Car Collections Visited, CBX Honda, Merek Retires - S&S EP550

Dear winter, Toyota can't get enough of you, because Toyota has got 25 vehicles with available

all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, and that's more than any other auto brand.

From the versatile RAV4 to the Svelte Crown, the sleek Camry all-wheel drive, the Corolla

Hybrid all-wheel drive, the Rugged Tacoma, the Tenacious Tundra, and the spacious Grand

Highlander with all-wheel drive to keep you and your safe.

Hey, you bring the action, we'll bring the traction.

Toyota, let's go places. Based on manufacturer's websites as of 10-20-25.

Hey everybody, it's a brand new year. We're excited to have you back.

Whole new attitude here at Shift and Steer. Okay, but not really. Welcome to the party,

pals. This is Shift and Steer, and we are all here. We're hyped up. We're ready for the new

year. We had you, didn't we? You thought we would just paint? I don't know who you thought you had,

but I'm going to guess nobody. Brad? No, they were like, what the hell did I tune into?

Yeah. You had me in a low, Brad. Brad's regimen before starting to show is gulping down like an

energy drink. It's not true. It's water. It's got a pink rock star. Rock star cast.

Strawberry lemonade rock star, man. I'll have you know. The chances of you doing a show all

somber like that are next to none. Yeah, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.

Hey, guys. So, did you have a good holiday? Sure. Yeah. It's fine. Yeah.

Let me bring out some more water. Yeah, we got some rain. We tried to avoid some rain,

so we took a quick trip to Arizona. I talked a bit about it on CarCast as well, but I specifically

wanted to grab the Honda Civic Hybrid. Oh, that's right. Remember that, right?

It was the Edmunds car of the year last year, and before we start announcing the next couple of

months all the new Edmunds winners, I wanted to grab that car because I had the Land Rover Defender

that we talked about a while ago, the week before, and the Hyundai Palisade, which I really like that

car, right? That's fantastic, but it's $60,000 for the nice calligraphy version and all that.

It's a great deal for what it is, but it's still $60,000 because cars are expensive now.

But for $30,000 you get a Honda Civic Hybrid. You get the Sport Touring version that I got,

which was $35,000 sticker. You could see where they tried to save a couple of bucks, but they didn't

put it in bad areas. You still get a leather-wrapped steering wheel, and you get good tension and

feedback on the air conditioning controls, but we don't get as like seat memory, like two or three,

like seat one, seat two, like you don't get the seat memory. Oh my god, you mean you actually

have to adjust the seat yourself? Yeah, each time. Each time there's a new driver.

Their seat memories? Yeah, not that on all the old shit that you drive, but actually the Porsche,

I'm sure, has and the new. It only has on the driver's side because we didn't get the big spec one.

Yeah, and there's a couple little things, but I don't know, it's just for that kind of money,

and I still know $35,000 sounds expensive for a new car, but I just think you get a lot of

bang for the buck. We grab, it's the four-door hatchback, we put a bunch of gear in it,

brought the dogs with us. Brad, you've done that trip to Arizona a bunch of times, so when you

get out there, it's 75 miles an hour or so. I don't know, maybe you're doing even 80 out there,

but once you start cruising along in that car, the hybrid system still works

fine. It's just you don't get quite the fuel mileage as if you were around town,

constantly charging the battery and going back and forth. There's diminishing returns at a certain

speed. Yeah, so what I'm saying is we still average 37 miles per gallon when we were driving that

thing, but around town, I think you can get it well into the 40s. It worked fine, it was great.

On the way out, we hit that rain on the way out of LA halfway, half the drive getting from here to

Quartzite. Yes, Brad, I did not fill up in Blythe, I filled up in Quartzite.

Ah, you blew it, man. Oh, you went to the Arizona side.

Quartzite is a little bit farther and the gas is actually more in Quartzite than it is

right at the border. Blythe is in California and the tax is for fuel. However, we did find

a gas station. I think it was Pilot. I don't know if it was Loves or Pilot. You went to

Pilot in Quartzite. Right. There is one in Blythe, and I don't even know how they do it,

and it was priced for $87, like $259, which was the same as Quartzite. I was like,

it's in California, though. I don't know how they're getting away with just doing it cheap.

I just think they want people to go in and buy sodas and cupcakes and stuff. That must be it.

Because we drove past it and I was like, how is that? That's cheap for California gas. But,

yes, we- But right at the river there, there is a flying J on one side and a shell on the other

side. They're actually less expensive than the ones in Quartzite. They're usually like $2.30

something a gallon, and that's where I always fill up. Yeah, we found the cheap ones. We kind of

looked on the app and made it a mission. Then I was kind of pushing it so when we left Arizona

and started driving out to California, I left it with half a tank of gas.

Why fill up with expensive gas, right? Right. I was like, let's see if we can get the Quartzite,

and then it just wasn't going to make it. I was like, well, we got to turn the air off.

Nice and cool out. Just leave the vent on. Don't crack the windows. That's become an air pocket.

Yeah, everyone tried to control your breathing. Worse comes to worse. You had the two dogs to

pull the car if you- Oh, my God. And it was funny because we looked on- Tammy looked on the app and

she's like, I don't see a gas station. And I said, I saw a sign back there that said,

next services 49 miles away. And I was like, and we're going to make that. But she's like,

I don't see anything on the app. She goes, maybe it's a rest stop. Yeah, but man, it was a little

brothel in a motor home on the side of the road. Wasn't that one where the prison's on one side

and the rest stops on the other? So we did pass the prison and the signs that say,

do not pick up hitchhiking. Yes, we did pass that one. And then we're like, well,

we're not going to make it to Quartzite on this tank of gas. But, and there's two signs. There's

rest stop, right, 17 miles away. And then it said services. And I said, I saw the sign that said

services. Well, that's a preacher that stands on the side of the road. That implies gas station to

me. And then for some reason, there was nothing like on the phone, nothing in the app or the map.

But sure enough, there was the one gas station and it was one of the cheap, like whatever,

Flying J Lodz or whatever it is. And it worked out. The Mirage. Yeah, it worked out fine.

By the way, that gas station was packed. I bet. I bet. Yeah, but only one bathroom.

But I, you know, I'll go ahead. You finish your story and I'll tell you how much I saw.

We made it anyway. I thought it was a fantastic car. A lot of bang for the buck. Listen, there's

Toyota Camry. It's great. There's a few options. I think Hyundai has them. But I was impressed

overall with the Honda Civic Hybrid. And for my money, I think that's a great car to get.

I don't know what happened in that car, but all I heard in that story was bang for the buck

and seat mammaries. So I don't know what happened, but we'll just let that go. Holiday fun.

So I flew back to Nebraska to see family over the holidays and didn't get sick. Thank you.

Almost missed our plane. We flew through Salt Lake City. Our plane was late landing

and they totally jacked it all up. We landed in Salt Lake City late. Charlotte's already

stressing. We only had a 45 minute, you know, because I was mad we only had 45 minutes because

they got a great lounge there that you can go in and get a free dinner and drinks. And

they got this great American Express lounge and they have a Delta lounge there that's just

equally as nice. And I was like, we don't have time to use that. So we landed roughly, I believe

it was gate B22. And so we're in the B concourse 22 and the guy goes, okay, if everybody could wait

on the plane, we've got some people that are continuing on to Omaha and some to Montana that

need to make really close flights. Here's their gate announcements. And they, as we're getting our

bags and everything here, gate A4 for the continuation on to Omaha. And I'm like, ah,

different concourse. So I tell Charlotte, I go, I will run with your bag, you know, she's got a

roller bag. And I go, I'll run and, you know, because there was this other older couple and I

go, I'll tell them that we're on our way. We're coming and trying to get them to hold things for us.

And so I literally, I was just running and running and running and running. And then you get to the

where it goes under the, the, the runways and there's the moving, you know, sidewalks. I'm

running on the side, excuse me, excuse me, trying to make a flight going past people. And I, and I

run up a escalator, I get to the top and I see, okay, A concourse, gates one through 24. And I'm

like, Oh, thank God, I'm almost there. And I turn the corner. Guess what? Gate one is at the other end.

It's not one to 24 to one. I'm like, son of a bitch. So I go running. I get there. I'm literally,

I mean, I'm sweating my and, and I run up and I see on the thing Omaha and this lady standing there.

And I go, Hey, man, I, I just ran. There's, there's three other people coming for this flight.

It's just what flight he did. This goes on to something, something Idaho. And I said, Omaha,

Omaha, the flight that you right now. And she goes, Oh, no, they moved that. It's a B 24.

Right where you were like, wait a minute. I get now I go from being out of wind to like being

pissed. I go, I checked every sign as I was running. We made an announcement, sir, if you didn't hear

it. And I'm like, are you kidding me? So I start running back the other way. And I check the board.

I stop at the board just for a second, take a picture of it. And I'm running. I'm looking and

it still says gate A four. And I'm, I'm like, son of a bitch. So, so I'm running. Here come the people

on the moving walkway with my wife. And I go, and I go, we got to go back. And they're like,

what? I go, they screwed up. So long story short, I ran. Well, first of all, I got to the lower port

where you go on the moving walkways underneath the runway. And right as I come down the escalator,

there's one of those carts and the guy's standing there. I go, can I jump on your cart? And he's

like, yeah, sure. I throw my bag up, I sit down and the guy starts to go and I go,

can you go any faster? I'm trying to make a plane. He goes, sir, it's limited to three miles an hour.

And I go, stop, I can run faster on the, on the moving walkway because it's already going three

miles an hour. I go, I can walk, I can run twice that fast.

Bracket run 3.2 miles per hour.

And so, so anyways, I, I'm running and same thing. I come running up to the gate and there's a guy

standing there and only this guy was really nice. And he, I come, I'm running and I'm about 50 feet

away and he goes, Mr. Fanshawe? And I go, yes. And he goes, do you have anybody with you? I go,

there's three more coming, but they couldn't run. And he goes, that's all right, we're holding the

flight for you. The pilot's in the john right now. But we made it. Oh, that's good. Made it to Omaha

and got some steps in. I got some steps in. The guy at the gate when I got there, he said,

where'd you have to go to? I go, you ran all the way there and all the way back. I go, yeah. And

he goes, is that's a mile there and a mile back. And I said, you know, I made it. And he goes,

let me get you some bottles of water. He got us some bottles of water and we got to Omaha,

got there at midnight and it was 50 degrees. Nice. And the whole week it was sunny and 50.

And then on Saturday before we left, blanket of snow and cold and we left town.

But I did find out two things. We went to some bars like we always do. We always tell the wives

we're going to go Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. We actually, me and my brother-in-law,

we go to the bar. And we went to this really cool bar called the Green Onion. It was there when I

was in high school. I remember driving past it and we walked in. It is like stepping into 1970.

Bars are huge. Gas prices are high. It's terrible. It used to be the red onion, by the way.

But what is so cool about it is that, you know, I've been to some of those bars. I'm sure you

guys have too, where you walk in and it looks like it's from 1970. It's dingy. It's, this place

looked like it had just been, and I asked the bartender, it goes, it's been remodeled. She goes,

no, the guy who owned it till recently was, she sold it at 95. He was the original owner and he

just kept it in perfect shape. If something ripped, he had a guy come in and fix it. And it's really

cool. It is so mid-century modern. You walk in and all of the booths are kind of tuck and roll,

and all the chairs are tuck and roll, but the bar itself is octagon shaped. It's huge. It's in the

center and it is sunken, like a sunken living room. So when you walk in and you sit down your

eye level with the bartender, and what was amazing was we had four cocktails between us,

$12.95. I gave her a $20 tip and I said, Merry Christmas. And she looked at me and she goes,

where are you from? And I said, what? And she goes, well, I know you're not from here. And I go,

why do I look different? She goes, no, you tip different. We went to a couple other places.

It was just fun, but gas was $99 a gallon. Wow. Before we keep going, let me welcome

Fan Duel to the show. Brad's going to tell us a little bit about Fan Duel. I think you can go

online and bet on whether or not Brad's going to have a heart attack the next time he runs through

a airport. So why don't you? We'll do that right now. That's right. Thanks, Matt. Hey,

you know, of course, we're all California guys. So if I'm looking at the games for the weekend,

we're in the playoffs and I'm looking at the California teams, just like all of you are.

And Fan Duel, I looked at who they have for the favorites. It's looking pretty good for us.

LA Rams over the Carolina Panthers, they're a seven-point favorite. So the Rams are looking

good going into this. Now, are San Francisco 49ers versus the Philadelphia Eagles? Okay. Here, Fan

Duel has Philadelphia Eagles as a 4.5 favorite. And LA Chargers versus New England Patriots,

that's a big one. And the Chargers have a five-and-a-half point favorite over the New England

Patriots. So of course, we're rooting for all the California teams. Don't know what you're rooting

for, but you can find out at Fan Duel and that's where we check it out at. So hey, that's where we're

at. Hey, thanks to Fan Duel for being a new sponsor in 2026 for Shifton Stair. Hey, so yeah,

so you know, the holidays, that's what it's all about. Then we got back and

enjoyed some time around the house, got some stuff done, cleaned up all the decorations. Well,

I watched TV while my wife cleaned up. She did all the heavy lifting.

Where did all the dogs go while you were doing this?

We left them home with bigger litter boxes and a big, we just sliced open a big thing of food

and they were good, man. That's a sore subject, Matt. I didn't know that.

Three dogs putting them in care over the holidays. That's a quick way to spend a grand.

Yes, it is. And piss off the dogs. I love they like it. Some of them like it. I don't know,

it's all of them. I too hate it. You know, Murphy and April, they went to a place that we always

bored Murphy at and it was the first time for her. You know, it's a lady that takes care of dogs.

She's always taken care of them. She does a great job. She has a big yard. Murphy loves it.

And she said that they stuck together, they slept together, and they fought together.

And I said, what? And she goes, oh yeah, they got into a few little spats. And I said, really?

And then Buck, who's our great French cattle dog, we had no idea what to do with him. So we

found a place over in Santa Ana that it was more of a boarding facility, not somebody's house.

And they said he did great. And he seemed no worse for the wear. And, you know, it's just,

it's just, man, it's expensive to board dogs, you know, because you want to be safe and have all,

you know, have fun and not be traumatized when you come home. So, but yeah, I could have done

some things for that. Well, that's what happens when we have kids, right? Yeah, because we don't

board our dog. We didn't go anywhere or do anything. So we were home in the rain, just to get fat

in front of the TV with all the holiday food. Yeah, that's all right. You know, we didn't,

you know, our trip out there was more about taking the car. And, but we, you know, we,

you know, we grab the dogs, they're great. They just sleep, they just sleep. And then they get to

mom's house and they play with her dog. And her dog loves it because her dog is an only dog.

And she's like, friends, friends are here. Let's play. Let's play. Let's play. Let me show you

all my toys. No, don't touch them. Yeah. And then when I show up, you know, her dog's like, treat time

because I'm always giving them treats. But carrots, like I usually give them carrots. But yeah,

everybody had a good time. Then we came back and then it rained a little more.

Dog's like, Oh, it's the carrot guy. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I like carrots.

Now we went to see, to see my mom and dad and all my siblings were all in Hawaii. So

we didn't get to join in that. Saw that. Yeah. That was fun. It looked like fun. It looked like

a lot of fun. Yeah. Said it was really, it was really a celeb fest and he did all the parties

at the chef's place and they did the benefit and him and Adam Sandler had a little sing-along and

he said it was fun. It was a lot of fun, but he was sick. So other than being sick, it was a lot

of fun. But yeah, dad was sick for a long time. He's just now getting better almost a month later.

He said it, this one kicked his, kicked his ass. But yeah, no, we haven't been sick.

Thankfully Pesto's rocking at this house. You know, moved down to Sonoma. Oh, he likes it.

Just for the winner. He loves it. He, I'd say he's 100%. He's, he's cured. He's, he's doing his little,

his little, you know, jump, jumping around and twist in and, and races around the house, races

around the yard. And he seems his old self, which is great. So I think his injuries. Yeah. I think

don't say what, I'm not jinxing it. He's fine. He's fine. He's fine. And if not, I have a little

cart ready with two rear wheels. Not funny. Not funny. Okay. I built some Legos over New

Years and Lego cart. We'll see how long that lasts. Hey, something I forgot about my Omaha trip.

I went, I got invited to go over, there was a buddy of mine back there owned a machine shop.

Used to do all my machining work and on my cars. Then they did, they were kind of the hot.

There were two well-known shops in Omaha and, and they were one of them. And his dad did all kinds

of stuff for me growing up. And his dad was a big drag racer and had a lot of really cool cars.

His dad was getting on in years and had always wanted to restore his 55 Chevy drag car to make it

exactly like it was when he, when he raced and like ruled the strip with it. He never got around

to it like a lot of us. So a group of guys got together and they did it for him and debuted it

at the Omaha world of wheels last year for him. Nice. And really cool. I'll post a picture of

this car. So I hadn't got to see it and they invited me over to the guy who restored its place

to take a look at it. The car turned out great. It had a lot of the old style, you know, panel

painting and, you know, a lot of colors and, and it had a setback small block Chevy with fuel injection,

straight axle underneath it. It was, you know, just a really cool gasser type car. And what's so

cool about it is it was a real car that ran that way, not something that somebody just created.

But while I was there, I started looking around this guy's shop and I'm like, wow, man, you know,

you get a lot of really cool stuff. Well, you say that to a car guy and he wants to show you

everything, which I love. I love. He opened all the crates. So it's like, I'll be back later.

Yeah. He showed me, oh, Charlotte didn't even go. Her brother in law went with me. I mean,

she knows better, Matt. And so this is about 11 o'clock in the morning and he goes, let me

show you around. You want a beer first? So we got some tall boy Ham's beer and started walking around

and he had the coolest like 1965, you know, rollback flatbed. Excuse me, flatbed.

I don't even know like GMC truck, but it wasn't like a pickup truck. It's the next one up like

not a cab over has a front end, but it's that size of a cab. Kind of like a Kodiak kind of thing.

Like a Kodiak, but 65. But it was era two. It was an old one that he had dug up somewhere,

restored it, and he had all the paint restored from photos that he had gotten and everything. And

it was really cool. Then he had a 64 Chevelle that he had narrowed the rear end on. He had a really

nice 32 three window with a blown hemi in it that he was building all arrow. He was doing the

pipes by himself, everything really nice. A lot of stuff like that. A lot of motors,

a lot of parts, but then he goes, you know, I thought that was it because that was his big

shop because you want to see what I got in the house and I'm like, oh sure. And so we walk over

there and he opens the first garage door and he had this really cool 65 Nova that had a big block

Chevy in it, narrow rear end that again was 90% done, but it needed to be finished up and

sitting behind it was a tricked out, fully custom, custom paint, lots of chrome,

like a show bike, CBX 1000. Are you familiar with those? No. Aaron? Yeah, I think so.

They were legendary late 70s Honda made a V6. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. I just saw some.

Six cylinder motorcycle, man. Wow. And, and they were like, I remember on the streets,

you would see them and people be like, oh my God, he's got a CBX. Well, this one was totally

tricked out and I'm checking it out. And sitting next to that, he had a late model super bike.

I didn't even pay attention to Suzuki, something that was really nice and custom. Then he goes,

he goes, okay, there's more and he opens the next garage door and he had this really cool

56 Chevy that again, he had taken it from photos back in the day, black lacquer paint,

red tuck and roll interior that he said was the original interior for when they originally

customized it back in the early 60s. Wow. And really cool car sitting next to that,

he had a 446 pack road runner that he bought it this way. Somebody had taken a road runner,

put a real Superbird wing on it, but it wasn't a Superbird. It was just a road runner with a wing

and had this crazy custom paint job on it, all kinds of stuff. Then we go to the back.

Now, those CBX 1000s are worth, conservatively, they're $20,000, $25,000 bikes now.

If they're restored and real nice. I hadn't even seen one of these before. He had a motorcycle

rack. We have our car lifts. This was for motorcycles, but it was long and wide and

I counted like 12 of those CBXs sitting up on there all restored. Every color and every variation

they made and then sitting in front of the rack like another five that he was in the middle of

restoring. Wow, boy. You're really into those because I've been collecting them since I was a

kid. When I see one for sale, I pick it up and then we walked into his other garage on the other

end of the house and he had a truck that he parked in like 1988 and it was an early Ford F250

done old style because it was truly old style. Lifted with 44-inch monster motors on it and it

was black and had the original black head with a red interior, just a really, really cool grouping

of cars and stuff. I love that because what's so cool about that is we get to see a lot of car

collections, but this guy was hands-on. He did his own paint. He narrowed his own rear ends.

He does everything himself and I love seeing that kind of home fabrication.

That's a real passion collection. That's a real passion collection and very eclectic and

wow, that's cool. Someone had sent me a listing for a CVX a couple months ago. That's where it

came up and I wasn't familiar with them and I was like, oh, wow. Yeah, very cool, man.

You should send it to the other guy. Apparently, he gets them all.

I know we jotted down a few notes that we were going to go through today and I'm not sure we're

going to get to them. One of the things that I was just thinking about that I did during

the break as well, speaking of touring collections, Brad, I went to Bob and Ken Matranga's collection

and our friend, Chris Brown, Chris Brown is the front of it. He's a car designer.

I was heading down to Orange County and I was just, and we had set it up.

You were in my neck of the woods, huh? Yeah, and I was going down for a Bravago event and then

he's like, hey, next time you come down, he's like, just stop. I bumped into him again

at LA Auto Show because at LA Auto Show, they had some of their cars on display

in the room that used to be the Porsche room. Now they do like a bunch of random stuff.

They got invited to show some cars. So I was just hanging out there and then he's like,

you got to come by the collection. And I was like, okay, let's do it. And I said,

let's do it on a Friday. And so the Matranga's, it's a father and son. Their business is

concrete. They build concrete. Yeah, but what do they do? It's solid, but what do they do?

It's concrete parking garages. To give you an example, you go to Vegas, you stay at the Cosmo,

everything under the building, that's them. Brad, maybe you passed this, but the new,

I think it's at the Honda Center. Yeah, they're putting in that whole, they're making it like a

new, they call it the new downtown. Yeah. That new giant parking garage structure,

the old ground one that's multiple colors. They built that. They built the whole thing.

Right. That's a lot of concrete. That's a lot of concrete. So that's their business. So

they got this nice lounge area in the beginning. There's the kitchen and tables, meeting room.

And then you open the door and then there's this big, beautiful room with the car collection in it.

And the nicest concrete floors you will ever see in a car collection because it's owned by the guys

who own the concrete company and do this for a living. But a fantastic collection,

a mix of things that they built, things that they have purchased over the years. They had

several Boyd cars there. They had the Boydster 2, I think that's the Fender Roadster. Was it

the yellow or the red one? They got both. Oh, they got both. Okay. Then they have both. They have both.

They're into trucks. They have a bunch. They have a handful of trucks. The car that they did

that's very famous is called Brute Force. It's a blue 50. 55, isn't it? I think it's a 55.

Yeah, it's 55. Yeah. It won all the awards. It won the Bear Jackson Cup. It won, I think,

good guys. It's fantastic. Aaron, maybe you've seen it. I don't know if it was at

Bear Jackson. Maybe we walked. Oh, you know what? I think it was down in the Corral area.

It was the year that your dad played. Oh, right on. Okay. And he played in the Corral area

literally above the car. He was up on a riser in the rodeo area and the car collection was

below it. And it was down there, I think, the year one. I think that was. Wow. So he walked me

through the collection. I got some video of it. I got to put it together. So I'm going to post a

YouTube video of it. So when you guys are listening to this, keep an eye on the Car Cast YouTube

channel or my social media and I'll put it up there. But Chris, I've known for a long time.

He's helped me out on some projects like on my 95 Ford Lightning. He's the guy that came over.

Designed like the mirrors and the door handles and we 3D printed them. And then he, you know,

we had Evod make them out of, you know, billet. And so he did all that stuff for me.

And yes, so the back room is where the guys are working on the cars. They have this great car

collection. You walk through the entrance. You have this great car collection, some stacked,

some kind of all over. They all run. Everything works great. And then you go to the back room

and they're working on cars and, you know, they've got a paint booth in there. They've got a full

body shop in there. They've got fabrication stuff. They've got a clean room for whatever, engine

building. And Chris is, he really is sort of, and we've seen this at SEMA. It's like pushing the

limits of just modern technology on developing cars, CAD design, 3D printing, 3D printing stuff

and house. He's making, like if he's designing a wheel, he will 3D print like a two inch round

version of it to see it, right? And before we make a big one, and we go, yeah, just to kind of look

at the car. Well, you know what he does is, is he'll, he'll do like, you know, like a, I want to

say 11 by 17, but maybe it's like a little bit bigger, like rendering of the car and hanging

on the wall. And then he'll 3D print little wheels and paint them or whatever and go,

it's just going to look right on the, you know, like the incredible stuff that they're doing

there in the world of like CAD design and 3D printing, just all the little things that as a

builder you would struggle with. And Brad, you relate to this, but you know, you're doing something

like you've got the dash of some 50 or 60s car, even modern, you know, car. And then you're putting

in, you know, a vintage air AC unit, but you've got the universal unit and whatever. And then it

comes down to it's like the air vents are here, the AC is here. And then he's just like, what we

need to do is 3D print like a plastic coupling. That's a weird shape. And it's the, you know,

the vent for the window. And because you can't get it with a universal kit and, you know, how do

you adapt it to the, you know, if you've adapted to the original piece, it doesn't fit right. And

you're just kind of, I don't know, taping stuff together, gluing stuff together. In this world

of 3D printing and stuff now, it's like, you can get exactly what you need, precise things,

little switches, little attachment pieces. Really cool. It's really, really cool. Where it's just

like the guys working in the shops, the builders, the body shop guys, they can, they could sit there

and go, I'm working on this. And then I've run into this issue. And then they can look at and go,

let me see if I can design something. We'll print a sample, see if we like it, if we like it, you

know, we can keep it plastic, we can make it out of metal, you can use it as a template, like

and so cool. It's so much problem solving. What do you think? It really is. Before we go any

farther, let's take a second to hear from our sponsors. Okay. Dear Unstoppable, the Toyota Tacoma

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Okay, we're back. Hey, thanks sponsors. We appreciate you. No, it's funny you would say that

because one of the things that I was going to bring up today and it wasn't even in my show notes

was I was going to tell people, you know, in 2026, because I've heard so much AI bashing lately,

from everybody on social media, you know, there's a lot of bashing, but you know what? I think what

a lot of that is because there's so much crap online right now of like, you look at it and you go,

well, oh, that's not even real, you know, everything from car accidents to people doing

stuff and it's people are getting sick of it, you know, but what you just talked about, I've

talked to a couple people that say, yeah, that's great and all, but I don't even know anything

about CAD. I don't know anything. This is where if you learn about AI, it can help you because

I have a friend that over the holidays I visited with and he showed me some really cool parts that

he made that he goes, I don't know anything about this, but AI helped me create the 3D pattern. Oh,

my gosh. And he did a drawing, put it in and he told it in its prompt, this is going to be a pattern

for an aluminum mold and blah, blah, blah, blah, and it needs to be a, you know, a top and a bottom.

It did everything. He 3D printed it. He made an adjustment. He had a mold to make some little

aluminum parts, you know. It's writing code now and everything. I gotta say, I downloaded chat

GPT during the holidays and I've been fiddling with it a little bit. It's pretty amazing. I put

my art into it and didn't say it was me and just asked for, you know, just a summary of the art and

then I added more art. Take a look at the artist profile and I gotta say, I know it can lie and

I caught it lying on something else, but I was really impressed and I gotta say it really helped me

kind of push and focus what I want to do this year as an artist and kind of evolve to the next

level of being an artist and it was very accurate in what I was already thinking, but hadn't really

solidified moving forward with it and it really nailed it for me and I went, well, it told me

exactly what I'm thinking. So I think that's the direction I need to go. It's a little creepy,

but yeah. It does learn. The more you do, it learns about you and it'll even make suggestions,

but you can use it to waste a bunch of time and do shit or you can use it to really help you

anywhere in your business. You just gotta learn where that is and you just have to be smart enough

to know how it can help you. And like you were saying, Aaron, even an artist that is true to

is, man, I'm only going to do everything. But there are times when you want to knock out a

background or do something like that and it's just so time consuming. You can just upload

something and go take my piece of art, knock out this background and boom, you got it done and

now you can move on to the next. Yeah. I've used AI like that. In some of my commission work, I get

a collaboration of people wanting like a cover for a rally book, a good example. So there's three

participants. They all have their cars. I got to fit them all in there or they give me a bunch

of random references and I got a freehand design this and make it a nice composition and try to

make it work. And I have used AI in a different capacity and it wasn't as successful as I wanted

because it just wasn't the right tool. I got to say with chat GBT, like you're saying, you can input

all your content and say, hey, I need a nice composition as a reference to do a painting.

Here's the criteria. You have to give it the right amount of information and you have to

ask the right questions. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's a really good rule of thumb. I'm going to

print that, put it on the wall. Chat GBT can do it for you. Yeah, and I'll have a French bulldog

as that. But yeah, it's a useful tool. Misha, I came home after a long day and Misha said,

well, she was kind of depressing. Oh, what's wrong? She goes, well, I did it. I said, oh,

great. What did you do? She goes, I downloaded chat GBT and I'm like, oh, really? So she used it for

workouts and to come up with a health plan for her. And she's like, I got to say it's pretty

amazing. I said, right? So thank you, Kevin Davis for pushing me.

Now, it's like I said, you can use it for great and you can use it for bad.

But if you use it right, I think where I look at it is that using it in a positive way,

it's going to help your project in 2026 if you're a car guy and you want to do,

you know, because that guy who always said, yeah, I'm analog, I'm not, but it can help you with that.

I mean, you can do things that you would never imagine. Just test it, try it.

Yeah. Okay. So here's where it kind of lies. So I'm in Misha's little defender,

which we finally got registered, finally got it titled.

It said it doesn't, that defenders don't leak and you went out there.

Yeah, it said defenders don't leak. No, so there's a little switch on the lower left and

it's really hard to push and I pushed it hard and the window broke out. I had to fix it.

So I'm like, I want to see what this stupid thing does. It looks like, it looks like kind of like

a gauge, right? And I'm like, well, it doesn't do anything to the dash though. It's like,

it doesn't turn on anything. I couldn't figure it out and I couldn't find anything online.

So I threw it into chat GPT and took a picture while I was driving and said, hey, what is this?

And it said, it's the rear, it's the differential lock button, you know, found in a 97 Defender 90.

And I'm like, and it said the light will come on. I'm like that. And it says it looks like a,

like a gauge and described it, you know, and I'm like, okay, and I pushed it and the light didn't

come on. And I'm like, I don't think so. And, and so I checked it again. I don't think so.

And then I was driving home on the way back at night and I pushed it again.

And the whole dash dimmed. And I'm like, it's the dash dimmer. Oh my God, it's either high or low.

And so I input it, it's the dash dimmer, you dummy. And it said, you know, you're correct.

I stand corrected. I made an error. It's a dash dimmer when you lock up the differential.

Yeah, right. But it was, it corrected itself. And it said, I'll make a note that this could,

this could be an option for this year of defense. Are you back pedaling? You're back pedaling.

Totally. It's already learned how to do that. Cover its ass. And then, and then we're inputting

something about Pesto. And at the very end of it, it said, you know, you guys, because he smelled

like, like ammonia. And I'm like, he smells like ammonia. That can't be right. And it turned out

that we hadn't been bathing enough because of his neck injury. We weren't bathing him a lot.

Because, you know, he twists and shakes it like dogs do when they get wet. And we didn't want to

aggravate it. So we weren't bathing. We're just wiping them. And so he developed a little bit

of a yeast thing in his skin. And that's what it was. So we figured that out. Thank you chat,

GPT. And then at the end of it, it says pet Pesto for me. It means I both looked at each other

and were like, okay, you went too far out. That's like, wait a minute. With your big robotic hand,

you're going to crush our dog. We've seen the footage. Yeah. I, you know, I can imagine what's

happening. Like I'm just starting to trickle in some of the news because as we're recording this,

CES is going on in Vegas. So much in the world of like robotics and humanoid and AI and all kinds

of crazy stuff. But, you know, in the car world, though, I mean, I'm still an audio file and I'm

on a bunch of the Facebook groups for that. It just seems like these days, if you're a custom

audio fabricator and you don't have a 3D printer, I don't, I'm not sure what you're doing. Yeah.

I mean, I know there's a lot of great fabricators, but there's guys are, you know,

sure, you can get some wood and get the router out, but even just like speaker adapters, just

plates and stuff. It's just like, you face plates, switch mouse. And you're right, Brad. And, you

know, like, take a picture of the existing thing, modify it, even have like AI help you

if you want, make the modifications, you know, 3D print a cheap prototype. And then if it fits,

then, you know, 3D print out of whatever, the more expensive material, the right proper material.

I've been wanting to get into 3D printing and I'm really intimidated because I figured the

learning curve, I'm just so far behind it. But this, this is something that it's like, well,

now you don't have much of a learning curve. You can leap forward. Yeah, you can leap forward.

So if, if chat GPT can, can take an image and make a file or help me make a file of something,

I'm in, I'll buy a 3D printer. I just want to have real things to print. I don't want to be like,

you know, I want to do something. Oh, look at this cool cup I printed. Yeah, I want to have real

things. I could put my thumb here now. Yeah. But you know, Brad, you can, I mean, you can,

even just in your business, just go like, Oh, you know what? I, I, I want to do a custom, you know,

wheel center cap or give it, you know, our steering wheel, you know, you know, horn button

replacements for the steering wheels you guys make and, you know, give it different dimension,

do stuff that you, you know, or even just 3D print, you know, inexpensive versions before

going to bill it if you want to bill it. Right. You know, it's just like, but none of all have to

be bill it. Like if it matches, right, you can do plastic center caps or something, you know,

or different types of materials and composites and things, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Some, there's

definitely some interesting stuff. I'm watching a guy in Australia build a GT3RS from a boxer,

from a boxer. He's taken a boxer and building a GT3RS and he's 3D printing the whole thing.

I mean, he's like, I'm at 25,000 hours now. And, you know, I've spent $44,000. No,

but it's very interesting. I mean, anything is possible. It's, it's, it's so cool. I love the

tech. I love the idea and the, you know, I love little models and little creatures and little

things. I mean, I have them all around me and I would love to, you know, I'm a sculptor. I can,

I can sculpt it, but I would love to illustrate it, design it and find a way to render that and,

and make it a 3D print. I love what's coming out of, out of the hobby scene and McKettes and the

film industry with a lot of my friends are still there and 3D rendering and then printing it,

you know, with a 3D printer. It's just, it's fantastic. But yeah, the TV and movie industry,

oh man, so much. It's, it's made so many things. Yeah. It just, there used to be people

that just had to buy something. We need one of these from the 80s or from the 70s. They

go, well, let's print it now and it'll just, in the background or whatever. Look what Zinger's doing

with their cars. Oh yeah. Right. Like, and when you, I mean, entire, you know, structures and,

and, you know, basically chassis, you know, and what a cool thing using the, excuse me,

using their software to determine, you know, where it needs to be strengthened, where the weak

points are. So now it's beyond just designing it for design. It's organic looking. It looks organic.

It's really trippy. Yeah. It's, it's, it's needs a Brian Fuller built a motorcycle and used that

same tech or similar tech. And it was just, it looks like the, it looks like the carcass

of, of a Joshua tree or something. It's a, or a Guaro cactus. It's really, really cool.

Years ago when Brembo came out with that really funky looking caliper, which they have now,

it's part of their lineup, but it's like this very weird looking kind of break caliper and it's

kind of, it's kind of organic looking, has weird holes in it. Yeah. And I spoke to them about it

and they said, yeah, we're just working in our software, like our CAD software, and it's telling

us the optimal shape for a break caliper going, this is where it needs to be strong. This is

where it doesn't need to be, you know, you can reduce materials, put a hole in it to reduce weight,

you know, so like, and it ended up being this sort of asymmetrical sort of organic looking

thing. And it was like, that's a crazy design. He's like, that's basically AI designing a caliper.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. Hey, a couple things I want to make sure that we get into the

show. Guaro cactus. Sorry. What one of them was, have you guys been in an airport lately and seen

kids riding their luggage? Yeah, their luggage. Yeah. Mike Anthony and I had a, had a, had a whole

conversation about that on the airplane one day. And so I sent them some leaks on Amazon that

motorized suitcases. Well, now they have them. Matt was mentioning at CES this week,

they announced a whole line of rideable luggage for adults. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like,

so, so the handle you would normally pull pulls up and that's like a, like a sissy bar you sit

against. Yeah. Yeah. And then a handle pulls out with a throttle and they're small enough that they

go in overhead luggage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now we're going to have traffic jams at the airport.

So you know, those things aren't, aren't that light though. So if, if there's a weight limit,

you're already three quarters away there with your motor and battery. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Very cool. They have some alternatives that too. They have a tray that you can put your luggage on

and it's motorized like a little scooter. Yeah. They have all kinds of them. They're,

they're, they're pretty cool. I want to get one in hot rod. You know, bigger motor. Do you not

remember saying there was two of them at SEMA? I thought we, I thought we talked about it. We

saw, because, because I was struggling a little bit with, with my knees and, and, and, and I saw,

you said I can run one of those around. We saw a couple of suitcases. Yeah.

Very business oriented. The other item that I wanted to make sure we got into this show was,

there was an item from Car Design News that legendary car designer Dave Merrick retired on

the 1st of January. Oh yeah, buddy. Who? Our pal Dave. You know, grew from Despicable Me.

He, he retired on the 1st of January. He's been planning this for, you know, a while and

I've known about it for a year and you know, it was all kind of like, don't let anybody know. And

yeah, but they, they did a very complimentary article about how Dave, a legendary car designer

and that he's a unicorn in that he, he was one of the very few car designers in today's world

that has been with the same manufacturer throughout his entire career. Yeah. You know, with Honda and

and I talked to him on Monday of this week, which was his first full day as a retired person. And

I said, I said, Dave, what was it like? What's happening? And he goes, and he goes, it's a

little weird. I woke up this morning. The first thing I thought was what projects do I have to

get done this week? And, and then he goes, I realized I don't have to. So I went and had breakfast

this morning at a restaurant. So he's coming by my place on Thursday to whiteboard out what he's

going to do next. So yeah, I mean, right out of school basically, he was working with Honda out

of Art Center. So he must have been 40 years at Honda. Yeah. Yeah. And prior to the pandemic,

as you guys know, Dave had an office in Tokyo and an office here. And every other week he was in

Tokyo, he literally had the same seat, the same airlines. It was the same flight. And it was

every other week that seat was saved for him. And he would take the same flight over every week.

And they knew him. And it was just, that was his deal. That was his commute. Yeah. He used to

get off the plane on either side, you know, usually here and, and, and get on a phone call and go,

okay. And he'd walk back to the ticket counter and get a flight back. Yeah. It's just like, man,

that is brutal. He told me a lot of times he goes, I didn't know what day it was. Yeah,

but you know what, I got to say, he's been such a good friend to us. He always gets right back

to us. You know, if you guys message him, if I message him, he always responds almost right away.

It's, it's, it's really, he's, he's been a good friend all these years. What, what a guy. He, you

know, other than chat GPT, he's been a big influence on my art too. He's really given me some great,

great input. On those, on those flights back and forth, they're so long and he would do other

projects, right? So he would, he'd take a flight, it'd be, you know, 13 hours long. And then when

he would land, you'd have Ron Cap's latest Napa, an HRA track racing car. Which I hope to see him

doing more of. Yeah. Yeah. Or, or whatever. Like, you know, I know he had, Honda Racing did something

they're like, oh, this year we're going to have some young designers or whatever design the rig,

you know, the, the, the transporter and all that stuff. And then everyone was like,

eh, eh, not sure, not sure. And then you know, next thing you know, it's back to Dave anyway.

And, and you know, he did it, you know, and it's one of those projects he probably still did like

on a plane while he's always on a plane or in an airport or doing something. Yeah, definitely.

It's like a, I keep a step, a stack of napkins in my pocket. Well, he's not going to stay idle.

He's still got plenty of plans and he does a lot of cool stuff, but good for him. The industries

showing him some great props as he retired. Yeah. Yeah. But you gotta help Rod. He needs,

he needs a manager. He needs a handler. Yeah. You know, definitely. Because he's such the artist.

You know, he doesn't, he's not, he's not the negotiator. Yeah. Yeah. We all need those.

That's the nice guy. Yeah, I can do that for you. No problem. We all need those that don't take 60%

Yeah. So we got a bunch more stuff to talk about, but we're going to have to move it into the next

show. Like my rant about how China has figured out they can take over the automotive aftermarket.

And I'm not being funny here. Next episode, tune in because I'm going to tell you what I've figured

out and it's really serious. I mean, they are, they have figured out a way to take over the

aftermarket and it's going to put companies out of business. So tune in next week, everybody.

And don't forget, the holidays might be over, but your thirst isn't. So go buy some bravago.

You can get it online at Drink Bravago. You can get it in Total Wine in Southern California.

There you go. And if you want to look good in 2026, Bond Speed Streetwear,

go there. Check out our website. We've got apparel, hats, sweatshirts, stickers, all kinds of cool

stuff for all kinds of cars and trucks and motoring enthusiasts. So go check it out. It's for builders,

doers, and makers. We like to say that it was developed in a garage, but it's worn on the street,

BondSpeedStreetWare.com. So everybody, hey, thanks for listening. Aaron, did you have anything you

want to pump up? Yeah, I just wanted to give a little shout out to our friends at our price. If

you remember Sarah, she's, uh, she's racing the Dakar right now as we speak in a defender,

in a defender. Nice. He's kicking ass. So go, go, go girl and win that race.

Okay. That's awesome. Welcome to 2026, everybody. We'll be back next week and that's a promise,

not a threat. Dear winter, Toyota can't get enough of you because Toyota's got 25 vehicles with

available all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, and that's more than any other auto brand. From

the versatile RAV4 to the Svelte Crown, the sleek Camry all-wheel drive, the Corolla Hybrid all-wheel

drive, the Rugged Tacoma, the Tenacious Tundra, and the spacious Grand Highlander with all-wheel

drive to keep you and your safe. Hey, you bring the action, we'll bring the traction. Toyota,

let's go places. Based on manufacturer's websites as of 10 2025.

Dear winter, Toyota can't get enough of you because Toyota's got 25 vehicles with available

all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, and that's more than any other auto brand. From the versatile

RAV4 to the Svelte Crown, the sleek Camry all-wheel drive, the Corolla Hybrid all-wheel drive,

the Rugged Tacoma, the Tenacious Tundra, and the spacious Grand Highlander with all-wheel drive

to keep you and your safe. Hey, you bring the action, we'll bring the traction. Toyota,

let's go places. Based on manufacturer's websites as of 10 2025.

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