The Jeep Cherokee is an SUV, meaning it’s a taller vehicle meant for both city driving and light off-road use. People often have different opinions about it because different model years and versions can feel and perform differently. A podcast might cover it when reviewing how the latest one stacks up.
The 4Runner is a larger SUV that’s designed to handle rougher roads and outdoor trips. It’s known for being tough and practical for long-term use. When a podcast mentions the fifth generation, it’s usually referring to a specific set of years and how that version stands out.
The Subaru Trailseeker is a version of the Subaru Outback that’s meant for people who want a more outdoorsy setup. It’s still a regular wagon-style car, but with extra features and styling for trips. It gets called a “surprise” when someone thinks it’s a better pick than expected.
The Aston Martin DB 12 S is a luxury sports car from Aston Martin. The hosts are talking about the center console trim—“piano black” is a shiny black finish that looks expensive and stands out in the cabin.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a popular SUV model from Jeep. In this conversation it’s used as a reference because the hosts are comparing interior look and materials to other cars.
Lag means there’s a delay between your foot going down and the car actually pulling. The speaker thinks the delay was connected to the way the car was shifting.
A powertrain is the car’s “moving system.” It includes the engine (or motor) and the parts that send power to the wheels, so it strongly affects how the car drives and how dependable it is.
The Jeep Wrangler is a popular off-road SUV. Here, they’re talking about recalls—meaning the manufacturer has to fix a problem on some Wranglers.
Concept
push for trying to really become more efficient
This refers to automakers’ drive to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions, often through downsizing, turbocharging, and other efficiency-focused engineering. The segment argues that pushing these limits can increase development and validation complexity, which can lead to recalls if issues slip through.
A turbo is a device that helps the engine make more power by pushing extra air into it. It can be great for performance, but it also adds complexity that engineers have to get right.
Displacement is basically how big the engine is internally—how much space the pistons move through. Smaller displacement engines are common today, often paired with turbos to keep power up.
The Toyota 4Runner is a tough, off-road SUV built on a sturdy frame. “Fifth gen” just means the newer version of that model, and the speaker is saying it’s the best SUV they’ve seen.
“Body on frame” means the car’s body sits on a separate heavy-duty frame. It’s a common design for trucks and rugged SUVs because it’s built to handle rough roads and tougher use.
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a long-running, body-on-frame SUV famous for durability and off-road capability. Here, the speaker calls it a “mainstay” and contrasts it with the 4Runner, suggesting it fits a different kind of buyer who wants a more sophisticated take on rugged use.
Overlanding means taking long trips with your vehicle, usually to remote places, and being able to camp or travel self-sufficiently. It’s less about looking tough and more about being practical for the whole journey.
The Ford Bronco is an SUV meant to handle both city driving and off-road trails. The host likes how it drives on the road and off-road, but worries it may get noisy or start rattling over time.
On-road drivability is how good the car feels when you’re driving on regular roads. The host is saying the Bronco is especially easy and pleasant to drive on pavement.
Interior noise is the annoying sound you hear inside the car, like rattles or wind noise. The host is worried that after rough off-road use, parts might start coming loose and making more noise.
The Defender Octa is a special, higher-performance version of the Land Rover Defender. It’s meant for people who want a serious off-road vehicle, and the hosts are saying it would be their top choice if cost and repairs weren’t a concern.
“British bad teeth” is an old-style joke that means “there’s a stereotype that this group has a problem.” In this segment, they use it to talk about the common (and often exaggerated) idea that certain cars—especially British ones—have reliability issues.
Suspension is what helps the car ride over bumps and rough ground. Good suspension keeps the tires planted and makes the ride feel smooth and controlled.
Term
top
Here, “top” likely means the car is open—like driving with the roof down. With the roof gone, you feel more of the wind and movement.
Term
mid-engine sports car feeling
A mid-engine car has its engine placed near the middle of the car. Because of that, the car often feels more balanced and “connected” when you turn or drive quickly.
The Camel Trophy was a well-known off-road adventure event. It’s remembered for tough routes and teamwork, and the hosts are saying Land Rover is bringing that spirit back.
Concept
highly customizable
They mean these safari vehicles can be modified a lot. People can change how many seats they have and how the inside is laid out for different passenger groups.
The GMC Safari is a large van made to carry people and gear, often for family trips. Because it has lots of space, it can be set up for road trips and camping-style use. That’s why it might come up in a story about “sleeping arrangements” and travel.
Term
transport truck
A transport truck is basically a work vehicle for getting people or supplies from one place to another. In this story, they left it behind while using the safari truck to go see animals.
It means they keep the truck’s main frame underneath, but put a different outer body on it. So it can look newer, but a lot of the important stuff underneath is still old.
“Baja driving” is off-road driving over rough, bumpy terrain—like the famous Baja races. It’s about keeping control on loose dirt and rocks, where the car bounces and grip changes a lot.
Term
rattly
“Rattly” means the car makes a lot of vibrating or shaking noises. On bumpy roads, older cars can feel looser and rattle more.
The Renault Wind is a small car that’s meant to feel more open to the air, like a convertible. When the top is open, you can feel the wind while driving. That’s likely what the podcast is describing with the “wind in your hair” moment.
The Cadillac Lyriq is an electric SUV, which means it runs on electricity instead of gasoline. It’s a luxury vehicle, so it’s designed to feel comfortable and upscale. The podcast is reacting to it as a notable option that stands out.
JDM means “Japanese Domestic Market.” It’s a way people talk about Japanese cars that were made for the Japanese market, and the culture of modifying and importing them.
Car culture just means people in an area are really into cars. That can show up as local car meets, custom builds, and people talking about what they drive.
TSD means Time-Speed-Distance. It’s a rally style where you’re supposed to hit specific timing targets for certain stretches of road, not just drive fast.
A road rally is an event where you drive a planned route and follow the rules. It’s usually about doing it correctly and consistently, not just racing to the finish.
The Golden Gate Bridge is the famous bridge in San Francisco. Starting a drive there usually means the event begins with a big, scenic landmark and a Bay Area route.
Sears Point is an older name people used for the same track that’s now called Sonoma Raceway. It’s basically the track’s previous identity.
Term
accuracy on the track
In rally-style events, “accuracy” usually refers to how precisely you follow the required timing/speed/distance targets rather than how fast you can lap. The speaker’s “second overall on accuracy” suggests scoring based on meeting the event’s exact schedule.
Windshield wipers are the blades that wipe the front windshield so you can see. In this case, one wiper worked briefly, and then both failed so they had no wipers.
The Pacific Northwest is a region in the U.S. The hosts mention it to say where the event happened, which matters because weather and terrain affect how vehicles perform.
A press fleet is a group of cars that the media gets to drive. The speaker is saying that the same Pacifica later became one of the cars available to reporters in the Denver area.
A plug-in hybrid is a car that uses both gas and electricity. You can charge it from a plug, and it can drive on electricity for a while before switching to gas.
The Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid is a minivan that can run on electricity for a limited distance, then uses gas when the battery runs low. Because the electric motor gives quick power, it can feel responsive, and it can also be very efficient if you charge it regularly.
Instant torque means the car can give you strong pulling power right away. Electric motors can do this quickly, so the car feels responsive when you start moving.
Hyper-miling is when someone drives in a very fuel-saving way to squeeze the most efficiency out of the car. In this case, the host is saying they tried to stretch the gas and/or electric range as far as possible.
The Toyota RAV4 GR Sport is a more driver-focused version of the RAV4. It’s meant to feel a bit more sporty, with extra features and tuning compared to the regular model.
The Subaru Trail Seeker is a Subaru made for outdoor and off-road style driving. It’s meant to be more capable and rugged than a typical commuter, and the host says it was a highlight.
LIVE
Also, it's really fun to watch all of those loaded people get just super frothy.
Cause that's really like, that's the moment where you're, you're way out over your
skis. You're just like, yeah, I want it.
Sure, I'll pay a million dollars for it.
And then afterwards probably a buyer's remorse, but the environment,
the in the moment is epic.
Tonight on that car show, it's one of our favorite people,
Kelly Bluebooks, Lynn Woodward.
This one's got lots of laughs and goes really,
really long as we tend to do when Lynn is on.
So we split this one into two parts,
make sure you download both and boost our ratings.
We have mixed opinions on the new Jeep Cherokee.
Lynn shares her only unique take on Slate.
We give the fifth generation forerunners some love,
celebrate the surprise of the year in the Subaru Trailseeker in Bimone.
How poor Polestar got the showtime at the Apollo Hook.
Also, Lynn faces the Black Death with the Dream Academy as a soundtrack.
It's Lynn Woodward and it's that car show.
Hey, it is that car show and we are jazzed to have our friend,
the esteemed automotive journalist, Lynn Woodward, back on the show.
Lynn, of course, is the lead content editor at Kelly Bluebook,
where she is not afraid to tell like it is, but also manages to do it in a way
that's charming enough to not really piss anyone off,
which is a true gift or not.
You tell us, Lynn, but she's also just really good people
and a true automotive enthusiast.
And she has always held a lot of fun to talk with.
So with all that said, Lynn, welcome back.
Thank you so much for having me.
You guys are so fun to talk to.
And I'm sure I have pissed off some people in my time.
And we're starting your own about it.
I don't do it intentionally, but I think here's the deal.
I'll say this.
I think PR people know when their products are like yikes.
And you just have to say it in a diplomatic way
so that they don't take offense.
I think when you say, oh, this sucked.
And it's like, well, what?
Wait, because someone out there is going to like it
and someone out there is going to want it.
And so I think it's always better to be a little diplomatic.
So when you've driven the new Jeep Cherokee.
I have driven the new Jeep Cherokee.
Yes. Your.
No, here's the thing.
The base model interior on that is the most impressive
I've seen in a very long time.
In what way?
Not cheap looking, not a lot of hollow plastics.
True. Really nice textures, really nice.
They use fabric on the dash on a baseball.
Yeah, I was really impressed by that interior
because it looked way more expensive than it was.
It felt like quality.
It felt I just I was blown away.
Interesting.
Lindsay, you driven it?
There's piano black on the on the center console
of Aston Martin DB 12 S.
There's not a stitch of piano.
I mean, maybe a teeny little bit of piano black on a Cherokee.
Come on. Yeah. No, I you know what it is, though.
I think do we all own an old Cherokee at one point in our lives?
I've never.
Never owned. OK.
No, I came very close in high school to a grand Cherokee.
Gray with a boyfriend who had who had a two door sport.
The two door sport. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Was it a manual in the.
No, he wasn't that cool.
Wasn't that cool?
Two friends, randomly, like cool, unrelated to each other,
had the two door manual and until the first one got it,
I had never known they existed.
And then the second one entered the chat was crazy.
Yeah, cool car.
I just have such fond memories of the Cherokee,
and it's kind of a sacred thing.
And I was just really disappointed.
Yeah, I think they did what they could do with the interior design,
maybe a little less inspired by the exterior.
But my issue is just really how it drove.
It just seems so heavy and uninspired and, you know what,
starting at 41000 dollars,
it just seems like there are more compelling things out there.
But I don't know, I might be in a camp of one here.
I've heard a lot of journalists go on about how much they like the new Cherokee.
I had more. I took more issue with the grand Cherokee and how the grand Cherokee drove.
I thought it was really good.
And here's the thing.
I had a conversation with the Jeep with the engineers in the conditions
in which I was driving, it was a very unique experience.
So I had it in sport mode and I was going up a hill up this up.
The the snake on Mulholland.
Oh, yeah, snake in sport mode and trying to the calibration of the gearing
on the transmission, it wasn't in manual.
I just left it in automatic the way that the lag was combined with the gear
selection and the and how high was revving and where it was shifting gears.
It was a it was not a pleasant experience because it wouldn't it wouldn't rev out
high enough in order for you to get to that point that is the second you got there.
It was just it was so out of whack.
And I told the engineer that and it's funny because they went out and they did it
the next day and they said to me, they said, we replicated the problem.
Which is fantastic because then they can solve for it.
It was great because and I said in my review and this is one of those moments
where you have a diplomatic, you know, you have a diplomatic way to say it is
I'm not sure that there are that many people who are going to be driving it in this fashion.
However, if you are giving people a sport mode and you are letting them know like,
hey, you're encouraging them to drive in a sporty fashion,
then it should feel really smooth in under every circumstance.
Right. That's just my my.
Yeah. Yeah. So that, yeah.
You didn't love the way that drove.
What do you think of the interior?
My issue with that, I thought it was good.
I didn't think it was good as the base model jerky.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
It seems crazy to me, but I do love it when people are actually concerned about
giving you value for the money.
And I just thought, oh, I thought that was just such good value for for your money.
I can't speak to the reliability of those things.
There's a brand new powertrain, you know, that there is to consider.
We will see how that how that does over time.
So lots, there's always lots to consider.
And that's part of the challenge is saying here are the things
that I like and I can't I just I don't know what how long this is
going to last you or how many like board, how many recalls you're going to have.
Right. Right.
Like so many things right now at the Jeep Wrangler, they've recalled every Jeep
Wrangler. Have you heard about this?
Yes, I have.
I mean, it's a lot.
I do think that there's a, you know, there's been this push for trying to really
become more efficient and like really trying to sort of push that that envelope a lot.
But I think when you have those turbos and and display it like the displacement
and you're trying to like force like a lot of power or more power
into like a low displacement engine, like it's it's hard.
Yeah, yeah, it's hard to kind of manage.
And I also think it's it's been kind of unfair to ask the car companies.
They're trying to do so many different things.
And please, many different people.
Then it doesn't surprise me that they're like, oh, my gosh, I don't know.
We didn't have time to or we didn't test it fully or this is like we have to get
this out here.
And I do, you know, I do feel I do, I definitely feel for those car companies too.
I know this is an expensive venture.
And so I, you know, I understand they've got a the whole spectrum
of stuff that they've that they've got to take care of.
I know how confusing it is just for a person who's buying a car.
Yeah, how come there's so many things to choose from?
Imagine an automaker trying to have to decide what are the things that I'm
going to really focus my energy and my money on?
Yep, what they do decide to focus on, like something else is not going to get the
attention that they would love to give it, but they just don't have the resources
to focus on everything, unfortunately.
It's kind of amazing.
Yeah, it's kind of amazing.
Anything gets built really, I mean, it really, it really kind of is.
And then you can understand why Toyota let something like the forerunner go for
15 years.
Yeah, exactly.
It's a huge success.
We sell out of them every single year.
People are continually buying them.
It's a broke like, yeah, it still has a five speed transmission on it, but
it's a very sturdy transmission.
Nothing is breaking on it.
People are still loving it.
It's, you know, there's dinosaur bits on it, but
I mean, that was a very, very successful vehicle for them.
Yeah.
It's every other vehicle here in Colorado.
And if it's not a forerunner, it's a suit.
I mean, I will say one thing, Doug DeMiro.
I don't know Doug personally, but he said one of the greatest things on that I
could ever hear because I have a fifth gen forerunner and they were talking about
what is the best, like, what are the best like SUVs to have?
And he said, hands down, the best SUV ever made is the fifth gen forerunner.
And I was like, I win.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like a winner.
I felt like I made a good choice.
When the new one was announced, there were a lot of people here in Colorado that,
you know, race to get the last of the fifth gen, right?
That was that was the one they wanted.
That was the end all be all, you know, what are you recommending to people these
days in that class or other classes?
It's funny. I mean, there's there's so many things now you put me on the spot.
Body on frame stuff.
I mean, there's just not a whole lot left.
So the forerunner is really the forerunner.
The Land Cruiser to me are really are really kind of the the mainstays.
They're I definitely think for two quite different customers, even though they
seem like they're sort of similar at this point.
But I think, you know, if you're more you're looking for more rugged,
more of a rugged application than the, you know, the forerunner is definitely,
I would say, you know, very high up on the list.
The Land Cruiser to me is a little has a little bit more sophistication to it,
both in its drivability and its its appearance and just the sort of its
general aura is, you know, a little more overlanding than it is sort of, you know,
ruggedness, I'm more of a Land Cruiser person.
And so that's kind of where I would lean.
You know, Ford Bronco, I think, has a lot of really good things going for it.
To me, on-road drivability is exceptional when it comes to that kind of vehicle.
Off-road, it's also tremendous.
It has a lot of great features.
My only issue with it is build quality and interior noise.
It's very loud in there.
I don't know how long it will take for things to start rattling and making,
you know, especially if you're really just kind of hammering it off-road.
How many things are going to start sneaking loose?
Quickly, you're going to shake things loose, yeah.
Yeah. And you know, for me, the Wrangler is always sort of that mixed bag, right?
It's, I mean, it's such an animal on the trail that's its purpose built.
That is what it's for.
But man, driving it on-road for me, especially on a road trip,
it's such an exhausting experience.
It's like chasing after a two-year-old for however long you're on the road.
Because you're constantly monitoring, you're constantly monitoring the steering.
You're like, it's just, it's built for off-road.
And I know a lot of people buy them for on-road and people may skewer me for this.
But I love that vehicle.
I've had a long term one and I've done a lot of great
off-roading stuff and have had a lot of terrific adventures in it.
You just have to know that that's what you're getting and that's what you want.
Yeah. Yeah.
There's definitely an honesty in it, which I appreciate.
Totally.
I had one recently.
It is unabashedly what it is.
That's it.
Yeah, so few cars are like that.
If money was no object and people wanted a car in that category,
I would unequivocally say the Defender Octa.
Yes, I second this choice.
And by money being no object, I don't just mean for buying it.
I also mean for potential repairs of it.
I don't know.
I mean, again, I'm not going to speak to a reliability.
You know, we always, it's like British bad teeth.
You know, we always make the funny joke of like, oh,
electrical problems or, you know, leaks on your Porsche, whatever it is.
But I just I that that vehicle to me is tremendous.
It checks off.
It checks off boxes.
You didn't even know you wanted checked off.
It's nuts.
And I love that.
Yeah.
I'm so glad to hear you say that.
I just found out we got one in the Denver press fleet.
I actually reached out to Sam Allen.
Drive the pants off that thing.
The funny thing is, is I was on the press launch and they
they only let us drive an Octa mode on a prescribed course with a helmet on.
And I'm like, first of all, you're selling this to customers.
They're going to turn on Octa mode, guys.
I kind of took offense at that because then they put it out into the press fleet.
And I said, what are you going to do?
I'm like, you're going to make them wear a helmet and you're going to.
Oh, and I had to have a person.
Maybe it wasn't a helmet.
Maybe I just had to have it.
No, I had a helmet on.
I had to have a person.
I had to have a person sitting right seat with me.
And I was like, and then on the rest of the drive, that same person was there
making sure we weren't putting it in the Octa mode without their permission.
I was like, yeah, yeah.
Well, this is like what 600 horsepower.
Yeah.
That's why I think it's six or 700 horsepower.
It's around, yeah.
The body, I mean, it's.
No, but you're doing that kind of speed on that on those kinds of roads.
And that kind of holy smokes.
I love the sensation of that, of that suspension, though.
I just felt like I was spinning around at top in that.
OK, I was like, this is like a mid-engine sports car feeling to me.
I was so crazy.
I was like, I loved it.
I thought it's.
It's like the best of all the worlds because, I mean, and like, I haven't gotten
to drive one yet, but Davy Jones took me off road in one and floored it.
And I'm sure I mean, like he's the best.
It was it's the weirdest experience, I think,
cognitively because you're seeing what you're driving over.
Like you see the terrain, but the sensations are not the terrain that you're
going over because the suspension is so good.
And you're just like, yeah.
Like you're suspended in this lovely
environment and chewing up this, you know, challenging terrain.
And you're like, it doesn't get any better than this.
Yeah, so you can do that and then you can go get dressed up and you could go
to a super swanky dinner and a black tie party and you still look like you do not
stand out in an inappropriate way.
That's what I love about that car.
And that to me is always been something that's important is how many applications
can I use this in every car I have has to have a mission, right?
It's like, I don't have things that are
extra because I just don't have the garage space or the time or the money.
Right. So for me, it's like it has to have a mission.
That thing has so many missions.
It's fabulous.
Checks, like I said, it checked off boxes.
You didn't even know. Yeah, exactly.
Well, the base car is so good.
Yeah, you really couldn't have just that one.
And you can do so many things with it.
It covers a lot of bases.
It's really great.
Maybe this is a good segue to go into the defender trophy thing that I did
a couple of months ago.
But you mentioned Davy Jones and he was there because he was part of that whole.
He was part of the team that was kind of helping us put us through our paces
in that competition.
And there were it was interesting the way that they'd set it up because it was
two days, the first day for us was really about our strength.
Like we did a ropes course.
I've never done a ropes course before.
Yeah. Check to see if we could swim, you know, 50 meters.
They we did like running.
We did orienteering.
We did these like weird teamwork exercises that were just like my arms just burned
out so hard.
And then the next day was all the driving.
And I all the beginning on the first day, I just thought, oh, this is I'm screwed
because this is not my jam.
Driving is my jam.
Like I could smoke all these people in the driving part of it.
Like just put me in the left.
Sure enough, sure enough, like my arms were just became like wet noodles.
And I I basically let go off the ropes course.
And I'm like, I got I don't have arms left.
This is so stupid.
And but once we were driving, Davey was part of the driving experience part of it.
And we had this cool course that we had to go through and people were saying,
hey, do you want to spot her and and, you know, a lot of the guys
that I was with, because we all paired up separately.
A lot of the guys I was with, they were kind of going really slow and being
and I'm like, you don't need to go this slow.
Like this truck can handle this.
Go faster.
Or you're like, we have the best that you could possibly have.
Yeah, I know, I know.
And the idea was, you know, you don't want to scrape.
You don't want it because then points were taken away from you.
If you, you know, if you did that on a on a, you know, on part of the course.
But I also would like to think that Davey was watching and going.
Like this chick knows what's up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe we've talked about this before.
But, you know, Lindsay and I at least grew up, you know, when when Land Rover
dealerships had like the technical courses at every dealership and this kind of.
They had one in Encino that I loved.
I would be like, what are those rocks doing out there?
That's so cool.
Whose idea wasn't to get rid of that?
Because, I mean, I don't know how many vehicles those damn things sold.
But it was a lot.
Right, you know, sold my parents on a Discovery 2 back in the day, right?
That doesn't surprise me.
It's really funny because at that same day, the dealership is still there.
And the rock thing is also the rock course is still there.
It's just now it's being used by, I don't know, some other company.
But it's so funny.
It's been defiled by a Kia Telluride or something.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know who like who it is, but it's just, yeah, I remember that very
distinctly and they really did own that space and they they kind of embraced it.
And the thing that I love about this Defender Trophy
challenge that they're doing, which is definitely the next iteration of Camel
Trophy is they really are leaning back into that part of their heritage,
as well as the abilities of that of their vehicles.
And I think that what a wise thing for them to do.
And I truly hope this is all right.
A little guest appearance.
I do truly hope that it goes really well.
I know that the finals are in Africa somewhere in October.
I don't know where yet.
And it's all the the dean is pretty, pretty secretive at the moment.
But I just love that they're that they're doing it.
They're leaning in there, exposing to young to the younger generations like this
whole other this world that they may or may not know exists.
And I just I'm so stoked.
What a great what a great way to celebrate your heritage.
Yep. Yep. I'm glad to see it too.
Yeah. And I love that it's like you said, it celebrates the heritage,
but it takes it to the next like brings it into the modern times as well.
And it's like, again, the best of both worlds, all the worlds.
Yeah, just such a good job.
There's a there's a huge conservation effort that goes along with it now.
I think it's the Tusk Foundation, but which also, I think, is just really
important to be able to to to really be able to support those kinds of things.
And remember the importance of,
hey, we're not the only ones here.
We have to leave this place better than we found it.
And I do think that it's incumbent on big companies, especially car companies,
in order to to be able to to have a voice about that and to have an opinion about
that. So I just think it's I think it's terrific.
Yeah, I love it.
Plus, it was really cool and fun, although I will say in the orienteering bit,
there were these we were out in like these thick woods and I wasn't wearing gloves
like an idiot. And I wanted this one guy was in front of me and he grabbed this
bush, this like branch of something.
And I thought, OK, great, I'm going to do the same thing.
The second I went to grab it, he said, don't grab that.
And I grabbed it just as he said, don't grab that.
And I still have a thorn in my finger.
That was in May and it is now July.
And this thing, I don't know what it is, but it still really hurts.
When you need to get that out.
It may be with you for a while.
But it hurts like it's not just a gross bump like it hurts.
And, you know, we want to know where it is.
It's, you know, when you turn the turn signal on a car.
It's right on the turn signal pad.
Well, it's a good thing you don't drive cars for a living.
Oh, this is a work injury now.
Hello, workers.
I want workman's comp.
I want time off.
Well, that sounds like a pretty good trip, pretty good time.
I'm just the same.
It was so cool.
And it was really great, the people who participated in it, right?
So it wasn't media, all media.
I think it was the only people who were media on my wave who were actually
participating in doing it were me and Jeff Glucker from Motor One.
And everybody else, everybody, we love Jeff, everybody else.
Jeff had a broken hand.
Yes, that's hardcore.
He broke his fucking hand and still was like, I'm not missing that trip.
He called them and he said, hey, he's like, is it cool?
And they asked him, they said, can you put two hands on a steering wheel?
And he said, absolutely.
And I said, fine, we'd love to have you.
And he said, you just have to put a trash bag over that cast for the 50 yard swim.
He's like, it was amazing.
I mean, I was like, whoa, bro, like that's so cool.
But all of the other people who were there were
customers, like like special ops guys, like first responders, people who were
just like rabid fans of the brand, owners of vintage cars, of of modern cars,
like all of these people.
And it just kind of brought us together in this common, this common task.
And we were all kind of put together in teams and we knew that they were going
to be picking four people out of our three whole waves in order to represent
the the US and Canada because they combined North America together.
But boy, it was just such a great experience.
I still am on a on a chat thread with my initial group because that's how much
amazing bonding we did.
Awesome. And it was fantastic.
And oddly enough, two guys in my group, we had little groups of, I think it was
like eight people, two of the guys who were in my group, D, are going to Africa.
They made it not just to the semifinals, but they made it to the final trip.
So I think that says something about how cool our team was.
Absolutely, right?
I'm taking it for their success.
That's right.
I mean, as you should, I don't see why you would do anything else.
Yeah.
But it was great.
I just thought they put together this really well oiled machine.
And it was a terrific event.
It really did sort of stretch you as a as a person.
You're like physically, it was very, very challenging physically and rightly so
because whatever it is that they're going to put you through out there, you better
be able to figure it out and handle it.
And I learned stuff that I just thought I didn't know how to tie ropes or didn't
know how to, you know, do a lot of recover the recovery stuff.
It made me want to be better at all those things.
So what and I just met a ton of rad people on top of it.
That sounds awesome.
That sounds awesome.
Where was that?
If they do it was in BC.
It was in British Columbia, just outside of Vancouver.
But if they do it again next year, apply because any any boat.
Listen, if I got in and this was not a oh, you're media, so we're going to let you in.
This was I submitted just like everybody else.
Oh, Brian Dore was there too.
So Brian wasn't he's media guy.
So he was another person who was I think the only other person who was media.
If I'm forgetting someone, they're going to kill me.
But there was also media who was just there
invited to come and and, you know, observe and watch.
They did not participate.
That's not half the school.
We were the idiots who participated.
That's that's hey, we're right there with British Columbia.
Sign us up.
And who knows if that's where they have the regional competition, but they're
doing these competitions all over the world.
Japan, Australia, Europe like spent like all over the place.
Like they're they're doing them.
This is a truly global event.
I'll get in and it'll be like Vale or something.
Yeah, you're like, I guess I'll just walk over in the morning.
Even if it's in your backyard.
Totally.
I would be a tremendous experience.
That sounds awesome.
Yeah, I'll throw my dart.
You know, yeah, so was it for the driving portion?
You know, because you've done rallies, you've done the rebel.
Was the driving portion similar to that kind of driving or was it more?
The driving was easy.
The driving wasn't even nearly that hard.
Yeah, there were a couple of little obstacle things like they had one.
It was it almost felt to me like a press trip in that way.
That we had tiny little like there was a course that we had to drive.
But there was there was like an articulation section.
And then there was a water forwarding section where you had to kind of go
through water and then there was a thing where you had to go over.
So we'll do some rock crawling stuff.
And it was so it was very basic.
There was a night drive to where you had to.
But it was for me anyway.
And I think a lot of the other there were not many women on our wave.
I think there were seven women total on our wave.
A lot of very accomplished drivers.
And so I think the driving for the women was probably the easiest part.
A lot of the other stuff was was a lot of upper body strength.
And oh, God, I have none of that.
And so it for me, that was definitely the easiest part.
And I felt I felt OK, like I could I could compete on this level,
like on a on a high level in this area of the competition.
Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.
Awesome. Lindsay, I think we got to play.
Oh, I agree.
So where else have you been?
Did I hear something about Africa?
Speaking of Africa.
Yeah, it's so funny because the competition was is going to be in Africa.
And of course, I thought, oh, well, wouldn't it be funny if I got in?
And then I got to go to Africa twice
because I had planned a vacation this year in Africa.
Of course, I said, haha, I did not even come close to being a finalist in that
competition, but I still did get to go take a vacation in Africa.
And this has been one of those things where I just I've been wanting to go for decades.
I mean, I've I don't know what it is.
I certainly, you know, my, you know, my people are not from Africa.
Well, you know, centuries ago.
No, I don't look very African, but it was somewhere that when anyone would speak
of it, my heart just leaps like out of my chest.
And I get this overwhelming sense of like,
like breathlessness and I don't understand why because I'm not like that for a lot
of other countries and places that are not my home.
But it's just got to go way back, right?
Way back. I know, right?
But it's the same humanity, right?
I mean, to me, this is so cool that that's kind of where it all started.
And totally.
And I knew that wanted to go on safari.
I'd been to North Africa.
I've been to Morocco.
It's definitely not the same thing that definitely has a lot more Arab or French
influence, and it's fantastic and it's beautiful, but the terrain, the landscape
looks very different as well.
So you're not it's not that Savannah, those planes that you have.
But I just decided I would plan a trip.
And oddly enough, our friend, Jeff Gluck, had done a very similar itinerary the year
before. That's right.
I was so jealous and he just said, then go like do it, like stop thinking about it
or talking about it, just go.
And I thought, OK, fine.
And I had four friends that I just I said to them, I said,
I'm going to tell you when it is, I'm going to tell you how much it is
and tell you when you have to be where you have to be.
Otherwise, I'm organizing the whole thing and you just get to you get to say, I'm in
or I'm out every single one of them instantly before I even told them how much it was,
was like, I'm in.
And so I organized the whole trip
and I I definitely made it like the trip that I wanted to go on.
But I knew that would be still enjoyable, was still affordable.
We did some camping and then we did some lodges and we kind of got progressively
more luxurious as the trip went along.
So it wasn't the other way around where you're like, this is amazing.
And then suddenly you're like, no, because I haven't showered in five days.
Why are you making me camp?
And that is definitely the correct trajectory of how to do that.
It was in it.
I definitely there was divine intervention for sure because it was the trip of a lifetime.
I love that.
It was now between like and Jeff was such an ambassador for going there.
He was talking about it when we were at the Subaru dinner after the auto show in November.
And it was so generous with his picture.
And it was like, they just kept getting more, you know, where you're like,
this can't even be real.
It looks amazing.
And that's how you feel when you're there.
That's 100 percent how I felt.
I didn't realize I thought everyone had this like fabulous,
like huge, long lens that they're getting all these like tight shots.
And I thought, oh, I'm not.
I couldn't believe everyone asked me what was their biggest, what was the biggest
surprise, how close you get to the animal.
How close they come to your vehicles.
You're driving through their, you know, food stores, basically, and you're on roads,
but there are elephants that will literally walk right in front of your your vehicles.
There are monkeys were climbing on top of our car at one point.
They were just surreal.
I didn't like that so much.
I was like, yeah, I'm not into the baboons on the car thing.
I was like, because it's open.
You have the safari top open.
Yeah, what were you driving?
So they were Land Cruiser.
They were the 70 series troupies.
OK, ubiquitous real.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're these things are ubiquitous, right?
Like if you see a Land Rover, it's like super old and it's not any company
that's using it because they're not reliable.
Sorry.
But the old ones, I mean, the old ones.
But the troupies, those things, they're highly customizable.
So you can they come gutted on the inside.
You can put as many rows of seats in there as you want.
Some people have stretched them so they can put three rows instead of two rows back
behind the front row.
You have the safari top that you can put on there.
You can add doors on there if you don't want it to just be 11
kind of door on the side.
And so we had I intentionally made it so that we could drive to because I didn't
want just someone schlepping us around.
So I worked with a company who allows
there you basically rent these trucks from these people.
We had two trucks because there were five of us.
One we called Transport because that had you could see four in it,
but it also had a full kitchen in the back.
It had that's where we kept all of our stuff.
It had two roof tents on the top of it and we had a ground tent.
So we had various sleeping arrangements.
And then we had our safari truck and we did we did hire a guide.
And I thought, yes, I want to hire a guide because I don't want to just be chasing
around wondering where everything is.
I wanted someone who knew, hey, we can go see cheetahs.
We have to go over here because this is usually where the cheetahs are.
So we got this guide.
This company called Tanzania Nature Escapes.
He is, oh, my gosh, 15 years in the industry.
Brilliant, funny.
He was wonderful.
He became part of our group.
It was almost like felt weird like when we left him because it was like, it's like,
well, how are we leaving you here?
Like this is good, but we had such a great itinerary put together.
And the good thing about having him was and we have that our safari our safari
truck was when we were camping, we would just leave the transport truck there.
We could put six people into the safari truck.
So we had five of us and one of him and he would drive us around so we could
actually spend time and see the animals.
So there wasn't one of us who had to was the obligated like, OK,
Lynn, it's your turn to drive and you're going to have to be like this instead
of like taking it all in.
Yeah, I like it was so perfectly set up and arranged.
It was magnificent.
And we went to three different parks.
We went to Terangiri, which is the densest population of elephants on the planet,
especially in the dry season, which we went in the shoulder season and it was
perfection, it was so great.
And we went from there to the Angorongoro crater, which is way up high,
you know, high on this mountain.
And we saw rhinoceroses and we saw zebras.
And I mean, it was just like this incredible, incredible place.
It was almost primordial.
Like you we got there super early and the mist was like still hanging in the mountains.
And then these elephants would walk out of the mist and you're like,
what am I in prehistoric time?
It was like it was literally like walking back in time because, you know,
well, it was like that, you know, thousands of years ago, like when things still
roam the earth or, you know, however long ago, we fucked it up.
Right. It's like, and thank God, it's so untouched.
And there's not a stitch of garbage anywhere in these parks.
I mean, they take pristine care.
And then we went to Serengeti for four days and if you've ever and anyone out there,
if you've ever thought about doing it, save your money, maybe like put pennies
and quarters away in a jar for as long as you have to, because there is something
that is so magical and so beautiful about this place that I just I can't even describe it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Must. That sounds awesome.
Yeah. It was fabulous.
And you know, we learned so much about these trucks because it was really cool.
We saw some of the new trucks and some of the old trucks and our guide,
he's so smart, he said, sometimes they just re-body the old chassis.
Don't make it look like it's a new truck, but it's not a new truck.
You know, it's all the old bits under there.
Interesting. Interesting.
So have you guys, you guys know Emmy Hall?
Yeah, I don't.
So Emmy was Emmy was the first person that I
saw when I landed in Paris for Le Mans last year.
We're walking through the airport, literally just off the plane.
And I'm like, Emmy Hall.
You have to have Emmy on this show.
He's a gas.
So Emmy and I were the only ones that decided to do the hot air balloon ride.
The morning hot air balloon ride.
It's expensive, but it's worth it.
Is it also not terrifying or am I just a big wimp?
No, OK, so the most terrifying part of it, this is hilarious, is you get in with
the basket on its side and you're kind of getting in like an astronaut and you're
sort of like this, like you're hanging on and your butt is like this and your legs
are like this and you're like, OK, here we go.
And the guy like fills up the balloon and suddenly you're uprighted like this.
And then you take off, you don't go very high up.
You're trying to just you're basically at the treetops.
OK, and probably not a lot of high-tension power lines in Africa.
There's not a lot of air balloon in peace and calm with a sense of zen.
Do it there.
Oh, my gosh, it was so beautiful.
You saw the sun rising.
It was so quiet and you go up a little bit higher in some instances above the tree
lines, but he's really like you're just trying to skim the trees because you're
you're trying to see animals.
Sure, they're not up there like trying to, you know, like pass out.
It was it was.
Oh, man, it was magical.
It was magical.
And it's so funny because so I'll bring up Glocker one more time.
He did not go on a hot air balloon.
He's afraid of heights.
I'm pretty afraid of heights, too.
But there were other people in our group who were kind of on the fence.
I don't know.
I don't know.
And after I mean, I came down, we just said to all of those people, you blew it
because that was no pun intended, right?
Yeah, yeah, right?
You like if you go next time, do the hot air balloon thing.
It is amazing.
It does not disappoint.
It's worth it's worth it.
Ridiculous enough.
And then you land and you get there.
They give you champagne afterwards because it's French.
And can you opt for it before the ride?
I need to feel a little nudge and then we'll have more of a get back.
You know, you got to take your own.
Right.
Put it in the hot chocolate or the coffee that they gave you.
I don't know if it would be champagne, but yeah, right.
No, but it's not really not scary.
Yeah, and this is what I've heard about being afraid of heights.
It's much more acute if you're actually tethered to the ground.
So if you're on a high bridge or you're on something where you are connected
to the earth, sure, then that sensation happens.
But if you are just kind of up in the air, then there's a very different perception
going on with your brain.
Oh, interesting.
You don't have a visual like measure reminding you how high you are.
Correct. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So whatever that thing is, I don't know what it is.
To me, it's true because I do not like heights.
You will never find me climbing over the, you know, the bridge in Sydney
or something ludicrous thing like that.
Like absolutely not.
That's for bungee jumping off of a into a gorge.
Like that's definitely not my jam.
But no, I've I've hot air ballooned twice now and it was not terrifying.
Good to know.
That's interesting here.
I know I look at like you're like you're connected in and yeah, yeah.
Oh, it's not like, oh, my gosh, I'm going to fall out.
I just better hang into this basket.
Yeah.
Where's the stamping bottle?
Right.
Like I brought my back to LA and then from there I went back to LA and that was
just I was saying to to this I was with a couple of girlfriends and then my friend
Aaron and his wife Tina and all of us we've done a significant amount of
traveling in our lives, whether it's for the route for rally or for just regular
vacation or some great, even some great press trips when you're gone and you just
have this really amazing time.
And I said to them, I said, oh, I said, this one's going to be hard to come down from.
Yeah, yeah, you have to kind of have a readjustment period.
But but I'll say this, I mean, there was not one wrinkle.
There was not one bad thing that happened.
There was not one like any of the terrible things that could, you know, no one got
malaria, no one got bit by anything.
It was not buggy.
The weather was perfect.
All of our flights were on time.
You know, we we even got sleep on the plane.
It was just like, oh, my gosh, people got up for it.
It was just fat.
I mean, it was just like every single thing was so marvelous.
And I just I kept thinking to myself during this whole trip, this is such a gift.
And this has been a hard year for me.
Just a lot of stuff going on, both personally and some professionally,
just changes and things that have been really challenging.
And my goodness, I I just felt like like you're just, you know,
that in scene in The Lord of the Rings, where those big, huge birds come and just
pick Frodo and the Sam, the other guy Sam up.
I've never seen it, Lynn, but I
that moment alone is so worth it.
Like that moment alone is so worth it.
It's this bird, these huge like birds that are like eagle.
But they're like, yeah, like 20 times the size of a normal thing, like big enough
that they could in their claws, pick up a little person like this.
And just carry them to me.
That's a metaphor, such a metaphor for just something else like holding you
and saying, it's OK, I have you.
Yeah. Yeah.
That was mental.
It was sort of like that mental moment of I felt like I was being carried.
Interesting.
That we're maybe that's esoteric or weird, but it's not like that.
And I need my soul needed.
Yeah, it was like place to do.
We all need this.
Amazing. Yeah.
It's like a mental or sometimes even physical.
Like you have the sensation of like everything I just exhaled like and I didn't
even realize I was holding my breath and you're like, oh, it's the relief of like,
oh, OK, and just the reset, like especially like you said, especially when things have
been tumultuous and whatever and you get there.
And when you were talking about like trips that are tough to come back from,
I always, you know, I've been lucky to travel a fair amount too.
And anytime a trip is exceptionally like anytime I call it reentry,
like reentry into real life is exceptionally hard.
I'm like, I'm so grateful because that means it was an amazing trip.
Yeah, it's true.
It's like you don't know that your shoulders are up here until you come back
and you're suddenly you think, oh, my shoulders are here.
So I have to ask you because I was lucky enough to follow along a little bit
while you were on the trip through Instagram.
And there was one video that Rebecca posted when you guys were in the tent and there
were animals around the tent.
Can you share?
They were water buffalo.
Oh, wow.
Now, I did not think a water buffalo was all that bad.
It just looks like a big, huge cow with some horns, right?
It's just a huge cow with horns.
Their nickname is the Black Death.
And these cows with horns are the most vicious.
Yeah, I was kind of like a hippopotamus, I think,
which is like the most gnarly thing that could ever you know, you could ever
encounter these things will fucking kill you.
They don't want to eat you because they're herbivores.
They just want to you're in their way.
They will annihilate you.
So we were camping at the Angorongoro Crater.
We drive up and it's this lovely like
pasture of green, green grass, and it's gorgeous.
And there's tents all over like little gum drops.
And it's just that we put our tent down because Rebecca and I are sleeping on the
ground and then the other two people are in the roof tent and that's fantastic.
And we get all settled in after we've made our dinner and we go to this little
cafe where we have like a little, you know, people have a nightcap or a tea.
I think I had a cup of tea and we were told, OK,
after 10 o'clock, you really should get into your tent because in the way that
the lions were kind of cruising around the last campground and you kind of don't
want to be out, you got to like flash your flashlights.
So if you see two like eyes meeting at you, you kind of got to avoid that.
Well, this is a little different because this is water buffalo and they kind of,
you know, but after it's after 10 o'clock.
So I think, OK, around seven, I have to go to the to the bathroom.
And I leave this little cafe and I walk out toward the bathroom.
I've got my little headlamp and I think,
is that a set of water buffalo that's right in front of the bathroom?
I thought it wasn't moving.
And I'm like, is that a mural?
Is that a mural on the side of the pool?
I thought that's really kind of cruel and like mean to do.
It was like, let's draw a buffalo on the side of this and really mess with people's minds.
And I then suddenly it moved its head and I was like, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Like there's a water but it's seven o'clock.
Like they're not supposed to be here until 10.
You have three hours, guys.
And then they say they're like, don't run because that means you're food, right?
So you're like, how do I get out of here?
So I like.
You just move away from the water.
I like to get back to the cafe and I went into our guide and I said,
Othman, I said, there's a water buffalo out there.
And he's like, no, not yet.
It's too early.
He went outside.
We all went outside and the place had suddenly just been run over with with water
buffaloes and we were I mean, we were so our eyes just like wide open crazed
because we had been told how brutal these things are and you do not want to mess
with them and we just thought, well, we can't even get back to our camp.
So when drove us back up to our camp, we I mean, skedaddled into our tents.
I I get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
And I'm like, how am I going to do that when there's this water buffaloes
everywhere, that beautiful green grass that we saw where they were eating all
freaking night.
So we get in our tent
and I'm laying there and Rebecca is just like like we're in his the kind of in
like like crazy hysterics and all of a sudden there's like this big indentation
in our little tiny is just this nylon fucking tent that we're and we're being
surrounded by these water buffaloes.
And I think, can they smell me?
Like, do they know that there's people in here?
Sure.
Well, they were so close to my head as I was lying down.
I could hear the squeaking of the of the wet grass as they were grabbing it
with their mouth and chewing on it.
And I just thought, Rebecca, there it's right there.
Like it's literally right there.
And it was it was funny and terrifying.
You know, I don't know how we slept there was one.
So the next night we moved our tent a little bit to try and be a little closer.
At one point there was like the two people in the roof tents kind of were
rocking like this because one of them was like rubbing its body on the truck.
They were they were like, could you move?
Like, what are you doing?
The next we were there two nights and the next night was the same deal.
And we asked one of the rangers who was there.
We said, are these guys come on?
Are you just pulling our leg?
Are they really that dangerous?
He turns and he's got a long gun on him.
And he's like, yeah, they're that dangerous.
Yeah. And so it was just crazy because the way we had repositioned the light
from the bathroom, from another bathroom was behind and then our tent was here.
And I could see the shadow of these hulking things like walking by.
I mean, they're the same nickname as the plague.
Right. Yeah, the Black Death.
I was so I was never I was like, I'm so glad that we're done with camping.
I've never been happier.
I survived that evening.
Both of those nights.
Nobody died.
Nobody got eaten or trampled.
And there was one time in the middle of the night, I fought for sure.
You know how you pull this like that?
You put the stakes in and you like tie the kind of tie down the chin.
You stake it in.
And there are those like sort of strings that go like this.
And if you're not careful, you can trip over stuff.
One of those water buffaloes tripped over one of those things.
I thought this thing lands on one of us.
We're dead. Yeah.
Like you'd lose your balance and you're like, whoa,
splat, we would have been gone.
You can never go back, Lynn, because it'll never be that perfect trip again.
You're not going to get that upgrade on the flight over, right?
Like the water buffalo is going to land on you.
I saved I saved up for that upgrade.
I was intentional with that.
I was I was intentional with mine.
OK, OK, I saved up a lot for that trip.
But you know what?
And I wouldn't want to try and recreate it.
I if I go back, I'd love to go to Kenya.
I'd love to go to Botswana.
I'd love to.
There are other places where I would love to go and see.
But Tanzania will always be very, very special.
Yeah. Well, so what was it like to drive there?
Because it sounds like, you know, you got to obviously be driven,
but drive there as well.
So what was that like in that environment?
It was really, I mean, it was honestly really cool.
It was what you would expect.
Long kind of, you know, gravelly dirt roads.
There's, you know, there's some infrastructure there, but not, you know,
some of it's very rudimentary when you're going from park to park.
And it was just kind of fun like Baja driving,
which is my favorite kind of driving.
Yeah, that's awesome.
You know, our vehicles were the older variety
Truby, and so they were kind of rattly and and a little bit, you know,
by the end of it, you're sort of like, I've got bruises all over me.
Why is that?
And it's because you've been kind of, you know, bouncing around.
But it was great. I mean, it was great fun.
And I there were moments where I would just sort of close my eyes and see the sun
behind my my eyelids and just
just tell myself, you know, soak it in.
Don't forget this.
Don't ever forget this.
And then standing when you're driving and you're driving at speed and you're
able to stand up in the truck and you have that safari tent open and you just,
the wind is in your hair and you're just looking at,
you're looking at giraffes as you drive by and I had my earbuds in and I had a
couple of like these choice songs that I can't wait to hear them again,
because I know it's going to take me right back to that moment in time.
Yeah, that was special.
What were you listening to? I'm curious.
No, I want to know.
Oh, my gosh, do you guys know?
So one of the songs I was listening to was the song from
the Dream Academy.
Oh, please.
It was Life in a Northern Town.
Not Life in a Northern Town, but the song from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Please, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah, cool.
The lyric is just like for once in my life,
like give me what I want.
And it was so indicative of that time for me because I had been dreaming about this
trip for so long. I love that.
That's amazing.
Yeah, perfect.
You're going to have the song that sort of completes the experience.
Let me get what I want.
And it's not like kind of magical, like whimsical.
It's Ferris Bueller's Day Off when they're in the museum.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
One of the great movies, truly.
The melody is just like, oh, it's just it's transformative.
It's a beautiful.
Everything has to have a soundtrack.
Everything.
We have two movies that we have to watch or rewatch.
Ryan has to watch Lord of the Rings.
We all have to rewatch Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
I'm telling you, if you don't want those two eagles at some point when you're
feeling just like at your most stressed, I don't know those things to just come
and pick me up and like soar over all of my problems with.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just want to like clap twice and, you know, have them, you know, grass.
That's what I want.
I think this is like a new version of like some people will say, like, Jesus,
take the wheel. I think another option is eagles take the wheel.
Eagles, eagles take my body.
Yeah, just it was like maybe the giant bird.
It might be the band.
You choose what works best for you.
Whatever, whatever.
All I know is I'm good.
What other cars did you see?
Like I'm envisioning like old Ben's W123s or maybe that's more North Africa.
Like what's the average person they're driving around in?
Really, the average person is driving a motorcycle.
So there are a lot of motorcycles there.
Gas is very expensive and these are not rich people, you know?
And so a lot of them, if they have a vehicle at all, it's a it's a motorbike.
It's a scooter.
There are a lot of trucks there.
So a lot of transport, you know, transport vehicles that people were driving around.
But there were also just a lot of older, you know, a lot of older cars there.
There was on our way home, back to the airport,
we had passed something that looks to us like it was a car show that was happening.
And I thought, oh man, what is that?
And there were all kinds of little modded things with like the tiny little wheels
that have a little camber on them and like have a kind of a coffee can muffler.
Those kind of non-descript JDM cars that you're like, I don't know enough to know.
Like, is that an eclipse? Is that a lamp?
Like, what is that?
But it was really neat to see that there was still even in Arusha, there was a look
like car culture, it was that part was really cool, too.
I tried to snap some pictures.
We took along some of those just film,
instamatic film cameras, which I haven't gotten the phone back on it yet.
So we're dying to see if any of those pictures came out.
But I wish I had known about that because that would have been a
really great story. Yeah, that's cool.
Otherwise, I think it's really just, you know, what people can manage to cobble
together and lots of like kind of roadside mechanics where we got a flat tire,
we pulled over to the side of the road, we got some air in our tires.
And there were these other guys that were just wrenching on cars like right in this
like this kind of dirt alleyway almost.
And so they're very hands on people.
These are some of the loveliest people you'll ever experience in your life.
Very generous, very kind and just like welcoming you all the time.
You know, it was just it was really, it was really extraordinary.
That's amazing. Yeah.
Yeah, I'm so and I came, I literally came home from that.
And oh, no, it was after I came home from
after right after I came home from the Defender Trophy that I literally went
right into the Trinity Rally into that Trinity Road Rally.
How was it that I drove nine?
I drove the 912 in and I had paired up with my old teammate Sedona
from the Rebell, so she co-drove.
She did the the navigating.
It was really roadbook stuff.
There was some time speed, distance stuff.
And then there was a track day where we did some TSD on track, which was so much fun.
And we won the classic, classic class, which was amazing.
We won by a lot. It was so cool.
Congratulations. That's awesome.
It was so fun to be with her again.
And it was just it was a really great experience.
This is like a road rally.
This is not a tour.
This is work.
Yeah, the inaugural the inaugural year.
It's the same woman who organizes the Rebell, but this is just a little different.
It's not all women.
She does encourage that there be at least one woman in the car, which I think is great.
But this thing was we started up.
We started up at the Golden Gate Bridge.
And we drove from there up some of the most amazing roads up to Mendocino.
I don't know if you've ever taken some of those crazy roads to Mendocino.
Just absolutely spectacular.
And then we went from there over to Sonoma and we ended on Sonoma Raceway.
I got to drive my Porsche on Sonoma Raceway, which I just thought was the coolest thing.
I'll always think of it as Sears Point just because when I was living up there,
Sears, Sears Point, but.
Oh, my gosh, it was so great.
We came in second overall on accuracy on the track, which I don't even have a
speedo on my car that works how we managed to do that.
I have no clue, but I guess we were just kind of feeling it and it was great.
But Pinsoil was a huge sponsor of ours, which was such a high honor for me.
They loved our they loved my car and they just were so supportive.
And there they were a huge supporter of the event, but that the fact that they
would also support me was just like, I mean, that blows my mind that a company
like that would would stand behind me and they were, oh, man, they were so fantastic.
They were up there competing too, which was so fun.
Oh, my gosh.
And every day, something else like broke on the car.
So at one point by the last day, every time I turned left, the horn would honk.
Oh, really?
So I had to pull the horn like I had to disconnect the horn.
And then when I first walked, went up there,
I had one windshield wiper that worked.
And then this one was like.
It was sort of like like it was like a lame thing by the end of it.
And neither of them worked.
They were just like and then they broke.
So I had no windshield wipers.
So break this down.
So do you know Sarah Lacey, my friend, Sarah Lacey?
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, she's lovely.
We love Sarah.
She's the best.
And a person with a Chrysler.
Well, that's my question.
Like, so would you rather do it in a modern vehicle or would you rather do it in
something like the 912, which I'd always rather do that stuff and have more fun
in a classic car.
Yeah, yeah.
But if I'm going to do it, I would want to do it in some weirdo beardo thing like
a Pacifica, right?
That's the car, right?
It was so funny.
And I was at an event in the Pacific Northwest called Mud Fest and Scott Brown
from Stilentus was there and he knows Sarah and he had helped get her into the
Pacifica for the rally.
So we were talking about because it was going on when we were at Mud Fest.
And I'm like, this is the most.
Hello, Sarah had never rallied before.
And the first teammate is Nina Barlow.
Come on, come on.
That's amazing.
That green Pacifica they were in ended up in the Denver press fleet.
And so we actually got to drive that same Pacifica that they and we were all wildly
impressed with.
There you go.
The minivan has come a long way.
That's one of the more underrated.
More one of the more underrated vehicles, not just minivans, but one of the most
underrated vehicles, the plug-in hybrid is even better because you can get some
crazy, crazy gas mileage in that thing.
I had a long term I had a long term car my first year at Kelly Blue Book, a long
term Pacifica plug-in hybrid.
I at first I was like, oh, thanks, guys, give the new girl the fucking minivan.
By the end of it, I was so impressed by that.
I thought this is a great camera car with the hybrid with that hybrid motor.
You kind of haul some butt in that when you're off the line because you've got a
lot of instant torque there working with you.
I could hyper mile that thing like crazy.
I mean, there was one time I got a thousand miles because I was trying really
hard to see how long I could go before having to fill up the tank.
And, you know, if you're a local person, you have, I guess it's what,
33 miles of range of electric range in that in the plug-in motor.
I I love it.
That's one of those cars probably more of us should be driving, right?
You talk about checking off boxes, right?
Like that's a car that probably makes the most sense for most people, right?
But yeah, what else has surprised you that you've driven recently?
You know, obviously, the Octa, your big fan, the Pacifica surprise.
Have you driven anything else?
Yes, the the the RAV four of GR Sport.
I've not driven that.
Lindsay, you thought I drove.
I drove a woodland version edition.
I was stunned.
Like I haven't driven the woodland, but that GR sports got some guts.
Really quick.
It's fun.
I was like, oh, holy smokes.
Yeah, wait a minute.
They're going to slap GR on there.
You better make it work.
It's it's the PHEV so you can only get it as a PHEV.
And it was a blast.
I had such a good time driving it.
It was just it was like the cat's pajamas.
I think that is almost fun.
Like that's one of the best things about
press cards when you go in like either skeptical or not really having any
expectations and you get out of it going like this was pretty fantastic.
Because I feel like that is even more of a than if you just go in, you know,
you're like, yeah, I'm expecting them to be OK and it blows you away.
You're like, yeah, but I was already positive about it.
If you're skeptical or you don't know what to think and it blows you away.
That's an even stronger review, I think.
The other thing that I really enjoyed was the Subaru Trail Seeker.
About this episode
Kelly Blue Book’s Lynn Woodward returns for a long, laugh-heavy chat about what makes cars worth the hype—and what doesn’t. The crew debates the new Jeep Cherokee, praising the surprisingly upscale-feeling base interior while questioning how it drives in sport mode, including a transmission calibration issue Lynn flagged to engineers. They also explore why Toyota’s no-nonsense reliability keeps the fifth-gen 4Runner winning, compare it with Land Cruiser, Bronco, and Wrangler tradeoffs, and touch on other recent news and oddities.
This week, on That Car Show, it’s one of our favorite people: Kelly Blue Book’s Lyn Woodward.
This one’s got of laughs and goes really, really. long… as we tend to do when Lyn is on. So, we split this one in to two parts. Make sure you download both.
We have mixed opinions on the new Jeep Cherokee, Lyn shares her own unique take on SLATE, we give the 5th-generation 4Runner some love, celebrate the surprise of the year in the Subaru Trailseeker, and bemoan how poor Polestar got the Showtime at the Apollo hook. Also, Lyn faces the Black Death with The Dream Academy as soundtrack.
