Car Trends We Expect to See (+ HUGE Announcement!)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Martiniworks podcast.

I am back.

I'm so excited to be here.

Special guest, Alex.

Yep.

With the Kota and Gels.

I'm over here.

Yeah, we're really excited because by the time

this video comes out, it will be Friday.

It will be the Gatlinberg weekend.

We're down there.

It's Gat Friday, baby.

Yeah, it's Gat Friday, which is very, very exciting.

I liked one post on TikTok, and now my entire feed

is just Gatlinberg content.

It's happening.

It happened a lot last year leading up to it.

And I feel like this year it's going crazy.

Everyone's got something to say about Gat.

Yeah, everybody's got an opinion.

Including us.

Yeah, which we're going to spend probably most of the time on.

But before we do that, ladies and gentlemen,

we get to officially share that it is, I think, almost nearly live.

We have it on the table in front of us.

And if you're listening in, you don't know what we're talking about.

But in front of me is our limited roast batch, Martiniworks,

Caramel House Blend Coffee that we're dropping at Gatlinberg 2025.

So we worked with some local roasters here right in Appleton, Wisconsin.

And we've probably spent the last, gosh, like six months working on this.

We have two different flavors, Caramel House Blend and then an Espresso Carbon Blend.

So the Caramel House Blend is more of like a smooth,

I would call it like medium light roast.

And then the Espresso Carbon Blend is obviously more of like a medium dark roast.

So we actually have a bunch of content that'll be coming out on it here in the next,

well, probably already did, or is going to come out in the next couple of days.

You've probably seen some stuff of it, but man, you haven't smelled it yet.

Oh my God, it smells so good.

We have like 800 boxes of this sitting in the shop, and that's all I can smell.

Yeah, it's not a bad thing.

It's awesome.

We were really excited for this.

We worked with a company called Motovator, who's a local company as well.

We just had them on the podcast.

Yes, yes.

You guys know them.

We spent a good amount of time trying to make sure that we did this stuff right.

I think we went through like six or seven different versions of the coffee that we did.

It's all ethically sourced stuff.

We actually got to tour the entire facility.

We walked through the entire process.

I think I actually packaged almost half of the Carmel House blends.

Damn.

Put you to work.

With Maria, who was helping on the line.

So it was actually super, super fun.

I've always wanted to do something on the coffee side of things, mostly just because

we talk so much about car parts, and cars, and cars, and cars, and cars, and cars.

But I wanted to do something that was kind of like adjacent to everybody that does

enjoy cars.

And I would say a good amount of folks are coffee drinkers.

I was going to go into tequila business, but that's expensive.

Dwayne The Rock Johnson's already got such a strength.

Yeah, he's got a big strength hold on that.

So does anybody that's got to touch a gray in their hair.

Yeah.

George Clooney, tequila brand.

Rock has no hair.

So rocks don't have hair, Charles.

Exactly.

Anyway, good tequila.

I like it.

But if you don't want tequila and you want coffee, we have it.

And it's really sick.

And I'd really love for you to give it a shot.

I think I broke them for a second.

I needed a couple seconds to reload.

I was stuck on the pause screen.

I heard the dial up tone.

Yeah.

Coffee's really good, though.

It turned out amazing.

There's a lot of work that went into it.

It's such a weird thing, because I feel like so many people have done coffee.

And it's always like, oh, well, they just rebranded this.

And it's like, no, it was a lot more than that.

It was a crazy amount of work to go through.

It was so cool we were able to have it made in Appleton.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that was a big thing for us, is we wanted to do it local.

Then we wanted to make sure that the beans that we sourced it from were local.

So we went with there were three different types of blends you can go with.

You can kind of go with a commercial grade.

You can go with a premium grade.

And then you can go with a plus premium grade.

And we went with a plus premium grade, which means coffee shop grade.

We go through a different group of farms and growers in Central America

mostly, because a lot of beans require high elevation and very particular

weather to grow.

But we got to hold these beans with our very own two hands.

And then we got to watch them get thrown into a machine.

There's a lot of machinery.

And we got to see them get toasted up to 910 degrees Fahrenheit.

It was all a very quick process.

It was really neat.

Then we got to play around with how much water was getting added to this one

versus this one, because actually when you go and you roast something

and you go to add in water after the roast, it absorbs.

And depending on how much water you put into it afterwards can actually

decide on how strong, how concentrated, and how

balanced the flavor of the bean actually comes out.

So it was really, really fun.

It was actually a whole process.

I'm just rambling about coffee now.

But I'm really, really excited for this.

It's a cool, cool product.

It's super cool.

We've never done anything like this before.

And I think bringing something like this to Slanden

of Sevierville, Gatlinburg is really special.

And I really love that we've really introduced the Wisconsin

aspect in a lot of this stuff.

Even just looking on the side here,

roasted with passion and pride right here in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Some of the merch that we're going to have has

Appleton, Wisconsin on it.

And I really like that, because a lot of people

think we're from California.

Dude, every time.

We're not.

Every time.

Every time we travel.

They're like, oh, so you didn't.

Must be a long trip from Cali.

Yeah, you guys are in Cali, right?

It's like, no, no.

And they're like, oh, Florida.

We see a lot of people move down there now.

They're like, no, like Texas?

No, Wisconsin.

Yeah, we have a lot of, I mean, by the time

you guys are watching this, I mean, hopefully,

if you're not going to go, some of the apparel

will be already on the website, if you'd like to snag some.

Because it's absolutely banging.

We spent a lot of time on this, too.

But we have Slam, Sevierville, Eventes.

And then we have two different exclusive designs

that we're kind of just dubbing the Senatee

and the Datsun tea.

And you can take a look at them.

They'll be on the website.

They look absolutely killer.

Both of them are in retrospect to two vehicles

that we're bringing to Slam and us, Sevierville.

One of which you guys may have heard of,

which is that Datsun 240Z, that series one

that we're bringing back to life for Chad and his family

that they own for 50 years.

And then the second one is our very own.

We can finally talk about it now.

Hiding in the back there is a pro-formula

open-wheel race car called a PFM.

It's crazy.

Yeah, I bet none of y'all guessed that.

We saw all the comments.

Some people were guessing crazy stuff.

Nothing.

They were all wrong.

I don't think anybody could get that one right.

We have...

Chad, tell me about this frickin' thing

because we've had this for a while.

Surprise!

We've had this for a while and it's fucking crazy.

Yeah, we drove it last week, it was sick.

So yeah, so we are now the proud owners

of a, right around 2015, pro-formula Mazda,

which is an open-wheel race car

that now would technically race

in the Formula Atlantic series of the SCCA.

And it's not powered by some sort of four-cylinder

or straight six.

It is powered by a Renesys 13B.

Rotary!

Hell yeah, baby.

Straight up, you guys wanna know?

Hell yeah.

You wanna know the first thing we did with it

when we bought it?

Fucking flooded it.

I had no part of that.

Immediately.

I warned and I asked and I warned again

and we still flooded it.

Yeah, so it's really cool.

It's 1,200 pounds.

It's got a Hewland six-speed sequential gearbox in it.

It's got a MoTeC ECU, paddle shifters.

It's a carbon fiber monocoque chassis.

It's got BBS center lock wheels.

It's got some Hoosiers on it right now.

It's a fucking race car.

Olin suspension.

Yeah, Olin suspension.

It's a full fucking race car.

Oh yeah.

That's crazy.

Oh yeah, she slaps.

She's fun.

We were like moving stuff around in the shop

and anyone that would come into any of the other businesses

around here, we'd have to roll it outside or something.

People are just like, what the fuck?

Yeah.

I can't formula one car sitting there.

It is very much a looker of a car

because it is so just polarizing to see in person.

And guess what?

You can see it in person if you're gonna be at the show

because it's coming to the show.

Gonna be in the booth?

Yeah, it's gonna be debuting at the booth.

So you'll have to check it out.

We're putting some stickers on it

and we got a whole new thing

that we're pretty much announcing.

Kind of adjacent to Martini Works

which is just called Martini Works Racing

which you'll start to hear a little bit about

as we go into the winter months.

But essentially a group of the guys here at the shop

are super dedicated to sim racing, IRL racing,

drifting, even like the truck side of things

and the dirt side of things.

And we wanted a place where we felt like the team

could kind of share that passion

in a place that Martini Works could then support it.

And so we're really trying to create a space

where we can almost put all this stuff

under this makeshift racing team

which is because we know we're gonna lose money.

But then you'll see content over there

that's more about like sim races

and drifting and motor sports

and the PFM and stuff like that.

So if that's of any interest to you

and you wanna see more,

I would almost call it like technical in depth stuff,

maybe not quite as much of like the aftermarket

more than it is motor sports,

that'll be over at Martini Works Racing.

So it's kind of a cool thing.

If you wanna foot race me, you can.

Yeah, yep, open the foot race.

I don't wanna foot race.

I jumped off the PFM for a photo

and my knees hurt for a day.

Yeah, they keep asking me if I wanna get in it.

I don't wanna go.

It's not a big deal.

I think getting in it might be a big deal.

I don't wanna go through that trauma.

We went through, I mean, it's pretty crazy.

I mean, Gatlinburg is a big step for us.

We've gone for a long time.

We've supported it for a long time.

We support the car culture.

We have always supported the car culture a ton.

And so we're really happy to be there.

And we do treat Gatlinburg kind of like

the car show version of SEMA.

And then we treat SEMA like SEMA.

And then we treat PRI like the fun SEMA.

That's kind of how I go about it.

Ever been to PRI?

PRI is awesome.

Performance racing industries.

Where is it?

It's in Indianapolis, the home of Speed.

Nice.

But that's a great-

My show Speed lives in Indianapolis.

Yep.

No.

Oh, no.

No, no, no.

But anyway, yeah, that's what we got going on.

That was a lot of information.

What questions do you have?

Hit me.

The car weighs 1,200 pounds.

So we're bringing a race car to a stance show.

I think that's going to go over.

It's going to be sick.

Like they say, not all show cars can be race cars,

but all race cars can be show cars.

But not all race cars can.

Some are clapped.

I've seen a little bit of, like you said,

everybody's got an opinion with Gatlinburg.

And I think everybody's taking it into their own hands

and deciding what should or should not go.

I want to be really honest with you guys,

just go and fucking hang out and vibe and enjoy it.

There's not like a stipulation.

You don't need to gatekeep the car show.

It's a fantastic weekend.

Be safe.

Don't be dumb.

Drive safe.

Be safe.

Have fun.

There needs to be no other rules besides that.

People are like, well, if you don't have a modified car,

but listen, some people do and some people don't.

That doesn't mean that they can't go and enjoy the show.

Go with your friends.

If you guys got a town and country that's brand new,

$10 says you're going to be way more comfortable

than the guy driving the LS 400 just bagged on the ground.

I don't know if you've ever seen the entryways to some

of the cabins and places down there.

It sucks.

Everything's on a hill, mountain.

Yeah, we have to take off the front clip

to get that car anywhere.

Yeah, I bet.

Yeah, that's going to be really fun.

But yeah, if you've never traveled for a show,

I think this one's definitely one worth.

Yeah, 100%.

That and Riverside, which are both in Tennessee,

Gatlinburg or Severeville, just phenomenal who

shows up there.

I get the angle that people are coming at.

It's like, oh, you get all these people,

they're ship boxes and they're just

taking over the strip at night and something

that causes an issue.

It's like, yeah, obviously, just don't be dumb.

Yeah, I mean.

Drive what you drive.

That's fine.

Come enjoy the show if you want.

Don't feel bad for being there if you don't have a crazy

car, but just don't be an idiot.

The problem with that assumption

of saying, don't bring your daily driver.

And then the person that's saying this

is driving WRX on coilovers.

And it's like, at Gatlinburg, there's

going to be 2,000 of those cars.

So it's like, kind of sort of, I hear what you're saying,

but don't make it more difficult than it is.

I think being safe and being respectful

is way more important than anything else,

no matter if you're bringing one car or 10 cars.

We just loaded up two semis worth of cars

that are heading down there right now.

It's pretty cool.

Well, the R34, the F430, the Ferrari, the M4,

the Datsun, yeah, and then the PFM.

It's a good lineup.

That is a crazy.

I feel like it's a pretty decent lineup this year.

The Datsun, how's that been going?

My God.

Is that a good my God or bad my God?

It's just a my God.

My Jesus.

The car is fucking crazy.

Yeah, so the good, it runs.

Let's go.

It drives better than the S2K right now.

It survived the dyno, unlike the S2000.

Same dyno, right?

Yeah.

Oh, that's scary.

And on pump, on pump it made just a touch under 500 horse power.

Geez, God damn.

The thing is a screamer.

It is wicked fast.

So much for that car.

And prior to an alignment, it was scary.

Yeah.

We drove a tune from the alignment

and I'd like tap the gas and the whole car like crab

walked and I'm like, OK, no, no, no, we're just,

we're just going to get the alignment shot.

We're not going to mess with anything.

But it's been so cool.

I mean, we just finished it up.

I mean, really, we were putting the buttons on it on Sunday

night, just last weekend.

And that was last night, by the way.

I know.

I'm trying to frame it for them, not us.

We put the fender mirrors on.

We realign the hood.

We put the bumper on.

We put a new tensioner on.

It still squeaks like a baby.

Yeah, what's going on with it?

I don't know.

It doesn't really squeal.

I'd have to fix it.

Belt sizing is such a bitch

with different engine setups like that.

It's such a.

It's like, I don't even know if I need to go down in size.

I don't think I need to go down in size.

I think like the whole thing is just not tight enough.

I think I need to like move.

I feel like it might be too tight.

You think so?

Yeah.

So sometimes it could be like too tight

and then it's like it's binding up almost.

Maybe it could be doing that

because I did tighten the fuck out of it.

Yeah, you started it up and I was like, yeah.

Yeah, so that's not good.

That's what's not going well.

And then the front lights, the front fog lights,

the bumper is in a good spot.

But because everything on this car is old

and nobody makes anything anymore,

getting our fog lights to work and fit properly

means one of the bolts can't be used,

which means it kind of doesn't have the greatest placement.

But besides that, it's running, it's driving.

Sounds fucking insane.

The little cam in there is absolutely incredible.

It's such a cool car because it's like

in the state right now, obviously,

it's like a little beat up.

It's patented.

Yeah.

It's like, oh, it's old dots.

And that's some nice wheels though.

Sits nice.

And it's like you walk up to it and you see a full cage

and fuel cell in the back.

And then you're like, oh.

And then you kind of peek around the back

and the entire underside is brand new

with like complete custom suspension.

And you're like, wait a minute.

And then you pop the hood and it's just a fully built

fucking RB26 with a huge ass turbo.

That thing's sick.

It was really fun.

I told you, we took it over to our alignment shop

over here.

And you had the bumper off of it yet

and the hood was off of it yet.

And you were behind me when we were rolling down the road.

Like, dude, this reminds me of like,

it looked so much like the scene from Tokyo Drift

when they were like shaking down the RB Mustang.

And they had the hood off.

And it looked so, I'm like, dude, that literally

looks like that fucking car.

Like that's crazy.

It was so cool because we finally got to put on the trailer.

And I was so happy to see it on the trailer

because it's been a lot of work.

And a massive shout out to the people

that have helped Carl from Lindgren Supercars.

He had three people on that car for nine days straight

to sort out the dyno issues that we were having with that car.

I mean, we had so many issues with that car.

And they just did not give up.

And then Jackson as well.

Jackson, Hazen, he's over here in Appleton.

He's kind of like, I always call him like our resident

S chassis mechanic.

But he is just like, he's a jack of all trades.

And he helped me out a ton with getting

some of the stuff sorted.

He's very creative in terms of making things work and fit.

And that bumper would not look as good as it does

if it wasn't for Jackson.

Yeah, he put work in on that bumper making her.

Yeah, he worked like a full day and then would just come in here

and work another full day.

And then go home and work another full day.

So shit, yeah.

So it's been a lot of work and we're really happy

to have it down there.

But none of that matters more than Chad, the previous owner.

We're trying to get him down to see it for the first time.

And our hopes are that he can come to the cabin to see it,

kind of unveil it, to start it, to sit in it.

And hopefully, I'd really like to get him to drive it

if it feels comfortable because it'll

be the first time that that car is driven in, I mean,

I want to say just short of a decade.

So I mean, it's a 50 year old car in their ownership.

They didn't have a driving for the last like five to 10.

So it should be really cool.

Like it should be a nice full circle moment

seeing the car on the ramps was sick because I kind of looked

at it and I want to paint it.

I do.

But it's gray on gold wheels.

And then we put the Ferrari on the trailer too.

And it's gray on gold wheels.

And I'm like, look kind of sick.

Looks kind of cool.

I mean, you can repaint it gray.

That's OK.

No, no.

I feel like it's in bad shape.

Honestly, it's not terrible.

I know it went through like a ton of like on the underside

subhead, like a lot of like rust repair and everything

like that.

So it's like super solid.

Like there's no rust or anything on it, which is really nice.

But yeah, the outside, it's like it looks right for some reason.

I don't know how to say it.

Touch of gray.

Yeah.

It's got that George Clooney action going on with it.

You're like, it works.

I'm really excited for it.

I want to get some miles on it

when we're down in the mountains.

You will.

The Ferrari is running super nice now, which is fantastic.

So I'm really excited to have that down there for the first time

this year, like running properly well.

Because I think that'll be really fun too.

Yeah, it's cool because we get to pick out an award again

this year for like, you know, best story.

Best build story.

Yeah, which I'm glad that we can bring something

to our booth too that has a really nice story

attached along with it.

And I think you have some videos

explaining that on your own channel

if you want to see the in-depth story of the Datsun.

It's really cool.

You know, a little bit heart-wrenching for the guy.

And I'm excited for him to see it and check it out.

And it's cool that we're able to bring it

to like this national show and showcase it.

Because it does have a good story.

100%.

Yeah, it should be a really fun time.

And it's been an absolute ton of work, which everybody,

like you guys and the whole Martini Works team,

have put in a ton of hours to make this year feel

really special.

And our goal is that we can always come back

to these shows to make it feel special.

So we're really excited to show you the booth.

It's got SimRigs.

It's got coffee.

It's got a bunch of limited merch.

New booth layout this year.

It's got more carpet.

No grass.

I wish it had grass.

A little bit of grass.

You want me to bring the grass?

No.

There's a little bit of grass on the tree.

I can bring more grass.

I don't want more grass.

Why don't we bring the grass?

And if we don't use it, we'll leave it.

Sounds like a guy that doesn't move the grass, Tom.

Yeah, you ran away to Japan last year.

Left Us Deal.

Yeah, that was real convenient.

Well, we moved 6,000 pounds of turf.

Yeah, well, somebody's got to do it.

It was you guys.

I can't help it.

No one has to do it.

We burned the turf.

Yeah.

Burned the turf.

It looks cool.

I won't melt.

Like having cars at the convention center

and the GTT party.

It was a vibe.

The yellow, the green, it contrasts.

Looks good.

But moving that shit, hell no.

It's going to be, I'm really excited for the booth this

year.

Yeah, me too.

I think it's going to be exciting.

I was really excited for it last year.

I'm really excited for it this year.

I'm really excited for Continental Tires.

Yeah?

Yeah, the sponsor of the Martini Works podcast.

Ever heard of them?

I have.

Yeah, they're really good.

Yeah, we've been right.

Thank you for the little ad.

Let's do a welcome.

Yeah.

If you guys are interested, go on over to Martini Works,

filter by Continental.

Look at all the offerings that they have,

because they have just a plethora of sizes

available for you guys.

And then great options for whatever you guys need.

All seasons, sport tires, winter tires.

W words coming up soon.

Check that out.

The Viking Contact 8 is new this year.

I'm excited for us to rip in the snow on that and really

check it out, because the Viking Contact 7 was probably

one of my all-time favorite tires.

Good-ass tires.

Actually, I'm going to judge the Viking Contact 8

really hard, because I love 7.

So they got to do something to make it better.

We'll see.

But yeah, check it out.

There's a bunch of warranty stuff

that they offer with their tires, which is really cool.

They won't leave you hanging.

Continental has been a sponsor of the podcast

since the beginning, and we love working with them,

because we love their tires.

So if you're interested, check them out over at martiniworks.com

and thank you to Continental.

Listen, I'm not even lying to you guys,

even though this is definitely going to help me if you buy it.

This coffee is so good.

It's hot.

Yep.

It's all so hot, because coffee is warm.

That's weird.

Well, those don't drink warm drink,

but you like iced coffee, right?

I like iced coffee.

Warm drinks are fucking gross.

Warm drinks are gross?

Weird.

You're weird.

Hot drinks, weird.

There's so many people out there giving tips for Gat.

Everybody in their mother's got an opinion on what Gat should

or shouldn't be.

We've been there for a while.

Sure have.

We also have been a part of the scene for a while,

dare I say, long enough to have a good amount of experience,

specifically in the car show scene.

So now it's time for us to drop our half-baked opinion.

Yeah, but like three-quarter-baked, like a baked potato.

Yeah, like a nice chocolate chip cookie.

Like you're not mad that it's medium-rare.

Yes, that too.

OK.

But these people are already at Gatlinburg.

If they're listening and they're going to Gat, they're there.

True, true.

OK, so let's say you're there.

Yeah, it's Friday.

You're waking up in the morning.

Good morning.

Your internet sucks.

That's the first thing you realize.

There's scorpions in Tennessee.

Yeah, the second thing you realize

is that if you've got a shitty cabin,

there's 100% some sort of large insect inside of your cabin.

You just don't know where it is yet.

Or even a nice cabin there will be big insects.

Yeah, also true.

You're probably going to realize within the next 24 hours

of listening to this podcast that bears being close to you.

That's real.

That's a real thing.

And Sasquatch does exist.

Gell is actually.

I found one.

He found one last year.

Do you remember that?

I found one hunting, barely.

I kind of remember it.

Why were you inebriated?

No, no.

It was just a traumatizing experience.

Yeah, yeah.

We found out the little camera Dustin had.

It had night vision.

I mean, Gell's went outside and found a Sasquatch.

It's crazy.

All right, let's drop some real knowledge, though.

Number one, if you guys are going to the show on Saturday

and Sunday, the line is astronomically long.

It's a lot.

It's a lot of people.

It's a lot.

If you want, get there early, my recommendation.

Get in there.

Eat beforehand.

The convention food sucks.

I can say that without a shadow of a doubt.

Exactly what you think it is.

It's the most garbage thing ever.

And it takes forever.

Yeah.

And it's expensive.

We will not be selling finished coffee.

We will be selling coffee bags that come with a free cup

of coffee, if you're interested.

Exactly.

Do your walk around, I'd say.

Have some fun with it, do your thing.

Apparel, if you're looking to get something,

especially like an event here, something like that though,

and you're going both days, get it on Saturday.

Yeah, then it'll go fast.

Yeah, Martini Works pre-orders their stuff.

So when we're out, we'll essentially

just put it in the backlog, and then

we'll do another order of stuff.

But if you want to leave with a t-shirt.

If you want to go in, you got your cash ready,

you're like, I want a t-shirt for the event.

Do it Saturday.

Yeah, do it right away.

Do it right away.

That would be my opinion.

Our stuff sold out before the first day was even over.

Yeah, it was crazy.

And we love our stuff.

And other people have really cool stuff too.

Like everybody brings some really rad stuff.

I know Card Drugs does cool stuff.

I know Grip Royal always has some good stuff going on.

They did always have some good stuff going on.

And so there's definitely ways to spend money there.

Oh, yeah.

And the one Easter egg I'll drop, if you mention Martini Works.

Get a wristband.

Oh, yep, be exclusive with that.

Yep, yep.

That's it.

That's all you want to find out.

You'll learn if you know.

Yeah, talk to us at the booth,

and ask us about the wristbands,

and you'll find out more.

They are really pretty.

Actually, we took inspiration from when

I went on the Rolex trip to the quail,

because they do a very similar wristband.

And I really, really liked it.

I hate the plastic ones on your SOS.

What's another good tip?

Let me tell you it.

Gell inserts in your shoes.

There's people that will drive their car show down,

and they're accepted into the show,

and then they'll get rejected at the show,

because they absolutely demolish their front bumper,

or fenders, or whatever.

So I know it's cool.

If you don't want to risk it, just lift your car a little bit.

Just a little bit while you're cruising around.

And then when you get to the show, then you

can lower it afterwards.

That's my opinion.

I mean, yeah.

Try to think.

Find just dedicated spots.

Just go sit down for a little bit, too.

I'm telling you, it's so frickin' brutal on the feet

walking around that show, because it's

like you want to be there for the whole time.

It is a long show.

Yeah, both days have different cars.

Both days have different cars.

That's also true.

A lot of people don't know that, either.

Saturday's cars will be completely different

from Sunday's cars.

There might be a couple.

Our booth cars will stay, but they

do a full swap out.

All those cars leave at Saturday.

New cars come in on Sunday.

Sunday is actually, they call it the upperclassmen day.

So that's where you'll see, honestly, some

of the really crazy stuff come in.

There's crazy stuff, either way, but Sunday, I really

like Sunday.

Sunday's a good day.

I will say, probably, another good tip

that people probably haven't told you yet.

Everybody always looks in the front lot

to see the cars that are outside, the parking lot,

things like that.

Go behind the convention center.

Can people go back there?

Yeah, people walk back there all the time.

Yeah, you can walk back there.

You'll walk across the side of the building,

and you'll see a lot of staff and vending vehicles

that are parked up back there.

There's some really cool stuff that's back there every single

year.

This year, the 430 will be back there,

because it's not in the show.

And I don't want to park it up front.

I just want to get in and get the hell out of there

when we're all done.

But there's some really cool stuff.

I know the haulers, people bringing their truck and trailer.

And there's some people that got some pretty dope trucks.

If you're a truck guy, you'll see some really cool stuff

back there.

What else?

Dakota, what do you got?

Talk to people.

Go around.

There's a lot of cool stories there.

People are showcasing their vehicles,

so they'd love to tell you about it.

Ask questions, meet up with people.

We have people coming from all over the country

to go to the shows.

One thing that's really cool this year

is Crispy's going to be there.

He's going to be filming, which I think is super easy

to make a banger fucking video.

So there's a lot of unique opportunity

to have conversations with your favorite car content

creators, maybe a car you follow on IG, any of that stuff.

Come say hi to us.

We're there to chill with you guys, talk to you guys,

see you face to face.

So take advantage of that.

Absolutely.

Yeah, it's a really cool opportunity,

because one of my favorite parts about going

to these shows and stuff like that is there's

friends that we've made through the years of doing this.

And it's like, we really only see them face to face once a year,

and it's always at an event like this.

And it's always so fun catching back up,

seeing what they did different to the car.

They got a new car.

So yeah, take advantage of it, because it's

a really, really cool opportunity

to just meet new people, see people

that you haven't seen in a long time.

What's your favorite?

I think we've brought this up before.

I'm just curious if it's changed.

We got a long drive coming up here.

Well, I mean, we'll be there while this is out.

But on the drive down, what's your go-to snack?

What are you getting?

You got to stay awake.

You're leaving at night.

Ian Joel's leaving.

We're leaving.

Butt crack in the morning.

Early morning.

Like 3 AM, probably.

Oh, I have it.

I have it.

What do you got?

I'm on this new kick.

Yeah, what you got?

That guy hasn't made them that much,

so I'm kind of a little upset about it.

We'll talk about it after the podcast.

But she has these, and they're great.

They're like oatmeal peanut butter balls

that have a little bit of coffee grounds sprinkled on them.

So they got a nice grit to it.

Those in the mornings or late at night, all they hit.

There's a peanut butter taste delicious.

And then you got the oatmeal.

You got a little bit of protein in it.

And then the coffee as well gives it

that nice little zaza that you need in the middle of the night.

So those are my go-to.

Anything that has oatmeal, peanut butter,

and then something on top of it is just a go-to.

A beef jerky boy.

But I can't anymore.

I don't know what is.

What's changing?

It's stuck in my teeth constantly.

It drives me fucking insane.

If I'm driving, I don't got a toothpick.

I ain't doing it.

So I'm skipping on the jerky.

So that's why I was asking for some tips.

I usually go for jerky.

I feel like jerky's a good one.

It takes some work.

Yeah, if not that.

Like sunflower seeds, honestly, keep me awake.

That's a good one.

They're really good to keep me awake.

It's just like you got this fucking cupful of like

spitty shells.

And it's kind of like tip it over.

And then it's a nightmare.

Yeah, don't do that.

But that that's like typically like last ditch effort.

Like, oh, my God, I'm struggling through this.

And I'm already like three energy drinks deep.

And if I have another one, I might fucking like go

into code on the side of the road or something.

Yeah.

So sunflower seeds, a good one to break out.

I look to get excited for like the road trip part of it.

We're like, OK, I just get to eat fucking junk shit

for 12 hours straight.

Yeah.

I've found.

I don't do that anyway.

I know it's weird.

It's probably going to sound so basic.

But Becca's on this huge water kick

has been for like the last six months.

That's cool because I can't do it.

She's got this big old water jug.

Nice.

But we fill that thing to the brim with ice.

And early in the morning on like late at night drives,

like I'll do coffee.

And it works as like a flavor thing.

But it never really feels like it can keep me awake.

So like I'll crack the window open a little bit

and just try to get some air in there.

Like ice cold water.

Drinking that at like 2 in the morning, 2.30?

Oh, it's perfect.

It's part like that.

Because it's like fresh.

The one thing I hate about long road trips

is you eat like shitty junk food.

And then like four hours later, you

feel like the air smells like how you feel, which is just shit.

Yeah.

I know what you mean.

I mean, I'm stopping at Bucky's, right?

I mean, we have to.

You got it.

Last time I stopped at Bucky's, I wasn't hungry.

I ate anyway.

It's on the way, right?

Yeah.

Pretty much.

Last time we went to Riverside and we were like,

you had to kind of go out of the way.

But for Gatlinburg, it is on the way.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm definitely stopping at Bucky's.

Rare pull.

Let's talk about food down in Gatlinburg.

I know you got to go.

If you can find some local places, definitely do it.

If you like drinking and you're not planning on driving,

they do those whiskey samplers.

What is it like, old Tennessee?

You do old Smoky.

And then I actually really like Sugarlands.

Sugarlands is good.

It's in that like corner.

It's kind of like hidden.

Yeah, Sugarlands.

If you've never done that, it's a good time.

It's like five bucks.

Yeah.

Sugarlands is awesome.

You can get a bunch of moonshines.

It's five bucks, so you get a pretty liquored up for five bucks.

And then you get the five bucks off of a bottle of moonshine.

So it's like.

That sounds like an ad.

It's not.

It's just they genuinely make it a good time.

I do it every year.

My favorite part of Sugarlands is,

because we'll do old Smoky.

And I like old Smoky a little bit more.

I don't know what it is.

Less for me.

I know.

I'm sorry.

Very all fun.

But then I'll leave.

And then Becca always wants to go to the other one, Sugarlands.

And I don't want to do the tour twice,

because I'm already a little warm, you know?

And I just don't want to deal with it.

And so I will sit there.

And I will listen to whatever musician that's

playing in that little corner.

And it's always super good.

Yeah, they always have like some like bluegrass band

out there.

It's really cool.

We did the Titanic thing that one year.

We did that.

Yeah, that was pretty cool.

The Titanic tour.

They have like a big Titanic museum.

And there is actually some cool stuff in there.

And then they had it where you could feel the water.

And they have it at the same temp it was.

And it was like, holy shit.

It's like crazy how cold it is, though.

Like it hurts.

And then they got steering wheel and you spin it.

Then they give you a character card.

And you go through and then you find out if you make it.

Or not.

I fucking died.

I got fucking.

Yeah, I think we all died, actually.

Yeah, I think most people get it rigged.

Probably par for the historical course, don't you think?

Yeah, I guess.

I just wanted to be the only one that would be kind of fun.

Someone lived.

I'll keep going until I live.

That's how they get you.

Yeah, you get the rare pull of like, I survived.

Oh, my gosh.

There's some really cool rides you

can do when you get downtown area that take you up

the side of the mountain.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that quista.

And a quista is our favorite.

You ride like the ski slope thing, like the lift?

Yeah, there's the one that goes up the bridge.

Yeah, the big bridge one.

That's really cool.

I like that one.

The Anacista one.

That was the first time that we did it with you guys last year.

That was really cool.

I love Anacista because every time I go up, I see bears.

Yeah, we saw a ton last year.

It's always kind of a weird, I like Anacista.

I think it's like the coolest thing to do.

It's kind of like how we close up our trip.

Usually we go on Monday night.

And the service is always like way hit or miss

because we'll go up during sunset.

And they close at like nine.

It's like some ridiculous hour.

And so by the time we get up there and we get a drink

and we're up there to get a drink, it's like 7.30.

Bro, there have been times where I've asked for a drink

and the bartender acts like we just shot their dog.

They're so upset.

There is something.

Maybe it's just the Wisconsinites in us.

But everything shuts down hella early down there.

It's super early.

Like you said, it's like eight, nine o'clock.

Everything's shut down.

Gone.

It's like I'm just getting warmed up, man.

What the hell is that?

We just left the convention.

Yeah, for real.

That's not even a joke.

I will say if you guys are really looking

for some quick wins and let's say you want to go,

you want to get some good food fast.

It's not local, but Mella Mushroom I've always really liked.

That was really good last year.

Feeds a lot of people really fast.

What we do for Martini Works is we all stay in a cabin

and then the company and the brand,

we buy everyone food and then we do family lunches

and dinners and stuff like that.

But then a couple nights we'll go out

and we'll eat at certain places.

And Mella Mushroom is always an easy one

because you can bag like 30 people in there.

They don't even think twice.

One of the coolest things I think we did

is I love when we did like the ramen night

and you like make your own ramen

and you can add your own little toppings and you,

but that's fun.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

That was something we started a year ago, I think.

Yep.

And I think it was last Gatlinburg we started at.

Yeah, at Gatt and then we did it at Riverside.

And that was really fun.

Yeah, because it's like two people are responsible

or two to three people are responsible

for cooking that night.

And then a couple people are responsible

for cleaning up and then we do breakfast in the morning

and then we do dinner again at night

and that's a ton of fun.

Yeah, it's just, it's cool because

if you guys are going to Gatt,

you're spending a good chunk of change on a cabin.

And all you're doing there is at the cabin

is pretty much just like sleeping there

and then you have a parking space.

And so it's totally not worth it

to spend a whole chunk of change

if that's the only thing that you're gonna do.

So we try to make the space fun

and I found like the best way you can do that

is either having a couple drinks with your boys,

having some food with your boys.

Or both.

Or both at the same time.

Shockingly enough, when you do that,

everybody loves to hang out at the cabin.

And it's super fun.

The one that we stay at has a huge main entryway,

tons of space for people.

We bring some of our friends out on Saturday night

after the show's over, some of our vendor friends

and sometimes like I think last year,

who was it that came over?

The guys from Dress Up Bolts came over for dinner

which was super fun.

They're all some people.

And yeah, I mean, make it about the memories.

Make it about the memories.

Don't get caught trying to create so much content.

You forget why you went there.

Sometimes that happens.

I've made that mistake.

There are some really cool photo spots.

Oh my god.

Yeah, absolutely.

Get out and explore the area too.

There's just some absolutely beautiful scenery out there.

Anywhere you go, it's like, at least, again,

we're from Flatass, Wisconsin.

This is absolutely gorgeous any time we're down there.

Tell the Dragons only a few hours away

if you want to make the jump.

If you've ever wanted to do that, that's relatively close,

probably closer than you normally are.

So there's ever a reason to go.

Probably go do it.

I've always been a big fan of when

I travel to wake up early because you get to do more

when everything else is asleep.

I would challenge you guys if you're open to the advice.

Try getting up early.

Start your day a little bit earlier in Gatlinburg

and kind of see how it goes.

Because I feel like you can enjoy

a little bit more before things get chaotic.

Because if you start your day at 1 o'clock

on Saturday in Gatlinburg, you're not going to like it.

If you're just there for the night meats

and whatever the hell goes on,

you're missing out on a whole lot more.

Yeah, we cruise, we'll check some things out.

But for us, we'll go cruise and drive.

I think that's always the most fun for us

is as much as I love hanging out in a parking lot.

We've been in a building nine hours each day.

I want to go drive the day.

It's almost like we're going to see you on Saturday and Sunday.

See you on Saturday.

Get out there, drive.

It's beautiful.

Keep in mind that the floods and stuff from last year

are still impacting some of those roads.

So some of that stuff has shut down.

And then the one thing I'll say, obviously,

Lars and I, we love to drive.

And sometimes we drive a little bit wilder

when we're out by ourselves in the backcountry roads.

But we always spot our roads before we go when we drive them.

So if you guys are going out there

and you want to have some fun with your car,

obviously be safe, be smart, follow the speed limits.

That's what my legal team would tell you to say.

But don't ever cut the double mustard.

Don't do that.

Don't do it.

Don't ever drive hard on a road

that you've never been on before.

There's so many cool roads out there, but the embankments

and the dip.

They don't fuck around.

There is no safety net.

And those things are deep.

Like, they are crazy how aggressive they are.

It's literally cliffs.

Yeah.

And a lot of people understeer because they'll

slam on the brakes mid-turn and they just kind of go off.

So be careful.

Have fun.

Please be careful.

If you've got a cambered car,

you're definitely not going to have a good time

if you're trying to cut it up or whatever they say.

Cut it up.

But that said, Dakota, what's the biggest mistake

you've ever made going to a car show like Attenberg?

Oh, that's a great question, mistake, mistake.

Oh, I got one.

It's tough, though.

It is a little bit beneficial.

But cleaning your car before you go really

ain't that much worth it.

You get to the show and you realize,

like, you want to wipe it down while it's at the show.

Like, I just need to fully fucking detail this again.

Dude.

So car shows are, sorry, car washes are also

a little bit harder to come by than what you'd think.

Especially like any sort of like self-serve one.

Yeah.

And it's like, even if it is, it's

like a pretty good clip away from the show.

It rains five times a day in Tennessee, it seems like.

So everything just gets dirty constantly.

You're always throwing mud or dirt up somewhere.

Yeah.

Keeping the cars clean down there is a fucking nightmare.

That's kind of what I was thinking, too, is just, dude.

You can try to keep it as clean as you want.

I'd say they want to make.

Get to the show early and fucking start

wiping down your car.

I want to make a little extra cash.

Set up like some sort of car wash outside the conventions.

So we've done that before.

There's, I think it was Riverside.

Yeah, they do.

We did that one time.

It was like a mobile detailing company coming in.

Like guys were awesome.

Yeah.

We stay at a cabin that has a mile and a half dirt road.

So it did not make a damn worth of difference the time

we got back on the normal road.

But they were really, really good.

Yeah.

My biggest mistake is a mistake I make every year.

What's that?

Starting things too late.

Yeah.

Try my best to get ahead.

This time actually worked out really well

because when we initially went to tune the dots in,

I was initially planning on tuning it last weekend.

And then when I was doing my planning for the videos and stuff,

I'm like, I want to give myself a three week buffer.

So then I took everything and I blew it back by almost a month

and we finished it yesterday, or it would have been

Sunday afternoon.

So I'm glad I did that.

Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this talk.

But that stuff adds up because then when

you go to Gatlinburg because it is such a good show,

I feel like sometimes people don't notice the little things

until they're looking at it and like, great deal.

Oh my god, I forgot to bolt that.

Oh no, that's not installed right.

Oh no, I got to switch that out.

Oh no, that's loose.

I got to do it.

And the next thing you know, you've got 10, 12, 15 things

that you got to get done.

Gels?

Biggest mistake going to Gatlinburg?

Oh man.

Honestly, pack some tools with you like 100%.

Luckily, I wouldn't say it was a mistake,

but we were kind of like prepared for it.

And if we weren't prepared for it,

I would have been probably kind of boned,

took the RX-8 down a couple of years ago,

drove it all the way down, and a caliper like seized up on me.

And we had to drive it back to Wisconsin

at the end of the show.

So we had to get it fixed.

So spent like a whole day sourcing apart for that.

Luckily, we had Dustin, you know,

the trailer packed with tools because we just,

we typically don't go anywhere without a majority

of our tools with us, just for those instances.

And that can ruin a trip really, really quick

if you can't fix your car that you brought

to have a good time with at the show or even in the area.

So just pack like a little go bag of like,

I know the car has like these sockets,

like needs these sockets, have a little portable jack

with you, just like an essential bag.

Throw it in a car somewhere, keep it with you

because it'd hate to go all the way down there,

especially spend all that money

and not be able to enjoy yourself with your car.

So, honestly, like a little portable air pump too, huge.

Oh, portable air pump, portable air dryer thing.

Oh yeah, that too.

Yeah, that, anything, yeah, anything that you would seem

like, yeah, be nice if I could have it, just pack it.

Which is a good segue because I do want to spend

a little bit of time talking about

how to actually prepare your car

for like a Gatlinberg style car show,

almost like awards, which is actually a really big thing.

Cause not everybody's going to win a trophy,

but there are some like tips and things to keep in mind.

If you are wanting to do a good job this weekend,

maybe you're listening in,

we'll give you some tips and tricks

on how you can make your car look a little bit cleaner.

But while we do that,

we do want to give a huge shout out to our partner,

Fortune Auto, an absolutely incredible coilover company

who's been a part of this podcast for a good long time.

Fortune Auto, they make modular coilover systems

built for you.

They're tri-trude and tested right here

in the United States.

They build them over in Virginia,

which is actually pretty awesome.

And of course, if you guys need something custom

for your coilovers, they'll actually be able

to do that for you.

They ask you a few couple, two, three questions

to make sure that they're building them

the way that you want.

They're the same questions that we ask,

plus to make sure that you actually

are getting what you think you need.

They have Fortune Auto 500, which is their entry level,

and they have the 510s.

And if you're getting into more

of the motorsport side of things,

they have two-way, three-way adjustable coilovers,

which are fantastic for really dialing in

your compression and your rebound behavior,

especially if you're changing tracks,

you're going to different races.

High speed, low speed.

Yeah, it's all awesome stuff.

And once you dive into that,

it's really nice to have a set of coilovers

that actually react to the inputs you give it

and the things that you change.

And Fortune Auto is a really good job

in making sure you can feel it

when you start changing those things around.

So if you're interested in picking up

a set of Fortune Auto coilovers,

you can actually go snag those over at martiniworks.com.

I'm gonna say thank you to Fortune Auto

for being a sponsor of the Martini Works podcast.

Be right back.

All right, so we've been to get,

we've seen it multiple, multiple, multiple times.

We've seen winners.

It's always, yeah, we've seen not winners.

There's always a little bit different every year.

Oh yeah.

I feel like the crowd that shows up,

what do you guys expect and what are you thinking

is gonna be the trends of this year?

Okay.

What's rolling in, what style vehicles?

I feel like we've been pretty good about it.

Yeah.

We nailed it on the head.

Most times not to toot our own horn, but yeah.

I feel like a lot of BMWs this year.

Yeah.

I feel like every year there's more and more BMWs.

Was it a really bad thing?

You know, I like to see it.

But I think, I think a lot more BMWs this year.

I've had enough of it.

Change your platform.

Just kidding.

No, it's more.

BMWs are good.

The BMWs are great.

There's a reason.

I would say I think every year I see this,

a certain group of folks always come back

and you see different teams, like Team was at Tensei

and obviously they waited a lot.

Yeah, Team Tensei goes crazy.

Yeah, and those guys, they always bring out

some heaters of cars.

As long as you ask them, sometimes it's hard to know

what they have going on with their cars

if you just look at them.

You look at NSX and it's like, cool, it's an NSX,

but it's an NSX.

You have to ask them and all of a sudden

they'll tell you how rare the car is or the kid

or who owned it.

And a lot of those stories are really cool.

It's one of the things why we enjoy

the build trophy we give off.

But I think the upperclassmen, the Sunday show this year,

I think seeing Josh Freeman bring that,

that station wagon that nobody really knew

was even a thing, I think we're gonna see

a little bit more of that.

I think we're gonna see more people

trying to dive further into JDM car culture.

Like the really abstract.

Wonky pics, I'm sure we'll see more Honda beats.

I think we're gonna see more cappuccinos.

I think we're gonna see more Estates.

I think we're gonna see more Laurels.

I think we're gonna see less just GTRs

and I think we're gonna see more outside of that landscape.

I wanna see some vans.

I want like dope JDM vans.

You know what I could go for?

I wanna see that.

A clean VR4.

That'd be cool.

I would really love this.

I don't think I have seen an actual clean VR4

in a long time.

Even Galant VR4 or 3K VR4.

Yeah, yeah.

I just don't see them.

Yeah, there was a 2G there last year

that was really cool to see.

It was decently clean.

So that was kind of cool.

But yeah, like a lot of that kind of stuff

you just don't see anywhere.

I think we're also going to see

some more new Edge Mustangs.

You think so?

Yeah.

I don't know what it is.

I've seen them pop up more

pretty much across everywhere.

Especially in drifting.

I've seen them more in like auto cross stuff.

I've seen them pick,

a lot of people pick them up

with just like daily drivers now

and then they throw a little body kit on it

and they just like let her eat.

I think those are getting pretty popular.

They're really affordable.

They're fun.

They sound decent.

They come in a manual.

I think we'll see more of them.

We're going to see the continuation of SUVs,

maybe a little bit more.

And then I think where the tides are turning.

I think we're going to start to really start

to see these older cars and stuff.

Stock body, more wide body flares.

I think that's slowing way, way, way down.

You're still going to see them.

Still going to see a lot of kits.

I think that, I think I said it maybe

a couple of years ago when we sat down and did this.

But the rise of like OEM Aero

and that kind of stuff like anything

that was like provided from the dealership

or from the factory that was like an add-on option

starting to sound a lot like Corvettes at this point.

But like, you know that kind of stuff where it's like,

oh yeah, like I found this front.

Like I had to get it from Japan for my S chassis

because it was like OEM Aero.

That was like an option or whatever it was.

I think that stuff is super cool.

So yeah, instead of like the crazy wide bodies,

it's like, yeah, it's got a kit on it,

but it's this, you know?

I think I love it.

When we were making the video series and the Datsun 240

like the first or second video, I asked my audience

because it came with the carbon fender mirrors

and I asked if should we do it

or should we keep it stock body?

And I'm way more of a stock body guy nowadays.

I just think they look cooler

even like the 430 same thing.

And everybody's like narrow body, narrow body, narrow body.

Do not, do not add fender flares to it.

Like every Datsun deserves fender flares

do not put fender flares on it.

So I agree with you.

I think seeing stock bodies is going to be cleaner.

The old Mercedes, we saw a couple of them last year.

Love those cars.

I would kill for that car without even a shed of guilt.

Like early 70s, dumped, triple chromes.

Another thing I don't think it's going to slow down at all.

And we're going to see more of is the brand liveries.

Yeah.

Yeah, like taking like old school brand

or even new brands and just any brand.

Any trending brand.

Twisted T and...

Yeah, Twisted T, like...

There's a girl that has...

A lot of red bull ones.

Coors light I see in there, remember?

Lots of red bull ones, different colors.

You know what I haven't seen?

What's that?

I haven't seen somebody copy my favorite,

one of my favorite liveries all the time.

That C5, like Le Mans, 2000 and like three ish four.

Le Mans livery, when it was like yellow and black.

And then they carried that over

into the American Le Mans series.

That car, that Corvette is C5R, C6R.

Dude, best American livery of all time.

Sorry.

The liveries will still be big.

I think we've seen like a real rise

of like those like drift style liveries come over

to the show scene.

Yes.

More of that too, yeah.

I think we'll see quite a bit of that.

I think I have a feeling that that'll start to die

a little bit, just with a how wild some of them got.

I still love to see it, I think it's cool.

How many Alibaba wheels do you think we'll see?

That, I feel like you're going to see one set at least.

We're going to play a game.

Let me find the Alibaba wheels

that made it through the review audit,

because people don't call them Alibaba wheels.

They call them Apex Alibaba wheels,

or like BBS Alibaba wheels,

and then they just take the Alibaba part off when they apply.

Yeah, they're BBS'es.

That's crazy.

GMR was really big last year.

How many GMRs do you think we're going to see?

GMR was taken over.

Everywhere.

Yeah, very affordable chrome wheels.

Yep, reps.

One of the things I always really enjoyed

when we did the Japan Auto Legends show

with Driver Motorsports a couple of years ago

is if you guys know Driver Motorsports,

they are some picky people

when it comes to the parts and their wheels.

And rightfully so.

And we also disagree with them to be super transparent.

I argue with Chris all the time

because he only thinks that a work or a Volk or an SSR

should be on any car from Japan, period.

But what I did really like about that show

when it was held at VIR

was how particular they were about that.

Like all the name brands on those cars

were always 10 out of 10.

There's always HKS, Gretti, Trust, Blitz, Michelin,

and things like that.

And it's like, I like that.

I think when people spend time put money on,

especially from like a show perspective,

I think that if you're going to showcase something,

you want to show like the best of something.

I think it's cool.

Yeah, 100%.

I'm trying to think of what else would have been,

trying to think of like what I've been seeing

start to like circulate.

What do you think the car is going to be?

The car of this year?

The car, yeah.

GR86.

Still raining king.

It's hard to say that you're not going to see

just a boatload of BRZs and GR86s.

And 335s.

335s?

I was going to say like, I feel like a lot of people

scooped up like the new M2.

Not like a lot, but like,

I feel like you're going to see a handful.

True, yeah.

Because I even see like quite a few of them

around here in Appleton.

And it's like, damn, a lot of people

did go and pick up that car recently.

I think I'll see any, I feel like the C8

is such a popular one too.

Yeah, but it's too old for the audience right now, I think.

That's what I'm thinking.

Someone would have to go kind of crazy with it.

I don't know if anyone really has.

I think outside of like the pandemic, like wide body.

I think there's been a couple there in the past.

Like, and they've always been like, you know,

that the pandemic kits and stuff,

but or Liberty Walk, whatever.

Yeah, there's some really,

there's some fantastic cars there.

I think one of the things

that always kind of bums me out again

with like all the opinions kind of coming around

is there'll be like camber or a stance car.

Like that's not a build, you know,

or people like start getting particular,

but like what defines a build?

It's like, we need to reset.

Gatlinburg is a car show.

It's a static car show.

Like that's it.

That's the only thing that happens for those two days.

So by definition,

like you're going to see stance cars.

You're going to see cambered cars.

You're going to see the most insane out of pocket picks.

You're going to see people that have taken their entire car

and turned them into season eight of Game of Thrones.

And that is what you'll see.

Like you will see so much different stuff.

It's a great opportunity for people to like open their mind

rather than close their mind.

And I would, I think you,

anybody who wants to experience it all

should really take it all with an open mind.

Yeah, a hundred percent.

Because if you go there like, oh, that was so lame.

I can't believe that car won.

It's like, well, let's go drive your car.

You're going to love it.

You're going to forget about the trophy in 10 minutes.

Go for a drive and you're going to love it, you know?

Let's talk real quick about if you are going to be in the show.

What are some ways that maybe you can score some

quote unquote additional points, you know,

in the judging world.

If you have something done to your car

and you can't see it, find a way to showcase it

or like find a judge like,

cause you'll see them walking around

when they start to judge your cars and things like that.

You know, if you know when that time is going to be,

hang out by your car, if there's like something specific

that like it's hard to showcase and talk to them,

show them that because they have literally hundreds of cars

that they need to go through.

We've judged shows in the past, it's a lot

and it is a hefty task to take on.

And you have a show this big with as many eyes on it.

It's like, it's a lot to go through.

It's a lot of weight on the shoulders of the judges.

So they're trying to do their best.

They're trying to get through stuff

as fast as they can though.

So if it's not, if you have a killer air setup

and your trunk is closed, they're not gonna see that.

You're not gonna score any points for that.

If you have an all chromed out engine bay,

but your hood isn't popped, they're not gonna see that.

If you're, you know, got some crazy stuff going

on on the interior, some nice seats,

but you got a mirror tint, they're not gonna see that.

You know, like make sure like there's a way

if like you have all stuff done

that like you care about enough to talk about

and put on a build sheet and you wanna get judged on it,

you gotta figure out a way to show it.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a really good point.

I think I would also go as far to say like clean,

clean not just what you see when you're looking at it,

but clean the stuff that you don't typically see.

Like there's so many people, they'll spend a ton of time

cleaning the faces of their wheels

and then don't clean the barrels, you know?

That's a tough one.

Or like the inside, especially with like chrome stuff too.

It's like, if you really, and this is again,

if you're trying to try and win an award,

that's like your goal.

You wanna do a good job with it.

It's like you clean your door sills,

clean your like, if you have a hatch and you're opening it

like your trunk or whatever, you have it open for your set up,

clean the fricking, you know, area around it.

Like you gotta get in there.

Yeah.

What would you say doesn't matter?

Doesn't matter.

Everything matters.

I think if you're trying to win an award,

everything does matter.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's not like, oh, you can have,

you know, your fenders roughed up or.

No.

I got one bent wheel.

Nah, it don't matter.

So it adds up, especially when you're going

to like a caliber car show like this,

like you're competing against people

from all over the country.

Yeah.

So it's like, you gotta be on your A game.

100%.

Yeah, I wouldn't say anything.

You can just like easily look over.

One thing that might, I don't even know why I'd say this,

but like disconnecting your battery.

I feel like that's one of the requirements.

Yeah.

I don't think there's a soul

that actually does it at the show.

Yeah, yeah.

We totally do.

We all have different like power.

Yeah, I have an external battery on my car.

You're supposed to like come with like quarter tank gas

and then once you park it in the show,

you're supposed to disconnect your battery

for the fire marshals.

You can't, you can't even do that in some cars.

Yeah.

Like some cars, you can't even do it anymore.

Then you go walk around.

Every other car has their RGB lights on.

I was like, hey, TV's playing in the bag.

Yeah.

So no one does that.

So I'd say that doesn't matter.

I don't think.

All right, let's go.

That's not advice though.

Don't follow what.

Yeah.

Let's just real quick.

Yeah.

Just for the funsies of Gatlinburg.

All right, what you got hit me with it?

What is a car that if you built a certain way

you think could win something

at like a show like Simon of Gatlinburg?

Like if you're like to start over, right?

You had infinite money

and you wanted to build something specifically

for when a show at Gatlinburg for 2025,

what would you build?

Oh my God.

Oh man, that's hard.

It is tough.

There's so many different options, right?

Oh, there's a ton of different routes that you could go.

Cause it's like, immediately I think of,

kind of like what we talked about earlier,

it's like you want to hit them with something weird.

You want to hit them with something different,

but still dope.

So it would be.

What would you build for Gatlinburg?

I'd build some sort of like VIP thing, I think.

That's the route I would go.

And that's a tough one too,

because it's like a lot of, you know,

there's a lot of Lexes, there's a lot of LS 400s.

There's a lot of, you know, I would say like centuries

are starting to come out more and more.

I got it.

Yeah.

What would you build for Gatlinburg?

So we've seen a lot of the low rider culture

come to the stance culture, right?

I would build a low rider

that came to the stance culture.

So it would be a low rider traditional,

you know, like fantastic paint job

and etching and stuff on it.

But then I would have it more set up for like a stance car.

So rather than the small diameter wheels,

small diameter tires, bigger wheels, better fitment,

just lay it out.

That'd be crazy.

Yeah.

Do something a little bit different that way.

That would be sick.

That'd be cool.

That'd go really well.

Huh.

What about you, Alex?

I don't know.

You know what'd be cool too?

I haven't seen one, like to bring like a rally car.

Yeah.

Like an actual.

Like an actual rally car and have it.

The reason I say that is because I remember at Auto Motion,

which is one of the bigger shows in Wisconsin,

Battle of the Imports was a show inside the show.

And what won that was a Subaru Baja.

Oh yeah.

With an STI swap.

It was like 99% all stance cars that were there.

But then what won the whole thing was this Subaru Baja

that was done extremely well.

Like it had a bunch of modifications.

But then STI swapped.

And I think it was just because it was so different.

It wasn't your typical WRX or STI was an STI swap.

And that was so neat.

So cool that I think you need to do something like that.

100%.

Yeah, I think I would do something VIP

but like go find like something a bit different.

So if that's like a weird wagon

that we've never heard of, if that's like.

VIP wagon would be sick.

VIP wagon would be so dope.

But then, you know, we talked to like Richie

and stuff like he has the Laurel

that's got like all the custom engraving.

Like figuring out a way to do something like that

where it's just like something that flows

throughout the entire car and makes it its own.

Whether that be like chroming

or some sort of like paint or something.

I think that would be dope.

And I fucking love wagons.

I think I would build a Lancia.

Yeah, that'd be sick.

Like a S4, like a Delta S4.

I would love to get my hands on one of those.

Doesn't have to be the full like homologation spec Lancia.

But so many people will go Japanese car,

Japanese car, Japanese car.

But I've been really trying to find ways to get

like old European cars into the United States.

And I think one of our next builds in the springtime

will be an older European car

that's older than 25 years.

But Lancias are so cool, man.

And they're, you see them in person

and you're like, my God, that is a gorgeous car.

I saw, I think it was an S4 EVO

when I was in Japan last year, literally around this time.

And it was red and it had this three spoke steering wheel

and it was hot.

It looks so good.

I remember there was a, we talked to him, I believe,

but he had the, I think he wanted the Ward.

It was that tan Mercedes convertible.

Absolutely gorgeous car.

He won Best Fitment, right?

No, not Best Fitment.

He won something.

It was some bigger, like it was a pretty big award.

One of the Ford, it was one of the Ford.

Yeah, it's such a good fricking car.

Yeah.

So I get it.

I get it with the old Euro stuff too.

I think that stuff is definitely underrated

because you brought that up a few times

and then like I've had to go like edit a video

like for the short or whatever.

And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go pull some B-roll

of like some old 70s like Mercedes.

You can go get these cars for like three grand

and dump them on some wheels.

I'm like, that's exactly what these people are doing.

They're going and buying like these fucking huge

luxury Mercedes like three grand

and they're not in the best of shape.

But you dump them on some fucking baller wheels

and they're so sick.

I love them so much.

Let's see what else.

I feel like that's gonna start happening with rally.

It is the same way that like time attack

has came into the car scene recently.

I think rally and it's arrows.

Like you get the roof scoops.

You got the big old lights that are typically

on the front and usually widen fenders stuff.

I think that's gonna start bleeding

into the style of Stan's culture soon.

I don't know when, but I always felt like

the coolest thing on those like rally cars

like the rally cross cars.

Like you look at the Subaru hatches

like the Fiesta's and like the focuses and stuff

like had the wing, but then they had like

all like the vertical pins and wing

and just like this massive just like grid.

I was like, that's fucking sick.

I don't know why I was so cool school.

I'm just like picturing like something like that.

But like really, really low.

Yeah.

I still think sitting in a shuttle.

I'll be sick.

I think to also kind of call that out.

I do think the drift culture

or like drift cars haven't quite made their way

into like that show scene either yet.

I mean like obviously S chassis are super popular

and we've seen drift cars before

and we see three for these season things like that.

But when you go to something like final bout

and you see like these liveries,

these insane concepts, these crazy builds,

the static setup they're like, how in the hell

does this car slide sideways?

Like it looks like a show car.

I haven't seen those make their way into Gatlin's

or quite yet.

I don't know if they're fucking with the show.

I don't think they are.

But I mean, I think they'd rather be out driving.

I think it would be cool to see that though

because I think we're lucky

that USA is less than an hour away from us.

So we get to see cars from New Zealand and Japan

and you know, even Europe and stuff like that.

But like New Zealand drift cars are gorgeous.

They are so cool.

And their style is so interesting.

There was, we were up at final bout

and I can't remember what team they were on

but there was that S 2000.

And dude, it had, it was drifting

and it was probably some of the best fitment

that I've ever seen on an S 2000.

And I could not believe that he was driving the car

the way that he was.

He was driving it hard.

It was like fender to lip fitment.

And the fenders weren't fucked.

And the fenders weren't fucked

and he was throwing it down on the track.

I was like, that is so sick.

It was so sick.

He doesn't have coilovers.

It's just like a tube.

Honestly, that might be the case.

It was, I couldn't believe it.

There was magic.

It literally looked like someone

was standing in the stands car out there.

People don't usually drift S 2000 to begin with.

So it's like everything was an anomaly.

About that car, he gets out, opens a door

and it's just fucking vert, vertical doors.

Vertical doors do it.

Also his right hand drive, wasn't it?

I can't remember if it was, but it wasn't,

it wasn't boosted.

It was NAA.

Yeah.

Which I thought another was.

That's insane.

Yeah.

It was insane.

Like you're saying, like he was going harder

than some of the people, you know,

heading behind it.

He was throwing it down and it was sick.

Every time he'd like go out,

I was like, yes, yes.

Because I was like, that's so dope.

It was perfect.

Insane.

So yeah, 100%.

They would fit in perfectly fine.

I mean, especially like I said,

like with the liveries and stuff making their way into,

you know, whether that be a brand,

whether it be, you know, drift related,

whatever it might be.

Yeah, I just, I think that crowd

just doesn't want to go sit

in a convention center for eight hours a day.

I think drift people, the drift community

does liveries way better than the car show community.

100%.

I think because they lean on so much heritage though,

I think that has a lot to do with it.

Like the, the drift scene is using a lot of like

the early 90s, early 2000s,

like Japanese livery designs.

And then they just take that.

And like, there are a few fantastic designers

in the United States that can emulate that.

Like there's a few people that everyone uses

and the stuff that they make is insane.

But it all follows that same flow design,

like the highly chrome with really bright colors

on the side.

And then it hides stuff really well.

I've never noticed how good a flashy livery

can hide imperfections on a car

until you like get close.

You get really close and you're like,

oh, this thing's fucking insane.

This thing is, there's a dent there.

I didn't even notice that before.

Yeah, that's a good point.

I would like to see more European, I think, influence.

Not, not just like new European,

but like old European car heritage kind of make their way.

You look at like,

you look at like the, like the alt race stuff.

And it's like, dude, some of the stuff over there

is just fucking insane.

So I'd like to see some of that make its way over 100%.

Yeah, I think there's people that have gotten really close.

I know there was like,

there was an orange Cayman that was a part

of the Vated Mob group.

That was a really nice clean take

that kind of felt that it was going in that direction.

But you see, you see like alt race

and you're like holding these cars.

It's another level.

Smokes, these cars.

And I think it feels like another level

because it's a different style.

It is. It's a completely different culture.

And the body kits are different.

And the styling cars are different

and the colorways are different

and everything is very monotone,

but still very bright, you know?

The one car I think I would,

I would like to see at Gatlinburg one year in my life

is I've always wanted to see

the Apple livery Porsche wide body.

Oh yeah.

The gorgeous car, you'll see him.

Yeah, the Macintosh livery.

I mean, it is probably the coolest livery

in my opinion of all time

because it's just such a funky thing to look at.

And it accentuates the body lines

of the Porsche super well, so we'll see.

Yeah, it's an icon livery for that car.

You know what's one thing you need at the car show though?

What?

Melco.

True.

Because you gotta clean it like we were talking about

and it just so happens that Melco

is one of the sponsors of the Martini Works podcast.

I promise you we're gonna be loading it up

and bringing it with it.

I think we're doing a gift basket even.

So someone's gonna win a gift basket of Melco.

Yeah, we got it in and it's down there.

It's a gift bucket.

Oh, hell yeah.

Big old bucket.

Legitimately, like that's what we're gonna use

while we're down there.

Yep.

It's what we like, what we love

and we're very thankful Melco is a sponsor

of Martini Works podcast.

So if you guys are interested,

you head on over to Martini Works.

Like I've talked about before

is you can pick it up in packs.

We have pre-made packs for you.

So that way you got everything you need.

Otherwise, if you do wanna pick up individual items

you can do that as well.

But yeah, we're gonna be bringing the quick detailer

pretty much everything.

Yeah, I was gonna say,

we're actually, we'll have some stuff for sale too.

So like if you guys forget

and you need some cleaner,

you can stop by the booth.

Well, love.

We'll help you out.

But it'll cost you price of a bottle.

We did forget to tell them

if you guys are looking to win a set of wheels,

there's gonna be a set of wheel giveaway

that we're doing at the Martini Works booth.

It's set of conics up to 18 inch in diameter,

anything that's in stock.

So if you pick something up from the booth

on either Saturday or Sunday,

you're automatically entered in to win.

Shit, hangar.

So if you're looking to partake in that,

huge shout out to Conig for helping us out with that.

Obviously all of our partners as well.

Melco's sending us some stuff.

We've got a bunch of goodies

from our friends over in Japan.

We've got some goodies

from our suppliers here in the United States.

Liquamalli's hooking us up

with a bunch of air fresheners, this, that.

And the other thing, some coffee cups for our coffee.

And then we also have just a whole bunch

of different stuff going on.

So we're super, super stoked

to have so many incredible partners.

You'll see some stuff from Continental.

You'll see some stuff from General Tire.

The booth should be an experience

and we're really, really excited

for you guys to hopefully come by

and we appreciate the support.

Thank you for continuing to allow us to live this dream.

It's fun.

It's a lot of hard work, but it is fun.

Yeah, really looking forward to it.

Again, happy Friday, guys.

If you're in the area coming down for the show,

make sure to stop by the booth.

We'll be there tomorrow.

It's gonna be a great time.

Oh yeah.

See ya.

Bye.

Don't.

Car Trends We Expect to See (+ HUGE Announcement!)

About this episode

Toyota LS 400

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from MartiniWorks Podcast