Episode 456: Guest Bradley Iger, Czinger 21C Supercar, 2026 Ram 2500 Tow Test, Benjamin Has A Bad Track Day, Bradley Talks Charger Take Two
Unnamed Automotive Podcast
Episode 456: Guest Bradley Iger, Czinger 21C Supercar, 2026 Ram 2500 Tow Test, Benjamin Has A Bad Track Day, Bradley Talks Charger Take TwoUnnamed Automotive Podcast · Jul 5, 2026
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Car
Czinger 21C
The Czinger 21C is a very high-end supercar built for serious performance. The episode is talking about different versions of it and how the aero setup can be changed to make it stick to the road more at speed.
A “high downforce” setup makes the car press down harder onto the road. That usually helps it grip better and feel more stable when you’re going fast or turning hard.
Term
arrow pack
An “arrow pack” sounds like an aero kit—extra bodywork designed to change how air flows around the car. The goal is usually to make the car stick to the road more, especially at speed.
Max downforce means the car is tuned to create the most “suction” downward from the air. That extra grip helps it brake and turn harder, especially in corners.
Term
top speed records
Top speed records are about getting the car as fast as possible. The car is usually set up to reduce air resistance so it can accelerate and keep going faster on straights.
Le Mans prototypes are race cars built for long-distance endurance racing at Le Mans. They’re known for their aerodynamic shapes and stable handling over long periods.
Term
crazy wing
A “crazy wing” is a big, aggressive spoiler/wing meant to push the car down onto the road. More downforce helps cornering, but it can make the car slower on top speed because it creates more drag.
Canards are small fins on the front of a race car. They help shape the airflow so the car gets more grip and better balance.
Term
V max car
“V max” means the car is tuned to go as fast as possible at the top end. That usually involves making the shape less “grabby” for air so the car doesn’t slow down as much from wind resistance.
A wind tunnel is like a giant airflow test chamber. Engineers use it to see how air moves around a car so they can shape the body to reduce drag and improve stability.
A duct is a channel that routes airflow from an inlet to a specific component or area. On race-oriented cars, ducts are commonly used to cool radiators, intercoolers, brakes, or to shape aerodynamic airflow.
Scoops are openings on a car body that capture airflow and direct it where it’s needed. They’re often used to feed cooling air to radiators and brakes or to manage underbody and aerodynamic pressure.
Fairings are shaped panels on the car that help air flow more smoothly. They can also be designed to control airflow in specific areas, not just cover up parts.
Concept
high speed tracks
High-speed tracks are race circuits where you’re going fast for long stretches. Cars that are built for those tracks need strong aerodynamics so they stay stable and don’t waste energy fighting wind.
Road courses are race tracks that feel more like winding roads than ovals. They involve lots of turning and braking, so the car’s handling and aero matter a lot.
Concept
single seating
Single seating means the car is set up for one person in the cockpit. Designers use it to make the car narrower and sometimes to improve airflow around the body.
Term
single row dual seat vehicle
It means the car has two seats, but they’re lined up in one row. That layout changes how wide the car feels and how you get into the cockpit.
Door sills are the ledges you step over when you open the door. On very low cars, they can be tall, so getting in may require stepping onto them first.
Concept
purpose built the car
A purpose-built car is designed specifically for what it’s trying to do, not just modified from something else. Here, they’re saying that design goal drives where the batteries go and how the car’s shape ends up around the driver.
Side sills are the lower “frame rails” along the sides of the car. Putting batteries there can help protect them, but it can also make the area where you climb in feel wider.
Electric driving range is the distance a car can go on electricity alone. They’re saying this car doesn’t really have that—its electric system is more for power/assistance than for traveling on battery alone.
3D printing means making a part by building it up layer by layer from a computer design. It lets engineers create shapes that are difficult to make with normal tools.
They’re talking about 3D printing parts out of metal. Making metal parts is harder than printing plastic, because the metal has to be strong and properly finished.
Packaging constraints are the “space rules” for the car—where parts must fit. Even if you want something lighter or stronger, you still have to fit everything inside the available space.
Subframes are like smaller metal/structural “mounting frames” inside the car. They help attach parts such as the suspension, and they have to be engineered to work with the main body structure.
A carbon fiber monocoque is the main body structure made from carbon fiber. It’s designed to be very strong while staying light, which helps the whole car perform better.
Control arms are suspension parts that connect the wheel to the car’s body. They help determine how the wheel moves, which affects grip and ride behavior.
Optimization means using computer tools to tweak a design until it’s as good as possible. In this case, they’re balancing strength and weight so precisely that even small changes can make it worse.
Horsepower is a way to describe how much power the engine can make. “1,200 horsepower” is an extremely high number, usually associated with top-tier performance cars.
“Aero” is how the car’s shape interacts with air. Better aerodynamics can help the car stick to the road and go faster, and it can also make many cars end up with similar-looking shapes.
Term
generic sized silhouette and profile
A “silhouette and profile” are basically the car’s overall outline and shape. The point here is that aerodynamics can force many cars to adopt similar shapes because those shapes work well against the air.
This means the factory tries to build the car with almost no “slop” or variation between parts. The goal is for every car to come out closer to the exact design, so it drives the way it’s supposed to more consistently.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car built for speed and handling. People talk about it a lot because it’s designed to feel exciting to drive. In the podcast, it’s being compared to other versions of the Corvette.
Sound deadening refers to materials added to reduce noise and vibration inside the cabin. Reducing it can save weight and improve performance, but it typically makes the car louder and more “raw” at speed.
3D printing is a way to make parts by building them up layer by layer from a computer design. Car companies use it to create complex shapes, especially when they’re making smaller runs.
Tandem seating means the driver and passenger sit in a line, one behind the other. It can help the car’s shape and airflow, but it also makes the interior and engine space more complicated.
This is a V8 engine (eight cylinders) that’s 2.8 liters total, and it uses two turbochargers. Turbos cram more air into the engine so it can make a lot of power even though the engine isn’t huge.
Horsepower is a number that tells you how strong the engine is. Higher horsepower usually means the car can accelerate harder, especially when paired with good gearing and traction.
Koenigsegg is a company that makes extreme, high-performance supercars. The point here is that even they have used existing V8 engines as a base when designing their own drivetrain solutions.
Audi V8s are regular, production V8 engines made by Audi. The speaker is saying some supercar makers start with engines like these instead of designing everything from scratch.
“LS power” usually means the car is using a GM V8 from the LS engine family. People mention it because those engines are popular, strong, and have lots of aftermarket support.
A hybrid system uses both a gas engine and an electric motor. The electric part can help with acceleration and fuel economy, but it makes the car more complicated.
This means the car uses an engine that already exists in production, not a brand-new design. It’s usually cheaper and faster, but it may reduce how custom the engineering is.
This means a V8 engine that can safely rev extremely high—around 10,000 times per minute. High revs demand stronger, more precisely engineered internal parts.
In car terms, “sills” are the big lower side panels by your legs. If they’re tall, they can block your view out the side and make the car feel more enclosed.
Term
center line of the lane
The “center line of the lane” is the middle reference point you use to keep your car straight. They’re saying the cockpit layout makes you naturally aim for the middle of the lane.
Electric motors are the parts that use electricity to create pulling force for the wheels. The important detail in this segment is which wheels they power.
EV mode is a setting that lets the car drive using electricity instead of the gas engine. It’s basically the “electric-only” way to drive, depending on the car’s design and battery level.
Front wheels means the front axle is the one getting the driving force. If only the front wheels are powered electrically, the car’s grip and handling will feel different than if all wheels were driven.
Drive modes are different settings that change how the car behaves. They can change things like how quickly it responds and how the power system is managed for street versus track driving.
Track Plus is a special driving mode meant for a race track. It usually makes the car more aggressive and less “street-friendly,” so it’s not meant for normal roads.
The front splitter is a low piece under the front of the car. It helps the car “stick” by shaping airflow, but because it sits close to the ground, bumps can hit it.
A single-clutch transmission uses one clutch to change gears. When it shifts, there can be a short moment where power delivery changes, but the hybrid system can help keep it feeling continuous.
The Lamborghini Aventador is a supercar from Lamborghini. The comparison is about how its gear shifting can feel with a single-clutch gearbox—sometimes a bit abrupt—unless something else smooths it out.
A torque gap is a tiny pause in pulling power when the car shifts gears. The electric motor can step in during that pause so you feel less of a “jerk” or loss of acceleration.
Term
full throttle up shifts
“Full throttle” means you’re pressing the gas all the way down. If the car shifts up while you’re doing that, it can feel more violent or dramatic because the engine is making a lot of power at the same time.
Term
not generating lift
“Lift” is air pressure that can try to push the car upward. If the car isn’t generating lift, it helps keep the tires pressed to the road so the car feels more stable at speed.
The Nissan Pathfinder is an SUV meant for families and everyday use. The podcast is talking about the brakes—specifically that the front brakes are larger than the wheels on the vehicle. That’s a normal detail people notice when comparing how cars stop.
Carbon-ceramic brakes are high-performance brake rotors made from a special ceramic material. They’re designed to keep braking power strong even when you’re braking hard repeatedly, but they cost a lot.
AP Racing is a company that makes performance brake parts, often used in racing. Their carbon-ceramic brakes are the kind you’d expect on very high-end track cars.
A lap record is the best time anyone has measured for one full lap on a particular track. If a car sets lap records, it means it’s very fast and can keep that speed reliably around the course.
Big Willow is a track in California where people go to drive cars fast and practice racing lines. The speaker mentions it to give a real example of how extreme the speeds and cornering can be.
Term
grip cars
“Grip cars” are cars that mainly stick to the road because of the tires and suspension setup. The guest is saying downforce cars feel different because the car’s grip comes from aerodynamics too, not just the tires.
Concept
limits of a car
Every car has a point where the tires can’t keep up with what you’re asking—turning, braking, or accelerating. Once you go past that point, the car starts sliding and feels less predictable.
“Breaking loose” is when the tires lose traction and begin to slide. You’ll usually feel it as the car suddenly stops responding the way you expect.
Term
front end pushing
“Front end pushing” means the front tires aren’t gripping enough. The car doesn’t turn into the corner like you want, so it feels like it’s pushing wide.
“Conventional layout” means the car will likely use a more traditional design than the most unusual, cutting-edge setup. The idea here is that it could be easier to live with and more affordable, without giving up performance.
A “technical showcase” is basically a car made to prove what the engineers can do. It’s less about everyday practicality and more about showing off performance and technology to get attention.
Concept
set those records
“Set those records” refers to achieving measurable best-in-class performance benchmarks (like lap times or acceleration) that can be publicly verified. The speaker connects record-setting to media coverage, implying that public performance metrics are part of the car’s marketing strategy.
Ram is a brand of pickup truck. The podcast is mentioning the Ram because someone has been driving it and comparing it to other trucks. Pickup trucks like this are usually chosen for towing and carrying things.
This is a heavy-duty Ram pickup (the 2500) that’s designed to pull big loads. They’re talking about it because the diesel engine makes a lot of twisting force (torque), which helps when towing.
That’s the truck’s diesel engine: a 6.7-liter inline-six made by Cummins. Diesel inline-sixes are commonly chosen because they produce strong pulling power for towing.
Tongue weight is how much weight the trailer pushes down on the hitch. It matters for safety because it affects how stable the truck feels while towing.
Air suspension is a truck suspension system that uses air bags instead of metal springs. It can raise or lower the truck to make loading and riding easier.
Term
lower the bed
Lowering the bed means the truck can drop the cargo area closer to the ground. That makes it easier to load things in without lifting as high.
When the truck’s suspension is lowered, the truck sits closer to the ground. That makes it easier to hook up a trailer because the hitch lines up better.
A trailer jack is the support you use to hold the trailer up when it’s parked. If the truck is too high, you have to raise the trailer a lot with the jack to connect it.
A GMC Sierra 2500 is a heavy-duty truck meant for towing. The speaker is saying that on their AT4X version, the truck sat high enough that lining up the hitch took extra effort.
“Alt trailer height” is a towing mode that changes how high the truck sits. It helps the trailer sit at a better angle so it’s easier to hook up and the setup stays more level.
A fifth wheel hitch is the heavy-duty trailer connection that sits in the truck bed. It’s common for big trailers, and getting the truck height right helps the trailer sit correctly and makes towing easier.
Trailer profiles are like saved settings for your trailer. Instead of redoing everything every time you change trailers, you pick the right profile and the truck sets itself up.
Trailer brakes are the braking system on the trailer itself, typically controlled by the towing vehicle. Many modern trucks can coordinate trailer braking so stopping is more stable and predictable, especially with heavier loads.
Tire pressure monitoring tells you if a tire’s air pressure is too low. Here, it’s being used for the trailer too, which helps you tow more safely.
LIVE
Hello, and welcome to the unnamed automotive podcast.
My name is Sammy Hadjassad, and with me, as always, is my good friend and fellow automotive
journalist, Benjamin Hunting.
Say hi to the people, Ben.
Greetings human listeners.
Greetings to everyone, but especially our guest today, Mr. Bradley Iger, another fantastic,
freelance automotive journalist and all-around awesome dude, Brad, hello.
Hey, how's it going?
It's going okay over here.
I'll say that it's going okay, but I think by the end of this episode, it'll be going
very well.
Sammy almost melted this morning, trying to plug in, tell the story you told me about
that dude who accosted you at the charging station.
Yeah, today we're dealing with a really big heat wave, a really significant heat wave.
Ben, you did the numbers on how-
It's like 115 Fahrenheit where Sammy is, I think 46 Celsius.
It is brutal, and I have to fast charge the car that I'm driving, and I was struggling.
I was really struggling to make it work.
I have these NACS adapters, I have this CCS adapt, I don't know what I'm doing.
You had six apps, you had to wall it out.
Yeah, it was not working.
And finally, after running in and out of the car, three or four times, moving to a different
spot, all this kind of stuff, I finally get it working, and I'm like, all right, good,
now I can cool down in the cafe or the store or whatever.
And some guy just stops me, I'm telling you, I'm sweating through everything right now.
And he's like, hey, I've never used one of these fast chargers, what is it like, how
much does it cost?
And so I tell him the rate, it's like 60 cents a kilowatt hour.
And he's like, oh, how long will that take, how much is that going to cost?
And I'm sitting there, I am sweating, I'm like, I cannot think right now.
But this guy's taking notes, right?
Like he has a notebook out, and he has a painter's easel, and he's doing a portrait
of you while you're doing this at the same time.
I could not imagine what was going on.
I was sweating.
It felt like I was being interrogated under a heat lamp.
Like I was being tortured.
It was so crazy.
It's like, funny thing is, if someone had asked me those questions, I would not know
the answers, because I don't know what it costs to charge at whatever plug I'm at.
I'm just glad the plug is available.
That is what happened.
I was thinking, I'm like, this guy really wants to talk to me about this car.
I better talk to him about it.
So I pull up the phone.
I'm looking at these numbers.
I pull up the calculator app.
And I'm usually so, I'm really friendly at these interactions.
I'm like, oh, I'm reviewing it for these people.
We have the podcast.
Come and check us out.
Follow me on Instagram or whatever.
And then, but today, I was so short with him.
I'm like, it costs this much.
Today, today you only gave him the only fans link.
And you know, I showed him my, the QR code tattooed on my back.
If, when you flex, it goes to an even more risky site.
The transformational QR code.
I appreciate you changing the intro.
Usually I get Ben to plug some of his recent publications, but we've preamble
the little bit too long today.
So I want to get right to it.
Brad, I wanted you on today's episode because you drove the craziest looking
thing I have seen in probably my entire career.
And I could not believe it's real.
I thought it was a render.
I thought it, like this is just like a video game thing.
But can you please walk me through a car known as the finger 21?
Yeah.
21 C and the version I drove was the V max.
Oh, okay.
I'm looking at the difference one.
There's, there's also a high downforce version.
The, like, like I was telling Ben before, it's the main difference is mainly the
arrow pack, just they put on it.
So it's two different ways to die on a racetrack.
You know how they say oversteer is one way of hitting the wall and understeer is
the other way.
I feel like V max and max downforce are like the other two poles of that equation.
Sorry, go ahead.
I was just going to say that, you know, the, I think that the way they kind of
configured it is that they wanted one car that was going to, you know, chase top
speed records and then another version of the car that was going to chase lab
records.
Yes, that's where you get the high downforce one and the V max one.
There are, there are so many ways to try to describe this car to our listeners.
It's not, it's a non visual medium, but I'm basically, I'm going to give it, I'm
going to give it a go.
Imagine a open wheel race car with all of the open elements covered, like as, as
closely as possible.
And you've got what this car looks like.
It looks like a Pagani in a different, like dimension, you know, like a
different history.
I think that, you know, I think that the fact that it's center seating kind of
defines the shape of the car.
And I think to me, it reminds me a lot of like Le Mans prototypes kind of in that
way, because that's center seating, but, you know, dialed down a little bit more,
especially with the V max on having the crazy wing and all that and the
canards and all that stuff.
I mean, you're sort of focusing just on the shape of it, which is like, you know,
really curvy, obviously, you know, and I think that with the hideout or with the
V max car, they want it to be as slippery as possible.
So it does have that really sort of alien wind tunnel sort of shape to it.
Everything is a scoop or a duct or some kind, you know.
Yeah.
So it's funny that you mentioned scoops and ducks, like from certain angles, it
looks like there's almost a wicker like surface for a lot of the, the fairings on
the vehicle, like to allow air to pass through in areas where you wouldn't
normally see that on a car.
Right.
Absolutely.
I mean, like I was telling you guys before, like, I feel like a lot of this
car is less about like long term sort of, you know, everyday road use and more
specifically, this is a car that you can drive on the street, but really like is
designed to live on tracks, either high speed tracks or, you know, road courses.
Like I feel like there's very much a, this is more of a technical showcase than
sort of a long term sort of product rollout where this would be something that
they're going to build on over a long term period and make it into some kind
of grantor or something like that.
I think that they will, they will do this to sort of, you know, really bring
some attention to the company and then probably, you know, if it, if it gets
enough attention, move it to something that will be higher volume, it's a
little more conventional.
There's a couple of things about the cars looks that bring to mind early 90s
prototype supercars back when Aero wasn't the only thing that was a
consideration.
And I think that part of that is the single seating, the, the, the single
row seating that you mentioned.
I'm thinking about, remember that Yamaha prototype that was out there?
Um, there was also a single, a single row dual seat vehicle.
It really has that kind of cool proportion where like, instead of, instead
of having enormous door sills, like you still kind of have that, but the body
of the car itself is like visually narrowed in a way that you don't see
on a lot of supercars today.
Yeah.
I mean, this car does have gigantic door sills though.
I mean, they, when I went to get into it, they're like, hold on, stop, stop,
stop.
We have to show you how you get into the car.
Are you out of places you're not allowed to step and whatnot?
I mean, I don't think that, I think they just wanted me to get like, uh, an
interpretation of the, the sequence that was as graceful as possible.
And there's really no truly graceful way to do it, but you, you basically
have to sit on a sill with your feet outside of the car and like tuck
everything in and spin around on your butt and then drop into the car.
Nice.
I love it.
Spin and drop.
I love that.
It's like, that's such a sequence.
Like, I don't reach into that.
I mean, you know, you have to turn the car upside down and shake it.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I don't think anybody, you know, over the age of 40 is going
to do this gracefully.
Um, it's just, you know, in inevitability, just because of how weird it is.
And like, you know, how, like I said, purpose built the car is and because,
you know, so the part of the reason that there's such a huge, you know, sort of,
um, you know, gap you have to clear in order to get into the car is because the,
the batteries of the car are in those side sills.
So they, it makes them even a little bit bigger.
They're like, they're really small, like batteries.
Like I think it's like the total is like maybe six kilowatts and like that.
It's just essentially to just power the, the front motors.
There's no electric driving range.
Um, but those, they're in there.
I think because they figured that was the best place to protect them.
Um, but the problem is that it just, you know, it makes that, that area really
wide in addition to the fact that you don't have seats, you know, coming out to
the sides of the car.
Now, before we get to that power train, the dry train aspect, I want to just
focusing a bit more on the looks.
You've showed us some pictures again, not a visual medium.
Uh, you showed us some pictures of, of the assembly of this vehicle and there's
some, there's a really cool aspect of it in that the, the sub front and rear
subframes that are attached to the carbon fiber tub, which is where, you know,
the passenger and the backbone of the vehicle is located.
They're 3d printed.
And so like I'm looking at them and it's like, I'm looking at props from like
alien three where they're like, have this kind of organic creature made sort
of home spun, find it in nature, look at almost like bones.
It looks like the vehicle has an actual skeleton and there's not the same
type of like linear curves and sharp edges that you see on something that's
like extruded or something that's been machine made.
Yeah.
I mean, when I, you know, wrote up this, this story for Hemmings, I mentioned
that, you know, the, the, the end product of their software iterations on these
looks like something that HR Geiger would have come up with for, you know,
and I mean, you know, people have done 3d printing before, you know, in the
automotive realm, but this is first off, I mean, I, I mean, I think that the
fact that they're doing this for metal parts is kind of unusual.
And I also, because it's so, you know, backing up just slightly.
So Zinger is a, you know, uh, is owned by this larger company.
That's, you know, the same people, um, of this larger company we called, uh,
Divergent Technologies, which essentially is, is mainly focused on 3d printing
and like software development for that.
Um, and, you know, they, you know, I was telling Ben earlier, um, you know,
they, they work with automotive clients, you know, like McLaren and Bugatti
and folks like that who need, you know, maybe like, uh, an upright for a wing
or submit that something that's going to be low volume for like, you know,
some hypercar that's going to build, but they also do stuff for the department
of defense and for aerospace and stuff like that.
So I think with this car, you know, what they did is they essentially said,
okay, how can we make this as light as possible within the packaging constraints
that we want to do.
And so they, you know, took this software that they have, that Divergent has,
and they said, okay, we're going to plug this information into it for, you know,
the, the subframes and for the control arms and every other piece, like pretty
much anything that attaches to that, that, that carbon fiber monocoque.
Um, they said like, okay, this is the, you know, strength, you know,
targets we want to meet.
Um, this is the packaging constraints it's going to have.
And then said, you know, told the software to start iterating different
versions of what that control arm or, you know, subframe, you know,
section would look like, and eventually it gets to a point where it is so refined
that if you remove or add a gram of material to it, it is worse, worse off.
It is either unnecessary weight or it compromises the strength.
Sure.
Optimization.
That's crazy.
It did that.
That is, when I read about that, that kind of was what really got me interested
in this car, because I mean, it's ridiculous to say this, but we have a lot
of 1,200 horsepower cars now.
I mean, GM makes one and like, you know, they've been around for a few years.
And at this point, it's like, I don't need to drive every single one of those
to know what it's like to drive 1,000 horsepower car.
What I'm really interested in is just like technical innovation that makes
can make cars better in general.
And I mean, while this is like, you know, these are low production cars and a lot
of the assembly is done by hand at the end of it.
This kind of stuff seems like something that could truly be applicable to production
cars, like on a larger scale, you know, 10 or 15 years from now.
I think you're touching on something that's really important that we've maybe
talked a bit about in the past on the podcast, but the idea these days, you're
talking about how there's so many of these thousand horsepower cars.
Yeah, you're right.
And it's increasingly difficult to differentiate between them in terms
of you're saying the driving experiences are not all that different.
The appearances are also not all that different because so much is driven by
Aero these days, and it's really created a generic sized silhouette and profile
that is the optimal way for cutting through the air for X engine position on a platform.
But then you talk about Zinger coming out with this idea of like, well, you
know, our car looks a bit different.
But what's really different about it is we have a zero tolerance assembly
process, which is something that I don't think any other automaker has even
attempted, or at least if they are, they haven't, they haven't talked about it.
Like I've been to, I mean, you mean Slate's absolutely nothing in the
car is not purely optimized.
It's optimized for stain resistance, I guess.
But I've been to the Koenigsegg factory and it's, it was like going
into like a custom garage where there were rooms where there was just carbon
fiber lying around on tables and on the floor and like parts were here and
there and it really had a home spun feel.
And like what you're describing, Brad, is not, not at all that vibe.
It really seems as though this car has been optimized with an inch of its life.
But like for, not for cynical reasons, like you sometimes see, you know,
we want production efficiencies.
We want to cut costs as much as possible here.
It's like, well, this is the most finely balanced component we could
possibly come up with.
Yeah.
I mean, they're, they're leveraging innovative technology to make these
cars.
And that's kind of what really caught my attention is that like the other
thing is just, you know, as these cars get more and more powerful, they just
keep getting heavier and heavier, especially with batteries involved.
Yeah.
And I mean, so this car is probably bigger than a C8 Corvette and, you know,
a ZR1X is I think like 4,300 pounds.
This thing's 3,600 pounds.
And so, and it makes the same power and it has a similar layout and they got
there.
I mean, obviously it's part of that is like reduced sound deadening and stuff
like that.
But I mean, you know, you're talking seven or 800 pounds of weight that it, you
know, is a big difference, especially when you get to this kind of level.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the ability to just go full on carbon fiber really helps too.
You know, you have that ability, the ability to do it in a smaller
batch is a huge advantage for a company like this.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, I just, like I said, I think that the, the, you know, the 3D printing
element of it is really what kind of caught my attention just because, you
know, get that and the other thing that's, I think it really interesting
about this car is that they looked around for a V8 to use and they couldn't
find one that would fit within the packaging constraints of this tandem
seating layout.
And so they just built their own.
They just created their own 2.8 liter twin turbo V8.
That is super unusual.
I mean, it's so weird.
And I mean, it, you know, it's awesome.
I mean, it makes 750 horsepower on its own.
Yeah.
It's for, for people who are listening, who are maybe not familiar with
generally how supercars get their drive trains, even a company like
Koenigsegg started out working from, I believe it was Audi V8s.
I don't quote me exactly on that, but they were taking production V8s and
using them as a template for their early cars before they ever even decided
to build anything on their own.
And we've seen no end of bespoke supercars that come out with like LS
power or AMG power, particularly that turbo four liter V8 that's, that's
out there and everything now.
Like the drivetrain development seems to be limited to hybrid systems and
software attached to an existing off the shelf power plant that's then
finagled and messed around with.
It's for a company to turn their back on that.
And I can't impress enough how difficult it is to develop your own 10,000
RPM V8.
Yeah.
It's not something that is casually done.
And it's not something that a company does for the first time, typically.
Yeah.
No, I mean, it's wild.
And I think this one's actually 11 grand, which is, I mean, it sounds like,
it sounds like a super bike when you, when you start winding it out.
I mean, the Temerario is pretty similar in the, in the tone, but because
this has, you know, another 1,000 or 1,500 RPM, it's just that much crazier.
And also if there's, you know, like I said, there's very little sound
deadening in this car.
So like you really feel like you are strapped to an engine, you know, that
rests to 11,000 RPM.
What does it feel like in the backseat?
I mean, tight.
How you are, you are straddling the seat in front of you and you
can't really see much because the seat is directly in front of you.
That's how I prefer to travel.
It's like the spirit airlines of supercars.
I mean, you can certainly do it even at, you know, a six foot three.
I fit back there.
It's just, you know, you are ensconced in the car at that point.
Like you're not really going anywhere.
And I mean, that's kind of true of the front seat too.
It feels, you know, people have compared to a fighter jet.
And I think that that's pretty accurate because you have this sort of
dolmets wrapped around you and the doors are on either side of your elbows.
So like you are very much in the car, you know.
So with those giant sills, what's visibility like when you're, because
you're right in the center of the car.
I mean, it's fine.
I think that what, where it gets a little bit tricky is that when you're
driving on the road, and this is it again, another thing that kind of, you
know, indicates that this car is really more designed to live on the track
than it is on the road, since you're in the center of the car, you
inevitably end up hugging the center, the center line of the lane.
Like you want to lean it to or to the left because you're not, you're no
longer on the left side of the car, you're in the middle side of the car,
but your brain is thinking about it like you're in a left hand drive car.
And I mean, you know, the other thing is that the, the fenders come up so
high and you have these really, you know, beefy A pillars.
I mean, the visibility outside is great aside from those things, but those
things definitely sort of affects, you know, what you can see and what you
can't see.
You're certainly not looking down on the road.
You're, you're as low as possible.
So those things are, I wouldn't say problematic, but there are definitely
things you've noticed more on the road than I think you would on a race track.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you mentioned the, so it's a hybrid, but you mentioned no EV mode and
that the electric motors are solely for the front wheels.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Well, there's one that's connected to the, to like between the gearbox and the
engine, but you know, that's not, it's, you know, essentially like a starter
generator and kind of adds a little bit of power to that, that end of it.
Um, whereas the front wheels are, are cheerly powered by the motors that are
up there.
And are they always powered or the only other certain circumstances that I
believe that they're always powered.
Um, it's got, I think like three different drive or four different drive modes.
There's like a street sport track and track plus.
And then track plus, they were like, you can't use this on the street because
it drops the car by 30 millimeters, which is really, really, I mean, I wouldn't
want to, because it's so low at that point, like anything that you would, even
a bump in the road would cause it, the front splitter to bounce off of the
pavement.
So I mean, you're really like, like it's maybe, I'm looking at the
picture I took here when I had it drop down like that.
And I mean, the front, you know, splitters, maybe two or three inches off
of the road.
Yeah.
I can think of like some race tracks where I wouldn't be comfortable.
Totally.
Yeah.
And what's it like to drive?
Like how insane is it?
You mentioned, I mean, you know, 1200 horsepower cars have a similar experience.
What is setting this apart driving experience wise specifically, like aside
from the, the feel of, of being in the center of the car.
I think that, you know, with something like this, where, you know, you
have a hybrid system always running.
Um, it's not maybe as harsh and sort of, um, uh, jumpy as you would expect it
to be because you have the hybrid system filling in the gaps during the
shifts and things like that.
It's got a single clutch transmission, like an Aventador.
So you would think that like it's going to be terrible, but because you
have the hybrid system filling in the torque gaps, you don't really notice
those shifts as much in terms of, of like, there's being this sudden drop
in, in, you know, power delivery.
But what you do get from that is those super gnarly, you know, full throttle
up shifts that you get from a single clutch where it, you know, it feels
like you're being kicked by a mule every time you shift it, which is kind of,
yeah, I mean, I like that stuff.
I mean, it's, it's not, you know, it's probably not the most efficient way
for that transmission to work.
No, but it reminds you that you're driving something.
Yeah.
I mean, it adds to the drama and I mean, I love that.
I think that's what I loved about the Aventador.
I mean, that, that gearbox was terrible on the road, but on the racetrack,
you felt like you were doing something, you know, um, but yeah, continue.
Tell me more, like, so it's got this, it's got this gearbox, this bizarre
gearbox, um, but they've kind of like, it kind of works for the design of it.
But what about like, sure, does that handling, does that like hugging the
road kind of aerodynamics play into how you drive it every day?
I mean, would drive it every day.
I don't think you can really touch anywhere near this car's dynamic
limits on the road, like really anywhere.
So like also you're, I mean, even with the V max, I doubt that you're
really touching any, any speeds where like the arrow would matter, aside
from the fact that it's not generating lift.
Um, but I mean, you know, those, those things aside, like it's, it's pretty
easy to drive.
It's not huge.
So, you know, you can kind of place it where you want to.
And you know, it's 3,600 pounds.
So it's not super heavy.
Um, it stops really well.
You know, it's on great tires.
So, and I mean, the power is there.
And I mean, even if it had tons of lag, you know, turbo lag, you
wouldn't notice it because the hybrid system is filling those gaps in.
So there's, you know, it feels pretty linear.
I want to point out that this car's, uh, front brakes are larger than
the wheels on my pathfinder.
Yeah.
They're insane.
Those, those like break discs are just gigantic.
And like, I was asking them about them cause they look so weird.
Like they, they, they're not a two piece in the conventional sense.
And so like, you know, I'm looking at them and I'm like, are these weird?
And you know, is there something unusual about these breaks?
And like, no, these are pretty standard carbon ceramics.
They're just AP racing carbon ceramics that you would never see on normal road
cars, you know, cause they're probably a bazillion dollars.
Yeah.
I mean, you're just, you're working with an entirely different, you know, set
of tools when you're, when you're at this, you know, price range that you
would with like conventional super cars.
Where would you put this in the pantheon of the ones that you've driven and the
ones that maybe are at this vehicle's level?
I mean, it just depends on what you care about.
I mean, this car is set like more than a dozen lap records across the
U.S. And so as far as, I mean, well, maybe, okay, I might, I might be confused on that.
I know that it's, it's set at least five or six in California alone.
So, I mean, clearly it's extremely capable.
I think that that certainly would take a few days of tracking it in order to
like get to a point where you're comfortable, like truly exploiting what
this car is capable of, just because it is so fast and has so much grip.
And I'm sure with the, with the downforce car, you have, you know, it's
about trusting the arrow at a certain point.
You know, if you can go into, you know, turn seven at Big Willow at, you know,
170 miles an hour, you're probably not going to want to do that the first time
around.
Yeah, we've all been, I've, I've mentioned in the past, driving an
arrow car is the biggest leap of faith that you can take if you grew up
driving grip cars, because it's the exact opposite of everything you've
been taught in terms of cornering, where you actually have to go faster to
stick through the corner.
Yeah, absolutely.
It messes with you so much.
Um, yeah, it's terrifying the first few times.
You're like, I, okay, like, I guess we're doing this.
Yeah.
You have to come up with, um, almost a whole new understanding of where
the limits of a car are, because when you, when you're driving a non-arrow
car, aka 90% of the cars, well, most of us will ever drive, you have a
certain number of cues from how the vehicle is acting that tell you how
much grip you have, whether it's the sound of the tires or the feel of the
gradual breaking loose of the rear end of the car or the front end pushing or
whatever it is.
There's friction is making itself known while you're driving, but an arrow
car has none of that.
Like if you're, if you're feeling no communication all the time, it has
communication, but like, if you're feeling that in an arrow car, you're
going to slow, right?
Right?
Like by the time you get to the point where the arrow is effective, you
won't have any of that friction communication anymore.
You're, you're, you lose all of the, the, the sensory input that you're
so used to in terms of determining where the line is.
And, and for me, in my case, I've had some incidents where I was too
close to the line and I didn't know, and I dropped speed and it had terrible
consequences, you know, like, cause I don't, I'm not used to it.
Um, anything else you want to add about the, uh, Zinger, Brad?
Um, no, I, you know, I think that, uh, well, I mean, guess, yes.
How much are they going to cost?
How much are they going to cost again?
I mean, it's, they're building them now.
Um, I think that they started like 2.3 million, maybe 2.4.
Just out of my budget.
Yeah.
I mean, but I think that this company is planning to do things that are going
to be, you know, higher volume going down the road.
And I think that, you know, there's been hints that they're going to do
one with a more conventional layout.
And, you know, they'll still, from what, you know, they've told me specifically,
they want to build more cars that are going to be high performance vehicles,
you know, high performance focused, but I think it's going to be at a more
accessible price point and with a more conventional layout.
I mean, I think that this is more than anything, a technical showcase and
something that will grab attention because it will set those records.
And that's really how you get press, you know?
So Sammy, didn't you say you had to choose between having a second child
or buying a Zinger 21C?
Yeah.
That was pretty much, uh, that was a tough choice and caught.
It was very difficult to convince, um, my partner about, uh, the benefits
to this car in her life, but, uh, I don't think the kid has many
benefits now that I think about it, but, wow.
That takes a while.
At first.
Yeah.
We're going to save this episode for when they're, I guess 18 and,
and, um, anyways, Ben, I think we should transition to another, um, car
that we, we've been testing out lately.
And that's, uh, your Ram that you've been driving.
Right.
Totally the opposite end of the spectrum in always, but one, because
this Ram has a 1,075 pound feet of torque.
So it's right up there with the Zinger, uh, it just, it's delivered
a little bit differently and the packaging is conservatively three times as
heavy.
Um, I don't think they 3D printed anything except maybe the cup holders.
And, uh, they didn't use any carbon fiber, but they used all the steel in America
when putting this thing together.
I drove a 2026 Ram 2500 and it had the 6.7 liter Cummins I six that has 430
horsepower and the previously mentioned insane amount of torque.
Why am I driving this truck?
You're asking yourself because in a time when gas prices are absolutely insane
and diesel prices are even higher.
Well, I was going to most sport, um, as is my custom to do a track day.
And since my Z is still in pieces and being rewired, although I believe
it was fired up yesterday afternoon for the first time.
So that's good to know, uh, the, we took my dad's a Mustang and we put it
on his trailer, which is like a big hefty steel trailer with a wood,
wood floor and like a very high tongue weight because of how the Mustang
has to be parked to get the doors open.
It's, it's not an easy trailer to tow.
So using an HD pickup with it solves a lot of problems.
Uh, and I hadn't driven this generation of HD, uh, listeners will probably
remember two years ago when I drove, uh, the 1500 when it was redesigned.
And I told with that I told exactly the same package and I had the air suspension
fail on the truck, which is not great.
No.
Yeah.
That was a bit disappointing.
So I figured, well, what could go wrong this time?
2,500, it's probably not going to fail.
And, um, for the most part, the truck was pretty good.
For the most part, it did not fail.
So there's, there's a couple of things I really liked about the truck.
The first is it has air suspension for the rear, but it's for specifically
to lower the bed.
There's a button on the console where you push it and it drops the bed, a
considerable amount, and you can actually load stuff into it.
This is like one of my biggest complaints about modern pickups that they're
so tall that you can't lift anything over the side anymore.
And even with the tailgate down there, a hassle, but I picked up a couple of,
um, five foot planters for, for vegetables and whatnot, the exceder planters in
this thing managed to get them in without any problems.
And then when we were loading the truck for the track, we bring a bunch of
cinder blocks to like weigh down the tarps and stuff that we use to keep the
sun off and we have, you know, tables and chairs and stuff.
Uh, I believe the truck has like a 2000 pound curb, uh, tongue weight
capability, so it doesn't really affect the towing fortunately.
But with the, with the suspension low, you can do that.
No problem.
And you can also lower it to hitch up your trailer, which is really convenient.
Given how tall HD trucks are, I don't have to crank the, uh, the trailer jack.
And I don't have to put like six blocks of wood under the trailer jack to get
it to where the hitch is.
Uh, that's been a problem for me on the past with like the AT4X version of the
GMC 2,500 Sierra, that thing.
I had to let six pounds of air out of the rear tires just to get my two inch
drop hitch to meet where they, uh, where the trailer tongue was is crazy.
Um, the, the other aspect of this like axle thing is it has a thing called
alt trailer height and that doesn't put mascara on your trailer.
It doesn't give you a cool studded wristband.
But what it does do is let you maintain the lower rear, um, ride angle.
If your trailer is too small, like for most people who are using an HD truck,
you're probably already towing something that's fairly tall, like a large trailer.
But if you have a fifth wheel where the hitch is in the trailer bed, this is
something that you might want to look into because you don't necessarily want
to have a lot of angle between the fifth wheel hitch and the trailer.
If the truck is too tall and you can level out your, your hitch on the fifth
wheel with this system very effectively.
And that's a cool feature that I don't think any other truck has on the marker
right now.
Uh, I love that.
I think that's a, that's a great asset for this vehicle.
What was the drive like and how did it drive with the extra weight of the, of
the truck and of the trailer in the car?
Okay.
So before I get to that, well, there's a couple other towing specific things I
want to talk about, but do you want to talk about that first?
No, no, if you've got, if you've got a, a process, you want to
get through before we get to the process and I always mess it up.
So this is really a process driven podcast.
Yeah, people are probably not aware of that, but we have like extensive
software preparation that blocks out like 200 to 300 episodes in advance.
So it's, it's a long arc that bends towards justice.
Um, this truck has a bunch of other towing related stuff.
And when I say a bunch, I mean, not as much as some other trucks, like there's
a system where you can program in different trailer profiles, which is cool
because you can set up your brakes.
You can set up how long the trailer is.
You can set up whether you have like, um, uh, air, tire pressure monitoring
for your trailer, all that stuff.
You can put cameras on the trailer.
I don't know if I mentioned that and feed it into the, the system that the
Ram has, then you can see the angle on the infotainment, but it's very basic.
Like that's all you have, uh, compared to like a GM or a Chevrolet or a GMC,
there's a lot more elaborate stuff you can put into the profiles.
The cool thing about the Ram though, is it uses its rear facing cameras
to automatically recognize your trailer and load and see if it matches
a profile that already has.
So then it will, then it will choose the trailer profile for you instead of
like you having to scroll through and do it yourself, which is kind of cool.
Um, but it has another feature called trailer.
Let me get the exact name for it here because it doesn't work properly.
Trailer steering is a little knob on the bottom of the console.
You push a button and you're supposed to be able to steer with the knob left
and right, and that will turn the trailer left and right instead of having,
yeah, instead of having to reverse steer with the steering wheel, you just use
the gas in the break.
This system does not work.
I have had it in a Ram 1500 where it would work one day and then not work
the next, uh, in this truck, it kept asking me to calibrate it.
And at one point I was driving in a circle in the parking lot at the race track.
Well, it kept saying, turn left, left.
And like literally for 90 seconds, maybe even two minutes and nothing is
happening, it would never work for me.
So two years apart, two different problems, similar results.
I'd have to say this is a feature that is, I mean, you can't count on this thing,
man, it's just not, not going to work, but on the plus side, it has a
exhaust break that works fine.
It's overkill for a 6,000 pound load, like what I had.
This is like a truck with a 20,000 pound, um, towing limit.
So, you know, we're really below that.
It has tow haul for the transmission.
I didn't really need it.
It was useful.
It would kick down on hills a little bit easier when I was, um, like on
gradual hills, like longer hills, but in general with 6,000 pounds and a
thousand pound feet of torque, you don't really need tow haul in the
transmission in terms of how it felt while driving.
This truck is definitely not as quick as the GMC diesel V eight.
Uh, when I was towing the exact same load with a Silverado HD, this thing, the
Silverado had explosive acceleration.
Like I could merge like there was no trailer.
It really felt like it wasn't towing at all.
It was startling.
Like the passing power was crazy.
I was a little bit intoxicated by it and it's like dangerous because you can
forget that you're towing 6,000 pounds.
There's a car bouncing around behind you.
Exactly.
Exactly.
The, the Cummins does not have that.
It's perfectly fine.
You're not going to have any issues, but it takes a little longer to get where
you're going and I was surprised by that.
Um, the other thing that surprised me though, in a positive way, the fuel
mileage was excellent.
I, I got 16, sorry, I got 18 miles per gallon at 65 miles an hour.
Well, in this Silverado, I got 14 or 13 and a half.
And even when I punched up the, I did, I did half the trip 400 miles at 65
because gas is expensive.
18 miles per gallon.
That's 13 liters per hundred kilometers.
That's better than my dad's truck.
Um, his, he has, he towed this load with a Ram.
Sorry, I have Ford F 150 with the five liter and he's doing like 15, 16
liters per hundred kilometers.
So it's way more efficient than a light duty pickup.
Then I bumped it up to 75 miles per hour and I got, uh, 14 and a half
liters per hundred kilometers still beating the light duty truck.
And that, that translates into about 14 miles per gallon.
Both of those numbers much better than the Silverado.
So that, that's the trade-off that's like, do you want to have explosive
VA power, or do you want to like not use a billion dollars in fuel,
getting where you're going?
Exactly.
I think it doesn't really get, I mean, diesels are typically, they usually
have that benefit of having a ton of torque with them, the turbo diesels.
But I, in the, in the recent history, they've tried to emphasize like
there's a bit of fuel savings there too.
Um, and I'm glad to see that there is some, what's the transmission
like on this thing?
Does it have 1000000000 gears to, no, it's an eight speed torque flight.
I don't know if that's an in-house development for Ram, if that's
something they borrowed from Cummins, or if it's a CF unit.
Like I don't know the details behind that transmission.
It is a different transmission than the eight speed you would get with
the standard gas engine in this vehicle, which is the 6.4.
Um, I'm assuming it has a lot more logic built into it specifically for towing
and probably a lot of software that makes it so you're not putting a thousand
pound feet down at zero RPM, you know, so you don't blow things up when
you're trying to tow your giant load.
Uh, the, the truck towed fine, except I had a vibration that would come
and go at 65 to 70 miles an hour.
It would come through the floor and sometimes through the accelerator.
I don't know if that's because the roads are very rough coming from Ontario
to Quebec, which they are.
Uh, and that the fact that I had this trailer was extending the wheelbase
and creating like a vibrational frequency that was occasionally just
amplifying that into the cab, or if it was a transmission issue.
Okay.
I can't tell.
No, no clear, but it was frustrating.
Yeah, it's frustrating, especially for a truck that retails at like 115
grand Canadian or 93 us with the options that I had.
It starts at 65 us, which is not that bad, but that's like your base
engine with the VA, the, the, the, the turbo diesel options, like nine grand,
which is a lot.
Um, and I think if you're serious about towing, you're probably going to go for
that.
So this is a 75,000 dollar truck.
Holy cow.
Okay.
I look at minimum.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, now the thing about these rams, I always found them to be really attractive,
looking on the outside, um, interior can sometimes carry that, um, same impression.
What is the, what is the situation you had going on?
What was the trim level again?
And, um, it was, it was a Laramie.
It was fine.
Nothing really special about it.
Nothing really off-putting.
It doesn't have, it doesn't feel super plasticky.
One thing that did catch me off guard was it's a crew cab, not a mega cab.
And the rear seat was not very big.
I was, I was carrying a lot of gear with me and because I didn't have a tonneau
cover, I had to put all the stuff I didn't want stolen inside the truck.
And it very quickly filled up.
Yeah.
So there's no like lift up, there is.
And they make it worse.
So like, oh no, you lift the bottom of the seat and then there's like, you can put
something down where the seat was, but you've lost like five inches of backroom
now because the seat is folded up against the bulkhead.
And then there's like a flip out super flimsy plastic tray that you can put
stuff on if you want to, that like is supposed to fold out from where the seat
was.
And I didn't even risk that because it looked like it would snap in half.
So that was like that on both sides.
It's like a 60, 40 split.
So not great.
Of uselessness.
Yeah.
Pretty useless.
Yeesh.
Um, okay.
Tell me more.
What else?
What else?
That's pretty much all I have to say.
I mean, the truck did what it was supposed to.
I didn't have any failures or weirdness or anything other than the, you know,
the, the electronic features I mentioned that didn't work.
Um, if you're looking for an HD truck, probably drive this to what you think.
The fuel mileage alone is, I mean, if you're driving all day, two or three or
four miles per gallon makes a big difference.
Huge difference.
That's like a 25% difference over the, over the Silverado.
Oh yeah.
I think it's, I also liked that this, unlike the Silverado, which was a trail
boss and had like knobby tires and like a tall ride height and no side steps.
This had like folding side steps and was easier to get into.
And that's going to matter too.
If you're primarily towing, don't like cosplay in an off road truck.
It's just not, yeah, absolutely.
It never, it really impacts the, the overall capability of it.
And like confidence really when you're towing something.
Brad, if you, if you had to pick a thousand pound feet of torque vehicle
between the Zinger and the Ram, what's your choice and why?
I mean, could just take the Zinger and then sell it and buy a dozen
Rams if I wanted to.
I like that that's where your thought, that your thought process
led you to Ram Maxing.
Like that's the, I mean, I just think that, like I said, you know, that,
that car is so purpose built for, you know, lap records that like the Rams
probably have more pleasant experience on a day to day basis.
It's just going to be easier to live with.
I mean, we all know that, you know, supercars are typically kind of a
pain in the ass to live with because they're so low to the ground.
The visibility is not great.
You just have to worry about things that you don't really have to worry
about with, you know, normal cars, like, you know, if there's a big pothole,
you could probably take that and Ram without really worrying about it.
Whereas that would be an absolute crisis and it's 41C.
It's funny because like the Ram, the HD trucks are there.
All their hassles exist at the other end of the spectrum.
Like it's too tall and too big and like you can't park it and you can't see
the child that's standing in front of you.
Like all this stuff that like is the exact opposite of the supercar experience.
I mean, I think that's why these compact pickups like the Maverick are
doing well is because people want to do truck stuff without having to, you know,
buy something that's gigantic and total and totally a pain in the ass to live
with, like, you know, in an urban area of any kind, you know, completely.
So I live in the middle of nowhere and this truck is a hassle.
Even getting it in my own driveway, like I'm hitting branches and stuff.
And like the parking sensors are going crazy
because there's like a bush nearby and like the truck is as wide as my driveway
and the mirrors are wider than my driveway.
It's ridiculous. Brutal.
Yeah. No, you were going to say something and I want to hear.
I was going to ask you if you have anything else you want to give
this this final say on the on the Ram 2500.
Not about the Ram, but I did.
I want to talk a bit about my track experience.
Yeah. And I can evolve all about this track experience.
Yeah. So as I mentioned earlier,
my Z is not running right now because the wiring harness is caput
and we're putting in a universal harness that will hopefully solve
all of my problems and kumbaya my car back into operation.
But we we decided I hadn't been on the track in
in two years, actually.
Last year, I didn't do any track driving because, like, mentally, I wasn't I wasn't there.
I didn't trust myself to be able to focus enough last summer.
So I took the summer off and I just went with my dad to Canadian
Tire Motorsports Park and watched him drive around and, you know, was basically
pit crew for him. This year, we went to the same track
and I decided to drive and I was driving his car, which I've done many times.
2005 Mustang GT has a bit of suspension work and some gearing.
It's very stock.
Normally, it's super reliable and a good time and it's fun to drive.
I mean, it's the S197 is a good platform.
It's it's basic and fun.
And the I was sad because this event was set up to have, like,
a couple of morning sessions and then three hours of open track time
in the afternoon, which is really wild to track like this.
I was sad that I didn't have my car because that would have been amazing.
But I'm like, you know what?
We're going to make the most of the Mustang.
It generally does well with dual driving.
We don't have any problems,
except after two sessions each in the morning,
I went to take four or five pounds of air out of the tires
because they had been a bit over inflated and we're trying out some stuff.
And I'm at the rear of the car and I look and there are there's
an enormous crack in the rear brake rotor.
And then I keep looking and there's three more.
And then I go to the other side of the car
and there's at least six on the left side of the car.
Oh, my God, Ben.
And we had just been out for like two hours in the car at, you know,
200 kilometers an hour is the top speed on that track in a Mustang.
And like it was legitimately a very scary moment.
The worst part was my father had gone to a shop that he he frequents
and had the car inspected prior to the event.
And these cracks were not seen.
And when I say cracks, I mean inch long cracks and they were that has
cross drilled breaks in the back, which I'm not a fan of for exactly this reason.
Right. Brad knows what I'm talking about. Yes.
You remove material from a brake rotor and you are going to create weakness.
There's no way around it.
And I don't believe the advantages for gas outgassing and gas escaping
under braking are worth that exchange.
No, I mean, slotting will do the same thing.
And I bet you every one of those cracks meets up with one of those holes
that are drilled into it. Exactly.
And that's the case here.
All the cracks were at we're at the cross drilled components.
My dad has slotted brakes at the front of the car. No problems.
I came in and I'm thinking, did I do this?
Like, is it were we abusing the car today?
But the thing is most sport is a track that is very fast and very fluid.
There is nowhere where you're going from 200 to zero.
Right. Like at the end of the the the highest breaking zone,
you're probably going to go from 200 to 150.
Like that's that is a very reasonable deceleration
in or at a racetrack.
And the only place where you do slow down to about, let's say, 50 miles an hour.
There's a there's a I guess you could call it like a bottleneck corkscrew.
When you break for that, you're probably coming from like
100 miles an hour, 90 miles an hour to 50. It's not a big deal.
Right. So I'm on the phone with my mechanic and he's
I called him because he has crewed at most sport many times.
For various teams.
And he's like, there's no way that these cracks I send them pictures.
Like, there's no way these cracks are from today.
I came into the pit. I miss I missed a checkered flag.
And I came in with like no cool down and the front brakes were smoking.
But like, that's not the same thing.
These are like stress cracks.
And so we didn't drive in the afternoon.
Getting replacement brakes on the car would have been a process
that would have required 75 percent of the afternoon.
And then maybe we would have gotten an hour of track time
if it hadn't been black flagged or something bad had happened.
You know, like you're rolling the dice.
My dad didn't want to do it.
He wanted to he was done.
I was very disappointed because I had been excited about the day.
But more to the point, I was really terrified about what could have happened
out there, like if those rotors had cracked, it's a catastrophic event.
It's huge. There's like that's a lot of pressure just going to put.
Right. It's a piece of metal traveling at a very high rate of speed.
Yeah. Into the cabin, through the tire.
You don't know where it's going to go.
You don't know what lines it's going to cut.
You don't know how it's going to destabilize the car when that happens
because you don't know when it's going to happen.
And on a high speed track like this,
you definitely don't want that kind of event happening.
Yeah. So we were really lucky.
Like we were fortunate to come away uninjured.
But it really had me thinking a lot about how I've approached the track.
I haven't had a successful track day in three years where I haven't had something
break, where I haven't had the car be unable to complete the track day,
where I haven't required some kind of major repairs at the end or like cut
a session halfway off because of that.
And I think that because it had been two years since I driven on the track
and because this wasn't my car, I got too casual about how I approached this day.
And I assumed that my dad would take care of everything
and that the vehicle would be as reliable his Mustang as it had always been.
When the reality is my dad also had only gone on one track day in the last two years.
The car sits most of the time and he is getting older.
And I can't just expect him to pick up all the slack.
And so I feel responsible for what happened on Monday.
And I feel like I need to change my mentality about how I approach something
that I there's there's this thing that happens when you do something
that's dangerous, that you no longer feel is dangerous
because you haven't personally been affected by that danger.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You get real casual about your safety, whether it's whether you're surfing,
whether you're on a racetrack, whether you're climbing a rock wall
or whether even you're going camping, you know, or you're hiking.
And and you know that at the back of your mind,
you know what you should do to be safe, but because it's never bit you,
you don't necessarily have the the immediacy of the safety
preparations you should be making and things can start to slack off.
And I think that's what's happened to me with racing.
And part of that mentality, fighting that mentality was me.
And I've talked about this a lot with Brad, actually,
actually installing a roll bar in my car this year and like realizing
that bad things can happen, you know, in my death trap.
Tin Can 70s track car, you know, and acknowledging that.
But I didn't I didn't shift that mentality to my dad's modern car.
I was just like, oh, this is a modern car.
Therefore, it's reliable, you know, like, and I don't have to think about it.
So I think it's on me and it's something that I'm going to have to deal with
as I get back into going to the track with my own car.
I've decided I'm going to try it.
And again, Brad and I were talking about, you know, hitting up autocross
and smaller events as a way to like ease back into things as a way
to get the bugs out of the car.
And just, I guess, lower the stakes for for getting back into motorsports.
Yeah, I mean, in my opinion, that's one of the great things about autocross
is that, you know, the worst thing that happens is you hit a cone, you know?
And I mean, and it allows you to sort of reach those dynamic limits
of the car at low speeds where, you know, you can you can fix problems
when they happen, whereas if you start to lose the car 120 miles an hour,
it's a big problem that happens at 70 or 60.
It's not that big of a deal.
Yeah, in a big open parking lot, there are far more exit options, you know?
Right. And I mean, the other thing is just with anything like this,
any endeavor that has an element of danger to it, the more often you do it,
statistically, you are just more likely to have an incident.
Yeah, it's just, you know, and I mean, I've kind of had that realization
with, you know, heading up to Angeles, you know,
Angeles Forest with with press cars and my own cars, you know,
the more often I do that, the more likely I am to have some kind of problem,
you know, get a flat, have, have, you know, mechanical failure,
you know, have some, you know, run over a rock, you know, around a blind corner
or have a deer jump into the road.
Like, yeah. And so, like at this, you know,
it's something you don't really consider when you're younger
because you've never actually experienced those things yet.
It seems like something that happens to everybody else.
And, you know, it's just as time goes on,
you're sort of increasing the probability that those things will happen
just by virtue of doing them more and more often.
So I think at a certain point, you have to assume that these things
are either going to happen to you and you have no, no control over it,
or you just are more selective about what you do.
Yeah, because that way that's generally just the way you could avoid it.
You can do all kinds of, you know, great preparation
and think someone can still smack the side of the door of the Mustang
when you're out there on the track day.
Yeah, someone could lose a wheel and it flies across it right in front of you.
And you know, you know, I think
preparation is really the only, the only tool you have against that
preparation and mindset.
And for me in this instance, I think it looks like playing a more active role
in the maintenance of my dad's car if he decides to keep going to the track.
Because like I said, he is getting older and he talks about not doing it
as much as he used to.
But also like carrying spares is something that I don't do.
I don't have nearly as many spare parts as I do.
Yeah, yeah, especially if you're going to be that far out from where you live,
like you got to have, yeah, I mean, you got to have some spares,
at least things that, that, you know, potentially fail often.
Yeah.
And I mean, I think more than anything else, like checking the tires and the brakes,
like those are the things that no matter what else happens, if those go bad,
while you're there, you're dead in the water.
Yeah, and it's true.
And like, you know, normally we torque the vehicle's wheels before we go out.
I had actually done some air adjustments on the car in the morning,
but I didn't look at the brakes.
You know, why didn't I?
I had the opportunity to do it then.
And then maybe I have the morning to fix the car
and then we have the full afternoon of track time,
plus the advantage of none of us going out on dangerous brakes.
Like it's there's a lot of like would have, could have, should have going on here.
But, you know, an eight hour drive home could be a lot of time to think about it.
So, but I'm just getting frustrated with going very long distances
and having my car break and not being able to do anything.
Like it's not, it made me, it makes me feel stupid.
It makes me feel like stupid for not preparing and for making bad choices.
And I don't like feeling stupid when I could have prepared better.
So that's that's on me.
Anyway, I guess I'm kind of being it's like a philosophical share.
I'm not sure what to do with this information.
Yeah, no, I mean, I think that the takeaway here is something
you've already sort of identified, which is you just have to be prepared,
especially if you're going to be doing crack days far away from home,
far away from all your where all your stuff is.
Yeah, for sure.
And also, like you said before, don't take a newer car more
like newer car reliable, more modern, like as a given.
Yeah, don't don't take it less seriously because the car is more modern.
Right. I'm in my weird seventies mindset,
we're like everything on the Z could break at any time, even though,
like until recent years, it hasn't been very reliable because it is simple.
Yeah, but I reached the end of the platform's capabilities
and I'm starting to push past them and things are breaking.
And then I get in my dad's Mustang and I'm like, oh, this thing's like dead,
simple, like what could happen?
You know, but the same things can happen.
It's just the only difference is my approach to it.
But on the plus side, I did get to see Sammy.
He showed up at the track, which was nice because I wasn't on the track
in the afternoon, so we got to hang out.
Yeah, dad got to hang out with us too.
Sammy brought me my new laser disc player, which is super cool.
Is it working? Have you? Have you?
I haven't played it yet.
I'm going to do it this weekend.
I'm terrified that it is not working.
And that was the biggest.
I'm going to hold you fully responsible for its condition.
Yes, Sammy picked up a lazy disc player for me in Toronto
because for some reason no one sells them in Montreal.
It's just is not available at all.
For some reason, weird.
Is that right?
I said for some reason, for some weird reason,
it's hard to get a laser disc player in 2026.
Wow.
Yeah, Sammy uses his time title.
It's a lot easier.
But you've also got you also picked up that CRT TV, didn't you?
Yeah, but not at not at most sport.
I've had CRT for like a month now, a month and a half.
That's right. You picked it up with a cross track.
Yeah, I picked it up with a cross track.
It weighed 168 pounds.
Yeah. And then you moved it with a tractor, which is like the
picture of it on the back of the tractor.
I could tell I could feel your happiness through the computer screen.
I did it by myself, which is crazy.
Like I didn't think I could.
I thought I would need my wife to help me.
But like somehow I was able to do it.
And if you if you're listening and you want to see pictures
that Brad's referring to, go to Benjamin hunting dot com.
There's two blog.
I just put up a blog post about using the CRT yesterday.
But there's a link there where you can find if you just click
that the keyword CRT or laser disk, it'll bring you to the post
that Brad's talking about with like I have like a a three cylinder diesel tractor.
And it was the only way I could move this 170 pound TV
from the cross track to my garage.
And then we brought it into the house.
We use two dollies and then I had to lift it from the dolly
to the table stand that it's going to be on.
And my wife was helping me and she is a very small person.
And there was a moment where my grip was weakening and I realized
that if I let the TV go, she would die.
She would be crushed by this TV and there was nothing that could be done.
And it was like a very it was another one of those preparation moments.
I guess I have survived.
Yeah, no. And I mean, that's the important thing.
Exactly. That's what we're focusing on.
I have this, I think it's a 36 inch CRT
from back when I was a teenager and it's sitting in my, you know,
office, the closet in the room that I use for my office.
And it's moved with us since ever since I've known Nicole.
And she absolutely hates this thing.
But my wife and, you know, because I've told you, I've told Ben about this before.
It is extremely heavy and it has no grip.
Like there's nothing about the outside of it that's designed for people to pick it up.
It's like a super slick plastic surface like
and then the bottom is like this like sawtooth edges.
Like so it's like just just hateful.
But I think I keep telling her like someday I'm going to set up
this TV on a stand with it with an original Nintendo and play like Duck Hunt
and stuff like that. And that's the only way you can do it because,
you know, the Zappert technology only works with the CRT.
And I mean, there are like perfectly reasonable thought process.
And I have my SNES connected to mine.
So I'm a Super Scope six.
I'm like right there with you.
Yeah, man. And I mean, I just can't see myself getting rid of it.
But I absolutely hate the thought of ever having to move it again, even to set it up.
So you get me.
She didn't know that.
She didn't know she was buying into the Brad the Brad CRT package.
My in-laws have one of these massive Sony
like TVs that are attached to like they seem to come with a stand
and like speakers and it's not going anywhere.
Those are rare.
Well, it's all the way in Europe right now, and it's not going anywhere.
It is the coolest thing, but also the most annoying thing.
It was like the last CRT ever made.
My wife talks about it all the time.
She's like, when you when the day you slurge on something is the day
it for that entire technology will go away.
That's that was her father's experience.
And he's never, ever done that again.
Forget it.
You know, what's crazy is so I've gotten involved in these CRT Facebook groups
just to get like information.
But yeah, I just like get information about like
because you can there's a tuning menu on these so you can set them up
like colors and stuff.
And I just wanted to know what commands were.
But there's people who are very, very, very into this hobby, right?
And they will go into the TVs and they'll make like physical changes
to the circuit boards to fix the problem.
Like if let's say it's bending the image at the top or like the colors
a bit faded here.
But the crazy thing about these CRT is especially the big ones
like the one Brad has mine's a 32 inch.
And I think the 36 is way like way over 200 pounds.
They're huge, right?
They have enormous capacitors in them that will kill you.
Yeah. And they'll.
I would never open up one of those TVs.
No, they will kill you years after they've been plugged in.
Like they maintain that charge almost indefinitely.
And and people don't realize that.
And there's all these people like, oh, yeah, make sure you use a grounded
screwdriver and a grounding strap.
And like I'm thinking about your in-laws, Sammy, in Europe, where it's like
200 and twenty volt electrical system already.
It just seems so insane, like that someone would risk that, you know, like
I guess the alternative is you have to take it to a repair shop,
which means lifting it, which is impossible.
No, we're not doing that.
Never again.
You're going to take a wall down, I think, to get out of my house.
I truly believe so.
There's one more thing I really wanted to have a discussion on this week's episode.
And it's specifically about one of the vehicles we discussed last week.
It is the Dodge Charger, just either the EV or the or the gas.
Six Packard Daytona.
Totally not confusing that those refer to different drive trains.
You know, the other day I was driving home and I saw like an older
generation Dodge, the previous generation Dodge Charger with a Daytona sticker on it.
Yeah. And I'm like, oh, yeah, they made like a Daytona package,
like appearance package or something.
So they just decided to take that nameplate and fix it to an entirely
different experience in terms of powertrain and lifestyle.
It's crazy. I like how you attach lifestyle to that.
Do you know, like when you when you get into, I don't know.
Are there multiple Dodge lifestyles?
Brad, we know the answer to that.
I mean, I will certainly say that the person who was buying
Daytona EV is a different person than who was buying a Hellcat powered
Charger Daytona from LX car.
So that is a different person.
A bit of background.
Brad is a proud LX platform owner for a very long time.
Hellcat and pre Hellcat.
Yeah. Nice.
Yeah. And I've had three of them in total.
And I still have two of them.
And and yeah, one of them is a very cool wagon.
Yeah, I feel like that's the one I will never get rid of the Magnum SRT.
It is the CRT of your life.
Your your.
Well, it's it belongs to Nicole.
So yeah, it's Nicole.
Yeah, there you go.
But that is it's sick.
I mean, the Magnum is awesome.
Yeah, no. And I mean, and to be clear, in the past, she has been like,
maybe we should sell this thing.
And I'm like, we're never selling this thing.
I will mean, I truly mean this.
I would sell the Hellcat before I would sell the Magnum.
I feel that way about my Cadillac.
It's the last one I would sell.
I completely identify with that feeling.
It's just the challenger will never be as cool as a Magnum SRT8.
Like it's it's such a weird car and it's just like such a distinctive look.
And I mean, there is a ton of stuff about it where you're like, God,
I wish just had a better gearbox.
I wish just had adaptive suspension and that kind of stuff.
But at the same time, you look at it and you're like, this is so rad.
And like the only thing cooler than this would be just a faster wagon.
Right, right. Yeah.
And if you get like an E 63, then you're just like everyone else who has an E 63.
You know, right.
And I mean, common.
And they're so expensive that it's like, if I'm going to buy something
that's that fast, I'm going to buy a sports car.
I'm not going to buy a wagon.
Yeah. Yeah.
You're not going to trade your your zinger for like 24 E 63s, right?
Exactly.
And I mean, when they do get cheap enough, you're just like, OK,
you're you the reason it's so cheap is because the maintenance is insane.
So you're never going to drive it. Yeah, exactly. Right.
But yeah, we thought, you know, the whole impression of this
of this new modern Dodge, whatever you want to call it.
I mean, I think they would describe it as a muscle car.
I think we needed to go to someone who has had so much experience
with Dodge and the and the previous Charger Challenger vehicles.
And that's you, Brad, man.
You you got you got all the info on these cars.
What is going on with this new model?
There's something not not connecting here, right?
Well, one thing I would say about the six pack, you know,
to what you were just talking about with, you know, trying to categorize it
is that when I drove the six pack, I mean, I don't know this.
This might have changed since then, but I kind of doubt it.
But I looked at the Minroni and I was like, that's weird.
It doesn't have the same adaptive suspension that Daytona has.
And it's also weird that it doesn't have the summer tires
that the that the Daytona EV had.
It was on all seasons and it was on a static, you know, damper,
you know, suspension setup.
So I went on the configurator and I found out at least at that point
about a year ago that you couldn't even option those things on this car.
Even though it's the same car, like those things are not, you know,
powertrain dependent.
Like, yeah, right.
So but I don't know, maybe they wanted to, like, oh, I'm sorry.
We couldn't put nice tires because it's not an EV.
Oops, like I think that they just wanted to create this artificial,
you know, sort of separation and performance level between the two cars
because if you put summer tires and better suspension on the six pack
with it being, you know, a thousand pounds lighter,
then you know, you're suddenly starting to bump up against what the EV can do.
But because it was configured that way, you know, this story,
this review that I wrote for Motor Trend was kind of like the main,
you know, sort of topic of it was this isn't a muscle car.
It's a personal luxury car.
Yeah, that's I mean, if you look at, you know, what those were back
in the late 70s, like the configuration of this car is basically identical
to what that is. That's the same conclusion we had last week.
It's like it's a complete disconnect between what Dodge is telling us
it is and what everything about our senses is telling us it is.
Right. And I mean, there are so many things that are inherent to like
what defines a muscle car, in my opinion, that this car does not have.
Like, I mean, basically the only thing it has that makes it a muscle car
to me is it being a front engine coupe.
You know, you have, you know, to me, a muscle cars is
RWD V8 front engine and preferably as a manual transmission.
And none of those things are what this is, you know, and I mean,
I'll make an exception for the Grand National.
I mean, a lot and a lot of people do.
I personally wouldn't do that, but I can understand that where it was.
And, you know, the mid 80s that just didn't fit into any other category.
How do you feel about the turbo Transam that came just after it?
Was it V8?
No, they there was like a one model year where they took the Transam
and the Buick motor. Oh, I didn't even know about that car.
I mean, I would just call it a sports car, honestly.
And it's probably what I would call the Grand National.
OK, OK, OK.
I'm looking at I'm also looking at the build sheet now, Brad,
and you still can't order summer tires.
Yeah, that's ridiculous.
The optional tire package for the car is all season.
Yeah, I mean, and so I mean, when you go out to drive it hard,
it's just it's terrible.
It's got tons of body roll.
It's got tons of squat, tons of dive and there's no grip.
And the car still weighs 4900 pounds and it wants to understeer
because it's all a drive.
So it's just like everything that made the last generation
challenger and charger fun have been kind of removed from this car.
I mean, it's a great cruiser.
Like and I'm sure that lots of people, I mean, I'm not super crazy
about the exterior design, but a lot of people are.
And like that's perfectly valid.
And so you get this sort of stylish, you know,
big coupe with a lot of curb appeal.
And that is what a personal luxury car was always supposed to be.
And that's that's kind of what this car is.
And I mean, and Dodge does not have a customer for that.
I mean, that's not their person.
I don't know if that customer exists.
That that person is going to buy an SUV because it's more useful.
Or they're going to buy an eight series.
Right. You know.
Yeah. And I mean, price wise, you're right up there with it.
That's gravy.
That's not when you look at it in profile.
It is so clearly a four door car.
Yeah, totally. It has two doors.
100 percent. I mean, there's so many compromises about the way
this thing was designed that like clearly like like her.
It's it's the overall package and like are focused on just
cost cutting at any measure.
Like, you know, when you look at a Challenger and a Magnum or a Charger
from the LX cars, the Challenger is a has a shortened wheelbase.
And it's the dimensions are slightly different.
Like it actually gets its own designation as an LC platform cars opposed to an LX.
And, you know, that gives the car the right proportions and also makes it a little bit,
you know, better dynamically.
They didn't do that with this car.
They're that the wheelbase and the roof skin for the two door and the four door
charger are identical.
So essentially, you just have a long four door sedan or you essentially have
a four door sedan with two long doors instead.
Yeah.
And I mean, the proportions, in my opinion, are just inherently messed up
because of that.
Like they'll never the car will never look right, especially in profile
because of seeing it with the door open and seeing how far ahead their seats are.
Like it's it's odd.
It is just an odd experience.
Yeah.
And I mean, the other thing that just trips me out about it, you know,
there's a lot of cool, you know, second gen charger cues in it, which is great.
I mean, I'm stoked to see them finally like realizing that.
But like what's weird is that if you look at like a 68 or 69 or 70 charger
and you look at it in profile, you'll see that the front
fenders are slightly lower than the rear fenders where they sort of arch up.
Yeah, it's like a Coke bottle.
Right. And the other but the thing about the new one is it's the opposite.
The front fenders actually slightly higher than the rear one.
So it makes this thing have this like sort of truck like stance that just doesn't
work right. And just like, you know, you see where they are going with it,
but the execution is not there.
It's interesting that you bring up a truck like stance
because I feel like SUV proportions are filtering into areas where they don't
belong. And this is a really good example of that because in addition to what
you're talking about, if you stand in front of the car, it looks so tall.
Yeah, so bulky.
And the idea of a bulky sports car.
I mean, sports cars have been getting have been hulking up for the last decade.
And even cars that are ostensibly very svelte like, say, an F F type,
the Jaguar F type is a good example.
That is a chunky car from certain angles.
The front end is very flat, but the design is specifically there to draw
your eye away from that.
Like it's it's to make it look like it's not chunky.
Nowadays, design is there to put this in your face and be like, here's
a big bad coupe that looks just like the big SUV that you didn't buy for some reason.
You know, like it's weird.
And I saw it most recently.
They just put out photos of the new Hyundai Elantra.
And it looks like it's got box flares now.
And it's like a like a CHR or something.
It's just weird. OK, I love that.
That new, you know, concept or whatever that production is.
Yeah, I think it looks pretty cool.
I actually I agree with it.
It looks so like bulky and like it's a compact car.
I can't believe it looks like.
Well, that's I am just I'm just stoked to see Hyundai Group being like adventurous
with their with their exterior design. Oh, they definitely are.
They definitely are not afraid to try things that no one is.
They are the weirdest design design team out there.
I think that's the best part about them.
I think that it gives them a very distinct identity, both with the, you know,
with within Genesis, within Kia, with within Hyundai.
And the ones that work really well are really impressive
because they don't look like anything else.
They didn't just crib somebody else's good design and like try to make it their own.
It's just like, whoa, I don't like five looks slightly like a Lancia Delta.
But it's I mean, 90 percent of it is just
Hyundai doing something really like bold.
Yeah, for sure. For sure.
I feel the same way.
It's I really wish more car companies would take that take that initiative.
I feel like BMW is that is closest to doing that.
We're like every few years, they're like, OK,
we're going to do something totally off the wall and maybe works.
Maybe it doesn't like the new class that they've got now on all of the
on the three and the X five that just came out with the X headlights and stuff.
That's weird, you know, but they're going for it.
I mean, I'm glad to see them trying stuff, but I mean, I will always
I think that anybody of a certain age, you always go back to the, you know,
the E39 and the E46 and you're like, why can't they make cars that look this good?
A classically designed, you know, looking car, for sure.
Right. I mean, and like there's nothing wild or like outlandish about those two cars,
you know, in terms of like their styling features, they're just like so perfectly
executed in what they are without being without any kind of like gimmicks or
weird sort of, you know, flourishes that are supposed to make them distinctive.
They're just like this sort of, you know,
generic perception of what a coupe should look like, then refined to like this,
like home to this like diamond, you know, point.
Yeah, like a classic, classic proportion.
Yeah. Yeah.
And interestingly enough, I mean, in that period, BMW was also doing crazy stuff,
but it was limited to certain models like the Z3, you know, that's a weird looking car
for the time. The eight series was a weird looking car.
They didn't really let it leak out to the bread and butter cars they were putting out.
Those were it's like there was a firewall in terms of like, we have to keep these
looking classic. We have to keep these looking not conservative, but like a car
that has a much broader appeal.
Even the X five from that period is like a really unique and interesting
design compared to other SUVs.
You know, now it's kind of I saw a guy with a really nice 4.8 is on the road
the other day, you never see them.
And it was super clean.
Like someone clearly loved this vehicle.
That's that's a real labor of passion to keep a 30 year old BMW X five
on the road and looking that good.
I don't know, maybe it wasn't a state sale purchase.
I'm not sure. Yeah.
And I mean, the other thing is just, you know, to your point, it feels like a lot
of manufacturers are so concerned about having this like continuity and design
language between all the cars and SUVs and whatever else they sell that you kind
of get, they get less adventurous because of that.
And that's kind of what I really commend about Hyundai is that like, it doesn't
feel like they're like, OK, if the Santa Fe looks like this, then they launch
or ask to look like this, you know, that kind of thing.
Yep. And the EVs don't even look the same.
They didn't say all our electric cars have to look like they're electric.
They're like, one of them is going to look like a Porsche and a and a
Sophead baby. And the other one's going to look like an eight bit Nintendo cartridge.
And you're like, OK.
I think the other thing that I really like about that that that car that they
just announced, that that was the the new Lanter, right?
Yeah, I believe so. Yes.
There are elements of the N 74 vision concept in that.
Yeah, that's like anything that gets me slightly closer to that.
That that is what I wish Dodge had done when they did this new,
you know, you know, charger and, you know, and the and the coupe version
of that also had kind of gone in this sort of retro version
that was more focused on what if the Challenger had survived to the 80s
or what if the charger had continued into the 80s as a, you know, full size car?
Instead, instead, we got the Hornet.
Right. I mean, and you got that Challenger that was Mitsubishi based.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, the support, the Sapporo.
Man, you know, if they had just supported that car a little bit more,
they could have had like a legitimate Fox body, you know, rival and like put a V
eight that that could have been a rad car.
But that just, you know, it wasn't in the cards for Dodge back now.
That's a good point.
And like Mitsubishi was just happy to make money licensing their four cylinder
balance balancer, right?
Balancer to everybody. Yeah.
And Dodge was just happy to not spend any money, except on.
Well, Sammy, I think that brings us.
I think that brings us to the end of the natural end point.
Dodge not spending any money, which is a frequent theme that we come across
on this podcast if people want to hear other episodes where we talk about
Dodge and and what they may or may not do with their their savings account.
How would how would people do that?
They should head on over to our website on named automotive podcast dot com.
While you're there, you'll see all of our previous episodes, but more
important than that, you can subscribe to our podcast or you can send us a message.
We love hearing from our listeners.
We have a contact form.
You fill that out.
It lands in our inbox.
We talk about it almost the next episode, never whenever possible.
If you don't want to do that, if you want to send us an email, that's no problem.
We will accept your feedback.
It's Benjamin at Benjamin hunting dot com.
That's the email address to use or you can reach out to us on social media.
I'm mostly found on Instagram.
That's probably the easiest way you can get in touch with me.
I'm at Sammy underscore high, like you're laughing.
I'm trying to get back into social media on blue sky.
You can find me, Sammy dash high and Ben is at Hunting Benjamin there.
And Brad, where can people find your work or get in touch with you
or do you not want people to get in touch with you?
That's also a valid choice.
I mean, I have an Instagram account that I'm pretty easy to find.
The Zinger story was done for Hemmings.
That's Hemmings dot com.
In general, I'm just writing for so many different people
that I haven't really aggregated into one website or anything like that.
So I would just Google my name, I guess.
All right. Sounds good.
Sounds good.
And just as always, I just want to put it out there.
Carlos, go on.
If you're listening, we are open to hearing your ideas about how to save Nissan.
So reach out to us.
Any of the ways we've just we've just mentioned, reach out to Brad Tim.
He's open for that.
Sure. We'd love to hear from you.
Thank you. Sammy, what are we talking about next week?
I've got this Subaru Trail Seeker that you heard a little bit about
my my sweltering heat experience in.
OK, I'm really eager to talk to you about this
because this is a I I'm I have so many
ideas about what this car should be or it is.
And I can't I couldn't wait to drive it.
And now I get to share it with you.
I've got a mystery car that we may or may not talk about.
Oh, I love mystery cars.
All right. Thank you for listening, everybody.
See you. Bye. Bye.
About this episode
Bradley Iger joins Sammy and Benjamin for a deep dive into the Czinger 21C, focusing on why its “Vmax” and high-downforce variants feel like different tools for different track goals. They geek out over the car’s alien aero—scoops, ducts, and extreme wings—plus the center-seat, single-row layout and the wild “spin and drop” entry. Bradley also explains Czinger/Divergent’s use of 3D-printed metal subframes and how the tech supports lightweight, track-first design. The episode also includes a chaotic heat-wave charging-station story and a bad track-day update from Benjamin.
The Unnamed Automotive Podcast open-door policy is in full effect as we welcome another great guest, journalist Bradley Iger, who jumps in to discuss the unbelievably cool, made-in-America Czinger 21C VMax hypercar. Beyond its amazing looks and incredible design philosophy, Iger talks about what it's like to pilot one of these legitimate racecar for the streets from the centre seat.
Then Benjamin chimes in to review the 2026 Ram 2500 Laramie, which was tasked with his own racecar towing duties. How'd the big diesel truck fare when dealing with the long road between Montreal and Toronto? Maybe a better question is, how did Benjamin deal with a track day gone wrong, and how has that changed his outlook on the sport?
Finally, our hosts discussed the 2026 Dodge Charger one more time, this time with Bradley's perspective of being a multiple-time owner of the previous generation Dodges. What was the American automaker going for, and what mishaps further explain just how compromised this car really is? Thanks for listening!
