New SIM; Kill Switch Law; Merc Project

What up everybody Matt Farah here with my boy Zach Klapman welcome to the smoking tire podcast and today's episode is as always

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All right folks on this episode of the program. I spent some time at the Barrett Jackson auction in Scottsdale

I had a really weird Waymo ride dropped off our new project Mercedes to get it going and

We tried a totally new type of racing simulator. It's the smoking tire podcast. Let's go

Should we begin in the beginning? Yeah, or we could go from the front the back to the front

Prefer the front way like huh white back to front back to front always sure really sometimes front to back

Which are not back. Yeah, I should always front back

Hi, well

Hi

Man, it's been I thought we might not have things to talk about but boy

Do we have things to talk about there have been things that have happened?

One more much shorter shout out to

Minneapolis, I got a bunch of nice emails from people. Yeah that are fucking getting shit done out there

And and I really it was nice to hear from those folks

Stay warm continue getting shit done. We we appreciate you from fucking 1500 miles away

But in our world some some things happened

Let's see where do I start okay?

Let's start a week ago when I went to Barrett Jackson

So like if you're my age or my age ish or maybe a little older maybe a little younger

You know Barrett Jackson streaming on TV for a week straight like was like a staple of my car youth

Yes, I would watch it like it was like horse racing. You know what I mean?

You'd watch it like it was gambling almost. Wow. What do you think that's gonna work? You know, they're they're televised auctions have fucking

They changed the game. I mean totally changed the game and I hadn't been to Barrett Jackson

I've only been once before and it was a very long time ago, and I wanted to go back

I was passing through

Scottsdale while it was going on our pal Mike musto was there finally met that dude soupy who's awesome

Yeah, by the way, I expected soupy to be like an old Polish man not he's not an all he's like a young

Yeah, you didn't know you never seen him before I think okay. No

No, no, so yeah, he did not look like I expected someone named soupy to look anyway

We walked around we fucking saw all this stuff to the car wise

Well, we really there's like at the high end there was like dude

Look, there's like look multiple SF in the background of this shot, which I'll tell you why but there's like seven new gen

4gt's all these SF 90s blah blah blah right fine

You got to go to the sold tent where the cars that sold on like Monday and Tuesday are sitting because that's where the gold is

That's where the cheap cars around right because they build more it gets more expensive throughout the week right more or less

I think it culminates on Saturday and then pairs off a little bit on Sunday

But like it builds from Monday to Saturday in terms of like expected value because if you can get drunk and bid on a Tuesday

They thought you can't buy that much car. You cannot do that much damage on Tuesday, right?

But so but the cars that sell on Monday and Tuesday then go into like side tents now

I didn't take any pictures of those because I just I

Don't know. We're just talking about cars. I wasn't taking pictures

But like I was I was seeking value and let me tell you the value that I found first off

If you're within like driving distance of Barrett Jackson of Scottsdale

It's a fucking thing to see it is absolutely

One of the great American car

Spectacles that's worth seeing specifically the Scottsdale one. It's enormous. There's so many fucking cars

You can get so drunk. I I didn't get a bidder's pass. I just bought a GA ticket because I was just like whatever

Apparently if you buy like even the basic level of bidder's pass it comes with a shocking number of drink tickets

It's like something like 10 drinks a day or something crazy number. You can get fucking shwaisted

And then you can buy right

Not just cars. I'll show you in a second some other things you can buy there

But like just the silliest stuff imaginable, right? And also it's like

Compared to like your your car week auctions or your Amelia Island auctions or any of your other like really prestigious auctions

This is like a fucking circus this thing. I mean, there's the cars in this are fucking all I mean, there's great

There's unbelievable and then there is

Straight-up garbaggio. I mean and it's it's just crazy thing to see. What was the cheapest?

Auction result you saw, you know, I saw a car that was one that went for $1,000. Wow. Yeah, okay

It was like an Aries K, you know, like a Plymouth air dodge Aries like that terrible

You know two box today made out of cardboard. Yeah, something like that

And there was a couple of sub $5,000 like shit boxes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, but like there's a lot like if

Barrett Jackson 25k

Goes a long way a long way 25k gets you into a pretty fabulous

Non-numbers matching muscle car that is a set of new wheels away from being like a totally decent car

That you could like the number of cars with like heinous 90s wheels that were otherwise fine

That were like

$22,000 you just put the stock wheels back on and do a great detail and a great photo shoot

They're 35 on bring a trailer like a week later

Like there's a there's a business in that because this is people are so lazy selling their cars there or and or they think

They're like wheel choices are good and they are not or they were good, you know on trend 35 years ago

Well, some people still think mods add value like those wheels cost four grand in 2002 and yeah

So there was a lot of that there's so for you I tell even texted you yeah, and I was like Habibi

I know you love a late 60s Mustang like there's a bunch of like almost turnkey shit here

Like there's there were so many stuff those I should bring Sarah this thing number of like fucking you know

you name it

Like just see three Corvettes and and and just you know mid-year Mustangs and like some really nice stuff, too

But like, you know, okay, but I the value I really saw it was like

25k we'll get you a

1993 Corvette ZR1 black black with under 30,000 miles Wow, which for our like the

Performance bargain that that is because like those things don't look like much, but they are really really fast

Yeah, like that's like a 400 horsepower car with a four cam v8 and it's

Transaxle it's the light and they turn in like crazy that car had the

When car and driver did was doing the slot. I think they still did the slalom test

But that thing was the record holder in the slalom test for like a couple of years

So I saw three of those

three ZR ones for 25k or less I

Really liked these aren't for everybody, but I really like the mid 90s two door Tahoe's

Oh, yeah, I think those are fucking pretty cool

Ron Baugh has the sick one and who else someone else did Zach put a LT4 in one

Somebody put a LT4 in a two-door Tahoe and it was pretty nuts. I think Zach Mertens

saying yeah, yeah horse power what

So the ZR1 test in car and driver it actually got beat by the 300 zx turbo by 4.8 miles per hour in 1991

Oh, so to have it had it before that it had it in

89 to 91 maybe did that

91

He has the super steering and all that stuff. Oh, I had four-wheel steering right high-casts. Yeah. Oh, how interesting

But anyway, those things drive they drive awesome and they're cheap

You know I rocks Fox bodies

Built Fox bodies like went for big money like a turnkey

Kind of OEM plus looking with like a coyote swap is like a $45,000 car

That makes sense. That's still with a coyote swap. That's pretty rad. Yeah one. I saw one with a

What was it the with a lightning swap of 5.4?

Supercharged

Lightning swap that's a GT 500 before it was proper. Yeah, it was in a Fox body

It was and that was a $50,000 car

Coops or hatches they were hatches. I did not see a notch. Yeah, no notches

I actually I was surprised at how few Fox bodies there were there. I really only saw maybe four

Granted there could have been some in like the other because there was a whole other I

Was there like four hours? There's a whole other room of cars that like we're gonna sell

Like we wanted to see because when it sells they put the price on the window

So we wanted to see what shit was selling for and we were it was the equivalent of looking through the results tab

Right sold thing, you know, that's what we wanted to say. So

The knots we didn't even really bother so much with the not yet sold

And there was some cool stuff. We walked briefly through it and some really wild like shit

So many cars was it musta was like I saw that at SEMA five years ago

I saw that at SEMA six years ago. I remember that from SEMA like yeah, you know, it was it was

But my favorite part of Bear Jackson is not the cars. It's the sideshow tent. It's the like sort of

It's like it's like a craft fair but for like blue collar ballers

So like if you want a pontoon boat or a hot tub or a massage chair or like some

item of like

Blue collar luxuriousness like this is your mall like every like all of the role like nothing will make you feel less cool

Wearing a steel Rolex than seeing the jewelers in there with a case with like

500 steel Rolexes every single one you can imagine like they've got it right there and some dude

It's like eight drinks in is like yep

So that's a place to because if you go into a Rolex store, they'll make you buy five other watches for these are second hand

But so these are second hand, but is this the place to go to get a watch like if you unless you want to buy one online

I mean like are there watch auction events that are similar. I'm sure there are there are watch auctions

But not not for like Submariners and shit

There's watch auctions for like important watches and vintage watches and stuff and like you can get some affordable things

But you know, you'll see stuff that like cars where watches are millions of dollars, but you just want a Kermit

Go to Barrett Jackson for it pick up a Kermit and like I so these

These like jewelers that are in this thing. They're there. I've not vent. I'm not verified these people

They're all dressed like these guys on Instagram

That go to like the wholesale and they're like haggling

You know what I mean? They're wearing essentially a suit without a jacket or a tie

Just the suit shirt and the suit pants and shoes, right? Watch on each wrist, right couple rings and

You know very clean skin and they're all like, you know thin and and

Fucking, you know, there's a big counter like a big counter. That's like art

You know the size of our table, but like it's like that and an L

So it's imagine that but then there's like eight people behind the counter. Oh wow

Okay, so it's kind of aggressive

It's like it's like a like a bullpen. It's like Wall Street or something over there. So like

Are the watches they're selling real and genuine and I don't know I would I would I buy a watch from them?

Spidey sense says probably not and I'm not like I'm not trying to single out any individual like I don't even remember the names of them

I they're just they're just

They could be it could be a website like it's the same as like, you know, not Bob's but like any number of

Places on the internet that sell second-hand watches. So like I would say like if you're capable of

Immediately identifying whether something is genuine and you're comfortable buying like that but like

Okay, anyway

There are watches. There's also cowboy boots and fucking knives. So so anyway

So that's where I ended up taking pictures of stuff because you know very rarely does a car stop me in my tracks

So go back to the first picture the first picture. This is in

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You know one of the things they do are these charity auctions

Which always raised so much money and on the surface of it. I am not against a charity auction of any kind

It's fine. So here's a Mercedes

Gullwing who's donated to a charity auction. Can you see the beneficiary of the auction there's that

CHP 1199

Foud nation

First off, it's fat. It's the CHP 1199

Foud nation misspelled foundation on their very large poster that is

About the size. It's I mean it's as tall as the car. It's as tall as the car

Yeah, pretty much. So that's the one thing and the other thing is the CHP 119

This is like where you where everyone knows you donate money if you want to get out of if you want to not get tickets

How many tickets do you need to be getting a year where you have to donate a 300 SL?

You know just get out of them for the next ten years when we saw this

I I was like, okay

So if you you know if you go to their website if you buy, you know, you donate 50 bucks

You get like a sticker if you donate like, you know

2,000 bucks and I'm making up the numbers, but they're not far off you donate something in the thousands you get that license plate frame

And that's what everybody wants everybody wants that 1199 license plate frame. That's the immediate identifier in California

If you gave get pulled over of I've donated money. Do you have the prices handy sack?

No, I was looking at the budget increases for the CHP year over year, but so and then you know

You can there's all you can like get a badge if you give enough money

I mean if you give them like 20 grand or something. It's like you get like a badge. It's crazy. It's crazy and it's just

I've never heard of any one donating money for any other reason then what bit of shiny jewelry that says

1199 on it. Do you get to show a cop if you get pulled over?

My theory is if you if you buy this car

You actually get issued a California driver's license with the name Bruce Meyer on it. That's pretty much

Give you a cop car a uniform

I mean you get the whole thing you actually get for this car full credentials. Oh, we have it. Yeah, here's the cheer

Oh, yeah, here we go classic level

3g's you get a glass plaque one license plate frame

Leather wallet and brass an ID card and a plastic ID card. That's 3g's

5g's gets you a crystal star award a

Laptop backpack to license plate frames leather registration holder leather

registration

Leather wallet and brass ID card and plastic and then it's 10g's you get it a judge

Jack it with an 1199 logo a tree bag a top kit

Coffee mugs the logo cap a hat. Yeah, you get fucking full-on

Well, you get you get more and more things so that no matter what you grab in your house

You'll you'll have something that'll say 1199. You just get more stuff. There's more tears

Well, oh my god, there's so many more way go back up

But also like also you with the jacket in the hat

Well, that's because you really have more than two cars and you only get two frames

So you need to have something that identifies you at that level true when you're in another car

Now do you think the top kit is so that if you hire a sex worker and they come over and it's a sting and then as they're

About to put the cuffs on you. They see that and they go

We'll let it slide. Yeah, I know CHP doesn't do vice. Maybe they do

All right, wait, I thought that was the highest. I didn't realize that was only silver gold 25k

Oh, my jacket you get the backpack the duffel

To coffee tumblers the cap to license plate frames. I have to say I

Don't

I don't think you get a whole lot more for 25k to be honest with you

It doesn't seem like you do at a hundred K the platinum level

You know personalized platinum award a platinum level watch

God, I want to know what the platinum level watch

You get invites to events where you guys

That's probably one the platinum level jacket with the 1199 logo. That's a big one

This is the entry-level politician level

Yeah, you need to rub elbows with these people and get there, you know, you know

250 the list gets shorter again

Private events with CHP top brass an 1199 CEO

recognition in perpetuity at the museum

Hosted travel and tour of the academy exclusive as name displayed at the headquarters and the annual report

Okay, this is about putting your name in other things that they broadcast out to other people

Diamond license planes plate frames black with chrome lettering at the diamond level

Wow, and then here's the watch. Let's see the watch. Oh, it's a Cromwell

$100,000

Oh my god, look at that

Dare I say absolute piece of shit looking watch that's fucking crazy all this watch

This is just this is one step behind having a police badge. I mean it's got it has real listening

It has a CHP star like

In the middle of the watch so it's just so that on your left hand when the police officer walks up

They see that let me just check the time. Oh, yeah, that's crazy. So anyway, this is what you're getting by

Giving money to this organization in case you're wondering so

Anyway that I thought that was very funny you think for all that money they could spell the sign out nation

Foud nation. What if that's this? What if the sign is right and it's a fucking fake? That's what I was thinking

Yeah, what if you think the sign is accurate and you're donating to a mimicking

Organization with a different but similar

Imagine the balls to make a fake police organization and then try to get away with that crime like

Yeah, they'll all be after you. I mean look I had someone who worked for the police

Steal a digital tracking device from my car for purposes of using it for digital tracking what?

When I got arrested for street racing back in New York and my car was impounded a cop stole my

Yeah, and was commuting with it. Yeah, that's the level of thinking we're out here

Let's see the next photo

The next photo is what you'd call good conservative art

You know, they always conservatives always talk about how like arts to woke like whatever this is this is like

Americana threw up all over this is like you're decorating a low-level ski lodge in

2002

Basically is the Wells Fargo

Carriage which is a real full-size was that is this an area sponsored by Wells Fargo?

No, this is a place selling this artwork. This is this it's big eagles huge and like a literal Indian

Lot of wood carvings of eagles that I mean some of these look six feet tall. Yeah, huge huge on giant pedestals

horses and eagles and

Americana

shit

Yeah, yeah, oh and you've got like the the stock exchange bowl right here. Yeah. Yeah, you can put somewhere

Yeah, you need to have such a big house to just yeah big but imagine like how awful your house would be decorated

This statue. It's two eagles like dancing or whatever is literally twice the size of these grown men standing right next to it

I think that one probably goes outside

Yeah, so what's so keep going we've got we've got more would you like so Zach flew in the pivotal

Man, what do you what do they call it? I forget what they call this thing. I forget to it's like

Yeah, he looks it's what style of vehicle is it it's like a drone you fly. Oh, it's yeah, electric vertical takeoff right

So you flew in that and that you and

How do you feel looking at this particular e-V tol about whether or not it would be

Safe, I honest the honest thing to say is I don't know because all of like

There's the hardware side of these things and there's the software side of these things the only reason I trusted pivotal

Is because I have friends that work at Boeing and other drone companies and I said have you heard of these people and they said yes

Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten in there and no disrespect to pivotal

So with with these guys that have built this

You just and I've seen a lot of like clips of these different machines being sold or being like promoted to be for sale a lot of this

personalized

electric vertical takeoff stuff and

How long's the ride? It's so easy you hop in you just control with a joystick

I mean, there's so much that needs to go into the training for these things. Yeah, so anyway, they they were selling these

This is an eight. This is an eight rotor. So it's this is a lot like

It's a big DJI thing, you know, you've got yeah, basically two rotors at each corner and

They probably spend like opposing directions

I mean, I don't know this stuff excites me. It seems fun, but I wouldn't want to get in them for like another

Five years. Yeah, it seems it seems. I don't know

I don't want to I don't want to pass judgment on this thing if it's been tested and whatever but like

It just looks shady. I just just looking at it. It looks kind of shady. I don't know

I don't think I

Mean the one I was in like looked cool because it was all carbon and you can see that

But it had to be a certain weight right had to be very light

Yeah, so if it fell out of the sky if I had done something wrong

The carbon is not protecting me very much like it's the ground is true yours. So this looks more exposed

I think which might make you feel a little bit unnerved what I will say this would be way easier to take off and

Land because it doesn't tilt up or down. This has a traditional helicopter

configuration with like skids and a traditional helicopter seating position visibility is better. Yeah, so I don't know

It's just this was being sold right next to that artwork and a bunch of Rolexes and cowboy boots and you know

Trips on to go on quail hunts. There's something amazing that this was across the aisle from like eagle sculptures like a hundred years

20 years ago like the eagle, you know, was the thing that flew. Yeah, and now we've got this for sale in a mall. Yeah, okay

So so this is you have the millionaire gallery here

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Which has a bunch of these sort of composite?

Things where it's photos of famous people

Alongside their signatures. It's like shadow boxes got it

Okay, and then there's the the weird one of fucking Trump may be getting shot at the top quarter

There's like a Marlboro F1 one. That's a Senoral Shelby. Yeah. Yeah

That kind of stuff like this sort of Americana

The the millionaire yeah, there's sort of like the this sort of worship of these of successful

It's totally an altar for a person

Yes, like we got their signature when we cornered them outside of bathroom

But then we took pictures from the internet and printed them and all that stuff

Yeah, that's so go to the next one because there was around the back was really creepy Trump fantasy art

So I got it captain Trump sparrow, dude

Even regardless of your politics, this is hilarious is Trump's face in captain's Jack sparrow garb like head to toe in front of a

Navy destroyer

With like a like a it's not a real signature

It's like an imagery of his signature on like a name tag there and then on top it says like

A whole bunch of like quote accomplishments

Of his that most of which are not actually real like stopped eight wars and things like that

No, you know what it says

It says where he was born where he went to college

It says he produced the apprentice and then he appointed three supreme court justices

and

Yeah, that's what that says. Okay that one that one actually at least has some truth to it though

There's another there was another one. I saw this one. I thought was the funniest imagery

But there was one of him as like

Fucking atlas picking up the world

There's like there was one that was him as like a like an like an Aristotle

You know and the one the aris. I think it was the Aristotle one that was like the world piece

This is proof that it's not just AI making bad art that just this was probably made by AI

That was but like was it a sculpture alice or him just holding something like no, it was like these it was like a pain

It was from this particular

And there was yeah, so then we have the venezia gallery here. This is like

gigantic bronze sculptures

But of also mostly americana like

Big wildlife stuff to horses bucking and eagles and deers and fucking lions and shit

You have an estate and you need something on that lawn, right? I mean this these are humongous

but also like

not very like

They're they they're the kind of things that decorate a certain mid tier level of hotel

I you don't see this in like

The really nicely designed homes. I guess I mean I don't I don't have that much exposure to those places, but I think

if you have a

Giant hotel that's out in the middle of like montana and you just go we need something

Yeah, that's what I'm saying and you just you shove a giant horse in it or like an elk because that's exactly what I'm saying

Is the kind of stuff you'd put in a mid tier hunting lodge? I think yeah

I think that's just how hotels work. They gotta remind you of the thing you're already doing. Yeah

Continue then we had all sorts of weird Trumpy iconography this place sold pianos

And yet they had a trump mannequin playing the most femme looking liberace ass piano

Well, I think you're missing the big detail with these pianos and don't sue me

This is a joke is that these pianos are all probably under 18 years old. So that's why they're that's why he's geared towards him

That's why he's tickling them

Yeah

That's so there was just weird we're gonna get demonetized all kinds of weird Trumpy stuff going on

Continue and then this was actually my favorite thing and I have two photos of it

This is the up close, but the next photo is to zoom out. This is a full-size

A coffee table or it could be like a kitchen island table

And it's an etch a sketch

With you have two knobs and go back to the other photo the two knobs drag around this little digger

That just moves dirt and it's just a joyous little thing. It was $2,500 and I almost bought it. It's pretty cool. That's like this is um

Like artisanal, uh

Like rc car

Even yeah, I wonder what's what i'm looking for. Um

A mechanical. Yeah, it's just mechanical. It's like you move the ball and the ball pushes the little thing

The digger drags behind the ball. Oh, it's attached to it's attached to the ball

And and so when you move the ball it it sort of toes the digger like a trailer

But the digger then pushes dirt around dude. That's very meditative. It's like a zen garden

But for like, you know, yeah, but you know, but if you uh trade car heart

I really I me and me and musto sat there playing with this for 15 minutes

We really liked this if you had known you needed a room that this needed to live in and then you'd have bought it

Like it I think yeah, I don't uh, I don't have this I don't think it would work in my house

It'd be right, uh, but it it it's fun if you had a hunting lodge

I'm serious

If I it's very very fun though. I do I really liked this a lot

Yeah, we we played with this for a solid because see see the the fucking laps around the rocks. That's us. Yeah

That's pretty cool. That's sweet. Yeah

Uh, that's all I took pictures of there was also this guy who made these rhub goldberg devices like where the ball, you know

The red is it rhub goldberg? Yeah

So that rhub goldberg is like a complicated mechanical device to complete

What's the thing where like the ball a ball travels like a real crazy route like up the thing and

I don't know if that has a specific name

I know you mean version of a rhub goldberg device, but there were these amazing machines where it was like a roller coaster for

You know pinballs essentially. Yeah

um

These beautifully animated machines they were like five to ten grand, but they fucking rocked

But I got out of there. I did not spend any money except on

the tickets

So that was good

It was it was it was a wild wild thing to see and and from the cars to all this crazy shit

It's uh, it's a thing that if you can make it

Uh a destination in your in your car life. It's worth it at least. Yeah, I'll go. That seems fine. And if you can afford

You know, you don't you don't need a huge budget, but if you can go

And get a bidder's pass and be prepared to like

Throw some bids in on something you might like like it's a pretty fun thing to do

Obviously you have to have some money to do that. Yeah, and like the knowledge of what to ask about what you're buying

Does everybody have printed detailed sheets on like yeah, you got to do that homework

You know, I'm sure you get upkeep maintenance. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so that was that was fun

um

Got the manks

Over to phillips to get studded tires put in I saw might we got we were using a bfg winter tire that comes

With pilot holes dillets. Yeah, or did it is that what they're called divots?

I'm calling them. I know you mean. Yeah, but they got like 20 tires over there

This poor this poor dude. Carlos has got to put so many fucking studs in but get this

Uh on the way back from dropping it off. I took a waymo

and I had

the first

Bad waymo ride I've like ever had

Like I've had I've probably taken 50 to 60 waymo rides at this point and they all the cars have driven

The same as if they're the same car. This is the first one. I've ever been in

That drove badly like literally drove badly. Um

So the first thing that happened is and I sent you photos of me wearing my keep going me wearing my uh

My silly jacket

There so here's so so I sit in the front in a waymo

Because you can just recline the seat and more leg room

so

I'm exiting uh

Uh a small side street heading south

And trying to turn left onto olympic boulevard here

In order to turn right onto that traffic light. That's like a hundred yards away. It's a pulvera. Yeah, so a human driver

I don't think would try to do this

But so what this waymo is trying to do here is cross

six lanes of traffic

And then get to a turn lane to make a sorry make a left across six lanes of traffic

To then make a right a hundred yards later

I mean, I've seen people do this, but they are the worst people. Yes

Uh and a good driver would and this is a grid mind you a good driver

Would have just made a right and then turned left at the next light and cut back over at some later

Yeah, double back cut them off at the pass right and so especially because we're talking about

Sepulveda and sautel they run parallel. Yeah, so so anyway, it tries to do this and I've taken a picture because

There isn't room the light doesn't change

So now I am sitting broadside as a fucking gardening truck is driving straight at my door

It really is like straight 90 degrees. It's driving right at my door. Uh, and so I'm now sitting there

And fortunately this gardening truck, you know understands that it's a driverless car

So there's like no one to like honk at

But I'm sitting there like

You know, what do like I'm an asshole. What do I I'm just sitting here and and

That's when I first took the photo I then sent you a video

And I'm not sure how good the video is and I don't think you need to play it with sound

Okay, but I think I just show

What is going on because now

Traffic is just going and I'm just sitting here

Just about to get keyed up by this fucking van

That's now stuck here. Look at this. I look at the traffic. My waymo is just blocked two lanes now out of three

So a human a human driver would pull into that left only lane

Yeah, like figure it out from there. Yeah, just get out of the way like there's there is an opening if you made a harder left

It's like a left turn lane instead of you want to go right, but you'd be out of the way

But right now you're blocking. Yeah, two out of three lanes of traffic. You got a big utility fan who's mad

So it's doing that. So that's what happens first, right?

And after eventually blocking traffic, it does start to to move now

That could have been hugely problematic

Obviously, but uh, so that was the first one then I pull up to a red light and look it stops

Uh, two and a half car lengths back from the red light from for some reason does not move up to the front row

It's weird, which is not a huge problem in and of itself

But after what it just did I felt it necessary to take this picture because I thought that was odd

And then go to the go to the next one

So here I'm zoomed in zooming in on the the blinkers start to go fucking

batshit

So I filmed this

So play this in in real time and look at the pace

Of the blinker. Look what's this blinker is going to take take take take

See it doing like like a weird it's it's just doing like going haywire. It's like it's doing

It's morse code and it's trying to talk to other cars. We're all about to be in big trouble

This is how it happens. So meanwhile it it did this while being like kind of bad at

Picking lane placements for where it wanted to be

um, so I was really really

I mean look nothing terrible happened. I didn't like run over a child like just fucking happened

Uh, that's not I don't want to accuse run over a waymo hit a kid really yesterday. Yeah. Oh, yeah

I think it was one of those situations where it was like a kid ran out into the street and the waymo

You know did try to stop it just couldn't stop quick enough

I don't think it was necessarily

I don't want to I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I don't think it was necessarily

Like a hundred percent of the waymo's fault like an unexpected thing happened that it just couldn't avoid I think

But either way

On the same day that happened

This ride happened

Well, well waymo says the kid ran into the street from behind a double parked suv

So, uh, yeah, I mean

Or can we believe them? I'm not a hundred percent sure. Yeah, but I'm reading the news on ktla 5

So that's what they said, but we I'm sure they'll be footage and whatever. Yeah, yeah

The kid was okay. It should be said. Yeah, kids stood up and went to the sidewalk. Okay. Well, that's good

So anyway on the same day that that happened

coincidentally

My the waymo I was in was acting fucking weird as hell and I had never

Never, uh, I've never been in one that drove like this

So I don't know maybe there was a software update

Maybe this one was like bugging out for some reason and I realized there there was not a way

For me to accurately describe to somebody using the waymo app and they're like customer service like had a problem

Using their like decision tree thing. There was not a way to accurately describe what was happening. There's no notes section

Not really. Oh, okay. Yeah

So anyway, that was that's weird that was a thing

But we're all part of the beta we're getting studded ass tires

It's which is very exciting pre-drilled tires are called studdable

That makes sense. Yeah, that's makes sense. That's also like

That's like me. I'm studdable, but I'm not there yet

Just have potential. Yeah, exactly. Yeah

uh

I had to get weighed and granted different scale

Like normally I weigh myself at santo scale

But I went to my physical and I was on their scale

So one could expect a small difference in the dino article the dino article like small difference

And I weighed two pounds over what I weighed like a month ago and I was like went into a deep depression

Number should go down. Yeah, but I know December and Hannah was like

Hannah was like, you know that 247 is the same as 245, right? That's not water salt

I know what time of the day. Did you get weighed for at this physical in the morning? It was morning?

Okay. Yeah, and I fast and I fasted too. It was optimal optimum conditions. I mean, we talked about december

We both ate more snackies. They were

In january

Jan December I did good over the holidays january was where I had my I had my holidays in january when I went

To south carolina and then I went to miami. That was my holidays

In january when I saw my parents that my parents always have lots of healthy bad food around

And and I went oh a tub of biscotti. Well, I don't have these very often at home. Yeah, so I'll eat three per day

Yeah

It's in south carolina. It's those peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets

If I if I die of a heart attack, it's because somebody left

A kilogram of those

My house you washed up in the ocean

But there's gonna there'll be like

Like that would be the perfect crime like if you wanted to like assassinate

All you have to do is leave the giant remember like the buckets of popcorn that peanut butter pretzel just send it to me for Christmas

I'll be dead by valentine's day. It's like a very kramer type of assassination

They're desiccates doesn't seem to as foul play. You got an awful lot of treats this year. I don't

Uh, should we talk about the sim? Uh, yeah, is that interesting to talk about? I think so

So our buddy our two friends and two friends and one of my storage clients here at w ccs

Which is continuing to pay off in interesting ways my our friend mike harley was a former car journalist

Our friend justin bell who's a racing commentator and a race car driver

And my friend charlie xp one not xr one. It's xp one

Have come up with

Not come up with I guess there's a person who's come up with the tech, but they've shown us this new

Simulator program racing simulator program

Called xp one that launches in like a week

That uses an entirely new

force feedback and physics engine compared to any other racing simulator

That is on the market today or before and the idea is

To deliver a vastly more realistic driving experience

Compared to other racing simulators, which in my opinion do not deliver realistic driving experience. Yeah, I agree. I hate them

so

um, it apparently works with

Any pc-based racing simulator, right basically any pc basically any pc and any wheel

I think right what they're saying. Yeah, they're like the it's not a new type of drive wheel

Right, it's not not a new type of pedals. You can use basically any pedals

it's software and

It's it's it's sort of

It's okay. How did he describe it? He described it as all other racing sim software in the past uses tables

to deliver

Driving sensations based on what they think a car would happen at this particular

amount of force or load or

Speed or heat, right? And this one

doesn't do that

it

Learns based on how

People are driving on it

In order to deliver a much more car-like experience

The I'll say like the pitch was quick

We went there today and they they talked fast and then we hopped in the in the driver's seat. So

Like the methods behind

How the game works like I don't want to comment on too much because I don't understand enough of how existing games work

um

Like what I took away from it is that the driving instantly feels way more realistic because

You know, they're cockpit like moves while you're driving as if your head was moving

And and they modeled it. They said, you know, we they modeled it after like a 13 pound head with a helmet on

So when you hit the brakes when you turn left right accelerate your field of view changes very slightly

But it is so

Accurate I think to how your head would move. There's no latency like you hit the brakes then the plane thing moves

You turn left then the head moves, you know, that would that would be like bad vr

This felt so natural. I thought it communicated speed

And g-load really really well and then when you couple that with the force feedback, I think felt really accurate

I felt I could feel

Uh, the back stepping out and loss of grip. I think better than any other force feedback thing

I've driven. Um, and this was without this didn't have a four motion seat

This didn't have any of the like electronic actuator stuff that was moving that around. This was a fixed seat

Fix pedals and a wheel

But that was my takeaway. My takeaway was that the steering feel

Was like way way way better

Um, and if you got like

Oversteer in i-racing or asetto, it's like unrecoverable. Yeah in a lot of ways and it was much more recoverable in this

I thought the weight transfer was a lot better and more natural feeling in this. Yep

Um

So the thing with this game is it's called xp one

Is right now there is only one track and there is only one car

And and it should be said that's because they

Like they built the whole like the physics engine behind it themselves

And then they built the car themselves also. So they didn't they didn't download

A car from you know, I don't know other games or other sources that supply games

They were like, let's make this thing as a proof of concept. Yeah. Well and the limiting factor is you

If you're spending money and resources licensing cars, you're not spending money on the the actual accuracy of the

driver to video game engagement and also

They said they basically had to build

um

They had to do everything totally from scratch in order to make this system work

Like you couldn't import

Uh physics models from from different oems. Oh, right like michael told us

You know if you hit curbs too hard in the car they built like

It will start to bend the wheels or it will start to bend control arms and like that will come back in how the car performs

But existing models didn't have that kind of stuff like they have

I haven't played enough recent sims like I've played ones where there's damage, but it will just show like

Flat tire engine damage

Wing damage, so you've lost your arrow the engine's weaker or like it pulls it one direction or another

So I don't know how detailed some of the other games get but I was just really impressed with how it felt

And this is this is like an alpha launch

So like I don't you don't play video games

But nowadays like you can download a game before it's quote done

You can pay for it and it's called beta and sometimes the game is amazing and you

And it could by all means seem like it's finished game

But they will keep developing it but they can get the money earlier to fund the development

So this is like they made one track. They made one car

Their their early investment seems like it's pretty small

And then you know, they're going to launch it for free you download it

You can play it for an hour and then you can decide if you want to pay for it or not

And then you can take that money and put it into development licensing cars, etc, etc

it was I mean I

I feel that if I really wanted I mean

Unfortunately, they don't have like every track and and they don't um even if even with it was just this car

You know with this one track

um

You can tell that the physics engine

Is much much much more realistic to an actual car and like harley said like

Like you can be good at racing sims and like not be good at driving cars

Like it does apply like if you are good at racing sims, it will help you be good at driving cars

But it's not a given. Uh, they are different things

um

Like you could be good at like guitar hero and guitar, but being good at one will not make you good at the other

I thought I would be good at guitar hero because I knew how to play guitar and I was like, oh, this is like not actually playing guitar

It's like vaguely similar, but it's not

And it's like the same kind of thing this is an actual

game that in my fucking 20 minutes, by the way is uh

Will definitely reward you if you're good at driving in real life

It'll it's much more like driving in real life. It really is. Yeah

So the car they made is like a mid-engine gt3 style car with a

Ferrari-esque

500 horsepower v8 and it weighs like 2700 pounds and you know double wishbones and this and that and

Very natural driving dynamics. I would say for 20 minutes easy easy to get used to

um

And the track is nice. Um, and it's not that hard to learn

Um, and and it does have, you know, all different types of corners. So that's good

It'll be interesting to see as they add tracks and add add stuff, but I just

For me it was like, oh, this is this is actually the kind of

Give and take I'm looking for for a video game that replicates driving. It actually replicates like driving

You were genuinely curious after driving it

Like I've never seen you get out of a sim and go

So what are these costs? Like yeah, how do you where could you put this thing? Like you you had a good time driving it because I think it

Like you said it it felt it it helped you represent better how you can actually drive because it actually talks to you a little bit

Yeah, because like my problem with

Racing sim like when I'm trying to use raising sims to like learn a track

I like we talked about a couple months ago

I will have crashes

That will never happen in a car

Like why like why would that like it's because the game and the car aren't the same like there's like

It took me two hours to get to the time I wanted in a racing sim even a nice one

Versus six laps around the actual track in an actual car like that's a pretty big discrepancy

Um, maybe it's just because I don't play enough racing sims

I'm not good enough at them

But like if I drive this much like why should this not reflect?

A decent amount of skill in that like why should I be so terrible at that?

So anyway, this is much more like if you can drive a car

Well, you can get in this and you're like why why am I crashing here like you're you're not actually you're so that's good

Um, and they're doing a drift thing which is going to be really fun because drifting in

Drifting in video games is not good

This could be this could potentially be like actually good drifting. I just think with sims you have to like relearn how to

Interpret the visual data to tell your hands and feet what to do

So even if

You know if you start sliding in in a drift car in like a setto and it's set up like a court or friend quarry's house

If the controllers are set up well and all the parameters are set up well

The things you would do in a normal car will work in the sim and vice versa

But it's the data that you're getting to your eyes telling you what to do when to do it

That can be like clunky and you have to learn

Almost how like read braille

You have to learn how to read what the screen is showing you and what that means for the car

Like you might not think you have a lot of angle on the car, but you actually have

You know 72 degrees already of yaw and I don't this just seemed like it talked to me more like um

cxc's trophy truck thing which was this

Giant cage mount. I remember that huge electronic actually. They just sold one on burberry trailer. Did it?

What did it go? I don't know if we should find out right now. They were building one to put on a cruise ship and they built another one

That was that was the dopest driving simulator. I've ever been the thing would move up and down like two feet from the back left and right

It was there was rad

But this the way this your head moved in there. I thought

It got you a good part of the way over, you know, it didn't give you all the movement that was very exciting

But in terms of telling me

Because the big thing with the trophy truck was

Knowing it's sliding right in a dirt track

You need to know that it's pitching forward when you break and then that it's sliding

Yeah, and it made it really easy to drift and catch and I think this stuff made jumping feel

It made it pretty accurately

Jumping too, which was pretty sweet if I had all the money. I'd have one of those in my house for sure

Dude, I can't believe that thing. It's so no

It was bid too. I think it's a no sale. It was bid to 60 grand. Yeah, you know how much this thing

I think it was a million. I think it was a million dollars

Holy depreciation that man make offer

No kidding. Oh my god

Oh, wow, there's a lot of cxc sims. Um on bringture. I had no idea. Yeah. Oh, cool. What are they?

Do they sell for would you have sold some sold prices? Yeah, I'll pull it up. These are

Do they bargain appreciate like crazy? It's like a my buck. Oh, wow. Okay

Sold for 24 k motion pro 2 sim in back in june 23 20. Okay, so they sell for 20 to 25 k used

Oh, wow that one sold for 45 k earlier this year

Well, oh, wow. All right. Well, they I mean you can get one there. They're like, you know, half to three-quarter price

Yeah, these are these things are rad, but

That's pretty cool. A lot of money. I guess it matters. Maybe what year you get, but maybe oh the cart sim is interesting. Look at that

23k

That's no suspension. Oh, it's got little

There's a fans that just blow you in the face. So that is yeah

So you get used to it. Is that I mean, I've gotten sweaty playing these things at cxc before you just put on vr goggles and have fans

Just blast you want to get used to it

Dodge wrench you can dodge a ball. That's what this feels like

It's kind of a good time

You think if you're training like, you know with your dad and he throws sand in it in case someone goes off in front of you

Just so you're ready. You know, it curls a tire itchy. Yeah. All right. I'm gonna throw a child at you now

Just in case that's pretty cool. All right, cool

um

big news

I

therefore we

Are now members of the singer club at willow springs. Let's go

We have a racetrack membership zack

What are we gonna do with it?

Everything but aren't we going to do with it? Yeah, we're gonna film there. We're gonna practice there. We're gonna go drifting there

Yeah, it is time to drift again there. Yes. It is time that we

Possibly consider a dorifto mobile. Yeah. Yeah

The best. Yeah, who do we know in palm deal we could just store a car

We're about we're about to get a trailer

We're gonna get a trailer for avatars. We are right. I'll buy the missile car if you buy the race

Someone said you see a text by the truck you buy the fucking drift car. Sure

We need to talk budget. We need to talk budget. Yeah

Um, do you see the race car I sent you that?

Oh, yeah, that's like a that's like a spec racer. That's like I'm not that interested personally in a race car

Like I don't like I'm I like racing

I like renting seats in ray. I don't want to own a race car, but a drift car

seems like

Because because with a race car like we we're gonna get press cars

So we'll get to like go to the track in press cars. We'll get to try different stuff like well

This was inspired by a fan sent this but it was inspired by you're talking about the sierra cars

You know, we can get something that's not street legal

Yeah, like this

But if you've come full circle to drift car, I have so many flat brim hats to share with you

Well, because a sierra car you could use like on dirt you can use it

There's a lot of different things you could do with that true

Like different tires is a different entirely different experience

Sierra car one of you could complete the hill climb like up in the back of willow like they have a trail

But if you just went fast

You probably know they're building you know, they're building trails

They're building like rally slash

Off-road e-trails back there sierra car

Could be cool for that. Mm-hmm. So anyway, but that's that's fun. That'll be that'll be superb

Yes, man, that's like I literally signed the contract and shit like let's fucking go. Wow. Yeah

And speaking of let's fucking go wait the other photos of the benzito is a go

This is I just walked here. I didn't need to try and he dropped me off. I was gonna walk

I don't even know why he said that he was I was gonna walk

But uh, it's not far it's right around the corner

And I dropped off the e3 20 with shunt and we have a plan

So to convert this car to an e500

It's not really going to be a 500 exactly because we're not going to do the four cam engine

It doesn't get us anything

That's like a high revvy. It doesn't get you that much more power, right?

When I did that story for or the video for cars and bids like the four cam versus a built two cam

It's really close. So instead what you do is you get the

1999 to 2002 e55 engine the 5.5 liter single cam

350 horsepower five speed automatic

So we have to buy a donor car which he says we can do there around full powertrain swap

Um, he said you leave the e3 20s rear end because we want the highway gears. You don't want the

The e55 gears for some reason you want the gears that are in this

um, we then get

Uh, the the the e500 suspension setup, which is bilstein damper and an h and r shock

Um, the the our control arms and stuff are the same

We do sl 600 brakes

um

We do, uh, the e500

Front and rear bumpers are oem parts

We have to make e500 front and rear fenders

But shunt says like absolutely no problem at all

the rocker panel, um

We don't use the oem e500 we use

It's not it's one of the it's not schnitzer

But it's like one of the year one of the euro tuner ones has a panel

For the convertible that makes it look like the

sedan on the 500 because otherwise you have to cut the sedan one and like it doesn't look right

And then we get rid of the chrome

We swap all the trim to the 500 trim

um

We're gonna do those recaro euro front seats those cool recaro ones that everybody uses

crazy fabric

Uh on leather, but also with the crazy fabric

We're gonna, uh, delete all the wood and make it all brushed aluminum

Uh, we get h we get air conditioning and cruise control from the e55 full a full wiring harness swap

Uh, the headlights and tail lights are the same we can restore those

And we the dash is actually really good

Um, the steering wheel we're gonna keep but we're gonna recover

Yeah, uh, the top actually is in great shape. We're gonna service the hydraulics

But the we're gonna keep the top fabric. That's fantastic. It's not that old

It's only like five years old the top fabric the top glass is good

The side glass is good

Um, we're just noticing the number of check engine lights you have on the dash

There's only two one is check engine and one is low washer fluid two out of how many possible, you know, okay

I but I drove it from south bay to him today. It's like fine

I mean it like it burned a little oil like a little oil. We're taking the engine out. Yeah, it made it like it was it's and shunt was like

This is this

It's only 60,000 miles. I was like, yeah, he's like I cannot like he could not believe his luck

He looked all over it. No rust. He's like this is

The most perfect and it's already red cool. Uh, the red we're gonna repaint the whole thing red, but it's the right red

um

I gotta I really need to look really hard in figuring out

What are interior trim for the doors?

The set like like your car the door cards the seat centers

I'm gonna do the a pillar probably

Because it's only the a pillar. What are you gonna do the a pillar in?

I don't know. Okay, and it may be a cool pattern. Oh, I thought you based on your smile

I thought you had a special idea. No, no, no. I mean it'll be whatever, you know, we got to find a cool a cool cloth

Um, hre is gonna make us the wheels that um look like the mono block wheels cool

But their hre is this is gonna be a cool cruiser. Yeah, so this is gonna be nice

There's like the it's really actually funny like the things that we

Need to keep are like really good and the things we're throwing away are old and tired

We have to do bushings because all the bushings are but like whatever while we're in there fucking all the would do it all

Of course, so you're taking the whole drivetrain out and like yeah do all the bushings

Uh, you're kind of so excited. It's cool. It's like what you learned from the Bentley project

Like what's good about cruising and what do you want? And this is like taylor made for that

It's gonna be a really nice balance between like, you know quick, you know 350 horsepower is not nothing good torque

But with a five speed auto and a convertible top and like an exhaust dumps

electronically actuated

Yeah

Yeah, nice stealthy sound the only thing I don't like about the e500 is a single exit exhaust

Which I is not my favorite, but but the dual looks I want a stock look

Well, what's it? What do you have?

It's a it's an ugly single exhaust now, but the stock e500 is the dual ovals

Yeah, but it's just a dual. It's not two two. Yeah, it's just that. Yeah, I think that'll look good. It looks fine

Yeah, what do you what would you do if you had a dream?

Do like a dual like one a proper dual. Yeah, but you know, whatever. Oh, we have to have

Headers made

Like we have to have exhaust manifolds made oh for fitment to to fit the v8 into there

Yeah, they're asked so I don't whatever

For every single thing is like no problem. I got a guy you could probably route a dual exhaust like I don't want it

I don't want it to look like a tuner car

I want it to look exactly like an e500 on the outside like just like it should look like Mercedes built it like

We're on the same page with that one other than the crazy fabric and

Hre's not not stock oem Mercedes wheels. It's going to look

Exactly like it like an e500 that Mercedes built

Okay, I'm looking I'm super stoked on this as a project for this year. This is going to be fucking

Awesome to roll around. This is an angry. It's like the angry minks project. Oh, here we go. Okay

Well, it's just going to be such a cool cruiser

You kind of have to have some match luggage made for it, right?

Like some fitted ass

cool luggage

I mean maybe some like I would say because it has such a big trunk. I mean do whatever you want like your money, but

Um, you know, that's you could have a cool attache case that lives on the back seat. True. That's the e500 exhaust

Yeah, it's just a single boy. Yeah

It is what it is

Yeah, they switched to dual in 2000. It does look better, but a while. Yeah. Yes, you know

Still it's going to be hard as fuck though. It's going to look so rad

I'm stoked

That's going to be I don't know. I wonder if you can have it done in time for dream cruise

If he does maybe we take our trailer fucking take that shit to dream crew taking to you to do. It takes four days to try to

Four days to trailer or Mercedes to Detroit that uh waste the time that would be that's funny

No, we would ship it to poppin. Nino's. They might not like it there. I don't know. I question

I think they would oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, they they're it's not just american cars

I mean, it's a lot of american cars at dream cruise, but it's not just american cars

I sell some really awesome stuff rolling around. Yeah, yeah

Uh, do you want to talk about kill switch before we go to the people? We can do it because it's quick

Like this is not a big thing. We also don't have to do full length questions today. We can kick questions the next one

It's okay. So, you know the big story. I guess this is actually two days old

But uh, the kill switch bill went forward through congress

um, and this had everybody stirred up

still does because

Everyone thinks that the government's been able to turn off your car at any moment. Um, and so kelly blue look did a good article kind of

calming everybody down and

The basic thing is that

congress wants car companies to use existing systems

Or develop a new kind of system to basically monitor drivers and determine when they are

inebriated and in that case the car needs to do something like turnoff

uh, the reason that kbb is trying to say everybody calm down is because

The way the bill is written, uh

It wants a passively detect alcohol blood alcohol level equal to and exceeding the limit

um, so that means passive means they can't install a breathalyzer so

congress is saying

Hey, nitsa has to write the rule the regulation coffee cup that comes up and says you seem tired pull over

It's like that it it'll be something like that

But congress basically made the bill you seem wasted and then nitsa needs to write the like requirements

And then hand those requirements to automakers. There's a lot of steps left

Their goal is to use existing

Tech in there to like monitor and determine someone's inebriated

I'm sure they can I also bet this will be very clunky for a long time

Oh, yeah, if someone imagine if you're just driving and like, you know, you lean on on your

Window sill for too long and you're awake and looking

So, I mean is it going to track your body movement your eyes both? Yeah, well the number of times

I've had the pop-up window come up that says you're tired. You look tired or even driving 20 minutes

Yeah, like whatever like bro. Fuck out of here. So they're gonna have to be

You know super buttoned up with this kind of stuff because if people especially if

If the kill switch term goes forward or or that's what they want where the car would turn itself off or like pull over to the

side of the road

I mean you can't have that just happening when someone's driving to work because their body position is different or they're staring

You know straight ahead for too long but not moving their eyes because they're zoned out

I don't know that these are all the things. I mean, it's silly

Yeah, but these are all the things that the car companies and nits. I have to figure out

How to account for this goes to like the autonomous car thing

Can you plan for every single variable while trying to complete one objective?

You know despite all those variables. Yeah, so

Uh, there's gonna be a lot of time between now and when this might get rolled out, but that is

what it's going to be

but

Okay, so the law the the law creates a kill switch

Would let a car deactivate itself if the system determined that the driver was likely impaired

It does not create a kill switch that anyone outside of the vehicle could control

Some private privacy advocates worry that any shutdown technology could eventually

Allow remote control as today's cars increasingly can use to communicate with external servers as they drive

To date those servers belong to the automakers

um

Yeah, I think that's going to be clunky and shitty

But um, I think there are probably

There's I mean, I maybe not if you've had if you're wasted

I bet people move

Their eyes and or their heads in somewhat predictable ways very possible. Yeah, you know, yeah

Um, well that should hold up in court or anything like that. Like, you know, what happens, right if you

like

Will it like

Say, you know, you have 30 seconds to pull over and the vehicle is going to shut down

Will it say

That you know hope well, I couldn't be watching you long enough if you just start it and try to drive it couldn't be like

Oh, hold on, right? So it has to be watching you drive and then make some determination that actually you can't be driving

Yeah, and if you're wandering in the lane a lot

Uh, it'll that's probably the easiest thing for it to notice, you know, if it has to keep pinging you back

Like bumper bowling. Yeah, um, but then what will it do?

But it's the more nuanced stuff if people are you know, there's so many different ways someone could drunk drive

And and like I've seen people that have driven at night in Los Angeles or in the daytime

Honestly, like where their speed and the way they're driving their car and the proximity that gets other cars

You go that person's either mad 22 years old or wasted or something and sometimes they're one of those things

But how will it be able to determine?

this a person a is

Drunk versus person a is an idiot person is late for work all those things for sure a lot of uh

I don't know they have a lot of work to do sure

All right, let's go to the people and we'll start with of course over at patreon.com slash the smoke tire podcast

But let's start off with zaks broke ass hair transplant surgeon. He's not broke. He's quite rich

Why don't more manufacturers see the long-term value in protecting the lineage of a car

It's design dna its identity the way Porsche has with the 9 11

Well, the 9 11's like engine being in the wrong place defines its shape and its lineage like

You could argue like a lot of people I mean Corvettes

Ascent effectively did that until they had to make a change going from front to mid-engine

They've probably protected it

I think they've done the best job out of any front engine car

Maybe I mean BMW maybe but

um

Because this person's point with some companies will like bring back the Supra kill the super bring it back

It looks totally different and kill it and whereas the 9 11

Seems more I think the fact that they've been building it consistently means the design

The changes are much more subtle. Whereas if you take a I don't know a six-year break from a car and then bring it back

Well, suddenly

manufacturing technologies changed

design

Trends have changed a lot. So it seems like it makes a big leap. What always helped though is that

It

9 11's have always been competitive

They've always been like less power than the other cars. They were competing against

But like less weight and less and and equally competitive if not more competitive like that whole time

Even when they were building like old cars in like the 80s like the c4 corvette versus like the 1985

9 11 the 9 11's like ancient, but it's still competitive

The 964 like old still competitive like

that

Uh, I don't know if you can just like do that with

um

Any other car, uh, I would say certainly the Mustang

You know beginning again in like 2005 the sort of modern era of Mustang where it looks

Like the Mustangs in the late 60s looked they've learned, you know, they probably

Maybe arguably should have been doing that the whole time even though I like the Fox bodies and stuff, you know

But you kind of need your product to be good enough that it needs successive generations

without

Breaking it up if you break it up

Then you're like, uh, well that car's dead. But like later I'm doing a new car and

Oh, it's vaguely the same and we already own that name

People remember it we could get some hype out of launching this thing, you know

There's also merit that Porsche was a private company until what a year ago two years ago

So maybe if they had more control over their designs, whereas, you know

I don't know other companies were publicly traded and they just if something wasn't going well

They bring a new committee new board and they go well, let's change the design because that's what's not working

And Porsche could go no like here's how we're doing it. Just tweak it a little bit. I don't know

Uh, this one's fun. I blow horns

Favorite tuner engine

For the standard cylinder counts. So your favorite four cylinder six cylinder eight ten and twelve from tuners

Kind of interesting. So favorite four cylinder

was that

That Honda engine

That was built by that dude on the east side of la. I think his name was Emmanuel

That was like a Honda engine that na that revved to like 9 000 with like crazy high compression

big power engine

That was a sick Honda engine high revving Honda like that the next powers is rad

Six cylinder favorite six cylinder engine

My I mean my demand engine is pretty fucking spicy. I I dare you to find a better six cylinder engine than that

Yeah, I'll agree with that because yours has like big engine sound, but then it's got a more

It's different six something really meaty. Yeah, I'd go with that. Yeah

Eight favorite eight cylinder Judd

Well, Judd's are usually the 10 Judd v 10 is really where it's at

favorite v8 about the dine in

4.6 liter stoker

Uh s 62 the the e 90 m3

Stoker engine. Well, you drove that in like an m1 or 1m, right?

Yeah, okay. I wasn't there that day. I think I probably would choose that though. That was mental small high revving v8s are very good

But shout out to the Audi 4.2 with a supercharger on it. However, I'm going to save that for the 10

Because I think throwing the um the vf supercharger on like a little bit 10 is rad. That's pretty that's where it's at

For for a 10 you're going to go viper with uh twin turbo

Calvo viper. Yeah, 2000 horsepower calvo viper. Yeah, that's uh, that's scary. We'll take that

um

12 cylinder tuner 12 cylinders

Brabis rocket

Yep, I can still see the video. I might have that was one of the coolest things in the world

12-cylinder in an e-class. Yeah

I should have asked shunt if my car will fit the v12

No, just go v8. You get to get the sound. Yeah, that's true

Uh, that's a fun one is the v12 like far more complicated less reliable

All those things

Yeah, right

keel and toe, uh, do you think automakers aren't taking risk with new products anymore?

Fun pro projects like the ssr the prowler the viper bmw z8 and z1 don't seem as common anymore

well

Well original viper, I think there's enough original sports cars still coming out z8 and z1 are

I agree because they're just making fewer coupes. We know that like that

We've talked about the 90s. There were dozens of coupes

Kind of peaked like late 90s in the 2000s z the z8 was like this amazing just design exercise. Oh my god, they're stunning

I mean bmw does still make they make the z4 still. I mean it's they I don't think there was room for bmw to make two

Roadsters at the same time, you know doing the z3 and the z8 at the same time. I don't think there's room for that

I agree, but um

I mean look the ssr the prowler the viper this is like bob lutz shit like this is like the 90s

That's like when cars were like cartoons. Well, and that was also

Looking at looking at the market then it was kind of boomers now

And they have money they grew up around hot rods. How do we make hot rods new again?

You make it now those people are kind of aging out

So they ought to make what our generation wants to make and they're making rally cars and they're making stuff

You know, I think the the g.r. Corolla. I mean granted it's to kind of reflect their rally program, but that's a pretty exciting thing

Um, I mean some some automakers are taking risks. I mean

Porsche doing the Dakar is a production car. That's a wrist lamborghini selling the sterato. That's a bigger risk. That's a risk

You know, I suppose an escalade v is a silly thing that probably shouldn't have really sold well

I think the difference with those though is they're all based on existing product. Whereas like the prowler was

crazy and weird and I think

Car companies now are taking more risks with the high dollar cars because they know they can sell them as collectibles

And so there's there's less really wild stuff out there for you know, people buying 40 to 60 thousand dollar cars

That's true

They don't need to build a wild 60 thousand dollar car because they can build something that's three million dollars and sell 50 of them

And and that's how they and then it's not a risk

Then they can show the model and the renderings to people and they'll go. Yes. I'll take that

And you know, they get them locked up and then they build them later. They know they're sold. Yeah, so

That's I mean that is a good reason

That income inequality is hurting car culture because automakers are not taking risks on mass market products because they can do it

Write that down

Thank you very much for that

No risk on

Okay

Thank you for that one, uh that black scuderia says

Oh

I

Saw some I don't well. I don't want to even talk about that. I saw

Let's just go to the question in your opinion has the build quality of Porsche been going up or down in recent years

I I honestly don't know because I don't have much exposure to them after they are more than 2000 miles old

I have not seen a change in what I perceive as quality in Porsche

Uh

in the last

10 years

Since like the 991

Like a 991 and a 992

Are built to approximately the same same standard of quality in my opinion

Literal build how how tight things fit the materials there. That's the same in those cars to me

Marco if you're listening

text me

David Hasselhoff meister kink shame. That's a great absolutely exceptional

Best and worst piece of swag you've ever gotten from a press launch

The worst piece of swag is just a magazine about the car you've just driven

And it's really like a sales brochure. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I've gotten stuff that was so expensive

I gave it back like I've gotten ipads

Someone gave me an ipad and I was like that's that's ridiculous. Absolutely not. We've gotten

Helmets

Um, oh, yeah, I got helmet from the Hoosier helmet

Jackets

Sometimes I got offered a jacket and it wasn't hey where this it's very cold where you're going. It was like

Where this somewhere else? Yeah, it's like here as a parting gift and I gave it back to them

Yeah, no, I will sometimes I'll I'll turn down a lot of swag

Uh, I got a nice pair of headphones once

Uh

But uh, usually if it's like really if it's something very expensive, I will definitely not keep it

Uh maxima decimus meridius says

Why do you think the new zr1 will depreciate? Didn't the previous generation go up in value?

Uh, the c7 zr1 is the last front engine corvette

Is the last manual transmission corvette

And up until the current zr1 was the highest horsepower corvette ever

Um, that's why it's it the the curve of the new zr1 will mimic the current z06

It will not mimic the old zr1

The the week I called that from the fucking press launch that I said this car is terrifyingly fast

You cannot see anything out of it because the fucking hood comes up so high

It wants to rip its own fucking rims out of the tires

It's scary as shit and it it fucking makes the last of something and it's the last manual

Manual corvette. I said this is an instant buy and hold. Yeah instant all the signs were there

From the press launch and I think obviously the difference here is the zr1's amazing right now

But right now it's the first zr1 of the first mid-engine corvette packaging. So where will we go from here?

Faster better etc more. They've already put out a faster one right zr1x is already one year later

Yeah, the current the zr1 we drove for p. Cody has the old interior in it

It doesn't have the wall still yeah, it's a 25 not a 26

So like why would this current zr1 not fucking depreciate?

It has none of the elements that the c7 zr1 had that specifically put it in the buy and hold category

Right along a viper acr

Viper acr same same exact thing if you had to add an allocation

For acr as a matter of fact

Any final year or final two-year viper a ta or an acr would have been a fabulous buy and hold because that was it

so

Um, but the z that c7 was fucking obvious from day one

Acura nsfx are we going to air water? Where's air water this year? I don't even know where it is

um

Let's see. Can you while you're looking can you scroll down?

Yeah, it comes back to Costa Mesa in april. Oh, yeah, I'm sure I will go

I don't have something new to put on display, but I'm uh

Maybe the manx actually

If there's a manx display there might then they'll probably end up putting the manx there

I imagine they'll want to display it. I guess it'll be a Porsche powered manx, right?

I don't know

I think

last year there was

One there was philips manx, but I think they also had a regular

Another manx, okay

Uh puff the magic dracon. This guy owns a dracon actually

Uh looking for a sports car more daily drivable than the dracon. I drove a 2016 gt3 rs and I loved it

Um, I would have pulled the trigger, but I actually like a convertible

I wrote in a spider rs and hated the sound

Boxster gts 4.0 was fine. Should the z06 convertible be a contender? Will I miss it not being a Porsche?

Okay, interesting

I think

Two things one you could get a 911 gts or turbo cabriolet

And that would be really fucking nice or a target gts, which would be really fucking nice

so

Those are those are good. Um

Z06 convertible is fabulous

Um, will you miss it not being a Porsche?

I think it provides an excellent driving experience that doesn't need to be a Porsche in order to be an excellent driving

Yeah, is this the car he's driving around right now like a dracon spider. Yeah

So I think the corvette will still feel like a huge step up in luxury quality, etc

Yeah, um, I think the corvette is great fitment and whatever so I think they're really nice cars and the driving experience is fantastic from the z06

They sound amazing. Yeah, they sound incredible

And you don't actually need the convertible because the coupes are also convertibles like don't forget that

The the roofs come off the fucking hard top ones and go in the trunk

So, you know, if you I think the convertibles are cool. I like the power top in those. I like the

Um, the head buttress things like I think it looks nice

But like you can say you you don't necessarily have to get the convertible

But the answer should it be a contender? Yes, you should definitely go try one

um

Uh, I think we just

Oh

Sometimes you're j.d. Vance and sometimes you're the couch thoughts on sim racing cafes

Do you think the growing availability of sim racing cafes have anything to do with the increase in racetrack closures?

As you can get 70 of the experience for fractions of the price

Not a 70 but I wouldn't I would disagree with that

I I've never been to a sim racing cafe

My wife went to one with for a work thing. It was more like a

David Buster's but only with f1 sims. I think what we're seeing is just the

Uh, like video game cafe market moving to where people are so sim racing is popular

And they go, I mean it used to be first person shooter stuff

It's it used to I don't know davin buster's with all those games. So they go, okay people like sim racing

Why not just try and make it a social thing? Yeah, there was the one next to cxc. I don't think it's still there

But it was exactly what it was. It was a bunch of it's like 12 of their simulators

They had some bar food and drinks and stuff and the idea was you'd go down there with your friends and hang out and you'd race each other

So yeah, I I think racing is very expensive

I think developers can make more money using land for other things than then some racetracks in in rural areas and

secondary markets

I don't think there is a substitute for the real thing

Although I do think this technology that they just showed us is promising though. It remains unclear

How this technology could be applied to a more

Like video game like sim where you are driving in

traditional cars from real model makers and traditional tracks and things like that

I'm not it remains unclear how it translates, but like the physics engine is there. I think or closer

and uh

I don't think it's one to one. I don't think it's one to one

I would I'd hang out with my friends at a sim racing cafe

But like I'm never gonna be the one who's like hey guys, let's like go to a down with a sim racing cafe

I think it really depends on where it's located

Like how hard is it to get there because one of the benefits of sim stuff is you can do it from your house

But now like you had to get in the car and drive to this thing and you know

Go see your friends when you could just hop online and talk to them. So that really depends on geolocation. Yeah

All right guys

We're going to save these last questions for the next show because that has to go to a very important appointment in just a minute

But thank you everyone for listening as always

We appreciate our patrons for such good questions get in on the action at patreon.com

Slash the smoking tire podcast you can get the show early you can get the show live

You can ask questions for the show you can get extra show get the show add free

All of that good stuff and support your favorite podcast while you're at it. We will see all y'alls next week. Bye

New SIM; Kill Switch Law; Merc Project

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