They’re talking about how it’s getting harder to afford the kind of cars enthusiasts like. Prices and costs (like buying, fixing, and insuring) have been rising, so it’s not as easy to get into the hobby.
A “track day” is an event where drivers take their own cars to a racetrack for timed laps or open sessions, usually with safety rules and instruction. “Cheap track days” implies lower-cost events that make it easier for everyday enthusiasts to participate.
Porsche is a well-known sports-car brand, and in this conversation it’s used as an example of a company that sells both normal sports cars and very expensive luxury-level cars.
A “K-shaped economy” is a way of describing an economy where rich people keep pulling ahead, while everyone else doesn’t improve as much. The point here is that car companies may chase the very wealthy because that’s where the money is.
Concept
holy trinity era of cars
“Holy trinity” here means a “golden age” that car people talk about—when a few famous performance cars and brands were the main stars. They’re using it to compare the past to today’s more expensive, niche strategy.
The Mustang is a very common, high-volume sports car. The point here is that making lots of Mustangs is easier to plan and profit from than making a tiny number of ultra-expensive supercars.
The LaFerrari is an extremely expensive, low-volume supercar. Making a small number of them is a different kind of challenge than making a car that sells to huge numbers of people.
Profit margin per car means how much profit the company gets from selling one car. If the profit is too low, the company may not want to spend factory time building that type of car.
The Cadillac Escalade is a popular, high-end SUV that sells in big enough numbers to make money. The discussion is basically about copying the business/engineering approach from a proven money-maker.
Reverse engineering is when you study something by breaking it down or analyzing it to learn how it’s built. The idea here is using a successful car as a blueprint for making another car more profitable.
Homologation is basically “official approval” for a race car to be eligible under a racing rulebook. If a car has to meet certain requirements, that can influence which versions the manufacturer builds.
The Porsche Macan is Porsche’s smaller SUV. When people talk about its sales dropping, they’re usually pointing to how customer demand is changing for Porsche’s more everyday models.
The Porsche Cayenne is Porsche’s bigger SUV. Here they’re talking about the electric version, and using it to compare how different Porsche models are selling.
A Porsche Carrera is a version of the Porsche 911. The point here is that the “entry-level” Carrera is now so expensive that it’s hard to buy one for anything less than about six figures.
Cars lose value as they age, and the early years are usually where the biggest drop happens. They’re saying they’d rather buy a used EV so the first big drop has already happened.
Ferraris are cars made by Ferrari, a brand known for very expensive exotic sports cars. The speaker is saying they’re not the kind of buyer who targets cars like that.
A Ford Explorer is a larger SUV meant for everyday driving and carrying people or gear. It’s the kind of car someone might borrow for a week to see how it feels day to day.
A Prius is a car that uses both a gas engine and an electric motor to help save fuel. People sometimes recommend older ones because they can still be efficient without costing as much as newer cars.
The Honda Fit EV is a small hatchback that runs on electricity instead of gas. The podcast mentions it as an option if you want a fully electric car rather than a hybrid.
The Porsche 918 Spyder is a very expensive, very fast supercar. It uses a mix of electric and gas power, and it’s often discussed as one of the early modern hybrid supercars.
Concept
million dollar cars
This phrase is about the time when some supercars became so expensive they cost around a million dollars. People often see them as “tech demonstrations” as much as cars.
The McLaren P1 is an extremely high-performance supercar. It uses a hybrid system, combining electric power with a gas engine, and it’s often talked about as part of the early era of modern hybrid supercars.
Options are a type of financial contract tied to a company’s stock. The point here is that part of the payout was linked to how the stock does, not just immediate cash.
Rivian is a company that makes electric cars. Here, they’re talking about Rivian’s R2 model and how the company’s money situation and stock price are tied together.
An IPO is when a company first sells shares to regular investors. They’re comparing what people expected from Rivian at its IPO to how the stock is doing now.
The Rivian R2 is Rivian’s next electric car that they expect to start getting into customers’ hands. The hosts are using it as a benchmark for whether Rivian is actually delivering on its promises.
Infotainment is the touchscreen and software in a car—things like navigation, music, and settings. The segment says Rivian’s software/in-car tech is part of what it sells to other car brands.
A tax credit is money the government effectively gives you when you buy a qualifying EV. If people think the credit will end soon, they may buy earlier than they otherwise would.
The Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car that runs on batteries instead of gas. It’s the kind of car people discuss as a big, exciting future purchase, sometimes with deposits made long before delivery.
The Chevrolet Corvette C8 is a sports car where the engine is behind the driver. The conversation here is about whether buying one used is a good deal.
“458” is a Ferrari model (the Ferrari 458). The host is saying the Corvette C8 can feel kind of similar to that Ferrari in how it drives, even though it’s not the same kind of expensive car.
Term
Revi engine
This sounds like the host is talking about an engine difference between the Corvette C8 and the Ferrari 458. The exact term is unclear from the transcript, but the point is that the engines aren’t the same.
The Miata is a small two-seat convertible made for fun driving. People like it because it’s relatively simple and enjoyable, and sometimes they sell it when they don’t have time to maintain it.
The Nissan Sentra is a regular, practical compact car. Here it’s mentioned because it’s the car they have, and it’s chosen for saving fuel rather than for being sporty.
“Tax deductible” means you may be able to count certain costs as business expenses so you pay less tax. Here, they’re saying the sports car could be treated like part of the business.
Car
Mercedes-Benz 1995 E320 Cabriolet
This is a 1990s Mercedes-Benz E-Class convertible (the E320). Here it’s the “base car” they’re thinking about modifying for a big custom project.
The 500 E is a special, high-performance Mercedes E-Class from the 1990s. In this story, they’re imagining a convertible version of that look, even though Mercedes never officially built one.
M 119 is the name Mercedes used for a specific V8 engine. They’re talking about using the “real” 500 E engine, but deciding against it because it’s not ideal and it’s too big to fit easily.
This is a faster, performance version of the Mercedes E-Class from 2002. They’re using it as a donor car so they can take its drivetrain and install it into the other Mercedes.
A powertrain swap is when you take the main moving parts that make the car go—engine and gearbox (and related parts)—from one car and install them into another. It’s a major modification, not just a bolt-on upgrade.
“Trans diff” is shorthand for the transmission and the differential (the unit that splits torque to the left and right wheels). In a swap, matching the transmission and differential to the engine and driveshaft setup is critical so the drivetrain works correctly.
“Supra” here refers to a Toyota Supra that the guest equipped with E55-sourced brakes. The Supra is a popular platform for brake upgrades because enthusiasts often swap in larger or higher-quality calipers/rotors from other cars to improve stopping power and fade resistance.
They’re talking about a 2002 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG. The point is that its Brembo brake parts can be fitted to another car with the right spacers so they mount correctly.
Brembo makes performance brake parts. Here, the guest used rebuilt (“remanned”) Brembo brake components to save money and still get good stopping hardware.
Machine spacers are custom-fit metal pieces that help parts line up. They’re used here so the Mercedes brake hardware can bolt onto the Supra correctly.
“91 octane” is the fuel grade. Higher-octane fuel is generally better at preventing engine knocking when the engine is working hard, like at a race track.
The Felicity Ace was a ship that carried cars, and it became famous because of a serious incident during transport. People bring it up when talking about cars that were lost or damaged in shipping.
The Acura Integra Type S is a sportier version of the Integra. People like it because it feels fun and engaging to drive, not just because it’s fast on paper.
Term
autojournalism
Autojournalism just means car media—like reviews and driving impressions. It’s how people learn what a car is like before they buy one.
The Mazda RX-7 is a special kind of sports car because it uses a rotary engine. That engine is different from most cars, and it’s a big part of why people love the RX-7.
A Honda Civic is a compact car that many people drive every day. It can also be modified for racing, and the podcast mentions using one for an endurance event.
“Lemons” is a kind of low-budget race where people intentionally bring cheap, sometimes sketchy cars. It’s meant to be fun and chaotic, not super serious or perfectly prepared.
“Wheel-to-wheel” means you’re racing right next to other cars, not just driving around the track. It’s harder because you’re competing for position and other cars are close by.
“Lucky dog” is a racing rule that can give a lap-down car a chance to get back into the race. It usually happens under certain race conditions, like when the field is slowed down.
WRL sounds like another racing series that’s a step up from the “lemon” events. In this clip, they don’t spell out what WRL means, so it’s unclear exactly which series it is.
Concept
champ
“Champ” here likely means another racing class or level. They’re comparing which cars are fast enough to run with the top end of that group.
GT4 is a type of race where the cars are based on real, street-legal models. They’re modified for racing, but they’re not as extreme as the highest-level GT race cars.
IMSA is a big North American organization that organizes sports-car races. If a car is described as an “IMSA” car, it means it’s built to race in that kind of series.
“Club private” means the track is mostly reserved for a specific group’s members. If you’re not in that group, it can be harder to book or even attend events.
A downshift is when you select a lower gear to increase engine speed and provide the torque needed to accelerate out of a corner or slow down efficiently. The host mentions downshifting twice on that track, tying it to how the braking and cornering rhythm works.
Terminal velocity is the point where the car can’t speed up more on a straight because resistance catches up. The host is asking whether they hit that kind of top speed on the back straight.
The Dodge Durango Hellcat is a powerful SUV from Dodge. In this story, the host drove it to a race weekend and even tried practice laps, but it ran into a braking problem related to brake fluid overheating.
The Challenger is a muscle car that’s built for strong acceleration and a sporty feel. The podcast mentions it in the middle of a racing-related story about what vehicles were used for track events.
Brake fluid can overheat on track and start to boil. When that happens, the brakes don’t work as well because the pedal can feel soft or weak—exactly what the host describes here.
Brake fade is when your brakes get worse after you’ve been braking hard for a while. Here, it’s happening because the brake fluid overheats and boils, so the brakes don’t feel as strong.
Car
EcoBoost
EcoBoost is Ford’s way of making an engine feel strong using turbochargers. Here, they’re talking about a track car that could spin its tires when accelerating.
Traction control helps prevent the tires from spinning when you accelerate. If it’s only partly on, the car may still slip a bit so it can keep moving quickly.
LIVE
All right, 321 oh, yes, well, it sounds good.
That'll be fine.
Yeah.
That'll be perfect.
I just need the spike for all three of us to sink us out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it'll be close enough.
Absolutely.
Uh-huh.
Close enough for government work.
Well, hello and welcome to Trangirliesmo episode 14.
I am your host, Victoria Scott.
My pronouns are she and her, and I'm here with my co-host.
Hi, my name is Jordan Hopstetter.
My pronouns are she and her.
And yeah, we have a guest.
We've deviated from the norm for a second time on the show
and brought on an actual for real automotive journalist.
I'd like to introduce our guest, Matt Farah.
Matt.
Hi, guys.
Hi.
I think it's pretty obvious what my pronouns are,
but they're he and him.
You can, you can add they're he and him.
But you, I just, you know, 14 episodes in, you're like,
if this is going to be a podcast,
we need a bearded cis man immediately.
Otherwise, we have no credibility.
No.
No, we, we brought you on because we had to break our streak
of only inviting cis men on named Kevin.
We had a video on last week.
That's true.
Very funny.
Kevin McCulley and Kevin Williams, the photographer
and then the great Chinese EV whisperer from,
from the Chinese EVs.
Yeah, we were.
That's amazing.
You have all of the Kevin's.
We have all the Kevin's.
That's so funny.
Matt, you're someone we've wanted to have on from the beginning
because one, you were both very, you were very sweet
to both of us throughout our times in industry.
And also, like, you're just kind of, I think,
the highest profile automotive journalist who's a real one.
Like the moment I...
Oh, that's not true and but very sweet.
Thank you.
And I mean, like a real one as in, like, I gay,
I've always respected you.
But the when everything started going real sideways
in California with the ICE raids and everything,
when you immediately had that immigration lawyer
on the smoking tire to talk about it,
that was one of those moments where I was like,
oh, no, I am correct in
going to the mat for for that.
Like you are sweet.
Thank you.
That and the articles you've written that we will talk about
are like, it's a good to see in road and track.
Like, you know, I should probably
get people who are not familiar with Matt Farah.
If you're not familiar with Matt Farah,
he hosts the smoking tire, which is a very good
automotive podcast that I think is probably
the biggest one in the English speaking world at this point.
He had a video.
He had a bunch of different video series.
He owns a really cool white glove car storage place
in Los Angeles called West Side Collector Car Storage,
which I've actually checked out, which is extremely cool.
And he is an editor at large for road and track, right?
And they're at large.
Thank you. That's correct.
Yeah. And one day we'll learn what editor at large
actually means.
I've never been clear either.
It's one of those titles like that sounds really good.
But yeah, I don't. It does.
It's kind of my conception is kind of like you're
a Ronan automotive journalist, sort of a Roman.
I'm searching for stories.
Yeah, like they can't find me.
Like that's sort of where I think it's at.
And actually.
Probably the most accurate description, actually.
Yeah, because I don't have to go to meetings or anything.
So it's part of my contract.
I don't have to attend meetings.
So I don't.
And they don't really know where I am.
But but no, it literally it's actually far dumber than that.
Seriously, it literally means you're the editor of the large stories,
the big, important stories.
It's like it's it's it's a dumb.
It's a dumb turn of phrase for a company whose job is to turn phrase.
Yeah, you know,
I should not make fun of my own job title for or risk losing it.
But
but yeah, this is that's a fun part of having a big podcast
that coming to a smaller podcast is here.
You can say all the stuff that would get you in trouble at your day job.
Oh, no, I would say this.
I'm a day job. I say all the time.
But I you're right.
You don't see a lot of like leftist in writing in in car magazines.
You do not like.
Yeah, I don't they didn't accept it.
But the pitch Brock Yates would have been mega.
I think it was a column.
I was like, you know, like, you're not wrong.
You're not wrong.
Oh, yeah, of course.
I read all of them.
All every one of them.
All of the legends.
All everyone that we grew up reading.
PJ O'Rourke wrote wrote wrote for National Review.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have chosen for my own sanity to never look into the
Polatak politics of click and clack the Tapper Brothers.
I don't need to know.
I don't need to know about the car talk guys.
I just don't need to know.
One day, there's going to be like a behind the bastards on click and clack.
Fuck it.
It's some like that actually, I mean, assuming there really won't be that would
be like a fun kind of SNL.
I think yeah.
Well, I knew new info wars, which as of maybe last night isn't happening.
But yeah, that was going to be funny, too.
I saw my wife already got the tote bag.
Like that tote bag might be contraband, I think now.
But as someone who had is a former
Austinite and was at too many events where Alex Jones also showed up.
I think it's real cool that we've invented a new legal system just for just for
the bad who would go into the when I was working retail and freelancing still.
I worked at a toy store in downtown Austin.
There was another toy store north of town that was our heated deadly rival.
Alex Jones went there, which was our point of pride where he didn't come to us.
But after his divorce, he took a allegedly rotating string of single
mothers to that toy store and would just.
Make it rain in terms of like like wooden block toys for kids who don't really like
hanging out, dude, you can't.
That's like that's like, oh, my God, what is it?
Oh, from Kingpin is a big earn.
Bigger and McCracken always takes out like the hot moms with young kids.
Like sometimes I wake up and bigger and it's already there.
That man was that man was read at the table on weird crunchy
Westlake moms with iffy politics in the Austin area.
Amazing. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so not a lot of leftists writing for for road and track.
But no, it actually is like it's like sometimes problematic,
but I try to give a.
I completely get that.
Well, the other thing I was going to say, too, is just like, you know, for again,
for people who are not familiar with that, like you've had longevity.
Like your videos you did were influential on me wanting to become an automotive
journalist when I was actively still working in the industry and like had a
byline, I came on your show to hype my book now that we have a podcast after we
have been in the industry, you are on our show.
So, you know, you've figured out a way to kind of like thread that needle.
And I think that was part of what I wanted to chat with you about because you
did a recent piece that we called out, I think like three or four episodes ago on
here for road and track, kind of about like the affordability crisis in
enthusiast cars that was specifically a quote that I really wanted to highlight.
But I think we kind of founded this whole podcast around the concept of, you know,
like I I wrenched on enlisting a $3,000 cars when I started that model is dead.
You know, Jordan used to do cheap track days in Irmiata.
They turned her local track into a data center.
Oh, that's worse than a housing development.
It's the worst possible world.
Yeah, it's RIP pit race.
The sale was finalized like two weeks ago.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's pit race.
So what a fucking bummer.
OK, all right. Yeah, it wasn't a great track, but I didn't I didn't hate it.
You know, like, yeah, but it's going to be a great data center.
Yeah, I can play iracing on that.
You don't see the future.
Yeah, how are the emissions going to be compared to when it was a racetrack?
I bet there'll be comparable or probably probably worse, actually.
Yeah, probably what your power grid,
like pie chart is for Pittsburgh area city, but it's probably not.
I was about to say, I was like, I think we're trying to fire up another steel miller
to just speed run the 20s and 30s again.
But yeah, you know, we must usher in the apocalypse.
The policy says that Trump will deliver us.
You know, yeah, yeah.
My my favorite just sidebar about the AI power for like data centers is that boom
aerospace, which is a favorite vaporware manufacturer of mine, who's been saying
they're going to bring back Concorde basically for the past 10 years.
They're like pivoting to AI data centers.
We're going to use our non-existent gas turbine engines for our supersonic planes
that they have not engineered.
They don't have any.
Oh, boy.
You don't want to fly on the Titan to supersonic jet.
Using the Madcats controller to come in for a landing at Charles D.
All the Titan Von Hindenbergs coming in hot.
OK, what were AI pivot?
Then we'll get on to the topic because
Matt, I have as I try not to look at Instagram reels unless there are a bunch
of my dipshit comedian friends who that is the only way they communicate with me.
Occasional text messages showing up to my wedding and then Instagram reels.
What's up with your AI?
Homoculus of like, who's that guy who does all of the like AI videos of the auto
journalists on doing candy and drugs and stuff.
Yeah. Highway.
What is what was the guy?
It's just a guy.
It's just a guy and he's not someone.
Someone tried to make a big deal about like, I know, I know who it is for real.
And I was like, I don't give a fuck.
It's just a guy.
But I actually,
yeah, they made fun of me and some other LA, you know, characters.
And and some of the writing was kind of funny, actually.
I was not offended or anything by the writing or by being made fun of.
I was just like, I look thin, you know, that's that's OK.
And and so as long as like the general consensus of the internet is that I'm
thin now, thanks to AI, that's fine.
I can remember you want to say about anything else.
But I messaged him and it isn't him.
And it's the only show where I can clarify that on.
But OK, so and I said, you know,
I think your writing is funny.
I am not the least bit offended that you're poking fun at me.
Could you make Johnny look a little fatter?
And then, no, and then I said, what would you be interested in
having me fund a video made by humans?
Like you could, I said, you could write anything you want.
And I know oversight, whatever you want to do.
Sixty seconds, you know, and get a get a quote for some from some animators
to make it for, you know, by humans.
And actually, actually he did.
And animation is really fucking expensive.
It turns out really expensive.
And but but I I do think I will throw a little bit of money at it.
At some point, maybe later this year, if I if I have a good year,
I would I would do one that was made by humans.
And all you know, all I want the end is to say, you know,
this was made by humans thanks to West Side Collector Car Storage, you know,
and then it's there's some advertising for the business.
Like that's that's an OK way to spend money on otherwise frivolous things.
They're worse ways to spend money.
Yeah, I will have to have you send me the link to this because I deleted Instagram
a while ago because I didn't really enjoying it.
I have no idea what's going on.
There's a dude who makes like a I
videos that like make fun of California car culture.
OK, that's all that's all that some of them are funny.
Yeah. All right.
Well, we can I'll put it in the show notes.
People can take a look.
But back to the the affordability crisis that you discussed at Road and Track.
I'm going to quote from the story that you wrote
where you said now it genuinely feels as someone who tests for new tests,
new cars for a living, that there are more ways to spend deep six or seven figures
on a new sports car than there are to spend five figures on a new sports car.
In the same article you called out that Road and Track, you know, for a while,
did like the best sports cars, the 10 best sports cars of the year comparison,
split it out into affordable and kind of like crazy dream cars a while ago and then
had to discontinue the of that split because there were not affordable cars.
Yeah. Yeah.
And, you know, this is, you know, you run a collector's car storage place in L.A.
Obviously, like you've got you've you had like the Kuntas.
You've had a bunch of like very like bedroom wall kind of cars.
And it's very unusual for somebody who is on the higher end of the car market
to be like, hey, this is going to be bad if we don't have like the stuff to start off with.
And so well, I wanted to hear more about your thoughts on that as somebody who
drives kind of both ends of the spectrum.
Yeah, I mean, I OK, so.
Yes, I have a few nice cars.
Yeah.
And yes, for the most part, my business
caters to folks that have collectible cars, although not always.
You would be probably surprised at some of the cars that are not actually that
collectible that we take care of just because the owner wants a higher level of care.
That's my only plug for my for my shop here.
But that that notwithstanding.
The issues that I'm talking about in that article affect even regular rich people.
I'm not like the another thing I would like to like make pretty clear is that
like regular rich people should
should be more solid with the lower classes because they're actually much
closer together than like people that own mega yachts and things like that.
And and so not like I'm saying like I want to be more man.
Like I want to I know what I am, right?
But I'm just saying like in terms of systems, right?
Yeah, what you it's one thing like, OK,
there's more billionaires and so you have more hypercar companies like Pagani and
Koenigsegg and and I like cool stuff.
I like cars that go fast and look like spaceships and can do amazing things.
Like I'm a gearhead.
Like I like stuff like that.
And I have a lot of respect for the people that design and build that type of stuff.
Like I get it.
I get why people want it and I get why it can cost so much money.
Yeah, I remember specifically when I was at motor one, my boss went out.
Kyle, he went out to review the the new Pagani at was at the utopia.
And he was like, this is like the greatest car ever.
It's a pity that they're probably going to sit in garages.
But I remember it like some of them actually do seem like they're really all
they're cracked up to be.
Yeah, I mean, some of the some shit's amazing.
I mean, most of it is most of the time, not always, but most but most of it's
pretty amazing. And so so OK, fine.
But what's a bummer is when you have
your car makers that make both regular and super luxury cars like Porsche
and car makers that are really known for like regular cars like Ford.
Really shift their product line to target the upper bit of the, quote,
K shaped economy and back in the day when I when like the the holy trinity era
of cars came out and the Porsche was, you know, it's the most expensive Porsche
ever and the first McLaren over a million dollars and you know, we all know what
I'm talking about. Yeah.
And I went, oh, man, I hope they don't figure out that like they could build a
car for everybody or they could build a car for like 200 people and charge like
100 times as much.
And that's actually an easier business model.
Like if you already built sports cars, then building like a super crazy hypercar
for like 500 people is way easier than by building a mass market product
for a few thousand people.
Yeah, or a truly mass market product for 50,000 people, you know, like building
a Mustang is way, way harder than building a fucking La Ferrari.
You know, yeah.
I mean, I mean, not not the specific engineering of it.
I mean, the idea that the the the business model, well, yeah, I mean,
successfully developing a car, building it and selling it and distributing it to
tens of thousands of people.
It's the same reason we don't get like small cars in the US either is because
like it's once you're building a bunch of cars, it's easier to just make it bigger,
charge more for it.
Profit margin per car is so crucial to the auto industry that like that's part of
the reason we don't really have a lot of small, affordable cars is because you
are you can't why would you justify spending factory time labor hours on a
car that you're making $5,000 on when you can build a truck, sell 500 fewer of them
and make $10,000 more on each one.
Like this is the correct to your argument and it's just like endemic to every layer
of like the auto industry and the high end stuff is kind of where it's like,
obviously last episode, we were talking about like the new like what was it?
The 9-11 GT3 convertible now.
It's like, can you can you smell the profit, you know, that they actually did
you know this, that they reverse engineered a Cadillac Escalade to see how to
maximize profit out of a vehicle to build the GT3 Cabriolet.
I can't tell if you're doing a bit or serious.
I'm doing a bit.
They rearranged for maximum profit.
You did you did deliver that so deadpan.
And I was like, you know, 9-11 convertible 9-11 GT3 convertible.
I would believe that that feels a little that we talked about how it just felt
a little craven to be like, OK, let's take the hardcore stiffened up sports car
and just lop the roof off.
Well, and not make it just a speedster.
I think that was the other.
Well, because that's a different homologation, right?
Yeah, they to make the GT3.
It's like they could make it without designing new bodywork because each of the
bits they already had, like the doors are from the ST, but the top of the of the
rear is from the regular cab and then the lower bit is the GT3.
So with a speedster, they have to design an entire new rear end and a new windshield
and a new roof structure with this.
They already had all the bits.
They just put them together in a different order.
Yeah, which is like, which is a very thing to do.
Yeah, it'll drive great.
It's the most GM thing to do.
Yeah.
It does feel like Porsche is starting to feel the pressure of all of the markets
that aren't that tight top end.
Like I don't see like what Macan sales cratered.
The electric Cayenne's not really doing it like doing the speedster.
And then what did they just they sold their stake at Bugatti Rimmick, right?
Well, I read their profits were down 95 percent, which, you know, there's a there's
a few things happening there.
I mean, mainly it's just the money they lit on fire by converting entire
model lines to EV and now having to like backtrack.
Like that's just like, wow.
So yeah, well, about that being like a pure reflection of sales,
but also the MSRPs are pretty wild on every new Porsche.
Yeah, I didn't realize that you couldn't get into a base
Carrera for less than less than six figures these days.
Oh, I feel like the last time a lot, I think it's like 100 and twenty
5000 bucks.
It's like way over.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
My my wife and I are trying to we're trying to find a new two car solution for
ourselves and we want an EV probably used because that is the the number one bit
of EV game that you have driven into me is by the nicest thing you can use
at the time, EV wise, because just let someone else take the depreciation hit.
Um, but also it's like we wanted a nice ish sports car, but it's like
I put in the five figures range.
Like, yeah, yeah, and as like from whatever angle I look at it for,
I mean, look as a as a consumer, um, for the most part, I'm not buying brand
new six figure sports cars.
I happen to have 13 but
but, uh, I'm not, I'm not the target for most of that for, for any, for
the Lambos and the Ferraris, I'm not a target for that, but like, but as a
content creator, um, I'm in the consumer advice business and making YouTube
videos for the 1500 people globally that can afford one of these cars is not
a great business model for me.
I don't get paid, you know, and so the videos do better when people can afford
the cars.
Yeah, your singer video wasn't sound.
Uh, it was a great video, but your singer video wasn't sound finance, like
sound consumer advice.
There used to be, I mean, if you go back like fifth, not 15, maybe 10 years,
you go back maybe 10 years, people would watch stuff like that because out of
an experiential thing, but I just think the vibe, and I feel it too, not as the
content creator, but as a person who's not like a billionaire, the vibe has
shifted a little bit towards like toys that you'll never be able to afford.
It's sort of like who gives a shit.
You know, that's, that's,
well, and I ran into the same problem from like the other side of things.
Sort of when I was like reviewing cars and giving consumer advice, I remember
I got a, it was of all things, it was a Ford Explorer, uh, as a, as a car, test
car for a week, and it was 50 grand and I was like, I don't even know people
who can afford to have more than one child, much less people who could drop 50
grand on like an SUV that needs like a family hauler.
Like it was very difficult for me to envision kind of the mindset of like
what these consumers would be looking for, because for me, like, you know, and
there's another story that you, I was going to end this with, which is, you
know, the what car should I buy kind of thing?
And it's like, I don't know.
Like my answer to everybody who asks, Hey, what car should I buy?
It's like, Hey, do you want a hybrid?
You should buy a 10 year old Prius.
Do you want a not hybrid?
You should buy a 10 year old Honda Fit.
Uh, there are obviously changes to that beyond that, but like that's kind of,
it's very difficult to imagine somebody with 50 grand or $500,000 or whatever,
you know, to spend them.
It's so weird because like I have a foot in both of those worlds.
Yeah.
Like, like some, I have like best friends that are like out of work and
really struggling and driving 20 year old cars.
Yeah.
And I have like best friends that are like actual billionaires.
And, um, I have to like be in both of those worlds and like be myself
authentically and both of those people sort of are okay with that.
Which is, you know, but, but when I, on the show, I try to like realize like
when I'm talking about a car that's 30 or $40,000, you can hear me sometimes
go like, I know this is real money and, uh, but in the scale, in the scale of
the shit that we talk about in this show is at the lower end.
So, and I'll have people be like, you know, or I'll see them at the race track
or some event and they'll be like, you know, like you said that thing on the
show was 25 grand.
Like that's not a lot of money.
It's just like what it costs.
And I'm like, yeah, but you're fucking rich as shit.
Like if for someone that has 500 bucks in their bank account, I might as well
be talking about going to space.
So it's, it's like when you're talking about cars or yeah, you can't avoid
talking about what the car costs and you can't avoid talking about that people
can't for the most part afford it.
And some have so much money that they're like, that they don't even notice
that other people can't afford it.
You know, yeah, I feel like the first time in my life, uh, I really, yeah,
having, I was the person driving the 20 year old thing.
But like I was friends with everyone who both helped own and run the petrol
lounge in Austin and I got invited.
Oh, those are nice people.
They're great guys.
I, I, I love them dearly.
I miss them dearly.
But yeah, it was every now and then I'd be talking about a problem I would have.
And I would get looked at like I was a space alien because one of them would
just like, well, why don't you just go see so and so about this?
And I'm like, because you made $250 million last year and my tax return as a freelance
writer and student said $15,000 a year, like, and they were just like, all right.
No, I'm just like, yeah, like I like sweet people never judged me for it.
But they were, I just did see the like the gears clicking of like, oh, oh, right.
Yeah.
And this is, this is part of what I think from like the bottom end of it has been
frustrating is because like I, I think, I think most people generally speaking,
and this is kind of how I was about like this initial era of like the Porsche 918 spider,
the McLaren P1, the La Ferrari, that like initial wave of like million dollar cars.
I did kind of treat them as sort of like, you know, interesting science projects.
I did watch a lot of videos about them.
I was psyched to see them in person because they were like genuinely like interesting
from an engineering perspective.
Oh, yeah.
And I didn't, but I, I owe it.
I just drove a 918 last year.
Fucking awesome.
Yeah, I spent like 30 hours drawing a picture, like hand drawing a picture of one for a friend
of mine.
Like it was, it really, I thought it was a very cool car.
Oh, that's cute.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, but like it's, they've aged shockingly well.
I mean, really shockingly well.
Yeah, yeah.
But like, I, you know, at that point in time, I was rotating through my endless cast of
like $3,000 cars that I could largely like afford to wrench on.
And that was kind of like, we would go to the same meets.
I would get to check out their stuff.
They would get to check out my stuff.
And there was kind of like a, even if we both, even if our approaches to auto enthusiasm
were very different, there was kind of a mutual agreement.
I mean, like when I came on your show and I did the book, the whole books point was like,
we have this, this sort of community melting pot of a lot of people from different backgrounds,
different income levels, different interests of engineering or racing or whatever that kind
of all can agree that like, we really like these cars.
This is sort of what we do this for is that we just share this passion.
And I think that from the bottom end, part of the reason that the really expensive stuff has
become upsetting is just cause like, it's hard, you know, you can't find the $3,000 cars anymore.
Like I, well, yeah, and like, yes, if you, you count for inflation,
like my original super, I bought 10 years ago, should be six grand or whatever.
But I don't know people who have like doubled their income in the past 10 years.
You know what I mean?
Like, it's very rare.
Well, actually, you know, there are some cars that are better value compared to like inflation.
Yeah, you know, it's not necessarily the fault of all car manufacturers and all cars that are
doing their best, but like people's wages and salaries have just not caught up.
So yeah, well, anything like housing, healthcare, etc.
It's all stuff that's kind of out of the industry, but it's sort of like one of the
things we did in the episode, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago, where it was like,
we're an automotive podcast, but we had to talk about the war in Iran because it's like, well,
gas is now five, here where I am in Seattle, it is $6 a gallon for regular.
You know, it is like, it is, it feels like kind of this sort of ever marching crisis of
every aspect of American life has finally made its way to like this hobby in a way that is very
difficult to ignore.
And so seeing somebody who's like, yeah, this is a problem for all of us, not just, you know,
it was just, it was an article that grabbed me, I think also partially again, because like you
mentioned, Rotentract does not tend to publish a lot of stuff like this.
Yeah, I think, Dan, and I think, you know, historically, you're right, they have.
Yes.
But I think if you look at the people who run the magazine now, they would be much more,
it's not hard to figure out why they're willing to now.
Yes, yes.
They, I think we agree on many things, me and most of the editorial team, anyway.
But yeah, I don't know, I don't know if, if the deal with it, Brock Yates would be MAGA.
I don't know if they're letting me piss on Brock Yates is great.
I will say, I have one of my friends at motor one gave me an original copy of the Cannonball
Run book, like the compiled all the stories, because I did a story a couple of years ago
about how I thought the Cannonball was kind of silly at this point, because police have
I remember that.
Yeah, yeah.
And you know, it was, so I read through a bunch of it because I wanted to do research
and I was like, some of the stories, especially later on after I do the first one was like,
whoa, this is rough, man.
This is very like great hasn't, hasn't aged well at all.
No, it's very easy to see kind of like where the Reagan era came in to sort of that sort of
American did it.
It was like, oh, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I like also like, you know, Hunter Thompson, you know, one of the
you know, one of the best writers to ever live, you know, probably do be fair.
He really, the thing is that makes me think that he would have good instincts now is because
he absolutely could not fucking stand that you're Nixon.
I mean, you know what?
Now that I said that and you really bring up a very excellent point.
And I've read Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail too.
Yeah, I think the campaign trail ones are the best.
Yeah, later in life though, it does feel like we're kind of it would be interesting.
There are a lot of like my one that I always go back to is like any kind of like British
sci-fi author Douglas Adams is always the one that comes to mind where I'm like,
I don't want I'm I am so sad that he passed well before his time and I love his books,
but also I'm really glad I don't need to know what he thinks about British politics today.
Do you know what I mean?
Right.
I know I never needed to know what his thoughts on trans people were.
And it's very good that we kind of thought that bullet.
Yeah, better off, not that having not having that not be on the record somewhere.
I think the only Thompson thing that I still use as like a guide stowed for by owed thoughts
is that like September 12th ESPN article about like the party is over.
And I'm like, I think when I first read that, it was during the Obama years and I was like,
come on, things are going to get better forever.
And now it's just like, you know what, maybe maybe the old man still had some and then
and then you later go and you read his like daily regimen that that writer.
My first so my, you know, my first editor.
At first the drive and then wrote in track was my guy and my guy,
he was the editor at the drive and he went to go road track and he brought me to road track.
He was Hunter Thompson's personal assistant.
Like, yeah.
And so, you know, and he's sober now, but he was not then.
And, and you can, I mean, just imagine, you know, every, oh my God, we're hanging out.
He's like, so, you know, just one time, Hunter pulled a gun on me and, you know,
it's like every, every third step, he's like fucking completely insane.
So yeah, that's fun.
Yeah, I was going to segue this neatly, but I've failed too because we got, we got,
we tend to do that generally on the show.
We also discuss contemporary news from a, oh my God, what are they doing perspective?
Because it turns out like we, we launched this show in January and it's been a very good year
for making fun of auto companies, very baffling decisions.
So very normal earning calls lately.
Yeah. So it is, we are, I'm just going to say this, we were recording this in April 30th.
I know there's going to be a bunch more Rivian news today, but I didn't get a chance.
I don't think it's actually even out yet.
Their, their full earnings call hasn't been disclosed, but we did find out for the record.
I haven't seen the news today and I don't listen to fucking earnings calls.
So you guys, you know, I'll just go along with what you guys are doing on this one.
So Rivian did tell us for fun, Matt, like that's, she just loves this shit.
I like being a well-informed hater.
So, listen, that's the best kind, best kind.
We found out that Rivian sold 42,247 vehicles in total last year.
And for that, they paid their CEO RJ Scring, Scring, Scring, I'm not sure I really read the word,
403 million dollars.
Jesus Christ, seriously?
Yeah, uh-huh.
Chad, friend of mine, fellow auto journalist, Chad Kirchner, put it nicely in a blue sky post
where he was like, that works up to $9,539 for every single car they sold last year.
I told, do you guys know this work?
Do you know Jeff's work?
Yes, we crossed paths, chatted a few times.
Lovely man, legend, and he did most of Porsche's advertising photography in the 90s.
And this was like when they had like no money and were like about to go out of business,
right?
And he said that in like, I think it was like 1998, he said that every Porsche sold in North America
had like $4,000 of Jeff's wart photography built into its price.
And up until right now, that's the worst deal I've ever heard of from a car company
paying a human.
I'm happy for Jeff.
Yes.
Fucking hell, $400 million.
$400 million.
Victoria, does that number include their like fleet sales for Amazon?
Yes, that includes the RVV van.
Wait, wait, wait.
So and this is compensation or did RJ like sell a bunch of stock or do some other thing to make
money?
It is a $373 million of it is a stock option package, which is structured the same as Elon
Musk's deal, right?
Where it's like he becomes a trillionaire if he hits specific targets.
So basically it's like, hey, if you can juice the stock price, we will reward you handsomely,
but you got to like deliver on that.
Now, the reason that it's kind of funny is like for, I think he brought home like, I want to
say it was like $30 million in cash or $20 million in cash.
Still, still quite a lot, but you know, a lot of that is options.
The part of it that's funny to me is that like, so
he, Rivian IPO to like a hundred bucks, it's currently sitting at like 15.
So if you were, if you were trying to be like, oh yeah, you're doing great with the stock price.
Part of the reason for this is that Rivian lost $3.6 billion last year.
And the only thing it actually improved on, and this is a company that's, you know, now
in its fifth six year of existence going into selling its third, you know, product
ostensibly like next week, basically with the R2.
The only thing they actually sold more of last year was software and services because of the
VW deal to do the infotainment and like new software service packages for other car manufacturers.
They are, they sold fewer cars and they made less money out.
They're like, they made more money on the fewer cars, but it's still working less overall.
So the R2 is in production and is supposed to be in like people's hands again, like in a week,
basically late spring. So I take that as like basically a good number of R2s.
I think, I think the mo whatever the last 68 months is like the lawless
law in that company's existence since they launched, right?
But it's, it's been pretty bleak. The thing that's crazy to me, right?
So the, the R2 is supposed to be sub 50K. That was the big selling point,
but the launch edition is going to be 58. It takes until like middle of next year to get to,
to have them actually plan to sell one that's sub 50K.
And the, the issue that Rivian had that a lot of other EV manufacturers didn't is like, so like Q4
last year was awesome for most EVs because everybody was racing to their dealerships to buy
whatever EV they were going to get before the tax credit expired.
Except Rivian. Rivian saw it no sales bump because their SUVs are so expensive that like
basically everybody already bought one, bought one, and the tax credit wasn't that big of a
motivating factor for people who were going to buy one. So I don't know. I mean, like,
I, I feel like this whole, this whole thing works out too. Are you familiar with the drill
candles tweet map? No. Okay. There is a, there's a very, I don't use Twitter for my mental health.
That's entirely, this is like a good for you. This is a, this is a, oh my God, it came out in 2013.
This is a 13 year old post from the meme account drill poster. I do know, I do know what that
is. It is food, $200 data, $150 rent, $800 candles, $3,600 utility, 150,
someone who is good at the economy, please help me budget this. My family is dying.
I feel like Rivian is doing this and instead of candles, it is RJ Scrinj. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sorry. I was giggling earlier because I, can you imagine someone bailing out of their lucid
air purchase because the tax credit went away? Like, there's a portion of the EV market where
I'm just like, that credit shouldn't have a plot. I don't know. Like, not your beans test people,
I guess on the top end. No, the tax credit should have been for cheap EVs, not for expensive ones.
Yeah. I think the R2, like, I know there are a couple of my wife's coworkers
have R2s on like pre-order or whatever. I don't think Rivian did the Tesla, let's take a deposit
25 years in advance for the Tesla Roadster or whatever, but which we talked about last week.
That, how many things in your life have happened since they announced the new Tesla Roadster?
Holy shit. Yeah. So that was at 17. It was 17, right? Yeah. Uh-huh. Well, I got engaged and married.
All my previous cats passed on and my replacement cats are all adults. I built a house from scratch.
A few things. Yeah. Yeah. My sister got married, had kids, and divorced.
Yeah. It's like, people have lived entire lives while that deposit has just been sitting in,
in Elon Musk's bank account. No, like, at a certain point, that's just broad.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm sure the current government, the DOJ, will get right on top of that one.
The crime is legal government. Yeah, they're going to be right on it. Right. They're going to be right on it.
As long as they're going to investigate as soon as you wire 12 Ethereum to FBI.Bitcoin.gov.
Cashpotel needs it. Cashpotipotel.
You can stay awake at the next correspondent's dinner.
They're just rescheduling that, by the way, apparently.
They are.
The Guardian. Did you see who The Guardian interviewed about that?
Oh, yeah, the most just. The Guardian interviewed John Hinckley Jr. about the shooting.
What?
Of course. Uh-huh. Because I'm like, I guess he's the subject matter expert of trying to kill the president at that Hilton.
Dude, imagine the production meeting.
Guys, hear me out on this one.
I got a guy, San Quentin. He can get John Hinckley on the phone.
He's on parole.
Yeah, I know John Hinckley is out because one of my friends has one of his original paintings hanging on her wall.
Oh, my God.
Because he's an artist. He paints? I swear to God.
Don't buy murderer art.
Hey, attempted murderer.
The guy who didn't make Sondheim's Assassins.
That was one of those things where, because I remember a couple of people were like,
he was on parole. I guess he's a singer-songwriter. That's not my credit I would give him.
But he was like booking cafe gigs and then someone like,
hey, do you know you're booking the guy who shot Ronald Reagan?
And they were just like, well, I don't know.
He plays pretty good acoustic folk music. He's no mountain goats.
But like, you know, Victoria, I just scrolled down on the notes a little bit.
That's the worst thing I've seen about Rivian stock.
I was going to say the one other thing on the subject of dodgy experts
being chiming in on and potentially dooming things.
As I was researching this episode, I found out that like a week ago,
Jim Kramer recommended buying Rivian stock.
So I expect he listed about 20 minutes.
RJ is not going to get that money that they're allocating him.
No, no, no, no. That's the fun thing where it's just like that stock is worth that buddy now.
But like, as soon as he tries to turn that into money,
what number does that actually become?
This dude brought proper security to the ice race
at like a place in big skies surrounded by billionaires.
He brought like big, big security.
Wait, Jim Kramer or RJ?
No, RJ.
Jim Kramer was at the ice race.
Oh, no, screaming, just rolling his sleeves up
and screaming and pressing buttons he shouldn't be pressing.
Jim Kramer does seem like he's got the kind of the sort of attitude
to be a terrible gentleman racer.
You know what I mean?
Like, he's the kind of guy who would absolutely like wreck on lap seven.
What if he had a son that started karting?
Real problematic.
I feel like the Strolls might be exiting racing here sooner rather than later.
We need a new billionaire Scion to.
Right, yeah.
I'll tell you what, Laurence Stroll has done a nice job with Aston Martin's road cars.
The road cars are nice.
The road cars.
We routinely on this show talk about how bad we want to buy like depreciated Aston Martin's.
That's basically our kind of like, if the podcast ever does real well,
there will be signs is going to be like in my apartment parking spot a repeat.
Yeah, you really want the S, trust me.
Victoria knows this.
Matt, how do you feel about a used C8 for a five-figures car?
This will go into.
A used Corvette C8?
I feel very good about that.
I feel very good about that.
I haven't driven one yet, but I drove.
I have the privilege of a lot of miles.
It's like 200 miles behind the wheel of a 458, the car that I tore apart to and I've made my
piece that 458s are our million dollar cars for some fucking reason or whatever.
I think the C8 is a superb approximation of a 458, although without the Revi engine,
but that's fine for the money.
If you can afford it, I'd really recommend finding a Z51 car that does make a difference.
But yeah, hell yeah.
I mean, how shitty of one do you have to get to be able to afford it?
Is it a pretty shitty one or not really?
My dear wife works in tech and is doing spectacularly.
Also, my parents.
No, thank God, she wouldn't be able to look at me or herself in the eyes, I think.
She also wouldn't be able to listen to me on this podcast.
No, no, no.
Well, she would be listening, but not in the way that you would want her to be listening
if she worked at Palatier.
My wife vaguely works in industry, company named Redacted.
But she's just doing, we're both doing okay.
I feel the pressure of, and I think you've talked about this in the next article we're
going to talk to, so I was trying to make this segue good.
As someone who, you know, I sold my terrible N.A.
Hang on one second.
Yeah, of course.
Excuse me, you two.
All right, it's an official Trend Girlismo episode because we've had a cat interruption.
Oh, I mean, I, if sorry if I had to mute myself, but Beepo is busy throwing herself
over my shoulders again.
This is Cricket.
Can you hear her growling?
Yeah, I was being a little, she was being a little growly.
Because her brother, her brother was being a shithead.
Do you guys need to go outside?
This is, this is the real Trend Girlismo episode.
Finn is hovering, Monty is over there, and then Nikki is under the,
I love that shade of green.
Oh, the cat, the kitchen?
Yeah.
Do you guys know Sarah Trimble and Webb Bland?
No, I know Sarah.
Yeah, I know of Webb Bland.
They designed our house.
Oh, incredible.
This is, this is a Sarah Trimble and Webb Bland production.
It's a lovely kitchen.
We, we, where were cats?
Yes, everyone's cat has made an appearance.
I saw Bert beep, beep through herself over my shoulder.
I, the, I feel there is a pressure since selling the Miata because I sold my Miata
because I don't have wrenching space at our new place that we bought because
it's a Pittsburgh row home.
Of course it doesn't have a garage.
And our, our street is slanting on both sides.
So I, I don't know.
I didn't want to die underneath the Miata.
I think that's a pretty bad way to go.
Pormits are great.
They really are.
The C8s are, are really nicely made and they're fun to drive and they're a ton of
car for the money.
They really are.
I just, I do feel now that we're doing the show though that I do have that pressure
as someone who is a, for lack of a better word, content creator.
I do feel the pressure that I need a fun car to talk about and make stuff with.
Like it does feel odd that like the one car that we have is a Nissan Sentra because we
like that it gets 40 miles to gap, 40 miles per gallon on the turnpike, you know?
Yeah.
Your Sentra has no cred.
You need it.
You need.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I understand you do need a sports car.
Not only that, that is a business expense that is tax deductible, 100%.
And you do have, you will have things to talk about.
I have, I have multiple projects going at any given time just so I have something to
talk about and also to, for taxes.
Your, your, your two most recent babies, the, the Manx and then the Mercedes you're
having built, I, your taste continues to.
We're in a very surprise.
And what, wait, which, which was the Mercedes?
I think I might have missed that.
My wife's aunt Liz gave us her 1995 E320 Cabriolet.
And my neighbor is this Armenian lunatic named Shant has a company called CMS Motorsports
and they do these like crazy AMG and like Euro tuner sort of projects.
And it's a fabulous body shop, all metal, beautiful work.
And so I, I thought about what to do with this car.
And it was clean car, no rust, right?
You know, it's, have been sitting outside in Long Island for a while, but it's fine.
And so we thought like, what if we make the 500 E Cabriolet that Mercedes never made?
So yeah, yeah.
So the body will look like a 500 E that Mercedes made.
We've already done the flares in metal.
Wow, okay.
That stuff.
Yeah.
And then the problem is the M 119, which is the actual 500 E motor.
A isn't actually all that good.
And B is huge.
It's a big motor.
And so instead what we've done is we bought a 2002 E 55 as a donor car.
And so we're doing a powertrain swap complete.
So engine trans diff, you know, the whole, the whole thing.
So it's going to be the 400 horsepower and a five-speed auto.
That sounds extremely fun.
E 55s are just like continual fonts of parts for other projects.
I had E 55 brakes on my Supra.
Did you?
Really?
Yeah.
I had, I had.
The donor car was selling six grand.
Yeah.
I had remanned Brembo's off of a, off of an E 55, 2002 E 55 because they bolted right on with
some machine spacers.
And I, because I kept cooking the brakes because it's a, it was so heavy.
This is, again, this is like that I miss this kind of stuff a lot because I personally,
like I live in Seattle.
You know, my wife is a barista.
I was not a journalist for a while and I was unemployed for a bit and now I'm doing this.
So I take the bus.
So I do really, I'm hoping to get back into car stuff.
I would like if the current moment of instability would perhaps pass so I could budget.
It's difficult to be like, hmm, what am I going to spend every month on a car when it's like,
well, gas might be $10 by July.
So, you know, kind of tricky.
I just had a very surreal moment where I was at, I was racing and wrote America this past weekend,
which is just as amazing as you think it is in Wisconsin.
And 91 octane at the track, at the like, the Sonoco, like a hundred feet from start finish
was 577 and 91 octane around the corner from my house in LA is like 690.
Even with the racetrack.
The racetrack tax, the crazy racetrack tax, couldn't even touch California.
Code is not a public track anymore.
This isn't good consumer advice.
I was about to say the Sonoco at Kota actually used to be super reasonable for 93 in terms of
gas stations in Austin.
Yeah.
If I was like attending a track day or covering a race or whatever, if that Sonoco was available,
I'd be like, can I just sneak in here to fill up my mini real quick or like my terrible 944?
I'm like, can I just fill that huge tank real quick at Kota?
The same thing happened to me like a couple of years ago when the Biden era fuel spike happened.
I happened to be at Sonoma and their fuel, they hadn't adjusted for it or whatever.
And the fuel at Sonoma Raceway was cheaper than the fuel at the pump just outside.
Yeah.
There was another story you had written recently that I also really resonated with that we've
hinted at, but stop asking me what car I should buy article for road and track.
I got a chuckle out of because as people who listen to our show and your show probably know,
we're all insane.
So the cars that I'm budgeting for are not vehicles I would tell anybody else in the
whole world to buy.
I doubt, Matt, that you would probably tell the average person who asked you,
hey, what car should I get?
Should I drop a V55 V8 into your aunt's old convertible?
Well, no, it's a delicate dance you have to do because the issue is,
don't ask me what to help you buy a car.
Please ask me to help you buy a car.
Just don't ask me what I would buy because you haven't thought of the thing I would buy
and you don't want the thing I would buy unless you want something deeply stupid
and not normal and whatever.
I was asking Dan, on my editor, how do I write this without sounding like an
unappreciative asshole?
Once I changed it to more of a guide for how to ask your local professional to help them help you.
And there are examples in there of like, hey, I'm x-aged with the x-budget and this is my need
and I want something that's relatively, that's a very different question.
What car would I buy?
Because for all of us, it's going to be something deeply deranged.
But this did make me think.
The funniest is if someone asked you, which car would you buy between car A and car B?
And one of those two is a car you already own.
So that's the craziest shit.
What car would you buy between your spider and a 911 cabriolet?
And I went, well, funny enough, I chose between my spider and all other cars really.
And I chose that.
So does that answer your question?
You do have the best specced RS spider of that generation that I've ever seen.
Oh, it's, thank you.
I do love that.
I remember when your first one stank because I was working at the drive when that happened.
RIP, pour one out for the Felicity Ace.
No, but I...
There are a bunch of Lamborghini's at the bottom of the ocean and listeners,
if you donate to the Patreon, we're going to go salv it.
No, absolutely.
No, I, you know, I told, is that you, oh, a guy emailed me.
Oh, a guy, no, a guy emailed me and legitimately was like,
we're going to do a salvage operation.
And I was like, are you, are you...
Did the boat like burn before it?
Yes, it did.
Yes, yes, for days.
Are you fucking, do you understand what the lithium fire is?
What do you expect to recover?
Like they were still burning at the bottom of the ocean.
Look what's happening right now.
I have, I have cricket and I have two cats happening.
It's a lot.
And by the way, those were the two, two that we're fighting before.
Do you want to come back?
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
I only have the, the one.
The one cat, but she, she will, uh, she's fucked off now, but...
This motherfucker is just like, out, we go outside now?
Outside.
We go, we go outside.
Um, yeah, BP does just need to throw her entire self over by her shoulder,
like a little baby once an episode.
So, um...
Yeah.
No, but I, I, uh, I was going to, the, the, the number one thing that I remember being
vindicated about is you and I both love the, uh, Integra Type S.
Because that was like my favorite.
Oh, lovely.
Car I ever reviewed.
And I remember re, I remember checking your review and you were like,
this thing rocks.
And I was like, okay.
That was great.
We, I, uh, we have converged.
Um, but the, the thing that made me curious is like, obviously we're all crazy.
Um, and have like very strange tastes in cars.
So the thing I wanted to ask you is, what is your favorite, like, sub $10,000 car that
you've driven?
Like, if you can even go like 5K and like use your whole, like, yeah,
like use your whole, obviously not new.
That's like something that you found on Craigslist or like a friend of yours.
Like, I remember the, the, the video that you made that got me like thinking about
autodjournalism from a different angle when I was young.
It was when you reviewed Cora's RX7.
If you remember that, the new car.
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that was like...
Yeah.
If I remember that.
Uh-huh.
I'll just say it.
It was, you know, it was, uh, yeah.
Sure.
That, that's, that could be it.
Yeah.
There was a guy, I drove, I mean, I don't know if it was on whatever, but he, it was in Chevy,
Colorado, that he put like a huge fucking turbo on and it would do burnouts up to like
90 miles an hour, but it looked totally stock.
Like that was pretty cool.
You know, I've driven quite a few, like, you know, 90s Hondas, you know, and I don't know,
I don't know how much they cost, but like some of them things fucking rip.
I mean, really fast.
I mean, a great, a great Honda.
A great Honda is a wonderful thing.
I did my first ever endurance racing in a Honda Civic Coupe and it was fawn as hell.
What did you, was that like a lemon's car?
Or like, what would you put originally?
It was a lemon's car.
That was a lemon's car.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There you go.
That's 500 bucks right there.
Guaranteed never, never more money than that ever spent on a lemon's car.
Matt, you, Steph, right?
Steph Schrader?
Of course, yes.
Yeah, she's, she has been whispering in my ear again that I finally need to go race
lemons.
You should.
Have you raced anything before?
Not wheel to, nothing other than cars.
Like I haven't car raced.
Like I have enough track time that I know what I'm doing without like embarrassing myself,
but I haven't done like wheel to wheel.
I just.
Well, lemons is a good place to start.
Yeah.
If, well, it's a good place to start because it's chaotic.
And if you get through a lemon's race and the chaos that is a lemon's race and then you go do
like a champ race or an AER or a lucky dog, which is like a bump up from lemons,
it will be like, oh, okay.
What series were you racing with at Road America last week?
We just did WRL, which is like a bump up from that.
So like there are some cars at the bottom end of WRL that could race at the high end of champ.
And there's some cars at the high end of WRL that are like full on GT4 and X IMSA cars.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's some of the top classes are pretty fast.
We were in like a middle class.
That's the only place that exists now, anyway.
Really?
You got the middle class.
In race.
Oh, god damn it.
I thought you meant that series at Road America.
No, no, no.
This is just the, there's one more thing that wasn't on the notes that I just wanted to throw at you.
By the way, before you, I'm so sorry about before you, can I just,
you have to give for whoever's listening, the person who funded our racing at Road America
and at Kota last year and at the next race that I'm doing is Sergio the immigration lawyer.
Oh, what a guy.
Sergio the immigration lawyer who appeared on my podcast.
His son is like so fast, so fast.
His son is insanely fast.
And so, you know, he wants to be pro and they're down to have folks like myself
out to race with them in order to come places like this and say that
Matteo Siderman is fast as fuck in a race car.
Hell yeah.
Hell yeah.
We're of course going to throw that episode of the show in the notes as well because I do think,
I think people should listen to your show regardless because I think it's
maybe the best podcast about cars in a like with like folks with access,
not to denigrate our own lovely little program here, Victoria.
But no, that is so cool that he was also funding those endurance races.
But speaking of Kota, how are you feeling about going back to like the enthusiasm under
for those of us not in the millionaire or billionaire class?
All of these tracks are going club private.
Is Kota going full private?
Kota is everyone I knew that used to like help run track days there,
say that they are not being allowed to book events outside of this year.
2026 is the last year to race Kota or drive Kota without like being a club member or like.
Are they going to have race?
They're going to have racing though, right?
Yeah, racing there.
Well, that's unfortunate.
That sucks.
Part of the reason that I'm down with what's happening at Willow Springs is their
commitment to keeping the track open to the public.
I think if it was going full private, I would be pretty soured on the experience.
But because there's enough room for every, you know, there's three tracks there and they can
on any given day have one for members, one for a track day and one for somebody filming a commercial
or something. And if you're there for the track day, it wouldn't feel any different
as it does now, except that it'll be much nicer because they will have the money
from the memberships to make the track, you know, safer and better.
So I think to have a track like Kota go full private, really, if that's what they're doing is
unfortunate hoarding of a great resource.
I understand if someone wants to build a brand new track and make it private, but it's a bummer
when it's like a real destination track that people travel from all over the country to go drive.
Yeah, like, you know, before we had Miami and Vegas, like, you know, it was the F1 track in
the U.S. that you could go like, I don't know, was for my lap times good in my terrible little
NB Miata? No, absolutely not. But I was on the F1 track doing those.
What were they? I won't judge.
Oh, dude, I had like 33 subs, like it was not fast because most of it started with a
two or a three. It started with a three. Yeah, like through a lot of the like quarters, you know,
it's a Miata I can carry speed, but like I am front straight, back straight. I just, yeah,
I'm just sitting there. Like, yeah, I want to even use the brakes at the end of the front
straight or the hill just do it. The hill kind of did I, you know, I saved a lot of brakes.
That's that's a that's a downshift twice. It's real easy on your brakes that track.
Do you, do you achieve terminal velocity on the back straight?
Oh, for sure. Yay. Top of the top of fifth.
I convinced Dodge to give me a fucking Durango Hellcat to drive to the
Road America race. And I needed to haul, haul all of our shit from the airport. But also,
I wanted to run some practice laps on the HPD E-Day and, you know, Road America. So,
you know, I saw 136 miles an hour at the end of the front straight while breaking it like the
10 board because it had like dot three brake fluid boiled after like two stops. Oh, it was a
disaster. It was that same track day that I was at there with the Miata, a buddy of mine who is like
a deep McLaren guy. Like he was just like to hop side seat with me. And just the speed differential
on the back straight alone was just I'm like, oh, we're going 100 miles an hour faster at certain
points in this like then I yeah, I tracking so like I I'm in the Northeast now. So it's like
all of these tracks that I have like, you know, if you're in Texas, getting to any track that's
like, you know, in Austin, like Harris Hill still exists. Thank God. Because yeah, I love Harris
Hill. Great value. Harris Hill's great. Shout out to people down there. Yeah. Shout out to
everyone at Cobb Tuning who let me crash their track days because they drove that insane orange
EcoBoost that they had. I did it. I like Cobb a lot, but that car wasn't great. But but it was
only great because it would spin the wheels through three gears with the traction control
half on. Yeah, it was it was a little it was okay. It was okay. I like I like it was a long time ago.
I like that was a long time ago. Yeah, yeah, you don't want Kota to be private.
That's a shame. I understand that the economics of it don't necessarily justify,
you know, track days sometimes. But that's why I think that's the hybrid model or whatever. And
I certainly don't mind if there's a club within a racetrack where it's 10 days or for the club and
whatever 20 days or for whoever rents it. Yeah, I think Thunder Hill does that.
Um, well, I know, I mean, like thermal didn't exist before the club, right?
Like thermals for the club. Yeah, no, that's I think you have to buy a house to get in there.
Yes, you have to buy a house property and then commit to build a house on the property
to get a membership there. I believe you do. Wow. Okay. Well, I guess that is the logical
extension of kind of the country club format. I mean, it's just as well far in the middle of
nowhere, you need a house out there. I mean, Kota is Kota is doing the same thing where they are
building their colleague them car condos. But like there, you could sleep and live at Kota now if you
are so disposed. Sorry. My doorbell just rang one second because it was a hard pause. Yeah.
Coming. Oh, cat in the sun beam.
I don't know how long he's got. So I'll probably wrap it pretty soon. I was thinking that I just
wanted to talk about the track thing real quick because I was on the tip of my tongue
talking about stuff. Yeah, we can wrap. Sorry, guys. No, you're okay. Sorry. Okay, cool. All right.
And then we know you are a very busy man. So I have like 10 minutes. Is that okay? Yeah. Sure.
Yeah, we were about to just say whatever is there anything that you that we've kind of touched on
today or wrote a track wise that you want to plug or talk about before. No, I'm not here to plug.
I'm here to hang out with you guys, whatever, whatever. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, I'll obviously
post all the links and stuff from the show notes. But yeah, I really appreciate it. Like, yeah, the
coming on your show and getting a boost for my book was actually really helpful with that. Oh,
good. I appreciate it. Yeah, it was great. Thank you. Yeah, I remember it was the before times for
me. But it was at that. Do you remember that terrible bar in Austin, Posse East? Oh, vaguely?
Yeah, it was kind of off campus. But you was I there? Yes, you, Mike Spinelli, Patrick, George,
and Steph were all trying to give me advice as freelance as the freelance market started to fall
apart. And I just remember how many are still working in freelance, just me.
Yeah, I mean, to be fair, how many how many different outlets has everyone else gone through
in that time? But no, you were you have always been you've always been such a sweetie and like
so good to younger enthusiasts, younger folks trying to get in the industry. And yeah, you continue
to just stand up for what you think is right, despite getting higher and higher profile gigs
in the industry. And I just that's why. Yeah, we I know you had to ask someone if it was a
compliment when we called you woke Joe Rogan. You know, I do think your podcast is both a very,
you know, I still listen, but like, it is a very healthy form of masculine car culture in a way
that oh, thank you, non toxic masculinity. Yeah, and even yes. Yeah, and that's like why our listener
base is bore sys bale that I would thought for a podcast called Tran girlies. Oh, our demographic
is good. It's a very good name. Thank you. Very good name. It was us texting back and forth at two
in the morning, going, What the fuck do we call this? Do you think here's a question? Do you think
you can trust your demographics? Do you think it's like people's Google accounts or whatever
might not match their gender identity? I tend to get a lot of like responses from people. And I
would say that it's we of the like people to get reported by Google or Spotify or Apple podcasts,
whatever, as like falling into the male category, probably about two thirds of them are like,
actually just genuinely older dads or whatever, who are like, either know they have like a trans
kid, or they are generally like pretty progressive. And I would say the other third are people who
probably emailed me and been like, I'm like, yeah, give it like two years, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Or
like, I haven't got around to like backdating my fucking yeah, because who gives a shit? Who gives
a shit? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had I was going off with the people who email us as I am the one who's
usually coming through our inbox. But yeah, Matt, that's very kind of you guys. I'm not sure I
deserve all that. I just, you know, try to be nice to people, I guess. But it's really, I mean,
I think part of it is like having worked in the industry and seeing the, I think for me, one of
the things that actually really made me disillusioned and part of why I quit was because I used to go
to auto companies and I would do like pride talks. And I would do like these big, you know, employee
resource group discussions about like, how do you make trans employees or queer employees feel
included and watching all of those companies in October, November of last year or burn it all.
Yeah, but just destroy it without all that. And then swatching all the people who I, you know,
kind of considered to be friendly, immediately clam up and just be like, okay, I'm not doing this. And
the fact that you have continued since then is deeply meaningful because it is less common than
it should be. And it is something that I think is how we fix things is if people actually like
continue to do things that are, you know, they have harder conversations with their editors,
and they have like, they, they use, they, if you have a platform, you use it for something good.
We try to do that here, you do it there. It's, it's, it's why we like,
And you know what's funny? Like someone asked the other day, because I was on one of these road
and track experiences, things that we do, which are these like road trips people have signed up
for. They're pretty fun, actually. They're a good time. But someone, you know, it was a person who
knew who I was was on the trip and their wife did not. And he was, oh, honey, he does this podcast
on it's about cars and this net. And she said, you know, oh, you don't, you don't talk about politics,
do you? And I was, and I was just like, look, like politics, it comes to whether you,
you can, if you've been living like fantasy land and not talking about politics, like,
maybe like, maybe like a magic, the gathering podcast could probably avoid politics or,
you know, or, you know, maybe like, surprise. Right. That's probably, probably true. But, but,
you know, driving is, is political, the type of cars that we drive, what powers them, the width
of our roads, the shape of our parking spaces, the where you have to pay for parking and where
it's free. I mean, any of that shit is not just naturally occurring. It's that those are all political
choices. And those, those decisions will come for everybody, you know, sooner or later. I mean,
even like the, so I think you talked about this for Bloomberg, right? It was that story.
No, like the interview with Bloomberg, like urbanism, I want to say. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh,
oh, oh, oh, yes. David, David Zipper. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Very, very, very nice guy. I,
I debate him all the time. He calls me on my bullshit all the time. But the, the, there's
a guy called A.R. Mokson, who I think is one of the best writers writing today. He has a newsletter,
but he's also written a couple of books. And he wrote an amazing piece. There was a series
of essays called Streets. And it's basically about how the interconnectedness of our world.
And imagine, you know, among many other things, like you have the biggest house and the biggest
and, but like no roads. Your house doesn't like connect to anything else. And like the value,
the value that is delivered to you by the network of things that we have is greater than
the value that you individually deliver, you know, the other, the other way. And so it just so
happened that this guy I loved happened to be writing about a thing I knew a little about,
which is the fucking roads. And, and yeah, I mean, yeah, those roads were planned by somebody.
They're there for a reason. Your house wasn't put there by accident. Someone decided that a house
should go there. And so it's just a whole, you know, connected system of stuff.
It's nice to hear somebody with a, with a good size platform talk about it. Cause it is, it,
it, having seen support, support, having seen the auto industry over the past like five years,
I got into it kind of like as the hype for EVs was probably at its peak and everybody was like,
we're going to be cool and we're going to do diversity initiatives and we're going to build,
we're going to build a clean world and then watching all that collapse has been, you know,
I'm 30. It was probably about time for me to become disillusioned, but boy, it has been
disillusioning, but it does make me appreciate when it doesn't happen sometimes. You know,
it's so fucking funny. Everybody kept telling me that I was going to become a Republican like,
oh, you wait, you know, when you have a business, house and you're going to, you know,
cause I'm from, that's where I'm from. Not like, not like MAGA land, like quietly destroy the economy
land, you know, Connecticut. We, we steal from the poor quietly in Greenwich, Connecticut. No,
cause like I went, I went to high school with the children of the worst people imaginable.
The Sacklers, I went to school with their kids. I went to school. Oh yeah. Everybody who wrecked
the economy in 2008, I went to school with all of their kids at a right country day school,
plus the Sacklers, plus Jeanine fucking Piro. Jeanine, judge Jeanine. Yeah, I went to school
with her daughter. Oh my God. And dude, the worst people imaginable, I went to school with all of
their children. So here on this show, we have a thing we like to call the shapes place, which is
when you have to do this after taking in damaging information to your sanity. I also went to, I
also went to Penn with Ivanka Trump. I did. You did. Yeah. Oh, I didn't. I missed that.
Me misremembering an old podcast a bit. I studied photography at Penn. Yeah. That I shot those.
That's two. That's twopox, chug night and MC Hammer. I shot those when I was 12 at a Nix game
in 1994. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Fucking boss. You should have seen seventh grade. I
brought that into photo one. My teacher was like, what the fuck? Yeah. Not bad framing for, I would
have framed this one a little better today. If you look at my shift when I was 12, it's like I took
a picture of a flower in my parents garden. That was the only portraits I like ever took. I went
to landscape and photography and architecture after that. Yeah. I'm a big architect. Well,
we should have you back on in the future to just talk photography. Do the photography show. Yeah.
Okay, I'm going to run, but it's been such an absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Do it again.
You're in LA. Come say hi. Don't be a stranger. We'll do. That is a podcast. Thank you again so
much. Hey, it's just Vicky this week. The logistics of recording with a guest and also merging
together all of our audio tracks sometimes gets to be a lot. So I said this week, I would handle
reading out the names. So it's just me. I hope that's not too disappointing. I wanted to shout out
and thank our $15 and up subscribers for helping support the show and helping me pay rent.
It would help if I actually had this up even for having prepared this beforehand.
There we go. Okay. I would like to give a special shout out. Thank you too.
Where are you, Marybara? I just want to talk about Spark EV replacement batteries.
If we have her on the show, I promise you I will ask. That is the guarantee for your money is that
if we can somehow convince an auto industry executive to come on, I will ask them any ridiculous
question you put in your username for your subscription tier. Special thank you to Theodora
Constantine, John V. Special thank you to Buick, Adam Shepard, Stephen Duckworth,
Phalen, mildly perturbed, Asherin, Chris Heppner, Jerry at homogamoagenda.com,
Dexis, Will, Princess Reese promises not to bark at loud noises, which I hope at this point
you're getting better at not barking at loud noises. Emma Alex, allowing infinite characters for
usernames opens up novel opportunities for creative trolling, such as forcing people to read
a book, and then it stops. So you think it gives you an infinite number of characters,
but I'm pretty sure that's like 255. So it does cut you off. I hope if you would like a refund,
let me know since I could not read the entire B movie script. Thank you to Nathaniel Hubble,
Wingsmith, Penile Sparing, Vaginaplasty, Gaydrian Lenker, Sylvia, Finn Springs,
thank you to, I think the recording just crashed. Thank you to Gavin G. Wiz Reviews,
thank you to Crystal Storm, John Russell, Josh J., and Selectric. As always, thank you so much for
your support. It means a lot. I hope you enjoy this week's episode, and we will be doing our bonus
episode on Rush, the not the prog rock band that was hugely influential in my teenage years,
but the movie about Ayrton Senna with a bunch of people from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Probably like this weekend maybe, so stay tuned for that. Thank you again so much,
and I hope everybody enjoyed the show. Bye!
About this episode
Matt Farah joins for a wide-ranging hang that keeps circling back to car economics: why affordable enthusiast cars are disappearing, why hypercars keep getting more extreme, and how profit margins shape what automakers build. The conversation moves from Porsche pricing and homologation to track-day access, fuel costs, and the realities of living with and modifying cars. Along the way, they also touch Rivian, used EV strategy, and a few deeply specific shop and racing stories.
Hello! On this episode we are joined by Matt Farah of The Smoking Tireand Westside Collector Car Storage! First we discuss what it's like to write with a leftist bent for Road & Track (hint: difficult). Then we discuss Matt's latest piece on the ridiculous high-end market and scraps for the rest of us (it's a great piece, we talked about it before on here!) Then, Rivian has a Dril Candles Tweet Moment with its CEO compensation. Finally, we ask Matt what his favorite sub-$10,000 beater car is.
Thanks so much to Matt for joining us, definitely check out The Smoking Tire if you somehow haven't already (but if you're here, you probably have).
