They’re comparing the idea to a Porsche supercar that fans really respect. The point is: a manual version of the Lexus LFA would have felt like that kind of “real driver” car.
“Vaporware” means something that sounds real and gets talked about, but it doesn’t show up as promised. It’s basically hype that takes forever to become a real product.
Concept
Carrera GT money
“Carrera GT money” is a shorthand comparison for pricing that reaches the level of the Porsche Carrera GT, a very expensive and highly sought-after supercar. The hosts mean that the Lexus LFA has become so desirable that its market price now resembles that rarefied tier.
“Sub-1,000-mile” means the car has less than 1,000 miles on it. Low mileage usually makes a car more appealing to collectors because it likely has less wear.
The Nürburgring is a legendary race track in Germany. Saying a car isn’t a “Nürburgring” example usually means it’s not a car with well-known track/racing credentials.
In car collecting, “preservation” usually means the car has been kept mostly original and not changed much. People value “true preservation” because it can mean fewer modifications and more original parts.
A manual transmission is the kind where you use a clutch pedal and a stick to choose gears. Many car fans like it because it feels more connected and gives you more control.
“NA” means naturally aspirated, so the engine doesn’t use a turbo or supercharger to force air in. It usually makes power by revving and breathing normally.
Single-clutch means the car uses one clutch to change gears, but it does it automatically. It can feel a bit less smooth than transmissions with two clutches.
The Lamborghini Gallardo is a V10 supercar known for its sharp throttle response and driver-focused controls. In this context, it’s mentioned with paddle shifters, which let the driver command gear changes without using a clutch pedal.
Concept
sport-o-matics
“Sport-o-matics” means an automatic transmission that tries to feel more exciting, like a manual. Some versions let you control shifts with paddles or special shift positions.
Tiptronic is an automatic transmission mode that lets you choose gears yourself. You move the shifter into a manual-like position and then shift up or down in order.
The 2015 Volkswagen Golf is their everyday car. They’re using it as an example of an automatic that can be shifted like a manual when you put it into the manual-style mode.
The Lexus LFA is a rare, high-end supercar made by Lexus. It’s special because it was built in small numbers and is known for a very exciting engine and driving feel.
Concept
white glove
“White glove” is a shorthand for a high-touch, concierge-style service level—typically meaning extra handling, vetting, and presentation compared with standard listings or sales. In auction/listing contexts, it usually implies a more curated process and better buyer experience.
They’re describing a car-body conversion where the Lamborghini-looking body is put on a boat hull. So it looks like a car, but it’s actually meant to ride on water.
Brake calipers are the parts that squeeze the brake pads to stop the wheels on a car. They mention them because the watercraft still has car-like hardware visible.
They’re saying it’s basically a jet ski setup, just with a Lamborghini-looking shell. Instead of being driven like a car, it’s meant to work like a personal watercraft.
A water jet pushes the boat forward by shooting a stream of water out the back. It’s different from a propeller, and it can make the craft handle differently.
“1.8 liter” tells you the engine size—how much space the cylinders take up. Yamaha is the company that makes that engine used in the jet-ski-style setup.
“Return on investment” just means: did you make money (or get good value) compared to what you paid? Here, they’re saying selling it for $50K seems like a good deal for a silly boat.
The hosts describe the boat as “Lamborghini-shaped,” using Lamborghini as a recognizable design reference. That implies the boat’s styling is meant to look like the brand’s supercar aesthetic, even though it’s not actually a Lamborghini vehicle.
Concept
facetiousness
“Facetiousness” means making a joke or acting like you’re not being totally serious. They’re suggesting the listing was meant to be funny.
Concept
BET listing
“BET listing” sounds like a specific kind of auction/listing on the site. They’re using it to talk about typical early traffic numbers for that category.
Concept
dilute it
They’re talking about what happens when there are more cars listed at once. If there are too many options, each one might get less attention even if the site is still busy.
Comment count is how many people are talking about the car in the listing. More comments usually means more people are interested and asking questions.
Premium listings are auctions that get extra promotion or visibility. They can attract more watchers than a normal listing, so you can’t compare numbers directly.
If a car is unusual or not many people know it, fewer people may follow the auction. That can lower the number of watchers even if the listing still gets views.
A VIN is like a car’s serial number. “Sequential VIN” means the numbers are next to each other, which can make the cars feel more special to collectors.
Concept
Paired VINs
“Paired VINs” means the seller is grouping cars by their VIN numbers as if they belong together. The hosts are basically asking whether that kind of pitch actually convinces buyers to bid.
“VIN-matched” means the seller is claiming the car’s details can be traced back to that exact VIN. It’s basically a way to prove the parts or history really belong to the car being sold.
Term
lead image
A “lead image” is the main picture that shows up first for a listing. People often decide whether to click based on that first photo, so it can be important for how the listing performs.
The Acura NSX is a high-end sports car. Here they’re talking about a specific NSX listing that’s been modified with a supercharger, so it’s not the factory version.
Term
Comtech
Comtech is mentioned as the “brand to use” for modifications that are allowed on the road. The key idea is that some setups are certified to meet emissions rules, so they’re easier to register and drive legally.
“CARB certified” means the modification meets emissions rules set by California. If it’s certified, it’s usually easier to legally register and pass emissions checks.
An NSX is a Honda sports car. If it’s “supercharged,” someone added a device that pushes extra air into the engine so it can make more power. That can make the car feel stronger and more responsive.
A supercharger is a device that helps the engine breathe better. It forces extra air in, so the engine can make more power. It’s like giving the engine a boost.
The chassis is the car’s main “frame” that everything is mounted to. If it’s strong and rigid, the car can handle more power and rougher driving more consistently. It helps the car feel solid instead of wobbly.
“All aluminum” means the car uses aluminum materials in its structure. Aluminum is lighter than many other metals, which can help the car feel more nimble. But the car can still end up heavier than you’d guess depending on design.
Aftermarket wheels are wheels you buy from a company other than the one that made the car. They can make the car look different, and the wheel/tire setup can also affect how the car drives. Fitment matters so they don’t rub or cause issues.
Comparable research means figuring out a car’s value by comparing it to similar cars. If the cars have different mods or different condition, the comparison can be off.
In collector-car valuation, “modifications” are changes made to a car from its original factory configuration. The hosts note that it’s hard to find truly comparable examples when one car has been modified and another hasn’t.
A four-digit odometer reading means the car has only a few thousand miles. People often assume that’s better, but mileage alone doesn’t guarantee the car is truly in original condition.
Stock parts are the original parts the car had when it was new. Collectors often prefer them because they help the car stay “as it was,” which can affect value.
Dappled lighting is when sunlight comes through something like tree leaves, creating broken patches of light and shadow. For car photos, it can make the car look more interesting, but it can also make it harder to see the exact shape of the paint and body lines.
The Honda S600 is an older Honda sports car from the 1960s. It’s known for being small and fun, and people still talk about it today. In the episode, it’s mentioned as part of a group of interesting old Honda vehicles and engines.
A window sticker is the original paper label that shows the car’s price and options. If it’s still on the car, it often means the car was kept as a display and hasn’t been driven much.
Term
O3
They’re using “O3” as shorthand for “03,” meaning a car from the 2003 model year. It’s just a quick way to say which year the car is.
Here, “collector” means a person who keeps cars because they’re special—like rare models or important history—rather than just using them every day. Collectors can make certain cars more desirable.
A “Fox body Mustang” is a Mustang from Ford’s Fox-era design (mostly late 1970s through early 1990s). Enthusiasts like them because there are lots of parts and different versions to choose from.
“Shelby” refers to Shelby-branded Mustangs—cars associated with Carroll Shelby and the Shelby American performance brand. In collector circles, Shelby models are treated as a distinct tier because of their performance heritage and limited production.
They bring up the Acura Integra Type S, which is a sportier version of the Integra. It’s the kind of model people look at when they want something more fun to drive.
Carvana is an online used-car retailer that sells vehicles through a digital buying process and delivers the car to the buyer. The speaker contrasts traditional dealership time and paperwork with Carvana-style online purchasing and shipping.
The Chevrolet Nova is an older Chevrolet model that was known for being a compact car. Some versions were made to be more performance-focused, which is why enthusiasts still talk about it. The episode is comparing opinions about Novas and other cars.
“283” is the engine size—about 283 cubic inches—on this Chevy II. The “SS” part means it’s the sport/performance version, and the point here is that it still has that 283 engine.
“Four barrel” usually means the engine uses a carburetor with four openings to mix fuel and air. More airflow can help the engine make more power, especially on older muscle cars.
A V8 is an engine with eight cylinders. The “V” shape helps fit the cylinders in the engine bay and it’s often used in cars that want strong acceleration.
“Hemi 426” is a nickname for a big Dodge V8 engine. “Hemi” means the engine’s combustion chambers are shaped in a way that can help it make more power.
The C-pillar is the structural support behind the front seats, forming the “C” shape around the rear side window area. On cars like the Charger, changes to the C-pillar shape and surrounding sheet metal can be a major visual identifier between model years.
The center console is the big area between the seats. It often includes storage and controls, and in some cars it stretches farther back than you’d expect.
“Fold-downs” are parts in the back of the car that you can flip down. They’re usually there to make the space more useful, like armrests or extra surfaces.
The Porsche 944 is a classic Porsche sports car. In this conversation, it’s being used as an example of a car where the back seat is something the speaker has experienced.
They’re talking about where the car’s gearbox sits. If it’s placed toward the back, it can make the back seat area tighter.
Car
GT350 early car
The Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 is a performance-focused version of the Mustang, and “early car” implies the buyer is specifically targeting an earlier production year. In this segment, the speaker is emphasizing a preference for the smaller-displacement, lower-numbered engine variant rather than the later, larger one.
Term
500
“500” is used as shorthand for a larger-displacement engine compared to the “350” mentioned just before it. The speaker’s preference suggests they’re targeting a specific engine/transmission combination for authenticity or driving feel.
Topic
Dearborn versus-
This appears to be the start of a comparison about origin or production details (Dearborn is strongly associated with Ford’s operations). The speaker then says they don’t care about that distinction, implying it’s not a deciding factor for their wishlist.
“Muscle cars” are older American performance cars that were built for power. Here they’re saying most muscle cars don’t feel awkward to drive, but this one does.
Term
hypo
“Hypo” is slang collectors use to mean the car has a higher-performance setup. It’s basically a way of saying “this isn’t the plain version.” The exact details depend on the specific car and options.
Red line tires are tires that have a red stripe around the sidewall. They’re mostly about the classic look, not necessarily extra speed. People like them because they make the car feel more period-correct.
These are wheels that are 14 inches across, with a particular “styled” design. The wheel design and size matter because they can change how the car looks and what tires fit. Restorations that keep the right look are usually more valued.
“Springtime yellow” is the name of a specific paint color used on some classic Mustangs. Collectors care because the right color can make a restored car feel more authentic. It’s described here as a creamy, off-white kind of yellow.
“GT350s” are Shelby’s classic performance Mustangs. They’re well-known and often expensive because they’re tied to racing history and are hard to find in great condition. The hosts are saying they missed out on those cars.
“Numbers matching” means the major components (commonly the engine and sometimes transmission/body tags) have identification numbers that match the car’s original records. In collector car culture, it’s a strong indicator of originality and can significantly affect value. It’s especially important when comparing cars that have been restored with correct parts versus swapped components.
“Body in white” (BIW) is the stage where the car’s body shell is fully welded and structurally complete, but before paint and final assembly. Here, the hosts are describing how a base BIW was used as the starting point, then Shelby-specific work was applied.
“Vetting” here refers to the process of verifying a car’s authenticity and history—especially whether it matches the claimed Shelby specifications. The hosts emphasize that missing or altered identification details can change how confident buyers should be, even if the overall “Shelby status” seems plausible.
“K code” is a label Ford used to identify which specific engine version a Mustang has. The hosts are saying that, based on the K code, the car’s details are likely correct.
This is about authenticity in the collector-car world—whether a car is an original, correctly built example versus a replica/clone. The hosts are contrasting how often people question authenticity for famous models (like Shelby GT350s) versus less scrutinized cars that still look convincing.
In collector-car talk, “clones” usually means replica cars built to look like a specific famous model, often using similar styling cues. The hosts mention that clone owners frequently claim their cars are “real,” highlighting the social friction around authenticity.
A “replica” is a car that’s made to resemble a famous car. It might be built from a kit or modified parts, so it can look right but not be the original factory car people think of.
A “vanity plate” is a license plate with custom characters picked by the owner. Here, the speaker thinks the personalized plate might be a hint about whether the car is authentic.
Fiberglass body panels are made from a lightweight plastic composite. If a car has a fiberglass body, it can be a sign it’s a replica or kit-built car rather than an original classic.
The Porsche 550 Spyder is a famous old Porsche race car. Because it’s so desirable, people make copies of it—so it’s a model where you have to be careful about whether a car is real or a replica.
The Shelby Cobra is a legendary sports car. Because it’s so popular, there are also many replicas, so people often talk about how likely a given car is to be the real thing.
The BMW 5 Series is a mid-size luxury car. The episode mentions “550s,” which means a stronger or higher-performance version of that model line. The point is that not every car you see is the exact version people are looking for.
The Shelby Daytona is a famous race car. The hosts are discussing whether a certain “Coop” style version is actually related to that Daytona look or identity.
A “small block Chevy” is a popular V8 engine from Chevrolet. People swap it into other cars because parts are easy to find and it’s a strong, tunable engine.
The 911 is Porsche’s well-known sports car. Because it has lots of recognizable versions, some people start with a real 911 and modify it to look like a more expensive or rare one.
The Porsche Carrera RS is a special, performance-oriented version of the 911. It’s recognizable by its more track-style look, like the ducktail rear spoiler. In the episode, it’s mentioned because the car’s appearance helps confirm what it is.
A ducktail spoiler is a small, curved rear spoiler shape that sticks up from the back of the car. It’s a common “tell” people look for when judging whether a Porsche looks authentic.
“Copper State” is a car event where lots of enthusiasts bring their cars. The point here is that at the right event, you’re more likely to see real examples than obvious replicas.
Topic
Moderator
“Moderator” sounds like a specific place or event they’re referencing. Their takeaway is that the setting changes how believable it is that a car is real.
“Car Week” is a major classic-car event period in Monterey where lots of real enthusiast cars show up. The hosts are saying that if you see a car there, it’s more likely to be genuine.
It means a person who helps manage the process of restoring a classic car. They’re involved in making sure the work gets done the right way, not just “fixing it up.”
People in car collecting sometimes talk about the “next custodian” meaning the next owner. The point is: you want the car to be cared for properly after you’re done with it.
A full-time mechanic is someone who works on the car as their main job. That can mean the car gets checked and fixed more often, which helps it stay in better shape.
Overspray is extra paint that gets sprayed onto nearby areas by accident. In restoration, a little overspray can look “right” because it matches how things were originally sprayed.
“E46” is a BMW 3 Series from a specific time period. The speaker is just saying they bought one years ago and used it as an example of buying the best you can afford.
Concept
saving that value
They’re talking about keeping a car’s resale value high. The point here is that if you use the car normally, you don’t have to obsess over how much it might be worth later.
Concept
preserving this entire time
This refers to the idea of “preservation” as a strategy for maintaining a car’s condition and future resale appeal. The speaker contrasts driving less (to preserve condition) versus using the car, implying that lower mileage can protect value but isn’t always necessary for the owner’s goals.
Concept
10 mile this and 25 mile thing
This is a reference to mileage-based comparisons—often used in online listings and comment sections to argue whether a car’s condition is “good enough” for its price. The speaker suggests that even if you wouldn’t treat it the same way, mileage debates can still influence how people view value and condition.
They’re saying the car hadn’t been driven enough, so it wasn’t fully “ready” yet. “Sorting” here means fixing the small, annoying issues that only show up once you start using the car regularly.
Term
cosmetically
“Cosmetically” means how the car looks. They’re saying the car looks great after they finished the work.
A restored car is one that’s been repaired and improved to look (and sometimes run) like it’s in much better shape than before. The host is describing how it can feel stressful to drive something that looks that nice.
Car
Ferraris
They’re talking about Ferrari cars and how the doors and entry feel more delicate than most cars. The point is that you have to be a little more careful when getting in and out.
Term
close the door
They’re talking about how you open and shut the door. Some cars—especially exotic ones—don’t like being treated the same way as a regular car, so you have to be gentler.
Term
slide, don't just flop into the seat
They’re saying don’t jump into the seat. Some cars have tight spaces or delicate materials, so you should move in more carefully to avoid damaging something.
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL is a classic Mercedes from the 1950s. It’s famous for its special doors that open upward like wings, and it’s a highly collectible car today.
Car
Mercedes Formula 1 car
A Formula 1 car is a specialized race car built for F1. “Mercedes Formula 1 car” means the Mercedes team’s current race car was there in the paddock.
A car seat is a child safety seat designed to protect a child during driving and in a crash. The speaker mentions it to emphasize that the 911 trip was practical and safe even with a young passenger.
They’re talking about the car’s leather seats/interior that’s been repaired and brought back to look nice. They mention it because they’re worried about scuffs and wear from a kid’s feet and mess.
Term
AC
AC means the car’s air conditioning. They’re saying it wasn’t working, so they had to keep the windows open instead.
Concept
roadside motel
A roadside motel is a simple hotel right off the highway. People use them on long trips when they need a place to stop and sleep.
A road trip is when you drive a long distance, often with stops, for a vacation or visit. They’re saying they enjoy long drives and that the car made it feel easy.
The Ford Explorer is a midsize SUV, meaning it’s a larger family vehicle with room for passengers and cargo. In the episode, it’s brought up because someone was deciding whether to buy one. It’s the kind of car people often compare based on what they need day to day.
The Chevrolet Blazer is an SUV made by Chevrolet. It’s the kind of vehicle people use for family trips and everyday driving. In the episode, it’s mentioned because it was a rental that came before buying a different SUV.
Leaking oil means the car is losing engine oil somewhere under the hood or underneath. If it’s leaking badly, it can quickly cause engine damage, so it’s not safe for long trips.
Route planning just means picking the roads you’ll take to get somewhere. Navigation apps can also change the route if there’s traffic or a better option.
A moving map is a navigation display that updates your vehicle’s position on the map as you drive. It helps you understand where you are relative to the route without relying only on spoken directions.
A Concours is a fancy car show where people bring cars to be admired and judged. They’re saying they’ll be at the Hillsboro one and inviting listeners to visit.
LIVE
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Bring a Trailer podcast.
My name is Alex, and I am in the studio once again with Beck.
Hey, Beck.
Hey, Alex.
Good to be back.
We are going in totally blind here.
We're making it up.
How about LFA Lexuses?
You like them?
LFA Lexuses.
My gosh.
I guess, yeah.
I mean, they sound incredible.
They look, I would argue, I think they aged extremely well.
They were always considered sort of the lower class of supercars because of their transmission.
They really missed the boat on doing a manual.
It would have been incredible.
It definitely would be like sort of Carrera GT territory, except today.
As I recall, you're about the same age as me.
They were developed for a really long time, too.
It was kind of like the third generation NSX or the hybrid NSX people were waiting for
a long time.
A little bit of vaporware.
Yes, correct.
But then today, it hit Carrera GT money.
All this time, it's been kind of the stepchild to it, but now, all of a sudden, $1.8 million
created.
It's a sub-1,000-mile example, but it's not a Nurburgring or anything.
Not a Nurburgring, not a particularly interesting color.
I mean, it's white, which is the Japanese racing color, so that's something to say for
it, but it's not particularly, I think it's no special edition.
It also wasn't a no-mile car.
It wasn't like a true preservation.
It's got a couple hundred miles, but yeah, $1.8 million.
That's shocking.
We were all pretty shocked.
There was a lot of gasping in the office.
I thought it disclosed what the reserve was, but it wasn't $1.8 million.
We knew it was going to sell.
We didn't know it was going to clear a reserve by that much.
Amazing sale.
I actually do like them a lot.
I guess it's not really the totally analog sports car era, but it is in that mix of cars.
It doesn't have a manual transmission, but NA engine, and at the time, what felt like
very complicated esoteric styling, but now I actually think it's not that crazy compared
to what cars look like now.
For sure.
Also, with that transmission, I mean, that was always the thing that I remember people
talking about, and what I was reading about was that that was sort of what was holding
it back.
It's not DCT.
Right.
It's still single-clutch.
Not a manual, obviously.
I've never sat in one.
I've never driven one, so I have really no idea what it truly feels like, but it sounds
like maybe it was overblown.
Yes.
You're a couple years younger than me, but you will remember when there was like, this
was 10, maybe 15 years ago, the huge backlash against single-clutch automated transmissions,
but I remember when they came out, people thought it was cool.
It was like futuristic technology, so that was kind of a latter-day hatred of them, I
think, in the shadow of dual-clutches coming out and being so much smoother and so much
easier to live with.
But I wonder if there's going to be a retro movement in favor of the kind of people embrace
very cumbersome old technology sometimes in the car world, just because it's interesting
and esoteric.
Maybe that'll happen with single-clutch transmissions.
Maybe not.
SMGs and F1s, SMGs, I could imagine people maybe get to a point where they're not always
converting them to six-speed just because they're relatively simple to work on.
They're not some complicated dual-clutch system that you can't find a price and force
them to work on.
It just is a manual transmission.
I don't know, maybe.
Have you ever driven one?
Which one?
Anything with an automated...
Yeah, I drove one SMG and I drove one Gallardo with paddles.
Well, we were just talking about sport-o-matics like crazy yesterday.
Oh, yes.
That was a big long conversation in the office.
Trying to think, no, I don't think I have.
I've driven a lot of automatics where I've shifted them like they're manuals.
Oh, totally, with paddles and without?
With paddles and without, yes.
Have you ever driven any of the old Volkswagen Tiptronic things where you can slide it into
the separate little gate and you can ratchet shift it back and forth?
Yeah, I mean, our 2015 Volkswagen Golf that we have, Base Golf, is our little daily that
sits at home and parked on the street for pretty much all the time.
Yes, I do burnout spot it all the time.
Second gear, second gear.
Oh, man, I just walked by that Golf.
The tires I bought at the height of the pandemic.
So I just realized, oh, shoot, that's six years.
So maybe you need to start looking at replacing them.
I went to go check them and the treads literally falling off.
Oh, dude.
Peeling off.
Good thing you looked.
So now I got to start that process.
Yeah.
That's always fun.
You'll be fine.
It'll be fine.
Okay.
Lexus LFA's, we covered that.
Should we talk other cool results after that?
I mean, we've had a couple car shows.
Some cars have been acquired by a couple people in this room, actually just one person in
this room.
So there's a couple of things we can talk about.
100% of cars acquired have happened on one side of the table.
Yes, that's right.
That was a really non-clever way of saying that.
But there's been a ton of heat on the side, a bunch of stuff that I've personally been
very excited about.
I'm just looking at this week's popular listings.
Oh, okay.
There's a lot of drop.
Two out of the four of these came out of white glove.
So I'm like, talking about them.
Talk about them.
All right.
So let's go fun first.
2025, Water Sports Car Series L.
Oh, crazy.
I was hoping you could school me on this.
Okay.
What is this thing?
Okay.
So at first glance, it looks like, what is that, a Gallardo?
Some kind of light model Lamborghini.
Light model Lamborghini.
Roadster.
Yeah.
Roadster Spider that has been somehow converted into a boat.
But it has the wheels and everything.
Has the wheels and the brake calipers.
So it looks like it got plopped down on a hull.
It's kind of like a visual trickery that you would see riding around in a bay in Miami.
It's got Florida colors, like a hot metallic purple in the front to a teal blue in the
back.
It's got a racing number on the side.
It is essentially, really it is a side by side jet ski is what it really is.
Oh, okay.
It is a fully...
Are these series produced?
This is not a one-off.
Yeah.
They made a couple of these.
I want to say they retail for around 80 or so, 75 to 80 dependent on options.
You can't tow anything with them.
You can't take more than two people, essentially.
There's no place to sunbathe on these.
This is basically for just showing off in a harbor around other yachts and boats.
It's just a stupid fun.
It's like a side by side for the water that's not a jet ski.
But it's got a pretty deep V-hole on it.
So you could really do some aggressive boating, I guess.
It's got a 250 horsepower motor and a water jet, right?
Or does that have a prop?
It's a water jet.
You can see on the rear end of the boat, you can see the little exit point for it.
Oh, yeah, because you said it's a jet ski and they all have that, right?
A super powerful jet ski, though, right?
Like a four-cylinder jet ski, it's running off a Yamaha 1.8 liter.
And this thing's just sort of wild.
It's basically...
Obviously, there's no part of this that is actually from the car.
I would argue it's actually done really well, that unless you start to really look at it,
you might genuinely think someone actually wasted a car on this.
Totally.
And so this person came in through White Glove, Sam ran this listing through, took it at no
reserve, just sort of like, if we're going to list this crazy thing, we got to make sure
this thing sells.
And it did well.
It sold for 50K.
And I feel like that's a pretty good return on investment on a boat.
Oh, 100%, especially something so outrageous.
Correct.
Like, you can't take your family on this.
This is a $50,000 joke.
Correct.
Yes, yes.
It is a joke of fun.
It is lot number 239125.
Look for the Lamborghini-shaped boat.
It's a hot pink.
You don't need that lot number.
That's why you were laughing when you were looking at popular results.
How many views?
Oh my God, I got 41,000 views.
41,000 people would do it.
Yeah, tons.
Which for some perspective...
I clicked on that listing a few times.
You were at several of those views.
Yeah, 127 comments on it too.
I presume facetiousness.
I didn't read through all of them.
Just jokes, jokes, jokes, jokes.
Lot of cocaine jokes, a lot of managed jokes.
Yeah, so funny thing though is, I don't know, I look at this a lot.
The view count ratio to watch count ratio.
So average BET listing probably does anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 views at this point.
It probably maybe peaked 2022, 2023, but a lot of that was because we had less inventory.
We have far more viewership now, but we also have a lot more on the site.
You're dividing up some of the views.
Inside baseball is we're always watching that closely because people always ask us,
how many listings can you have on the site, like when you dilute it?
And one of the health signs that we're always watching is,
do you still get healthy view count, comment count, and watcher count?
And it's been remarkable as the volume has grown that that tends to grow along with it.
Yeah, and it's also something I get questions about all the time.
People want to know, is my auction doing well?
I tell them, well, you got 4,000 views and like, well, is that good or bad?
I'm like, well, it's day one of your auction, so that's very good.
Watchers though, it's around 1,000 to 1,200 or so for your average BET auction.
I'm not talking about premium listings.
And it also depends how obscure your car is.
Well, you could have a really popular car.
They can have a low watcher account because not a lot of people can afford that.
That's what this is, right?
41,000 views, but only 1,500 watches, which is still very strong,
but it's not really comparable to the 41,000 views.
I think because this thing is entertainment.
100%.
Right.
It's not necessary.
People are not actually going to consider it.
I want to know when to bid on this thing.
But a meaningful lot of people wanted to know how it ended.
They want to come see the auction close.
So that's really interesting to me.
55 bids on it, buddy.
It actually did really well.
It did really well.
It did extremely well.
We were all impressed.
The whole white glove team was watching it as it was closing.
Client services was on it watching.
But then also the other one I was going to mention that's currently listed on this week's
popular listings, which we were brought to this because of the LFA that we started
off the conversation with, was the sequential VIN 65 Porsche 911s.
This was a study.
This was a study in does this thing work?
Does this whole approach, which we get pitched things like this?
Paired VINs, yeah.
Every day.
Literally every day someone in this company is being asked,
should I be listing my VIN matched demons, my sequential VIN this, all this kind of stuff.
And we virtually always say no.
We've only done it a couple times.
It's very rare.
This was a unique situation.
I had never seen sequential VIN like this.
The cars are pretty much identical in both first years.
Randy and I talked about this a little in the last part.
One's an alumni car too, which is interesting.
And that's, I think the tough thing for sometimes people to accept is that sometimes
you've already found your buyer.
It's you.
Yeah.
You're the one.
You're the one.
And that's really tough to sometimes get people to accept that.
They just have to throw the spaghetti against the wall.
They have to do it.
And this guy was willing to do everything he needed to.
He really wanted to try hard at this and we hired a photographer.
It was two shoots.
It was double a fee.
It was all these things.
And he had a mechanic involved and all that.
And it was just, if you notice, it didn't even bid to what the other cars sold for.
The single car did.
Yeah.
And this is a tough one.
I think part of it is a cyclical nature, right?
60s European cars are just generally speaking.
You and I love 65, not 11.
This is fantastic.
Good news.
We could have bought this together.
I know.
I know.
But big one wise is that there's just the idea that you now have the second car you have to deal with.
Yeah.
And I think a lot of people aren't necessarily in that window.
So this was, it was sad to see it not do better for sure.
But at the same time, I really liked seeing the data result.
Like this is one more thing.
We've talked about the VinMatched demons.
I did one on Like Love like a year ago or two years ago.
And it basically bid to what the two cars would have sold for if they'd gone separately.
And sometimes it's, you just sort of got to allow people to separate what you work hard to put them together with.
100%, which is really sad for the seller I get.
And at least you'll have that lead image to go with him forever, which is freaking sick.
It was a pretty good one.
It was good.
Any other big white gloves recently that you want to mention?
Let me pull them up.
Let me pull up what's currently on the sites.
We have a premium right now.
Another listing from Sam is this 3000 mile NSX Silver.
Oh, with the Supercharger on it.
The Supercharger on it.
Already bidding pretty crazy.
I was surprised by that.
Tell me the story on that car.
Quarter mil, I believe a long time owner of the Acura dealership in Kansas City, Missouri,
basically did a bunch of parts upgrades to it, including the Supercharger,
which kind of muddles the water a little bit, right?
I actually didn't even look at it.
Is it a Comtech?
Because some of them are actually...
It is a Comtech.
Okay.
So some of those are like carb certified.
They're legal for...
Right.
It feels like if you're going to do modifications, this is the brand to use.
That's what people will go with.
It's the one.
Have you ever driven a Supercharged NSX?
Nope.
Did you say that?
Yes, Zayman Supercharged is.
Shout out to our colleague, Brian Zayman, who put a Supercharger on his and has offered
to let me drive it.
I'd be very curious about it.
The chassis obviously feels like it can handle a ton more power than it has.
Those cars, despite being all aluminum, I mean, I guess 3000 pounds isn't that heavy,
but they're heavier than you might think.
Feeling heavy, you mean?
Yeah, you drove mine, didn't you?
No.
Only NSX had been in was Zayman's, but pre-supercharging.
Okay. No, they don't feel heavy exactly, but they feel sturdy.
Particularly in mine, with the early ones with 270 horsepower, they certainly feel like
they can take a ton more.
This is a later target.
Oh, this is a fixed light.
Very end has aftermarket wheels.
It's really pretty.
It's very pretty.
It's weird variable.
People come to us all the time with, I've got X car.
What do you think the reserve should be?
And when we do our comparable research, part of the challenge is variables such as the
modifications.
We can find NSXs that have four-digit odometers.
We can't necessarily find them that also have these changes, because usually low mileage
in stock is mean stock.
All it is, is it a quantifiable approximation of condition.
So if something has a thousand miles, you're basically assuming it is more stock,
more original than a 20,000-mile example.
But that's not necessarily the case.
We've seen cars with higher mileage sell for better.
You eventually just have to dive in deeper.
And so that's where it gets complicated here.
But like we mentioned, the Comtec is probably the one thing that...
And this was all done, I'm reading out.
It was all done when the car was new.
It was done in 05.
So this is an 05 NSX.
It was done in 05, and all the stock parts are there.
Kind of beautifully laid out at the bottom.
This is owned by a dealer, obviously, right?
It's shot in a dealership.
This is one of those cars that sat on a...
They probably modified it at the dealer, right?
If you find this listing on the site, lot 240117,
when I first heard what this car was, I was like,
this is great, I'm excited for the photographs to come out of it.
And when I said, well, they are not willing to take the car out of the building.
And I realized, oh, God, that's going to be awful,
because it's never a good sign when you're shooting inside.
Especially inside a dealership, because there's all these other cars.
They often have a ton of glass.
If it's like a modern showroom, it's just never going to look good.
And then the photos came in, and they cleared the space.
Like they cleared the entire main showroom part.
It looks like an accurate promotional shoot.
Yes, and it has this whole open space to it.
It worked out really well.
Photographer on this.
Let me look it up, actually, if I know Jordan Cole, trust in the machine.
He's one of the best.
And his ability to balance light in the shade,
along with the highlights is really great,
because it's got what we would call dappled lighting,
like if it was under a tree, and it's got direct sunlight and shadows all over it.
But in this case, it's all the hard lines from the window frames.
And it looks great.
He did a fantastic job with it.
It looks wonderful.
And this is the setting in which I encounter NSX as a fair amount now,
because I have, as you know, my wife and I,
we drive various collection of older used Honda's and Acura's,
and I always have, because I'm such a fanboy for Honda.
And when you go to dealerships and you're milling around in the showroom,
interacting with unpleasant salesmen, or sometimes that's not fair.
Sometimes very pleasant salesmen.
A lot of times, if it's a bigger Honda or Acura dealer,
they've got whatever cars the dealer himself,
the owner, the principal decided to buy and keep on the floor.
And sometimes that means, like in San Luis Vospo,
a S600 Roadster and a CVCC and an interesting 60s motorcycle.
I don't remember the designation.
But in Marin Accurate means the...
I think it's an O3, but it's a fixed headlight black NSX,
very similar to this, no miles.
It's the dealer's car.
It's still got the window sticker on the thing, and it sits there.
I do find that interesting.
The dealers, I come across those occasionally
when I'm talking about BAT to sellers on the phone,
dealers who appear to be at least a genuine fan of the Berlin,
that or they think it's some sort of marketing...
Are they not significant?
I think the reason a lot of these are the fixed headlight ones
that are like, oh, I've been an Acura dealer for 20 years,
the NSX was so special, and this is the end.
Sure.
Right, so they bought like an O3 or an O5 or whatever and let it sit.
So he's got the crumpled, this car's not for sale thing,
you know, on the dash because so many people are asking, don't touch.
I've got a collector and Ford dealer in Pennsylvania
who I've worked with a few times.
He did the Fox body Mustang collections years ago.
Oh, I loved that one.
It was a really long time ago.
It was a really long time ago.
He has a collection of Shelby's and Mustangs,
and he's found his father's old Mustang,
just like hunted them down and now owns it alongside his,
and he's got like a new Ford store.
So it's an interesting...
I don't think that's probably the case a lot of places, obviously,
but I don't know, it's reassuring, it's nice to see.
I don't think it comes entirely from a marketing aspect.
Like, oh, this old Shelby will help me sell new Ford cars
in my dealership so much, but I don't know.
Well, I'm curious what you think about it.
For me, it's always interesting, even if it's just to look at it.
And it's a good reminder of why you love a brand,
if you do, when there's a piece of that brand's history
sitting in the showroom, when you're getting a service done or whatever.
I like it.
Although, I'm usually happy to check out a...
Like when I went about my wife's Acura SUV,
like while I was waiting for the painfully long paperwork process
to be dealt with and to be sold clear coats and everything
that were already on the car, because it was used,
there was a new Integra Type S, and that's a car I'm interested in.
So poking around, that was fun.
I mean, that's five minutes, but I like seeing that kind of stuff.
I've had that same painfully long experience
when we bought actually that Volkswagen Golf I mentioned,
we went to a Volkswagen dealership in the East Bay.
But when I bought the...
Man, here's a tip to retailers.
You want people to come in, make it possible
if you're willing to pay retail for them to walk out in 25 minutes.
I mean, do you not want to be eaten up by Caravana
and all of these shops that are willing to just do it all online
and ship you a car?
When I bought my Benz wagon down the peninsula, I was shocked.
I was in and out in no time.
It was legitimately like...
From a Mercedes dealership?
No, no, no.
It was a sort of an enthusiast shop in...
But a dealership?
A game, dealership.
Two young guys running it.
When I went in asking about the wagon,
I didn't reference where I was from or what I was doing.
I just wanted to buy it for myself.
And they even referenced bring a trailer.
They had been on the site before, so they even knew about it.
And it was 20 minutes.
They got you in and out.
It was in and out.
Amazing.
It was all digitally.
It was fantastic.
Give that to me every day.
It was great.
It was two young guys.
They had a race in Sim in the corner, a bunch of removed tires.
It honestly looked a lot like that.
When you went, I get fired.
That's our job.
That's our job.
That's what we're going to do.
Let's see.
What else should we chat about?
I've got a couple of weirdos on my watch list,
if you want to talk about those.
Let's do it.
There's a, I can't remember where you stand on Nova's.
I know you're kind of a Mustang guy.
Chevy Nova's?
Yeah.
Chevy II, early Nova's.
I love Chevy.
No.
Okay.
I mean, I like Nova's in general.
In I think they are a reasonably attractive.
Oh boy.
Come on.
It's 64.
They're fine.
You're hurting my heart.
Doesn't do anything for me.
Red line tires.
Okay.
So this is a 64 Chevy II SS.
I didn't even know this existed.
It's a 283 SS.
So it's still the 283 with a four speed,
but with a four barrel on.
It's like 220 horse, posy rear end.
This car is, what's the color on this?
Palomar red, still got hubcaps.
It's almost like a proto muscle car.
And this is ending tomorrow.
It's a lot 240, 255.
We can put a link to it, but man, do I like this car.
How's attraction with a small V8?
That's interesting.
I know.
I know.
I think this would be really, really fun with a four speed.
It's like not too big, gigantic motor.
I'm a big 283 fan.
So anyway, I like that.
Okay.
You shot that down.
That's not good.
I'll see if I can find something more appealing to you on my list.
Bill Noon's Charger,
Hemi 426, four speed is back.
I think we talked about this on an earlier time.
That's fantastic.
Yeah.
That I can totally get by.
Come on.
That's amazing.
Come on.
Those first year 66 Charger.
Actually, this is, you know, this is the-
This is the C pillars incredible.
I believe that's first year only of the Chargers,
60th anniversary of the Chargers this year.
Well, this is obviously a big remake
right before Bullet is shot a year later, right?
Right.
The 67 looks completely different.
Some people, in fact, I'd say that's the much more iconic one,
but I love this one.
I agree.
That is, I would argue, is more interesting
and would rather have,
but the 67 is what just people know of at least.
Totally.
But come on.
Look at the interior in it.
Plus, it's still a 426 four speed.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
I love that car.
Great color too.
So that's back.
I'm excited about that.
That's already bid up to 101,000.
I know.
I know.
As I recall, this has,
let me see if I can find a picture.
That's the kind of car people tell me all the time,
I want to reserve 100 grand and they don't really understand why.
And then once you start going into it,
you start realizing what the result is.
It's got four-place seating.
Oh, weird.
Isn't that cool?
The center console.
Those are fold-downs.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it goes full center console.
Yeah, it goes all the way back.
Interesting.
It's just a little bit like a Chrysler letter series
from a little bit earlier in the-
My first thought is it looks like 928 back there.
A little bit.
I think it's quite a bit more room than a 928.
I did used to sit in the back of my high school buddies, 944,
but I don't think I've ever been in the back seat of a 928.
The problem with those,
you know, the transmission's back there.
Sure.
Transaction, of course.
Yeah, that makes it problematic.
You got anything good on your watch list?
My issue is that I watch everything that's coming through my team.
Oh, well, was this you?
Because this was on my watch list.
That was white glove.
Oh my gosh, it was.
Okay, so I was following this,
not knowing that it was a white glove listing
that your team was working on.
As you know, and as anybody who listens to this podcast knows,
I badly want a GT350 early car.
I've drifted into 67 and 68s
as long as they have a four-speed, 350, not a 500.
You don't care about Dearborn versus-
No, I got schooled,
but shout out to Adam Lucassell.
I got schooled by him on that,
one of our power cell.
What was the schooling?
I didn't realize 60.
I thought I always thought of 67 and 68s as the same.
And he was like, no, dude, the earlier ones are like, yeah, I know.
I never knew that.
And then 68 basically, he sells it entirely off.
I don't know anything about cars back.
I just know that they look the same.
Because to me, the real debate is,
do you want a 65, 66, or do you want a 67, 68?
I even kind of like 69s,
which is like really unpopular opinion.
It's like the GT350s specifically.
350s.
350s are the four-speed.
The longer you go, the more rare four-speeds are.
We actually have a green 67 GT350 four-speed.
That's like a pretty rare car.
But anyway, back to the car at hand.
Those have gotten so expensive, even kind of drivers and rough ones.
I've kind of missed the boat there.
It's interesting.
A lot of muscle cars are not awkwardly mobile, but those are.
So as Randy always tells me, just get a regular fastback.
Dude, you can make it a Shelby clone if you need to.
And this one was really calling to me.
It's a 66.
K code four-speed, you know, hypo, four-speed, fastback.
GT fastback.
It's the GT fastback.
Best thing short of a Shelby, right?
And in a really weird color that I'd never seen before,
red line tires had the 14-inch styled wheels.
Springtime yellow, which is like a cream, almost like a cigarette cream color.
It's not really white at all anymore.
Beautiful car.
I knew it was going to go well because it was restored.
I knew it was going to sell well.
Did not expect to sell for $108,000.
So I've missed the boat on GT350s and on sick K code fastbacks, I guess.
Numbers matching, super clean, very nice.
It's basically got most of the things that you want.
I agree.
So the nice connection between K code and Shelby's, you might not necessarily know,
is that the original GT350s were all K codes out of the San Jose plant.
And so you actually still have, you know, some sort of motorsport connective tissue,
if you will.
This is what inspired it.
And they used the motors that came in the case.
The motors modified them into Shelby spec, right?
Rather than putting in their own different engines.
That's why the 271 horse out of the hypo 289, it's not the same, right?
It's scratching on the door of 300 for GT350s.
I think it's 306 or something like that.
Yeah, okay.
So it's not the same, obviously, in so many different ways.
However, this is with a base spec, right?
This is the body in white, if you will, that they were taking from it and then applying
their own VIN to it, which we've had a lot of fun talking about those.
Yeah, you saw the controversy on the one that's live,
which I really like 50 years in the same family, but it got hit at some point.
Yeah, there you go.
And the front fender, like they pulled the, you know, tag, the Shelby tag off the other
fender, but the underlying tag is not there.
And if somebody pressed the seller to remove, this car is live and ending right now.
And we actually, in an effort to be fair, like we reset the bidding when we found all
of this into the seller's credit.
They took all new photos and it all got revealed.
A lot of these cars got hit, whatever.
It's at the Shelby status is not in doubt, but that front valuable tag is not there.
So we reset the bidding and it's now bid up to 150 again, even when missing that, right?
The vetting is important.
Yeah, but this K code, you're not wrong.
This is the, I think even at 108, it sort of makes sense because of what's happened
to Shelby's, right?
Like, would you rather have this at 100 or a 66 GT 350 for 200?
Right, right.
You might really want to visit.
I do, I actually, but you know what the, the advantage of this car is over the Shelby.
No one's ever, ever going to ask, is it real?
It's real.
I know.
No one ever.
I know.
Whereas it doesn't matter how real your 350 is.
People are always going to...
You can say it's real and people won't believe you.
And I'm sure people with clones say they're real all the time.
Take your tag off right now.
Totally, totally.
That would be tough.
That would be tough to deal with.
Whereas this, like, it looks that good that even the lay people would be like,
that looks like a really nice Mustang.
I might not say it's a $100,000 Mustang.
That's fine.
But at least no one will ask you if it's real or not.
Quick sidebar, Mount Rushmore of the is it real conundrum cars.
It's Cobra.
So it takes a nerd, it takes a nerd to know that a Shelby Mustangs,
like most people who come up to you when you're driving a Mustang,
fastback or just like cool Mustang,
then there's like a subset who know that it's a Shelby look car.
And then there's a subset of those people who have the balls to then ask the owner
whether it's real or not.
But a Cobra is maybe more well known as a replica.
So funny enough, like a year ago.
I would never ask.
Like I, I always wanted to determine it, but on my own.
I mean, Cobra is, I would never even assume it was possible.
You assume they're all fake.
Someone's not driving a million dollar cars around the street.
Even if I was in Monterey for car week,
I'd probably still even assume it wasn't real.
I saw a green one with a blue plate and an old guy driving it.
It was kind of rough about six months ago on 280 down by the airport.
And I was like, oh, that's real.
It had like a four digit California blue plate on it, like a vanity plate.
And I was like, oh, I bet that's real.
But most of the time I assume those are fake.
In the SF Chronicle, like a year ago,
they had some little hot story about how someone had crashed their Shelby Cobra in Napa.
And the photo was posted by the CHP about like, you know,
you're not a racer today, boy, whatever it was.
And it was broken fiberglass.
It was broken fiberglass.
Totally not aluminum.
And I'm not the type to comment on news stories at all.
But I used the freelance for the Chronicle and I didn't know the writer,
but the story had just gone up, you know, that afternoon.
And I wrote them a little message saying, hey, just a heads up.
Because the reference in the story, like these cars typically sell for over a million dollars.
Oh, stupid.
A million dollar Shelby Cobra.
No, they did not.
So I messaged them just saying, dude, just a heads up.
I can't tell if it's a Kirkham or a factory five,
but it's definitely not.
Definitely not even a super four.
Yeah.
And so I messaged him saying, probably a replica,
you can tell by the fiberglass body.
And very kindly the guy responded, said, you're like the third person.
Because Shelby people are the worst.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So those are probably up there.
The other one that comes to my mind is 550 spiders.
Interesting.
Oh, I see.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Replicas.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And or speed, speedsters.
There's enough speedsters that maybe not.
904s.
I mean, any.
Yes, 904s for sure.
Any fiberglass Porsche, obviously.
But then 550 spiders, sure those are fiberglass,
but those definitely always going to be around.
That's probably the highest percentage of you can guarantee it's a replica.
Correct.
Yes.
You don't even ask.
Right.
You wouldn't ask because it would almost, you'd look like.
There's not a ton of Shelby Cobras,
but there's more than there are.
Oh, sure, for sure.
And plus also, they just, I think with 550s,
the real ones aren't necessarily all out here either.
They're more likely to be still be in Europe.
Yeah, 550s, Cobras, man.
T350s.
Do you think there are more Cobra replicas or GT350 clones?
That's got to be the highest number of cars.
Like the Cobra replica has to be the highest.
That's the most popular replica of all time.
The most popular replica.
Yes, I would agree with that for sure.
Because, I mean, the sheer number of them that we see on the site,
we have a whole model page for that.
Whereas if you search the term GT350-style on the site,
I can't imagine it would return nearly as many listings as what we have in Cobra.
I want you to answer two questions.
How many Cobra replicas do you think we've listed?
Holy crap, it's more than I thought.
And how many do you think are live currently?
I'm going to guess, I'm going to go high.
I guess there are five currently.
That's exactly accurate.
Is that how you say it?
There are five live.
Because I can basically think of five different manufacturers of them, essentially.
Yeah.
And the specs are so different on them.
Like some of them have big blocks and some of them are 289 replicas.
And some of them are, you know, they're all over the glass.
Aluminum, carbon fiber bodied.
All the carbon fibers are pretty rare.
Completed auctions, I will go 500.
1,109.
Okay.
Amazing. Have you ever driven one?
Nope.
Never driven one.
I don't even really have...
You know what I want, of course, because I'm such a contrarian.
I want an AC Eseca, which is the...
Which is the Coop version of the Ace that the Cobra is based on.
I also like Aces with Bristol Motors.
Does the Coop version have any of the Shelby Daytona Coop?
People definitely...
No, not at all.
But people definitely converted them and put 289s and 260s and I think even like
probably small block Chevys and 50 GT350 style Mustangs that we've listed.
Although we're a little careful.
That's a looser, goosier turn.
And there's also some sellers who don't want that.
Because it might have like the script on the side, but it has nothing else.
And so you can't really call it that.
It's like when there was a big fat...
Oh, here's another one.
Another big replica issue would be Carrera RS's 73 Bill.
But that's like the GT350.
You're using a real 911 and then cloning.
But then again, if you saw a Long Hood 911 with a Ducktail spoiler and Carrera RS
script on the side...
You always imagine it's fake.
What do you think it's fake?
That's always...
No, you always imagine it's fake.
But they made 1500 of those, so a lot of them are actually real.
And it depends where you are.
Like when I went on the Copper State with Zach and there were seven of them.
I'm like, oh, those are all real.
When you're in the right space for it, for sure.
And that's actually one that if I saw around Moderator and Car Week,
I actually would give it a good chance of being there.
Totally, sure.
Totally out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A setting matters for those.
Okay, so just to close the loop, K-Code guy was stoked, right?
He must have been.
He was thrilled.
I mean, reserve, again, not going to disclose what it was, but it certainly wasn't.
It surpassed it by a considerable amount, yes.
And he was hopeful he'd have the car for a long time.
He's a restoration commissioner for it.
He was hoping for a lot.
Classic case of didn't really want to sell, would love to never have to sell,
but considering where he was in life and what he needed from it,
it was time to move on.
And a nice thing about, I get this question all the time,
how do I make sure it goes to the right buyer, right?
Because a lot of people are looking for it.
You and I have joked about this term before, but the next custodian.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That one makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit, but I, but you do,
I feel this even too, like, you know, I sold one of our colleagues, my GT3,
and like you do think about it, right?
And you think about what they're doing with the car, right?
So you do care.
And particularly a car that you've either owned for a long time
or you've done a lot of work to, or you really poured your heart and soul.
Absolutely care about who's got it next.
I mean, in a public marketplace, you can't control it.
However, it's why I have to avoid divorce.
My wife's probably going to listen to this, but I'll say it anyways.
You can't choose who the stepfather or mother is to your children, right?
That's tough.
It's one more reason why I'm avoiding divorce.
That's a totally back.
It's one of the things.
So, but I would say that the person who's willing to pay the most
is probably most likely going to treat it the best
because they're the most heavily invested, right?
It's not a guarantee, but it's probably the best person for it.
And so I would imagine if someone's dropping...
Somebody who's like, I gotta have that car.
I've gotta have it.
And I'm willing to compete on a national stage, sometimes an international stage,
and pay more than anyone else and set a record yada, yada, yada.
They're probably going to treat it very, very well.
Are there the cases where it's a multimillionaire
and this is a drop in the bucket and they're not going to treat it well?
Sure.
But then again, probably that person has indoor storage.
Probably have a full-time mechanic and all that kind of stuff.
Do you have a dream, we've talked about it before, of buying one of these
over-restored muscle cars where the underside, they repaint the red.
You can see the red.
Yes.
The right amount of overspray, perfect amount of...
I do have a dream of buying one of those and then just driving the crap out of it
and ruining all that underside work that was done because there's a glut of cars like that
and actually not that many out on the road.
Well, this is a poor comparable, but when I bought my E46 years ago,
this is scaling to my affordability level.
You told me, just buy the nicest one that you can get.
And I'm like, buy.
I don't really want to because I have my kids in a parking lot on the street
and it's going to ruin it.
He's like, yeah, ruin it.
You're buying it.
Use it up.
Let it go on to the next person.
Don't worry about saving that value to it.
And you can essentially absorb the value through your use of it
and through not having to worry about it.
And that's, I mean, Seinfeld has said this.
Great advice that I don't follow, but it's great advice.
Whoever gave that to you.
Seinfeld gave a similar thing of, he loves it when people don't drive cars
because then he can then buy it and not have to have worried about preserving this entire time.
100%.
People gripe in the comments all the time about that.
10 mile this and 25 mile thing.
And that's such a shame.
Like, sure, you wouldn't treat it the same way, but guess what?
Now someone gets it.
Correct.
That's a little bit what's happening with my Ferrari.
It's like so nice.
You've seen it now.
We've got it here in the shop.
And because it wasn't driven, it wasn't sorted.
So it's actually taken a ton of time to get all the little things
that a person who's not driving it regularly wouldn't notice.
But that stuff's all done.
And then it's cosmetically so nice.
It's like you're driving around and like, it's my first car that's like a restored car.
It's really nice.
How do you feel about it?
Because I hear that all the time on the phone.
It's like, well, I bought this car, but it's just too nice.
Yeah.
I'm worried about it.
How are you feeling?
It does hurt to drive a car that's that nice a little bit.
I've made this mistake a couple of times.
The GT3 was really nice as you knew.
But I did drive it a fair amount.
Yeah, you hauled that.
But it's a little different when it's a modern car and this parts easily to find it.
I think it's so nice that it can afford to take a little bit of abuse here and there.
Like when I get in and out of the seat and like I'm starting to break this little plastic thing.
What I've noticed is Ferraris are, they actually are.
They're Fred G. Lay.
They're Italian.
You notice it.
You notice it.
Yeah, you notice when you're doing those things.
And I think I told you this anecdote earlier.
What I really notice is that when non-car people interact with it, I'm like,
oh, be careful how you close the door.
I'm like, oh, just slide, don't just flop into the seat.
Not on the glass.
Not on the glass.
Totally.
Well, because everything is, you know, the little door, everything's like fiddly on that car.
So I've adjusted to the esoteric quirks of weird cars, but like your average car person
just wants to be able to slam the door, you know?
And I'm like, oh, you can't do that on this one.
And that does feel lame kind of, you know?
Yeah, that's, you feel like you're kind of gatekeeping the experience.
Totally.
Sort of like, you know, this is, you should be treating this car how I want to treat this car,
which in a sense you do.
I try to not do it very much.
I was letting kids crawl around it and on Sunday and stuff.
That was, I remember, oh man, flashback to, I think it was 2019.
We were at the first velocity event.
The one where we had the alumni gathering?
Alumni gathering at Sonoma Raceway and Mercedes F1 team was there.
Oh, yeah.
This is right before we sold the 300 SL from Randy and Gentry.
And my assignment for that event was photography.
And the 300 SL was there.
Doors were open.
I think another Gullwing came for that.
Yeah, a white Gullwing came up.
And then right in the paddock next to us, they had that modern Mercedes Formula 1 car,
so Heritage.
But they also had the center steer 55 Formula 1 car with the closed bodywork.
Remember that was there?
Photos of all that.
But there was a moment there where Randy had his gray SL parked,
sort of just in the alumni parking area.
And doors were open and just some kids crawling in and he's crawling all up and over.
And at some point the dad is like, oh, I'm sorry.
And Randy's like, nah, let him go.
It's a car.
That's so awesome.
It's a car.
I try to tell myself that and balance it.
It's a car.
Like, that's what it's meant for.
It's meant to be used.
My kids have like understanding explicit rules with the 911.
Oh, really?
Oh, yeah.
There's like, you touch this, you don't touch this, you put your feet there.
I mean, honestly, like I'm struggling with it.
But I drove that car from LA and I brought my six-year-old son Enzo with me.
And he was sitting in a car seat with his feet on the beautiful restored leather the whole way.
And he was eating chips in there.
And honestly, that's what it's about.
That's more important than anything else, having him along for the drive.
How did he do on that road trip?
Loved it.
How long was he in the car for?
We drove it from Riverside to LA at like near Universal Studios.
That was only like an hour and a half drive.
It's too loud for us to really talk very much and the AC doesn't work.
And so it's like windows down on the freeway.
And I brought his Nintendo Switch for him to play, but he didn't play it the whole way.
He was just kind of quiet observing it all, looking out the window.
And then day two, we drove to Santa Barbara from LA.
That was maybe two hours gorgeous along that coast there in Ventura.
And then from Santa Barbara back to San Luis Obispo, where his grandparents,
my parents live, that was another two hours.
All those silent, not much conversation out the window, windows down.
It was warm.
I mean, he wasn't gleeful, but he didn't seem bored or anything.
And then we did a straight from San Luis couple of days later all the way up to San Francisco,
so a four-hour drive.
So it was pretty big.
You know, I mean, I don't know what that is.
That's like 400 miles total, something like that.
Yeah.
I mean, we did eight hours from Palm Springs to SF in the wagon.
In one day?
In one day.
Two stops.
I don't do that anymore.
It was...
If we have that little trip, I'm like, we're staying somewhere,
even if it's like a roadside motel in the middle.
I was amazed.
My kids did so well.
They did so well.
So well.
We had an iPad and they watched it for a little bit.
The second we turned off the iPad, they both passed out.
Yeah, that's good.
They can't really do the switch.
They get some little carsick, that sort of thing.
But in the Benz wagon, like it's just so quiet.
Yeah.
You can do eight hours in that car is not eight hours in a...
But you did only two stops?
Only two stops.
Wow.
I was so proud.
That's amazing.
How long were the stuff?
Was food, at least one of them, was stretching the legs?
Was one of them and gas was the other one.
I used to, when my older two kids were younger,
we used to have to stop at parks sometimes because they'd get too amped up.
Sure.
And I'd have to like pull out my phone and be like,
where's a park in Greenfield, California where I can let my kids go nuts for 30 minutes.
Good for you, dude.
I was very impressed.
They've shown some resilience in those long hauls and it's made it quite good.
The big one was getting over the car sickness.
Yeah.
That can be tough with kids.
Actually, we've been doing more.
We were kind of committed to flying even when we went to different parts of California
for a long time.
But we've been doing, especially as soon as we got this new Acura,
we've been doing a lot more driving.
Like when we went to Disneyland, we drove it.
We did stop each way.
But we drove all the way to Northern LA on one of the halls and like that car is so comfortable.
It was great.
It was easy peasy.
I love road trips.
Yeah.
I'm liking it more and more.
I have very fond memories of doing road trips as a family when I was a kid.
Our first big one was we rented a Blazer Red SUV because we hadn't bought our 97 Ford Explorer yet.
And my mom wanted to know if she would be okay driving an SUV.
The Ford tourist station wagon had just blown up.
There was leaking oil everywhere.
I think it only had 100,000 miles on it, but it was just toast.
And so we hadn't bought a new car yet or maybe that car was still, you know, Olympian long.
And so we rented that and we did our, we still talk about as a family all the time,
it was the big national parks tour.
We had like five national parks over, well, let's say it may have been over two weeks or it was like a whole two weeks.
That's kind of a dream trip of mine.
It was incredible.
All in the West?
All in the West.
Yes.
We did a big loop.
Yeah.
Arches, Bryce, Zion.
Where's Arches?
Utah.
Okay.
And then we did a desert valley.
We ended in Vegas.
We did one night in Vegas.
Oh, did you go through the Grand Canyon?
Went through Grand Canyon.
Yeah.
Okay.
I saw, I joked that I went to the Grand Canyon, I didn't see the Grand Canyon.
When we got there, it was filled with fog.
Oh, wow.
That will allow us.
Interesting.
It's the only time you've been?
To Grand Canyon.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Only time.
Oh, wow.
I haven't been back.
Well, there's an excuse to go.
Totally.
You could do the reverse loop and start there.
Just the reverse loop hit Vegas both ways.
Yeah.
Hell yes, brother.
It was supposedly when we got to Vegas, I was like probably nine years old.
And the first thing I saw, I saw the pirates jumping off.
You know, what is it?
Treasure Island.
Treasure Island.
There it is.
I saw the whole show and I immediately turned my parents and asked like,
why weren't we here?
Oh, 100%.
100%.
I've just seen like the best that the West has to offer.
And I'm just.
It's very popular to hate on Vegas right now.
And it just makes me double down on my love.
I love it there.
Yeah, I've seen that story.
And I think there's some spite towards all of the growth it's received.
I mean, I'm personally hurt by this because they took the A's and the Raiders.
I know.
And they're about to take something else now too.
I think that they're taking a basketball team.
Well, they've pivoted away from gambling, which is really interesting.
Well, because sports gambling went national.
Which I love because I like going there for the really cool hotels
and like kind of all hours drinking and eating.
And I don't know if there's a better collection of restaurants in such a small area as there is.
I still love going there.
They're working on that high speed rail going from LA to Vegas.
That might be an interesting lifeline because I think people are realizing that
while you and I might like doing road trips, most people shouldn't be driving for hours at a time.
And so having that high speed rail, the difficulty is that once you get to Vegas,
like getting around sucks.
It's horrible.
I mean, I'm not going to sit here spending my whole time validating Vegas.
People don't like it.
They shouldn't go.
But I think one of the things a lot of people don't like about it,
maybe even particularly people younger than us and the generation younger than us is
it feels so fake and phony.
And that's actually what I like about it.
It feels like an escape.
It's always been.
You just have to take it at face value.
You know what I mean?
That and there's arguments of it's gone.
So it's real.
It's not that different than Disneyland.
Disneyland is also hyper fake.
If you look at it, right?
Disneyland is horrifying, right?
It all depends on how you frame it.
And they're leaning towards making their money off of the wealthiest visitors.
Less so the Disneyland's like that too.
The Disney's are too.
Tell us a touch about that though.
Thank you.
No, thank you.
My kids want to go again.
And I'm like, they can probably only do that once a year.
We kind of went a field of cars there a little bit.
I did love, we, our family did.
They had a series of Volkswagen vans.
We had a van again that we drove across country, picked up in Europe,
road tripped all over Europe, drove across the country.
And then they bought a Euro van with a manual transmission
that we drove up to Banff and drove up the West Coast.
And I loved that stuff.
And I think that did instill in me my adult love for road trips,
which I want to try to instill in my kids a little bit.
Yeah.
I think that there's something also just, it feels kind of like a cowboy.
You're loading up the wagon, the literal or proverbial wagon.
You get to prep the machine, make sure, you know,
you get to be sort of responsible for persevering and making it through to the end.
I like that too.
You get to sort of lean into some maintenance.
Route planning is fun.
Route planning is super fun.
I mean, the, the big book that used to do way better than having the phone
out the distance, but then again, at the same time,
my kids don't ask me, are we there yet?
Yeah.
They just look at my phone that's hanging on the dash.
I don't even use.
Will you say to me, oh, we're an hour and 20 minutes away.
That's what ends up, okay.
So sorry, I forgot about this part.
He had my phone, like I didn't need directions to getting to my parents house,
but I set them for him and he loved, he was counting down the whole way.
This many miles, this many, and when we're in my wife's car,
you know, I always have the screen up because I love navigation.
I don't usually have the navigation activated,
but you can see where we are on the moving map,
which is like it comes from airplane days, right?
And he loves that.
He loves seeing and you know, it shows where traffic is going to come up
and he's always alerting me like, oh dad, there's some red coming up.
So I do think instilling a love of maps and knowing where you're going
and being situated in, you know, the world is actually like a really important life skill.
A lot of adults kind of don't know where they are sometimes
and I couldn't imagine living that way.
That's a challenge also.
It's the classic case of your skill set is being depleted
because you're relying upon the technology.
Totally.
And I'm a total fault of this.
I won't lie.
I use maps sometimes going through just the city and like...
Because you want to find the best route.
No, sometimes it's because there's portions of the city that I...
San Francisco is divided in such a way that if you grew up in a certain part,
you don't ever see the rest of the city.
Correct, yeah.
And so I grew up on the northwest side and like,
the sunset's easy to find your way around,
but essentially otherwise south of the park or south of the slot,
market street, like you just don't know and things like everything turns in different angles.
Yes.
And so I will sometimes, yeah, I'll use it even though I probably could figure it out,
but you should be flexing that muscle when you can.
And I try to, what I really try to do actually is I'll bring up the map,
I'll figure out the route and then I'll try to memorize it.
Same, I do the same thing.
And then I'll close it and then I'll just drive it.
And if I really have to, you can find it quickly in a recent...
Left on Missouri, right on 16th, yeah.
I try to do the same thing.
And then your eyes are up and you're looking and you're recognizing landmarks.
When I was younger and even up to when I first met my wife,
like we'd go to a city and I'd remember a restaurant I went to with my dad.
And she'd be like, what was the name?
I'm like, I don't know, but I know roughly where it is and I'll just take us there.
And she'd be like, how can you do that?
And I'm like, because when I was nine, I was looking out the window and paying attention.
There wasn't anything else to do, you know?
I get that with sellers sometimes where we'll be like,
all right, so we've made a deal on the reserve, they pay the listing fee,
we hire the photographer and I'll ask the seller, hey, by the way,
can you give us the full address and where the car is located?
And what I'm hoping for is 123 Maple Street, San Antonio, Texas.
They'll say, oh, it's three blocks down past city hall.
When you see the green garage, you've gone too far, hang a left.
That doesn't help anybody, but that's how they think.
And I'm really sayable, your photographer is just going to put this into Google Maps.
But that's going to disappear sometime and I find charm in that,
past the white picket fence.
Man, I love that stuff.
Pilotage was my favorite thing when I was having a sectional out and being like,
okay, I see that reservoir, I see that set of pi-tension power lines.
I love that stuff.
That was freshman year in college for me was you hopped into the cockpit,
you're there with your flight instructor, and you'd open up the map,
and they'd basically just ask, where are we going today?
Totally.
And the whole point was they want a base skill set of you need to be able to create
a flight map, you need to be able to create your return and do all of the...
Wait points, are you on your...
Yeah, totally.
It's not until later into your schooling career that you are being given
actual destinations, and you then actually route plan.
They want your basics to be making it up as you go,
so that if you have to make it up while you're going later on,
you're not freaking out because it's back to basics.
Yeah, nerd stuff is my favorite, nobody cares.
All right, anything else?
Do you have any events coming up?
I know we had three this last weekend in partnership with the Motoring Club here in
San Francisco, and then one in the UK that we're going to talk about on our next episode,
Randy is going to talk about that.
Howard just got off the Cal Melee.
I'm going to talk to him so our next episode will be both of them talking about
Big California driving event and then our BAT event in the UK.
And then we also had a big event in Florida with our local partner,
Bullet Motorsports, Jonathan, who we love, and that was apparently a big success.
So that was in South Florida.
We had one last year also with K2, another partner of ours,
but a little bit further north in Jupiter.
Anyway, exciting stuff.
We've got some big announcements coming, but we're not...
Nothing's been announced on the side, I just checked, and you would know better than I will.
I was in a meeting right before this talking, we're going to try to do a big announcement
where we announce a couple of them.
We're going to have a very crowded Q4.
I can say that a lot of exciting stuff happening in Q4 that you know about,
but the public doesn't.
But we're going to try to announce it early so people have plenty of time to plan.
A lot in October, a lot in November.
A couple other things, I mean, we're going to be at Road America again this year
in a slightly different format than last year.
We've already talked about that.
We'll be at the Hillsboro Concours, BAT Will Be.
Would love it if you would come down and stand in the tent.
That's not really a car show, but we're a sponsor of the event
and we'll have a tent there and talk to people.
Have you ever been to that?
I'm embarrassed to say that.
Wow, San Francisco local like you.
Well, how about standing in the tent the first time you go?
Maybe you and I can take a lap around.
So that'll be cool.
That is in June.
Oh, and yes, McQueen's is the big one I can announce.
That's in Delaware next month.
I believe that is up on the site.
Peter Guida, we love him.
McQueen's is his dealership.
He's a local partner.
That's going to be a big one.
Hopefully we get a bunch of people out for that.
That is our local partner.
He's an enthusiastic guy.
You met him before?
No, but I just found the announcement post.
Yes, May 16th at the end of the classics.
Peter is great.
So anyway, that'll be fun.
We're doing a lot this year.
We're busy.
Yeah, a ton.
I mean, a mixture of mostly meetups,
but some alumni stuff as well.
Yeah, we're trying to do some different stuff.
And again, that more to come on a couple of really unique events
that we're going to be having later in the year.
New things for us, but that's good.
Trying new things.
Absolutely.
Thanks for doing this as always, buddy.
Any parting shots?
Get out and drive your car.
Keep the sticky side down.
Thanks everybody for listening.
As always, we appreciate you feedback,
questions, concerns to podcast at bringitrailer.com.
We will catch you next time.
About this episode
The hosts bounce from a jaw-dropping Lexus LFA auction result to a Lamborghini-shaped watercraft, then into a string of collector-car debates about sequential VIN Porsches, modified NSXs, Shelby authenticity, and Cobra replicas. Along the way they weigh originality versus use, compare dealer buying experiences, and even drift into road trips, map-reading, Vegas, and upcoming Bring a Trailer events. The throughline is how enthusiasts assign value, spot real from fake, and decide whether to preserve a car or actually drive it.
This week Alex and Beck jump right in with nothing much on the agenda, but overcome that hurdle to cover how the LFA has evolved in the market; peeling out and peeling tires; waterborne Lambos; viewers vs. watchers; a study in twins; sedentary Hondas; two very different takes on the modern dealer experience; whether a GT350 is truly necessary; the Mount Rushmore of "is it real?"; a practical argument against divorce; a practical argument for driving the wheels off the nicest car you can find; letting people abuse your precious; an impressive performance by Beck's kids; taking fake places at face value; and, most importantly, instilling the road trip spirit and a love of maps in one's offspring;
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