Derek Tam-Scott and Tazio Ottis Go for a Drive

There's not a lot of events in the states where you see these cars actively being hustled.

I mean, you can go to Pella Beach and see them on the lawn, and that's great, but there's

nowhere where you can really see, experience, watch the car in actually, and you can on

this event.

And I think that's really unique and really special.

This week on That Car Show, Ryan and I are joined by Tatsio Otis and Derek Tamscott.

The three of them just got back from a week on the Colorado Grand, and it was as epic as

you'd imagine.

We talk about the people, the cars, and the roads of the Colorado Grand, what makes a good

Grand car, and why they want to return next year.

Also, Derek and Taz share about their business, OTS and Co, and what it's all about.

They are true enthusiasts who really know their stuff, and it was fun getting to

know them.

We know you'll enjoy the conversation.

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Hey, it's That Car Show, and if you're a fan of the show, you've at least heard

of the Colorado Grand.

I'm lucky enough to say that I've just returned from this year's Grand, and

so have the two guests joining me and Lindsay tonight.

The Grand, if you don't know, is a thousand miles, driving some of the world's

best vintage sports cars, racing cars, and some of the greatest roads that

Colorado has to offer.

Generally speaking, the cars are model year 1916 earlier, and they really are

some of the greatest cars in the world.

There are always a number of significant Ferraris, including again this

year, what I think is the only unrestored 1957 to 50 Testerosa,

two words, several competition Maserati's, multiple Jaguar C and D types,

a dozen or so classic 300 SLs, along with Allard's Invictus launches,

Bentley's, Aston Martin's, and absolutely other amazing stuff.

And what's neat is that it's also a nonprofit with annual giving to the

communities we visit, something near a million dollars each year now,

which is incredible.

In the names, Derek Tamscott and Tatsu Otis are probably familiar as well.

Taz and Derek are two of the three proprietors of OTS and Co, a specialty

car brokerage in Berkeley, California.

Taz is also a noted racer and a mechanic, along with his father, Patrick,

and Derek hosts, along with Jason Camisa, the highly regarded and

masterfully named Car Mudgeon podcast, which is part of the Hagerty

podcast network.

So welcome, Derek and Taz, to that car show.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you so much.

Glad to have you.

So we've been home for a few days now from the grand.

What are you telling people about your grand experience?

First thing is probably that I miss Colorado.

Yeah, it's a pretty great state, right?

Yeah, it's, it's weird to not be buzzing around in like a 50s Italian

car every single day.

Like, I think the first day I woke up and I was ready to jump back

into that leather seat and kind of be deafened for a day.

And when that didn't happen, it was a little weird.

So what'd you guys drive?

We were in a 1956 Alfa Giulietta Sprint, dubbed of Veloce, but it's

kind of an abnormale.

Okay.

So very, very hot rotted for what it is, but all like period

conversion stuff, three shoe breaks, has a limited slip,

rear end in it from a GTV that was modified to fit drum

brakes in the back still to keep it appropriate.

A big bore kit in the 1300s, still the original block, but

with bigger pistons in it and some hoted up cams and some

some suspension stuff.

So a real hot rod for a one and a half liter car.

Nice.

As you can tell, the car more or less.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm very intimate with it because I did turn a lot of

wrenches in it.

What's the story with the car?

Where'd you find it?

How did it get to where it is today?

My dad chased it for quite a while.

There was this show in Alameda, which is close to us called

the All Italian Car Show.

And this older gentleman would bring it out every single

year.

That was kind of the car's outing for the year.

And my dad was really good friends with him.

And he kept that car and an SC in a hanger in Hayward.

And my dad befriended the guy and chased it for

probably 20 years or so.

And then eventually towards the end, he obtained it,

which was maybe eight years ago now.

Okay.

And then I did a resuscitation to the car and made it the

hot rod that it is.

And that guy Earl was the original owner.

It should all be kidding.

Oh, yeah.

So a two owner car.

Wow.

That's amazing.

So what inspired you to hot rod it once it was in your family?

Uh, I, my first car was an Alpha Giulietta that

rolled over on the California Melee.

Oh, I spent my summer.

You bought it before I bought it in 92 before I was born.

And it was in a garage in San Francisco.

And prior to me obtaining it, I saw a Giulietta for the

first time when I was maybe 12 and thought that it was the

prettiest car I'd ever seen and told my dad I need to have one.

And then I also told everyone else I knew that and that he

knew that I needed to have one.

And eventually when my dad's friends said, well, I have one

if your son wants to fix it.

Well, so I did.

I spent a summer break, a shop down the street from us had a

rusty, except for the top car.

So I cut the top off of that, welded it on and then brought

it to a paint shop and did a ton of Bondo and painted it,

learned how to paint a car, which I don't think I'll do

again when I was 14.

And then that was my first car and I stupidly sold it

for a race car.

So when we got another Giulietta, I wanted to set off on

doing everything that I would have done to that car.

And you had that chance to do it.

That's really cool.

Yeah.

And so now that you have had the chance to fulfill that

dream and then spend like a concentrated amount of time in

it on this amazing rally, are you happy with what you did?

Is there anything you do differently?

Like what are your feelings about it now?

Yeah, I mean, I think there's probably some subtle

things that I do differently.

I'm pretty thrilled with the car.

I think like these cars, there's a never ending list and

especially when you are like flout out in them for five days,

you build yet another list of things like some that you need

to repair and some that you would just like want to do.

So it's more comfortable.

And so, yeah, it's I'm really happy with it, but there's

certainly a lot I want to do more with it.

Well, that's fun because it means it's an ongoing like

you're still engaged.

It's an ongoing project and you're not just like, all

right, now what?

Yeah, I think there's these handful of cars that hopefully

will be forever cars that you like to kind of continue to make

better for the rest of your life.

And you're happy.

Yeah, you didn't have any issues on the grand, right?

The car was strong.

You didn't have any mechanicals or anything.

We blew up a voltage regulator.

Oh, you did?

Oh, yeah, so we did that.

I think like there were some passes.

You're you're climbing for a one and a half liter

car at elevation like climbing 11,000 feet is a ton.

So there's these times where especially on the roads

that are there, you'll be full throttle for, I don't know,

five, seven minutes, just kind of flat out.

And I think that might have been a little bit much

for the regulator to regulate.

So yeah, we failed that.

The tack failed on the drive back from Vale on the fifth day

when we were dropping the car off at back at Blue Chip

back to Denver.

I think those were the two major things.

You might remember something else.

The transmission mount needs some altering as well.

Yeah, I mean, the car received a transmission transplant,

I think a week before the event.

And so there was maybe a little more refinement to do

on completing that swap because earlier this year

we did the California Mealy in the car

and the transmission showed that it was pretty well used up.

And so the car got a new transmission

or rebuilt transmission before this event a week before.

Yeah, and that's for the refinement maybe needed

in terms of locating the transmission. Sure, sure.

So you did the California Mealy.

How do the two events compare?

I've never done that.

I know it's a Hagerty event.

I know it's lovely.

It's wonderful.

But I think it's a very different kind of terrain, right?

And some different kinds of cars and things.

How do the two compare for the two of you, I guess?

I think we both felt similarly,

which was that we preferred the Colorado Grand,

which surprised me all the more

because I think the California Mealy

is a more suited event to a one and a half liter car.

The roads are incredibly different.

California Mealy is, you know, largely sea level.

I don't think you ever go above 1500 or 2000 feet.

And the roads are very tight and technical and small,

you know, tight, tight, first gear sometimes.

And so the car is very well suited to that.

And the big Ferraris and stuff like that with just been Jag XKs,

which are a little bit, you know, maybe not as light on their feet

are not that well suited to the Mealy.

And so you think the alpha would be the alpha is happier on those roads.

But despite that, you know, and by contrast,

the Colorado Grand has a lot of big open countryside

where you're kind of flat out a lot, even in a big car,

certainly in a little car.

And so the roads are more suited to the car.

But I think we still prefer the Colorado Grand for a number of reasons,

which we can go into at length.

But yeah, he's due.

Yeah, let's hear it because I think, you know,

people had had come straight from the Milmelia, right?

And done other events this year.

And I think the refrain was largely the same

that people really enjoyed the Grand and, you know,

and we didn't even have very good weather this year, right?

We got rain down.

What was it? At least two of the days?

Yeah, good rain in two days, for sure. Yeah.

Yeah. I think.

I think that the rain, there's a lot of aspects of this event

that make it feel a little bit more hardcore.

And I think that was the word that we were using throughout the entire event,

which is something that both Derek and I seek when we go on these events.

The Cal Mila was very, very fun and the roads are great

and the atmosphere is great and there's great cars.

But it seemed I don't I don't think soft is the right word for it.

But there was a lot of roads that you could cut out.

If you want to go to the spa early,

you can kind of do the morning loop and then go back to the hotel.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah, it was sort of your own adventure ish.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, you can follow the route book to the T,

but I think there was only so many people that probably actually did

the full, let's say, 1,000 miles of the event.

Yeah, we felt like outliers for having done every mile.

Oh, really?

Yeah, we're excited that we did the whole event, right?

That we did every mile,

because I think a lot of people didn't do the whole event.

And meanwhile, you have so many people here,

like Nierburg and his Jag, that's in a downpour,

you know, in a D type with a helmet on.

That is out there first thing and doing every single mile

and hustling the thing and all that.

And I think that atmosphere and the way the people approach this event,

it just feels a little bit more hardcore.

And there's not really the option to do half the day and go back to the spa.

You kind of do the whole day.

I think that we really like that the lunch spots seem to be at extremities

where you have to make it out to the lunch in order to eat.

And then you'd have to make it all the way back.

It's not like you could go do 50 miles

and then you have an oyster and then come back.

Not that that's bad, but it's just different.

Yeah, yeah.

Like the it's because I know the Cal Mille is a very elevated event

in terms of sort of the overall experience,

but it sounds like the Colorado brand is very focused on driving.

Definitely. Yeah, I think that's exactly right.

And I think that, you know, some of the real enthusiasts come out

and they bring their real cars, which I think is interesting.

I mentioned Charlie and in that D type with that shark fin

and that thing, this dark green car, right?

It's just this epic, epic car.

And how many D types were there?

I mean, this wasn't the only three.

And then how many C types?

I mean, it was just.

But but his stood apart.

That's just an awesome car.

And he's a hell of a guy to know that.

Yeah, I mean, I think the people in the cars here are unbelievable.

And I think that something that Derek and I worry about often

is what the future is for a lot of these cars, especially in the states.

You know, you go to events like Goodwood

or you go to Le Mans Classic and you see grids of these cars.

And then you think that, you know, at least people are using them overseas.

But there's not a lot of events in the states

where you see these cars actively being hustled.

I mean, you can go to Pella Beach and see them on the lawn.

And that's great.

But there's nowhere where you can really see experience,

watch the car in actually and you can on this event.

And I think that's really unique and really special.

Yeah, that's really cool.

Well, and so for people that don't like,

I haven't been on the grand, the three of you have, obviously,

can you do a brief description?

Are you staying in the same place all the days and you do trips

like day trips out or do you move throughout the week?

Is it a combination?

Like, can you give kind of a brief overview of the event

for people that haven't done it?

Like me?

Yeah, I'll let you guys talk.

I mean, this year was a little different because

we only stayed in two towns and oftentimes were in three places.

So we did less moving from place to place.

And so it's maybe a little more A to A this year.

But yeah, I mean, what do you guys, what's your take on it?

Yeah, I mean, so you generally,

you have a place that you set off from

and you either return there or you go somewhere else,

but it's a day of driving most of the day

and you have a morning stop and an afternoon stop

in addition to lunch in the middle.

And while we were talking about how

the California Miele is really elevated,

the Colorado Grand is not exactly roughing it either.

For example, there's a luggage truck

that brings all your luggage for you.

So you don't have to put it in your car,

especially if you don't have space for such things

or weather protection.

And there's a mechanical team as well

that follows the entire route with truck and trailer

and tow trucks so that if there's any issues,

they can sort of intervene and try and nurse the car

to the end or get it to the night stop

and try and do a more substantial intervention

to try and get the car back on the road the next day.

And so it's enough meals are all planned out

and there's a charity aspect to the Grand also,

which is not present in the Miele

and we can return to that momentarily

because I'm digressing from the question that you asked.

But you are either a couple of days,

you will go back to the place you started

and other days you end up in another place,

but there's a sensation certainly of going somewhere

in the Colorado Grand,

which I would say is less present with the Miele

because the Miele routes tended to be

sort of concentric circles overlaid on each other.

So if you overlaid the route,

it would just be a bunch of spaghetti in a pile

as the Colorado Grand was more like,

oh, we're going to Wyoming today.

You know, it's an entirely different state.

Somewhere you might have passed by today.

But I think we only like went through the same place

like once or twice throughout the entire frame.

Although we did spend the last two nights

in the same place where we started from,

which was sort of nice because you get a sense

of how things work and how the parking is going to be

and sort of it's also a nice place to be, but Vail.

Right.

So yeah, it's a pretty,

there's definitely a sense of going somewhere for sure.

I understand that other years, previous years,

there's been a lot of different night places.

I mean, I think you go to different places each day.

And maybe that was different this year

because of the amount of people that were on the event.

Yeah, I think this was a record year.

I think we had 131 or 134 cars or some crazy amount.

I think you beat the record by 20 or 30 cars.

So it was a little bit difficult.

And logistically, that's a little bit difficult, right?

I mean, it is, it is.

Finding that many rooms at a singular place.

You need to stay at a resort

and find the right accommodate that

and the dinners and the parties and all that.

And you mentioned going up to Wyoming, right?

I mean, there are only so many directions

you can go in Nebraska really isn't an option.

What?

So, you know, I think my,

this was a great route, don't get me wrong,

but I think my personal favorite route

is when we get down to Telluride and over to Durango

or down to Durango and over to Moab.

That's-

I heard that over and over again.

Is that right?

Yeah.

I can't do it every year, but it is,

I think that's my favorite.

I mean, it's just to get a little bit of everything.

I think Telluride might be the prettiest area of all.

Telluride is gorgeous.

I think we're pretty motivated to return.

Fantastic.

We'd love to have you back and,

speaking of pretty, you know, the Alphas,

even in the crowd, this crowded field

of like amazing, amazing cars,

and we should come back and just geek out

on the cars a little bit

because there were truly some phenomenal cars,

but the Alphas are so pretty.

I think you guys know our pal, Dan McKinnis,

and he was there in his speciality.

Yes.

Giulietta.

And-

We actually found him in that car.

That's right.

Oh my gosh.

He impacted me probably right after the grand last year

because he wrote as a passenger,

and I think that was his first time attending the grand.

That's right.

He said, can you find me a Sprint Spicciale?

And I don't know, some weeks later,

I heard about one that was from a real friend's dad

who's a realtor who found it in the garage of the house

that he was representing for sale.

And I said, hold on,

I think I know somebody looking for this.

So we, you know, turned him onto the car

and he bought it.

And fortunately, there were many months

that were available to him to prepare it

because the demands of 1,000 miles on any of these 70,

minimum 70 year old cars are pretty significant.

And there were a lot of mechanicals.

There are always, I think on these types of events

are always a lot of mechanical interventions

and issues, failures to proceed, you know,

that type of thing.

So his car, I think, ran perfectly.

And I told him the more he expired

at the end of the grand.

And then I think his starter failed on the way home.

Oh my God.

That's what he wanted to have.

Well, the important part is he made it through the event.

And I love that it was like a semi-barred find,

a garage find.

Yeah, that was neat.

That was neat.

I'm connecting the dots now.

And it was so also very neat to see Dan and his dad,

Billy, win one of the awards this year.

I think it's the first time,

it's an award that's intended

for someone who's sort of passing it down

to the next generation,

you know, the spirit of enthusiasm,

the spirit of the grand.

Yeah, this time around, it was from son

to father, which was a little different.

But I couldn't think of two more meaningful,

you know, or a more meaningful couple of people

for it to go to.

And that's really a little teary eyed

when that all went down that last night,

you know, that last dinner.

But yeah, you could feel how much it meant to them,

which was really cool.

I mean, yeah, it was certainly special.

He separately provided us with the context

that his mother was no longer around

and they were kind of the only two left.

And that added even more to it

as if it wasn't already enough emotional content.

Yeah, yeah, really special.

Yeah, for them to get to do that together,

I think like you were saying, Ryan,

like there's a lot of, you know,

not a lot of parents and adult children

get to experience that.

And for that to be acknowledged is really special.

I mean, Dan's Dan such a fixture

in the Colorado community,

but also Southern California, you know,

so he's such a positive addition to the car community.

So that's really fun.

Yes, yes.

And now I know where he gets it from.

I think it was Thursday night.

Dan and I said, you know, good night

and went back to our respective rooms,

I think after a drink, after dinner.

Meanwhile, his dad, Billy,

who I think is nearing 80 was out till 2.30 in the morning

with one of those gangs of folks closing down a dive bar.

So I think you had a great time.

Yeah.

And they look so good doing it.

Again, that car is so pretty.

All the Alphas, again, even in that crowded field,

the Alphas look so good.

And I got to give you guys a lot of credit too

because you cut a good look

coming in with the white jackets,

the OTS and Co jackets.

I thought that was pretty smart.

So well done.

Thank you for that.

We, you know, we've both, I think grew up in this space

interacting with these cars and, you know,

learning all the good information

and developing our taste from the people who came before us.

And that's where our passion for this era of car comes from.

And that's part of why we're so enthusiastic

to share this entire era of cars,

which, you know, one of our colleagues

who's high school age basically called them all pre-war cars.

He resorted to a car from the 1980s as a pre-war car today.

Anything before nom, right?

Hold on now.

Which war are we, like, yeah, like, wait a minute.

Yeah, exactly.

We're talking about the Gulf War.

Right.

Right, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, Taz and I were lucky

to grow up around this stuff.

And sort of even though we were stuff from decades

before we were born, we as youths

interacted with a lot and developed first-hand appreciation,

which I think is so important for having enthusiasm

for these types of cars,

because if you don't have any first-hand interaction with it,

it's not meaningful to you.

Yeah, yeah.

And these events are exactly the types of interactions

that make these cars meaningful

to the people who come in contact with them

and ensure that they continue to be relevant.

And I firmly believe that the combination of the Grand

and the Cal Mille

and the Mille-Mille historical and all the events in Europe

ensure that cars of this era continue to be sought after.

I mean, I've talked to so many people who said,

I bought a car of this era for this event

because I wanted to attend it.

And it's creating and supporting the continued demand

and interest in these cars.

So I'm really enthusiastic about that aspect,

because I love these cars and I want more people

to see them and love them in the same way that I do.

That's really cool.

And that's, I think that's reassuring

to everybody in the car world,

because there's so much discussion, I think,

founded or not, like, you know,

do young kids want to get their licenses?

Do they care about cars?

Do they care about driving?

And I think you're right, like more,

if you get the chance to have a, you know,

kind of once in a lifetime experience

like that with these cars,

that's an emotional connection that like is gonna last.

It's an important point because, you know,

the Grand has been around since, I think, 1989.

And the cars were also 1960 and earlier in 1989.

And that is not a sliding scale.

Like that hasn't changed, it will never change.

So think about a car now that's 29 years old, right?

And what a different event it would be if we were all,

you know, I don't know, E30s?

I don't know, what would they even, not even like E,

yeah, I mean, it's just, they would,

those aren't old cars, right?

I don't, it doesn't feel like it.

I mean, 1999 was five years ago, right?

Basically, you know,

I assume you guys are in your 30s, early 30s or so?

Yeah.

So, late 30s.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, all right.

I turned 30 for the event.

All right on.

Congratulations, happy birthday.

Just for you, yeah, yeah, fantastic.

But it's, you know, you wouldn't necessarily have had,

you know, experience with these cars.

And, you know, you do wonder about the future of things.

And it is so important to bring younger people in.

And it'll be a, you know, it'll be a challenge, I think,

but the cars are just so inherently great, right?

They're just great in a way, you know,

that will never be made again, as you know.

I think that's part of why we were there.

I mean, this was the first time we tried to do it,

but my sense was that there was some effort

to bring a new, you know, group of people,

younger group of people on board.

And I thought that the age mix was certainly more varied

than I had seen, for example, on the Cal Mille.

There were certainly younger people there

and some with pretty heavy cars.

So, you know, I was encouraged to see that.

And I'm glad that organizers are actively trying

to shift the demographics or move the average age down,

especially, you know, because it helps ensure

the future of the event is run by a board.

And, you know, those guys are thinking

about the long-term viability and wanting to ensure

that it continues to happen.

So, we were delighted to be able to help with that.

Right.

Well, shout out to Tom Moran in the grand board

who really do do a fantastic job.

And I know that bringing younger folks in

is certainly something that's, you know,

that's at the forefront right now.

And you mentioned the heavy cars.

Can we talk about the heavy cars?

Because I was shocked the first time I walked

into that garage a few years ago, right,

at the stuff that was there.

What stood out for you guys?

Well, if you want to start heavy,

I think you have to talk about the pre-war Bentley's.

Oh, yeah.

Those are all very heavy.

Yeah.

Literally and figuratively, right?

Yes, literally and figuratively.

I mean, those cars are,

there were, I think, there must have been a feature of them

that I noticed them all parked together one day at lunch

and there was a high incidence of them six, seven cars.

Yeah, they're always popular.

Yeah.

And these are, you know, Cricklewood Bentley's,

which is the original Bentley,

not like the after the Rolls-Royce Bentley,

because Rolls-Royce bought Bentley in 1931.

And also all the Bentley's that won them are

from before 1931.

And most of those Bentley's, with the exception of one,

were all the pre-Rolls-Royce,

the mall winning era of Bentley's,

which are just these big massive, you know,

at Tori Bugatti called them the world's fastest lorries,

because they're so large.

They look like steam engines

and probably drive like them too,

but those guys are super hard for...

Oh yeah, they drive the hell out of them.

We were saying that they're among the most reliable cars,

like the least interventions that they have to do

are on those old Bentley's,

probably because they're effectively steam powered.

Yeah.

That's incredible, because that's not...

That wouldn't be my first guess.

No.

But I think they're so overbuilt, you know?

That's what it is.

And say, this is how strong something needs to be,

they're just gonna make it like a cast iron pot

and say it's probably good enough,

if I factor three.

Yeah.

And it's so interesting, some are steel bodied,

some have cloth bodies, right?

Some are short wheelbase, some are long wheelbase.

I think that the move is you get the short wheelbase,

but you get the engine from the long wheelbase car,

if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah.

So it's the eight liter is the biggest engine that they did

and the eight liter cars were never raced.

They were, the eight liters were big, fast sedans

or cabriolets, they were luxury cars.

And so what you do is you take the four cylinder,

like the four and a half liter car

and put the eight liter engine in it.

And then it's like doing a big block.

It's put into that last swap.

Right, the original hot rodding.

Yeah.

Love it.

Yeah, I think those drivers are some of the biggest

characters on the grand each year too.

You know, it's the different breed.

That's a different breed.

Yeah, I think there's an ongoing joke

that none of them will put their tops up, right?

I mean, they will.

But we saw them with the roofs up

and we made fun of them and told them

they'd all gone soft for erecting their tops up.

Yeah, but they took it.

I mean, they felt bad.

Like they, you saw that they were just-

You could see they were guilty.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And they're like, this is well-deserved ribbing.

Yeah, yeah.

We've earned this.

So from heavy, oh, go ahead.

I was going to say, one question I have for you, Ryan,

is it seems like maybe in past years,

there was more, not just the Bentley's,

but there was more pre-war cars.

Yeah, yeah.

And there was the Riley there, right?

But we didn't see any Bugattis.

And the only alpha we saw was the 6C1750

as a auto car.

And it didn't take part in the grand.

And it was like probably my second favorite car

of the event in the garage when I saw it.

And I was so excited to see it actually take part in the event.

It didn't.

I think it was someone's backup car.

Yeah, yeah.

It was a great backup car to have.

But yeah, I'm curious in previous years,

was there more pre-war alphas and Bugattis?

So you bring up a good point.

Most years, there's a feature car.

And the feature car is something

that maybe wouldn't ordinarily be represented

in large numbers.

And sometimes it's a car that wouldn't ordinarily qualify.

So a couple of years ago, we did the 73 Porsche RS,

Carrera RS.

And I think we had like 15 or something, which

was just cool to see.

So there were two rings or lightweights.

They're everything.

Last year, it was actually alpha 6Cs and 8Cs.

So pre-war cars.

And again, I think we had eight or 10.

And that was so cool, because those are just cars

you don't see every day.

I was in one, and I started talking to the owner.

And I said, well, tell me a little bit

about the history of this one.

And he said, well, this belonged to the war

secretary of Mussolini.

But I have another car that actually belonged to Mussolini.

I mean, these cars are just, they're oozing history, right?

I mean, it's talk about patina.

But this is like a level beyond.

And then so many of them are in that great alpha red,

that dark red, and what that's called.

Well, it sounds like Lamont brought his Tipo B last year,

which one month ago, and also had new Velary history,

maybe in Belgium.

Yes, yes, yes.

That's a super, I mean, any Grand Prix car

like that is unbelievable.

And then to think about taking a Grand Prix car

like that 1,000 miles in Colorado would be also wild.

Not just a serious undertaking.

Yeah, not just 1,000 miles, Taz.

But I followed him.

I don't know if you guys have ever heard of the million dollar

highway here in Colorado.

So it is known as one of the most dangerous roads

in the country.

It's a road that wouldn't and couldn't be built now,

but it started as like a toll road for like Conestoga

wagons or something back in the day.

And it goes from Ure, Colorado to, is it Silverton?

Kind of down there by Durango.

And it's, I think, 34 or 36 miles

that literally is just on the edge of a basically a ledge

that's cut out of this mountain.

And every year people drive off it.

I mean, there's no shoulder.

If you're on that cliff side, there's the white line

and then that's death.

And there are parts where the road has fallen away

and it's sort of scalloped and it's terrifying.

I stumbled across that road accidentally years ago

when we moved to Colorado,

but I got to follow Mott in that car last year.

As he drove that road and it started to rain and sleet

and I'm seeing this car just move

and I'm just like in a trance, right?

I mean, it's like, it just, it was magical.

It's just absolutely magical.

And we should give a shout out to our friends

at Mercedes-Benz who bring a fleet

of six or eight AMG cars every year.

In case you happen to need a car, your car breaks down,

but I was in an AMG GT, which was already pretty cool,

behind him, giving him proper space and all that,

but just watching that car move.

I mean, it was, it was,

it transcended sort of the event, right?

It sort of took you out of where you were in space and time.

And it was just, not to get weird on you,

but it was really magical.

It was awesome.

It sounds like it was life-changing.

Yeah.

I'm gonna shut up now and we'll move on,

but it was a moment.

I had a moment that day and-

No, I think that's cool though.

I mean, I think that is really seriously part of the charm

and the magic of the event

is that you get to see the cars in action.

Yes.

You don't see that anywhere

unless you go to another country, really.

Even the California Milan,

I think there was one pre-war car

on the entire California Milan.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

27.

Oh, yeah.

Another amazing car.

You just don't see.

But there were other, you know,

some number of pre-war cars.

It was less than 10, probably,

but you know, maybe around 10.

Yeah.

Well, to bring this back to your original question,

there wasn't a feature car this year.

So that doesn't happen every year.

I'm sure, you know,

we'll have another feature car next year.

But-

It doesn't seem like you really need it.

I mean, there was, what, six short wheelbases.

There was like 14 or 15, 300 SL or Gullwings, right?

I mean, there's like two pretty good features right there,

getting that many either in one place.

Two-cost fighters.

Yes.

Two PDFs.

Yeah.

Stuff you just don't see like that in Victor, right?

Yeah.

You just don't,

it was until I started working with the grand.

I mean, that's just something you don't see.

And it's funny that the 300 SLs are sort of like

the cheater cars, right?

Because they're easy to drive.

They don't break down.

There was one this year.

I mean, they're just, they're easy.

And you know, you're lucky to see one somewhere

and to see, you know, 14 or whatever.

It's just-

Yeah, it's an unimaginative choice in this context.

It is.

Which is wild, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it makes a sense

and ensures you're gonna get where you were trying to go

and it has the cubes, the cubic inches

that perform it to be genuinely useful.

Because, you know, the other choice to ensure

that you're getting where you're gonna try to go

is the 356, but you know, that's why there's a lot

of hot rod 356s because these guys are trying

to make horsepower from a car

that didn't originally have done that.

And the 300 SL is also the solution to that,

which is to have something with reasonable performance

and durability and just, it's a good grand car.

So now I understand the phrase

that X is a good grand car.

And what that means versus, you know,

what might be a good Cal Melee car

and the different answers.

Yes.

Right.

Now, I'm glad you picked up on that.

And sort of that end, I mean, the Emory Outlaws,

the 356s have sort of become, you know, the cheat code.

And because it's the grand who was there,

but Rod Emory co-driving with Tom, the chair.

And I don't know if you got, you know,

any time with Rod, but he's a neat guy.

Hell of a nice guy.

Yeah. I mean, the way that he's transformed those cars

and the way that the amount of sort of gravitas

around his name and the cars that he builds

has really brought those cars to an entirely new level.

Yeah. I drove with him one day.

So five hours in the car with anyone, you know,

as a test, right?

I mean, it's a long time, especially in an old car.

And I was impressed with a couple of things.

I was in, he was driving,

I was in one of his customer cars,

not a squeak, not a rattle, right?

And if you've been in an original 356, even a restored one,

you know that that's just not a thing.

So I don't know what magic he does to those cars.

But also five hours and it was, you know,

it was like 20 minutes.

He was a great storyteller.

He told the whole story about the, you know,

how the business began.

He lost his father in the week before the grand

and yet delivered Tom's Emory

and two other customer cars, right?

Just a neat guy.

And now I want an Emory too, right?

They're just, they're great, right?

They solve all the problems that a standard 356

might have for something.

That's how they get you.

You go on the grand and ride in one.

And this is the secret.

This is the secret.

It's also interesting to provide something

that is a little bit more modern

as an option for the event too,

which I think is interesting.

I mean, I guarantee you that there's no other car

on the grand that has like throttle bodies and mo-tex.

Yes.

And like just to say that in correlation to the grand

almost seems like abnormal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it's kind of a cool way where, you know,

one also might not know looking from the outside in.

And I think that's the neat part.

But also it does make it a cheater car.

Yeah.

But it has to be a certain Emory.

The old car texture, I think,

is substantially preserved with that car.

I mean, obviously it's more modern in some respect.

But, you know, if you will care to call that

a rest amount, there's a lot of rest amounts

that take a lot more liberties.

Yes, yes, yes.

In terms of modernizing a car where you lose

the old car character.

And I don't think those cars are on that page.

They still feel like old cars in all the ways we like.

You mentioned your friend.

There's a level of honesty there,

which I think they keep.

Yeah, that's it.

You mentioned the name Charlie Nierberg,

who's just such a great guy.

Spent some time with him too.

When we were running to O'Reilly

to get some parts for the D-type,

and he was in one of the aisles

and I just kind of elbowed the woman at the counter

and said, if you only knew the car

that these parts were going, you know.

But he's got an Emory.

He's got an early Emory,

but I think it's a turbo Emory or something.

And that car is not allowed

because it's got the visual clues

and the horsepower.

I think he's got, like,

quite literally one of everything.

Yeah.

I don't think there's, like,

a car he doesn't have.

That is also just not spectacular at the same time.

And just a hell of a nice guy too.

How about that other comp,

the red one with the white stripes

that you saw it, right?

It was so good.

A short wheelbase?

Short wheelbase.

I don't know what the stripes were,

some sort of race livery, you know.

I think it was a comp car.

Yeah.

They had an art sticker on it, right?

Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, so there's probably an alloy comp car.

I don't know the history of that car.

God, it had a presence though, you know.

It was palpable.

So what else can we geek out on

that just blew your mind?

The Maserates?

Yeah, I think the McAllister, you brought it up.

The McAllister Testerosa is pretty spectacular.

I mean, that's like, the Testerosa's,

I think that the 250 GTO gets kind of a lot of credit

for the pathway that the Testerosa laid.

Yes.

I mean, those cars from 57, whatever, to 61

were virtually unbeatable, right?

And his particular car, what, one Sebring,

I think it went to the Lamar, maybe was successful,

one in Nürburgring, with all great drivers.

I mean, I think von Neumann sat in that car,

Phil Hove probably sat in that car.

There's champions that drove that thing, right?

And I think the special part about that car

being at that event is it's highly original,

highly preserved, the paint is chipping off of it

in multiple locations, right, kind of throughout,

but it's conditionally honest.

Yeah, it's just like last raced, right?

There's an old race car.

They've serviced it and it runs great,

but it's how it was back in the 50s.

Well, I think that sort of speaks to what you two

were saying as far as your experience on the Grand

and what spoke to you.

And I think, you know, Ryan,

and I talk about this all the time too,

it's like, we're here because we love cars,

but we love driving.

And so getting to see these cars being driven

and enjoyed, and especially a car like that,

where you can literally see how it's been enjoyed

and what that impact was on the car itself,

like, I think that really strikes a chord for all of us

because we're like, yes, it's being used

for what it was designed to do and people are enjoying it.

Yeah, I mean, those cars are so spectacular to drive.

Any Tessarosa that is well-sorted

is such a phenomenal car.

The feedback it gives you, the power it has,

I mean, it's just, I don't know

if there's a more entertaining car from that period,

which is why they were so successful too,

but certainly a super special thing.

So totally, in a very valuable car,

it's a high two digit millions number.

And for those of you listening

who are afraid to take your Porsche out in the rain

because it might melt,

just know that the driver of this car

took that thing through some pretty serious weather.

It's an open car.

You know, it's got a bunch of wires down in the footwell.

The paint's flaking off to your point.

It's worth a hell of a lot of money

and yet he was out there thrashing it in the weather.

I mean, it was just, yeah.

That's awesome.

Well, the flip side also is that

if it's worth that much,

it's almost impossible to total.

Yeah, true.

That's sort of freeing, right?

Yes, but no matter what its cosmetic condition is

or anything that happens to it,

it's sort of complete destruction.

Its value is not going to really be affected.

I also don't think I would ever want to paint that car again,

though. I think that's part of it.

And if you heard it, you're going to have to.

It's got this amazing sort of Germanic style numbering on it.

And it's just, you know, it was obviously hand-painted.

And it's just, again, just oozes, you know,

patina and history and all that.

But you've driven these cars, Taz?

Yeah, I was going to drive a Tessarosa at Velocity last year,

which ended up being canceled,

but I didn't check the car down a little bit.

And my father and I have a 750 Monza,

which is two years, two or three years earlier than that car,

which is a four-cylinder Ferrari,

similar to the TRC that was on the event with us.

Sure, yeah.

Little earlier Scalietti body design,

bigger three-liter instead of two-liter to the TRC.

So, yeah, I certainly have a lot of experience in the Ferraris,

maybe not as much in the Bentley's.

And I understand your dad, Patrick,

is really one of the world's foremost 12-cylinder

Colombo Ferrari engine guys. Is that right?

Yeah, we've certainly done a lot of

both Lampredian Colombo engines at our shop.

I think I've become a little bit more Lampredi biased

because I've certainly built a lot more Lampredi

and rebuilt a lot more Lampredi engines and recency.

Okay.

But, yeah, we've done a lot of both.

Yeah, yeah.

What is it about those engines that you prefer?

A Lampredi versus a Colombo?

Yeah, because I don't know much about the differences.

Yeah, I think they're just complex.

There's a lot of things that you have to get right.

The four 10s, the two four 10s,

they're massive, nearly five liter,

huge, huge V12 engine, right?

There's a lot of things that you have to get right

with those engines in order for them to work.

They have screw-in liners into the cylinder heads,

so there's no head gasket.

The reason they came up with Lampredi design

was to eliminate the head gasket

because it was difficult to get a head gasket

that could last some of these endurance races

like the original Amilamilio or Lamala 24 hours of events

as such, so they came up with the Lampredi design

that Lampredi came up with the Lampredi design

that functioned really well,

but getting those engines to work well today

is also yet another challenge.

Yeah.

What do those cars like to drive?

I mean, because even in their day,

they were different, I think, than everything else, right?

I mean, they just magic.

I mean, there must be a lot of work,

but what's it like to wheel one of those?

I think it kind of depends on the car.

I think there was such differences in cars.

Like, I think that my Monza is such a fabulous car to drive,

but it has independent front suspension

and it has a trans-axle and a DD-owned rear end,

and I think it was technologically very advanced.

It's super torquey, only revs to 6,000 RPM,

but you have a lot of torque at the bottom,

but the car is very well balanced, works really well,

slides around a corner really well,

and meanwhile, like a couple of years earlier,

they're making 225s and 212s

that are transverse front-lease spring,

and luckily, there was none of those on the event,

so I can say that they drive like a truck, right?

And I think it just kind of depends on what car

that you're speaking of.

Yeah, yeah.

Just most of us will never have the chance, right?

So all we can do is ask people like you.

There are a lot of different states of tune

and stuff like that.

The early Ferraris are basically a big number soup.

I mean, they made all these different cars

and they all have different numbers,

and they would sometimes give the same number

to two cars that were extremely different,

and so the type of car that it is,

an open sports car, the car like Taz is describing

or like a Testerosa was basically the equivalent

of like a Le Mans prototype in nowadays,

and then the cars like a GTO or SWB or TDF

are more like GT3 cars, which is to say,

one is like a clean sheet dedicated sports car thing

that was specifically designed to win outright

at endurance races and non-endurance races,

and another car is sort of vaguely street derived,

and so it's less exotic and less like sort of out there

technologically, but maybe more useful and well-rounded

and like a more suitable car to use on the street,

and that's why it's all the more remarkable

to see these very focused sports cars like Testerosas

or TRCs or D-types and C-types, and I need these cars

that don't even have weather equipment or roofs

or windshields big enough for wipers,

and to see these guys out there in all kinds of weather

all day long in these things,

and these guys are obviously very wealthy

and that they choose to be so uncomfortable,

they are okay with it, it's the opposite

of the sort of fragile, wealthy people

that would never do anything for themselves,

these are all together, they're sportsmen,

basically, and you have all this tremendous respect

for what it took to get these cars to do this in period,

and it's very much a sort of,

you feel like you've done something afterwards.

Yeah, he mentioned the people too,

I mean, that's kind of the whole other side of this,

the conversations that you have during the Grand

and the people, you don't always know

who you're talking to,

and then you find out later someone elbows you,

it's like, yeah, you know what that was you were talking to,

but some fascinating people with some fascinating stories

and paths to where they are,

I think there were a few folks that flew in

on their own jets, of course,

but super nice people, just a great crowd,

but I think that's one of the best parts

is just at the end of the day,

hanging out and having that drink

or over dinner or whatever and just swapping stories,

it's just a very special, very special thing.

So glad you guys could be a part of it for sure

and definitely hope to have you back.

Maybe we should pivot a little bit to your business,

OTS and Co in Berkeley, California,

because as you mentioned, you helped Dan find his car

and I know you checked it out and all that

before he took delivery as well

and it's been a great car for him.

I checked out your inventory

because you're a brokerage, right?

But you're also kind of like a car matchmaker, right?

You do a little bit of everything.

You say Sherpa on the website, which I like,

because I think that sort of sums it up, right?

I want to steal that from you,

but so tell us if you would just a bit about the business

and what you specialize in.

Sure, Taz and I I think approached from different,

where we arrived here from different locations.

I had more history in selling these cars

and Taz has been working on them

since he was a child and around them his entire life.

And so I came from the space of interacting

with transactions and doing a fair bit of that

over the decades, I guess it's been over 20 years now

that I have been around these cars in a professional sense

and worked all those years for other people

and finally decided it was time to do something of my own

and work for myself.

I think a lot of that's a similar story

among anyone who's really, I think, substantial

in this business now is that they work

for other people and eventually they figure out what to do

and what not to do from other people

and set out on their own.

If they have the network and the desire

and the interest and the enthusiasm to do all that.

So that we started the business together

because we wanted to work for ourselves

and participate in transacting these cars

and have the networks to do so.

Taz obviously knows all the big Ferrari guys

and also from the racing world

lots of useful racing contacts as well.

And I have to dealt with almost everything

that is in terms of European sports cars

and some non-sporting cars too

because I've worked for dealers

that transacted those types of cars.

So we decided to set out on our own

and sort of transact cars in a way

that is based on knowledge and experience

and expertise and passion.

A lot of people are about the transaction

or they like the action, the chase.

The deal-making is almost incidental for me at least.

It's really the chance to interact with these cars

and the people who own them

and sort of share my enthusiasm and knowledge.

So we try to know what we're talking about

in depth as much as we can

and when we find people who know more than us

and we learn as much as we can from them.

But for me, I really like learning about these cars

and it's almost like an excuse

to turn all that nerdy enthusiasm

that I had about learning as much as I could

about these cars into some kind of sort of way

that allows me to eat.

Yeah.

Wild.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, so few people get to do

what they're passionate about, right?

I mean, there are a lot of people

that are just wasting away in offices as we speak.

And so I love that you two have followed your passion.

Yeah, I mean, I think we'll kind of do anything

that's interesting effectively,

but obviously Ferrari is we're strong at

because of Taz's network.

But for a market, it's not the best health right now.

So we're happy to do other stuff too.

But, you know, I would say, I don't know,

some of our highlights.

Launchestratos was a big one for me.

I had to do that car.

And I was really glad Taz got to drive one

because it's one of the most exciting cars

I've ever driven.

And the motor and transaxle are very familiar to Taz

because he's worked on so many 246s.

And so that has certainly been

one of the major highlights for me

of the cars we've done.

We've done an F40, which is obviously really exciting,

plenty of RS Porsche's in 73 and 964 and 993.

You know, some more modern stuff too.

Yeah, it's been fun for me

because it's been an outlet to be able to try some

pretty spectacular different cars that aren't Ferraris.

One of the cars that I was extremely impressed by

was we had a track day and a Quera GT came out.

There's an F40 there, there's an F50 there

and there's a Quera GT.

And I had experienced the F40 and F50 before

but the Quera GT was a new experience.

And I was able to spend five laps or so on track

on a Quera GT and it was such an unbelievably epic car.

It felt like a real race car on track

except it was, you know, had a nice steering wheel

and a couple of rear or not, but there was leather around.

And it was such a fantastic thing.

I mean, I think it would be my only car solution

and coming from a Ferrari background

that seems like something that I shouldn't say.

But it was, you know, probably,

it's probably up there in one of my top five cars

which was how spectacular it was on the racetrack.

Yeah, that's so neat.

I got to drive one for my first one a couple of months ago

thanks Brian Rudin who was on the Grand as well.

And of course all I could think about was that clutch, right?

And, you know, you go over and over in your head, you know,

just let the clutch out, no gas, all that.

And then you immediately forget about it

at the first stoplight, right?

Because I wasn't on the track, I was just on the road.

But I, you know, I had really the same experience in that.

I just thought it was epic.

I mean, it's been a dream car,

poster car for me since it was new way to my reach

but I was glad I got to experience one

because they truly are special.

And I think that's the story, right?

It was supposed to be a race car

and then they decided to, you know,

for whatever reason to sell it as a street car.

It didn't qualify, I think the series was canceled

or something, I don't remember.

Yeah, the engine certainly was intended to take a racing.

Yeah.

And then they sort of picked up the pieces,

not unlike the BMW M1.

Yeah, right on.

It was a super new story.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we like the stories of the cars

and obviously the experience is a really important part

of the appeal also.

But it's always nice to get to meet these cars

that were heroes, not always nice, that's not true.

Sometimes roundly disappointing.

Yeah.

You meet a car that was a hero car

and then to learn, you know, but in some sense

it's a relief because you can cross it off your list

of things that you'll never be able to afford

but I thought you wanted and now you don't.

So that's cool.

Right.

So you can't leave us hanging.

You gotta tell us what at least one of those cars was.

For me, yeah, so Taz, I guess you should be thinking

about some of the most disappointing cars

you've ever driven.

I think a lot of disappointment has to do

with the delta between expectation and reality.

And I guess if I had to put something on that list

it would be Porsche 959.

Really?

Yeah.

And when you think about it,

like if you do a little bit of analysis on it

it makes sense, but it's turbocharged

and it's four wheel drive and it's very high tech

and it's sort of, it's very interesting to drive

that car back to back with say an F40

because the F40 is such this sort of raw

elemental pared down thing.

There's no carpets and the dashboard

looks like it's basically made out of Velcro.

I mean, I think it's probably Perlon

or something like that.

It's just this very elemental pared down car

that is rear wheel drive with no ABS or power steering

or any of that junk.

It's just like car and you and motor.

And the 959 is exactly the opposite approach.

It's really refined and there's leather everywhere

and it's incredibly high tech and sophisticated

and it's meant to make it incredibly easy

and sort of effortless to go fast.

And it does exactly that,

which makes it maybe good for commuting,

but as a tool for entertainment

it's actually kind of lacking.

And I should have known that you look at the numbers

and you realize, well, it's a very high performance car.

It's got to be exciting.

And then you drive it like it's so easy

and effortless to go this fast

that you're kind of like,

oh, it's a little almost like driving a,

like driving a modern Porsche turbo.

I would say the exact thing about,

which is formula is very similar twin turbo charged.

Well, now they're not even manually anymore

and four wheel drive.

And it's just really, really good at going fast,

but just because it's good at going fast

doesn't mean it's fun or interesting or entertaining.

And so I had these high expectations as this exotic

that's so sophisticated and forbidden fruit

and all that stuff.

And 11 days out of 10, I will choose an F40 over a 95.

I would choose a Carrera 2 with like $12,000

of modification.

Yeah, yeah, great, interesting.

So this is obviously, this is me car-mudgeoning,

but that was probably one of the more disappointing

hero cars, which was fine.

So now I don't need to own one.

The F40 though really is one of the greats,

isn't it?

Yeah, definitely.

That's the one, that's the one.

Are you guys into any new stuff?

Like, you know, Porsche GT cars?

I feel like a F40 is pretty contemporary, isn't it?

Yeah, I guess in the scheme of things, you know,

compared to some of the cars we talked about.

I'm pretty motorist, yeah.

Yeah, exactly, yeah.

New cars, contemporary lives.

No, you quite like the,

I mean, there's some things that you do like.

You were surprised by the Scuderia

that had the manual swap, right?

We had 360-tons for it all, right?

Yeah.

I mean, but this is still a 20-plus-year-old car.

Sure, sure, sure.

I mean, yeah, you still plug your computer into it,

I think like that.

That's the much I mean, it has functioning air conditioning

and there's a button on the key that unlocks the door

also, so it's pretty modern.

I personally, there's certainly new Porsches and Ferraris.

I mean, I think a 296 is such a spectacular car.

Yeah.

I've driven one of those around Button Willow

and I thought that that car was absolutely stellar.

A 992 GT3 car feels like a race car on street tires,

even if it still just breaks,

acts, responds like a race car on track.

I don't have a lot of street time in those cars,

so I can't really speak to their everyday life

on a racetrack.

They're really spectacular

and certainly that's half the battle with me sometimes.

Yeah, yeah.

The problem with those cars on the street

is that they are so, so capable

that you will never be able to explore

that capability on the street

and to me that is such a disappointment

because I really like exploring the envelope

and those cars, the envelope is so large

that you never get the chance

to visit the car's capability unless you're on track

and for me that will always make it a car.

Yeah, it will always make it a bang and not a merry

and that's why I love old cars.

Is that our show title?

I'm just saying.

No, that's a good answer.

That's a good, good answer.

I can't even blame it on drinking anything.

I'm drinking water.

What are you guys daily driving?

Just curious, is it something older

or it's just something utilitarian?

Go ahead, Taz.

I have a BMW 128 that I like.

Yeah.

It's a happy little car

and then I have a 250, a Ford F-250 Transit Van.

Oh, sure, it makes sense.

It also doubles as a daily sometimes.

Okay, yeah.

That's a really unique two-car solution.

I love it.

Yeah, I mean, you can live in the van,

you can fit a go-kart in the back of it.

It's very happy.

I was gonna say, you could almost,

you could sort of jokingly say you could fit the BMW

in the back of the van, which is...

Yeah, you almost could.

Yeah.

What about you, Derek?

Well, yeah.

So...

That's supposed to be an easy question, right?

It's clearly not in the car world.

I think it's, you're most commonly on bike

because you're coming across the van.

Oh, right on, okay.

I have a pretty gnarly commute in terms of traffic.

It's 15 miles, if that, but it's a lot of traffic.

If you do it wrong, it could be an hour

if you do it in a car, if you do it at the wrong time.

So I ride Ducati's.

Nice.

And then for cars, I don't know,

I have a 264,000 mile 1995 Mercedes E320 station wagon,

which is kind of functioning as a daily.

And then I have a 911 SC that's kind of hot.

Oh, fantastic, okay.

That is also acting kind of as a semi-daily

when I'm not on the bike.

I don't know, all cars kind of cycles through daily use.

Oh, that's, yeah.

I mean, as they should, right?

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of the 124s.

I just think those are peak Mercedes.

I mean, those are the cars that I,

Don't get me started.

I will go on for hours,

but I've had a dozen of them at least.

They're so good.

I drove one recently for the first time in years

and I was reminded why they're so good.

I mean, yeah, it's all the stuff built

like a bank vault and all that,

but glass everywhere, right?

The ride is incredible.

The power is good.

They're torquey, right, for what they are.

They're just fantastic, fantastic cars.

I mean, they're just, in my eyes, peak Mercedes, right?

I mean, I wasn't around for the Goldwings

and all the old stuff.

I mean, the stuff that I grew up with,

I mean, they're just great.

They have held up so well.

Yeah, I totally agree.

When we started, we started this business

not even two years ago with a $10,000 loan.

I mean, we were very poorly capitalized at the beginning

and we were agreed not to take any pay

for the first year

so that we could fix that problem.

And when we needed a company car,

but the correct solution for this

is probably to buy an F350 diesel or something.

Sure, sure.

Transport parts and have a tow vehicle and all that stuff.

I found on Craigslist a $6,000 Mercedes station wagon

that we put delivery on it

that looks like the rescue service

when you call for roadside assistance.

I've seen that.

I didn't know that was yours.

Oh my gosh.

That's fantastic.

That was our solution for $6,000

on Craigslist for a company car.

So cool.

So I made up, everybody in the company now

has to have lots of one 24-time because of me.

Nice, nice.

That's really funny.

They're so good.

Well, so you mentioned,

we were talking before we started recording

and you guys have a company rally coming up.

Can you talk about that?

I think it's a pretty fun story.

Yeah, so I plan for my friends

just like a small rally of 10 cars

and then you get to go on great roads

and you don't have to worry about a hotel

that can accommodate 100 people

or actually it's 200 people, 100 cars.

And so California has these incredible type back roads

that the Cal Nile uses sometimes,

but sometimes they can't get into the places

that we get into with our small group size.

So I do this with my friends all the time

and the company, as a group of us,

we've never done one of these.

I said, well, we have to do all this.

Everyone has to come and needs to be team building.

It'll be a business expense

and everyone has to go out for the rally.

And then somehow, was this you Taz

that introduced the challenge aspect to it?

Yeah, I mean, I think like my inner competitive spirit

of making everything like a little bit,

a little mini competition, right?

I think they need to be like a good rule set.

So I thought that all cars should be no more

than $2,000 with the exception of like safety

and or OEM swappable parts to get the thing running

if you need to do so within reason.

So, I mean, obviously you can't buy something modern

that needs $25,000 worth of mobile swap and stuff like that.

But if you find a $2,000 car

that you can get stuff at O'Reilly's or so on and so forth

and make it a runner, that should be certainly part of it.

And you were driving it before we got on the air and...

I was, yeah, I was late to get on the air

because I was trying to, so I got this car

and Derek says that he knows what it is,

but he doesn't really know what it is.

It could be a, he knows that it has a certain type of motor

because that was discovered,

but it could be like a Nash metropolitan.

You don't know what it is.

That would be something.

Right?

It was a bit of watch this space next week

for the event actually.

But so, I found my car on Facebook Marketplace.

I spend most of my nights doing this,

not to have the satisfaction of my fiance,

but I have a huge saved library of $2,000 ship boxes.

And this one supposedly needed a clutch slave.

So it was like, great.

So we went out, looked at it.

The clutch slave was already off of it.

They said that they had the thing running

a couple of years ago.

I thought, great, I'll bring this home trailer it over

and then put it up.

I got under it.

I pushed the release fork in

and there was certainly nothing there.

Just went to its extremity,

which meant that there was either no release bearing

and or clutch and the thing.

So I couldn't bring it to the shop because they would see it.

And so I've done all this in my garage,

which I'm still doing.

And so a guy that's staying with me

helped me pull the motor out in the garage.

And then we realized that there was no second gear.

So I found two free gearboxes

and made like one gearbox out of three

and it's back in the car.

And it finally went its first mile,

maybe in 15 or 20 years today to the gas station

where I got momentarily stuck

and then late to be on here.

So it runs on gas.

Yeah.

Yes.

Okay.

What we know is,

it's a British 1275 motor.

Okay.

Interesting.

We started dry eyes business

and I brought the motor over to get dry eyes

because I'm doing more work than this car

probably needs or deserves,

but I've been excited about it

and Derek snuck in on the motor

while I was getting to it.

Okay.

All right.

Well, we will check back.

Yeah.

Are, is everyone else's chariot also a secret?

Like, are you all showing up

and like it's a surprise for everyone?

I know what Derek has, but I have never seen it.

Okay.

So we're all,

our third business partner has not yet bought a car.

So that's a secret.

You're reading that, right?

That's a secret to literally everyone.

Yes, it's a secret from himself as well.

Right.

Well, especially our intern turned employees

also coming on the rally.

I learned has a secret for us

that he's got yet another car

that we don't know about.

So there's still some secrecy.

Working in the wrong place.

Yeah.

He's gonna bring some Miata,

but he thought that was inappropriate, whatever.

Not the answer.

He's got something yet again.

Fantastic.

Can we follow these adventures on Instagram or what?

I'll probably post it.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, I will definitely post it.

Well, I suppose to share.

Mine is not a secret really

because I've had it already, which is cheating,

but it's a $1,300 salvage title.

Mercedes C280 that we turned into a rally car.

Okay.

And so it's lifted.

You can't tell what color it is

because it's got so much part on it.

Wow.

Which is actually that was the color of mud

before we put it on it anyway.

Was it the 70s, right?

Yeah.

Or no, you said C280.

Yeah, yeah, it's late 90s.

Late 90s.

Okay, well, that's even more interesting.

Wow.

Yeah, wow.

I would argue it's less interesting,

but the rally car and the fact that it's lifted

Well, yeah, I've never seen one.

Yeah, yeah.

That's awesome.

Well, we're at an hour.

I think that's probably a show,

but speaking of Instagram and social media,

where do we find you guys?

Where do we find your shop?

Yeah, so our shop is OTS and Co.

And that is, you know, Otis and Tam Scott OTS.

So that's pretty polished.

And then our personal Instagram minus D Tam Scott

and Taz, you are at T Otis Racing.

That's it.

Right on, right on.

Perfect.

You can follow our adventure,

misadventures on there.

Yeah, you're both good followers.

And really appreciate having you guys on

because I know how busy you are

and I just got back from the Grand.

Got a million things going on

and this was very short notice,

but really just wanted to share,

you know, the spirit of the Grand

with the people listening.

And it's a very special thing to me.

And it sounds like it was a special thing

to both of you as well.

And we hope to have you back soon.

Love to have you back on the show sometime too.

Thank you for that.

It was a pleasure to be here

and the Grand was pretty transcendent.

I mean, I'm hooked.

I will continue to go back

as long as I have a vehicle and I'm allowed.

Awesome.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

I feel the same exact way.

Well, Tatsu Otis and Derek Tam Scott,

thank you so much for being on that car show.

Have a good night guys.

And remember always be driving.

Derek Tam-Scott and Tazio Ottis Go for a Drive

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Alfa Romeo GTV

BMW E30S

Porsche Carrera RS

Porsche 356

Jaguar Dtype

Ferrari 250 GTO

Jaguar Ctypes

Ferrari F40

Ferrari F50

Bmw M1

Porsche 959

911 Porsche Gt

Ford F350

Space Chariot

Mazda MX-5 / Miata

About this episode

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