Holiday Closer - Porsche Banter with the Curb & Canyon Crew

And the goons may it's so good to see you look at that shining smiling face dude my man

literally it's it's like I don't recognize you and I do not I've got to put my glasses

on that's how long it's been I'm that old now that I needed glasses I'm late because

I was on my Zimmer frame getting down the hallway it's I mean it's been a minute for

I needed to sort of remind myself how to put the equipment together I was like wait a minute

where am I gonna face are we gonna FaceTime on the phone and record on them like how do

I plug my mic in what was the last text message I sent you exactly that where do I plug my mic

in I said the fuck do I set up a microphone yeah so it's been since I think April was our last

and we became we came close to recording in the summer we came close to recording in the fall

we have not come close to recording in the last couple of months but I thought we have

got to get one in for the end of this year and you can tell how excited I've been because

I know this is your favorite I've tagged you in approximately 50 different photos of Porsche 9-11's

with a Christmas trance up and on that note welcome to Kerwin Canyon

perfect cold intro I love it you know so as I was tagging you in all of those

posts with you know Porsches with Christmas trees on I like was getting steadily well how

did you say it like more and more excited and more and more just I couldn't stop laughing and

Ruthie was sat next to me on the couch she's like seriously what are you doing what are you doing

yeah no no one gonna appreciate this apart from Andy would you you sound like so my friend Kale

has finally discovered AI and so for the last 48 hours he has just been taking every photo

that's ever been taken of any one of our friends on any drive and making it do crazy shit like

dance and all this sort of stuff and I'm like okay well good to know the the AI bots now have

every one of my friends as as avatars they can use for deep fakes and kidnapping you know what

well okay I haven't gone quite that far but when we did Tale of the Dragon this summer

I think it was Tale of the Dragon where my friend Mark who goes with us all of his time

who and him and his son he got me on to chat gbt and got me on to AI and since that time I've

become like an AI professional and I'm all over it however I use it for good I use it for good

my mate Chris Catman Chris with his 11 cats and his GT3 touring hold on hold on hold on just

how many cats does he actually have 10 but I always get it wrong and say 11 dude we'll come

back to that in a second 10 cats we'll come back to that in a second oh man Chris we need to talk

I know like anyway we'll come back to that in a second but he's using AI I mean a little bit

for good but you know every couple of days you can be pretty much guaranteed there'll be some

kind of comedy AI photo involving I don't know Jay Reed's head and you know something that I won't

repeat or you know hey I'm gonna put my car on the moon I'm gonna put my car wherever it is so

anyway there we are but yeah but you know what when the terminators come for us Chris they'll

they'll they'll say Chris come on in mate you're cool bring your cats I saw a meme the other day

with somebody walking past a terminator and the caption was oh he's fine we're gonna let him off

he says thank you like do you have a say thank you which apparently kills a hectare of Brazilian

rainforest every time I say please and thank you yeah but when Skynet rises they'll let us off

yeah that's the point of Jesus Christ well dude so look we're here to talk about Porsche right

we are because I don't want to I don't want to sit here having a duma conversation about about AI

and actually so I was sitting there in bed and I was thinking okay what typically happens when

we've not recorded for a while because you do get into a rhythm right yeah and so I want to

apologize upfront if James and I talk over each other that's the one thing I always find when we

haven't done it for a while we always talk over each other whereas when we've been doing it a lot

we're very I don't want to say professional I think that's I think that's over the top I mean

do you know what I gotta I gotta be honest I um when you did the welcome to curb and canyon I was

like oh thank god he thought of that I'd forgotten we even do it but the other thing I know the other

thing we usually do is have show notes which I usually meticulously prepare and yesterday we

went about that a little differently didn't we we did we exchanged a few text messages and to be

honest I was actually expecting you to pull a very nice professional copy of show notes out of your

arse overnight but nothing nothing no no I've got the first one I can see in what text message

showing is Porsche files chapter 11 I know right I mean so you know yeah there's stuff to talk about

with Porsche itself and what on earth is happening in Stuttgart um you've done what now um your Alpine

drive 12 times 12 just did it last weekend yeah and you've done a tale of the dragon trip I've

done tale of the dragon I think I think I've even done Black Hills since our last podcast I think

that went out just before we went to the Black Hills that was a great trip so so we're gonna

talk about those trips we're gonna talk about where what's happening with your car I just saw

images excuse me images of it on uh Instagram or Facebook even yesterday and thought damn that's

looking good we'll talk about the 964 and the bits that broke we'll talk about who I let try for my

964 that let's hold that till the end I mean holy shit what a moment uh huh yep terrible well we'll

definitely talk about that and um if we had show notes I'd probably be able to try and figure out

what video the week is but I'm I'm gonna hope that you're gonna pull that out of my back I got it

don't you worry about that my friend don't you worry about that so let's why don't we start

we're talking about the drives because because we've both had some epic ones tell me about the Black

Hills so the Black Hills are you drinking Red Bull no no no um I've stolen one of my wife's

lemon flavored spin drifts do you have this in Australia it's like a sparkling water and right

I thought I almost went for the big gulp I know how much you appreciate the big gulp but this is

all I could get in the time I had well that's that's good well so the Black Hills in many respects

it was it was like an absolutely fantastic trip in other respects it was a little bit disastrous

because um we we took off um right as spring was ending well where were we now we're kind of like

spring was a few weeks in we're just just winter was ending spring was a few weeks in in the twin

cities all the snow and ice is melted now we're we weren't going as far as the Rocky Mountains

where there is definitely snow I mean even all the way up until June um but we were kind of sort of

right on the cusp I took my winter tires off put the summers on it was nice and warm um

one thing that happened we got snowed in on one day so we're all there with us summer tires and

we had three days in the hills and one of them was just spent dicking around at the cabin because

we couldn't leave um but but on the way there my mate Patrick who's got this beautiful silver

first generation 997 he's also the guy that worked on Project 996 with me um with Bluey

he hasn't been to Tale of the Dragon in a couple of years he's been really busy with his business

and this was a lot closer you know it's only like an eight hour trip to get to the Black Hills and

Mount Rushmore and all that than like two day trip to get to the the tale Patrick was like I'm in

I've got the car and out of the cover I'm ready you know I've done maintenance we didn't even make

it to the Black Hills and his Serpentine belt came off the the what are they called what are they

called the cogs the spinnies that's it it's the spinnies I recently called my Porsche dealer

hey I need to order a new spinny for my year a spinny doobry so we had to pull over and it was

pissing rain the whole way there so it was a pretty tough trip Patrick pulls over Michael Wooten

who's um Michael's murderer meets Michael Wooten from from youtube he pulled over to help Patrick

we got the serpent's help uh the the belt back on another 20 minutes down the road something

had gone wrong where the belt had essentially melted onto the four or five pulleys there you go

pulleys um and so that was it Patrick was out we had to push his car off the road to in a

like it was and this is the middle of nowhere this is South Dakota there is not a lot in South

Dakota at all uh so we pushed him off just off this junction outside an abandoned uh motel an

abandoned motel it was like the only thing that left his Porsche on the side of the road drove

another four or five hours to get to the Black Hills he spent the whole of the next day trying to

figure out how to get his car home so Patrick kind of had a bit of a rough ride and you know um

an unfortunate time the rest was this amazing driving we saw Count uh Count Rushmore we saw

Mount Rushmore um with some great uh you know great mountain runs um thankfully everyone else

did okay with their cars we got a little bit snowed in um but to top it off Luke and Adam came

with me there I wanted at least one of them to come but they both came and they did so well

in the car and we talked about cars and you know they they were asking questions it was like a

really really fulfilling trip that way but I think of all all the trips we've done in the last few

years um in many ways this was more spectacular than the smoky mountains I mean it's a different

mount different mountain range so you know different climate but it was just nice to do

something different I think yeah massive and and did uh did the silver 997 make it back home or is it

up on block somewhere no it made it home uh we found a guy uh who's actually connected to our

Porsches and Pancakes group who happened to be out in the Black Hills um and had a trailer with him

and he was going to be going back to help his daughter move to college uh so we managed to

finangle Patrick getting up on this uh enclosed trailer got it home poor guy just I feel so bad

for him got it all fixed and he managed to fix it himself but yeah imagine it's pretty gutting

it's always it's always pulley wheels that happened that that happened on Alpine Range

rally three I think it was our friend Trev with his with his Boxster I mean thankfully it was on

the last day of the rally and we were we were almost home but this pulley wheel came off

and so we spent four hours in this tiny little town at the only mechanic for a million miles we

just happened to be able to pull in there trying to fix this thing and it was not able to be done

so Rocco uh Rocco Trev had to leave the car with um Gino Gino's mechanic shop and pick it up a few

weeks later on a trailer so yeah it's always a pulley wheel well you know so it's funny you

mention Rocco because I'm really excited to hear about the adventures of of Andy on the Alpine

Ridge Rally 12 with Choco and Blocko and Rocco and Flocko and all your mates with your kangaroos

and your didgeridoo's it's been a while and and Philby and and who else who am I missing there's

someone I'm missing you're such a knob well we did so yeah this time last week yeah this time last

week I was leading the group on one of the most biblically wet uh sections of run I think we've

done so classic Alpine Range Rally we met on the Friday morning as we always do Friday we had

sunshine all day so it was stunning and the good the good thing about the rally now is that the

maps are pretty much cut and paste I've really just kept refining refining refining and I think

I've managed now to just squeeze every last bit of juice out of the fruit in terms of putting

the twist is here we did um on day one we did actually take a detour to a little town called

Walhella which that road is quite short but super cool and it used to we used to do it in the rally

but I'd always felt it was too much with a with one of the second detours that we do but actually

it worked really well so day one was just intense and it was 24 degrees Celsius I don't know what

that is in Fahrenheit um who cares I'm still I'm still a Celsius guy I don't know jeans and t-shirt

weather um and and we just had this incredible incredible run perfect weather and the best

thing is we stay in this little coastal town called lakes entrance and the last part of the day

there's a bit of a uh let's call it a transport stage right I think it's like an hour to get

from the twisties to lakes entrance but just before you get to lakes entrance you turn off

and there is this one little twisty run that happens it only goes for I don't know maybe 10

minutes but it's just and you pop out of this twisty road and you're in lakes entrance and it

is the best way to finish that first day of rallying just phenomenal so yeah day one amazing

day two we wake up we roll out of lakes entrance at seven o'clock I'm in front and it is bucketing

and and by the time we pull out of town it's cats and dogs cats and dogs so

everyone always whenever it's raining everyone always wants me to lead because I'm in a career

fall and actually I've got to say that the recalcitrance of this group we had 16 people the

willingness of people to drive at the front it's very disappointing I'll use this forum to say it

because none of them are in front of me but it was like constantly who wants to go up front

okay I guess I'll go and then and then if it's and then and then there's Simon goes up front a

lot he's the only other air-cooled uh oh no there was Philby in air-cooled as well but Simon goes

up the front a lot too and then Trev goes up the front and so does Daz and Trev and Daz the reason

nobody wants to go up the front is because if you're in front of Trev or Daz it feels like

you're just going to be holding them up so oh yeah so the reason for that is Trev has a

he has a 996 GT3 that competed in I think it got second outright in the target Tasmania

back in the day it was driven by a very well known Australian racing driver named Tony Quinn

and it used to race in nations carp against Ferraris and all sorts of stuff and Trev

is a pretty handy steerer too so if Trev's behind you you know all about it um Daz drives a 944

so you'd be like okay well we've got that covered uh-uh Daz could be driving a Combi van and he would

look at that everyone he's just yeah he's just that guy yeah he's just that guy so anyway so we

roll out of Lake Centres I've got Trev behind me and it is bucketing and the one thing that was

in my favor was my car's all wheel drive and I'm on PS4s as I think Trev was on uh some some rather

used semi-slick tires but so maybe still he was still still right behind me all the way so that

was great and we get to a little town called Omeo at breakfast and then we drive to this town

called Mitter Mitter and the road to Mitter Mitter is just incredible at first it's super

tight and technical really great for the little air called cars I gotta say and then it kind of

opens up and it undulates and you you climb for a while and then it's down and it's it's 60 kilometers

of twisties oh nice and and intense intense twisties you get to the end and this town is

this tiny little village with this amazing pub and so you just have lunch and then you go and

you do it all again you do it in reverse and doing it in reverse was one of the absolute

highlights I had I had this group behind me and it was funny Simon was behind me he's got this

hot rotted 911 SC and that thing's quick and he's very quick and then we had Kale behind him

in his 718 GT4 and I thought you know I was doing a pretty good job with the pace and and we get to

one section and Kale jumps past me we there was a there was some road work being done so he had

to stop for this metering traffic light so we stop at this red light Kale comes in front of me and I

thought okay fair enough I thought I was going pretty quick but that's okay well he takes off

when we get the green light and and I'm sticking with him but we're climbing up hills right and so

I am beating the absolute crap out of little green you know coming out of tight hair pins in

second gear just red line red line red line and of course Kale's got this four litre GT4 so the

torque he just pulls away but anyway so then I had I did have the opportunity it was all dry

at this point by the way and then I had the opportunity to actually swap cars with Kale

and drive that four litre GT4 and I was shocked by what a difference there was between that

and my 981 GT4 oh man the torque on this thing just phenomenal absolutely I fair to say I was

looking at car sales for a GT4 a week and then yeah you know what I think we rolled into town

around 430 having done something like 500k's that day and I mean wow straight roads that day would

have been a half an hour of driving yeah yeah seriously and and then and then Sunday it rained

a lot of Sunday but what was really cool actually was that there's on Sunday there's really only

three key twisties that we hit on the way home and what would happen was you'd drive those twisties

it would be dry and then it would bucket rain as you're driving to the next one and then by the

time you got to the next one and it all dried up again so we had an incredible run but I don't

know if you saw on my Instagram my mate Irwin Irwin has a 991.2 GTS lovely car and the day before

the rally he called me he's like hey I've ripped my tire I need a ps4 s and I said listen give

these guys a call you should be able to get one so he was able to amazingly because they're always

pretty difficult to get so he just was able to get a new tire so it was all great and then on the

last day we're on the radio and sorry we're driving the last road and suddenly Irwin comes on the

radio he says I think I've got a flat and then your mate Philby then your mate Philby gets on

the radio goes bloody hell Irwin's got a bloody stick sticking out of his tire no way I don't know

why I just made Philby sound like Steve Irwin because he could not sound less like Steve Irwin

if he tried sorry Philby but but anyway so he had this stick it literally looked like I don't know

you know at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark when he's running and they're all chasing him with

the bulls it looks like someone had done that in the side of his in the side of his tire how this

stick had managed to puncture and be left sticking out of this pilot sport forest tire I I'd never

know and of course it's a gts so it's on center locks right yeah so it's like oh my god what are

we gonna do so Frazz uh boy Frazz Rocco Frazz Philby um Frazz rolls up Frazz Frazz and Daz

please tell me that brothers they're not brothers uh they're not but it's a missed opportunity

do you know what though they're both pretty handy um so so Frazz rolls up with this puncture repair

kit and I'm looking at it thinking hey Frazz I think this might be a little bit beyond said

puncture repair kit and then so he starts he starts pulling the he starts pulling the stick

out of the tire and Philby says what are you doing it's gonna let all the air out and it's like well

you can't drive it with the stick in mate so so Frazz pulls this stick out the tire does indeed

deflate so then Frazz has got this tire repair kit I don't know if you've ever seen these things

they're basically like little rubber noodles and then you have like an old-fashioned corkscrew

and you just jam the noodles into the hole and then user and then we had we had an

Erwin had an air compressor use a razor blade to slice them off and clean them up

fix sorted yeah Erwin was able to drive home no problem I think he stopped a few times to check

it was okay but what I just said that is incredible I'm buying one of those kits this weekend to have

yeah yeah for when I do a rally unbelievable lifesaver lifesaver well look you all sound like

Steve Irvin to us over here to be honest with you so you didn't need to you didn't need to

apologize for us for Phil well Philby Philby lives in it in a place called Bratton which is Bratton

which is sort of known as one of the more hoity-toity suburbs of Melbourne so he

he probably doesn't sound he doesn't sound a lot like Steve Irwin I gotta say but

I tell you this and I'm sure I've said it before I've had so many conversations this week about

doing these trips and how important they are and that the driving is incredible and

experiencing the cars is phenomenal that's that's brilliant that kind of goes without saying it's

it's the conversations it's I don't understand I don't want to wax too lyrical but the connection

all that stuff you end up talking about mental health and all work challenges life challenges

all these other things right and yeah there's so much value in it it's yeah it was just awesome

absolutely awesome no I totally agree and you know in in some respects perfect segue to tail

of the dragon because I think this last trip to the tail was was maybe my favorite I mean

and and it was I don't really remember too much about the driving frankly which is not to say we

didn't have a good time because we did but the memories are really around you know just like

laughing and having like really silly talks and really deep conversations and a few beers and some

barbecue I mean Michael was there and Jay and Chris and there's a newcomer to our group who we

met a couple of years ago at Amelia Island Christian who's got he's got this modded out 991.1

and sorry 991.2 it's black it's got like you know the full end to end soul it's got the stage

two tune it's got the intercoolers it's putting out like 700 and something horses it's insane

and he's also just got himself a green 992 which he's put the which is also modded out exactly

the way and such a nice guy and Mark is there of course and you know Richie and so I you know

obviously going to be forgetting a few people but there's so much to be said about the friends you

take on those kind of trips and just the Porsche community in general we've talked about that

before it's it's a really amazing place um but you know you said there were what about 16 people

is that a pretty big group for our range rally because you you try and control that don't you

yeah I do so we got the group size is there's there's 20 people that that are invited

and and obviously look people reach out to me all the time and say hey can I come which is

completely fair I certainly understand that people would want to attend it it's weird though

because it's not a club where you know we're actually we're now just a group of mates and

um those 20 who have been coming for a long time I just always want to keep it open for them

but that's the most we could do and so yeah the last couple have been a little smaller people

have had life challenges or you know kids or all the sorts of stuff that gets in the way

so it's rare that we get everybody alone but yeah 16 was definitely one of the bigger groups

we've had for a minute my mate Gerard he'd had surgery on his foot two weeks earlier

so he couldn't drive and he's got a manual 901.2 career tee so we were really worried that he

wasn't going to be able to make it but then he borrowed a friend that this friend of his

what a great friend just lent him a 997.2 pdk so he was able to do it in that although it was

hilarious because he he rolled up on day one stunning white 997 it was gorgeous but all weekend

everyone was saying that car needs springs and spacers like it was full full stock ride and then

Gerard's like you want to drive it it needs an exhaust because it didn't even have the sport

the Porsche sports exhaust but um but yeah that was it was a it was a bigger group but you know what

because we've all been driving together so long now I don't know if you find this

you kind of know how everybody drives and you know based on your own mood where you want to sit

in the group at any given time you might think yeah I just want to cruise a little bit I might sit

around with this person or I'm happy to kind of push on a little bit I might go behind them or in

front of them do you know what I mean you sort of get that rhythm yeah yeah yeah definitely definitely

it's same same with us we know who likes to drive fast we know who uh is going to take up a lot of

time and needs to sit at the back and everything in between yeah yeah yeah I think um it's funny

that one too isn't it because the people we know like to drive fast as you say I've never asked them

this but you know it's probably almost that thing where they like to drive fast but it

doesn't mean they need to every time and they're probably also quite happy sitting behind someone

else who's maybe going slightly slower than they would typically go just in order to be able to

look at three or four cars in front of them because that's one thing I find yeah if I'm

leaning a little bit it's like sometimes I miss actually seeing that snake of cars in front of

me and chasing someone else you know definitely definitely yeah at this time uh not in uh black

hills but tell the dragon I did try and hang back at the back this time because because often I'm the

one that leads a lot of the time and it's it's partly because um I wouldn't say I'm impatient

but I'm the one that will look at you you're tailgating people unbelievable you're that guy

no no no it's not that it's not that it's like when we stop and take a break and take a photo

yeah I'm the guy who's like okay everybody's taking a photo let's let's go get in the car

I'll turn the engine on as opposed to the guys that will just happily sit there and chat and

all of a sudden you've lost an hour yeah you know a bit we've been here 10 minutes I'm gonna get in

I'm gonna start revving and I'm just gonna pull off and if people want to follow me they can

you see see PJ who organizes our Tasmania rallies he's a little bit like that suddenly

you'll turn around and he's just driving off I guess we're going but but do you know what though

I think there is that thing of I don't know tell me if this is your feeling you kind of manage the

itinerary and the routes right so it's like yeah you're keeping an eye on hey we've got to get to

here by this time so we do actually need to keep moving yeah yeah that's right yeah we got to make

it's a lunch we got to get back again we're gonna you know do something this evening yeah I'm often

on the itinerary do you know I always take a good deal of pride in the fact that I break the itinerary

down effectively enough so that I can book I can book lunch at this pub at 12 30 knowing we'll roll

into town pretty much down or thereabouts that time and you know once once or twice we've had

problems where someone's had a car issue or something and we're late but we're pretty consistently

good but on the Saturday on this trip because it was raining the places we would usually stop there

there are two stops that we would typically make in the morning and you think oh yeah they're just

it's just a five minute stop right but it's not it's actually half an hour by the time everyone

walks around has a chat goes and borders some plants and then comes back and jumps in their cars

and so we rolled into this town Midamida where I had a 12 30 booking for lunch we rolled in at 11

o'clock everyone's like what are we gonna do I don't know that's well we didn't talk on the

side of the road because it was pissing rain let's just talk here actually thankfully the

the public and came out and he said well we open at 11 30 so in a nice early light that's nice

hey look so this might be a silly question but given that it rains a lot when you guys do these

trips have you not thought about doing it in a different season like we're gonna do this trip

we're gonna book it in monsoon season you know what it rains shit yeah I didn't think about that

I mean you guys who've got the summers that are like you know 40 degrees ball sweatingly

hot come on Andy yeah so Rocco and I have had this conversation so many times man and so

the problem is if you do it at towards the back end of the year once you're out of November so

December is the first week of summer right but if you if you wait into December people have

got Christmas things happening it just becomes harder and harder to to manage so you go as

late as you can and to be honest when we did this rally this time last year number 10 it was

like 35 degrees every day it was it was hot as balls for the whole rally and then yeah you know

the other one is we do one in March or April and when we did it at the start of this year it was

great we had incredible weather next year we're doing we'll probably alternate and go back to

Tasmania so yeah you're right it's Melbourne in late spring can just be dire but December's too

late and early spring's not possible and then winter's definitely not possible so you take a

punt and yeah I agree I told you it was going to be a silly question I mean you've done it 12 times

you've obviously thought about that before yeah and we've had we have had good weather I think we've

but not much like it has been mostly mostly pretty wet I would say for nine out of the 12

it's we've had and not just wet like wet like just yeah dude we're driving this road on the

Saturday morning and I was at the front and there are a few there were a few times I had to get on

the radio and say this left hand is like super slippery so I suppose the thing about doing that

is you you have to have the right wheels and specifically the right tires and you've just

changed the wheels over on your 991 I have I've gone back to my my winter setup which is the

the Carrera S rims that came with the car and so I've got three sets of rims

three sets yeah so the Carrera S rims came with it I wanted to get a second set because

of the winter summer changeover just to make it just to make it easier so I got the rs spider rims

which I do really like I do really like and then of course I got some sole performance rooms last

year which I also used for for winter rims but as much as I love the sole rims and I really love

the the spider rims every time I go back to what I consider in my mind just a boring basic Carrera

rims I put them on the car and I stand back and I think shit they look so good I like how they really

look good I mean I messaged you was it yesterday because I'd seen your Facebook post and I just

thought it looks so good silver wheels just and yeah Carrera S wheels just a really really good

look really good you know I've got to give you credit because I thought the first thing you were

going to comment on was my factory ride heights which I still haven't addressed I've done all

these mods to this car and I bought those lowering springs what two years ago and they're still sitting

in a box in my garage and every time I walk into my garage I think of you because I see that gap

and I'm like yeah Andy wouldn't like that Andy will comment on that what what what's the blockage

how do we what's going on here psychologically how do we address this it's it's it's a job I've

just never attempted before you know and it's and because it's so core to the functioning of the car

I'm really worried about just screwing it up like if you screw up an oil change

like what's the worst that can happen you have to pour more oil in you have to get yourself a new

you know new filter if you don't put it in properly or if you talk the drain plug

or changing an air filter even taking off the rear bumper if I was to screw up the rear bumper I

could still drive it to the garage and get it fixed but if I was to screw up any one of those

suspension struts it's just that you know that's a tow truck that's got to be involved or that's a

thousand dollar mistake it's not a hundred dollar mistake so that is it a thousand dollar

mistake though I don't I don't know I'm just like it's it's I'm forever procrastinating but you know

it's like um it's like doing the intercoolers I wanted to do the intercoolers on my car um and

it wasn't until I just recently did them on a a 991.2 gts in lava orange and my friend Derek oh my

really well optioned car but now I've done it on his car and I've done it on another car

like that doesn't bother me I could just rock up you know in my pyjamas and yeah I'll do

your intercoolers no worries but the struts did I say pyjamas I meant a borat manchini

that's that's why I'm sleeping um but like yeah I think I just I'm just procrastinating and I've

watched that Tommy L garage video where he's done it Tommy's video shows it really well

look Tom yeah I know but yeah I know I know just take it to a garage just have them do it

no I'm not letting someone do that I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it I though

come on I will I know it's off brand for you but why don't you just do it it'll cost you like

400 bucks but you know it's maybe it's maybe it's a winter project it was going to be the

winter project in fact I know I'm going to blame John Gados at soul performance because

that was going to be a winter project last year and at the beginning of winter that's when John

called me up and was like hey do you fancy doing some installs on soul parts and I'll send you

come on that was like I feel like you've been doing I feel like you've been doing exhaust installs

for two years doing that wasn't just like I suppose I suppose but like just looking back over the

year and I want to hear about your 964 as well and what's going wrong with it but like this year

has been epic in terms of wrenching on cars oh my god I've uh I've worked on my own car so I've

now got full end-to-end soul performance exhaust um I've got a stage one tune I've got um what else

have I done to it I can't remember but it's now putting out like 500 and something horses and

it just it absolutely tears the streets up it is so powerful I love it absolutely love it

so I've been working on that um I've worked on my friend Chris's GT3 Touring I've worked on a

991.2 GTS I've worked on a another GT3 uh 991.2 GT3 um all like pretty enjoyable jobs like spark

plugs um exhausts uh spoilers um brake jobs the intercooler job just recently so I like I've

really I've really enjoyed myself in the garage and actually I've been enjoying it so much that

I've got all of this video footage for future videos waiting to be edited I just I just can't

get around to it so what's been going on with little green well hold on hold on so can we just

talk about uh where you're at what what have you chosen now as the exhaust setup and are you happy

I want to hear about it because okay because I drove so I'm gonna tell you my my buddy Gerard

has the Carrera T as I said and he bought uh he bought a shark works um valve sports exhaust so

just to replace the factory sports exhaust and I drove that and he said to me all the conversations

we've had have been that there is a difference but it's let's say it's subtle it's certainly not a

big change I've driven the car since it sounds great but it's there's there's not a lot of volume

in it yeah um what setup have you landed on and and what's it like so I've got um the sole

performance valved x-pipe which is the equivalent of the valve you know Porsche sports exhaust muffler

yep um and that gives you um that really transforms the sound and you lose a bit of weight but it

does really nothing to the power so you you can sell it just just by doing the the valved um

x-pipe you can really get a difference in the pops and the crackles and just the you know it's

like a a throatier kind of growl when you start it up and you accelerate and so on so I've got that

um I tested both the cat bypass pipes as well as the cat sport the sport cats

and I landed on the sport cats just something about just something about the pitch and the

the cracks and pops that you get with it um it's similar with the bypass pipes but with the bypass

pipes the um the sound of the turbo spooling almost overpowers the sound of the pops and the

crackles like it's just it's just for me it was a bit too much um I do like the louder turbo spools

with with the rest of the setup I've got but man it was a huge difference um with those really

past pipes yeah yeah really big difference with the with the spooling um or the sound of the spooling

and then I've got the sport cats so sport cats uh sorry the headers the sport headers the sport

cats and the curved x-pipe so that's it end to end I think if the the one thing I've been toying with

is actually going back to the factory center muffler um because it sounds really good it does

sound good it doesn't it's not as growly and throaty as the x-pipe and maybe maybe I'm remembering

this wrong but I think I was getting a little more pops and crackles in the down shifting

with the factory center muffler than I was with the the sole muffler but I could I could be wrong

there um yeah but the the performance difference with the cats and especially the headers is quite

a lot yeah you can tell it yeah you can tell it in the throttle response um I think you know on paper

it says between the two of them you can get like an extra 20 to 30 horses altogether um and I I

wouldn't honestly I'm not that kind of a I'm not good enough I'm not good enough to the difference

between you know a 400 or a 425 horsepower car it's just a powerful car to me but the throttle

response is definitely definitely better and then add on top of that the soft tronic tune

the car the car drives now like I mean I wouldn't say like a a GT3 or I wouldn't say like a turbo

because obviously they're very different cars but in terms of that um but dyno kind of feeling the

thrust yeah the thrust um it's just incredible is a completely different car in that respect

wow see so just to go back to it this idea of of the ride height being a winter project I think

you're thinking about it wrong because some of you are going to be driving around you're probably

going to go to your portion pancakes thing maybe there's some cars and coffee that is the time

where the stance is crucial crucial and it's not even a project for someone of your

immense skill your talent your experience this is a this is a Saturday afternoon with a few beers

kind of a kind of an exercise you could you could be done today you could do it today

you think so well probably tomorrow because I know it's Friday night where you are but

still you could set up tonight whip the wheels off tomorrow morning and be done maybe be cruising

around with people's heads turning going look at that guy he's cool

you know well when you put it like that no I don't think so but maybe maybe maybe

you know the the other part of it is I think I'm not I'm not sure I bought the right products

like I bought these um H&R lowering springs on a whim and yeah I'm wondering actually if I should

have maybe thought about it and put some more into like a proper you know set of Olens or

Bilsteins something which isn't just $400 and you just slap it on do you know everyone I know who's

done lowering springs on the factory shocks has been has had no problem because because to go to

Olens or KW or something like that is um that's a that's a really expensive upgrade

and and I think I think Porsche's suspension is actually incredibly well dialed as it is

so yeah I don't I don't think you need to do that the only thing I would say and I don't know if

this is the case for 991s or not my understanding is that the H&R lowering yeah you kind of got

you got H&R or you've got iBark lowering springs yeah and everything I've ever read is that

people have found with the iBark lowering springs they tend to just be a little more compliant

whereas doing the H&R springs they tend to just be a little harsher in the ride quality

so I've heard I can't I can't speak to that with any with any real authority but I'm pretty sure

they tend to have a slightly a slightly softer spring rate with the with the iBark so if you're

putting them on a on a stock setup they probably retain the stock feel yeah while having the lower

the lower ride height so gotcha gotcha which means I've just probably given you an out but

well so so my my winter plans were um lowering springs yeah I want to get my steering wheel

refurbished I'm going to send it down to Carter Customs in Texas and I want to have

yellow deviated stitching on because you know what I'm like with deviate stitching with with

you know refresh leather um I want to swap out the well I'm not I'm on the fence I like I've

thought about doing yellow seat belts instead of my black seat belts to tie in with the yellow

accents yeah yeah um so you know that's that's kind of on on the list of things um

I don't know what else maybe maybe that's enough I'm not sure it's looking it's looking pretty good

it's it's got a you can tell it's an enthusiasts car now it's not you know it's not dentist spec

it's not your daily driver you've done a good job of making it look like it's the wicked fun car

I appreciate it thanks man and I've resisted putting um a wing on it because I I'm always

tempted with wings always no no no just say no to wings yeah just say no absolutely not I mean

I think don't get me wrong a GT3 with a wing no problem no problem but don't yeah no wing on

a Carrera just lal I you know I that was the one thing I said to myself when I got this car

I was going to stick with the silhouette I'm not going to put a wing on it and I haven't

no and I haven't been tempted either but every time I see Chris's GT3 touring I see that little

sexy lip on the back and I think I could have that like you could have that you could have that

and and then my friend Christian uh with the the green 992 he's just put the factory aero kit

on his 992 gts right I like it I like it but no I'm not going to go there I'm not going to go

there yeah but I am tempted with that little touring lip every now and again yeah I mean

there's a little gurney that's all right that's okay it if it if they can work it on a touring

that's cool but yeah I think I don't know I I don't like wings on anything other than a GT3

yeah and even even having said that I've got to the point now where you know the the

the auto amateur James from five years ago would have already slapped that GT3 touring

lip on the back today's auto amateur James says it's not a GT3 don't put that lip on the back

it's just a Carrera love it for being a Carrera yeah a hundred percent and and you know a highly

highly capable car that you've made even quicker you've made even better that's yeah there's nothing

that car can't do love it love it as is now carbon fiber that's the day for it you know it's a

conversation carbon fiber and deviated stitching yeah baby so what about little green tell me

about little green uh little green's good I mean I had um I had a service right before the rally

I thought this is great I'm not trying because what always happens or inevitably happens for me

is that a week out from the rally there's something catastrophic on little green that

I'm trying to solve it'll have given me trouble free motoring all year and then the week before

the rally something comes up yeah it's just just just absolute clockwork and yeah this this rally

was no different I took it into stewart nine auto for it's for just a service um there was

nothing untoward in that service but the one thing I did ask him to look at was that the

lower sill cover on the driver's side had just come away now this is really common on a nine six

four right there's just these little tabs these little plastic tabs and they break off so you

have to replace them and then you just push it back in it's not really a particularly difficult job

but when I got it back he said hey the the rear sill cover which is the so shark fin shaped one

was lifting off and he said I think this one's actually broken and by the time I got it home

it was like hanging off basically and I'll share I'll share a photo with you later on but

yeah it was just flapping about and I thought well I can't have it like that on the rally

so what do I need to do apparently it's very common so that I said what do I do do I do I just

replace the the little plastic tabs and he said no no it's actually the sill cover itself is broken

so you need to replace that paint it reinstall yeah well I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do that

before the rally so what what what uh compromise solution can I find so I've got some JD weld

plastic glue and glued the two tabs and then just used a clamp to clamp it on right I'm

thinking this is great I've got it sorted I don't have a really good track record when it comes to

gluing plastic like me too dude it just I don't I've done interior trim bits where I keep adding

the the JD weld and then it just goes gooey and it never sets and it never actually works right

so and the other thing that was working against me was that this it's a it's a curved piece of

plastic that when when it is attached at the base and at the top it's actually bending it

so as you're gluing it it it wants to pull away so of course eventually it pulled away

so I'm messaging Gerard my 964 buddy and he's like why did you do it like that you need to take

it off I'm like yeah okay good cool so I took it off and then you could just see what was hilarious

was the two tabs where the glue goes you could see clearly it has been glued 20 times previously

yeah previous owners have just glued this it's lasted three years and they've gotten on with

their lives and I thought well you know what I've had it a long time it's clearly lasted with glue

I think I can make it last again with glue I don't think I need to replace it so I did I was just

meticulous I took it off I glued it I sat it in the sun to let that glue really set I had it clamped

while it was setting I put it back on the car and sure enough it it has stuck it's lasted so

where we're okay so I mean look worst case on the rally I was I was thinking if it comes off on the

rally here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna undo the rear tab which creates a hole in the main bodywork

and I was gonna drill a hole in the actual seal cover figuring that fuck it it's dead anyway

and then just cable tie that thing so I would have had a visible cable tie holding it on

on my car and I'm like at that point I don't care well I'm the guy that was driving through

these incredible roads across the prairies two years ago I think or three years ago in in bluey

when we were coming back from a the first Black Hills trip and somebody told me that

one of my under panels was flapping on the bottom of the car which I guess I want to your under

pants would flap well that always happens I was the guy that pulled over to the side of the car

everybody was getting out thinking about how he could fix it and without even having any

discussion I just reached under the car yanks the entire under bottle penny off

under bottle penny I know I yanked that would I be on the audio I'm at your store under bottle

pennies that's exactly right I yanked that thing off and just put it on the side of the road and

so somewhere in the middle of Nebraska there is this you know I don't know four by four kind of

sized piece of plastic that I just pulled off the car I was like fuck it lads we're done get in let's

go let's keep driving it was awesome but you know I see those um I see those you know social media

you know kind of reels of people using um using glue and braces or clamps or those um plastic

welding kind of kits and I'm like wow you keep yeah it's like you can fix all of these amazing

things whenever I try it it's like you know Pinterest fail there's too much glue it's not

quite in the right place it's not hanging on properly and I end up just throwing it away

I'm like fuck it I don't need it that's me with the center console in my car it has this one bracket

that is I mean it's decidedly fragile and you see them everywhere for sale and the bracket's broken

but I've tried to fix it five times and every time I do I just end up with

half set you know the glue that's kind of soft but sticky yeah yeah I'm just overdoing it clearly

but yeah I have no idea what I'm doing so I did I did wonder I think we spoke about it

in our very detailed show notes yesterday about you know discussing in detail and in depth analysis

of Porsche's current profit situation so I understand you've pulled together a power

point presentation that you're going to take me through no you know what I did I didn't use chat

fantastic job of parroting back whatever he has googled and put into a video

so yes tell me tell me what did Jay say let's Jay can be our oracle all right Jay can be our

oracle and I'm going to do a horrible job of paraphrasing and probably get it wrong but

you know from from my understanding a big part of it is that the shifting strategy because

the the EV market is cool EVs are bombing yeah I mean I don't know what it's like down under but

over here in the States people are driving them but you know if you believe the stats that

the Jay's talking about at least the market here is cooled Porsche has put a bunch of investment

in that which they're now sort of pulling back from as well as trying to keep all of their combustion

engine kind of lines going so I think I think to sum it up it's probably that is a one huge

contributing factor that the shift in EV strategy and the market cooling and from what I understand

as well from Mr. Reed the Chinese market which has kept them going massively over the last so

however many years that's also come to a bit of a halt especially so in this last and then maybe

one other which is you know I don't know about Trump and his tariffs but that kind of helps

I don't really you know know too much about that but that also kind of helps so

Porsche found themselves in this in this little sort of sticky situation but from what I understand

if they've lost a bunch of operating profit you know what does that mean for their I don't know

what does that mean for their reserves what does that mean for the revenue they're going to pull

down over the next few years presumably they're going to be doing a bunch of restructuring they're

probably going to be laying people off to a degree but like is it just a shock value headline

or does it really matter to the company I don't know enough about economics really to have an

opinion on it you've got to think that if your profits have gone down by 90% that there are

negative outcomes that will associated negative outcomes such as layoffs and that type of stuff

I know they're going to they are going to roll back some of these some of the investments they've

made and the and the directions they've set they will roll those back but they're still a

massive cost associated with it because yeah I do know that in the Chinese market

the what has happened is the the bottom has fallen out of the luxury EV side of things right

and so if you've bet really heavily on that that becomes a real problem and in fact that's a problem

globally because at the end of the day why would I spend 300 grand on a Taycan when I can get a

BYD for 60 grand now I know they're very different markets I understand the buyer for those two cars

is different but but nothing is going to depreciate as fast as an EV so you know it's a massive massive

problem have you looked at the the Taycan used market prices I was amazed like you can pick up

not I mean not the turbo versions but you can pick up the Taycan for or whatever the entry model is

now it's like 20 grand us 25 grand us 20 grand you yeah I mean isn't that incredible I actually

thought at one point maybe I'll just trade in the Cayenne and just you know check this out for a while

because it's so cheap I mean they're not all that low but you know we're talking like probably 20

grand us on the very lowest end to a mid-range model with a couple of years on it and a couple of

you know 20 30 000 or whatever it's about maybe 50 grand us but considering a few years back they

were going for 120 130 140 us that's yeah that's insane that's a huge dent and look this is this

is the problem with EVs and particularly luxury EVs it's like you know you don't I mean some people

do I suppose but EVs are an appliance and by that I mean that because they are largely

they're still in their growth phase with respect to the technology and the range and all of these

things right so buying a second hand one is a bit like buying a used iPhone right like an iPhone 10

you're not you're not just not going to do that yeah and whereas I know I can buy a 30 year old

Porsche or any brand for that matter and that car is going to keep going yeah whereas there's a I

think the psychology of it is that there's a little bit of a sense of there's a disposability

around these products until they've reached this kind of development plateau that internal

combustion engine cars have reached so yeah I think there's still plenty to play out the thing

that I'm excited about and optimistic about is that I'm reading a lot and I don't know if this

is confirmed yet but that Porsche have shelved the idea that the Cayman and Boxster platforms

will be EV only and that there will be an internal combustion engine version I think there is there's

still going to be an EV version yeah but oh man I mean that one was always one I struggled with

because I figure first up use hybrid technology they're using that in the in the turbo they use

using that in the gts yeah it's brilliant yeah I got no problem with that yeah but I always figured

if you look at the world's response to the four cylinder 718 Cayman and Boxster and the outcry

over the sound of those cars compared with the outgoing six cylinder versions it was like this

car's great it does everything right but the sound is terrible it's destroyed it you know those cars

you can pick up so cheap because in spite of how good they are people just don't rate the sound so

then imagine taking that and doing an EV version of it unless you build in you know kind of goofy

tricks like hey you've got you've got a set of factory sounds like you know you can have a

a 917k or you can have a 962 or you can have a 993 GT2 yeah that's right unless you do goofy stuff

like that who what who is the enthusiast that's going to buy the EV Cayman or Boxster yeah I don't

know I don't know anyway I'm hopeful I'm hopeful there's an engine coming I think it's teenage

youtube millionaires there's there's actually a kid that my son Adam watches on youtube who's

he honestly looks about 12 years old but he's driving a take on turbo in his in his latest

video so he must be holding up to drive but I think there's a demographic for you right that

youtube millionaire nerd kids and there's so many of them so we're going to be wrapping up soon I

want to hear about the topic we said we'd leave to the last because I don't know how controversial

this is going to be but you let the kid who's riding your daughter ride your car

that is that's not cool that's not cool at all that that hurts more than when I let him drive

I've been waiting 24 hours to say that

hey you fuck I'll edit that out if you want me to but yeah tell me about your daughter's

boyfriend who's been driving like what on earth possessed you to give anyone under the age of

20 odd the keys to your car no less some dude who's going out with your daughter like are you feeling

okay have you had a stroke okay well first of all he's he's he's older than 20 uh he's a he's a car

guy so he definitely got that going for him nice kid and is he driving a Honda Civic

you know what he did roll up in a Honda Civic a few days ago but he's had he's look he's he's

he's actually um I feel like Chris Cluel would love him because he's he seems to have a different

car every two weeks uh he's had a he's had an older BMW he's had yeah he had this Civic Type R

which I think he's actually getting did he still eventually I think he's swapping that for he's

got no no and he's he's got a Golf GTI so he's he's a car he's a car guy which is great and anyway

so he was around at our house I said let's let's go for a drive uh on Sunday morning so he jumps

in the car we go for a drive that was great yeah he was he was enjoying it he was probably he didn't

say so but I'm sure he was probably underwhelmed by the you know 260 horsepower of my 35 year old

nine six four uh but anyway I you know got on it here and there drove some twisties and

showed him a little bit of what the car can do and that was great and then we just pulled into

this town and I thought ah let's let him have a drive why why not but the car's in sure it

doesn't matter uh he's he's not on his p plates which is you know we have some restrictions

so yeah why not let him have a drive an oak and drive a manual so he got in and had a drive the

I was fine I was not nervous he probably drove a little closer to some cars than I would have

I I like to leave more of a let's say space cushion um and uh but no it was it was great I

I think I think he enjoyed it we got to a faster ride and I'm like all right I'll take it from here

but you're a good man you're a good man Charlie Brown I'm not so sure I would have done that

having said that when my um when my godson came over from Germany last summer um I gave him the

keys to the 911 just like wholeheartedly and the cayenne uh he's um he's like 25 years old um and

my my other godson uh Jamie from the UK I also gave him the keys to the car so yeah maybe

maybe I was a little harsh that maybe you know the other thing yeah well here's the other thing

right it's it's an underpowered all wheel drive 911 so it's hard for him to get in too much

trouble with it and unless he just doesn't know how to drive yeah you know what I mean it's like

if you can drive a manual you can drive that car and you can feel some of its driving dynamics

and that's that's what he got like I say he didn't say so but he was probably I'm sure he was

probably a little underwhelmed by the by the power um but uh no it was great it was good fun it was

really good fun I think this is a topic that's pretty sensitive for me close to my heart in many

ways because you know I have a daughter she's only four and um I'm dreading dreading her growing up

to the age where she has boyfriends my friend Chris we mentioned before Catman Chris uh his

daughter Madeline uh last year of high school and she's got a boyfriend and uh you know I like

to joke him a little bit about what's that like but I've been seeing these these videos on TikTok

recently and it's all the same guy doing it and um the caption is um I've told my girlfriend's son

I'll do to him whatever he does to her and it's like it's like they're sitting around watching

TV together and he's holding his hand and he just looks really really uncomfortable and the

dad's holding his hand or they're in a Christmas party and he's got the boyfriend sat on his knee

and he's like putting his arms around him I don't know it's weird times dude weird times

mate no no one will ever be good enough for your daughter that's the that's the truth of being a dad

with a daughter but um so good enough to drive you down 64 yeah yeah 100 and I I I I hope I hope

you enjoyed it so we're going to wrap this little number up by uh talking about a video the week that

I have not seen so Andy tell me about this video have you not seen it okay so uh Haggerty just did

a new video celebrating 50 years of the 9-11 turbo oh nice you know I mean when I love Haggerty's

stuff anyway right you got Jason Kameesa he's he's the main host of this video Kameesa's awesome

our boy Henry catchpole shows up towards the end Jeff's wart Patrick long like just all of the

Porsche people that you just love are in this video and it's just great look you know they they kind

of talk through the whole lineage they're driving everything from uh you know the original 930 which

you know in 1970s what is it 75 and and you know talks about that car was just must have seemed like

a rocket ship yeah in the time at the time yeah just an absolute rocket ship and then even talking

about um the the turbo lag and and actually demonstrating what that looks like oh really

yeah yeah and it's it's incredible he's he's talking and this is it's a little bit um there's

maybe some creative license in it but he's got his foot to the floor talking saying yeah still

nothing still nothing and then there's this sudden you know absolute burst of of acceleration

but then it goes all the way through to you see um

you see Patrick Long driving a 964 turbo s crazy they drive um what does Zwart drive a 997 GT2

just you know absolute widow maker yeah yeah really really really cool just yeah just all

these ace cars and then it finishes with uh catchpole uh driving the new turbo s clearly in

Germany and gorgeous production i mean you watch the credits at the end and you know they had something

like you know 30 people work on this oh it's not like a couple of not like a couple of youtubers

just going out and shooting on their own yeah but you know done they did they did one a little while

ago i think called giants or racing giants or they might be giants or something which was all about

Porsche and endurance racing so this was this was the same kind of film but all about the 911

turbo and it's if you want half an hour of really high quality great Porsche viewing on YouTube on

fork atv that feels not like a youtube show but it's like some kind of documentary yeah it's i

highly highly uh encourage you to check it out i'll give it a go i'll give it a go yeah well buddy

merry almost christmas if you yeah and to you yeah and to and to everybody listening thanks for uh

thanks for tuning in it's do you know what it's funny because i think but i i messaged James the other

day and said i miss you bro and i'm not even kidding and uh because this is sort of the

only time we talk right yeah yeah yeah so we like we catch up on life and talk Porsche at the same

time yeah yeah everybody everybody's witnessing our friendship in real time including me tagging you

and you tagging me on on instagram um but yeah this is a great way to take out the the year and

i hope you have great time over the holidays watch that boyfriend in law um like he feels

suspicious to me anyone driving on the record i'm immediately suspicious of um but yeah

love to the family man and thanks for listening everybody we'll catch you in the next one thanks

gang

Holiday Closer - Porsche Banter with the Curb & Canyon Crew

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