Driving a Special Lotus at Willow; EPA changes; New Watch; &A

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All right on this episode of the podcast

I did some road and some race track driving at willow springs in the Lotus

111rs a sort of

Resto modded version of a Lotus lease that I think will definitely find an audience

Trump has decided to essentially get rid of environmental regulations entirely

effectively

decimating all

fuel economy standards and

I got a cool watch. Yay

It's the smoking tire podcast. Let's go

No, do you see the watch? Mm-hmm, so oh it arrived. Yeah, great. Oh, that's right. We were waiting for it and then it didn't show

This is genuinely like a really funny. Isn't that awesome, you know

On the one hand I get to say hot tub time machine

It is a hot tub time machine actually. When did you think of that today like yesterday?

That's great, but but also it is it is such like an appropriate commentary

I think not the like I'm such a genius. I also just looked at it went those look like hot tubs, but like

It is a commentary on the fact that I think people

Get on the forums and shit or so like nerdy about timing things with their

Chronographs, and I have like four chronographs, and I never if I need to time something. I'm using my phone. Yeah

Yeah, but like it doesn't mean like but like so

So for those people that is their fountain pen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like it's it does remove some of the functionality

For like but but it were the part of it

It's essentially going to remind me that I was never gonna use the fucking chronograph anyway

No, I think it's like I think it's a really rad idea truly because there's some you know like

I enjoy demolition man the movie I would watch it again, but you have the theme bathroom

I wouldn't do that sure that's understandable is really funny. I think this is a great use of circle

It's a great. It's a great use of a guy who is really good at painting small things. Yeah, and circles

Yeah, and and taking a thing that is is one of many just like it and this one is mine and the hands are still in there, right?

Yeah, so I chronograph still works time is going by for them. So the people in the hot tub can keep track

Yeah, and get out when it's alive. Yeah. Oh, you can pull it up on the Instagram. We're talking about I got my finally got

My custom watch back from the dial artist

Oh who I have to invite to collaborate on this post because I forgot

So we had this idea that I thought that sub dials in my white speedmaster looked like hot tubs and

The dial artist who does micro artistry thought that that would be funny and sent me a rendering and

Send the watch just like the fucking Lamborghini engine

Sending your own shit overseas and then getting it back

The customs bullshit is mad stressful because it's like this is yes

This is an expensive watch that comes

You know is of an origin of a country that's fucking tariffed

Although slightly less tariff now because the president of Rolex suck Trump's cock. That's what happened. I sees it

Seen it

You know what about your world Trump coin? No, I know the president of Rolex a president

Well, I came to visit Trump and literally gave him a golden Rolex desk

Oh, yeah, it is now sitting on the fucking resolute desk

Yeah, and the truck the tariffs went from 39 to 15 percent having said that so yeah

This is government by patronage, right?

This is how it works now number of golden gifts that have literally been given to him. It's like didn't I didn't

Give him like a gold. I'll at least it's not Heinz. What do we bring a time?

They know just whatever as long as it's fucking cold who gives a shit

but shipping your own shit and

Then coming back and they go, you know country of origin

Well like Switzerland, but actually I already bought it in America and paid taxes here

And so so when it got held up in customs for eight days, I was like sweating fucking buckets

There's just thought they were gonna fucking jam me up

Saying I just bought it out of Switzerland or something. You know what I mean?

Fortunately it arrived and it arrived covered in blue customs tape. We have opened

They see some record of it going out to UK's like they know it's it's this is not a wonder

One direction. They did not see a record of it. Don't know cuz I just shipped it FedEx

I didn't like and I didn't put a note inside like hi boys this

But on the customs form you I had to fill out a form

I put I did put this package this watch originated in the US

I shipped it to Europe for repair and now it's coming back

Which is exactly what I said for the engine. It was exactly that it's my thing that was going for repair. Yeah, not upgrade

Not customization repair. That's the word

The more I get into like business and there's gonna be someone rolling their fucking eyes out there the

very

specifics of words on

forms

Like well like when I went to the Gardena government trying to get the applications to have cars and coffees at at the store

Or things like that. I said the word events

To a normal person sure cars and coffee would fall under event. No, no, no

No, no, no an event to a city person is like a fucking petting zoo and a marching band

Yeah, yeah

Carnival rides and like traffic is getting obstructed and there needs to be an ambulance on site like all I'm doing is having

As far as our parties now a part the party is different. So hey, it's on the form

You should have written party. Yeah, and then they'd be like a party

Like no one gives a fuck, you know what I mean?

But like you say events and they think like the shit's going down, you know, they think like semis are unloading

You know carnival rides. So anyway, that's that's where we're at same thing with the customs form send it out for repair

It's a little fucking more. You know knowledge for everybody those

But I'm super stoked with this watch. It's fun as hell very cool

And it I think it comes through really nice in the photo, but in the water is very shiny

Reflective has a good a good sheen to it

Man, this shit is so fun and it fucking feels really nice to pay

An artist to make art. I want to give for you and really cool the dial artist

Chris out of the UK

Does micro artistry and on on watches? I mean, you'll probably paint on anything

But he does some really dope shit last year. He painted a satellite view map of Bora Bora on my Rolex Explorer

That's pretty cool. He has some like Jackson Pollocky stuff and some like pattern. Yeah

That's real cool. That's cool. So he like I think sprayed like through these tiny

I mean what a stencils, right? Yeah, they made these tiny tiny stencils and then the middle of the watch says fuck nine to five

That's pretty rad. Yeah, he's super cool

He does some really fun colors and like cartoon characters and stuff

Wow, yeah, I love Chris. He's great if you want if you want to if you want to change up your watch and

Like because sometimes like

There's a watch called I think it's like it's by mr. Jones watches

And I think it's called like another lazy sunday or something and it's like pool floats going around a pool

Mm-hmm. It's a dope watch, but it's like a kind of a novelty watch. It's not like a nice watch and so

There's a fun thing about like turning a nice watch into sort of a novelty watch

Is it called another lazy?

Perfectly useless afternoon, which is a fun watch, but it's like it's a bit of a novelty

Like that's not an everyday watch. Well, this just this looks like the watch was and it was designed to just do this

It is it's like a it's a two-dimensional cartoon drawing essentially of someone sitting in a float

What's the inner tube in a pool? Yeah, it's obvious that it was a

Dress watch whatever and then it had our attitude. Yeah for this the the I think her leg

Points at the hours and the rubber ducky is the minutes cool. I think that's cool, too

Yeah, it's fun. It's fun, but I can't use that to tell time every day. That's crazy. Yeah, that's tough

Welcome to the program brag about my fucking watch. Actually. I just want to excuse the plug Chris

Please send send him ideas and have him paint your watches. It's not that expensive

He should probably be charging more to be honest with you for what he does who else can do that like I know comps

Yeah, it's pretty ready. Yeah, it's like go on Etsy. Let me send you my speedmaster

I just had a nice two-hour transit back from Willow Springs my very first member day

Very exciting

There's like because there's there's member days in terms of like there's 20 days a month

Where I can show up and use the track and like would probably be the only person on it

Wow, including next week when we go with the Maserati. Yeah

Like we'll probably be there's why I was talking to one of the other members today

He was very cool. Shout out to John from Colorado who said he was there yesterday

And he was there for seven hours and it was just him. Yeah

Which is which is fabulous. Yeah, but this was like a day. So there was maybe like

Ten members and some guests Jensen was there. He says hi

He was giving ride-alongs in a 4rs club sport

But they had all the club sports out and they had these genettas

Oh, yeah, those are red two genettas and they had like six or seven club sports out

And you could we just take them like we could just rip them

Club sports on slicks, which was which was very good. They had instructors

I hadn't driven the new track layout yet

I really had fun. Oh, yeah, you hadn't

Yeah, but I drove it at the media day, but at the open house, we were like walking around. Mm-hmm. What'd you think? I?

Really like it for

For purposes of car testing I really

I really think that for evaluating the kind of things that we want to know about a car you and I in our audience

I think it's a fabulous place to test cars. Mm-hmm. It's got tight corners and open corners

And that's sections great on camber off camera. Yeah, and you could get a car nice and loose there

Without, you know, really having a problem, which I'm very much into

So I'm stoked. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. We use the chicane thing. Yeah, let's do the

But we don't you don't have to but I think when we're running lap times there

We we should I think we should use that one. Sure

So otherwise you just we don't need two straight aways

We're doing testing and then it'll just eat the brakes if we use that second straight out of the

Carousel eat more breaks like a downhill braking section. Yeah. No, it's it's cool

I liked it a lot. I thought it was a fun a fun little track. I think more than

500 horsepower there is probably wasted. Yeah, there's only so fast you can go there. Yeah, which is fine

But the surface is great. It's a lot of fun. This place is a slide

It looks nice. I think and

So I had to go in a 4rs club sport, which was which was fun. I got about

I don't know 10 laps in that I did a 124 which I was I was told was respectable for having never driven that car before

I think so. I mean all I know I know Corey

I think Larry ran around a 127 or six in his time attack car. So yeah, I mean that's that sounds right

I mean, this is a there's a factory fucking 4rs club sport on slicks. So I think that the the guy who

Was showing me around the first time

His first name was shit. It was either Alex or Andrew, but his last name was Edelman. Nice guy

He did a 22 so but we both said we both said if I if I had a whole day with that car I could get to that

But that was a lot of fun and then I went out and pull up the red car

our buddies at

Eno kinetic formerly known as sector 111. They're now called Eno kinetic

They lent me this. This is a this is their

111rs, which is a total package for

the Lotus Elise or exige

The the list of of things that they do is fucking extensive

But it's a it's a full basically you give them an Elise or an exige

and about

Depending on which way you go with it between 60 and 80 thousand dollars on top of the car

Okay, and so it's not a singer thing. It's not like a reimagining

But the goal is to take that car that is a great car, but is now 20 years old and

Make it drive like something that you'd want to drive today

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So the engine is it's still a 2 zz, but it's built by mountain

So it's a fully built engine from 2 zz from mountain with this

This new type of blower that's more efficient than the old kind of blower

So much so that it no longer requires the intercooler. So it's a non intercooler. Wow, so you save weight and complexity

And it doesn't need it and she knew says it who she knew is the owner of set of in a kinetic

He says if you if you're literally running like endurance racing then you would run this blower with an intercooler

But like outside of that like even for a track day, you don't need the intercooler and like my experience

It was like a beautiful day today. It was high 60s low 70s. It was beautiful

Cars did not did not build up any heat at all. It was fine

I mean I did think my longest session in this car was maybe like 18 minutes, but like it didn't move

I don't I don't see what would have changed if I kept going. It was fine

So you get this engine is 275 horsepower

Which is

In the car weighs 2,000 pounds. All right, they've cut like 400 pounds out of the car somehow

It has zero sound insulation. It has carbon bucket seats. It has a very light wheels

Yeah, it's got the the open linkage short shifter

They do a full as full suspension. It's their spec, you know shocks

They they break they rebuild the gearbox, but they also not and bolt the car

So you get all-new monoball bushings. They like they rebuild the steering rack

They have different like they literally restore the whole car

So everything is either upgraded to their spec or

Restored to OEM spec with new rubber or whatever, right?

they have these different links that

May they don't change the actual steering ratio, but they make more angle per

They effectively change the steering ratio, right? They sharpen it up

And I mean look this is a very fast little car

Probably weighs nothing

It weighs like between

2,000 and 2,100 pounds. Yeah, and it makes 275 horsepower. So like it rips

And because it's light

I mean like look it's loud and buzzy is no fucking insulation the weather stripping sucks

You know, you can take the roof off. It's an Elise this one. So the roof would come off

And it's not what I'd call comfortable like that seat is not comfortable straight up. Yeah, I have to wear

Not not just driving shoes, but really narrow driving shoes to drive it. I cannot drive it otherwise and

And it's it's it's pretty aggressive

Having said that because it's so light it actually rides well like it's it's loud and buzzy and brah

But when you if you can tune that out when you hit a bump

It actually takes the bump really well because there's not a lot of mass that it has to resist

So it's actually sprung like

Compared to like a Porsche or something like pretty soft

So you can take curbing on the track and if you hit a bump on the road

It's not like a nightmare and also because it's light. It doesn't need very wide tires

And and so it doesn't like dart around. So actually at like 70 on the highway like pretty relaxed

It's in the city. It is not relaxed. It's idling. You can tell that it's all like hard-mounted because it's like

You know like but once you get it past like 3500 rpm

Even when you're cruising you cruise it like four it's geared short as shit

So even when you're cruising you're cruising up high

The power band is like four to eight

and

And it's smooth at four but at two or idle. It's like terrible

That's lotus life, you know

But it's a you know, I'm thinking about Cheneau said most people who get these have a hundred grand into their cars

And if I think about what a hundred grand gets you

outside of that

This is a pretty fucking fizzy experience for a hundred grand considering you're being handed back

What is effectively a new Lotus, right? I mean this is definitely

This is the lightweight answer to the track performance problem because otherwise you go Porsche

It's gonna wait. It's gonna weigh a lot more than it's not a heavy car

No, but my spider is like a thousand pounds right, so this is this is nothing. Yeah, you know C8 ZR1

Hundred grand gets you a lot of that maybe in zero six, but heavy car. Well, it's a different

It's one isn't better or worse. It's different

No, I'm just thinking of if you want to go to the track and you're gonna spend six figures

You know, there's a lot of cars out there

But it's more than just go to the track this this car is actually I think a better street car than it is a track car

Really? Yeah, I think it is because if you really really want to go as fast as possible at this point

You probably want paddle shifters like you can get a car that will go faster than this for

Maybe not the same amount of money, but like in the ball in the ballpark

You know what I mean? You get a C8 Z06 on the right set of tires and you're going quicker than this around the track

Mm-hmm easy especially on a track is more easier with more straights or longer turns

This what what's great about something this like because in the video. I did make a video with this by the way

I shot in the Angeles forest in the morning and then in the track. So it is a street and track drive with this car

all in the Angeles forest

Or or on on a good road

You're having a really really good time at seven or eight tenths

And it feels like you're going about 25 miles an hour faster than you're actually going mm-hmm, and so

On the road

You're you're ripping you feel everything you're leaning into the corners

You're heel towing the shifters super satisfying

You know you're having this analog experience and you are going fast you're feeling g-forces in all directions proper

But the numbers are not as high as like if I was driving a Bentley speed

Oh, you know what I mean, but I could be going way faster and like feeling nothing and so

You know if your goal is lap times

This isn't the fastest way to spend a hundred G's

But if your goal is to feel some fucking fizz for a couple of hours a week

This is up there. I mean and and

You know it's a it's a it's a simple car because it can be

It doesn't need all the fancy shit because it doesn't have all this weight to manage your seismic right downsides

I

Absolutely hated getting in and out of this car. It was fucking terrible. I did not like it and so consequently as you may see in the

Video each section is just a bunch of mounts sink together

Because I without you or someone I could not possibly get in and out of this car a hundred times this morning

Like it would take to make a video normally

I set up the camera by the way, okay, the case doesn't fit in the trunk

I had to know my racing gear the camera gear

Everything is was shoved into the passenger side of this car. You can't put anything in the back

So yeah, that makes sense. It does have a trunk, but she knew didn't take out his like car cover and stuff

So it was all full of stuff

So like this was really cool. It's just a very

Distilled experience that's like super fizzy in short bursts

And it is it was quick on the track, but it's also like it's work, you know, it's your it's it's a lot of

Lot of shifting the steering is heavy

It's an manual steering rack the small steering wheel

And there's quite a couple of cases at streets of willow particularly coming out of the bowl and coming onto the front straight

Where you have to do that to three shift?

Right at the track out onto the straight

So you're fully loaded up with your left hand and trying to do a gear change

That's a push away gear change at the same time

So so there's a that's a that's a tough bit of motion

And in this steering wheel the horn buttons are on the spokes in the leather

Oh, how many times did you honk the horn the guy at the the guy in the fucking nest at the exit of the bowl

I was like, what's this guy keep fucking giving me the what's up?

Your thumb in there because you're for the leverage

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You know and they've and he's done

He's done some some nice suede work on the dash and the door cards

You can see there's a radio deck delete, but it actually does have a stereo

You just connect to a Bluetooth thing and there's like focale speakers and they sound pretty good actually can you hear them at all?

Yeah, when you're moving. Yeah, I was like blasting rise against in the canyons. It was good. Cool. Yeah

Yeah, it sounded it sounded nice and has air conditioning as well. I think this would be obviously tons of fun

I mean this is like mid-engine Miata answer but with a little bigger budget than a Miata. It sounds red. Yeah, it's very light

It's very responsive and very fizzy, but but also you you know feeling everything means feeling everything

Yeah, and so you get the down and the upsides of that sure on the track, you know at the limit

I found it to be predictable. You'll see in the video. It doesn't have a lot of a lot of vices

There's a there was a couple places where it got a little bit loose, but it was it was very manageable

It does not have trash control or anything

the brakes are great

And in general it was it it was an absolute ride. It was a good time, so it's too uncomfortable for me

I won't be buying one, but if you're like 510 and Finn or 510 and under and and and

Reasonably thin or reasonably limber. These are all right. Yeah, it's fun

The seat is like bare carbon with a piece of ham on it. That's hot like the padding is very thin

Suede but that there was a long drive on the road this morning. Yeah, if it fits you perfectly

Yeah, then it might be all right, but and also it's it takes a while

I think it's a dry sump. It takes a while to get the oil fully warmed up and until it's really

Soaked with heat it is very vibrating and buzzy. Hmm, so it smooths out when it warms up. It's just yeah interesting

Go figure why that is go figure. It's a good time though looks cool

I mean this spec is red little bit a little bit of red like bare aluminum

The Eddie Van Halen roof is a fun tribute. You see that you notice the roof is the is Eddie Van Halen's guitar

Oh, I I didn't know what that was. Okay. Well, that's what it is. Okay. It's a fun

It's a fun vibe. Yeah, that's cool. Why not? I mean it's right people listening. It's bright red. It's got gold wheels

It looks cool. I do like these wheels a lot

That's a that's a nice looking wheel. Yeah, 16 17s in the back. Cool. Yeah, this looks like so much fun

And I didn't I probably would have really enjoyed it with the top off

Although I didn't have anywhere to leave the top so I you know, I had this so anyway, but yeah, it's pretty cool, man

there'll be a video coming and

You know shout out to to you know kinetic and if you if you want one of them, they are building them. They're pretty cool

But yeah, we are we are gonna have us

Quite a lot of fun at this here this here little race track. It's wild. Yeah

I have a I also have approval for the M2 CS to go on track

BMW M2 CS. Yeah after ice race we get it. Whoa awesome. Yep

That's fun

Should we talk about the fact that?

greenhouse emissions

More

We can't I didn't read the details. I know they're trying to get rid of stop-start. Well, yeah, they they basically

threw out the

The Obama era

Finding oh, yeah, that green house gases were a threat to public health and effectively all

Emission standards are based around that including at factories and stuff. Yeah, it's not just limited to cars

It's like so so neighborhoods that are near power plants or other things could also be affected

It's a it is a it is a crazy thing that we are that the rolling back

like

Limits on like like air like air the science of air like the science of air

So this you know the

The

This guy's Elden who's the the the head of the of the EPA

Lee Zeldin is that basically, you know, he's a super super Trumper in his mission

He was he's one of these guys appointed by Trump with the mission of specifically destroying the agency that they are

supposed to be leading and so since

It's like Betsy DeVos, right?

Yeah, yeah exactly exactly exactly so

So let's see the things he's done this guy's done so far

In March 2025 he presented what he described as the largest

deregulatory announcement in US history

whereas he reframed the purpose of the EPA which is environmental protection agency now

It's insured profits always tour. Yeah towards deregulation and energy production in lieu of public health and environmental protections

Announces plans to repeal dozens of major environmental regulations including protections for wetlands limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks and

The leak and the endangerment finding the legal basis for regulation of greenhouse gases. Cool guys

Project 2025 is going really well

Yeah, nice good thing. They didn't know anything about it. Yeah, not at all

You can look at that website called like 20 25 tracker. Yeah, it just shows you how much they've accomplished from

No, no, no, so I got an email this morning

From a person

Whose name I don't need to use but who is the

Head of media and public relations for weather tech Laguna sega. Oh and

They wanted to have a little chat with me and they were very nice

About you know the conversation we had they did not attempt to refute any of our opinions at all

But they said that they have a statement and

Would I mind reading it and I said sure I said I'll read I will absolutely read your statement

And I but I said I like we're gonna like editorialize afterwards like we're gonna we're gonna talk about your statement

Like she's like that's okay

But if you wouldn't mind it's not very long and I will read it sure

Here we go

So there's it's not very long ready and so this is referring by the way if you listen to our last show

We talked about two shows ago, but the one before Johnny

We talked about this this this dude who was at a track day in his in his niece on skyline

And he pulled over in a red flag situation and a front-end loader

went on to the track and

Hit him and from behind while he was stopped and we were talking about that that incident and it's

fucked up actually

so

Well as the if you listen to last show we're pretty firmly on the side of the owner of the car here

Yes, pretty firmly on the side of the other car so but but it is only a fair to

Read the statement from the track and this is to be particular. This is the track specifically

The the PR person did want to make it very clear and you'll hear why in a second

That this was it a track day run by a professional track day company and in

According to according to the PR person when that purse that a company like that rents the track

They they sent effectively assume a hundred a full operations of the track

No, this is what they say and and I'm just repeating what they said exactly

But that's not the statement. That was that was her

Her framing of the thing which she said I could say

By the way, I did not agree to speak with this person off the record

I said like everything we say like I'm gonna say but but there are other that was the end

That was the only interesting bit and and I and I asked I asked did the person driving the

Machine work for the track day company or the track and she goes he both

Yeah, so

Incidents today incident statement an incident involving a track support vehicle and a race car

Occurred at the facility during a privately operated on track event in December the track

Continues to work through the process with diligence and timeliness

end of statement

There's another one though that's current status

Weathertech Raceway Laguna seca continues normal operations and scheduled activities the facility the fist

I don't know if I want to read this

The facility remains focused on delivering safe well-managed events while the review process related to the incident during the privately operated event in

December continues and oh, so it's a statement you're saying

It's being looked into it's being looked into it's nothing. Yeah, I thought that there would be much more of a statement

I was very surprised to see that it was just a sandwich no meat. That's I mean I

Think well especially because now as we as we talked about on two shows ago the owner of the GTR has retained

Legal representative they reached out to the track and the guy also the car owner also published what those lawyers said

Yeah, in their letter to the track, so this seems like the tracks way of saying

We're looking into it with our legal team, and they're probably

They're probably now gonna fight over who has to pay that the you know weathertech

Raceway or the company that was operating the track. Yeah, it'll probably come down to was the company if it was TST promotions

Did we tell the front-loader they could go out or did someone else who works for the track tell them?

They could go out right and how does that all work right? That's a that's messy. That is messy

Yeah, so you know I said I said I would read it and I did and it doesn't tell us anything other than

The track would really like you to know that they were not running the event when this happened

Yeah, and like no fucking shit like the I mean okay, it doesn't

It doesn't surprise me that this was at a track day that was run by a track day company

Oh, but I do I do understand why they're putting that out there because if it's not in the headline if it's not

You know if people don't read deep in the article it might not mention. Hey, this was ran by a track promotions

Sure, and I could see it in the headline is gonna say

Laguna sake of weathertech fighting against blah blah blah

So they'll they they have to kind of specify that well and and and many people maybe don't know that if a track day company rents

The track, you know, they bring their own flaggers. They bring they bring their own personnel largely

the question of someone who's driving heavy machinery now that to me

Just a guy not a lawyer

Seems like if you're driving heavy machinery, you only work at that track. You're not part of a touring circus with

Let's just call him Terry, you know that day Terry is paid by maybe right by the track promotion company

Who's hosting the event, but Terry also was there when IMSA shows up. Yeah, and it's weathertech operating thing

That seems like paper. This is almost like a semantics argument and they're just deciding who is going to have to pay

GTR guy. Yeah, I hope somebody does. I hope somebody does. I don't think there's a way they can't yeah, this was

It's so great. It's car is bright red. Yeah, you cannot let this go to a jury

Yeah, they won't yeah

They'll let it get as close as it needs to be and they'll realize that you know

GTR legal team is not backing down and they'll go

Okay, and they settle it's a bad look. Yep fucking. Yeah, you know, yeah the guy's car

I think they will and I'm sure you know large companies of which I don't run like I'm sure they always have to

They have to look at it because if they just wrote a check the first week

Then people there are shitty people out there who might try to you know

Bait a front loader into hitting them and so they could get paid by Laguna sake also

There are shit bags out there. Yeah, so they just have to like do this investigation, but the optics are bad

Yeah, they're very bad and I feel bad for the guy's cars fucked up

He now he's got and he's got to wait around now and you know this thing is a nice car

It's a really nice. It's like a custom built sequential box

You know red R34 and now the entire you know right rear quarter panel is basically in the wheel well

Yeah, I'm not sure if it's totaled or not, but it's ugly. Yeah. Yeah, it's ugly. So that's a bummer

Um

the

That's really all I got it hasn't been very long since we did our last program sure it hasn't so here

We are we talk about integrity pass or save that we can yeah, we can they still have another

I still don't know a few days with it. We could marinate it a little more. Okay. Yeah, I'll marinate it

Yeah, but it's been 40 minutes. I think we could go we could we could go to the people why not?

There's a lot a lot of people

You can stop sending me your truck requests now your truck recommendations

I just wherever we get a little redundant and it's becoming clear that as time goes on people are actually listening to the nuance of

What I needed less and less

The trucks are getting bigger and more deasily

And older I found and I mean I I applaud I appreciate people saying like this is what works for me

But it was like a 15 or 18 year old suburban. Yeah, I just know you're not gonna get that yeah

Thaddeus Thaddeus was like dude like oh three escalades are so cheap right now. I'm like, what are you kidding me?

What do you think it? Oh three escalates smells like ask a Zach Merton's he bought one for

Domizetti, yeah

You can also get our friend Derek Powell sending me diesel Range Rover's like he has one and towed this car with it

They're like 20 grand on our there for a reason. Yeah

I think you need something newer for taxes and no liability and all those no the leaders are still

It's still nothing. Nothing is even close to the the cayenne as hybrid and the and the

Durango RT nothing is even close to those those are like hit they hit all of the marks

Unless like a great used bed tag because that one might be YouTube interesting

That it will be will it be interesting enough to pay for

Well, some of itself. No, we'll see like how reliable is it?

We'll find out it's probably not like that much less reliable than like a cayenne or something

It's all kind of that's probably true. It's that versus. Wow. This is funny Bentley versus dodge brand new

versus

Seven-year-old Bentley. I honestly don't know where I put my money. I really don't

Wow, we gotta buy both and see what I see the Hemi engine is a known quantity

Yeah, it was a if it was the new inline six. Oh, that would be a question mark. Sure. Yeah question mark

Let's go to the people of course patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast

That's where you get your questions in when Zach posts up the the show event

You can put them in the comments there people still asking me how to do that, but that's how you do it

You also get the show early you get the show before everybody else

You get and get the show without ads you can get extra show and you can get exclusive access

Early access and sometimes exclusive access to merch collabs and stuff

I was just thinking about we should do another tactile turn pen. Sure

I I've been using one of the ones they sent me as like a demo that I hadn't thought of much of at the time

But I really like it now. It's like a little smaller and like a more portable for like bring it down

Yeah, I just mind every day, but it is kind of thick the thick one. Yeah. Yeah, this one is like a little thinner

It's like the thinness of like it's a like

Somewhere between it's more like maybe like a pilot pen in this of that. Yeah, I like it

So anyway, let's get let's see what these folks have to say

Mixmaster cylinder want to talk about me and Johnny fighting about AI

I think Matt and Johnny both have valid perspectives as a software developer that's been programming

For 28 years and works for a smaller AI company

I can see that my highly paid skill writing code is heading towards having zero value and it fucking sucks on the other hand

The genie is out of the bottle. So if I want a shot of staying in tech

I need to get good at using this and I recommend

Anybody with a white collar job do the same Matt is right that LLMs are coming for your job

But I don't think hating on it is productive

For what it's worth. I don't write code at my job anymore and pretty soon. I won't have to review it either

I can't see how my current salary is justifiable long term. Wow. I appreciate the perspective. I

Disagree with you that hating on it is productive. I do think hating on it is productive

I think I think spreading valid criticism is a of AI to people that may not have thought of it that way is

Incredibly productive, especially when fucking talking is your job

I think the information about it has led to the pushback we've seen in cities and states

Yeah, there's super bowl commercials whereas the shark jumping the pit the hate on all the AI

Super Bowl commercials this year was like pretty fucking heated

But I think like Ron DeSantis who I don't agree with on a lot of things

He he's trying to get them to ban AI data centers in Florida

There's ten states right now that are trying to push back against it

And I think that only happens with a discussion and information being kind of spread to people about

The pros and cons of it. Mm-hmm. Otherwise everyone just goes

Oh, I guess it's fine and then they wake up and their power bill is true power bills

People's electricity bills are doubling and tripling in areas where they've built a super data center like that

And no one got a two-three raise in the last I spoke to somebody from Memphis, and that's where the X AI

Data center is the one that fucking

Gas turbines. Yeah, he says the smell within like a mile of that place is like heinous. Yeah. Yeah

and I mean look I

Don't think AI is coming for everything the way that people say it's going to I mean

It's it's obviously going to be here to stay on some level, but I think it's it's very important that we have

either a regulatory framework to protect

people whether that means their their jobs and unions or whether that means a

fucking

What do you call it?

Universal basic income or you know like the fucking Alaska oil pipeline for instance, right?

The citizens of Alaska get paid from the oil that goes through the Alaska oil pipeline like it comes back through state taxes like

The value that is created out of AI for a very small number of people

That in many cases where individuals or very small groups of people are more powerful than entire

Governments of nations and are accountable to basically nobody like

That's really really bad and they have all of our data right and can fucking do anything with it

Like that's so bad. That's so bad for like

99.9% of all the humans on earth. Yeah, I think to

What was his name?

I think pushing back against it like it's it's it's not too late

and I think we've been fed this thing like it's gonna solve every problem and it may solve some problems because the

Compute speed is really fast, but we shouldn't accept everything because it does some things really well that do help us

and the only way to

Like modulate this a bit is through pushback. Yeah

Aka hating hating. Yeah marching right call your senators. I still can't figure

I might need to get some special pair of glasses just to read the fucking TV are these readers

These are readers. Yeah, so the did the Mac the distance is wrong. Yes. Yeah

Oh

Granny shifting not double clutching like you should can you specify what you enjoy about driving your coontosh?

Is it the raw driving experience the childhood poster effect how it makes you feel the attention at Garner's all of the above all the above

Is it fast compared to modern cars?

No, but it's not slow either. I would say it's it's like

comparable to like a C6 or C7 Corvette in terms of like how fast it will go that's pretty fast

It has a lot of power, but it's also a five-speed with long legs

So it's got like sort of long our bands up top as well right up top. So it's got like kind of long gears. What's the red line?

You're 78 maybe wow, but I mean it's much higher than a C67. So yeah, I know it's four cam V12

It's when you're in it. It's very small and very low and you can't ever for a second

Forget that that's what you are driving you do whatever you're doing. It's I'm in a fucking coontosh right now

Whereas there's a lot of other cars where I can kind of forget

Portion 959 is amazing as it is

But if you were cruising down the highway for an hour and a half you would absolutely forget that you were in a 959

That's probably a good thing because it's very refined and nice

But also like it's kind of why I don't lust over a 959

As cool as it is. This is like all the time. It's like fucking coontosh all the time

And it's not necessarily just the attention because I'm not I don't need to just seek attention

It's it's like the people the number of times that someone tells me that they have never seen one out in the wild

That's it. It's like this is the first one of these I've ever seen that's pretty cool

It's an unforgettable experience, it's just it's it's it's one of a very few like

Overwhelming driving experiences, which is really but also it's very nice. Like it's not doesn't feel like a race car

It's like really comfortable and it rides. Well, it feels very fancy

Yeah, and like old switch gear begin with blah blah blah like you get in you go. This is nice

This is some fancy high-quality shit. Yeah

Pts normal is a 981 base Cayman in stick a good beginner track car. Yes, it is

Yeah, it is. I don't see why not

Not too fast made engine is catchable and usually, you know without too many problems. That's pretty good

Yeah, I mean they they're easy like if you blow the gearbox, you'll total the car

That's the one thing I would worry about like you you could that is a real thing that could happen

Oh, and this person already had weight. I'm tired that he has a Miata

Track car and oh it also has a GT for RS. Oh, well, then yeah, yeah

Yes, I came in and stick. I just drove

One in Miami. I raced that car that thing was like so forgiving and easy and it was nice

I do think it is paper GT3 RS wings. That's a rise against reference. I

Have a good friend that wants to get into track days, but and budget endurance racing

They're excited to get into the hobby of my dilemma is they're not very good at driving

General car control awareness reaction time all leave something to be desired

My question is should I tell them my feelings is an honest friend that maybe this isn't the right way to participate in the hobby

Should I leave it up to track day instructors and licensing programs to make the call?

I'd hate for someone to invest the time and money just to be disappointed later

The funny spot to be in the funny spot to be in I like where you're coming from but two things to consider I

Have seen bad street drivers become good track drivers. Sure. I've seen it

So if this person's not a great street driver does not make them hopeless for track driving

No, not at all. It's a skill that can be learned. Yeah, and anyone like just anyone who has eyesight

Yeah, can be taught and learned to get at least to a really good, you know good level

Yeah, you know semi-pro or you know strong amateur if with dedication depends on how long it's gonna take them to get there

Sure, I mean how long you want them to be competent. I think the real thing is you're sharing costs

You're doing lemons. You're doing champ or something does this person want to put their money in the pool sure and risk of getting crashed

So let's assume

No, let's assume that their friend just wants to do this thing and and this is your friend and you know

You want to go endurance racing got I haven't been invited, but I've been in the car with you and I'm going

You know what I mean in that case don't say shit

Yeah, let this person go to a racing school and have an instructor tell them they suck or make them better

You know have them. You know what I mean do not

You know, I wouldn't I wouldn't off the bat

Maybe pay for a expensive seat and endurance race that they might not fit it or you do but you insist that you drive first

I mean just I hope they get started depends on their budget of course like relatively cheaply to them

I mean the good the thing is if they want to jump into a more expensive series then you have to have a comp license, right?

So they're gonna have to go to school. Yes, but if you do if they do lemons

You just need a driver's license and that's where they'll they'll experience black flags. They'll see I mean

It's a nice bag out there. You you honestly I wouldn't would you recommend someone do lemons without doing at least one racing

No first. I know I'm saying you legally can. Oh, you definitely should not do that

But but for this person if they're not gonna race with them then I as you said they this person

You have to go out and stumble for themselves totally and if they choose to go cheap racing in a series

It doesn't require a racing license of any kind. I

Mean they're just they're gonna have an expensive weekend. Yeah, no, I mean

Look, I here's what here's what you you

the most I would do as a friend is

I would say without saying anything about their driving is like look if you really want to get into a race

You have to do a school first. You're gonna you're gonna have a bad time

Yeah, you don't do it. And so then they'll at least get a baseline, you know, and the instructors will you know, maybe

Humble them a bit and you can frame like it racing school is so fun

Yeah, it is so pitch it to them like that like it's gonna be so fun

You're gonna learn in that way when you buy your race car built your car like you will be faster more competitive

Yeah, and I wouldn't and don't count them out as a driver not hopeless

Um

Travis Pastrana's primary care provider. I have occasionally heard people describe

The 86 is as a mini 9-11. Do you think this is an accurate description? No, no, not at all

The engine's in the front. Do you think a sordid turbo?

86 can match the performance of top trim

9-11's or is there something just inherently better about the Porsche chassis that can't be matched

Well, hang on a second here 11 came came in chassis the night. Oh, just okay. Good night. Love

Here's the thing. There's a couple questions in here

Do people do you think of describing the 86 as a mini 9-11 is an accurate description? No, not at all. I

Don't know where that comes from

I

Mean these are both great handling cars with low centers of gravity

But like the only thing I didn't think of that gets close would be like an Alpine 110

Because the engine especially the original one the engine was technically rear engine. Yeah, but otherwise the Lotus

Maybe kind of maybe that's mid-engine. So like

Where the engine is located?

Absolutely defines how a car feels so the comparison kind of ends right there. Yeah, GRE

I mean, I

Disagree with that assessment. Um, can a sordid turbo charge 86 match the performance of top trim 9-11's? No

Unlikely unlikely. Yeah, top because if you if this person had just written 9-11's

The answers may be but you say top trim taken turbo GT3 any of those things

No, it would have to be a crazy built

500 horsepower GR86 on slick

Yeah, and you could bug it and and the GT the car the Porsche would be a GT3 with with comfort seats and the air conditioning on and the

Dude blasting lead Zeppelin smoking a cigarette

Lapping you just you just drove its streets, and you're in the 124. Yeah, the instructor ran at 122. Yeah, and that was a

Four, you know four hours of 4s right for us club sport for us club

But compared to Larry Chen's time attack built turbo charge stripped was that any six? Yeah

Okay, so fine here you go. He's a couple seconds behind. Yeah, so like so, but I think

Yeah, I mean it you you could get in the ballpark

But it would be unlikely that you're gonna go out there in a in a in a time attack 86 and beat a new GT3 RS

Unlikely I know the internet is definitely gonna send us some links of some crazy time attack cars that are running crazy times

So anything is possible, but I think it's difficult and it would cost a lot of money

I mean and also like if you're talking you're you will have built a race car

You will not have a street car anymore, right that car won't have an interior in it

Basically, it's not gonna have like power seats anymore or a radio or anything, but it'll probably have Lexan windows and shit

Compared to a road car. That's what I'm talking about if you if you then want to compare to the race car

20 your five seconds behind the pro in the GT in the Cayman not even the cup car

You know you talk with a cup car is probably two more seconds

excuse me

Christian says do you prefer the Ferrari 12 cilindry over the 812 GTS the 812 seems like it sounds better

It does it doesn't have the particulate filters. It sounds better. That's an easily solvable problem in the aftermarket

You that so I wouldn't write off the entire car because of that

Having said that I I think they drive similar and I prefer the looks of the 812

Yeah, oh like my brain was dyslexic. I also agree 812 is prettier

Yeah, Travis pastrami on Rye Country Day School when I when I when we moved to Rye

I was like obsessed with it being the name of bread. It was red. No one else seemed to notice

They're like listen fatty. I was like it's called bread. What?

Should Evie's excuse me be required to flash their brake lights when

Decelerating in a heavy regen mode driving behind them sometimes feels like driving behind someone burned out brake bulbs

I've found that Evie's do turn on their brake lights when they're in a high regen mode

I know I can't if I'm behind a car and the brake lights come on

I can't tell if they're braking or if the engine's doing regen. Well, I I the only reason I think I think so is because I

It was in a place where

Like it was on like flat ground and so someone was just like driving badly. They weren't I think I've been in that car before

Yeah, I've been in that uber, but yeah, I mean, I yes the answer is yes

I feel like they should and I I don't know if there's a law for it and

I'm I do think some already do

Tickle your pickle for a triple nickel boy

When doing a comparison test you find that rain

Narrows the gap or widens it in terms of which car is superior dynamically

Does the rain hide a good or bad chassis or does it expose it?

I mean the rain fucking tires get get all over the place in the rain because they normally

Send us tires with the stickiest shit possible. So if it gets if it gets wet out it gets really messy

I hated the ZR1 in the rain

I thought it was a disaster and the Temerario which had much more normal tires was fabulous in the rain

Yeah, and so I was like oh the Temerario is like a much better car and then I drove in the dry

And I was like oh shit the ZR1 is fucking where it's at it was just like on slicks

But I think there's also things where the lower g-load of the rain could hide

But you know things like some cars when they compress the spring all the way you could have bump steer

You could have weird behaviors, and you're not gonna reach that in the rain, right?

You're not gonna push any of the car is hard. So you're not gonna have the lateral grip to find that out. Yeah

The tragic pastrami is there a case to be had for an Integra type R

That's like a hybrid all-wheel drive sort of like a baby NSX in reverse. Oh, so like it had electric motors on the rear axle

Interesting thought

But I don't think that platform was really designed for that and it would put a bunch of weight in the back

Yeah, and it would be kind of weird

I think if there's gonna be an Integra type R it has to be lighter and more raw

Like that's just what that would be like that formula is

Established yeah, but I don't think I'll do I think the Civic type R. Yeah does that job it does

I love I really like the Integra type s. We'll talk about it next next show

Long Beach blue balls should I judge my neighbor who left his C8 uncovered under a pile of snow in his driveway?

You should buy that person a beer

It's it's isn't it great when someone just like doesn't give a fuck

Oh, yeah, I from for some reason my brain was like they just left the roof off also. I think they had a beer

I think that's a boss move. That's a boss move. Yeah, that person doesn't care

Let's see

Oh Tom Maranello. I recently acquired a C4 ZR1 now. We're fucking talking

This is that is $25,000 very well spent my friend

I was amazed that after 35 years it still has the distinctive late 80s early 90s GM smell

Boy, do I know it took me back to my mom's 88 Beretta GTU. She had a GTU

Killing it

Are there any makes and errors of cars that you could sit in blindfolded and have a good idea of what you're in just by smell

Oh, yeah, yes, 80s Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs. Yep. That's the at the GM

That's the same. That'll be the same as this GM. Yeah, how about Volkswagen's all

Wagons 90s all BMWs mid aughts for sure

All the Volkswagen smell like crayons. Yeah, I could get into any

G body Porsche and know exactly that smell that I'm sitting in anyone that has like a full interior

90s Mercedes or a Mercedes a Mercedes that has like an MB Tex interior

I could probably get away with and a muscle car vinyl. Oh, yeah, yeah, son off-gassing and

You know un-catted exhaust sure. Yeah. Yeah

Nigero blue balls

What is a corner on a track that's more intimidating than it appears in the sim or photographs? That's a good one a

Corner that sneaks up out of nowhere on a track doesn't look hard turn nine Laguna seca

Turn nine. Yep. Yeah after the course is where it's high speed

It's downhill and the camber changes and there's a wall to the right

Which is where you will go if you really mess it up. That is where the poo came out in the Valkyrie. Yeah, yeah

Also turn 11 at Laguna seca told just the left-hand 90 degrees that everybody overcooks

Yeah, I

Mean honestly eight and nine at Big Willow it doesn't look like much but but

But when you're there all of a sudden it is very strange

I think you're just you're aware of the the lack of runoff and the consequence and the speed can be I don't know

90 to 140 depending on what you're driving. Mm-hmm. It's it's a lot. Oh

Turn three at Laguna or sorry to turn three at Willow until they resurfaced it. It had the bumps in it

Mm-hmm. You know suits you're going pretty fast right hand corner and he's a digook digook digook digook

So the whole time, you know, your chassis is a little unsettled a little unsettled. Yeah

Good question though

There's also a bunch that are less

There's a bunch where the three dimensionality of real life makes things like quite a bit easier

Mm-hmm road Atlanta is hard as shit on a sim, but in real life is like no problem for me

It's weird the dimensionality of it

Hero of extended warranty pretty close

Oh, why do Hugh blows especially the Big Bang gets so much hate in the watch world

They're part of an era

They came up they came up quickly they kind of came out of nowhere in the beginning they were using other movements and

They have sort of a gaudy style that represents sort of a lot about watches from

15 years ago and

when

People started to get more into like vintage and a little more into like smaller cases and stuff like that

These this style of watches which was more like the

Schwarzenegger's Stallone big wrist macho

You know that now

We've gone back, you know at least the last few years to the sort of more like

Slim hipster with his vintage whatever and like these are like not cool

Yeah, I'm sure they'll come back because that's how fast

Their collection is called the Big Bang collection and it is big and a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, so

Yeah, they not a lot and people are not that it having said that they are like they are

Fully like high-quality Swiss product and if if you like how they look like I'm not gonna make fun of you

You see the one that

Nino's dad because of course, he's got a bunch of hue blows blue collar baller from Detroit, right?

War the fucking iced out hue blow to Nino's wedding. Oh really golden ice the whole shit

I was like, did you buy that off like fucking Gucci main? What are you like? What is this thing? It's crazy looking

Okay, wait if you were to buy one car a year and

Only hold it for a year before you sold it. What's the ideal month to buy and

Sell to allow the order of the seasons the greatest enjoyment

Well, I mean if you have it for a whole year you get to enjoy it for all the seasons

It doesn't matter. I mean I suppose the cycle of new car

Excited and then it becomes normal and then it maybe you get over it, right? So I

Would buy middle of summer because then it will feel like I have two summers of driving

You know, I get to drive half of it turns to fall winter

Okay, I'm back around another summer and I would definitely change my answer would change depending on what the car is

You know like this year. I'm buying like an Arctic trucks

You know, I'm right. I would like a maximum winter, please. Yeah interesting thought

God imagine buying and selling a new car every year though fucking headache

like in hyperspore oh

Oh

That's pretty funny is that well like it is like, you know type of

I don't know if it's a fun guy, but like it grows on rocks like a moss hyperspore

It's just you know, it probably spreads by spores like fun guy does so but it's like in hypersport. Oh

Like it. Oh, I miss it. Oh, you just speak it out loud before you get it. Yeah, it's great

Is that is this a joke? I hope this comment is a joke

But like it's pretty funny

So would you mind shouting out my new venture called grill better dot AI and watches you cook a steak and

Randomly shouts you better flip it at unpredictable intervals. It's for guys with no friends who want to grill outside

The site's not live, but you could buy it someone could buy it. That's funny. I'll keep going

Rumors of my

Selects rumors of my selectria sunrise greatly exaggerated

That's a rise against reference also, but I respect it

I sometimes feel isolated as a diesel enthusiast who lives in reality and understands climate change is real

I can see that perspective. Why is the diesel scene so toxic compared to gasoline?

Enthusiasts who can admit exhaust isn't good to breathe while still enjoying cars. I feel like that's a very good

Parallelist question. It's a very loaded question. It is. It's I think it has something to do with generalizations

Do we want to make doesn't have more to do with the fact? I think that most diesels are like trucks and then

most like a

Lot of a lot of

a

Conservative type people are likely to buy those types of vehicles and percentage wise correct

I think it would work in industries that tend to be conservative

I don't think I don't think correlation is causation here

But I but I could see why you've ended up in that position. I do

But I will say that there's plenty of you know

Gasoline enthusiasts or part of the industry that's involved in gasoline cars that also probably high climate change and have donated against it

I think it's just like gas like diesel people can like roll coal like that's like visible

That's them like owning the lips. It's like rolling coal gas like gasoline people don't have that

I mean, I guess they have the burnout

But diesel I mean during that trolling phase of literally rolling cold

Videos of like a truck will pull alongside a Prius and smoke it out

So you you're not just you know doing a burnout over here and someone watches you you're literally like affecting the air that's coming

Yeah, yeah

Yeah, that is fucking such loser shit

Yeah, remember when gale banks was like dude. That's so stupid. Yeah the god of diesel performance was like do not roll coal

You're losing horse power

Laguna sega Genesis our portion nine

914's that bad or undesirable that they haven't gotten as expensive as other porches or were they worth so little that the current cost of entry seems reasonable

The problem with a 914 is it costs as much to run one as it does to run a 9-eleven

You know what I mean like you buy one for twenty five thousand dollars or something and then you find out the annual service is five grand

And you go what the fuckly, you know, it's not like

Beetle or something like you still have to buy Porsche parts

You still have to get you know Porsche service and Porsche this and Porsche that like it's gonna be fucking expensive

And unless it's a 914 6 or some other kind of like super hopped up one the driving experience is not it's not fast

It's not fast. So you're buying a slow car that costs as much to maintain as a fast car

Yeah, and then you have to explain to people is a Porsche that they don't know is a Porsche now

I've driven a couple 914s and like given sufficient power. They're a good time. Yep, you know, but

That's why and the 914 sixes are expensive, correct

Paint the sample Bonnie blue says

I'm looking for the best gas efficient vehicle for my six foot five friend driving a ton

For sales he went from Tahoe's to a Ford Edge limited

I'm thinking Lexus hybrid ES or TX last podcast reminded me of an Acura. I mean

Yeah, Acura's but they're not the most the Lexus hybrids

Yes, is awesome. Yeah, two of Sarah's Sarah's dad had one her mom has one separate cars

Like her mom's car is 12 years old and feels brand new her dad's car was two years old. It is brand new

Yeah, like they have tons of space. They're really comfortable good highway car

The thing about the TX and my dad for some reason doesn't learn this

The seat doesn't go quite far back enough

So if your friend has is six foot five and it's all legs

I would skip Lexus and Toyota SUVs the seats don't they're like an inch short of where they need to be

Rx's and the Tx's all of them and the Highlanders and shit, too

The ES does not have that problem

Toyota I4 skin

Cars and bids recently had a McLaren 570 s cell for 89k and I can't help but think that's a shitload of car for the money

60k miles and there was a lean on it. Wow

That is a shitload of car for the money

60,000 miles is an awful lot. I can see why there's lots of other

McLarens out there that have still like you want some miles on your McLaren, but not that many

And the repair costs and I don't know

What the reliability record is of the 570s, but I know that McLaren has kind of a up and down reliability record

So it is a ton of performance for the money. Wow

That would probably smoke the Lotus around a racetrack, but if something breaks or has a problem now you're paying supercar prices to fix it

Keep going don't have an answer for those. I'm sorry

We sit on front porches and swing life away

That's I think just the lyric of that song, but okay

Dream blunt rotation with people in the automotive industry

Most of these folks don't smoke weed

Or you've smoked blunts with the ones who do I've already

Dreams have been realized

Let's see

Do we do you know is it racing drivers or is it actual? I think designers designer. Yeah, I'd go to Gordon

You know you'd want to have

Gandini probably just for funsies

You'd want to have

Hmm, what's the guy's name that makes

Freeman Freeman Thomas. Yeah, he probably would get down. He yeah. Yeah

Everything's too colorful and awesome. We probably made that happen. The ice race. Yeah, I don't know if he's going but that'd be awesome

and Jamal and

Richard Todd Hill I'll say T-Pain because he's kind of in the automotive industry now

a

Federal investigator what would be a good solution to crack down on distracted driving?

Man, we're hosed

We don't have detention spans anymore and if driving sucks and traffic sucks and police budgets are already high

Like the only we do this is more

Oh, you know if they put cameras up everywhere, which they're going to eventually probably and if the camera could detect you're looking at your phone

Yeah, that's the automated enforcement. Yeah, probably the only way we'll do it

I don't think anyone would ever vote for that

No, but

Yeah, I think we're fucked. I mean, I think we're I think we're fucked in that regard. I I

Haven't I have absolutely no public transit actually you'd get a good number of those people that don't want to be driving in the first place

That's the best answer and the one I want to see done. Yeah. Yeah

Uh-huh Mustang geek is there room in the marketplace for a reimagined Fox body Mustang?

I I would say that there is

based on what I see people paying for

finished product at auction if you if if if someone like if if you and I were to do a Fox body that had a

Coyote motor and a great in an independent suspension and a great chassis and a full interior that worked

It wasn't like super over the top, but there was a great of nicely interior. We could probably sell them for a hundred grand

Probably yeah, could you sell them for

300 grand like doubtful and how many could you sell? I think that's always the question. Yeah, I mean you would be

challenging

But you know people are paying

$40,000 $50,000 for like other people's like home-built versions of this

So if there was a brand that was able to do it, you know with with a level of expertise that was good

I mean, there's some pretty cool shit that you see the thing that rent tech announced their rent tech is doing a

560 sec with a v12 in it. Whoa, you know, all right cool good times

So that'll probably be expensive

But I

Do think you could probably get a hundred grand for a really nicely done Fox body

Coyote motor t56 or voodoo motor, you know gd35 the motor

Six speed gearbox nicely sorted suspension. Yeah, you won't get a million. No

Oh boy, oh, we're on page six at nine. We're not getting through all of them. So

Christy yama Gucci mane

Oh, I want a convertible for under 20k that I can get in and out of for relatively flat money

Is that a nice Miata cheap Boxter and a fairly cheap s2000 or something else?

Convertible fun car for 20k

so I

would say

Get the nicest

BMW

330 ci e46 that you can find hmm not an M

Yeah, 330 ci. That's like a really nice car to drive

That would be in and out of money, but I think that's 2000 that's the safest bet on this list

There's too many Corvettes, I don't know

Yeah, I mean how long you kept it, you know if you one year you might go in and out for flat money

But I feel like three years the Corvette's just gonna go down

But s2000s are still like talked about sought after, you know things you could get a C for

Zr1 Zr1 which has a Targa roof you could do that and that would be about 20k and you could get in and out of it for flat money

I

Sorry, there's a lot of people have nice things to say but

Okay, your boy Pauly 19 and I bought my first collector car a driver grade

Green 1995 Dodge Viper now I have to say green assuming

It's like the the British racing green is a fabulous color for a first-gen Viper

It probably looks it looks I bet it looks great

Yeah, the racing one is awesome. Yeah, other one. Is there another one? What's the other like nuclear waste green?

No, it looks a lot like the I'll pull them up. It looks like that Miata kind of seafoam green

Oh, wait, and it could just be the picture

Well, oh this one so there's that green and maybe it's the same. Oh, this one's more like an adventurine

Huh, I wonder if this is it you think this is the one the guy just bought this is last year

And then there's this one, but I'm not sure if this has been repainted, but it looks oh that looks great

I'm on I think that's the same color just in different light different setting different wheels. All right great color though

Fuck that's awesome. These cruddies these wheels do not help it. Okay, uh, so you say you got it for what bought it for

34k

Is there anything I could have gotten that provides a more special experience for the 34k that I paid?

Well, where do you just where do you say special? I mean because you could certainly buy something that would provide a more

Like a different experience like something has windows. Sure. Yeah. Yeah

I mean you could buy a like a Lotus Elise that that could be a similar a similar experience

But I think this has a presence that beats the Elise. I think this is fun

Probably better to drive in most ways, but this like this has curb appeal presence sound. I don't disagree. It's wild

Yeah, you could probably get some

Weird imported like JDM shit that would probably be really cool

Like a like a what do you call it?

That's not the skyline like a Sylvia, you know, you know, like an s15 maybe or something like that

But honestly for you know for 34 grand you're 19 years old. That's a very interesting first collector card

Don't die. Yeah, be careful. Please make tires new tires

You gotta if you if you just doesn't have new tires on it

You you really need new tires and I'm talking your date codes need to be five years or less

And they need to fucking match your fronts and your rears. Yeah, they need to match bite all four new ps4

Yeah, and that car will then be easy to drive. Yeah

Scion songs of the counterculture now we're talking

I learned about a Porsche from the 60s called the 356 be Carrera Abarth. I think they only made a hundred you have experience

I've never driven one Jerry's got one course. He does

of course he does

Drifting in the name of I like that. Have you ever given your opinion on stance?

Respect all builds or get the fuck out of here with that trash. Do I think they look cool

I don't mind the stance build we see it on the road. I just worry because it's you know the contact patch is tiny

But I don't like a static height stance. I don't mind if you have an air suspension and you drop it hard park

That's fine. That's okay

I like the I think the Japanese VIP style is fun and silly. Yep the pillows and the tea trays and shit

That's great. It's a good time

I do you look I I I respect pretty much all

Styles of car modification and in there in their own way

I just think there's something very aesthetically appealing and it's like but for me

It's like an art piece. It's just parked there extreme angles on the wheels. It reflects a ton of light and sure

Uh

MX five inches

What are your thoughts on the recaro seats in Mustangs compared to the heated and cooled couch seats I

Had a s5 15 the past. I think I don't want another one with recaro's

I'm six foot 235 and I hated the focus RS seats. I'm with you

I would only buy a Mustang with the recaro seats

I don't think the the couch seats are very good, especially if you're talking about holding you in when you're handling

Yeah, it was I would get the recaro's. I think you'll fit

Yeah, and I hated those seats too

Drit drit. Oh wait, hang on. We'll do other

other

people

The art of losing traction

What's the most annoying non-car guy statement you've ever heard?

I was at my dad's with the Super Bowl and one of his buddies was trying to convince me and my dad's other friends

How peppy his dart rally was and it made my skin crawl well might be built

I don't know sure. No, it's maybe musto's dart with the fucking 800 horsepower, right? Um, I

Mean it's gonna be obvious but recently it's the it's the the

The the the wholesale adoption of the self-driving hype

the you know the

The I have I have actual friends. We're not car people who genuinely believe that like

FSD is better than dry at driving than them and

My one friend is such a horrible driver that that might actually be true

But you have to be a really bad driver for that to be true and he is a very bad driver going back 20 years

So like maybe he's the use case. I do think he's untrainable in that regard

But yeah, it's generally when I hear people repeating bullshit about self-driving cars that drive that people

Refer to things as self-driving cars that aren't self-driving cars mainly that drives me fucking bad shit

All right last one and then we're ending this show tack a file says I'm considering lifting my BRZ

I'm wondering about the spectrum of off-road suspension setups and where I should be aiming

There's said there's several off-the-shelf coilover setups designed for rally or rally cross

But I'm not sure that's what I should be looking for. I don't really want something that rides higher

But harsher than stock ideally I want more ground clearance and travel but with a reasonable ride quality and handling

I don't know enough about what's possible or even who to ask good question. Mm-hmm

I do not have specific experience in this regard the BRZ

But rally and rally cross is where you should be looking because mainly because

It's sorted science for those folks and they can set you up

There are those those systems are adjustable

So you can adjust your damping you single adjustable you can you can get triple adjustable if you've got more budget

And and you can say I want this set up soft. I want this set up harsh. Yep with an adjustable suspension. Yeah

It shouldn't be harsher because the lift from from a reputable rally company will be coming from

Like the control arms or the mounting points. It's not gonna be lifted by the spring by a heavier

Do that's what my you know lifted crown Vic was it was lifted by the spring and it rode like shit, right?

But rally cars traditionally I mean you watch the move like they're kind of softly sprung

There's a lot of wheel motion to absorb the bumps and keep you know

The car settled and the tire on the ground. Yeah, that's who you should be talking to yeah

Yeah, and you should I mean if you're genuinely going off-road you should also be investing in skid plates. Yeah, I'm not a bad idea

Thanks everybody. I know there are a lot more questions. We will hold over the the the productive ones until next show

But I appreciate y'all

We we will be back next week, and I'll see you guys later. Bye

Driving a Special Lotus at Willow; EPA changes; New Watch; &A

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