GT4 Backlash, Corvette Z06 Revelation & The Cars We'd Buy Instead

Hey, welcome back to Full Throttle Talk.

Shnue, how are you, man?

Hey, Blair.

Hey, you.

Great to be back.

Good to see you, brother.

This one's going to be super fun because if anybody listened last week, maybe you were

offended by what I said about the Porsche Cayman GT4.

We had a discussion about long gearing and apparently I really fired up the Cayman GT4.

Can we say pissed off?

Yeah, I really, I shook the wasp nest a little bit.

So we're like beyond chomping at the bit to get into today's episode because we're going

to address some of that stuff and I'm going to read to you all of the backlash that I

got and we're going to address some of those comments.

If you haven't seen those, go to Full Throttle Talk on Instagram and you'll see the latest

reel that we posted, which I didn't think was that controversial.

And yet, man, we fired everybody up.

So if you're ready to get into this, you know, I'm excited.

Absolutely.

It's going to be a fun one.

Well, we like to start with the, you know, the man, the myth, the legend Tim Harris.

Absolutely.

And I got, I have his latest dispatch from Puerto Rico.

So let me just jump straight into it.

Sweet.

ZR1X update from Puerto Rico.

We've finally heard back from Bowling Green regarding the PR spec package.

The chrome wheels have been approved.

Unfortunately the curb feelers were rejected.

Bad Bunny is taking the news really hard.

He says his cousin owns a race shop and can fabricate a set from carbon fiber.

A prototype is now under development.

The weight savings appears very promising.

But my coach Claude is questioning the durability and says, yes, we do some testing first.

I'll keep you posted, Tim Harris.

Welcome to full throttle talk.

The podcast where horsepower meets conversation from super cars to classic legends, high revving

tech to motorsport mayhem.

We covered all straight from the driver's seat, whether you're a gear head eraser or

just love the thrill of the open road, you're in the right place.

Buckle up, hit the gas and let's go full throttle into today's episode.

Tim, thanks for chiming in, man.

I'm, uh, and that was an appropriate dispatch because I'll get into what I did in cars this

week and it has a lot to do with Corvettes.

So yes, you drove a bunch of cars this week and then we're going to get into a bit of

that.

I'm excited to get your takes.

So here's the deal.

If you've been following for a little bit now, I promised everybody that I'm kind of

a basket case when it comes to my garage and I tend to turn my garage over a little bit.

So lately I've been thinking it is time to get rid of my three series BMW.

It's a 2021 330.

I, I treat this car like it's, I mean, don't want to come across the wrong way, but it's

fairly disposable to me.

Let's put it that way.

It's getting up there in miles.

I drive a lot for work.

I'm always on the road.

So it's like, yeah, I think it's times it's small.

My boys are getting older.

So as one car guy does, instead of just going to buy an updated daily driver, I started thinking

of all the possible combinations of how to replace this car and with what and to be more

specific, I think I mentioned last podcast, maybe that I've got this E46 M three that's

kind of sitting around right now.

My life's getting cluttered and too busy and I should really sell that too.

So I should sell that, replace the daily downsize.

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

It makes a lot of sense consolidation a little bit.

Yeah.

Makes a lot of sense.

But it doesn't make sense.

And like I told my wife is, Hey, honey, I drove a bunch of cars this week and none of

them were all but one were not daily driver candidates.

Or what most people would consider not a daily driver, right?

So give us the rundown, you know, Blair, what were the cars?

And my thinking is, well, I'll replace the daily or maybe not.

Maybe I'll just replace the M three with something more practical that I can, I can co-daily

with, with the new daily or whatever.

So I drove and we're going to dig into this a little bit later.

I drove a C8 Stingray and a C8 Z06.

And that was first time I've ever driven a C8 and it's been driving me nuts, Shaneu,

that I have not done this.

And we talked about your experience on track with the Z06.

Yep.

And so anyways, we'll dig into that.

Good.

I drove an Audi e-tron GT probably not where anybody would expect that conversation to

go.

I drove a BMW Z3 M Roadster, the S52 M Roadster.

So the early Roadster, I drove a GR86 Toyota.

Nice.

And a new one.

A new one.

Yeah, the new one.

Okay.

Second generation, cool.

Correct.

And I drove an ND Mazda Miata Club Sport.

Okay.

So don't ask me.

Well, if you want to ask me, let's exchange messages on how somehow that becomes the lineup

when I'm trying to just replace a daily driver and how I come to all of those cars, it would

take way too long to get into on this podcast.

But it suffices to say there were a few highlights for me.

We're going to talk more about the Corvettes.

But Shaneu, I was genuinely surprised in the most positive way.

And the C8 Stingray is like a great candidate for anybody who wants to like drive the car

frequently, use as somewhat of a daily.

Like that's what that car should be doing is being used all the time.

Did you see how big the trunk is in that?

I did.

I'm sure I could crawl into that thing and sit inside there, lay down inside it.

It's huge.

We might be able to crawl in there together.

That doesn't sound very appealing.

Okay.

No, no, it doesn't.

But speaking of good Instagram content, apparently we're all about the clickbait these days.

We'll get into that later too.

So yeah, so tell me more.

So you drove the Stingray, which I spent a weekend driving one really hard.

And I was a bit impressed, but you got to be in the right mode.

So did you drive the car in the various modes?

So that truly was one of the standout kind of in most memorable parts of this car to

me was how the character of the car changed so drastically from tour mode to sport to track.

Track, yep.

And, and then I drove the, the Z06 and we could spend a lot of time talking about that.

And we're going to get back to this, maybe in a this or that segment where I all not

intentionally ruffle Porsche feathers again, but it might happen.

We are going to pit this Corvette Z06 against Porsches of similar price range for this or

that later in this episode, just to foreshadow a little bit.

There we go.

The Z06 was incredible.

That motor's insane.

And yet you do, you put it in tour mode and it just gets quiet, gets comfortable.

It's like you go from feeling like you're in just this wild, exotic car with an unbelievable

motor in it to a Chevy, to a cruiser, you know, in a pretty exotic form factor.

So I have a lot more thoughts, but I'll save those maybe for later in the show.

But the other cars that kind of stood out to me, I've been a noted kind of anti EV guy

on these podcasts.

Yes, you have.

And you know, you daily drive a Model 3 Tesla.

I do.

So the e-tron GT, the sales guy just said, listen, you should at least get in that car

and check it out.

This would be a great replacement for your daily, especially if you have other cars that

if you have to drive over 250 miles, take one of the other cars.

But right.

So I drove it and I will say, I was pleasantly surprised of that e-tron GT.

I think it looks wonderful.

I really love the styling of that car.

I mean, look, it's it's it's the Taycan Porsche Taycans kissing cousin, right?

And so I think the platform share those two cars.

And I actually prefer the styling of the Audi over.

I agree. Yeah. Yeah.

And and so, yeah, I have I haven't driven one.

So well, you know, so tell me, you know, what did you think?

Well, you know, Audi's in some ways are just too refined for me, including the R8 that I sold.

They have a very Audi feel, especially in the steering.

And but what Audi does do right is good materials screwed together well,

like that classic German car formula.

And so you get in this compared to all the Teslas that I've been in.

No offense. Yep.

But it's like there's a material difference in quality between that and this.

And then you start driving.

And first, that EV thing is so hard to wrap my brain around, you know,

there's one gear essentially I'm waiting for it to shift or whatever.

And like, but once I wrap my head around that, I'm like, this is a really nice car to be in.

It's very quiet.

It feels very solid.

The steering wheel and this was in, I forget the name of the paint, but it was in a green color.

I put it on my social media, but such a gorgeous car.

The steering wheel was Alcantara.

It just felt all the best things about how he was in this car. Sure.

And the guy said, Hey, the sales guys, like you got to punch this card,

like really get into it and you'll find that the power delivery is better than in the Tesla's.

And we'll make you sick.

So I did get a chance to kind of whip around the corner onto an on ramp on the freeway.

And I was surprised at how well the car handled.

And then, yeah, it's very quick, but it wasn't nauseatingly quick.

And yeah, I don't know where that all that comes from.

I think even Ferrari, you know, a couple of months before they,

you know, unveiled the the the much loved Luce, you know, they were talking about,

you know, nausea in the acceleration of these of these EVs.

And so, you know, the instant torque that you get from the battery and electric motor, it's addictive, man.

You know, you can punch the car wherever you're at, you know, and when the car moves forward,

you know, at whatever speed, if quickly, it's it's it's

great, you know, particularly when you're using it as an appliance, which is the way I view my my model

three, it's just an appliance.

It gets me back and forth to places when, you know, I'm not really thinking frankly about fun.

You know, I'm just, you know, it's the utility of driving to a place to conduct business or whatever.

Right.

Well, I feel a little bit like a sellout saying it, but part of the problem is all the alternatives to this car,

they're getting less and less interesting.

Sure.

So when you get into a really nice EV like this, the downside for me, and this is where Tesla just shines,

is I put on like the lane centering from Audi.

And this car is only two years old, I think.

OK.

And it would just ping pong me between lanes on the high.

Yeah.

And I'm like, if I'm going to do this, I want it to at least on the freeway, because I'm on the freeway a lot.

Sure.

I want it to at least keep me in the middle of the lane for 15 seconds before I have to put my hand on the wheel.

And oh, I drove a BMW five series as well.

And that car actually did keep me in the middle of the lane.

So the Tesla technology, I see why it's so appealing.

And it felt like a real letdown in the out the Audi.

That was the low light of this e-tron GT for me was, you know, it didn't have enough lane centering technology to just.

Yeah.

But man, come on, serious.

Like that that is so high on your list of priorities.

Lane centering.

I mean, come on, man.

Drive your damn car.

Hey, for my daily driver, I'm like, I do like to look down at my phone every now and then when I'm just going 75 on the freeway.

Yeah.

Like, anyways, I shouldn't have admitted that out loud.

You're so busted, man.

You're so busted.

I do see the appeal of these guys just letting the Tesla on the freeway.

Right.

Driven this full self driving around town.

And it drives me crazy because I can't stand it.

I can't stand it too.

Yeah.

I couldn't.

I just couldn't use it around town.

It usually goes too slow.

It's just not thinking what my brain's thinking.

And we're all kind of control freaks behind the wheels.

Right.

It's it's like you're a armchair quarterback or whatever it is, the the passenger criticizing your wife about her driving.

That's what it's like letting Tesla take over.

And but on the freeway, I mean, I think the car should be able to adaptive curves and keep you in the middle of the lane with without you having to do it yourself.

So and then, you know, I drove the an Nd Miata as well.

Yeah.

So talk more about that.

What what I mean, could you actually use that car?

You know, yeah.

Yeah.

Because the idea is replace the M3 with an Nd Miata and a car that gets great gas mileage, a car that is like bullet proof reliable.

Yeah.

I just don't have to sweat it.

I can take work calls in that car.

Yeah.

I was going to ask you, is it quiet enough to do that?

Um, yeah, I think so.

But I'm telling you, yeah, the others are just the best cars ever made.

So take that GT four owners, you know, take that Lotus Elise guys.

I mean, I just bought a very expensive Elise from you.

The answer is always Miata, right?

I love just never get out of a Miata and think, oh, man, that wasn't like they missed the mark on that.

I mean, it's not a matter that wasn't really fun.

So yeah, I agree.

I don't fit well in those cars either.

But so that's what I did.

I'm excited to get a little more into Corvettes.

And you know, it's it's always great to go drive a bunch of cars and try to formulate these thoughts.

And I did even soften on an EV sedan.

So there you go.

I said it out loud.

I admitted it.

She knew what you do in cars.

How was the 996 last weekend?

Oh, man, it was great.

Listen, good and bad, right?

OK, oh, no.

Yeah. Well, OK, the bad was my own damn fault.

OK, and I am to blame for how this story came to a conclusion.

But let's start the story.

Right. I took the car up on my favorite road and I was hauling ass.

The car is really fun.

It just blazes over the bumps.

You know, you know, when you have a car of that size with that much mass,

it you know, there's a certain level of kind of, you know,

a bank vault like feel that you get, right?

You just are not going to be able to get in a 2000 pound lotus, you know,

that is made from, you know, aluminum extrusions, you know.

And so the car really gives you that confidence and it just, you know, the sound of that engine,

you know, just feels really strong, right?

You know, whole car feels solid and so.

But, you know, then you also do feel the mass, too, on so on the flip side of that, right?

So anyways, I went on my favorite loop, the DeLuzer Road, a hauled ass.

It was great.

Having a great time headed back. OK.

And I'm, you know, I'm literally, you know, right across,

very close to a friend of mine who lives up there and the car dies out.

And I'm like, oh, man, you know, what?

Oh, no. OK.

So I'm thinking, all right, what's going on?

And the way it was, it died.

It wasn't as I would have expected, you know, what it turns out, what the issue was.

So anyways, I'm like right at the car stalls out right in front of my friend's house.

I'm thinking, OK, great.

You know, hopefully Scott's home.

You know, this was Sunday morning.

You know, so I'm knocking on his door.

He had to walk like 200 yards to his place and knocking on the door.

He's not there.

You know, later.

Later he sent me a text.

He goes, hey, I think I saw you on my ring camera.

I'm in Oxford, England right now.

And I guess a lot of good you did me.

And you know, but yeah, get back to the car.

And I hitchhike in a couple of octogenarians.

You can come rolling up.

You seriously hitchhike.

How far away are you from civilization?

Or like you're by a buddy's house.

That's crazy.

Yeah. So, you know, yes.

So there's no cell phone coverage where I was at.

OK. I had no signal.

I forgot to mention that no signal.

So I was at a hitchhike out of there and a couple of luckily a couple

of eight year old dudes can pull up in a pickup truck and they probably used

to hitchhike when they're younger.

So they're comfortable with it, you know.

So anyhow, I ran the car out of gas.

OK, that's that's what happened.

And so we've had the fuel gauge on the car has been flaky.

Yeah. And so I've been trying to keep the car, you know, full of gas.

And I, you know, I just I was overcome with the excitement of driving

the car in the morning and I didn't go top it off to make sure, you know.

And I think the fuel consumption is a lot more than I anticipated.

So anyways, I ran the poor thing out of gas.

Oh, no. Got to the gas station, got to jug of fuel, put some fuel in the car.

It starts right up.

I came back home, you know.

So anyways, a little bit of, you know, humble pie, right?

The car, you know, it's like the car guys are like the worst thing

is is running out of freaking gas, you know.

So well, maybe the worst thing is when you wreck your car,

you put it into a trailer, a ditch.

That's the worst car guy thing, right?

But I think, you know, a close second is running your car out of gas.

I think that that's that's pretty lame.

So anyhow, well, yeah.

But we got to figure that out.

We I there's a fuel sender issue with the car.

So I think we're replacing two fuel senders on this thing.

So. But the car felt good.

You were happy with how it really was great.

You know, I was really happy with it.

You know, look, it's it I want to do some some play around a little bit

with it with the sway bars, you know, and I want to flatten the car a little bit,

you know, make some adjustments to the turn in on it.

But it's great.

You know, what I have to kind of remember is this isn't a lotus.

Don't try to make this a lotus, you know, enjoy its positives, you know,

that solid feel, its ability to just bulldoze over bumps and, you know,

enjoy that, you know, part of the car and not try to make it into what is in your head.

You know, what you what you're used to driving, which are much smaller,

much nimbler cars, you know.

So yeah, that that was the probably the biggest thing that happened.

You know, I think a couple of things I mentioned last week,

we got the e-ray fired up and drove that car, you know, now with the supercharger.

Wow, power delivery is super smooth.

You just feel like a stock car that's just really faster.

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Really good.

So Klein picked up the car on Tuesday, you know, took off.

He's super happy getting queued up to do a drag race with with with the ZR1,

as we talked about, right?

So hopefully he puts the stock wheels back on the thing.

You know, his advantage is, of course, the front wheels are driven.

So I'm thinking that that's going to be the key, you know, for him to have any sort of fighting

chance against a new ZR1.

So anyways, the what else?

Oh, you know, we talked a bit about Sarah Coat last week on the way.

Yes, we did.

That goes back, you know, uprights and wishbones.

They look so good.

I need to put it up on our social media.

We actually powder coated the subframe too.

So that that turned out really great.

That's all coming together now on that particular car.

There's a car. That's awesome.

Yeah. So that was good.

So yeah, so that was my week, man.

I mean, you know, not quite as much fun driving like you had.

But anyways, we had a few things we sorted out.

Well, it's always an adventure to run out of gas.

And I had to call my wife a couple of times to come bail me out.

She's like, you're such an idiot.

Like, what are you doing?

I don't know.

I have never run a car out of gas.

Yeah, that's the first time I ran a car out of gas.

You know, so it was especially embarrassing.

Well, the funny thing is the day before my wife was in my Tesla and she calls

she goes, oh, I got a flat tire and I should have a picture of this.

But I don't have the picture to put up behind me.

But I went and picked her up.

She was like about half an hour south of us.

And, you know, I came with, you know, a spare wheel and tire and, you know,

everything I needed to fix this thing.

Right. And she's parked there.

I'm like, babe, where's the tire?

You know, the entire tread was completely gone.

What? I'm like, how long were you driving the car?

It's amazingly, the wheel did not get damaged.

OK, but the car had absolutely no tread left.

It was just the sidewalls, you know.

So anyhow, that was a little bit of a tire changing fund on Saturday.

But always, always shenanigans when you're in this hobby.

Yes, yes.

You take the good, you take the good with the bad.

But let's move into automotive news, you knew.

And I wanted to talk about Dodge announcing this new copperhead,

which looks bitching, man.

That thing looks great.

I think that car is pretty frickin cool.

I think all this, they're calling it like a hyper muscle car or something.

Yeah. Is that a new category or class of car hyper muscle car?

Yes, indeed it is.

And I think it's it's very apt and very smart.

A very good strategic decision.

So how does a hyper muscle car differ from like a.

GT car, like an Aston DBS or something like what just less.

Refined, less luxurious, more raw and kind of in your face.

I mean, that's how I would describe because this does look like a big.

You know, front engine, most likely rear wheel drive.

They did come, they came out and said that this will not be a competitor to the C8.

So they are genuinely not going after the sports car market.

And they made a point to say, this is not a replacement for the Dodge Viper,

which I have to admit, I was kind of bummed about.

You know, because I do think there is a lot of excitement for me around the Viper.

And we need more of that.

But you seem to think that that was a smart move and going into this hyper

muscle car, what I would say is probably more of a GT car category is smart.

Yeah, I think, listen, how many hyper cars, you know, sports cars exist,

there's just too many, you know, it's like the market is just utterly

saturated with with hyper cars and hyper cars tend to be very sports

car focused, in other words, they go fast in a straight line,

they break very well in a straight line and they turn left and right really well,

right? Whereas a muscle car is really all about the sound, the look

and going fast as hell in a straight line, right?

And the acceleration.

And so I think, you know, the Dodge saying, hey, look,

we're just going to continue to focus on muscle cars.

I think that was smart.

And I think that, you know, your earlier question about Aston's,

aren't they just muscle cars?

And I think, you know, they position their cars more as GTs,

which is more about, you know, sophisticated touring, you know, it's

certainly, you know, they are fast cars and muscular cars.

But I think they're a bit more refined, whereas a muscle car can be a little

bit more raw, can be a little bit more, you know, crude, maybe not

be the right term to be used, but let's just say, you know, just not as refined

as what Aston is kind of trying to deliver to the market.

So, yeah, no, listen, I think is your like, you know, slicing and dicing,

you know, these, you know, little segments in the automotive space.

You know, I think, you know, I think it's a great strategy.

And so, and the thing looks great.

It looks, I think it looks so cool.

And, yeah, I was excited to see it.

I hope it comes to the market.

We didn't know there was an entirely new category of cars

that was about to be created.

We thought, you know, it's all been sliced up.

And yet here we are, hyper muscle car.

And but I like where their heads at in terms of we're going raw,

we're going enthusiastic, enthusiasm, we're going like performance,

tailoring this to to our core, or

our core audience there.

The Mopar contingent there is diehard as anybody.

So 100 percent.

Yeah, I think I better not piss those guys off.

Like I did the Porsche guys last week because the Mopar guys,

they don't mess around.

You know, hyper muscle cars, you know, creating new segments.

I think this is smart.

It's like last week we had hyper but ugly cars that we talked at length about.

You know, maybe I should call it hyper, but ugly and extremely expensive cars.

You know, that we talked about last week.

But yeah, look, I'm I'm I'm so excited.

And then the other car that you you showed me yesterday that I was like,

well, I had completely missed.

Tell tell us about that car.

Yeah, this is the Audi Nouveau L'Aria, I assume, is Heather.

It was named after a race car driver.

Yeah, race car driver.

Yeah, so so well known that I've never heard about the guy.

But I mean, it's from I think he was like 50, 60.

Yeah, maybe even more 70 years ago.

Yeah. Well, it appears, you know, with the Lamborghini Volkswagen group,

like Audi relationship, it appears this car, you know, you start,

you start reading about this thing and it's like, oh, I see what they're doing here.

They're taking the new Timur Arrio Lamborghini and get a kind of part share

to some extent into an Audi.

So, you know, they've been teasing an R8 successor for a while.

It doesn't look like that's what this is going to be, because there

this is more of a highly exclusive halo car of which they will only build

499 units. Right.

And it's it's going to have a hybrid V8 powertrain,

which I think is what that Timur Arrio has, revving to 10000

RPMs. So, you know, the the picture of this thing, you know, is

you know, it's been a little bit. Oh, you've got it behind you there.

I've got it behind me right now. Yeah, I love it, man.

I love this car.

I've seen some backlash about this online and then, you know, after somebody

was griping about it, they did mention, well,

the Luce came out just before this.

So, you know, it's it's setting the bar pretty low.

So maybe this doesn't look so bad after all.

I think it looks great.

This is what like a modern take risks in this kind of way.

Yeah, it may not be your cup of tea, but I have no problem with the way this thing

looks. It looks very Audi to me.

It's like a sharper, more futuristic version of the R8 and but also in a

simplistic kind of form.

So, yeah, I mean, I think it's cool.

They're going to be very expensive and.

Well, the styling is completely they've borrowed from the TT concept that they

showed just a couple of three months ago, right?

And so it's absolutely in that design language.

And this is to me how you do, you know, fresh and new design.

You know, this this won't be, you know, confused, you know, in my opinion,

for something that's overly avant garde.

It's not something that will be confused for being retro design,

which I think is easy and lame.

You know, I love what they've done with this thing.

I think it fits with the Audi ethos, you know, which is which is more machine

like, which is more robotic, it's not, you know, flamboyant.

It's not, you know, sensual.

It's it's it's this more, you know, kind of sophisticated, industrial,

kind of like ethos in my mind when I think of Audi's, you know, and so I love

this car, man, I love what they've done to it.

You know, I put up a picture of the Lotus theory one.

And if you look at the tail on on that car, which is now in my background,

you know, it's very, very similar to to this Audi, right?

You know, they have a very, very high, you know, rear end, you know,

which again, very similar to the Diablo, right?

Lamborghini Diablo, you know, and so lots of similarities there.

But I think it really helps give the car, you know, that aggressive wedge.

It gives it that look that, you know, I think most of us are looking for in

hypercars and so I'm super excited about the car.

It's a bummer.

It's going to be so expensive, but, you know, so be it.

But I think if, you know, the approachable version will be the Audi TT,

which, you know, I think it's still supposed to be at an EV.

So and now that you've driven an Audi EV and you love it,

maybe Audi TT will be your car in a couple of years.

Love loves a strong word, but I've softened a little bit.

Well, but you have insider access to horse power trains.

And we've talked about this.

You're your good buddies like chief engineer or something. Is that right?

He's a director of R&D for for.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, the United States and so yes, he's, he's

but it appears, it appears V8 hybrid, hybrid combustion technology is

at least the immediate future right now, because that's what they're talking about.

That's what Audi's doing.

So, you know, on the whole, especially after my Z06 drive, I've been

griping about no manual transmission in any of these things.

The Z06 kind of restored a little bit of faith to me and

maybe all hope is not lost without a manual, but we'll we'll get into that

here shortly. But good.

Good. What do you have behind you there, Shannu?

So, you know, a bit of news that got me super excited this week.

Some more of the details came out about that Lotus Emira 420

that we talked about last week.

Yes. You know, the initial press releases, we

suggested that the car was going to have two way multi-matic shocks on it.

So multi-matic, but what they weren't clear about then, that they are clear

about now is whether or not it has their more sophisticated dampers.

Multi-matic have made more conventional shocks, these shim stack type shocks,

but they but the really trick solution are these spool valve shocks.

These are the ones that you find on, you know, the the Fry Purisangway,

the 4 GT, 9-11 cup cars.

And it's a far more sophisticated damper.

It was the one, you know, that even I, I actually talked with multi-matic

about this 10 years ago.

They're there. I think he's a VP of R&D.

Larry Holt, he loves the Lotus brand.

And so he and I were having, you know, some email exchange about

how do we, you know, develop a set for for the Lotus's.

But what I learned is, you know, it's about $150,000 of R&D

OK, to develop a damper for, you know, the dampers are very specific to the car.

And they're not quite super easy to change.

You know, that's the advantage of conventional types of shocks.

You know, like you find the Olin's or the Nitrons or the JRZ's or Penske's.

They're much easier to tune, you know, and quicker.

And so but in this case, you get something that's far more sophisticated.

So what I learned this week is that the Amira 420s are getting DSSV

dampers, you know, two way from Multimatic.

So that's super exciting.

And I think, yeah, that's that is the option box that you want to tick.

Because the other thing is, you know, a bunch of the option prices have come out

for that kit and, you know, Lotus for the 420 for the 420.

Yeah. And so Lotus has borrowed a bit from the Porsche Playbook, man.

And so if you take every box on a 420, it turns into a hundred and seventy

thousand dollar Lotus. Wow. Yeah.

That that's, you know, pretty, pretty expensive.

But a lot of those options are the bling bling, you know, cosmetic things.

OK, this 12000 dollar handling package.

That's the only one I think I'd be ticking, you know, because it gets me

that the the DSSV Multimatic shocks.

And I think I think it includes the titanium exhaust as well,

and maybe a lighter battery or something like that.

But well, yeah, yeah, as if I haven't made as if I haven't made myself clear

on this podcast so far and it's not going away.

Kind of a Corvette guy now.

So, you know, and I can say that I can, you know, come out of that closet

with you since you're the Callaway Performance Center on the West Coast.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm going to go ahead and say it now, guys.

Say it. Let's hear it.

I don't think you should buy a four Lotus 420 with a four cylinder

and buy a Corvette Z06 instead.

And we're going to like I'm going to keep beating that drum

as we get into this this or that segment.

So anyways, that is.

But there is stuff.

I also drove in a mirror this week, which I didn't talk about.

My my my buddy Chris just bought one.

We couldn't rav it out.

I do love those cars.

But until that thing has a manual transmission, the 420,

if it is going to come with a V6, guys, please get over the brand

snobbery, you know, issue and go drive a Z06.

I think your minds will be blown as they were mine.

So what you got one more news story.

You know, there's this other crazy bit of news that's come out.

And, you know, there there is a bill that is

some regulation that's kind of being written by an unelected regulators

that is, you know, basically suggesting, OK, that sticky tires, right?

Tires with this 200 treadwear rating are going to be banned here in California.

OK, so, you know, it's

classic California, you know, but the crazy things is the ones that are

specifically on the list are things like Yokohama A052s, Toyo R888Rs,

you know, the British.

You use. Yeah.

These are the tires that we put on the leases, you know, any seizures.

And so, you know, hopefully this whole nonsense, you know,

does not make its way into reality.

But that certainly was something that kind of caught my attention this week.

But I'm not going to give it too much attention

because my hope is that it goes away.

It does look like SEMA is kind of on it.

So hopefully they can, you know, course correct that and and maybe write

some exemption in there for these, you know, low mileage cars and sports car

applications. So we'll see.

SEMA has quite the lobbying power.

So yeah, I think they do.

They do. You know, we I've been a member of SEMA for, I don't know, over 20

some years and, you know, there's dues that we pay, right?

And so certainly, you know, they're they're collecting money from us.

And so there's some things that they can do on our behalf as an industry

to to ensure that things don't get a bit out of hand because they that seems to be,

you know, California certainly leads the way in in in the in the desire

of banning ICE vehicles and sports cars of all types and modifications.

So, you know, right or wrong, it's good that SEMA is there to kind of help

make some adjustments.

Well, I'm not going to touch the California of legislation,

drama issues with a 10 foot pole.

So I think we should just move right along into GT4 drama.

So yes, here's the best part.

I've been teasing us up.

The best part of this GT4 drama is that Shannu.

Hasn't heard or seen any of this backlash on Instagram.

So what I decided we should do is put together a lot of the comments

and I want to read them to Shannu and and I want you both to be entertained.

But also, I want to have a little more of an educated discussion

about most of these comments, some will just make you laugh.

But, you know, the comment that I made last week was that for me

and I'm pretty sure I said for me, I'm not interested to buy a GT4 Cayman

or us 9817 18, you name it.

Or a spider or a Boxster Cayman four liter.

Unless I was willing to do the gearing, you know, replace the gears

to make them shorter.

I didn't think that was going to truly, you know, trigger trigger the Porsche

mob, and I think it's mostly the Cayman Boxster mob, which by the way,

I've been on record.

Nobody listens to any of the context.

I've been on record saying I love the Cayman Boxster platform.

I think it's more fun than nine elevens.

So the picture up behind me is my first 981 GT4.

And I had it for a couple of months, few months decided I did not like

carbon bucket seats.

So I sold it for the blue one.

And so I and the other thing I want to say before I read

these comments is we do this for fun.

She knew I was accused of just trying to be controversial for

controversy sakes.

I couldn't care less about being controversial, but I would like to just

be able to share an opinion about cars, which makes this fun as we all have

different opinions without worrying about all the backlash.

So if I say it, it's because at least in that moment on that day, that's

how I feel.

So without further ado, let me just read a couple of these.

These first couple were from guys that have a pretty solid social media

following in the Porsche world, the car world, and they they stopped by to chime in.

So one of them said in regards to my comment about the the gearing, I've

never laughed harder.

This is not an issue.

This is a driver issue.

And I think my response was I don't understand how having a preference

for shorter gears is a driver issue.

Like I'm doing something wrong.

I'm like, and this guy has a successful YouTube channel, pretty big

Instagram following.

He's well known to be a Cayman connoisseur.

And and he said, well, it's a driver issue.

The fact that the gearing is too tall for my taste.

Any any chance that you're any any way you can kind of understand why my

issue with long gears is an indictment of my ability to drive?

Well, I think you and I kind of beat that horse, you know, a few times, you know,

in that in that pod.

And so this dude that's making this comment, you know, and again, I think

that's part of what some of these clowns like to do.

They they're the way they drive cars is clearly different than the way maybe you

and I are driving the cars.

And did you get a chance?

I mean, did you look at any of his content?

Does he actually drive the car hard?

Does he live anywhere?

Or, you know, in his credit, he does, but he's also mostly driving a 718

spider RS, which I thought was funny because that's PDK only.

And it's got shorter gear ratios.

Yeah.

But but I know he's he got famous with a 987 dot two box.

They're spider.

And it also is a little tall and yeah, but it doesn't revise as a GT four.

So anyways, the next comment is, bro, everyone talks about these gearing issues.

Quote, gearing issues.

It's such a fairy tale.

And this is what everyone now says without even owning one.

So this guy has a big following on Instagram as well.

And I think he's had a bunch of Porsches.

So let me remind you, I've owned two of these cars.

This was this is not something I've heard.

A lot of guys were just accusing me of regurgitating what, you know, a talking

point is about Cayman boxers like everybody.

That's the other thing a lot of guys said is everybody's picking on the poor

Cayman boxer and the GT four.

I'm like, well, bring that up with Porsche because it's a hell of a car, but

they hamstrung it big time.

So like, I'm sorry.

I mean, if you don't feel that way, that's fantastic.

I like the cars, but so the next one was classic car community echo chamber.

Right.

One, that's good.

Forget about this entirely.

Well, I did own two of them.

I did track a bunch of them, but you're right.

I have never driven one.

So my, my, my comments were all based on hearsay.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, look, this is the issue with these reels, right?

It's like you're taking, you know, things out of context.

You don't really quite know the full backstory because you just watched

this 30 second reel or whatever the hell it is.

And all of a sudden you're jumping to conclusions.

So it's, it's pretty humorous.

The next one, a lot of guys said, well, this one said undriveable or

unviable are dramatic takes.

Now I said unviable.

It's a very viable car.

There I like the cars.

He said it's still a quite enjoyable car to drive and push hard.

If you want to spend money, you can swap gears two to five and make it more fun.

This is a pretty reasonable, reasonable comment.

Was I, am I a little dramatic in this?

Yeah, possibly, but I do feel pretty strongly about it.

Like it's, if I own another one, I'm going to budget to do the 10 to

$15,000 regear on these.

Um, but listen, that was reasonable.

Yeah.

I've been in, in Lotus's Lotus Elise exeges with so many clients and I've

lost count.

Okay.

And it's, it's, it's, it's not like it's 50%, but let's just say somewhere

in the neighborhood of 20% of people, they don't drive the car into the second

camp, right?

They're not revving these cars.

Okay.

And, and so it wouldn't surprise me.

Okay.

And I know it's, it's, it's going to absolutely be the case in the Porsche community

that there are plenty of people that aren't driving their cars, frankly, very hard.

And so they're, they're never going to actually push the car hard enough to,

to see that this is, this is a real issue.

Yeah.

They're not healing, toying their downshifts, going hard into a corner to,

to get a bit more power at launching out of a corner.

You know, and so yeah, no surprise.

And, and I think, I think some guys don't, a lot of guys can't heal in tow.

Yes.

Like actually get into the brakes hard while you're downshifting, not just

red match.

Right.

And, and maybe if they can, I know a lot of guys who will not drive a car on

track without automatic red matching.

That's totally fine.

I don't feel that way.

Cause part of the fun to me is using the skill that I feel like have mastered

pretty well.

And so that's part of it.

Shorter gearing allows me to use that skill and have fun.

So a couple more really quick.

Clickbait GT4 is an epic car.

Try again.

Okay.

Um, the next one is dude, you probably like a Toyota.

Well, you know, if you look at what Toyota has been doing lately, all these

GR cars, one after the next, we, we, we failed to mention the GR Corolla earlier,

but we'll have to talk with that next week.

Okay.

Yes.

Let's talk about what Toyota is doing with, with sports cars and sporty cars.

Um, moving on, the car is 10 years old and they are still complaining

about the long gearing.

No one wants to hear whining.

Okay.

Um, my friend Daley's his GT4 and has zero issues.

This is a skill issue.

He's like, Hey, my buddy has one of these and Daley's it and he's fine with it.

So you must be a bad driver.

It's basically what this guy is saying.

Um, and then the last one is by far my favorite.

He said, all I hear is little bitch.

So, and I told the guy, Hey, to Shay, I love the passion, but still don't

love cars that are geared too tall.

And so yeah, it's, it was very funny.

And I think just what this made me think about, and it's a, it's a thought

that I've had a lot.

She knew, you know, a lot of car guys, I know a lot of car guys.

We've got friends, some of whom share very similar tastes and cars.

You and I might see things too similarly.

We might have a more interesting podcast.

We saw it direct opposite, but there are a lot of different type of car

enthusiasts.

So, you know, when, when we look at stuff like this, I would consider

you and I to be more like drivers and as opposed to, I mean, you, you put

together a list of 10 different categories or segments.

You know, you, you kind of like slice and dice, you know, read them off real quick.

You want to read them off?

Okay.

Cool.

I like this.

I think this makes a lot of sense because our hobby is made up of car

enthusiasts that all can be, you know, have different, you know, views on what

they like about the hobby.

Right.

And so the way you, you, you segmented this, I thought this was really pretty good.

10 different groups, right?

The first being the driver, second being the brand loyalist, three being the

luxury enthusiast, four being the status seeker, five being the collector, six

being the builder, seven being the racer, eight being the technology

enthusiast, nine being the nostalgist.

And then finally 10, the experienced chaser thrill seeker.

So I kind of, you know, I thought that was interesting.

And, and, you know, there's no question how we enjoy our hobby is our own right.

You know, the way you and I might want to enjoy our cars is no better or worse

than anyone else.

And so I like this.

And, and, you know, the other thing, the comment I would make on this is, well,

you could be in multiple segments, you know, I'm, I'm certainly a driver.

You know, I'm certainly a builder.

You know, I'm certainly a racer, you know, and I absolutely have an experienced

chaser and thrill seeker, you know.

And so I think, you know, that's the reality is we come in all these, you know,

flavors, if you will.

And, and, and I kind of like this, that was put that way.

And, and, uh, yeah.

And so what do you think?

Have you put this together?

Tell me more about some of this.

Well, I couldn't agree more that a lot of us fall into multiple of these

categories to some extent.

Yeah.

You know, where, where I totally fall into like the nostalgic.

I've got another E 46 M three in my garage that I really need to sell.

Cause my life is too cluttered right now.

And yet I just have so much nostalgia to those cars.

It's, they happen to be pretty good to drive, but not the best.

So, you know, I, I welcome anybody to take shots at that, for example, but it's

like, I'm not doing it cause it's the best.

And anyways, so yeah, I totally think first of all, I welcome all of the feedback.

In fact, I loved all the feedback on Instagram.

Even when somebody called me a little bitch, I thought was hilarious.

So this is what makes this hobby so fun.

And I do think that, yeah, we all come about this a little different way.

I got a buddy who will keep, he keeps texting me these Astans that he drives

and he owns a Jaguar F type and not exactly my type of car, but I love that

those types of car guys are out there and I've driven these cars and I like them.

So, you know, I think it's a reminder to myself, you and everybody out there.

We can't be so sensitive or have our feelings heard if somebody says, Hey,

that E46 M3 steering is so dead on center and they're unreliable.

And it's like, what a dumb car, you know, most overrated car in history, which I've

heard.

Okay.

I said one of those things.

Okay.

No, I'm not even just talking about you.

I've heard this from lots of people and I think you'd not be wrong, but damn it.

I love those cars.

So, you know,

I'm going to do me and I think people should do them and I love the discussion

about this.

So speaking of brand loyalist, we're going to get into this or that because I

wanted to pit based on my driving experience with the C806.

She knew I was genuinely enthused by this car.

And I even asked the sales guy, I'm like, Hey, am I going to hate this car or

hate the base stingray after driving this?

And he's like, Yeah, probably.

I'm happy to report that I don't.

I don't hate the base stingray.

Yeah.

This was put in the styling.

I can't stand the styling of the base C8.

It's just the wheels like that picture you had behind you.

Oh, I can't stand those wheels.

They just don't, the car doesn't look as good as a 06 you know,

that added flair, the bigger wheels and tires.

It just, you know, to me, I, I, I, I like the

low arrow package version of the 06

Yep.

You know, the, the, that the big arrow package, what do they call the 07 package?

You know, it's like, I don't know who comes up with the names at Chevy over there for

these like 10, 15,000 dollars.

It's actually pretty expensive dad.

Yeah.

And listen, it's legit.

If you're going to track the car, it's, that's what I would have 100%.

I would take that box, you know, but.

I probably wouldn't, and I would track it anyways, but.

Yeah.

It's the same here, you know, and after driving, you know, one on track, when I said

I was buying the car as just a GT for to cruise around this country, my intention

was not to go on track, but after driving the thing on track, I'm like, yeah, well,

how am I not going to be able to put this car on a track or two?

Cause it's so fast and so fun.

Okay.

I'll give you three highlights and we're going to do the, this or that.

Yes.

The three highlights for me was a, I mean, obviously the motor is insane.

And I, I expected the motor to be so awesome, but well, I might have four

highlights, the motor's insane.

The way this thing changes character in the different drive modes.

We already talked about that.

Awesome.

The car, the biggest pleasant surprise to me about driving both these cars, they

felt smaller to me than what they actually are.

When you look at them, when you see them, I didn't feel like I was in a really

big car when I was inside of that.

Well, compared to a Lotus Elise, sure, your frame of reference is like, yeah,

but, but I felt like I was in a very focused, exotic sports car.

And, and, um, you know, it was just so comfortable as well.

And, and you can't misconstrue comfortable being comfortable with being boring.

And I think for so long, I have done that.

And, and now I figure that being as, as usable.

So like the C8 Stingray, I came out of that thinking that is a really good car.

Kudos to them.

It's super cool that those exist.

I get why they're everywhere on the streets.

I got out of the 06 and just thought that is really special.

And I might be able to forego a manual transmission at some point, even though

I've always said I would only buy manuals and my toys.

So this or that, Shano, I specced a car.

This was not my spec, but I love, there are so many great colors to choose

in Corvette as well, but, and I did not put the Aero package on mine,

but it was about $130,000.

You can buy these things pre-owned for like a hundred grand.

Go drive one and tell me for a hundred grand.

That's not like an incredible experience.

And oh, by the way, the interiors, you can't knock these interiors

like you could the C 7654 big improvements, big improvements.

And they've just updated this year, the C8 interior to something

that I think is better than the original one.

Yeah. Okay.

So we did a this or that, Shano.

C 806 and you can call it used for a hundred grand or new for

about 130 to 150.

That's kind of where I was looking.

Um, and we wanted to keep it Porsche specific.

So what two cars or one car did you, I chose to, did you

pit against the C 806 for this or that?

So listen, this, this was originally, I didn't

realize it was going to be a Porsche centric.

I could only choose for the Porsche bucket because you're like at 150 grand.

Man, what are you going to choose?

That's it's it's all the GT threes that I really want to choose are

well above that now because the market's just out of control, you know.

But what I would do being the, the, you know, guy who likes modifying cars,

you know, I would take a 997 you know, C two.

I would take an original Cayman, um, either of those two cars and I would throw,

um, at, you know, both cars, I would put the very best wheels.

I would put the very best brakes.

I'd put the very best suspension on those cars.

And then I think I would have, um, a fighting chance, you know, to, to, you know,

try to stay with, with the 06

I think the 06 is still going to spank these cars, but, but.

Because you limited me to Porsche and that price point, I felt like those would

be the cars that I would, that I would choose and I would have fun.

I would have fun doing it because there is a great thriving aftermarket of,

of really high quality components out there to improve those cars to the point

where they could take the fight to, to a 06 I think.

Well, I liked that you went a little older and you went more of a build like,

you know, project to take one of those 98799 sevens.

And I love that idea.

Yeah.

But I went more modern and I think that cars that guys are actually

cross shopping with a C 806 if they can get over the brand snobbery.

And the first one is a 991 dot one GT three.

Now remember this was the PDK only car.

Yeah.

2014, 15, 16, the one that had all the engine failure.

Engine issue, right?

Yeah.

So the values have dropped pretty badly on those.

Yeah.

So these are anywhere from like 130 to 160.

Okay.

And ideally you find one with the G series engine.

I've thought about doing it multiple times.

I got a buddy that has one of the easy found one that at the E or F series motor blue.

He got the G six or whatever it is.

And you can have one of those all day for 140 K.

Wow.

Okay.

Especially in white, like I put up there.

Yeah.

I like that car.

I drove that one and it's pretty cool.

Yeah.

I agree.

I like that car a lot just for the record.

Okay.

Case this winds up on Instagram.

So the other car I put up as a car that I have driven, my buddy had one of these.

I drove it quite extensively and it is the seven 18.

Boxster spider.

I technically just called the seven 18 spider.

So the interesting thing about these, so they're not making any anymore,

but they go for about 130 140, you know, talk about great value retention.

And I think for good reason, even though the manual gearing is not exactly my

favorite, but you can get these in a PDK as well.

They didn't do it for the 98 ones, but they added it for the seven 18.

And these are really lovely cars to drive.

So 130 140 is what it cost you.

It would cost me about 150 plus because I would swap the gear set in 234

And so the question is, but the big seller for this one

is you can get that car in a manual.

The other thought I had about Corvette is, damn it, why didn't they make it?

Why won't they put a manual transmission in the C eight?

I wish they would do it.

I'm holding out hope for the C nine, even though I loved it.

So the question is, would you take a C 806

You've driven one on track.

I just wrapped one around town or your choices.

997 dot one or dot two.

If you're going to put the money into it, I'd go dot one or 987

Cayman and build them up to be in real performance monsters.

Or would you rather have a 06 or a 991 dot one GT three

or a seven, 18 Boxer spider, PDK or manual.

Well, listen, man, I'm on record of saying that I'm getting a 06 right?

Though the new Grand Sports got me thinking twice, but I think the 06

is going to win out when I have to make the decision.

But for this particular little exercise, this this or that.

I think you chose you.

You came up with the right solution to really take the fight to 06

You got to be in the GT three.

But to me, that's the car that has the best chance of keeping with a 06 on track.

It's going to I think it's going to be a still a tough battle.

But I'd have to go with the GT three, my friend.

That's I think you chose the right car.

Well, I'm glad you did because I'm going with this Corvette 06

And the only real tempting part for me was the manual spider with new gearing.

I love those cars and I would love to drive them on track, even with the standard gearing.

But they are really, really good.

But I'm telling you the problem with that GT three, and this is why

they're only $140,000 in the equivalent 991 dot two.

Yes, it went from a three point eight to a four point oh leader.

But they are a lot more money is because they don't have the scary maintenance

or engine potential engine problems, even though these that have had the G series

swapped in are supposedly very reliable.

But I my body just sold this GT three and I was reminded time and time again.

And so was he.

These are very serious cars that feel like they're really designed for one purpose.

And that purpose, it's spectacular at.

And I mean, spectacular.

But I got into that C 806 and thought this would

whoop that car on track.

It absolutely would.

It will.

It like it would whoop the 991 dot one on track.

It would be just as fun to drive.

The steering is so precise.

You said it many episodes ago.

The C eight has introduced precision that none of the prior Corvettes had.

And Corvette and Porsche was always like cheeseburger and pizza.

It really was.

It's like so hard to even compare the two.

Not anymore.

The quality, the precision.

There's a European feel to these C eights by going mid engine.

And then you add that flat plank crank motor.

600 and seventy naturally aspirated horsepower is insane.

If you think about it, it is.

It will find another motor that can do that.

You know, revs it almost 9000 RPM, you know, comes from an American car

company. Yes. Yeah.

And then you can soften the thing up and and tour in this car.

And lastly, I got done part of what I love about this Elise is the ability

to pull the roof off when you want to.

You can also make the C 806 a target convertible.

I'm like done.

I seriously am done.

And I love the spider.

I would be really hard pressed to pass one of those in a manual because I do

love manuals, but.

What I will say, maybe the controversial statement of this podcast

and I believe it to my core is I don't know why anybody goes and spends two

100000 dollars or 150 plus on a turbocharged 911

It may when a C 806 is sitting there for a hundred to 100

fifty grand, it blows my mind and it is the very epitome of like, you know,

brand loyalty, even to the point where you're driving a way inferior experience

in car. Well, again, like we talked about in the prior segment, we have all

these little different segments, right?

And so those brand loyalists, you know, regardless, you know, it's hard to break

them from from what they believe is the very best sports car.

But you know, it's kind of funny, you know, where there's been a couple of

major revelations that came out in this podcast about you.

OK, first one.

Don't do it.

Maybe it's.

Don't do it.

The first one is you actually like EVs.

The second one is automatic transmissions are possibly in your future.

And you actually don't mind them.

And now the third one is that these 911 turbos are just pointless.

So yes, Blair, you've now been, you know, we've unmasked the real Blair.

I feel ashamed.

I'm going to go hide, you know, don't.

Don't. But what I will say is it does make me a little more optimistic

for the automotive future, because now if they put a manual in the

Grandsport or if the C nine somehow they can muster up the R and D courage

to spend the money and do it, probably won't happen.

That would be spectacular.

I love Porsches, but the C eight really opened my eyes this week.

And I am not such a snob, even though I've only I've owned mostly BMWs and Porsches.

I got to put my money where my mouth is at some point.

And that C 806 Shaneu, if I need to, whatever I need to do to help

expedite your acquisition of one of those, as long as you let me drive it from time to time.

Of course, I'm all in.

So let's be real quick.

We did have a listener question last week, and this kind of goes to what I was just

talking about it ties in perfectly.

Rick wrote into us and said, would you rather have a perfectly engineered sports car

or one with flaws, but huge personality?

I think I know how we're both going to answer this question, but maybe try to be

devil's advocate or something.

You know, let's get you on Instagram, ruffling feathers.

OK, so let me start off with this.

OK, the Ariel Adam and the 911 have are very similar cars in in the way

they behave dynamically from a handling perspective.

OK, and they're hugely flawed.

OK, so maybe that's the way to start this.

I think the Ariel Adam and the Porsche 911 older ones are hugely flawed

from a handling perspective.

Yeah, OK, they understeer going into the corner and they oversteer exiting the corner.

Right. The weight balance is completely wrong for, you know, for for the fastest times.

And so. But yet, why is there such a following for these cars?

Well, I think because they have personality and that personality comes from the flaws,

right? And and, you know, much like who is a Cindy Crawford that had that mole, right?

Yeah, you know, you are a beautiful woman, right?

And and and was Lauren Bacall.

I'm showing my age here. I think, you know, she has that, you know,

that her teeth have a little gap at the front, right?

But, you know, it's like personality matters, you know, and I think for some of us,

that's that is a part of it and learning to drive a car and having fun with it

and being on edge, you know, so to me, I think that matters.

And in a reason why, like when I test drove an NSX back in the 90s, I was kind of

why I left underwhelmed, you know, it felt too good, you know,

and it didn't have enough flaws or personality.

So that's my that's my hot take on it.

What's what's yours? What do you think?

Well, yeah, I think a car with more personality always beats like a technically

brilliant or perfect car and or a perfectly engineered car.

I agree with you about old 9-Elevens.

They're more interesting. I think because of that fact,

you have to drive around that rear engine weight bias. Right.

I had a blast doing that in my air cooled 9-Eleven.

Right. C8 Corvette is not.

Doesn't have like it doesn't exude personality necessarily, you know,

and you get into a C5, Z06.

It's got a lot more personality, you know, it just doesn't.

Right. Doesn't perform as well as perfectly.

It's so I put up a picture of my M coupe.

It's the clown shoe with heavy wheels, as you reminded me.

But but the, you know, the design philosophy was weird.

You had to drive and you also had to drive that car a certain way.

Right.

It added a lot of personality and character to the car.

So yes, including my cave and I'm building kind of a garage

of cars with lots of personality with this Elise and the cave and and so.

Yeah, I think that's an easy one for me.

Modern cars are getting so good that could be a way I contradict myself.

And even with the C8 Corvette, they are really, really good.

And so I do like a car with lots of personality.

So Rick, great question.

I I don't know what your preference would be, but she knew.

And I felt similarly here is give us personality.

We want to be entertained.

Yeah, absolutely. Go go go for the flaws, man.

You know, then and enjoy the experience because that's the number of stories

that will come from that.

You know, I can tell you when I was broken down on the side of the road

with an air ladder because my push rod bell crank suspension went over center,

the bell crank, you know, and then I was stuck in and how I use a big piece

of wood to fix it. So anyways, yeah, look, these are the things that

give us the stories, experiences, right?

So it's like nine.

It's like 99 sixes that didn't come with gas gauges, you know.

Exactly.

Oh, I could probably we could probably do podcasts on the on the breakdowns

and issues that we've had on the side of the road, fixing our enthusiast cars.

Right. So but hey, man, this is this was a fun, fun pod.

You know, but we probably need to bring it to an end here, don't we?

Because we're it's been about an hour. So yeah, we do.

Well, we appreciate all the engagement.

Those of you who are listening, thank you.

Just a reminder, feel free to sling any arrows at me

because I'm slinging some here, maybe at what you're driving.

But I would love to sit down with, you know, all of this community.

And we swap stories and we share opinions and these these cars are all

like fantastic and make this fun and worth talking about.

So I had a blast as well. She knew. Thanks a million.

All right, Blair, take care, man. Thank you.

Okay, see you.

GT4 Backlash, Corvette Z06 Revelation & The Cars We'd Buy Instead

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Car BMW Series Bmw

Car BMW E46

Car BMW Z3

Car Toyota Gr86

Car Mazda MX-5 / Miata

Car Tesla Model 3

Car Porsche Taycan

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