Luftgekühlt 11 & The Story of American Tobacco

Hey guys, welcome to Overcrest. I'm Chris. And I'm Jake. And what do you not see behind me, Jake?

Blue 9-Eleven. The Blue 9-Eleven is gone. Do you know where it is? Gone, sold forever.

Adios. Wow, that probably shocks a lot of people. No, it is in North Carolina.

You know, we have the rally out in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, I guess.

Appalachia. Appalachia coming in general region. Yes. We're leaving a week from less than a week.

It's Monday. A week from yesterday. We're leaving on Sunday. We leave on Sunday to go get everything

Anyway, so we shipped the cars out there and the van, well, not your car because

you suck, but we're shipping the van. Mine 11. I was taking one for the team by not shipping it

out there. I think you just love the van. That's what I think. I think you want it. Both things can

be true at once, Chris. Two things can be true. You suck and you love the van. No, because I was

taking one for the team and the van. Yeah, I love the van. My car is out there. We got at the rally

in a couple of weeks, but what also happened this weekend was Luftgekut. Right. I believe it's

Luftgekut. I'd love to hear it German. Yeah, I'd love to hear it German say it. Luftgekut is

like some like just say it angry. Luftgekut Elf. What? Number 11. That's it's Luftgekut 11. Yes,

it is. And it was in Helen Durham, North Carolina on the American Tobacco campus. So we took our

Jeff's car was there. Stephanie's car was there. My car was there and we took them to the show.

Tell me about the Tobacco campus. Was this a specific company like Tobacco company that this

is their campus and they just changed the name to American or was it like several different

Tobacco companies were there? Let me tell you about that a little bit. So to understand it,

you have to know who. Wait, really? Is this what we're getting into? It's like we know each other

by this. Washington, Duke. Yes. That Washington, Duke. Wait, I don't know this. Washington, Duke.

Oh honey, look at that. The tiniest picture of Washington, Duke ever presented by Mrs.

producer. It is the size. Hold on. Yeah, it was serious. That is Washington, Duke. He was not

born a Titan, though he did grow into one. He was a farmer who fought in the Confederacy

in the Civil War. He got captured. And after the war, he went to prison. And then he walked

134 miles home to Durham County with $3 in his pocket, one mule and a barn full of tobacco

leaf that he couldn't sell. So this is 1865. This is the same decade that saw the typewriter

patented the completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph. And there was another flood of inventions

that changed how the America worked and lived. It was the dawn of the 34 miles to walk. Yes,

he walked. How far is 134 miles geographically speaking? Like I don't know how to explain

134 miles. I just, I know how long 134 mile is. I don't know. I'm not driving, but like,

is it from where we live to, I guess it'd be Eau Claire? Yeah, no, Eau Claire is closer than that,

I think. It's 290 miles to Milwaukee. Okay. So, you know, a third of the way to Milwaukee,

basically most. Yeah, that's a ways to it's a long ways. It's at three miles an hour. Sorry.

That's a brisk pace. Three miles an hour would be a brisk walking pace. Next to is next to was

donkey. So this was basically the second industrial revolution. And Duke came right home into that

shift. What are we looking at here, Mrs. Producer? What is this? Is this this is homestead? You can

turn your microphone on. What are we looking at here? Okay, so that's that is your house.

Not a palace by any means. That is, I mean, that's a four by four house. You know,

there's four rooms on the bottom floor, four rooms on the top floor. Really, really basic.

How do you know this is a four by four house? Because you just know that layout. It's a rectangle

house. Yeah, it's a rectangle house. And you go right in the middle. And there's a hallway.

And there's stairs. And then there's four rooms on the bottom, then four rooms on the top. I can

almost get it yet. I'm just guessing. See, look, I thought she was gonna bring up like a blueprint

for a floor. Actually, there's a grand foyer. And yeah, no, but look at the door in the middle,

which has a stair. You know, then you've got the windows in the front and the windows on top.

There's four rooms on each fireplace in the middle. So the heat radiates out. That's just how

these old houses were built. Just how it was cheap, efficient, easy, get the most space,

totally cramped, not great for hanging out, all the partying and the entertaining, I think,

was safe for for the rich. Okay, so the story was barn just for the barn. Yeah, barn party.

That's how they all burned down because everybody got drunk. It wasn't the cow that kicked the lantern

over. It was always some drunk neighbor. Yeah. Yeah. So the story goes is he had that he had

that barn full of tobacco and nothing to do with it. So he was wrapping it by hand and selling it

to soldiers as they passed through. Why does he have nothing to do with it? Nothing to do with

what the tobacco like what what was the tobacco for? I'm guessing the economy was pretty bad at

that time. No one was buying perhaps. At that moment in history, few in the South had seen

what was coming. Most planters were still clinging to the past tied to the soil and skeptical of

machines. The second industrial revolution was just beginning to take hold in America's cities.

But in Durham, this farmer's foresight bridged the old world and the new. He wasn't a scientist

or a mogul yet, but he was early. He understood that before he understood before most men that

the age of machines was not a fad. Once it started, it would swallow everything. And he had the nerve

to ride the wave instead of running from it. He saw his way out there out of the dirt floor. You

The trees were spreading. Cities rising in tobacco. One cut fine and rolled tight should move with it.

His sons James and Benjamin were sharper yet and hungry. They wanted to turn their

father's gamble into an empire. That moment came with a machine, a young Virgina names James Bonsack

had built a contraption that could roll and cut cigarettes faster than any living hand loud,

Well, see here, I'm Mr. Bonsack. This here's my new invention, the cigarette roller 3000.

I don't think that's what it was called. Maybe it should have been. I don't think they use

the number 3000 very much back then. There was no things in the 3000s on bill. Cigarette

roller 300. This thing was the future, but most manufacturers ignored it in lieu of the

romantic rolling of the cigarettes. That's just how it was always done. But they didn't

see it that way. They saw what it meant. Domination through efficiency. They could have

deal with Bonsack's company for reduced royalties betting the farm on speed and scale. They

set these machines in motion inside their Durham plant brick buildings by the railroad

just down from where the lucky strike stack still stands today. It started small, hot

and crowded. Sorry. The air shimmered with steam, belts snapped across pulleys, and the

wood floors trembled with the rotation of the machines. But those field buildings spread

fast, leaking together in a self contained city of smoke, tunnels, power and steam. And

the hum never stopped. Okay, so our guy that walked 134 miles, he was just he didn't invent

the machine. He did not. He was just like the first to be like our let's let's let's use this

machine. This machine was jumped very quickly from machine. Yes. All of a sudden, we're

not trying to be efficient here. I'm trying to be a little bit of a patient with our guy

then that built all these buildings because yes, he became successful. He became successfully

became incredibly efficient right away. And these you could roll maybe 500 cigarettes in a day.

These things were doing 10,000 an hour. These machines are very, very, very efficient.

Would have been slow, careful work turned into a flood of productions. Cigarettes that once cost

luxury money became cheap, disposable and addictive. Durham was suddenly the center

of the tobacco world. By the 1880s, the Dukes were shipping to Europe. By the 1890s, they were

absorbing competitors one by one. It didn't take long dude. This was fast. Wow. The American

Tobacco Company was born a corporate monster that controlled nearly every cigarette sold in America.

Washington Duke used his fortune to shape everything around him and observers of the time

noticed one local paper wrote that Durham had become a city within a city humming with order

and precision of its factories. A visiting journalist in 1899 described American Tobacco's

operation as a marvel of organization where rhythm of men and machines creates a music

of modern progress. These accounts spoke of awe and disbelief, how a farmer's gamble had turned

a sleepy town into an industrial engine of the new South. Washington Duke used his fortune

to shape everything around him. Railroads, churches, schools, even Trinity College,

which would become Duke University. Okay, his sons built more than wealth,

they built identity. Durham became one of the first southern cities to rival the industrial

north, a place where ambitions smelled like hot oil and dust instead of sweat and soil.

Well, probably tobacco as well. To be honest, apparently not. Apparently it really didn't.

From what I read, it didn't really wreak like tobacco. Now, I don't know what tobacco is

supposed to smell like when it's not burning. It probably doesn't smell that bad. Like if you had a

wheelbarrow full of oak leaves, you're not gonna be like, Oh, my God, it smells like an oak tree in

here. You know, it's just people said it didn't smell like it. The campus itself grew monstrous,

alive with heated motion, a sensory storm that witnessed an era that was people struggled to

describe. One 1910 newspaper account called it a thunderous cathedral of industry where belts

spin like rivers and every surface shakes with the rhythm of creation. Another said you could feel

the floor breathing underneath your boots. And the sound followed you home. Workers remembered

wiping grit from their faces and watching sunlight slice through the dust like smoke.

Red brick walls, arched windows, iron beams everywhere. Even today, you can still feel the

scale. Back then, it was constant motion and dry air, the hiss of steam, the vibration of the

floors. Workers said it didn't smell like tobacco at all. Just used air, heavy and

I don't know what that means. I can't ask the guy what he means. He's dead.

But he means when you're on an airplane, and you have the air that everyone else has already

breathed five, it's like heavy and stale is my guess, just like heavy and stale. Yeah, that's

a worker named Sarah Jones quoted decades later remembered how it felt inside. You could hear all

the things moving at once, the belts flapping and the wheels turning the chug of the presses,

it was like standing inside of a heartbeat. Another Annie Mabean said, we talk by reading lips,

the noise would swallow your words before they left your mouth.

A foreman once described the factory as a red brick cavern with its own weather.

The air was thick, hazy from steam and cool in the morning and hot by noon.

So it's interesting that it's like it's so human and dude, the boilers at this place,

they had this room with that 550 spider in it. And it was just like they had kind of like cut the

wall open so you could see the boilers like three stories high. It was enormous. Thousands of people

worked here. Most of them were women 12 hours. Yeah, 12 hours. Because two of the quotes were

both women. Yes, it was mostly when 12 hour shifts sorting and packing leaf. One said the dust made

her eyes water all day. Another kept a damp rag over her mouth just to breathe. They bent over

tables until their backs locked up their hands blackened because the line never stopped. The

machines are what made it perilous. Fingers vanished into belts, wrists and arms burned

by escaping steam. And the air was so thick with dust it carved into lungs like sandpaper.

Accidents were constant. Belts snapped without warning. Loose clothing caught in motion crates

falling from rafters. No masks, no hearing protection and no rules between luck and endurance.

The same machines that make the Dukes rich wore people down to the bone.

Many left the factory limping, deaf or coughing, their bodies proof of what the job took. The danger

became background noise, just accepted as part of the rhythm as if survival itself was just another

piece of the machinery. Outside the factory, the cities moved to the same rhythm, market

weeks filled the streets with wagons and trucks, cafes and shooting galleries and bars stayed

open until sunrise. Wait, what is a shooting gallery? I had to look. A shooting gallery.

Okay, I was like, what are their dudes with like revolvers like standing outside like shooting

things? Are you at the bar? You're like, you're at the saloon and you just have a shooting gallery

right there? They had BB guns that you could like shoot little cans and stuff like this. Really? And

this was like a common thing. That was the entertainment. Why don't we bring that back?

That is really cool. I would love to go to the bar and have the BB gun wall. Yeah. Or like if you

can shoot like a dime off of something, you can get a free drink. Yeah, you know,

like that would be a lot of fun. String bands played to the workers coming off shift. The

factory whistle cut through it all marking time for an entire town that never slept.

That was Durham at full volume, gritty, restless and proud of what it made. But nothing that burns

that bright lasts forever. In 1911, the government broke the monopoly. The company kept running

but the edges were already fraying. Over time, the labor shrank machines replaced people and new

factories opened in other states. By the 70s, lawsuits, health scares and ad bands dragged the

industry down. In 1987, the last shift clocked out and the whistle blew one last time. The air

for the first time in a century went still. For years, the building sat hollow, broken glass,

peeling paint, rain bleeding through the roof. You could see where the machines had been bolted

to the floor as their outlines burned into the wood. Flashlights couldn't reach the end of the

warehouses. They were so big and the silence was heavy enough to hear your old breath. But

like a lot of old industrial bones, the place refused to die. In the early 2000s, it came back.

The water tower stayed, the brick stayed, and the stack stayed. The old power rooms filled with light

once again. The history of the American tobacco canvas isn't about cigarettes,

it's about belief and what happens when people pour everything they are into making something

and what is left behind then when the noise stops. And that's what we walked into at Lyft,

a place that once built a product that defined a generation, now filled with machines that defined

another, both well known for killing those that use them. So that's a little bit of a history of

the American tobacco. Where Lyft was held. I didn't realize that literally cigarettes up until when

was the monopoly broken? Well, in 1910, when it broke up and then it went out, they went out of

state made. So literally it was just cigarettes were made at the American tobacco. Yes. Yes,

that wouldn't that make sense. More or less period was them. I don't know. Let me let me look up all

their brands. Why don't you talk about like on X or or FCP or something while I look at I could I

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off road today. Looks like of course I had it and then clicked away because I was looking at

other interesting thing where are all okay. So Philip Morris, these are just brands forced

across the web. I don't know. Yeah, look at that one. There's all these like big signs of bull

drum that seems to be like the main the main brand, but it was obviously Lucky Strike. Paul

Mal was one of the ones that I saw there. Look at this though. There was this if I can find again.

So American Tech Backup Company, great, great. Yep, blah, blah. Check out these things.

Here, let me share my screen. Come on. Miss producer, can you check out like some of the

other big ones like Marlboro? Where were they headquartered? Oh, what is this? Cigarette cards.

Look at this. Oh, it came with a collector card or something? Yeah, you could get these

collector cards with your that's with your cigarettes. Weird. Why do you want advertising?

I guess it's just art. We're the largest cigarette manufacturer in the world, code of arms.

The yacht club just super interesting. Yeah. Okay.

Anyway, so this is where Lyft was and it's not quite the same. Here we go. Yeah, Marlboro was where?

Philip Morris is Marlboro. So wherever Philip Morris. Let's not let's not hyper.

No, I was just very curious about like they don't call it the Lucky Strike campus. It's the American

Tobacco Campus. So yeah, well, that's because they made different things. The ones I can think

of off the top of my head are Lucky Strike and Paul Mal. Right. Both are which are defunct.

You know, so I'm guessing Lucky Strike is 100% still around.

Well, I think it came back. I don't think it like was here the whole time. I think it came back

because that could be. Yeah. Anyway, I'm not a cigarette aficionado. I don't care about cigarettes

at all. I think it's I think it's an interesting story. Very interesting. Okay. So rise and fall

of a giant really. Yeah. And so the campus itself, like the show grounds sounds like it was super cool.

It was. It was they're in Richmond, Virginia, Philip Morris. They're all going to be in that.

I mean, it seems like a very Southern Southern thing. Well, they had to figure out something else

to do after after the Civil War from what they were doing prior to the Civil War. Correct. Yeah,

you didn't you didn't go in there. But yeah, okay, got it. So yeah, we got up. Well, we got there,

went and picked up the car and, you know, we went hung out at an event prior where you got to go up

into the up into the baseball field and they had the 917 30 sitting down above

above second base on the sitting out on the baseball field. And then like kind of concessions

and hot dogs and stuff for sale. And then in the morning, I gosh, I was I was so hung over that

first day because I woke up at like four o'clock in the morning to go, you know, to get on the

to the flight was at seven. So I woke up at 434 30 am. And previous day was my 20 year wedding

anniversary to Mrs. Right, Mrs. Producer. Yes. So I I told myself I'm unbibed. I am

bribed and I don't abide a lot. So I but I did. And I knew that I would suffer. I knew but I'm

like this is my 20th wedding anniversary. I'm gonna have a good time. I'm gonna enjoy myself.

And and boy did I boy did I pay the price and holy smokes. When I woke up at four o'clock in

the morning, I walked into the dresser. I was drunk. I was I walked up my toe on the on the

lame thing next to the bed and just to see her chest made my way to the bathroom in the shower

and I went oh my god. What am I doing? And then the plane I'm just like oh no. So the whole day

I was like I can't even barely think and ended up so I didn't get a little bit of a cure though.

I got a cure. Is it a little hair of the dog? It was not a hair of the dog. It was anger and

adrenaline. Okay. Yeah, anger and adrenaline is what cured me. So I get to the I I sent a message

to the Airbnb for the coach like inquire for code and instructions. Okay, so I sent a message.

And usually you just get in a message says hey here's all the things the Wi-Fi password.

You get that right. They give that to you and you don't have to ask and I'm like okay.

And so I sent a message nothing. So we just drive over there. I'm kind of like sitting in

front of the place. There's no number on the outside but I can see 620 on one side and 624

on the other side. So I'm like okay, so this must be at 622. This is this is the one. It's like

little roll apartments or whatever. Okay, so I get out of the car and this is my Airbnb. So the

first thing I do is I pee in the bush because I just I really had to go and I didn't think the door

would be open or anything. So I don't have the code yet and I had to pee dude. I had to pee.

It's dark. You know, it's it's 930 1010 30.

You know, we never go outside. Well, I didn't have a choice. I had to pee and there was no

choice. I assumed it was locked. So I sit there and I wait and I wait and I wait for a for a code

blah blah blah. No code can't not hearing from the person. I'm like I'll just go try and see it

had like a like a glossy touchpad and I've done this before where you can see and I've opened

Airbnb before many times like you can see it. Yeah, or 79 zero, you know, it's usually something

like that and you can you can pick it up. I've done this multiple times and I've done this to

gates do like you can feel the tumblers are loose on these these combination locks. So I go up there

and I start looking at it and then I just I'm gonna try the door doors open. So I I grab the door

to push the button and I and I walk in where this is going and I go oh shit. There's the bed is messy.

To my right, there's luggage on the floor open people's shoes and there's present on the table

and I go oh my god, someone is here. Yeah, are going like this. I'm like back away slowly. Yeah,

the fact that there's luggage though like clearly they were yeah, I go okay. So so I get out I'm

like I send a message. Send a message. I'm like hey, there's someone here and they and they respond

and they go it's no longer available. And I'm like what do you mean hello hello did you pay for it

pay for confirmation everything yeah. So I sent a message to Airbnb they refunded me you know but

I still have now it's 930 o'clock 930 o'clock 930 o'clock yep 930 o'clock and

good grief and I had an order stay so I hop on my phone right away right next to the

lift is at house with three bedrooms like a nice house someone must have canceled

someone canceled so I'm like can I please have your Airbnb oh god please and we and I got it and

it was fine it could have been really bad but it worked out where were our other cohorts I went

first so they were off doing things I left early because I'm like I'm dying god they were at the

pre event thing and you were I never recovered all day but after that I was great I felt because I

got like this I got angry and then also like yeah yeah and it woke me up and it cured so my thought

is is to cure from hangovers to get really mad and then and and just get it I think what it was

is my fight or flight response turned on as soon as I realized I was in someone else's adrenaline

yeah I was in someone else's living environment and my body went this is bad

it's like this is really really bad the alarm started going off anyway we found a place it was me

and uh joshie robots and michael gideon um from project cars anonymous and jeff and jesse

and yeah we woke up the next morning I was like I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get up

I felt really bad this morning am I getting sick I don't know I started to feel sick

like kind of like but I woke up at six I'm like oh I feel great so I hopped in the car drove over

there was only like 0.3 miles away it was great got in line I'm sitting there in line I'm I'm first

or second in line and I see pat long standing over there he's kind of you know waving everybody

and he's always there at the beginning yeah I went oh this is great I'm here you know I'm here

um got out of my camera term off like I see you I see you're good okay well there's an adrenaline

again well no it's just a new it's just a new system here I've got a new system and I don't

and I can't see myself for some reason I can see you okay maybe it's because mrs producer is here

anyway okay or her so I go out I get parked yeah get parked get out of the car and it's

7 a.m. and they have 8 a.m. early access tickets and then the show itself opens at 10

um so I'm there early so I'm wandering around and I go oh this is great I'll go get my camera

nope forgot my camera at the Airbnb so I had no camera which is fine I wasn't working but I kind

of wanted some pictures right especially when you have the opportunity like that the opportunity to

catch the right light and everything else is oh well I guess that's that you know I gotta write

I have to write an article for Petrolicious on it but I don't need pictures do that and I think

we have a photographer that's doing it so okay that's that so just kind of hung out walked around

for the rest of the day and uh that that was about it the show was good um I I think I it's

hard not to be comparative because there's there's been 11 of these now and I've been exactly yeah

I wasn't at the first ones I'm not an OG you know because I'm not from California if I was from

California I probably would go to the first ones and I heard about them but I just I don't know

I'm not I'm not OG enough to be involved with the early Luftgekultz when they were at the

furniture's place or the lumber yard or whatever and you know that's everybody's asking me what

did you think what did you think of the show that's always the thing and I don't know if it's

because I do events and we do shows and people want my opinion or they just want me to tell

them a story about it or or what I'm not sure I think my favorite part was watching uh Michael

dressed up as um Dale his character that's uh PCA chapter president wandering around

messing with people that was that was probably the most entertaining part of the day is seeing

him from afar I never got up close but seeing him from afar just like talking to someone knowing

that some weird shit was going on or making fun of somebody for something um and then of course

I wish you could have been there for this there were so many people that came up and said they

love the podcast that's awesome and it was really it's it's really good to get out of your

world wearing any overcrest swag or they just no no I was wearing a project car's not on a shirt

okay you know support the bros you know yeah so one guy mistook me for you which I found just

heartening uh I don't know why a short guy that must be Jake oh wait no it's probably what it was

short yeah yeah that's that's probably what unfortunately were you like what yeah a little

bit I was like oh I'm not Jake he's shorter than me and the guy kind of went uh okay but it was

really nice to get like all the feedback from people I mean it was it was endless it was like

every 10 feet you know it was and it was very encouraging you know because we're kind of like

wired up here in Minnesota in the great frozen north and we don't get out that much other than

overcrest events with each other at a camera so like it's hard to even realize that okay yeah

people do yeah actually enjoy listening and watching us yes why don't you tell me about

fcp euro I would love or how about no can tires all right she already pulled it down do you say

how fast she was gosh thanks she's good really good all right yeah no key and tires they have of

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at no key and tires dot com did you say it's winter tire season yet Jake I did I said winter tires

I said Mrs. producer did you have anything you wanted to say I think she was gonna sabotage me on this on this section

yeah I need to get a hold of us and we need to put some winter tires on the

what's what's on it right now I I don't even know you don't even know I don't even know

what's I'm I'm struggling right now because I don't want I feel like I might not own it

for this now again we need this this is Jess's car this is the wagon yes okay the car that quote

you love it's the best car ever all I want to just all these things I want to be I want the v8 version

or the AMG I know the thing is if we're keeping it then I'm I want to lower it and I want to get

different wheels and then and the tire situation gets through with that if it's not really the one

I want I know I know it's a struggle that's what's been keeping me from doing it it's not that I

don't feel like I want winter tires because I do I do like I'm going to want different wheels

but you're not going to want to run your like fancy wheels with the winter tires anyway no

but you should put winter tires on the factory wheels yes regardless then if I don't do those

other things sell it yeah then it just has winter tires on it and I'm like oh it's hard to sell

it with the other tires I need to ask off right now I need some surpasses on there is what I need

or the WR G5 I think they're up to which is that was actually a really really good tire they had

it's another one of their all seasons that's just a great tire had that on that A4 did I

I think it's called an all-weather tire not all season yes all weather correct all weather yes

yes yes so anyway so the the difficulty with with this stuff is everybody's always asking me what I

think uh huh and it's very what do you think what do you think yeah so I'm trying to you hate giving

opinions as we know well it's I want to it's difficult because you know I wanted I want it's

and then I was if you're going to give an opinion immediately it goes to comparisons because

there's more than one so it's not like you're just analyzing one you're then you're comparative

and what's really difficult about these things and it's and I thought about Overcrest when I thought

about this is you have all these different Overcrest things that we've done and in my opinion

things have been some have been better than others I've like some of the things we've done sure

more than other things that we've done it's you know we always try to go sideways rather than

bigger or better every time we do something otherwise you get caught in this trap of of

trying to be better than the other things that you've done and I think that's what people are

asking when they ask like how was it because the best one yet yeah yes exactly because they always

expect things to be better and I can tell you guys it's not fucking fair it is it is not fair to do

that you need to take you need to take each individual event especially when it's something

like Luft where it moves around and it's in a different place with a different execution

as its own thing you cannot continue to compare it you can't be like well that's

way different than than this or that or Mary Island was or or the port in Los Angeles was

and you shouldn't do that yeah but everybody does and I do too because it's just the nature of

things I was thinking if anything this was probably more similar to the Coca-Cola plant

which was where the hell was that Indianapolis a few years ago yeah the bottling plant yeah yep

so here's I will give you my my thoughts on this event it looked really awesome I would

have loved to have done an event there from an event organizer perspective I looked this I go

this venue was ready made to have an event there yeah it was ready made they had restaurants

and facilities and bathrooms and water fountains and parking and a baseball field

and it looked ready made to have an event like Luft the only thing that was novel concept for

over crest yeah right gosh wouldn't that you know we think about that with port scarification and how

can we find something that is is a little more the road is is paved instead of just it yeah the

Germans went by and bombed it five minutes before we got there and we have to fix it up

okay so ready made space it's already made since it was it was an awesome venue I personally

like things that have more juxtaposition this was this was it was really really nice and I and it's

and I look at the place and I imagine what the what it would have looked like before it was

was I don't know if gentrified or restored or rebuilt was the right word I would have loved

to have seen it in like 1996 when it was just a dilapidated when it was just down factory

yeah when it was just caught in the throes of entropy just you know on its way to being something

that it never was and now it's been I'm sure you go in there and the beams have been sandblasted

in the form and the and the and the iron has been painted gray and stuff like that and I feel like

and this is by this doesn't have anything to do with lift I understand that I feel like these

giant what is it venture cash it's not venture capital it's the other one

private equity real estate yeah private equity these private equity these PA companies and these

in these real estate companies they come in and they make everything too good it's like when they

whitewash an old house that's got character right because they want it to appeal to the maximum

amount of people correct so like we want to resell this and we want it to appeal to to the

broadest audience possible because I am not a broad audience I'm not about audience I'm very

very myopic in my opinions and my taste of what I like I am we almost yes and there's a lot of

people like me that are very very hardcore about well this should be this way but we're very very

a very small minority of correct I was just gonna say most people would have complained if it was

still dirty or right wasn't that well like it's still luckily has that history it still is the

space but yeah the majority people want want it cleaned up for sure I understand what you're

saying though it would have been cool seeing these machines and having this show in a space

well the machines were gone right away I'm sure the machines got shit can't I mean they got

I meant cars by seeing oh in that space yeah and that's the that's the juxtaposition right

is you have these beautiful machines that still work and they're all fine and gorgeous some have

more patina than others but they're in this place like uh like maryland was where it's just

kind of like you can see you can imagine the ships being built there you can imagine it

you can see it it's still empty and big and cavernous and looming this place is now

they've got a cheeseburger place and milkshakes and it's just the juxtaposition wasn't there

for most people probably made it more enjoyable than of course it was it was it was from an event

perspective as a as a participant it was so good you know I went in there I got a great

cheeseburger and I walked around and there were places to sit down and like it was there's like

water running through where they used to get the water from like down the stream I saw those photos

that was so it was so cool from like a yeah from like a from someone that had you're gonna laugh at

me but there was no suffering at all you know you could just it was how terrible oh terrible

you weren't able to martyr yourself it was it was it was really really nice but maybe your feet

hurt like yeah tell me about fcp you know a little bit fcp euro of course is your source for oe after

market oem genuine performance parts for european cars from bmw to portia volvo outy vokespagan

and more their catalog is a one-stop shop with over 275 000 unique products including expert assembled

kits to make shopping simpler whether you're doing a suspension overhaul or an oil change these

kits really take all the guesswork out of the process plus every product they sell is backed by

a lifetime replacement guarantee even of course the wear items like wiper blades brake pads oil

filters and of course with the opening of their distribution center in mace arizona they're now

shipping parts from both coasts serving basically the entire country in three days or less with the

free shipping option the free one you could get it next day if you wanted but for three ship three

days or less free shipping it's awesome pretty good we love fcp euro we can vouch for them real

people who are passionate about what they do in the cars they love it's just sure it's a great

company sure it's awesome that you can get anything you need and you can get it quick

but the actual people behind the name and the company i think are what make it really stand

out and it's true enthusiasts who are passionate oh yeah look what they're look what they're supporting

exactly they're supporting overcrest which is for all of you exactly so you know what else is for

all of you but all of you don't take advantage of it oh is that the drivers club crest is the

drivers club the overcrest drivers club oh mrs producer wasn't ready for that one i got her

like you did go that was a very quick transition yeah it was a very quick transition um overcrest

productions dot com forward slash driver club for drivers club for just five bucks you can support

overcrest it's very very reasonable and it's easy you'll get is yeah the uh the first the first

opportunity to buy our new undoubtedly gonna happen soon good for morale shirts oh god you know uh

you know what i heard jake what did you have has designs made really he's already got designs

made he's like all right i like it here we go under the under the vests or something um yeah

you can get first after the rally there's a lot to do we're going to be coming out with new merch

we're going to be coming out and redoing the store and and putting some machinery together to

put together some merch for everybody that people have been asking for everybody wants

merch i get it chill we're building a machine to do this essentially yes isn't that what it

means this entire industry this entire company's a machine in a way you know it's different

okay machine machine parts and stuff like that we're not doing cigarettes we're doing fun we're

selling fun um selling fun yeah yeah i i agree okay selling experience selling novel experiences

like what 100% okay so that after the show we we hung out with everybody went and did i saw

john hard tell me which was really cool yeah i was gonna ask like what are what were the

highlights for you of okay first of all you're not gonna like general no i know and that's why

i'm saying first of all the general opinion what do you think most people glom down to us like

standout cars not you what was like um well observed car that people liked i mean the bosh

rsr is great the the agri-meister uh i don't know if it's a 95 or 962 i don't i don't know which

one it is probably a 962 i mean great cars um that's probably the standout you know what

jeez she's good um the uh yeah that's actually you know i can tell you one of the highlights

for me was they had a theater there you had a theater the what okay a theater like a movie

there where they show moving pictures jake no kidding while you seem confused and um it was it

was sponsored by our friends at mobile one who partners with overcrest as well and it was a film

about the tim barisha from bdi building a car for pikes peak and it was a 20 minute film about his

journey um both both personal and professional and working with jeff's work to build this car to take

to pikes peak and then they did a q and a afterward we should well if there's a way to watch this i'll

if there's a way to watch this i'll link it in the show notes so you guys can go see it it's very good

and i enjoy awesome i enjoyed that a lot i enjoy talking to bet him a little bit for the brief time

i had with him was really nice i really enjoyed talking to jeff's work i enjoyed talking to other

friends i think honestly that's the highlight for me oh yeah anytime i get to get to talk to people

you know we're pretty deep in this industry but most people don't live in minnesota so anytime you

get out you get to do something like this you get FaceTime with people and it's really really

special it reminds you why we're all here and why we all do this stuff but yeah that that was a

highlight for me um yeah that that car though my favorite car is you know people ask this all

time of me yeah that thing was cool yeah the that room was really great there was a tag you

or did a room it was like yeah the pan american race uh yeah a lot career pan americana all the

cars in there were really rad that was a really cool exhibit um my car was my favorite car there

and it's always going to be my favorite Porsche yeah and and i think that sounds ridiculous um

yeah there's the car out on the baseball field uh that's cool yeah that was oh wow it was a little

far away but it just the fact that it was there was was really really neat yeah i had a guy come

up an interview me he showed me this uh he goes what do you think of this car get a rating out of

one to ten and it was like a silver nine six four turbo with chrome roof wheels and i went seven

and and because i don't like chrome wheels i think they're dumb and then so then the guy goes

what about your car what do you rate your car a 10 and he goes why is your car better than that one

and i said it's mine i don't because it's mine it's my story i love my car and i and then someone

yelled at him to get out of the street or whatever but what i was gonna say is if you don't think your

own car is a 10 then you need to get out and do something with it your own car that you own for

yourself should be a 10 every time there is no car in the world that you should love more than

your own and if you don't feel that way you got to change something do something make it more yours

go do something with it go get laid in it whatever it takes it's the experiences it's the experiences

that you have with it um yeah so my car is my car is a 10 it was my favorite car at Luft it will

always be my favorite car at any show i go to and now you're just gonna say well other than your car

which car i wasn't even really like that i wasn't gonna say that what i was gonna say is one thing

that i think is very interesting about single make shows like this and especially getting very

specific about air-cooled Porsche shows is there are so many different variations and everyone has

kind of like a little hot rod touch their car of a single model and of course there's 356 is another

air-cooled cars there but generally it's all air-cooled 911s which are also similar and everyone

has something unique or different they do about it i love being able to look jessey is showing that

because or mrs producer gosh i keep outing who she is that's not right is it that's okay um

everybody's been outed yeah um that's what she wants that's her favorite car is she wants a

splat nine thirty yeah she wants a slat nose nine thirty and she says how much are they

chris flocked bow yeah sure but they're i think they're really expensive aren't they yeah i think

like 300 i mean any nine thirty is super expensive and if it's a real like factory slat nose delivered

slat nose then yes they're yeah they're they're very expensive although you could probably just do the

kit right i mean yeah people are trying to get rid of the fiberglass vendors all right i'm gonna

ask mrs producer a question i want you to turn your microphone on this is yes or no i don't want

any explanations or bloviating or anything else this is a yes or no question oh boy do you want

me to build you a 911 that looks like a slat nose oh gosh okay well i guess that solves that problem

i could save me a lot of money in time in time never well she knows you it's your bank account

together guys so she knows no we can't be spending money on that no she's you know she's the where

where we were driving and uh there was to in between somewhere out there and there was a little shop

that had a bunch of little k cars and then they had like a they had some susuki jimneys and i don't

i remember what it was that she said she wanted maybe it was a maybe it was the slat nose or whatever

but she's i really want one of those i really want one and of course my brain immediately

starts going through like okay there's this much money how can i make that happen how long it's going

to take me to find one what parts do i need like instantly it's like it's like someone shooting a

starting gun at a at a race all right how do i do this what's the plan gonna be how what are we

gonna do which one we want specifically what spec should we get what's rare about them how should

we get this should we do wheels what suspension we're going to do you got to do the full build in

your head even if we're here's visit calm money tabs can have open for the auction site speak our

market yes open mom yeah so but apparently that's that's a no so the uh we stopped over we went got

the overcrest van from the airport and drove it over to stephanie's house um who you know stephanie's

amazing she works with an overcrest and she is if if uh if everybody doesn't know when you meet

stephanie you need to walk up to her and you thank her because none of this what we're doing is

um everything's a little bit more right now you can tell that would be more and none of that

would be possible without her she is the glue the glue without a question without her everything

would fall apart now um so give her a hug and tell her thank you when you see her please i'm not

just being like ha ha she's great no definitely please go thanks anyway so we go over to stephanie's

with the van and i let her drive my car and you know and it's like about this my car is sketchy

dude yep it is sketchy and i don't understand why did this start okay so this started um

i shipped the car out for utah and i shipped it out to los angeles the redux yep yep and the knuckle

the the u-joint that connects the steering column to the rack had failed and it put a new

on it yes and the guy that did it was like oh well you know you should get a tie rod kit blah

blah do these things and the alignment wasn't right the car was all over the road it drove really

it just wasn't good man it drove all over the road and i thought jesse was like i do not want to

drive this yeah yep so when i get at home i get an alignment still not right i put like a

tarot engineering uh bump steer kit on it which is just where it drops the little it's basically

what we're talking about is the is the geometry of the tie rod which attaches to the steering

reaction which is what pushes the wheels back and forth when you turn the steering wheel right

and when you lower your car not everybody's listening no i know i always love that when

you lower your car because they're usually horizontal because that's where they should be

when you lower your car now your wheels are up so it goes like this and it changes the physics

of how hard things get pushed on yeah that's that's pretty much on our favorite website perfect

there you go that's pretty much what i have um and you think that still sucks didn't make it better

you think so the problem is that it feels really really light and now my alignments are good so um

that's right because i remember you got it aligned yeah yeah so i what what do you think it could be

like what are your thoughts i mean either the alignment here's the thing alignment on a rack

is your static alignment there's also something called dynamic alignment where like if you when

the car squats when you have suspension load when it lifts if it if it changes too dramatically or

drastically that's still technically alignment that's off but it can't be really calculated

even if you're just driving down the road the thing is that it's very light it feels like it's

got the power steering that takes a hundred horsepower away from an el Dorado to run

like it's just like it is so light it's just like power steering you can just move it with

your fingers it's so light i don't understand it i do not understand it the alignment specs are

correct in a static way it doesn't change a lot just that you were used to it not being that no no

it's not no it's not right it is not right okay it is not right so i i i after step drove it and

it scared her i'm like all right i got to do something about this so i called up eric lind

from sports purpose garage that he's right there near step shop and the car is going over there

on tomorrow and i'm going to see if he can figure it out if he can't figure it out i'm just going

to ride with you in the van because i don't feel like the car is safe it's just it's not it's not

right dude um and i think of like the before all i had was a little spacer on the steering rack

that's it yep but a spacer on the steering rack and i never did anything else and it has r star

spindles right which i guess are raised but whatever it's it's i it's and it was great i love the way

the car drove drew from cool collective who's really really critical yeah manly was like this is the

best aircooled 911 of this era i've ever driven it drives amazing and i'm like yeah it does because

it yeah the thing i would describe about your car is it does feel very like tight and almost heavy

in a way not heavy like it's a very light car but the the inputs have a lot of feedback

and are not too light as your stance and now and i hate i have not liked driving the car in two years

two years i don't drive it anymore it's really sad i don't um i mean i guess take off the

the little uh that's what i said i said i think my brain is just like take that

shit off put the rack spacer back in and do it and he goes well he says well there might be

something else at amiss so i think we should find out what's going on so we don't just do a bunch

of work and it's the same and i said hey you sound really smart that sounds like a really really good

here's the thing um i told him i go eric i have anecdotal experience with one 911 only my car is

the only one that i've worked on really so it's i'm i don't know what jake true i don't know everything

what all right time stamp this is at 54 minutes 10 seconds christ does not know everything i don't

know i don't everybody grows and gets wiser with age look at this this is huge growth yeah i don't

know i don't know everything so i'm hoping you know stuff says really great with suspension

stuff like that i'm hoping you'll be able to figure it out and then i can drive the car and

enjoy it because right now i just i don't even drive it hard it's just i just drive it around

because it's just kind of i don't know it's very it's very light and and agitated and uh nervous

you know the car's nervous i mean a wheel bearing being bad could do that because then it's just

kind of like tracking all over it could be the strut top mounts are like loose or shifting

that would be that would be like a shifting of the way that it feels like sometimes it's

right sometimes it's not it's always wrong it would i mean it would it would kind of track

nervously too yeah but it's also way too easy to steer what should be like a caster issue that is

right exactly but it has like six and a half degrees of caster it's got a lot of caster and it

should be so it should be fine but it's not did you go the other way with it remember we're talking

positive or negative that's not my job that's the element okay so maybe so we'll find out more

next time we talk we'll we'll we'll know more um actually there will not be a podcast next week

because we will be in we'll be doing the rally on the road we're gonna be on the road um ooh

do you see that stack of wheels and tires next to you right there i do oh yes that is a

by 130 millimeter bolt pattern Porsche obviously i'm too lazy to pick up a wheel the van

old GMC five lug is five by five inch which is 127 millimeters yes with wobble just a very very

minimal wobble bolt those fuchs could bolt up to the van i think the ones that are on there will

look better yeah they probably would but i think we should try it i don't think these are load rated

for a van the tires certainly not certainly not but they would they would let you could roll around

on it and see how it looked yeah so that's a great overcrest can buy these for me for

a thousand fifteen hundred dollars yeah you can't just have them although they are for sale so if

anybody else would like a set of fuchs cheap with like yep with good tires and new tires please

please well no but they're good tires okay uh i'll hook you up let me know i'll uh i'll get

your your tread depth gauge from nokian oh yeah i can do that figure out how much left i hope

everybody's rally prep is going well i'm really looking forward to seeing everyone out there i'm

assuming a lot of people will listen to this episode on their way um on their way to the rally i look

like i save my god speed good luck i hope your rally prep went well i'm looking forward to

seeing everyone i'm losing my voice so we got we got to hang this up we're rapping we're rapping

i love you all thanks for thanks for coming up to the rally thanks for listening to podcast

many good things to come over the next year with the podcast i'm really really excited to work

really hard on it and grow it into i'm too something incredible i'm too awesome all right guys we

will see you either at the rally or after take care

Luftgekühlt 11 & The Story of American Tobacco

About this episode

Luftgekühlt

Porsche 917

FCP Euro

Nokian Tires

high performance all season tire

dedicated winter tires

Hakkapeliitta

V8 engine

AMG

factory wheels

Volkswagen

BMW

Audi

Volvo

wiper blades

brake pads

oil filters

Porsche 962

Mobil 1

Pikes Peak

Panamericana

Porsche 964 Turbo

air-cooled Porsche

Porsche 356

Porsche 911S

Suzuki Jimny

u-joint

alignment

wheel bearing

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