Heavy Jogging

1,000 cars, sir, you have 1,000 cars.

I don't think I'd attempt to try this stunt.

Oh, we owe this horsepower to Uncle Sam's.

Too big a car.

Look, I put my beer belly on it.

Yeah.

You immediately tell somebody how many cars you have.

You'll really give those up at a yuppie, something to think about.

Stay on the bar.

Don't go off the bar with your Bronco.

1980 Volvo horns, what's right?

Meet me.

I'm a man's coolant.

And he's like, oh, I thought I'd be small.

It's for a small car.

And I'm like, yeah, but it's still an automatic transmission.

They're never going to be light.

It's definitely going to have to crash.

Starting off with Brad Beggin on the car.

That's the West.

Internet.

You know, is this a Nigerian oil print?

I also wish you drove a tan Camry.

Anyways, that's a very horrible podcast content.

A very inside joke.

They love to be driven hard.

Hello, Brad.

What's up?

Evening, Andrew.

How are you?

I'm good.

We are back for another episode of Auto Left Topic after a little bit of hiatus because

I don't know.

He had something happen.

Like your neighbor was doing work and they ruined the Internet.

So what happened?

My neighbor didn't call before he dug.

Ah, yeah.

Actually dial 811 or something.

I guess I shouldn't blame my neighbor, just technically it wasn't him.

He had an issue with his main sewer line to the street.

So a rotor router came to replace a sewer line and they didn't call before they dig.

They didn't call before they dug.

So they wound up finding the colorful spaghetti and they didn't tell anybody, which is really

cool, obviously, and they just filled the hole back in, read it all as landscaping and

walked away.

Meanwhile, the Internet was gone.

Now we didn't realize that's why the Internet was gone until we called it in because

the Internet wouldn't come back.

And the guy came down.

He's like, oh, the break is 1500 feet from your house, okay.

So please fix it.

That shows that it's not my fault.

He's like, yeah, your main, your main box is about 1500 feet away.

So I'll go over there.

He came back and he's like, nope, it wasn't there.

So I traced it and it seems to be in front of that house down there in the corner.

And I was like, oh, yeah, rotor was there.

So my guess is they did something wrong.

So it turns out they did something very wrong and didn't tell anybody.

So after that, they dug up his yard again, had to fix it all again.

When they dug it up, knowing that they cut through the wires, but they had pulled the

wires through the ground and like had broken them in like four other places beyond that

too.

So it won't be a two or three day ordeal to get that fixed.

And then they said, all right, your internet's back and I still didn't have internet.

So we called it again.

And they're like, no, we fixed it.

And I was like, well, I don't have it at my house.

And you know, I'm not, not computer savvy.

Like I understand how to make the internet work and we don't have it.

And this was just before Labor Day on like Friday or Thursday before Labor Day.

Yeah.

And I'm like, well, it's obviously at your house.

So this is not an emergency problem because the street is up.

So we don't have any appointments until next Wednesday.

And I was like, cool.

So that's going to make it more than a week without internet at my house.

So yeah, I'm going to credit on my bill.

They did.

But not that much of a big deal.

I'd rather just have internet.

So anyway, after a week and a day, it came back somehow during this whole process,

where router died, which I still don't believe was on us.

I'm sure when the guy came here and was testing things initially, he probably broke something.

Probably because the router worked and then the whole system went down and the whole system

came back up and then my router didn't work.

So I don't mean to be like the ever since you my guy here, but pretty obvious what

happened here.

So anyway, it's back now.

It's no faster than it ever has been.

So that's not cool.

But it's here.

It works.

Mostly.

I'll take it.

Yeah.

Because you don't.

Yeah, you don't have like telephone poles.

So everything's underground.

Right.

Everything's underground.

So it just like, so it just might run through your yard and you don't realize it.

You wouldn't realize it runs through your yard.

No.

I do know how it works.

And anybody who digs holes and works for Rotorouter should also know how it works because they

dig holes in this town where the whole town is mostly the same.

Yeah.

But they didn't.

So it is what it is.

Actually the internet here is run up old phone lines, which is probably why it's terrible.

Probably.

It's that cable that's done.

It's terrible.

It is not cable.

No, it is old.

It's literally the old phone lines, like the connection to the house that he was testing.

He was pulled.

He was outside.

He was like opening the box and it looks like if you stripped an old phone line out of the

back of your phone and pulled the individual wires out of it.

So I don't know how it even works.

But supposedly like fiber OPTIQ stuff is coming, but it's not here yet.

So.

Well, it sounds like they're gonna dig really up.

I'll be 100% switching when they bring the fiber OPTIQ cable up.

Actually no, I learned how the fiber OPTIQ cable works.

It's actually almost like non invasive.

Like they dig a trench that's like the size of the cable pretty much.

So anyway, we'll see what happens.

Yeah.

So that's one of the reasons we didn't have a few episodes.

And then I was on vacation and then I came back and I was too tired, jet lagged.

So yeah, sorry about that.

But here we are recording episode and that's it.

I don't know.

It's free.

Get over it.

As we always joke.

We've been doing this since what, 2015 or 16?

2016.

So sometimes you just need a little bit of a break.

Quite to 400.

We'll be to 400 pretty soon.

But you know what 400 means?

Nope.

Shut down.

It's a good time to release our special 300th episode.

Yeah.

See, I went away.

I was in Portugal with some family.

We were doing some family stuff.

And that's not too interesting for a car podcast.

Rental car off topic.

I did have a Dacia jogger, which is kind of an interesting, weird, it's like a tall wagon

type car.

Jogger.

What are you calling that?

Slow running.

Yep.

Okay.

Exactly like that.

And like the side panels on the like rocker above the rocker, I don't know what

that part of the door you'd call it.

Below the belt molding or the rub strip.

Is there is that is there a name for that part of the door like the door skin itself?

Between the rocker and say the bump strip in the middle of the door.

That's just the door.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Just a lower door game for that area.

Anyway, it's got it had like topographical like decal there look kind of cool didn't

really have black trim everywhere.

It was a six speed manual, one leader, three cylinder turbo.

Not as terrible as that sounds was actually decent, rattly and cheap, but at car play

and sat for adults actually a jump seats in the back was a seven passenger vehicle,

but we just needed the cargo space.

This is like the modern version of the Mazda MPV.

Yeah, I guess.

Yeah.

I had the option to run on propane.

I didn't do that because I mean I was told it was really cheap if you wanted to drive

it on the propane, but I was like, I don't feel like trying to figure that out.

But yeah, it was it did well.

Yeah, I don't know.

You got to go to the gas station that has it.

And I guess it's like significantly cheaper than petrol, but I wasn't worried about it

because I wasn't driving it terribly far.

It was getting good mileage.

So the only thing that was like really annoying is and I didn't dig deep enough into it.

It had lane keep assist, which when it's it didn't work that well.

Probably because it's a cheap car.

So I'm good at following the lane, but it thinks I wasn't following the lane enough.

So it's correcting my hands and then I'm correcting it back.

And then all of a sudden it's like warning me, pay attention to driving

because I'm swerving because it's like fighting me.

Maybe you're just not as good of a driver as you thought, Andrew.

Maybe.

And to me, when it does that, it feels like the front suspension is broken.

Like it feels like a car that has a bad ball joint that just wanders

and then you like correct it, right?

It's so weird and dumb and I don't like it.

I think the issue is more getting used to something like that

because I don't like it either.

Yeah, but it doesn't do enough to keep the car in the lane.

Sure.

My work car has it.

And I used to keep it turned off all the time and eventually it kept resetting

and I was just like, I'm going to learn to live with this.

So I've kind of learned to live with it.

The only time it's really annoying is when there is things in the road

that shouldn't be there.

Like if you're, you know, sometimes you see like spilled paint out of the back

of a pickup truck or like an old line is it over and it gets confused

and it yells at you.

And when you're trying to like do an evasive maneuver,

like there's a person riding a bicycle on the side or person walking

or, you know, there's a car pulled off the side

and you have to cross the line.

You're not going to put your turn signal on which cancels the lane.

That's lane keeping.

But you have to go over a line and the car like it fights you.

And, you know, I genuinely think we've talked about this before

but I genuinely think there's going to be accidents caused by this.

So it's probably part of the issue.

You have to get used to something like that

and it's not easy to get used to something in a

but one re-grindle.

I know that you and I have driven broken cars

and it literally feels like you drive a car where you're steering it

and you're holding the steering wheel

and then all of a sudden there's movement in the suspension

and you're like, well, that's a bad suspension arm or ball joint or something.

And that's what it feels like.

That's the only way I can describe it.

It's like there's movement in there that shouldn't be there.

And it's very unnerving.

I don't like it.

And the other thing it had in Europe,

there's somehow the speed limit signs are connected to the dash in the car

when there's a warning light.

I don't know how that works actually.

But it dings when you get close to the speed limit.

It works off of Google Maps

because my car has the same thing, my work car.

I guess.

I don't know because even if you don't have it plugged in, it would do it.

I'm not sure how it works.

Actually, no, my work car also does it without the car being plugged in

because I don't use the GPS in the car.

It doesn't ding when you get close to the speed,

but it shows me the speed limit sign on the dashboard.

Which is fine because I just don't care.

But this thing was so loud.

It would ding so loud.

And if you're hovering, even if you're on cruise control

and you're hovering around that speed and it dips below and goes beyond it

as it's using cruise control, it would ding still.

And you're like, all right, this is annoying.

But anyway, that was our rental car experience.

They tried to give me a Nissan product at first

even though I rented a Peugeot wagon.

I was like, no, I need something bigger

because I have four adults and luggage.

And then I'm trying to dispute it with Hertz

because it's apparently they are a franchise

even though I rented through the Hertz app that I always use

because I use it for work and I have a lot of status.

She told me it would be 3,000 euros to rent a car

that was only supposed to be like 400 euros.

And I was like, excuse me, what?

That's not what I specified.

She's like, well, it's because you don't have the insurance.

No, I was like, doesn't my card cover the insurance?

And of course, then they pretend they don't speak English.

So I avoided that scam by paying for their insurance.

So it ended up doubling the price.

But it's clearly a scam, which is frustrating

because it's like through what Hertz.

It's not like I went through some fly-by-night rental company.

They also had four bankers for you.

What's that?

So you say that you avoided renting a Nissan,

but technically you did not

because Dacia is owned by Renault, who is owned by Nissan.

So you still wound up in Nissan.

Well, it wasn't going to be a Nissan crossover with a CVT.

So with a cut-down hatch in the back,

which would not fit any luggage,

like if you've got four adults with roller bags,

they're just not going to fit in one of those vehicles.

But anyway, yeah, they got a one-star Google review

and an angry email to Hertz,

and I haven't heard back yet.

So a little disappointed there.

The next move is I'm calling my credit card company

and canceling the charge.

Wow.

What's the American move there over in Europe

in your Romanian Nissan?

Well, I mean, I've never had that issue

renting ever through Hertz,

even in other places in Europe.

It's via the app that is the price you pay

or very close to it.

Yeah, it sounds like a scam.

So, yeah, that was annoying.

You know, shame on me for not knowing more Portuguese, I guess,

but I'll work on that.

But anyway, I did do a fun car thing in there.

Back in 2018, I'm sure I talked about on the podcast,

I went to, and Stephanie and I went to the museum

to Carlimulo, which is a car museum.

It's like the only one in that part of Europe.

And it's up in this little mountain town of Carlimulo.

And they just happened to be doing

the Carlimulo Motorsports Festival.

So instead of being this sleepy little town in the museum,

it had like 10,000 people in it

for a Goodwood-style, like, motorsports event

with a hill climb is the best way I could describe it,

like a Goodwood light.

They basically just took over this little mountain town.

So I don't think it's that old of an event,

but the car mix was like right up our alley,

like, 70s through 2000 stuff

with some older stuff mixed in there.

And they were doing a hill climb

and they had car, like, corral parking,

but like, you know, the very cool way you can park cars

like in a little European village,

like a paddock area you can walk through

and then, of course, vendors and food.

And the coolest part is that it didn't cost anything.

Like, I mean, I shouldn't say anything.

The only thing I had paid for

was to go inside the museum building.

I just showed up, walked around.

Didn't have to pay anything.

Didn't have to buy a ticket, nothing.

It seemed like there was something like VIP areas.

Probably you'd pay more money for,

but you could just walk around and it was cool.

That was so cool.

Yeah, looking at your pictures,

I was definitely envious of you being there

because it's like when you go to a car show in the U.S.

and you see, like, one random vehicle

that was not sold here, you get excited.

But now you were at a car show in Europe,

so it was just filled with weird stuff that we didn't get.

But then random American stuff.

Like, there was a huge 80s Cadillac El Dorado,

I think, the four-door stand, whatever that was.

The Rua Drive one.

I don't know those Malaise area Cadillacs.

It was kind of like the one your mom had,

but the four-door version.

Your mom's was the two-door, the blue one.

Yeah, that was a Coupe de Dome.

Yep.

And there was like a Chrysler Imperial from like the 40s,

which was kind of cool just to see there

because it's big cars for that area.

But, yeah, and there was an NSUTT,

beautiful bright yellow, European Eclipse, just like yours.

They must have all been red.

Did they sell another color of European Eclipses?

I know of a couple of white and black ones that are over there.

Yeah, most of them are very bold colors.

Well, I've seen, it's funny because I remember

seeing a red one in the Azores,

which are islands owned by Portugal.

And then I saw this one here that was red.

And then I, of course, know yours that's red.

Are they all red?

So, that was kind of cool.

There's a guy that follows me on Instagram

who has one that's also red.

Yeah.

So, that was kind of cool.

And there was a bunch of really cool rally cars.

And I caught it at the end.

I didn't get to see it in the paddock,

but there was a 240 race car with the Nordica colors

that was going up the hill.

There was the Portuguese 4x4,

which is like the UMM that was built in Portugal

for the military use.

There was Dakar versions that they used.

They raced into car that were running up the hill.

That was really cool.

It's typical Mark I escorts, Mark II escorts.

It's just very, very cool stuff.

And there's an air show going on at the same time

that planes flying over doing tricks.

Very, very cool event.

Kind of want to keep it a secret.

I don't think a bunch of Americans are going to show up there

next year if you talk about it on this podcast.

No, no.

It will be okay.

But listen, if it blows up, I was there first.

Just no.

I was the original influencer.

I was the taste maker.

Portuguese car show hipster.

Yeah.

I'll definitely be looking at, if not next year,

I'll definitely return in the future.

It was cool.

Yeah.

Hopefully with a better car.

I'll take a good time.

This is all cool mountain roads.

You got there.

Like it took me over this mountain pass that went,

literally went up a mountain.

I was at the very peak of the mountain underneath all these

wind turbines and then went down into the town and then

come to find out that the town,

there's an old sanatorium there.

Sanitarium used to be a tuberculosis town.

That's why it's up in the mountains and that's why

that exists.

So, but very, very cool event.

And there's, there are, I know,

because I already put them up.

So on our Instagram, they're already on there.

I've got some just basic walk around videos.

And I got to post some more pictures.

I haven't gone through really any of my pictures yet.

So.

Sounds like one of us should try to purchase a European

vintage car and take delivery of it around the time of

this event and be able to drive something over there

and then never shipped home.

Yeah.

It would be pretty cool.

It's a very, very cool event.

Yeah.

That was pretty much, that was like the cool stuff for

car things I did over there.

But anyway, what, um,

what, uh, yeah, what do we got?

We got going on.

We'll do some car updates.

I've got a lot of project car updates.

Um,

you can talk about a little bit about NASCAR.

Um,

I'm,

you want to talk about NASCAR right now, we'll get,

get that over with.

I missed the worldwide technology race,

but I caught the highlights of it.

And, uh,

Hamlin won that.

And that was the last race of the round of 16.

Um,

so they're well into the playoffs.

Or was that the last race of not the playoffs?

It's so confusing sometimes.

Bristol was the last race of the round of 16.

Right.

Why technology for that.

Yup.

And, um,

Yeah.

That was a decent race, I guess.

Uh,

I have nothing to contribute.

I haven't seen either race.

Okay.

Bristol was cool.

Um,

the tire wear was interesting.

It was better than last year.

That was just like a Kyle Larson cruise controls news vest.

Um,

they made the tires basically so soft that you had to come in after like 30 or 40 laps.

Um,

and that was cool.

Maybe some people didn't like it.

I liked it made for actually passing and putting fresh tires on actually did a thing.

So,

uh,

and C bell one.

So that was interesting.

Good for him.

And, uh,

now this week is playoff race in New Hampshire, which is interesting.

Um,

I've actually never been to a playoff race and it just happens to be in New Hampshire.

Which, um,

I still get two extra tickets if you want to jump on a plane.

I don't think so.

No.

I think so.

I think that at this point, my weekend is pretty solid.

Yeah.

I get,

man,

I couldn't get anybody to take them.

So,

um,

curiosity is what flight would cost right now for the weekend.

Cause it's already,

it's Thursday night, Andrew.

Yeah.

I mean,

you can fly in tomorrow.

Um,

you don't have to pay with the tickets and you get a place to stay.

So really you just need airfare.

It's very, very cheap.

All right.

Let's see.

What do you get?

Spirit?

What do you get?

Southwest.

I'm just gonna check the Hopper app,

which is, uh,

it kind of gives you a basic overall thing.

It's not a holiday weekend.

Loading.

It would cost me,

not including the time I had to take off from work,

because I'm sure,

actually it's not bad.

Let's call it a sec.

You don't sound so great.

You need to take that out.

What do you think, round trip?

Um,

is it 400 bucks?

Not even.

Really?

Yeah.

$325.

That's not bad.

It's not bad.

I mean,

that's spirit with one stop.

And DTW,

wherever that is.

Dallas,

what word?

Dallas.

No, it's DFW.

It's a DTW.

Oh, DTW.

Maybe it's in, uh,

Maryland or somewhere.

That would kind of make sense.

Go to Maryland and fly up here.

I don't know.

It is a Detroit metropolitan Wayne County app.

No.

All right.

That's not bad.

You go to Detroit and it's another hour to here.

Nonetheless,

it's not happening.

I was hoping it was going to be like $15,000,

so I couldn't make it anyway,

but it turns out it's actually pretty reasonable.

You're hoping it would either be $15,000

and it would be hilariously impossible

or it would be like $15 and you'd be like,

well, now I have to do it.

Now I have to do it.

Yeah.

I mean,

300 bucks is pretty reasonable for a day before.

That was a Friday to Monday flight.

Yeah.

Thursday night at my time,

6 p.m.

So that's pretty crazy.

That is that cheap.

Yeah.

Nonetheless,

it's not going to happen.

I have too much to do, Andrew.

I need to, need to, need to, need to get the engine out

of the curls we get.

I have not done that yet.

So.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

I mean,

NASCAR has been kind of decent the last couple of weeks.

I don't want to dwell on it too long,

but I'm looking forward to the race and seeing it in person.

I'll leave my second NASCAR race of the year,

which is cool because we went to Watkins Glen,

but I'm a little bummed that SVG

didn't do so hot.

So he's out because I believe this round has the

road course in it.

So he had a chance.

He could have advanced to the next round,

but didn't work in his favor.

Well, at the end of the day, he's a rookie this year.

It's his first full season.

It is.

Playoffs.

Pretty good stuff.

I think at this point,

you know, it would be nice to see,

I guess, just to get it over with,

just see Hamlin win it finally.

Just, just, just finish it.

Seal the deal for him.

Maybe I'd like to see a 2311 Garwin

because of everything going on.

Yeah.

Lost to it right now.

It would be a good, like,

stick it to the man moment.

The, I mean, the Toyotas seem really, really strong.

You've got, you know,

you got a Chase Briscoe win.

You got a Hamlin win.

You got to see Chris Rebell one.

So I think, yeah.

Was the, I believe the last three races

where all Joe Gibbs wins,

which is pretty impressive.

So, I don't know.

We'll see.

We'll see who wins.

You know, Chris Rebell one last year

at New Hampshire.

There's no rain in the forecast.

It's going to be bright and sunny all day.

So no rain tires.

It'd be cool.

Rain tires anyway in New Hampshire.

Yeah.

I have no idea who might win.

But we'll see.

Particular updates.

Anything else?

I mean, I did a couple of events,

but they also kind of tie into project car stuff.

So I should probably talk about that first.

All right.

What do you get for events?

Oh, no, I want to talk about project car stuff first.

Oh, I do project car stuff first.

Do you want me to go first?

Yeah.

You go first.

I'll go first.

Because then you can go right into your.

Okay, go ahead.

Yeah, why don't I go first, sir?

You're going to be in your events.

How about that?

Do it up.

Don't worry.

We're making this up on the fly clearly.

All right.

Two weeks to prepare, Andrew.

Yeah.

All this time and I didn't make notes.

Yeah, I went.

I finally, I've, because I've been busy with other stuff.

I finally had some time to actually work on the Volvo.

And I don't know if I've talked about doing any of the things,

but, you know, I had gotten the exhaust header wrapped,

installed O2 sensors in there.

Just quick recap, because I think I kind of talked about this intake

manifolds on the car.

And then it was like, I had just drive at the carbs.

So the last couple of days, I have got the carbs actually

hard mounted in the car.

I've trimmed some of the heat shield in the bottom of the

tubes, because one of them was interfering with the throttle

shaft lever, because that's the last thing you want is that

thing to flip and then get caught on something.

So it sticks wide open because it could, it could flip

beyond it and get stuck.

So I took a nice Dremel and carefully trimmed that out.

Got them all set up, added the linkage between the two.

I thought that was going to kind of be a pain to like fit them

both in because they kind of have to slide together as you're

putting them on, but it really wasn't that bad.

A bunch of stuff I had ordered before I went on vacation,

like the, I ordered some brackets that mount to the

carbs on their bolt, on their studs that allow you to

mount like spherical joints.

So you can run the throttle linkage shaft through them.

And I ordered some components that came with a bunch of stuff

to make that work.

So I've got, I've got it all set up now with a working

throttle linkage.

And I actually bolted the underdash linkage from the gas

pedal using my modified McMaster racing brackets.

And that worked out really well and everything's hooked up

right now.

I did that this afternoon and it seems to work.

So you push the gas all the way to the floor and you get

a wide open throttle and it really didn't take as much

fiddling as I thought.

Maybe it'll be some more adjusting once the thing's

running, but I was shocked at how well I just put it

together in like a half hour.

Like I thought it was going to be really fiddly and like,

I was going to have to like play with the angles of the

arms, but it like turns out when you sit there obsessing

over how this will work and thinking about it and trying

to order the right parts that sometimes that actually

works out.

A rare win.

I like it, especially when you're completely retrofitting

something that does not belong there.

Yeah.

I mean, it's sort of there, but it's interesting

because I couldn't just, you know, the, the

webbers are basically universal for any vintage engine

or any engine really.

It's, and then it's what's specific is the manifolds and

then these manifolds really didn't have any provisions

for linkages.

They kind of had one, but the maybe if the stock rod

was a little bit longer, maybe there's different

version that's a little bit longer, it would fit

in that little loop thing that's on top of the

intake manifold, but the one I had was not long

enough, so that wasn't going to work.

So I had to come up with this other universal sort of

linkage kit that you can just buy and luckily that's

the nice thing about these webbers is that they

are universal, but there's also a bunch of universal

parts to make them fit and adapt to different

engines.

So you can kind of figure it out.

And I, by avoiding, by connecting the two

carps together in the middle and then running one

linkage, I'll only have to worry about adjusting

one linkage.

I don't have to adjust two, which is good.

But, you know, actually, I'm kind of surprised how

well it worked and how easy it went together.

So I was expecting it to fight me a little more.

I also got air filters that fit.

They were just like MP1s from a dune buggy parts

company, but they just fit, again, DCOEs.

So they look cool and vintage.

I mounted the fuel pressure regulator to the

firewall right in line so you can just put the

fuel line right to the carps and put the T

fitting on them.

So it's not that far off.

I got to do, like, a lot of the coolant lines

and oil pressure sender and tidy up some of the

wiring and, like, put the radiator back in.

So, you know, will I have it done next week?

Probably not.

But, you know, maybe hopefully in the next two

weeks I can start it.

It's just a matter of getting time to work on it

and certainly going away to the Nascar race

the weekend kind of takes away time to work on

it.

But it is what it is.

It's not, I'm not in a super rush, but I

would like to finish it for this season to

at least drive it a little bit.

So I'm happy with how far I got in it

because I wasn't, like, super motivated to

work on it the other day and started,

like, kind of forced myself to work on it.

And now I got, I got it pretty far in,

like, two days.

I had some free time, unexpectedly from

work, so I was able to do some stuff to it.

I assume that unexpected free time from

work is not permanent.

It's not permanent.

It was just unexpected downtime for other

things that we can't talk about.

But yeah, it's just, yeah, there is, yeah.

Sweet.

But I'm sure when you put those fuel lines on

that if you use those clamps that are

labeled as fuel injection clamps to make sure

the tail on the backside of it, you keep

track of that as you're tightening it.

Yeah, it should kind of collapse as, like,

around itself.

Yeah, it should do that.

Have you pinched hoses?

Yeah.

So, I don't know.

That's just a preview of my project car stuff.

I mean, I buy ones that are like, I have the,

I have the Earl's version and then I have

some that were recommended when I was

buying them on Summit because they're

the Summit brand, but basically a little

bit funny, but look just like the Earl's ones.

Well, I don't know if it's a quality issue of them.

It could be because mine are the Harbour

rate version, so I never expected this to be

an issue, but it was.

Just a preview of my project car stuff.

Well, yeah, that's pretty much all I've done.

Everything else has just been back-burnered.

I haven't, now I've got two cars that need

inspection stickers.

The G20 and the Montero.

And I just got the email the other day from

State of Mass.

I was like, hey, are you going to do your

inspection sticker?

Don't forget.

Now it's going to tell us it's off the road.

So, because it's been like two months

and I haven't driven it.

And I just haven't taken the time to

drive it over to the inspection station.

And now I've got to do the G20 too.

But, yeah, that's pretty much it.

What do you got working on?

So, I drove, oh, let's see.

I haven't talked for a while here.

So, two weekends ago, maybe three

weekends ago, a friend of mine and

friend of the show and former guest,

Gia Hosh, has the other first gen,

Mighty Max, Dodger M50.

And he had that aluminum 1980s cap on

his truck.

And he knew that I was looking for a

similar cap, like a period cap for my

truck.

So, he had decided he was going to go

with like a custom ladder rack style

setup to do a rooftop tent and what not

on his.

So, he was like, hey, do you want to

buy my cap?

Of which I, that's what I've been

looking for.

So, absolutely, 100%.

So, we decided to go to the

Adventure Machines event at 4 till 4,

which was the last Saturday of the

month.

So, we did that.

Also happened to be Josh's birthday,

so a few of us went and got breakfast

and did a whole thing.

But, we met there and exchanged the

cap on the back of the truck in the

parking lot at 4 till 4.

So, that was cool.

But, the whole time driving there,

I smelled fuel.

And I was like, this smells like

more fuel than normal.

And I looked under the truck and it

wasn't leaking.

I was like, okay, that's fine.

And I kind of looked around and I

didn't open the hood.

I didn't feel like it was coming

under the hood.

I thought it was maybe like some kind

of a, like a, yeah, like a pressure

line.

Like a pressure, you know, the word

I'm looking for.

Evap line.

Yeah.

So, I was like, yeah, all right,

I'll just go home.

Just a tiny bit of fuel smells so

much.

Exactly.

And there was no, nothing was leaking.

There was no like obvious

spilling of fuel on the ground.

And I couldn't smell it any

stronger in the front or the rear,

which is kind of like an odor of

fuel around the truck.

And when I was driving the truck

and it was moving, I didn't smell

it.

It was only like when I backed into

a parking spot, I was like, I was

a big whiff of fuel.

So, anyway, I got home, parked

the truck, didn't think anything of

it.

Love the new cap.

It's definitely like an 80s style

aluminum cap with

plexiglass windows on the side

and then the center windows

are actually glass that

pivot out with screens in them

so you can camp inside the thing

and have like a, it's almost like

a screen porch in the back of my

truck, right?

Super cool.

And fast forward, I did go

camping in it this past weekend

and it was awesome.

But, didn't think anything of it.

Parked the truck.

Last Wednesday, I was

supposed to meet another friend

to go to a

metal show in Mesa, about 45

minutes away.

Naomi

was taking a bike ride with her

friends and the bike rack for her

truck is on her truck.

And also her truck has air conditioning

so I'm not going to make her take a

bike ride and make her take my truck

with no air conditioning on a really

hot night.

After the bike ride, the last thing

I had to do was take my truck

to a super hot cabin.

So I was driving

the truck with no AC

grumble grumble because I still

haven't fixed the eclipse AC

also grumble grumble.

But, I would

just start it and I was like,

man, I smell

fuel even more than I

smelled it before.

So this is like, as I'm

getting ready to leave.

I'm getting out of the hose

that goes from the feed line

into the carburetor.

I'm like, oh, that hose is brand new.

That's weird. So obviously I shut it down.

Pull the hose off

and I see that when I had

tightened it, the pigtail

on the inside of that clamp had actually

caught the hose

and it dug its way through the hose

and over time it just made its way all the way

through and made a giant leak in the hose.

So that was cool.

My guess is

it probably did it right away

and then just as the truck

has been driven, it's just vibrated

enough to move it to a point where like

fuel found away

and it's obviously pressurized

fuel so it was just squirting everywhere.

Thankfully

it's a cross flow style head

so the exhaust is on the opposite side of the intake

so I wasn't spraying

fuel all over the hot exhaust or else

at first it started smelling as fuel a week ago

probably could have

burned the truck down so

that would have been not ideal.

So I did emergency repairs

on the truck in the driveway as I'm getting ready

to go to the concert.

Get it all taken care of, get it fired up.

It's not leaking anymore.

Sweet. Good to go.

Go out on the road.

I get

10 miles into

my journey.

I'm on the 101 loop.

Maybe

15 minutes into my 45 minute drive

and the truck shuts off.

Alright, this is weird.

So I put the clutch in and try to fire it

cranking, cranking, cranking. It's rush hour

on the 101 loop in Scottsdale.

Not a great place.

Even made worse

so because

that particular area of the 101

for anybody who's listening who's currently

in Phoenix and familiar with the area

is under heavy construction

and there are

zero breakdown lanes.

It's just

k-rail on both sides

during rush hour.

So now I'm doing my little like

what do I do, where do I go

how do I take care of this

in the meantime still trying

to make the vehicle start

it's not starting.

Thankfully I rolled

up just enough

to get past the k-rail to the Gore Lane.

So the Gore Lane is the

triangle area where the on ramp

and the highway meet.

I managed to get it in the Gore Lane

which is completely lined with

the giant orange cones with

the yellow flashing lights on top.

I can't get

in there without hitting these yellow cones

or orange cones so I'm just going to have to hit some cones.

So

I hit some cones, I smash my way into the Gore Lane

and I get the truck

stopped

but the problem is that

that particular on ramp

has a

entrance that's like

a quarter mile down the road

before you get to that Gore Lane

so it's k-rail

on ramp

k-rail

four lanes of interstate.

So I'm just in the middle with cars on

both sides of me doing

75 miles an hour.

So that's

super fun and super safe obviously.

I can't hear anything

so I can't do any kind of diagnostics on the truck.

I open the hood real quick

and I say, you know what

I don't think I actually care

I'm going to get out of here

and like

dart across the highway

and jump the k-rail

because I don't want to be around the situation

because

as much as I love this truck

I don't want to get squashed by a passing 18-wheeler

or

a Honda CR-V or whatever

it's not worth my dying over.

So I managed to run across the road

and jump the k-rail

and thankfully because it is construction

on the other side of the k-rail

because it's a protected area

where the construction equipment is all

parked like tractors and whatnot

obviously they protect that from traffic

so I was able to hang out in there

away from my truck.

So the truck is sitting there

in the middle of the highway

cars going by on both sides

hoods up so hopefully people can see it

hazards are on

but it's an 80s Mitsubishi product

doesn't really have the brightest flashing hazards

so I'm just sitting there like

fingers crossed that nobody hits my truck

because that would really ruin my night

Meanwhile I'm sending pictures to Ron

who is sitting at the restaurant

I'm supposed to meet him at before the show

so

typical

you know I've had good luck

for a while the truck did break down

on my first big drive with it

but I've gone through it

and you joked earlier about us driving

cars that are like

garbage and we can tell when they're broken

but as we've aged

I've tried to get better about that

and I've gone through this thing

that can break

has either been fixed or

inspected and made sure that's good

so I didn't know what it was

it's a simple vehicle so I knew

it was either spark or fuel

I've put

a few thousand miles on it

since I fixed it

so anyway

on the side of the road I called

Hagerty Roadside

because the truck is insured with Hagerty

they set up a tow

then I also called

the DPS

which is our state troopers

the Department of Public Safety

because I was like I'm going to really need

somebody here

to help out when the tow truck gets here

because I don't know how the tow truck is going to load this car up

because the gorlain

like the triangle shape of the gorlain

is just about big enough for my truck

so there's nowhere to put

a flat bed or a tow truck

in order to hook this thing up

so I'm sitting there

waiting

eventually a police officer shows up

in a new Camaro

and he's like huh

that's not really a good place to break down

I was like yeah

I'm aware

that's what I called

he's like alright

I don't know what I'm going to do

I was like I don't know what we're going to do either

but we can't just leave it there

so we'll have to figure out something

so he says well do you have the tow truck

yeah I do actually

alright call him

tell him to take the

princess road

on ramp

but when he gets to the top of the ramp

have him stop and I'll pull up behind him

and I'll shut off

the ramp

so he can load the car up

like alright cool

so anybody

who was on the 101

leaving work at

five twenty

last Wednesday

that got stuck on the princess on ramp

I would like to apologize in advance

because

that wasn't 100% me

that was the guy on the news

who was like

disabled vehicle at princess 101

look at this poor old guy

with his cheap old truck

can't afford anything

get a new car you jerk

so anyway

cop blocks the ramp

tow truck driver goes

alright this is a bad spot

he goes get in the truck

I'm going to do this NASCAR style

and I was like what does that mean

he goes real fast

I was like okay I'll get out of the way

so I got in the truck

and we were out of there

in like I'd say less than three minutes

he had that thing up

these guys are pros

oh yeah he was a pro for sure

I was in touch with him on the way back to my house

he's definitely a car guy

he's a president of one of the local low rider clubs

he was telling me all about his S10

Blazer low rider

oh nice

yeah he was

low rider version of us

S10's in low end cutlass

so super cool guy

got back to the house

I get back to the house

Ron messages me he's like hey man

so what are you doing

I'm annoyed now I want to fix the truck

he's like well

traffic's probably

died down it's probably not a 45 minute

drive anymore probably about a half hour drive

he's like and there's about a half

hour well the opener goes on

he still want to come down

and I was in my brain saying

no I don't want to do it

because the eclipse still isn't that very conditioning

and actually the plates expired

last month

I probably shouldn't take it but it's the only other car

that's accessible

because I still haven't touched the starry on

either and that's blocking everything

in the backyard

lack of better judgement

I took the eclipse

the whole time I'm driving there

I'm like man I just feel like this car

is going to break down on me tonight

not because there's any reason to

just because that's just the way this night is gone

something's going to happen

I was in one night and I'm really annoyed

but the eclipse did not let me down

made it down there

was there by the third song

of the opening act

so I didn't miss the band

that I went to go see

only missed three songs

or only technically two songs of the opening act

just missed the

dinner and

pre-show drinks was wrong

so overall a success I'll say

but

that was Wednesday

Thursday I had to work

Friday I was actually off

because I was planning on going to the

Prescott rally

which

long time listeners of the show will know that

the reason I live in Arizona

is because I went to the Prescott rally

in 2010 with you and Stephanie

and fell in love with that part

of the state

really gave me the

opportunity to want to live here

so for a lot of years the rally

didn't happen past few years it has

actually you were here for it last year

so

I was

I wanted to fix the truck because the plan

was to meet Michael

from IDR

at

the rally

and run sweep with him at the rally

not with my truck obviously

but with his truck

I wanted to diagnose the car

actually the night after the concert

I got home and it was like midnight

and then I was already in bed

I came in the house

and I was like I'm going to run outside real fast

because I want to diagnose the truck because it's bothering me

if I can at least figure out if it has no spark

or no fuel

so I turned the key to on

and didn't hear the fuel pump kick on

so I was like alright that's easy

it's at least either going to be

something went wrong when I wired the fuel pump

or the fuel pump itself died

so Friday

I was off

because I was going to go to the rally

I went outside in the morning

and I had my multimeter

and I turned the key on

and checked the

leads at the pump

and I had 12 volts at the pump

so I knew my wiring was fine

so obviously there was something

going on with that brand new fuel pump

so I went to O'Reilly's to exchange the fuel pump

I've since learned

that everybody said these fuel pumps

are absolutely terrible and they don't last very long

which also makes sense

because the one

that I put in the 74 Colt in Salem

was dead when I went back

to Salem to try to

get the car started again last time

so I'm anti

Edelbrock red fuel pumps

do not buy those

I have since been given a bunch of different suggestions

from other people

for other inline fuel pumps

that not only are more reliable

but cost way less

so if you need an inline fuel pump

low pressure

I think they're 2 to 4 psi

shoot me a message

and I'll give you a link for the good ones

because I've been given a couple that are

proven good now

so no more $75

Edelbrock fuel pumps

is like $20

so

put the fuel pump in

of course I need to rewire things

because where the lead

was that comes on the pump

was now

where the connection had to be was like halfway

into the cab of the truck

so it wasn't quite enough wire

so I had to extend the wiring

and change a bunch of stuff

but got it all together

had the whole thing running

over on the block as proof of concept

said

alright now I'm going to head to Prescott

for the Prescott rally

and loaded the truck up with all the camping gear

and headed up north

and made it to Prescott

without a hiccup

and that's not an easy truck in an old vehicle

because it's

pretty much all uphill of the 17

so it's one of those grades where

the 18 wheelers are doing like

35

so it made it there

no complaints everything worked well

did my first camping trip

in the back of the truck

had the air mattress in the bed

had the screened windows

opened up

perfect way to camp in the back of the truck

huge fan

works out very well it's actually even more comfortable

than a tent because you're on flat ground

I'll probably make some more modifications

to make it even more comfortable

and make it more

amenities in the back of the truck when camping

but I'm definitely

into that camper cap

because it works out super well

for exactly as I wanted it to

so

Roger Carr's access right there

got a new cap

didn't die on the freeway

got towed home

got the car fixed

and in the meantime

drove the eclipse and it ran great

all pros

that's really it as far as project car

updates go because other than that I haven't done too much

just been working and doing

other things from the house

but

events I went to the Prescott rally

yeah what did you do at the Prescott rally

because that sounded pretty cool

I ran sweep

so

physically ran it

I ran sweep yes I ran

because you know everybody knows

marathon runner here

I had not run sweep I passenger

sweep

but I've never been involved with

doing sweep before

and this was probably

the easiest event to do sweep at

because we never had to tow anybody

nice so they have

four sweep vehicles

and they have it set up so that

you kind of do every other stage

yes because it would take too long

otherwise yeah because

the distance between the stages too there are a couple

stages that there's like an hour to an hour and a

half transit in between

so if you're still

helping

show a car

out of stage you're not going to make it time to

the next stage so

there's four

rally like

you just you don't think of the time

until you like really sit and think about it

but if you've got

what do they have 30 40 cars probably

maybe 30 cars

close to that

25 cars

oh wow yeah a little regional event

but you gotta figure

you know a big event like nephra was

we had like 60 cars

one year

if you're giving them

maybe the first five cars are two minutes apart

but if the remainder of the cars are set a minute

apart

an hour

yeah

like so

yeah so it's like that

balloons like you don't think about it

the time just like expands

and you lose it

so you gotta do that thing where they

have like multiple sweep teams

but anyway go on sorry

yeah no I've always

wanted to run speed but

in the new england region

the sweep mafia has it pretty much

locked down that it's hard to become

a new sweep person there right

we know them now

oh yeah I'm not I'm not anti them

they do a great job and it's just

they've been doing it for so long there's no reason to add

new sweep teams so why would we

but

in this particular event I'm not sure if there's

not regular sweep teams or what

but Michael had been

invited to run sweep

mostly because his vehicle is ridiculous

and they wanted it to be like

part of their promotion of the

event I think so we ran it

in I've probably talked about his truck

before on this this show

but we ran it in his 1989 LM

002 Lamborghini

which is obviously a

ridiculous vehicle and

it sticks out

like a sore thumb and nobody knows what it is

and it's also not

a v12 Lamborghini more it's

diesel swapped the whole nine like it's a

it's a pretty well-built truck

and I learned a bunch about that truck

this weekend I didn't know

it was actually a SEMA truck

that he built

so that's why it has

certain things on how it has like the wheel choice

and all the fog lights knowing that

are on it were all because of the

SEMA sponsors that helped

you know either donate the parts

or whatever for the truck it was in

I think next in tires booth

in

2018 maybe a 2019

but he built the whole truck

basically for that SEMA

event and kept it obviously

ever since

but sweep is cool

because

you're not running

rally pace

but also there's nobody

telling you you're doing something wrong

and you're driving

aggressive

like you don't want to just spend

you know five miles an hour like you're off

roading so a vehicle with

good suspension is important to have

and

something that's you know reliable

enough and powerful enough to

go quickly along stage routes

reliably is kind of important

so he was considered

heavy sweep and

you know it's got remote reservoir, fox

shocks and big tires and

I

am still

surprised or still

like super stoked about the fact that

I

was able to

even as a passenger

run a rally stage

at speed in an LM002

like if you ever told me that

yeah Brad one day you'll be out in LM002

sideways through

desert auric roads

I'd be like no it's probably not going to happen

but

it did happen and that was rad

like there aren't many people that can say

they've ridden in an LM002

let alone on a dirt path

like

full on

just

absolute blasting through

and you know

couple of four-wheel drifts

just what a cool time

what a cool truck

what an absolutely awesome

awesome weekend that I

for one will never forget

because that is just

that's the stuff that like

child Brad was like

yeah LM002 are super cool

I'll never see one

I got to ride in one on a rally stage

super cool

didn't get many pictures of the rally

because obviously when you're running sweep you're behind

the rally

but it is what it is

it was a good time

I will forever thank Michael

an opportunity to ride in that truck

because man what a cool

what a cool thing

like the coolest thing

can't wait to do it again next year

it is funny

before

that happened

he couldn't make it on time to be there

for sweep on Friday

so he was like hey do you think you could run sweep

and I was like with what

he was like with your truck it's four-wheel drive

and I was like

absolutely not

I don't think

they would be super excited

for their heavy sweep vehicle

to be a

mini truck four-wheel drive

so I think I'll

I'll hold off on that one

also

just put new fuel pump in it because the last one

died

not gonna go beat it up on rally stages

but

isn't the LM though

super cool

I'm gonna explain Andrew how cool it was

just giddy the whole time

Arizona rally people are cool

they're very similar to New England rally people

my guess is that rally people all over the country

are the same

pretty much

I think the first year maybe the second year

they ran a special stage

there's not a lot of spectator

there's no official spectator stage

on the Preston Forest rally

much like in New England

there are people who go out on the roads before they're closed

and you know stake out some spots

but there's no official

spectator stage

so what they did was

and I didn't get to see it because we were

out doing sweep activities

at the equestrian

center in

Verdi Village

something like that

they closed the rally cross up there

but the special stage was essentially

a rally cross

and after the time your runs were over

they were doing

I'm not sure how it worked but they were giving

rides in rally cars

on special stage to people who went to watch

so

that's a super cool like

spectator involvement activity

to try to get more interest in the sport

at the very least into the rally cross

side of the sport

so that was cool

they did run a rally cross on Sunday

the next day after the rally

but I did not stick around

Michael did stick around and he actually rallyed across the LM

so

nice

and I guess the rule is the vehicle can't be

taller than it is wide

that works out

it's pretty wide

it's ridiculously wide

so it works out just fine

but you had a good time

so there's a

one of the rally organizers up there

has a

Delta Integra Le

and it was

if you run the LM and the rally cross

I'll run the Delta Integra Le

so it was like oh okay we'll do this

so that convinced him to stay and run the rally cross in the LM

so

it proved itself all weekend

it did wonderful truck ran great

no issues at all

at one point on stage it shut itself off

but I think it was just the vibration

actually turned the key off

oh okay

so other than that it was fine

it fired right back up again

so no issues

yeah super cool week

super cool weekend

and I got back in my truck

drove my truck back down the hill

no issues at all

well you gotta just roll downhill

and there's some climbing

you gotta do a little bit up there

you've been up out and back before

it is definitely easier to come back home

I will say that the Arizona

DOT

has

implemented these

high traffic lanes

basically it's like almost like the 93

in Boston where during certain hours

it's northbound and certain hours in southbound

hold on

you've been out west too long

you've been to the 93

yeah probably

the 93

the one you're gonna take the one

the route one

it's been more than six years Andrew

it's been a long time

the 17 now has lanes

that are just like the ones

in Boston on 93

yeah

instead of using a zippered truck

though they have

bright red flashing lights

on gates that open and close

from either side

it helps because obviously

everybody on the weekend

goes north from Phoenix to

escape the heat

and it's the main path

so much like coming down out of New Hampshire

after a holiday weekend they can get

congested so by opening

up those center lanes

it helps out of time

on the 17

because it was 17

that would mean it's in Boston

it's amazing how that's

such a thing like

the one is California

route one

is East Coast

exactly

unofficially

listen as a north shore

of Massachusetts person

took me a long time to realize

there was life outside of the 93 corridor

so

the 95 corridor really

that's what I meant to say

the 93

the 95

anyway so yeah that's my

project car updates

a little down date

in the same podcast because

we waited so long

anything else

I don't think so

I think that's it

calling it a podcast

a bunch of stuff coming up

but nothing's happened yet

yeah

alright cool

so

come visit us in the discord

cause if we're not releasing an episode you can at least

try to discord

just message

yeah you can there's a whole episode

discussion thread and boy how do you do

people give it to us

but it's all good fun

I know you're all joking

but I appreciate it

yeah

just message me or Brad

we'll send you a link

and

we're on Instagram that's probably the best way

to see auto topic content

I'm on Instagram as well

race and anger

and Brad

where can I find you

you can find me on Instagram

on the auto topic page

or on my personal page of TSI

SS350

we do have scale auto cast

that we have been slacking a little bit on

but I actually am currently

mid build on another RC car

so I should be putting some picks up of that

soon

yeah I'm gonna do some more RC content

I think I put my boat on there

maybe I don't remember

but yeah gonna get back to it

before the weather's still good

alright cool

as always keep cars analog

and aim theroses

Heavy Jogging

Ford Bronco

Toyota Camry

Cadillac El Dorado

Cadillac El

Chrysler Imperial

Infiniti G20

Mitsubishi Eclipse

Honda Crv

Chevrolet Camaro

Oldsmobile Cutlass

Chevrolet Spark

Lamborghini Lm002

Acura Integra

About this episode

Original notes