Cars That Social Media RUINED...

Thank you, gentlemen. Welcome back to the Martini Works podcast.

We're so happy that you're here to listen in on all things that are happening in the

aftermarket automotive world. Things like car trends, car news, aftermarket car parts,

motorsports coverage, everything in between. And then of course, what is Martini Works up to lately?

So it is Friday. I hope everybody over there is having an absolutely lovely, incredible Friday

and things are warming up. Dakota, what is one thing you are most excited for this week?

This week specifically. I'd say I'm pretty jazzed. I got a new roof rack on my TRD pro.

Nice. It looks really good. Thanks. Yeah. I'm pretty jazzed about that. I would say that's

what I'm excited about. I've been as of recent modifying the 4Runner. I feel like just that

one week we had where it hit 50, I was instantly like, I guess, I gotta go outside. I gotta start

doing stuff. I gotta start modifying it. Well, it's productive I've been in the past couple months.

It did get cold immediately right away, but just that little bit gave me enough momentum to start.

There's enough of it. There's a dormant gene hiding in all of us that live, you know,

north of the, what's, what's like, you got the rust belt. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like this dormant gene.

And the moment it clicks 50, the first thing you do when you get in a car, you get this like

muscle spasm and your right hand just reaches up to open the sunroof open because you just have

to do it. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. I was shivering, but I had all four windows down,

my rear window down in the sunroof open because I had to. It wasn't a choice.

Yeah. Gels, what are you looking forward to this week? This week? Yes, sir.

There's a lot to be excited for. There's nothing big happening in the news. Everything's been really

calm, super chill, collected. Everyone's really happy. Everybody's getting along

everywhere, which is incredible. Never seen that before. Yeah. I mean,

it is supposed to be warming up. I'm really excited for that. I think I saw 60s in the forecast,

which is shut up insane. But we all know that that's fall, spring, two of 10. So

there are a little ways to go yet, but like Dakota's, I gotta take advantage of it when we got it.

You really do because I am, I am under the belief that in the month of March and February,

everybody up here can only live off of the positivity of the one nice day that comes every

16 days. Yeah. You know, you got to make the most of it up here. What you guys have in California,

cherish it, cherish it. I get why houses are $10 million out there. Yeah. Why like a fucking

cabin in the woods is like $27 million makes no sense. Anyway, we got a lot of stuff that's

happening here. We're coming into March. So obviously Riverside is coming up. If you guys

and Gels don't know, it's a car show down in Tennessee. We're really excited. We're going to

be there. It's a bit. We're also, we partnered up with Riverside and Mason and the team to give away

a bunch of different stuff. So we've got a set of in-stock general tires that we'll be giving

away. We got some coilovers that we'll be giving away. We've got some, I believe, Motegi racing

wheels that we'll be giving away, which is really, really cool. If you guys want to learn more about

that, you can actually go check out the Riverside Instagram page. You can learn a little bit more

about that, but we'll also be dropping some really limited edition merchandise that we're only bringing

for that event. We're going to put up a pre-order on martiniworks.com. So maybe not this week,

but next week you'll want to check into the website. We'll have it all on there. So I'm really

excited for it. It's got some cool new designs. We should be getting it in soon. We're going to do a

nice fun little photo shoot. Get some cool photos done. I just want to take some pictures.

Sell you guys a shirt. So Dakota, you've been working on the TRD Pro. Yeah. I like how you

call it the TRD Pro, not just the 400. The 400 TRD Pro. Gotta flex something. Gotta put all of it

on. Made 40, gotta flex. That's right. So anyway, on my 1970 Series 1 Datsun 240Z S30-19.

You were slamming the door like a madman over there. Well, I got to start the video somehow. So

we're ripping the seats out. We put some universal brackets in there because the ones for those seats,

the brids, were out of stock. Iconic. I swear to God when you get seats from Japan. You get anything

from Japan. The brackets are never in stock. 60% chance that it's out of stock in 10 months out.

If you guys ever want like a pro tip, you want to save some money, buy the brackets first,

and then if you still want the seats afterwards, buy the seats because you will 100% be able to

resell the brackets. Like no questions asked. So it took us like six months to get those brackets.

Finally came in. We probably could have made our own, but we didn't really want to hassle with it.

We have to take the seats out. We're taking the universals off because the seats sit very

high right now. So I'm actually like looking at the window, like the banner. That's not good.

Like right here. So we're going to get those switched out. We got a little bit of a belt

squeal that we're trying to fix and our battery blew up. So we got to get the battery. Battery blew

up. Yeah. I came in on Sunday to work on our surprise car, which you guys will know about

next week by the way as well. And I went to go check out the battery or the tender and it said

battery overcharged. And I was like, what did that mean? Jesus Christ. I never heard that before.

That's a funny, that's a funny way of saying it's a scary term. And then I looked underneath and there

was all this goop. There's just goop on the ground. Goop. And so I cleaned up the goop. I almost

cleaned it up by just like what? Yeah, what? You licked it up. Everybody settled down. So first

off, the goop looked very goopy. And I was like, I tried to use a microfiber first and it just kind

of all sludged like around the microfiber. I was like, this isn't going to work. So then I used

some ulterior motives. I started getting it cleaned up. And I really tried to avoid my hands.

Yeah. So I did that until I scratched my nose. Like I just did. And my face got a little warm,

little, little irritated. So then I had to wash my face in the sink. We need one of them

chemical showers like in high school. Yeah. But I did get it. I did get it cleaned up.

I used, you know,

Malko battery. Malko blue blazes. Malko blue blazes. That's not where we plug that.

You used fucking tire cleaner to clean up battery acid. Of all of the Malko shit over there,

you take the tire cleaner. I'm going to be honest. I used about everything over there to see how,

because I didn't want to. You're lucky you didn't make like fucking mustard gas.

Yeah. So anyway, I did, I opened up the garage door. I cranked the fans and then I cleaned it up,

which was a little bit of a mess. There is a specific type of battery gel cleaner that you

can buy for concrete. So I bought that today, but it was kind of a surprise. No, not yet. No,

no goop, no goop yet. But I was like, how, you know, like, how did that happen? Because it's

been dead and Jackson was working on the car a little bit. So the thing that's really crummy

is the battery is upside down behind the rear wheel and it's like hidden. So to get it out.

Super easy. Really not the easiest thing to do. And then it's now covered in, there's goop in there,

you know? So now I got to be careful with how I'm going to grab it because I don't want to grab.

I have never doubt, ever in my life seen someone kill batteries like Alex Martinez.

He's shot them. It is insane. It is pretty impressive. The Datsun, the R34, the S15.

Gloria. Gloria. They're all need them. How I want, dude, in the last three years,

how much have you spent just on car batteries? I really need a sponsor.

I really anti gravity batteries. Hit me up. Interstate. Hit me up. I don't know if the warranty

is going to cover that one. We can usually kind of squeeze by with the whole warranty thing,

but I don't know if it if it's bleeding out. That's scary though. I mean, we got to figure out

what went wrong with that because it shouldn't do that. No. Well, you know, that makes, guys,

that makes three of us. Okay. I wasn't expecting, I wasn't expecting to come into the shop on Sunday

and be like, what is that? What does that smell? What is that? And kind of get closer.

You can smell it. It has like a, you know, it's got a little thing.

The Ferrari battery did that one time too. It started like steaming out of it.

You remember that? Yeah, that was terrible. It got smoky. Yeah, that was bad.

I can't remember why we, what happened with that one. I don't know. Is there the charger we have

or something like on the fritz? How many amps you've shoving in this one? There is, I don't know.

Anyway, if you are a professional battery operator, you might want to give us a quick one,

two tipsies in the comment section on how that goes. But so that's what we're going with the Z.

The PFM is doing fine. Technically speaking, that's the one that I'm most scared of because

that doesn't have like an AGM battery. No, it has a lithium battery. It has a full on

fucking bomb battery. Yeah, that's the scary one. Don't touch that one. Yeah. So I'm not even,

I'm not even pretending. You don't go near that. I'm not, I don't have good luck. I ain't touching it.

Good. Gels. Hi. We have bullied, berated, supported, and have tried to assist in getting

your S chassis. Yeah. Running again. Yeah. What's new? I can see it again a little bit.

Spring means also spring cleaning and my garage is in desperate need of a couple springs of

cleaning. Just with random shit like boxes and like we'd get rid of something or like take

something down and like I'll throw it in the garage for now. And that is accumulated. So I think

the first order business and it's just been from everything to from working on the car,

even when I was doing like the RX eight stuff, like I've like paint supplies kind of just

out there and like just in boxes and stuff. And it's like, I really need to just get this

thing cleaned up and tools are just spread over for multiple projects. And I think that's the

first order of business because it's like, I go out there and I just immediately get overwhelmed

of like there's just shit everywhere. And it's like, if I even go to work on the car,

I'm going to spend more time trying to find something than actually working on the car. So

sourcing some just hardware right now, some hardware went bad with the rear suspension

when we were doing that. So that is next up on the list. So I'm going to be

wrenching away at that the next couple of weeks here. So goal is to get it back on the ground and

get it over here, get it over here so that we can work on it together. And then we are going to

bully gels into finishing his car. Yeah, I just want to be able to drive it. It's so crazy how

one bolt can completely derail an entire project. Speaking of bolts, bolts are the people may have

forgotten this, but we do still own that truck. Oh yeah, the C 4500 iron hide, the old Dooley,

you know, and Dustin's been working on it, bless his soul. And I went in there,

yes Sunday, yesterday, and they had a big ass torch to the rear hub. And they're just

heating this thing up. And I'm like, are you guys like worried about like breaking it?

And Dustin looks at me and he goes, no. The thing is, everything on this truck is so big

that it's almost impossible for anything to break because everything is just, you can beat the

shit out of it as much as you possible. It's just stuck. And I watched like three grown men like

fucking bully this bolt out of the rear hub. And then he's like, all right, good, good to go.

And it sounded terrible. It fires everywhere. There's mud, oil, grease everywhere. And they did

it like 27 more times. I looked at the rear brake system for that C 4500. It's like fucking this

big. It's massive and weighs a thousand pounds. What are they doing to it? Well, okay, so we got

the engine fixed. Then we got the CP3 fixed. Then we got the turbo fixed. Then we got the fuel pump

fixed. Then we got the tank fixed. Oh, I didn't hear about the tank. What do you like fuel tank?

Then we got the heater core fixed. Brand new. Radiator fixed. And then we found out that the

bearings, the wheel bearings were bad. Okay. You're a fucking chef by Megatron.

And then we did a while we're in there. Let's just take a peek at the diff. Make sure it's good.

Probably good. He did. It was not good. So we had to order a new diff. What the fuck happened to

this truck? We own, by all intents and purposes, a brand new C 4500. I mean, yeah. The only thing

that isn't new on that, I'm pretty sure is the frame. What about the battery? Yeah, it's a battery

battery. There's probably got a couple of new batteries. Two new batteries. This one takes two.

Yeah. Oh my God. It's like $900 in batteries. Oh my fucking God. Me and batteries got beef. Yeah,

I get it. But yeah, so we got that fixed. Differential was. Yeah. Didn't we have to,

like, I remember hearing about the differential and it was this whole thing of not only is it just

big, right? Even like big special tools to be able to even pull the shit out of there. Yeah,

it's like the, how do you even explain it? You had to have a guy come up and actually, like,

with that had the tools because it was cheaper to hire someone to come up and do it than it was

to buy the tool. That's why I buy a Chevy so I can work on it and go down the street and get parts

for it. And then it turns into this shit. Dude, we're going to vehicles. I don't care what model

it is. It was always turns into. It was pretty insane to see one of the sockets. Yeah. That was

like a three and a half inch socket. It was like fucking this big huge. And then the metal like

around it, you know, like just like the actual casing, it makes the whole thing like this fucking

big. And then it like gets size down and then size down again. But it's like, oh my God. And then

you pick it up and it weighs like nine pounds. Like this is just a normal one of the seven

sockets we need to tear apart the back end of this truck. Lord man. Not like good now or like

what's next? I don't know. I don't know. Is it complete? Is it different? It's the division. Oh,

okay. Yeah, brakes are on. Do you go for a victory lap? No. Oh, I don't even know. No. The truck

isn't for driving. No. The truck is for working. The truck is for looking at. Maybe driving. The

truck is like Johnny's just side hustle. He's just working on it consistently. I feel so bad for

that truck has spent more time at his shop than literally any other location in the country.

Yeah, we need to real talk. How long has it been since that truck went down?

Of the July 4th, July 3rd. No, July 4th. Okay. July 4th of

20, 24th, 4th. Damn. Going on two years. This summer it'll be two years. That's crazy, dude.

Yeah. That was because it was the same year as the S2000 went down. I'm so sorry. There's always

something going on with it. It's not like it's just sitting there either. No. Yeah, it's not like,

oh, we'll just get to it. It's like you've been constantly working on it. You know, the thing is

though is when I looked at my wife dead in the eyes and she's like, let it go to the shop,

let it get repaired at the shop. I looked at it dead in the eyes and I said, no. We're going to

take it back to the home. We're going to do it ourselves. We're going to save some money. We're

going to make content out of it. Right. So we did. We took it back here and we spent three times as

much money and it still doesn't run in two years. It's just been like, it's the domino effect has

been crazy because the running joke has been, well, nothing else can break on it. It's all new,

but somehow something else has managed to find a way to break. To break. And then it's like

detrimental. I'm convinced that because everything is so new, there's just so much more stress on

things that the pain is just now going through the rest. That makes sense with a break system.

It doesn't make sense for like the entire truck though. Yeah. Well, if I find the guy that

told me that truck, I'm going to choice words. I'm going to throw a chonkla so hard. I'm going to

say, man, there's only one thing I want fixed on that entire truck. Yeah. And I don't think it's

even been addressed yet. That's what I was going to ask. It always beeps nonstop the whole time you

drive it. Oh, what's going on there? Is it some of the ABS or what kind of annoying, isn't it? No,

it's like crazy annoying, like the most annoying. Oh, that was actually really good. I feel like

that was on pitch. It's fixed. Oh, God. All right. I can't believe you guys drove it that far

down to. Yeah. Well, it was dingy. How far is it? That was drift mansion. Yeah. Arkansas,

Missouri. Missouri. Missouri with it like that. I couldn't even take it around the block with

it doing that. You just got to roll down the windows and play some George straight and just

fucking let her eat. Yeah. Cause it kind of just goes into the song and it disappears before you

know it. It's like, it's like Chinese water torture. That was like it warming you. It's going to blow

I'm going to fucking blow. Pull over. That was a pretty terrible. That's been a pretty terrible

build. I'm so sorry. Yeah. It costs. I've actually done the numbers. Oh, that was a bad idea. Oh,

no. Terrible idea. It's an AMG. It's an AMG GTS. Jesus. Yeah. It's an AMG GTS. Jesus Christ.

Okay. I got to know then too. What's the plans? Is it to keep it then? Or are you going to?

What am I supposed to do? Put it on Marketplace? Sell it. Yes. Sell it. Yeah. I'm selling a 2008

Chevy. They're selling a brand new 2008. C4500. C4500. Two old socks. $60,000. Yeah. Honestly,

I might. Well, that's what I was going to say. Sometimes I know, I know how much you have it,

but sometimes it's like, I just need to be done. This curse needs to be lifted. Yeah. But sometimes

it's also like while everything is fucking new on it, so I'm going to keep it. And I get that.

I could see either way. It's a tough thing, but the mentality of like, oh, well, I've just done

so much to it, even though it keeps hurting me. It's like. That's why I just keep going back

to the conversation that my wife and I had about it. And it was like, we could have. We could have

an Illuma Duty. Right. And would have been done with it. And I'm still thinking to myself,

we could still maybe have an Illuma Duty.

Yeah. I mean, to be fair, the truck itself is pretty dope. Like it's got a, it's got aura to

it. It's a semi. It's a fucking semi truck, which is pretty dope. And I would love to show up to

like a riverside with three cars behind it. Yeah, me too. So that's what we're going to do. Or at

least once. At least once. Just once. And then we can sell it. Yeah, that's right. At least we get our

money's worth. Depending on how much we're going to have to drive to Japan in that. There we go.

Well, we do want to, we're going to take a small break, but enough for talking about our partners

of the Martini work podcast, Dakota, take it away. Continental is the sponsor of the Martini

works podcast. I love them. They make good rubbers. You know what I'm saying? I love Continental

ECSOT, DWSO six plus. What's the new one that just came out? Viking contact date. What's the other

one? Secure contact. All weather. Yeah. That's the one I was saying. Viking contact date. It's too late.

Or maybe you're ahead of the curve and you're getting your winter tires. Right now is the best

time to buy your next set of winter tires. No legit though. All of those tires that we just listed,

buy them. I guarantee you they're going to be some of your favorites you've ever put on. If you head

on over to Martini works, bunch of different sizes. They have a warranty with them and their warranty

is actually gnarly. So head on over to Martini works, check them out, pick them up. Whether you

have a daily driver, whether you have a weekend tracker at, whether you have a dedicated tracker,

they got something for you. So go pick them up in Martini works. Thank you to Continental for

being a sponsor of Martini works podcast. Perfect. I've been on one lately in regards to cars.

Oh. Okay. Yeah. Just like trying to find, because I just have so many cars that are running

underneath their own power right now and are 100% reliable. I can't even get through this.

Yeah. Anyway. S2K still doesn't have anything.

I've been looking for another car. You know, I've just been peeking around. Rightfully so.

Because there's just so many of them that are running. I just figured I could start a dealer

shirt. But then that got me into a whole different discussion because I started looking out on the

internet and the algorithm started picking up that I was looking at funky cars and the amount

of people on TikTok that were trying to convince me that the number one car that I need to buy

is a Porsche GT3 RS. I lost my goddamn mind. I was looking at like a $10,000 old Mercedes.

I thought the hype from that died. Well, kind of, except it didn't, not really. Oh no.

The edits are still happening. So I do have to ask you guys, like,

are there cars that you think maybe the internet potentially could have maybe ruined?

Yeah, 100%. Absolutely. We always get it on any video we ever make. It's like,

well, you're driving up the prices of these. Keep these secret. Like we single-handedly

control the market. Dots and 240Z, Dots and 240Z, Dots and 240Z. Oh my God. Every time you say it,

goes up $5,000,000. One for me that I would say is unfortunately the Mark IV Toyota Supra

because I did get the chance to get behind the wheel one. And I would say there's hype that's

1,000% warranted. When you get behind the wheel of a Mark IV Supra, everything comes rushing at you.

You have that like driver-focused cockpit. However, they are just completely overhyped to

oblivion to the point where this 300 horsepower car is now going for hundreds of thousands of

dollars, which doesn't make any sense at all. And now it's just, that's like the assumption

with it too when you see one. Like if it's not making 1,000 horsepower, then why do you even have

it? So it's just that car isn't what it's supposed to be anymore. It's like in supercar

territory now. And it's not a supercar. It's not supposed to be, but it is. And that's just because

of the internet and all the videos and fast and furious. I wonder how much horsepower was the

fast and furious one supposed to make? I don't know. It was a 10-second car. Probably like...

Well, I mean, originally the first fast and the furious was, what did he say? Was it Jason Lieberman

had a Mustang? And you're going to have to correct me, because the story might be off

completely, but it's close. He had a Mustang that he was, he used to do street races with,

then raced a Supra and lost to it. Then he wanted to get a Supra because it was fast. So he bought

a Mark IV Supra, modified it, tuned it, drag raced it. And that car acted as the initial

inspiration for the Mark IV Supra in the first fast and the furious, which is...

Play on his Supra that he had at the time. It wasn't the same car, but it was based off of that.

I think it was something along those lines, but his was, I think in like the 500 horsepower-ish

range. That's what I was going to guess, like 400 to 500 is what. And it was pretty damn quick.

I mean, according, I guess, this is again going way, way, way back, that it was a pretty,

it was a pretty fast car. So much for that. That's the other thing. I feel like the internet

hasn't just ruined cars. It's ruined speed. Yeah. It's so dumb. It's so dumb. You can't do zero to

60 anymore. It doesn't make any sense. It's like, it's, it's nothing and it's everything now. It's

like, how do you, how do you come? How do you measure what a fun car feels like? I'll die on

the hill. 300 horsepower cars are fun. Yeah. I like them. They don't need a thousand.

Thousand horsepower is cool. Yeah. But like for like daily drive, whipping around, going in the

mountains, you know, taking on road trips. I feel like three to 500 is like, you're in the money.

Yeah. I think a 350 horsepower car is everything that you would need to have to teach you how to

do anything with a car. Yeah. You know what I mean? And even like the, the S2000 when we're putting

the turbo back in is like, we want to get it to like 330 because we want it to match the E46.

Sure. As best as we can. But we have, I mean, cars of all horsepower variety here,

the Datsun also weighs 2,100 pounds and has 500 horsepower. And I have a feeling that it would

quite literally toss me into a tree the moment it could. So it's like, I don't know, power's not it.

I think obviously P cars, Porsches are rightfully great cars. But the GT3RS is an incredible car.

I've actually heard two groups now, people that will obviously love it for everything that it is.

But then some people that will like talk trash about it purposefully for attention as well.

Right. Yeah. And it's like, I think it was Cam Casey said that he didn't like the GT3RS because

it felt slow on the street and there was better to get a GT2RS as if like those two cars are in the

same ballpark of price point or anything. And I know he didn't mean anything by it, but it's like

that attitude of that car not being like super fast on the street is like one of the main reasons

that the car is like misunderstood from the get go. Like the GT3RS is like a great track car

that you can drive on the street. I think it even comes with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2Rs,

if I'm not mistaken. So I don't know. I think GT3RS is still a little bit overhyped.

I'm trying to think if there's another one. I'd say that the one that kind of got killed for me

was like the R35 GTR. Really? Yeah. And that was like kind of earlier on before like TikTok was

even a thing. Pre-COVID. Yeah. It was just everyone was doing like the huge flame tunes.

Yeah. Doing it at a car base. You're right. You're right. There was a lot of edits on that.

And it was like, yeah, it was really cool. And then it was like after the five millionth one,

it's like, okay, all right. It's like, I still, I think again, they're fantastic cars. They're

it's just because I just feel a little bit of like fringe about it a little bit.

I mean, they've also been out forever and they're still making the same exact car pretty much. But

I remember when they like first came out and I got a photo shoot booked with one. I was so

fucking excited. And I remember one drove into Beaver Dam one time, cringy 17 year old me or

however old I was, turn around, followed it to where they parked and then I was out. I got

out of my car and I'm like taking photos of it and shit. Like that's how big of a deal it was.

And now it's just like, oh, GTR, you know, but I still think like, I think they're one of the

best cars ever made. Yeah. I think the GTR is a great everyday car up north. Yeah. I'm not saying

they're bad. Fun and different. It just got ruined for me. Yeah. Um, on kind of similar note,

any G 35, G 37. I don't think you can even like those cars anymore, to be honest.

Or it's like you're not allowed to like them. Why can't you like just because of the stigma that

they've brought on with like all like the like tick tocks and like I feel like that shows shit

chargers, chargers too. Yeah. Yeah. That same same realm. Yeah. Any, any like real world drive

platform like that, that you can just throw around. You know what car ruined itself in real

life though. Not on the internet. Ultima. So those things are fucking trash. They did that to

themselves. I will tell you the internet. That just was, that was a natural. That was the most

awkward conversation I've ever had with Nissan before in my entire life because, because we did

something together during SEMA week with the Armada and then the Dune Patrol. And I remember we

were talking and I talked to an agency that they were working with and then I talked to Nissan

directly. And I remember like one of the introductory emails to me was like, hi Alex,

we really like that you make content in the automotive world. And we also are aware of

your recent Nissan video talking about the current situation with, you know, past decisions as it

relates to certain Nissan platforms and how that has impacted the stigma of Nissan.

That's corporate. Give me the cliff notes. And while we don't necessarily want to discuss that,

we wanted to maybe work together on potentially doing some content.

They're like, you hated the Z and you talked a lot of shit about it, but I like the Z.

Was it that? Was it? No, no, no. It was a, we ended up doing a thing with it. No, it was about,

because I did it. Why Nissan has the stigma with the Ultimas has a lot to do with their

subprime leasing strategy that they all day. Oh, that's what, oh, I didn't realize you broke it

down there hard on the Ultima. Yeah. So I did. I broke it all the way down. I literally boiled

it down to exactly what they did, how they competed, what they were able to do to fight

against Toyota and Honda. And like the Nissan Leaf had a $79 a month payment, which is crazy.

The Nissan Ultima had an $89 a month payment or $99 a month payment. Like when it came up,

I mean, it was, it was terrible. But then they didn't like the way that the actual lease worked

and the value of the vehicle over time. And Nissan really thought they were going to be worth more

than what they were after three years. I have never seen more clapped out destroyed vehicles

than it's an Ultima. It's across the country. It is. As you travel, it's consistent. I don't

understand. It's like, dude, it's so funny. I'm sure you guys have seen like the meme by now,

but it's like people found like the first one rolling off the line and they're like celebrating.

They had no idea what they were unleashing onto the world.

If you guys, if you guys were to not stereotype, but maybe stereotype a little bit,

we know the Nissan Ultima's got a bad stigma for their driving reasons. Is there another vehicle

that you think carries a pretty negative stigma that you would argue is accurate?

Yeah, I just remember in high school, if you ran into anyone with like a Pontiac Sunfire.

Oh yeah, that's a good or any of the related year make model of like GM vehicle.

It was always scary. I got a real weird one. Gels lives by this. Did I open

a Honda Del Sol owners? Always have the biggest drivers. Some big dudes drive the

always. I don't know. You said this before and I remember a guy came up to me when we were at

Gatlinburg and he was like, Hey man, how's it going? I'm like, what's up dude? He's like, dude,

it's awesome listening to your podcast. Really love what you guys are doing with martini works

and he's like, you got to tell the code. He's tell the truth. It's a little fucked up,

but he's telling the truth. I'm like, what truth? He's like,

big guys drive Del Sol's man. I don't know what it is. And I was like, do you drive it Del Sol?

He's like, hell yeah. It's not a bad thing. It's just a consistent thing that is true.

It's crazy. I don't know why that correlation is there, but it's just, you know what one,

I don't really believe and it sucks because we all like the memes and stuff, but it's like

BMW drivers with their blinkers. I really haven't noticed that to be honest with you.

I haven't. No, I think they use their directional about as much as everybody else.

I will say the one thing that I have found I've seen in Midwest culture is people who drive Tesla's

think they drive like a Lamborghini. I've kind of noticed a little bit of this like poshness

with some Tesla drivers like, but it's just a Tesla. It's a California Camry. I don't know if

maybe it's just because Midwest we like don't have them as much up here. Yeah, maybe. But like in

the West Coast, it's there everywhere. Yeah. I remember when they first started like really

pop up here. I mean, it was a surprise to me. It's like, oh, Tesla is kind of different.

Do you guys have a car opposite side? Sure. Cool guy. What's the like the little cartoon with

the guy with his hands in his pockets? And he's just the cool guy. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. What

what type of cool guy car stereotype do you think is true? Like what car owner do you think

embodies that like, God, they're cool. But like actually you're like, like they think they're

cool or they're actually cool. They're actually cool. We can talk about people who think they're

cool, but I want to like make those are two very different vehicles that I'm thinking of.

But I want to make it a positive podcast. So someone rolls up and you're like, that's a chill

guy. Yeah. Chill dude, chill dude, chill car. It doesn't have to be still car, but chill dude,

chill car. I think any dude that drives a convertible that's over the age of 35 is just a cool dude.

I'll take. Really? Yeah. Why? Because every everybody that I see that's like old and drives

a Mazda Miata convertible, they just look like they're having the time of their life. I'd say

chill. Old people that drive S 2000s have aura that I'll say. There's a guy over here that owns

a shop that has it. I know. I chase him down. It's a beautiful red S 2000. I've seen like every car

and it always blows my mind. I know it's old person driving right away because it's bone stock.

So I'm like immediately tuned in that look and it's like, damn, I saw the baller. I saw the

happiest old person again, driving a convertible, but it was a Nissan, Morano, Cabrio, Cross,

Berlay, whatever they're called. I think you're a nerd if you're driving a convertible.

You're over 35 specifically. What? Yeah. I think, I think they're posh. They have that's the same

energy as the Tesla driver, honestly. No, I got this car because the top goes down because he's

trying to have a good day. He's, you know, he's trying to celebrate all of his, his or her hard

work and get on a motorcycle. No. It's like the guys that ride with like the full leather

chaps and they're dentists and they're 48 years old. That's cool. It's not. No, no, it is not.

There's not many that like you just look at and instantly it's like, oh, you're cool.

That's a tough one. Our 107 Mercedes third gen. I'm saying it until I have one. I'm just

manifesting it. Yeah, I guess there is. I'm old Mercedes, old Mercedes. Yeah.

Man, I would. I'm Cadillac de Ville, the old one. Okay. Baller. Instant fucking aura. Yeah. Yeah,

you're right. Oh, I will say, sorry on TC. There's a Mario. There's a right hand drive 3000 GT

that rolls around here and it is like bone stock and stupid clean. And I think that guy is really

cool. I'm like, where did you get that? How do you have that? You're cool. Yeah. I like your car.

3000 GTs, man. Like that is such an interesting platform to still like support and love. Yeah,

they're quirky cars. They are and they're so cool and you just never really want to own one.

They're big boys. They have a certain smell to them too when you send them. If you've sat

in one, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I think just cars from that era and got a little

bit of oil. It's just kind of permeated the cloth. Now, like you're saying, what cars do you think

people think they're cool and maybe they're not the coolest? The cars themselves? Or yeah. Okay.

Any BMW with a crackle tune. I was thinking that. I was going to say Kia Stinger, like 335s. Kia

Stingers? Yeah. No, because I think Kia Stingers are the, they're like the Android phone users of

like the car game because they're like, they don't want to get a BMW because everyone has a BMW,

but they want to tell you that a Kia Stinger is as good as a BMW. So the first argument about

their Kia Stinger is that it's just as good as a BMW. No, you literally nailed it because

an Android phone user is like, look, I got this Android phone. It's so much cooler than the iPhone.

That thing runs like shit. It's going to break itself in five weeks and it's not cool.

Except the Kia Stinger, probably a little more reliable. I haven't heard any like reliability

issues or anything. I just think at the end of the day, you got a Kia and it's just like it looks.

There's a fine line between Honda Fit owners being the best human beings to ever interact and have a

beer with, and them being the absolute most insufferable people to do it. There is like this

very silver lining right here where they are, they were like one statement away on an internet

thread of being your best friend or being like, what the fuck are you on about? But if you bet on,

if you, if you driven a Honda Fit, especially on the track, you do, it is quite fun. It is quite an

enjoyable experience. I don't know. I think that's, that's about it. Dakota, anything else you want

to say? I think people with little ladders on their SUVs are weird. I think I got a big ladder.

Yeah, it's a huge ladder. I think sturdy as fuck. Hold me. I jumped up and down on it. I was like,

damn, this is impressive. Like while I was putting my roof rack on, I got nervous, but then I have

full confidence. Thing is, that one has been like the best like group of like car owners.

Like if you think of like this car, you might, man, I've always had a good interaction with those

best community. I've had, I've always had, I don't know what it is. I've always had a weirdly

good experience with any time I've tried when I've hung out with Hyundai group owners, like in the

West Coast. You have said that, yeah. They were all so nice. All the Adgera group when I used to hang

out, they were all so nice and there was not a single positive post I think I ever made about

their platform ever when I first started getting into it. You went in, you would constantly go in.

You know, we just love your opinion and you know, dude, you're right. Some of the suckers,

I'm like, wow. Okay. Why aren't you fighting with me? No, they're really good.

That's fair. I don't know. I've been a part of a lot of really good ones, honestly. Like,

surprisingly enough, my Mustang, that was a really good group of at least the local community

here all the time. They'd be like, hey, I'm selling this part. Are you interested? I'm like,

ah, yeah, I don't have the money for it. You didn't have it. And like, I feel like parts just

interchange between the community so nonchalantly. And that was always nice. Focus ST community,

another Ford, but they were awesome. That came to mind too, like they were super awesome. Yeah.

Yeah, they were super cool. And they didn't like constantly hate on other platforms in the group.

I've noticed something like the S550 Mustang people, they hate on like every other make and model

ever made. Oh, I know. I know. We made a video. They got to justify that purchase and why it's super

good. Forerunner community is so interesting. It's just a very big mix of you have completely

normal. This is a tool drivers, you know what I'm saying? Like I'm everyday traffic and then you have

the crazy fucking insane overland people and then everything in between it, like such a wide array

of people own those vehicles. It makes it really interesting.

How's the Ferrari F430 group? I was literally just going to talk about that. So there's two groups.

There's the people that you meet at the Concor who are exactly what you would expect.

And then there are the people on Facebook and the people on Facebook are actually pretty chill.

There's been a number of times where I've dropped a post or a question and you can tell that the

people on Facebook are not the first owners of said Corvette or the second or usually the third.

They're like the fourth plus and they're like those. Yeah, they get it. Bro. I don't know what the

fuck I'm doing with this. I just need to. Has anybody figured out how to make this work and

somebody else would be like, yeah, just use them like rubbing alcohol and you'll just wipe it down.

Ferrari charges like 400 bucks. You don't need to do that. Just like wipe it. So there's that.

The group is actually, it's just so small. So like you can scroll to 2024 in like a minute,

you know, like a post made once every three months. Yeah, pretty much. Besides that, it's not that.

I think any, I think any audience that is like open to learn is always probably the best.

Yeah. I think they all have their, their goods and their bads.

But we're going to take a small break. But not before talking about our next part of the Martini

Works podcast. Gels, stop beating up our wheels and talk about. Sorry. Speaking of wheels, that

of course is Motegi wheels, which is the wheel that I accidentally just beat up down here and

I feel really bad about it. But Motegi is a sponsor of the Martini Works podcast and we're

happy to have them on board because they've been doing some pretty cool stuff objectively

the last few years. They've been expanding their lineup quite a bit with their battle series and

some other wheel models out there. They're not afraid to experiment with some crazy finishes,

which I really like. I love the silver, black and bronze lineup as much as everybody else.

But every now and then I need a goddamn pop of color in there. And I think the red

is right behind Alex and the blue that's behind Dakota is a great example of that.

Kind of seen that fall off of the aftermarket wheel scene over the last few years and it's cool

that they're trying to bring that back and keep it going. I think they're doing a really,

really good job. They obviously have a flow form lineup of wheels, which come in at a really good

weight. And then overall, they, the wheels themselves come in at a really good budget

friendly price for what you're getting. And that is a solid wheel choice with a ton of different

options, whether flow form, whether it be cast and, of course, some really cool finishes. So

if you want to check out Motegi, we have them on the website over at Martini Works,

enter your make model, go and check them out, sort by Motegi and see if there's anything that

fits your car, because they do have some really cool stuff out there. And we're very happy to

bring them on for a partner of Martini Works podcast. We'll be right back.

Got some breaking news for you, boys. Oh boy, hit me with it, dude.

First up, Acura is now being sold in Japan coming up. Isn't that weird?

That is really weird. Why don't they just, why don't we just make it Toyota? Why,

why is it got to be Toyota and Acura and when Acura was only sold in the United States?

Honda. No.

Huh? Honda. Sorry. Yeah. That's what I meant. Jesus Christ.

Wait, why is it a big deal?

It's just weird because Acura was only in the United States. It was their US brand. And now

they're like, Hey, that's so good. We want some of that back. It's kind of weird because it's like

we have both over here. We have Honda and Acura over here, but they only had Honda.

I think it was probably they didn't quite know how good it was going to get. And now I think Acura

is quite successful. So starting in the second half of this year, the automaker will export the

American made Acura Integra Type S and Honda Passport Trailsport Elite to its domestic market.

So they're importing their own export. Yes. Yes. Give me it back. How do I tariff that?

I do. It probably has to do with the tariffs, to be honest, if I was a betting man, because they

probably are trying to alleviate some sort of like tariff impact. I would say if they're

importing quote unquote from the United States, would that have a better impact of them or sorry,

exporting from the United States for them importing to the United States? Yeah, they might be able

to be like, if you export one car made here, you can bring in one car made there and you won't get

tariffed on. So is Acura JDMS book now? No. Because it's still made in America. Somebody's going to

say it. But the Japanese want it. They know. That makes it cool. They want it so bad. No, it's only

cool if it goes to Japan and then you bring it back. Fair enough. It is kind of sick though.

All right. I got another weird one for you. All right. The BMW M2 will now come in X-Drive,

a.k.a. four-wheel-drive, all-wheel-drive setup. I believe, if I was reading this correctly, is

one of the last M cars to not have an X-Drive configuration. So that is honestly kind of

pissing me off a little bit. Like, part of me thinks it's cool and part of me is like,

all of these M trims are blending together and they're becoming the same exact car.

Yep. And what differentiates them any more? How many doors it's got? Barely.

Size. Yeah, to be fair, the whole Grand Coupe and M4 M3 debacle and M4 Grand Sport or Grand

Coupe or whatever it's called. It was all very confusing. The problem is, is BMW has a strangle

hold on its market right now. Like, they're probably doing the best out of everyone. I would agree.

And that's good, but a part of me does kind of hope that there was a little bit more adjacent

competition, you know, to that brand. Because now what are they pushing against themselves?

Literally, they're edging closer to Porsche. Like, every car they make, every price increase they

have, they're getting closer and closer to that like Cayman or, you know, GT4, you know,

kind of price range. No, obviously Porsche is still way more expensive, but I don't know.

Yeah, but still, it's like you're looking at like a new M3, M4, you're looking at

six figures, you know, it's fucking crazy. What's interesting here is it says the

four-wheel drive system will be paired exclusively with BMW's eight-speed auto.

So the manual is four. Probably because it works better.

Better. Yeah.

I would imagine there's something goofy with that.

Yeah, it has an included setting that allows fully rear driven operation with it, though.

Yeah. Then that's, wasn't there something weird with the GR Corolla with that,

with like it switching like the bias where it was like causing an issue or something?

I can't remember. All I know is that I'm always a little nervous about all the,

the reason I like the M2 so much is not necessarily like the big power it has,

but it was like the simplicity of it is like it was a more basic version of like the M3, M4.

Like Lars's M2, I would always consider probably like one of the best BMWs you can buy.

The car was fantastic. Manual had a great chassis, great wheelbase, and but it was like simple.

It was effective and it was simple. And then when you went up to M3 and M4 and it got more

complicated, there was more to it. Now you can get in a fully loaded M2 or even like a base

model M2 and it's like, you got, you're in a goddamn fighter jet. It's like,

I kind of wanted the non-fighter jet version and just like, you know,

a little bit more of an analog driving experience, but maybe it's just going away.

I get what you're saying. Both have their place though, because it's like, I get into that like

G80 M3 style and dude, I love it. I love even all the tech, everything it has in it.

But also like you get into an older BMW like, oh, this feels right. Like Eddie's home.

But I like both. So I have trouble. I think I think BMW has done a great job with their

kind of like dated interiors, like before, before the G80, even like the F80 stuff. And before that,

man, they did such a good job with, with a lot of their stuff. They, the interior stayed good

for super long. Like that's the thing that always suffers like Japanese interior cars.

I feel like they just, we were actually just talking about they age like shit. We were just

talking about this. I don't age that great. I was talking to Dakota this morning because

we had a car come in the build thread and it was like a Evo 10. And I was like, man,

like, do these cars still hold their ground in 2026 or have has like over like the past like

five or six years? Have they kind of lost that foothold again? Because like the prices really

haven't gone down on them in a sense as much as you, but like they're continuing to age and

they're continuing to get up there in miles. And it's like the one thing was like, yeah,

the interiors never were the greatest out of the get go as a Mitsubishi interior.

Outside of course, there are car seats. Yeah. But I think that MR's might have came with a

digital dash. Sure. I never used it and I don't know how good it was. But yeah, like you get into

the manual, the GSR and it's like those things. You look like you're getting into any base model

Mitsubishi. It's like, damn, that really aged like piss. Obviously, you're not getting

an Evo 10 because you want a cool radio. But at the same time, if you're spending 30 grand on a

20 year old car, it's got to have some nice features, right? Like more than just a turbo.

But no, it's tough. If you can find the right one, though, it's still a good deal.

What do you guys think is the best interior? The best interior of all time? BFW.

What? Like a specific model or like, are we talking like, I would say like, like generation

brand? Try to try to get it to a model. If you can. Oh, shit. All right. I have two. Okay. I'll go

first. That's okay. Number one, the best interior for a car, in my opinion, still is undisputedly

the Honda S2000. I think they nailed the interior of like everything that car was intended to do,

that car has. And it's perfect and everything is hidden away unless you want it. It's very

like hidden. It's very humble. I think it's fantastic and a little start, stop. It's a

little cheesy, but I think it's perfect. The second one has to be a Gen 2 R8 interior.

The Gen 2 R8 interior with its like integrated dials with the display for like the AC and the heat

and all the buttons still being tactile, but you still having this beautiful touch or not

screen, but this beautiful display for your driving. It was like the best combination of

both digital and haptic feedback in an interior. And I loved it. I think this is bias and it's

more of like, it's not probably like the best interior, but one that has always stuck in my

mind was my E36 interior. Like it just, I got in it and it was like, it was a 1995 car, but like,

it just felt right. And it had like heated power seats that had all of the right stuff.

Like it just looked really nice, in my opinion. And it was like an all black like leather interior.

And it's just like, dude, this was really nice for 1995. Like just felt really right. And so like

whenever we like hop in like Lars's E46, even I kind of get that like similar feeling of like,

man, I can miss that car sometimes. Like it was a piece of shit, but I like the interior.

It's a super hard question because it really depends on what you need or what you're using it for.

Because I'd say like from a driver perspective, yeah, I'd agree with Alex. The Honda S2000 has

one of my favorite interiors ever. I also got the chance to drive a 930 Porsche 911. And that I

don't know if there's a more driver focused like car that you can get in and just like feel everything

is so analog and you feel directly connected and you get that like driving experience like driving

an airplane like the manual like levers and shit. Yeah, there was so many and like the analog clock

and everything and then just how the how you see out the windshield to the hood and how it dives

down and then you have the headlights that stick up and how it almost feels like it's tracking

for you like you have something to like use as I die. Yeah, it's such an interesting so like from

a driver perspective, I'd say but would I want to drive it across the country? Right. I mean,

I would but not really because I got cupholders and where am I going to put my snacks? Yeah. So

it's it's tough. I would say to got to drive. I know we were just talking about like the M3,

M4s across California and then take them to the track and like it did that perfect. It was like

those things. Yeah, you could in city driving getting stuck in traffic for three hours and

congested lanes versus ripping on the track. It did both perfectly. Largest interior on his M5.

Beautiful. That is like you're staying in a luxury hotel room with 500 horsepower. Yeah,

just at the flip of a switch. Yeah, it's crazy. I would say to like any of like the AMG like

Mercedes stuff like the E55s and shit like that. Like there's just so many like crazy

things that they hid in those cars for no reason in particular that they should even be in there.

But it was meant to be like, oh, this is this is for. I just don't see any of that

working after 10 years. Right. When it came out, it was. 90s Mercedes Benz electrical system working

is the most like the eighth wonder of the world. It is it is so cool. Yeah, there's some really

cool cars out there and if you guys are ever getting stuck in like a single brand or model,

you got to try and expand, test some new things. We actually, I think, are just about to put up

a video talking about like what car is best for you or like what car should you buy. And I really

recommend that you give that a watch if you're kind of on the fence of buying a car. If you want to

check out a really goofy interior and it was like really kind of it was like those like 90s,

like like futuristic style of like this is what stuff's gonna look like in like 20 years.

It was like the Mazda like, you know, it's Cosmo. The interior of that car is fucking crazy.

Like the dash is super interesting. You just check that out. Throw a picture up here. Yeah,

check it out. It's really neat. Yeah. I always want to buy a K car. I got one more breaking news

for you guys. Nissan Zs are going to be sold a little bit differently moving forward. Oh, MSRP?

Below MSRP because they are now going to be made to order. So some people look at that and they're

hyped and other people are really up in arms. And so that's stupid. I don't think that's stupid.

I think that's going to hurt the the used market 100%. Yeah, because now the people that want to buy

them will buy them. But because they want to buy them and want to keep them because they made them

for themselves, that's going to drive up the price and it's going to bring down demand in the second

hand market. That's the best part about Zs is like not being the first owner, being like the third

owner. Yeah, exactly. Depreciation has already hit and you've got a super cool. I still think like

Nissan and the Z is the most overhated car, but for the most authentic reason. Like it should not

get as much hate as it gets, but it's so justified as to why people don't like it. Give that car

two, three more years. It's going to be an absolute bargain of a car like $30,000 twin turbo 400

horsepower manual. That's perfect. Perfect. Yeah, it was just when I was going for $70,000.

Wasn't a huge fan of comparing it to a Mark V Supra that was objectively better in almost every

single way. Yeah, the Nismo Z will be coming out in the manual here as well shortly. That'll be

cool. Those are going to be hell expensive. The Nismo Z, I think looks awesome. Yeah, I think that

thing looks sick. Like lower it a little bit, kind of get some arrow on it. But I think like what

they did with the front bumper is like, yeah, the Nismo's have always done a better job with

the overall styling in my opinion. They do it on purpose. I just wish they didn't make the base

model so ugly. Like just a little sharper would be kind of rad. But with that being said, we hope

you guys enjoyed this week's Martini Works podcast. Thank you so much for listening and thank you so

much for all the support. And if you guys and gals are still looking for car parts, maybe you still

got that tax refund hiding in your bank account and you don't want to save it because nobody

likes saving money anymore. You want to build a car. Come do it with us. We actually partnered

with Catapult to give you 2% back on your cart when you check out with Catapult so you get a

little bit of money back in your pocket so that you can make it a little bit easier on yourself.

And we just added a ton of new product. We've got like 1600 new wheels on the website,

advance, gram lights. We just restocked up on some work wheels, which is really, really exciting.

And so if you're looking for stuff, we'll entire packages shift right to your door,

lowest prices, get a little discount when you package them together.

Let us know. It would mean the absolute world to have you modify your car with us at Martini

Works. That being said, what are we missing? Have a great weekend.

Nailed it.

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