Luftgekühlt 11 & The Story of American Tobacco
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
57:22
Concept
Luftgekühlt
Luftgekühlt is a special car show for fans of older Porsche cars that run on air cooling instead of liquid cooling. It's a fun event where people show off their cars and meet others who love them too.
Car
Porsche 917
The Porsche 917/30 is a famous race car from the early 1970s. It was built for racing and is known for being very fast and having a unique look.
Company
FCP Euro
FCP Euro is a company that sells car parts, especially for European cars. They have a lot of different parts available online.
Company
Nokian Tires
Nokian Tires is a brand that makes tires for cars. They are especially known for their winter tires that work well in snow and ice.
Part
high performance all season tire
High performance all season tires are special tires that work well in different weather, like rain or light snow, and are good for driving fast and handling well.
Part
dedicated winter tires
Dedicated winter tires are special tires made just for winter. They help cars grip better on snow and ice, making it safer to drive in cold weather.
Part
Hakkapeliitta
Hakkapeliitta is a brand of winter tires made by Nokian. They are really good for driving in snow and ice.
Term
V8 engine
A V8 engine has eight cylinders that help it produce a lot of power. It's often found in larger cars and trucks, making them faster and more powerful.
Term
AMG
AMG is a special part of Mercedes-Benz that makes their cars faster and sportier. They add more power and better handling to the vehicles.
Term
factory wheels
Factory wheels are the wheels that are put on a car when it's made. They are designed to fit that car perfectly and work well with it.
Brand
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a well-known car brand from Germany that makes many different types of cars, including the famous Beetle and Golf.
Brand
BMW
BMW is a famous car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars. They are known for making cars that are fun to drive.
Brand
Audi
Audi is a luxury car brand from Germany that makes stylish and high-tech cars, often featuring all-wheel drive for better handling.
Brand
Volvo
Volvo is a car brand from Sweden that is known for making safe and reliable cars, often with a focus on family-friendly features.
Part
wiper blades
Wiper blades are the rubber parts on your car that clean the windshield when it rains. They need to be replaced sometimes because they wear out.
Part
brake pads
Brake pads are the parts in your car that help stop it when you press the brake pedal. They wear out over time and need to be changed to keep your brakes working well.
Part
oil filters
Oil filters are parts in your car that clean the oil, which helps keep the engine running smoothly. They need to be changed regularly to keep the oil clean.
Car
Porsche 962
The Porsche 962 is a famous race car that competed in endurance races. It's known for being very fast and successful in racing events.
Company
Mobil 1
Mobil 1 is a well-known brand that makes motor oil and lubricants for cars. They are popular for their high-quality products that help engines run smoothly.
Concept
Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is a mountain in Colorado where cars and motorcycles race to the top. It's a well-known event in the racing community.
Concept
Panamericana
The Panamericana is a famous car race in Mexico that tests how well cars can handle tough roads. It's a big event for car lovers.
Car
Porsche 964 Turbo
The Porsche 964 Turbo is a high-performance sports car that has a turbocharged engine, making it faster and more powerful. It's part of the famous Porsche 911 series.
Concept
air-cooled Porsche
Air-cooled Porsches are cars made by Porsche that don't use water to cool their engines. Instead, they rely on air, which gives them a unique sound and feel.
Car
Porsche 356
The Porsche 356 is an old sports car made by Porsche. It was popular for being light and having a unique engine that doesn't need water to cool.
Car
Porsche 911S
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that has been around for a long time, known for being fast and fun to drive. Older versions of this car, called air-cooled 911s, have engines that don’t use water to stay cool, and many people really love these older models because they are unique and special.
Car
Suzuki Jimny
The Suzuki Jimny is a small SUV that can go off-road easily. It's popular for its tough look and ability to handle rough paths.
Term
u-joint
A u-joint is a part that helps connect different parts of a car's steering or driveshaft, allowing them to move together smoothly even if they're not perfectly aligned.
Term
alignment
Alignment is about making sure the car's wheels are pointing in the right direction. If they're not aligned properly, the car can pull to one side or wear out the tires unevenly.
Part
wheel bearing
A wheel bearing helps your car's wheels turn smoothly. If it's broken, it can make your car feel shaky or noisy when you drive.
LIVE
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
could probably talk about on X. If you're looking for the best app to navigate your next adventure,
look no further than on X off road, they have over 750,000 miles of trails and comprehensive
offline maps. So you can explore without worrying about cell service. The app has all sorts of
awesome layers that you can enable with trail ratings. You have detailed information and a
discover tool to help you find trails near you. It also includes public and private land boundaries.
You always know where you can legally off road camp explore. I actually use it just to look up
like, wait, where are my neighbors? Because I have on X and you can look and be like, wait,
where do they live? And literally it'll just pull up like you are the you can see the owner of the
property on such and such is it's right down that road. I get it. Sure. If you want to stay
connected, the app features a cell service layer. So you can plan your route with service in mind,
never venturing outside of cell service. You have tools like route builder, waypoint marking,
real time updates and route sharing. You can share your epic journey and be fully equipped
for any adventure. Try it for free for seven days and hit the road with confidence download on X
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
course their surpass aso one which is there's new west model tire which is a high performance
all season tire made for drivers want to get the most out of their cars without sacrificing
capability when the roads get slick they also of course have their full line of dedicated winter
tires slutches the haka palita I am struggling here today yeah I'm very flaring yeah I'm gonna
use this opportunity to grab something to drink very fast you do that yes the haka palita of course
which I've had on my cars which is an amazing winter diary it's literally the original winter
tire that was invented by no key in it is the best you can get you can come in of course the
studded or non-studded they have great tires a car really can only perform as good as the tires
that are on it so really you should invest in tires and what better place to go to than no key
and tires they have their 55 000 mile warranty they offer their pothole protection if you happen
to damage your tire upon here I go again beyond repair they will replace it for free check it out
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
About this episode
Luftgekühlt 11 took place at the historic American Tobacco campus in North Carolina, where Chris and Jake shared their experiences from the event. They discussed the fascinating history of the tobacco industry, particularly the rise of the American Tobacco Company, and its impact on Durham. The episode also features anecdotes from their trip, including challenges with accommodations and car troubles. With a mix of humor and insightful commentary, the hosts reflect on the event's atmosphere and the unique cars present, making for an engaging listen.
Original notes
Luftgekühlt 11 dropped into the old American Tobacco Campus in Durham, where brick walls and water towers still hum with the ghosts of machines. A place once built on cigarettes now filled with Porsches, each one carrying its own story. We trace Washington Duke’s walk home after the war, the rise of the Bonsack machine, and the factory that turned Durham into a city of smoke and rhythm.
From a Jäger 962 to the Bosch RSR, from hangovers and near-Airbnb disasters to the reminder that your own car should always be a ten, this is our recap of the Luft ofthe South. A clash of history, machinery, and memory.
Overcrest
Kris Clewell / Overcrest
0:00
57:22