The Citroën 2CV is a small, unusual-looking car. It was designed to be simple and to handle rough roads. The podcast mentions it because it did surprisingly well in a race setting.
Hydrophobic means “water-repelling.” So instead of water soaking into the material, it tends to bead up or roll off—helpful for keeping a dyed finish looking right.
Term
stainless flash
“Stainless flash” sounds like a named finish or coating that changes how a surface looks. They’re saying it’s a better way to get the final appearance they want.
Motor oil is the fluid that lubricates an engine so metal parts don’t grind against each other. In this segment they’re joking about using it for clothing, but it’s still the same engine fluid.
Hydrolocked means water (or another liquid) got into the engine where it shouldn’t. Since liquid can’t compress like air/fuel, the engine can get damaged if it tries to run.
Spy photos are pictures of cars taken before the company officially shows them. People snap them while the car is out testing, and then journalists use those pictures to guess what’s coming next.
In modern EVs, “electronics” usually refers to the vehicle’s control systems—computer modules, power electronics, sensors, and wiring that manage propulsion and charging. The speaker is describing how one company “consolidated” these systems to simplify integration.
A “cast structure” is a body or structural component made by casting molten metal into a mold, rather than assembling it from many stamped or welded pieces. Casting can improve stiffness and reduce part count, but it depends heavily on design and manufacturing quality.
The Nissan Versa is a low-cost everyday car. Here, they’re using it as a reference point to talk about how the other car’s seats feel compared to a typical cheap commuter.
A solid axle connects both wheels with one rigid bar. That can make the ride feel different from cars where each wheel moves independently, especially over bumps.
The Jaguar XK is a classic Jaguar sports car line known for its vintage grand-touring character. Here it’s referenced as an example of a car with a similar “old-school” feel to the unusual suspension setup being discussed.
Drum brakes use brake pads/shoes that push against the inside of a drum to slow the car down. Many modern cars use disc brakes instead because discs tend to handle heat better.
Leaf springs are a type of suspension made from stacked metal strips. They flex to smooth out bumps, and they’re often used on trucks and work-focused vehicles.
Term
wooden wheels
Wooden wheels are wheels made of wood instead of rubber tires and metal rims. They’re mentioned here as a quirky, old-fashioned idea the engineers looked at.
The Infiniti QX4 is an older SUV that was meant to be a practical, everyday vehicle. They mention it because they’re joking about how you shouldn’t insult a high-mileage SUV like that.
The Nissan Pathfinder is a popular family SUV. They bring it up as a mix-up—then correct themselves that the car in question is actually an Infiniti QX4.
The Ford Maverick is a small pickup truck. It’s meant to be useful for hauling or carrying things, but still easy to drive and park like a regular car. The podcast mentions it as an option for people who want a pickup for everyday use.
Modularity here means the car is set up so you can add or change features more easily. The point the hosts are making is that the car is still very basic, and the “modular” idea is being used to justify the price.
Crank windows are the old-school kind you roll up and down by hand. The hosts are saying that in the U.S., many buyers expect power windows, so crank windows can hurt sales.
“No radio” means the car doesn’t come with a built-in AM/FM audio system. The hosts are using it to argue the car is missing basic convenience features.
A Bluetooth speaker is a wireless speaker you pair with your phone. The hosts are saying the car basically expects you to bring your own speaker rather than having built-in speakers and a radio.
Shrinkflation is when you get less for the same money. The hosts think this car is doing that by removing features from the base and charging you to add them back.
The Wrangler four-door is the Jeep Wrangler with rear doors. The point here is that when more people wanted the extra practicality, the two-door version became less relevant.
The Porsche Carrera GT is a very expensive, rare supercar. It’s made for high-speed performance and is mainly aimed at enthusiasts. The podcast mentions it because it’s a car people admire and collect.
Goodridge is a company that makes car parts, especially brake upgrades. They’re often used by enthusiasts who want better feel or performance than stock parts.
They’re saying people are focusing on the wrong cause. Instead of tackling the real issue (like wages not rising), the conversation goes in a different direction.
Concept
inflation and wages not keeping up
They’re saying car prices don’t feel like they match what people earn. The idea is that wages haven’t grown as fast as prices, so “affordable” cars become less affordable over time.
The Miata is a small two-seat sports car made to be fun to drive. It’s lighter than many other sports cars, which helps it feel quick and easy to handle. The podcast mentions it because it’s often a good deal for what you get.
Nantucket is a place in Massachusetts, and it’s known as a popular, upscale vacation spot. They’re joking about where the truck might end up being used.
Naturally aspirated means the engine pulls air in by itself, without a turbo or blower. It makes power through its normal design instead of boosting it with forced air.
A four-speed auto is an automatic transmission with four gears. It can shift less smoothly or feel less flexible than newer automatics with more gears.
The Kia Rio is a small car meant to be affordable and easy to drive. It’s typically used for regular commuting rather than performance. The podcast mentions it as a possible budget option.
Here, “car company” means a real business that can actually build cars, not just a website or logo. The host is warning that some things online might look legit but aren’t.
“Reservations” here means people put down money or sign up before the product exists. The host is basically saying that early sign-ups don’t guarantee the car will ever be built.
Term
Poly market
Polymarket is a website where people bet on what they think will happen. The host is using it like a “odds” comparison to talk about risk.
The Tesla Roadster is a sports car that runs on electricity instead of gasoline. It was one of the early, well-known electric performance cars. The podcast brings it up while talking about what happens to the value of a car over time.
Term
self-driving van
It’s a van that’s supposed to drive itself using cameras, sensors, and computer software. Even when it’s working, a person usually still has to be ready to take over if the system gets confused.
“Vaporware” means something that’s talked about a lot, but doesn’t really exist in a usable form yet. It’s like a big promise that keeps getting delayed.
Brand
Zoosk
Zoosk is the name the hosts use for a company they’re talking about. They’re basically saying it went from “promises” to something that’s actually happening in the real world.
Car
Citroën 2CV
The Citroën 2CV is a small, weird-looking French car that’s famous for being simple and practical. People love it because it’s surprisingly roomy, so you’ll hear stories about fitting all kinds of crazy items inside.
The Nürburgring is a legendary race track in Germany. It’s so famous that car people travel there for track days, so you’ll sometimes see all kinds of unusual cars running around.
A radial engine is a type of engine where the cylinders are arranged in a circle around the center. It’s common in aircraft, and it has a very distinctive sound. The hosts are pointing out that this engine makes the car feel and sound like an airplane.
They’re talking about what it feels like when you start the engine and how it behaves right away. They mention a special startup step and the unusual sound. The point is how the car drives day-to-day versus what makes it weirdly cool.
An oil purge is a step at startup where the engine gets oil moving through the system. The goal is to make sure lubrication is established before you drive normally. Here, they’re treating it like a satisfying, purposeful part of starting the engine.
A linear power band means the engine’s power builds in a smooth, steady way as you rev it. Instead of “all the power at one RPM,” it’s more predictable across a wider range. That makes the car easier and more fun to drive.
Independent reservoir shocks are shocks with a separate “extra chamber” for the shock fluid. That can help the shocks stay consistent when you’re driving hard and they get hot. The speaker is noting this car doesn’t use that specific shock style.
King of the Hammers is a very tough off-road race where cars and trucks take brutal punishment. When someone says “King of the Hammers guys,” they mean suspension builders who know how to make parts survive and work well in extreme terrain. That’s why the shocks are being praised.
They’re talking about the Willys Jeep, a famous World War II military vehicle. People love it because it’s a big part of Jeep history and it’s a popular car to restore or build for off-roading.
“Stockholm syndrome” is a real psychological idea where someone starts to feel attached to the person who’s hurting them. In this podcast, they’re using it as a humorous way to say “you ended up liking it even though it was miserable.”
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car made for fast driving. Some people use them as daily cars because they’re comfortable enough for regular trips. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as a personal daily example.
A spacer is a small piece that goes between parts to make them fit right or leave the right amount of space. It’s often used to fix alignment during a build or repair.
“Build from scratch” means you’re making the car yourself using parts, not just buying a ready-made vehicle. It usually takes a lot of planning and finding the right parts.
A differential is what allows the wheels on the same axle to spin at different speeds when you turn. Without it, the car would fight for traction and handling would feel wrong.
The transmission case is the outer shell of the gearbox. It’s where the internal parts live, and sometimes you can’t easily replace the shell even if you can replace the inside parts.
Term
QC
QC means quality control—basically, how a factory checks that parts are made correctly. The question here is whether the parts were consistent enough to bolt together cleanly.
Remanufactured parts are used parts that get rebuilt and refreshed. They may not match brand-new parts perfectly, so you might need extra fitting work.
Cars are made with tiny measurement “wiggle room.” A tolerance stack is when the wiggle from lots of different parts adds up, so the final assembled fit can be off even if every single part was made correctly.
Cutting discs are the spinning wheels used to slice through metal. They’re the kind of tool you use when you can’t just bolt everything together and need to modify parts.
A welder is what you use to join metal pieces together permanently. If parts don’t line up, welding can be used to modify or build the needed mounting points.
A reproduction engine is a newer engine made to copy an older design. Even though it’s built to be “like the original,” it can still have early problems until everything settles in and any bugs are worked out.
Break-in is the first early driving period after a new or rebuilt engine. The goal is to let moving parts “settle in,” and it’s when people often watch for problems before things fully stabilize.
Off-road means driving on rough ground like dirt trails or uneven paths. It tests whether the car’s suspension and traction can handle bumps and loose surfaces.
Car
world war two jeep
The “World War II Jeep” is the early Jeep design made for the U.S. military during World War II. It became a model for later off-road SUVs and trucks because it was built to handle rough terrain without needing fancy modern features.
“Geometry” here means how the car’s shape helps it clear obstacles. If the angles and ground clearance are good, the wheels can reach the terrain instead of the bumper or body getting stuck.
Term
torque at the wheels
“Torque at the wheels” means how much pulling force the tires actually get. More wheel torque helps the vehicle move slowly and steadily over rocks, ruts, and steep bumps.
A “reconnaissance vehicle” is basically a scout vehicle. It’s meant to travel through difficult areas to check what’s ahead, so it needs to be tough and mobile.
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a famous off-road SUV built to handle rough terrain. The host is saying it took inspiration from the early Jeep design for how to be capable off-road.
The Nissan Patrol is a big SUV that’s known for off-road ability. Here it’s mentioned as another vehicle that followed the early Jeep “blueprint” idea.
Car
Land Rover
Land Rover is a car brand famous for off-road vehicles. The host is saying it took inspiration from the original Jeep’s approach to handling rough terrain.
Horsepower is a number that describes how much power the engine can make. For off-roading, the vehicle’s gearing and the pulling force at the wheels matter a lot more than peak horsepower.
Term
geared so low
“Geared so low” means the car has ratios that make it easier to move slowly with strong pulling force. That’s useful for climbing over rocks or crawling through rough terrain.
This is a special version of the Ford F-150 pickup made for rough roads. They’re talking about using it for a long trip and how it behaves when cruising at a steady speed.
It’s cruise control that can “read” the distance to the car in front using a sensor. If traffic slows down, it slows too, and then resumes when the road opens up.
BlueCruise is Ford’s system that can help drive for you on certain roads. In this story, it lets the driver take their hands off the wheel for a moment while still staying in control.
LIVE
What up everybody welcome to the smoking tire podcast Matt Farah here and our show today is
sponsored by off the record we love off the record because they're looking out for me like they're
looking out for you if you get a ticket behind the wheel of your vehicle could be a big ticket
could be a small ticket doesn't matter you don't want to plead guilty to that ticket you want to
get in touch with off the record at offtherecord.com slash TST off the record will send a qualified
attorney to represent you for a very reasonable amount of money and these guys have an unbelievably
good track record off the record will fight that ticket as far as they can to keep those points
off your record potentially saving you lots of money and insurance or potentially saving your
employment situation you don't want points on your record it's bad scene okay so go to offtherecord.com
slash TST use that link for ten percent off all services rendered from off the record and tell
them we sent you and then tell me how it went I like when you guys send me emails that say
they got dismissed it's awesome you get that text message it's great when it shows up fully
dismissed off the record.com slash TST all right kids on this show we've got David Tracy and Griffin
Riley from the Autopian in studio David Tracy is a complete lunatic Griffin's the new guy David Tracy
spends 20 minutes telling us about dying his shirt with used motor oil which is a crazy thing that
actually looks better than I thought I thought he then he then built a Jeep using only parts from
eBay from nothing which is which is one of the crazier stories I've ever heard and they drove
it 900 miles to Moab and also they lapped Citroën 2CV around Lime Rock with a grand
fly of the clock in the back so typical Autopian stuff from these two and we'll welcome them to
the smoking tire podcast let's go. Did you like the hoodie blazer that Zach and I designed? Is that
what you guys designed that? Yeah his is outside we're gonna be selling these this is a collab
yeah that's hot so you got the blazer parts removable or the hoodie parts removable
and you can use it just as a regular blazer that's it Zach's is called the Monterey and this is called
the Woodward and so we're gonna have it available in time that's right I haven't I haven't no no it's
really dope I was wondering what that was buttons are various the buttons are amazing so we actually
we did all of it we actually designed some clothing ourselves did you like that hat the hat you're
wearing the on patrol yeah well this hat I have one of those this hat doesn't compare to what we
we designed we designed a shirt it's called Stain-O-Flash and the idea is we actually bought
this shirt off of a movie theater carpet so that you can work on your car get stains on it and you
don't have to throw the shirt out you can just wear it you can wear it out and people don't know
you've got freaking ATF and 15w40 on them I really like this yeah are their mics the right distance
are we good audio all right don't don't don't let don't fucking lean too far back you know you're
a professional Tracy yeah you're right I'm saying be act like a broadcaster for once no no don't
never act like a broadcaster you're right Stain-O-Flash bottom of the seventh inning do you have
working prototypes yes we do we'll save you have you actually tried in the field no we just got
them in okay all right but I'm gonna try them out are they at gas yeah they're at gas okay I need to
after watching your video and also working on cars like myself a little bit yeah you need that
shirt you desperately need that shirt you're marketing exclusively to Land Rover and Willie's
owners and does it hide the smell no that's see now now you need a special but I think it's easier
to hide the smell though you could easily hide the smell all right how about Stain-O-Flash and
Stain-O-Flash Stain-O-Flash is the companion that's a good idea yeah a little bottle of
Indian deodorizer yeah I think that's what it is yeah we need to get in touch with Axe body spray
the Axe-Topian or something like that Stain-O-Flash on here we really that's not bad we're we're
fucking do it let's get this out we can get this all right let's get let's by the way the acquired
we was the name of that podcast Zach about business that I was talking about last show
some I got like 10 DMs about that right the acquired podcast fucking get at me we got ideas
circling around welcome guys thank you that's a good place to start Stain-O-Flash yeah I mean
we're rolling it's the next big thing you're talking about this incredible blazer you're wearing
it's part blazer part hoodie what if the next one we did was like a true working man's blazer
yes no is the hoodie portion Stain-O-Flash or is the jacket Stain-O-Flash no see here's the thing
here's the thing if the hood is looks like camo that's trashy sure right yeah camo hoodie inside
of a blazer is trashy yeah no we aren't this type of all our hoodie inside of a camo blazer is also
trashy but it's like something Pharrell would wear yeah that's accurate that's true if you put
if you have camo blazer hoodie inside of it and it said victor abloh on it you know it was funny
is fucking $20,000 he would he would rock it but so would like the executive board of black rifle
coffee that big diagram suddenly because there's a lot of Venn diagram between you know yeah it
doesn't look quite like camo flash it looks more like a movie theater carpet which I don't think
is better I thought you were gonna say that's clever that's a more like stained mechanics
overalls but I'm trying to picture it as a movie theater carpet and I'm kind of struggling like
casino car so it's like a crazy it's just a crazy wild but it's the right colors so it works on a
dirty mechanic and also bo bachmann's everyday wardrobe is what you're trying to say it could work
oh there you go look at that you wait which one of these patterns necessarily this flashy which
does one of these patterns generally resemble what we're talking about um not really okay I mean I
would say that the one that's like five over the kind of that is similar swirly is that is that looks
like um that's like a chris angels necktie that's a very 90s necktie that's part that's for a necktie
for me look I think it's genius how many shirts have you wasted you got no you got an oil on it
this song I mean it's been cooking oil normally normally I was cooking oil for me shirt while I'm
making dinner and that's that I'm gonna throw a curveball at you though David not to I like your
idea but I'm just saying have you tried wearing a black t-shirt no but I actually back when I was
my first year at Jalop my first year as a car journalist I solved this problem by actually
dying my clothes in used motor oil and it actually no way oh yeah so the idea was you could hide the
stains if you just dyed it and it worked so I had a shirt that basically it was dyed motor oil I
had pants even my shoes leather shoes dyed and used motor oil are you fucking good it's out there
somewhere on the internet you're what do you have to then do to the shirt to get the actual oil out
of it you're just wearing motor oil in your skin you just hard baked in have you ever seen those like
Texas dirt shirts were like they dye a white shirt in like the Red River or whatever it's the same
concept except used motor there it is look at that I mean did it fade just look just look at the results
they okay those are orange pants just just I guess like I look how good that looks that's dyed with
motor oil what color did those shoes start they're much like look at that you can see how they started
down sort of a look but they had some oil stains on and I hit them okay so like in a pair of leather
shoes I can understand the concept look at that before and after come on speaks for itself
I'll I know look I mean that looks good I admit you improve the dress shirt so I wore a dress
shirt this is crazy this is fucking nuts all right you oh my god this is you truly soaking and
ringing out we're trying to solve a really important problem here's a sign I think you're
causing another problem which is a carcinogenic let's look at the results let's not worry
tested for skin cancer this is not wait wait go back let's see the shirt wait is that the
before right unusable okay unusable shirt I agree this is unusable you're dressed shirt
what happened can you tell me come on we have resolved the problem wow it's like
a few people listening it's like a dark salmon yeah that is a salmon color all right listen I
color wise I actually think you did save the shirt I mean I think it looks you have to wear
something under it by something I mean like a tarp like a rain jacket underneath an original
dye did it smell like motor was actually you know it does and I put it through my walk my my um
washing machine a dryer which ruined it for obviously that went through there but that barrel
never squeaked again that is true I was young when I did this to be smart and dollar foolish
only cost me a 1200 dire top load fucking dryer this is a very funny idea I actually wore this
outfit to a gawker christmas party back way back in the night no one would stand next to you it was
looking fresh the issue was the fire department it turned out the use motor well was like it was
like a blood a sex panther it was an easy act it was all over me the problem was it was raining
that night stacey exon got so turned on as I walked down the sidewalk I was leaving like rainbow
puddles this might be one of the dumbest things but I was young did the rain roll off your shirt
like a duck yeah he was very hydrophobic it was incredible this is crazy anyway the stainless
stainless flash is a better solution yeah I know I know you were thinking you would go this route
Matt but you don't have to now we got stainless flash you just wear that shirt I'm really impressed
actually at the finish the finished color speaks for itself dude I just spent a lot of money on a
shirt that looks exactly and you just need a motor oil that's all you needed I mean you're in a lot of
your back but yeah like tie-dye with motor oil it seems like the results are there you just have
to be delusional to get there that's right yeah oh my god yeah I mean look some you know what do
they say you know looking good is little beauty is pain right it's right you want to wear this color
you're gonna need to become the creature from the black you also just wrote the ad for the new thing
because you're just like are you tired of your motor oil are you tired of skin checkups you don't
have to do that anymore yeah this is the science that we all this is the science that we all come
here for isn't it that's true unbelievable I bet this post got an unbelievable I this is probably
from like 2015 this is what I just started I just by the way I just left my job as an engineer okay
someone who is supposed to be not an idiot and one of the first stories was this and all my
engineer friends at chrysler were like what happened to you like you were designing a cooling
system for a car I think they got to know you that's what happened came out of my birthday
December 1st oh yeah well this is that is amazing and uh dude someone's got to figure out all you
got to do is figure out someone's got to figure out how to how to remove the actual oil from the
because well if you remove the oil would you then remove the color is just the oil
soaked if only there's something we could dye clothes with that like could change it or what
you could do is you could replicate the exact color of the oil yeah that's the move yeah yeah
it's oil inspired what oil did you use because the shirt I was expecting the shirt to be like
dark gray oh you see the engine right there I just hydrolocked that jeep engine while off-roading
oh this is used oil oh absolutely used oil I thought it was the worst oil by the way new oil is not
really that bad for you no it's probably not you can actually drink don't do it but I went through
all the the the uh do not do that material safety data shaft I wrote an article about this oh all of
the automotive fluids and their relative dangers I went through all the safety sheet new motor
oil is not that bad used motor oil is bad I wouldn't do it I uh I was at a conversation once a
three-way conversation with bozi and Carl Ruiz guys got to take a break from this show for fit
bod loving fit bod why variety repetitive workouts are the fastest way to fall off your exercise game
especially during the summer when you just want to kick back and I know it I plateau and fall off
when I just default to cardio every day I need my trainer changing up those workouts constantly
that way I'm always doing new muscle groups I'm always confusing my muscles it's good to confuse
your muscles make some strong but fit bod is here to keep you locked in by making every season a new
challenge taking that mental load away from planning the right exercises at the right intensity
so you can stay focused on your gains and it's much much more affordable than an actual trainer
at your house I mean I have I have such poor uh motivation and I also have a lot of
physical therapy needs so I do spend a lot of time with my trainer but using fit bod is as
close as you can get to a real trainer it's like having a trainer in your pocket it customizes
workouts based on your goals and that could be targeting specific muscle group weight loss
recovery the app can help you stay focused and get a better workout right the intensity goes up
and up and up as you go and with all of the videos uh the a thousand demonstration videos that show
you how to do each workout you know your form is going to be great right over the last three years
I've worked on my strength my endurance and it's all gotten better and this could be you too
with fit bod right it creates a personalized workout routine based on your goals workouts that
adapt to your growth so it remains challenging enough to push you to make progress fit bod tracks
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you're really capable of join fit bod today get 25 off your subscription or try the app for free
for seven days at fit bod dot me slash tire that's fit bod dot me slash tire fit bod dot me slash
tire it's me bozi and carl weas imagine the the the it was basically me watching bozi and carl weas
carl's my my dear departed chef uh chef friend he died a few years ago and he knew a ton about
food science and bozi knows a lot about chemicals and shit too and they were talking about just how
close motor oil and that synthetic truffle oil shit that restaurants put on everything like
that you get it like a chili is it legitimately close it's extremely close that's crazy and i pay
five all the five dollars extra for the fries right that's crazy yes yeah just for motor oil
like very very close that's wild yeah by the way i would like to introduce griffin whom i met
yes in the basement of my apartment building yeah this is how we got to know each other uh what were
you doing in the bit no what is it like dying his clothes and fucking mollo uh unless you think i uh i
snubbed you there was an intro that i record after the show which i will introduce you we just dive in
live no worries i like it that way yeah it's better vibe that way than you be sitting you go
and you didn't welcome yeah let's stop and do this so yeah i wasn't snubbing you on an intro no it's
okay i just dive in culture on this show i like it that way i just want to mention you can find
talent everywhere we were in the basement in any basement too well it was a possible it's typically
basements yeah we actually have a basement only recruiting for over at the utopian griffin actually
he had a uh a jeep wrangler and so naturally and a six speed uh mazda three yeah mazda three hatch
and um and i we just talked and then that's a good basis on which to start a friendship
100 professional yeah exactly and uh and then we just started working together and now um now we
recently shot oh look at that electric forward truck griffin shot the very first spy shots of the
new forward electric uh so what do you call it the uh universal because you stalked it or because
it you just happened to catch it we got a tip yeah we got a hot tip we got a hot tip where did the
hot tip nobody knows where the tip came from but i'll tell you our sources that's right we don't
but certainly not from the biggest four dealer in the never mind actually yeah actually had nothing
to do with both for the record but griffin and i we've been running around uh doing small e-v truck
stuff busy 100 yeah so we went down to long beach for that and uh took these spy photos and wrote a
couple of articles about it and uh and then was it the next week we were uh with slate driving the
slate yeah oh yeah yeah so it's real huh it's i mean it's yeah it's real it's weird though it's
such a weird thing like the slate thing is strange it's unlike any company i've ever met ever they
you go into their their um headquarters and their engineers are not trying to convince you that they're
like the sharp like the this is the greatest you know most advanced car ever actually it's kind of
opposite they're like look it's made out of steel the body's made out of like 250 parts we could have
we could have made it out of a lot fewer and maybe would have been more efficient but like
it's simple it's cheap we're getting it out soon and you know it they were not like like you go to
any i just go over this is truck pretty much exactly it is truck it really it was so strange
because i just got into a rivian thing and they're like talking about how they consolidated all these
electronics they got all this cast structure in their body the slate thing was like listen this is
very conventional it's steel like don't look for any like fancy materials anywhere we just built
this like a car like like we've been doing for like 50 years yeah and uh it was very different
in that way crank windows it's very is it kind of just like a Honda element that's electric
that's how i feel about it it's just it's even your El Camino to Honda element sure you would
effectively have this right but it's even weird an element at least comes with the radio it comes
with yeah you know this this is this is radio really didn't know who needs a radio mock no
sorry i watched dumb and dumber on the last flight oh okay i don't get any well yeah you have no
pop culture a joke on our site is that i don't get any pop culture references
because i go are you not seeing dumb and dumber that's i i think i've seen that one hobby be
little we're gonna have to solve this problem like there's not knowing pop culture and then
there's i've never seen dumb and dumber i've probably seen that one not knowing the pillars of
so great it's got Porsche steering Porsche brakes like shocks developed by like king of the Hammers
guys like no independent reservoir shocks yeah it's a good time it's like really fun it's the most
seriously it's the most fun i'm gonna be driving the shit of it all weekend oh wow yeah it's really
good and it goes it sounds like fucking uh you're about to get you know barren von munchausen
i'd love to drive that yeah it's really really a good time and you should you can get you should
just call manks and have them let you borrow it for a few days there's for a few days okay yeah they've
got a bunch of them yeah um so let me talk about this willies jeep with you for a minute i know you
love a willies jeep do you love a willies jeep griffin uh i love willies just period just like
like willie t ribs just general things named willie 100 that the concept of willies it just
fascinates me yeah all wills and willies okay not just automotive ones but do you actually like are
we joking or are you actually this is not really your vibe right let's be honest no well i mean i
have uh i have my over wrangler yeah so you're in the zone yeah and i grew up off-roading so yeah
yeah my daily's a c-6 but you got stockholm syndrome into liking this because you were dragged for
900 miles in a week yes from precisely watching this madman drive all over the roads of the southwest
yeah but this isn't the shittiest willies that you've driven all over the southwest haven't
you road tripped in like the shittiest willies that's what i used to buy like a five just 500
bucks and just i was welding up frames using a like harbor freight welders like that was my michigan
self and then this this is a brand new world war two g and um a lot of like in the beginning
i was kind of wondering would this be easier i mean it's got no rust it's all new parts
it should be easier than buying like a rusty $500 junker and fixing up the problem was building
a car from scratch is horrible yeah you actually have nothing to go on you don't even know what you
need you don't know do i need a little spacer here or like a bolt here or so i'm just like there
isn't a manual somewhere like a sufficient service manual that's what i was i was reading through
books like all day trying to figure out what parts i need which by the way you need over a
thousand parts to build okay can we tell the audience who doesn't know like what you did
and then when when you ordered it like i watched your video everyone it's very funny it's the
pacing is great you are so entertaining and like your joy shines through which is super
infectious i'm not july 4th you want to want to july 4th okay so two days from whatever today
it'll be in the past but when you ordered the box it came with the body so the the body was brand
new but they didn't they didn't ship it with all the parts like if you were in the army in
oh no vietnam or world war two they would have given you the box with everything right it had all
the parts this huge wooden box that was like you know 15 feet love is huge i've never i've never
received a package this business i get bet you get all sorts of weird stuff but i mean not really
like that but i know i know the kind of thing you're talking about it was a gigantic wooden
crate and it was just the body tub and like the grill and the hood and the windshield that's it the
i had to order the engine and it was just a bare engine block brand new engine block they still cast
the world war two engines in france why why did they do that i because france the french folks are
obsessed with world war two jeeps recreations dude fucking norman recreations and they actually
built world war two jeeps there into the 50s there was a company called hotchkiss that was
founded by an american anyway it doesn't really matter but i got a brand new world war two jeep
block and i had to build the holy i had to get all the little parts of the engine the big parts the
crank the everything conrod pistons put that all together they won't will they sell you the kit
or no you just had to buy the whole point was to show what you can get from ebay this is a
partnership with ebay sure and to be honest when i first but wouldn't it be nice if you could just
click to buy now once i know everything to car on the recipe list yeah putting together the 1500
parts you know one click but i wish maybe we should do that um when i first pitched this i was at
like a it was at a media event with with ebay motors and um i'm not sure i expected them to
like bite i mean the idea was like hey i showed them this this body that you can buy an ebay and
i was like you know you could theoretically build a whole world war two jeep from scratch
and they came back to me like you want to do that i was like
obviously the answer is yes yeah of course you having a brand partnership is huge for a public
any publication but like i didn't realize how hard it would be it i was getting just dozens of boxes
dozens every week i mean they would stack it piling up and um we had you know i recently
married just had a kid moved into this house my wife was like what is going on it was like a freaking
mountain of all these parts and i had to figure out i had to organize them all we had i had to
build like a bill of materials my friend helped me help with that and i had to figure out how to
build all of it from nothing and it ultimately happened and all the building happened in roughly
80 percent of the building happened in two months that's crazy and uh and actually this stuff actually
like because like you stuff is from different suppliers around the world so a lot of this stuff's
from india the body and the frame are from the philippines engines from france did things fit
together like not perfectly no no no a lot of a lot i had to you know grind my body sucked a lot
right i had to yeah hammer grind drill you know all of these parts coming
from around the world they've never been together as one system ever and i had to get them together
and i didn't i wasn't able to i ran out of time so i wasn't it because the goal was to go to the
easter jeep safari and i finished the car like the day i had to leave so the validation test
of the thousand new parts on this was the trip it was the 900 mile trip to utah i have footage of
him literally like tightening basically the last bolt on a seat putting on the jumpsuit and then
it was action like we're going on the road like not even lying we had to go it was way more than i
expected like like in terms of because i thought it's all new parts it should all be easy to help
you like some of the it was all new parts but like the differentials you bought were not new no no
and you bought four to have backups very smart uh but you know so some of the things
things you can't buy new that's true yeah yeah yeah like the axles they don't make them new uh the
transmission the all the guts are brand new but you can't buy the cases so so that's an original
case so there's some stuff that isn't brand new but just getting it all together and figuring out
what goes where was it was yeah so there was there was new there was actual old stuff like
yeah the the casing but also a bunch of new old stuff that you used to yeah did you ever talk to
i know you met some uh willies experts back in the day did these things assemble perfectly
or because of qc and manufacturing did they also have to like adjust things or is this because
they're it's all remanufactured from somewhere this is what i tell myself look
some of the gaps on this are not quite right like you can put your hand in certain areas where
you shouldn't be able to i tell myself i bet a world war two g wasn't perfect coming off the line
i'm sure it was it had to be functional um and look look at it from a distance an interesting
like an interesting test would be like if you had a perfect one yeah like if someone somewhere
had a perfect one that they and they would let you test fit like each part onto that one it
would be interesting to see if if like they fit on an original most of the time and they just don't
fit because these these other everything else yeah by one percent the thing is a tolerance stack
up was a real problem because you've got tolerance in every part and now you've got you know 10 parts
working together all with their own tolerance yeah so it wasn't just assembly that's the thing about
it it seems like oh it's a lego kit you get all these parts you get them from all from ebay motors
and you bolt them together no it's like you have to fabricate half this stuff you know you have to
break out the cutting discs the grinder the drill the the dremel everything the welder and it that
was the hard part i was very naive when i initially pitched this but uh it actually it ended up being
really epic in the end it was fantastic how it makes you think about when fucking uh Clarkson
and Hammond in may went to draw got an airdrop vehicle and like assembled it in like three days
in the middle of the desert i bet as i'm halfway through richard porter's book but like the amount
of planning they did into those things i'm sure that the team who like designed or made that car
built it yeah and then took it apart and made sure it all fit pretty easily because i mean you were
you were doing so many adjustments and uh creative solutions to things and like some of the new parts
didn't work and then some of the old parts didn't work and you had to like play with
both of those yeah but i mean in the end like it looks like a world war two jeep and it drives
like a world war two jeep that new engine if you read online about like reproduction engines
usually there are problems usually and so this first like 20 30 miles that i was just waiting
for the shoe to drop yeah waiting for something but it just just it just sang right yeah it was
pretty painless the entire way over is it the most rattly car you've ever driven no solid really
surprisingly the thing it actually feels like a new it feels like a new car i mean there's some
things i still need to finish the gauges need to put in be put in right but it feels really solid
and when we took it off-road it was unbelievable that's fantastic the crazy thing about off-road
kit you're you're you're kind of more of a sports car guy than off-road guys that's safe to say
i i actually have like a pretty decent amount of off-road experience it's just that it that
type of content doesn't do well for us so we don't really do it but but go on like so sports cars if
you get into a 1940 sports car and you compare it to a mile it is insane it's like it's not even
close right you would lap a 1940 sports car around even a short you know of course even a short track
i drove i've driven a i've driven lamal cars from the early fifties and they're like they're terrible
they're fucking death traps i mean yes they're horrible but the great thing about off-road capability
is that it doesn't really care about all of your modern gadgets it's all about the simple things
like geometry and torque at the wheels and this world war two jeep it's kind of the first if you
read the development of the world war two jeep it's the most unbelievable story i think it's the next
ford versus ferrari movie it was 16 jay on it it was 16 dudes in butler pennsylvania their backs
were against the wall their business was about they were about to go out of business and the
government put this thing out saying hey we're looking for a reconnaissance vehicle and they
designed what was it basically this machine in 45 days wow by the way this isn't just like a
off-road vehicle this became the blueprint for every yeah every if you look at the toyota land
cruiser they copied this you look at the nissan patrol like fj the land the land rover copy this
this was the beginning the the blueprint of every major off-road vehicle and it was created by a
couple dozen dudes in butler pennsylvania's crazy story that is amazing yeah and and off-roading it
it became clear why it became the blueprint it's unbelievable old fucking grainy ass you know videos
of the fucking yeah what do you think about how it did off-road i was stunned the entire time it
just ate pretty much everything that we could throw at it i mean sure there was like one or two points
that uh maybe like we hit your front bumper on a shelf but that would have happened in a modern
jeep too like some of it is that's just what it is but otherwise it climbed everything well how
much power does that engine make like 50 60 60 horsepower i think and then it weighs like 1500
pounds actually weighs like 2300 pounds it does but it's geared so low the townspeople is 40 so
we were doing this 900 mile trip at 40 miles an hour you can go 60 but you don't want you don't
want to go more than 40 how many rpm are you at is 40 at 40 it's fine you're like 2000 rpm or
20 what is the quote 225 line or whatever it doesn't like to go above 2500 for any longer it just
doesn't it for whatever it runs on just gasoline or the gas and griffin was in a modern in the
camera car which is a modern f150 tremor yeah going 40 for 900 miles it must be well but it was
the cozy thing ever radar cruise control i'm sure he's fine yeah i was doing well i put it on blue
cruise the entire time and you know it was great as a camera car because of it i could go hands off
for a second get some great shots and then go back to driving it was fantastic what i thought was
amazing that when you're offering it is the pace you're carrying up like you know these foot tall
ledges and uh i've seen a lot of people that have you know a new wrangler rubicon whatever and they
would approach that stuff much more slowly partly because it's expensive but also that the new stuff
weighs more and this thing there's just less inertia and it just kind of like it's a really
go load up this up these legs you're almost driving it like a specialized utv more than like a car
yeah by today's standard and by the way like you know i say the off-road capability hasn't really
you know progressed that much but then if you look at the utvs of the different world yeah yeah
they're they're like on a whole different world they're the shit they're incredible yeah they're
crazy you should do you should get meet up with fucking bothwell and do the the super t versus
this have you seen our our friend is a huge model t enthusiast and has a bunch of model t's
bunch of his original one he's got a model t race car that i drove is unbelievable and then he has
the super t which is the the model t with like every possible period aftermarket upgrade for
off-roading because he came with zack and i on a really long off-road trip and we drove like regular
cars and he drove a fucking model t and it was amazing off-road yeah and uh because they flex so
much they flex a lot and the diameter of the wheel it's funny the wheel is like i wonder if the diameter
of your wheels and tires is the same as the model t but is mostly wheel you know it's
like a low profile tire and yours is a high profile tire so it's just like but the ground clearance
on the t is probably no joke like 50 percent higher than that if not more because it's just the way
the advantage here is the four-wheel drive system in the low range right that's what it's got and
those n d t tires are actually really good i mean they're way better than you think they are the
the ride quality over these horrible roads i was able to air those down they have inner tubes in them
so you don't have to worry about the beat you know you can air them down pretty far so supple
weirdly actually airing this thing down to i don't air down like crazy 15 psi or something like
the normal pressure for these like 30 uh yeah around 30 25 to 30 yeah that seems actually
seems maybe 25 to 30 yeah yeah yeah but they're really i i thought okay look at those
little skinny tires they're going to be terrible off-road they're great no it it does i the a
lot of the model t is on like fucking bicycle tires but you should have seen that thing go up
these these i mean certain you know elements of bouldering i'm sure are better but like for
like a fire road that had like rocks and big gravel and shit in it the thing was great that's
yeah we should get you with i would love to go head to head on this thing get home model t versus
driving home we didn't i didn't drive it oh yeah we towed it back there yeah oh you had a trailer
on that truck yeah but i mean i was just uh to be honest up until the very end i didn't think this
thing i i didn't have any time i really i kind of ran out of time it was so much more of a project
than i expected but it just i mean it just you gotta watch the video it just all come together
and like almost all of it is from like you can actually basically build a whole jeep from ebay
even the like old parts like the axles that are not brand new i just bought it from some dude in
washington he was selling it so it's yeah it's it's that's a rad project man i can't believe that
like worked i neither can i i also i have to hand it i have to hand it to ebay for even trusting us
to do something this insane like this is crazy how much should it cost in parts to build this jeep
so it probably costs so one of these fully restored is usually around 25 grand okay i haven't done the
full cost roll up but you can imagine buying every part piecemeal is going to be maybe the most
expensive way you can possibly build a car so it was probably double as much as if you had actually
bought one it you know already restored and then you had to physically do the work yeah then you
had to do this is like a $50,000 jeep will it's probably almost almost that much yeah it could
be one of the most expensive ones huh yeah but we kind of knew that going in because we're buying
every individual part i see an opportunity for fucking a tracy brand willies jeep kit car
that does actually come with all parts and that is like i i i feel like you could somehow reverse
engineer what's available into one kit that people can buy like a lotus seven or a cobra
do people still build lotus sevens and cobras themselves or does everyone just buy them fully
built now i don't know i'm not sure i think it depends on cost because i think you can buy i think
ironically the like the lotus seven is cheaper if you buy if you build it yourself
sure done it's more expensive you you bought a kit car essentially but made it more expensive than
a finished car yeah which is not a kid right yeah i mean the word kit comes with a lot of value
and the thing about this is this thing is it's the we're getting it ready like registered like
street legal was strange there's no vin or anything it's a it's basically like a what would you call
like a reproduction or yeah or whatever so i'd ghost gun dude no he's a ghost gun a vehicle
so you're probably familiar with the there's like the california specialty vehicle thing
the spcn or whatever and so i i went through that for this and so it is technically a 2026 i don't
think they actually put mollies but it's basically it's a 2026 world war two jeep i think the only
one in the world that's awesome and so you have real tags on it well right now they're temp tags but
like they're getting a real california registration 100 that's so dope yeah yeah what is your you got
to get a custom license plate i don't know what is the custom license plate uh i've had that rattle
it's not i'm just gonna tell you it's not that bad uh oh man and i was gonna say time machine why
2026 yeah oh yeah i can be so jeep you know that the world no yeah yeah people are just gonna think
this is just uh you know no we go we'll workshop this one a little bit i'm very good at this we
will workshop my you know my manx has the license plate radial oh that's pretty nice black plate radial
legit i so fully legit i assume you had to talk to a bunch of radial fanatics and get to get that
and you had to pay them off and it was no it was just available because presumably i have the only
radial powered car because radio fanatics have planes by the way despite the fucking despite
that plate and despite the fact that you can just look at the engine and see it i have to explain
that no this is not a rotary to dozens of people every time that no one knows the difference yeah
this is fucking sick dude thank you very much yeah wow 2026 jeep world war two jeep i mean you
should it it ruined i mean i did this in my driveway just a regular driveway it was like it
usually if there's like a sponsored like build it there's a garage a lift and there's a whole team
it was a freaking dad you literally don't have access to the pit my ride i literally do i really
think actually the boat actually he told me yo we can help like and i and i told him look what i
wanted to show people is that an average dude in his driveway can build this using primarily ebay
parts that was the whole point yeah it was supposed to be more pal obviously it's it's more
expensive that you know but people are not going to build the whole thing you're going to probably
buy some of these parts you know it would have been pretty funny though if midway through the build
mad mic just popped by that's true and was like i heard you yeah that would have been really cool
did he did he ever tell you by the way about the the electrical diagnosis on hannah's pow
and i remember i asked you about it if you remember that i asked him about it and i might
have told him i forgot what he said it was 30 hours it took him to diagnose the electrical
drain on hannah's pow and he's like an electrical genius i could have replaced the whole harness
i could have you could have bought a new car for that wow it would turn out it was uh
just uh the the blinker there was just a bad some switch itself the switch in the blinker
37 dollar part but it was like it was a very expensive diagnostic wow even though even when
he cut the rate by 50 percent he and i was like an hour when he called me to tell me it was like
15 hours and he hadn't figured it out i was like never give up dude i was like do not stop until
you find out what's wrong with this fucking car i cannot have it but now it's fine fixed it blinker
switch man that's yikes you could now you can like uh put a fish tank in the back of it or something
oh yeah yeah with the gas with the ps2 as well yeah what would you do to pimp out the
world war two can you could you oh man no i would like to have like a bimini top style top
yes you can do a lot with the top yeah like you could you could sort of make a top that like
looks kind of cool well you could do the machine gun mount but instead of a machine
gun you do like a money gun something like that i think it'd be pretty hot rain machine yeah exactly
water cannon yeah giant off the back of it that could be pretty fun no i like a
water cannon i like that is it uh did you paint it that color did it come that it came that color
from the like that bodies from the philippines it's like red that's red oxide primer yeah i wanted
to keep it that way actually i like the way it looked i wanted to keep it that way for two reasons
one it sort of highlights where the new parts because usually they're painted green like all over
yeah and and that just kind of disguises all the parts as one big green mass so i meant to try
to highlight some of the new parts but also i ran out of time and i like the red no the red's not
bad yeah i like the red yeah the um is there is there any because you've been around these old
is there anything that like oh all of the willies jeeps have like this problem and like
this one has maybe sort of solved that problem or no it has all the same problems the old ones have
um no it does have all the same problems it really it does it's the same yeah no it is actually the
weird thing is there were certain things that usually you upgrade when you buy a world war two
jeep but i wanted it to be factory original which makes no sense because this is not even it's like
for example the six volt system most people would gut that and put a 12 volt especially if you're
if that's not even a real quote unquote world war two jeep why would you do it yeah because i wanted
it to be and i was trying to make sure it was as representative as a 1942 world war two jeep as
possible so all the holes i had to drill in exactly the right spots it made no sense why am i trying
to make this look like it's a 1940 exactly like an april 1942 jeep but it's just like 16
volt system everything's in the right place doesn't have a gas can in them because in april 1942 they
wouldn't wouldn't have had that in the back yeah what is the range of this vehicle
uh like at 40 miles an hour how far can you drive well we drove well i feel like we got we drove
like uh 500 miles in one day but that was a huge mistake yeah that was bad that sounds terrible
we actually tested the range because we 500 miles at 40 miles an hour in fucking that
that's a nightmare yeah i fell asleep what was your wardrobe you fell asleep a lot well that was
it i wore the same thing the whole pull over four days i i never changed yeah just the uh the cover
all there and the problem the fuel the um the steering wheel on this thing is so huge yeah
and i've got you know dad mod going and so the steering wheel actually would
touch my stomach the whole time that's your blue cruise though that's your eight
ass design to be driven by like 16 year old kids in the 40s yes and yeah there's a six too right
when you sat in it yeah when i sat in it there there's a shot of me with like my forehead not just
my hair my forehead is above the windshield line and then my knees i have to like very aggressively
maneuver under the wheel because otherwise i just i can't get there you're looking at the
top of the windshield yeah and you probably would be the same i probably couldn't even drive it at
all yeah it's tough it's very tough for big guys i am yeah that oh look at that crate that you know
what that crate is it's about the same size as the crate that my engine and gearbox for my kuntosh
came back from italy in because they came back together wow made it so it's probably it's about
this is like you know a big lazy boy couch it was it was one giant giant palette yeah yeah yeah
yeah the uh the build for this was just an absolute blast i mean it was fun for me because i wasn't
doing any of the hard work but there were so many days that day would be like hey come over tomorrow
we're going to do a bunch of great stuff and he would send me a list of everything and i pulled
up and he's covered in his stainology shirt or a stain of flies like he's just absolutely destroyed
and he can barely even speak to me he's like i'm just gonna put this thing on and then you
can go home there were so many days like that he just had nothing in him wow yeah i bet it was
it was amazing you had a couple people come in to help you and it wasn't like they came in for a
day they were there for like three fucking weeks yeah we had a buddy there for three weeks working
hard and still like they'd leave and i was like oh we're gonna be done right like no it's just one
of my friends uh um brandon he had he was he works for jeep he's been you know huge he's a world
expert on world war two jeeps he came in for a weekend we built the transmission we did a couple
things laurence came in from australia for 20 days we did a lot but even and that was huge like him
coming was huge even after that like the worst part is when you're by yourself like if you're
working on a car you have a friend even if they're not doing anything it's a big psychological thing
oh i can do that for you seriously i can show up and do nothing stand around hand tools i told my
wife could you just stand here but it's just like being by yourself you're like on your back
there's no one there you'd like turning some ball it's just it kind of sucks you know that was rough
when laurence left and i had all this stuff to do yeah to mount the body do all the suspension
steering work that was the hardest part just trying to motivate myself like every day just get
up and just 12 hours under the car for you know yeah because i mean we got the engine kind of running
when laurence was here but it was like backfiring like mad none of it was working right well that
was the first drive i'm sitting on the uh the litter box there on the top of that oh yeah that was
a bit of tidy chat is dead it is you're driving around the neighborhood of this desk that's more
or less comfortable than the actual seat by the way it's boy it's the same the seat is so hard
it's a cushion that might it should just be like it's no softer than like a tile the actual seat
maybe better to like not mount the driver's seat and like put like a beanbag chair you'd probably
sit lower and probably be ergonomically better yeah it's easy to sit on a gas tank so you need a
very slim seat that the gerry can on that is uh zip tie to the grill on that so the once i put
the gas tank in then i needed something slim so a beanbag i would have been looking over the
shit but i like the idea of a beanbag chair well bolstered i think a beanbag beanbag chair
well you could you could have that in sort of the recline position oh yeah you were doing 500 miles
i'll be nice yeah would save your belly as well yeah i'd like a phantom oh yeah exactly exactly
right that's fucking crazy dude very cool yeah it was what broke on the 900 mile drive anything
well i just his spirit yeah that's about it yeah that's the thing about it like i thought
okay this is the first time we have all these thousand parts together this is the first time
they're working together as a system there's gonna be some bs you would think yeah but actually
nothing major happened no i had to disconnect the generator you know basically an alternator
because uh i think it was something internally was frying so i couldn't use the headlights and
if i stopped i tried to like i forgot i tried to keep the engine running so i didn't have to
use the starter too much but that was pretty you know the biggest issue was the vapor lock
yeah so he was vapor locking the entire time have you ever dealt with vapor lock on a car
not like i know i not really because i've never tried to drive really far in a car this
shitty but like i know i know about it i've dealt with like fuel cavitation issues and boiling
yeah yeah so like truly the biggest issue was him dealing with vapor lock so like anytime
there was stoppage it killed the car and then he was like trying to avoid using the starter too
much so it was hard to get going in the first place but also the car was such an exhausting
drive for him that sometimes he had to pull over for naps and so that first day like we i mean we
made i think over like 300 miles on that first day second day we went 110 miles we went nowhere
in a full day of travel we went absolutely nowhere pull over to nap and then i try to
start it but all the fuel in the lines and carb and fuel pump had vaporized yeah so i had to then
prime it these luckily have a hand primer on the fuel pump yeah but still it's just a waste of my
time it was horrible because we were supposed to go i mean i think we were trying to keep it even
like 300 miles a day but we just kept getting so behind schedule with the vapor lock and the starter
issues that we just kept getting pushed back and then at one point like could you just like
bump start it you could and we try i tried to do that when i went but sometimes we're just in the
desert and yeah there's just nothing there you gotta try well and that's why like you know that's
cheating we couldn't cheat yeah but like i mean you see the top photo there like that was i mean
my camera's i exposed it properly but that was like pitch black on the side of the road outside
of prescott and like on the base of prescott in between like wickelberg and prescott there and
look just several points we were just driving through the night because we had a flashlight
strapped to the front bumper which is insane by the way sounds dangerous until you realize that the
six full headlights on this world were too deep probably even worse than the flashlight yeah right
yeah julie yeah we had uh if you have like a beast of like a camping flashlight a thousand lumen
headland that's probably better than yeah i know yeah he had that would be a good reason to use 12
oh totally we have about we you know we we take care of
seven or eight portion 356 is only one is a still a six-volt all the other
commitment man it's hard to get into even fire eyes just cranks cranks yeah it's no one likes
yeah and the lights are terrible but that photo is awesome griffin is a great job nice job griffin
thank you appreciate it yeah i love that yeah and the red really does work in the desert it pops
so well it really pops honestly that was a good visual choice it made my job easier as a photo and
video guy huh yeah i'm totally a deliberate choice it was a production oh god oh yeah horrible
yeah no if it was tan or green i think it would be worse that did
did were there other willies people around moab oh yeah there were a lot there was they do have
like a flat fender run every year there and it was like you know a lot of people 100 people there
no there was a huge talk yeah and uh they were all you know looking at this is brand new you have
a new engine from fray like it was it's a weird thing like no one it's a bad idea to do by the way
it's just if you're gonna if you're thinking well maybe i could do that and build my own
World War 2g for scratch i don't know that i'd recommend it's not it's nightmare
is what it is here's an idea part it out on ebay motors oh go the other way
part it fucking out to zero i just don't know i know but think about how much money you can make
do you have a grand no parting out clause but i want to get this thing by the way
was just in the san marino motor classic which is a fancy fancy ish car shows and for this to be in
it is kind of hilarious you got to keep this thing that's a long long time they don't talk about
that car show enough they don't it's an in pasadena it's right here and it's a very nice event it's
great it's beautiful and also the fact that they let this in i have to give them credit for that
because they didn't have to no i think it makes sense i think it makes sense what what category
was it in it was in the modified category that's appropriate yeah yeah i mean that that's that
category is sort of like uh but i was surrounded by like keep it interesting and weird but even
even the other modified cars were mint i mean just cherry and mine has gauges popping out i mean
uh do you have other willies jeeps still um not anymore this is the only yeah that makes sense
you wouldn't need two anymore i mean this is the one yeah that's we had we also uh
sticker bombed it with uh like price tags for every single part as well we tried to do that but
yeah the primer wouldn't hold a lot of stickers huh the plan was to put a sticker to show this
the ebay seller for every part and put a tag or a sticker on it it was like eight i don't know
how many parts it was like 300 400 pound parts probably a lot um those were just the ebay parts
and um yeah we got there and we were trying to put it on basically dirty primer because we
you got to do that beforehand right when it's clean and uh so and there are like not that many
stickers on there so it's a little you could do uh you know you could do like a have a wrap made for
like the hood that was like a receipt oh yeah that made it and have like photoshop up a receipt
with the seller name and the part and the cost yeah you know and it wouldn't have to be like forever
and it could actually like stick i like that idea racing stripe down the middle yeah keep it narrow
yeah cool that's fucking crazy you guys good times it really cool yeah how's the autobie and
doing otherwise you guys having a good time we're having a great time yeah well we're having a great
time you know it's always fun you know the recent thing is we're able to get 22 scoops the ones
we mentioned about the slate and the the four truck it's always nice to be able to give our
readers something new and exclusive um and you know we're the big thing about about the
utopian is like we're trying to create a community of that's open to everyone it's um we got a lot
of weirdos we got some normal people but it's just people who love cars we keep it cars we always
it's always it's pro car we're not ignorant about the issues that cars create in this world but
we're a pro car website we always keep it that way and um no we're having a great time yeah cool
do we have something from the people i'm sure they have something to say let's go to our folks at
patreon patreon.com slash some entire podcast where you ask questions of the live show watch the live
show get the show early get extra show get the show without ads and get exclusive access to some
of the fun things that Zach and I decide to make for you um let us see what we have
let's do questions for the other guys first and we'll save those other ones for us for later
unless we don't have that many johnny ev gearberman uh to the utopians do you think the k4
hatch has potential to be a fun car in the aftermarket or is it too similar to the mazda three
so what's the k4 oh is that that hunday uh it's the kia that yeah i drove that recently the weird
looking no no i drove the gold you've seen reviews of these gold k4s they came out a few
couple months ago um and i drove it around angeles crest which is a little strange for that car to
be the angeles crest press drive because it's not a very sporty car it looks kind of sporty
but it's just not it's not a very sport it's nice inside it's like a three door or four is there
four doors there is i don't know okay yeah this photo just buys the the back door line there
oh yeah this is a very strange looking car it is but you know it's i love a good hatchback you
know so this is the looks like the sedans this sedan one yes the hatchback one good man is cool
you know i love a hatchback and uh this is a really nice hatchback the inside's really nice
but it's not very sporty it's could the aftermarket do something probably i think has enough
it makes enough power to where it's fun enough i don't know i you could get it on par with
with a mazda three maybe in the aftermarket is it ever going to be a gti absolutely not no no
and uh yeah i'd be shocked if the aftermarket shows up for that and by the way like the
current mazda the current mazda three manual just like is not that dynamic of a car either
like i'm happy they're offering a manual but that ain't a mazda speed or anything like we had one
as a press car and like it was pretty slow and soft yeah you could definitely get that there but
yeah it's k4 is it's pretty pretty normal car not very fast yeah i mean if i would yeah i would
just get an elantra and if you care about that they're not that expensive yeah there's a lot of
them out there uh that was the only one that's specifically okay all right great okay quadrufully
o-face uh do any of you guys endure any formal spousal restrictions on car purchases my lovely
wife is rightfully more concerned about the frequency of my purchases than the total cars owned
so my new contract is to keep everything for three years oh well happy wife happy life but
any any of you guys um yeah i mean basically when i i used to have if you want a car you're
gonna have to build it yourself from parts he'll never do that and he does it he was like three
years ago i had like 14 cars and then a lot of stuff happened quickly had a wife had a kid
and now i don't want to have that many cars like when you're buying all these cars you're
thinking about yourself when you have a kid and a wife you're not thinking about yourself anymore
you still want some cool cars sure because it's part of your identity in a way and it's fun you
need to have your own thing but you just don't think the same way it's like a completely complete
shift so my wife doesn't tell me what to you know what i can buy or not but it's it's never been an
issue because i don't really want to you know i don't want to cost strain in any way having if i had
14 cars outside of my house it would be a problem for a number of reasons you'd be a
lot of sheer and her husband tom but they're aligned in that they're aligned they're aligned
yeah that's the thing is you need to be aligned by the way it's rare to find that align yeah that's
an anomaly yeah uh yeah no my my my wife has never said anything about she she assumes i know what i'm
doing and i buy her cars too that's i mean that's really the move it's like if you want
someone to be okay with you buying cars you got the great car you gotta buy them some cars like
you can't it's not a one-way street like you know what i mean oh sorry about that um i didn't take
my own advice i'll read the table there but um yeah no i mean like you gotta do what
that in zack's world he's limited by space yeah but also like i think my wife and i are aligned
financially so that's really helpful yeah i mean i just don't want to own like yeah either new
things that are gonna cost me lots and lots of money and depreciate you quickly or have like a
bunch of things that i have to ensure or you know park here and you know take up your extra space
and shit like that so uh i think if you know people have a contract like you just be it's just
easier if you're aligned with your spouse definitely finances 100 that's right yeah uh
just buy motorcycles no two in the ruby one in the star uh as more car makers are opting to
spell out the brand name versus the logo on a trunk our logos losing significance uh additionally not
many cars have model specific logos either anymore why is that now have you noticed i
don't know if that's because from it like from a distance you can read you know if they make the
font really big and you see the back of this egg that is like the same shape as every other egg on
the road you just go what is that oh that's the lexus instead of having to go what's that oval
circle mean with the thing in the middle it's a very good question when kia had the new one uh
that they were doing a couple years ago it looks like an inch nails yeah and the not inch nails
slow yeah well now it's just k n that you see now on the back of their car too yeah no i i think
well that's the thing is it's like a k i a but it but it looks like a k n yeah i think you're right
i think the fact that all the cars are kind of eggy you know in the 90s you kind of knew what a
Mercedes was without having to see the the badge you know and and and now eggs are eggs and so
by the way there's someone who is selling the dot for the i so the so the k n badge yeah and you
do with the double side of the dot and so now it looks like yes man people are so that that's
good hustle that is great that's true entrepreneurship yeah yeah i i'm pro badge and i think that the
i don't know if this works long term because putting a full name only works
sometimes i don't think you can put a full name on all designs a badge is small easy to put anywhere
and if you get people used to reading your name and not associating your car with a badge
then if you do have to go to a badge what do you do that yeah right i don't know a badge is good
if it's a good badge like like super is a good if i was be awake if i was be awake oh yeah what even
is their badge yeah it's the three these little shield triple shield the triple shield yeah wink
in we could go about that what are they good i think super is great you know it's
super bad yeah yeah uh ferrari lamborghini and Porsche badges are good oh yeah that's well how
many martin and bentley badges are similar but good how many model badges are there because i just
think about my i'm a corvette guy so they they obviously have their model badge mustang corvette
sure yeah viper had one yeah but vipers out now no i mean it's all out of the
hellcats that's true yeah those are always good dodge dodge has uh has a cartoon whimsy
the best badge is the plymouth prowler badge oh i don't think i've seen the prowler badge
is it pretty good oh yeah a little before my time just think about the fact that they're making the
prowler badge and the viper badge at the same time and you really think about badge genie look at that
oh yeah yeah that is so good that's hard prowling that yeah i forgot about how
gorgeous that was are there people doing how uh hemmys in in prowlers okay is there a hemmy
a hemmy swap that might be too big and you know the thing about the prowler is i think it's
drip we just drove one yeah but it's driven by older folks i mean the whole thing is like here's
a hot rod for you know the boomer generation so i think they're probably fine with it wow someone
you look that i would like it with him yeah the only doesn't fit thing is my friend
horse shit because it does it's very much it very much does because it was just like a
3.5 v6 in that right with a four-speed auto yeah it was all show it was just yeah it was 253 horsepower
the plymouth howler the first uh the 300 m remember oh i remember the three is that
six yeah i mean bro i would i kind of would rock a prowler with a hell cap swap oh i would just do
with the regular 3.92 right you don't need the blower no you don't need the blower it looks
incredible the thing looks amazing yeah it was fun it was a cool car it's in its own way it is fun
yeah yeah and did you did the one you drove have a trailer no we didn't have a trailer that's when
shit gets real yeah there's a there's a jeep connection for the ready for the record is it
yuri or jacob that has a prowler which one of them has yuri does he still have it uh no he sold it
right oh you might have if i remember correctly he sold it you guys do know the jeep connection
with with the prowler right no tell me they use the jeep wrangler yj is the prototype development
car for the prowler and there there's there are pictures of the what do they call it the prangler
it's called the prangler it's the craziest looking car ever it's a really part jeep part prowler it
looks crazy it looks like a shed with a like nose on it really strange oh wait i think i remember
maybe seeing a spy shot of that back in the day there's a grainy spy shot oh dude shout out to
brenda pretty who probably got that motherfucker yeah um good question though ben's ben says
oh this all right uh everyone can think of some automotive heroes but who are some automotive
villains who are these stallens and pole pots of the car world jesus christ
from auto execs to influencers i'm not sure there's any car influencers that would be on the left
i had a question because if there were someone like that we should talk about it yeah but you
should call that fast whose youtube channel do they do the genocide in i'm just wondering like uh
every uh uh jesus i don't have an answer for this at all that's that's that's a lot but i mean
i mean we know one of them yes but i don't want to talk about that i mean if you want to go like
like henry ford did did quite a bit of the old white nationalism nazi flirtation
obviously volkswagen started volkswagen yeah pick your pick your german car company and i mean there's
there's a lot of heroes that are also villains because people are complicated yeah totally and
been like sketchy startups throughout the years and i was gonna say it has to be mostly startup
people these days right now yeah yeah but i would not put them on that level like that is that that
this level is yeah john delorean and pole pot are probably not beastie boys of turin uh is the lexus
altezza gauge cluster gimmicky or awesome it's awesome because they clearly represent
reference to watch for the styling it's awesome that's a fantastic gauge yeah uh a k a lexus is
300 gauge yes my friend's mom's morano cross cab great name great name yeah do you guys still
have that car we still have the car do you know about the volkswagen t rock cross cab i
i've seen the t rock but i don't know if i've seen the convertible i was in tanner reef
last week for as one thing as one does and these are incredibly popular rental cars on the island
of tanner reef right you know i actually think it's weirder that crossover convertibles are not
common because the old convertibles were just the daily driven sedan like a Mustang convertible in
the 60s you take your daily driven car which is a Mustang you take take the roof off of it now the
daily driver is the crossover so why that's a good point that's so weird now well and when we're in
but it looks so off it'll never look right it does yeah but when we were in monoray last year at
driving it around every time when there would be other four of us matt torch david and i were like
this is the way to live like it felt fantastic in that car sure yeah and objectively it's great
decent functioning vehicle yes it's just like so many points against for being so bad looking
and how many how much did it impact the uh rear storage of that car like what's the trunk like
because yeah it's terrible people have crossovers they can pile shit up in there and blah blah blah
but with a car especially the older 60s cars the convertible didn't even intrude on the trunk
that much because the car was so long it definitely hurts the storage okay yeah the cross cab
you want to know the the number one comment we got on the cross cap it was wow you guys built that
and it wasn't just like one to twice it was dozens of people didn't believe it was a real
production car how is that possible it's like over 10 years old and people still don't know
it was real i've seen two in my life and one is yours the people in the people at car week have
never been in a neighborhood poor enough for someone to drive a Nissan morano cross cab yeah
that's why that's like when i said to the maserati people like the whole interior all of the switch
gear of this is the same as a fucking dodge charger in a Chrysler 300 and they said really
our customers have never been in a dodge charger they told you that yeah that's wild yeah but
they can read the internet though that's the problem turns out yeah yeah uh let's see what
else we got uh oh yeah my friend's mom's ron's cross cab said well do you think Porsche will
miss out on this generation of hypercars entirely due to ev write-offs and keep pumping out exclusive
versions of 911 to make some of that money back with minimal capital uh i think it's very possible
possible they spent a lot of money on r&d for the thing that they had to shutter so yeah you know
unless they go i mean to develop a develop a new hypercar at the level they would have to do it
i think would be so expensive it's not something they could just crank out and then make profit
they can make money by reimagining their existing cars though and by restoring and modifying
career gts and doing essentially trying to compete against companies like singer themselves
they can make a lot of that money back with the in-house sort of restomating business which i'm
you know it's a little bit cynical but like you know you got to do what you got to do i guess
i when i drove spent a week driving in 918 last year which was like whoa which was
really cool what's that like to drive for a week fucking awesome when it was it's it's when it's
Porsche's car and it's a it's a prototype still and it's old it's got like 15 13,000 miles on it
but it's it's serviced and taken care of and it needed some exercise and they let me take it on a
road trip and they can't ever sell it right it's got like no v in and so it's it doesn't like to
have a car like that that doesn't have an investment grade value and you can just like it's a car
and when you just use it as a car it was so magnificent to use as a car i was really shocked
the hybrid system aged way better than i thought it would
they and i was i came away from this going if they made this
like you know updated the the center thing to work with car play you know put a current usb
wouldn't have to do much right no like upgraded upgraded the battery chemistry to today's yeah
you know and you'd probably go from like 15 miles to 30 miles of ev range with the same size and weight
and like not much else the formula is great like leave the powertrain it looks cool anything else
it's so fast the steering was incredible like you just make that like dude may call it the
fucking 919 and it's the same car and everybody would buy the truth is electric motors and gas
engines they work together so beautifully they fill each other's voids it's it's a beautiful thing
fill each other's voids yeah that sounds a little yeah interesting David that's so crazy like a
stained live on a podcast so well used motor oil wow all right
wow we got some yeah hybrid fan fiction going on um the okay hang on a second
hang on keep keep going keep going that
our man in Barbados wants to know if the blazers can be made in custom sizes they're going to be
made in all the us normal sizing with room and material in there to have your tailor
take it a once full size either way from what you order but they're not going to be full custom
I think maybe unless you come to LA and get fitted by them maybe and not I'm I can't promise
that but like that's the only way it ever really was them our partner at the grotto who is actually
oh it's based here here in LA wow that's dope um sorry uh Honda multi passport will any legacy
manufacturer parentheses non low volume ever focus on engineering the sound of the engine the same way
Lexus did with the LFA has emissions made that impossible or will it only ever be digital I
might argue the general motors with the Corvette Z06 had accomplished a similar feat I was going
to say I remember listening to you on the car show where you were talking about talking with
a Ferrari engineer and it drove by and he's like can you believe Ferrari gave that up yeah
yeah like it's crazy the thing the sounds that makes yeah um I think other companies do focus
on it they just may not have like hired Yamaha and also they had an engine that was like going to be
in a Le Mans car already so they were starting with that you know and but uh dude Ford with the
with the GT 350 um oh that was incredible sounded great they're they're focusing on that kind of
stuff yeah um the weird name okay round up all the moms and force them to drive EVs whoa okay all
right we don't um I don't want to round up an entire round up around here yeah EV camps vehicles
with ADAS and quote self driving systems be required to have a beacon on them when the systems
are in use so other drivers can make informed decisions uh in factories where these cars are
made when a autonomous systems are in use they get beacons to warn people um I don't
the teal corner lights right teal is the color for that yeah teal was the color I don't hate the idea
I mean I think I wonder like what do you what does the other driving public get from that because
in theory if it's been improved as a you know self-driving system it should just drive like a
normal person yeah so I think it's like it seems like a a fear-based reaction to like what are we
are these things gonna do but they shouldn't do anything wrong well it's true and it might
honestly lead to more traffic if people start like giving birth to them you know moving away
from them and then all of a sudden you have that ripple effect but we live in a city right now that
is and particularly right here because there's there's a the Waymo like depot is right there
so every night you know when the shift changes there's like whatever 400 Waymo's right now
they all come here to feed what are those weird vans that they're using now those are the new um
zikr that's so you know they've been using um epaces for like ever yeah so they bought all the
epaces but they're they're you know so the zikr is a is a chinese it's designed for this so it's
like a six passenger thing and I first was seeing them like a year ago with human drivers now I'm
seeing them with no drivers I haven't seen have you taken one as a passenger yet no but probably
soon I haven't seen one with a passenger yet yeah um but Waymo's are driving all over the place now
and we know that they're autonomous because we know what a Waymo is but people don't really drive
differently around them like it doesn't it doesn't really make a difference most of the time that
they're autonomous the only difference is if you see one parked you you know you gotta you know
people behave around that they stop on their hoods and they flip them over and they set them on fire
that's the only difference yeah you'd ideally like to know if it's some poor you know person's car if
you're gonna set it on fire for some reason autonomous cars are like the target it's like the
target everyone seems to go after the autonomous cars I don't know what descriptor by the way
sure I think it's probably because there's you're you don't actually want to like burn somebody
alive and you think about it but that way well I think I think that the reason why people go
after these self-driving cars is it's a this mega company's vehicle it's not an individual's car
right yeah right it's not oh this person needs us to get to work this is just a big company
they have this ridiculously expensive car and maybe the car's taking my job maybe they don't
like it for that reason too yeah it's a form of protest yeah it's our right as Americans yeah yeah
I I understand sometimes you want to set a car I don't for the record right but like I understand
wanting to set a car on fire it's a good time oh yeah well it's a good time I hate fucking Google
a lot too fuck those people I can't say that because we run a website and we need them
Christian says it's clear the market for low production million dollar cars is strong wouldn't
it be smart oh for Lexus to make an actual LFA replacement uh dude I I mean I think it's uh I
don't know would help brand percent I don't know would it would should LA I should Lexus be making
another supercar I don't think so because I I think they have that I mean they've got like the
Twitter GT yeah which is close enough yeah but I also it took a long time for people to accept
the LFA and it really happened many years after it was sold yeah so they were unsold on dealer show
rooms for quite a minute it didn't really prove its case to do it again so I think it's a situation
where the people who love the LFA the most were the ones who like could have never afforded it in
the first place so they're like begging for that legacy to come back but it's like they're not going
to buy one regardless I mean that's true with like performance wagons and so many other things it's
like we like this thing can you buy it no should Lexus be making any sort of like super
like big flashy color what is their yeah I think they should make I think they should make a fast
GT car yes always because if they want to be a luxury brand Mercedes does it BMW does it my
vacuum in the family yeah he did that but you don't need a super car the LC is dope it is yep the LC
is dope mm-hmm you should get everyone should buy one does the average Lexus owner know what that is
I wonder because my wife is a big Lexus fan so I'm not sure she knows what the LC is I don't know
I don't know she would I think she'd recognize it as a Lexus I think it has Lexus DNA visually
you I think if you saw one you'd probably recognize it as a Lexus I mean face an interior
certainly yeah very cool looks nice um all right we can we can wrap sit there okay this is the time
thank you guys for coming thank you thank you so much yeah it was a pleasure meeting you tell your
dad to leave me the fuck alone no he's gonna love that I'm kidding I need to go back and see what
those what those DMs were yeah he's like my dad's been DMing you and I genuinely not the crazy well
I know not that no no my dad's a separate crazy I don't I genuinely don't recall but it there's
whatever but I just felt like I had to throw that in there no I appreciate that thank you
dude uh good job building a Jeep from ebay parts that's real crazy yeah it's a new high
don't recommend it but uh it was awesome yeah when you do your first oil change you can do a new
clothing line and yeah there you go watch the video it'll be on youtube read our article yeah when
does it come up fourth of july and we have a little I wrote an 11 000 word story about the whole
thing uh also going up in fourth of july so if you want to clear your afternoon there is if you
have a driver there you go damn that's crazy wow love it thanks guys thank you thank you all the
things you know where to find them and uh yeah thanks to our patrons for asking such good questions
today we appreciate you our blazers uh mine and zacks will be for sale probably by the time you
read this so check the the links wherever they are in our fucking instagram and shit and get them
while we're selling them see you guys later bye
About this episode
Autopian’s David Tracy and Griffin Riley join The Smoking Tire for a chaotic, highly creative hangout that blends car culture with DIY experiments. The conversation kicks off with Autopian clothing collabs—blazers/hoodies and a “Stain-O-Flash” shirt concept made from movie-theater carpet to hide grease stains. Tracy then shares his wild past: dying clothes with used motor oil, including a hilarious “before/after” and a disastrous rain-soaked party story. The episode also teases Autopian-style builds and offbeat driving adventures, keeping the tone playful while still rooted in real automotive tinkering.
David Tracy built a Willys Jeep from scratch and Griffin filmed the whole damn thing. David ordered a new body from overseas and sourced every single part on Ebay. Every part. Wires, grommets, pedals, and more. This might seem like a dream but as you'll hear it is a lot harder than one would imagine. Some parts don't fit. Parts arrive broken or get broken during assembly. There are snags and fitment challenges and he forgets things and makes errors and FINALLY when it's done his first real test drive is a 900-mile journey to Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, UT.
The man is a smiling, inspiring ball of knowledge and his story will make any of your tasks seem easy. He also drove the SLATE truck and dyed a shirt with motor oil on purpose. All that and so much more.
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