The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a comfortable luxury car meant for everyday driving. A Cabrio version is the same idea but with the top that can open. People talk about it when they want that luxury feel in a specific style.
They’re describing a special based on a Porsche 911 Turbo S from the 992 generation. The important part is that it starts with a very fast, turbocharged 911, then gets extreme custom bodywork.
“Full carbon body” means the car’s outside panels are made from carbon fiber. It’s lighter than metal and lets designers make sharper, more aggressive shapes.
They’re comparing it to the Porsche 911 GT1, which is a track-focused 911 from Porsche’s racing history. The comparison is about the car’s aggressive, race-car styling.
They’re referencing the Porsche 959, a famous older Porsche supercar. The point is that the new car’s shape is trying to look like that kind of iconic, high-tech era.
They compare the steering wheel controls to a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. The point is that the car has quick mode-changing controls, like you’d expect on a track-focused Porsche.
Suspension “geometry” is the way the wheels are aimed and positioned. If someone doesn’t change the geometry, the car may not be set up correctly for the new suspension or body changes.
A roof scoop is an opening on the car’s body that helps move air where it’s needed. If it’s functional, it can change the sound and airflow coming into the engine/turbo system.
On a turbo car, the turbo system makes distinctive sounds as it spools and moves air. The host is saying this setup makes those sounds louder and more noticeable.
The Genesis GV60 is an electric crossover, meaning it runs on electricity instead of gas. It’s the kind of car you might notice because it can accelerate quickly. In the podcast, it’s brought up because of what it did in traffic.
The host is talking about a Genesis model (the GV60) they owned that used a rear camera for visibility. They’re using it as an example of how annoying (or not) that camera can be.
A carbon tub means the main “safety/structure” part of the car is made from carbon fiber. It’s used because it can be lighter and stronger than traditional metal structures.
TechArt is a company that customizes cars—especially Porsches. Here they’re mentioned to compare styling: TechArt’s look is described as more subtle than the car being discussed.
The Lamborghini 350 GT is an older, classic Lamborghini sports car. It’s mentioned because it’s a valuable and collectible model. The conversation is about how people acquire these rare cars.
A differential is what allows the wheels on an axle to turn at slightly different speeds, like when you’re cornering. In a powerful car, it helps manage how power gets to the wheels so you can keep traction.
When you accelerate hard, tires can lose grip. “Seek traction” is basically the car trying to keep the wheels from spinning too much so it can keep moving forward effectively.
The Kimera 038 is Kimera’s all-wheel-drive version. The episode uses it to show how having power going to all four wheels can change traction and driving feel.
Rear-wheel drive means the power goes to the back wheels. That often changes how the car feels when you accelerate, especially in corners.
Car
Chimera 039
The Kimera 039 is a new Kimera model they just announced. The big point mentioned here is that it’s a “no donor car” version, so it isn’t built from a previously owned base car.
They’re saying the car uses an engine from Koenigsegg. Koenigsegg makes some of the most extreme performance engines, so that’s a major clue about how fast and dramatic the car will feel.
A donor car is an older car they take parts from to build a new project. In this case, the donor is a Lancia Monte Carlo, and they even reuse parts of the car’s structure.
The Chevrolet Monte Carlo is an older-style American coupe. People talk about it because it has a unique look and a classic performance vibe. In the podcast, the focus is on its design and what makes it stand out.
The Toyota GT 86 is a small sports car meant to be fun to drive. The podcast is talking about the engine and how it contributes to the car’s character. It’s the kind of car people choose for handling and driving feel.
This engine uses two different forced-air systems: a supercharger and a turbocharger. The goal is to make power show up more quickly and keep it strong across more driving speeds.
A transaxle is basically the gearbox and differential packaged together. They’re saying this car uses a six-speed version to fit the drivetrain layout they chose.
“Longitudinally mounted” means the engine sits front-to-back in the car. That layout can change how the car balances weight and how the drivetrain fits.
A twin-charged engine uses two boost systems together. That can make the throttle response and power delivery feel different from a normal turbo-only setup.
The wastegate is a valve that helps control how much boost the turbo makes. It can make a distinct sound when it opens to keep boost from getting too high.
That “blow-off” sound comes from a valve that releases extra pressurized air. It helps protect the turbo and keeps the boost system stable when you lift off the throttle.
Vacuum here means the engine isn’t pulling much air/pressure at low throttle. That usually means less torque, so the car can stall if you try to launch it from idle without adding gas.
The “power band” is the RPM range where the engine feels strongest. At the bottom of that range, the engine may not have enough pull to do things like smoothly starting from idle.
Torque is the engine’s pulling force. If there isn’t enough torque at idle, the car can’t get moving smoothly when you let out the clutch, so it stalls.
“Tip-in” is how the car reacts when you start to press the gas pedal. If it’s inconsistent, the car may lurch or not respond predictably, making low-speed control harder.
They’re bringing up another Porsche they’ve driven where the clutch feel wasn’t easy for everyone. Their point is that clutch behavior can make a car stressful at low speeds, even if it’s fast.
The Volkswagen Bora is a car model name used by Volkswagen. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because it’s connected to a race car project called “Bora Motorworks.” So the talk is about motorsport use of the name.
“Short throw” means the pedal/lever doesn’t have to move as far to do the same job. That can make the car feel more sudden or “grabby” when you engage the clutch.
“Group B” was a famous era of rally racing where cars were very powerful and wild. Comparing it to that era suggests the engine feels punchy and demanding rather than smooth and easy at low RPM.
Alignment is when a shop adjusts the angles of your wheels so the car drives straight. If the car feels like it wanders or pulls, alignment is one of the first things to check.
“Shifter throw” is how far the shifter moves when you change gears. If it’s very short, shifts can feel fast, but it may be harder to tell when you’re in neutral.
A “rally style shifter” is a shifter setup meant for fast, consistent shifting during racing. It usually feels quicker and more direct than a relaxed street setup.
A “gated” shifter has a defined shift path, like a track, so the lever only goes into the correct gear slots. It helps you avoid grabbing the wrong gear by mistake.
“Carbon buckets” are race-style seats made from carbon fiber. They grip you with strong side supports so you stay planted during aggressive driving, but they can be less comfortable for long, casual trips.
“Lumbar” support means support for your lower back. Seats with good lumbar support help you feel less tired during driving, even if the seat is designed for racing.
A battery cutoff is a switch that turns the car’s power off at the battery. It helps prevent electrical power from flowing, and some cars use it like a remote “power on” control.
A kill switch is a switch that shuts the car’s electrical power down. Here, it’s being used like a special remote way to control whether the car has power.
Drive mode buttons are controls that change the car’s behavior. Depending on the mode, the car can respond differently to your inputs like throttle and traction.
SEMA is a big car-industry show focused on aftermarket parts and custom builds. The host means the buttons look flashy and “show-car” style, like the kind you’d see on heavily modified cars.
A rally car is designed for race stages on rough, slippery roads like gravel. If a car “drives like a rally car,” it usually means it feels lively and stable on bumpy, low-grip surfaces.
A hypercar is a super-rare, very expensive, extremely fast car. Here, the host is saying this kind of car is different from the usual “hypercar formula” and is instead inspired by rally driving.
Mid-engine means the engine is placed closer to the middle of the car instead of the front. That can help the car handle better because the weight is more balanced.
Power-to-weight means how much “push” the car has compared to how heavy it is. A lighter car (or more powerful engine) usually feels faster because it’s easier to accelerate.
They bring up the Bugatti Chiron as a comparison. It’s a very heavy, very powerful supercar, so the driving excitement comes more from big acceleration and top speed than from feeling light and nimble.
A supercharger is a device that forces extra air into the engine. More air helps the engine make more power, which can make the car feel punchy when you accelerate.
A “relaxed” top gear means the engine doesn’t have to spin as fast when you’re cruising. That usually makes the car quieter and more comfortable for long drives. It’s basically about highway gearing being friendly.
RPM tells you how fast the engine is spinning. If RPM is high at highway speed, the engine is working harder just to cruise. They’re using RPM to explain why the car feels busy on the road.
PPF is a clear protective film that gets put on a car’s paint. It’s there to help prevent chips and scratches from things like rocks and road debris. People use it a lot on expensive cars so the paint stays nicer longer.
An O-ring is a rubber seal that keeps coolant from leaking. If it cracks, coolant can get into places it shouldn’t, which can cause extra damage and more work to fix. It’s usually not a “blow up tomorrow” problem, but it can turn into a bigger repair.
The Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG is a powerful, performance-focused Mercedes E-Class. The podcast mentions a problem where a coolant O-ring can crack, which can cause cooling system trouble. It’s a specific maintenance/repair concern to know about before buying or owning one.
Engine rebuilding means disassembling the engine and restoring internal components to proper working condition—often replacing worn parts and re-machining where needed. In this context, the host is saying it’s more involved than simply swapping an engine into the car and calling it done.
Shock absorbers are the parts that help control the car’s bouncing and keep the tires planted. If the mounting points don’t line up, you can’t just use the same shocks from another car.
They’re talking about a Mercedes-Benz E 500 and how its suspension parts don’t directly match their car. The key issue is that the shock mounts are in slightly different places, so they need a different shock setup.
Pickup points are the exact mounting locations where a part bolts on. If those spots are slightly different on your car, the suspension parts from another car won’t fit without the right version.
A wide-body conversion is a modification that widens the car’s fenders and wheel/arch area to fit broader wheels and tires. It often changes how suspension components and mounting clearances work, which can force you to use different parts than the original configuration.
Topic
transport you from the airport to the drive in Tenerife in Luches
This is a travel/logistics aside tied to the episode’s build and event plans, mentioning getting from an airport to a drive in Tenerife. It’s not a technical automotive topic, but it frames how the hosts will experience the car/build in a specific location.
The Porsche Taycan is Porsche’s electric car. It’s fast and smooth, and the hosts are saying theirs had a steering issue that got fixed. They also think buying a used Taycan can be a good deal because the prices are coming down.
Control arms are parts of the suspension that help hold the wheels in the right position. If they’re worn or not right, the steering can feel weird or inconsistent. The hosts are saying the Taycan’s steering issue came down to these parts.
Performance Battery Plus is a better battery setup on certain Taycan versions. A “better” battery can mean more usable range and more consistent power. The hosts mention it while comparing prices on used cars.
They’re talking about depreciation, meaning the car gets cheaper as time goes on. They think EV prices keep dropping, so a used Taycan can end up costing less even if it’s a great car. The “game” is figuring out how good of a deal you can get while prices are falling.
Depreciation just means the car becomes worth less over time. They’re trying to figure out how much money they’re okay with losing each year compared to paying monthly for a newer car.
The Tesla Model S is an electric car. The hosts are talking about early versions of it and how they can still be worth a lot of money even years later. They’re using it as an example of why there’s a minimum price a car might stay at if it still runs and drives.
“Warranty left” means the car still has warranty coverage for some time. The hosts are saying that’s safer when buying a used car because repairs may be covered. If the warranty is gone, you’re more likely to pay for problems yourself.
“Paint matched” means parts of the car are painted the same color as the main body. In this case, they’re talking about wheel-arch areas being painted to match. It’s a visual upgrade that makes the car look more uniform.
Wheel arches are the areas around the wheels. When they’re “painted,” they’re finished in a specific color—sometimes matching the body, sometimes contrasting. The hosts are saying Porsche usually does it one way, but this car was customized to look different.
“Body match” means painting a part so it matches the car’s main color. They’re saying you can buy wheel-arch pieces and then paint them to match your specific car. That way the car looks more “factory” and less mismatched.
The Toyota Supra is a sports car that’s meant to be fun to drive. In this discussion, it’s being considered as a daily car for commuting some days. That matters because daily driving is different from weekend driving.
The Bear Mountain Bridge is a major crossing between New Jersey and New York (over the Hudson River). The hosts mention it as a route choice because it can make the overall drive feel more enjoyable than alternatives.
The Aston Martin Rapide is a luxury car with four doors that’s meant to feel sporty. The podcast is saying it’s interesting because it combines comfort with performance. It’s being considered as a potential purchase.
Topic
Best Dad Wagons
They’re talking about what kind of car a dad should buy—something practical for everyday life. The main point here is matching the car (and tires) to rough roads and family routines.
The sidewall is the part of the tire between the wheel and the tread. A taller sidewall can make the ride less harsh and help the tire handle potholes and rough pavement better.
Soft suspension is a suspension setup that rides more comfortably over bumps. The host is saying you want that kind of ride for rough roads instead of a stiff, sport-tuned suspension.
Sport suspension is tuned to feel tighter and more responsive, but it usually rides firmer. The host is saying that firmness can be unpleasant on cracked, rough roads.
The Audi Allroad is a wagon-style car that’s made to handle rougher roads better than a normal wagon. The podcast is imagining it with rally wheels to make it feel more like a rally car. It’s basically about versatility plus a rally look.
Brand
OZ
OZ makes wheels (rims). The idea here is to put OZ wheels on the car so it looks more rally-inspired and can run the kind of tires that do better on rough roads.
LIVE
Matt Farah here, and today's episode is brought to you as always by Off the Record. We love
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All right, folks. On this episode of the podcast, I review the Chimera 037 as well as the RMLGTHP39.
Plus, I have updates on my Taycan. I have updates on the Project Mercedes from down in Tennessee,
and we come up with a list of the ultimate dad wagons. It's the Smoking Tire. Let's go.
Guys, the Smoking Tire is giving away a 992.1 Turbo S in partnership with Dream Giveaways.
We're giving away a $275,000 car with some slick choice mods. The Proceeds benefit charity,
and you don't have to buy any merch. It's a straightforward entry process. So hit the link
in the show notes and get entered to win today. Man, every time I put the mint on, I'm like,
that is fucking correct. The mint. That was right yesterday. I don't know when the last time was I
wore this. You have many in the rotation. Many in the rotation, and we were selling the pink,
so I was really, really leaning heavily on the pink as well as the stink. Is that the next one
you're going to make? Is it brown? Not BTS brown? You have to do two pink variants first and then
a brown. That would be incredibly subliminal messaging. Did you do two pinks and one stink?
What color would the taint be? Right? That'll be the third one. The third watch will be the one
you wear. You tie it off your ball bag, like someone's probably already doing with the fucking AP
swatch. Someone has surely done that. Someone's like, I'm so glad this is here. My cock has always
needed a watch. You ever hear the Elton John M&M gift story? Oh, they gave him cock rings, right?
He gave him a diamond encrusted cock ring. M&M gave this to Elton John after they did their song
together and they became friends. That rules. And it was like Elton was defending, people were
M&M is. That's pretty funny. That's a good gift. It'd be nice to be able to give people diamonds.
You're hard to buy gifts for us now. I know. Yes, please add to registry. Right click.
Am I hard to buy gifts for? That sucks. I don't like being hard to buy gifts for.
It's not your fault. You bought me some such great gifts though. Yeah, but it takes me 11 months
to think of something. Did I tell the story on the podcast about the Leatherman? I did a couple
episodes ago. You haven't used the knee pad yet. I have not yet used my knee pads.
I don't know if I told that you got me knee pads, but you did. It's because, well,
you know, I have a bunch of jobs. We park cars. We do big videos. I also blow dudes in parking
cars. That's why you have more cars than I do.
Guys, I really, I need an E-Class Cabrio. Well, as your followers have gone up,
your rate has gone up. It's like an appearance fee. No, actually, it's because you can't,
there is a level at which you are too famous to help put stickers on cars in a parking lot,
and I'm not there. And I'll never be there. So here we are. And I have to help put stickers
on cars in the parking lot. And the road and track events. The road and track events. And I
fucked my knees up in wherever we were last time. Where was I? Vegas, in Vegas, at the Southwest
at that track. And my knees were fucked up for like two weeks. And I was complaining about it.
And Zach got me some nice travel knee pads. So it's not like he said, here's a job where you
don't have to put stickers on the cars. But it's a nice second place. Listen, Matt, you want me
to put the sticker on the car? You do something for me. Put these on. Yeah. So hi, everybody.
Welcome to the program. Boy, is my notebook open to the wrong fucking page. We had like there's
so much shit going on in the last couple of weeks in terms of like cars I drove. So many.
Last episode, I forgot that I had driven the Zinger 21 C high downforce.
I also drove the the this car has this. This is the here's the coolest car of the stupidest name
of the week. This is the RML GTH P 39. This is the latest. This is an inter. This is basically
what if you're calling a phone number in the Cayman Islands like this, that's basically
here. It's like a fucking Bitcoin wallet car. This is the it's you know, 100 cars for
kids. But if the number if the letters were all jumbled and terrible. Yes, this RML is the is
the manufacturer. Okay. And they make this thing that now you've never heard of them. They build
race cars mostly like touring cars in Europe, mainly. But they also did the Salinas seven,
which you've heard of. They built that. You know, it was branded as a saline that they actually
built. So they they built this. So this is a a 992 dot one turbo s that they then take.
It's a full carbon body. Everything is full carbon. It's as you can see in the photos.
It has its angles. Let's just say that it's supposed to be somewhere between like a 959 and
a GT one. And you know, there's kind of a lot going on in the in the back. It looks like a 911
with another car surrounding it. It doesn't like that. Yeah. And the fact that that the inner
bumper is bare carbon and the outer bumper is orange, I think really accentuates that there's
probably a color palette where maybe it does that a little less. I do think the best angle is
like the broad side, just the straight up broad side, I think is pretty tough. Yeah.
Kind of a 911 ST inspired front fender here where has that cut, although it's much deeper.
It's a deep cut. an obscure callback. Yeah. Yeah.
Like Dirty Frank on Pearl Jam album. So it looks, I think it looks a little awkward.
If you make the brown notice, it has to be called Dirty Frank. Continue.
I think it looks a little awkward. It does. Having said that, it's 940 horsepower.
And it has a pretty cool interior. It has better versions of the seats that were in
yesterday's Guntherworks, actually better padded versions, but a really nicely retrimmed interior.
It also has the knobs on the steering wheel like the GT3RS that allow you to change modes and stuff
quickly, which is pretty cool. It's funky. And it is just fucking insanely fast. It's like dynamically,
it was really good. It was smooth. It rode beautifully, super fast, but without really losing all the
bottom end, a very balanced tune. It shifted really smooth, really smooth. You know, you
start with a turbo ass, like it's yours to fuck up. Yeah. What did they do to the suspension?
It doesn't, it didn't like, it's aftermarket stuff, but it doesn't look like full geometry
changes. I think they have widened, lengthened the, it's a wider body and they do the lengthening
of the control arms, which gives you a more precise control over the shocks. To be honest,
I only had like 20 minutes in the car. So it wasn't like a, it was like, yeah, I have a quick go
in it. So it was like, here's a quick go. Here's the impressions. I didn't, I didn't look into it
super deeply. It was just like, I'd like to have a quick go. It drove nice. It did drive nice.
Spike like loved it. I took out, took out a spike. He really liked it because he wants a car he
could fucking play tennis with or whatever. Right. I guess this is quiet. Like, does this
drive and feel, you know, if you close your eyes, does it basically feel like a faster
turbo? Same insulation. They haven't changed any of that doesn't get super harsh.
Well, actually the, the roof scoop is functional. Okay. So a couple of things happened because
of that. So you do get the air whooshing over the, over the roof. You do hear more turbo noises.
For sure. There's a bigger, you know, there's that. The exhaust is not, it's significantly
louder than let's say our giveaway car with the, with the Acra exhaust. The exhaust is not much
louder than that, but you do get a lot of turbo noise, which is fun. Who doesn't like that?
But because the roof scoop, you lose the fucking rear view window. And so your only option is the
camera rear view mirror, which I hate. Is it a good one? I know you hate, you hate all of them,
but like, like GM's is very good. And the one we had in the race car was not very good.
Oh no, it's not the one in the race car. No, it's, it's of a, it's the, the one that you're
getting when you buy an OEM car that has this, it's, it's the same, basically the same as GM's
or what was the, the most recent car I had that had it where I thought I was getting rear-ended
and fucking scooted into the intersection. What was that? Hyundai. What do we have?
Oh, it was the Genesis. It was the Genesis G, GV 60. Yeah, that one. That one. It was, it was,
this one is actually, the same as that one because I also thought I was going to
get rear-ended once or twice in this. Objects in mirror appear way fucking, yeah, dude, we
need a t-shirt. We need a t-shirt for that. Objects in digital rear view mirror are not
about to rear-end you. It's like, there's, there's something there. We gotta fucking workshop that.
But I, I think it looks awkward, but I, it did drive beautifully. And it did draw a crowd. Like
at Graham Rahall Performance, which is the Graham's dealer where he's got this, it's like a huge
fucking complex. This guy owns Indianapolis, basically. The Rahall, the shocking, the Rahall
family owns Indianapolis. There's a steakhouse there. Wow. There's a, there's a coffee shop
that was like packed. So this, this photo is in front of the dealer, but, but literally like
10 feet behind the ass of the car in that photo is the coffee shop. And there's a couple hundred
people, it was big. There's nothing to do. do in the suburbs of Indianapolis. Sure,
but still the fact that this place, you know. Oh no, it's impressive. Yeah. He, he doesn't own
the coffee shop. He owns the building and rents it to a coffee shop and he's got the right coffee
shop in there because it was popping off and the food is pretty good. Very nice. Yeah.
It's called Rivet. That's it. Rivet is the coffee shop. Yeah. So it, that's right next to it. So
there was a bus. So, you know, when they pulled the cars around for me and Spike to take them out,
they pulled the fucking 037. They pulled this thing out. Both of which are bright orange,
both of which are bright orange. People fucking lost their shit. You know, it drew a huge crowd.
So, you know, either you love it, maybe you don't love it, but if you wanted, if you want to drive
a 911 Turbo S, but that doesn't look like everyone else's 911 Turbo S, because that's the problem
you find with like many cars is just like, oh, a 911 Turbo S is like definitely better than this.
But, but, but like the guy up the road has one or whatever, if you, assuming of course you,
you live in that type of neighborhood. But I know that's a great point, because I look at this
and it reminds me a lot of stuff like the, you know, like the roof. What is it? The CTR3.
The CTR3. That's different. That's a carbon tub. It is. But this is like a Gimbala kind of deal.
It's like that. I'm going to say Gimbala. Yeah. Techarts almost more subtle than this.
So it's very Gimbala, where it's just very showy. But if, if they don't mess it up,
then underneath you have a car that you will like driving because it operates the way Porsche designed.
But when you show up, it looks like the Lamborghini version of a Porsche or something.
It's extremely extroverted. Whether or not you like the design that's up to you,
but you will not be, you know, an anonymous dentist among 15 other dentists.
That is a perfect assessment of this car. Moving on then.
No, for, no, like you're exactly right. I mean, you know, because it's RML and they know what
a good car is, they didn't, and it's like straight up, like whether or not you like how it looks,
it's screwed together really nice. I mean, it's tight. The body line, the panel gaps are really
good. There's no rattles or anything. The paint is very nice. Like it is, it's nice. It's a nice
thing. The only thing is to service it, anything beyond an oil change, you have to remove like
the entire like rear, that straight line that comes off there that you can see. Yeah. So that
the mouse is on that line and then like that whole thing comes off, has to come off as one.
The whole lower thing. Yeah. And also show the front, the front of the car, the entire,
so you see how there's no, there's no trunk line anymore. So there's no trunk anymore up there.
Right, right. But the entire front is a clamshell now. All one piece. Opens up as one big piece.
Yeah. So it's like a whole thing. Yeah, that's kind of the one thing about it that's a little
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They'll do you one with the regular seats, so I think they will do one with regular seats that
are trimmed all cool and then maybe not a cage, so you can put something behind you.
I like the door card. The doors are dope. Yeah, that looks really nice textured.
It's got like pebbles coming out of it. It reminds me of Aston Martin's
sneakery vibe. Yeah, it's very orange for people listening. This is like orange,
gray, black. There's a lot of sneaker happening. Yeah, it's good fun. I think some of the styling
is a little awkward, but it is good fun. And if somebody wanted a very extroverted car that
ultimately drove like a great fast 911, you could do worse. And Gambala is a great example
of how many people do want that because that company's been around, I don't know, at least,
what, 30 years or something like that? There's always been this kind of stuff.
All I can say about it is, however it looks, it drives nice. It really does. It's fucking cool.
It's real fast. I mean, when you have this much power, it's enough to that are just,
when you're on it, the differentials are just constantly scrambling for power. So
you got to hang on. If you put your foot down, it's really going to seek traction all the time.
Yeah. So I was on Indiana fucking farm roads. We didn't have a lot of time. It was like,
hey, Graham, what's the most remote place I can get to in 25 minutes?
Yeah, you go launch it five times. Come back.
So, and then we also, I also got to drive the Chimera 037. So this is, I just put another post
up before the show started, if you refresh that homepage, refresh this page, and you have more
Chimera photos right there. So the Chimera 037. So they make two versions of this car now, the 037
and 038. 037 is rear wheel drive. 038 is all wheel drive. The 039 is coming out, which they just
announced. Did you see this one? This one is, is the no donor car version. Okay. It's, I believe
it's a carbon. It's a K39. Oh, whoa. K39. Is it K39? Yeah. Pretty sure that's what you mean.
Yes. And it's K because it has a Koenigsegg motor. Oh, geez. Yeah. So that'll be a fucking good time.
Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Isn't that nuts? Yeah. That's very nuts. So I'm just already on board
with that. I don't even have to drive that yet. But so the 037 is the first one they've done. But
this, this was a, this one was new. There was, there's no miles on this. There was like 40 miles in
this car. So they were like, you know, have fun. But it's not broken in yet. Doesn't arrive. Well,
I'll tell you what, I drove it for three minutes and you could, you know, you can, I knew it wasn't
broken. You'd smell the exhaust, you know, like a brand new exhaust. It's burning off. It's burning
items. It is 2,425 pounds. There is a donor car for these. It's a Lancia Monte Carlo. I
say had a donor car chilling there. Yeah. The Lancia Monte Carlo is the donor car. That's
how it's registered, which is very funny. But they do use, and they do use a few bits from
the donor car. It's not like just the VIN. They do use some of the chassis. It is just,
it's funny to look at the Monte Carlo. Yeah. You can see what they, what they kept, you know.
Yeah. And you can see why, but it also is such a strange looking coupe. Clarkson took one of these
on the last special, I think. Really? I'm pretty sure this is what he drove on the very last top
Grand Tour Special. The last one was the Jaguar. I have to go look again. No, the one in Africa.
Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, right, right, right. So there's a donor car in there. So the engine
is, is a, is a bespoke, you know. The engine's insane. It's a Tal Technica,
and a Tal Technica is a company most people have never heard of, but they also make the engine
for that crazy Toyota GT thing that I drove. So it's a beautiful engine. It's Italian racing
engines. That's what we are talking about here. So it's a four-cylinder twin-charged,
supercharged and turbocharged. The turbo plumbing is so pretty. Yes.
It's a, a longitudinally mounted in the back, you know, four-cylinder with a six-speed
transaxle. And it is bananas. It's a, it's just high, strong as shit. But, you know, because
you've got this, anyone has ever driven a twin-charged engine. It's really weird.
My dad's boat of all things was twin-charged. Did you know that? Yeah, the turbo, the turbo
diesels, Volvo inline six turbo diesels. Well, they've been doing, that's funny. They've been
doing twin-charging and they're pastoring or, you know, whatever cars, passenger cars for like,
for a while. Ten years maybe? Yeah. So this, so this is twin-charged and fun time. So as you go
through the revs, you know, you hear the blower and then around 4000 RPM, the blower sort of tapers
off and then here comes the turbo. And so you have a bit of torque at the bottom end to, to,
to putter around if you need and cruise without it being too peaky. But there is a big dip in the
middle and then you get your turbo, but like that's old school. Like it's fun like that. You
wouldn't want it to be any other way. There is not a whole lot of sound insulation. And so
you get a decent amount of vibration, but all the noises, you get the blower noise, you get the
turbo noise, you get the fucking wastegate noise, you get the blow off noise, you get like the exhaust
like you get a lot. There's road noise, like it's pretty, the ride is good. Like it's a, it's
actually, the seating position is decent and the ride is good. So it's actually like fairly
quote comfortable, but there's a lot of noises. Just, they're just always there. But like that's
kind of what you're paying for. It's not, it's not as bad as the Gunther. I'll say that. Okay. The
noises are present, but they do happen at a palatable volume. Yeah, the Gunther was too much.
Yeah, we'll get to that later, but they found the end. So yeah, look at that. How cool is that
looking? Wow, that's great. And actually the one in the car is even prettier because the
header was fucking gold and shit. It was dope. Oh, it's fucking right out of frame. Oh, at the
bottom, the way the exhaust works, it's just out of frame of that photo. Damn it was so good.
The engine's stunning. There was one at Ice Race, Marshall owns it, and the whole back
clamshell he had opened up. And I just, I took so many photos of that engine. It's so stunning.
It's, it's real crazy. So it, driving it is, it's a lot, it's a lot. You know, it is, it is,
once you're just on the road and cruising, it can be pretty relaxed. You'll settle into
sixth gear. You could, you could take one on a, on a road trip. But the clutch throw is about
three and a half inches long. And the catch point is kind of vague. And the engine is in vacuum at
the very bottom of the, the power band. So you can't do the thing where you give it no gas and
just engage the clutch from idle. It doesn't have enough torque at idle to do that. You'll stall it.
But the tip in on the throttle is a little inconsistent. So I can't just repeatedly
hold it at 1500 RPM evenly in order to, and I'm driving barefoot. So I, this is the thing I could
do. Bare, I drive better barefoot than with shoes. So that's, I, if you go hold that, repeat it, go from
zero to 1500, 50 times in a row, I can do it. Not in this car. So I only stalled at once, but every
stop sign, every red light was a little bit of a, huh, is it, is it good? And like maybe if I drove
it like a lot, then it would be different. Like the, the 911 ST has a funky clutch, but I programmed
to it very fast. It didn't bother me. It's hard for, it was hard for other people to say that about
the Carrera GT. It doesn't bother me. This one was more like that Bora Motorworks race car, like not,
not at the level of the legends car or those kinds of race cars, but that sort of thing where it's
short throw, kind of grabby, but without much feedback through the pedal.
Light flywheel as well.
Light flywheel. And so that, that was, I think, the worst part of the car. Now it doesn't really come
into play when you're moving, but you're talking about cars a million bucks. A million bucks,
nobody wants to embarrass themselves fucking stalling this thing around cars and coffee.
You need to have an easy, workable clutch that communicates. That's, that's just my criticism
of this car.
I wonder if it is a, if it's a product of the twin charged four banger, because like, you know,
the Gunther car, and I know we'll talk about a different show, but it had a thousand horsepower,
the clutch was really easy. So power numbers don't always dictate, you know, clutch selection and
whatnot, but this has a four liter, six cylinder, as opposed to this is a 2.1 liter, four cylinder.
Exactly. So you might have less torque. I mean, this is like a rally engine from group B era.
And I think I allow, I'm fine with it being a little difficult because it's like, hey,
let's take this crazy, you know, power plant from 40 years ago that was probably hard to drive back
then. You want, you want today? All right. Well, there's going to be some considerations.
Look, I, I, my job to criticize this fucking, to me, this car is like a 96 to me, because I've been
through normal cars and now I'm at the edges of the universe in terms of like loving weird shit.
But if you're not there yet, this is too weird for you. If you've had one 911, this is not your
next car. You need to have been through the cycle of weird shit. And this is the end point of that.
You know, that's how you end up with stuff like this. And so like, would you get used to it?
Could you get used to it? Is it a deal breaker? No, but like, there's only two things dynamically
I didn't absolutely love about this because the brakes were great. The ride was great.
There's no real corners there. So I couldn't really feel out the handling, but I took a couple
nineties at, you know, at speed and it stuck, it stuck good. It was predictable. It, it wandered
a bit on the road and it only has 235 front tires on it. So I was like, huh, why is it,
why does it do that? And the guys at, at GRP said this thing like just came in and like,
it just came off the boat like, and it might need an alignment. So okay.
It's the assault. Great assault might be. Jethro didn't say that the one that he drove had that
issue. So I assume maybe just that car needs alignment. Like, all right, fine, whatever,
not the other world. But, and then the clutch is was really the only other one. The shifter throw
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And now back to the show. The shifter throw in the shifters dope. It's like a rally style shifter.
It's a six speed, but the shift, the throw is real short. I mean, it's very, I wouldn't mind,
I would prefer, let's just say, I would prefer it to be less accurate, quote, but to have this
gated six speed like a Ferrari. I think it would make the driving experience better,
even if it was less accurate. But like, fine. It also sometimes if a shifter, if the throw is too
short, and maybe it's something you get used to if you drive or race the car a lot, but if the
disc, if it's like a one inch or maybe a long shift or a two inch, it's so much shorter than
other cars we drive that it feels like you must be in neutral. And if you can't detect those
dents, it's just a little bit too, it's just too small. Yeah. Can we say though, this interior is
one of the coolest, best looking interiors I've seen in probably the last 20 years. It's extremely
stunning. And sitting in it doesn't make it less sick. Sitting in it. It's just as sick as this.
I had to take my shoes off to drive the car. I can't drive this car with shoes on. But once I
had my shoes off, I found it to be very comfortable, good driving position. I love the seats. So
are they comfortable? Yeah. I mean, like these, they're carbon buckets, but they do have nice
padding. If I was going to buy one of these, I would have a lumbar built into it. You know,
it's not a lot of lumbar in this type of seat. I wonder, I hope or I wonder if when, like they
can fit you to the seat and because it's all these individual ribs that go across, like if they
could thicken your padding. They would. So it's basically perfect for your back. Yeah, they would.
That'd be awesome. The gauges are really cool. I mean, they, it's, they, they made it feel like
Alancia. I mean, they didn't, they didn't go too far into high concept land. The only place they
did that is with the startup procedure, which is a little corny. You, so all right, I wish you
could zoom. Well, so there's a key you can see sticking vertically in the center console. So
that isn't a trill, a traditional key. That's a battery tap, a battery cutoff. Oh, it's like a
kill switch. It's a fancy, fancy battery tap, but it's the remote. It has the lock unlock in it,
too, which is pretty cool. So you put that in there and turn it and that powers up the car.
There's a big chrome, not chrome, right there. Mouse is on it. That a big aluminum lever that
you pull up and that's the ignition. And then that little pyramid looking thing that, that it's
no, no behind the thing, the ignition button is mounted on that, that piece has buttons on either
side of it. Like if it's like this, you pinch it on both sides, two buttons, and that's how you
start the car. If you only press one button, doesn't start. No, correct. You're gonna press both.
Very ableist. It's, if you don't have two fingers, it's, if you don't have a thumb or the other side,
yeah, you wouldn't be able to drive this car just hypothetically in case one of our listeners only.
I'm just being a jerk. So that's how you start it. Yeah, yeah. It's a little theatrical, but like,
you know, I got the Manx plunger thing. So I'm gonna bring it up. I'm not,
I'm not throwing stones in a glass house. It's a, it's a bunch of theater. I, if we're gonna go that,
if we're gonna go that route, just go ceiling. Ceiling is doper. Just trust me on this. And you
can, you could have a couple. And you have all the toggles here. So you could, I think it's like
the pinch button is an awkward movement. That's what I'm saying. Adding, adding, you know, different
buttons to, to activate this machine is cool, but just make it a little bit easier.
All right. So that and my only other real criticism of the interior on top of that same
little structure that you pinch are the three drive mode buttons. So you basically have like 350,
450, 500 horsepower is what, what, what it was told to me is those mean. Cool. Sounds good.
The, but the buttons are those fucking SEMA ring light buttons.
Oh, like, yeah, you know, I'm talking about
just an aluminum circle. Yeah, they're everywhere. Sure. The colored ring light.
In my opinion, when a car is that much money, you know, like knocking on a million bucks,
right? You need to do better than that. That's a, that's a, those switches are fine when your car's
three hunch, right? When your car's a million bucks, we need to do better. Those aren't,
they're generic. We can't, we can't be having generic toggles and stuff in, in this kind of car,
but that's it. Outside. It wouldn't, wouldn't stop me from buying one. Fuck in. If this seems
like it's, if you look at this and you go, that's my bag, it's going to be like, if it looks appealing
to you, driving it probably will not disappoint you. It drives like it looks nice, which is like
the best thing I, it's late. That's a lazy thing to say, but it's a bet. It's the best thing I can
say about it is like, it fucking, it drives like a rally. I do my kingdom to try one of these on
gravel. Oh yeah. I bet you if you had the balls to take one of these on gravel, you'd have the
greatest day of your life. Cause it's, it's, it's got the moves like a, like a rally car.
It's a very short car, right? That's small thing. Yeah. Dude, the overhangs are great. There's
fucking so legit. I mean, I, I do like that this is like, even though this is, you know,
very exclusive and very expensive, like the fact that like, that this is being engineered by,
by enthusiasts, that they're putting their time and efforts into making something like this,
you know, is very, very cool. Yeah. In a way, this is a departure, a big departure from the
traditional hypercar. You know, I think maybe we're at that point, or maybe that's always existed,
but it seems like for a long time people had really rich and they, they all chased hypercars,
more hypercar companies came into being, they made more and more cars. So the whole thing was,
hey, you're going to go buy the super fast mid-engine thing that looks basically similar and has a
similar structure to all these other hypercars. And this is like, what if we took that kind of
money, but put it into something that is, you know, a bit more, you know, it's rally, it's rally
inspired. It's like, hey, we're not in, we're rally people. We're not into hypercar, you know,
prototype stuff, but we also have money. It's been also like, you know, the Zinger with fucking
1300 horsepower, the fucking Gunther with the, this thing is, it's, let's call it 2,500 pounds.
And at 500 horsepower is so fast. Well, the power to weight is crazy. And it's small.
And, and, and so it, it, it feels small on the road, it drives small on the road. The power
to weight is great. It's like, it's, it's a really a good lesson in you, you don't, we don't actually
need to go a thousand horsepower all the time. You know, we can, we can keep the mass tight and
keep the car, the package small and, and you're going to have a great product. Most people are,
are not going to feel or use the difference between 500 and a thousand horsepower, except a
couple of times to scare their friends. Yeah, that's true. Like you just, you just can't do it.
We're, we're in, we're in America. Can you do it? Except a race track. And then if you're at a race
track, I don't, I don't know who's buying a Gunther to use as their track toy or, or something like
that. Brave people, brave people. Also, this power to weight is not too different from a
Chiron, you know, Chiron's like 4,400 pounds, a thousand horsepower. And I think when you have
a car with that much mass and that much technology, it doesn't get interesting. Like the launch is
interesting, but then the real speed and impressiveness to me comes above 100. Yeah. But that means
you're always playing in illegal land. And this, with this power to weight,
it's probably really exciting from zero all the way to 120. Oh dude, rolling into third gear,
you know, at, at 40. Right. You know, and then, and just riding the wave of the, of the super
charger and that is like, that is a good time. 40 to 80, you're having a great time. Oh, yeah.
Instead of 140 to 180. This, I don't know how fast this car will go. It's fast. Like this car,
if it, if it doesn't fucking go 170, 180 miles an hour minimum, I'd be surprised. But
like you don't, you do not need to be at that speed to be enjoying it. Enjoying it. You know,
you can enjoy it at very much. Yeah, that makes sense. And the, you know, the reason it will do
190, it doesn't have a crazy high red line. I think the red line might be 7,500, which is fine,
but just not crazy. It has a pretty relaxed sixth gear. So, which actually, the part of what
one of the drawbacks from the, the yesterday's driving the Gunther is it does not have a relaxed
sixth gear. 80 miles an hour in sixth gear in that car is like 4200 RPM. So that's a, it's a car
that's only geared out to probably 170, 180 miles an hour, even at 1000 horsepower. So,
I think having as coming from experience of my own pink car, having a relaxed sixth gear
is important for these types of cars because you're going to want to drive them on a, on a road
trip or if the track is two hours away or your vacation house or whatever, a road rally, you
relaxed highway drive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which I'll be doing in the Manx soon.
Can't wait. I'm going to, I should take a weekend road trip in the Manx. Should. Once I have highway,
I've asked Manx to give me some photos updates. Shout out to Graham Ray Hall and his team
at GRP, Davis, Nick, those guys, Jenna, I believe was the woman who manages Wheelhouse,
their social club, lovely people, extremely professional operation. They got a lot of
cool shit in there. They got a lot of fucking dope shit. Cool. And nice, really nice PPF shop
as well. And it seems like they service all manner of exotic car down there as well, which is
pretty cool. It seems like it was pretty much the only thing to do in Indianapolis, I hate to say.
Service exotic cars. No, just people were hanging out. Just people were hanging out there. I mean,
we were, we were there a bunch and a bunch of people were hanging out. It was a cool spot.
Update from Matt Quick, Quick Classics, Memphis, not Memphis Jesus Christ, I'm sorry, Nashville,
Tennessee. He found, he said, the dreaded cracked coolant O-ring. So apparently there is some kind
of O-ring in a coolant channel. And it's a fairly common failure in these E 55 engines.
This metal O-ring cracks and coolant passes through and ends up somewhere it's not supposed to be.
It's not a, it's not a fatality for the engine or anything like that. But it means he had to tear
further into the engine than replace this to replace whatever the damage is from that and
replace the, replace the thing. And I said, okay, how big of a shit show is it? He said,
one extra day and a $15 part. And I said, great, I'm sorry for your, your work.
But, and I said, once it's fixed, is it like a Porsche, you know, IMS where it's fixed and it's
kind of fixed for life. This is, you replace it with a better quality one. He goes, yeah, you're,
you know, you're good for 30 years after this. And I say, anything else crazy in there? He said,
nothing, nothing new yet. But he's, you know, he's rebuilding the engine. It's not just fucking
yank it out and drop it into my car and cool it runs. So, so that'll mean that's nice. He also said
that the standard shock absorbers that they use for E 500s don't actually fit my car because the
pickup points are slightly different even though we're going to do the wide body. They don't,
yeah, because, you know, the E 500s front end engine compartment front of the windshield,
the 400 and the 500 were a different size, right? So yeah, to accommodate the VA. So the pickup
points are slightly different. So he said, not to worry. There is a company that makes an equivalent
shock for this specific purpose. I forget what the brand was. I had never heard of it, but he
said he's just going to get those. Okay, cool. He said, you know, I was like, you know,
fucking sorry, it's not, you know, straightforward. He said, God, dude, this is, this is not a big
deal. He's like, if it's not something, it's something else is always, always a little adventure
in the build. Yeah. And I mean, it's, he's probably dealt with enough of this stuff.
Like he knows where to go. It's not, oh man, you know, you hold it up and he didn't go,
aw, shit. No, he just knew it's not that it's just that the thing upon upon looking, the thing
is broken as, as, as easily possible. So shout out to Matt quick. At some, I was, I was going to go,
I was like a day from buying the plane ticket to go to Nashville to see that him in the car and do
the podcast with them. And then that weekend for our, it's, I don't know why it's on the weekend,
but that weekend I have to fly to Italy, to Tenerife for Ferrari and like not, not, oh, woe
is me. It just means I can't be in Tennessee. Right. But so that's cool. And what if they
transport you from the airport to the drive in Tenerife in Luches? I could see that happening.
I'm going to put $10 says it, that'll have it. They pick us up and use them as airport shuttles.
Shit. I mean, I mean at 10 bucks, sure. But any bigger than that, I'm not sure I'd want to bet
against that. That's an uncontrolled launch, meaning like, you know, launches, they'll be very
curated for who they bring and what they do with it. So they, they're probably, that would not be
the smartest move strategically, because you're all there to drive a super sports car. They're
going to drive something else. And then they're like, Hey, you want to get a ride in this? So
actually I retract. I think it could be a vibe, but I don't think they will just yet. I think they
will, I don't know what they're going to decide will be the perfect environment for launching
this vehicle. But I imagine it will be not while you're there to drive something else.
Yeah, probably not. So we'll see. I was thinking about this. I think, do we, I mean, we talked
about it in the last show, but I, Mark Newsen's aesthetics and talents really lend themselves
well to objects that are for the masses and like, because it's, it's very, it's curvy. It's
approachable. It's friendly. His object, his, the stuff he designs doesn't scream exclusivity
even when it is expensive. And I think in the context of a car, you know, this design looks
like a car for normal people. It doesn't look like a car that's a super exclusive and exotic car.
But his aesthetic is, is really more every man type stuff. I mean, Johnny Ive too.
Johnny Ive designs consumer products that are, they're high end, but they're for everybody.
iPods and iPads and headphones and computers, like regular people buy that shit. Like, and Mark
Newsen now, because I was looking at, you know, I, I'm getting my Icopod watch service and he loves
that and Mike at Marina Bay watch company. So sending me photos of the movement out of the case
and stuff. It's pretty cool. But, and I'm such a huge fan of Mark Newsen, but a lot of his designs
are, are, are really have the appearance of being approachable friendly goods, even on the occasion
that they are exclusive goods. You know, they're colorful and, and, and curvy. And it's, it seems,
even though he's done like a couple of yachts and stuff. I was wondering if that's his boat or
I don't think it's his boat. I think he has done design elements for four boats before. But
that's, that was just my secondary pondering on the luchae.
Gotcha. Well, I think the most watched video on social media right now about it is the Angelus
Death Highway. It had like, it had 4.7 million views last night and it was double what Ferrari's
official unveiling Instagram video had where the, and that was the video where they had
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc like, you know, unveil it and talk about it.
They're, they're grasping for straws. Oh, the Ferrari's video, they had them do it?
Oh my God, imagine being Lewis. I mean, what Lewis said in the video, it was, he's like,
well, the shifter is really cool. He's like, I like the glass shifter.
That's the best you got. Yeah, specific. Yeah. So that's funny. I did actually watch the AI one
and I did not watch Ferrari's official launch video. So yeah, that was, that was cool. But
the Taycan is fixed back from service. That is such a nice car. Yeah, you, you drove it yesterday
and for filming and I drove it today. And yeah, the steering is fixed. Just it was a little bit
off with that, with the steering. And it turns out control arms. The steering in it is all,
it always surprises me how heavy it is compared to every other Porsche I've driven. It's the only
thing about the car, but everything's bad. It's like, it's so comfortable and quick and quiet
and visibility. Like that is a great used buy. Oh yeah. I mean, you knew that, but like anybody
out there who's buying a used EV, just go get this Taycan. Yeah, and they're even cheaper. Like
right now, they're even cheaper. Like I saw, I saw a Cross-Series, about four S with, with
Performance Battery Plus and mileage in between what mine has now and where I bought it at. I saw
it sell on cars and bids or something for less than I paid for mine and it was in a better color.
Wow. Yeah. So they're, they're out there, dude. Get yourself a fucking, especially,
I mean, that one was the same year as mine at 23, but, but, but 23 and up is the shit.
But that part, that, I'm sorry. Mine at 22. I think mine's a 20. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. Mine
is a 22 and it's totally fine. The 23 had some updates, which made them even better. But yeah,
anyway, 22 and up is the shit. I think that car's price highlights what you've said though,
that the EVs will continue to decline in value because this is better in every way and yet
still cheaper with, you know, has the right miles and all that stuff. But yeah, people just,
I mean, it will depreciate, but like the interesting game for me is buy how much.
Right. I mean, because I spend very little to fill it up. I mean, very little, especially
because half the time I charge it here, which is a, which is a business expense as opposed to a
personal expense, cha-ching. Right. And then I, you know, it's a cost me nothing to service it.
I think it's, will it depreciate more quickly than if you had a car payment on something newer?
Well, like, yeah, my general figure for the last like, I don't know, however many years,
I'm, I'm generally okay spending or losing $10,000 a year on a daily driver car total,
like whether when it was a gas car or an electric car, whatever, like that's just
been the amount that I'm okay with taking on. Yeah. And my normal game is, is just,
can I beat that metric with the Bentley? I beat it. I beat it by a lot with the Bentley.
That's, and the reason is like, that's what it cost me to lease the Mach-E for three years.
Like I, that's what I came to that realization with the amount I'm okay with.
Do you have an amount you're okay with? Although there's just, oh, like,
well, I was, I was looking at the national average for car purchases, 50 grand. And if most cars,
you know, colloquially, colloquially lose what, 20% in the first year of ownership when you buy it,
like that's 10 grand. So that's what I was curious about. Like people might hear, oh man,
you're losing 10 Gs a year. And you actually think about everyone who bought a new car,
they've all probably lost about that much money in the first year of ownership. Well, it's 10 Gs
a year is like 700 bucks a month. That's like pretty much what you're, where you're at. And many,
many people are spending that. So like that's the number I'm okay spending. The Bentley only
cost me fucking like $340 a month. It was awesome. Yeah, that's good math. That was great math.
That was very good math. Yeah. So like, I don't know what the Tycon will cost. I mean, I'm going to
fucking, I'm going to slang it when we're done with it. I'm going to fucking let it fly no reserve.
Let's see what happens. Like, I don't know. Yeah, I don't, I think that car
will lose 10 K a year. Well, that's right. Because the other thing is, will it can,
will it lose 10 K a year? Whereas a lot of new cars, it's 10 K and then they slow a bit, you know,
they're kind of, they bought them earlier for a while. This thing will hit, it'll hit, there's a
floor, right? If it runs and drives, like there's a, there is a floor. It's, it might be less than
I want it to be, but like you see early Model S's and stuff will still sell for 15 grand, right?
You know, so, so there is a floor. If this car one day is $30,000. That's a possibility. That's wild.
I don't want to buy one then. You want to buy it? You want to buy it if it gets a 30? I thought
when I was driving yesterday, I was like, I should buy this when he's done with it. And I was like,
I can't just like keep getting the leftovers. It just feels weird. Too much copy trade. Yeah,
but who wouldn't you, who would you rather buy a car from than me? Oh, nobody. Like you and
Musto are the people I would buy cars from without asking any questions. Yeah. Absolutely.
Well, if, if it turns out we need the tow vehicle and there's still like, you know,
two years of warranty left on this, that's when you should buy it. Not when it's,
not when I fully exhaust the warranty and you're just get to roll the dice on nothing. Very true.
It's really nice, man. And I, I saw a white, a white turbo passed me on the highway the other
day. I actually thought it was you because they had to go tee. But what tipped me off,
sorry, what I, what also hinted that it was you is it had the paint matched like skirts.
Oh, it did. And I was like, but it was, it was a turbo s, right? Didn't that come with it?
All turbos came with painted wheel arches, but they were all painted black. So this person had
them painted white. They did it. They did it custom. Oh, okay. So that's cool. Yeah. It looked
like it helped. Maybe they, that dude saw mine and went, Oh, that's a good idea. Maybe. Yeah,
because you can buy the arches in primer from Porsche. So you can, you can change any wagon one
into body match. You just got to do it. Got to order the parts. They're nice. It's a really,
what a great, it's the best daily ever. Yeah. It's amazing how nice those fucking things are.
I mean, fucking great, great car, especially like,
you know, after, after driving a car that just beats the absolute piss out of you all day,
getting in that to go to dinner clutch. Yeah. I was a little bit of an old man. You're like,
do you want to drive the gun through home? I was like, no, but I also appreciate the simplicity
of its cruise control stock because the Aston, it's like, even after spending six hours in it,
I was kind of annoyed with the operation. Yeah. It has good radar cruise control.
By the way, quick sidebar before we get to the people, but I tried, you know, you know that
fucking, I hate to even reference this guy because he's such a fucking dick bag, but that Dave Portnoy
guy from Barstool, he does his like pizza reviews. Look, credit where it's due. The guy's eating a
lot of pizza. Game respects. Game respects game in that regard. And regardless of what I think
about his views on almost anything else. So he said the best pizza in LA was this place,
Appleone is in Crenshaw. So last night I was, I had a very stressful day after the shoot,
so many things to do. I was fucking overwhelmed and I was like, I just needed a little some
comfort. Hannah's like, let's try that place. So actually they don't do delivery. So Thaddeus
was on his way back from work. So I was like, hey, we're buying you dinner, fucking swing by,
we're placing an order, pick it up. So we got three pies for three people. We did not finish them.
Yeah, of course. But that place was fucking fire. No way. So fire. What's it called?
Appleone is. I'm going to make myself my life worse by telling you even more people about it.
The fact that you have to pick it up and it's in Crenshaw is going to stop a lot of people from
going. But it was derusious. Nice. And if like, you know, we don't eat, I don't know about you,
but I don't eat a lot of pizza anymore. I've pretty much cut anything south of very special
pizza from my diet. This is the once a quarter that's probably worth it. Nice. Yeah, that's not
not close to here at all. It was expensive. Really? Expensive. Wow. Like even compared to like
a pie, like what you what you would call the only size they make, they make one size. Your hands
are very far apart. It was a big pie. That's a huge pizza. It's a large pizza. Yeah. Okay. New
York large pizza size that that's they're not making individual pay. Okay. Although I think if
you go there, you can get slices. But like a large pie, like $40. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Expensive.
Wow. That's very expensive. Yeah. But but it's high quality because any because we've gone to
like, what's the place downtown? The ones in Arizona, their sister store. Oh, Bianco. Like
that. Those are small, but those are 26 bucks. Yeah. So this is like, if you expand that quality
outward, it'll cost $40. Yeah. This is halfway between a New York style and a Bianco. It's
Bianco toppings on a New York style executed crust. Nice. It's fire. You must have so much
leftover pizza. We do. None of you eat large quantities of food. No, we have a full fucking pie
that has from all three pies and Thad took home a full pie from all three pies. But between the
three of us, we ate one pie from the three and we reassembled two other ones and he took one on
for real. We didn't know how much it only comes in one size and we wanted to try three. I'm so
proud of us for eating as little of it as we did to be honest with you. You know what I mean? Yeah.
That old fucking five years ago, me, I would have crushed a pie to the face. It was delicious.
I stopped at three slices. Couldn't believe it. One from each pie. Nice. Who am I? Fuck is this
guy? Not eating all the pizza. You don't want to feel disgusting the next day or an hour after.
This is a half a bottle of wine and a fucking... After that, I still stopped at three.
You were never a weed munchies. You were drunk munchies. Drunk munchies, for sure.
You had some wine, not all the wine. We joined the Foxen Wine Club. Foxen Vineyards on Foxen
Canyon Road outside of Los Alivos. It's a fucking fabulous. So much good wine across the spectrum.
So we like going there. It's like two and a half hours or so. It's a good overnight,
good fucking... And we joined their clubs. We got some good shit. Come drink some.
Cool. Let's go to the people. Patreon.com slash the smoking tire podcast is where it all goes
down. I hope you guys got the BTS pod with me and Spike Feristan that's up there right now.
A little bonus show for you. And if you want to ask questions for the live show, if you want to
watch the live show or listen to it, get the show the day it's recorded rather than later in the week.
If you want to get extra show, if you want to get the show without ads, and if you want to get
access to exclusive merch collabs and partnerships, oh my god, and we have the new one coming up.
Me and Zach got the photos of the prototype of the next thing we're going to have for you guys
is fucking awesome. Have you said what it is yet?
No, we should wait, I think. No, we've hinted. And we put up some photos on Instagram a little
while ago. We did?
Well, in stories. So they're gone. Okay. Yeah. It's clothing, but it's not like merch.
$506. I just don't think they sound that interesting, but that's just me.
I mean, it'll sound pleasant. So there's that. There's also your front-engine Corvettes.
$70,000 might get you like a fucking Z06, a C8 Z06 or something.
Yeah, or C7 Grand Sport.
The best one ever.
C7 Grand Sport. Yeah. Did I say C8 Z06? I meant C7 Z06, but also C7 Grand Sport
is a delight. And by the way, Sidebar WCCS is about to put a blue, white C7 Grand Sport on
BAT automatic. It's an automatic, which maybe you want. Maybe you don't, but it is going on
BAT very soon and we just detailed it and it looks really nice.
One more thought for a GT car.
We talk about it a lot. Vantage-S. Could do that. Passing Vantage-S.
Yeah. Used Vantage is where it's at. They're lovely.
Merckinball Run says, can the Nismo Z overcome the Altima image? I think those are different
compartments. I agree. I don't think anybody in the real world is using the Altima stereotypes
on people that are driving Nismo Zs. Cameron Fry's regrettable kick says,
based on the ownership of your Tycon, best cool dad wagons at 25K, 50K, and 75K. 25K,
you might be able to get a 2016 Volvo V60 Polestar. That's my dad's wagon.
Literally, it's my dad's wagon. That's a great wagon. They look really good.
Yeah. V60 R Polestar. Built so well.
Yeah. My wife had one. I mean, it was, I think, $55,000 new. I think, we saw one at,
where was I? You were there. Oh, no. When I filmed whatever I was doing, the Zinger at Willow,
there was a big track day on Big Willow, and a guy was in the advanced group mobbing a white
V60 Polestar. He probably had the Polestar with the Olens.
Yeah, the one with the Olens. You might be able to get that for $25,000 now.
Those are fucking going to hold value forever. The big brakes, those were dope. 50K.
CTSB wagon? Have they gone up from that?
Probably one with an automatic, for sure. If you get a manual, you might be able to get a
manual for 50, but it would be heavily used. But there's also, there's going to be an E63 wagon
at that price point. 75K, Tycon 4S, Cross Turismo in a great color. Maybe you're not probably not
a GTS Sport Turismo, but Cross Turismo in a good color. Rolex LT, Lariat King Ranch says,
I had a Fiesta ST and now a Beetle 1.8T. What are some good options for a fun commuter car with
twisty roads the entire way that are small handle, handle well or manual and not a Fiesta
as I want a little more refinement, 20K budget, not afraid of miles or working on stuff. I mean,
that's a GTI. You've just described the GTI. Yep. There are any number of GTIs at 20,000 bucks.
Choose your mark. They're all, yeah. From one to seven, basically. Maybe one to six.
Is a 7.5 haptic or non haptic? When do they go haptic? Eight or 7.5?
I think 7.5, but I just meant for 20 grand. I don't know if you get a used one for sure.
Yeah, I would buy whatever the nicest GTI is that you can afford for that money.
Yeah, I agree. They're great. Yeah. I mean, you could also maybe get a Focus ST.
Not maybe. You can definitely get a Focus ST for 20 grand,
but I'd probably rather have the GTI. If you already have a Fiesta,
so many of the controls are going to look the same in the Focus and the Fiesta.
You're just going to feel like you're in a bigger version of the same car.
I like her rims. I'm glad she ADES. That's funny.
I'm just starting to get into watches. I've said that car-themed watches are often corny.
I get the wheel rim patterns and carbon fiber have the subtlety of a monster energy tattoo.
Yeah. Can you offer up a couple of car-adjacent watches that are not a Speedmaster show-part
millimilia or tag something under 100K automatic? Under 1K. Excuse me, 1K.
The obvious one is the Autodromo. Autodromo Group B is like 900 bucks.
That's to me the closest you can really get without being corny.
Like, what I'm really trying to say with all of that is you really shouldn't buy car-themed watches.
Like, you just kind of shouldn't. I mean, if you really, really need the crossover,
yeah, how much is that? I used to say I purchased it. I purchased it used.
Okay. I think these are, yeah, 600 to 1,000 bucks. So these are generally accepted as being car
adjacent without being car too, too car on the nose.
Yeah. I would agree with that. I mean, outside of car, if you hadn't told me this, I saw this
on somebody, I would just think that they're into like art, especially with this color.
It's like a, you know, baby blue with pink dials.
They make some other ones that are more obvious racing livery colors.
Hodenke gave me one that was the Martini livery, so it was like pretty obvious.
But like, you just shouldn't because they're pretty much all corny. There's a company,
all right. I think this company is called RecREC. And this is another company where,
and I don't want to shit on them. It's not my bag, but they take pieces of a crashed car
and integrate them into the watch. Now, typically, do you have some, a?
Yeah.
So they typically, they don't make the watch really look too much like the car,
but like they, it's got little bits in it. And I mean, maybe if there's a car that you,
that is really, really special and you happen to love the design of
the watch, I would not talk you out of buying this, but they've had a PR company approach me
a couple of times about do I want to be sponsored by them or do a watch with them or something.
And it's too on the nose for me. There's just so many good watches that if you like cars and
you like watches, they don't, the watch doesn't need to be related to the car. Everyone gets that
cars and watches are the same shit. You go to cars and coffee, you talk about each other's watches,
the people's watches aren't themed like their cars. It's a separate conversation that happens
between the same type of people. Yeah. There's plenty of crossover. That's just my opinion.
If you want to get one of these, I'd go for it. I'm not going to come like make funny you to your
face, but like in general, I'm saying you just shouldn't buy car themed watches.
I blow horns best handling car with a solid rear axle that you've driven.
Well, that, that Bora motor works a touring car thing. I just drove the other day had a
solid rear axle with a Watts link that was amazing. I've driven a couple of great
Mustangs that are handled nice. I mean, the Boss 302, the mid teens one was fantastic. That car
just drove great, great steering, great everything really. I'm pretty sure I've driven a couple of
race cars that had solid rear axles too that were decent. I'm sure you have. The Boss 302 Laguna
Seca comes to mind as for production cars. Those handles great. I love that car. Yeah. And that's
a nice size car. That's a really good like overall thing. Yeah. And you know, the difference between
a live axle and a independent rear suspension only really comes into play when the road is bumpy.
Yeah. If you're on a track, it's been proven over and over that a solid axle Mustang can put down
a fucking hell of a time as long as it's not somewhere that's super, super bumpy or where the
curbing really comes into play. If you're using a lot of curbing, you'll notice it. I felt that
at Sonoma, I was like, Oh, there's the live axle. But otherwise, when you're staying on the actual
tarmac, it's great and really talkative and easy to manage. I love it.
Tappin' Z's nuts. I guess someone wrote that before I even talked about the Tappin' Z bridge.
Okay. Oh, this was, would we ever, you know, they asked this, so they asked if we'd ever go up the
canyons and do a recorder podcast while watching people drive specifically in the sections where
we've seen all the double passing. And we might do it once. Exactly. On all the bad driving.
I mean, on the one hand, like, if something happens, are we making content about something,
you know, some sort of travesty? But it's a lot more effort to drive up the canyons and set
everything up than it is to come and sit here in the studio. So maybe we'll do it once.
I also, I worry it could seem like glorifying it. I worry it could, like, being up there,
it's a fragile ecosystem, right? It's a public resource, public roads. Yes, people still gather
a little bit at the top of the snake on Sundays. It's open. People gather at the old place. People
are around. People go to good vibes. But like, and we film up there. But like, when, when it's
quiet, I just, I don't, something irks me about doing that. It just doesn't, like, feel right.
It feels like it could be misconstrued as, as, as glorifying it or like profiting off of.
And I think this person was talking about the area where we watched the Palmdale 500,
not even, you know, the car folks going up there. They mean that. Oh, I'll tell you what,
I'd be like so much more likely to do that than I would to be up there fucking careening on people
doing double yellow passes in GT3s. No, I think, because this person, we DM'd later
after one of the shows and it's about that area. What I'll say to that is that window of time is
about 40 minutes and then it's dead quiet. So you'd get at best, I don't know, five minutes of
interesting driving among four. You'd get a couple. Morally, I feel a lot
better about doing that than I do about sitting up in the social elements of the, of being in the
canyons and causing some kind of a scene just by us being there and doing it. You know what I mean?
If we were, if we were doing a show at the top of the thing, like that would turn into a thing
and it would become problematic like instantly. But oh, okay, that's,
I'm still a maybe, but I'm more likely to consider it now that I know the context. Sorry.
Zing life away, very good. Very good. Also, what, what they play when they shoot their missiles at,
shoot divergent 3D missiles and stuff.
Uh, when traveling, what is the watch strategy? Do you wear one or pack multiples?
Almost exclusively, I pick one for the whole trip. The only exceptions are like car week.
That's really the only exception because each night is going to be an opportunity to
fucking do something fun. And it's the only week I care about fashion. Normally, it's not
worth thinking about. Pick one for the week. Other people, I know people that fucking bring
like a lot of, I don't be able to travel like four or five watches. Like that's like,
forget the security risk of that. That's like heavy. Like that's a five watch thing to travel.
Roll in the rolly thing. Yeah. The big fucking rolling. That's heavy. Like what are you doing?
You're like, um, but I get it why people who wear a lot of watches want to go. But like,
that's one of those things where when I'm on vacation, my time's a little too valuable to think
about because I'm not, I'm not worried about my watch getting jacked. I'm worried about me
forgetting it somewhere. I put it in the hotel safe and I forgot to check or it's in the fucking
thing or whatever. Like that's way more likely than me actually getting jacked. So yeah,
Gluteus Nissan Maximus. I like that one. I also like Nissan Maximus Decimus Meridius.
So, uh, I saw a Pzev, Pzev badge recently and it got me thinking, what's the dumbest marketing
badge you've seen or heard of on a car? So many, so many dude, four door sports car,
the Maxima one. I mean, the Toyota BZ 4x. I had to, I had to look it up to remind myself what it
was, but that badging is just, oh, you know, I don't know, no, the Pzev, it's like
additional marketing magic, not just the model name. So like what GM used to put like, you know,
tuned port injection or whatever on their car or like, when they first started saying cars and
had ABS, there was a big ABS badge on there. Advertising the features of the car. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Oh, there must have been a whole bunch. My favorite is the word supercharged.
Give me all of that. Like the fucking old Pontiacs and stuff, just said supercharged on the door,
like, yeah. Tri-port injection was a thing. Well, the, the Chevy's had, what was it called?
It was like triple carburetor stuff. How about this? Texas edition. Almost every OEM has a Texas
version of their truck that they just sell in Texas. And you never see the ads for it until
you go there. Yeah, because why would they? Many of the fashion house collabs, we talk about those
all the time. Yeah. How about this? How, oh, here we go. On some cars, handling by Lotus. Of course.
That was the best one. Hell yeah, brother. Other times, what exactly did Lotus do to this
Isuzu trooper? I would say they always improved it. I'm sure if you drove what it was before
they got there, it was terrible. Yeah. Yeah, they should have put a badge in it. You should have
seen this shit box before, dude. Stoodog said, did cars and bids ever follow up with me about the
guy who doxed your address when auctioning the NSX? No. No, they didn't. I don't. I'm glad.
That's actually, I think, the first time hearing about it. I'm not sure someone did.
I don't know what it was. I mean, look, you live in the world. There's people that know
where I live. There's people that are... They know where you work. There's people who know
where I work. There's people who know where I live. There's people that I know live in my
neighborhood that are fans. I was very shocked that my address did not get posted on Reddit
when I had the Alpine in my driveway. Somebody just took a photo of it and
said, like, spotted this in my neighborhood and right away, because I post my own driveway on
fucking Instagram and shit, people were like, that's Matt Ferris house. And it was nice of
everybody who knew to not say exactly where it was. But there's always cars and shit in front of
it. Fisker, I hardly knew her. What would be the best modern replacement for the Duffel Shuffle
Mercury? The Duffel Shuffle Mercury is the Mercury Mountaineer I had in college that I used to run
drugs all over the country. What made that car great was it didn't look like anything on the
outside. It was just a black Mercury villager. And if you're fucking under the age of 30,
that's a Ford Explorer with a different grill on it. Slightly nicer leather.
Which a Ford Explorer would serve the purpose of, you want to be anonymous? I would go Suburban,
because they look nice. A Suburban can be driven by a wealthy person or a livery.
It can be a chauffeur vehicle. If you're going to run drugs, the best advice I can give you
is just buy the most boring, invisible, forgettable car that you can find.
And then put TV screens in every headrest, which are visible from the back.
Yeah, that was different. I would not recommend that.
A cop would be behind you to see six TVs lit up and go, hmm.
I didn't really do that anymore. Now they have podcasts for that. Just buy something boring
and fuel efficient and drive the goddamn speed limit. I mean, that's being just being an invisible
person. So I honestly like a Prius, or just something that is, or actually one of those,
here's one, take the badges off and tell me the difference between like a BZ4X and a Honda,
HRV, and those weird-shaped, compact crossovers. Tell me which one is which.
That is a good point. One of those debadged in fucking black, nonchalant.
I thought I saw a BZ4X yesterday, and then when it passed me, it was a Subaru Solara.
Soltera. Well, those are platform-shared. That's their badge made.
Close enough. Yeah.
BM TroubleU says, what cars have not been reimagined yet that you want someone to look into?
I'd like to see a RestoMod NSX or Hakoska. Someone's just doing it. It's doing NSX.
They just announced it. Sweet.
Just Google RestoMod NSX. There were stories about it. I don't even think it was a week ago.
Oh, the 10-Sci thing. Right, right, right. What's it called?
10-Sci? 10-Sci. I'm probably mispronouncing that.
Yeah, so here we have a, we've gone back to Rec Watches.
Yeah, here we go. We've got a Honda NSX RestoMod known as 10-Sci, designed by Pininfarina,
built by JAS Motorsport. This NSX revival features beautiful carbon fiber bodywork.
I mean, it does look nice. This is, yeah, look at that. Little C8 Corvette from the side.
It is indeed. It's a taller greenhouse. Yeah.
And yeah, definitely more C8.
Yeah, interesting though. I don't hate it. I'd like to see it. There we go.
Pretty cool. Yeah, the lights look like it is excited.
You know, Evasive Motorsports built that S2000 Type R, which I think is, I haven't got to drive it,
but that's on the nose. It's got a Civic Type R engine, a slightly widened body,
but in a way that really hides it, actually. Yeah, we were supposed to drive it like two years ago.
Yeah, I don't think they could quite get it running right, and then maybe they got busy or
stopped caring. I don't know. Maybe there's not a business case for it, but that seemed like a
really good idea. I think there's a lot of opportunity there, for sure. These Honda people
are crazy. They are. All car people are crazy. No, but like a Honda person, if you did that right,
a Honda person would spend $200,000 on that. Yeah, probably.
You know, if you deliver them what was effectively a brand new car, I think they would.
Obviously, you're not a golf r.
Ha. Fucking ace. Ace, dude. That's great. I mentioned last time going to business school versus
making an allowance of $250,000 worth of mistakes. What were the most painful and or valuable
teachable moments you've had in running your business? Oh, man. The biggest one is probably
that we have lost more money with errors in accounting by a lot than we have in damaging cars.
Wow, really? Yeah. I thought we would damage a lot more cars and have to fix a lot more cars.
The truth is that's almost, that's barely happened. Not to say it's never happened,
but it's really very rare and very minor. No one's ever driven a car into something,
except the one person who got fired for it. Outside of that guy. No, no, no, but outside of that guy.
You said it and I was like, I think it happened and then you're like, it did happen once.
It happened once and he got fired for it. But outside of that, it's been very minor. But
there have been multiple over the course of the business instances of missed billing
and or incorrect billing that have resulted in a lot of money. And those are, they're way harder
to see. They're harder. You have to pay attention. Like normally you can tell if the car damaged or
not. Sure. You know, and you guys do a really good job of taking photos of the whole car when
they come in, when they go out, like it's all documented. So a change in the car's appearance.
Interestingly, the procedures for documenting the car as it goes in and out, I learned throughout
the history of my life working at the rental company and all this other stuff. I had experience in
that. I had no experience in recurring billing transaction. You know what I'm talking about?
Like I didn't go to business school. I went to fucking art school. You know, I have smart people.
They're fairly analog systems. And what happens when people have many cars with us,
somebody with 12 cars, you know, the cars just show up. And maybe this car is at service when
this car shows up, but then this car comes back and it doesn't seem like a new car has moved in.
And you know, oh my God, now 34 months go by or whatever. And this isn't fortunately,
you know, recent, but, but you talk about big lessons. Many of those lessons,
they don't get discovered for a few months. And so you then have to embarrassingly go back to your
customer and go, can you pay for it? Or, you know, the other way where you didn't return to
return their security deposit, or they moved out, they didn't tell you and you've been billing them
and you have to refund them fucking four or five grand that you didn't know you have to do so.
So that's a, that's a really big one. And then the other one was
to, I'm trying to think of the other like biggest one, because there's a lot of fucking big ones,
man. So many were so big. Really study how, if you're going to open a physical business,
don't just study how that town relates to the customers you want. Like our second store,
I put in Gardena because it's closer to the South Bay and the beach cities,
which have a good, good amount of money in very little space. So, and that, and I felt that that
community was not being served by existing options. That's why it's there. But by specifically
putting it in Gardena, without researching is Gardena a good place to do business?
Right. I ended up in this shitty mafia fucking government that has like mired me in paperwork
for years and cost me a fortune in not being able to get this next
building done and all this other stuff. And if I had a choice, I would have chosen a different,
literal different fucking city. We'd go to Hawthorne, maybe Torrance, maybe, maybe anywhere,
but not, not what I thought. So I didn't research that side of it as I was focused solely on the
customers. Those two to combine are fucking huge. Those are huge mistakes. Other shit has come up
that's just, there was no way you would have known that. And here it is. The only way out is through.
But these are ones where I was like, okay, probably should have done that. And so never do it again.
Yeah. Good question though. Last one. And then we'll get out of here. She,
okay. Good, good name. And she put her Volvo on my pole like a star. Perfect. No notes.
I'm of the younger generation that did not grow up with manual transmissions. Is there
anywhere in the LA area where I can learn would it stick if I don't have a manual to drive regularly,
or should I buy a manual beater? Of that note, when the youths get older and start having
money to spend on the cars they wanted as kids, do you see the pendulum swinging the other way
for cars being more valuable with the high manual take rate? Okay, two questions. One,
there's no better way to learn to drive stick than to just buy a fucking stick car. Yep. It
doesn't even have to be a beater. I mean, if you want to really commit, just buy a car that's your
car that's stick. I mean, that's the best way. If not, a beater is the second best way. Third
best way would be to like rent a car on Turro for like a month, you know, like you could probably
rent a fairly, pick something live, live, indirect. Yeah, you, you, you can probably rent something
for a month, you know, maybe it'll be a thousand bucks or something. But like, you know, you then
are not committed past that, you know, so you don't have to buy and deal with a car. You could just
do that. It would, it's, it would be a few weeks to a few months of driving stick before it would
really permanently stick to you. Yeah, I think that's true. Like Sarah, my wife, she rented a Mazda
three years ago on a trip. She ran it and had a manual and she did it for like two weeks and
she had driven one before. So it came back, but it took like two days to really come back and be
easy. And even then I think it required thought whereas for you and I, it's like totally subconscious
now. Right. So to get it to that level where it's pure muscle memory, subconscious, and then you
could wait five to 10 years and hop in one again and be like, I know how this works. Yeah, that's
going to take months of daily driving. The best option is to buy a manual beater or even a manual
good car. Like I think so many people think they're going to do more damage to a clutch learning how
to drive stick than they really are. Yeah. Like stalling an engine isn't that bad for it. Riding
a clutch a little bit isn't that bad for it. As long as you know that you shouldn't ride it for
very long and you're working to minimize that, you'll get through that phase pretty quickly.
And then it should last you a very long time. Yeah. Like my first car was a manual, the clutch
lasted three years and I drove it shittily and then well and then beat the shit out of it. My
current car, I've put 60,000 miles on this clutch, including what, two drift days and a couple track
days and it's fine. Well, fortunately the only thing I understood from my one semester of engineering
school was the only thing that really stuck to me was thermodynamics. An engine and a car
are designed like they have a clutch. There's a temperature where it fails. I don't know what
the temperature of a clutch failure is. Let's call it 2000 degrees. I'm just making that up,
but maybe you can look up what the temperature is. But you could get it up to
1,997 degrees 150 fucking times. As long as you don't get it past that mark,
it'll fail. Like same with an engine. Like I used to think that you'd have to, when I was younger,
that you didn't want to use the top half of your power bank because it's not good for your engine.
It's going to get hot. It's going to wear it out. It's going to all this. Well, it turns out that's
not the case. The metals and all that, if they are going to fail at 750 degrees, you could get
that motherfucker up to 725 all day, every day for its entire life and it will be totally fine.
But if you get it to 752, it explodes. Like that's how those things work. And so the operating range
is all the way even close to the top. So like same thing as a clutch. Do you have a number for
failure? No, AI said three to 500, but I don't trust that. Okay. Well, whatever it is. So like
if you ride the clutch a bunch, if the normal temperature is 200 and you elevate it to 250,
whereas maybe I only elevate it to 220 with experience, right? And you're new, you're riding
it more, you're elevated to 250, but the fail point is 350. You haven't worn it at all. But if you
elevate it to 351, you have completely ruined it in one fucking go. So like I probably haven't
perfectly explained how those types of thermodynamics work, but like that's the takeaway is as long
as you keep it below that maximum threshold, you're pretty flexible for a pretty long time.
Yeah, I did find a stat that top fuel cars, their clutches get up to 1500 degrees.
Yeah, that makes sense. Wow.
But like even, you know, the BMW endurance racing, like you're full fucking throttle
for eight hours. Cars, cars fine. Like cars totally fine.
Well, because to your point about thermal management, if you're managing the water
temp and the oil temp, that will then keep the metals in the right operational window.
Even though they're spinning as fast as they will go and flowing as much fuel as you can flow.
Crazy, right? So it's not a sliding scale. It's a hard line of it has to stay below
this number. And if it does, it's fine. And if it goes over that number, you pretty immediately
have a problem. Yeah, or things will start to melt and break down where they happen in the
engine drivetrain. You don't know. But that's, that's why some of those records like the Nardo
24 hour, those high speed records, their average speed records are impressive because it's a way
for them to figure out what will fail at high rates of speed for sustained, you know, for sustained
hours. When you're learning to drive stick, just, just riding the clutch a little bit,
pulling away from a light, like that's not going to fit. Here's where you, here's where you'll
smoke a clutch when you're learning. If you think the right thing to do on an uphill start,
because you're afraid of stalling, is to sit there and ride the clutch for 30 seconds.
You know what I mean? 15 on RPM with the clutch halfway in order to hold the car.
That is how you will smoke the clutch. Yeah, because then you're just sitting there rub,
the clutch is just rubbing against the flywheel. It's not catching. And the same thing, and you'll
know, like when you, when you slip the clutch on a hill, the hill is always the scariest thing to
do when you're learning to drive manual. The smell will tell you you've done it incorrectly,
because you'll ride it too long, then you'll let it out and the car will smell bad. And you want
to try to not do that. Yeah. If that's the case, less revs or a shorter length of time riding the
clutch should get you there. On a hill, you know, a little revs, you know, a little smell, like to
get it done, you got to do what you got to do. You haven't broken the car. Yeah. But if you do that
too much, you know, then you're going to have a problem. That's our show. Thank you, everybody.
We appreciate you all very much. We appreciate our patrons for keeping the boat floating down the
ocean. Appreciate everyone else for being here as well. Can't wait to share our next collab with
you. We're going to have, we're going to have it ready to share soon. We're going to have, we don't
have tickets yet for, for Woodward Dream Cruise, but it's happening, I promise. We, and of course,
the giveaway for the 911 Turbo S, we're going to have our next video up with that where Zach and I
drive it to Utah to break it in for you and make sure you go and get your entries in for that. The
game ends on August 20th, I believe. And see you next time. Bye.
About this episode
The Smoking Tire kicks off with sponsor reads and a Porsche 992.1 Turbo S giveaway teaser, then jumps into Driven reviews of the Chimera 037 and GRP P39. The hosts dig into the Chimera/GRP builds’ Koenigsegg-powered, twin-charged setups, drivetrain choices, and how donor-car sourcing shapes the cars. They also cover suspension/visibility tradeoffs, Kimera 037 crowd appeal, and practical project updates—plus plenty of side talk on dad-wagon picks and manual-driving tips.
Driving the GRP GTH P39 and the Kimera 037; the best dad wagons on the used market; updates on the Mercedes and Taycan; why buying a used EV makes fiscal sense; and more!
Patreon questions include:
Cool used 4-door that will impress my kids
Biggest business mistakes
Do any 2000s automatics feel "special"?
Used AMG GT S vs C8 Corvette
Nissan Z vs the "Altima image"
Best cool dad wagons
What to buy after life with a Fiesta ST?
Car-themed watches
Best live-axle car we've driven
Why podcasting from the canyons is weird
How to travel with a watch/es
Dumbest marketing badging
Best modern "duffle shuffle" car?
Will a NSX restomod work?
And more!
Recorded May 28, 2026
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