The Shelby Cobra is a famous sports car known for being very fast and lightweight. It was made a long time ago but is still loved by car fans today. People talk about it because it has a special place in car history and is very exciting to drive.
The 1995 Ford F-150 is a pickup truck that is known for being tough and reliable. It comes in different sizes and styles, making it a popular choice for many drivers.
Brake travel is how far you have to push the brake pedal before the brakes start working. If the travel is long, it means you have to push the pedal down a lot before the car stops.
The gas pedal is what you press to make the car go faster. Its height compared to the brake pedal can affect how easily you can switch between the two while driving.
The pedal assembly is the part of the car where the brake and gas pedals are located. Changing its height can make it easier or harder to switch between pedals while driving.
An MSD box is a device that helps improve how a car's engine starts and runs by controlling the spark that ignites the fuel. It can be adjusted to make the engine idle better and perform more efficiently.
RPM is a way to measure how fast the engine is running. It tells you how many times the engine's parts are moving in a minute, which helps you understand how hard the engine is working.
The Ram 1500 TRX is a powerful pickup truck known for its off-road abilities. It's built to handle tough terrain while also being fast and fun to drive.
A Hellcat swap means putting a really powerful engine from a Dodge car into another vehicle. The Hellcat engine is famous for being very fast and strong.
The clutch master cylinder helps you change gears in a car with a manual transmission by controlling the clutch, which connects and disconnects the engine from the wheels.
The steering shaft is the part that helps you turn the steering wheel to change the direction of the car. If it's not the right length, it can make steering harder or less effective.
Shocks are parts of the car that help make the ride smoother by absorbing bumps in the road. They keep the car from bouncing too much when you drive over uneven surfaces.
Control arms help the wheels move up and down while keeping the car stable. They connect the car's body to the wheels and are important for a smooth ride.
A roll bar is a metal structure in a car that helps keep it safe if it flips over. It protects people inside the car by keeping the roof from collapsing.
A pressurized system means that fluid is kept under pressure to help parts of the car work. If you open it without letting the pressure out first, fluid can shoot out.
The Mustang Cobra is a special version of the Ford Mustang that is designed for better performance and speed. It has a more powerful engine and sporty features compared to regular Mustangs.
Brake lines are pipes that carry the liquid used to make your brakes work. They connect different parts of the braking system, and if they're old or damaged, it can be dangerous.
Wheels are the round parts of a car that help it roll. They can be changed to look different or perform better, and some people like to customize them for style.
Powder coating is a way to paint something using a special powder that gets baked on to make it strong and shiny. It's often used on car parts like wheels to make them look good and last longer.
Satin clear powder coat is a special type of paint that gives a smooth, slightly shiny look to car parts while also protecting them. It's different from regular paint because it doesn't shine as much.
SEMA is a group that helps companies that make car parts and accessories. They help these companies follow the rules about emissions and other regulations.
These are parts in diesel trucks that help clean the exhaust gases before they leave the vehicle. They make sure that the truck doesn't pollute the air too much.
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks sporty and can go really fast. It's popular because it has a lot of power and is often seen in movies and TV shows. People talk about it because there are new versions coming out that might use less gas or be electric.
The Dodge Challenger is a cool-looking car that's designed to be fast and fun to drive. It's known for its powerful engines and classic style, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts. People are excited about it because there might be new electric versions coming soon.
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV that you can take off-road, meaning it can drive on rough trails and dirt. It was really popular in the past and has come back recently, making it a favorite for people who love outdoor activities. Many people are talking about it because it's great for adventures.
The Ford Lobo is basically the same truck as the Ford F-150 but is called Lobo in Mexico. It's a big truck that's great for many uses, like work and family trips. People talk about it because it's a popular choice for truck buyers in Mexico.
The Ram 1500 is a big truck that's great for carrying heavy loads and can be used for work or everyday driving. It's known for being comfortable and having lots of cool features. People like to talk about it because it can do a lot of different things well.
The Dodge Ram is a strong pickup truck that can handle tough jobs and is also good for everyday use. It's known for being reliable and having a lot of space for carrying things. People talk about it because it's a popular choice for both work and fun.
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Hello, I welcome the car cast. I'm that promoter, Andrew, here with Phil Goldberg.
I feel like I should have a wrench in my hand. One of the many times I have in the last, I don't know, two weeks.
Yeah, so the Cobra Project, obviously we've been talking about that for weeks and you were going to...
Where's my main artery?
For quite a long time.
Boys and girls out there, I'm really sick and tired of hearing you. When's it going to be done?
If I didn't have to touch every centimeter of this vehicle, it probably would have been done a lot sooner.
Man, I'm learning so much along the process. I'm learning what not to do. I think more than anything, but give me a break, man.
I'm doing it myself with a couple buddies, so it's not a full garage of people thrashing seven days a week.
I'm out here on my own, like literally every waking moment, but there's only so much that my knowledge can allow me to continue on the car.
So I've pretty much done everything that I could do. I finished up the interior this last weekend and I tell you what, man.
Hooking up the master cylinders to the pedals while we're in the footbox of a Cobra is one of the most challenging things I've ever done in my entire life.
Matter of fact, I didn't do it. I was able to do the clutch yesterday and then about an hour 20 into it, I just couldn't take it anymore.
And thankfully a buddy of mine came over and we installed a bedliner on his truck, but man, he was within 10 minutes.
It's just because of his size. He was able to get two hands on the pedals as opposed to my one and I'm trying to manipulate two things with one hand.
It gets it done. So I've got to lose weight before I car, man.
Maybe you just need a bigger car.
Well, I mean, the fact is that anything I work on after this is going to be a breeze because of that.
Yeah, everything's bigger.
You know, a freaking funny clown car or something. I'm not going to do anything smaller.
Everything that I've worked on getting underneath the dash of stuff. I mean, my 95 F-150, you know, you look at it and you go, it's a truck.
I mean, it's a regular cab. So you kind of sit up straight. You don't really lean back, but you know, I could fit in it.
You could fit in it. It's still, I mean, it's a smallest truck because it's 95 like a 95 F-150 is as big as what a Ranger is today.
When I park my new truck next to the old truck, it's wildly different, but it's, you know, but it's, you know, it's a fold down sort of bench seat, right?
You know, and you've got some room in the shoulders. If you sit up straight and, you know, it does have a tilt steering wheel so you can kind of get underneath it, you know, if you're a bigger guy.
But yeah, I took, so obviously it's an automatic, but the brake pedal and the gas pedal weren't really aligned up.
The way they do that, the brake pedal, because the brakes are so soft in that truck before I redid them, that it's got a lot of brake travel to it.
So the brake pedal sat so much higher than the gas pedal that you couldn't, like, if you wanted to move your foot from the gas pedal to the brake pedal, you have to lift your leg off the seat.
Now, if you do that in traffic a thousand times, you're like, you're like, oh my legs getting tired of what's going on.
So I took that pedal assembly out.
Now, what I did was to save me a little bit of time was I just found on eBay another pedal assembly.
And then I brought it to my guy, Sean, and I said, hey, I think we can cut this pedal and re-weld it so the brake pedal is down a little bit more.
It can't go too far because then when I hit the brake, it'll hit the floor, right?
So then what do you do if you're trying to hit the brakes and it's not stopping?
I go, but I think we have about two inches of room.
So let's take about an inch, inch and a half.
Let's cut it down.
And then because I bought like an eBay pedal set, then when it was welded and we painted it and whatever was ready to go and I bought new bushings for it,
I went underneath the dash, removed the old pedal, put the new pedal in, and I had no real downtime.
But even in that truck with the seat still in it, you just feel like a contortion.
You're trying to get underneath the dash and up above the steering wheels in it, the steering columns in it, like what you're doing here.
The seat was in it.
I just kept thinking about it, I should just unbolt this entire bench seat and just take it out.
Then I can just give myself more room.
Yeah, but again, I like to pre-plan everything and I don't like to be inconvenienced, right?
But there's only so much pre-planning you can do because things change.
And then you have to understand that your anticipation grows the closer you get to completion.
So the full interior shouldn't be in right now.
No question.
Yeah, right.
Because we still have to take the dash out one or two more times and make sure everything is fine with the steering column and the mount that I used.
And every single thing is custom on this car first and foremost.
Let's just talk about that.
I'm having to link one of the steering shafts by an inch today.
That's the last thing, literally.
One of the three links is an inch too short.
So we're linking that.
Yeah, I put the carpet in because I knew we're that close.
But I also knew that it was going to be a pain in the ass dealing with the pedal assembly.
But I went ahead and did it anyway and now I'm paying for it.
So, you know, you can plan all you want, but you're, you're, I don't know, you're not your anticipation, but your willingness for it to be freaking done and you to see something via a viable change and what you've been working on.
Sometimes that overrides your sense of reality.
Well, it does because you want to go into the garage and accomplish something on that car for the day.
And, and if you, if you have to just stand there and wait for like the pedal assembly to come in or those pieces or the bleed the brakes before you put the carpet in, like, yeah, it kind of, it kind of.
I got two pedal assemblies, right?
And like you said, I can bench build one and then I could replace it.
But then I have to affix the master cylinder rod to the back of the pedal.
Well, how am I going to do that?
Because I can't, I mean, I just part of my body in there, you know, but somebody such as your size can, you know, two-handed, right?
So, yeah, I got a bit, yeah.
I mean, there's so much of an issue with everything.
It's just every single thing.
It's a domino effect.
All right.
So let's, let's talk about where we left last week.
Wednesday, you were, you were waiting for the guys to show up so you can fire up the car.
We knew it wasn't going to be ready to drive yet, but they were going to come over and you wanted everybody there to fire up the car.
How'd that go?
It went well.
It went well, you know, except for, you know, you always try to pre-plan everything.
And I knew that I was going to get to a point where we'd start the motor and it wouldn't idle because I didn't adjust the MSD box and raise the idle from original, you know, settings from the factory, right?
And I knew I'd forget it, but I had it planned out that I was going to, right?
Oh, there's something wrong with the motor.
It's not idling.
It won't go over 2000 RPM.
Oh, oh, okay.
That's right.
You talked about that.
You mentioned that before the rev limiter.
Yeah.
The MSD rev limiter from out of the box was set at 2000.
So you couldn't rev it past 2000.
So you thought.
But you're thinking about seven million different things at the time.
Yeah.
And you forget and well, and behold, yeah.
So it's things like that along the way that are have situations rectify themselves by you just remembering things, right?
So, yeah, where are we at now?
What have I done?
So I did the interior over the weekend.
First and foremost, we drove to TCU to watch Gage play because he started special teams now.
So he's starting on special teams, kickoff, kickoff return.
So it was the first game in college that Gage started, you know, so we drove up.
And this isn't a show about football or your family.
But so I will turn it into something relevant to our conversation on the way.
So it was a four hour drive up, right?
So we drove up that morning was a six o'clock game.
And then I drove home afterwards got home at four o'clock in the morning on the way back.
I chose to take 35, which is lit up.
It's in the middle of them.
The morning, you know, the late night, early morning.
So I didn't want to take back roads because of deer, right?
So extremely long story short, I'm driving and I'm taking the TRX and I'm tooling along pretty good.
It's two o'clock in the morning.
There's not many people on the road.
All of a sudden these lights come up behind me and I move out of the way and this truck pulls up next to me, man.
And it sounded so good.
And I looked at it and I'd never seen that truck before.
It was it was like an old, it was like a 65 Dodge four door.
And this dude had to have done a Hellcat swap and he had to have had some bigger supercharger out there because he was tooling in this truck.
Yeah.
It had to be had to be one of the I've never seen that that model ever in my life.
Early sixties, but a four door and it was lifted and it just looked old, you know, on the outside.
But you knew that it had some massaging done underneath.
Man, that was a great.
That was the best experience of my TCU trip.
Sounds very Texas.
Yeah, 100%.
Man, it was awesome.
What a great truck and I couldn't.
I didn't want to catch up to him because he was.
He was going in a little fast.
He was scooting along.
But if he caught up to you.
Yeah, I mean, I was going.
It's 75.
I go with like 80 something like that.
I'm not going to, you know, be dangerous at night or ever.
Right.
And man, he just came up on me and he tried to raise me and I wanted to was asleep and I'm like, man, this truck is too cool.
I'm just sitting there admiring it.
It was great.
What a great truck.
Yeah.
All right, that's cool.
So I got back.
I drove back so that we could get together on Sunday to work on the car.
And we got together and yeah, just checklist stuff.
Let's see here.
Bled the, all the masters.
Like as I said, one of the brake mass cylinder clutch mass cylinder.
The clutch completely blew out from under the car because somebody hadn't tightened one of the fittings.
And I mean, it just, I could hear it instantly when I pressurized it because I got one of those, one of the pumps and 1410 and I was just going and I could hear it.
And so I lifted the car up and I looked underneath and it was just one fitting.
But other than that, every system pressurized itself.
Yeah.
He breaks fine.
The, the, the Jag rear end is a little hard to get to my buddy Clint and his smaller stature was able to come over.
We were here until about two o'clock in the morning last night or this morning.
But literally right now all we need, the dash needs to come on and off probably twice because the, the headlights are malfunctioning in that, you know, they're not doing what we're asked them to do.
And then the blinkers aren't responding.
Other than that, the third link on the steering shaft needed to be elongated like about an inch.
And literally when that is done and it should be done later this afternoon, I'm going to drive the thing around the garage.
Boom.
Yeah.
All right.
I installed all the shocks that all the spacers did all that.
I told you, I inverted the shocks on the rear.
I had to because of the spacing.
So you got all that new stuff, the new springs, you got everything from Bilstein, you got everything that you needed for that.
I think it's land.
I think it's Landis that has this the springs.
Something like, yeah, I don't want to butcher them, but bills, but it happened through Bilstein.
And they sent me an extra set of spring rates, 50 pounds greater.
So we'll see what works.
And the, the, the, the, the stance of the car compared to six inch gap in the rear is absolutely gorgeous now, man.
So it's, it's, it's really, you're going to have to dial that in a little bit.
You know, I'm sure it has to settle.
You have to get your weight in it.
You have to, you know, but if it's there and it's holding itself, then, you know, like you said, you can, you can get in it and, and get it around the garage, drive it around the garage or something like that.
You know, you want to make sure the brakes work.
You want to make sure that clutch works.
You want to make sure, you know, it's at works.
Yeah.
E brake works at shifting.
Well, double check all the fluids, transmission has fluid, rear end has fluid.
All done, man.
All done.
It just needs to be tested.
Right.
And go around the garage, then check all the fluids again.
Like you said, make sure, I mean, the, my biggest thing as far as ride height is where we're going to end up setting these, these control arms, upper and lower control arms that we customized because they're, they're not set.
Right.
So everything's got to be dialed in.
Whether it's the camber, I mean, every single thing's got to be dialed in, but once that's done, that's the fun part too.
Right.
You're actively participating as you're driving around.
Yeah, you're right.
You got to do the alignment and stuff on it as well and make sure it goes straight and doesn't.
Everything's brand new.
Yeah.
Every single thing's brand new.
So there's nothing set.
Nothing set at all.
I mean, it's tightened, but it's not, it, you know, it, it is.
Your big driveway, is that straight?
It's straight.
And is it paved?
Yeah.
So you could, it's probably long enough that you can see if the car is going straight, right?
Like, absolutely.
Yeah, it's like, if you just want to check the alignment and not even leave the property, you can just go, you could just put it in the middle of the road because most of the roads are, you know, peaked a little bit in the middle for water runoff.
So you go straight.
Yeah.
And I've got the, the, the big screwy alignment tool.
Yeah.
With the, with the beams and stuff.
So once I figure that out, we'll dial it in.
I'm just excited, man.
I'm excited.
I can't be too excited because the roll bar is not on.
So I can't get too frisky with it.
But, you know, just hearing it crank up and idle.
Everybody was happy when you guys did it with the group.
Oh yeah.
We were ecstatic, man.
I mean, it's, it's what you work for, right?
You know, that, and then you realize that all the medium was shot out of the side pipes and is all over my garage.
Yeah.
All over.
I was thinking about that too.
When you said that the clutch, when you were, when you were doing the hydraulic clutch and it leaked, and I was like, oh, if you, if it was the brake master cylinder, that would make a mess in the engine compartment.
But if it's the clutch, it's a little bit easier underneath the car to clean.
And I know you got the big sweeper.
Oh yeah.
It wasn't, it wasn't the clutch.
So I did, I would be remiss in telling you that I didn't depressurize the pump system.
And I took the, I took the fit, the fitting off of the rear brakes and it shot everywhere because it was still pressurized.
I forgot to depressurize it before I undid it.
And man, it, it shot it.
But the good part about the Cobra is it's shooting everywhere.
The, the master cylinder is literally the only thing that's under it is the side pipes and.
Yeah.
Oh, brake cleaner on, on all my stuff.
Yeah.
I was really worried except for the fact that there were seracoded and Clint came over later and I told him about it.
And he looked at the pipes.
He goes, man, they're cleaner than they were before cleaned them.
I mean, it was great.
So a serac, so a brake cleaner and, or brake, brake fluid and seraco.
Man, not an issue whatsoever.
So brake, the thing about the brake fluid is it can etch it, you know, like I had on my, on my red car on that Mustang Cobra.
So we, when I, I displayed it, I think we had it at, maybe it was at SEMA and the brakes, I didn't have the new brake lines on it.
It was the old brake lines, but they weren't hooked up to the rear brakes.
And once the car moved and got trailer it over there, there was a little bit of fluid in the old line.
And it, and it dripped onto the inside of the wheel and the wheel is so Brad Fanshawe made me some wheels.
And then we did like, we, he did like, like a brushed lip with a gold center and I'll let me.
Was it, was it powder coated?
Was it seracoded?
What was it?
So what he did was it was the gold center was, was powder coated.
The lip was brushed and then it had a satin clear powder coat over, over the whole, over the whole thing.
Yeah, brake cleaners, brake, brake fluid should screw up powder coating.
Yeah.
So this is, I don't know if I have, I'll show you a picture of the wheel.
Right.
So here on, on the wheel, this outer lip is brushed.
And then this is like a dirty gold center.
Gotcha.
And then the whole thing has like a satin clear powder coat over it.
Right.
It looks good.
But yeah, so what happened was it dripped a little bit and it leaked down and it, it like etched that powder coat, that satin powder coat.
So put like a little bit of a stain in it.
Almost looked like a water spot that you can never remove.
Right.
And, and Brad even told me it's like, try brake cleaner, see if we can rub it out because you can't polish it out because it's a satin clear.
You know, so yeah, it just, it's very, very subtle.
We got it cleaned up as much as you can, but it etched it.
It etched it in there.
So that's,
I was surprised.
I was surprised.
I mean, because I remember shooting the video over at CGC and him ranting and raving about, yeah, it's impenetrable to chemicals.
And I'm like, oh yeah, we'll see.
Well,
Challenge accepted.
And inadvertently I put his product through the challenge, man.
And I mean, there was brake cleaner all or brake fluid all over it.
And it did nothing but make it look better.
It gave me kind of a sheen.
But I swear to God.
So then you cleaned it up with, with brake cleaner to get it all to get.
Yeah, just a little bit, just a little because I don't like putting brake cleaner on anything because I mean, I believe the brake cleaner is one of the coolest inventions ever because it'll, it'll, it'll mitigate any mess that you have.
Yeah.
I mean, I got glue.
I did all the,
pardon me, doing all the interior work.
I got glue all over my hands and I didn't use soap and water.
I used brake cleaner to get it all off.
I literally washed my hands with brake cleaner.
I want to say brake cleaner used to be stronger.
I want to say 30 years ago.
Because they've diluted everything.
Yeah.
Everything's sort of water based this and that, right?
Like everything is just all the chemicals.
Like, yes, you know, our, our, you know, the AC refrigerant, like everything, everything was stronger back, back in the day.
Yeah.
So everything's like, I don't, you're right.
Everything's like a little bit more gentle detergent.
Yeah.
Just everything kind of is.
All about the power, right?
Why aren't you going to stretch it as much as humanly possible before the public cries foul?
It's like potato chips.
The bags are getting smaller.
The bags are getting smaller.
Price is the same.
It's like anything else, right?
People try to push the envelope.
You know, you can think about it, supplements.
Like we used to have fat burns with a fedron.
Used to get you tracked, jacked.
Like you'd be running around like you were on like all this.
I took a fedron before my matches.
You could buy it at the quick trip.
Yeah.
But now it's all like green tea and just like some lightweight, you know, like caffeine.
I don't even think you can get like, you can't get like a, a fedron over the counter.
I don't think anymore.
No, I mean, you know, there's good and bad to that a thousand percent.
But yeah, I mean, everything, everything's watered down now.
Whether it's, whether it's brake cleaner, whether it's detergent, whether it's Orkin, whatever it is.
It doesn't matter what it is, right?
People are going to stretch it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Brothers, what's the story?
What happened?
I mean, I'm not, I don't want to turn into TMZ and be a gossip, you know, podcast by any stretch,
but I saw that note.
And I'm just diesel brothers.
Yeah.
Let's, yeah, let's, we'll get into it.
Let's just take a quick break.
We'll be right back.
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Okay, so what you were talking about like this was in the news recently.
So diesel brothers were involved in the big like emissions crackdown.
And this was years ago, you know, SEMA made a big deal about this as well.
They were not fighting the EPA or in car, but they were sort of working with them because it's kind of a weird relationship.
You know, like SEMA does like more emissions testing and gets more stuff approved by carb than the government.
Like almost anything because every aftermarket company goes to them like I'm doing an intake system.
I'm doing throttle bodies.
I'm doing whatever like all that stuff that needs an EO number.
They work with them all the time.
So they have a good relationship to make it happen fairly affordably, fast track it, get it done.
But you know, carb was cracking down and suing anybody that ever any shop that's ever installed an exhaust system and doing things like that.
And yes, there were definitely some bad actors in the group, right?
The doing things that you shouldn't be doing not according to the rules.
By the way, these days, we can make plenty of power with emissions controlled systems.
Like we, the company's gotten smart enough to go.
We know how to tune.
We know how to make high flow exhaust systems, cats, things like that.
Like we, you know, all that stuff we can tune around.
We can make big power.
Think about it.
Like, you know how hard it was to make like a 10 second Camaro or Mustang in the 90s and now like you can buy one off the showroom floor.
Like we're making power.
You know, we're definitely making power.
Every time I follow Nelson race again, he's like, this is the most affordable package I have.
It's only 1200 horsepower.
He's like, if you want the 2000 horsepower version on pump, this is the 1200 horsepower version.
This is basically the cheapest one I got.
I was like, what?
It's crazy.
Right.
And that's on pump gas.
So diesel brothers were involved in that.
And at some point during this process, they were court ordered to pay a fine of $844,000.
And I guess they didn't pay it.
And for whatever reason, they don't have, I don't want to say they ignored it, whatever.
I can't speak to their business here.
Ordered to pay it for what, what law, what, what specifically did they, I know what they, what specifically did they do?
Was it a continuation of shows that they did and the vehicles that they were using in those shows?
Yeah.
So what happened was is, so, and I'll just go through some of the notes, but the U.S.
Their shop, their group had been tampering with diesel truck emissions systems.
And through their YouTube videos and stuff, they basically were proven that that was the case.
They uploaded videos, they're blowing all this black smoke and racked up millions of views.
And the clips were among several examples of how are they were tampering with these emissions systems.
So long story short, and actually, I think they, they brought in, they did some testing on certain vehicles.
And the emissions testing had showed that the trucks were emitting as much as 21 times more particular matter than, than they're supposed to.
Well, that's okay.
Yeah.
So they got in trouble for that.
They were required to pay a fine.
You know, like I said, if there are some bad actors, however this went down, I don't know the guys and I'm not, you know, look, if they did something wrong, they were required to pay.
And they had to pay $844,000 for it.
And so what happened was is they didn't, they hadn't paid yet.
I don't know if they just didn't pay the whole thing or what the deal was.
But the guy, heavy D, Dave Sparks, he was picked up Tuesday morning in Utah and was arrested.
They found him in contempt of multiple court orders following that Clean Air Act lawsuit, failure to pay the money.
I think he's out on bail.
I think I read somewhere else.
The bail was like 20,000 bucks, but don't don't quote.
But you know, damn.
Yeah.
So listen, here's the thing.
It's like, if, if you didn't do anything wrong, then chances are you can fight that battle like so many others have done.
But if you, you know, you skirted the rules, you got caught, you got in trouble, you got to pay the fine.
If that's the case, then you got to pay the fine.
And if you're unable to pay it, you need to go back and try to get terms or something.
If you just skip out on it, then, you know, whatever, then they're going to come and get you.
They're going to scoop you up at your local Denny's or IHOP or wherever he was hanging out.
I guess the moral of the day.
Yeah.
Anyway, like I'm sure it sucks for him, but and I, and I feel bad on some level, but I don't know enough of the story.
It's like, if you.
Thank you for enlightening me as to some of the information because I had no idea now it's a little more clear to me.
Also, so I don't know if you heard this from Stalantis, but Stalantis obviously trying to reorganize things.
They just officially killed off the Challenger Daytona, I'm sorry, the Charger Daytona SRT Banshee.
They struggled to make sales with the electric charger.
And then we're going to release the high horsepower version, the Banshee.
More expensive, so.
And more expensive. It was already expensive.
The lower level model.
They're just not going to do it.
The whole experiment will be a bad dream and it'll be gone from all of our showrooms and mines and we can move forward.
Yeah, I mean.
Unlike so like the Ram electric truck, there was a lot of development money on that.
I think they're still going to do the Ram Charger, which is the hybrid with the with the with the range extender, which I do like that idea.
But killing that off that electric truck, that's a lot of money invested into that.
And I talked to Alisher about it as well.
And we were going, he brought up the question because they were so far along and doing this.
Why not release it? See if they can sell a few.
And I said, because they need it, they need to cut their losses.
If they had released that vehicle, producing vehicles, delivering vehicles, advertising campaigns, support for the dealers like the the amount of money more that they'd have to pour into getting that thing on the streets.
I just don't think would would make sense.
So for them to just kill it off and go, listen, we just got to take our losses and move, move on from there.
Now, the Charger that we were talking about, the plan was to always have the six cylinder gas engine in that.
So when they develop that platform, it was ready for it.
Now, can they fit the V8 in it? I think they can, right?
Are they going to move forward with that?
I'm going to say yes, they're probably going to move forward with that.
So they they had spoken before when they let's say when they came to their senses, they they had spoken about doing like a five billion dollar investment into U.S.
Manufacturing and said, we're going to ramp that up.
And now they've come back and said it's going to be a $10 billion investment over a certain amount of time.
But that now is sort of leading us to believe V8 engines.
They're bringing it back into the Ram truck.
I really think we're going to see that come back into to some car models, some Charger Challenger, something.
I think this Charger with EV is potentially going to have an eight cylinder in it.
I think possibly something else down the line.
And you know, bring back some of the name plates like SRT and things like that, maybe Helicap or whatever.
But yeah, so that's a significant announcement for them going, we are investing more.
And when I say the $10 billion investment into U.S. manufacturing, because keep in mind the U.S. manufacturers, especially a company like Dodge, you know, you rely on Canada,
Mexico, you know, like other places outside of the country, neighbors of ours, but they want to bring it all more homegrown and do it here.
You know, I think Ford's doing that.
And I think several of the other companies are doing that as well.
Even companies like Hyundai have committed to more manufacturing here.
It's a great move.
Yeah, it's a good move.
You know, for various reasons, you know, avoid tariff issues and cost, you know, costs around that more jobs here.
But but for us here in car cast as enthusiasts, it just is leading more and more toward the light of of having, you know, the big horsepower, the, you know, the, the, the muscle car theme back over over at Dodge.
Yeah.
100, 100 million percent.
It's hope.
It's, yeah, it's, it's hope.
It's hope.
Yeah, one other thing I want to touch on real quick.
I don't know if you saw this yet, but, you know, all this, all this buzz around TRX and potentially that coming back and Ram getting V8s.
And, you know, on Ford, the success of Raptor and off road really became a thing ever since COVID when people are like, oh, I could take some time off and go off the grid.
I can work remotely like off road blew up right Bronco Jeeps, everything just kind of blew up.
But now we're coming back around going, well, we do like street trucks.
You know,
you know, you think of the, the Chevy, the 454 SS back in the day, badass truck, the gen one lightning like mine, gen two lightning, Ford announced a few months ago, the F 150 Lobo, which is a slightly lowered truck.
It's got a little bit of a ground effects package on it.
It's kind of all blacked out.
Looks cool.
What was the one that I wanted for a while with the Hemi in it, the two door and the.
The SRT 10.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a cool truck.
So they did the four door and the two door, but the two door, I think had the manual, you could get it in a manual.
I don't know if the four door had a manual outside.
I think that was just automatic.
But yeah, cool car.
I mean, if you love seven miles per gallon, but yeah, that's a badass truck.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
It's a cool piece.
You should probably have one one day when you find the right one and it makes sense.
It just kind of feels like you're going to have one one day.
Yeah.
So Todd just coming back with, anyway, the low buzz I was saying doesn't have the supercharger
package, but it is the five liter coyote engine and Ford performance has their, their, their
Whipple supercharger from the catalog dealer installed warranty 700.
I think it's 775 horsepower, someone around there.
So Dodge wanted to respond to that.
And Dodge partnered up with, with Fox.
We know from Fox Shocks, but Fox factory vehicles and they put together with what they call
this is talking about on the nose, the Ram 1500 lowered, which is, which is interesting
because you're like, it's physically lowered, but lowered, maybe like less expensive or less
horsepower, but it's, instead of giving it like Lobo or, or some, you know, some thunder
or something like that.
Whatever.
Loaded.
If you're going to stick with simplicity.
Yeah.
So like you go to the truck, you go to the dealer like, what's that Ram, the lowered one?
Like, yeah, it's called the lowered the Ram 1500 lowered.
Anyway, that aside, take a look at it.
It's got kind of a body kit on it.
It's lowered.
It's got an air dam on it.
It's got a kind of a kind of a cool aggressive little scoop, a little kind of a canard thing
going on here on the side.
If you look at the other colors, you can kind of see it a little bit better.
You go to vehicles.ridefox.com and you can check it out.
It looks cool.
If you're into the street truck thing, I am.
I'm not out in, you know, in Texas.
I'm not on a ranch, but it's, it comes with a coilover lowering system from ride tech.
So Fox shocks owns ride tech and ride tech, which makes a great coilover in airbag.
But it's ride tech coilover system, 22 inch wheels.
It's got 305 40 22s on it.
It's got the supercharged Hemi V8 650 horsepower.
You can get it in a four by four or four by two.
It still tows 11,320 pounds.
The payload is 1900 and was it 1910 pounds?
So yeah, it's a cool looking street truck.
Now granted, it's not inexpensive.
It's about 90,000 bucks before you add.
If you want the four by four version, it's going to cost you a few, few bucks more.
So not, not cheap.
And at 650 horsepower, if you compared that to like the supercharged F 150, it's going to be a little bit, it's going to be a little bit less than that.
If like, if you went to Ford and said, give me the F 150 with the five liter Coyote installed the Ford performance supercharger on it with that, with the warranty and the tune, you'll get a little more power out of the Ford.
But the Dodge guy, and I'll be honest with you, I'm not impressed with it.
I mean, I'm impressed with it.
Okay.
I'm going to come out with, I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a to each his own thing.
I mean, I am impressed with the idea.
But if you're going to come out with something in the space, I think it needs to make more of a statement than this does, especially with the 65th. I mean, I don't know.
I don't know.
Honestly, I was expecting at least 700 plus horse.
I'm waiting for the 1000 horsepower variant that I keep hearing about, right?
Maybe, maybe these guys are going to be the ones to unleash that one. But as I said, if you're going to come out and if you're going to, if you're going to, you know, stake your claim in the space, I would have thought it would have been a little bit different than this.
But that's just my opinion.
Also, I'm not a guy who it's like an oxymoron for me to have a truck on 22s. That's just my opinion.
I want to be able to run curbs over and not worry about my $2,500 wheels.
That's kind of a, I mean, yeah, I get it. You know, the SRT 10 truck, but it didn't have, I don't know, man. I just don't, I'm not a fan of the bigger wheels on these trucks because it takes them out of being a truck.
I don't know.
Yeah. You know, it looks good. I think they did a great job with it. You know, it's still functional. It's not like you can't tow anything or do anything with it. You know, like when we had the Cyclone, which is a cool little, you know, turbo thing, but you could barely even put anything in the back of the truck.
You know, but, you know, stance is right. Looks good. It's got good parts on it. You know, maybe the 22s aren't for you. You could probably, I don't know how big the brakes are.
I think the brakes are perfect.
Give me any truck that they have with the direct connection DSR 1200 swap and I'd take it over that truck in two seconds.
Yeah. So for your money, you would, you would build your own truck instead of.
1000%. Especially after doing what I've been doing to this freaking Cobra, right? Because, you know, with a little effort, you can customize just about anything.
All it takes is, is, you know, creativity and labor.
Yeah.
Truthfully.
Yeah. But, you know, if you want a turnkey package, you can get this thing showroom floor full warranty, finance it, you know, if you want to go down that route, lease it like, you know, and you just want to like.
It's perfect for somebody.
That's kind of what, like, when you get into the high, you know, the expensive aftermarket, you know, that's what, you know, that's what Shelby's doing.
They're their truck. They have the street truck and the off-road versions, you know, Roush is getting into it now too.
If you want sort of a turnkey supercharged.
With the, with the truck, with the RL.
Anyway, I think it's a cool option.
That's what I like about it is, is it's just showing again, the guys at Ram going, we see you, enthusiasts, we see you guys in the aftermarket space.
And for those of you that want a badass street truck, we are offering that.
It's definitely a step in the right direction to know that they're catering to that niche. Yeah, it's fantastic.
You know, it's just not my niche. That's all.
Yeah.
All right.
One of those SRT 10s.
I'll take it over that truck all day long, all day long.
Yeah.
So, but the two door or the four door automatic or stick.
What kind of stupid question is that?
I mean, you, you want the manual.
But it's, it's a really small truck.
It sucks. Yeah.
You can't obviously move the seat back, you know, much.
It's for what it is.
That's what it should be.
I think.
Yeah, somebody's going to have to chime in or have to look into it.
Was the SRT 10 only available?
I think it was only available with the manual in, in the two door, in the two door.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was a good question.
That was the case.
Yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll have to look at it, you know, zero to 64.9 seconds.
The quad cab, I think was a little slower at 5.3 is a little heavier.
The drive train, let's see if I got that right.
The, the regular cab featured a T 56 transmission.
And then the quad cab was the 48 RE, you know, so if you want the manual,
you got to go standard cab.
That's, so it's a good question.
Like, if you're going to get it and just have a little fun with it and,
and keep it in the collection, maybe the two door with the manual.
But if you, if you're going to drive it and you want to fit in it, then the four door.
TRX is for, if I want to drive it and I get in the TRX,
go out and have some fun and reminisce about the old days than the two door.
I kind of agree.
Like it's, you know, like even in my truck now, my F 150, the little one,
you know, you kind of sit up straight, can't really lean the seat far that,
that, you know, can't lean it back, but I don't drive it that much.
And I do fit in it and it's fine.
And, and I was even thinking about, cause, you know, when we, we spoke to my
kid from Tremac and on this project going, the automatic transmission that I had
built for that thing, I think got stolen.
And I was like, maybe we should manual swap.
Maybe we should manual swap it.
I'm doing it with the 2,500 man.
You know, and I was looking into it to see who's done it before.
And I found a shop that's done a few and then it's a little bit more in depth
because they're like to do it right.
There's like a new steering column because it has the, the, you know,
the shifter on the steering column for the automatic.
They're like, well, there's a, there's a steering column swap for it.
And you got to fit some things.
You know, the pedal assembly goes in and, and where the shifter comes up and
there's a domino effect again.
Yeah. There's, there's definitely some issues there.
Would it be easier to just put in another four speed automatic?
Yes.
But anyway, you know, food for thought, maybe when I'm at SEMA,
I'll swing by Tremac and a couple of the guys and have some conversations
and see which way the wind blows.
He's a fun conversation with my kid about transmissions.
That is for sure.
And he jumps, then he, then he gets a baby in the conversation.
And then they start, you know, cooking up ideas and it's,
you know, but Tremac just brought out, they did their,
they did the gen two for lightning, the supercharged 5.4 liter.
I don't know what engine they put in.
And I think they, they swapped the engine.
Maybe they did a Godzilla swap engine with 7.3 liter.
But this is the first sort of concept truck prototype where they
did the DCT from the GT 500.
So they're going, Hey, we took the automatic out,
but now we put the paddle shift, dual clutch manual.
You know, I'm wondering if that's going to turn into an offering in the after
market. Is that going to be, because that might make more sense for my
95 lightning than anything, right?
You know, then, you know, I'm not talking about the pedals.
So yeah, I'm going to have to chase those guys down at SEMA and see how we're doing.
I hope they have that truck there because I really want to get into it.
I think they just brought it to Ford Fest, the Holly event and got a lot of attention.
I'd like to talk to them about what it took to make that happen.
They may go, listen, we tried it, we did it and it took an incredible amount of tuning.
There's no real easy way to do the swap without a bunch of custom work,
or they may go, we've kind of figured it out and we've got a sort of a self-learning
tuner or something that could work with it.
Because that's really what it needs, right?
Is some way to take, to simplify that process of getting it swapped in there.
But yeah, yeah, could be interesting.
A few weeks away, looking forward to it.
All right, so we're going to wrap things up for today.
What else is on the docket? Anything else?
Going to Boulder, playing Iowa State.
Iowa State this weekend, the boys gets to see the field as a starter.
There'll be special teams.
It's a cool experience, man.
So I'm just thrashing out here as much as possible until I got to leave.
I hope Gage is having fun.
I'm so happy for him that he's getting it done, man.
He's putting in the work.
He's a different experience when you're part of it, right?
So I mean, he feels worthy of the spot and now he's part of the team.
And you know, I mean, you're part of the team,
but when you're on the sidelines, you don't get out there and, you know,
actively participate.
It's a distancing thing.
So now it's cool if nothing else for his mentality that hard work does pay off.
You know, and I know you usually talk about playing the game, but he's in school.
You know, you got that too.
So, you know, and I know he takes it seriously.
School takes seriously football.
He takes seriously.
So I hope he's having some fun while he's out there too.
Me too.
I hope he's having fun.
He's very dedicated and he's very focused and he's centralized on a goal.
And along the way, you don't really take the time to enjoy your surroundings.
And so hopefully he's got the time to be able to do that.
I know he's living in a nice apartment in Boulder.
So yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, listen, as he should, until he, he, he's not, right?
Like, you know what I'm saying?
Like, you keep doing everything you're supposed to do and, you know,
don't, don't make mistakes and that way you don't lose some of the perks you have.
Right.
So just focus, just focus.
So have fun, but not too much fun.
Yeah.
You know, all right.
Guys, thanks so much.
Have a good trip.
Thanks so much for listening.
And until next time, keep the air and the spare in the bag and the wheel.
Thank you.
If you liked the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe.
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Thank you for listening.
About this episode
Heavy D from Diesel Brothers faces legal troubles after being arrested for failing to pay a hefty fine related to emissions violations. The hosts discuss the implications of this case and the broader context of emissions regulations in the automotive industry. Meanwhile, RAM announces a new supercharged street truck, the Ram 1500 Lowered, featuring a 650-horsepower Hemi V8. The episode also highlights Phil Goldberg's ongoing Cobra project, detailing the challenges and triumphs of DIY car restoration, including the excitement of firing up the engine for the first time.
