. It's fucking awesome

But it is if it's a 1959

What is it? It's a Stratocaster. It's a Fender Strat his is yeah, and it would be worth a fucking fortune

But but my point is like this person says do we think the same concept of making a new thing look like an old thing?

But in this case his is an old guitar, right? So they made your

New guitar mine is a 2023 or whatever it is guitar that looks like his now it helps that a

Brand-new fan like the Stratocaster hasn't really changed

Take a new car to make it feel like an old car. Yeah, you'd have to like I don't know break it

Looks so stupid. It would work too. Well. Yeah, but I think what they do what they're doing in cars is like like with what?

Marco did with that 90 air-cooled 9-11 that you drove where they just sort of leave it rough on finish

They leave the patina they might there's some paint

There's like some of some paint you can put on cars that like make them rust a little bit like I've seen stuff like that

Can't imagine them doing it with a new car. Yeah, I think it looks like weird. That'd be so weird

Ocean Parkway Blunt Rider love it now that the M badge is available in some capacity on basically everything BMW

sells is it lost all meaning or does a true m car elicit the same response it did 20 years ago is there an opportunity for

BMW to do what caddy did with the black wing and create an additional sub brand

What's what the CS is right? I mean isn't the CS is the hardcore enthusiast model of the m brand? Mm-hmm. I

Agree to a certain extent. Yeah, but I think

I mean

True m car, I mean

And these m cars are really fucking fast, but they also

They don't do a lot for me in a lot of ways like the m5 and the m3 and m4 and m8

Don't really like excite me in the way that any 46 m3 and a shark nose e31 did a

An e39 m5 like sort of did I thought I maybe it might have just been that that was a pinnacle to me of like styling and engines and

Driver engagement and the new cars are like much faster, but don't like do it for me in this

I think we also can't discount our exposure like at that time in our we were like late teens early 20s

We're just like, you know every magazine like these m these I think the m cars at the time

We're very unique in their their combination of performance and comfort, but it was also like we were so excited about cars and weren't

Saturated with information the way we are now we've driven more stuff you can get

The black wings a good example like now Cadillac has a car that can do what the m3 and m5 used to do and that didn't exist before so

For me it was like I put those on a pinnacle because they were the best

They were the best sedan at the time five came out. It was like that was a real game change 400 horsepower

I mean that was it was Corvette horsepower. It had it handled. Well, it looked good, and it was a luxury

Yeah, and Mercedes at the time five-speed auto. Yeah, you were awesome, and they also did a good job marketing with the

Driver the guy Richie film the guy Richie stuff. So it's all those things combined. Yeah

I'm gonna call the game there. The wife is waiting for me for dinner

You see and we got we'll hold it. We'll hold any interesting questions for the next show

We got a lot to talk about next show. We got the BMW CS. We got the Volvo

EX 30 and I didn't even get to review the fucking DLS

I drove over the weekend. I didn't know you did I have it was I went to go to breakfast me and Christian took the manks

I was so excited to have the manks back

With the tires back on it the right tires and everything took it to Malibu saw Maz

And as he was leaving he was like I was about to leave. I was like, well, don't fucking leave come back

I dragged him back. He was in the in the DLS the gold one. It's on my Instagram and

And I go you want to drive this because he was asked he was asking it ice race when he was gonna get to drive it

I was like fucking next time I see you so I go you want to go drive it

Wow, and he just hands me the key to this and I go, okay, and he goes

You're gonna go drive that right and I was like, oh, I thought you were just leaving your key with me

I don't know because it's parked weird or something and he was like, no, you should go drive that I was like, okay

And I was like Christian get in this car get in. Yeah, and oh

Baby, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that next week

But Maz also had some very nice by the way, Maz Fawaz is the former CEO of Singer

He was the CEO of Singer from when the company

Started until last year. I think he's now like vice chairman or I don't know his exact role right now

But he's still at the company still there. He's still there

But he's not the CEO anymore Raj Nair as a CEO now, but um, he had very nice things to say about the max chief strategy officer

There we go. Um, right

He said he came back and he was like, I can't believe that this thing drives so nice

He was like, it's you know, when you have a weird engine because he has some weird engines

He's like the calibrations of like the low speed maneuverability and like the engagement that tip in and like he's like that stuff's really hard

And like this is really really nice. It's good endorsement. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll talk about the DLS next week. It was

Unforgettable we'll see you then. Thanks to our patrons for asking such good questions. Thanks everybody else for listening. Have a nice evening

About this episode

Zach and Matt cover a busy mix of enthusiast news and talk: the newly revealed Corvette C8 Grand Sport, Ferrari CEO comments that touchscreen/haptic interfaces cost about 50% less than buttons, and Cadillac quietly dropping torque-number badging. Gas prices get a deep dive with speculation on how long high fuel costs would need to last to change buying habits. The crew also nerds out on road racing at Road America, track-line “ghost car” training, and a long Q&A on everything from manual swaps to radar detectors and what makes a “sports car.”

B pillars control arms Cosworth curbing dual overhead cams EV exhibition racing federal taxes fuel economy gas prices

Chevrolet Corvette Toyota Tacoma

Original notes

There's a new Corvette Grand Sport; Cadillac finally cancels its terrible naming scheme; Ferrari admits the real reason for those terrible controls; gas prices are yuge; and

Patreon question include:

Is a manual-swapped Ferrari F430 the key to happiness?
WHEN is the right time to manual-swap anything?
Can you enjoy a track day without being competitive?
Why are b-pillars boring black?
How do you tell another car their brights are on?
Cars we'd gift to Cuba
Careers we bailed on
Bad driving habits we'd banish
Will BMW CS cars hold their value?
Racing teams that built engines for OEMs
1 show car, 1 track car, 1 daily
How to use a radar detector
New cars bought by true car nerds
Thoughts on the INDY America 250 race
And more!

Recorded March 23, 2026

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The Smoking Tire

Zack Klapman, Matt Farah

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