Crazy Toyota Driving; Mercedes Engine Surprise; Lawsuit Update

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

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Alright folks on this episode of the podcast. We talk about the beauty of AMG in line

sixes

The statistical predictions for what would succeed succeed and fail in our YouTube channel have actually come

Perfectly true my wife beat Elon Musk in court and Zach got to try a

smorgasbord of fast

Toyotas on both the racetrack and a rally stage. It's the smoking tire podcast. Let's go

Shout out to miss Lala. Hi everybody. Welcome to the program

We

Have a whole bunch of things to talk about. Did you just pour like regular water into your coffee?

It's tea so I'm cooling it down so I can drink it faster so I get the energy during the show not after the show

Right, right, right gotta time this plane like it's just English breakfast. Good. Yeah, good. Is there

Is it the same amount of caffeine in a cup of tea cup of coffee? It's less. It's different. I just I'm reading Michael Pollan's book

Like plant drugs or your mind on plants or something

So the first first one was about opium poppies like it's four sections sure on the caffeine section now

So there's other things in tea that like mellow out how the caffeine feels

It's not just about how many milligrams there are got it

But there's also usually fewer milligrams roughly don't come at me bros like then in a cup of black coffee. Got it. Got it

Got it. I'm on plants

Yeah, you are I'm on you know, so you're kind of vegetarian. Sometimes I'm on plants. Yeah. Yeah, I mean sometimes I'm drinking them, right?

Sometimes I'm alcohol is made from plants smoking. I'm you know, what do you sometimes your own plants?

I'm not snorting them. I just got

Insta congestion from a sneeze that happened 15 minutes ago and despite all the nose blowing I could muster

It's not gone away yet

Thanks to everybody who bought a ticket to the willow springs event

Yeah, I see no profit sharing of any kind, but it is now sold out

There's apparently a flip market and multiple people have contacted me Wow about yo, you know where I can hook those tickets

I'm like, I don't I'm sorry

I might have actually bought extra ones. So I could did you

Bullings for a little wonky for that for me for a minute

Oh, I did have extra tickets that I gave back to them because I don't know what to deal with them

So I don't have no tickets. I'm not participating in the flip game

Cannot that's the circular economy Matt and video is doing it with open AI. We should do it

I know I you know, we could be really much richer if I was willing to just

Scam every dollar out of every little thing. You know, that's usually how people get

Richer, but no, but people are coming. We're doing a live podcast. Don't know what time yet, but during the event

We will figure gonna be there. We're gonna be there. I sure figure it out. Yeah

In the meantime

like three people emailed me and said you have to talk about the fact that this racetrack pit race outside of

Oh, yeah, Berg is

Was bought by somebody and they intend to close it and not just redevelop it

It's not like if they're putting housing or something there. I'd I'd be like, ah, it's a bummer, but we need housing

No, they're they're putting a data center. Oh, God

Like you're all your electric bills are gonna go up. What are you? That's the most insulting like

But have you seen Sora 2 map? Look at this video. It's a dolphin driving a car

And you're gonna remember it for and you forgot and it's gone and it's gone

Yeah, exactly that exactly that thing and

Yeah, I've never been there I don't have any personal connection to it

But from the emails I've gotten it's apparently like the only even moderately legit motor sports facility in the area

It's where they did that vintage Grand Prix this overhead view looks like a pretty nice place to drive a sports car

Yeah, that's so it's a very it's a real bummer, but there's also

There was a petition I sent Zach the email

There was a petition that will put in this in the notes of this show

So all you have to do is sign the petition. I don't know what the petition is gonna do

this is actually it might work because Microsoft just bailed on building a

Data center in your Minneapolis, I think because the community pushback was so really okay, so

Yeah, I mean there. Oh there it is safe pit racetrack from closure change.org

40 4,800 signatures

And that's an important part of our car culture and I think I think

I swear I'm so overloaded with news that it's hard to keep it straight, but I swear someone just proposed some

Common sense legislation that says if you move near or build or buy a house near an

Existing motorsport facility you are not allowed to complain. I saw that too. What state was that I forget what state it was but

Finally someone same kind of thing, you know, let's fucking go over here

so I

Signed it and and you guys certainly can too it doesn't cost you nothing

Let's see Iowa did it and

Land famously full of racetracks, Iowa. Oh

North Carolina just passed it. Yeah

People might be in NASCAR country. Yeah NASCAR protect the right to race act. Yeah bill

Yeah, a racing facility shall not be subject to any action brought by a surrounding property owner under any nuisance or taking cause of action if the developer

Obtained all the permits for construction

Dibba Dibba Dibba Dibba while the track was there where the facility is located. Yeah. Yeah, you can't move near a racetrack

And then complain about it. That's like fuck. Oh, yeah

It's like if they if they built the track or even got all the permits for it before

The other developer around it showed up then you can't complain aka finders keepers

That's right aka

Fucking I mean I got it's got it's very American. There's nothing more American than saying got mine. Fuck you

Well, it's funny. It's two conflicting parts of America. There's there's I was here first. Yeah, which

America didn't listen to when we first arrived and then there's actually this is ours

Can you turn this racetrack down? That's actually more American. Oh, it's actually shit. You're right

It's more American to do the shitty one

Yeah, oh, you're totally actually well

Yeah

Yeah, no

It's definitely more American to do the shittier one. You're very right

If your last name is Custer and you own a racetrack and you're mad about the neighbors getting mad at you

That's an awkward moment. Come to the final night of destruction at Custer Raceway. It's gonna be a big one

one down

So but anyway to go back to

To that that's why it's very important that Willow Springs is a success

So we don't end up in a in a place where they have to sell it and build some fucking data center

Cuz dude, that's where they would build a data center

Isn't it like just on the edge of like a smallish town probably doesn't have the power to fight them

Kind of middle of nowhere

I you know, they should build a data center at California City if they're gonna do it right like just puts no one's there

Yeah, yeah for the most part. Yeah, there's I think like 12,000 people there

Then go further east. There's no one there. Just go to the desert

Speaking of do we actually ever talk on the show because it happened while I was gone

Did we talk about it when I called in from the racetrack that about Hannah's lawsuit?

No, you texted me. I texted you. You allowed to talk about it. Yeah, okay

I'm sure you're done. All right, so I mean for for those who didn't know my wife used to work at Twitter and

There's a lot of people that like don't understand how timelines work and like to think that like I

Only don't like Elon Musk because of the Twitter layoffs

Which is a hilarious thing to think because I literally also they use the same one where I called him a fraud on Joe Rogan

They use that clip also that happened before she even worked there

So those two things can't also be true, right point being right?

It's the same to yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so point being

When she and you know, 3,000 whatever other people were fired

More than that however many it was

She didn't take this element. She fucking fought the fascist. She sued and

it took

Two years and whatever during which time she mostly was not working

But she fucking won that's off. She

She she won

Essentially, you know two years of salary she won

Her all the stock she would have gotten but at like 30 percent interest on all of it really yeah

Yeah, so it's not it's not like it's not like retirement money by any means

But like and it doesn't necessarily make up for the mental anguish of being like cast aside as

Worthless and then along with thousands of other people and then not being able to find a job for two years

But

It does more than financially make up for it and like most importantly like you fucking beat bullies by standing up to them

Totally like you don't you you know like I think I think it's it's the percentage of people that are winning their trials

Just in Hannah's the law firm that she worked with is like high 80s like like the high eight if you fight him

Like high 80s right is your percentage of winning because they didn't have grounds for firing

Because they just said it

Yeah, yeah, yeah

So anyway, she has won a fucking enormous amount of money

Which is great now we're gonna redo the landscaping in the front yard

I'm just gonna go get herself some fucking diamonds

It iced up

And we're having t-shirts made that says I beat a fascist in court and you can too

Which everybody should be wearing those yeah pretty much, but yeah, I mean look it's I guess it was

In some ways like a privilege to be able to fight

She didn't need to like live on the one month salary that they were offering in that one month and maybe other people did

But it you know

Definitely was the right move to like tell him to go fuck himself and sue another reason among so many reasons that having

Like your unemergency fund yeah

Everybody's like you should do that if you don't have one now start saving for one for so many reasons

But sometimes these companies will fire people and they'll offer them penny offer you pennies for silence or acceptance

Yeah, and to be able to say no and keep your integrity is is a privilege and a strength if you can and

I will have to see how much she's comfortable saying and

It'll not until the fucking money hits the account, but like

You know she signed the original

You know the original paperwork when she went to work there

But she did not sign the thing you know when when she was fired where it was like take this money and sign the fucking non

Disparage like she definitely did she sign the NDA in the beginning, but did not ever sign like the non

Disparage so I think she can I think she could tell some stories

Pretty sure she the printer story is too good a little bit that was reported on the printer story code

The tiny bit that was there was published in the news isn't anywhere near as funny as the entire truth of the printer story

It's fucking too good to not tell

Yeah, the tiniest bit just Google print your code

You'll find it add the search term Twitter and

That's kind of like the these things should not exist at once. It's like, you know, put this code on paper

Print your code right in cursive. Yeah, but there was a whole bunch of other reasons that print your code is really really stupid and bad

But yay for my wife

Fuck fascists

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remember when we talked about like

Like you know like what's depressing about YouTube like things that are work things that don't work like basically what Kevin said

Hmm, like you want to be successful in YouTube talk about

Drama or like shit on something popular right talk about money

right or like

Do the like big the big risk thing right take a take a big financial risk

And I was talking to someone about our video top videos of the in the past 12 months

And I pulled it up in the in the analytics top videos

numbers one two and three are

Shitting on the Cybertruck. Mm-hmm. Yeah by a long shot. I'm sure the the zinger

Which set which the title of which is a title I hate but need

Which is it is this is the only car that's worth

$2.3 million to the credit. I can't even believe I had to write a title

Saying that because to say to an audience with a straight face this thing is worth two million dollars is like a fucking douche ass move

but it undoubtedly works and

Number three is buying a depreciated used Tycon

Those are aren't like literally the three things that he said are our number one two and three videos

One I didn't enjoy making the Cybertruck one

One I loved making but didn't I'm ashamed that I have to title it that mm-hmm and the other one

Yeah, it did. Well, I had to spend $70,000

To buy a whole ass car all you to do that is do that every two weeks

Like, you know some other insiders have done and then by the way in case you're wondering

Do you want to take a fucking whack at what all seven of the remaining top ten have in common?

Money the portion 9-11. Oh my god all seven of the remaining ones are portion 9-11 videos

They're a feverish audience. So like it begs the question

Like I mean it genuinely begs the question especially based on what I was saying to

Moto man George Notaris a couple weeks ago while Zach was gone

He shit-canned his whole channel because it was baggage and started over with a new channel

Why did he just get rid of old videos that were dragging stuff down?

Yeah, he was told by experts that his own channel was holding him back Wow, and he and he

Shit-canned it made one last video. That's like here's where I'm going here's where to find me and

You know, he was getting 25,000 35,000 views, you know his first video

He puts up at the new channel is like 90,000 using his second one is

50,000 it's still way above, you know, it's and his engagement is up his comments up

People are finding him that have never heard him before so it does beg the question like do we fucking shit-can the whole channel?

and start a new channel that's like

TST Porsches or something I mean seriously like if that's what it's gonna be like

I we didn't we've made videos about a million other cars

Yeah, but like this is where this is what people are going to hmm

I don't know I have to talk to more experts in person for sure

But that is curious that you could because we've talked before about the algorithm helping out new people

Mm-hmm, and if it thinks you're new channel might be too old might be too old

Which is our channel might be just too fucking old and like I'm pretty sure they're like with the podcast and with the Instagram

And with whatever like we probably could get a good chunk of whatever our

Million subscribers are like whatever of those are like real active people

We could probably get them and like who knows maybe we could like make more money with fewer subscribers on a new channel

Because they'd be real engaged people. I wonder if there's something in the algorithm

We're having like you know quote dead subscribers like if yeah

If so many of your views are coming from outside your subscriber base any of your views are not that high if it if the algorithm

Just goes ooh, okay. We're gonna keep bearing this. Yeah, so I mean it is entirely possible that that we could be

Getting crushed under the weight of our own channel

I've our own success. Let's let's be nice. I mean yeah, I mean well

That's the other thing is you that doesn't happen unless you first are successful

You have to have been around for a while, but we might have to go fucking Jefferson Starship

You know right I mean it doesn't mean like throwing away away the brand it literally just means a new like URL

Right, and you just call it TST. Yeah, you would call it. Yeah something, you know something

Yeah, there would be immediately identifiable as us, but just like a different fucking link

So Kevin, I know you're listening

You know he yeah, I mean like he couldn't have been more right

He would be the one two and three each an example of the three things. He said would work all of which

I don't like doing yeah

That's the hard thing for sure right. Yeah, right. It's dude, and I and I'm so like I was thinking about it this morning

like I'm really jealous of

Doug

Because Doug's car review videos are we're experiencing the same trajectory as ours bigger numbers

But still and but now he's got all this data from the auctions

And so now he's got you know his clips and his videos are like market

Analysis which God bless him he likes doing but like he has the data sure and like you can talk about money in

Sort of a non douchey way

By doing that. Yeah, that's true

Vin Vin did that a little bit on his channel

He's done some of these like used 9-eleven comparisons where it's like my friend bought this for 20 this for 30 this for 40

Yeah, so it's like approachable amounts of money and relative of course, but like compared to what 9-elevens cost new

You know it's a tenth or a fifth of that. Yeah, and it's kind of like market analysis with driving in sounds. Yeah, I

Mean there's the there's there's different ways to do things, but um it is

It was depressingly clear by looking at things like what you know

What what is going to be successful?

I should look at the click-through rate because I think I played with the titles of zinger a bit

You do an ab test or something. Yeah, they do like abc test now, which is really handy that's built into YouTube

I wonder how much is like from the the picture the craziness of the car the story is kind of exclusive

And then how much is the title? It comes together. Yeah, yeah, there's not a lot of people that have driven those cars

They are weird, you know, they immediately look different

and

And the story had just come out about them setting the track records, etc.

So like that one. Yeah, good good good storm of things

Titled in hurt. Mm-hmm. You know, I've been held in hurt

Sure, and there's other things about the tycon video other than host risk is risks huge amount of money on depreciating thing and and there's

You know, maybe something about the Cybertruck video besides it's just popular person shitting on other popular, you know thing

But but it just it brings that kind of thing into focus. Definitely. Yeah

Pretty sharp because the other end of it that was bumming me out because I now I remember why I was talking about it

Because that we did the totem GT video and I was talking to my dad up at Pebble Beach

And he was asking how videos were going and I was like it

Kind of fucking sucks because it has nothing to do with how good a job like you do

It's like it's that you could do you could make a nice video

But like I showed him this totem the totem video

Which is like such a beautiful car really interesting in theory like all the things that we want

You know analog and light and blah blah blah crazy

And it's just not done very well compared to the hypercar that everyone says they're sick of

You know and yeah, and oh by the way, here's the revenue on this one and here's the revenue on this one and yikes

Yeah, you know and and so

You know for what is effectively the same amount of work

I mean, I think that makes sense to me because the zinger is

If you're an engine if you're into any kind of car and you see that thing you're gonna

Go what the fuck is that? I'm watch it the totem is like you have to be I think into a resto mods into European

Resto mods maybe into alphas like I think it's just a smaller market even though I think the craftsmanship

You know of it appeal should appeal to everybody but to get that across in a thumbnail is really really hard. Yeah

I guess I I guess maybe zingers SEO is better than I think it is

But also it does look like alien spacecraft that that goes a long way alien spacecraft is a thing. It looks insane man

Yeah, it doesn't look like a car. Yeah

Yeah, well, it's F zero like you said the front shot straight up F zero. Yeah, they can't all be that yeah

And if they all were the audience would get bored. Yeah

And actually, you know, I read through some of the comments in the totem GT video

It seems like I'll ever everybody a lot of people were commenting about the tire rub

I mean on the one hand to give a car like that to the media to drive on video where you know

What's gonna happen is sort of?

Terminally stupid that's just a dumb thing. It's because people are gonna remember that like people are when people someone goes

Oh, did you see that video that have you seen this totem thing? Someone's gonna go. Yeah

I saw Farrah's video and like rubs everywhere like the fuck is that about and they're gonna remember that thing

It's not no one's gonna be like, oh, well, you know

If it's a magazine test and they can't hear it you could forgive it

It was basically set to like show heart show car height for quail to like look cool like they they lowered it

Essentially and they didn't raise it back up a little bit for us to drive it. That's what Ricardo said, okay?

I think I think it was that low, but I will say that

It's a new company and if that's all that's wrong with that car

Which to my opinion really was the only negative then they can change that pretty easily well

There was two negatives for me one was the the steering feel. Oh, that's right

the geometry and yeah the way that that changed and and and

Ricardo from totem pretty much said that that really can't be changed

That's because they had to bend the steering shaft around the much wider twin turbo v6

Remember there was a straight line for there. So the shaft would just go straight past it now

It's got a knuckle in it. So that and then other geometries like there's just not really a way around that got it

because they have to sort of use the

Firewall from the original car right kind of like all that's left

So yeah, okay, and then so there's that but then it also was rubbing in corners

He did he said look we set it really low

So it looked really cool at quail the normal ride height is like you know half an inch higher

And it doesn't rub which I believe I believe they said it low to look cool

And I believe they didn't take the 30 minutes or whatever however long 30 however long it takes to raise it back up

I believe they didn't do that, but I believe that the car has another option besides rubbing

I that's what I'm saying is I think that that is it's not a flaw like a fundamental flaw to the construction of the vehicle

Right something that they can get rid of right the steering. Unfortunately. It sounds like they can't get rid of so

You know if you're shopping for these test drive one first, but

Well, and I think they they they're gonna see this video and they're gonna go

we don't want this to rub and they're gonna you know make adjustments or have someone else drive it or whatever and

Like I have faith that that company will be around because I think their work is so good. Sure. Yeah

No, it's not even the steering like

It's it's it's not great, but it's like man the rest of that thing is so nice like

Maybe I wouldn't like it but like most people would live with it most people wouldn't see it as as much of a problem

I do but like it's a very beautiful car. It sounds really cool. It's clearly it looks fast on video

Which is a tough thing to do. Yeah, you know for a car like that

It's it looks fast, but like it's it's actually far faster than it looks. It's really really really nuts

So please go check out that video. It's over on the

The dead and dying YouTube channel to figure this one out

And before we get to some questions

Because we do have a lot of those some save from last episode some new ones, you know, I'm driving

I've had a revel bit of a revelation today. I'm driving this Mercedes

CLE

53 convertible and

This has the inline six in it

And I gotta say

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When you head to smalls.com slash tire and now back to the show

And I gotta say

This is the motor

This is the AMG once did some pretty cool inline sixes like back in the day like the W124s had inline sixes

And they had a couple of nice inline sixes. There was like a C 36 or e

E36 AMG that was like pretty cool. I had like a hot, you know, dual ever head cam head

And it was sort of like a BMW s54 type of engine

So this has this six cylinder and man when you kind of it's smooth really nice

It's the car. I think Carl looks great actually it's and and when you rip it this thing is like

This has this real nice slick inline six like a BMW on a good day

Like a really good BMW inline six here. You're saying yeah, fuck yourself. I'm into it

Now would you take this over and four liter, you know twin-turbo like that's not like an option right now

Like I keep you know that 63 is like the four so that's right. That's gone

So this is definitely better. This is way better than that. Yeah way better and

like

Obviously that four liter V8 in the in the big E 63 is awesome

But given like what's great about AMGs is like the the real AMG engines

That feel special or like real are good and and and that's kind of what makes it and so this one is one of those

Where you go? Okay, it's not it's not the most powerful. Can you actually look at?

I don't even know how much power it makes. I'm I'll know when I need to know

I don't need to know yet. I've been driving it for one day

How much power does this make? Let's see or 29. Yeah, it feels quick

It's good. It's a it's a mild hybrid. So it's got a little bit of electric

Little bit electric assist the stop starts really nice got good seats. I actually really like the ride and

There more information

The

The convertible is a hundred grand even and it's got this one's got a bunch of options on it

You know good good paint good wheels, but oh wait, I might have been wrong might be

600 horsepower

No

That's an E. This is the CLE which is more like gonna be more like the I think the C class

Let's see

443

That's yeah, that's probably okay. Yeah, okay 443 at 5,800. Yeah, that seems right

So it's scoots. It feels it feels powerful and quick. I like this

It doesn't feel problematic the way like the inline four is so buzzy and

Yeah, that's the problem with those 45 with those four cylinders is like they're juiced up like yes

They objectively make a bunch of power, but they feel like tuned up evo motors. They don't feel like

Luxurious product. Yeah, this is a luxury engine for sure. I'm into it

Yeah, and actually my trainer who is the is the the arbiter of like is this car cool in the streets

He is he was like he saw that car and he was like how much is that like 150 160 grand and I was like no

It's a hundred flat and he was like

That's it. That's the one right there. It looks good. It looks better than the SL

It looks nice. Nice. I haven't seen the front David. I think it's parked here when I got here, but

Yeah, the engine makes sense. I love I know I'm biased but like the inline six is it's the lack of vibration

It's a smooth luxurious experience. Yeah, and a car like that. It makes a lot of sense

You know if you're gonna go lesser than the big rowdy rumbly thing don't drop to this buzzy four-cylinder

Especially like this is the 53 but that's somehow the 63 like fuck out of here. Yeah, that's not good. That's no good

Yeah, so yeah, let's go

We actually talk about toyotas for a little dude. I've completely forgotten because I went last week two weeks ago

I went to Sonoma to drive

Every Toyota available on the planet. Okay, this was this was Toyota thon and what I think it was is

I mean me being a cynical

Sarcastic asshole was like they don't have any major changes to any of the cars

So they just brought everything and like do you want to drive all these little increments at the track?

I said, yes, I would love to do that. Yeah, because the great thing they did

They had the 2026 York roll out there. They had a new the final edition Supra

GR86 yuzu edition and then use use edition like the food. Yes. It's yellow. It's got quad exhaust and

It tastes delicious when you look at the dash. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you can eat the car

You can eat the car

Snosberries tastes like snosberries a hundred percent. I mean, it's it's a very cool. It's a good yellow

It looks a lot like you know sonic yellow or anything else

And then they had the

Corolla like cross-cabrio hybrid thing and I was like, I'll drive from the racetrack, please but

Open lapping open lapping

Wait, no

Yeah, yes, open lapping once you do like orientation, but they had you had to do a pit and pit out couldn't do fly by on

Front straight into turn one

Kind of understand why also disappointing

Kind of you know why they made up for it

they let us drive a rally course like a

dirt road with

No walls. I

Was shocked in the GR Corolla. It was like two miles long. Really? Yeah

I'll tell that story first all day. I their line for it was big. So I got in line for that and

You go for a ride with Ryan Turk?

Super fun video

Putting up a little Instagram video tomorrow Ryan is not a rally driver as he stated and as we know and

What was funny about it? Formula drift driver. Yeah, if you're you're listening like yeah, he's a formula drift driver

He's a very good one. He's been doing it for a long time for Toyota and

They kind of put him in this because he's like a brand ambassador

But meanwhile, there's a gentleman who was doing

Like the Scandi flick instruction over at a dirt lot. Yeah, who's like a seven-time national rally champ in the United States

Yeah, and as I said this around like that's how you know how little money there is an actual rally

Like people do it for the love of the game and it's the most fun in the world. Yeah, but like

The champion is like champions over there because no one knows who he is

And he was such a nice guy I forgot his name

I'll remember later

And so he would just teach you the pro guy would just teach you to do a Scandi flick and a dirt lot

So Ryan takes me on this ride

We hit 106 miles per hour up in the hills above Sonoma on dirt on dirt over crest big slides

And we get done and he's like alright

You can get in line and then get in one of the other cars and I do when there's a guy sitting right seat is driving instructor

The lack of oversight was perfect man

Like it's not like the guy just didn't say anything and I was making a video so I said alright

Let's do hand gestures

So if I need to slow down or stay right just do that and he's like great. That's what we did

Mm-hmm. I didn't hit anything. He didn't feel he didn't poop

Yeah, but I mean I was sliding this car at 60 miles an hour awesome like left-hand third gear

And then there was a handbrake turn at the bottom of a hill so much room for error

Wow with use the handbrake and stock car

And this is Toyota like they automatic or manuals no manual

They were having you use the handbrake. Yeah, it was the greatest. That's fucking shocking

Shocking. How was it on? How were they on dirt? Really good? Yeah, the car. I drove under it was a 2025 and we can get into the differences

I was very impressed with how it soaked up all the little bumps and ruts

And it just felt like really composed going around thing rotated really easily

Tires I think it was on ps4's on the dirt. Yeah, so at 70 miles an hour it starts to like

Hum and skim. Yeah, I felt it much more than when Ryan was driving when he was driving

I was having a good time, but when I hit 70 I was like this feels

Up on its toes. Yeah, but do the rotation was good. I mean turbo lag is very evident after handbrake turn especially

But those those things are no balls below like four grand. Yeah, that's why the tack is like so

What if 1000 to 4000 rpm is like an inch and a half and then 4000 to 7 is like six inches

Yeah, it's very clever. Yeah of them to do that

It but the shocks did a great job the diffs did a great job

I didn't do left. I think I'd left foot brake once and of course, it's Toyota's so it kills

So you really have to be careful about that kind of on-off stuff, you know, it didn't be Audi RS 3

Oh, really RS 3 would let me left foot brake actually

I was I was kind of impressed and the golf R did too. Did you have to put it in a mode to do that?

Yeah, the maximum whatever I mean

It wasn't like a special mode, but it was like whatever the highest performance track or wouldn't I think in the golf

R was Nurburgring mode. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I wish I understand why this car doesn't do it because of you know

Little unintended acceleration thing back in the day, right? But but it did a great job on

On the dirt. It was a really good time. That's sweet and then drove it on the track

in driving generations back to back to back is so valuable because

The leap from 24 to 25 in the GR Corolla was so noticeable

They had changed they put a little there's a new spring inside the shocks

They had a softer rear sway bar firmer rear springs

They made thicker bolts in it, which they had on display

Which I thought was I made fun of it at the time and then the rest of the presentations like we also changed the bushings

The springs put a spring inside the shock change the sway bar. I was like you should focus on that

Yeah, because that was kind of while you're in there

They did the bolts for the 2024 year, but what I noticed is that the 24 car feels soft feels the steering

Just feels like a little bit too

Squishy and light and you could feel the rear inside wheel picking up on some of the tighter corners in Sonoma

25 that was like gone

And then 26 they retuned the steering even more they changed some suspension pickup points

And then the big thing was they added 46 feet of glue to the shell and there you know that was like

25 was like they did a big changes and then now they're like we added glue

We added glue which does a lot. I mean, I think they did down the Civic type R or something

That was a big story

But coming from the 25 where you could feel these huge changes the car was way more planted it rotated better

26 was like small tweaks did feel better

And how do you change the car every year though?

They are changing the car every year and it and it is improving and it was good to have that perspective

It was fun. The only 24 I drove was the merizo, which was like the crazy one and I didn't love

I mean, I liked it on the track. It was it was very stiff and abusive on the street. I thought it was kind of silly

The the 25

Premium was nice or whatever the the middle one. Yeah good bits. Is it premium? I think so whatever it is was that was nice

That's all you need. I think I had a great time driving it on the track

It felt way more like planted agile

Everything about it was better and the 26 was even better

But if you get a 2025 like you'll still be happy. Yeah, I would definitely get that over the 24

Well, what else did you drive? I drove a Supra, which that was like really small changes. Where's my note?

Super was like a lot of software stuff. They changed diff maps shock maps

They changed they quote revised the camber angle. That's called an alignment

That was in the other presentation

That's a pretty good one. I like that. I'm gonna use that. That was funny little stronger

Underbody brace and some arrow tweaks. That was harder to notice the difference and like

What it was interesting is jumping from the GR 86 to the Supra and then you notice how heavy the Supra feels

and

You know, it's a fast car

But you just don't feel like you're as I don't know like locked in it doesn't just doesn't feel as focused

You are so good. I think the the the 86 is actually the better car

Yeah, a lot in a lot of other than just speed other than speed but through the s's

I mean the GR 86 obviously changes direction more quickly. It just feels lighter and more fun. And yeah, I like that car so much

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the downhill sections of Sonoma if your sector times are better in the Corolla

I mean obviously uphill. Yes power is gonna is gonna carry you

Although a lot of the uphill sections at Sonoma

one

two

Two of the three uphill sections of Sonoma are braking zones. That's true. Turn one is a braking zone

Turn three is a braking zone

And then whatever turn up the hill before going down the big carousel that that one's on power

But that's only one power. Oh the the the in inside

mildly uphill inner back straight the yeah almost flat nearest makes a difference kind of thing

But I mean the super was much quicker than for sure for sure. But like I think I bet the difference would be

Less than you think I mean, I think so

It was a really fun day. But um, yeah the changes to the 86 was

Brembo's and better dampers and like the yuzu gets the performance stuff that the other ones got

Yeah, but it's mostly just appearance stuff. It has quad exhaust

Which like it's a lot in one per cylinder

I know and that's I know they did it with the sti's but the the GR 86 engine

Is like a naturally aspirated. Yeah, come on. We don't need naturally aspirated for it. It's just too many exhausts

It's trying to try hard the oh man. Speaking of which the new john cooper works mini

You know, they do the the center tailpipe. Mm-hmm the new one

Is center. It's just one

Like a boxer not a double. It's just one, but it's one round

Oh

It literally looks like a bunghole. Yeah, and here's what's really crazy

It's actually a dual exhaust, but the other outlet is hidden under the fucking bumper

So there's a dual there are two outlets

But you only you have to look at the rear rear angle. I bet you no one's actually taking a picture of it

Yep, there it is. Look at the little blue bunghole

It's so weird looking weird looking that I feel like I'm looking at a specific uh species of baboon

Where oh where'd it go? I bet you mini doesn't show that angle on their website

Oh, come on dude. You're not they're not even gonna show it

But they're so ashamed of their exposed pooper. They're not gonna show it. It's quite big

Dude as soon as they pulled that car up. I was like, yo

What are you?

Doesn't it look stupid? It looks really weird. Yeah, uh, what is it reminding me of

You know, um, when you're behind like a baha book and they have that one big like boom tube thing sticking out the back

Yeah, I think that's the only time it's okay because it the body work around it is

Squarish. Yeah. Yeah, the dual it needs the dual

There's no good reason for not making that the dual thing. It's really it looks aftermarket

That's the problem

I don't know like like mini like come on. What do you guys do?

Because they're dual they're dual exhaust looked great. It's always a great symmetrical fit. Dude go

This is the jcw. Like it's always the home always mini has been base one single tip

s jcw double tip always like this is very sad looking

It looks like it's just

Got a prolapsed anus honestly, it has a busy weekend

Wow the mini poppers edition

All right, let's go to the people for a few minutes

I know they got a lot to say over at patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast ask us questions for the show

Get the show live get the show before everybody else get the show extra

And a whole lot more. Oh schnikes. I thought I almost forgot

I got to do a shout out to uh built by base. I think it's built by basal might be basal basis

Not basos definitely not basos

built by basal by basal basal

for making me

This custom

shifter knob for my spider

It's made from old

Skateboard decks and it's a it's it's color matched for my interior with a sort of iridescent

Died red and then a black

I think it's ash of some kind a black ash with a shift pattern on top in red and a silver

Sort of a shaft to match the silver trim on my interior. I am very stoked. Yeah, I I

Don't regret getting the alcantara race text on the seats and the doors. I love that

Steering wheel and the shifter. I don't love it. I I don't grip it like I would normally grip it

It's annoying. You know, it's a precious material. I know it's precious. Yeah, so I I'm waiting for the

Eventually the alcantara or the race text on the steering wheel were wear out

And I'll just have it replaced with leather and that'll be that but the shift knob with the built by basal

We get to avoid that. This is nice. This won't wear out. I like I like I like when the shift knob

Won't like isn't affected by my palm sweat. Yeah, it's cool. I like those wooden type. Yeah, wooden shift knobs

I do too. This is very very pretty. I'm excited for this

I hope I can install it without breaking it and it comes with a little allen key. So I should be fine

Right. So the people say

Lucky man to count on both hands the one I love I

respect for just

For just using pearl jam quotes as user names

But let's try and tie it into something like I'm a lucky man to count on both

Feet the clutch I press like that kind of thing. Yeah, make it make it automotive themed

Do you remember what the aha moment was when you made the decision to leave your normal jobs to pursue a career in automotive journalism?

Yes, I was stopped on the street by a my first fan in new york

Interesting. That was it don you're good at this. Okay from like 08. Yeah, okay full time. Let's go

cool

I just when we started doing

The car show and I was able to quit waiting tables and then we lost the car show and I was like

I definitely don't want to go back to the tables like I'll just be I'll just be broke for a while

Dual-wielding chevy barrettas say

2020 k convertible challenge and see meata

Z3 or z4 m boxers c5 or something else 20 k

Uh 20

Wow, that seems like a lot from me out of regular me out of c6 manual for for 19 k

Yeah, it's a convertible that wasn't target top

Uh, that's true that that c6 did need

Seven grand to work true. Yeah convertibles are cheaper than than coups though

Yeah, okay, you can get a nicer c6 convertible than you could a c6 coop for 20 k

I would go c6 coop and then I would be a little that I would go me out of

20 k gets you a pretty nice me out of yeah, it's like not a shitty one like 20 k could probably also get you a 370 z

Yeah, but I gotta listen to it

My my thing with me out of me out of the only car that when I drive it now with the top down

I go this is great, but when I drive a corvette with the top down I go. I wish this was a coupe. Yeah, I want the top up

I'll tell you what wild card you could get a

the nicest e

46 330 ci convertible around

Like the nicest one around for 20 k. That's true. Yeah

or probably like a

Driver grade e46 m3 smg if you wanted to as well

Grounded to the ground. Do you remember a time when you saw a nice build go one mod too far?

Yes, I've seen that I've seen it a lot. You know where I see it a lot is like like in

Porsches with like specifications where they do one

One custom color thing that's like too much that fucks it up like

You know

What does they say an engineer knows how to how to build an artist knows when to stop

So people don't like know when to stop

And so I've seen people

Yeah, they get one thing custom color matched or contrast colored and the whole thing sort of fucking falls apart

I don't I don't want to name names, but

But like you could I mean with mod with it with mods like

I mean

With mods the thing that kills it is like

Fake badging like yeah

Inventing a model that doesn't exist or like or pretend badging it is something. It's not a good example

Uh

Thad sent me this like 67 Mustang for sale because he knows serenade like curious about owning a fastback

Um, and it had a good engine good transmission did a little blah blah blah

But they had stuck those three Buick holes those press on things onto the fender

Which looks done wasn't

Any ever part of Mustang and also it makes me question this person's decision making ability entirely right

I have seen cars where the car mods chosen were so bad

That you then can't

Yes, you then can't trust this person to do anything else either

Because like that's where you decided that was good. Yeah, this person used like castor oil for oil changes

You know or like peanut oil. Yeah into the void says uh, Zach

How content would you be with a g80 m4 and a rivian as your two-car garage?

Why is that specific to you? I have no idea, but I I just rode an rivian r1s when I was a button willow

Nice car ride isn't good. We've talked about this before r1t rides well the r1t is and the g80 m4

I think also rides too stiff

So I'd be stuck with two cars that I don't really like the ride of

Also, I wouldn't want the m4 because the two doors is too long. It's it seems wasteful to me. So that's not my jam. Yeah

That soon says uh started listening to the beginning from the beginning and got here

Wow, nicely job nicely done given the amount of tech and adas systems that are so common now

Beyond the mags any interest in older cars where a relay is as advanced as technology gets not really. No, I mean

I I mean

Even on the manx runs on a motec, dude

You know the manx like has an old vibe

But like is a modern engine running on a full-on like

Motorsport grade ecu like I I think I was thinking this month

I would write a column for road and track about about why it's important to like

Support these companies that are building like really nicely done like old cars

But that are designed to be done driven in like the modern era like that could be like revology

It could be manx it could be icon

It could be like who you know singer whoever the fuck, you know

And there's other people making different stuff

But like

That shit is just way more interesting to drivers than even like the newest supercars or whatever

So like I don't I don't want something that's like carbureted. I don't I don't really give a shit about that

But I just but stick shift, you know key start, you know

Simple interfaces not a lot of screens knobs levers like yeah count me in for that

But electronic controls on the engine. I like fuel injection. I like an ecu

I'm okay with those those aren't that's not too much for me

Right. Are you in that same boat? No, but I but I like old cars. We talk about like I like muscle cars

So but I want to work some cars that seems like work better with an efi system

Some cars get confused or grumpy and they work fine with carburetor

So I just want something that works, but the old simple shit is a good time

And I don't mind the existence of adas systems as long as you just turn them off once and then they stay off

I mean, I don't I don't want to have to fucking

Hunt and peck for 30 seconds every time I start my car. I fuck that dude

Um, johnny evey geerberman

Uh, do you think manual swapping an sl 500 r 129 would be worth it for a vintage gt? I think it could

I think it could potentially add some interesting flavor to that car. Yeah, definitely

Would that be better than the generation we drove? Uh

I mean, that's really just I think you'd end up I think you'd end up and feel very similar kind of the same place

Yeah, our 129s are soft. They're squishy

But they did make a factory manual camisa owned one

Six cylinder only three the 320 manual

Um 91 to 93. I think you get it, but like it brought a lot of money on brain trailer

um

but like

Yeah, I I think a manual swapped sl 500 would be very interesting

I really do and I think it probably would be a

Cool talking piece and it would probably be very nice to drive and you'd probably get your money back out of it if it was done

well

It's probably easier to do than the more than the o4 that we drove. There's probably less computers

Yeah, it makes a little less power

So you could your little less wear on the gearbox, but like it could probably be cool

I think we thought it probably feels sort of like a corvette. Honestly

Um, just like the one that we drove did

Uh de merritt parkway

excellent

Uh the merit the merit parkway in connecticut is right by new by my parents house and de merritt very nice

What is the price point crossover between a watch and a car?

As far as which you'd rather have for example, I'd rather have a 5k watch than a 5k car

But at 50k i'm probably going with the car

It's an interesting thought exercise, but but my brain doesn't really work like that

you know like

it's not

I think it's just okay. It's very relative though

So the question is really like what's the cheapest car you'd want to have?

Yeah, and uh

Well, yeah, and I guess what's the most expensive watch you'd want to have like there might be a watch out there that you know about

That's 500 grand, but I'm sure there is but if you had that money to burn

Would you spend it on that or would you spend it on?

You know an amazing car that you can drive around in yeah, so the singer deposit right so the so

I suppose it's it's a fun either or but if you have

$500,000 to spend on a toy whatever it is

Let's just

You have to have so much more than that

It's like you can't it won't be either or right so

I would say that the cheapest car in today's world that I would realistically want to spend any kind of money at all on

Is like 10 g's

So like under 10 g's

Right right like you're like yes, there's some like gems out there

There might be some super special thing for like no money, but like if you're talking about a car

You or I would want to buy 10s pretty rock bottom

Uh

Whereas a $10,000 watch is an unbelievable thing

That's the fucking you can you can

Go home. That's it. You could you can tap out right there right if you're not a fucking junkie like me right

So 10 is the number where watch beats car anything under 10

Over 10 there's a gray area right because between 10 and like

100

There's like amazing watches and amazing car and amazing cars and so now it's like

And actually in that range you're getting cars that might also be appreciating

Correct. You get both cars and watches that are investment grade. So now

We're not necessarily spending now. We're parking. We're gonna we could get that money back

And then over a hundred like i'm not uh, yes, there's one or two watches that are deep in the six figures that I think are

Amazing and if I was really rolling like that, I could somehow justify spending

grand on a mb and f

legacy machine

I would not feel comfortable wearing it outside

And not because i'm like one of those they're gonna cut off your hands people like that shit is

Not saying it doesn't happen, but that shit is way blown out of proportion

Um, but still I'd break it like yeah, you bump into a railing. I smack into something like

Yeah, I I I couldn't be trusted to wear something like that around and that's why I wouldn't buy it even if I had the money

Because I'd fucking wreck it. So I'm with watches. I'm capped out at

I own one watch that it makes that I would be uncomfortable scratching

Just one out of like 30

So and I only wear that one once in a while and I feel like a little bit of a weirdo

Even though nobody else gives a shit. Yeah, you only wear it in that room in your house. That's just all padded walls

I put it on. I jack off and then I put it

Because it's got a winder in it, right? Yeah, I call it the baller

Yeah, that's how you that's how you wind your watches

That would be someone should write a satirical

Call them about that about being addicted to fucking wanking

But it's okay because that's how I keep my perpetual calendar every day. I take a different one out of the case

um

Oh boy watch question again franco specials. What is the watch strap? You guys will always recommend. There's like

A few I like bosphorus leather out of turkey. I like the strap tailor out of england

I like under the cuff straps also out of england. Those are for nato's

um

I like rubber b and everest if you want the the rubber uh oyster flex style straps

Horus straps makes a good a good strap and uh

I did taste the and yes, I did taste the frank sinatra jack daniels. It was good. Thank you franco

Control all delorean. That's a good one. Good. Yeah

I recently had a child and I was thinking about starting to get a few watches to keep to have something to hand down to her when she's older

Uh, what would be the best investment? I mean, dude

That's this one week. I mean it's no one knows what the future's gonna be. Yeah, this is so like here's the thing

You you had a daughter something to hand down to her

Women like cardiates

So you have two you have two two schools of thought here one is

You buy yourself a watch

You wear it you make memories with her and stories and it's your watch and you eventually pass it to her as a memory of you

or

You buy a dope whatever dope cartier tank you can afford

And stuff it in a safety deposit box. It's not going to appreciate. It's just gonna be what it be

but women love cardi because another thing is

Watch that he might like that fits his wrist may not fit her may or may not

So that's another thing of like handing it down like now you can wear it and she might go that's a 42

I don't wear it for right. Yeah. Now. That's the thing

You know if you're gonna do the move where you you wear it yourself

You should pick something on the smaller side so that if a female wanted to wear it it wouldn't look insane

Hannah wears a vintage men's watch that I got her her watch is a 34 millimeter

But it was that was a normal size for the 1990s when that watch was made

Our good friend Jen has a whole collection of men's

Submariners and IWCs that are on the smaller side for men

But then they're a little big on her but like that's the vibe because they're from back when men were tiny men

My mother I gave my mother a notice canyon and she has a fucking tiny

The the number of links I had to take out of this fucking thing to fit her. I was like

Oh, I took out all the links

I took out like every but like, you know, it's a little big but she likes it

So but don't go get a fucking panorai, right, you know, unless you want her to wear it is like a necklace or something, you know

Uh brandon chin if you had 10 laps on a track of your choosing

Would you rather drive the bmwe 46 gtr or the cal sonic nissan skyline r32 gtr?

Also, what track easy?

easy easy

cal sonic

Bathurst

I'm gonna go m3 gtr

Because I know that I just want to hear the noise and have the over stream even though the cal sonic is such an important car in history

Um

Never agree. Yeah, never agree. I wouldn't even make it a lap. I'd probably crash

Um

I suffer from lotus electric

A lotus electric dysfunction electric dysfunction. That's pretty funny

You've experienced your stance against instagram handles on cars in many podcasts, but are you willing to make exceptions?

I've personally experienced two positive examples at car meets. I see someone's amazing build

Uh, but the owner is not nearby and being able to find their ig to see the build process can be enlightening

To it's easier for owners to find cool pictures of their car posted online from the car meet

If I can tag them in the post in either of these examples, they don't post any illegal driving

I mean, yes

I suppose that those are helpful situations if you did want to

Like find pictures of yourself and or find the person driving that car right look for every bad

Spiritual leader that gets caught touching a kid and gets sent to jail. There's probably one that doesn't do that

Yeah, if you don't know what I'm talking about check the news

Yeah

No, look, I think it's fucking lame. I I do. I think it's fucking lame if you're at a car meet like that guy

I'll be around eventually

Wait, I don't look. It's okay. If you don't think it's lame. It's really okay

I don't if you don't think it's lame to put your instagram on your car or to put other have

For other people to do it like that's fine. I mean, you don't have to think that

I think that I think it's fucking lame

So whatever

And that didn't hear your your reasoning while valid didn't change my mind

I don't I don't need to see pictures of my own car on instagram

I don't give a fuck and if people want to find me they can find me

But like I get it. Sure. It's either of those two things

involve

People wrapping up their personalities in their cars, which I don't think they should do

Oscar Myers manxmobile. That's fucking pretty pretty good pretty good

I just got new tires and an alignment for my daily crossover something seems off

But I can't tell if it's the tires or the alignment or a little of both

Can you describe and differentiate driving characteristics attributable to the tires versus an alignment? Man, that's tough

That's fucking tough

Okay, well, let's let's

process of elimination this one from cheapest to most expensive

Right cheapest fix is you should check your tire pressures

It's possible. Someone didn't do a good job of setting your pressures. Sure. So if your alignment is good and your tires are all brand new

Your pressures might be off. Maybe one's a little low or two a little low. So once you get that sorted

Next is make sure that I mean assuming your daily crossover

These are probably not like directional tires that are where one is mounted backwards potentially

But if they are for some reason directional tires, there'll be an arrow pointing forward

It says rotation. So you want to make sure that those are looking those are those two things cost you zero

Next I mean

Something feels off

I mean, I wish they were more specific, but I would say that if you address those things

If the car is pulling in a direction and if you're on a road that you know is flat

It's not crowned. It's not, you know cut because of semi trucks driving on it. It's not slanted at all

It's not grooved find a road that is let's just call it neutral

And I think if the car is pulling

Then it's probably an alignment issue because if you have new tread on all four tires, they're all they're all even circles

There's no reason that it should pull one direction or another. Yeah

And and yes, something seems off is a little vague

So the pulling is there is your obvious one that once the pressures are set. It shouldn't pull the last one is

Your steering wheel could be misaligned which happens sometimes a lot this it's happened

I've had to go back to alignment shops

Multiple times because my steering wheel alignment was off one or two degrees and it drove me off the fucking wall

So that's another one where your car could actually be tracking straight

But your steering wheel is off. So you're now holding your steering wheel straight creating

Misalignment. Yeah

So that's it too

But like generally like and also if you had old shitty tires and now you have brand new tires

The car will feel different. So

Something feels off. I wish was a little more descriptive, but

If the tires are new they're set to the right pressures

It and they're not facing the wrong direction. It's probably not the tires

It's probably alignment or steering wheel alignment. Yeah

Either way once you check your tires, you're gonna probably end up going back to the alignment shop. Probably. Yeah

Dray from houston, is there anything a car that you feel like you missed out on owning up to this point?

Uh, if you're talking about stuff that it was like buy it when it was new sure

I mean

I missed out on the 4 gt. I could have bought for a lot of money

But still less a lot fucking less than it cost me now and that's probably gone forever

The one thing is like

There's shit I want

And then I don't get it and my brain kind of moves on. Yeah, that's a good sign

Like the just shall be gt 350. I probably get an email once a month

Like hey, I know you said you wanted one of these and I I'm selling one with a thousand miles and like you always said you

Want it once like no, I wanted to buy one new in 2016 to use as a car

Like it that it wasn't some childhood dream that I need to circle back on right. Yeah

I think uh, I think I want to own like I want to own a mid mid engine car

I haven't owned that like there's categories I want to hit

But there's nothing that goes like I wish I'd owned that and now they're too expensive

Yeah, so there's just so many things you can get well actually skylines now they're too expensive r34s for sure

And and although I liked my 328 a lot something tells me that if I bought a testero side probably still have it

I think

Uh, they're a little more comfortable a little more refined and a little more not usable

They're the same amount of usable, but like

You don't think that would overlap with the coontosh too much like coontosh hasn't been driven this whole time

Probably not

But I think they're very they're very very solid cars testeroces are and I think I I think over time

I'd probably appreciate that a lot

Plymouth jewish space laser

nice

Would it be jewish Plymouth space laser?

I think you I think god grammatically jewish goes before Plymouth

Maybe yeah, you always want to mention that they're a jew you want to mention up front right just so everybody knows what we're talking about

Here when I talk about soros

Yeah

I've had my slk 55

Amg for a couple years rare car very interesting and rare car. You should manual swap it

Uh, I was looking into super charging it, but after watching your sl manual swap. I'm starting to think that might be more fun thoughts

Yes

100 I guarantee you

You if you s l if you manual swap that car

And you hate it

You get

75 percent of the cost of the swap back when you sell it if you market it properly

That's a car that somebody

Would see on fucking cars and bids and go

That looks awesome, and it's already done. Yeah, you know what I mean and even for you

I think if you've already liked the car don't supercharge it. That's it does not need that that's dumb

The real problem is the traction control system on those which is

Hainestly bad

You'd have to eliminate it entirely and then you'd have a little fucking hot rod to be a good time

But yes manual swap all day all day every day

Let us know how it goes bad gardener says

Numbers and income aside. How do you feel about your current place in your journalism careers?

Do you think you're as satisfied as you've ever been in kings of the world?

Are you still building? Do you miss the tv days even though they didn't pay?

I don't know. How do you feel I miss the tv stuff because we got to do

Adventures and like plan the adventures

I mean we didn't get paid a lot doing them, but the money that went into the

Production budget allowed us to do cool stuff. So that was really fun

Uh

A king of the world. No, I mean, I think I think we're all I I feel like I'm still evolving and you know finding things to do

And uh, you know exploring the different ways you can be an automotive

Journalist host wherever you want to call it

Yeah

It's when you work on youtube and doing podcasts like yeah, okay numbers go up numbers go down whatever

But you're we're just like we're just like here kind of by ourselves

And so so when I go work with the magazine on like performance car of the year or whatever and it's like

There's 30 people there and everyone's got a job

You know and someone comes up to me and goes your job

Is to send all the cars sideways now?

and I just go

That's my job like

What like a there's like fully imposter syndrome because I am not chris harris

And I can't do some of the things that chris and jethro or like one of these psycho british guys can do

But at the same time it's like

Okay, like a little bit of pressure like fucking ratchet like you could you could have an expensive day right now

So, you know, you need to like up your game as high as it goes

And like fucking do a good job here and make this look awesome

But not break the car and you know if you do it right now, you know, but still like to go back to

30 years ago or 35 years ago to go one day

Someone is going to ask you to slide a Lamborghini to look awesome for a magazine

And like that's that like that's the thing this magazine that you're reading

Someone's going to go hey matt

you

Half million dollar car

Big fucking slide 10 guys with cameras

Okay, I mean is that in a way? That's what you've been working towards. Sure. So it's cool

Yeah, I mean if you don't get to set the lap times at least get to do the slidey bits

Like it's one or the other but like

It's not it's and uh, and I do think in some ways the magazine offers a lot of what the tv show offers

But it's more fun because you don't have the bullshit stuff that goes with tv production

That makes the fun thing less fun

You know like the with the magazine a lot of ways it's like actually more pure

You have to stop down to do still photos and like whatever and you have to sit at your house and

And write it out but like you're you have the adventure

In a very pure way

Which is which is really really nice. That's fucking good and also

You know when you grow up fucking having people tell you that you're like only anywhere because you know your father and this or

And or some you know a little bit of money or blah blah blah

That didn't come from that. He can't drive for shit. He can't drive for shit. He tapped out in that mclaren after three corners

Um

Zach's manjam a pillars

Uh build a drift car from scratch. What chassis and engine would you pick and what track would you want to test at?

If I was if I was gonna build one I'd do s13

Um, or maybe e36 sit in like those work. They're known quantity

The dream build of course is the 33 like high boy for drift car

But reality I would just get an e36 or s13

Yeah, I mean, uh

I it doesn't it almost doesn't matter what the chassis is right? You're you're building the whole thing kind of anyway

Um

I thought the z was fun when I did a drift 101 that's supercharged z. I thought great made a nice drift car

Yeah, that ls e46. I thought was a fun drift car

Yeah, those those are cool like the ls 240s and stuff. Those are those are fine. Um, you know

To me a drift car is is a tool

It's not it's I don't actually care what the outside is like so I like yeah

I want to have a fox body, but like they're shitty drift car platforms actually right not that good

I'd rather have the car that actually is the good platform for that activity

Is just a just a tool to do the fun thing and and I wouldn't

Uh, I wouldn't take that as a as a style statement necessarily, you know

I want did you watch uh

grid life at laguna seca this year looked awesome. I need to go to that

I keep putting other things in the way

But uh hurt got to drift the twerk stallion like down the corkscrew and he had a 360 camera on the roof

And the whole thing looks sick did the whole course like that dude is living fours of dreams

That seems like a very good time. Yeah. Yeah

Um

What track yeah, I mean drifting laguna would would be really fun. I I got to

Do it a little bit with the 750 slide around kota. That's a that's a pretty fun place to be doing that

What's uh, I don't know what has great like back and forth s's like linking stuff like that something

Oh

Well in the road america. Yeah, I wrote it wrote a wrote Atlanta wrote Atlanta turns like three through

Five or whatever has as good s's and then that whole the at the end of the back straight

You can use with the actual formula d section. Yeah wrote Atlanta would be a good. Yeah, it'd be a good one. Yeah

Uh tim a what I ever drive the demand spider on track like at the new willow springs

I'm curious how far off a spider would feel from a gt4 on track

I mean

They shouldn't feel really any different. I mean, they're the same from the from the shoulder down. They're they're exactly the same car

Exactly the same

The roof structure and there's a wing

So I suppose you have you'd have more rear grip

On track with the with the gt4

Maybe like a little better turn in possibly from some difference in chassis rigidity. Maybe

Um, uh, my my car now has ps4 s's on it

So it wouldn't have as much grip as it wouldn't have the cup tires or if it had the the dunlops

But like it really wouldn't be like I mean to be fast because the motor but like it wouldn't it wouldn't be that much different

like there's

I don't think it would be able to

Like it's not like I wouldn't drive it on the track like

But like I'm not gonna go out of my way to because I'm not gonna learn something new. I don't really give a shit

I don't think it's a compelling video

um, the audience has

Told us a hundred types different types of ways. They don't like fucking track videos anyway

Um, so that's okay comfortable as a street car

Uh, okay, wait

What's happening here basically

Oh, I have no idea. I mean that the first half is like call paul and what's paul and todd hooked on driving

Is that what they bought? Oh, yeah, I bought hooked on driving, right? Isn't that it? I think so. Yeah

Whip cream saves lives. Where do I do track days in utah in colorado?

I don't know for sure, but hooked on driving is our friend paul and todd

They're out of utah high planes raceway has great instructional days at right east of denver go there as does

Utah motorsports campus. Yeah, and I'm pipe ppr has stuff too pike speak international raceway

um

and

Let's see and I'll be going with oem tire sizes

Would you recommend to install parts from car bond for suspension?

Such as mono ball kit and toe link or just stick with oem and stick. Okay, wait, hang on

I'm guessing

You've never done track days before which is fine. Just based on the type of questions here

This is a new track person

Don't fuck with your car, right?

Just leave it alone

Go to go to the track

See what happens leave all the systems on

listen to the instructors

eventually

Not in day one and probably not in year one

But eventually you may want to change some of the characteristics of your car

and if that time comes if

Then you can start talking about it

But like because you want to have the knowledge to understand why

That part of your car is inferior to what you want to do

So if you just go buy this mono ball kit and stuff

And put it on because the forums tell you to do so you won't know what it was beforehand

You won't really feel what it's fixing

So I would take that money that you'd spend on mods and spend it on tires track days instruction

And then you'll be a more informed buyer in the future. Yeah

Uh do the lancer evolution last one and then we're out of here

What car owner stereotype do you think holds the most truth?

Mine was when I worked at a Volvo dealer quite literally 95 percent of the customers that came in were listening to npr

It's funny. It's a pretty good way. We're just wearing a turtle necks

um, I would say here in LA

um

Tesla drivers not being not being very attentive

Tesla drivers really not being the kind of people that care about the task of driving. They're the new bmwm drivers

There are some aggressive

Model y and three drivers out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah

Though that's that's one um

What's I would say that uh pagani drivers are wearing expensive shoes

That's a

Very relatable. Yeah, everybody around the country's like yeah, they're probably tired of that example. Um, I mean like

Portia people and the color the thing with colors and options, you know being obsessed over

I did spike show earlier today

He must have said

Whatever the color is of his car

The iridium green or some for of his new spider. He must have said those words

Eight times in the one hour. I was there, which is like it's a beautiful car. It's a nice color

Great. I'm happy for them. You know spider rs with comfort seats. That's a fucking that's a choice right there

But yeah, it's Porsche people and their colors all all the time myself included. I'm not fucking

It's nice to kind of have a white Porsche because no

Thanks, everybody, uh, we love you very much our patrons are the best get in on the action at patreon.com

Slash the spoken tire. Thank you to all of you on this one and uh more podcasts coming live from willow springs this weekend

I hope you got a ticket. Uh, it is sold out

Um, but it's going to be a really fun time and uh, and zack and i'll be out there all day on saturday

So come say hello. Thanks. Bye

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