The Chevrolet SSR is a weird-looking car that mixes a truck and a convertible idea. It has a pickup-like shape but is meant to be styled like a roadster. The podcast mentions it in the context of customizing and parts like wheels.
It means the seller doesn’t clearly know (or won’t share) how many miles the car has. Without that info, it’s harder to estimate how worn things might be.
An EV crossover is an SUV-style car that runs on electricity. The host is basically saying that EVs often get a certain look, and they don’t think that look is necessary. They wish the car could look more like a typical Ferrari instead.
The host is complaining about EVs having a similar look. They think designers are making EVs look like EVs instead of letting the car look like it belongs to its brand. Their point is that Ferrari could have made the Luce look more like a Ferrari.
EV means electric vehicle—cars powered primarily by electric motors and batteries instead of a gasoline engine. The host is saying they don’t think there’s a brand whose EV styling looks especially good to them, contrasting it with what they expect from familiar car design language.
Ferrari Luce is a new Ferrari that people are already talking about, and it’s described here as an electric vehicle. The hosts are basically debating whether it still looks like a “real” Ferrari. They also mention that some people saw it early under embargo rules.
An embargo is basically a “don’t post yet” rule. People may be allowed to see the car early, but they’re required to wait until the embargo lifts before sharing their thoughts publicly.
An “influencer activation” is when a car brand brings influencers in to check out the car and make posts about it. It’s part of the marketing push around a new launch.
The Mercedes-AMG GT is a sporty Mercedes performance car. It’s made to be quick and exciting to drive. The podcast mentions it while talking about Mercedes performance vehicles and related activations.
They’re referencing a Mercedes-AMG E-Class model called the E63 AMG. The speaker wants the classic big V8 engine in that car, instead of moving to electric.
The BMW 6 Series is a bigger BMW meant for comfortable driving. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because the host wants a specific V8 engine setup in that kind of car. The focus is on having more power and a more “grand tour” style vehicle.
A “6.2 liter V8” is a big engine with eight cylinders. The “6.2 liter” part is the engine’s size, and the “V8” part describes how the cylinders are arranged.
A single-DIN radio is a car stereo that’s built to a standard size so it fits in most dashboards. “DIN” is just the measurement system car audio uses, and “single” means it’s the smaller height version.
The “amp on the back” is the part of the stereo that boosts the signal so your speakers can play sound. If the radio powers on but you get no audio, that amp section could be broken or disconnected.
A bezel is the decorative trim piece that goes around the stereo in the dashboard. Without it, you can see the mounting metal, and the stereo may be installed in a way that’s harder to pull out.
The metal tray is the bracket in the dashboard that the stereo slides into. Once it’s seated, clips can lock it in place, so it can feel like the stereo is stuck until you release the locks.
“S chassis” is a nickname for a particular car platform (the underlying structure). The host is saying that on that kind of car, removing the front dash area would be much messier or more destructive. Here, they’re surprised their dash came out cleanly.
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is an electric van. It’s meant to carry people like a family vehicle, but it runs on electricity. The podcast mentions it because the host says they saw problems with the wiring connections.
Coolant is the fluid that keeps the engine from getting too hot. If you use the wrong one, it can lead to buildup and damage inside the cooling system.
The brake pedal is what you press to make the brakes work. If it doesn’t feel right—like it goes too far or doesn’t bite quickly—that can mean the brakes aren’t working as they should.
A “clean title” means the car’s paperwork looks normal—no major history flags like salvage status. That usually makes it easier to register and insure the car. They’re emphasizing it because the title paperwork is part of the transfer process.
“Title paperwork” is the legal paperwork that proves who owns the car. When you buy a used car, you need the title handled correctly so you can register it in your name. They’re talking about making sure it’s confirmed and shipped.
They’re saying they have shipping tracking for the car’s title documents. That matters because the title is what you need to finish the ownership transfer. They’re coordinating when it will arrive so everything can be completed.
“Engine shot” means the engine is in really bad shape—so bad that it probably won’t run right or would cost too much to fix. It’s basically a heads-up that the car needs major work.
Here, “resurrection” just means the car is becoming popular again. The host is saying the RX-8 went through a bad reputation phase, but now people are starting to want them again.
“Engine is shot” usually means the engine is badly broken. The speaker also suggests it might have had a different engine put in, because the sounds don’t match what you’d expect from a healthy one.
The Mazda MX-5 is a small, lightweight sports car (a Miata) that’s famous for being fun and easy to drive. Here, it’s brought up as one of the possible cars the host could have chosen.
The RX-8 is a Mazda sports car that’s famous for having a rotary engine, which is different from the usual piston engines. The host says they were given an RX-8, so it’s central to what they’re talking about.
A rotary engine is an engine that uses a spinning part to make power instead of pistons. It’s a Mazda specialty, and it feels different from normal engines. That’s why people get excited about it.
The Mazda RX-7 is a Mazda sports car known for using a rotary engine. People talk about different “generations” of it using chassis codes. That’s what the discussion is getting at when they mention RX-7.
Concept
kids on TikTok
They’re talking about how social media can create slang or labels for cars that aren’t technically correct. Here, the joke/complaint is that TikTok people might call an RX-8 something that sounds like an RX-7. The hosts are pointing out the mix-up.
A chassis code is a shorthand identifier that tells you which specific version/platform a car is. Enthusiasts use these codes to avoid confusion between generations. In this case, they’re using them to argue about RX-7 vs RX-8 naming.
“S13” is shorthand for a Nissan 240SX chassis. It’s a common car people modify for drifting because it’s rear-wheel drive and has a big enthusiast support community.
The Volvo XC60 is a Volvo SUV you can rent. The hosts mention it because they had to fill up more than once, and they’re complaining that fuel costs are really high.
The “12A” is an engine designation for Mazda’s early Wankel rotary engine family. It’s a specific rotary variant that enthusiasts discuss for parts, rebuilding, and “bringing back to life,” because different rotary generations/variants can have different common issues and repair approaches.
“Renesis” is the name of a later rotary engine used in Mazda cars like the RX-8. It matters because it’s not the same as older rotary engines, so repairs and parts can be different.
Voltage drop means the car’s electrical power briefly isn’t strong enough when something demands it. Here, that causes the power steering to stop working for a moment, then come back once the voltage is back up.
Electric power steering is the system that helps you turn the wheel using an electric motor. If it senses a problem (like low voltage), it may stop helping for a moment and then turn back on.
The radiator system’s piping carries engine coolant to and from the radiator to remove heat. A leak in that piping can cause coolant loss, overheating risk, and can also trigger other temperature-related faults.
Lindgren is referenced as the shop the vehicle will be taken to for repair. The speaker’s plan is to trailer the car there and have them fix the steering and cooling-system issues.
A pressure tester is a tool used to pressurize a system (often the cooling system) to find leaks and confirm whether pressure holds. In the context of a radiator-system leak, it helps pinpoint where coolant is escaping rather than guessing.
The clutch pedal is what you press to shift gears in a manual car. If it squeaks, it’s often because the moving parts around it are dry or not lubricated.
WD-40 is a spray lubricant people use to quiet squeaks and loosen stuck parts. Spraying it on a pedal might reduce the noise for a bit, but it may not fix the underlying cause.
The Nissan Skyline is a sports car model that has been made for many years. The podcast talks about comparing two versions—S15 and R34—that are from the same general time period. The point is that different Skyline generations feel and look different.
A welded diff means the differential is locked so both wheels must turn together. That can make the car feel different and can also make more noise than a normal differential.
A super lock diff is a differential setup that keeps the wheels from acting independently. The host is saying this R34’s differential makes more noise than the other car’s welded setup.
A rotor is the spinning part inside a rotary engine that helps make power. Saying “three rotor” usually means the engine has three of those spinning sections, which can make it stronger and more special than a single-rotor engine.
Fortune Auto is a company that sells aftermarket suspension parts, like coilovers. They’re talking about ways you can upgrade, repair, or customize those suspension units.
Coilovers are suspension parts that control how the car rides and handles bumps. “Handling” coilovers are meant to make the car feel tighter and more responsive when you drive it hard.
Coilovers can be serviced and rebuilt, meaning the shocks and internal valving can be disassembled, inspected, and reconditioned to restore performance. This is different from replacing the whole suspension and can be useful for maintaining ride quality and damping consistency over time.
BMW’s “N54” is a specific engine BMW used in many cars a while back. When someone says “N54 era,” they mean the time period when those cars were popular—and they’re often talking about how that engine felt to own, including known issues.
The BMW 3 Series is a small luxury car made by BMW. The older E36 version is often talked about because it’s older and simpler to drive and work on. People sometimes choose it to practice driving skills like drifting.
The BMW E46 M3 is a performance version of the BMW 3 Series from the late 1990s/early 2000s. It’s famous for feeling very “driver-focused,” and it usually costs more than older, simpler BMWs.
The BMW M5 is a fast, performance-focused BMW sedan. It’s designed to carry more than just the driver, including rear passengers. In the podcast, it’s brought up because it offers more back-seat space than some smaller options.
A “factory mule” is a test car that automakers use while they’re developing a new vehicle. It’s basically a modified car used to try out parts and systems in the real world.
The Mazda Miata is a small two-seat sports car. It’s made to be light and easy to drive for fun. The podcast mentions it because the car’s basic style and driving feel have stayed similar across generations.
Porsche is mentioned as an example of a company that does a great job keeping a model’s character consistent. The discussion is more about strategy than a specific technical detail.
“GRs” are Toyota’s performance versions, tied to their Gazoo Racing program. The hosts are saying Toyota has done well with those faster, more enthusiast-focused models.
The Toyota Corolla is a long-running compact car line that’s often used as a benchmark for mainstream reliability and broad market appeal. Here, it’s mentioned as one of the areas where Toyota has “done a really great job,” contrasting with later struggles in other segments.
The BMW i8 is a sports car that uses both electricity and a gas engine. It was designed to look futuristic and drive like a performance car. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because the host thinks it didn’t work out the way people expected.
The BMW i3 is an electric car made by BMW. It looks different from most cars and is smaller in size. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because people think it’s a bit unusual.
Hyundai’s “N” models are the sportier, performance versions of regular Hyundai cars. The “N model” badge usually means the car is tuned to be more fun to drive.
The Honda Civic Type R is the sporty, performance version of the Civic. The hosts mention it as the benchmark car, but say it costs more than the Elantra N.
The Hyundai Elantra N is a sporty version of the Elantra that’s meant to be fun to drive hard, not just commute. Here, they’re saying it’s a more affordable alternative to the Honda Civic Type R and that it’s good for track days.
Michelin is a well-known tire brand. They’re saying the car likely already comes with good tires, so you can go to the track without changing them first.
“PS4s” is shorthand for a specific Michelin performance tire model. They’re saying the car comes with a tire that’s already meant for sporty driving, which helps for track days.
This is the sporty, track-inspired version of the Hyundai Elantra. The “N” model is built to feel more like a performance car than a regular Elantra, and the hosts are saying the 2026 version is priced around $30,000.
The Golf R is the sporty, higher-performance version of the Volkswagen Golf. In this segment, it’s mentioned as another car you’d compare against the Elantra N.
The WRX is Subaru’s sporty car, and it’s known for having all-wheel drive and rally-style handling. The host is mentioning the 2026 WRX as a comparison point to the Elantra N.
Car
GTI
The GTI is Volkswagen’s sporty Golf model. The host is saying it would be a more fair comparison to the Elantra N than the WRX.
This phrase means “compare the way the car sends power to the wheels.” The host is saying the WRX and Elantra N might not be a perfect match because their power-to-wheels setups aren’t the same.
The Volkswagen Jetta is a compact car that usually drives the front wheels. That means the engine sends power to the front tires, which is common for practical everyday cars.
“Type R” is Volkswagen’s label for its most hardcore performance versions. Other sporty cars get compared to it because they’re trying to deliver a similar kind of fun and speed.
The Volvo XC90 is Volvo’s midsize luxury SUV, and it’s notable here because the host claims it has been in production for decades with only minimal design changes. That kind of long-running, slow-evolving design is a talking point for buyers who worry about whether a vehicle will look dated quickly.
The Nürburgring is a legendary race track in Germany. It’s known for being really challenging, so doing well there is a big deal for a performance car.
The Audi Quattro is a famous Audi rally car. It’s remembered for helping make Audi’s all-wheel-drive reputation—especially in snow and rough conditions.
They’re talking about how some car brands match their own image and fan culture better than others. The idea is that the brand’s story and what it does in motorsport feel “right” or “forced.”
This is a 1980s Volkswagen Caddy, which is usually a small work van. In this build, someone turned it into a pickup and put a supercar engine in it, which is why it’s such a big deal.
LIVE
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Martini Works podcast.
I am your guest, Alex Martini Weenie.
And I'm here with Dakota and Jelfrees.
Hello.
You had Weenie into your last name?
Yeah.
Well, it's a bold move.
First off.
How many underscores?
Two.
So I'll be honest with you guys.
It was Memorial Day weekend.
Got the grill out.
Yes.
Yep.
And my first just I just want to share with the crowd,
not a big brat guy initially.
OK.
Yeah, it takes a lot of.
OK, hold on, first off.
They're still good.
I just don't want to ever grill them or do that all myself.
I'd rather somebody else make all of it.
You're talking like the uncooked one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a lot of work.
You got to boil it.
It's him so much he had her weenie to his life.
Oh, but the Johnsonville ones that have the jalapeno and cheddar
in it.
Yeah, dude, they slap, right?
Yeah, I bought two packs.
There you go.
Oh, yeah.
The cheddar brats go crazy.
I'm 30% cheddar brat right now.
Everyone thinks the beer brats are super good.
But the cheddar brats go dummy.
Yeah, cheddar brats are the best.
Which, by the way, if you're thinking about modifying your car,
modify your car with your friends on martiniworks.com.
We have good taste in brats.
Good taste in brats, good taste in wheels.
In your order notes, put ad cheese.
And we'll add cheese to your wheels, your glass, intake,
whatever you want.
I'll throw craft singles in there.
Just tell them what you want.
Brent, put your chair back together.
We wheel entire packages.
You can get them mounted and balanced for free.
Plus, we have the good wheels in stock,
like works, gram lights, SSRs, all sorts of good stuff.
In case you're wondering, we invested in our team
by buying everyone new chairs.
And Brent has already broken his about 10 seconds ago.
So with that being said, let's get the season started.
Dakota, what are we chatting about today?
Yeah, just a little bit.
First segment here that we're getting into just a little bit
about what's going on, because we were moving a million miles
an hour, you were in Germany at the Nurburgring,
the green hell.
That was crazy.
Worked on some car projects.
Gels, get in the car.
Maybe.
So yeah, there's a lot going on.
So what do you mean, maybe?
Yeah.
It's thousands of miles away.
Gas is insanely expensive.
No one wants to deliver the damn thing.
I'm about to fly out there, drive back myself.
Don't want to do that either.
Man, would it be a stupid video?
Yeah, the internet, as we talked about it a couple weeks ago.
So just so fresh, nothing's changed since then.
So the podcast knows, one, that we were like 10 miles away
from that car when we were out there at Laguna State,
because it's in Monterey, right?
So Greg and I at one point thought
about canceling our plane ticket and driving it back.
You should have at this point.
But then I thought about what it would
be like to drive an FBRX7 30 hours.
Yeah, it doesn't sound ideal.
It's like going to the dentist.
I would not want to.
There's not many cars I'd want to do that in, to be fair.
Like let alone just an older vehicle.
Hello?
Yeah.
I mean, there is cars out there.
But buying a car sight unseen other than just the listing
and then driving it across country, essentially,
is quite the feat with a 40-year-old rotary.
Yeah, there's like three.
Unknown miles.
There's three hells of being an automotive enthusiast.
Tell number one, being in the back seat of an Uber
that owns a Tesla, that's the first hell.
The second hell is test driving a newly built car
for the first time and monitoring all of your gauges
and trying nothing breaks.
And then the third hell is having
to drive an exorbitant amount of time in a car
that 100% was not intended to do cross-country driving,
like an FB Mazda R except for the FBRX7.
And the fourth one is liking Volkswagen's.
Yeah, or the new Ferrari Luce.
Or dealing with anything on Facebook Marketplace.
I seen some news about the Ferrari.
Apparently all their stocks plummeted
when they announced their EV.
I don't know if it tanked, but I hope
it taught them a valuable lesson.
Don't outsource an all-new electric EV to a design company
and expect it to ever go well.
Here's why.
Those were a lot of bad words that I just heard.
Here's what you could have done.
Let's just get this out before we start talking
about what we're up to.
Because Ferrari needs to go to the detention site.
I didn't even hear about this.
So the Ferrari Luce is a ugly abomination
of an EV crossover that for the first time in my life,
I've ever thought to myself,
even if you changed everything on it,
I still don't think I would like it.
But then they're like, oh, well,
we hired a design studio to help us make this car.
And the inside looks, I do like the tactile buttons
on the inside.
I will say that.
I do think that's, yeah, I do think that looks cool.
But this is the same company
that designed the Ferrari Pro Sangue,
which in my opinion is one of the most gorgeous looking
SUV, not SUVs ever made.
It is a super gorgeous looking car.
And then they make that, it could have made something cool.
Yeah, why do EVs have to look like EVs?
Did you see this thing?
Yeah, this is atrocious.
I don't get why, like it has to look like a hybrid.
It has to, or it's not one.
It's like, why couldn't they just do
a typical like Ferrari design?
Yeah, they could have done like a little mini Pro Sangue,
maybe make it less aggressive and things like that.
Because people are like, oh, I hate that Ferrari made an SUV.
I'm like, well, I don't, because I think it looks sick.
And it's got a huge ass motor in there.
And it goes a billion miles an hour and it's a Ferrari.
Look at it, it's cool.
That, that doesn't look like a Ferrari.
That looks bad.
I don't like that.
You could barely put like a Kia badge on that.
And it would still be a bad looking Kia.
And then yeah, it would be a poor looking Kia.
I'm trying to think of what brand it would look good on.
And you're right.
I don't think there is a brand where I'd be like,
man, that is a good looking EV.
It looks like some weird like concept car
out of like the 2000s.
The one thing I kind of giggle a little about,
I might catch a little bit of shit for this, but.
So the Ferrari Luce came out yesterday, I think it was,
and everybody posted about it,
including people that were on embargo
and those that weren't,
which is essentially people that already saw the car,
they waited on it, they hold the content,
and then they posted it at a certain time.
Gotcha.
And everybody that wasn't part of that embargo,
talking mega shit about the Ferrari Luce, right?
Because it's ugly.
It's not Ferrari designed.
It doesn't look like a Ferrari, blah,
blah, blah, blah, like just trashing it, right?
Meanwhile, the people that were under embargo
and did go on an influencer activation
to go see a brand new Mercedes-Benz AMG EV,
which is equally the same amount of shittiness
with the logo as the taillights and the headlights
and looks like an upside-down beam,
and everyone that was embargoed over there,
they got paid a bunch of money to go to that one.
Loves the Mercedes, it's so cool.
But the Ferrari Luce is an abomination,
and they're both abominations, they both stink.
You can't pick and choose, they're both trash.
Oh, man.
I want a 6.2 liter V8 in my E63 AMG,
and I want to go gremlins for the rest of my life.
That's what you get when you buy an AMG.
Yep, so you expect.
And depreciation.
That's right, that's one of the best parts about Mercedes
is that I don't have to pay what that guy paid.
Someone did, I don't know who's buying Mercedes brand new,
but they're wild.
Speaking of spending money on things
that they probably shouldn't, Dakota,
how is the Harlequin build going?
Dude, I've been tackling it left and right
with just some gremlins that needed to be cleaned up,
and I was feeling good, I got it back.
Had a lot of stuff done.
But then, it was last night, Monday night,
I did a bunch of work to it,
and then it was in the garage chilling,
and I'm chilling, because I was tired out from the day,
and I'm like, you know what,
I'm not doing anything for the rest of the day,
I'm just gonna sit, I'm gonna relax,
and I don't know what it was in me,
I'm like, I'm gonna yank the radio out, and I got up.
Oh, okay.
Because like, if you guys didn't know,
it doesn't play sound out of the radio,
which is like the main purpose of having a radio.
Power on, everything works on it,
no audio from the speaker,
so I'm like, it's gotta be like a loose connection,
or maybe the amp on the back of the single din
has blown something.
Dude, I don't know what the fuck was up
with that single din radio,
it was in there so hardcore,
I've been trying for like three weeks
to get this radio out of this car.
It doesn't have a bezel around it,
you can see the metal like tray that it goes into,
and I bought a key set on Amazon that had like 50 keys,
all for different types of radios.
Dude, I put them in there,
I get them like, I hear it lock into place,
like clink, clink, and like they're so locked in
that now I can't pull them out, they are in there.
So now I'm committed to pulling this out,
shout out to Philip, he FaceTime me trying to help me,
he works at, or owns Pull and Motorsports,
actually on my shirt today, so shout out to him.
He was trying to help me out, he has a Harlequin too,
and he's like, yeah, dude, that thing's fucked,
I don't know, try sliding keys and stuff.
That's always the best news to hear when like getting out.
Can you really follow up by the worst, dude?
Like, oh, someone who's done this a long time,
they know these cars inside out, yeah, that thing's fucked.
Yeah, yeah.
Like thank you, and now I'm more upset,
because now I'm super screwed,
because if you think it sucks,
and I thought it sucks, we're definitely done.
That's where I was panicking.
So he did give some advice,
he's like, take the keys,
try to slide it all the way around,
maybe one of those metal fins that's in there,
it's just like stuck into the side of the,
but the problem was, it's like no part of it ever got loose.
It's not like, oh, one side of it's losing the other.
Oh, it's almost there, yeah.
The whole thing feels like it's fucking,
what's Phil Swift, so, flex sealed.
Oh, yeah.
Like the whole thing was flex sealed into the side of,
like, I mean, again, this thing,
the dash is like flexing in,
I'm like, I'm gonna break this 30 year old plastic,
I can guarantee, like I break brand new plastic,
well, I'm 30 year old plastic.
So what, I ended up getting upset,
because now I have a fucking radio with,
radio keys sticking out of it in my dash that I can't get out.
So I go and I grab the pliers in each hand,
they're little L shaped,
and I put one on one, I put one on the other,
and I am full force, full body,
yanking this radio dude,
and it is not budging.
So I take all the keys out,
I have keys all the way around,
so there's like literally a gap
between the cage and the radio.
Take all of them out,
and I knew I should have recorded this,
but I was in too much of a pissed off state of mind
to bother with filming,
but I went back at it and I just all my might,
and also one side comes out,
and I'm like, holy shit, it's fucking possible,
but the other side's still locked in.
So like I'm toying with it,
I tore apart part of the front of the dash,
so I could at least like see behind there,
and I'm like trying to shove shit in there behind the radio
to like pull from behind or slide or something.
Nope, nothing is working.
So back to a player's hands, same thing,
full force, whole body motions,
rocking the whole car, boom,
I get the whole thing just comes out,
cage and all, no plastic pieces broke,
somehow, some way, not sure how there's a-
That's incredible.
There's a Volkswagen God protecting me in that moment
because I have no idea, but the entire thing came out.
If that was an S chassis,
you would have just like torn the entire front of the car.
It would have been like dust.
If you guys would have seen what I was doing,
any car would have and should have turned to dust.
It was, I've never had such a violent experience.
So what all came out?
Did you see like what was holding it so ungodly tight?
Like what?
Honestly, I don't got a lot of answers for it,
but I can, I know why you read,
he didn't know, can't recall.
The singled in radio, like when you put one of those in,
you get like the metal cage that it goes into.
I know why the radio wasn't coming out of that.
And it's because I had like these two locking pins
that stuck out on each side,
in addition to the tabs that fold in.
So it was like this weird,
like you need like a multiple sets of keys to get out,
but even with them, like I looked at it and I,
it's still sitting in the cage
because I couldn't figure out how to get out with it
out of the car.
Damn, okay.
But with the cage itself, I don't know.
That was, I don't know how it was in there so much,
so stuck, but I don't know.
And then all I found was the worst
Volkswagen kid crimp connections I've ever seen in my life.
I did see that.
I saw that part there.
When you took the picture and you're like,
can I get, does anybody know X, Y, or Z?
I wasn't even reading the rest of the sentence.
I was just looking at the crimp connectors.
I was like, I've been there when I was like 16.
I've been there.
They lopped off the stock harness
and instead of just buying the proper adapter
and now I have to get ass wiring.
It sucks cause it's like, you know what,
you knew that's what was gonna be behind there.
Yeah.
I mean, that's kind of been a little bit of the experience
with the car so far though, right?
It's like, so there's been like some more maintenance
and some more just kind of cleaning things up.
But sometimes I think even the best intention builds,
they just, they get like that.
Yeah, especially over time.
Especially over time, yeah, cause you had a whole bunch
of stuff done and they had to get the,
what rear brakes completely like redone.
Oh yeah, dude.
I went through all the maintenance.
In a sense, it sucks and it's shitty.
But in another sense, it's very rewarding
and it's nice to be like, well,
even though this was a nice example,
I am saving it because holy shit,
there was a lot going on that was wrong in it.
Even like improper maintenance,
like the wrong type of coolant and stuff was in it
and the water pump was all completely gummed up
because the wrong coolant was in it
and it had leaks and stuff like that.
And I've gotten that all sorted out
and brand new brakes.
The brake pedal actually does something before it was more
like just like, I hope it stops.
And now it's like, now I can stop.
So yeah, but making progress and it's feeling better.
I got a new singled in on the way
because the one that was, it was weird wonky.
I tried looking at, I can't even find this thing.
It's weird.
Yeah, it is a super weird radio.
But yeah, that's why I've been working on it.
Nice.
Gels, how's your new car?
Don't know.
Don't got it?
I'm gonna tell the podcast audience something special.
Okay.
The car that you stole from me?
I didn't steal it from you.
Oh, there's beef.
Apparently there's beef.
Let me tell you something, chat.
There's, there's, there's few times I open up my inbox
and there's good news.
Okay. There's always news or bad news,
but there's hardly ever good news.
I did get some good news.
There's, there's somebody who has supported martini works
many a time and has a really great relationship
with Hamby and Carissa.
Cause we've helped him with wheel and tire packages
a few times now.
Yeah. A few of them.
That he was looking to clear out his garage.
And what?
And one of the vehicles is a vehicle
we've talked about in the past
and is currently on its way.
I got confirmation that it's on the trailer.
That's cool. Don't know what that's like.
Yeah, wait.
I was trying to fuck up.
Just so everybody.
You booked at Gels and stuff.
And this news just so everybody knows is like a week old.
I saw this, I saw this email last week.
Doesn't want it, wants to get rid of it.
Clean title.
All the good stuff.
You can have it.
Get the title paperwork confirmed.
Got the FedEx tracking for the title
on Thursday or Friday last week.
Found a shipping company on Friday.
Confirmed pick up for Tuesday.
It'll be here on Friday.
And poor Gels has been waiting for his RX seven.
For like a month.
For like a month now.
And my RX eight will be here in three days.
I'm really excited for it. Honestly.
I'm stoked.
You're gonna have to work on it.
The thing is, is like this gentleman offered it to me.
Cause like we, after I sold mine,
this was like a few months ago.
He's like, oh, well I have,
I noticed it in a picture that he sent Carissa.
I was like, oh, what's up with that RX eight there?
He's like, well, do you want it?
I kind of really don't want to do anything with it.
And I was like, fuck, like, what's okay?
What's up with that?
No one needed like some work done to it.
I think like the engine shot in it.
But like there's another engine to go with it or something.
Like something weird.
And I was like, yeah, like maybe not right now.
And then a few months passed.
Never heard it.
Never heard anything.
I never really followed up with it, to be honest.
And then the RX seven happened.
And then literally like two days after that happened,
he's like, if you just want it, you can have it.
And I'm like, I just bought.
Like I have this to deal with.
Like if you were three days ago,
it would have been perfect, but uh.
And honestly, the great news is,
is because I have all of my project cars done.
Yeah. And every car has an engine in it.
I figured, why not start a new build?
I am excited for it.
Yeah. It's gonna be cool.
When it's, I love RX eights, man.
I think what I'm most excited for is,
RX eights are one of those cars where I've seen,
I've seen the rise and the fall and the resurrection.
Like a Phoenix.
It is. And it's like resurrection in the car community.
I have watched it go from literally being a new car
from factory that I remember Justin bought a white one,
drove it, piss in the wind as fast as he possibly could
around a back road in Eau Claire, threw it off the road,
crashed it.
I was in the passenger seat when it happened
to the downfall of the RX eights
when they all started blowing up and having issues
and blah, blah to nobody wanting them,
to them being dirt cheap.
And now they're on the way up, baby.
They're proliferating their way back into the scene,
like a beautiful Gen Z RX seven, you know?
It's just, it's going to be fun.
So what's the, yeah, what's the deets on it?
What's the need? What's going on?
I wonder what it would be.
I know nothing about this car.
Oh my God.
I know nothing.
For what I know.
It might not even be an RX eight.
It could be.
No, it is an RX eight.
A Dacia Logan.
It's an RX eight.
I believe it's a series to RX eight.
It's manual.
I'm pretty sure.
How do you know that?
Because I was looking at it first.
He said free.
And I said, yes.
I didn't even get to the second word where it was car.
I'm pretty sure it's white or silver.
I think it's silver.
I think it's silver.
Engine in it is shot or has issues.
It sounds like there was another engine.
I think that engine's also shot.
Is that one also shot?
Two shot engines is great.
Perfect.
Well, okay.
I learned, I learned from my past transgressions
that I'm not going to be taking on already broken motors
to come with cars that I buy.
So he said it was broken.
I said, no, thank you.
Oh, you should have took it though,
because there's probably parts on it
we could have used to be honest with you.
Well, fuck.
Send it back.
I mean, shoot the trailer back.
Load her back up.
But the really cool thing is because I'm partner
with Mazda Motorsports, I shot Josh Smith a message.
And I was like, yo, we got 13 B.
We got the MX five.
Yeah.
We've got the PFM.
I'm like, there's only two cars left really
to like full circle this decision.
He's like, did you buy an FD or an RX-8?
And I was like, I was gifted an RX-8.
He's like, hell, yeah.
I want to do anything with an FB.
I mean, oh.
I do think it'd be fun for us to do like a whole rotary.
Oh, 100%.
Rotary series and just give love to the rotary engine.
Like literally the oldest of it and like the newest of it.
I think that's really cool.
Yeah.
I'm actually just going to take the motor out of the PFM
and put it in there.
You should just start calling it an FE RX-7
like all the kids on TikTok do.
Why?
Because the chassis code is essentially
because like how they found like FB, FC, FD.
Oh, yeah.
The RX-8 essentially has like an FE chassis code.
So people are like, ah, it's a FE RX-7.
But it's an RX-8.
Right.
It's just one of those good.
When is the RX-9 releasing?
That's the real question.
It's kind of like all the kids are like,
they want to call like their infinity a skyline
because it was in Japan.
Oh, yeah.
We should just stick to calling our cars what they are.
Most of mine are shitboxes for the most part.
OK?
But yeah, I don't know.
I'm really excited for you to get your car
when you get your car.
Me too.
We'll see.
And I feel bad about the RX-8 snatch.
But then again, your S13 is still
fucking collecting.
Yeah, exactly.
So hurry the fuck up with that.
I have no ground to stand on there.
Yeah, it's just been obviously the fuel prices
and everything shipping something thousands of miles
out of California where fuel is the most expensive.
Yeah, that was is really fucking a guy right now
when it comes to transporting a vehicle that far.
And essentially, the people I've been working with
is just no one wants to take the job.
It is like I will lose money on the job.
Oh my god.
It is equally it is crazy how expensive fuel is right now.
When we were in Germany, I rented a Volvo XC60.
And we filled up twice.
And both times, I was just like, it is rough.
It's really expensive out here.
There's this thing got a god dang diesel tank in here.
Like what is even more expensive?
More expensive over there.
It's insane.
But we're going to get her.
Hey, if you're a listener of the podcast
and you have experience and or parts in the rotary world,
we are calling upon you now.
12A or Renesys.
To assist us in bringing back to life
or reinvigorating the life that is already currently alive.
Because I'm going to need it.
Yeah.
We're going to be learning a lot about rotary stuff.
The good news is the rest of it.
I need a lot of gasoline.
I am just shipping off the Datsun, though.
I am shipping off the Datsun.
What?
What's wrong with the Datsun?
Shipping it.
So it is good.
No, no, no, it is good.
Ish, so when I was driving it, the steering wheel
still has a little bit of that electrical voltage drop drag
where it's like the voltage is too low.
And then the electric power steering stops working
and then it kicks back on.
So that's a problem.
And then also another problem is the piping on the radiator
system leaks.
So I am not going to kid myself.
And I am just going to put that vehicle into a trailer,
take it back to Lindgren, and say, fix it.
Yeah, yeah, I like that.
That's a good call.
Yeah, get her done.
That's a good call.
Because I'm not doing it myself.
I just need to rock and roll.
Because I was talking to Jackson and Jackson.
He's like, yeah, you know how you got news.
Just buy yourself a cool and pressure tester, then do this
and that, and then the, you know, when you get a text
and you have to press the C more, I'm out.
When it comes to stuff you have to do for your car.
I'm out.
All right.
That one's that one.
I can't do it.
So when you have 85 other projects going on.
All right.
Well, sorry, not all of us can buy pristine edition Harlequin.
Hey, I didn't know where they at.
I wish that thing turned into a project quick.
No, it's been good.
The cars are coming along.
Getting to drive the S15 has been really fun.
Yeah.
That's a good car.
That's a good car.
Got a squeaky clutch pedal, though.
It does.
Very squeaky.
Very squeaky.
WD-40.
Yeah, just put right on the face of the pedal,
spray it a bunch of WD-40, it'll be good.
The thing that was wild is I've had a lot of people
ask the comparison between the S15 and the R34.
Same era, same year, even, I think.
And they think they're similar, you know?
Like, I don't know if maybe they just,
there's an assumption that it is.
Driving the S15 for the week, and then getting in the R34,
to me is like, it's like getting in a Bentley
when you get in the R34.
You are luxury in that car.
I didn't even know how to compare the two
until I moved the R34 to make way for the S15.
I got in the car and the door shuts,
and all of a sudden, I couldn't hear anything outside.
I was like, ooh, sound deadening.
This is, this is nice.
And then I get in the S15, it's like, everything makes noise.
Everything's making noise, the diff is welded.
To be fair, the welded diff in the S15 is quieter
than the diff in the R34.
The super lock diff on the R34, yeah.
The GTT is a gem, that thing is in such good shape
and condition, and everything just works on it.
Every once in a while, we get a little creative
on thinking to do more to the car
than I think we just say stop.
No, we just need to leave it.
Is it so good?
It's so fun to do.
Are we on pro new seats for the car, or?
Yeah, I'd be down to get new seats for the car.
I think keep the stock seats, but yeah,
I think getting a pair of new seats for it
would be really cool, other than that.
Yeah, the only problem with seats is
that they're a billion dollars.
Yes, seats are a billion dollars.
There's no, well, there's a reason,
but I think they kind of take advantage of it.
Yeah, well, that's it.
Well, have that on those big jobs.
If you want to help build an ArcSate,
shoot your boy a DM, because I don't know what I'm doing,
but it'll be fun.
We should decide how we're going to even build it.
Like, what are we going to do with it?
Can we make it like a three rotor?
Oh my god, bro.
You got 80 grand laying around?
No.
And you're not building a three rotor?
I got the car for free.
That's why I got the car.
Let's be clear.
It sounds really easy, adding like one more
sitting triangle to it.
It's not.
It's really not.
All right, well, I thought I would try.
I'm going to start just asking around and go and play.
Yeah, three rotor anywhere around here?
Dude, three rotor arcs, it would be fucking nasty.
That would be sick, maybe in our dreams.
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We'll be right back.
It's freaking hot outside.
Yeah, I love it.
I'm thankful for it.
It is warm.
We just need to, we just need to.
Feel like it's been freezing every single day.
So I'm stoked.
I'll take it.
This weekend was beautiful though.
But anyways, one thing I wanted to get into
and talk about was Alex recently made a video
on a car brand pyramid.
Basically looking at all the car brands
from an enthusiast lens,
putting them into a pyramid and ranking them
very potentially controversial
as you place people's pride and joy
at the bottom of the pyramid.
People get tattoos and stuff from car brands.
They take it serious.
So I want to talk a little bit on the podcast
of what car brand should car enthusiasts go buy?
And I have an answer,
but I don't know, I'm curious to hear your guys' thoughts.
I mean, an entire list.
So, you know, I can start anywhere,
but I thought, honestly,
I thought I was going to get ridiculed for my list.
You didn't.
Your list was good.
I feel like it was all right.
If you haven't watched the video, go watch the video.
I thought it was really solid.
Yeah.
The one that I think was probably the hardest pill
for people to swallow was probably putting BMW at the top.
Cause I think a lot of people want to critique
BMW's quality, especially in that N54 era,
which is rightfully so.
Not necessarily the greatest engine in the world,
but BMW has something literally for everyone
everything at every budget,
at any point in time for the rest of your life right now.
Yeah.
Like there is not a single point in your life
that you could be at any sort of monetary point.
You could be, you could live anywhere in the world.
You could do anything for a job
that BMW is not making a decently competitive
or has made.
Or has made.
You know, it's like,
oh, you want like a shit box to learn how to drift?
E36.
Oh, you want like an analog car
that feels really fun to drive,
but it's not as expensive as a Type R, E46 M3.
You want to get something really wonky and fun
and different and something that not a lot of people
know about, E90.
Oh, you want to get something that's going to absolutely
like spank the doors off of every sports car ever made,
but still have enough space in the back to put two people,
get an M5.
I need a truck.
Huh?
I'm just kidding.
Oh, they actually.
They tried that.
They did, they did.
We actually did get to see an M3 truck.
It was like an E90, right?
Wasn't that a factory, factory mule?
Like it was a truck to like move things around.
It was, it was.
Yeah, absolutely.
So they actually did the truck thing too.
They do it all your right.
It checks every box.
I don't think that's kind of reasonable.
I love BMW.
But I would be willing to say that most people
that own a truck actually don't need a truck.
They need an SUV.
I think just in the state of the world
of social media right now,
everyone wanted to see BMW rank lower
just because of the stigma behind it.
Well, I mean, I don't want,
I didn't want to read it higher either, dude.
All right, no, I get it.
Like I don't, I was looking at it.
You're like, fuck.
With no rose colored glasses.
I mean, BMW was above Toyota.
I already knew that was going to be a hot take and Honda.
But you know.
Honestly, the worst part about it is,
I'd say current state BMW is just the price,
but that's not their fault.
That's what they're creating and making.
They're making these high value cars.
That's my only gripe is like, damn,
there's a million cars I want from BMW.
I just can't afford them, at least the newer ones.
But then yeah, you raise a good point
about all their older models from an enthusiast perspective.
It's a gold mine.
You get into a BMW and you don't like driving it.
I feel like something's wrong with you.
It's crazy to think, and I'm trying to think of maybe
another brand that has done this,
but you talked about five different generations just
now that all have really solid picks of cars.
And it's like, how many other brands out there
have that type of generations?
Mazda maybe with the Miata, but that car has, in theory,
stayed exactly the same for the last 30 some years.
Yeah, what Porsche has done well with one model,
BMW has done successfully with almost a dozen.
Right.
And that's really hard to do.
Even, you look at Toyota, for instance,
Toyota does an exceptional job with commuters, right?
Toyota's done a really great job with their GRs,
their Corollas, their Supras, and things like that.
But they got good at some trucks,
and now they're not doing good with some trucks.
They're not doing great with EVs,
so now they're pulling out of the EV space.
They're trying to push into markets,
and they're not always winning.
And I feel like BMW is one of those brands
where they really do only stick into the markets
that they know that they're going to be able to stick in and win.
I think one of the biggest failures BMW probably ever had
was the i8, right?
Not for rappers.
The most super car, non-super car ever made.
Yeah, that thing's such a weird car.
What was it, the i32 that they did?
Oh, yeah, that thing's weird too.
Is the i3 like the little, the snubby one?
It's like a little smart car.
So those are really popular overseas, though.
Are they?
Yeah, they're really popular.
That wasn't BMW.
iPod.
Yeah, that was them.
iMac.
Yep, i8.
Thank you.
What car did you guys think was going to rank higher?
God, they were all pretty.
Yeah, no, because you had me look at it beforehand
and just to get some of my thoughts and stuff.
And because last time I've been in mistakes.
So now it's not a team activity.
When I go down, we all go down.
Honestly, I feel like it is a solid list.
You had Hyundai pretty high, right?
Yeah, I did.
Where was it again?
Where did it place?
I think it was two.
That seems wild.
So if you want to elaborate a little bit on that.
I know, I'm like a converted.
Yeah, when we started the podcast,
the one manufacturer maybe I'm not super about is Hyundai.
You can watch the arc with the Hyundai,
like come around to the Hyundai Kia's.
I think a lot of it has to do with their N-Line of cars.
I just think it's like they do a good job.
They're involved in a lot of amateur racing.
They're in the TCRs.
They're really popular.
They get the job done without having to do much else.
I haven't really heard much issues with them.
No.
I haven't heard anyone really talk shit about, oh my god,
those most unreliable pieces.
I've always been like, no, I love it.
I was checking them out.
We went to Cars and Coffee this past weekend.
Five of them rolled it.
Yeah, and I was like, OK.
Sorry, what is the sedan one, the four-door N?
Bionic?
No, no, no, no.
Either the Elantra or the Sonata.
Yeah, I think it's the Elantra.
Brent, what's that four-door Hyundai with the N model
that we've seen at Cars and Coffee?
Sonata or Elantra?
Which one is it?
Elantra and OK.
Sorry, I can't keep the N.
But I was like, I keep seeing these pop up everywhere I go.
We're at a Cars and Coffee.
Like, this is an enthusiast vehicle now.
I want to check it out some more.
So I go by, like, the interior is nice.
Yeah.
The car seems solid.
Like, it looks good, drives away, sounds good.
The exhaust making some good noises.
I'm like, damn, OK, Hyundai.
My probably my biggest gripe for Hyundai
is just that it still doesn't quite
have its design language really locked in and figured out.
I also don't like the colors.
And the colors.
It's a blue.
I'm over that shit.
Get rid of that fucking blue.
I am so done with that.
Yeah, but they're trying to lock in their look for as long
as they can.
I will say.
I don't like the blue.
I don't like that blue.
Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the over shape.
It's a hard package to beat right now,
because the Type R is too expensive.
Elantra N is cheaper.
It's way more supported in terms of affordability
and the community.
The pre-owned ones are pretty affordable now too.
I have no idea if they blow up or not.
But frankly, if you're buying a new car for under 30 or around
30 that you can take to the track like as is,
because I think they come with Michelin tires.
I think they come with PS4s.
Yeah, the Hyundai Elantra N has a starting MSRP of 35K.
That's honestly really good in the market.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like 290 horsepower, something like that.
It's a pretty good chunk.
I really don't know shit about Hyundai.
I don't know anything about it.
I never check them out.
Hell, I couldn't even tell I was looking at an Elantra.
But I mean, just looking at some of the stuff on paper,
I mean, yeah, here's a 2026 Hyundai Elantra N.
And it's already going for like 30K.
Yeah.
Things brand new.
It's hard to beat.
Getting like a performance oriented sedan.
Makes sense why we've been seeing them so much.
Well, the competition is the Type R.
That's literally the competition for that car.
And it's cheaper.
What about anything from Volkswagen
when you put it up against that, too?
The Golf R, I think, yeah.
What about the WRX, like 2026 WRX?
I don't, well, I don't know if I would.
I think it's almost like drivetrain for drivetrain.
But the GTI, GTI would be really comparable to compete
with the Elantra N.
What about the Jetta and stuff, too?
Is the Jetta front-wheel drive?
Yeah.
So yeah, the Jetta.
Gotcha.
OK, I see.
Which, to be fair, anybody that has written a car review
on the Elantra N or any of those cars,
they're all getting compared to the Volkswagen group and the Type
R. Or the SI, if it's a sub-model.
Yeah, that makes sense.
But yeah, I thought that one was good.
I felt bad about Volvo, because we put it in Tier 3.
And I really do like Volvo, to be fair.
Volvo has some hidden sleepers.
Yeah, they're one of the only companies
to make a twin-charged engine up until like 2021 or something.
Yeah, which is cool.
I mean, probably a lot of them look like traffic,
and they have expensive as fuck parts
if you try to modify them.
You really, I don't know how to explain this without sounding snobby.
But it's like, to know a Volvo is like, Volvo, that's not right,
because they're Swedish, but whatever.
More like a meatball.
Yeah, whatever.
It's like you'd have to know the different tastes of calamari.
You're losing me.
Like you have to be.
To have a Volvo, or to have a Volvo.
Yeah, it's a very niched thing that not a lot of people
calamari can be pig intestine cut up, or like pig butt.
See, you already know more than me.
It's niche.
That's not what that is.
It's squid octopus.
Yes, it is.
But what cheap restaurants do that can't afford to get squid
is they take pig butt holes and fry them.
Look it up.
It is a thing.
It's not true.
I don't know all that.
I don't know all that.
Yeah, or what's the other one?
Caviar.
Caviar.
It's like knowing the taste of different caviar,
which you can tell the taste difference if you do it.
I've never had caviar.
Actually.
But if you know, if you know.
There's Topiko coming on sushi.
Isn't that fish egg caviar?
I think it is, yeah.
So would that be?
No, I don't know.
I haven't had surgeon caviar.
All I'm saying is that with Volvo,
you really have to know what you're looking at to know
that it's expensive or not.
Plus like the, what is it?
The XC90 has been in production for 20 some years
and they've only changed the design of it like once.
Damn.
Literally once.
That is crazy.
Everybody's just pulling the old Porsche debate
and they're just like, where's it going to keep it all?
Looking the same forever.
So that you never know.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, that was my guess.
I've never had brand allegiance or one that I followed.
There's ones that I like for sure.
I've owned like five Volkswagen's.
Yeah, because over time, I've gotten them.
What I was going to recommend is I wouldn't personally tell
anyone to go buy a specific brand.
What I would say is go find the ones you like
and try as many as you can while you're young
and you can go through multiple vehicles.
So that way you can figure out what you like.
I think people that are like Chevy till I die or...
It's like that's what our family has always had.
Even Honda guys there, oh, I only drive Honda.
It's like, dude, you are missing out on so fucking much
by being brand loyal to a brand that doesn't care about you.
Go out and try a bunch of stuff and figure out
what works for you, your lifestyle,
and what you want out of a car.
Because I think you'd be surprised.
Like, I don't know, I've owned a lot of different makes
and models and sometimes it surprises you what you end up
liking so much and where you're going to go.
To also be fair, some brands do care more about things
that you might care about than other brands.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like I'll always be, like the reason I rated Hyundai higher
is because they're still involved in TCR so heavily.
Like they're still involved in this like grassroots
kind of racing style structure.
BMW is killing it right now.
I mean, they had an April Fools joke
that they turned into a GT3 race car at the Nurburgring
and did well, you know?
Like these are brands that they don't have to do
some of the things that they're doing,
but they're doing it because it's...
Yeah, BMW at all times was amazing.
It was so cool to see them out
and like even their technicians,
like having fun, like getting the crowd like to clap.
It was like, damn, I didn't realize
like how involved they were with like enthusiasts
and stuff and bringing stuff out to an event like this.
Like it was so cool and I agree with Hyundai too.
Oh my God, the last five years at least,
I feel like I see Hyundai everywhere.
They are out, they do want to be a part of the community.
They do wanna show that they care about what they're building
and getting it in front of the right people.
Like they are at the events we're going to.
We're not seeing other brands at all,
not even a little bit.
So I think that does speak volumes.
And to be fair, I think every brand can do it.
Like when Audi released their F1 car,
they did like this private screening of delivery
and they had all the drivers there
and they had this dinner and it was gorgeous
to look at on Instagram.
But they had all of their motorsport icons lined up
adjacent to this table where everyone was having dinner.
And it's like the Audi Quattro and all these old,
like the Audi R8s and the old endurance race cars.
They were all lined up next to each other.
I'm looking at this content.
I'm like, this is like the coolest thing
I've seen Audi do in 10 years.
Like I feel like I haven't seen Audi do anything
ever since they tried to make the e-tron work
in the Marvel movies.
Like I'm like, so they could do cool stuff like that.
Like they could pay tribute to the motorsport
and the culture of Audi.
I do remember who they were.
Like that's, I think that's it is like,
there are certain brands that play well into their culture
and there are other brands who don't.
And I think the brands that do, especially right now,
deserve a little bit more love than ones that don't
because nobody likes big corporations.
But I like a big, ugly corporation a little bit more
when they give back to my silly little hobby of racing.
Fair.
Yeah, agree.
They can handle it completely.
With that being said, we're gonna take a small break
but not before saying thank you
to our next sponsor, the Martini Works Podcast,
which of course is Motegi Racing Wheels.
We got them on the S15.
And I think they look absolutely smashing.
All right, they've got different sizes, finishes, colors.
Smashing.
Yeah, you like that?
My beard shaver, I lost the cord.
So now it's just like doing whatever it's doing.
And now I do this or sometimes I lick it with my tongue.
You're gonna have a full beard going on too?
Yeah, when I'm 45.
Don't wait.
Unlike me waiting 15 years to grow a beard,
you can get your Motegi Racing Wheels
in under five days if you order them from martiniworks.com.
Plus, we'll mount them with tires.
You can get them thrown on the car.
So all you gotta do is just enjoy the new setup.
Save the time.
Don't worry about the hassle of having to mount wheels
and tires at your local shop because that's always terrible.
Then they end up dingin' them up anyway.
So if you're looking to get a good set of wheels,
you want something that has really unique finishes
and is in stock at a really good price,
you can head on over to martiniworks.com.
Check out Motegi Racing Wheels
and go modify your car with your friends.
Talk to you soon.
Start of the third segment of Martiniworks podcast.
And with that means time to take a look
at some of the cool shit y'all been submitted
to the build threads.
And I tell you what, you guys have been on one lately
with some of the really rad stuff coming through.
And I would say, I know I say this time to time,
but probably the craziest build
that we've seen submitted to date.
This thing is insane.
Because we're looking at a 1988 Volkswagen Caddy Mark I.
But in the bed of this thing is sitting
a McLaren 650S engine.
And yes, I said the bed of this pickup truck.
And I'm not like, oh, it's just towing it.
No, it is immaculately fitted into the bed of this truck
to power it.
And it looks fucking insane.
It does.
It makes no sense.
It makes no sense, but it makes perfect sense
at the same time.
So this is still essentially like a work in progress.
It isn't completely finished yet, as no build is.
As you can tell, a lot of the work went into obviously
making this thing work with this engine.
The owner says, started with the engine
from a scrapped McLaren 650S.
It was in the right place at the right time.
Must have been, because I don't know how someone
just winds up with an engine like that.
And then pretty much had to work out what to put it into.
Always had to love for old VWs,
having a few over the years.
And when I measured up a Caddy and realized
it would all fit in the back of it,
felt like a no-brainer had to go down that route.
And here we are today.
So exterior is pretty much up next,
making it look all nice and completed.
And if it's gonna look anything like the,
I guess you would say, interior
under the tonneau cover of this looks,
I'm really excited to see where this build is heading.
Cause dude, this is fucking wild.
This is some mad scientist shit.
The crazy thing that makes me laugh so much
is that there's all of this happening
and you scroll down, right?
And it's like, similar build threads.
Jetta GLI, Jetta TDI, I'm like, wait a minute.
What am I looking at again?
Oh yeah, Volkswagen Caddy is what it's listed at
in the website, but the McLaren swapped engine is gnarly.
I love that, like he can put the tonneau cover,
the hard tonneau cover on the back.
And it just looks like a Volkswagen Caddy.
Like as a carbon fiber tailgate, but yeah.
It's like, okay, what's going on there?
Yeah. And then you pop open the back.
But you'd never, ever guess it's that.
And then in the hood or under the hood, I should say,
is the fuel tank, which is just crazy.
Looks like some like crazy,
I see three fuel system, like tube front end kind of thing
going on in there too.
It looks kind of crazy.
Yeah, I would imagine like, dude,
making something like this operate and function
in a vehicle that it was never intended to be in
and has got to be just the craziest amount of fabrication
work I've ever seen in my life.
The carbon tailgate is fucking sick.
Obviously we've got some over fenders and stuff too.
So I'm sure we got some big old wheels and stuff on.
Yeah, what did he say?
We're running 18 by 11s.
That's a big John.
18 by 11s in the rear on a VW Caddy.
Pretty sick.
That gets a 10 on my book.
Yeah, absolutely.
So thank you garage 68 Joel for submitting this.
This is literally, I literally pulled everyone I could over
to the computer when this came in because I'm like,
dude, I can't explain what I'm looking at right now.
Yeah, this is a wild, that's a wild car.
Yeah, so obviously you don't need something.
Is it a car or is it a truck?
That's a truck.
It's 100% truck.
It's a truck.
Got a bed.
But the bed is not functional.
This truck.
Is it a truck?
The bed's functional.
It's carrying an engine around in it.
Yeah.
No.
It's just a bed with junk in the bed.
So really cool stuff.
Obviously, we don't expect that caliber of stuff
coming through all the time.
We are more than happy with your build that you got.
And we'd love to see it submitted over at the Martini Works
Build Threads.
So we haven't done so.
Really appreciate you adding it over there.
We'll put a link in the description of the podcast
here for you to do so.
Add some photos.
Tell us your story of the build.
Every build has a story.
There's always something goofy going on.
We love to hear it.
And then of course, helps other people out,
modifying their car to give them a reference of maybe
what wheels are rock or what performance mods are the best
ones to go through.
Tell us your story.
We'd be more than happy to share it.
And it's a great way to get featured on our socials,
either in the podcast, on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube,
wherever it might be.
So if you want to give a little shout out,
that's the best way to do it.
Absolutely.
Costs you nothing.
Get your car in the Build Threads.
I can't believe that.
That's in our build.
Well, some breaking news we have going on.
Production of the G80 generation BMW M3
ends in February, 2027.
Finally.
Damn.
Finally.
Has it really been that long?
You know why?
Why?
Prices go down, baby.
Oh, true.
This should be good for you.
I'm never going to get one.
But I would love one.
Will they go down or will they just go up now?
No, because now they're all numbered.
No, because the F80 is kind of locked in its price.
The G80 is still in a really good spot, I think, for value.
But when a new generation gets released from BMW,
the previous generation almost iconically always
drops for a year.
And then it'll go back up really fast if it's not well adopted.
I have, you know, BMW is pretty smart,
but I wouldn't put it past them to start throwing
some hybrid tech.
Oh, gosh.
I mean, it is what it is.
I'm just really excited for the new generation announcement,
because I know I'm going to hate it.
And then in six months, it's going
to be my favorite car ever released.
I know.
That's what I was just about to ask.
I'm like, when do we get to see the new car that we're
going to hate on for the next year until we love it?
Yep.
It literally happens every time.
God damn, dude.
We're, time is flying.
I know.
When the G80 came out and everyone's like, what in the hell
Yeah, and everyone was like, that's the ugliest thing.
Look what they did to the grill.
They messed it all up.
I feel like yesterday.
I'm still not a huge fan of the headlights of the G80.
I love it.
I love that car.
It looks too sunken in.
It looks really good.
It is a hot take.
I do see people still say that they don't enjoy that.
The Adro from Bumper, I think, changes it perfectly.
It does.
Adro.
Adro.
Yeah, they killed it with that too.
They really gave it like a facelift.
And it does look super good with the Adro kit on it too.
But even the new M2, when that came out,
I was like super polarizing.
It's weird.
It's kind of odd.
And now I see him.
I've seen multiple on the streets.
It's like, damn, it's sick.
The red color that that M2 came in is my favorite.
I do think the newest BMW has a little techie look to it.
Lars's old 2020 he had.
To me, that car is still the perfect driver's car.
That car was perfect.
Oh, his M2.
Yeah, that M2 was.
That was a good car.
You have to rip on some of those.
And they were really fun.
Yeah, because they were so small.
The new ones are really cool.
They're big.
They feel big.
And they are big.
They're not fat, but like stocky.
Like they walk with their shoulders.
You know?
They got some muscle on their big cars.
The old BMWs didn't walk with their shoulders.
They're big cars.
Some other news, I thought this was interesting.
Lucid is buying Jason from Engineering
explained his car back from him.
Really?
Yeah, he has had a ton of issues with it.
So he bought a Lucid.
There's like an EV sedan that they released.
I'm just based on the model.
They probably have it in this article that I have here.
And it came in super affordable.
It was like 35,000 to 40,000 for a brand new Lucid EV.
So he got it.
And he wanted to check it out.
By the way, we got the opportunity
to meet Jason from Engineering.
He's a super kind dude.
He is so smart.
He is so nice, so kind.
So he's a cat guy.
He does, he likes cats.
But I just thought it was interesting that, like,
dude, he has had pretty much every single problem
you could have with an EV with this car.
And I believed who I was reading.
I'm not 100% on this.
But I believe they gave him a rental
while they tried to sort what was going on with this.
And even the rental started having just insane issues with it.
So he's like, I'm done.
I'm done.
I'm done.
That is not a good one.
He said he was going to do the least I own.
And he wanted to give it a fair shake and a fair shot
and was optimistic about it, too.
Like, hey, this is an affordable EV that you can get into.
And it has been bad.
A lot of electrical gremlins and weird, weird issues like couldn't
shift in or it was changing settings.
So with the EV, I had to watch it
because I wasn't understanding this.
I've never driven a car like this.
It has a setting where if you let off the brake,
the car automatically stops.
Yeah, it's one pedal driving.
Sorry, yeah, you let off the gas and it automatically stops.
OPD.
And you don't need a touch of brake.
But you can still use the brake like in an emergency
or whatever, but it just, yeah, it automatically stops.
And you're going to Uber ride in that.
You can turn it off and that's roll like normal.
Like you let out a roll.
So he says he's always had it on the hold.
And all of a sudden, he was on a hill and I had it parked
and it randomly turned off on its own.
He's like, dude, if there's a car parked right in front of me,
I would have hit it because I did it just
expecting to drive how I've been driving it the entire time.
And it just rolled for him.
He said, completely change the setting all on its own.
I like that.
Another one too was he had his dog in the back.
And you notice his dog is getting really hot.
And he's like, what the heck?
I got the air on, got the climate control set to 65.
What's going on?
He looked.
It was pushing the cold air out one vent
and then just pushing hot air out the other one.
And it's like, what the hell?
And then it's just like a million little gremlins
like that that have just happened.
It's interesting to see.
I always want to give the benefit of the doubt
to car companies that are kind of new up and coming.
Yeah, because usually Rivian's pretty not Rivian.
Lucid.
This is Lucid.
I don't know a lot about Lucid, to be honest with you.
But they've been around for a little bit now.
They've been around for a while.
They got enough money.
Yeah, but they're still not big.
No.
But it just hasn't been a good look for them.
That's rough.
I'm trying to think the last time I had an issue with a car.
Today?
What do you mean?
Never.
All my cars have been so good.
Oh, oh yeah.
All my new cars have been good.
Compared to what?
Well, I'm just, you know, I didn't have an issue like that
with my car, you know.
What, the Mazda?
Yeah.
No.
Or the Jeep Cherokee.
Ah, Jeep Cherokee.
Anyways, we actually didn't get to talk about it
in the first half.
I want to know.
You want to talk about my Jeep Cherokee?
No, I want to talk about the Nurburgring.
Yeah.
Oh, OK.
We kind of forgot about that.
Yeah.
What the hell was that?
We were there for like 24 hours or something.
Yeah, I literally stayed up the whole night with Becca.
Did you actually?
Yeah, I stayed up the whole night.
It was great.
The best way to explain it is if Le Mans is a Espresso
Martini, then the Nurburgr 24 is a shot of Malort.
That sounds horrible.
I don't want that.
I hate Malort.
But like in the greatest, most hilarious way possible.
The way you explained it, it sounded like a bushlight.
That sounds better.
Now we're talking.
Like a natty.
A natty light.
OK.
A natty light.
We're getting a little crazier.
It definitely felt like a natty light kind of activity,
for sure.
Hell, yeah, now I'm in.
What were you doing?
353,000 people.
Holy shit, in 25 kilometers worth of track,
in the middle of the forest, where
it is like raining and sunny and then
sleet and then snow and then sun and then rain again in 20
minutes, it's like living in Wisconsin.
It is by far the craziest kind of racing I've ever
witnessed with my own two eyeballs.
There is nothing more invigorating and pure
than racing there.
Like it was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.
We were sitting, I watched a couple different sections,
but like the entry onto the Nordschleife was a section.
I pretty much walked from that turn one all the way down
to like probably 12.
It was a long walk.
And I watched cars go two off to pass cars.
Damn.
With maybe two feet between them in the guardrail.
They were just sending it.
Oh yeah, I saw cars go airborne.
I saw cars, like I heard cars hit each other constantly
around corners.
That's crazy.
I mean, it was bumper cars.
It was like mad.
I heard parts fall off of cars like consistently all the time
because they're just like so close to each other.
The whole race.
It's also a really rough track.
It's crazy.
It is the hardest.
I mean, it is the hardest racetrack in the world.
It's just like, yeah, that's what I mean.
Like you've got to be just fucking beat
after something like that.
Yeah, and we were hanging out with Black Falcon.
Well, I was there with Likwemali for the week,
which was awesome.
Thank you, Likwemali.
But we were with the Black Falcon team
because Likwemali has a team underneath the Black Falcon
group.
They run eight cars at that race.
God damn.
Support two more.
They have 65 employees on staff.
And it is in two paddocks.
They have eight cars running through two paddocks.
Do you know how impossible that is to keep organized?
That is 18 different seat molds in one paddock at a time.
They have portraits of the cars with the seat molds
next to them so that they don't get confused
where they're supposed to go.
There were so many hoods in that place at one point.
It was confusing to understand if I was at a LEGO factory
or a paddock.
They had, dude, they only have brakes
that are 20 minutes long
because once the first car comes in,
three more come in right after it.
And on the other side, three more come in after it.
So everything has to be perfect.
That's too much.
Every fuel stop.
It seems like a nightmare.
Every fuel stop, every check, every brake change.
There must be some benefit to doing that.
I was gonna say, what is the benefit of that?
So Black Falcon does it because obviously they support
a lot of racing teams, right?
And then they bring the staff that know how to do it.
But a lot of it is timing based.
They wanna make sure that the cars
have an adequate amount of time.
And then when cars go into pit at the NURBS,
there's a time minimum requirement to be in there.
So you can get everything done on a car much faster
than the time is allotted to stay there.
But because the fueling is so archaic at the NURBURG ring,
it's literally a goddamn normal nozzle
connected to the side of the building.
Like the only one of those more technically archaic
would be like spot where I'm pretty sure
it's like an actual gas station
that you used to have to go to.
But yeah, they fuel it from the front
and then they're done and they sit there and they wait
and then they go off.
And then not even 10 seconds later, another car comes in.
I mean, it is a super well oiled machine.
I got to hang out with Misha,
which was a really fun time to talk with him
because he was one of the teams
that's part of the Black Falcon group that was racing.
They unfortunately DNFed.
I think it was Jimmy?
No, no, no, no.
And the other driver got into an accident.
But anyway, it was super cool to listen and watch.
He went into the paddock and I gave him, you know,
the old dab up before he got in the car
and Misha was really excited and gets in the car.
They only do a tire swap and fuel swap.
So they don't even go into the pit area.
They stop before their paddock space,
which apparently you can do.
They swap everything over there.
Misha jumps in the car, they're holding the car,
and then all of a sudden he goes and you know,
fly goes up and you know, they do the big old burnout,
going down the pits.
And so I watch him race
and I don't see him until like two o'clock in the morning
and we're up all night.
So I go up to the Black Falcon Tower to get an espresso
and he's there and I apologize, you know,
he's so sorry.
And he's like, well, did you get the,
did you get the clip?
And I'm like, what clip?
And he's like, I did the burnout for you.
I saw that you were there.
Damn.
I was like, yeah, I got the video.
He's like, good, good.
That's awesome.
Thank God.
That's so cool.
The Nürburgring was an incredible experience.
I'm really blessed to be able to travel like all these
different parts to experience what car culture is like,
but I was not prepared for what that event was.
That just seems insane.
You hear 24 hours of Nürburgring.
It's like, dude, that's gotta be the most insane thing
on the planet.
But then it kind of sounds like comparing it
to like some of the other 24 hour races.
Like it's just a whole other animal.
It's a whole different animal.
It's like a whole different animal.
Not even competing in it.
Like that's a whole other world,
but it's like even just going,
it sounds like a completely different experience.
Like when I went with the Daytona one is super cool.
We went with Rolex.
I've also done it alone.
I did it with Mazda.
And like no matter which tier you do it at,
experience, like the vibe is kind of the same.
Le Mans is like, nice.
You know, it's prestige, you know, it's French.
And so the French brands are there
and there's this like, there's this pride.
There's a huge amount of French pride.
And it feels very like Michelin, you know?
The Nürburgring, just it felt like your favorite
goddamn hole in the wall bar
that just has the best food, good beer, great music.
It's busy, but not in a bad way, you know?
And every place I went to, everybody I met there
was just golden, just so much fun.
And they didn't even speak English.
It didn't matter.
I got overhanded like a giant beer
because this dude was standing on top of this
like half semi trailer without the truck attached to it
anymore, like they detached the truck.
It was just the trailer.
And he's just yelling at people.
He's got no shirt on, he's got jeans shorts.
He's yelling beer, beer.
And I'm like, beer?
And he's like, beer.
And it goes back into the trailer, comes back out
and just like this huge, like fucking Australian sized
beer can, it looked like a Foster's beer can.
And doesn't like, here you go, bud.
Like not a, hey, it was a, hello.
And it was an overhand throw to me.
And I'm carrying the camera that's on a tripod.
I like 40 pounds of equipment.
I'm like, grab it.
And he's like, and he cracks when he starts drinking.
And I'm like, look at back.
I'm like, what am I supposed to do?
She's like, drink it.
I'm like, oh, kids, start crying.
It was fun.
A lot of people out of all the ones that you could go to,
if you live in the United States, go to Daytona first.
Get that, get that hook, then do nerbs.
I think nerbs is a great one.
Then do them all.
It sounds very Midwest and I love it.
It is.
The amount of times I felt so comfortable
at the Nürburgring because it felt like just
Midwest, Wisconsin, 90% of the time it was unreal.
It was just a ton of people and the language was in English,
but everyone was so nice.
They all were grilling, drinking beer, hanging out,
playing music.
They had this, they had brats.
They played this game where they had these big like 40
ounce beers and they like put them in the fence
and then it like rests.
So like it just is like floating there, right?
So the neck is in the fence and then,
and these guys were playing a game where they had
their favorite team car that was driving around.
And anytime the team car came around, they would do a cheers
and then that person had to finish one of those
by the time it like came around again.
Oh shit.
And so there's like 66 dudes
and they all have different beers,
but they all have the lines of the beers in the fence.
Let me, I gotta think about this for a second though.
How, you're saying what, about seven minute
lap time average?
Yeah, like an 89 minute lap time.
24 hours, that's a lot of fucking beers.
These guys had alcohol poisoning for you.
A beer every seven minutes for 24 hours.
You think I'm joking?
Holy shit, you need to send me that.
Oh, that's cool.
This is what these guys were doing,
just sitting there, hanging out.
Damn.
Living life.
That's cool.
I love that.
All right, next time we go to Road America,
I don't know what we're doing.
It's gonna be a lot more challenging though.
That's like two minutes.
It was super fun.
So yeah, definitely if you can go, go.
It's, it was so cool.
Thank you, Lake O'Malley for having me.
Got to learn how to make oil,
which was also really cool.
Then got to spend time at the Mercedes.
That's a valuable skill.
Yeah, well, I can make oil.
I can.
Don't tell the US government that.
Oh, I can make refined motor oil.
Okay, all right.
No, that was, that was pretty cool.
We went to the Mercedes-Benz Museum,
went to the Porsche Museum,
went to the National Auto Museum,
didn't sleep.
If you travel, just don't sleep, just lame.
It, yeah, it's kind of true though.
When you get back, it's all gonna hurt.
Yeah, it sucks.
You'll be fucked up for a week and a half.
On Friday, I came into the shop
and I did not know what day it was or what time it was.
I was just kind of floating around.
I just wanted to say hi to everybody.
I was exhausted, but I didn't know what was going on.
If you guys are looking to learn more about that trip,
we'll actually be doing some content.
You'll see it on Martiniworks.
You see it on Alex Martini, you'll have to go check it out.
And if you ever have any questions about endurance racing,
you can let me know.
Shoot me a message on Instagram.
I'm happy to answer it because hopefully one day
I can actually be behind the wheel,
do some racing instead of just watching.
Crazy.
That being said, we do have to give a shout out
to our last sponsor, the Martiniworks Podcast.
Gels, take it away.
Which, of course, is Conti.
Conti.
Conti.
Hell yeah.
Hell yeah, brother.
Continental tires, they've been a sponsor of Martiniworks
before we even started this whole little podcast shindig.
And actually, we kind of reached out to them.
They're like, hey, we're starting this little thing
where we sit down and we're broke.
Kind of blab for a little bit every week.
Do you want to give us maybe a little help there?
And Contin, I was like, hell yeah.
Love you guys.
We're like dope.
We love you guys and your tires.
So Continental tires, they do an incredible job.
They come in honestly at a pretty good price
point for what they are.
Whether you're looking for a reliable all season
tire, the DWSO6, honestly, probably one of the best
all seasons that I've got my hands on.
Then they really do an incredible job in the winter,
which is surprising.
Because most time, that universal all season
tire, that's good for three out of the four.
DWSO6 is surprisingly good in the sloppy, slushy winter,
especially up here in Wisconsin.
But of course, if you are looking for a true dedicated
winter tire, it can't be the Viking Contact.
But we're moving into summer.
And it's hot outside.
And I freaking love it.
And so we are gearing up to throw some ECSO2s on.
We've ran them on multiple cars around here from the GTT.
I think, Dakota, you had some for a while.
We've had them on a whole slew of different vehicles.
And they've been fantastic.
And honestly, really good in the wet too.
So if you're looking for a fantastic just summer ultra
high performance tire that can handle daily driving
and some track use, ECSO2 is a fantastic option as well.
So we got all that and more over at martiniworks.com.
Thank you so much for continental for sponsoring the podcast.
If you need tires, you know where to go.
But other than that, I want to go figure out
how the hell to get my car to Wisconsin.
It's a good idea.
It's a really good idea.
Yeah, sucks for you.
But you need to do some research on rotaries.
Yeah, you have homework.
You got you got a lot of homework.
Dakota, your homework is pick a favorite color.
I'm going to give you one of my old electro mechanical
engineering books.
You're going to learn how to rewire your mark three
so you can get working audio.
Oh, my God, just like my dad.
One, I don't fucking read books to all pictures.
And the color.
Yeah, lots of colors.
The title was really scary.
So what do you see the pictures?
Yeah, the words.
All right.
Well, have a good weekend, everyone.
Subscribe, like all that jargon, help support the podcast.
And if you're looking to pick up a car part,
get it at martiniworks.
That way we can keep our job.
That's your listening.
That's the homework to do.
We'll talk to you guys next Friday.
All right, peace.
About this episode
Hosts kick off with wheel-brand talk and a Germany/Nürburgring work trip, then get into the stress of long-distance rotary ownership and the logistics of shipping titles and cars. The conversation turns into real-world wrenching: diagnosing a single-DIN radio that powers on but has no sound, wrestling with stuck trim, and sorting cooling/brake issues. Midway, they debate Ferrari’s EV design choices and discuss endurance-racing chaos at the Nürburgring, plus sponsor segments on wheels, coilovers, and tires.
