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President Trump Falls for Kei Cars and a 'New' 1969 Mustang Debuts
President Trump Falls for Kei Cars and a 'New' 1969 Mustang Debuts
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About this episode
Discussion kicks off with President Trump's recent rollback of fuel economy standards, sparking debate on its implications for consumers and automakers. The hosts explore the potential introduction of Kei cars in the U.S., highlighting their affordability and unique characteristics. Later, Tom Scarpello, CEO of Ravology Cars, joins to discuss the launch of a brand new 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429, blending classic design with modern engineering. The conversation touches on customer demographics, production challenges, and the evolving collector car market.
Topics:
fuel economy standards
kei cars
1969 mustang
automaker regulations
restomods
consumer affordability
collector market
automotive design
production challenges
Gary and Alex discuss president Trump's rollback of the Biden era fuel economy standards and newfound love for Japanese kei cars while Revology CEO Tom Scarpello joins the show to talk about the company's 'New' $395,000 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429.
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"...bout how you can buy a brand new 56-year-old Ford Mustang. Not like new, but actually brand new."
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Welcome to The Gas, the official podcast of American Cars and Racing and AmericanCarsandRacing.com.
I'm Gary Gastelou.
This is the Gary and Alex show.
That means there must be an Alex around here somewhere.
Oh, there I am, Gary.
Right here.
There he is, rummaging through the A-car, the American Cars and Racing garage refrigerator.
You should check the expiration date on that stuff, because as with all garage food and
drink, it's probably way overdue and very old.
If it's refrigerated, I consider it fresh, Gary.
We'll take our chances.
Speaking of old stuff, though, later on we're going to be talking to Ravology CEO, Tom
Scarpello, about how you can buy a brand new 56-year-old Ford Mustang.
Not like new, but actually brand new.
You will need a pretty big check, though.
We'll get to that later in the show.
Not the big automotive news this week was President Trump's announcement that he is officially
rolling back the Biden administration's fuel economy standard targets from 50.4 miles per
gallon in 2031 to 34.5 miles per gallon in 2031.
Those numbers are unadjusted.
They're not what you see on the sticker.
Those are the cafe, the corporate average fuel economy figures that they use, figure
more like 38 miles per gallon and 26, 27.
Alex, who is the big winner with these new regulations?
Actually, I don't even know how to call winners and losers here.
The reality is this.
If you watched the thing as we did live, the big talking point was this will reduce
the cost of new cars by $1,000, which if the average transaction price of a new car
is over $50,000, we're still talking about expensive cars.
What it theoretically does is it gives everybody breathing room to create things that are perhaps
not as complex as the highly electrified vehicles that the previous standards were effectively
forcing into existence.
So the winner ultimately, ideally, is the consumer, but let's be clear here.
The biggest news out of that press conference wasn't even the relaxation of the cafe standards.
It was the non sequitur by the president when he effectively took everybody in the
room by surprise, especially Sean Duffy, who if you were watching this thing and if
you didn't watch it, go back and watch it, when Trump basically came out and says,
Japan, they have these really cute and adorable and beautiful small cars.
And I think that we should be able to have these here.
And I've instructed the DOT to alter the regulations to have this.
And Duffy was a little bit caught flatfooted there.
And of course, it took a little while for it to circulate on X and everything.
But all everybody's talking about now is, oh, you can get K cars in America or
you're going to be able to get K cars in America.
And it's not that simple.
He's very much about domestic production.
But if this results in a relaxation of standards that allows for
the profitable creation of inexpensive, smaller cars, trucks, SUVs,
not necessarily K spec, because that's a very uniquely Japanese thing.
That's good news for everybody because there are not that many affordable
new cars on the lower end of the price spectrum.
And just for those of you don't know, K cars are micro compact cars,
mostly still in Japan, other Asian countries as well.
They have 600 CC engines, a maximum of 63 horsepower.
They're very cheap.
Some of them start under 10 grand, but they go up to 15 grand or so.
They make cars, SUVs, trucks.
They're all smaller than a Fiat 500.
And the reason they don't sell them here, besides the fact that
Americans don't really like tiny cars, is that they're none of them
are engineered to US safety standards.
In fact, the only one that's ever been sold here was the electric Mitsubishi IMEV.
They sold 2,000 of those over, I think, a six year period.
Of course, it was electric.
It only had 62 miles of range.
Not exactly the same thing as these gas powered K cars.
It sounded like to sell these cars here, they're going to want
you to build them here as well.
By the time you do that, by the time you throw in some safety
standards, unless they just throw that out, you know, you're looking
at $15,000, $20,000 cars anyway.
So I'm just not sure this is the solution to affordability,
although there would be kind of cool to have around.
The issue with announcements like this, and I can see where the OEMs
get sort of really, it can be very frustrating because you're caught
in the crossfire of these announcements, which are, you know,
50% political, to be honest, the cars that are coming out this year,
next year, the year after have been in development the last four,
five years.
Yeah, maybe with digital design and everything else, you see
certain manufacturers are quicker with their refreshes and things
like that. And that's because they're able to do a lot of this
digital twinning and, you know, stuff in a digital domain, you
know, in terms of from the design perspective.
The reality is none of this can happen overnight.
And there are still regulatory hurdles that are unique to our
market that are going to have to be dealt with if we're going
to get a sort of run on new small compact cars, which frankly,
I think it would be great about a Hyundai venue for the young
drivers of my family to drive.
And I enjoy driving it too, because it's this really practical,
small thing.
There's a lot to like about offering more affordable vehicles,
which are going to be by their very nature smaller, for the most part.
So I don't know how it ends.
It's not going to be overnight.
It'll be interesting to see what the automakers now all have to
say. And it'll be very interesting to see what the actual
policies are as written, you know, coming from the DOT.
One thing about the dynamic going on here with the new fuel
economy ratings is that first of all, essentially what they did
is they took EVs out of the equation.
You needed EVs to get to 50.4.
You got credit for building zero emissions EVs.
That's not part of this anymore.
The new cafe regulations that I know a lot of people have been
missing this are purely for cars that don't have plugs, internal
combustion engine cars, hybrids, non plug-in hybrids.
So really, they're not making cars less efficient.
They're just not pushing EVs on top of that.
So it's not like we're like, oh, you can make gas guzzlers now.
You can't.
You still have rules for that as far as the internal combustion
engine vehicles are concerned.
Now that said, we know that a lot of automakers, you know,
they have these very high power trucks they love selling.
Very expensive, a lot of money.
Ford recently pointed out that we could sell more Raptors if we
didn't have to hit these targets.
So I think they're going to be looking more at that than they
are at micro-compact K-car as far as increasing their sales.
I think there is still an incentive to make things as efficient as
possible because you want to have more affordable vehicles.
That's one part of it.
Automakers need to sell things that make money.
Otherwise they go out of business.
Right. But the other part of it is fuel costs.
So, you know, one of their big things is they want to push down the price of gas now.
So the cheaper gas is the more affordable it is to own any car,
including, you know, the big trucks that, you know, everybody loves to sell
and everybody, frankly, in the country loves to drive.
But back in the old days when we learned
is worried about fuel efficiency and emissions.
It was all about cars, specifically the golden era of the muscle cars.
Now, I'm not saying we should go back to those days as far as the
environmental side of thing.
But boy, I mean, you had so many to choose from back then, didn't you?
Oh, yeah, it was awesome.
And everybody was in the game and everybody would.
It was just one-upmanship left and right.
And it was a fun time and it's always fun to revisit.
Of course, there were a few standouts.
One of my favorites, the 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429.
They only made about 1,300 of these in 69 and 70.
It's basically a NASCAR homologation car, but became one of the greatest
muscle cars of the era.
The hard to find today, expensive if you do, on the auction block.
But if you really want one, you can get a brand new one today, more or less.
With us to talk about that is the founder and CEO of Florida's
Ravology Cars, Tom Scarpello.
Thanks for joining the show, Tom.
Thanks for having me, Gary and Alex.
So when your company first launched about a decade ago,
you were built in the 1964 and a half Mustang, the 65, those first Mustangs.
These are total reproductions of those original cars, more or less.
You've moved on from there up to the later 60s for your models now.
But before we get to that, let's get back to the beginning of the company.
How many of these cars have you sold over the past decade or so?
Well, we've we deliver sold close to 400.
We delivered
right around 330 cars to date to clients in
20 countries, including the US.
So definitely global reach these days.
And we have a lot of repeat customers around 40 or so.
People have come back to buy a second, third or more.
We have one client who either has taken delivery of or ordered a total
of 14 cars from us.
So 14 for themselves.
14. Yeah.
So very, very loyal, dedicated customers.
That's pretty amazing.
Back then you were using bodies supplied by a bodybuilding company
and then manufacturing the cars yourself.
Now, these are they're basically all new, but they are technically restorations.
There's a core of a donor car somewhere in there.
What's the amount of original car that's still in these vehicles?
Well, not no, not much really.
And that's that's an interesting philosophical discussion
about at what point does the car cease to be the original car?
And I could elaborate on that if you're familiar with the ship of Theseus
concept, that that's basically what we're doing.
And we're the cars have all new bodies.
It's all new steel.
We build them in house on our own fixturing.
That allows us to control dimensions perfectly.
It allows us to control the weld integrity.
And importantly, we're assembling them with heat cured structural adhesive.
The way modern cars are built.
And that results in an extremely stiff, rigid, durable unibody.
And as you know, in a unibody car, there's no frame.
The subframes, which are part of the unibody are what the chassis attaches to.
So it's critical that that structure be sound.
And and you know, you don't get that with a 60 year old body,
but you do get that with a brand new body with the enhancements that we've implemented.
And these bodies, when I look at them, they look exactly the same as the originals.
Are they carbon copies or do you change the size at all?
Now, they're dimensionally identical, and that's important for authenticity.
So one of the big questions that we have is because, you know,
what the appeal of these cars is the emotions that they evoke, right?
And a big part of that is the styling.
And so we want to try to retain that as much as we can.
But, you know, we are also trying to make them function like modern automobiles.
So there's an inherent trade off there between the vintage appearance
and the modern functionality.
And a great example is the wheels.
You know, the most of the cars that we build today either came originally
on 14 or 15 inch diameter wheels.
Well, you can't get a modern brake package in that size wheel.
So our wheels are 17 inch and we use like every last bit of that space
to package modern brakes.
So there's a little bit of a trade off in terms of the appearance of the
larger wheel, but the benefit that you get in terms of the improved
functionality, the safety, the confidence of the modern four wheel
disc brakes with six piston calipers, front four piston in the rear.
It's it's worth it.
And those are the kinds of trade offs that that we make.
But we generally try to keep the integrity of the original style.
And who is it that wants to buy a modernized reproduction of one
of these cars instead of buying an original and fixing it up?
Yeah, you know, it's really it's all over the place.
I would say when we started, you know, we had we sort of segmented
customers into these psychographic groups.
So demographically, you wouldn't be surprised to know that it generally
our customer base skews mail and 60s, 70s.
So people who grew up with the 60s muscle cars and they have
some emotional connection, they have some meaning to those people.
But psychographically is kind of interesting.
They sort of went into these four categories.
And one was the collectors.
And so you might think that collectors aren't really that
enthusiastic about what we do because they value originality.
It's really not true.
They value originality for cars that they collect, but cars that they drive.
It's a totally different story.
And that's why we're appealing to them, because this is a classic car
that that they can drive, they can take it on trips and be
confident that the car is going to, you know, always perform as expected,
where, you know, with their classic cars, it's not necessarily the case.
We did have some customers that we called, been there, done that.
That was the term that we use.
They sort of bought everything and owned everything.
And they were familiar with everything.
And this was kind of the next new thing that they hadn't tried out yet.
We have a group that we call gift to self, which is someone
that's worked hard their whole life and got to the point where they're ready
to reward themselves.
And this is something that has meaning to them.
And it is kind of a reflection of who they are and how far they've come,
which frankly was the driver for our tagline were part of your journey.
But because we really discovered that we resonate a lot with people
that have worked hard, entrepreneurs, a lot of them.
And kind of built something, created something.
And now we're at a point in their life where they wanted to reward themselves.
The last one was kind of a lifestyle person.
And this was someone that never would have considered a classic car.
This wasn't on the radar.
It wasn't something that they would have done because they're maybe
not mechanically inclined and, you know, they're concerned about
reliability and those kinds of things.
But because we offer a classic car experience without the downfalls,
then all of a sudden we become a viable option for them.
So those are kind of the main groups of people who make up our customer base.
Should know Tom used to work for the Ford Motor Company.
So you're sort of keeping that legacy going on here by building the Mustangs today.
You started, like I said, with the earlier ones.
You've moved up the years now.
Is that because you supplied the demand for those early ones
and now you want to find different markets, or is it a different reason
you guys just want to do new stuff?
Yeah, not necessarily.
We're still kind of trying to find the real sweet spot between
having a diverse portfolio of products and having an efficient
manufacturing system, you know, because it's a lot of complexity
that we manage, because it's essentially building an entire vehicle.
And, you know, OEMs will build, you know, a product and a factory.
And, you know, they're doing a thousand of them a day or are, you know,
over a couple of shifts.
And even at that volume, and they're very, very focused.
But, you know, the number of variants that we manage here.
I mean, if you really if you add up all the buildable combinations,
it's like in the millions of theoretical combinations.
It's a lot of complexity.
It's a lot of parts.
It's a lot of processes.
We're talking about all those customizations that you allow each buyer to choose from.
You know, and I hate to say customization because like everything's really on a menu.
But if you just choose from the menu, it gives you, you know,
literally millions of options when you consider all the colors and trim
and all of the materials that you could select from.
So there's there's a lot of complexity.
So we're trying to try to kind of balance that.
But when we launched or we're preparing to launch the 69 Boss 429,
you know, we thought, well, you know, something's gonna we're gonna have to
let something go, right?
Because we just can't keep adding, adding, adding, you know, to the system.
It at some point becomes unmanageable.
So so we decided, you know, we had started with the 65, 66.
And we built a lot of those.
We had a lot of satisfied customers.
Many of those came back and purchased the 67 or 68.
Many of those people have come back and placed in order for the boss.
Which is great.
Would we bring back a 65 or 66 in the future?
Perhaps, you know, it really depends on, you know, whether the demand warrants it.
But again, if we did, something would have to go.
So I think what you'll probably see in the future is sort of a phase in
and phase out of different models, you know, based on, you know,
kind of our product development cycles and, you know, what the demand is
in the marketplace, looks old on the outside.
But as you said, very modern underneath, you've got a double wishbone
suspension in this thing.
You swap in a Ford 8.8 inch rear axle, I believe.
And you've got the 710 horsepower supercharged version
of the Coyote five liter V8.
What's the driving experience like for this?
Do I feel like I'm driving an old car?
I feel like I'm driving a new car.
Yeah, it's it's really unique because, you know, it's both, you know,
you're you're you're in the car with the windshield is kind of upright,
like the, you know, vintage cars were in the whole the IP is,
is, you know, authentic and you do you feel like you're in a 60s car.
But then when you tip into the throttle and you just accelerate
and when you go over bumps and you don't hear squeaks and rattles
and things in your your brain is just kind of telling you,
wait, this doesn't add up, this isn't what I expected.
So it's a really interesting mix of old and new.
I can't say that there's anything like it.
It's really unique experience.
Now, I was checking auction prices on original
Boss 429s and they run in the four hundred thousand dollar range
for a nicely preserved one.
That's about where your starts for a new one.
You're not the only company that builds cars like this.
I mean, exactly like this, obviously, but you're not the only company
that does rest of mods and these very high end rebuilds of these classic cars.
There's a lot of people willing to spend this kind of money on them.
And do you see that market changing at all?
Or has that been pretty consistent for you over these years?
Well, I think it's growing.
I think there's a lot of indications that that it's growing
as far as the collector market.
You know, I think that's a really different segment, you know,
because those cars, it's more like a piece of art that you hang on your wall.
Or in this case, you put it in your garage, you know.
And if you drive it, you're actually depreciating it.
You know, the the value of that vehicle is almost entirely intangible value.
Whereas the value of our vehicles almost entirely tangible value.
It's actual content that you can see and feel and touch and and use.
And, you know, I what what I've seen from our customers, you know,
considering some of the people who are really avid collectors,
what what I've seen is that they, you know, as they start to experience
our cars and they become our cars become a bigger part of their portfolio.
They start selling off the classic cars.
And the answer is, well, I don't really use it.
It just sits in my garage, you know, it's still worth something.
I'm going to get something out of it, but they they kind of lose interest.
And I dare say that that would be a trend that could continue as, you know,
people become more aware of us and what we do and what we offer.
I think more people will question, you know, what's really the value
of that that collector car.
So that that's regarding them.
And you said a lot of lost a lot of companies in this segment.
Yeah, you know, and everyone always likes to say, well, you know,
nobody's like us, right?
We're different from every end.
But honestly, we are quite different from anyone else in this segment.
And I think the there's a few reasons for one is, you know,
we have an OEM approach our our background.
My background is is almost entirely OEM.
I spent a little time in OEM retail, but vast majority of my career
was was either with Ford Motor Company or with Nissan Motor.
And our leadership team is several members of our leadership team
also have OEM experience.
So we didn't come out of the custom car world and we don't do things
the way custom car people do.
I think most of the rest of mods on the market are really commodities.
You know, they're they're kind of all using the same set of parts
from the same set of aftermarket companies.
Not not that they're bad companies or the bad parts,
but what they're making is pretty much it's not a differentiated product.
I mean, they they perform the same.
They basically do things the same way.
You put the same parts on two different cars,
and generally you're going to perform pretty pretty similarly.
What differentiates them is what they how they look, you know,
how they're put together.
But you know, our car really from a functional standpoint
is quite different than anything else on the market.
That's that's really why our owner loyalty is so high.
So many repeat customers when people do discover us
than they wonder why they were even looking at anybody else.
When you first started was right around the same time
that the low volume motor vehicle manufacturers
that got passed, which was intended to allow companies
like you to build cars like this from the ground up,
not have to restore an existing vehicle of the law,
change a little bit here and there.
Ultimately, when it was finally passed,
it was going to allow for 325 cars a year
for companies that made fewer than 5,000 cars a year
as long as they were based on a historic design that's been
passed hasn't really been entirely implemented yet.
They're only a handful of companies, I believe that claim
to even be selling cars under those auspices.
How come you haven't been able to take that step yet?
Because I know at one point that was the intention.
Yeah, well, it is a good question.
The there is one company that is doing it.
That's Morgan Motor Company.
So they they sell a version now of their Morgan.
I forget which model it is, the plus four, the plus six or whatever.
It has a BMW four cylinder turbo engine
that has gone through that fast act
or low volume vehicle certification process.
They're the only one currently.
So we have been working with Ford on a fast act
program proposal.
We've also had discussions with other OEMs.
I think really what's kind of kept this program
from really getting traction is
it's a pretty big investment on the part of the manufacturer.
And I don't know that anyone really thought that it would be.
Honestly, I don't know that anyone really thinks that this is a tough
business, but I can tell you it is.
In spite of the price point, there's awful lot of engineering.
There's a lot of content.
There's a lot of cost that goes into the vehicle.
And then you add to that, you know, the cost of complying with the regulations
of the fast act and in the engineering work has to be done, the testing, the
validation and all of all the work has to be done.
It really makes a difficult business equation.
And that main hitch now is the motor at this point or is it the body as well?
Yeah, most of the issue is around meeting the emissions requirement,
because you have to deliver a current model, your emissions certified vehicle.
And that's that's the trick because there are so many elements to an emissions system.
And if you if you don't change any, you can basically use the original
equipment manufacturers certification process, but that's not feasible in when
you're transplanting that powertrain into vintage vehicle architecture.
Everything doesn't transfer over.
I mean, and I'm talking about things like the fuel cap and the fuel tank
and, you know, the exhaust, you know, routing, you know, the manifolds
and where exactly the O2 sensor is and all that stuff.
If you change anything, now you're opening up yourself to having
to retest and recertify.
And then when you get into that, then the dollars start to get really big.
And when your program volume is limited to 325 units annually,
then it starts to really put pressure on the business equations.
That's the biggest issue.
And, you know, I think we're learning as we go.
And I think there is a path.
And I think, honestly, Ravology is a better position than any other
company in the market to take, you know, to be to be out there
working with one of the major OEMs, using one of their powertrains
and having a fast tax certified vehicle on the market.
So I will get there, which one it will be.
It's hard to say there's a few horses in the race right now.
Do you find the younger collectors or people that be interested
in a vehicle like this following you?
I mean, do you think 10 years from now,
Ravology be doing a Mustang two or a Fox body reproduction?
Yeah, you know, it's funny someone just came out with a Fox body.
And I think this is why I feel old, you know,
because my first new car was a Fox body Mustang.
You know, it was 1988.
So now people are bringing them back as reproductions like, OK.
The limiting factor to people purchasing one of our cars
obviously is the price point.
I mean, it's, you know, I wish we could build these cars
less expensively and offer them at a more attractive,
more accessible price point.
But just economics don't allow it.
But there are a few young people that for whatever reason
have the means.
And so we do have a few buyers that are young.
I think our youngest buyer is 25 years old.
So, you know, someone that in that age bracket
to be attracted to a 60s automobile,
it shows that that this era of automobiles,
the attraction, it spans generations.
You know, it's it's not necessarily age specific.
So so, yeah, I think there could be pretty long legs to this.
Hard to say when people will stop being interested.
Alex, you have a 2006 Mustang in 10 or 20 years.
Would you like to buy a totally recreated version of that?
I'd love to have a recreated version of my car right now.
I love my car, but that's not exactly the the greatest Mustang
generation ever built.
I think that the whole concept is so interesting
because as time goes on and the company grows and you have,
you know, different generations cycle into this sort of level of wealth.
You know, I mean, Tom's they're living it.
So, you know, as he's seen it, you know, with this initial generation of Mustang.
I mean, there's always going to be tastes that sort of shift.
But I feel like what you've got going on there is your
you have processes basically in place that give you the flexibility
to adapt to a different body style or different OEM or different genre
vehicle, you know, trucks and SUVs, you know, might have more of a resonance
down the road with with a future, you know, younger generation than today.
Well, that's that's definitely true.
And people always ask me, you know, like, why Mustang?
You know, well, are you like a Mustang guy?
Like, you know, well, I mean, my first car was a Mustang.
My first new car was Mustang.
I worked for Ford for 17 years.
So, yes, I have a an affinity for Mustang, but I'm not like just Mustang.
And we as a company, I'm not just Mustang.
And in fact, the appeal of our car is, yeah, I mean, yeah, the Mustang is
what kind of you connect with.
But we sell our cars to a lot of people that have never owned a Ford.
Like, like really surprising number of people that tell us, gosh,
I've always been a GM person, and I've always been this or always been that.
I've never had a Ford.
It's like, never even crossed their mind to buy or own a Ford vehicle.
And they buy our car.
Now they kind of get connected to the Ford brand.
It's not a key reason for purchase.
The fact that it's a Mustang, it's more about what we do with it.
I think is that is what attracts people.
How much of it do you think is just these are great designs.
And that era of muscle slash performance vehicle is loaded with that kind of thing.
But is it is it one of these things where there is a certain timelessness
that just speaks to people?
I mean, there's a reason that most things are are still going back to 2005
of retro design, more or less.
Yeah, Alex, I think you're absolutely right with that one.
You know, the late 60s was really that the end of an era
in terms of automotive design, because you had all the safety
requirements that started to phase in around that time.
And that constrained designers.
And that's why all the cars that we have today all pretty much look the same
because they're all having to meet in all of these standards, which are good.
I mean, it's a good thing that we have these standards in place.
But but it certainly has constrained the creativity of the designers.
So that makes this era unique.
And and I think there is probably a pretty strong reason why it may always be
relevant to people, regardless of their age group.
And you look at other iconic designs, you know, from from this period,
like I think of the Stratocaster offender Stratocaster guitar,
I mean, iconic design hasn't changed since the fifties,
the Rolex Daytona watch.
I mean, some of these classic designs.
Now, those products don't have to meet crash standards or emission standards.
You know, so they can keep making them that way.
But, you know, cars do.
And that's that's why these designs aren't aren't being made today.
So, yeah, I think that that's a big part of it.
So a really special era in automotive history and in probably why
may be relevant for quite some time to come.
Tom Scarpill, thanks so much for talking to us today.
And folks, if you want to see what this car looks like, of course,
AmericanCarsAndRacing.com has plenty of pictures and more information
about the Boss 429.
Tom, thanks again.
Thanks, guys.
I enjoyed being with you.
Alex, before we go, this is an American Cars and Racing show.
So we got to talk a little bit about racing Cadillac announcing
that it's going to be kicking off the Cadillac Formula One team
with a Super Bowl ad next year, when it's going to reveal
the final livery, the paint scheme of the cars.
Super Bowl ads are not cheap.
125 million people are going to be watching that game.
No brainer, in my opinion.
The Super Bowl is the most watched thing, you know, in the country,
you know, in the United States.
If you want to make a big splash and make the, for lack of a better term,
normies understand and perhaps in some cases
realize for the first time that you are going racing in Formula One.
This is the best way to do it.
So I think that's that is a smart Super Bowl spend.
Formula One is just a hurricane of money flying in every direction as it is.
So, you know, you drop six million dollars on a Super Bowl spot.
I think the ROI on that probably has a pretty long tail.
I hope that the ad is cool.
I'm very interested to see what the car is going to look like myself.
I think that'll do a lot of heavy lifting for, you know, Cadillac.
And the other thing is that the other reason it's smart is
being the ads in the Super Bowl get as much, if not more attention
than the Super Bowl itself.
So if it's really good, they'll show up in the ad meter and it'll be talked about.
So a lot of upside for Cadillac to do it this way.
Course Ford is going to be revealing its liveries with Red Bull
and Raising Bulls on January 15th.
We talked to Mark Rushbrook about that a couple of episodes ago.
You go ahead and listen to that.
Wonder if Ford will want to get in on the Super Bowl action now.
Just did I give Cadillac the big stage by itself?
Formula One is so much more mainstream now than it was even five years ago.
I'm an American automaker.
I'm getting in on that action.
Folks, one tip, though, even though the Cadillac livery reveal
is going to be on February 8th during the Super Bowl,
the car itself is going to be reeled on January 26th
at the first preseason test in Barcelona, where all the Formula One
teams are. I'm guessing I'll have a cool camouflage wrap when it's there.
But that's the first time we can look at the actual car.
Alex and I will definitely be watching that when it happens.
And we'll be back next week with another show.
Thanks for joining me again, Alex. Thanks, man.
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