Term
touch screens
A touchscreen is the big screen in the dashboard you tap to control things. Instead of pressing buttons, you use your fingers on the screen.
Brand
Ford
Ford is a big car company. Here they’re talking about how Ford designs the car’s tech and screens, and whether that makes the car easier or more annoying to use.
Brand
Tesla
Tesla is an electric-car company known for lots of tech in the car. In this segment, it’s used as the example that other brands try to imitate.
Car
Lamborghini Kuntosh
The Countach is an older Lamborghini supercar. It’s known for its bold, unusual styling and for being very distinctive inside and out. The podcast references it by pointing out a specific interior detail.
Part
air conditioning knob
They’re talking about the physical knob you use to control the car’s A/C. The point is that even small parts can be very expensive to replace on some cars.
Brand
Lancia
Lancia is another car brand. Here it’s mentioned because the speaker claims a Lamborghini interior knob is related to a Lancia part, which makes it feel costly and frustrating.
Brand
Pagani
Pagani is a small Italian company that makes very limited-run supercars. The speaker is saying that when you get to rare, high-end brands like Pagani, the rules about “who can do details better” start to change because they build far fewer cars.
Concept
cold start
A cold start is when you start the car after it’s been parked for a while. Because the engine is cold, it often sounds louder and runs differently for a short time.
Term
ADAS
ADAS means the car’s driver-assist tech. Things like lane help and automatic braking that try to make driving safer, and many cars turn them on automatically.
Concept
daily driver
A “daily driver” is a vehicle used regularly for everyday commuting rather than occasional weekend use. The speaker argues that if a car is meant to be lived with daily, repeatedly dealing with re-enabled ADAS settings (and menu steps) clashes with the intended premium experience.
Car
Lexus LS
They bring up the Lexus LS as an example of a luxury car that might have had a CD player for a long time. It’s Lexus’s big, top-tier sedan.
Term
single zone climate control
Single zone climate control means the car heats or cools the whole cabin to one temperature setting. You can’t set different temperatures for driver and passenger.
Term
wired carplay
Wired CarPlay means you plug your phone into the car with a cable to use maps and music on the car screen. It’s the “older” CarPlay style before wireless became common.
Term
analog gauge cluster
An analog gauge cluster uses traditional physical dials and needles (speedometer/tachometer) instead of a fully digital screen. Enthusiasts often prefer analog clusters for their readability and classic feel.
Term
TPMS
TPMS means your car can monitor tire pressure for you. If a tire is low, it will warn you so you don’t drive on underinflated tires.
Car
Mazda Miata
The Mazda Miata is a small, fun sports car that many people like because it feels straightforward and easy to drive. In this conversation, it’s used as a benchmark for how “analog” a car can feel.
Term
push button start
Instead of turning a key, you press a button to start the car. Some people feel it makes the car feel less old-school and more techy.
Part
disc brakes
Disc brakes are the common braking system where pads squeeze a metal disc to slow the car. They usually work better and more consistently than older drum brakes.
Term
Sunfish
A Sunfish is a small sailboat you can learn on. It’s usually used by beginners because it’s not too complicated.
Term
laser
A Laser is a common type of small sailboat people race. It’s a step up from the easiest boats because you have to sail it well.
Term
catamarans
A catamaran is a boat with two hulls. It usually feels steadier and has more room, which makes it more comfortable for longer trips.
Concept
hydrofoil
A hydrofoil is a boat that uses underwater “wings” to lift up above the water at speed. When it lifts, it can ride more smoothly because it’s not constantly hitting the waves.
Concept
galley
The galley is just the boat’s kitchen. It’s where you cook meals while you’re traveling.
Term
optimist
An Optimist is a tiny beginner sailboat, usually for kids. It’s designed to be easy to learn on and forgiving when you’re new.
Term
frostbite sailing
Frostbite sailing is sailing in very cold conditions—often in winter—where the challenge is managing cold weather and harsh water/air temperatures. The speaker compares it to polar-bear-style cold tolerance events, emphasizing how conditions drive the experience.
Brand
Road & Track
Road & Track is a well-known car magazine. He’s saying that working there felt like an impossible dream when he was younger.
Term
Google Maps
Google Maps is an app that helps you find directions and plan routes. In this story, it helped them find interesting roads to drive.
Concept
SEMA
SEMA is a big car show in the U.S. where companies and builders show off aftermarket parts and custom/performance cars. It’s a place where a lot of new car ideas and products get attention.
Term
towing
Towing means pulling a trailer behind your car. It can feel different than normal driving, so having experience helps you know what to expect.
LIVE
It is once again, Hooniverse podcast time, it's me, Dan Roth, I'm joined by Ross Ballett,
and this time we've got Matt Farah from the Smoking Tire with us, and Matt, we've both
been at it for such a long time, I find it unbelievable that we have not talked until
now, but it's great, thank you for coming on the show.
Of course, yeah, how many years are you in, Dan?
I started with Autoblog in 2006.
Yeah, okay, so an equal number of years, wow, then you're right, the odds are long that
that wouldn't happen.
We've aged across the internet in tandem.
But look at us, it turns out if you do the job for 20 years you end up looking the same
and buying the same glasses.
Right?
You will gradually evolve to podcast bro inspired by Seth Rogan, that's what happens.
You could do worse.
Dude, I started the studio, that shit is real good.
Yeah, oh the studio is great, the studio is fun.
There's so many, so many wonders, you know, I really respect the excessive use of the
Warner, that's the long shot that's done in like one take across like four different
sets, you know?
Yeah.
Well, okay, so all right, we were going to do this big like new format open things with
crazy eyes.
But I just want to take that point and go like into the democratization of like touch
screens and making cheap cars feel expensive has also made old school stuff handmade stuff,
hand turned stuff feel really expensive.
Sure.
Yeah.
Well, did you see the Ferrari, the CEO Ferrari the other day said that and he didn't say it
in as complaining away as they framed him saying it, but he said that like doing haptics
and touch screens is 50% cheaper than making buttons.
And, and he was talking about it as you know, in industry wide thing in a lot a big part
of why they do it's like way way way cheaper than making buttons, especially if you're
talking about a wide range of products, you know, and having to make different buttons
and stuff for each one.
But, but like, yeah, obviously, using touch screens while driving like super sucks.
But there was this like, you know, there was this snowball effect of there was a snowball
effect of like, after like one or two people, like, followed Tesla to full touchscreen,
I think like, everyone else was like, Oh, so we're doing this, you know, and it became
a snowball of like, you know, I'm not going to go first, but like, I'm not going to be
last either, you know, and like, everyone tried to like, future fi their product like
that.
But yeah, it makes cars computer.
We make.
Right.
But we also make.
But it does allow you in fail like it's not all negative like it allows you to put many
more features into a cheap car than you might otherwise be able to.
Right.
Like that's that's good.
But at the same time, when you when you continue to use that interface for the very expensive
car, it's very hard to to you're like, Well, what am I, what am I paying more for?
You know,
it just has to be done well to and it was really interesting going inside Ford where once
Tesla really got rolling that they had one competitor and it was Tesla, like Ford.
Right.
Like all they talked about was like, let's do it like Tesla.
They hired chase shiny object.
They and everybody assumes like high tech means complicated, right?
It means screens.
It means you're in the metaverse doing this shit interacting with stuff like it's some
movies like high tech is is not always computers and screens.
It's sometimes is simplicity and simplicity is really hard, really, really hard to do.
Right.
I think Ford, I mean, I owned a Maki for three years or I leased it.
So I have a lot of experience with a tablet only Ford.
And actually I found it to be less infuriating than some of the other ones that I that I
use.
I actually thought it was relatively simple and straightforward.
And it wasn't like free of bugs and it wasn't perfect.
But it was better than some of the other ones I've seen.
I mean, like you don't want to force some small volume manufacturer to like try to do
that.
And like their software super sucks.
Like, you know, like my Lamborghini Kuntosh, like the air conditioning knob is from like
a Lancia that costs like $5,000.
Right.
But like a knob is a knob and so it's a lot of that stuff.
A lot of that stuff is like the big high volume manufacturers do those little details better
than the low volume bespoke cars, mostly just because of the scale and until you get to
like, you know, Pagani or whatever, you know, that's a different conversation.
No, for sure.
The worst of all of this is when there's that like meshing pull apart section where they
can't figure out if they want to be doing one or the other.
And like some of the stuff is buried into terrible infotainment and some of its hard
buttons that are totally useless.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, now I mean, the one I'm really starting to run into a lot now, which is a real problem
for me personally is that is a very binary question about a car, which is, does the ADAS
stay off through restart cycles?
And if the answer is that it does, we can move on.
The difference between and now for me, I mean, literally, this is where I'm at in my career.
The difference between a, we'll do high school letter grades, right?
The difference between an A and a B, for me, is going to be like a pretty nuanced thing.
Like, how does it hold a 30 degree slide or something that like nobody does, right?
But the difference between an F and a D is like, if I park this car in my driveway overnight,
and I come back tomorrow, how close to where I left it?
But it's not just ADAS, it's drive modes.
Like, they got everything like mirrors and seat and shit tied to your key.
Right.
And I understand like, I understand that you need to start the car in the most fuel efficient
mode.
Like, I, all right, I kind of get that.
But like, and so maybe I have to click into the individual mode and like, that's a pretty
minimal, you know, inconvenience, right?
Usually, usually, right?
I don't, you don't want your car to start in like, hydro-cartoons mode, you know.
Even, even I don't, even be in the house.
Psycho-desk machine mode, yeah, no.
I mean, look, I start my cars in my residential neighborhood at six o'clock in the morning.
Like, even I don't, would prefer to not have.
I put like good neighbor mode into like the.
But not everybody does that.
I had the Escalade V a few weeks ago.
I had to park it with the exhaust facing away from my neighbor's house because it literally,
I could hear the windows rattling.
Yeah.
The story I was told about that car is that Cadillac employees were told this was the
last internal combustion car they would ever design.
Seriously.
That's, that's the story that they were told.
They said, this is your last hurrah for a fucking cold start.
So.
Bring it on.
That's how they ended up with that.
And so.
Just hilarious, right?
I don't, I understand that you don't, you don't want it to, to start in that mode.
But at the same time, if you, if it starts with full ADAS every time and you've got to
go into these touch screens to turn all this every time.
I mean, dude, that's just a no.
It's okay if the system exists.
But if you want to buy the car and not use the system, you now don't have a choice anymore.
There's like this gray area between adding safety things is adding luxuries effectively,
but then inconveniencing you to set them the way that you want them undoes the luxury side
of it.
Well, so that's the, that's like, and I hate to shit on them publicly because I like the
people that make these cars and I think they are trying to do the right thing.
But the newest Aston Martin DBX, it came on again every time you start the car, the ADAS.
And this car has 23 inch magnesium wheels.
Crazy.
Okay.
And you're in, you know, you're intended to use this as a daily driver car.
I mean, it's an expensive SUV, but like the people who buy these SUVs, that's their daily
for the most part, right?
And or close to it, right?
And so, and so imagine trying to sell a luxury experience of a car that doesn't stay, you
know, stay set in that mode.
Yeah, that doesn't stay where you left it.
And I'm just like, I'm sorry that like, like that shit ain't luxurious.
No, that drives me insane on everything.
And it's not.
So are you, are you an auto guy, like a, like auto climate control auto, whatever, or do
you want it like manual control?
Oh, no, look, I'm not, I'm not like that much of a wiener, you know, like I'm not, I'm not
such a, I'm not such a, really.
My, my spider, you know, my, my spider actually, I think I'm pretty sure of this.
Someone reminded me, and I was, it was actually so silly that I forgot about my own car.
Someone asked me on my podcast, what was the last car being sold with a CD player?
Well, it's my fucking car.
It's the Porsche spider.
It's actually a, yeah.
I'm surprised it's not like the Lexus LS or something.
No, it's the fucking.
Really?
The SC430 was the last car show of the cassette deck though.
I do.
So yes, that's true.
That's one surprising.
So, Mike, you know, my spider has, you know, fabric door pulls, you need to turn a key
to start it.
I love that car.
Manual shift, manual top.
1995.
And I have, I have a CD player, and I have single zone climate control, and I have wired
carplay, and I have an analog gauge cluster, and that has one, you know, one of the rings
is the screen that has a multifunction for my TPMS and shit like that.
And I believe pretty strongly that that is the, the most analog new car that you could
actually buy, even more so than a Miata, which has push button start.
My car is the, is the best car on the planet, but mine, you know, mine's like not remotely.
Mine has a different engine.
I mean, mine's a, is another thing entirely.
It's, it's way too much for any rational person.
Perfect.
My car was fine.
But mine is.
But mine is.
And it's stock form.
It's just bad shit.
Too much for a rational, normal person.
I drove the first one, the first box, just by the back, and I don't even remember what
year it was.
It was a long time ago.
Eleven or twelve, maybe?
It might have been eleven.
Yeah.
It had the top with like all the like turn buckles and stuff.
The tent poles.
Yeah.
It was just amazing.
But that car, uh, really, I drove it, I was like, what more do you need?
Like it's, it is.
It's pretty.
No, for sure.
For sure.
And, and, and even with a seven, one, eight, I mean, when I drove the seven, one, eight,
you know, press car in, you know, nineteen or twenty, whatever that was, I, you go, oh,
well, this is, this is fabulous.
This is the best car that there is.
And so nobody needs anything, but, but then when I drove demands car, I went, oh, well.
All right.
Okay.
Nobody, nobody needs this, but now that I've tried it, I fucking need this.
This is, this is it.
I mean, this is the great one.
First hits free.
Right?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it was, it was just that engine is, it was so extraordinary.
It was so explosive that I just, I just couldn't believe it and, and, and, you know, every,
every sports car that's really fast now is also pretty big.
And so the idea that I could have this just insane amount of power in such a small package,
you know, naturally aspirated was just a wild thing.
And it's, you know, it has so much more torque than the stock car.
It's just perfect for canyons.
It's, it's, it's exactly the right car for, for where I like to drive on the weekends.
It's just set up perfectly like for that thing.
But it's like, it's so much, it's that weekend, daily overlap, end game.
Like everybody has a different.
I'm sorry.
Say what is that?
What do you say?
What is that?
You know, end game is when you hit the car, that is like, you've effectively perfected
what you're trying to get out of something.
I think so.
I think it would be very difficult for me to because like, I can't, I can't drive
of like a faster, like I can't go faster in a manual transmission car than I can go in that car.
And certainly morally to do so on the street would be completely, you know,
anti-social and ridiculous.
It's not like if you go slower than me, you're a loser.
And if you go faster than me, you're a psycho.
But like I like to think after 20 something years, I have a pretty good read on like
the line between like fun and safe.
And so there would be no reason to have a faster car.
It's like on a road you can't.
And in fact, like my newest obsession, my Myers-Manks, which is like much, much slower.
The exact opposite.
It's so much, I love, I watched the video series you did while they were building your
Manx and it was cool to get a peek inside what they're doing.
And I just, I love everything about how they brought the Manx back.
So hopefully it's as fun as that.
They're doing such cool shit.
I mean, from the cars that they're building, which are of a much higher standard than they
ever were in the past, they were actually, you know, they're fully re-engineered,
the tubs are thicker, the uprights are better.
And, you know, that the low end, you know, you get into one of those for like 40,000 bucks,
45,000 bucks, and it makes you part of a club that is doing things
equated with cars of a much higher, quote, social standing value, whatever.
Like the ice race.
Like the ice race or like some of the cars and coffees they put on, which are like,
Manx puts on a cars and coffee in LA and there'll be like eight, 10 Manx is there,
and a Mira and a nine, five, not, you know what I mean?
And like, and then 50, like it's like, that's, that's where I think Phillips involvement and
Phillips taste and the Freemans taste and the people they've curated to do branding events
and do the cars have done such a good job of putting that all together that it's like,
and it's not, I'm not saying like, I got it for status, but like,
but like, it's societally equal at these events like ice race or like these fancy
private cars and coffees, it's societally equal to a club that you previously had to buy
an incredibly expensive thing to get in.
And so for me, by buying effectively the most expensive one they've ever sold anybody,
which is not, it's not specifically true, but the ones that are more,
they don't really want to talk about because they're not actual Porsche motors.
And like, yeah, some of those can be more, could be more the ones like,
you know, the Carrera one that they did, but also there's been ones with like
staggeringly gorgeous, detailed, pan painted fucking bodies that are 30 Gs in pain and then
just, yes, you know, at least at minimum, like a minimum, you know, there's ones that are so
expensive you, you know, it's like, well, you know what, a testarossa or a dinner or laughing
in East Coast budget money right now. There's folks like me who stretch to buy one of these,
but see the upside and are enjoying the upside and are very passionate and the idea of this
radial engine was so amazing to me that I just had to fucking have it because I've already tried
it. Everything we have as weird stupid engines in it, like there's,
if you're going to have a weird stupid engine, putting it in a vehicle where you can look at
it all the time is literally the perfect scenario, you know? Yeah. So it's just, it's just such a
magnificent thing to actually like, and then to drive it, like I use it as my daily. So like,
it's awesome. That is the greatest in all life right there, man.
It's the greatest, like because, because the weather's nice here, because I'm not typically
going very far when I'm just like running errands or going to the office, like it, the vibe of it is
like a super car that's for errands, like using an actual super car for errands is like
a thing that people, it doesn't suck like we do. Okay, okay. Dan, you've been doing this.
It's a hassle. Dude, that's bullshit. It's not a hassle. They have made, if you have a 720s or a
750 or a modern Ferrari, and you have to run errands or daily drive this car, that is not a
sacrifice. That is like a, that is like just a thing you can do because they've spent hundreds of
millions, if not billions of dollars making these cars usable, right? When you get, when you get a
press car that's a super car for a week, you just use it as your car and it's fucking fine,
isn't it? Which is amazing. That's true. That is, that is amazing. That like, I still marvel about
that. Like I can just sit here in a traffic jam. This thing won't overheat. Like, which is why you're
kind of a pussy if you like brag about using a Huracan as a daily, like, seriously, yeah. Of
course you can. They spent all this money, so you can. That's why. Fucking daily a Diablo for
six months and make a video about that. You know what I mean? Like whatever. So, so
you can drive a super car in traffic. It's easy, but it's not interesting, or it's clearly not what
the car is like for. And so, so anyway, if you if you wanted the vibe of something just very, very
special and very unique and very fun, but you go look most of the time, I'm going to be going between
10 and 55 or 60 miles an hour in this cannot beat. No, it makes you excited. You're out of 100,
cannot nobody could beat this fucking thing. It's game over. There's those communities where you
can just drive golf carts, and it's so much more enjoyable and efficient. And like, you're totally
right. That's true. But I don't think that gives it enough credit. Yeah, like I think because I
drive on the highway, like I go on the highway, like it's geared to 90 and you can you can add it's
got Porsche 356, like style disc brakes, but not like original ones like what you would put on a
356 race car like today. It's got like a Porsche type gearbox, it's got like, I drive it on the
highway regularly. I mean, it's not like optimized for it, but it isn't a golf car. It's a real it
is a real car. It's just like sketchy. Because if you get into a crash, you die. I feel cars like
that. Yeah, there is no problem. But it dude, it drives like predictably. Like I took it on the
ice race. So I drove it at loose, you know, slick surface. And it has very predictable and fun
dynamics. There's a there's a video of it on my Instagram. It's not a long run, but you can see
it's actually like it does what it's told, you know, under which I had no idea if it would or
not. So it was it's a it's a very fun little thing. If you guys are where do you guys live?
Do you know where you're where you're on is in Boston and I am in Stamford, Connecticut.
Oh, Stamford, Connecticut, which I do actually like I do want to ask you about sailing because
I was watching your latest episode of talking about like we had the yachting right the large
treatise about like going downwind in the catamaran or upwind in the catamaran. I'm like,
Matt, Matt has been on some boats and I wonder if it was. Yeah, catamarans don't have good angle.
No, no. But you get the whole thing that's like up hiked out, man. It's always a good time.
So yeah, I grew up about 10 miles from where Ross is. I grew up in Purchase, New York, which no one's
ever heard of, but it's just over the it's literally like 100 yards from the Connecticut border.
New Yorkers have heard of SUNY Purchase and that's about it.
Yes, I lived I lived basically at SUNY Purchase right across the street from SUNY Purchase.
My parents now live in Greenwich, Connecticut. They moved there like 25,
20 years ago, right after graduated just on the other side of the line. Yeah. But grew up sailing
as as a good Jewish white boy who crosses both sides of the New York, Connecticut border does.
What did you start? What did you start in? I started in Sunfish when I was like 10 right
okay at at camp. I went to camp one posset in Lichfield, Connecticut. Okay.
Which that's that's a lot of sail and not a lot of boats. So those are easy to dump. Yeah,
they were fun. Yeah, as I grew up, that's what you get. I had ballast.
Cap sizing was not an issue for this one. Well, we did. And then and then for my bar mitzvah,
because I was a good Jewish boy, I was not a good Jewish boy, but I did have a bar mitzvah.
I still wear my bar mitzvah bracelet. It's November 12 94 on the back of my
my old Tiffany bracelet. My parents got me a laser. Also not a lot of sail, not a lot of
laser. Nice and fast. Lasers are the fucking best lasers rip. So I went from
Sunfish to laser. And I sailed laser at a riverside. And then I did a little bit of Flying Scott,
which is about a 20 a 20 foot two person one make series that was pretty fun.
And then I went to big boats. I went down to the Caribbean to a program. It was an amazing program
with kind of a lame title. It's called Action Quest. But it was sounds like
an amazing program. You were like, yeah, I was just there in the British First Islands. Yeah.
We sailed 50 foot Benito's big boats sailed them and lived on them for a month at a time every
summer. And I sailed a variety of Benito and Geno for like seven years. And then since then I
really just I'll do some like day charters out of LA in like, you know, 40 something foot genoes
that they have in the fleets here, or we go with the moorings and we charter these 50 foot
catamarans, like the leopard catamarans, which are they sail like meh. But if you're going to
like, if you're going to go somewhere and like live on a boat for 10 days, the catamarans are
just so much nicer to live on. Oh, yeah. I had absolutely no clue that was what that looked like.
Yeah, a catamaran. Yeah, two holes. Two holes. Nice stable platform. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's
that that looks effectively just like the boat that that we had. And, and it's they're great. Four
cabins, big kitchen, it's like because it's got the twin hulls, it's got lots of spaces. Yeah,
that's a great that's a great photo of the back as well. Isn't that like what a hydrofoil is?
Like no, hydrofoils rise out of the water. So a hydrofoil has the has luck out of me being on a
they're smooth though. Once you get them up, they're nice and smooth. Yeah. Yeah, that's the
thing is they eliminate, you know, waves. And so there were suitcases falling off of shelves. It
was not smooth. But I mean, these boats, these big boats are effectively like, you know, they're
like big RVs, right? You know, they're they're they're they're luxury RVs that that sail and they
have power powered version of them as well, if you don't feel like sailing. So, but dude, like
going to sailing camp, you know, learning to sail and getting certified at action quest, like,
it's crazy that like that became a truly like a bankable skit, like I can now travel like
incredibly luxuriously for like shockingly cheap, because I don't need a captain, like
paying a captain is like a big cost to this kind of thing. And like, if I'm the captain,
and my sister in law Jillian shout out to her is like a professional grade cook. So we have an
arrangement that we travel together. I captain she mans the fucking galley. And dude, we can
fucking ball out for like small money. That is great. Yeah, good setup. Yeah, I never graduated
to the larger stuff. But we did. But dingy sailing is funny. Shit. What did you say blue jays?
Blue jays. I mean, I started in dire dows. And we had a one. Oh my god, you did some white people
sailing blue jays. Okay, so fucking blue jays are the whitest kid boats ever because they're
wood. They're made of well, no, no, they started as wood. They were glassed by the time I got
into it. And they were, I mean, they were designed by what year we're talking. So this was the 90s,
but they transitioned to glass at at some point in the 70s. Really? Yeah. So we have. So there was
a secret because a lot of my friends as kids raised wood ones. Well, maybe that was the shit.
They were everybody's and my old man was into pretty boats. But this is a complete diversion
from the the process. And I get it. But like, yeah, so I start farming. We had a
we the so the yacht club was in New London. So it's just like not it was very blue colorish.
But we had a one design that was like exclusively raised by the yacht club called the weenip.
And it's it's similar to a blue jay in their own boat. Yeah, for a while. And then they transitioned
out of weenips to optimists for their trainer. Yeah. So optimists are where a lot of little
kids start. Ross, you want to see a sad looking boat? It looks like I'm very lucky. And I'll look
up an optimist. I it's terrible. It's so terrible. It's like a little scout with a toothpick on it.
It's literally what you put like a five year old. This kid looks like they're fucking four.
That's what that's who they're for. Yeah, that's it. Well, and that's actually talk about it.
Dan will tell you this. That's its best angle. Look at one from the front. There you go. Even
from the side, it doesn't it's not even pointy at the front. No, there's so bad. I'm lucky that I
got the start on the sunfish. The optimists are really, really sad little boats. Yeah. But so
yeah, the I was gonna say, so New London is really close to mystic. So mystic has mystic
seaport, which is a big tourist destination, but they did summer and winter. We actually did
frostbite sailing there as well. In the diet. So it was like the whitest of white things. It was
at seaport in the diet. Frostbite sailing is that's like it's like that's like people who
do polar bear club. That's the same level of thing. Yeah. It's frostbite sailing once like
nah, it's fun. It's terrifying. It's like the worst the conditions are the more fun it is.
It's okay. That's your close to death. It's I mean, you know, that's fine. We were just
doing I mean, we were not close to death. But when we were just in the in the BVI this past week,
it was real windy. I mean, yeah, that's what you were saying when you were going probably twice
as windy as is expected. It's expected like 10 to 12. And it was like 18 to 24 with gusts to 27.
So like, you know, on on the broad reach, the downwind, we were flying in this boat.
Like we saw new new speed records in this thing for fucking sure.
Dude, we were ripping. We're the rental companies got to have a GPS on there, right? Like they
get must have somebody's looking at it going what the fuck? Yeah. Oh, no, they were they were
about it. I was like the guy came out our generator broke one night out of after a windy day
unrelated and the guy came out to fix it. And I was like, Oh man, you know,
windy out there today is like, Oh fast, you go. I was like, you know, nine, nine, four, nine,
five. He's like, that's going, that's going. No one the local tells you you're moving.
So it's really, you know, it's fun when you're sailing to go really fast. And and and on
Academy and it's like not scary because you're very stable, but fucking anchoring in 24 is
yeah. That's a good time. And then you become the Windex. So the waves are just like doing
whatever they do, right? Like, yeah, that's an adventure. But it's like, it is, you know,
it's great about about that kind of trip. It's like, it's like a road trip, but you don't have to
pack up every day. You know, that's cool. And it's like an RV, but you don't have to follow roads,
you know, and and everywhere is beautiful. You know, every Cove you go is great, right?
You know, even even a kind of crappy place the first 100 feet close to the ocean are nice,
you know, like all right, you know, and so and and and sailing, you know, is particularly on a
big boat, when you're transiting from one place to another, it's sort of like, just enough something
and just enough nothing, you know, like you have an autopilot, so you don't have to like
tug at the wheel all the time, it'll hold a course. And you, you know, you can read a book,
but also check your sales and adjust things once in a while and make little corrections. And
you can pay half attention. And it'll engage your mind, you know, just enough, which I need,
I can't sit on a beach for five minutes, like I'll go I go also also very much definitely
can't pay half attention with an RV. It's going to go wrong. Well, look,
I assure you, there's people on these boats that are paying a third attention, you know,
and other people that are paying full attention, but have not the skill or the practice experience.
And I don't want to, you know, I don't want to like make too much fun of people, but you know,
there's a there's an Instagram page called the qualified captain, which if you haven't seen it,
my God, is a thing is a must must follow. And I almost I have a qualified captain flag,
I like almost brought and flew. And then I was like, dude, the best way to end up on this page
is to call my shot. This flag in a place I haven't sailed at in 28 years.
Yeah, no, that's awesome. That goes one of one ways.
That was a great diversion. Thank you for for indulging. We'll talk about anything besides cars,
by the way, Dan wants our our fire around. Okay, let's go. What would your dukes of hazard car
and song be and what flag would be on the roof? Well, that's so funny. Okay. A car that's it's
got a I mean, does it have to survive jumps in real life? Or do I just have 4000? I was gonna say
you have 350 of them that you disposal. No, it's this is well, it would have to be, you know,
it's got to be sort of a relatable kind of car. It can't be something exotic. Or is it just something
I want to jump on? Whatever you want to jump and outrun whoever with I don't get. Well, if it's
literally something that I want to use as a getaway car that can fly, I will be needing a 911 Dakar
ideally. Yeah, so that and what would be painted on the roof? The qualified captain flag.
In midair, that's perfect. Yeah. Oh, and what song? What song got a we got to round out the
question. What you're pushing the horn and what song?
Right before I hit the jump, I'd want the 12 string bass intro from Jeremy. So go.
Okay, the fire around continues. I think we're probably at five minutes already.
But yeah, least favorite band.
That's not fair. Some you can't stand. There's nothing that I can't there's nothing where it's
like, you know, okay, John, rock, rock, rock, rock. The guy who tells people to fucking speak
English and his one hit wonder is an indecipherable word. Literally. Good job, dickhead. I have hated
on kid rock since 96. He has the whole time, the entire time. You want to ask one of the
questions, Dan? Yeah, sure. Since we're talking about high school times, when you were 16,
was there a car you thought you would be driving at your age now, which is I'm not going to say,
but like 40s. Dude, the cars, I mean, even though it's been well documented that I've been pretty
spoiled with what I've gotten to drive my whole life, I did not think that I would have a coontosh,
you know, before my 40th birthday. That's pretty good. That didn't seem obtainable.
I never would have I wouldn't have told you a two years ago that if you told me two years ago,
that the fame my favorite thing I've got right now is a fucking Myers Manx with an airplane
engine in it. I'd be like, the fuck are you talking about? You know, that that's like,
that's completely out of the field. Yeah, that's so that that I would have never been able to tell
you that. But like, I don't I, you know, I had a poster of a coontosh on the wall, you know, growing
up like many people might have did. And yeah, and it's more than any one car. It's I wouldn't have
been able to tell you that I would be an editor at road and track. That seemed like, you know,
when I was a kid, you might as well have said, grow up to be Superman, or something. That wasn't
like a thing that like regular people could do. You know, you had to be somebody special.
Was it the was it the dream? Like, had you ever thought about like, how did these guys
in this magazine that I wait every month for? How do they do this? I'm not these people.
Dude, I it's so crazy because I idolized them. But I never reverse engineered how you would get
there. And I wasn't like, particularly good at English, you know, I wasn't a terrible writer,
but I wasn't a great one. And I wasn't a terrible reader, but I wasn't a great one. It wasn't until
later, it didn't seem like a thing that was possible unless you were like, go to journalism
school or something. And, and so I didn't put together that like human like regular folks could
do it. Online journalism wasn't really a thing. And it wasn't until like, I realized that if I got
like kind of YouTube famous, people would hire me to write to get my name or my social media.
And I realized that I could just sort of write like I talk, which you can't really do in school.
You can't do that in school, but you actually can do it professionally. Nobody really
tells you that. So once I was like, Oh, wait, I just like,
write like I talk, even if it's grammatically incorrect, if people read it in my voice, it'll
be fine. Oh, okay. And so then it then it, then it was like, Oh, actually, I can do that. And then,
you know, I've when Mike Guy, who I worked for at the drive briefly, went over to road and track
and he was like, I want you to come here. And I want you to write about supercars. I was like,
what? Okay, you're kidding me? Like, that's like, I can actually have that.
How fast can you sign your name? Yes. That sounds terrible. No, you're gonna have to.
Kind of wild, you know, so.
Well, anyway, that's more, that's, I think, more interesting than any one car.
Yeah. Or you just say coontosh and move on. Which has an interesting answer.
But I, now I'm interested in what led you to, to start, I don't think I've ever heard the TST
origin story. Like, was it just like an interest that you were just short version?
No, there was video before that. No, I was running this car wash with that I started with
my friend Larry Casilla, who now does the ammo NYC channel. He's, he's now coming on our show in
like three weeks. Oh, is he? Yeah. All right, well, he'll tell the story too. So, so we were,
we were doing it together and he was the master detailer and I was sort of the brand vibe guy.
And we started a car club, a driving club to get people with cool cars out. I was the expert in
like Google Maps, which had just launched in 05. So I was making these routes that nobody had seen
before, you know, and it was a cool thing. And then in 06, when YouTube launched, we were like,
oh, we could make videos of our drives and people would think we're cool. And then this guy, Tom,
who we hired to be our cameraman, brought like a news anchor microphone and was like here,
you know, host the video. And I like, you know, cracked some jokes and whatever. And that turned
into me like driving a couple of the car club's guys cars and saying some things.
And because I had worked at the exotic car rental company and because I worked at the dealerships
and all these other places, I like knew more than I should have about supercars and dynamics
for someone who was 25, because I had driven all of them at the rental car company for a year and
a half. Like I've been romping on these things. And so, and so this dude, his name is Amel,
he saw these videos we made and he literally offered a salary and all this stuff for me to go
make a car show on his multi-channel network. I didn't I didn't realize you started off with Amel.
So garage guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So was I I'm from New York. This was I know you are but I always
thought you you've been in LA for a long, long time. So well, once I went to work, no, he's out
of jail. He did not jail. He's out of jail. He did four years. Oh, not enough. He was it turns
out he was a real piece of shit. But yeah, I don't know what the story is. I mean, but but and this
this could never happen again. I mean, no one's no one's hiring someone to host YouTube videos on
a salary today. That's not a thing anymore. But it was then. And so that was for like a year and
a half. We made a show called Garage 419. It's still up on YouTube. Remember that? You know,
not very good, but occasionally kind of funny. And that lasted until the the crash of 08.
And his company sold cheap to Google, we got laid off and Tom and I, my cameraman back always the
guy from the club days. We were just like, we don't need these fucking people, we can do this
ourselves. But in order to do it, economically, we have to be in California, where we have a year
round driving season. We got fired in the middle of winter. Yeah, we got fired in the middle of
winter. We're like, if we're going to do this, we can't afford to get snowed out or rained out.
Like, and we were we go to California, and people would be driving a, you know, a Corvette
zero six in January. And you go, well, obviously, we have to be there. So we packed our shit and
moved to California. Yeah. No, that's awesome. I had to not realize your product because it was like,
it was what else is it? Fastly daily and vet dogs. Fastly daily. Yeah. Well, I started I really
started, I mean, this is a this is like a 45 minute story that I've turned into a five minute one.
But I really started Derek D, who was fastly and daily Derek D Angelus, who was great, very funny
guy was like sick for a week. And Amel was like, Hey, you're good on camera. Can you come like,
you know, guest host, FLD. And I did, I did a good job in the audience responded well to me. So
it was from that, it was like a week or two, it was a very short period of time from guest host
FLD to you can have your own show. Nice. I think I have somewhere in my demo reel, a little graphic
bumper I had done for who was Kenny Herman at FLD. So he was like the producer editor behind the
scenes. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. About SEMA. I can't remember what year it was. Like, it was it was
like a little graphic probably. Yeah, it was probably 0768. I mean, it wouldn't have been newer
than 08. But yeah, I still hear through me like freelance. He went to Slice. So if you want to
order a pizza from an independent pizza shop, who's that? Slice. Slice. Slice. He went to Slice.
That's funny. I think he got shares. I think he did all right. I think I think he did all right
there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to talk about your toerick situation. I know you've probably been
beaten to death on this thing. Let me explain. Let me tell you guys a bit of advice,
bit of advice, because we've been around for a while, Dan. I mean, I don't know
how long you've involved your personal choices in your topics that you cover on your show.
Don't contemplate a personal vehicle choice publicly on your show
ever, ever fucking contemplate it with your partner, with your friends, with your parents,
who the fuck ever you want assaulted with just not the audience. And so why is this what happened?
Because everyone inserts their values into their advice for you.
Yeah, that's true. While mostly ignoring the things you very clearly said you want, need,
and do not want, and do not need. And I have now bought many cars that I've turned into content.
People either are interested or not. But I've, I've come to my own conclusion, bought the car,
and then said, Hey, I've bought this car. And that's worked out. Okay. Yeah, that's what I
tend to do. Yeah. But talking about, I'm going to be buying this car. And I know, by the way,
I fucking hauled cars all over the East Coast with a with an enclosed trailer for two years
at the rental car company. So it's not like I have like no experience towing, I've towed like
tens of thousands of miles. I've towed like very recently, pulled my own car, whatever. I got I
have a decent amount of experience towing. So like, I know kind of what I want and need, I know
where my trailer is going to go and not go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And look, I do,
it's not like I don't appreciate the enthusiasm. You know what I'm saying? It's like,
but and like, but like people will react to like what you put out there. And so I'd rather have
said, Here's the thing I bought. And they can react to not, you know, but like,
learn by doing, it's just, it's just exhausting. It's just exhausting. And it's like,
it's always what is what is your opinion on my towing situation, Ross? Let's hear it since I'm
I'm captive now. Hmm. By less than everybody that is telling you to buy the biggest thing out
there is same. Because I told I do a lot of I do a bunch of towing and I'm tens, if not,
20s of thousands of miles towing, but you don't like yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't want to be too
little because then you're fucked, then you're regretting. There's no, no, there's no, there is
I'm not towing with a fucking GTI. The trailer that the shit talk about the trailer that I'm
getting is from the UK. Okay, it's designed really to be towed in the UK. And I was, I was having
dinner with Jethro Bovington, and I showed him the trailer I was getting. I said, I think I'm
gonna get a cayenne hybrid. He goes, fine, great. He goes, people are saying I should get an F 150.
He's like, are you a fucking idiot? No, he said people in the UK tow these are the two liter
golf wagon. They're designed to be towed with small things. What are you doing? And I was like,
all right, done easy. So like that's, that is the expertise I need. But so and I am told reliably
from both people inside the organization and people with experience that
Porsche's tow ratings are like their horsepower ratings, suggests hottest, hottest day imaginable.
Worst case scenario, top of a mountain. Worst case scenario. The idea that you need to get a 14,000
pound tow rated thing to tow a 6,000 pound trailer is ridiculous. Come on, 6,000 pounds. Yeah,
that's that's the trailer. The trailer is 2,500 pounds. And I'm the absolute heaviest thing I'm
going to tow ever is 3,500 pounds. The cayenne is going to do that. No problem. Yeah, of course.
Of course it is. And by the way, the rest of the time, I'm driving a fucking cayenne.
You don't have to put the fucking thing in a whole set of do this self destruct that also
large pickups tend to do after about seven years, everything just falls off them.
I mean, look, Porsches don't have a long term reliability reputation that's enviable either.
I'm not judging. Yeah, it's not about what half ton truck is better than it's not about that.
It's about like, I live in the city. Even optimistically, this vehicle is towing one to
5% of its life. The rest of the time, it's just a car. And that whole rest of the time,
I would like something that that acts as a regular ass car, not some giant thing for my edgekicks.
And that's that's the thing that people usually get upside down. We towed, we had a Fox body wagon.
towed just fine with it. Like, you just got to be careful, you don't overload it. And if you
overload it, it goes slow. So back back in the day, you know, when I was in high school,
when I was in high school, my me and my boys, we all had Mustangs, right? And we'd all go to the
drag strip, go to English town, English town, every weekend, of course, English town, island,
dragway, sometimes Lebanon, once in a while. So I can still go and yeah, so me and my me and my
four boys, we'd have our we'd have our Mustangs and we would drive. And my one boy's dad, Jimmy,
was the master, he was a master mechanic, and he had a GTO drag car that ran like nines.
And he would tow that motherfucker on an open trailer behind his Ford LTD County Squire.
Nice. Yeah, with the heavy duty tow pack. Yeah, the digit cooler and the bumper hitch.
Yeah, I was literally a truck that was just but it's yeah, but it's fine. It's actually
much better to tow a car for our stuff than it is for years. For years, he did it every weekend.
Yeah, no, but that's what you're talking about. Like talking to Jethro, like people in Europe,
they they tow so much more than we do here. Our tow ratings are really inaccurate because
people are stupid and they have lawyers after they get after they work themselves.
Yeah, they then sue the companies. And yeah, I could say that. But yeah, looking across over
there to see what people do and what can be done is that's the smart thing to do to figure out what
to tow it. Yeah, well, people usually think that tow rating is power equals tow. And it's chassis
and brakes. And that's breaks whereas logic, that's where logic falls apart with most of the
general buying. I mean, dude, imagine thinking a cayenne's brakes, a cayenne high, a cayenne
hybrids breaks with read with region. Imagine thinking that that is worse for dragging something
up and down a hill than an F 150. All right. I think we're at time here. So Matt can get to his
next thing. Is a hot dog a sandwich or a taco?
I believe it is a sandwich because a bun is bread and a taco requires some form of tortilla,
whether soft or crispy, corn, corn based. Yeah, my wife is a hot dog enthusiast. So I have opinions
on hot dogs. Okay, steamed, boiled, split in half like the fucking Westchester depending on the
scenario place. Depending. Well, if we're in that's what it's called Walter's. Well, I don't
fuck with Walters. I fuck with the hubbos and hubbos unfortunately is gone and became Texas
chili in poor Chester. But hubbos was really where it was at. So hot dog wise, I will meet the
circumstance. If I am in New York City, I will fuck with a boiled from a cart. If I'm at a baseball
stadium, I'm down for a Dodger dog in its in its sort of steamy form. If I am making a hot dog at
home, the best method that I have found is to spiral cut the hot dog. Right. And then do it in my
convection toaster oven. And it gets a nice Oh, man, it gets the air. We just got one of the
crevasses. Okay. Now we're fucking humming, dude. Now we're humming. That's how I'm going to get a
nice even nice even spiral. And if we're making tacos here in Los Angeles, we make Korean tacos.
So my tacos at home are beef bulgogi. I make like a guac that's like a cucumber, avocado,
soy, chili crisp, miso, mirin, rice vinegar. So it's like an Asian-y avocado. And then I get a
bunch of the pickled shallots, pickled ginger, pickled stuff. And I make a colorful sort of
topping for it. So that's how we do tacos at my house. I would fly out there for lunch for that.
That's pretty good. I make it for everybody. Shit's easy. I make that probably once a week.
We have Korean tacos in my house. Yeah. Yeah, in that recipe list. Yeah. Well, thanks guys.
Yeah, thank you for coming on. Really appreciate it. No problem. My pleasure. Good times. Yeah,
let's do it again sometime. Have fun with Zach, like tomorrow or whatever that is. Yeah, when you
come east, let us know. Maybe we can sit together somewhere and have shitty hot dogs.
Yeah. And when you talk to Larry Casilla, it's funny because like I left the car wash to go make
videos. I then came back and taught him how to make videos. And then his videos got more views
than my videos. He's all in, man.
About this episode
Dan Roth and Ross Ballett welcome Matt Farah (The Smoking Tire) for a wide-ranging chat that starts with how touchscreens and haptics changed car interiors—and why “high-tech” isn’t always better. They dig into the annoyance of ADAS and drive modes resetting every restart, arguing that safety features can become luxury only if they stay configured. The conversation then pivots to Matt’s analog-minded car tastes, his Myers Manx obsession, and his sailing background. It ends with a debate: hot dog vs taco, plus Matt’s Korean taco recipe.
Original notes
Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire stepped off the catamaran and onto our podcast the other day. Our conversation took a meandering course starting with the premise that real luxury is going to mean "handmade." We talked about Matt's Boxster Spyder and Meyers Manx before taking a tack into sailing dinghies on Long Island Sound and the benefits of catamaran tourism. There's a lot of reminiscing from the older fellas, and you might remember the automotive enthusiast web of 2008, too. Come aboard for this shipshape hour!
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Dan Roth, Ross Ballot, (Jeff Glucker)
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