Ep.308 – Matt Farah
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Car
Cadillac Xlrs
The Cadillac XLR is a fancy convertible car that can turn into a coupe. It's known for being luxurious and fast, combining comfort with sporty features.
Car
Mini Cooper
The Mini Cooper is a small car that is popular for its unique style and fun driving. It's designed to be compact and easy to maneuver, which is why some people might find it too small for their needs.
Car
Ford Mustangs
The Ford Mustang is a well-known sports car that many people love for its speed and style. It's been around for a long time and is often seen as a symbol of American car culture.
Concept
24 Hours of Daytona
The 24 Hours of Daytona is a famous car race that lasts for a full day. Teams of drivers take turns racing their cars, and it's a big test of how fast and reliable the cars are over a long period.
Concept
Atlanta Journal 500
The Atlanta Journal 500 is a big car race that takes place in Atlanta. It's part of a series of races where cars compete to see who can go the fastest.
Concept
NASCAR
NASCAR is a type of car racing that happens on oval tracks. The cars look like regular cars but are specially made to go really fast and be safe during races.
Term
go-kart
A go-kart is a small car without a roof that you can drive on a track. They're often used for fun racing, and some are made for serious competitions.
Car
Saab Turbo
Saab Turbo is a type of car made by Saab that has a turbo engine, which helps it go faster and perform better.
Car
Subaru Legacy GT
The Subaru Legacy GT is a version of the Subaru Legacy that offers better performance and handling. It's known for being a reliable car with all-wheel drive, making it good for various weather conditions.
Concept
Foxbody Mustang
The Foxbody Mustang is a nickname for Mustangs made between 1979 and 1993. They have a unique boxy shape and are often modified by car fans to make them faster.
Concept
drag racing
Drag racing is a fast-paced race between two cars on a straight track to see which one can go the fastest. It's a fun and exciting way to test a car's speed.
Term
rpm
RPM means how many times the engine turns in one minute. More RPM usually means the engine is working harder and can go faster.
Concept
bracket racing
In bracket racing, you guess how fast your car can go and write that time on your window. The goal is to get as close to that time as you can without going faster, making it fair for both fast and slow cars.
Car
Ford Tauruses
The Ford Taurus is a car made by Ford that was popular for many years. It's known for being roomy and comfortable, making it a good choice for families.
Concept
open-wheel cars
Open-wheel cars are race cars where the wheels are not covered by the body. They can be harder to drive because they are very light and sensitive to the road.
Term
opposite lock
Opposite lock is when a driver turns the steering wheel the other way to help control a car that is sliding. It's a way to keep the car from spinning out.
Concept
Lime Rock
Lime Rock is a racetrack in Connecticut where people go to race cars. It's famous for its beautiful scenery and tricky corners.
Company
B&H
B&H is a store where you can buy cameras and other equipment for making videos. Many people in the video industry trust them for good products.
Concept
barn find
A barn find is when someone finds an old car that has been hidden away in a barn for many years. People get excited about these cars because they can often be restored to look new again.
Car
Chevrolet Malibu
The Chevrolet Malibu is a comfortable family car that is good for everyday driving. It's been around for a long time and is known for being reliable and easy to use.
Car
BMW E30
Car
Honda Civic
The Honda Civic is a small car that's very popular because it's reliable and gets good gas mileage. Many people also race them because they are fun to drive and easy to modify.
Concept
24 Hours of VIR
The 24 Hours of VIR is a long car race that lasts for a whole day. Teams try to drive as far as they can in that time, which is really tough for both the drivers and the cars.
Car
Mazda Miata
The Mazda Miata is a small, sporty car that is really fun to drive. It's popular because it's light, easy to handle, and not too expensive, making it a great choice for people who love driving.
Term
gentleman driver
A gentleman driver is someone who enjoys racing but isn't a professional. They often race for fun and don't compete at a professional level.
Car
Aston Martin Vantage
The Aston Martin Vantage is a high-end sports car that looks great and drives fast. It's made by Aston Martin, a brand famous for luxury cars.
Car
Cadillac Eldorado
The Cadillac Eldorado is a fancy car that was made for a long time and is known for being luxurious and stylish. It's a classic American car that many people admire.
Car
Audi R8 V10
The Audi R8 V10 is a fast and powerful sports car made by Audi. It has a strong engine and is designed for high performance, making it popular among car enthusiasts.
Car
Audi TT RS
The Audi TT RS is a sporty version of the Audi TT, which is a small car. It has a strong engine that makes it very fast and fun to drive.
Brand
Aston Martin
Aston Martin is a luxury car brand from the UK that makes stylish and fast cars. They are famous for appearing in James Bond movies.
Brand
Bentley
Bentley is a luxury car brand from Britain that makes very expensive and high-quality cars. They are known for their comfort and style.
Company
Hyundai
Hyundai is a car company from South Korea that makes many types of vehicles, including cars and SUVs. They are known for being reliable and affordable.
Car
Ioniq 5 N
The Ioniq 5 N is a sporty version of Hyundai's electric car, the Ioniq 5. It is designed to be faster and more fun to drive than the regular model.
Concept
Laguna Seca
Laguna Seca is a well-known racetrack in California where cars and motorcycles race. It's famous for its difficult turns and hills.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower is a way to measure how powerful an engine is. More horsepower usually means the car can go faster.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is a sporty car that looks really cool and goes fast. It's been around for a long time and is known for its strong engines and fun driving experience.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a high-performance sports car that many people admire for its speed and design. It's been around for a long time and is known for being one of the best American sports cars.
Car
Mclaren F1
The McLaren F1 is a super-fast and very expensive car that was made in the 1990s. It's famous for being one of the best cars ever built because of its speed and cool design.
Car
BMW M3
The BMW M3 is a sporty version of a regular BMW car that is built for speed and fun driving. It's popular among car lovers because it combines luxury with great performance.
Car
Ferrari 360S
Car
Subaru 360S
The Subaru 360 is a tiny car from Japan that was made many years ago. It's known for being very small and cute, and people like it for city driving and collecting.
Car
Acura NSX
The Acura NSX is a fast sports car from Japan that is known for being reliable and fun to drive. It was one of the first cars made mostly of aluminum, which helps it be lighter and quicker.
Car
Pontiac Fiero
The Pontiac Fiero is a small sports car that was made in the 1980s. It has a special design with the engine in the middle, which makes it different from most cars.
Car
Volvo 240S
The Volvo 240 is a sturdy car that was made for many years and is known for being safe and reliable. Many people like it because it lasts a long time and is practical for everyday use.
LIVE
so a car washing entrepreneur not Chris Harris and debatably the fastest
American journalist and I'm saying debatably by the way no I've not given
that to you and the son of the man who destroyed riches oh yeah Matt Woolworths
Matt Farrah if you could describe this lunch we just had one word what would it
be calming coming okay yeah yeah we gotta turn it up yeah that's a or at
start giving up bills all the hot ones they set the guys face on fire and now
for dinner with racers presented by continental tire with your hosts Ryan
ever's Lee and Shawn heckman welcome to dinner with racers I'm Shawn heckman I
can't stop eating bacon but the fork down yeah I'm Ryan ever's Lee and I'm
watching you eat chili cheese bacon fries at this Johnny Rockets in Hollywood
California where we are celebrating sure is this celebrating it was what was
available for us to be able to get this done but we are sitting here going over
the guests of this season here ten years in ten years in ten years into making
this podcast and it's been a cast of characters none other than the likes of a
guy like Matt Farrah who you and I have both known for a while you've known him a
long time I have so Matt Farrah is one of those names that you've probably heard
even if you're not super into car culture but you do like racing because
you've been around the industry whether it's on the racing side or the automotive
review side for a very long time but he's one of the first people to find a
real home on YouTube doing the car space where car reviews magazine reviews
things like that and he really grew that up when it comes to cars and what people
like especially on the performance side and if you listen to our episode with JF
Musil then you'll understand where a guy like Matt Farrah comes from and all
that is culminated into kind of his his mainstay project that he works on when
it comes to podcasting in YouTube a show called the smoking tire which is both a
podcast and a YouTube channel in which they talk about all kinds of car things
well beyond racing so hey Ryan what's something hey Ryan what are some of the
things we're gonna hear about well we actually recorded in his studio which is
nice because we got to basically be on an episode of the smoking tire and we
learned about things like who does test drives right and who doesn't wrong we
learned a lot about online hate and we learned about realizing who your dad
really is so we had lunch at a home state in Playa Vista California really cool
I would you call it like a taco place I mean it was it's yeah I think so and like
we ordered just a handful of every I mean we had like chips we had burritos
tacos you had a chicken chicken it looked like a bean and cheese taco but
it was really a chicken sandwich okay I I know what you're thinking yeah trust me
that was a chicken sandwich from home state but yeah we had a really nice time
sitting down with Matt you know what else is a real nice time huh our brand new
patreon a patreon that's right you go to patreon.com forward slash a DWR show
where we are doing a behind the scenes extra sort of content page where you
can join a couple different levels where we're doing background stories on the
show we're doing content that we haven't been able to put out in the past about
maybe more details on stories more details on guests as well as our inside
jokes that we've been carrying on for 10 years now we're also letting the fan
know who the guests are going to be ahead of time so they can add some
questions to the show which you'll probably hear if you listen throughout the
year but also we're doing a monthly review and preview of our personal
racing and just a catch-up session between you and I which has become one
of our favorite things to do exactly if you go to patreon.com forward slash DWR
show there's a few different tiers of membership but at dinner club is the one
that has the most access but speaking of access you know who makes this whole
thing free just to hear the show as it is now got that'll tire hashtag dinner
with Conti and again we say this with every episode but there's a reason we
have to say it with every episode because it really really matters so if you go to
Instagram and you want to post some some love of dinner with racers whether it's
buying a set of tires and showing it or buying any sort of continental tire
product or simply just posting a photo of something that reminds you of us if you
tag continental tire and then use the hashtag dinner with Conti that provides
very verifiable trackable data that tells continental what they're doing is
effective or if you're just not much of a social media person which we totally
get if you go to dinner with racers comm there's some continental tire links
there or in our Instagram profile clicking on that link and very
specifically clicking on that link tells continental tire that we sent you and
once again they have verifiable data that says hey this sponsorship works and
we're gonna keep doing this for 10 more years Ryan the only way I'm doing 10
more years of this is if we can get Shane Van Gisburg and to drive us every
year I'm Shane Van Gisburg and I'm totally driving this GM product of a
minivan oh okay thanks Shane all right should we should we give it to Matt
Farah I think we should take it away Matt Farah me
yo all right we're gonna start in five four three two
are these just on XLRs yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you can just kick
back you can eat food that's why we do it yeah but don't you have a mic like is
that like part of the charm yeah yeah there's two answers you're used to
internet commentary it does make it real we do isolate it so the good news is
obviously it's multi-track recording so if somebody's chewing they they get
isolated right I'm sure unless it's a guess who
choose and talks at the same time and then yeah that's just what you got so
there's a sure an old gentleman driver named RJ Valentine I know the name and
we had just Daytona 500 winner Daytona 500 with RJ Valentine and we had just like
the day before gone through some of our internet hate and one of the big
complaints was like I can't stand the chewing noises and that's on a personal
level a very frustrating note because well no that's like someone you know
going this Mini Cooper is too goddamn small like it says it on the name it's
supposed to it says dinner the first word what did you think this was going to
listen to you are correct part two of that is it's you'll never get it out but
we actually go to a lot of effort yeah to minimize sure you're complaining on
the final yeah so if that's on the finals like you don't know yeah yeah yeah so
we're just going through that's you know who said that Steve Selene yeah so we
just gone through this and again we got a great effort sit to minimize it as
sure yeah and RJ is this like 80 year old guy she went into like South Boston
guy doesn't give a f*** yeah and he's just in the middle of his style like that
can't fix that yeah you know like you got to get room tone you know you can I
get a chew tone yeah yeah all right you have to you bleep out cursing I'll try
my friend dude I just I just Bloomberg just did an article about me and
there's like five curses in in like some really otherwise very basic things that
didn't require them right yeah I was like proud of me yet dad yeah exactly yeah
that's what I'm bringing on the table yeah have we been rolling yeah this is it
yeah this is the show I like no I love the drop-in I love the just the real
drop-in thank you guys for coming this is so nice of you to visit me thanks for
hosting us so to speak yeah and I think I mean you guys have a past history from
well before I knew I think either of you actually well I would have told all but
like kind of brief yeah we grazed each other 24 hours at Daytona right morning
star Tom morning yeah I work with me work with Sean a lot and yeah do you
know remember you worked for me for a week we did the night that was so bad not
you this the project I was I was a contract video group for like a agency
that was trying to they did a bunch of things but they did the melee melee in
North America yeah I actually enjoyed working with Alan the cadney you know
what it was actually kind of a fun gig you know for you we invented a piece of
equipment for that gig what did you invent we Tom morning star and I because
so basically I had three units and you guys were one of my yeah yeah we were
like yeah we were like you know capturing car-to-car footage of the the
participants on the road yeah and we all had rented Mustangs and it was actually
really funny Tom morning star who was my my former business partner at the
smoke and tire and one of my old friends had the job somehow of renting the
Mustangs physically going to get yeah he was yeah he picked it up yeah and one
of the Mustangs he got had like the valet key and he was limited to like 70
miles and he was like so annoyed it actually made it really hard to do the
job sure but we invented they were Mustang convertibles as you do and we
had a got a 13 inch suction cup like vacuum cup and mounted a piece of plywood
to it and put a tripod hi-hat on it with a proper ballhead tripod video head and
Tom's you know Sony whatever it was like shoulder camera and basically we
could do like really really good live-action car-to-car yeah need you'd
kneel backwards in the Mustang convertible and you'd have this camera
you know mounted on the on the deck and now it's like that's kind of laughable
what you use instead yeah right to do that same tactic this would have been
gimbal this is 2010 maybe 11 it was a long yeah yeah so we we invented not
invented excuse me we built really shanty versions of professional rigs work
for that before those types of rigs became affordably available yeah jf to
built like so many yeah that was the deal yeah I've do you guys you guys follow
shitty rigs on Instagram you know what yeah yeah yeah fabulous Instagram anyone
who's ever been in production should should be aware of that because you're
proud of what you're able to do with something that basic or they actually
bad ideas no it's a it's it's it's a double-edged sword it's like 50% people
doing a terrible job with professional grade gear and then 50% people building
like ingenious rigs with like you know using the shopping cart dolly and stuff
like that yeah yeah it's both it's satisfying from both sides okay okay yeah
yeah so you guys have a have a history in working on some production stuff but
our fan base is primarily and I know there'll be a lot of crossover we've had
requests have you on in the past but let's go down like the who the f**k is
Matt Farah and how are you in this world because again I'd say 90% of our
followers are road racing base yeah I mean myself included that I don't
consider myself a car guy consider myself a racing guy and so it is a little bit
of a disconnect yeah I mean most people don't know that I won the 24 hours with
Daytona in 1997 it's really not enough right it's not talked about enough you
don't bring it up and you know that's why they really need to talk about it
in 1997 what happened yeah I was there yeah we were there together you know I
was an alternate on the team but I'm there
no I'm an automotive journalist that's that's basically what I do and I have
like you know how people usually pick one medium like I have like a lot of them
yeah first it was YouTube because I wasn't a very good writer and then after
like years of doing YouTube I realized I could write like I talk and that is a
successful strategy so I started writing and wrote and track and and we also do
this mongantar podcast and so we've done a thousand and ten episodes of the
podcast 2,500 videos yeah and I've been writing for I don't know six years now
and now we and I also have this place that we are Westside collector car
storage and now with two locations yeah I keep myself pretty busy yeah so I've
met you on several different media events for Honda and Acura and I was
with them and you're you're kind of like in that group of like people you can
assume are going to be attending any sort of car thing that can be written
about or promoted or discussed when the car goes fast I can usually be that's
a bit odd to go there right where I miss the ridgeline launch unfortunately I
you poor thing yeah poor thing HRV I oh I don't have a ticket in a ridgeline
leaving that this versus that shoot I did I was like oh man the worst car here I
got the first beating ticket so where does the interesting car start from you
as a little kid little kid yeah yeah a little kid magazines followed by my dad
was a really good dad and you know first it was magazines and then it was
taking me to a couple races I dad my dad um you know is like has been in the
fashion business for his whole life and you know it's he's not been like a heavy
heavy hitter but he's known some people and been able to do a few things and
and when I was like a seven or it's would have been 1989 90 so like eight nine I got
to go in a helicopter to the Atlanta Journal 500 which was the NASCAR race
and I didn't know anything about like racing series or what was what it was
racetrack race cars we landed in the infield I found when we got there that
my dad was friends with the editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution which was
the newspaper and for some reason and I have yet to maybe I need to ask him why
this happened but he he got up on stage and was the grand marshal of the race
your dad was yeah I said great gentlemen start no point does he tell you not till
we were there it's like not till we were there it was a surprise when we got there
where'd you go by the way this was in Atlanta this wasn't and then shortly
after I moved to New York Westchester County yeah I was living in Atlanta yeah
when I was a kid I was in New York yeah when I was a kid Atlanta and then we
left right uh right before sports teams got good right before the Olympics we
were we were out of there yeah the city's going to hell we were gone yeah we were out of there yeah
yeah not before my dad closed the like legendary Atlanta department store though
he did do that yeah uh was that the uh the sears robux store the big one it was called
riches okay yeah I remember it remember riches you know how it's gone now yeah you're welcome
yeah okay cool yeah we have the sign that hung over the entrance to the downtown Atlanta riches
in my dad's that's pretty cool it was a it was a losing a lot of money yeah it was absorbed by
like a fun thing no no it was absorbed by I don't know it Bloomingdale's or something it became
something else but like yeah my dad but that took like mad heat in the ATL where that happened it was
like they did like we've got to go kind of move yeah yeah yeah right here yeah yeah yeah they did uh
they were like the the Macy's of Atlanta yeah so they had the Thanksgiving parade in Atlanta
it was that it was so culturally it was a kind of like I mean I could be wronged it were they not
were they not because I knew riches but I just thought everybody had riches no it was just
it was just Atlanta oh no I don't think it was just Atlanta but like that was a big thing yeah
oh that's crazy I didn't know that yeah very cool yeah and your dad and your dad ruined it with
you ruined it with like the holding company that they got rid of him I'm sorry was he was he with
riches or was he with like a holding company uh he at the at the time he was he was the president
of riches or something of that division and then the they killed the brand and he big went to work
for whatever the bigger the bigger company was yeah yeah he also my dad this has nothing to do with
racing that's what this is the show but my dad my dad also killed Woolworth's what yeah man yeah
it was a kiss of death yeah let him come to IMSA Woolworth's was losing hundreds of millions of
dollars a year yeah okay and they owned other businesses they owned all the Footlocker brand
what's your dad's name which Roger Ferrer Roger okay and they were making money so if you want to
if you want to kill a business you call Roger Ferrer uh he was amazed he was and still is incredible
at restructuring restructuring businesses that are in trouble yeah usually they bring him in when
it's the wolf yeah yeah he's the wolf for like corporations yeah yeah yeah yeah so and it's
pretty well known that he I don't know is he still with Ralph Lauren no no he left in 2015
I'm into the board of CVS health now okay that's his like retirement job yeah he's trying to retire
like every five years for the last 30 years and failed at it so I mean earlier you said your dad's
not like this big deal because you were surprised that he was doing the grand marshal but I mean he
was the CEO at the time he at the time he wasn't that big of a deal I mean he ran the department
store it wasn't like you know yeah well but was this a deal or like was Rich's part of the sponsorship
of the track they might have been and so maybe it was like I was eight I was happy I met I met Dale
Earnhardt I met Richard Petty I met Rusty Wallace gave me his bush beer hat which I still have okay
yeah um I have a jacket like a little kid's jacket that's signed by like half the grid from 1990
that's awesome you know so so you know that's like that was like the first my first supposed to
racing but yeah my dad bought me a go-kart when I was nine yeah and so that was like like a yard
card or like an actual racing go-kart it wasn't a racing go-kart I've never heard the term yard
card yeah yeah but yes I believe that's that's what it was it was made of tubing exactly right but it
was from like a company okay yeah you know it wasn't like sharper image yeah right you know it was
like a Briggs and Stratton yeah it was like a racing but it was not it was a camp go-kart yeah yard
card is the right card actually I've never heard that yeah that's what I saw I'm gonna use that absolutely
man yeah yeah yeah it stemmed our careers but you know and I had I at some point asked for I did
ask for a racing go-kart and wanted and but I but we were like we went and asked somebody what was
involved in like it wasn't the cart it was the racing it was we were not going to do all that so
yeah but the but getting to drive was really the game changer more so than looking at or watching
you know anything yeah yeah yeah yeah driving was everything golf cart boat sit on dad's lap
yeah go you know go-kart you may well whatever if there was a wheel I need to try to drive that
and that that continues so was your dad into the car scene at all okay I mean he was a James Bond fan
sure so you know he always wanted a Nassan Martin and he did eventually get one um and uh and but
and and he he knew I was into it and so to whatever degree he could he got a sob turbo in the 80s I
think that was like kind of cool but it was not automatic so like not yeah don't look inside uh
no casual enthusiast but but uh but followed me around okay to his degree what what did your mom do
how I mean housewife mother just very involved mom yeah yeah yeah yeah it sounds like childhood
it was pretty fun pretty pretty enjoyable I mean it was I you know I was a white kid from basically
Greenwich Connecticut yeah I mean it was it would do it it was all pick your expensive hobby we
know yeah we got it was it sailing or yeah you know whatever sexy people they love it it was it was
fat people yeah major but it was it was great I used to I grew up sailing and like racing like
dingies like lasers and stuff like that's that stuff was was great love that uh and then when it was
you know my parents I you know although I clearly I'm talking about like you know privileged upbringing
my parents were very serious about my first car I had to go to work yeah and whatever I
saved they would match okay oh that's a similar deal which was good you know because at like 15
how much can you exactly really save yeah when you're like going to school full time so yeah
so I work you know my dad was uh when he was at Woolworth's I went to work at Footlocker okay so I
worked three days a week at Jersey hell yeah yes yes you know what yeah if you feel cool yeah
about 45 seconds in the jersey until you realize you're wearing it to work yeah at the mall yeah
yo I was really good at selling shoes though that's but working in the mall you're working
but in New York you'd like you go in and it's like a sunny day you come out and it's like
dark and raining it's like you just you feel like the world went by without you at all it's
bad bad news well also are you seeing your buddies come in and like or other kids no so the move if
you work at the mall I mean if you want to be a head you work in your local mall yeah right you
know if you actually want to like have a job you want to work in a different okay and I actually
some I don't know who figured that out but I worked in a mall that was like two malls from my
yeah right and it I worked in the Stanford Connecticut okay mall yeah which is a horrible
mall it was then and if it's open it must still be right it was bad yeah yeah but we sold a lot
of shoes so you're working at Footlocker you're saving money just to get your first car yeah what
would you get the first car it was there was a Subaru Legacy GT okay but in the pre-wrx era of
Subaru yeah you couldn't modify it and so I was over it very quickly right and I all my friends
have Foxbody Mustangs so I got a Mustang but my parents said no Foxbodies because I have to have
airbags oh yeah so they said they said I could basically buy whatever I wanted but it had to
have dual dual airbags that was it and so I got the 94 Mustang the rounded one yeah right right
so yeah then we all first of the plastic 94 yeah that was a 94 so underneath still a Foxbody
yeah right and you could do all the same stuff so we you know we started it was summit racing
absolutely dude for sure yeah um what was your so so my thing was I ended up working at a grocery
store and but even before that that's where I'd go get the magazines you know what I mean because
it's like pre internet internet's just starting for me how old are you you're I'm 43 yeah so we're
I'm like a year and a half younger than you so right before the internet starts the last thing
you could do to like really get involved with like car scene was magazine store Barnes and Noble or
something I had every car and driver in road and track from like 1985 until 2000 right yeah I still
have them my wife is like what are we doing here it's been it's been it's like three huge bins yeah
right and it's been shuffled from house to house yeah of course now I write for them yeah now I'm
keeping them for a different reason yeah for sure man which is a lovely sort of first full circle
thing but yeah road and track yeah uh and then and then it was go karting and driving stuff and
when we had the Mustangs we went drag racing yeah English town yeah oh bitch it right on English
yeah so on the weekends yeah drag racing slow as was this like a Friday night run like your
brung thing like yeah like bracket drag yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah so so you know my dial in
you know on a good day I'm pushing like a 14 do 14 14 trace hell yeah we're killing it 5500 rpm
you know like a monster chopper brah da da da da da da brah da cam yeah you know like slow maybe
I'm hitting 100 I don't know but we had a good race them yeah yeah we had a good time yeah we would
get regularly smoked yeah because it's you know do you do you guys do you guys ever talk about
drag racing do people know how bracket drags work I mean I'd say it's probably the least following
we had okay yeah but like we just had launched with Don Pernum yeah oh yeah he's probably not talking
about I'm sure you're like yeah you ever run with your brung down yeah yeah he's like yes against
John force right oh sorry sorry no it's like it's uh price is right rules drag racing but you set
your own thing so if you go to you practice first you do a couple runs you go today I think my car
can run a 14 oh and you write the number on your window 14 oh yeah and you try to get as close to
your own number as possible without beating it yeah and that way a slow car a fast car any car
can win yes it's drag racing BOP almost but in a more honest and sensible way yeah yeah it was
one where every participant goes okay that makes sense well yeah if you say it's gonna be a 14 oh and
you do a 13 9 yeah you're dq yeah right and so and so and they and they time the um you know they
still run two cars at a time but you're not racing the other car you're racing yourself yeah right
and so they time everyone's launch so you cross the finish line right at the same time I'm gonna
start a second before you know which is theory but but there was a guy uh who made his living
flying around the country renting Ford Tauruses and going showing up to bracket drags like dialing
in a 17 oh on the window right and just the thing was on the button yeah right he's eating an ice
cream cone going down one yeah right right that's just take it everybody's money yeah that's awesome
that's right yeah so yeah drag racing and then my dad when I was 18 sent me to skippy okay he did
Barbara Lyme Rock okay and I had Bruce McKinnis hell yeah Bruce McKinnis was my first instructor
and Dean DeJocomo yeah I know Dean yeah I'm still friends with Dean I raced against Dean in the Lambo
series the first couple of years and he has the house like right across the street from the track
and everything yeah yeah he's a great dude and he Dean is now the the instructor for Lamborghini
that's right yeah for all the media events so now I see him he's a really good dude and all the launches
where there's track stuff yeah and he's the guy who now vouches for me for the Italians like hey
look this guy can drive if he says he needs to go do this just like let him do it you did the three
day school yeah was the idea to get your license or was it just uh like what was the plan I didn't
really know it was just like racing school and then I went and then when I finished it and realized
oh okay that was the the intro and right you know whatever the intermediate and I could do another
three day or two day and get a license you know I did and so I went back I actually had a crash
and at the second one yeah it was pissing rain oh man dude if you did a racing school in the rain
like that's like harder than most people realize in those you got the Andes in those like terrible
formula cars too I hate open-wheel cars so much people love you like open-wheel cars I mean I just
like race cars okay you don't care yeah just give me whatever I need it I need a body in a cage
okay look at me yeah you know you know what is actually I don't there's anyone this is not a
problem for you but no one's ever made an open-wheel car that fit me okay yeah I'm always getting
some tiny-ass terrible thing right can't move my arms can't steer yeah you know it's like claustrophobic
if I need opposite lock at any point during this like we're in deep okay yeah the arms don't go that
way right right so yeah at the exit at the exit of um Big Bend and Lime Rock I looped it on the inside
you know amateur garbage right but every track I raced at or did any track work out for the next
10 years after that it was like oh this is like turn two at Lime Rock this is like turn four at
that's like how it goes there first racing school so that was uh that was the big one was
actually turning turning corners and then it became that it became about something but
growing up like in you know in in Westchester County and in Greenwich Connecticut you know the
back roads are like beautiful like windy a level roads and that's that's all driving so right we
got to practice everywhere all the time we were very spoiled yeah and anytime you go to Lime Rock
and you drive from like Torrington or whatever to the track yeah those roads are like yeah group
b rally stages you know it's awesome that was everywhere yeah for sure and our my career you
know as doing youtube stuff started by putting on these drives um on those roads and then honestly
are you going to school yeah like honestly like not much car related happens for a couple years
because I go to college well how old are you at this year 18 that was before college okay I go to
college and I do all the road tripping in the world but frankly not much car related stuff
happens yeah that Mustang I had I sold because Philadelphia where I went to college was just
beating the absolute out of it and and then after after college I got back into cars and
and just worked my way from one car job to another yeah dealership right rental car company
eventually my friend Larry Casilla and I started a car wash together okay um and then when youtube
launched we made our first video promoting the car wash really which is when we hired Tom Morningstar
okay Tom Morningstar shot our second youtube video for us yeah yeah um B&H salesman Tom Morningstar
yeah at the time he was a B&H salesman and he was from my town I knew him uh because we had smoked
many together in high school and he or last week in addition to or last week in addition to um
to everything else he was a skater and he had a nice camera and was making skate videos and so
our early car videos looked like skateboarding videos but with cars and they were so old youtube
launched um I believe it was uh end of April 2006 my first youtube video was November 2006 so like
pretty early early pretty early and so it was pre DMCA and so music in other words how about it
with music dude they're still there our old videos have like Pearl Jam and they're still up you can't
240p forever dude you know but you can't get rid of them and uh yeah and then one day Tom came home
with like a microphone and was like here you know you're the host now and I and I became the host
to the video just cracking jokes and whatever and what were you calling yourselves then so that shop
and the driving club was called the New York Motor Club we thought it sounded very classy
it uh in hindsight was probably not all that classy but um but it worked you know we had we we
actually did pretty well and uh you know Larry when I left a couple years later full time to go
make youtube videos because I that was more fun than running a car wash um you know Larry went
on to become one of the best you know detailers on the planet best best known most most well known
talented uh and then I then taught him how to make youtube videos retroactively and he got more
followers than me dick people love them detailing videos yeah right you know it's that um for the
same reason they love like restoration shows on the history yeah exactly that's good to see somebody
do that's basically what you know I pull this car out of a barn yep you know and make it look like
you know and and not that this is Larry's job to mechanically restore these cars sure you know
they they you know they barely they're they're running on two cylinders when they pull out of
the shop yeah he's playing that soundtrack over them and they're so shiny even the chugga chugga
yeah right right straight to that flat bed so how early in this youtube process are you seeing
oh this could be a thing um pretty early I mean pretty early like
I I saw how many views we were getting because so so first we're making videos for this car club
slash car wash and then this dude I mean you remember Amel right Amel Rensing oh yeah I know
in the history of jf I do yes so Amel Rensing was this guy who was like a tech guy a tech bro
but like a New York Long Island tech bro like we didn't know about like real tech bros because
we were from New York we never been to California but like he was like a long a good a Jewish boy
from Long Island who was playing tech bro got it yeah and he had like some connections at google
and him and his friends were starting one of the earliest if not the earliest multi-channel
networks and so they hired me like I got in 2007 I got a salary and health insurance to make youtube
this is the first year youtube in the the first concept what we now call verticals yes started
to show up where it's one channel with lots of different prongs so we did that for like a year
and a half until the economy crashed and the company sold to google and we got fired but in that
time I experienced fans you know being stopped in the street this is garage 419 yeah it was garage
419 terrible name but fun show yeah and basically you know tom morningstar and I like learned the
business of youtube like on their dime and when we and we knew how much money the videos were making
like we they told us and like when they went under we were like you know if we get rid of
the overhead of like right all of this right you know all we need are a couple things like
we know how to make videos and put them on youtube now like we just need some money until we can sell
ads and we need to go to california because they don't have real winter oh yeah yeah because
a at the time you know this was this was in the middle of winter in new york and when we got fired
from our that that job we were on a filming trip in california oh and it was like cold and snowing
in new york and we're here in march here and it's like we're filming a convertible on you
know in malibu we're like yeah okay so we need to be here so we moved to california to start the
end of 08 and we put up our first video in 09 so an m podcast was 2011 yeah but we did some we so for
racing i do have like the tiniest amount of racing cred i've probably done like 20 or 25 endurance races
i'm a really good teammate i don't bend the car okay seriously i take a lot of starts
actually okay usually a team will trust me to start their car because i don't have the ego
to have a turn one incident right um and i and i'm usually like uh i'll be a half a second
to lap off your fastest guy in a slow car okay and in a fast car extend that to a second and a
half a lap so like yeah and when we race like an e30 or a civic i'm consistent and like a half
half a second off the very fastest guy yeah but they might bend the car and i won't
right and uh yeah so i'm okay i'm not good i'm a d i'm a good journalist or a bad pro
got you basically what what races have you done like i'm guessing like thunder hill i've done i did
24 hours of vir okay i've done uh a bunch of different champ races sonoma uh rhod america
walkins glenn i've done a bunch of aer in the midwest that taco has not survived the journey
very well this is not going to go well no yeah great track a lot a bunch of like mid ohio and
ncm and stuff like that yeah yeah um uh miata z 30s i like racing slow cars racing slow cars is a
good time especially because like i drive fast cars on the street and stuff for work and on track
but like not in a racing environment like in a solo environment i don't think i have the nerve
to to race a really fast car in terms of just hanging it out i just like
i've also never really had the opportunity to test one enough to really get comfortable like will
turner has always been really kind to me and lets me have a go in his cars because he knows i won't
break him and after like you know 20 30 laps i usually said like a pretty respectable gentleman
driver time but i've never like gone wheel to wheel in one of these cars and i've never
had that comfort level to just yeah and i have to like pretty much apply full focus to get to
that gentleman driver lap time and i'm not like the driving has become second nature so you can
focus on the right and in a slow car i can do that in a slow car i don't think but in a fast car
i'm not i'm not there yet i think it's probably just opportunity in the seat time sure so something
i'm hearing though is uh so right out of college when you were working at car dealerships what were
old stuff 22 years exactly i'm running cars around prior to for garage 419 how many businesses
did you started started yeah car wash with your buddy one i started so that you didn't have this
like cereal i'm gonna no no no i started we started the one i'm just wondering how much
of your dad's coming out at this point no no no we started one and i wasn't i wasn't a particularly
good businessman about any of that sure sure but uh the best thing i did for him and larry and me
was probably go off and make videos no it's not it wasn't it was not about being this serial
entrepreneur sure i the car wash at the time really did seem like a good idea because we
had plans to grow into a chain of car washes or bigger thing that just never really happened
and then once youtube i mean it was like whoa um i was just a regular employee at the rental
places and the dealerships whatever yeah no and and even starting this business this i need to
start this business because i car storage business the car storage sorry um i just
knew that i couldn't do the gig economy right forever i needed some kind of backstop or off
ramp what do you mean yeah right yeah well i was a little bit ahead of the curve on
recognizing that that would be a very necessary thing um but i'm glad i was because it ultimately
you know my youtube career is not going to be over when i choose it's over yeah we all understand
that i've already you know passed my video prime so parking cars baby let's go yeah we're back
we're parking cars it's a great business this business i love it i love it i think it's it's
fun business for me to be in i love i love keeping people's stuff safe i think also your
personality is good for it because you're very good in a room you know you can actually talk to
talk it's not like you're just some guy it's like yeah like your Ferrari like you understand the
differences and the intricacies of all of it with cars yeah so if you're going to give somebody
your car to store it do you want it to be some idiot that's just trying to do something to make
money or you want to be somebody that understands the value of it because they've also got cars they
care about or do you want to give it to someone who's trying to start a social club right and they
just need a pretty background yeah exactly yeah that's a different they need you more different
vibe yeah right for sure yeah a lot of people in this business that's what they're doing yeah
do you remember the first article you wrote for like a big publication oof i remember the first
time i got printed yeah that was that was a that was a real big one and it was the million mile
lexus story oh yeah i remember that yeah i got i bought a lexus with 900 000 miles on it and and
got it the rest of the way to a million yeah that was cool uh so that was printed in in rodent
track yeah that was my first time and that was that was important then it was like then my parents
understood what i did right they got paper it's not a it's not a like a fun thing anymore yeah i know
my dad understood what i did when he saw the magazines and when we got when he came to la
and i got stopped in the street by a fan yeah makes me sure yeah he's like you you're in you're in
los angeles and fans are stopping you and yeah that's what's up yeah i was worth every every bit of
the 50 bucks i paid that was this was this a thing prior where you didn't really have a real job
even though if you're say you're paid getting by youtube paid doing the youtube stuff if your parents
aren't seeing it is was this a i don't know if you'll struggle no no look my my parents were
always very supportive actually um and and i mean that's not to say that they just like gave me money
no because they didn't do that but but they you know i think like a lot of things i'm sure with
racing drivers this happens a bunch where it's not so much that their parents are paying their way
it's that they're able to act somewhat more recklessly with their money they don't have kids
they don't have college debt and if this all goes to hell you can make an embarrassing but necessary
phone call and it'll probably be okay right like so that's where the privilege comes from that so
and you recognize that which is yeah i think it's part of it but to be honest i didn't at the time
or i didn't i did but i didn't want to i lied to myself about it and it's it was very important
for the 26 year old version of me to go i earned every bit of this which was a whole s*** right
and that's what i'm saying is like because we see this with wealthy race car drivers all the time too
it's like it's not whether you earned it or not it's the willingness to be reckless sure like we
can't the fact that you say that yeah speaks volumes to me um so so it was it was great that i i got to
take those early risks and we didn't make very much money for a long time and and and you know
there's a reason tom was working for you yeah it wasn't because it wasn't because tom is like
a greedy person yeah yeah yeah yeah you know like in the beginning i'm awesome to work with
first yeah of course yes shut the f*** up right but for years we were taking side gigs yeah to
to support yeah keep the thing going yeah right you know we made a video every week for two years
with no money i mean you know i sold my car and rode a motorcycle and you know it was it was it was
a it was a grind um we were never starving we got it done it was fine you know ultimately and
eventually things happen you know you like anything else you stick around long enough you put yourself
in the right place never would have happened if we didn't move to LA by the way never would have
happened if we weren't regularly creating content and being places you know so well yeah is there is
at what point do you start to get hate from people because it it went i don't want to say it went
well early because you did have to like fight to get to it but we've experienced this with our show
and anytime you have a career in racing and it's going well like other guys who also have things
going well we'll still f*** it on you um yeah do you remember getting pushback from other people
because you're not a traditional journalist like you said you you write the way you talk
yeah i mean i wasn't getting hate for that oh okay so where was hey why do people hate you
i mean look you know in the in the beginning you know i'm i'm able to speak pretty authoritatively
on stuff and at most of the time i know what i talk about i'm talking about 43 year old me
knows better than 25 year old me to it's a hedge a little better when i don't know what i'm talking
about sure sure right so there's you know 20 something arrogance there's the insecurity that
it takes to want to be somebody who's in front of a camera in the first place yeah and the ability
and and you could tell yourself justification that you need to directly engage with those
commenters for one reason or another which of course is not true it's absolutely right yeah
but you could tell yourself it is absolutely yeah and that creates you know a spiral of self loathing
and yeah and just i mean just a terrible place mentally yeah so eventually i did learn to stop
reading the comments but it took years yeah yeah so but but in in terms of like haters or whatever
there's like there are some people that are actual haters they're like those that like in the
traditional sense right they're jealous of whatever you've done right okay and in the beginning maybe
they were but also there were people that were probably and i don't remember specifically but
i'm sure they were you know accurately calling me on some of my bull you know and so now right
yeah i mean you know like what am i gonna do like i was you know you understand like celebrities
or whatever who can get famous and they're under they're under scrutiny except all your interactions
are in writing and for the record yes oh my god yeah get me out of here like dude you just you
know you're you've you've got someone who's like not necessarily a role model but is like put on this
on a sort of a pedestal and there's expectations and everything you ever say before is used against
you and yeah right right you know eventually you learn that it's okay to learn lessons and it's okay
to go yeah that was wrong and i learned and you know i forget when exactly it was that i
did i decided to like put the ego aside and just be like hey man like you know growing up right
like what are you gonna do like you know and and actually it just makes more sense to own it yeah
clear conscience is really the weight of telling yourself that you earned everything and weren't
part of a support system or even luck yeah yeah timing that you had nothing to do 100%
random luck exactly yeah yeah yeah if you don't have that awareness then you're missing it so like
you know people are very nice and i'm mad at you know and i introduced myself as dude who owns
go pros yeah which is true that's like pretty much it there's not much more to it than that right
man with rolling black pelican case yeah yeah i relate to everyone who has a rolling black pelican
case yeah it's funny because prior to doing this stuff that was nothing to do with me at all you
know what i mean and i'll be at the airport like i don't know what that guy's making yeah yeah i had
a production company innocently take my pelican case from the baggage because they just assumed it was
there was yeah they hurled it onto a thing you know and and man i was able we were able to i was
able to get it back yeah like accident but i was it's tough man yeah that could be a bad day so on
the on the flip side of like early pushback yeah was there anybody that stands out from back then
that was supportive of you that you were surprised okay so like yeah i don't know if the if the answer
i gave was actually to the question no no it kind of gets to the point like how hard was it in the
beginning like what was really hard was like getting manufacturers to take us seriously sure
youtube pretty much like they probably were with tiktok like two years ago yeah yeah and there
will be another thing soon right it'll be like yeah yeah apple watch content yeah exactly no one
wants that whatever the new like toto like you know the it's gonna be ray bands in the videos
it's gonna be a vr bidet you know that i somehow now have to optimize yeah right now i gotta make
this in four by seven bidet yeah we need we need this on the toilet paper yeah yeah yeah uh so in the
beginning uh there's a guy named alan hall at ford who was the first person at a manufacturer to
invite us on a press launch okay and like take us seriously yeah and it was the gt 500 k r press
launch which is a you know special edition shall be with uh that i've never seen one on the road
since you know they're all in collections somewhere yeah it was a $90,000 mustang in 2009
and so yeah in the beginning getting getting people to take us seriously and then and then they
really really did for a while those press launches in the 2015 to 2020 you know you get that video
wave oh boy is that luxurious that's lovely especially you get that jfb roll package sometimes
yeah damn i see jf at the airport i'm like i get that jfb roll package for me buddy yeah i go what
color what color guards red okay let's go that b roll pack will make a break
yo can i do an airdrop right now yeah i don't want to download it i don't want to
download it i don't want to go to the newsroom right now give me give me a flash drive let's go
i just got a new flash drive the first time in five years i didn't realize how far behind i was
in flash drive into the size dude i think it's probably not size same size speed just how fast
my new flash drive is probably 8x faster than my old flash drive wow i was behind
you start doing actual car events like going to like ride and drives and launches and stuff like
that yeah um i would say it's probably more in my experience because i haven't done that many of them
but it's more now guys like you but probably when you guys first start showing up in the youtube
crowds just starting to merge into automotive content it was much more traditional journalists
so was there a bit of a clash at all or like where it was nah no it wasn't like that yeah it wasn't
like that yeah it was it here's where it sucks i you know for the first time ever here's what it
sucks making a video when you have to share a car with somebody that like legitimately sucks and so
for the fans at home no it'll be like two different journalists from two different publications you
guys are sharing this type article yeah like you're if you go on a press launch for a new car
sometimes you have to share a car with somebody right and they give you a route there's driver
changes yeah and if you're a print journalist or web writing yeah it's no big deal yeah it's fine
i mean it can be a big deal if they pair you up with somebody like who's like might actually kill
you yeah right yeah it doesn't have to experience there's about yeah there's about seven people
i'll ride with yeah you know but but if you have to make a video and someone else is trying to do
their job right yeah it's weird it's inconvenient just well they might represent something that
conflicts right so like so for anyway for many many years i i grin and bared it and i just went on
the asthen martin vantage launch last week and for the first time ever is that we're sharing cars
and i said okay look i can't make a video i just can't do it right and i'm not and i'm not gonna
inconvenience my drive partner yeah and you know but and they're like okay and i was like wait i could
have been saying okay this whole time yeah i'll take all the relief yeah and then i did this press
launch without making videos like oh my god this is like luxurious like i'm just chilling i've been
working this whole time just chilling and driving this asthen martin i'm not like crawling over the
engine right right mounts twelve different takes of oh my god yeah yeah yeah no it's it's and i'm
not trying to complain it's like i have a great job but like heck man you have crawled over enough
hot cars to know that like yeah that doesn't matter what the car is that's work yeah absolutely
yeah i would i would actually save more for ryan yeah like the kind of the wake up call what's
required when you start doing the videos yeah it's a different change yeah yeah i always think back
to this one time we were in jamaica and i'm standing in the field with uh what was our guy's name uh
peter no um oh oh eldo eldo thank you yeah eldorado um he and i are standing there filming this like
one corner and there's no one on track we're just getting like b-roll of it and it's 110 degrees
and we're just getting it over and over again over and over again just like yeah this sucks yeah you're
dying like i'm not driving a race car right now what am i doing here yeah if it was just people
like wait so you just drive the car yeah right yeah it's easy man yeah no yeah well we're back and
what's funny was we used to look at the podcast is like all this work yeah and then we started doing
videos oh my god yeah just the two of us is lazy yeah exactly yeah like today where it's like
our setup is five minutes yeah and we're ready and 90 of the effort that goes into our podcast
the smoking tire podcast by the way get it where you get podcasts or on youtube yeah is because of
no let me say let me rephrase a 65 of the effort is because it's on video yeah sure a further 30
percent of the effort is because it's live oh right yeah yeah so five percent of the effort
is sitting here and talking to my friends about sitting right yeah well for us the lack of live
does make it easier oh absolutely yeah we know we can fix it later yeah yeah absolutely um is there
is there a ride and drive or a launch that stands out in your mind is like the worst one you ever
went to here's what's worst to me what matters to me i'm going to dedicate my i'm leaving my office
and my wife and my cats to go to this thing i travel a lot recreationally i don't give a where it is
the the best case scenario you drop the car off in my driveway i don't go anywhere but but i'm
willing to go almost anywhere to drive the the right car what i hate is to have my time wasted
by having a by having it be a vacation i wasn't expecting rather than a trip where i get seat time
so i get i've i've had to go really really far really far to get like no seat time i traveled for
30 hours each way to for six laps in the rain a lead follow six lead follow wet laps around the
circuit de monta blanco in spain to drive the r8 v10 r8 gt final edition whatever the last
special edition was six laps after flying to spain from Los Angeles like for the travel in the
fancy hotel and everything they could do to set you up isn't nearly as valuable dude we didn't even
drive them to the track we drove ttrs's from the hotel to the track yeah right yeah like what are
we doing here guys you know and then and then oh and then yeah the other thing that makes the
worst press launch was the same thing uh they then set the embargo for thanksgiving
huh when did you do this this was like i don't know it was like in the fall in october or something
it was in bar it was the embargo release date was thanksgiving day at three p.m when everyone's
that's how that works i like lost my mind i go so let me get this straight
you're going to buy me a business class ticket to europe put me up in a five star hotel rent a
racetrack give me no seat time in bad weather yeah no opportunity make a good video send me home and
tell me after spending i don't know 20 grand ahead to get me out there that you're gonna put this
video up on a day that no one's gonna watch it yeah right literally worst weekend you could put
Super Bowl was taken yeah right yeah but Tuesday's dinner was razor's launch right so like yeah again
you know i could be digging ditches or something and i'm not trying to complain but you asked what
the worst is like that's pretty much every element go really far have bad weather no seat time and an
embargo that ensures you make no money so you're getting paid per view yeah and that's happened
a couple of times like where it's been really really far yeah for either no seat time or
a version of seat time that it makes it virtually impossible to get work yeah who's doing it the
best then or is there one that stands out is like you won't manufacture yeah yeah it's trite but i very
rarely have a misstep at a Porsche event mm-hmm Aston Martin Bentley i mean these are all very high
and yeah so they know they have to in fairness like uh Hyundai did the ionic 5N launched Laguna
Seca yeah right you know you you get you they gave me full sessions yeah right 20 minute sessions
at Laguna yeah right yeah what's better than that yeah right the best one i've that we've that i've
ever done was like a terrible hotel yeah right it was like six people terrible hotel terrible food
and gingerman raceway open track seven cars open track for eight hours yeah like subway sandwiches
yeah right right i was like i was a pro by the end yeah i was doing numbers by the end right and and
man Cadillac yeah this that was not this one um that was Lotus actually oh cool that was a
Vora GT yeah uh but um Cadillac just did and this was brave at uh at amp you ever run amp
sure yeah that place a harry yeah motorsport park yeah motorsport yeah there's elevation on
elevate it's crazy it's a dude the news the black wing launch was just there oh wow and you know
they've well at least the slow car right and this is the five black wing not even the four this is
the six the zia the the the six hundred and sixty eight horsepower manual gear boxes and you know
it's got have you seen what the new ptm is doing yeah the before not ptm um a pdr the performance
data record right it's cause worth toolbox exactly into the car it's proper data yeah there are some
limit fun limitations i learned because i tried to do some things that i found out you can't do
with it sure and it was it drove me nuts because it was after the fact but i was i had a lot of fun
with the cause worth guys down there yeah and um jordan taylor so you know they have amp we've got
these 700 horsepower cars at jordan's there and he's like let me show you you know what the law i
actually i think i asked him to because i've never been there before sure and you know he he proceeds
to turn into a racing robot you know and he's he's fabulous the car is fabulous he's he's just you
know he's unbelievably talented but they want to show off the pdr and so they're timing like
they're letting us time ourselves oh no yeah terrible which if you've ever been to a press launch
like the number one rule yeah right no recording device i mean when you dealt us through the lap
full telemetry okay so i can just gain one second and this one
i couldn't i'm down three tenths i should push harder yeah they were only led they were only letting
people run five laps i think i think it was plenty of time i think it was a warm-up and four
flyers and i as i always do i that's not enough to get the video it's just not i don't understand
no but you gotta be detailed you go look i need two rounds per round amounts i need two round
amount then i need my in-car and then i need one last one for pure exhaust audio yeah and so
you know i had the pdr going and and and i uh jordan had driven we shared a car so you have a
data lap so i had a i had a ghost car and let me just tell you i was one lap from putting in the
wall yeah any minute and then and then we line up the data yeah and as it turns out i did pretty
good as it turns out i did pretty good i was i was one and a half off of jordan i would bet you
drive a lot more street cars on racetracks than he ever has maybe yeah there is something to be said
about that but riding with him yeah i i already knew this but the data that you know at a you
know you guys both know yeah okay so the um uh it's after turn one yeah the sharp left-hander's
turn one yeah that whole section that leads that leads into the banked carousel up top yeah
actually off camber carousel up top right he is the fullest of throttle through there and i
determined through my brain that that was not physically possible yeah it's not gonna happen
and then the big fourth gear yeah like coming over the hill yeah i think sketchy man they're
the line was like me big lift yeah him yeah it's just buried yeah and we determined that i
there was absolutely no way i was going to do that so yeah uh a fast car a racetrack and timing
yeah so Cadillac's pretty fun it sounds like yeah sounds like a good group yeah we went we went we
went through the telemetry and it was that was a lot of fun gm performance yeah in general gm
performance is a good ass time yeah i've been to the the v launches i've been to the camaro z l1
launch yeah these the corvette guys taj yeah taj was the he was the boss he didn't f*** around
yeah those guys these guys are serious yeah they're cool being critical and sort of giving
the the math fairer opinion that was part of the deal yeah and you were always independent of all
these folks who are letting you drive it yeah how was how was that oversight when you might s*** on a
car you do if you're really specific what are they gonna do yeah like yeah people have disagreed
i mean people have been like well here's why i made that choice and i go okay well it's not for me
yeah but if you're like real specific yeah you know the first of most of the time the people
getting you into the car they're not the people who design it right now here you criticize the car
it's not gonna affect your relationship with the manufacturer i love being on press launches
and feeling something in the car and oh there's the engineer let's go ask yeah right yeah i'm
getting that getting that why get the real if the why yeah yeah yeah because just sometimes
there's a why oh we had to compromise for your uh road noise yeah whatever yeah um and i'm not like
you know i have a lot of experience i'm an okay driver but like i don't know i'm nobody special
but if if i've i've talked to uh engineers who and then the car got better like oh s*** yeah car is
better hey and i'm sure other people said the same thing but but that's nice isn't it yeah absolutely
isn't it nice to give feedback to your crew chief whoever and the car gets better yeah it's great it's
kind of mandatory because the other way let me get a new guy to give feedback um it was different
with a street car yeah absolutely the requirements are for getting better are like so many different
so um it's pretty well reported that you are very active with promoting guys that have smaller
accounts or like newer content if it's good content uh okay if you look you up on reddit
i have friends yeah but no they're they're no no these are people that they're writing
that they're surprised you're commenting on their stuff or saying here's a good article or
or like things like that okay yeah so where does that is that a is that a paying it forward thing
or is that just you appreciate good stuff even if it's from somebody you have not no i mean like
it's it's i think a lot of people want would like to know if they're good at creating a piece of
content or not and they don't have anybody to critique it i went to art school i studied
photography so i sat through art critiques two three times a week for four years so i i'm used
to having my work busted up by professionals a lot of people aren't and consequently and you know
with self-publishing and whatever you know people write yeah yeah sometimes yeah right you know uh
more times than the not and so i very regularly like offered myself up where if someone goes i
want to be a car writer i'll say yeah send me something and i will critique it for you uh and
that could be a video if it's not 45 minutes long or it could be a piece of writing you know and the
key to doing it is doing it but if you you know you want to know at least hey am i do i have a
shot at doing this or not so yeah and i every once in a while you find someone who's doing
something interesting and you try to talk about what they're doing and yeah i just i mean it's
part of it is pay it forward and part of it is like it's not complicated it's just it's hard
because of the effort it takes continuously over months and years and but it's not complicated
like i could tell you how to do it right now but that won't make you good at it like it's like
you know if all of a sudden mcdonald's didn't have a patent on the big mac anymore and anybody
could make a big mac it's not really what makes mcdonald's mcdonald's unprofitable right so
i could give you the sauce i could tell you the exact formula for success and i'm happy to
most of you won't use it because you won't actually you won't like it like my good friend
his girl had a dream of being a barista and wanted to open a coffee cart i randomly because
he likes to race bmw's met one of the best baristas in the whole country and i was like oh my girl
might not my girl excuse me my friend's girl wants to be a bar give me like the give me like a 30
seconder he goes i'm at the top of this game i spent 60 of my day cleaning oh and i was like
that's it that's all i need yeah thank you very much and when i tell you this dream evaporated
so
no yeah and so you know the headline of i went to spain and drove a new super car on a race track
people would go oh yeah i want to do well yeah let me give you the detailed version of it and so um
you know there's and you know it's just it's uh and by the way if you've done that you've driven
the car on the track yeah best case scenario the bet that that car where i got nine hours of track
time when her best case yeah i've made a video no one has paid me for anything yet right yeah
let's let it go well yeah i haven't found anybody to watch it and i haven't found anyone to pay me
for it so you know that's that's the business of how this works has from when you started 06 to
here in 2025 it hasn't gone through one or two iterations it's gone through like a half dozen
uh well yes and no i mean fundamentally the business of it being ad supported is the same
sure it's always been yeah so and then some of those ads are still kind of the same but um
the introduction of the so-called algorithms to everything it's not so much how you make money
it's how the audience is delivered your content and therefore how the audience consumes your
content and and what what content the audience chooses to see and and not sure or not choose
what content the youtube software chooses to show people right but like garage 14 starts
effectively 07 yeah and the funding source yeah is what i have no idea right but it was
i guess it was vc money or something it's vc from guys who think this is going somewhere yes
and we can we can create a model that was literally like television like a tv station right and this
we would go to an office together and make videos and that's kind of my point about the funding
sources is that part has changed to me a little bit and so you know as we look at the future who
knows but you know at first you're playing to vc you sort of think that this is going to be just
like tv and then they realize that shifts and then you know like with drive and what you guys were
doing with jf yeah that was youtube money on a weird lending basis ping pong's back and forth
right so when we me and tom first started the smoking tire yeah the intent we're talking about 0809
the intent was to have a rolling audition reel for television for cable television but that
and this is what i'm talking about the business did change that so that yeah so you and tom were
like we can effectively sell fun and pay for it through other little side games and the gig stuff
and then if we if a tv opportunity comes up we always have something current and new to show
right and we can build some sort of following that we can sell to something bigger than ourselves
obviously you know cable tv was on the way down right we ended up do we did do three or four different
cable tv shows in a variety of aspects and we learned that we didn't like it so much and then
you know youtube was on its way up and then netflix went to streaming and youtube said i wanted on
some of that action started the premium content initiative drive network jf and we went to work
there to supplement the smoke right and that's my point is now the funding source is effectively
youtube loaned to jf yeah and and that's what i'm talking about how the business actually to me has
changed quite a quite a few times because yeah that's true because in terms of being ad supported
the mechanism has changed so youtube thinks this is going to work and then they realize
oh the kind of money we're putting in for the volume you guys are putting out versus
a person with a single lock-off camera doing makeup it's probably a little more efficient
in terms of how we're getting the views right so it's it's not so much how the creator is making
money as as like the bigger picture money situation the logic of the money is coming from so on a
channel level i'm a creator i have a channel i make money by selling ads and i more or less
always have going back to 2009 yeah yeah um and sometimes i have an agency sometimes those
ads are the ones that are already in youtube yeah those are the ones that really get squeezed
yeah oh yeah oh yeah dude they know they know everything they have all the data they know
everything so if you're a brand new creator right your first new channel your first video
they could put you in front of everybody give you a big hit yeah holy 300 000 views i just made
two grand yeah right i'm gonna be a youtuber yeah i'm in locked up i'm in whereas me they go okay
here's this guy he's uploaded 2,500 videos over 17 years yeah he's he's committed he's not going
anywhere right we can squeeze that guy to one dollar over where he quits and by the way because
people have done it we know where the line is where they quit yeah so we keep it just here
keep it let it ride and that's what happens yeah yeah and there's there's not really a way to
turn that around right yeah so and i mean and look i'm not i'm not complaining i'm not saying
i'm not saying the algorithm's out to get me like i've made my own mistakes and made my own choices
that resulted in maybe not being bigger sure it's not out but but that is a diff a major major
difference because people used to subscribe to things and then watch things they were subscribed to
right no more yeah no more now with a youtube app on their phone people scroll like tiktok
with youtube on a desktop they go to youtube.com because they're gonna feed them recommendations
that's it yeah subscribers don't mean but for a plaque on the wall cool right yeah yeah yeah
interesting so we do a pestle on question and last night we had dinner with steve hallam
who was with mclaren f1 lotus f1 wow in what capacity he was the at the end of at the end of
his time at mclaren he was the lead engineer for their engineering department kick ass so everything
so you've been to esterel i have been his first f1 win as an engineer was at esterel in the rain
uh for lotus he was a brazilian driver that drove the car talk about him please i would not want to
drive in the wet yeah the guy that did the guy who did was irton senate yeah that was his driver
oh it was that one yeah yeah he was the engineer on that car yeah right so steve works currently he's
basically in charge of engineering for for the motorsport side of toyota racing okay i mean he
lives nearby in newport beach so uh he admittedly never heard of you before uh i imagine i've never
heard of him before well there's that you just this up because he went i love this guy he apparently
because he's a engineer he was like well i gotta do my research for a pass on question so he ended
up watching a bunch of your stuff and he's like i'm really curious about his urban activist stuff
and like his thoughts on trying oh no he wants to hear about urban he was like deep diving into
stuff we're like we don't know what you're talking about dude we just he's our buddy oh yes this guy
may be talking about urbanism yeah is that really what he wanted to hear about well no so his question
is okay how do you stick to your guns on your opinions when you're speaking to someone of great
influence for example like joe rogan or somebody that you obviously want to do a good job for
but you might have a completely different opinion from i uh thanks for that question um
i mean look uh i uh how do you stick to your gun i don't know how not to i'm i i would be a bad
employee i don't know when to not give my opinion i've been told uh by someone at rodentrack to
give a little less of my opinions around certain people right right um and and that was actually
a totally fair criticism of what i had done at that time so i'm not mad at it at all um
but like it's i think that's just like like you know doing this gig a bunch of it is is repetition
and commitment and over time building an experience in a roledex and blah blah blah and all those things
but like i do have like a little bit of natural ability and one of those things is i am not the
least bit bothered by the presence of cameras or microphones same person same thing right you're
one speed no difference you know a lot of people i'm sure you talk to particularly folks that aren't
broadcasters are are not the same person correct yeah and so i'm the same person so is that yeah
and then and then the so that's a natural talent i don't know where it came from yeah don't know how
to do it don't know how to tell you how to do it yeah and and then the other one is the inability to
not be honest about certain things and there's certainly times that that's probably a bad thing
and i end up in some awkward moments and that's life yeah but like um you know
i try to not have an opinion about something without trying to learn about it i try humans or
human what do you do and and if people present me with information i try to learn from it i try to
not be too proud to change or listen yeah you know get fact checked right you know you'll
regularly hear me start podcasts with a fact check okay from the previous show that someone
someone called me out like where you might have a mistake and yeah i got something wrong and someone
to hey hey check this out oh i'm wrong okay fine right like being wrong is like okay you know um
2025 this huh 2025 2025 it can be wrong yeah it's not i'll tell you what it's not how you like
grow an audience well i mean dude so you know we have a we have a sidebar sidebar we have a youtube
analyst every year analyze our channel okay that's great and in addition to preparing a report of
like here's what did well here's what didn't do well here's what keywords and what the and it's
little stuff i mean it's stuff that like you don't really think about something that has by the way
never has anything to do with what's happening inside of the video i believe we're talking about
use yellow not white okay we're talking about yeah but also no more motorcycles no more off-roading
we're big ones um but um wait wait where's that going with this we have channel uh um things that
are things that are popular in 2025 yeah here he goes because we were trying to think we're like oh
man like do we need to like change our content he goes i would tell you what to do but like you're
not gonna like it and you're not gonna do it and i was like okay he's like in 2025 the way to drive
engagement is to talk drama like or to react to other people's drama yeah or talk about money
right i made this much i lost this much this buys ourselves okay yeah and i was like wow
that all sounds terrible and he was like doesn't it yeah right right right right yeah he was like
you know yeah this is where we are yeah and so yeah that's so so so you know stick to your guns like
turn around look in this window behind yeah why can i stick to my guns because if my youtube channel
goes away tomorrow right my parking business will support you're gonna be okay i don't need you know
and there's people who create content and who i love as people right and who create content that i
consider to be totally unwatchable okay and that are like just full-on influencer you know personality
on personality off like yeah but like i won't knock their hustle yeah old me might knock their
hustle new me whatever you gotta do to pay your bills but like and it sucks that the audience
doesn't necessarily know the difference anymore between journalists and influencer right and
has indicated that they don't really care right i call myself a journalist not because i have a
degree in journalism but because i don't take money from manufacturers and i and i and i don't you
can't buy my opinion and it's just not possible right so that's why i call myself that and like
maybe you're maybe your barometer for where the use of journalists is different than mine but like
i think mine's reasonable you know um so anyway because like no one opinion or gig is going to
wreck my life yeah and i'm not gonna accidentally drop like an n-bomb so no one of me no one opinion
yeah if i do no accidents yeah every so yeah i i i don't find it to be that hard and you know
if all else fails i got a rich daddy yeah right so the floor the floor is still pretty yeah
yeah tomorrow we're gonna have lunch with kori cruzman who is a very well known midget and
sprint car racer is a two-time chili i thought you were just gonna stop after that yeah tomorrow's
lunch with kori cruzman what do you got very well known yeah yeah oh jesus christ man yeah okay yeah
oh midget driver yeah midget driver he's won the chili bowl twice he's won a ton of usac
nationals and things like that he has a sprint car school that's in ventura oh and that's where
like a lot of people have gone to learn how to do it i think they've offered to set me up probably
yeah they do a lot of stuff like that so um we'll be having lunch with him tomorrow if there's any
question you could think for us to ask him through you man first off i'd like to have a go okay i would
like to have a go that's not a question sprint car can i have a go can i have a go there we go
can i have a go is a question um ooh a question about sprint cars uh how many times would you
have to see a sprint car roll before being worried about the driver there you go you know like you
see one on its roof and you're like ah i got my all right but you see one roll seven or eight times
and you go should i run out there yeah should i help yeah you know yeah where where does that line
or describe the the scale of panic as pertains to number of rolls yeah i like that yeah how does
yeah all right yeah i don't have i don't i've never rolled never rolled oh you did that
next race yeah yeah yeah me it's my time that's how you just did it you just called it yeah i just
called it called your shot yeah well hopefully how long does that karma last is it all the way
until your next race that's it yeah my next race we were racing for like six months yeah what are
you doing i'm doing an endurance race at kota in an e92 m3 when is that november this was probably
coming out like a week before oh yeah it's an e92 m3 and so i've just i've just been practicing
at kota with a mclaren 750 so to me it's like swinging a weighted bat yeah right you know i'm
going a minus 300 horsepower you're gonna be just fine yeah oh what a great place to drive a car
that's what's your favorite track uh to drive probably vir um it's it's a real i mean it's like
vir in rhoda america i can't really split the two anymore because they're just so good in so many
ways you know but the tracks that if you make a mistake you really pay for it yeah you know like
we were talking earlier about like cookie cutter tracks for some of these newer places that are
built in parking lots you know or like country clubs and some of them are pretty tough but they're
often that you know anyone can figure out pretty quickly yeah well i mean country club tracks aren't
for you yeah they're for amateurs so i learned uh i went down to the concourse club in miami which
is a lovely little place and uh they said that 80 percent of their members had never been on a track
before at the time they signed up i'm like oh this is like a club club track yeah yeah so like okay
great like more race tracks is good yeah no absolutely just went to the one in charlotte
i mean i saw that i saw that launch yeah look pretty cool it's cool big elevation yeah it's
actually really close to a lot of stuff so that's that's good it's a little tight i'm not sure how
much i'd like to go wheel to wheel there but i i actually hit up the smiths to see if maybe we
use it for a performance car of the year oh there you go that'd be smart that'd be fun for that
and they probably want to get the notoriety so yeah yeah that's cool yeah it's like right next to
hen or right next to charlotte motor speed yeah it's cross street it's pretty damn cool yeah okay so
you have recently become known for this urban activism thing i i wouldn't call it activism but
okay sure yeah okay i believe in walkable cities crazy yeah i'm crazy yeah i mean that's borderline
terrorist so it's unamerican how does a guy who is so entranced in the car world want to promote
walkable cities i mean look you you know this it's this seems like it's i don't i without insulting
anybody else it seems like something that to me should be pretty obvious like our entire 100% of
our entire world shouldn't be set up around how many cars can we get through this as fast as possible
right like and i'm not saying everywhere i'm not talking about everywhere i'm talking about if we
take some of our most already densely populated places places that are already very desirable
to live and in which there are many limitations on the use of space that exist for cars at the
expense of humans who cycle or walk or need to live somewhere um all i'm saying is there are some
places most of which are in major cities in which space could be reallocated more effectively
to center around human life as opposed to being centered around how many cars can we get in and
get out as fast as possible and so that's i suppose what urbanism is but like the reason i the reason
i got going down that is because la in particular has mandatory parking minimums okay and these are
some of the dumbest laws imaginable because they basically if you're going to redevelop a site or
open a restaurant or open a commercial property of any kind you need to have two parking spaces
per thousand square feet of real estate now that is too many for most people right and if you have
something like a big grocery store or a big Costco even on the busiest day possible maybe on one day
a year will you fill this lot but most of the time you'll have a huge empty area in the middle of a
huge empty lot right right yeah and and and and there's a anyway there's wasted space all over
okay and and there's wasted space because there are rules that prioritize cars and and and and we
don't have to have that okay you would and i'm not saying that we need to eliminate parking
but if the developers of properties were allowed to build the amount of parking that they actually
needed based on research and their use case and not this city standard you'd have a much more
effective use of urban space in la which is sprawled out this is visible all the time here's
where it's really visible you're in you're in where it's really visible yeah you were in my
underground level here yeah okay i didn't want to build an underground level i had to build an
underground part of the deal i had to build a parking lot for my parking lot yeah because even
though i was building a parking lot the mandatory parking minimums don't include quads the the lifts
don't include that the shelves basically no and the city said well if one day if you sell this
building to someone else and it's not car storage you need to have parking i said well why wouldn't
it be that person's responsibility yeah to create parking for his use case i have to build provide
for the next guy so so so the result of that is over 50 percent of the cost of building the
building went to the basement right doubled the cost of my building almost which of course i have to
pass on to my customers makes my makes my customers have to pay a lot more for something i didn't
want and don't need right okay and that serves nobody and so and so you can that's one example
and it's particularly stupid because picture going to the city and going i'd like to build a parking
lot and they go yeah but you're gonna need a parking lot yeah that's the dumbest thing imaginable
but that's what the law said i have to do sure so like would we still and by the way that little
parking lot up front where you actually parked your car yeah that's the only parking lot we actually
need for this business yes yeah yeah so take that so you have that and then you also have there's a
great book the guy just died like a month ago by a guy named donald shoup called the high cost of
free parking the way we price out parking forget not from like my like lefty socialist views i'm
talking about capitalism right the way that pricing is parked is 180 out okay the meters in front of
the store yeah should be 20 bucks right the parking garage seven blocks away yeah should be a quarter
got it yeah it's reverse yeah that causes traffic it causes people to camp out in spots more than
they want it causes all kinds of problems it's literally 180 out so those are two examples of
why what many people would call urbanism or progressivism right reorienting cities around people
even if you are a true capitalist the way we're doing it is wrong
so pick an angle right it's bad from all of them you don't have to live like this and by the way
if you live by walmart and you want walmart i'm not talking about that right keep your
walmart yeah but they would have a use case and that's your point yeah so i'm talking about
venice beach miami beach yeah we know some parts of new york city yeah right places where people
would prefer to walk if it was safe and possible yeah right yeah yeah so anyway yeah copy okay yeah
interesting that's urbanism yeah yay read the if you honestly if you want to go nuts the high cost
of free parking by donald shoup yeah and if you don't want to read the 350 page version of like a
textbook um there's a book called paved paradise that eloquently uh it's paved paradise how parking
explains the world and it very eloquently sums up all that and uses great examples but being in
the parking business i was like i should really study how we ended up in a place where they made
me build a parking lot for my parking lot we get criticism from time to time from fans that
will listen to an episode that don't really understand budget concerns or transportation
concerns or whatever it is because we have to do this a certain way to make it happen
what's a common criticism that you get from your reviews or interviews that fans don't understand
um that's actually that's funny i think uh i think people don't understand how hard it is to
remember everything and regurgitate it while driving at speed right now i'm not crashing
how hard it is to capture audio in a gt2 race car right through a helmet and a fire suit i think
that's it they don't really get that um i think they don't understand that i like a lot of it like
i shoot the whole thing myself very oh yeah that uh i think they don't understand the unpaid travel
time there's so much yeah so much unpaid travel time right um yeah and i mean i think the actual
driving of the sports cars is like 10 of it i mean it's emails and selling ads right and running a
business and all that kind of stuff i mean so you know not to complain what a great way to make a
living for sure but i think um i think there are still people that don't think it's like a serious
business yeah right right i have a philosophy which is somebody wants somebody wants a quote as you
know uh if you love what you do you never work a day in your life and i think that person was an
asshole so my wife got me this framed thing yeah and it says if you do what you love you'll never
and no and it's and it's crossed out yeah thank you it's crossed out and underneath it in blue yeah
it says work extremely hard with no separation or boundaries all day every day and also take
everything extremely personally yeah and that hangs in my kitchen there we go that's i want that yeah
yeah i want that i want that i want because that is that is me yeah we've done that a lot yeah we
really hard to do what we love yeah well there's just i mean you know i have i have two businesses
right the media business which exists out on the internet right in space yeah and then my stores
which are there's two of them and they're both open seven days a week yeah so when i talk when you
would you say it never stops i mean it doesn't right there is always something to do yeah and i
always manage to find it so for me to like relax i literally have to leave yeah yeah like right
leave the city yeah you know or even if i'm here like thank god there's no service on the mountain
you know i go i go drive up the mountain to review a car or to have some fun there's a
great car meet up there on fridays i go to thank god there's no service up there right because
that's that's so yeah and man the worst the worst five minutes of my week is when i get
service because now it's just ding ding ding ding that is landing on a plane and i'm in and i'm in
a heavy clutch ass car about to go into traffic across it all yeah all right we do have a patreon
now which is new to us it's fairly new so uh we have a group called dinner club and uh we allow
those folks to ask the occasional questions so we got a couple from them let's go we've got a guy
charles hull uh and he and i don't know anything about this he wanted us to ask about the ferrari
scuderia scam oh okay yeah so there's layers to this but but basically there was a company in texas
called eag and the company still exists and they're doing manual swaps on ferrari 360s and
430s and 599s and there's now a couple companies doing it there was a guy the guy who started that
company and who was running it up until recently and i mean this that story goes back almost 10 years
but this is recent not as six seven years maybe but like a long time ago basically the guy running
the company was was running it almost like a ponzi like he was just it was it was robbing from
peter to pay paul and he was always just spending and taking customer deposits to fund his own stuff
and and and it was just a really it was a mess and a lot of people contacted me
to the point where it was like i and i tried working on a story on it and and i submitted the story
and they actually paid a kill fee because the lawyers didn't want to go to fight with this guy
about this okay and it was just it was a it was just a shady situation the guy wouldn't go away
and he kept as scammers do he kept coming out with more and more bold scams like yeah like oh he's
gonna do it he's gonna do a manual swap on a hurricane to do a manual swap on an event to door
he's gonna do a manual swap on this other car and with the 430 and the 360 and the 599 they came
as manuals so you could either get factory parts or reverse engineer the kit but we're talking
that we're not we're not developing a manual for a new car and okay and so he just kept coming
up like more and more scammy things and i had my friend one of my friends do like a like a call
like call a call about doing a manual and you know over a period of like 20 minutes it went
from like this is a stranger calling about doing a manual swap to like he's trying to get him to
be a partner in the business oh it's spiral that's spiral yeah no i want to talk to him it was just
insane talk about and eventually a year or so ago you know i dropped it because the investors
forced this guy out and put in somebody new and and that wasn't worth it look and i don't know if i
don't know what's going on with the company i mean they still exist and i'm certainly i'm not
accusing them of anything like everything bad that happened was this guy who's gone sure from what i
know but that's that's what it was it was this company doing manual swaps and like yeah they could
do a manual swap but they would also probably steal your money understood yeah it's gonna hurt
no matter what yeah no matter what you're not gonna like yeah and you know because because manual
swaps in a 360 and a 430 are so desirable yeah the delta between a paddle car is such and a
stick is so big yeah people were buying cars just to ship them down there right it wasn't like oh i've
already got this car let's do a manual like they're going on bring a trailer yeah blowing 120 grand
just to ship it down there for it to collect dust for eight months yeah right yeah one other
question patrick linsey wants to know the jankiest car you've ever driven for your channel and it
sounds like was this part of choosing not to drive people's personal cars any longer well um
it was it was one of several reasons not to not drive people's personal cars any longer
not the biggest one not even close okay not the biggest one jankiest car though so there's a couple
that come to mind one there was a literally like a 1981 the it was the very last year of the second
generation camaro okay i think it was 81 whatever and it was just it was a it had some mods and
whatever and it wasn't until i was halfway into the drive and i mentioned that it had a very strange
behavior that the owner told me that only three of the four brakes work what yeah nice okay nice i
said something like you know it's pulling to the right on an 81 camaro and he's like that's because
of the left that's because the front there's no front left brake yeah yeah now is a good time to
tell me that yeah so that that was one and there was a couple other like um remember when um right
after the aerial atom came out in like 05 maybe right then it was on top gear it was like the
change the game right and then the exoset came yeah right and the exoset you know i'm sure people
know what an exoset is well but for those you know it's it's almost like an exposed frame rail
looking car yes you start with a miata yeah take it apart they send you this chassis yeah exoskeleton
chassis you reassemble the mechanicals around this thing yeah and i'm not talking about that
but that sort of quote cheaper exo car yeah inspired a bunch of other i know cheap exo cars
up to and including multiple like front wheel drive base like integral and hondas where they
would just cut the body off we've seen this video and leave the engine in the pan yeah and like
that's it like a windshield and tubes yeah yeah what'd you call it a yard cart yeah honestly
pretty close yeah and so it was it was right then that we learned that there's a little more to an
aerial atom than just removing almost all of an integra yeah right yeah but you know on the flip
side of that it's a it's a fair question and everyone wants to hear about like sketchiness yeah
but um on the flip side of that there's a bunch of people that i did work with who had
with basically no exposure to what good is you're right they never driven a Ferrari or an NSX or
anything good from the factory and they managed to build something that drove really good yeah
with no basis of comparison or experience that was really impressive that's the flip side of
like the garbage sure right yeah i mean there was a kid there was a kid up in the valley
who straight up turned a fiero into a better accurate nsx no way yeah he got he took a fiero
and he got the four cam v6 from the lumina z34 okay and a manual gearbox and a corvette zr1
steering rack right right and like sticky tires and like some over fenders and some
some carefully and yo this thing i drove it a button willow yeah this thing turned in like a
mother it was great like it was with a fiero like he was there you know and there was a guy who was
who who managed to make like four cars into one car and like yeah actually drove good like wow yeah
so it happens both ways yeah yeah that's crazy good friend of mine jeremy erin uh he's a big fan
of yours listens to the show all the time and is always talking about it um he said that you have
talked about having body image issues over time like on the show and he said that you seem to be
doing really well with it lately what's changed or what are you doing to kind of help yourself
very well man very observant uh a couple things one uh not reading the comments okay that goes back
like five years probably um two is actually being at so um you know it body image is like a very
fragile thing for me like the doctors think that i should be like probably like 250 pounds that to
me would i would look pretty thin at 250 actually uh i once one time as an adult saw my weight in
the 240s but it took a lot a lot to get there and it was not sustainable so like if i if i weigh
under like 265 i don't have to think about it if i weigh over 265 it's all i can think about
i understand this and if and if i weigh if i get over like 270 and my clothes start to fit weird
i go into an extremely deep depression uh and so uh like how did you let yourself get here kind of
yeah yeah yeah like failure yeah not like yeah yeah not like this cycle is a regular thing people
you know and combined with the fact that when i the first 10 or 15 years of my career
when i was reading the comments i mean if you already think you're fat
you know and and you get old fat yeah like hundreds of times a day yeah even your therapist
is like i don't know what to tell you i you know yeah you know like yeah i i don't know what to
say about this you know so most people don't have to go through that type of struggle in public
what if you filmed yourself eating yeah during the process and then edited it that's this this is
a big step for me yeah um but i mean look i i i actually try really hard i work out seven days
a week you look great now i i i love food and i so i'm not going to torture myself but like
i try really hard you know it's like it accepts right accept that i was wrong about things in my
20s accept that all i can do is try really hard you know and fortunately if you can actually get
yourself to not read the comments nobody's that mean in person right yeah you said you stopped
five years ago that sounds like you have a very specific time you did was there an equivalent
of a rock bottom you're like that's it probably yeah probably where i just said no but there was no
you can't recall the like i don't recall last comment i closed my laptop for the last time
yeah no i no i i think i had a i had a real social media cleansing for a while yeah uh i found
twitter was incredibly unhealthy i deleted my twitter yeah yeah oh yeah twitter was incredibly
unhealthy um yeah i mean i i social media made me very very depressed and so i don't have any
social media on my phone that's great i use instagram desktop a lot of people don't even know
about instagram dot com use instagram dot com you guys don't even know about instagram dot com so
yeah no social media on the phone that's great no facebook no twitter at all yeah um and and i try to
read more books yeah that's it yeah it's try try like phones dude like the internet is just so bad
for you like yeah i think the internet getting worse like has made me want to use it less
i'll get time you know like the way i use the internet in like oh nine was like pretty much fine
absolutely yeah i completely understand this yeah yeah yeah as we uh as we wind up here um
if there was a legacy you would hope that this episode would leave behind about you what would
you what would you want that to be the legacy of this episode this specific episode of our fans
listen this ten years from now all of our fans aren't necessarily street car folks or people that
would know all about smoking tires so soapbox this is the soapbox here it is how do we remember you
what's it what's the thing that's in ten seconds or less learn the difference between car enthusiasm
and car dependency car enthusiasm is i love sports cars i love racing and i want the freedom
to enjoy those things car dependency is our entire need world needs to be built around
getting cars through it as fast as possible these are not the same thing yeah so when you
talk about pro urbanization that is pro car enthusiasm pro car enthusiasm now i can drive
25% of the people who keep their cars here are walking distance they live over they live right
there in those apartments and those condos and this allows them to to to practice car enthusiasm
without taking up more space so that's that's kind of what we're looking for that's my there's my
when i run for office yeah yeah yeah and also here's my other one we don't need autonomous cars
we need to paint lines better and and care about driving yeah the number of times i have seen
incredibly dangerous places fixed with paint right like it happens all the time it happens every
day yeah they fix dangerous roads with paint and lives are saved yeah yeah when you run for office
can we run a political ad site unseen yeah okay sounds good right there you can cut anything for
this this is probably way too open ended in vague and so it's fine if we just decide it's not worth
but in the car space you've done the thing that most people aspire to in terms of you've got a
following you've made it work income wise but very specifically you've built a following you've built
kind of your own car culture in a way this is a racing show i would say racing's been in a real
upswing the last few years but there's still i would argue i would still say you touch more people
than most forms of motorsport do what is motorsport doing wrong and it's it's probably too general
but in terms of if you were to look at what indica or imsa or nas car any of these folks are doing
is there something where you're like guys it's obvious it's right here um that that is a very
difficult question yeah i don't have an answer for i mean i can i can tell you like i love driving
a race car i don't care that much about watching other people drive a race car um and and so um
for me i'd rather watch a documentary about racing than an actual race most of the time
my best bits my favorite bits of racing media are in fact documentaries like senna or um the number
one the movie one one is i probably my favorite i think f*** it worst seo good luck searching for
that search the number one yeah right yeah good luck yeah that's the first one the best movie with
the worst seo um so yeah i mean i mean obviously you know drive to survive did a lot for f1 and
everyone else tried to copy it with varying degrees of success correct so i mean i'm varying
it's not that i think racing needs to do that but um i do i i i don't have an answer to what will
make you don't have to i'm just curious if you did yeah yeah i don't i mean some of my favorite
race types of racing are some of the hardest to watch i mean rally right you know and and stuff
like that i think uh some of the fpv stuff we've seen with the drone the drone work has really
been really cool some of the digital overlays of the stats that we've seen in recent years are very
dynamic and cool yeah um but it's interesting when you say the documentary is what's most compelling
for you sure yeah yeah because there's a story a properly crafted story it's a properly crafted
story yeah yeah there's a problem and and you know obviously like drive to survive is like
dramatized yeah no it is uh it is and i like i like documentaries better than i like drive
originally i like drive to survive because it gave me a reason to think about seventh place
exactly yeah in a way i never ever ever had before there's a storytelling yeah yeah and it
actually over as it gone through the season i don't really care anymore because they don't have a
lot of new compelling characters right um i'm not sure what these other seasons could do i mean it's
tough i driving an indie car at 230 miles an hour should be pretty exciting you know i don't
know why that's not a bigger right bigger hit what i can tell you is like when i create content
like track videos and racing videos do not work for my audience and we've heard that a lot yeah
yeah racing videos work for our audience yeah well it's hard to make race it's hard to make
things look fast it is that's why they slide cars on tv going slowly because like that looks faster
than actually yeah well drifting is so much easier to shoot yeah it looks great everything is awesome
well like even when i'm up in the canyons like you should see how fast i have to drive to make
it look a little fast you know it's like it's not good but that's what the audience you know
you said the audience 366 days ago yeah right yeah right we're recording this
may 5th 2024 oh yeah yeah and clear yeah right no yeah we do it we keep it safe we do all like
actually i care about two things one that we understand the difference in car enthusiast
and also i'd like to be the quickest automotive journalist working today i don't really care
if you like my writing but i think i'm probably not james well that doesn't you know i can't
turn your journalist it doesn't count it doesn't count if you can if you started as an indie
car driver i didn't start as an indie car driver i i'm also gonna say and and and i'm sure you
met him uh the catna is pretty fast they have to be alive i can't contest alon
no harris is faster than me oh harris is about jethro's faster than me too okay a couple of the
british guys are the british guys they're they're they're different that's a that's a it's great
on a curve i'll take fastest american and with that you just thought like all of europe
um let's say with that continental's got the check
oh
I need it right now
Guess you want your back, I know you love to
Even for the little girl I want you
Hunters in my phone, girl, I call to
Girl, I know it's late, but
Okay, you're not going, I'm always alone
You runnin' through my mind, I know where this game called
My homies gettin' coughed, been stuck here all along
You know I'm scrollin' through the grammy
You pop up in my phone, we ain't good, no
I'ma hit you on the late start, we don't gotta waste no
Now what's this paper and it's gonna be a secret
About this episode
Matt Farah joins the hosts for a lively discussion about his journey in automotive journalism and content creation. From his early days in the car wash business to becoming a prominent figure in the YouTube car community, Farah shares insights on the evolution of car culture, the challenges of online criticism, and the importance of balancing car enthusiasm with urbanism. The conversation also touches on memorable press events, the intricacies of car reviews, and the impact of social media on self-image. With humor and candor, Farah reflects on his career and the future of automotive content.
24 Hours of Daytona
24 Hours of VIR
Aston Martin
Atlanta Journal 500
barn find
Bentley
B&H
bracket racing
drag racing
Fox body Mustang
Acura NSX
Aston Martin Vantage
Audi R8
Audi TT RS
BMW 3 Series
BMW M3
Cadillac Eldorado
Cadillac XLR
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Malibu
Ferrari 360
Ford Mustang
Ford Taurus
Honda Civic
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Mazda MX-5 / Miata
McLaren F1
Mini Cooper
Pontiac Fiero
Saab Turbo X
Subaru 360
Subaru Legacy
Volvo 240
Original notes
Matt Farah is a diverse and well-know automotive journalist, but most notably he really made his name with his hit YouTube and podcast series, “The Smoking Tire.” A show that has really fostered a variety of segments within the car culture, Matt has spent the last three decades earning a reputation as one of the […]
Dinner with Racers
Dinner with Racers
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