Lotus Carlton Review; 2025 Chevy Blazer Drive; Q&A

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alright folks on this episode of the podcast Zach and I make

Preparations to go yachting

We also talk about a lotus Carlton that I just had a chance to drive for the first time and a Ferrari 360

That's up on bring a trailer right now, and we give a very thorough review of our Chevy Blazer rental car

It's the smoking tire podcast. Let's go. I

Paid all my bills with this pen yesterday, and I was it was so satisfying this pen writes really nice

It's got a nice a nice flow. It's got a good nib and a good flow, and it's really like just satisfying to look at

It's because you know why it's like

It's like inside out glass

Right like member like like bubblers. Oh, okay

Remember when they started blowing when you like you'd have a cheap one like a cheap shitty bowl

It would be like you could feel the texture of the

Decorations on the outside and then the higher and stuff was inside out right the decoration is on the inside

And you have that layer of clear glass that like

Magnifies yeah, yeah like a clear coat on a car, but like better

This is that where the decorations on the inside, and then you have a clear layer or whatever resin

That gives it like a depth. Yeah, if the clear wasn't on there would be like a very prickly

Thing I'd be strange pens fucking stupid boy, are we idiots?

Love to collect things. Yeah, no, I mean like I don't really ever see a full collection going on with the pens because like but

but I like

Cuz I you know like like I should I should get one for Marco because he writes all those checks

Like if you're gonna fucking if you're gonna go analog like go analog like how would you define a collection like how many pens

Well, it's the same as a car right for more. I

think it's like

man, I

Think it's like a mindset

So when you start when you like yeah, probably it's probably four or five, but then when you're like

Actively seeking them. Yeah, that's it's like when you start to hit the forums when you start to look at auctions when you start to

plan your

Next year's California pen show experience like if you were but if you had if you only owned

Three cars at any time, but you rotated they're all like enthusiast cars

Yeah, and you rotated them

Every six months or a year. Are you a collector or is there a different term for someone who moves like art?

You know art from Radwin

We're not he sells his cool car like every six months. Yeah, don't like 80 of them

So I don't think you're a collector. I mean, I think I think you know you to be a collector

You must have a collection. You must collect you must yeah, you must act now

There's I don't know how I'm what the death if there is a definition of number of things that is a collection

It's probably more than three

What is it? What is like the diction? Is there is there a dictionary cutoff or collection?

I mean this is gonna be like what's the definition of hypercar or supercar like that's

Just as a group of things a group. Yeah

Three to me isn't a group five six that becomes a group

right

Where if you have enough of something where people start to question your sanity and motives sure you probably

Have a guy says a group is two or more, but the dictionary Oxford doesn't say that so I'd go with Oxford

Technically a group probably is two or more

But if you had if you have two of something and refer to it as a collection people look at you fucking side-eyed right it

Seems like you're boasting a little bit right like overselling it

Well, I don't think that means but you think it

Yeah, you need a little you need a few more. Okay. Yeah. All right, so you have two pens right now

You're a pen enthusiast. I think enthusiast. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, when you cross over into four

I mean, I have obviously more than two pens

Mm-hmm, but I have like but two pens that were made for the purposes of being your art if someone has

Two Priuses and three enthusiast cars. They have three cool cars. So if you have Bix and stuff in there, I'm not counting those

I'm talking about these things. Maybe the one other fountain pen. Yeah, I know I've got these

I've got I think one or two other cheapy fountain pens and then I've got a series of

ballpoint nice ballpoint pens either from tactile turn our collab partner or

that were like

quality swag from either press launches or

Like Grand Seiko things like that. Okay. Those are okay. You're an enthusiast right? Yeah

Yeah, but if you're gonna pay bills by writing out the checks and I which is old school, but I love it

Then fucking you know get a get a pen

Yeah

When I get to I'm not brave enough to like travel with this kind of thing yet though

I'd probably lose it if I traveled with it. Oh, that would be

My desk. Yeah, that makes sense. That was my dad used to be like that. I look like these nice pants

I lose them they fucking I have a beck for 30 years and I was like, all right, never buy a nice pen

That was the lesson I learned. Sure. I get it

wasn't quite accurate, but um

It's fucking exciting weekend because it's boat prep. Yeah weekend pack. Yeah, lots of small things what but like

Did the last time we went sailing five years ago

We

Should have on the very last day

Made a list we should have like yeah fucking don't forget this

Here's a little here's a lesson that a thing that you could bring it's all you know

I do that every

Every camping trip and burning man and the number of times I've remembered to go look for that list the next time is like 20%

Yeah, yeah, so like the only the one thing I remember from our last trip was like basically bring

No nice clothes. Yeah, don't even like I

Remember trying to shower and then put on a nice shirt for dinner and like

Instantly sweating through the nice shirt and going well, this was silly. Yeah, I'm bringing one of those

Yeah, and the rest of it is like like I'm gonna be in board shorts all day 95 all day every day

Yeah, same like fine, you know, I did buy I bought

like swim leggings for snorkeling and

Like a shirt so I don't have to worry about

Accidentally getting burned, you know if you snorkel for like two hours straight

Yeah, the back of your calves for sure turn to a ham. Yeah, I don't want to do that. Yeah, sure

So for those of you, I know I do I'm talking about Zach and I are going sailing

We're going for nine days

on a

big fucking

48-foot catamaran in the British Virgin Islands, which is where I went to sailing camp when I was a kid and

And

How how does wealth and privilege perpetuate itself?

Well by my parents being able to send me to sailing camp

I got a license that allows us to go charter boats as an adult

Which is an incredibly high value vacation that we get to have for not much money through because I got this license

It's sailing camp fucking 30 years ago. Yeah, that's true. You know what I mean? Yeah

That's crazy that like who would have thought that like that at the time

Like at the time I was having the best time. You're having fun at sailing camp doing a thing

Yeah, and learning to scuba dive and all this other like great stuff, but it was like it was a fucking hoity-toity camp

I knew it. We were sailing around the Caribbean in a flotilla of boats from the moorings

Made a lot of great friends ended up working there for two years after I was

18 and

And now we're essentially going to go sail as adults the same route that I sailed as a kid

Of course a lot of it's gonna be different because after the 2017 hurricane

But these islands got pretty fucked up and there was a real like a real like rah-rah to rebuild

And they've apparently rebuilt them like nice like they're apparently great so stoked, but

But like it was but but just that that I did that as a camp and that it actually generated a thing of value a

Tangible thing of value that we could go back and use later. I mean the ROI is still negative overall

I think you like the amount you've spent on going to camp

And then the amount you made it working at camp any amount we spend saying I'm not saying it's profitable

I'm just saying it's a it is a thing of value. I would say anybody listening

This is the best way to see a tropical place

I know you've heard me say it's like 58,000 times Matt

But no, yeah, if you're listening and you have access in like the time to go get a sailing license

It takes a couple weekends. Yeah, you can then take friends and family on a the most amazing tropical vacation for far far far

Less than you could if you had to pay a captain to be there. Yeah, like yeah, just do it

It's fantastic and it's not even just paying a captain on a boat like this

You have to pay a captain and then give them one of the rooms. Yeah, so you have like less

You know what I mean, you gotta hang out with them the whole time you go either way and they're on your you know

Not huge boat. Yeah the whole time so which is probably fine if you're a captain in the Caribbean you're probably

You know you're used to that best case scenario

You're literally captain Ron, but you know short of Kurt Russell himself

We watched him below deck to prepare for this trip

And I noticed that the captain has the best job because they just go to their they they sail the boat

They don't talk to the the celebrities really or the people who rent it

They go to their cabin and just go to sleep read a book and let the staff who are 23

Deal with the folks staying up late drinking alcohol. Yeah, they do that

Yeah

Well, if you're if if you're a real captain on a real commercial like commercially operated charter yacht like that

There's like that's like training training. You need like adult level training

You can't you can't have gotten that that that lesson at when you're 16. It's no, no, no, yeah

No, but our buddy Tim who's coming on the boat with us

Came with us the first time around and was like I want to be able to do this and then did like

You know it was a few weekends and you know and got himself a captain's license as an adult too and now he can do it

Yeah, but like it's

shockingly affordable and awesome so and

even

even like

Medium terrible countries the part facing the ocean is really nice

The ocean looks like the ocean, you know and the reefs look like reefs for the most part with some variation

Of course, they're like, you know, the water is it's gonna be blue and yeah, it's just gonna be gorgeous and the Caribbean has

More consistent winds than Tahiti like in Tahiti where we were last time

It was insanely beautiful and I can't wait to go back there

But we saved money by going in like a shoulder season where the weather is very pleasant

But the winds aren't so great. So people who have more budgets like to go in the high season where the sailing winds are really good

We did that trade-off in order to have like a sick experience for a better price

And I think was worth it in the Caribbean and this time of year the winds are like super-duper consistent

So we can expect like 10 to 15 knots like all the time and the sails are only like two to three hours

You know because the islands are pretty tight. So so it should be really nice

I hope anyway, but like yeah, I'm trying to think of like all the things that we need and I'm like

But I know I'm gonna forget stuff

I just accept it is that is your coffee grinder a burr grinder or a blade grinder

It's the blade. Yeah, all the portable ones kind of are

I think I fucking gave it to somebody as a donation of some kind which is it was dumb

I'll never find one like that again. You know

The other option is just grind coffee at home the day before you leave and it'd be pretty fresh

Yeah, we can do that too. Just grind a big couple pounds into a

Like a gallon bag, I guess or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, that's probably a good enough move

Yeah, I'm super fucking excited to go sailing. It's like I

Mean, I guess that it's like an RV

But like a much better more spacious RV that like is parked in a much prettier place

You know like well in the it's like an RV in terms of it's a road trip where you don't have to unpack and repack

Yeah, which is lovely and you can stop where you want

But you have your kitchen and you can just like jump in the water and it's like it's like every time you stop

There'd be a hiking trail or waterfall right outside the RV. Yeah, it's great. It's great. There's and there's

Yeah, the the bvi is a good time. It's so it's like pretty much the biggest yacht charter destination in the world

Oh, they're been there. It's it's extremely

Typical Caribbean fucking vibe fun beach bars

Secluded, you know coves

Good winds, you know

Islands fucking vibe. Yeah mad shell. Cool. Yeah, it should be really nice

But I'm interested because I was there before the hurricane to see how it's how it's evolved

But it's like this is literally where we where we would like all fly into when we were in fucking high school to go to this camp

It's like, oh, there's the beach we found the playboys on and there's the beach where we can you just pull up action quest

Which is the a really lame for name. This is the coolest. It sounds like a game show on Nickelodeon does doesn't it?

It's the coolest camp with the lamest name

But this was it

Obviously, it's still going

Adventure camps salient scuba diving since 1986 dude

Um

This this is a fabulous program if you want to spoil the shit out of your kids

What can I say like?

But they was really safe. It was like they really cared a lot about about safety and stuff and and you can

You can become a professional scuba diver at this camp. It's just pretty cool. That's right. I did I went from I went from never

even like having touched a scuba tank over

Four summers to being a professional scuba diver

There it is the British Virgin Islands camp

That's a professional meaning like you are qualified to lead dives an instructor. I became a diving. Yeah diving instructor

Yeah, I guess I guess dive if you're a dive master

Which is you can lead dives, but you can't certify other divers

That's where you become a professional because you that's where most people stop because they're not teaching they're just guiding

Like Marty right dive master Marty the shaman shout out to him a guana safari tours

But yeah, you could become an instructor as well

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Fucking awesome mad specialties. Yo, so that's the route. We go you start on tortola and then you pretty much run a

Counter counterclockwise you start in you start in

In what looks to be the anus of tortola right in the middle to the right to the dot to the right

Freud would have questions for you this one the south side south shore

Sorry to the right the one to the right down down down the other side of the fucking island that that one there you start there

And then you go southeast to the little chain of islands and work your way clockwise or counterclockwise

I'm sorry counterclockwise around there

So we will we'll get it. We're gonna have to choose on the fly if we want to do the onigata

Which is far out. It's an interesting one, but it's like a long it's longer sail each way

That's on the wind. I guess well it depends on the wind and it also is like

You know, do we want to hang out an extra day? Do we want to buffer ourselves? It's pretty flexible. So

We can do what the fuck ever

Yeah, so so and actually so see a Yoast van Dyke on the left a fan emailed me

Today, and I'm sorry. I'm not remembering his name right now, but emailed me this morning

Now there's a bar on use Yoast van Dyke is a drinking island

All that there is to do there is drink its bars on beach. That's what the I'm and there's a there's a

What's called like a guest list or something on the wall and

People this fan stopped in and pre-bought us a round of drinks at this bar

Whoa, and we just we show up and I guess I show my ID or something to say

I'm the guy really person and and we get a round of drinks

So I'm sorry I've forgotten your name, but thank you for the round of drinks at Yoast van Dyke when we get there

So that'll be fun

So

Yeah, it's a good. It's a good island that island cool. Yeah

So so anyway, that's what we're gonna be doing see some dolphins. It's kind of a whale

You know it's kind of like driving. We're gonna do a podcast on the boat. Yes. We'll have yacht cast

So that'll be fun, but dude also I

Well

Not gonna say it moving on okay

I

Drove a lotus Carlton. Yeah, let's talk for an hour ago

I've heard so much about this car. Yeah, specifically from watching Jason Kameez's video, but you know, it's also Lotus

So you hear things. It's a funny. It's such a funny

Lotus because it just it doesn't it doesn't feel like a it feels like I

Want it to be like a hold-in is what I really kind of wanted

For those who have no idea what a lotus Carlton is it's it is a sedan

Based on I think it's called the Vauxhall Omega. Oh boy. Fatty is brown must be very angry

It's something we said in the live stream and has to chime in

It's a it's a it's a British saloon car

Very DTM

That for a moment was the fastest sedan in the world. Yeah, it's a twin turbo six

And in line or V

It's funny. I don't know. I think it's a V. I think it's twin turbo V6, but I believe it's

375 horsepower

That's a lot dude. I work for the year Wow this car is very fast

So we're selling one on on bring a trailer. It's not up yet. It's gonna be up soon and

Geez 375 horsepower in 1990. Yeah

Wow

This thing this car rips

It is it's right-hand drive obviously because it's British and has a

What feels it it's basically a Corvette gearbox

So it shifts like a Corvette, you know with your left hand clutch is very light. It has the same

Steering wheel is the 80s AMG's that four spoke steering wheel that AMG was using

It has a good ride

The the steering is a little it's no little 90s, but the car feels light on its feet

Good seats nicely bolstered. Those ones got 75,000

I believe they're kilometers

Pretty sure it's all kilometers. It's a 24 valve in line six. Yeah, 3.6 liter and

Yeah, twin turbo. I mean that's a youth. I

All right 375

Yeah, 375. Yeah, what's the diva torque number there?

No, but I'll find it. Don't worry about it. It this thing, you know, it's a it's a you know for 19 pound feet

Yeah, you're 1990

1990 for listening. That's that's more than

Corvette ZR1, right effectively. It's Corvette ZR1. Wow 1990. Yeah, might be more power

I think it might be more power than a Corvette ZR1 Corvette ZR1 would have been 375

Horsepower

But being a naturally aspirated V8 it probably was less torque. It was at 370 pound-feet of torque. Oh, yeah

So significantly less

So I mean this thing dude, I put the hammer down in second this car is fucking fast really fast

This is like a GTR

Which uh, sorry, which was kind of like a skyline. Yeah, it's like it's got real

It's got it's not quite as like slick as a skyline a skyline if you drive an R33 or R34 like this is like a

2012 BMW 335i like it feels like an inline 6 that's 20 years newer than it is

This is very smooth and very fast and powerful, but it doesn't feel quite as smooth as that

But it was real quick. Here we go. Yeah, there's that's that steering wheel you recognize that

It's not bad. The spokes are small as far as four spokes go. It's not the worst

It's not the worst

It's just the same one that the that the AMGs were using. Yeah

What a cool thing. Yeah, I'm a power man

And actually this one has a really had a really nice interior and it's like it's it's not a lot

Not squeaky or rattly and things worked. Actually, that's mostly true. The AC does not work

But a really fast car that would be a super cool sleeper

you know if you've kind of

If you've kind of had everything else, you know and you're comfortable with

With a real DTM e-car that like only a few people like absolutely lose

Like a sneaky M5. Yeah. Yeah, it's fine. The power is made at 5,200 rpm. That's low in the rev range

Do you know what it rev to?

60 mid-sixes. Okay. I mean, it's it's yeah mid-sixes. I didn't take it to red line

I probably shifted it somewhere in the fives, but this thing was humming along and

Then it had a long, you know a really tall sixth gear because it's like a Corvette gearbox

Yeah, so you could just kind of loaf it along on the on the highway

It's kind of Corvette power band just makes more more horsepower. It reminds me of that

That Callaway twin turbo Corvette

I drove that had like fucking super-duty torque. Yeah power curve looked like a diesel. It was like peak torque at

2,400 rpm

We had a lot of modern M cars do now, but back then it probably felt a little strange. Yeah

Like my car if you look at it, you can see almost you can see like the cylinder head in the line six

Same with RVs flow of the of the air this I don't know where is going. What like

There's a cylinder head somewhere. This is a charge cooler on top. So I mean obviously you're so look here

You've the airbox is on the left side of the picture. Yeah, and you've got this laundry ducting

the drill and reducting that goes

Into I guess the each turbo's got to be down here each turbo, right?

And then the well

No, hang on that's because that because that goes that on the top

It goes through the through the throttle bodies into the charge cooler

Right that box is the is the intercooler. Oh

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. All right, so it goes from the airbox to the charge cooler to the throttle body

Into the sill right yeah

There's a lot of piping in here

I think there isn't plastic covering you know like a lot of modern cars now

Like they'll have the turbo is cast with the exhaust manifold. So like maximize that response

I think looking at this picture. Don't yell at me internet if I'm wrong

But it looks like all of though like the boost covers quite a distance, you know, there's a lot of like shipping

Internationally, we call it long boost

They would mark it like why track Pontiac, you know, it's a big car. No, no, it's wide track

This would be a long boost like long drink. Yeah, what a cool thing. I like it

Look how much weight you could save by having a lithium battery. Holy shit

It's probably just the wide angle of the photo, but that battery is like insane

Look at the size of this tank

Folks got to take one more break because support is coming in hot out the microwave from

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It's gotta be windshield. Yeah, that goes coolant overflows here overflows there

This is a is that a huge windshield? This is a windshield fluid tank that is larger than a standard car battery Wow Wow

I guess you really um

Want to make sure you always have it? I guess that's that's strange. That's a lot

Maybe they maybe in England you need it more than here

It's got pretty good shape to it

This reminds me a lot of the I remember the Ford contour SVT sure now is blob era of course in terms of design

But this is like the rear-wheel drive early version of that this reminds me of that infinity G20 T

Which was also Nissan Primera, but it's a little bigger than that. It's also got that need like Nissan Cifro

So sort of the what are the like early 90s like not like a maxima XSE like the Nissan oh, yeah

Mid 90s Nissan styling to it, which I suppose was was taken from this and not the other way around

What was that going real drive right this car Cifro, yeah, sorry the Carlton. Yeah, that's one of the big

Yeah, the infinity, you know, whatever I 20 T

Front-drive car like a lot of those things. So this is a little rare in that regard. Yeah

cool

That's fun, but that G20 T was underrated. It was nice car. Yeah. Yeah, they handled really good

I drove a modded one on a one-take. I'm like, this is a sleeper. No one's really talking about. Yeah, they're all right

Yeah, and my buddy Devereaux and a call in high school hit a raccoon in about a hundred miles an hour and

Other than needing a new front bumper the car was fine. So I was like, all right

How's the raccoons not so fine red mist. Oh, it was not good. It was it was all was ugly just the

opposable thumbs just hanging onto the grill

They're cute it was so gross if things go right in our life

So I'm not gonna pet raccoon like 10 years

We're just gonna have a house in the middle of nowhere and we're gonna befriend a raccoon

So just gonna arrive. Yeah, I want you determine that it's welcome

Yes, and it will be and so I just want you to know what you're getting into when you visit

I'm gonna fuck my god. You like that's Steve. Yep. He's fine. Yeah, the prepper slash animal rescue error is really approaching

Man dirt cheap in Lancaster

Where are we looking at dirt? We're further one place that has trees and stuff. Oh true for the north. Okay. Oh up north

Not like not like idle wild. I mean ideally I want my own tunnel. It goes into Canada, but it might be too cold there

But yeah, probably different state. This is a ways out, but just expect raccoons is what I'm saying

So anyway, you should buy a lotus Carlton. Yeah, I don't know who the fuck works on a lotus Carlton

A man fortunately, it's not my problem

I just my problem is to tell you that I drove in it is very very fast. You need a Nigel. Yeah, I bet you like

Charlie would know

Which Charlie oh yes, you would know who who could work on very true. Yeah, and it depends on what state you're in

Yeah, it's gonna be one of those things was like one guy and when they retire like we're all fucked

Like if you're in your

God if you're in your like 20s right now

You should be

Finding weird cars and learning how to keep them running and being the fucking last guy or girl in America

It's really that can take care of these fucking cars and you will have a customer base for life

Did you see there's a story a few months ago about this girl was like 15 and she started a carburetor repair

She goes in one track. Oh, okay. I'm not ready for track Riley's rebuild

Yeah, I believe it's like it went from her doing it to

Hiring a staff of other like high school women to do it and then her brother takes it over while she goes to college like

You know people need carburetor repair and fewer of them

And so she had a successful business by the age of 17

So yeah, get out there fix lotuses and carburetors are I mean no disrespect like not the most

complicated thing like one can learn to rebuild carburetors without

Too much, you know trouble like and then you can just be the person who does that a lot of people don't do that

But if you do, I don't I don't either I've needed to do it for a long time

Yeah, I know you don't have to be a super fucking genius to do it

But I don't know how to do it so I will pay somebody right shout out to her. Yeah, I'll pay her

Yeah, and then there's the tuning of it. Which is a different story. Yeah, that's a whole other thing. Yeah, Marco could probably do that

I should ask him. He could probably rebuild a carburetor. Oh, yeah

Yeah, okay, uh

Anyway proving what I just said right people learn to repair weird cool enthusiast stuff. Yeah, you always have business

Yeah, if you like you could easily be the one of like two or three people in the entire country

That knows how to you know like right now like JDM shit. You can make a

solid living

With being being a person who is an expert in JDM cars

Good point people import them and then they get them and then they don't have anybody that's ever seen one before

It was really hard for me to find someone to work on the Delica skyline not so much

Yeah, but like it's not a complicated. It's a fucking little shitty diesel

We need someone that is familiar enough with like that family of cars or engines and and hopefully you're near a city

That has that. Yeah, like if you're in Idaho

The nearest Lotus service center might be far away

But if you're in a larger state or city might be all right. Yeah, and if you if you

Knew how to if you were familiar with working on, you know, Japanese imported cars

And you were familiar with like where to buy parts for them like you could you will have a lifetime career

Yeah, easy easy because they're only bringing in more and more cool. Yeah simple not easy. They're bringing more and more

Japanese cars with the 25 year rule. Yeah, everyone's excited about it

So I think the supply of business is only gonna go up the people that are making good use of K trucks now

Mm-hmm will choose to continue keep making use of K trucks and they'll they're gonna keep being cheap

So they'll every five years they'll import a new one for eight thousand dollars and you know, that'll be their

Utility vehicle. Yeah, it's a job. I can't do and if you want to listen to one of those terrifying interviews like the grandfather AI

I can't remember the guy's name British, you know computer scientist

But they said what's a great future-proof job and he was like plumber

Yeah, the interviewer laughed and he just stares dead straight. He's like, you know complicated physically that job is yeah same with this stuff

So, yeah, no one's gonna stop pooping

It's right. Hey, I can't despite what Brian Johnson wants you to believe

We're not going to stop poop. I got probably tracks all of his defecation

And yeah, and if it you know if it drops from four to three for a day, he's like what's wrong

He's like son. Come here and give me a poop transplant. I

Watched that video where they did the blood yeah plasma like his dad and him and his son and all right

You know what they are happy. All right, I can't argue against that. Yeah, just can I give a little shout out to the

Fairly lame, but insanely fuel efficient Chevy Blazer that I rented for ice race. Yeah, let's talk about it that Chevy Blazer

Nobody nobody's talking about the Chevy Blazer and for good reason. It is a very bland automobile

but we rented one for ice race and

This is a pretty small car

That fit for adults like really comfortably your seat is very well-contorted and comfortable

yeah, and I didn't have to give up any leg room for you guys to sit behind me and

It fit like a shitload of luggage at the same time and

for I got for do the I drove that car

340 something miles during that week and I use like not even

3-quarters of a tank of fuel it got like 36 miles a gallon the whole time driving up and down mountains. Yeah

It was use yeah

I see them really really on the highways here a lot

And I'm always surprised by it because my brain is just like wired to look for toyotas

But I I see them more than I expected and now I know why there it was like it was really in terms of just being like a pretty basic

car

It was it was nice at the all-wheel-drive

Heated seats spacious. Yeah, and it was like this was pretty base other than being all-wheel drive

But it was nice a carplay worked good wireless carplay was good

It was it was very fuel efficient and spacious and it held

Four people's worth of suitcases plus two camera cases in the trunk

And I think you could still still see out the back didn't it held three people's worth of suitcases because my suitcases were already at the

Airbnb

yours Sarah's and Hannah's

Yeah, yeah, it wouldn't it would not have held all of ours

But we had a roof we had a lot of shit

It would hold it would hold four people's normal suitcases

But not four people's skiing and filming shit. That's a good point. Yeah

Those these are pictures of the electric one. Yeah, this is what we had the gas one

That is not

Not the same thing that clap the trunk is almost the same the trunk is probably almost the same

trunk is bigger and

Possibly in the one that we had well because it's probably a battery under here somewhere. Yeah, but yeah surprising car

Really surprising car the seats are more comfortable than my wife's rad four seats. Are they yeah, the front seat was okay

They were shaped better in the in the Chevy don't tell her I said that the front seat was fine

The only thing I couldn't figure out was it had

On the fob it had it clearly had a button that was a remote start button

But it would not and did not remote start you think you do do you think they disable that with the rental car?

I don't know why they would know because a lot of these are our other other rental cars had it. Yeah

It was like everything else for ice race. It was expensive that rental. Oh, just for that week. Yeah, it was like

1400 for Tuesday to Sunday fuck. Yeah, wow. Yeah, it was expensive

Uh, yeah, all right, so next year will tow a vehicle. Well, I mean look

We now know the math on it. I mean the flights were expensive and the rental car was expensive

But we you know, we say we got home

Very very efficiently and we didn't have to but I mean, you know if we wanted to make an adventure out of it

I'm not against fucking shout out to Paul Kramer who drove his 944 the whole way up there. Whoa. Yeah, that's

Incredible couple people did that someone else. I forget who else someone else I talked to road trips from LA also, but it's not my preferred

It's not my backs preferred the duration of sitting will be rough

Yeah, it's like clearly suboptim if we broke it up with content stuff along the way

But you know in both directions that could be a rad road trip and I bet it's a gorgeous trip

I bet the drive like watching the landscape changes you get up in the mountains is stunning

Well, the first half of it. We're certainly familiar with sure. It's we the first half of it is LA to

basically

Salt Lake City and then you just keep going

North from Salt Lake City rather than turning east towards Denver

Right

It's pretty much just 15 to Salt Lake City, and then you keep going north instead of turning right. Yeah, I mean I

It probably is gorgeous. You're probably really good

Continuing through the Rockies all the way from, you know, yeah mid Utah to

Yeah from from here. It's probably really awesome. Yeah, and then all the way

Yeah, and you go you drive through Yellowstone and shit. We could do that

I mean, that's a thing we could go

You know we could go to some national parks or something

But I there's there's possibly a mathematical argument for

You know, I wonder tell the spider put some put some spike tires on it. It's I don't think it would be

Hey, I don't think it would put that cool of a show on and and like I don't you know

I don't think it would you know people have seen the spider before I don't think you know

Whatever we'll see. Yeah

We'll say

it could also be like maybe if we can get someone to give us a

Luxury van slash RV type thing that could tow our trailer

And now we could you know just sort of stop somewhere like super pretty

standalone for the night and maybe even like

Live in the RV during

Ice race that might be a lot, you know, my my friend who runs Santa Cruz vans

He camps he van camps at the ski hills in Tahoe all the time

He put in heated floors and insulation. It's fine. Yeah, so and I met people at Nouveau van

And I bet they'd be happy to let us want to drive to that thing. Oh, that was the guy who was it at Johnny's cars and coffee, right?

Yeah, yeah, coffee machine if they have one that can tow a light trailer

Cuz cuz our trailer plus Manx is only 4,000 pounds. Okay, so yeah

That could be fun

We got a couple other cars actually in addition a little Carlton on we got a really nice Ferrari 360 on bring a trailer right now

It's a silver

Silver F1 car with blue seats and it's live right now

This is gonna be a good one. It's a coupe. It's very there it is 18,000 miles very well cared for car

It would be a great, I mean it's F1 so meh if you ask me

But it would be a great candidate for a swap

Because it's otherwise just aces Wow, and I think the fact that it's F1 will probably

18,000 miles, that's low. Yeah, it looks it looks it too. It looks great. I drove it today for the video and

It draw it sounds to be exhausted started up. Yeah, it sounds. Yeah

Yeah, okay, so someone buy this and then swap the trans and it's got service records going almost all the way back to new

Like 20 20 years of service right sick. Yeah, so you get this, you know, it's it it'll you know

It'll probably go for I hope a good number, but it likely won't hit a hundred. We don't we're not expecting a hundred

It would that be great, but

But and if you just you know 2025 for the swap and you got a real keeper

Yeah, this seems like the great way to get into a Ferrari

You could be happy with it for a long time. I drove it. I drove it today

I hadn't driven one in a while and I was like God these they're comfortable. They're real

They just really nice comfortable cars to drive

You just drive them all over the country drive them all the time drive them every day and there's a really comfortable car

this one with the to be just sounds really nice and

It is quick. It is definitely quick

But the the current owner bought it thinking he was gonna drive it a lot, but has a big collection

Ended up liking some of his other cars a little more driving those a little more and and wants it to go

To go to a good home someone who's actually gonna drive it

so if I had the money if I had if I had just sold the NSX and

The the Kuntas wasn't looming. This would be incredibly appealing for me to just may have made this do an offer

And keep this car

But I'm exercising some self-control and you're a city's project happening

The most we're we're we're hoping the Mercedes is gonna go well

I mean in terms of learning about this powertrain swap things. Oh, right Mercedes is is not a hundred percent certain

But Kuntas is and we think that's gon' be

So we're not we certainly are not that's a hundred percent happening and a hundred percent expensive

Yes, we're not buying Ferraris right now. That would be a very fucking stupid thing to do

So we've got that Ferrari up right now. We also have a one-owner

Mercedes 450 SL that's gonna be going up probably by the time this podcast airs. It's not up right now

We also have a 997

Carrera s cab that's going up

In a couple of weeks. It's red, but it has like a turquoise wrap on it

Maybe not for everybody, but otherwise a very nice car

So that's me. That's a bunch of cool cars going the Carlton Ferrari. Oh, we also have

Probably going up in two weeks a a black black

91 Ferrari 348

T

s which is the Targa

I

Love that car too. That would be a tough one similar money. I think for the 360 or the what would you do? I

think similar money for the 360 as is not swapped or

91 black black 348

Well, I still go 360 because the good year for 348 was 94 right the best year

That's the best year when it was becoming

The 355 all the good stuff I would do that because I bet the 360 even though the transmission is the transmission in

The corners and whatnot. It would be more rewarding and I also think it looks fantastic

I think it's a beautiful car from every angle. I don't 48's look good

I think it's cool, but I just I just preferred once we got into the 90s design more than the 80s, you know

So that's what I would do. All right fair enough either way. Someone will get a good 348 also

Can we go to the people? Yes, because

I'm out of things to talk about because we podcast yesterday too

Happens we got to get ahead y'all got to get ahead. There's only so many things happening in our worlds

Because we got to do paperwork and shit, too

We got to do what we got to do paperwork and shit, too

We don't have we we're not always out doing exciting car things we can come come back here and tell tales sometimes

We just got to pack for a trip and do paperwork. You know what I mean?

But patreon.com slash the smoking tire podcast is where you would ask your questions

It's where you watch the live stream. It's where you get the show early. It's where you get extra show

It's where you get a show without ads. It's where you get exclusive access to collabs and things such as the

very soon upcoming notice Canyon in I

Don't know even know what we're calling it. So we don't get sued, but it's the color that looks just like my car

I I pretty sure I can't call it the exact same color car, but it will be very obvious of the intent

Yeah, that that company would like a new revenue stream and you don't want to be it

Um, all right, let's see what we got. Can you make that bigger, please keel and toe says

What brand is poised to develop a cult-like following similar to Porsche in the last 15 years a

Cult I mean there's certain brands that already have cult-like followings

Yeah, developing one because that assumes a newish brand. Yeah, I think Rivian's doing the best job

I think they've they're becoming, you know, they're more like Wrangler

You know people that like Rivian really like Rivian. We've talked about this the polls despite their reliability

Yeah, first time Rivian owners their response to another one was huge. Yeah, so I think they've actually done the best job

I mean look last 15 years Tesla has a literal cult. That's a good point like we don't cult like

Yeah, I'll give Rivian cult like that means like people really like their Rivians and would buy another one

Tesla is an actual cult

they have like lunatics and

So, I mean I is not be it's not in the same way that Porsche has

Enthusiasts, I don't think Porsche enthusiasts can get a little bit overboard with their colors and whatever and be dweebs

Tesla people are insufferable. Well because the Porsche formula was racing history plus

good cars plus a consistent design and a

The exchange between like motorsports engineering and the

Publicly available cars has basically existed the whole time. Yeah, so I think to have something like that

You need a you need Corvette or Ferrari like you need a company that races and sells performance cars for 50 years. Yeah

Matt rear-ends moms

That's only true in a long time select ways not since I was 16

I

Is the price oh wait is the price difference between the forerunner and the Landcruiser based on where it's built and

Tariffs or does the Landcruiser carry on the higher standard for build quality and lifecycle of the old Landcruiser?

Or are all Toyota trucks equivalent now? That's a good question. I

Think

It's too early to tell if the new car

I didn't go on the press launch for those so I wasn't told if that was the goal

Just based on vibes. It's not

and

There still is you know that the Lexus version of it here

But like there is that old-school Landcruiser that you they still have like in Japan, but not here

Here it's like there it's Landcruiser Prado is the one that we get here

I

Don't think they're all equivalent

I do think the Landcruiser is nicer than the forerunner, but again, that's just based on like vibes true

Isn't it slightly larger? Yeah, very slightly. I think there's a three-row Landcruiser or is it not?

Yeah, so there is a little bigger

It's gonna it's the same way it was in the 90s before like the forerunner they're very close in size

but the Landcruiser aimed more at like

The family that makes a little bit more money essentially little more space little nicer materials and

That's it. You know in the in the image. They sell of it. The Landcruiser is less

Bro-y than the forerunner

To me

You know I mean what do they have a Landcruiser TRD? I forget

They know they have the over trail is is their land crew. No, that's the Lexus one. There isn't a TRD Landcruiser

There's like whatever the isn't is there. There's just like the off-road

Package something right?

Because I drove the TRD Sequoia and the TRD forerunner and they were both super bro-y

They were they were not fine to drive but in in in vibes and style and certainly in the interior

They look like a fucking UFC gym

Whereas the Landcruiser did was much more what you might say demure

Like a little a little more chill about itself

There's an article I mean if someone wants to learn from you already Landcruiser

No, there's not but there's an article I'm ocean about like the main competitor for the Landcruiser might be the forerunner

Oh, that's funny if you want that if you want off-road ability. That's funny. Yeah, Matt's Peterbilt long-nosed

Oh rig says for those of us looking to be good cat dads. What's the best cat related investment you've made?

That's a good question. I'll be reading that book, right?

How much did that change how you yeah, I guess yeah, I guess

More so than like dollars. Yeah, the time investment to like read about how to raise good cats like that like

Learning about their natural like rhythms that can't catch kill you groom sleep and like stuff like that and actually taking the time to like

Play with them and in vet like invest in their like social health is more important than any like

Actual monetary investment now for monetary investments. I mean

Shit, I mean Hannah and I spent

Deep four figures on Axel's

Surgery remember when Axel had a tumor in his lungs and like and like he had crazy

Surgery that like we did not think he would survive and he did and he lived for another like four years. That's good

that so like

like

keeping Axel alive while he clearly wanted to be alive and he beat

for a for a time that disease and

Ultimately when he got sick again, and there weren't wasn't a lot we could do for him as soon as he we thought he was in pain

We you know, we did what we think good cat parents do but

That was pretty amazing, but I mean in terms like shit in the house like cat towel just like lots of cat towers

Places for cats to go up high

Places for cats to watch the world

I mean if you're handy then the tunnels in the walls were not

Hard you literally bought the tunnels on the internet and like saw all saw all did and you know you

Anyone handy could probably do it. So that kind of stuff like you can build

gyms for cats for like very cheap like wall shelving and stuff like that. So

That kind of stuff. Someone in my building has a patio. Basically, they should like

You know a cheap easy screen that's meant exactly for this and it just covers the balcony

Yeah, cats can go out and hang out there and look at stuff and look at squirrels, but not eat the squirrels

It's good if the balcony is high enough the cats wouldn't jump, but yeah, well, they

Adventurous cat could jump from balcony to tree. Oh, okay. So they want to stop that's doing that smart. Yeah. Yeah

Fat ice a fat ice agents go home shout out to him not the ice agents

The ones that are gonna go home though. I'll shout out to them

Looking for a Cartier watch for my wife. You said they all like them true

In the three to four thousand dollar range, could I find a good condition pre-owned in that budget or is that too low?

I mean

With the consideration that I have not shopped for a Cartier watch in that price point, I think so

the most affordable ones are called

Moose day Cartier that's M. U. S. T. Which was a sort of more affordable version of the Cartier brand in the like

60s I think 60s, but now it's been a long enough that most people

don't look at a Moose day Cartier and

That is one. Yeah, but there's other ones, but look, I mean, you know, it just it just says Cartier on it

But sure usually if you're throwing bucks, if you're gonna buy a Cartier for a woman, it should be square

Hmm, like Carl Carl used to say round watches remind women of being fat

You should get a square one. So there you go Cartier tank Moose right there. That's what you want for grand steel

It's 29 millimeters. So that's for your lady

Bingo bingo fucking lifetime right there, dude

That's where that's where you're at and there you go. Bob's is has been a sponsor in the past reputable

You're probably not gonna find much in the gold variety

Because gold is expensive now. So

Cam Fez says what UK tracks have you driven and what was your favorite and which what would you like to try?

Let's see drove angle C. Mm-hmm. The Lotus test track Hethyl. Yeah, I drove Silverstone once. Wow

Oh

This is a very interesting question. What other race tracks have I driven?

Huh, I mean angle C

Remains one of my favorite tracks of all time. It had elevation good curves a view of the ocean from like that top right hand turn

It was very amazing, you know, I have fond memories there. I've watched a lot of videos shot there like that's a crazy place

And there's like no over there, but it's pretty it's also like it's way out of the middle

Nowhere and when you show up you rent it and they're just like okay, and you just never see the track staff again

Great place. Yeah. Ah shit. I don't think I've driven that many

other tracks though I

Was it some little club track near Birmingham that I

Truly could not tell you the Donnington someone mentioned Donnington

I've never been to Donnington and creamer curves. Never the thing with UK is there's so many tracks. Yeah, I've never I've really the only ones

I remember our angle C Silverstone and

What do you call it just those two right really Hethyl and Hethyl

Hethyl was kind of fun actually I thought Hethyl was neat

Tickle your pickle for a triple nickel

Wait

You're playing an automatic. I don't know that do you know the game? Can you really good as a red light green light?

You play an auto game of red light green light. What car under a hundred care you choosing?

So you want maximum acceleration and deceleration red light green light was like everyone would line up at the far end of a field

Or a roller rink they'd say green light and everyone you know you go and then when they say red light you stop within like

Two seconds or one second and basically the goal is to get across the finish line first

Without getting thrown out because you were you continue to go when red light was called

Oh, so under a hundred K best acceleration and braking so you want like a nevara

Yeah, honestly just if it's just straight line acceleration and braking you want a tycon turbo s

Effectively or under a hundred you could probably and I'm sorry to say this get a lucid sapphire

Yeah, that's what you want you if you want essentially a lucid air

The fastest lucid you get or a tycon turbo s

Right like what would beat that?

Nothing unless unless you get the car that the Swedish University made that set the zero to sixty record, right, but that's

Not straight legal

TV our Bob Cigarous favorite tailpipe configurations. That's a funny name Bob Cigarous open and waiting. No

On the car man

Well, I mean sure it does but but some are some are hard-nosed like if you have a dual exhaust

Like let's just let's just call it the California Ferrari California slash Lexus isf where it's sort of a

Assemblance of a vertically stacked side exhaust, but like just off enough that you go. Why did you do that?

See, I think it looks I thought it looked kind of cool on the island really

But I thought I thought the back of the California was so ugly the exhaust couldn't help it. Yeah, I

Think quad exhaust works for me on v8's. There's almost like a ratio of exhaust pipe to cylinder or vice versa, you know

One one, let's see two each each exhaust pipe needs two cylinders

So four banger can have two pipes a v8 can have four and

And then falls apart when you get to 12 remember when

Remember in oh two when or maybe oh one when Chevy did the Camaro SS and it was a fucking LS one the first

Camaro with LS and had a single yeah exhaust pipe. It's like bad Habibi. Yeah, what are you doing?

Terrible who thought who thought of that it looks cheap as hell

That's fucking crazy. Yeah, they did that because when you see a single when I see a single pipe like that

I think it's a v6 with a broken muffler when it sounds like that

You know, that's no good. You don't want this. You basically have the same pipe set up as a v6 Mustang or the six Camaro

So yeah, it's terrible. Yeah

Now side pipes

Sometimes good sometimes not

It has to be on an old car for the most part right well not necessarily

My opinion if you have an even number of cylinders. No, no, that's not the right. That's not right. Yes, even number of cylinders

per bank

So so v8s are

Okay with a side pipe

Ten no no yeah 12s. Uh-huh. You know what I mean? Yeah

Yeah, the exhaust out the back of a viper sounds better than the side. That's what you're saying. Yeah, that's absolutely correct. I agree. Yeah

The the the side pipe vipers sound like a pair of UPS trucks fighting each other. Yeah, yeah

Ben Yamine

Says oh Benjamin like Benjamin. Yeah, I mean yeah

Can you talk a little bit about the current state of Porsche?

Over the past year or so I've been hearing about the company's financial struggles

But that doesn't seem to jive with the current brand status virtually every car

They make seems to be the best in its class and the brand seems desirable as an outsider

It seems like they have the makings of a very profitable company. Well, I mean

That's true, but I'm not sure you have quite factored in how much it costs to develop like

multiple EV model lines that are

all of a sudden like not

Mandatory to sell I think yeah, thank you. I think you hit it lighting

You know hundreds of millions of dollars on fire

By developing an entire range of cars that you might not actually build is a real fucking problem

and a lot of their

Product although it's desirable

Stuff that isn't a 9-eleven although maybe it's best in class

It's often like most expensive in class like buy a lot. Hmm and to produce

To sell like MSRP is like this cayenne. I'm talking about like

To get one new it's like a hundred and thirty thousand dollars like

That's a lot of money for what is effectively a very normal car

Like that's not it's not that special of a car like it's a little bit nicer than the

Competition true. Yeah, and it if you already like Porsche, it feels quote like a Porsche, you know the in terms of

How it's built and whatever

And it's a nice car, but like that shit's mad expensive. So I think I think

Porsche has been riding pretty high over the last ten years as the

GT line and they across the board have been building great cars that people want but like

when

Everybody's not super flush with cash and then they're also spending all this money

Developing these model lines that may or may not ever

You know see the light of day or you know, they were it was it was gonna be all electric

Mcconn all electric cayenne all electric there they weren't going to have fucking gas

Cars anymore. Yeah, and now they have to go back and

develop new gas and hybrid powertrains

Possibly throw these electric cars in the garbage entirely

You know the cost and the cost of that because they want to do things at a very high level and do them

Well, of course, so they're gonna spend a ton of money just for I mean, this is article from road and track

In 2024 they're operating profits were

405 million dollars at the end of quarter four and last year was 40. So this is the whole like they lost 99% of their profit

they also

Their sales and delivery are down 6% compared to the year before so that accounted for 1.7 billion dollars declined in revenue

And 13,000 fewer vehicles delivered so and they're absorbing some of the tariffs, right?

Right, it's not a hundred percent of the tariffs are not being passed on to the consumers

So even as the price of the cars go up

Porsche is probably actually taking less profit per car than they would have been two years ago. Yeah

I mean, this is a very well done article with a lot of numbers

But basically they're selling fewer cars their R&D costs went way up on a bet that got changed because of

Country mandates from different parts of the world and that's not good. Yeah, so that's all gonna affect it

But I feel like I mean, they'll be fine long-term because people love their products

But they're not going out of business, but they're temporarily in deep shit. Yep

Yeah, yeah, it's more visible now because they're publicly treated or something publicly, right? Yeah. Yeah, I

Mean, you know sucks to be them, right? I mean, but they're not gonna go out of business

So have Travis pastrami on rye country day school. It's finally time someone made a rye bread joke wait

Can you look sorry?

Is it time for automakers and or journalists to better define the class of car that slots between sports car and GT and

Which of these classes including the hypothetical new sports GT class is your favorite for R&T driving events?

Well, that's funny so if we create a new division, what is your favorite car that you would put in the division?

Is that that's the question?

Oh

What well, what is is there a class of car that slots between sports car and GT?

I mean, do we need a new category? I don't think we do BMW of course would love it if we did because they like to create markets

but I

Think I think like with the invention and the proliferation of things like mag ride or adjustable suspension

You can have cars that blend that work well in both worlds touring and sport driving

I don't think you need I don't think you need to make a new class because the car can't do both

You know, maybe if we existed in a world that didn't have adaptive suspension

You could create a new one in between but like I don't that doesn't seem necessary. I

Agree, I mean to me a GT is a car that is optimized for

Long-distance driving and a sports car is a car that's optimized for handling like and there's a spectrum between those two cars

But I don't think it requires an entirely new category

To define that I mean there's cars that exist. You could plot them on the you know

What is like the full? What is the most the furthest down the GT could be?

Rafe or something right that's the most the most GT and then the most sport is like

33 RS. Yeah. Yeah something like something like that or some mid-engine the thing with you know

I'm a seven a seven or a seven six five LT or something like that, right and then almost everything else falls in between there

So which of those which is your favorite for R&T driving events. I mean these are for me

There's some track work

So giving some thrill rides to people there's the windy roads

But there's also because a lot of times I'll drive to the event and back from LA like a shitload of highway miles

Hmm, and so like what's important to me? I would lean more towards the GT because I could

Without bragging like hustle a soft car fast enough on a road and a track

And I'd rather have that and like adaptive cruise control and shit for those long transits then have some hardcore sports car

That that that doesn't have those conveniences and then it just beats me up

There's exceptions like hey you want to drive a 918. Yes, I do

But I wouldn't ask for for a GT3 RS or a

Fucking that Lotus or some kind of track day, you know special thing where it's a you know all the time

right, but like

What is a sports GT like a Corvette a Corvette's a good sports GT

I think I think it's the Corvette especially zero six lanes and both it can do both so well

You know hit a button

It's so comfortable and then you hit the other hit the button and goes yeah the track

Classify that as a sports car. I mean if it's got if it's a mid-engine car. It's a sports car

Yeah, they've just given it GT ability. Yeah, well, that's like that's something that's great about modern cars is

You don't really have to compromise although having said that I drove my Ferrari 328

Hours and hours and hours to other states drove it to Phoenix drove it to pebble like

Ken GT total it could it didn't have like cruise control and shit

But like it could there was nothing about that car that was less than totally relaxed on the highway

Kuntas too Kuntas

Although the mid-engine eliminates it the size of the trunk and the ride on the highway

I think it could it qualifies

On that spectrum. It's probably more in the middle than on the

Senna side of it. Well, especially it probably feels soft compared to today's sports car

So and it was just Lamborghinis in the 80s were never race cars

They were only ever supposed to be road cars and that fucking Valentino Balboni loop was shitty ass

Local regional fucking tarmac. It wasn't a racetrack

So they had to ride well even more so than they had to handle

In the 80s like nobody cared about handling what's your top speed and ooh the doors go up much. Yeah, yeah

Dungeons and Datsons

What are some cheap inexpensive interesting weird cool vehicles that would gain more attention at a car meet or gas station than today's

average exotics

Autozam

Yeah, around an autozam AZ1 pulling doors. Yeah, there's right-hand drive. That's 25 grand

Yep, yeah, I'll get you a lot of questions. Yeah

That's a good one. You know, I said, uh, you know, dude Hannah's deli the Delica

You can't stop somewhere without people asking about the Delica. That's a very friendly useful vehicle like that is a

We bought that truck to be a tool and like everybody loves it. It's so charming

Same with like her pow the power a figaro

Japanese shit weird Japanese shit if you got like one of those diesel right-hand drive forerunners

That'd be a sleeper, but you'd get talked to by so many forerunner. Yeah, dude

Get a fucking patrol with a huge turbo on it. Yeah, you know

Car nerds just want to see something that they haven't seen before or haven't seen in a really long time

I mean go find like a Cadillac

Simeron with

2000 miles on it that some dealer can't give away, you know, and you win a trophy with for something like that at Radwood true, you know, like

You know take it if you if you if someone sees that you've taken the effort to import a car that doesn't seem valuable enough to import like

Dude, I went to Monaco

Monaco the only car I took picture of in Monaco was like a

1983 Corvette like pace car edition with Monaco tags on it like somebody took the

Spent the money to import the worst Corvette of all time and had been driving it around Monaco for years

Like that's what I'm talking about find something that nobody gives a shit about

Except you but it's like the best and yeah people will people like me will lose their mind and not care about the latest, you know, whatever thing

Blaupunked ply of Vista says with the imminent demise of the Tesla Model X

Do you think there'll be a future for cars with gullwing doors like in demolition, man? I

Mean, yeah, but it's exotic cars not like regular cars aren't supposed to have doors like that

It's not that's not practical or useful

But I think the model X has a lot of problems with the doors

Yeah, and it's always complicated like they have to have the crash system

They have to be able to blow the doors out like it's a complicated thing for the car company to do

Yeah, but I also think they will always have a place because everyone thinks they're rad. They're just gonna be rare

Well, it's just it's it's pivoted to the more practical, but still cool butterfly doors. I mean, that's

car with a carbon tub

Ken and really should have

Butterfly doors. That's like that's a more effective door system

It is a way better door system

But I just think because the gullwing or that you have the gullwing and the butterfly door

Have been so or sorry the gullwing doors have been so iconic. They will come back. Yeah, just they'll be rare

I blow horns

What cars go from bad or mediocre to great with a few modifications?

I think any Honda Civic of any generation with like a little sway bar and a little suspension is

Suddenly one of the funnest front-wheel drive things you could drive

Yeah, a Mustang GT with a set of like coilovers a square stance wheels and like

Track pads and fluid is a formidable track performance machine that is like well within warranty

F-body Camaro's if you run

Squares dance turn in like Corvette. Yeah, that's a good way to start. Yeah, and same with the later Camaro's

I mean, they're a great track car. They got better and better. So those can surprise some people. Yeah

Miata's

They're fun, but they're very soft. I think yeah, I'm not a little right suspension setup for sure

But but but they're not like bad like cars that go from like it's hard to make something go from bad to like good

Like if it's bad, it's engineered might be engineered poorly. Yeah factory. I would say like our how about like a

Fox body Mustang with a proper Watts link put in the back of it

Like that's like a car that's how to make one of those handle like totally predictably actually

Tough one a bunch though. Yeah

It's hard to it's hard to find a car that the like the only problem is that the suspension is just a little too soft or something

You can all right. How about this a classic Bronco and the only thing you change is you give it to Jonathan Ward and write him a

Check for 300,000. I wouldn't say that's a small modification, but you're you are correct only one thing. Yeah, you only have to write one check for it

Um

The swinging tire what are some cars that had so much hype from journalists

It was impossible to live up to expectations when you drove it the Cybertruck

That's true. Yeah

So much hype is tough to live okay

This is hard because oh and five touring

Like we had one and everyone had wanted one for decades and they brought it here

But with all the technology required to make a modern car blah blah blah it was like oh, this is very compromised and not great

Yeah

Uh-huh. I think the same about the RS6 actually. I like it in very specific

Uh

Environments, but in most of them I go was is too. It's too sports car when I want to be more GT car

Yeah, my my shameful thought is that I like the RS Q8 much better than I like the RS 6

Which is my that's like that's like sacrilege like as a as a gearhead

I must like the wagon better than the crossover. Yeah, which is wagon, but actually I don't I actually like driving the RS Q8 better

Hmm

Yeah

What about that no country for old buffets

What common car feature do you think people use the least good question? I

Mean rear wiper like I I use the rear wiper in Sarah's car

And I think I'm the other person who does it she goes. Oh, that's right

I like I use it in Tycon. Yeah, and I get mad and when cars don't have it now. Oh, it's helpful

Yeah, sure things get annoyed in that in the Acura Integra type escalate didn't have it and had I was like Matt

No said no like sedan's have it. I was like, you're right. They don't

Uh

Sunroof I find that I that when I have a car with a sunroof. I don't use it very often really. Yeah

I thought you would I I'm the kind of person. Yeah, but I but I don't I don't use it very often actually

I think a lot of

who

Features that don't get used on board navigation systems

Yeah, nobody probably uses that. Yeah, we just go to car play. Yeah

The notorious jrg

That's a good one

That would be

I bet you could do it if we were to get a

Fun car in a in a jrg that would be that would be the ntrs jrg

Yeah, that'll be sick

I've been driving my fiat 500 for nearly a decade and man the highway driving ain't too smooth

Is that a short wheelbase thing a cheap car thing or a sign that my shocks are beat? Yes, probably all

correct

The answer is yes

Definitely

Yeah, it's this is the problem with driving a disposable vehicle

um

Yeah, 10 years

And and you've got small wheels

You've got a car that is uh sort of thinly put together

And your rubber is is probably wearing out. I mean, maybe it maybe your shocks

Maybe your bushings

You know 10 15 years a long time might be time for bushings in that kind of car

But also yeah, it's got a little short wheelbase not exactly optimized for highway driving

But I might have your shocks and bushings inspected. Yeah in alignment. That can make you move around more than alignment for sure. Yeah

um

Run gmc

Was that someone's answer? No, no, he has they asked this first and then wrote this tl. They are also at the top

All right. The question is tire width versus tire compound

um

okay

Would you

Upgrade your tire compound until you run out of grip

Before making your wheels wider

Uh to achieve a similar effect. That's a good question. It is a good question

I think you can upgrade your tire compound without negatively affecting your steering field. I agree

If you widen your wheels your steering will get heavier

Yep now you may or may not want that you're talking about

A c4 zr1 and a gmc cyclone

And these are cars with heavily over boosted 90s steering. So a wider tire may actually

Somehow improve that

um

But in general

You will change the steering field by putting wider tires and you will not really change the steering feel by putting stickier tires

So that's the question you need to answer for yourself. Do you just want more grip?

Or do you also want to change how the steering feels?

um

Didn't know a turbo was a fish. I like that's funny

uh

I love armchair anonymous episodes of dax's armchair expert podcast

Would you guys ever do an episode where friends or car journalists wrote stories?

That you would read anonymously with their worst or most

embarrassing stories

Absolutely would but I wonder if people could even if they took their name off of something

The internet is the internet these days. Would they be able to piece it together? Yeah, and so

I don't know. I I hope when we're all like 80, you know, we everyone just starts publishing a book with

You know worst funniest moments

Can't get sued for or I don't know that you won't affect career and whatever

I feel like the I feel like if you do something that is a funny story but not like career ending

You probably are more willing to talk about it already

Um, but I like the idea. I'm not I'm not totally against it. I rarely hear about like

Like

Like because we would know who it was. Yeah, right the audience would say I don't hear

You know, even at like dinners and stuff with other journalists

We hear about people that have crashed press cars and but then they'll they'll come on the story

And they'll just tell that on the podcast. I'm sorry. I might I flub the word

They'll come on the podcast and they'll just tell that story for the most part. Yeah

Yeah, there's very few times where it's like

I'm gonna tell you this but like you can't tell on the you know who would have the better stories the pr people

Oh, sure. If they if they could tell stories about

about crashes and

antics of journalists especially in the 80s and 90s

That's shit. Like I've heard people have told me stories from like the 89 press launch of something and I'm like, are you

That's insane. It usually has to do with professional pleasure providers

Uh and stuff like that. So those would be the stories. Yeah, it's always about hookers and drugs. Uh ball caddy

I want a second car to learn how to wrench

Uh, the priority is ease of learning. It should drive

Uh, but the driving experience doesn't really matter seven k or less

Um, their list is great crown vic ranger to coma miata. Um

well, this is

This is an opportunity here. It's

It's great that you want to learn how to wrench and it's great that you are have a priority of ease of learning

But this is still a car. It's gonna cost you money space and time sure

So although the driving experience doesn't matter

Like you have an opportunity to get a second car here and like

It it and the and the things that you list up as examples crown vic ford ranger toyota

It's coma miata civic other like crossover between

Like do you like you do you want a truck like do you want a utility truck a utility vehicle?

Like there then you maybe you want one of the truck

Do you want to uh, both a ranger and a tokoma are good good options here?

You know, and do you want a sports car miata civics?

Like those are good options. Those are very easy cars to work on as are like mustangs and kameros and stuff. Yep

Um, and subarus, I think to an extent

Legos, which is good. Yeah

Um, and old bmw's even like e 30s. Um, although 7k you're not getting you're getting a horrible rusty terrible car

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, the body might be fucked but

I I do think you should get a car that you're gonna at least

You at least think you might enjoy when it's driving

Like because if you don't drive it, it's not gonna break

Yeah, that's true

But like

Do you want to drive around at crown vic? Do you want to drive around at tokoma?

Like everything you've listed would qualify under what I would recommend. There's also

Right if you if this person wants to learn to wrench

If your goal is to be able to is your goal to be able to just repair your cars no matter what they are

To save yourself some money then any of these work

If your goal is to learn more about performance cars setup, then you go miata because now you can fiddle with alignment

They're super easy to work on the parts are lightweight, which is nice truck stuff might be a little heavier

But if you are going to be an off-road person and you want to learn about suspension lifts versus body lifts versus all these other things

Like then you should get that one of those vehicles. So all of those are

Things to think about before you buy one of these but yeah, this is a car

You're going to want to use it as a car

You know there you're so it should be right and if you have a sports car already

Then I would say get a truck because you can do truck stuff. Yeah, if you have a truck get a sports car

Yeah, but sure you could yeah ranger tokoma

F1 you know old F all the 7k is not getting you probably I would say

I'd say get something that's manual because then you can learn if you had to like how to change clutches and shit like that

And that's just a piece of uh

Knowledge that would benefit you in the future. Yeah, and this is the last one fountain pens and beard

Trimmers

Wide open question. What's fun for you both?

You've seen driven and experienced a lot

Uh, so what is fun?

I mean a lot of things are fun. Yes, so many things are fun adrenaline's fun

That's that's my favorite. A lot of times work is fun. Yeah, that's true

you know, I I don't

I don't constantly like yearn for vacations because I generally enjoy the thing that I'm doing most of the time

but like

You like you go you do a lot of hiking

Yeah, not as much as I'd like but I like I like to go camping and get away from stuff

You like reset. I find that really enjoyable. Yeah, I like to

My resets are involved just enough doing something and just enough nothing

So like we just talked about the beginning of the show say the sailing sailing is a great activity

Because you're doing something but you don't need to be

Laser focused on doing it. You know, I can sail a boat and read a book at the same time

Which is nice

skiing

Golf like I like to I like, you know, I gotta be doing something. I can't just like sit. Yeah

Road trips are fun. Even though that's work sometimes

Cooking is fun

Seeing new places is fun. That's great. Yeah. Yeah, meeting new people that are from different places. Lots of things are fun

Yeah, trying new food is fun

Lots of things are fun. So many things

Fortunately, like

Most of those things are not expensive that we just listed. Yeah, that's true

Most I feel like I'm having more fun in at this time of my life learning to do a thing

Whereas when I was younger, I would assume I should be able to do the thing immediately

And if I couldn't I'd be like mad about it

So now I enjoy the process of learning getting better at something and then having a skill. Yeah

I think I I think I got lucky a little bit in that when I got grounded for getting my first tattoo and had to teach myself guitar

No, I taught myself a T to guitar using like a fourth grade level book. That was pretty humbling

I I kind of reveled in being shitty for a minute. That's great. That's a very good skill to have

It's okay to be shitty at stuff. Yeah

um

Thanks, everybody. We're gonna uh, we're gonna see

What it's like to podcast on a boat

It should be fine. It should be very relaxing. It should be fine. What's the worst thing that could happen?

Yeah, well if the boat sinks while we're podcasting it's good content though, you know true

That would be a fucking headline wouldn't it? We'd have to shoot a center card from the ocean

Yeah

podcasting while sinking. Oh, no

He's all the anchor. I got the insurance. Yes. Um

Cool, man. We appreciate all of our patrons asking such good questions today

Super best of luck buying yourself a Cartier watch out there

And uh, we'll call we'll call you in from the boat next week. Yeah. Have a good time until then and we'll see you

In our board shorts. Bye

Lotus Carlton Review; 2025 Chevy Blazer Drive; Q&A

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