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Episode 87: Even Sillier Season
Episode 87: Even Sillier Season
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About this episode
A lively discussion unfolds as the hosts share personal anecdotes about home repairs, car prep for a rally, and unexpected fire alarms. They delve into the challenges of car repairs, including a humorous take on tire patching and the absurd costs of home maintenance. The episode also touches on the excitement of upcoming motorsport events, including a hill climb with a Lada, and the latest news in the automotive world, such as Daniel Ricciardo's new role with Ford Racing. The hosts' camaraderie and comedic storytelling make for an engaging listen.
Topics:
home repairs
rally car prep
fire alarms
tire patching
hill climb events
motorsport news
Daniel Ricciardo
Ford Racing
Cars:
Aston Martin Valkyrie
BMW 7 Series
BMW Z3
Cadillac XLR
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Charger
Dodge Omni
Dodge Viper
Ferrari 499P
Ford F-150
Hyundai Genesis
Jeep Cherokee
Lamborghini Countach
Lincoln MKT
Lotus Elise
Mazda CX-5
McLaren F1
Nissan 300 ZX
Plymouth Prowler
Porsche 911
Porsche Panamera
Volkswagen Bora
Volkswagen Caddy
Volkswagen Scirocco
Motorsports shakeups! Rory's cool tire repair! Prince's Purple Plymouth Prowler! All this and more.
Subscribe to the Alloy newsletter to keep up with Rory & Fernando, who are here to fix your internet: https://alloymag.com/
Get Peter's new record Half-Staff Blues here: https://peterpeterhughes.bandcamp.com/album/half-staff-blues
(And check out the guys he made it with: https://popfilter.bandcamp.com/album/ray-and-lorraines / https://snowynasdaq.bandcamp.com/album/philharmonic )
Your producer pal Matty, who writes these, has nothing to plug. Thanks for listening to the show!
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Lotus Elise
"...ires because they're so important. But A, this is Elise and I'm giving these tires back. They're not my t..."
Car
F-150 Raptor
"...ter so that when you look to your left He's had a Raptor for a long time. or right, like you're looking do..."
Car
Aston Martin Valkyrie
"The big thing? The Aston, barely driven Aston Martin Valkyrie. That's the crazy one."
Car
Ferrari 499P
"...an, if you look at like the Ferrari hypercar, the 499P, like the rear end of that car like in profile fr..."
Car
Mclaren F1
"...ers formerly involved with the development of the McLaren F1 and Sean Butcher, marketing director and FNNCA."
Car
Porsche Panamera
"...w, he was like, there are circumstances in like a Panamera if you're on the track where you will notice that..."
Car
Ford F150
"I cannot point to a single car instead of maybe like F-150 where I understand how they're fucking making money"
Car
Lamborghini Cuntas
"like imagine like a Knight Rider version of a Lamborghini Cuntas you know and"
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
"Series 1 sport against a stock 91 Corvette around the crisis of proving grounds"
Car
Nissan 300Zx
"fit and finish negatively with the new 300ZX they also claimed that Mosler defaulted on his pr..."
Car
Volkswagen Bora
"Hurley Haywood's factory Porsche 911 Turbo, Bora Seds Callaway Twin-Turbo Corvette"
Car
Porsche 911
"Hurley Haywood's factory Porsche 911 Turbo, Bora Seds Callaway Twin-Turbo Corvette"
Select text to request an explanation
So I ended up calling an electrician and having somebody come out and he was like, I think I
can make this work with this non-stock motor, whatever.
The clearance is really tight.
I'm going to stretch the metal.
I think I can make this work, which will just cost you a couple hundred dollars or whatever.
If we need to replace the whole unit, it's like $2,000.
Holy shit.
Wait, what?
$2,000.
Super cool.
Like for a fucking, and the thing is, and I, you know, I was just incredulous and I looked
it up and it's like, yeah, no, that's what it costs.
It's like $1,800 for like an installed new lamp bathroom fan combo unit thing.
So anyway, so he reinstalled, he gets it in there.
It's working.
It's quiet.
And then of course, you know, we're stoked, you know, I pay him, he bails, and then I go
to take a shower later and it's like, it's quiet for the first like three minutes and
then whatever he did, you know, the tolerance just kind of stretched back or whatever.
And now she's like, so I need to fucking like take the whole thing apart, like cut
down this, the shaft, like for the fan, so, you know, file it down or something
just to try and get like, and just hope that I can get it to go back in in the way that
I couldn't do before.
That's so stupid.
I fucking hate having a house.
It sucks.
Speaking, hang on, one of my neighbors is mowing during, exactly during recording time again.
One second.
Rory, carry on.
I'll be back.
Two-stroke solution, baby.
Last night, we were up prepping Jimmy's rally car until like after midnight and then we, I
went in, got cleaned up and got to bed by like 1.30 and then forgot that I left the trash,
forgot to take the trash out, so I went down in my boxer briefs to the end of the
driveway at 2 in the morning or 1, whatever 1.30 in the morning with both trash cans.
And then finally got back into bed and fell asleep and the fire alarm went off at 2.30
and then the, you know, everybody started freaking out, like everybody's screaming.
Fire alarm in your house.
Yeah.
Just like smoke alarm.
Smoke detector.
Yeah.
Which sets all of them off because they're all daisy chained now.
Yeah, we've talked about this.
I mean, this is like a callback to like a year ago.
Peter explodes a fire alarm.mp3.
One of my favorites.
Yeah.
I walked outside the front door and I just fucking smashed it and threw it onto the
walkway as hard as I could and it just, what, it just exploded and I come back in
the house and my daughter looks at me and she says, what'd you do?
I said, I smashed it and she just kind of goes, oh, okay, I'm so satisfied.
So I, you know, when it gets out, the girls are screaming and I'm like, there's, you
guys, everything's fine.
Go back to bed.
There's no fire.
And it's like, I don't know that.
You know, like that's not, that's the information that I have.
There's no reason.
It's not a fire drill.
But it's like, obviously there's not a fire.
So put everybody back to bed and then turn the alarm off and then it just
proceeds to do that every two hours for the rest of the night.
No explanation.
Oh my God.
The particle, dude, you gotta get the particle.
It's in there.
You know, I feel like they didn't used to do that, the particle.
They weren't as sensitive to particles.
No, no, they are.
So I gotta figure that out.
I love that they're networked so that, so that they all go off.
So you can't tell which one.
So you fuck up.
Yeah, right.
It's, yeah.
No problem.
Really, really great job, everyone.
Yeah.
But it was, I did reflect afterwards on the fact that I just assumed that there
was not a fire in the house and it was like, good job evacuating everybody, but
get back in your beds.
We're good.
There's no way there's a fire.
Nice fire drill.
Good job.
Let's smell it.
I mean, you would know.
I feel like I would know.
Even though.
Where there's fire, there's smoke.
Yeah.
Isn't that the expression?
Even though I sleep with headphones on and really would have no indication whatsoever
that there was a fire, I just feel like I would know.
In my head I would know.
In your bones.
Yeah.
Your manly intuition.
That's right.
So I have two.
Do you want to hear a shady car repair thing?
Or do you want to hear some news about the hill climb?
Or do you want to introduce the pod?
Well, let's introduce the pod just to get out of the way.
The pod is tired.
The car podcast for people who understand that cars are bad.
With your friends, Rory Carroll, Maddie Riley, me, Peter Hughes.
And yeah, maybe let's go in reverse order.
What was the second one?
Hill climb.
Hill climb or a car.
Hill climb.
Yeah.
So we went out on Jimmy's Donzie the other day, which incredible machine.
Fancy boat?
It's like a 60s speedboat.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
So it's a big fiberglass.
It's actually only 16 feet, but it's a V8 rear engine, like super modern hull for
the time.
And this is like an 80s version of the Donzie.
We took it out and it haul, it'll go 60, 65 miles an hour, which is pretty fast for a
boat.
Yeah.
But it'll also, it's like, but also like modern pontoon boats will go 65 miles an
hour.
So it's like, you know, everything's kind of fucked up, but the slow boat fast.
Yeah.
It will, Jimmy driving it, he can, he will pitch it like turn super hard and
literally like get it 90 degrees on the water so that when you look to your left
or right, like you're looking down into the bay, which is terrifying and so fun.
And like, because it feels for all the world like it's going over.
And it is, it is like the entire hull of the boat is out of the water.
Wow.
Very fun.
But after that, got him to have some beers at dinner.
And I was like, you want to drive the Lada in the hill climb?
And he's like, yeah, sure why not?
So Jimmy, the Lada is going to run the hill climb.
Yeah.
With an actual good driver behind the wheel.
So pretty excited about it.
Yeah.
I think now I have to prep the Lada in nine days to go, but it's actually in six
days because I'm going to be gone.
That's so exciting.
Thank you, Jimmy, for picking up the cause.
It should be, should be pretty cool.
And then Jimmy.
Yeah.
The, the funny, oh it's the car repair thing.
Over the weekend, I had my father-in-law's lawn tractor and the Rivian both got these
like pinhole flats, like pinhole holes in the tire.
And I couldn't figure out like there's no nail or there's nothing left in it.
Just like a little tiny baby pinhole.
So I took them.
Usually my tire place of choice is junior tires, which has like a kind of
Rory approved approach to safety and safety and protocol.
Yeah.
We've talked about juniors.
We've talked about them.
Yeah.
But they're closed for Labor Day.
So I took it to Blaine's farm and fleet, who I would say have a somewhat
more by the book approach to tire repair.
Charge me 50 bucks to do the, to do the lawn tractor tire, which is unheard of
at juniors.
You could, I think you could, you would buy into juniors for 50 bucks.
Yeah.
I mean, what, I mean, just to buy a new tire for,
Would have been less than 50 bucks.
For what?
For a lawn mower?
Lawn tractor.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like a lawn mower, riding lawn mower.
That's economy.
Yeah.
How much could a new tire cost?
Only $8 for the inner tube.
And I think $15 or something, $20 to install it or something like that.
And then tax was 50 bucks.
Yeah.
Not good.
And then they refused to patch the tire, the Rivian tire because it's too
close to the sidewall, which is like, I've heard that one before.
And also like, I think to me, if there's like a huge gash in the
close to the sidewall, it's like, yeah, I understand.
Like that's a safety issue.
Like that's the structure of the tire.
But it's like a pinhole leak is not, you know, that's not going to like
suddenly deflate at 90 miles an hour on the freeway.
Like it's, it's just not how a tire is built.
So I was like, can you try to patch it just like to get me home?
Wink, wink.
And he was like, no, you know, it's against our protocol or whatever.
He's like, we can sell you a new set of tires.
It's going to be too grand.
We can have him in here by next week.
And I was like, no, I was like, I'm going to take it to engineers.
But then I was sitting in the driveway that same day.
And I was like, I wonder if you take some tire repair, like rubber cement,
put it in a syringe, like an injection syringe and then turn the tire.
So it's facing down like the hole is facing down and then stick the syringe
in a little tiny hole and empty the entire tube of rubber cement into the little tiny hole.
Wait, can you visually see the hole?
Yeah.
I mean, as you can hear the air is coming out of it and there's a little tiny pin.
So I just dumped the entire tube of rubber cement via a syringe,
which I have a bunch of syringes in the garage for just such an occasion.
Sure.
And it completely worked.
It's been holding air for I think six days now.
It's totally fine.
But it's like, I'm not a real.
It didn't like upset the balance of the wheel at all.
No, I mean, it's probably a dime size, you know,
thing of glue that stayed in there.
And like some of it came shooting out the hole.
But the rest of it just kind of settled in there.
But I think, you know, I'm usually pretty like,
if there's one thing I'll spend money on its tires because they're so important.
But A, this is Elise and I'm giving these tires back.
They're not my tires.
And B, these tires suck.
They're like the Pirelli, Verde, whatever.
And they're awful at literally everything.
They ride terrible.
They're bad off-road.
They're bad on-road.
And they're noisy and they're uncomfortable.
I mean, it's EV.
EV tires basically are just like the only consideration is like low rolling resistance.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're awful.
And like even friends who work at Rivian are like, yeah, those are terrible.
Right.
But I'm reticent to spend two grand on a new set of them that I'm then going to give back
to Rivian at the end of the lease.
Yeah.
So we are rolling with the glue tire and it seems fine.
It's like I said, it's been like five, six days and we're good, I think.
But yeah, I think that's a new tire repair technique that I've not heard before.
Did you guys see that Daniel Ricardo is joining Ford Racing Team as a global ambassador?
Focusing much of his time in the off-road space, in particular around Raptor Global
Nameplate, which he is already a very happy customer.
He's had a Raptor for a long time.
When I met him, when he was with Fred Bull, he had a Raptor.
And when he was, he had a place in LA.
Oh, he's selling his Aston Martin.
What's the thing?
The big thing?
The Aston, barely driven Aston Martin Valkyrie.
That's the crazy one.
That's the prototype that's in IMSA.
And it's the hypercar.
Yeah.
Well, this is, yeah, it's the road car version of it.
We got a dichroic dawn finished, nicknamed Badger Blue,
and tribute to Ricardo's famous honey badger moniker.
Magnesium performance wheels expose satin carbon hardware,
gloss lacquer carbon panels, and bespoke Alcantara trimmed bucket seats.
In total, Ricardo specified $190,000 in options,
ensuring his Valkyrie is one of the most strikingly detailed builds
of the limited production run.
They built 150 of them.
They're selling it via broad-arrow auctions.
And, well, he had eight wins in Formula One.
I didn't know that.
That's more than I would have guessed.
Good for him.
Let's see.
Let me see where.
Let's see.
How many miles?
It has.
Does it have Bluetooth?
Can I do?
Does it have wireless car play?
It does.
99 miles.
Okay.
How old are the tires?
Am I going to have to replace the tires?
Yep.
They are probably original to the car,
which this car came out a couple of years ago.
I mean, 98 miles, there's not going to be a lot of tread wear.
So those should probably be good, although,
I guess, they'll probably be coming close to...
Oh!
Listen, recently received Aston Martin's comprehensive 24-month service
and comes with an extended warranty package valid through August 2027.
So you're good on that.
No problem.
So it's like, what do they call it?
What do they call it when they do the pre-owned certified,
whatever kind of thing?
Program includes additional scheduled support extended through 2029,
a rare benefit for potential buyers of such an exclusive machine.
Yeah, going to Broad Arrow with Hagerty being sold
at the Zoot Concord auction in Deutschland 2025.
So get your readers, get your bid registrations ready to go.
Could be your chance to own a Valkyrie.
They're cool.
I got to say, it's, again, not anyone's thing,
not any of our things, probably, but it is a really neat car
and it is like a super crazy looking on the road.
There's very little to it, there's very little structure to it.
It's very, like, Formula 1-y.
Kind of looks like, remember that they did that,
I want to say T27, super car a few years ago
that was like just bare, it was like an open-wheel car
with just enough body work on it.
Who did this?
This is like a very obscure kind of, kind of forget this one.
This is like my forgotten super car, hold on.
I have to do some googling to figure this one out, we can move on.
Yeah, I'd be curious, I'm so used to seeing the race car version now.
I'd be curious to see the road car and race car kind of side by side
and see how they, it just reads as race car to me now.
And I mean, it's an incredible looking race car.
Yeah, the road car is way more delicate looking and has like,
like I said, a lot less kind of body work.
And when you see it in person, it's just like all these little cutouts
and kind of like, yeah, it's a cool color too.
Yeah, well, I mean, I think the way that they just, they, they,
I mean, I think a big part of that is just the way they use black
to kind of paint negative space.
That's all, I mean, there's so much of that, you know,
it reminds me a little bit of Sajiv's kind of DLO fail,
daylight opening fail kind of thing, you know,
where the phrase that he invented to kind of describe the
super common practice of just making cars greenhouses,
the windows appear to be bigger than the openings actually are.
So it's like the window looks like it's a certain shape
and size and then you get up close to it and you realize,
oh, no, that's just, half of that is just painted black
so that it tricks your eye into perceiving it as a window.
And now it's pretty common practice in race cars too.
I mean, if you look at like the Ferrari hypercar, the 499P,
like the rear end of that car like in profile from the side,
like it looks like a really kind of truncated overhang at the back.
So it kind of mimics like an old, you know,
like a 330P4 or something from the 60s.
But actually, it's just like, there's a big part of that car
that goes further back but they just leave black so it doesn't,
you don't notice it, you know?
Yeah, this one, there are like a lot of places
where you can actually see through the car.
Like you're seeing, yeah.
But yeah, it is a lot of black paint tricking your eye.
Not tricking your eye though.
You clocked it right away.
But yeah, I mean like from the rear, you see it especially
because the way that the, yeah, there's so much daylight
between the front wheels and the actual body of the car,
you can kind of see straight through to where like the kind
of control arms and things go through.
And also just like those gigantic venturi tunnels
at the back, that enormous diffuser.
Which I mean, that's all like, that's what the race car is too.
Yeah.
Yeah, pretty cool to see in road going form for sure.
Good car for the pirate pod boys.
Oh, Caparo T1.
You remember this car?
Caparo?
How do you spell it?
Kate?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
There it is.
Oh, no, I don't.
Oh, no, I vaguely do.
Yeah.
It's super like kind of skinny.
Is it just a single-seater or is that tandem?
Is it like front and back?
No, it really is like a formula car.
There might be, I think there's a configuration where there's
an offset seat to the right.
Yeah, where you kind of put one slightly behind,
which is very goofy.
It would be really fun to do like a sterilized podcast
of like obscure hypercar fail like companies that like came
and went.
New segment, let's go.
Yeah.
Oh, so many.
Let's see.
Yeah, this had like, okay, Caparo Vehicle Technologies
founded by Ben Scott Gettis.
Engineering director, Graham Halstead,
engineers formerly involved with the development of the McLaren F1
and Sean Butcher, marketing director and FNNCA.
The T1 was inspired by Formula One Design
and was intended as a relatively affordable road legal racing car.
T1 was scheduled for production in mid-2007
for a price of $235,000,
approximately 25 cars a year built.
See, that is like, this is my thing that I'm on lately.
Coming back from Purple Beach is like,
okay, so they wanted to build 25 of these a year
at 235,000 pounds.
So how much revenue is that?
Let's see.
235,000 times 25.
So that's revenue of under $6,000.
In 2007.
Still, $6 million.
Or pounds.
Yeah, six million pounds.
So we'll call it seven today.
How is that a company?
How do you make cars and pay the people
who work at the car company with $7 million?
It drives me crazy.
I really want, this is like an alloy stream
trying to get done for week one,
is like, I want to talk to,
I think I talked about this before,
but talk to it like a U of M, like manufacturing.
It's like, how the fuck are these,
what is this?
What is the plan here?
Is there a scheme here?
What's the business model?
How does this work?
How does this make sense?
Is there a loophole we don't know about?
Yes, please lay it out.
It is very frustrating to me.
There's an element of jealousy too
because I'm trying to raise money for alloy.
And it's like, I have a spreadsheet
where alloy is making money in a year.
And I've also talked to a bunch of manufacturers
who are down to participate with alloy.
And it's like, it's not hard to raise money,
but it's like, it's a lot of explaining.
And it's like, I'm not going to you
saying we're going to make 25 supercars a year
and sell them for $235,000.
See, that's an easier thing to explain though.
Maybe that's the appeal is just the pitch
is so just kind of just easy to wrap your head around.
You just go, oh, wow, looks cool.
But you don't do this if it wasn't going to work, right?
Here's your money.
But if I was an investor though,
I would want to know if I'm getting my money back.
And the answer with almost all these companies
is you are not.
And like actually...
Yeah, well, if you go down to the bottom
of that wiki page, there's a section called sales.
Didn't, does not.
15 cars.
The entire paragraph just reads,
Caparo planned to sell around 25 cars per year.
However, however, in the production run,
they sold just 15 cars before the company fell
into administration in 2015 with the completed cars
and owners locations unknown.
A small number of T1s have appeared for sale
following the company's collapse,
one in Japan in 2019 and a further two
that have been on sale in the United Kingdom
since 2021.
So, I mean, I don't...
Yeah, there's citations for that 15 cars sold claim.
But I would guess that the actual number
is closer to the number of cars
that have actually been physically...
Seen.
Yeah.
Physically verified.
Yeah.
It's crazy to me because it's like,
at that price and even like some of these
like $4 million, $3 million supercar things,
it's like, what is the...
Like, I know roughly how much it costs to make a car
and it's like...
In all carbon fiber, totally bespoke hand-built car
is like a big expense.
And it's like, what is the margin?
Again, and it's like, what is like...
You know what I mean?
It's like, oh, yeah, we're building replica Delta
Integrale with 600 horsepower
in all carbon body, et cetera.
And it's like, okay, like that's probably
a pretty healthy margin on that.
But like, what is the conceivable market for that?
And then like, what is the plan to scale that?
You know what I mean?
Like, what is the plan to get that to like a business?
And like...
Right.
It's inconceivable to me.
And it's like...
And it's easy.
It's the kind of thing that's easy to imagine
like any given person
kind of seducing themselves
into the idea that it's like, I can do this.
I can make this happen.
I'm gonna, you know, I have a vision.
I'm gonna sell these.
I'm gonna make these fucking rad things.
I'm gonna sell them to billionaires.
I'm gonna like line up some investors.
I've got some rich friends.
I'm gonna like get some money in place
to make this happen.
It's harder to imagine as many individual people
falling prey to that delusion
as there are, as there have been manufacturers,
you know, like startups
trying to accomplish that, you know what I mean?
I can't do either part of it.
It's like I would be more apt to purchase one of the cars
if I had the money
than I would be to get into the business part of it
because like, it is just like...
Well, yeah, I mean, as a buyer...
Yeah, it's fun.
Yeah, it's...
You get this car that like is either gonna be, you know,
like the first example of something that will, you know...
Or just like it's a cool car, like it's a cool...
Yeah, like 2% chance, like turns into something.
Or it's just gonna end up being like this,
this kind of weird one-off curiosity
that might, you know, appreciate in value
just because it's so just unique and special
and desirable.
So it's kind of win-win from, you know,
rich guy consumer perspective, right?
Yeah, I...
It's the other people involved
who have everything to lose.
So I had this like long conversation
with Porsche this week
for a story that I'm supposed to be writing
for Panorama about how you make
heavy cars feel light.
There's like a sensation now that's very common
that's like, you'll read car reviews
and it's like, oh, I drove this car,
I was 6,000 pounds or whatever,
but it feels light driving it.
Like I had that experience driving the Blackwing.
And it's like, okay, how is that illusion crafted?
What are the like...
What are the kind of inputs
or like sensory experiences
that we're trying to...
Whatever, obfuscate or whatever,
like how do you give that sensation of the car feels light?
Anyway, so I had this like...
I mean, they're basically like using electronics
to kind of synthesize responsiveness, right?
Well, there's...
That's always been my assumption.
It is like, it is monstrously complex.
So like the short answer is like
they're in Porsches, the heaviest Porsches,
they're adjusting the camber of the car
in real time to maintain contact patch.
They're making the car lean in real time
to maintain a contact patch.
And then they're also like adjusting
damping behavior to control roll.
Lean in real time meaning like lean into a turn?
Yeah, like a motorcycle, yeah.
Right, so lean in the opposite direction
that it would naturally be.
They're calling it...
They call it like Skyhook
and that's an engineering tremors on Porsches term
but it's like Skyhook is...
Imagine the car hanging from a helicopter
and you're adjusting the attitude of the car
up and down, left and right to reduce the body roll.
So like the sensation in the car
that you feel from a heavy car
is the sensation of roll or pitch or dive
and like they're eliminating those.
But they were like, you know, he was like,
there are circumstances in like a Panamera
if you're on the track where you will notice that it feels...
Like he's like, if you're an experienced track driver
it will feel weird and artificial to you.
He's like, normal customers don't ever have that experience
but he's like, it'll feel like it's like the degree
to which it's doing the work is like extreme
and it's like noticeable.
But he also said too, like the stuff in the take-hand
is it takes their test drivers
when their test drivers go to set a Nurburgring lap
with those cars, like they have to adjust themselves
to those sensations
and the behavior of the suspension
because it's so different from a conventional suspension
and he's like, they end up being faster
but like at first they're like, oh god, this is fucking weird.
Like this is a weird experience.
But anyway, all that to say,
this is a two-hour conversation with, you know,
20, 30 pages of diagrams and like explanations of it
and like, you know, Porsche, these cars,
they're all starting at under $200,000
and some of them are starting closer to $100,000
but I have no, and this is like
across the board in the car business.
I have no, like I know how cars are put together.
I understand them.
I think they're a very complete way
from an engineering standpoint.
I understand how cars are marketed.
I understand like the development process,
all this stuff.
I cannot point to a single car
instead of maybe like F-150
where I understand how they're fucking making money
on these things, like at all.
Like it's like the Porsche thing, it's like,
it's not, like the hardware obviously is monstrously complex.
There's all kinds of stuff being made
and built by like highly skilled workers
and installed by highly skilled workers
like by people who are union German workers
who get paid a lot of money.
Like that is the manufacturing cost
is one thing I understand that
but it's like the thousands of man hours
in design and testing and validation
and like prototyping
and like, I understand that you're dealing
with a fairly long time scale
with a lot of these technologies.
Some of these suspension technologies
will run for a whole generation
or two generations of car
so you have like a bunch of time
to kind of amortize the cost of doing it
but it's like that's Porsche
and that's like Porsche at Porsche scale
at Porsche margin.
It's like how do you do that at 25 cars a year?
Like how do you do that at 50 cars a year?
That is insane to me.
You know what I mean?
It's like I don't,
like I assume Porsche has
an army of accountants
who get paid $150, $250,000 a year
figuring out how to amortize these costs
over a very long period of time
and like eventually they make your money back.
I mean I would think that one of the ways you do it
is just by starting with not having
a 6,000 pound sports car
so that you don't have to develop
that kind of suspension.
But I'm talking about just the nuts and bolts
of like building a car
and making money on it.
Like it's like it's so hard
for me to understand how that's done
and it like...
But you know,
there are plenty of the companies
where it's like okay these guys are dreamers
they have a bunch of money
they don't really care.
Ineos is like this for me.
He's a fossil fuel billionaire
he owns Manchester United.
Like he's got money.
He's just like I want this truck
I'm gonna build them.
We're gonna make this a company.
Fine.
But it's like the guys who are like
engineers like cobbling together
investors
to do this.
Like what is the pitch
to the investor where it's like
you're going to make...
If you invest this money
you're gonna make your money back
and more.
It's like...
And okay
like even if you have the business case
all laid out in a PowerPoint or whatever
it's like
there's 30 years
from Mosler to Vector
to Zezetta to like
everyone trying this
and it not working.
It's like it does not work.
Like it's like
like name name
what was the last supercar company
that made it like Pagani?
I mean Pagani did not exist
when I was a kid.
Pagani has been a pretty...
Kinnigsegg.
Kinnigsegg same deal.
I mean those are companies
that kind of started in
in the 90s
and have become just
seemingly
stable.
Yeah they exist.
You know over
over you know
several decades
just at a very small scale
just boutique car makers
that you know it's not
it's not vapor where those cars are real.
There are hundreds of them that have come and gone.
Oh absolutely.
I mean many many many more.
I mean I remember seeing the Vector
you know when I mean
that car like in Southern California
that guy Jerry Weigert
or whatever his name was
I mean he would he would always
you know there would be like every
every couple of years he would roll out
like a new version and it would be
on the cover of all the car magazines
and the Vector
if people who don't remember
who weren't weren't around at the time
was just this car this insane
looking car looked like kind of like
an American version of the Lamborghini
it's just like
like imagine like a Knight Rider version
of a Lamborghini Cuntas
you know and
and it was just
I don't remember what the dude's deal was
I think he maybe had a background in aviation
or something and this was his
his bid to like make an American Supercar
and I think it had like some kind of crazy
like twin turbocharged
like big block 454
or something in the back
and I mean it was just outrageous
I remember seeing that car like at the LA
car show I remember seeing it
at in the parking lot
at the at the Chino air show
like it you know and you know
the Chino airport you know they'd have like the big
warbirds you know the planes of fan I mean
that's a whole other conversation
but
I remember just seeing it in the parking
lot there and just being like whoa it's
it's a Vector
Vector yeah exactly
and then like realizing years later
it's like no no that was
the Vector that was the guy
he was at the air show
he drove the car out
he never made another one
and the thing is each subsequent one
he just changed the bodywork
a little bit there was no he wasn't like
building new ones
like that was just that was the car
there was like oh it's a different one now
it's now it's red before it was black
you know it's like no they had a
pretty recently
they auctioned like their old
office space
in SoCal and Ron went
Ron Baugh went to the auction
and said it was fucking wild
it was like all this VHS
it was like pretty cool I wish I would have gone
but he said it was all
like it was all there like the whole company was there
in the office space still and they like
amazing
I wonder how many people Vector employed
at its
can't be 20
I would
I have a hard time imagining it
it's even like a dozen
do you remember including
like the custodian
for the office or whatever
do you remember the
the Mosler
Consulier GTP
Maddie do you know this car
no I don't this is one of my favorite
this is just like an 80's
like a very awkward looking
80's
I mean it
interesting it looked
kind of like an 80's
Imsa car like a GTP car
it's like a big fish
group C car but
yeah it just it looked
it looked funky
and everybody
I remember everybody that drove them
just raved
about just how incredible
they were to drive
but yeah
I mean there's no way that you can make something
that looks that kind of
fucked up
be appealing
it just doesn't look right
it's a very interesting car
and it's one of my favorite of these
like failed supercar projects
because like it's
philosophically correct
right it's
like it's it weighs 2,200 pounds
and it's powered by a Chrysler
2.2 turbo
so like the same
motor that was in like the
Shelby
Dodge Omni
GLHs
and like the fast minivans
Shelby Charger
Omni my beloved
they had a had campaign with
did they race them
did they actually race them
and it was
I guess this was 90's
I wasn't paying attention on the 90's
and in 1991
they were really fast
but
it was the MT900
so it's not the
it's not the
well it's a version of the Consulier I guess
but
really weird guy
they had a lesson
Nielsen was in the print ad campaign
forum they had like these really cool
like
super 80's
like fluorescent
what do you call them
brochures that I had a
brochure poster thing that I got at one point
let me see
they
had a really yeah okay
really funny
campaign or not campaign
bet
with current driver that's right okay so
Warren Mosler
was the guy who built this car
and it is a very goofy looking car
a couple years ago
they could get them pretty cheap and I always
kind of wanted one just because they had
so much like car magazine lore
yeah I feel like I've seen
one here actually at
the little
speed shop the place
in town that hosts
the big cars and coffee and they
run a thing down
that they like they do race car prep
like yeah yeah I wouldn't
be surprised they they
wouldn't be surprised and these guys they did stick around
for a long time like Mosler was a car company
into the 90's
right like they actually how many of these cars
did they manufacture
Consuliers it says
between 60 and 100 were built
pretty good
they ended up going
using like a
I think Chevy
V8 motors
later
used a Chrysler minivan steering wheel
which is awesome
had a bunch of problems
but the current driver thing is really funny so they
basically bet
Warren Mosler put up a
$25,000 bounty and I think
like Mark Vaughn has a really funny story
about this that I can't remember
I can't remember Vaughn's
he got like some kind of a personal conflict
with this guy but
with Mosler yeah so he offered
let me see if I can find that real quick before I tell
that
yeah please this sounds good
in 93 they
updated it and reintroduced it
as the Mosler intruder
yeah
which seems like a
there's more in a certain time
that's kind of a creepy name
fascinating
the intruder
Mosler was like
I think he was an economist right
like he was
yeah very strange okay let's see
hedge fund executive and entrepreneur
co-founder of the center for full employment
and price stability at the University of Missouri
Kansas
let's see
Perponent research financier of modern
monetary theory
he's a fucking MNT guy
how funny
we should have him on
the US version islands in
2018
what is going on
what
fourth mic
we need to get Mosler on the pod
so
so confident in the performance of the GTP
that he offered a $25,000 bounty
to anyone who could pilot a street legal production car
around any US racetrack faster than his car
car and driver took up the challenge
racing a GTP
Series 1
sport against a stock 91 Corvette
around the crisis of proving grounds
in Chelsea Michigan
Arthur St. Antoine
and Chaba
took three laps
each in the Corvette and the GTP
they were able to obtain a best lap
of 121.01 in the Corvette
versus the GTP's best of 122.56
reviewer St. Antoine
opined that the
GTP was difficult to handle with anemic brakes
car and driver confronted Mosler with these results
prior to publication
Mosler noted that the test car was
three years old and worn out due to heavy use
the GTP obtained by a current driver was barred
from a track time driver's school
had worn tires and brake pads, no interior trim
three cigarette lighters
which were especially installed so track time could plug in their computer
and portable radio equipment
Mosler offered to pay to re-run the test
using his company test driver after
installing new brake pads in the GTP
and agreed to pay $25,000
if the GTP still didn't lap fashion the Corvette
current driver refused saying it might be faster
because of their driver Mosler responded that
they could use any driver they wanted
have them drive the GTP and get paid
if it lost due to
a conflict of interest
current driver was subsequently published
the Consulier GTP road
test article in a negative and sarcastic
light where they ridiculed the borrowed car's lack of
interior fit and finish three lighter plugs
failing to mention these were modifications by
the driving school compared the overall
fit and finish negatively with the new
300ZX
they also claimed that Mosler defaulted on his promise
supporting Mosler's position
the GTP should
have won was the
1991 auto race in Lamrock Park
with the Series 2 Consulier
GTP this car defeated
Hurley Haywood's factory
Porsche 911 Turbo, Bora Seds
Callaway Twin-Turbo Corvette
and Jim Minnaker's factory ZR1 Corvette
the race would be the GTP's
last before it was banned from the
market
to further back up its
statements Mosler raised the challenge to $100,000
so however no production car was able to
best the Series 2 Consulier
GTP it has been claimed that
Chet Philip
bested the anyway in a roof
turbo with racing selects anyway
very interesting but there's a very funny
Vaughn story with this guy
I gotta say like I
kinda come down with Mosler
sounds like a fucking whips dude
yeah I really
like Maddie if there's a
hypercar for Maddie
I think this is like Maddie-sized
and I think weird enough that
like this could be your
your track day monster
the Consulier it looks like a
you know how a video game from like the 90's
would have like a big metal fish that would chase
you around it looks like
a big metal fish and I would chase people around
with it yeah
it's cool I'm kinda like
yeah I think it's kinda neat
I like
that the green house has
kinda like cool square
stuff going on but it has the
front is all swoopy like a
a real race car it's extremely awkward looking
and it also like looks
like a car that is made of parts of
many other cars which is great
it's super strange
it's like assembled from
not quite the right
arrangement of parts you guys
I'm sorry I'm off in the weeds
in the
on the Warren Mosler
Wiki page
his academic
work
bearing in mind
this is a guy I mean
what are we talking about
we're talking about like
short run ultra
you know
low production
you know
car companies
and what is
their business model what's the economic
framework for making this work
Mosler met
economist Arthur Laffer
of the curve the very Laffer
through a referral
from Donald Rumsfeld
at a meeting
of social policy and NYC
William Vickrey suggested
Mosler to seek out post-Kinsey
and economist L
Randall Ray, Bill Mitchell, and Stephanie Kelton
to discuss his ideas
these post-Kinsey economists had been familiar
with chartilism
and agreed with Mosler's analysis
Laffer's staff
economist Mark McNary provided
editorial
and research assistant in Mosler's
self-published monograph
soft currency economics
he's known for his writings
on MMT
go down
go down visiting professor
at the University of Bergamo
starting in
2014
but further down
he's attributed with creating
Mosler's law
dealing with fiscal policy of a nation
during a recession specifically Mosler's law
states that no financial crisis
is so deep
they sufficiently large fiscal adjustment
cannot deal with it
so maybe that's just
the answer to your question Rory
that
as long as you have more people willing
to throw more money
away
he's dichotomous
if anyone knows how the books are going to work
I mean that does seem
to be the case as we've discussed many times
on the pod that like the
lesson since
the financial crisis
of 2008-2009
has been like just don't let that happen again
and it's like
whatever
part of the economy
looks like it's going to make that happen
just give them a bunch of money
we seem to be continuing to ride that
which is fine
seems fine
well the mechanism that allows that to happen
is that
I mean
and the thing that MMT
completely like
depends upon the thing that's axiomatic to that
is that
money's not real
yeah
I mean
when people
the common conception
of the economy
why we have to eliminate
the debt
and
all the national debt is out of control
and
the reason that
that's far-school
is that
it's not a household
you're not running
the economy
of the nation like you don't have to balance
your budget the way you do
when you have a certain amount of income
and a corresponding
amount of
obligations
of payments that you have to make
because
you have the thing that
prints the money
you control the thing that prints the money
and when you are the US
you are the reserve currency of the world
and so
you
exactly
so
this is
the conditions that allow for
MMT to
to work
I feel like we're
coming up against
possibly the limitations of them
well we'll see
we'll find out
and
I mean it's funny you're talking about
Porsche or Rory
I mean
stuff that I've been meaning to
get on here
trans rights
sorry I saw the paint
I got really excited
that's the most
trans rights
I need to drive that
everyday for the rest of my life
put me in this right now
that's for me
put me in there
oh my god
I feel like a little Barbie doll
are you kidding me
crushing the
track record at every local
put me out there
a big metal fish
look at that
look at that front end
that actually does look really good
good colors baby
these colors don't run
that's like a Roadster version
so they kind of like fix the
greenhouse
that solves a lot of the problems
and it's like
that livery
it's almost like a
trans speed racer
do you totally
put me in there
oh my god look at it
I know that guy
do you know that guy David Wallins
Rory
from SWIT
baby was pointing at the outfield
look at that
put me in the trans rights
Barbie car
oh wow it's got fans at the back
is that like a
interesting look at the picture
with a bunch of other ones in the background
and then a second gen
Volkswagen Scirocco
okay this is great sorry
we're just doing a used car pod today but
Lutz's
Lutz's purple Plymouth prowlers
for sale on bring a trailer
legendary
car executive
Bob Lutz
one of the most interesting
characters to ever been involved
in the car business I have to say
have you seen did we talk about
his paper car thing
paper car
tell me everything
so Lutz is
he was like
very close to being CEO of
several car companies over his
career
and was like a product guy
his big
his book was car guys
versus bean counters and it was all about like how
making great product
solve all the problems at car companies
and you shouldn't listen to the accountants
just make the good stuff
and make fun stuff he did a lot of weird
shit
and he's kind of like this
swash
buckling character who like
kind of famous marine helicopter pilot
like flies
this fucking helicopter to places
he used to commute to the office
at the tech center
and he would land it in Warren
and land there's a
it's this like Eero Saranen
super modern building and there's like a
there's a reflecting pool
in the middle of the property and he
there's like a helipad that's submerged
but it's only like under like an inch
of water so he would land it
on the helipad and walk across
the water to his office on
at the design center
insane guy
really a wild man
and
was very very like
apt to get himself in trouble
with the press
but he
still around I just
like I haven't I didn't click through but
I saw like a story like an interview
with him just just today
earlier when I was I have friends who have
have lunch with them every week
and I guess
one of my buddies is like goes
to this lunch and he's like have you seen lots of paper
cars and I was like
I don't want to see some fucking old man's
like paper car like folding up paper car
thing like that's stupid and also like
weird that he's
doing this and he's like no you got to
see me got to see me got to see him and I
kind of blew it off and like I should have
listened to you like this is a good friend
who's like would not would not be impressed
by something dumb
but I saw him at Pastiners
Auto Zone which is like a car
hobby shop in suburban Detroit
and they're incredible
like they're they are these all
paper models
of um
60s and 70s like race
cars and road cars
that are like they look like
cast like die casts
they look like
you can't tell that they're paper at all
yeah no I'm I just pulled up
like a hemming story about it and
they look incredible yeah I
I was like um
yeah dude
yeah I when I saw them I was like
oh okay like
totally different deal
um than I was expecting
but they look
yeah they look like real
die cast cars
um are you seeing this Maddie
insane
yeah whole
um I love
insane like extremely
completely like psycho level
shit this whips
alright so he
uh Lutz famously
was behind a lot of like
uh the Viper stuff at
at Dodge and then the uh
Plymouth Prowler he was like a big
proponent of those he's a purple Plymouth Prowler
say that three times
fast uh same
same spec is Prince actually
um
has it's on wait did Prince
have a have a Prowler a purple one
of course yeah
Prince's purple Prowler
so
this is this is a just a note from
the um from
the bring a trailer description on this
Prowler which actually looks really nice
would and also would be a very funny
fun car to have um okay
most assuredly
uh the seller's grandfather in law
traded Lutz
and if
Chanko jet engine for the car
in 1998 and it now has
14,000 miles
following history in Michigan, Alabama
and Washington state um
yeah he also is a jet
pilot I guess he doesn't know how to fly
a jet maybe owns a old
trainer or something like that um
but yeah it looks sounds right
I think it does he have like a T33 or something
that sounds right to me yeah um
really nice looking car
would be fun to have lots of old car
what's that a Prowler yeah be funny
but like it'd be really funny for you it would be funny
for you to have for me to have
I think I don't
I don't think I could do it I do remember
I remember Davey
telling the story about about having
a Prowler press car and just
saying how just completely hilarious
it was just to be driving around in that
yeah they're very funny as like a young
as like a
person in your 20s not a 65
year old
like the ultimate fucking boomer
car man
the interior is very
um like
wasn't wasn't enough like that's not
boomer enough for you you gotta go you gotta go
full full Prowler man
that's that's just nice color
a lot of a lot of
synergy going on here we have the intruder
the Prowler
Prowler I know fellas
you can't you just can't make uh
you can't make um
those types of car names today
um because they're terrifying yeah
you can't make any fun car
names now like everything's all
the cx5 or
something or like the new ti3
my my proposal for
the for the new uh
Pontiac family annihilator
I didn't know anything about
Prince's car collection
yeah he's got some so he had a Prowler
that's surprising yes
I mean that that purple was kind of the
signature color of that car
and it was introduced you know that was the
the kind of the launch color so I mean
that um
I mean it just kind of stands to reason that
of course Prince would have a
purple one who we had a
uh an
86 series BMW
a 93 Thunderbird
other cars in
Prince's possession at the time of his death
93 Cherokee
Cadillac XLR
was that the um was that the Corvette
one
that's cool a lot of American
stuff 2010 Mercedes bands
model unknown
2011 Lincoln MKT
2006
Bentley model unknown
85 Caddy limousine 96
Z3 Roadster
I mean these these actually aren't that
that interesting no pretty
pretty um restrained for a guy
like Prince
he he would definitely strike me as more of someone
who understood that he had to
have some cars than someone who's really interested
in some cars
sure
yeah
I mean basically what I yeah
my understanding of him is that he basically
was just like all he did was just
live in the studio and just record
just crank shit out hundreds of thousands of
signs notably
notably a man who when asked where he lived
in
the greatest article of all time
uh was uh Matt Damon
making small talk with him and going so you
uh live in Minneapolis
in Prince replying I live inside
my own heart Matt Damon that's true
RIP
RIP Matt Damon after that
destroyed and oh
space laser got his ass
um all right what else we want to cover today
boys it's silly season there's
silly stuff going on oh yeah
what's oh we got okay so let me
from
my memory I will try to run down
the things the personnel
news we've got
uh Checo Perez
and um
what's his name
um this is already
going so well um
the uh
the guy who is with Mercedes
um then he was with Williams
and then he was with
um
alpha and then
where is he last
a couple old
guys yeah couple old fellas
couple old old f1
f1 hands
I think journeyman journeyman yeah you say
um
we got uh Valtteri Bottas is the guy
uh kind of a fan favorite
a couple real fan favorite guys I guess
um are going
to be actually driving the cars
um
and then Colton Hertha
driving what cars the Cadillac
uh formula formula one car
Cadillac Formula One cars
um arrive in
2020
2020
next year
yeah inaugural 2026 season so
this is kind of an old
I'm making a rise
smile here formula where you
pick a couple of kind of
experienced drivers who have been with big teams
know what they're doing aren't going to
fuck up your whole thing and can help develop
the car and the program so
yeah um you're a new team
the expectations are low you just
just you just need
somebody to not crash
while you kind of get your feet under you
as as a brand new
out of the box yeah
this is like uh
Mercedes hiring
the Schumacher um to develop their car
when they came back to F1 and whatever
year that was 1990 whatever
um
but um should be pretty cool those guys
like I said are fun to good personalities
uh
Votas I'm immediately a fan
after his his uh flags done
yeah we've seen Votas in the nude
um previously and then
check out um wonderful
wonderful personality
um should be fun and then
Colton Hertha
we called it we called it
Indycar Phenom yeah and
um
kind of former F1 hopeful
um to uh to
be a test
driver there it'll be interesting you know
we were talking yesterday and I think
Peter said so you know
is the plan to get uh
Votas and Perez to kind of develop
the car and then you know
when it's time move them aside
in favor of Colton Hertha and I think like
that would be ideal but I think
Hertha will be kind of
old um
by then he's in his mid 20s now
um he's 26 now
yeah so he'll be he'll be kind of
aging out of formula one
uh in the next couple years
um so that'll be kind of interesting to see
how quickly that can progress or if it progresses
um
to come into F1 as as
a as a
rookie for sure yeah the um
the
but what's what's the deal with with
with formula one and the new
there's like a new
formula coming
right like a new powertrain
thing or just an entirely new
car package package yeah
and that's
that's coming in what
2028 I think 2026
I want to say um
I thought they pushed the the end
oh you're right they did yeah
thing back it was supposed to be 2026 and now
it's 2728
um and and Cadillac
which is entering as
as a new team as an American
car but but they're using
they're borrowing a powertrain from
who I don't think it's Ferrari
um yeah it's Ferrari
there but but while
while they develop their own
powertrain and proprietary
powertrain which will be Cadillac
branded um and that's
in in two years I
think like at my understanding is
that that coincides with the new
regulations coming in
I mean that's
that's the thing is like like at that point
I feel like it would make sense to
be like well here's our
our all-American package
with our
you know corn fed American driver
all all all American
uh beautiful boy yeah
or at least one one American driver
it'll be interesting I you know I think
that the American driver in formula one
has been a dream for a
very long time I think like
pre prior to
um drive to survive
the American driver was
kind of seen as like the key to
bringing formula one
to the US
getting getting anybody here interested in
it remotely but I would say it's
somewhat less urgent now
I mean it's very popular in the
US has been very popular in the US
um so I think
um you know we
will kind of see what the level of
urgency about getting a 28 year old
or 27 year old Colton
in the car um
but certainly if you
know if he's fast and they think that
they can be competitive with him then I
would imagine there's no reason not to give him a shot
yeah well
and also at that point those two guys that
are that they're going to be starting off with
I mean those guys are both like in their late 30s
now so yeah they could be dead
um I mean
really like of old age yeah really
both of those guys were kind of natural
causes were out of formula one
effectively
um you know prior to this so
um yeah so
Colton her to
is going to be test driving
which means his seat
in Indy car
is
vacant briefly was
right yeah because he's
he's as a test driver
he also is doing
like formula two because
as part of his thing to
get like a license
F1 license which is
very funny because he's kind of old
for that too so yeah it takes
him out of
Indy car like
you can't do both yeah notably a funny tweet
he made that Brad Pitt got a super license
for him
nah um
wait is that true
did Brad Pitt get it
but Colton's very funny
he was also very like
controversially like her does
inability to get a
F1 like a super license was
kind of bullshit like it was
um
it was very
given the experience that he's had
in Indy car and
elsewhere it was kind of insane
that he didn't have one already so
um it sounded like there was some
kind of like covid related
bullshit yeah
like kind of like
like politics but also kind
of like using covid as a like
yeah just a look excuse or something to keep
him well you know he he refused
to get the vaccine and they don't want pure blood
no I'm just joking that's not sure
sorry Colton
the um
so his seat was
that would be so funny
yeah well you know
it's it's a shame he genuinely
is he's so funny
and likes it to good personality and
like pour one out for the Indy car girlies
that he will be so missed
in the in the in
funny Indy car world toiling away
in formula two as the
oldest man in formula two by
by a long shot
right it's gonna be like the guy
that like goes to that
enlist you know that like goes to
to is like in boot camp
you know as like a as
a 30 year old like with a bunch of fucking
teenagers that call him grandpa
or whatever back to it's uh
it's very my um a friend of mine
hey fellow kids
Roger Gager filled back to school Colton
my friend Spencer
went to
University of Michigan and we all went to
Michigan State and
Spencer was like always
in high school
and got into U of M and then took a
like a psychology
program which is like one of the only programs
where there's like no clear
profession attached
to it like like in that field
psychologist yeah no it was like
there's one that you there was one
path that you take to become an actual
psychologist or psychiatrist and there was
one that like there's no path there's just
like a and like uh that's the
one that Spencer took you can just go to community college
for that twice yeah then
then it's like being an English major which
was so Spencer and I or so
everybody made fun of Spencer for years
uh because of his career
decisions and because like obviously U of
M was like a better school and he
was the only one of us who like didn't do anything
with his career
um but then he went back to school to be
a mechanical engineer
at like 30 I think 32
so he did he went
took undergrad mechanical engineering
at uh U of M
in his 30s
in that exact same position so he's like you know
salt and pepper beard like he's
he's like visibly older
than everybody else right freshman
college he said it was
fucking miserable like it was so awkward
you know it's like you know doing group projects with
these kids or whatever obviously it's fine
now man
that's that's kind of a weak spirit
I went to community college and all my group partners were like
50 year old going back to school
moms guys who just got out of
prison it whipped it was awesome
that's better it's good for those undergrads
to have to like work with people who aren't
21 to 25 or whatever I agree
and I think yeah totally it has
benefited so Spencer is now
a mechanical engineer at Nissan and it has benefited
him career-wise
um being a little bit older
um but um
I don't think young people
should be allowed to go to college
no right away no you should have to you should have to live
for a while it was a waste of time
for me yeah
it was a waste of time
I went back again and it was still a waste of time
you see me
working with plants no see me working
with political science see me working
with anything
working at all um
well your songwritings maybe like
a little bit kinda but
I barely speak English man
music
music
music
music
music
but uh yeah exciting shake up because
with Colton moving out of
his spot yeah so Will
Power who kind of
was rumored to be on the outs at team
Penske
has jumped over
to Andretti to take
over for Colton Herda
great fit great spot for him
Will allow him to
maintain a competitive
seat being at a good car with a good
team and continue his
career I think you know
Penske overall was having kind of a shitty
year
not a shitty year but like a
historical shitty year for Penske
yeah prayers up Scott McLaughlin
uh hanging in there baby girl
I bet I promise it has to
yeah so that's good what else do we have
going on in the uh
off season
uh my
special little guy our special little guy
got officially
promoted to cup for next year
he's gonna be out of Xfinity up into
cup that's exciting yeah
I was at Connor
Connor baby so
after and so he's
gonna crush it probably in the playoffs
just tear it up uh
wrecking ball through that in his first season
kicks ass gonna go up there
uh Shane is Shane
is still in playoffs uh he's at the bottom
of the cutoff right now though so I think
uh
goodbye good job uh but he did great I mean
he got he got in basically just from
crushing all the road courses in cup all year
he's keeps talking
about like they just can't get the car
and he's just still not still figuring out how to
the cup car is so much heavier than he would
in supercars so that's been a lot of learning
curve but I mean you let him turn
right and he wins uh it's just a
lot of turning left that's hard and turning
like cup is hard yeah
people do not appreciate how hard cup is
but next year uh
we're gonna have a really good time
because Connor's gonna be out there and Connor's good
at an oval and he'll be learning how to
uh get out there in the in the
slightly different mechanics with cup and out
there in the field with the big dogs uh
they did they both did pretty good
at uh
Atlanta Connor got 11th
and Shane I think 23rd 24th
so Connor getting out there in cup
next year is gonna be fun because uh
he'll be competition for Shane on the road courses
and also he kicks
ass on the ovals so I am
really psyched for NASCAR cup
2046 that's gonna be fun that's
must-see TV
get our Corvette boys out there
man
getting me pumped
I don't even I've been researching
for no
particular reason don't ask
I'm plotting and scheming
and and and does
Connor's Illich have have a driver's license
just like a normal
driver's license yet or is he
he just turned 19
oh okay oh yeah
he's big boy now
um yeah good good
good time for our
our boys
a little bit um
a little bit under the radar but did you guys
see
that Brian
Hertha Autosport
father of uh
of Colton
announced that they are
going to be competing in LMP2
in IMSA
next year
um why is that
I mean Hertha
Brian Hertha who
since like 2019
has just been competing in
IMSA just in the kind of
uh
lower level
pilot challenge
with the TCR Hyundai's
running the Hyundai program
that has pretty much dominated
that uh
that category of racing for the last
six years
and there were always question marks
I mean when
that that program
in 2019
and Rory you sent me down there
to do a story about that
uh to Daytona
um
I mean there were whispers even then
is like is this does this portend
a
Hyundai like top class
like yeah exactly there's no way
they're just doing this right and
and um you know
if you know if if Hyundai
is intending to
to you know at some point run
a top class
prototype car
um would Hertha
um be in line
to
to run that as a partner
um so this is something
that has been kind of
talked about
for years
uh but
but so them moving
into LMP2 is is a pretty
common way for
for teams
who have been competing in other classes
to kind of lay the groundwork
um LMP2 being the
the kind of spec
class of
of prototype racing where it's
it's uh combination of pro
and amateur drivers and um
uh
so it's kind of like the the pro
am kind of sub class
of of the top tier prototype
racing in IMSA
and so so the LMP2
thing is just like a way for teams
to essentially
prepare themselves to compete in the top
class um
and and with
Genesis developing their
their new uh which is
you know Hyundai's premium brand
they've got their hypercar
uh LMDH car
in development right now they've been
hitting the track and
and uh doing their
kind of reveals and and
shakedowns and stuff the last
over the last few months um
that car's gonna start competing
in WEC next year I think
and then scheduled to
to come to IMSA the the year after
this year the the team that's
gonna be operating the
um
the Genesis cars in WEC
um
sport I think is the name of the team
they've been running an LMP2 program this year
like pretty successfully
um
uh with that woman Jamie Chadwick
uh is one of the drivers who's been
uh been very competitive
um and so so
so her to kind of
moving up to to LMP2
next year um
I feel like it's it's
all but a lock that they would be
um
having that uh that Genesis
uh prototype
when when that comes in
2027 so that's
that's kind of exciting it's
it's it's I mean the thing that's that's fun is just to think
about like like a lot of those
guys who who have been
driving those those Hyundai's
um
since since that program was launched
and and I mean those those guys who
who I met and who were kids you know
who were like
or you know very early 20s
um
that guy that that uh that we
talked to uh at Daytona
last year Rory on the the tram
when we got lost going to the trying to
find your car
um uh
Mason Philippi um yeah
super nice kid and um
it's just it's just fun to think
about like those guys
getting a crack
you know who have been very very diligently
um racing
in in this
you know like front
drive kind of low tier
yeah but but ultra competitive
series uh very
exciting to to just imagine them getting
a crack at the big show
yeah uh
I want to go and stay tired
do you do you need to do you need to
to bail Rory or can I can I talk about
just one one last thing oh what do we got
oh yeah go ahead this is this is not
racing related it's just it's more kind
of just economic stuff
but um please
I just thought this this story was was funny
and kind of provides a uh an opportunity
to to to play one of my
favorite things um
but this is a story about
uh
Lamborghini
um
that ran in
where did this run
oh cm cnbc
just uh a week or two ago
uh Lamborghini CEO says
tariffs are causing even the wealthiest
buyers to pause
and this has been kind of a question mark
you know it's like that seems like most
of the the real luxury
car purveyors um
you know like rich people don't give a
shit about tariffs um
but I don't know
we'll see uncertainty around tariffs has caused
even the wealthiest buyers of Lamborghini
supercars to hold off on their purchases
CEO Steven Winkleman
told cnbc
um
while the white house recently announced
an agreement with Europe on a 15
percent tariff rate that rate hasn't yet
taken effect for cars Lamborghini and other
European automakers are still paying the
tariff rate of 27.5
percent on exports to the U.S.
with the price of a Lamborghini starting
at $400,000 many buyers are choosing
to wait for more stable tariff rates
before buying Winkleman said
some are waiting because they want to be
sure this is the final number that is going
to be in place others are fine with it
or we will have negotiations
like the idea of just negotiations
yeah we'll just
we'll just hammer out a deal
on what tariffs we feel like paying
um
the
uh
it kind of talks about about how
Lamborghini is like in fairly
fairly rude health
um
uh
last week at Monterey car week Lamborghini
unveiled a new limited production
supercar called the Phenomenon
the fastest and most powerful Lambo yet
boasting 1080 horsepower
blah blah blah they will make
only 29 of these cars which
are part of what Winkleman calls the
few-offs strategy of super rare
hyper performance versions of its
current lineup for top clients
also helping the company a surge
of wealth around the world that's becoming
younger and more diverse
Lamborghini owners have an average
of five cars in their garage
and owners of the higher priced
Lambo's have an average of
10 cars the average age
of the Lamborghini buyer now is
under 45 and in Asia
it's under 30 he said
um and
this just makes me think of
um
Maddie I have to think that you have seen
this clip hurry I'm not sure
if you have but I'm gonna drop this
in the chat it's just the thing that
floats around on tumblr
and gets reblogged
is this gonna is this the guy talking about
the youtube poop style Lamborghini
his his Lamborghini's yeah
oh I've seen this guy before
I mean it's it's an edit
the classic but yeah you should
Lamborghini's in my Lamborghini account
yeah you'll see
I'm gonna drop the
an excerpt in there
it's
it's also it's also the thing that
um anytime I'm at
I'm at an IMSA race
where they're doing the the Lamborghini
Super Trafeo
and it's just which is just all
you know it's just a Lamborghini race
and and the
you know the guys over the PA will be
you know the number 27 Lamborghini
is passed by the such and such
you know 13 Lamborghini
and it's like all I can hear
is that guy talking about his
Lamborghini's Lamborghini account
and I bumped into a Lamborghini
and another Lamborghini
a few more Lamborghini's I found five
Lamborghini's I don't call it money anymore
I call it fuel units you must have enough
fuel units you must have enough
Lamborghini's
it's just uh funny
the classic
that was one thing everything really talked about
from uh Monterey it's like the
maybe we did talk about it but the percentage
of the top sales
that were all auction sales
that were all like modern hypercars
yeah no we did we did we did talk about that
yeah hey I was curious though
um you before
before you left um
you said that you were maybe going to get a chance
to drive some of those
those Resto Mod cars
did that not happen that's why I'm mad about it
just joking uh no I just
didn't come together and I was probably
going to be too busy to do it anyway but
did you get to drive anything or were you just
getting chauffeured around the whole time no I
drove a Cadillac Vistik
for about an hour
the Vistik huge nice that's
that's the big electric
it's a small it's a small small SUV
electric SUV yeah a little bit size I guess
yeah nice car um
God I see so many lyrics
around Lyricu Lyricu's
uh for an EV
yeah it's a good uh value proposition
they look cool too they look like kind of like a
little Celestic not as
dramatic but like um
yeah it's an interesting looking car
people like them I wonder
how many of those are actually getting sold
versus leased
yeah I mean EVs I
have to assume most of them are getting leased
um but still
sounds the same yeah
um
alright
okay yeah
alright perfect wonderful
alright stay tired
stay tired
here in my garage
I just bought this uh New Lamborghini here
fun to drive up here in the Hollywood
Hills but you know what I like
a lot more than knowledge
this uh New Lamborghini here
but you know what I like a lot more than the New Lamborghini here
my TEDx talk where I talk about this
New Lamborghini here
in fact
I'm a lot more proud of these 7
New Hollywood Hills that I had to get
installed to hold 2,000 New Lamborghinis
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