From Skateboarding to Supercars: Tommy L's Journey with DIY Porsche Modifications

whoa, whoa, whoa, is that you?

James mcgrath, andy gaunt, coming loud and proud on a friday afternoon from minneapolis, minnesota, usa baby oh, dude, I'm glad it's a friday afternoon for you, because it is early here on a saturday morning and actually it's not as early as I thought it was supposed to be right.

We did have a little challenge counting hours, didn't we Counting?

Maybe not a strong suit of yours, but inviting wicked guests to podcasts definitely a strength.

Yeah, dude, definitely We've got a fun guest coming today.

Should we get into it?

Let's just stop fucking about a strength, yeah dude, definitely we've got a fun guest coming today.

Should we, should we?

Should we get into it?

Let's just stop fucking about hey gang.

I can't use a hey gang.

Yeah, you can.

That's screw you.

I'm doing it today.

Uh, are you pumped?

I am, I am.

I've got one of my current youtube crushes here to talk to me and you I know pretty exciting he's.

He's someone we've both wanted to have on the show for a long time.

He's got a brilliant youtube channel.

He's one of those people who, when he does a job on his car, you just you just want to watch him do it and you want to hear him talk about it.

He is super passionate about cars.

Absolutely prolific as a producer of content, he's literally been on youtube since day one.

He can drift a car like chris harris.

Sometimes he's a diy, he's an inventor and when we asked, he said yes, I'm keen to talk to him about everything from homemade mudguards to brightly colored north face polar fleece jackets it jackets.

It's Tommy from Tommy L Garage Tommy welcome.

Hey, gentlemen, thank you for having me.

I'm very, very excited about this.

Not as excited as us.

Before you kick it off, I have to ask a question, though.

Andy, I noticed you're a 917.

No, I think, James right.

917 area code.

What's up with that?

That's a New York area code.

It is and I am never giving it up.

There are no more 917 numbers available.

When I first moved to the States, I lived in New York.

For many years I was living in Manhattan, so I got myself a cell phone and even though I've moved back to the Midwest, I'm still proud of my 917 number.

So that's where the accent is from.

I get, I thought it was austria, but I get.

Okay, great, nice give it.

Given we're a porsche podcast, shouldn't we be calling it 917?

I mean, come on, oh, there we go yeah, we should make all of our episodes nine hours and 11 minutes long oh yeah, great, and then we can start taking photos of our iPhones when the time is 9-11 and sharing that on social media.

I do that every day.

Is that just a shit, Jay?

Reid, I do that too.

It's sickening, I know.

But yeah, generally it is to really annoy Jay Reid.

In fact there's about five or six people that I know that send him those on a daily basis just to wind him up.

Yeah, that's like me.

Right before Christmas, everyone starts sending me photos of 9-11s with Christmas trees on the roof.

Oh, I've already got a few ready.

I've got a few lined up, andy, just you wait.

Well, I'll be sending you mine, because this year again, I plan on putting a Christmas tree on my 911.

For real.

Yellow and green would match.

Yeah, yeah, I don't think I've done this on.

I've done it on the M3 a couple of times, but I don't think I've done it on the 911.

So, yeah, I think it's time.

Tommy, you're a guest so I can't say anything.

Know, I can't say anything other than supportive words.

I think it's great that you're going to put a Christmas tree on your 911.

It's a fabulous demonstration of what a usable supercar it is and not at all played out on social media.

Definitely not.

Definitely, definitely not.

Hey.

So, tommy, thank you for thanks for coming on.

Man, like we say, we've been wanting to make this happen for a while.

Can you just for people who don't know, for anyone who's I don't know not ever looked at YouTube and doesn't know the Tommy L story?

Who are you?

What's the Tommy L story?

What do you do?

Yeah, so Tommy L story used to be Extreme, tommy.

That used to be my YouTube handle years and years ago, and what I would do is I would just upload random clips of my skateboarding, snowboarding and car adventures For example, I would hear a cool exhaust and I would record it on my um, on uh, on a camera back then and then just upload it to youtube, just just so I can send a link to a friend.

And then, um, as I, when I was in my early 20s, my first real car was uh, because I used to back you.

When I was in high school and college, I drove my parents' car.

They used to have a 97 Chevy Lumina, which was an awesome American car, then a 2000 Buick Century.

So this is what I drove throughout college.

And then when I graduated I mean, I was always into cars, but I graduated I got into Volvos out of all cars.

So my first car was a 2003 Volvo S40.

And when I bought it I didn't realize it had a turbocharged straight i4 engine and what made it kind of cool is it was a very tunable car, but not many people were tuning Volvos at the time, so it was kind of unique.

I felt kind of cool and then so I joined some message boards and then I would just put together DIYs.

I would start tinkering I always liked to tinker with stuff so I would do a write-up and then I would do a quick video.

But it wasn't anything sophisticated, just sort of not even I don't even know how to how to, how to cut on, how to make edits or anything.

So so I would just do a single clip and then so I started posting those videos and then really nothing came out of it.

But then when I finally and I went through a couple of Volvos, I had an S60R, after that, actually two, then a couple of other ones.

But then when I picked up my 2017 BMW M3 competition with a manual transmission it was a slightly used car.

Competition with a manual transmission uh, it was a slightly used car.

So I, I flew out to wisconsin and then I I filmed a video for my family and kids, just so I can have a memory of of what it was like.

You know, two to one day.

Uh, you know, when I one day picked up a cool car, I recorded a video and I posted online and uh, and somehow that video started getting a lot of hits.

And I remember I couldn't understand it.

I was sitting at my wife, with my wife, at a restaurant, and then I'm looking at it Wow, look at this, I'm actually getting subscribers on YouTube.

What is this?

I went from like 20 to 200.

And at the end of dinner it was like 300.

Obviously it wasn't anything crazy, but I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool.

And it wasn't anything crazy, but I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool.

And then I learned about, you know, monetizing and how, how youtube works, and I said, you know, okay, maybe, maybe I can.

And it was never about you know, hey, I want to be a crazy, uh, content creator.

I just, you know, I just wanted to document what I, what I did to the car on youtube and people started getting a kick out of it.

You know, doing simple things and it just kind of evolved ever since.

You know, currently I don't even think twice about it.

Anytime, you know, I know you guys are sort of similar, right, but anytime I get something new for the car and it's time for me to install it, I always budget not just my personal time but also the time it takes for me to film it and position the camera and you know the microphone and stuff like that.

But yeah, so that's how it started.

Volvos don't sound very extreme, though, tommy, if we started off being extreme.

I can get the skateboarding and the snowboarding, but not so much on the Volvos.

I think that's part of the vibe, though, isn't it?

Like you're a skater, snowboarder, and then the sort of sleeper car that no one expects.

I think that is that.

That that's pretty extreme, and this is Tommy.

This is what this is like.

2006, right, were I mean YouTube launches in 2005, I think, and you are a true early adopter you know, I never realized, but yeah, I suppose, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I, when I started making initially BMW content, I removed or delisted most of the the old videos, but you can still still see.

If you actually go through it, you can still see some of the old ones.

I think one of the the ones that I kept, uh, I used to um intern at this uh company and the owner of the company had a beautiful f355, yeah, so I remember that was those, that was.

That was actually one of the also first videos that I, uh, that I that I posted um, because it just had the most amazing sound, and the cool story about that car is uh, uh.

You know we were at a, at an event and, uh, and he brought the car and someone else took it for a spin and me, being a kid, back then, you know, just an intern think, hey, can I, can I take it for a spin?

He's like sure, the guy handed me the keys and I what, and I and I went for a drive.

Yeah, it was uh, it was really, really cool oh, and that's the video that went viral on supercar fails.

I remember that the 355 takes off from a car show and goes into a gutter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yes.

That's the one.

That's exactly the one, yeah.

So when does Porsche kind of enter your sphere?

Because obviously you're a BMW guy for quite some time.

How does Porsche sort of find its way into your world?

You know what it's always been in the back of my mind, but it didn't click until I was ready for a cool car.

So in 2016 or so, when I was done with Volvos and I was ready to get a cool car, I finally took the time to learn about Porsches, because I knew about, yeah, 911, there's a Cayman, but I didn't know much about the trims.

And I started studying it and I said to myself what was it?

Was it 2006?

I guess yeah.

But then I said to myself you know what I can easily get, like a 997, that one, that too would be a stretch.

But then I realized that, you know, we're starting a family.

Actually, I already had a child, so that's probably not the best car as a first car.

So I ended up getting the M3.

But in reality I really wanted a 911.

So that's always been in the back of my mind.

And then I got the M3 out of my system eventually.

And then, towards the end of my ownership of the M3, my friend Jeff, who at the time had a 997.1

Carrera S, if I'm not mistaken, but it was slightly modified, let me take it for a spin.

And that was it.

It was an older car, but the way it drove, the way it handled, the way it sounded, the seating position, I was absolutely sold, sold, and and I was sold on not only that, but also my, my, uh, my preference towards uh na engines, even though currently I don't have any na cars, but uh, but yeah so.

So I did that and um, and that eventually led to me buying my uh first porsche, which was my uh 981 cayman s which was um, which was very, very sweet, and and I quickly you know, I I sold the m3 right after that uh, because, um, I just uh, just didn't see, uh, the reason to own two, especially what.

What really got me, uh with the whole p ownership is and I know everyone says it right, it's kind of a cliche thing to say, but it's that engagement right, even the manual transmission.

I've always been a manual transmission person and I thought a BMW with a manual transmission was the ultimate car until I drove a Porsche with a manual transmission.

You guys can relate right, completely different experience.

Then, after driving Jeff's car, I went back to my M3 and I realized how rubbery the transmission is, how soft the clutch is, so I was just kind of that was a big contributor.

Yeah, yeah, we were just it's funny, james and I were just talking about this on our last pod that level of engagement you get from a manual transmission and the PDK is such an impressive piece of technology and, I think, incredibly enjoyable to use.

Uh, but yeah, the, the, the experience when you're driving in a manual, I don't think it can be matched, at least not on the street yeah, I totally, uh, I totally agree, although I do think that a manual transmission with an NA engine feels better than uh, than a manual with a with a turbocharged engine.

I just I I don't know, it's just, that's interesting.

Yeah, it's just a different, different level of engagement.

I like, I guess I like winding the uh and my comparison is my cayman with my current uh 901.2

Carrera T, which is obviously a turbocharged engine.

I really liked winding that Cayman and then just switching gears.

It wasn't quick at all but it was just a lot of fun, kind of going from second to third.

That was my favorite.

Yeah, yeah, wow.

So tell me about the T, because that car is well, let's say, anything but stock.

You've made plenty of mods to it, right?

Do you buy a car like that, get it home and think, yeah, it's perfect, and then what?

Over a course of time, start thinking, actually you know what it could do with X, y and Z.

Or do you buy it always with the plan of okay, I need to now sit down and work out how I make this my own interpretation of what the perfect 911 should be.

I think it's the latter kind of like you and James.

I mean, you know, seeing what you guys do, I think you have the same approach.

But with the 911, for me it was slightly different because and again I have to go back to my M3.

And even with the Volvo 60R.

So I modified it, I drove it and I said crap, why did I modify it?

It's just I kind of made it worse.

It's not really drivable so I sold it.

Then With the M3, m3 was modified, I thought it.

Then with the M3.

M3 was modified.

I thought it was tastefully modified.

But then, you know, towards the end of my ownership it was kind of too low for me.

It was too bumpy.

You know, I had kids.

I couldn't really take it on my, you know, on my snowboarding trip as much as I wanted to.

But with the 911, when I got it I knew that at the very least I would lower it, because I just can't stand, I cannot drive cars that are not lowered.

Sorry, james, I know.

I know you're lowering yours.

Let's get into this.

Let's get into it right now.

This is the whole reason this interview happened was because.

James, this is an intervention.

We've been planning it a while, me and Tommy.

And here it is.

Here it is, tommy.

Unload on him, unleash, that's right, no.

I mean, listen, I think closing the fender gap is always something that's necessary.

But to kind of go back to what I was saying with the T?

T, I knew it was, you know it was a pretty, pretty great car.

So I, I didn't want to do too much, so I lowered it, uh.

Then I did the.

Uh, I wanted to make it a little louder, so I did the sport cats, but then I wanted to make it just a little more louder, so I did the headers and then, after adding some spacers, I I thought I was done, uh.

And then obviously I did the you know some maintenance stuff like uh, I I continued the.

The previous owner wrapped the front, so I continued.

So I ppf the rest of the car and then, um, and then my buddy jeff again talked me into a numeric shifter.

So I did that.

I did a bunch of, I hardwired all my you know, dash cams and stuff.

And then, and then, purely because of the fact that I'm a kind of a vain person, I I liked the way the car looked when it was lowered, but I didn't like what was behind the spokes.

So I ended up buying a big brake kit only because I liked the way it looked.

But then I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much of an improvement it made, especially with track pads.

I mean, what a difference.

And yeah, that's kind of how it started and I don't think I went too crazy with it.

I, you know, I did, when I, when I did the annual, or rather the three-year maintenance.

It was a pretty big project where you know, everything in the back came off.

I, um, I also upgraded the air filter.

So, and I've got that, you know, high flow air filter didn't really make a difference.

But the biggest difference, uh and and again, james, I know you can relate is tuning the car.

It was basically unleashing another 125 horsepower and that's when I really started feeling connected to the car, and what I mean by that is before the tune.

The car was obviously nimble, but it just wasn't quick enough for me.

There was always that that sort of you know, it just didn't feel fast enough, right, uh.

So, uh, the the tune completely fixed it and and now I I feel a hundred percent connected to the car.

I know how much power I have in second, third gear.

They're really the fun gears and it's just uh and it's uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's a lot of fun I.

I feel more connected to my car now that I've tuned it in a way where I feel more responsibility and and maybe liability.

Right that that something might go wrong now that I've tinkered with it, but but I get, I get.

I get what you mean.

Absolutely.

You know it's, it's, it's, it's much more my car now and it's, it's, it's, it's, it's got my touch, it's got my finish.

I feel like I understand it more now as well yeah, exactly, exactly, totally.

and every time, you know, every time you take it, it apart and you put it back together, you kind of you develop that deeper connection and, like you said, you understand how things work and and, and you know, for me also, for the longest time I wanted to keep the car as original as possible.

Yeah, for reasons, for reasons, that way it would be, I would get a better price when I sell it.

And then it kind of hit me, you know, first of all, I know everyone says it, but I have no plans of of selling this car.

Um, yeah, my son loves, my son loves it.

And then why would I want to save a car for, uh, for the next owner?

So so, you know, it took me a little time to kind of get used to that idea, but now I'm, you know'm really, really enjoying it.

I think one of the great things about modifying a car, even if you're just talking about aesthetic touches, is that it helps to separate your car out from the regular Porsches, and particularly when you're talking about a modern 911 or a modern Cayman.

When I owned my 991, because that was my daily driver I made no modifications to it, I didn't lower it, I put on very mild spaces and that was it.

And in terms of visibility of that car out on the street, I may as well have been driving a Toyota Camry.

You know I would drive past another Porsche owner.

Give you know, you do the little wave, you do the little finger lift up from the steering wheel and just get crickets it.

Just, I just get nothing.

And so I always love that thing of you're modifying a car, partly so that you're saying to the world hey, I'm not just driving a Porsche, I'm really into this.

This means something different to me.

Yeah, but I also think there's a fine line and I think it comes with age between modifying the car and kind of really-.

Ruining the car.

Yeah, I guess so.

And again, nothing against anyone who's listening out there and is modifying the cars.

I feel like it's based on someone's personality, based on the age.

For me, I guess the older I got, the more my taste in modifying has changed.

I like to keep it sort of OEM plus OEM plus.

Yeah and also having gone to the track many times, when you go to the racetrack, you and I'm not talking about racing, I'm not a racer at all but I'm talking about just regular hpd events uh, it's you realize that people who are really into hpde and really driving the cars fast, learning, uh, learning the the rules of the track they don't modify it in in the way that other people on

the street modify cars so you know, you don't you don't put white body kids.

You don't put uh, you know, um, you know lots of unnecessary cooling and ducts and all of that.

They keep it simple to make it reliable and to make it easy to uh to work on.

So I was also, you know, inspired, but again, I don't want to discourage anyone from modifying their cars the way they they feel should be modified because, like you said, um, andy, it's, it's sort of a reflection of of one's personality, right?

yeah, and I love that.

You know, I love going to a show and seeing a car that has been modified in a way that I wouldn't do, but that doesn't, uh, invalidate the way the owner has modified it, and I love talking to that person about why.

You know, why'd you make that choice, why'd you do this?

And I can look at anything and go, okay, that interior is nuts, but I love it.

I wouldn't do it, but I, I love it.

Yeah Right, exactly, exactly, kind of like.

Did you see Chris Harris's M5, the interior that he did?

Oh the corduroy, right, yeah, the corduroy, it's orange corduroy.

Talk about individual taste?

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly, I guess.

If you're Chris Harris, though, why not right?

That's true, that's true yeah, um, you touched on this before, tommy, the the kind of difference between bmw and porsche.

Because you're a, you know obviously a, a, let's say, a porsche convert, but still seemingly a bmw guy as well.

What's right, what's the?

What's the appeal of the two brands?

How do they differ and what do you?

I suppose?

What do you get out of those two different brand experiences?

wow, great, yeah, uh, great question.

So I think with the uh, with the 911, I get the I feel cool factor driving it and I get a lot of enjoyment out of the car, and it's always been.

I also feel sort of humbled that I'm able to have a car like this.

I grew up in a pretty poor household and we grew up in Poland.

Then my family moved to the US, so we had a pretty rough upbringing and rough in terms of.

You know, my parents worked really hard to support my sister and I both my sisters and I.

So you know, now being able to have a car like this is kind of a humbling experience.

But, and you know, so driving this kind of makes me feel really, really proud of of my accomplishments.

But with the m5, with the bmw, I uh, you know I there's the.

You know there's something also cool in a different way about the bmw, I have to say.

Bmw has great technology.

Uh, the uh, you know my f9.

The m5 has the, the integration between, even, you know, apple carplay and the touchscreen and and how everything is simple to use.

It's, it's, it's really great.

I, um, I did when I was buying the m5, I did look at the uh, you're getting an M5, you're just getting a better deal.

For example, I couldn't get a Panamera with ceramic brakes but I, you know, for the price that I paid for my M5 with ceramic brakes.

So you know things like that and I feel like things like that and I feel, like you know, I, I'm also very comfortable working on BMWs, so that you know, so that that gives me the comfort level, but also, like I, like you know, I like the, the sort of the brand diversity.

I, you know, I, I like my Porsche and this is not my last Porsche.

I want to continue, I want to, I want to add to the stable.

But the M, the BMW, is just, you know, bmw is just another brand that I know about and it just kind of also has a very soft spot in my heart and I started my small side hustle with TLG guards on a BMW.

So I don't think I can ever be without a BMW in my stable on a BMW, so I don't think I can ever be without a BMW in my stable.

Yeah, it's funny because I feel like I'm only really just waking up to BMW.

I used to follow them a little bit back when I was a kid, but cars like the M5, I just think, do such an incredible job of being so many different things to so many different people, and I think the driving experience of these good, fast, modern beamers is phenomenal.

Yeah, totally.

And you know what?

Driving this, driving the M5, made me realize that I was a manual transmission snob.

Really, because, even though it's not a yeah it's not.

Yeah, even though it's not a dual clutch, uh, it still shifts very, very fast and it makes you feel like you're in a, in a video game it's.

And I use paddle shifters all the time.

Yeah, I would say 90 of of my driving I use paddle shifters.

You know, when I want to, you know, accelerate a little bit, I just downshift, uh, with the paddles.

I also actually use the, uh, this, the, the lever too, uh yeah I'm actually disappointed.

The new, the new m5 doesn't have it.

It's gone slider, I know, um, but yeah, so, uh.

So, which ones, andy?

Which?

Which one?

Which ones would you, if this was you know, if you were in the market for BMW, which one would you go for?

Yeah, look, I've always had a soft spot for the M3.

I recently just my daily is an M340i and I actually love that car.

It blends in in traffic Again.

May as well be a Camry, in traffic again.

May as well be a Camry, um, but the the ride quality, the chassis dynamics on that car and then it's the speed is phenomenal because it has torque.

For days it has so much torque, um, I took it on a drive with, with, with my friends in Porsches and other than the super tight twisty stuff, where just the weight, uh, the weight transfer from corner to corner, started to become a little bit of a hindrance.

Other than that, it kept up just fine, just fine.

I really enjoyed it.

So, yeah, I'd love an M3.

I even I really like the M2 and if I could convince myself that I was comfortable using that as a daily driver, I would actually have that as a daily driver and then sometimes rally car, yeah no, I uh, and you know the b58 is a is an amazing engine and based and actually this week um brian from keys announced that.

So he, he built the world's fastest uh m340i.

Um, I don't I don't really do quarter mile stuff uh, but I think it's like 8.6

second quarter mile, which is, which is an insane car.

That is not that he, that he built in his shop, yeah, so, um, yeah, very, very, um, very fun cars yeah, yeah, hey.

So we usually talk news on the pod james.

Um, I thought it'd be a good time to talk about the new carrera t, given that we have a carrera t owner actually on the show what?

what?

What do we all?

think.

What do we all think?

I love it.

I, I really like it.

I.

I was excited when they brought out um tommy's version of the t?

Um.

I've got a friend here in the twin cities that has got the original carrera tea and it's in absolutely mint condition.

Um, his, uh, my friend's dad passed away.

There was hardly any mileage on the car at all.

They handed it to him and so I just happened to learn quite a bit about the, the classic t, as the new one was announced a few months later, and so that that model is like has really sort of captured my attention in the last couple of years.

So to see um, to see the latest one released.

You know I've configured my dream t on porschecom about 10 times.

So far I haven't managed to yet get one configured for less than 160 grand or something like that.

But you know it's, I think it's.

It's almost a bit of a cliche now.

People, you know, have reviewed it and talk about it, from the amateurs to the pros.

All talk about how it's the driver's car?

Um, and we we should probably explore that a little bit here, especially because we've got a T owner on the pod here, tommy.

But it seems to me like it is.

You know, you get the 911 silhouette, you got the 911 features.

It's the base, carrera, with all of the mistakes kind of fixed and solved.

It's the manual transmission.

There is so much to like about that model.

I really like it.

Yeah, I agree, and I feel like they've actually doubled down on it too.

They've gone.

Do you know what?

Let's only do this as a manual, for example.

And again, people can choose whichever transmissions they like.

I have no beef with that at all, but I've always felt like the quote-unquote correct spec for a T is manual transmission.

It has to be so.

I love that they've just committed to that.

I love that wooden shift knob.

I mean that had me at hello.

And what's behind that shift knob is a six-speed manual six-speed manual.

I know oh, I didn't realize that actually, yeah, yeah, so even more I guess, of a of a purist car although I hear the the ratios are the same though, right right, I think they just cut off the seventh gear, so you just you're just cruising at higher rpms in, uh, in seventh gear in which case, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

In practical terms, there's a, there's a huge benefit, although, tommy, I know some people uh, I see online do talk about that shift and and how, coming from seventh, you can find your way accidentally into I don't know fourth or second or something.

That's a little little bit clunky.

I've not experienced it myself.

Have you?

Have you found that?

no, not at all.

Um, I guess maybe I always pay attention to it, but, um, yeah, I.

I think the numeric shifter also made it a little sort of easier to not miss, uh, the shift, yeah, uh, yeah.

But you know, and quite frankly I do enjoy the, the seventh gear, because it really allows me to to get pretty decent mpgs yeah, when I'm you know yeah, you're on the highway and and you really don't want to.

You know you want to cruise in the right lane.

Uh, you, um, you know you really get decent mpgs in seventh gear yeah.

I agree.

What attracted you to the T as opposed to any other models?

Considering this is your first venture into the 911 range.

So I wanted something unique and I couldn't afford a GT3.

But I, you know, after doing some research, you know the T has some GT3 components, like the mechanical limited slip and some suspension tweaks.

I also really, really like the fact that it has the fabric door pulls as opposed to door handles oh my gosh, that is one of the best things.

Door handles oh my gosh, that is, that is one of the uh, that is one of the best things.

Um, less sound deadening.

Uh, I, I really couldn't care less about the plastic windows.

It's, it's really, I think it's a, it's a gimmick.

Uh, not having a rear defroster has never been an issue.

Um, but yeah, the t doesn't have it.

Uh, but, but that's, that's really it.

Just having something unique and um, and I know there were, uh, I don't I I'm probably going to get it all wrong, but less than 2,000 imported to the US, maybe of the 901.2T

.

So you know, having something that's again so unique and maybe will hold its value better Not that I'm selling it, but that's really uh, that's really what.

Uh, what attracted me to it.

And you know, I wanted something simple and I didn't want, let's say, you know, rear, uh, rear steer.

I don't want to axle lift.

Uh, I, I specifically wanted the, uh, the seats that I got as much as I would love the buckets.

You know I I love seeing my kids jump in the back seats and and go, go for joy rides with me.

So, yeah, that's really it.

Tommy, where do you drive?

You know a weekend drive, a Sunday morning.

Are you in the twisties?

You obviously take it to the track a little bit.

What's your kind of favorite use case for the T?

So I do live in a pretty uh mountainous area so there's a lot of nice twisty roads by me and and also a lot of uh just straight straight highways.

So I have the uh, the privilege of uh of being able to to do that.

But I'm I mostly on weekends when I have the time I uh I do take it into the mountains on the twisties.

Sometimes I just go for evening drives by myself and uh and just wind the uh, wind the car up, uh.

But but lately what's really what's been exciting me is, uh, I've discovered a new way to enjoy my 911 at the track and it's not hpde, it's uh, it's.

They call it a driver clinic.

I don't know if other states have it, but there's this in the in the northeast.

There's this one group called scda sports car sport cars driving association or something like that, and they put up these events.

They put up a lot of hpd events, but they also put up these events.

They put up a lot of HPD events, but they also put up these driver clinics, essentially open to all cars.

If you have a pickup truck, minivan, whatever you can go, and it splits into two sections throughout the day or throughout the four hours Autocross and then skid pad, and then actually the third section of the day is combining autocross and skid pad and, and this really opened up my eyes to what the car is capable of when you turn the traction control off and and just want to have some fun with it.

Because the skid pad, you know, you learn how to take the car sideways and, and once you, once it clicks in your brain, you just can't stop driving your car sideways and, uh, and, and you know autocross, you're always in second gear.

So so I want to do a lot more of these, uh, these events.

So I did two so far.

I'm waiting for the next one to be announced.

Uh, hopefully it's colder, so, uh, so I can slide the car a little better.

My, my big thing now is I want to, I want to get better at, uh, at sliding.

It's kind of hard sliding the uh, uh, the 911 because you've got all the grip, but it's, yeah, that's.

I've discovered that lately and I'm just, you know, I can't stop thinking about it.

Have you guys ever done anything like that?

I've done track days, but not not that kind of driver education and not the sliding, which I think is to my detriment.

Because I think one of the real benefits about doing a day where you are putting your car deliberately into a slide and learning how that feels and learning how to control it is that if my car were to go into a slide around a corner on the street in the hills, that's a new experience for me.

So the control of that, the rectification of that, is something that I'd be solving in the moment versus having experienced it multiple times as you have.

So I think there's a real benefit to it, right.

I agree, and I kind of got the bug many, many years ago, uh, because during my snowboarding trips we would always find empty parking lots and and and and, find a place where we can do donuts.

And you know, for the most part it was all-wheel drive vehicles back then.

So it was, it was pretty uh, it was pretty easy with we will drive in the snow.

It's not really that much that fun, um, but I, you know, I I always wanted to learn how to keep my car sideways and and it's so, it's, it's starting to click, it's starting to click.

Uh, I, I did some sideways actions in a closed parking lot, uh, with the m5 the other day and that was actually surprisingly easy, very easy compared to the 911.

Because, you know, longer chassis, less weight in the back.

James, you've done.

Did you slide when you were at Porsche Experience Center?

Yeah, I did, and I just couldn't get the hang of it.

To be honest, I must have went around and did it three or four times and I remember sitting there waiting my turn and having my instructor just say, okay, look, this is what you've got to do.

And I was like, uh-huh, yeah, got it.

Yeah, perfect, Sounds really straightforward.

And then every time I went across I just fucked it up completely, like from a little bit to a massive fuck-up.

I just couldn't get it under control.

I don't think I got it into control once maybe it was because you were uncomfortable in those bucket seats, because you don't like them what, what would help me?

what helped?

And I had, I guess, had some good instructors, uh, but it's all about looking at where you want to go, as you know, when you're at the skid pad, as opposed to, as opposed to, you know where the car is going.

And one of the examples that the instructor used he said hey, you've seen, you've all seen, this video of you know, a kid drifting his car in a parking lot and there's one lamp post in the middle and he manages to drift into it.

And the reason being is because he, instead of looking where he wanted to go, he was looking at the post, trying to avoid it.

But his brain, and you know the whole- body coordination basically steered him directly into it.

So there's, that was a really really good tip that he gave me and, you know, and it really worked well, yeah, yeah.

That makes sense, do you know?

It's interesting.

Circling back to the T James, you were saying you'd specced yours up and, you know, couldn't get one for less than a whole lot of money.

I can't remember how much you said.

I wonder if we're at the point, with the pricing on these new 911s, that it does somewhat protect the values of those cars that are six, seven, eight years old, because the prices now are such that the cost of entry is so high that to get a brand-new Carrera T you could get a second-gen 991 GT3 manual, and literally in this market in Australia you could do that.

So I think if you're an owner of, let's say, the generation of 9-11 that you two guys own, I think that's actually not a bad thing for values I think you're right and, and it you know, I, I definitely uh do think about it from time to time, just to make myself feel good about the money that I spent on the tea and knowing and knowing that the value probably kind of remains flat, because, you're right, the cost of entry nowadays is just getting higher and

higher on all these 9-11.

So the used market, will you know, look, look what happened to the 99, uh, even 99, the 996, 996s.

You could, uh, I don't know in Australia but in the US, even high teens like $19,000, $20,000 for like a 99, 2000.

I don't think you can touch those anymore for that.

Same thing with the 997.

That market has gone up a little bit.

I don't think it went, went crazy up, but it definitely it's no longer as flat as it, uh, as it used to be, because also, people are realizing that the ims issue kind of overblown, um, and if it's been addressed, that's even, uh, that's even better, right.

So, yeah, I think, yeah, I think it's great.

What's happening to these prices of new vehicles is great for owners like, like us, uh, we're like if we were to ever sell the car that is I was gonna say owners like us that promise, at the moment at least, that we're never gonna sell our cars james, I think you've had, uh what, three or four in the time that I've known you um, that's correct.

Five total and this is my sixth.

No, this is my fifth.

Yeah, and um, every single one of them, I've said to myself this is it.

I'm gonna be driving this car forever.

This is it.

This is the one, yeah I mean the, even the cayenne was that.

Oh no, the Cayennes don't count.

I've had five 911s.

The first Cayenne I had was the base, and as much as I enjoyed driving that off the lot, after I totaled my Jeep Grand Cherokee pretty quickly, and I mean within about 10 miles, I realized that it was just boring as shit and I probably should have gone for the S.

So I kept hold of that for about a year and then I was in a chevy silverado.

I was, uh, doing my my redneck phase for about 18 months so that, and then now I'm in a cayenne s and that's about the right amount of power for now I agree, it's a great, great platform.

As a matter of fact, I was very much considering um a cayenne s before I got the m5 and um ultimately went with the m5 because I just, you know, I I was afraid of what you just described with the base cayenne that it would be.

You know it would be fun, uh, because you know, for the level of fun that I was looking for um, but I, you know, I also know someone, uh, who's got a cayenne gts, uh, and you know he loves it.

Great car I've driven the gts and I've driven the cayenne turbo and both of those are absolutely phenomenal cars like create, like the turbo especially.

Nobody needs an suv that fast.

I mean, for god's sake, just that's ridiculous not to uh, so not to talk about my friend jeff, quite a lot we're gonna meet jeff he's, probably he's.

He's the one, believe it or not, he's the one who turned me into this, uh, onto this podcast, because I think at one point you guys mentioned me and he's like, hey, look, so so that's why I started listening, uh.

But yeah, so, uh, he, I think yeah, so he had a cayenne s I'm probably screwing up and then he ended up getting a turbo s, uh, that came with.

It was, I think, like a seven-year-old car, but that came with a unlimited mile, two-year warranty perfect and yeah, so it's, it's perfect, but he ended up letting it go anyways.

Uh, he got an x7, uh, but yeah, that was, yeah, that was, and, like you said, way too fast of uh, of an suv, but but it's so much fun and it sounds amazing yeah, there's something kind of goofy fun about fast sus.

I had a Grand Cherokee SRT and that thing was just a monster.

But yeah, kind of goofy, goofy fun.

Mind you and it pains me to say it when you were saying a minute ago, Tommy, that you were weighing up between the Cayenne and the M5, even though we're on a Porsche podcast, I think you made the right choice.

Yeah, and you know, my think you made the right choice.

Yeah, and you know my other family car is a crossover.

We've got the Tesla.

So I just didn't want.

For the times when my wife is driving the Tesla and I'm not driving 911, I don't want to be stuck in another SUV.

Nothing wrong with SUVs, it's just.

You know, I just ultimately went with a sedan.

Yeah, it's just you know, I just ultimately went with a sedan.

Yeah, tommy, a lot of people on YouTubers talk about the platform and how it's changed.

Given you've been on it since the beginning and I don't want to get too inside baseball but as a content creator, how have you seen YouTube change?

Obviously, there's a lot more shorts.

Everyone's into doing the video shorts.

I'm not necessarily into it because I don't view YouTube as my source of income.

I just enjoy making videos and using iMovie to slice my videos together, so I keep it simple, but I just I've seen that change.

It's also refreshing to see that a lot of you know you see a lot of newcomers out there and people are trying stuff.

See a lot of newcomers out there and and people, people are trying stuff and and many people uh reached out to me and if you know and I encourage them to to do so I always, you know, I'm always happy to share feedback, uh, and you know how to how to get started.

First thing I tell them is get a good microphone, get yourself mic'd up and then, you know, use your iphone and and that's it, because having having good sound is 70 percent of of of the experience in the, in the video.

But I think, yeah, yeah, it's changed a lot in terms of how much content there is out there.

And the only thing I I I'm sort of not it's just not my style is, you know, people doing things for the.

You know shock value.

You know, let me, let me do something crazy, just so I can, you know, hope to get, and you know, I guess it works for views.

Yeah, I, you know, for me, since I don't necessarily I never you know, I almost never look at my stats or how to improve my stats.

I just do it because I really, really enjoy it and I want to have a record of the work that I've done to my cars and, you know, and hopefully they help people in the future.

I mean, listen, I've also made videos about non-car related stuff.

I have some really good videos about snowblowers.

There's one that's doing really well.

I got this.

I moved into a house a couple of years ago.

It snows here a lot.

First thing I did, I got this massive snowblower and the video was actually so great that the following year I was checking out at BJ's for you, andy, I don't know if you have.

It's like you know, it's a big superstore, we get, you know, a lot of items at a discount and when you walk out there's a person, kind of like at Walmart, checking your receipt and there's just all the gentlemen.

He's like I know you.

He's like, oh, you've got the snowblower right.

I'm like, yeah, that's me, so.

So there's all the guy recognizing me from a snowblower video so, tommy, given that, um, I've started really kind of following the path that you've laid out in terms of, um, all the mods I've been to be fair, I think for the majority of them I've made the decision to do a certain mod on my own, and then I've gone to YouTube to see what other people have done, and invariably, you're the first person to come up with a DIY video.

Is YouTube stalking you?

Yeah, yeah.

Completely, completely, incidentally.

But yeah, you just seem to have done everything that I'm thinking about doing to my car, and now, now I'm certainly looking to you for ideas.

But of all of the jobs that you've done, were there any that you got started and you thought, man, I wish I hadn't.

I wish I hadn't started this one, or this one was definitely way more complicated than I was expecting.

I like I kind of got the sense that maybe that was the case with the headers.

Yeah, you know, headers were challenging because I did not have a lift at the time and just crawling under the car and dealing with the rusty bolts was very, very challenging, but I still got through it.

For me it was about chasing the sound, so I I knew that the end result was was what I was after.

So I I didn't mind the the challenge.

But one thing that that really got me stuck once was when I had the Cayman and I decided to lower it and put the so it was.

I was installing the X73 GTS suspension in it.

So it's yeah.

So springs, dampers and sway bars.

I did the front, which was pretty, fairly complicated.

Especially for the sway bar, you've got to drop the subframe, loosen up the steering rack and all of that again, I was doing it on a set of quick jacks.

So it's uh, from from that perspective it was it was a little challenging.

And then, when he came to the back because the previous owner drove the, the cayman, quite a lot in the snow, it appears so because it was uh, it was a bit rusty underneath and um, and I didn't have the proper tools.

I think there's some suspension required, like a 24 millimeter wrench, uh, or something like that.

I just I was looking at it and I was trying to figure out the, with the set of tools that I have and and the the lack of, can I really do it successfully?

And I decided no, so I pulled the plug on it.

So I put everything back together, I lowered the front and I took the car to a shop and I said, please do the back for me.

So that was my, but it was the regret of not having the right tools and equipment for the job.

I don't mind doing the work because, the way I see it, it's none of the stuff that we sort of work on and modify is really rocket science.

People realize that working on cars, as long as you have the right set of tools and sort of, you know, you remember how things go back together and you know.

You've got YouTube, you've got message boards although who uses message boards now?

It's fairly straightforward.

So tools and equipment will get you there.

To not be afraid, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll get you there, not you know to not to not be afraid, uh.

But at that time, to kind of go back to your question, I, I, I was a little over my head in terms of the equipment and I decided to pull the plug and um, and have someone else do it and I'm I'm happy, I'm happy I did, uh, but that was the only time when I regretted something like that.

I know this is a Porsche podcast, but when I first did the suspension on my M5, and I lowered it twice the first time, it wasn't low enough, so I ended up getting a different suspension.

And when I first took it apart in the back, I made two mistakes.

Took it apart in the back, I made two mistakes.

I didn't pull the seat belt out, because you have to fold the seats to remove the suspension, and I just didn't pull it out, so the seat belt ended up retracting itself and I couldn't pull it back, so I had to disassemble the whole seat belt assembly.

And yeah, so it was like an extra two hours worth of work.

And then also, I didn't realize there was a cable that I had to disconnect, so I ended up, you know, uh, damaging one of the other connectors.

But I but I corrected that, but none of those things ever made me say crap, I, I, I probably shouldn't have touched it.

I, it makes me.

You know, doing these things kind of makes me like I was saying earlier.

The fact that I can disassemble something and put it back together and get to know that piece of equipment on a more intimate level, that's a good feeling.

You see, you've just touched a nerve there, or at least for me, which is there have been a couple of jobs where one particular step, a couple of jobs where one particular step, which should have been straightforward and should have only taken a few minutes, has taken hours and blood and sweat and tears and too many c words and f words to count, screaming at the car in the garage and it's been trying to get, you know, like a bolt out

of my muffler when I tried to get my Pfister exhaust on a 997, it was trying to get the airbag to release in my 997.

And these jobs I'd planned, you know, twice as long.

So this job was going to take an hour.

I'm going to plan for two hours so I can film it and take my time, and I'm in there for four hours and I'm screaming and I'm sweating and I'm just utterly ready to kill someone or break something.

They're the moments that just drive me crazy, those tiny little tasks that, for whatever reason, because of rust or you've just just approached it from slightly the wrong angle you just just it's a time suck, you just lose that time and you, you feel like you've been robbed in some way totally and.

But you know what you've, you've got the garage space so you can kind of relate to it.

But I've learned that and especially if you have a, you know, if it's not your daily car, if you have another car to let things sit, just let it marinate overnight, another day, maybe two days, and and come back to it you'll have a different approach at doing things.

So when I was doing my 981 cayman's exhaust, I had a similar issue with the uh, uh, with with the bolts.

There were one of those you know there would the sort of the insert bolts from the uh wedge bolts we call them from the back, and then you had the nut up top.

So you know the nut would spin.

So then, and but I, but again it goes back to not having the right tool.

So I was trying to use a dremel.

Then I ended up drilling it out, but it took me a couple of days just to kind of figure out the best approach.

But I had the comfort of, you know, being able to walk away, leaving the car the way it is and saying you know what, let me, let me maybe have another idea tomorrow, but I definitely feel your pain.

That's what I should have done with my airbag incident with the with the 997.

It was, I remember, starting that job while the kids, who were still very young, were having their dinner and I was like running out for 20 minutes at a time and coming back and it got to about 11 30 at night.

I'd work the next day because I think it was a sunday night and that's where you know I ended up taking the knife to the front of the airbag and just stabbing the shit out of it like I was in a scream movie.

Um, yeah, but had I had I come back the next day, I would have probably managed to get it out.

And just like the way my friends Steve and Scott and Patrick came over the next day to take a look at this, because obviously I went to bed sending photos to my friends, like one in the morning, being like guys, I can't believe I've just done this they came over, sat down, took one look at it and, you know, within about 30 seconds it was out of of the wheel and I was just kicking myself that I just, you know, made a 400 mistake.

We've all, we've all done it yeah, but we live to talk about it.

Yeah, it's an experience yeah, you know, let's be fair, it made for uh, made for a good youtube video, I guess.

So there's always a silver lining, yeah yeah, I think the worst one is when you go through that process and then you get to the end and you've come through the fire, you've come to the other side and then you're not happy with the mod, you know, and that's just heartbreak.

It's like, okay, now I need to reverse all of that and then I need to sell this thing or send it back.

I just end up putting all these parts that I've put on my car and decided didn't work in storage.

I'd really need to sell them at some point.

Has has that happened?

Yeah, has that any, any sort of anything fresh in your memory?

um, yeah, look, I've done.

Oh, what's a?

What's a good example?

I?

I think that the tricky thing with air-cooled cars, compared with the modern water-cooled stuff, is you can plug a laptop into a modern water-cooled car, do a flash tune and gain 125 horsepower.

Right, are really well.

You don't get those sorts of gains unless you invest significant money and probably build a new engine.

But look, nothing specific right now.

I remember when I changed my seats.

I bought some turbo seats for my car which are the wrong color, and I had them sitting there for a long, long time, wanting to put them in the car, but I didn't want to because they were the wrong color and I thought I'd wait till I could afford to have them upholstered.

And at some point I just thought you know what, I'm just going to put them in anyway, let's just get that done, because I just wanted to drive with them.

They have a lot deeper side bolstering on them, which is brilliant compared with the stock seats, and they looked beautiful.

And when I got them in the car which actually took a bit of work Now, in fact, it was really difficult when I finally got them in, they sounded like a pair of seats that had come off an old Cadillac that had spent its time in a in a really humid environment.

They were so creaky it was unbelievable.

So I spent then the better part of two weeks conditioning the leather I was.

I went down this rabbit hole on YouTube of okay, you need to put leather conditioner on, then wrap the entire seat in like cling film, or glad wrap as we call it here, and my wife's walking out into the garage saying why have you got glad wrap all around your seats?

They're not a salad and.

I'm like, yeah, it's just, it's perfectly normal, Nothing to worry about, nothing to worry about.

So yeah, I mean, look, in actual fact, that modification has been really good.

I did a muffler not so long ago that as soon as I put it on, I took it for one drive and went no, absolutely not, that's coming off immediately, oh, really.

Yeah, and I don't even have quick jacks.

For me it's putting the car up on a ramp.

Quick jacks for me, it's putting the car up on a ramp.

Uh, so, and, and I, and I hate lying there with that little room under the car working on the muffler.

But yeah, it was.

It was literally as soon as the car was cool enough, it, it came straight back off.

Now, putting a swapping a secondary muffler on a 964 is, uh, I don't know, a half half-hour job, a 45-minute job, so it's not really that problematic, but so disappointing.

You know, when you've just got that anticipation of oh yeah, here it is, I've got it done, it's set, and then the result is meh.

You know, actually that's just happened to me this week.

I bought a carbon fiber rear diffuser for my car.

Um, almost immediately after I bought it, a year ago, it sat in my garage waiting for me to put it on.

Um, I got around to doing it the other day and the fucker doesn't fit that's pretty good, then no, that's, that's good news.

That's good news.

Can you still return it?

I?

uh well, I don't know.

I bought it you didn't attack it with a dremel?

Did you to try and make it no?

you know what, if, if it was that kind of a challenge where you know the, you know I I needed to affix it, then I probably would have been able to do it.

But no, it wasn't even close.

It wasn't even close to fitting.

It was apart from having the tailpipes in the center.

It must have been three or four inches off in every dimension possible.

It was ridiculous.

It was like carbon fiber for a clown car, which is stupid no, no, since we're you know we're talking about james's car.

I have to compliment you, james, on those, uh, on those wheels.

Oh, thank you.

Absolutely amazing wheels.

Once, you know, definitely looks like a four by four uh vehicle now, but I you know, once you lower it, it'll, I think it'll be, it'll be perfect and it's.

It's just the right blend of sort of something new and instead of a nice throwback to something old I appreciate it.

Choice, thank you.

You know, honestly, I wasn't too sure if I wanted to thank you.

You know, honestly, I wasn't too sure if I wanted to get non-factory wheels, because I've got, I've got this thing about factory wheels but I I've really enjoyed them so far.

I do like the look and one thing that I really like about those wheels and I, I think eventually I will have to get similar wheels.

They're easy to clean.

All the wheels that I have are just, I mean, and I and I'm someone, I, I really, you know, maybe it's not a popular thing to say on during a car podcast, but I really don't like spending time washing my cars.

I, I would like it to be super.

You know, if, if, if money was no object, I would ppf all my cars and just quickly wash everything with one rag and call it a day.

But I, you know, and then having to just squeeze my fingers into the spokes and behind the spokes, just oh, it's the worst.

But having just, you know, five spokes on a wheel, it's perfect.

I agree with you 100%.

I mean, I wash my car all the time.

I think everyone thinks I love to wash my car.

I actually don't.

I get some pleasure out of detailing it, to be honest, but the BBS rims are just such a nightmare to wash.

And yeah, just give me a set of five spoke rims that you can just done Gosh, I'd be happy.

I've got the answer for both of you never wash your cars.

You don't need to, there's just, there's no need no one cares no one cares, and and if you care, go to a touchless car wash.

You sit there, it takes five minutes and it gets it good enough yeah no, it doesn't, yeah, I mean yeah I mean, maybe you know, I guess on a darker car, maybe my car that is, you know, the yellow when it gets dirty, you know, you know, I, I like, I like looking at it when it's dirty because it shows that it's being used.

But then you know when, when I wash it, it just you know it's like a it's, it's, it's like a brand new car.

But one sort of not regret, because I guess it was never an option for me at that time, but I wish my car had ceramic brakes.

So that way I would have less dust.

Yeah, yeah, have you tried the ceramic composite brake pads?

They're not as good, obviously, as the PCCBs, but they really do reduce the amount of brake dust.

They're not as good, obviously, as the pccbs, but they, they, really do reduce the amount of brake dust that your, your brakes, put out.

I, uh, hawk I think it's hawk do a pretty good set of those I've tried those pads on another vehicle and um and it was scary how little initial bite there was compared to OEM, so I didn't want to mess with that, but I know a lot of people do use those and I know they work very well yeah.

Yeah.

But you know, on the M5, with the ceramic brakes, I wash the wheels once every two months and it's great Very little dust.

That's incredible isn't it?

I mean, yeah, look, I obsess about having my car clean, I love it being clean, but we have one rule, James, that I know you guys don't have on your rallies, and that is a strict no car washing during the rally rule, because who is it in your group who, like, washes it in the morning and then in the afternoon the same day after?

oh, my mate chris, yeah, yeah, totally every day.

Yeah, yeah, we, when we do like a 50 mile drive on a sunday, he'll take his car home.

He won't just wash his wheels, he'll take the wheels off the car to clean the insides of them and put the wheels back on.

That's impressive yeah, because usually when I get home from a drive like that, I want to go inside and start trying to earn back some domestic credit.

There we go, you and me both.

Yeah Well, tommy, it's been so good having you on the pod.

This has been a long time coming, I know, so thank you for being patient with us, but gee, it's been great having you here.

No, I love it, thank you.

Thank you for having me.

I also, you know, I don't feel like I fit because I don't have a British accent.

You hear my Polish accent but it's.

You know, I do listen to a lot of podcasts.

Most of them happen to be, you know, foreign podcasts, so that's so, I really do enjoy them and I and I and you know, listening to your podcasts and even though you haven't posted one in a while, so hopefully that can change we gotta, you know, we gotta make sure you, you get your consistency out there.

But it's really refreshing listening to your podcast because you, you know, you two, are very passionate about the uh, the porsche world.

Uh, have a have a lot of subject matter expertise have you know personal experiences with it.

No, you do, you do.

You know you kind of yeah, maybe you take it for granted now, but there will be.

You know there's a lot of people out there who who would love to have a clean, you know 964 right with bbs wheels.

That's uh, or you know, or, or james same thing with you it.

You know you made such a such a great decision buying uh, buying the car.

That you did because you know slightly higher mileage, but you got the.

You got it for an amazing price and you know it's going to be a something reliable and that's always going to put a smile on your face you know, tommy, that's so kind, because usually I have to hear andy explain that we're just a smile on your face.

You know, tommy, that's so kind, because usually I have to hear Andy explain that we're just a couple of knuckleheads talking about our cars.

That's a much more eloquent description.

We need to have Tommy.

Just give us a little bit of validation pre-record every time.

I hope you continue.

And one thing, before we end, I do have to add that my connection with because, andy, I met, you know I was connected through you.

I was connected with you through James.

But James, I was actually connected with James way before James and I met so with the Cayman when I was changing the gauges guess which gauges I ordered for my Cayman?

The auto amateur gauges.

So I still have the sticker that came with it.

And then I'm like, wait a minute, that guy has a YouTube channel and he's always in his garage, always tinkering with a funky camera angle.

I kind of like that.

You always have the car in the background, that's it.

I just wanted to mention that.

That's very kind and those gauges look great in your Cayman.

I hope you're displaying your auto-amateur sticker proudly on your wife's Volvo or whatever she's driving, yeah.

I have it in the.

I never ended up putting it on, but I have it in my, I have it in the office.

But yeah, I think it's also cool that you have the little side gig and you make these things.

I know you also make them for you.

Make newer-looking gauges for the older cars right, like, for example, the 992 looking one for a 911 right that's right yes, yeah, that's right, I've got, I've got a, a new designer actually, so they I've got a second kind of generation of of gauge faces now, like they've evolved um over the last 18 months and um, we've got several sort of different styles that you can add to any of the generations.

Going back, actually, to the 964 andy, if you're ever interested, and their factory quality.

They look good, they look very good um so anyway, there we go.

Well, tommy.

Thank you so much for joining um everybody.

Tommy L Garage on YouTube and Instagram.

I, you know, no doubt, will be in touch with you a lot over the next few weeks as I start to hack around in my garage with all of these mods.

But thanks, mate, for coming on the pod.

It's been absolutely awesome having you.

Thank you, gentlemen, once again.

It was a lot of fun.

Tommy, it's been great, mate, mate, thanks ever so much, and, uh, let's stay in touch.

Dude, I'm so glad we got Tommy on the pod.

That's wicked.

I mean, we only dropped his name about 17,000 times in the last episode, accidentally.

Yeah, that dude owes us.

I mean, realistically, we've promoted his channel more than anybody I know.

It's like, well, you, you know, let me say this I I want to find his old skateboarding videos and you know, whatever tommy, whatever tommy extreme was way back when he was driving beige, beige volvos um, yeah, but what a nice guy, absolutely lovely guy.

If you, if you haven't checked him out yet, listeners, uh, tomm L Garage YouTube extraordinaire and he's on Instagram and, as you can tell, obviously, super, super nice guy, but yeah, that was a lot of fun.

That was great and you know.

So, considered in his answers and you know, there were a couple of things that really stood out to me.

I love that when it comes to YouTube, he is not doing it for the views or the subscribers.

You know he's not worried about his stats, he's not spending his time losing sleep over that stuff.

He just wants to document this journey and almost seemingly just leave something behind.

I love that.

And the other thing that really struck me was this gratitude that he has.

He is so humble and to feel to be talking about feeling so grateful for for being able to be driving a 911.

I just love that it was.

That was such a such a great chat.

I loved having him on the pod yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely.

I think, um, I think we should get him back, certainly, um, after I've lowered my, my ride height and I can start complaining to the both of you about how terrible it drives, um, we won't hear a word of it.

We'll be like no, it's way better, it has to be better.

Awesome, well listen.

Thank you so much for checking in for another episode of Curb and Canyon.

There'll be another one coming soon.

I'm sure Dot dot dot Insert days, months, Not sure how long ago or long in the future, but we'll be back soon, Andy, right Please?

We absolutely will, and this one's been a great one.

It's been a whole lot of fun.

So thank you all for joining us and having a listen, and we will see you on the next one.

Cheers.

From Skateboarding to Supercars: Tommy L's Journey with DIY Porsche Modifications

Porsche 917

Porsche 911

BMW M3

Buick Century

Volvo S40

Ferrari F355

Porsche Cayman

Cayman S

Porsche Carrera T

Toyota Camry

BMW M5

Porsche Panamera

BMW M340I

BMW M2

Porsche Cayenne

Jeep Grand

About this episode

Original notes