Steve Strope’s Martini-inspired Mustang and what happened when Matt helped film a TV commercial with actor James Franco?
CarCast
Steve Strope’s Martini-inspired Mustang and what happened when Matt helped film a TV commercial with actor James Franco?
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Car
Shelby Cobra
The Shelby Cobra is a classic sports car that is very light and super fast. It's famous for its racing history and is highly sought after by collectors.
Car
Cobra
The Cobra is a special version of the Ford Mustang that is designed for high performance. It has a more powerful engine and better handling, making it faster and more fun to drive.
Term
five-speed transmission
A five-speed transmission is a system in a car that helps it change gears. It has five different options for gears, which can help the car go faster or save fuel compared to a car with fewer gears.
Term
rear gear ratio
The rear gear ratio is a number that shows how many times the driveshaft turns for each turn of the wheels. It helps determine how fast a car can go and how quickly it can speed up.
Term
ring and pinion
The ring and pinion are special gears in the car's rear end that help turn the wheels. They play a big role in how fast the car can go and how quickly it can speed up.
Part
shocks and springs
Shocks and springs are parts of a car's suspension that help it ride smoothly. Shocks control how the car moves up and down, while springs support the car's weight and help it absorb bumps.
Term
NASCAR
NASCAR is a racing series in America where cars race on oval tracks. The cars are designed for speed and have very powerful engines.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough-looking SUV that can handle rough terrain like dirt roads and mountains. It's popular because many people love taking it on adventures, and it has a long history that makes it special.
Company
Nitto
Nitto makes tires that help cars grip the road better, especially for racing or off-road driving.
Company
Goodyear
Goodyear makes tires that are used on many cars and trucks, and some of their tires have white letters on the side, which is a classic look.
Part
tire size 26, 10.5, 15
Tire sizes tell you how big the tire is and what kind of wheels it can fit on. For example, '26' means it's 26 inches tall.
Term
325-50-15
'325-50-15' is a way to describe a tire's size. The first number tells you how wide the tire is, the second number shows how tall the tire's side is compared to its width, and the last number is the size of the wheel it fits on.
Part
275-60-15 tire
Tire sizes are important for how a car drives and feels. The numbers tell you how wide the tire is, how tall the sidewall is compared to the width, and what size wheel it fits on.
Part
quick jack
A quick jack is a tool that helps lift cars off the ground so you can work on them easily. It's handy for changing tires or doing repairs.
Term
ride height
Ride height is how high the car sits off the ground. It's important for making sure the car can drive over bumps without getting stuck or damaged.
Term
turning radius
Turning radius is how tight a car can turn. A smaller turning radius means the car can make sharper turns, which is useful in parking or navigating narrow streets.
Company
Leno's Garage
Leno's Garage is a place owned by comedian Jay Leno where he keeps and shows off his collection of cars. It's famous among car lovers and often appears in car shows and videos.
Car
Ferrari 330
The Ferrari 330 is a classic sports car made by Ferrari in the 1960s. It's famous for its beautiful design and strong engine, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
Car
Lamborghini 350
The Lamborghini 350 GT is an older model of sports car made by Lamborghini. It has a stylish design and a strong engine, and it's considered a classic car.
Car
Toyota Corolla
The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people buy because it's reliable and saves on gas. It's been around for a long time, so lots of people trust it to get them where they need to go without breaking down.
Term
carbureted
Carbureted means the engine uses a device called a carburetor to mix air and fuel. This was how many older cars got their fuel before newer systems were invented.
Term
throttle
The throttle is a part of the engine that controls how much air goes in. When you press the gas pedal, you're opening the throttle to let in more air and make the car go faster.
Term
e-brake
The e-brake, also known as the emergency brake, is a backup brake that you can use to keep the car from rolling when parked. It's usually a lever you pull up or a pedal you push down.
Term
clutch
The clutch is a part of a car that helps you change gears. When you press it, it disconnects the engine from the wheels so you can shift gears smoothly.
Car
Mustang GTD
The Mustang GTD is a special version of the Ford Mustang that focuses on high performance and sporty features. It's built for those who want a powerful and exciting driving experience.
Car
Plymouth Cuda
The Plymouth Cuda is a classic car that looks really cool and is known for being fast. It was popular in the 70s and is now a favorite among car collectors.
Part
cantilever suspension
Cantilever suspension is a special way to set up the car's suspension that helps improve how the car handles and rides. It allows for a more compact design, which can be beneficial for performance.
Car
Ford Mustang GTD
The Ford Mustang GTD is a super-fast version of the regular Mustang, made to go even quicker and handle better on the road. It's part of the Mustang family but with extra features for performance lovers.
Part
split inline Ford engine
A split inline Ford engine is a type of engine where the cylinders are arranged in two rows instead of a single line. This can help make the engine smaller and more efficient.
Company
Classic Recreations
Classic Recreations builds new versions of old Ford Mustangs, keeping the classic look but adding modern features to make them better to drive.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is a sporty car that looks cool and goes fast. It's been around for a long time and is often compared to other fast cars, making it popular among car enthusiasts.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast and stylish sports car that many people dream of owning. It's famous for being powerful and has changed a lot over the years to become even better.
Car
Nissan Gtr
The Nissan GT-R is a really fast sports car known for its amazing technology and speed. It's often called 'Godzilla' because it's so powerful and has a big following among car fans.
Company
CarEdge
CarEdge is a service that helps you buy a car by negotiating with dealers for you, making the process easier and less stressful.
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Hello, welcome to CarCast.
I'm Matthew Goethe, and we're here with Bill Goldberg.
How are you, sir?
I'm cold.
Cold.
The weather's changing, man, the weather's coming in out there.
We strategically finished the Cobra in ample enough time for me to drive it two or three
times before the temperature dropped 30 degrees.
Yeah, so now, I know I mentioned this once before, but all the great car people that
I follow on social media, it's getting closer to that time of the year with the like, I'm
working on my car, man, I was like, oh, because you can't go out, right?
You have winter.
We don't have winter out here.
We have rainy season and fire season, but that's about it in California, but today, this morning,
we were out walking the dogs.
I'm like, man, it's hot out here already.
The sun's coming down, but then it'll get a little chilly, but that's about it.
Yeah, so now we're just dialing the Cobra.
I know we got onto this a lot last week and not to beat this horse to death, but dialing
in the car, spending a little time, getting some seat time, having the guys come out and
ride along with you and suspension dialing it in.
You got the new five-speed transmission.
That's got to have a new first gear compared to your four-speed, so that's going to change
your rear ratio, right?
The rear end gear ratio.
That's our dilemma right now.
It's not a dilemma.
I mean, it's actually good in that it makes the car safer because it's not nearly as violent,
but yeah, it needs to be rectified so that we can match everything up and have the same
type of experience that we did with this four-speed.
But yeah, change the ring and panion.
I got some axle seal leaking issues, so we'll rectify the entire rear end when we have it.
Yeah, but that rear end wasn't a part, right?
That was just from when you had it before and when it drove before, so obviously no
gear changes.
You didn't rebuild it.
You didn't change seals or anything like that.
That was just all, I don't know, just cleaned it up, you saw the new shocks and springs
and just stuff around it.
And the reality is there's not many miles on the car, so there wasn't an apparent issue
that we could see, so there was no reason to take it apart.
We weren't going to change the innards by any means, but now we are going to have to,
so it's another step.
Hey, shaking these cars down, shaking the car down is a lot easier when you have a NASCAR
motor in it that rumbles the frickin' car at idle so much that before you even go out
on the road, you can figure out what's loose.
Thanks.
I guess there's a positive to it, but hey, man, it's a fun experience.
I'm ecstatic that I'm behind the wheel instead of trying to mount the wheel, but yeah, certain
issues.
So, but you got it to idle now and it fires up and it idles.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, so you have Clint's place, you have Manny's place next door, and there's a place
called Snake Eater right next door to that.
Yeah, that's what you were mentioning last week.
I told you, and I told them that it was going to be a time to hand the baton.
Now it's time to hand the baton.
They're the carb guys, so they came out and I mean, I don't know what's more embarrassing.
The fact that I forgot to change the rev limiter on the box, the MSD, or that I didn't identify
the vacuum leak instantly.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
But easy fix though.
Extremely easy.
The fabulous thing is that along the way, if we've had an issue, it's been something really
easy to rectify.
Yeah.
So, it fires up, it's driving, just working out a few kinks.
I meant to ask you, did you play around with the windshield?
Did you stuff anything underneath to try to close the gap?
Did you figure out what to do there?
I mean, I didn't take the windshield off yet, but.
Because we were talking like double stick tape or something just to get it in there.
Yeah.
The most thing that I put it this way, if you lift up, if you lift up the weather stripping
in the front that hangs down on the windshield, right, it attaches to the bottom of the windshield
and when you fix the windshield to the car, it hangs in front, right?
Yeah.
It's like a little flap.
I can stick my finger through the bottom of the windshield frame and see my finger outside
of the weather stripping.
On the ends or the middle?
Middle.
Middle.
Not on the ends at all.
So, it's like crowning, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
So, the weather stripper that I have isn't thick enough.
Now, yes, I could do the idea that we had, which I'm probably still going to do, but
I think what's going to happen is Clint's going to build me a carbon fiber little bracket
that sits on top.
You won't be able to see it, but it'll sit on top of the fiberglass and it'll sit right
in.
The frame will sit right into it and so it'll probably be 12 inches long, something like
that.
But it varies.
It'll be kind of bowed a little and it'll fill that.
I'll put clay down and then get a mold and then take the mold off and then clean it up
and then remand it back to the mold and some other type of material.
And I think that'll rectify it.
It'll be something that people won't see, but it'll surely give me the peace of mind
that the windshield is not going to move.
But it's not going to move anyway right now.
It's just knowing that I have that gap.
And I don't think air is going to get through because the weather stripping is so taut down
on the fiberglass.
It's just, I know it's there and I get a little bit of a wobble.
I mean, that fricking thing so violent anyway, it shakes everything down on the car.
But it's just a pain in the ass.
That's all.
It's not causing any type of a problem, but it's one of those things that I know is there.
Yeah, right.
It has to be rectified.
And it's just annoying.
That's all.
Yeah.
Whistling on gauge is a Bronco, right?
Because it was roll bar, this light bar.
Yeah.
Whistles, it's 50 miles an hour, it's pain in the ass, and it's one of those things
you kind of deal with.
Right.
Okay.
Well, it's good.
So yeah, getting it dialed in more, like you said, before the cold weather really rolls
in.
But, you know, out there, it's also kind of Midwest-ish weather changes on a dime.
I still got a couple of weeks, I guarantee you, to go out and enjoy this vehicle.
I actually tagged it yesterday for the first time since we've been here in Texas.
I got the Texas title for it, got it tagged, and so I'm legal, and yeah, no emissions
tests anymore, no nothing like that.
No inspection.
Yeah.
It's a nice $7 for every car out here, but it's just a pain in the ass, but anyway,
you know, another issue that we're having, it's not an issue, but, you know, Nitto and
Harry Kong has been friends of ours for an extremely long period of time, and every vehicle
that I have has Nittos on it.
But I couldn't do it here because I wanted the old nostalgic, you know, white-letter,
Goodyear look.
Yeah.
I spent some time going back and forth with Harry yesterday, and it looks as if they may
have something very close, size-wise, to the 26, 10.5, 15 in the rear.
So I'm going to give it a shot, and then we're going to do the, we're going to paint the
big Nitto on the side, and white-lettering, and so it'll be the same effect, the same
look, it'll just be the, my actual tire sponsor as opposed to Goodyear.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Look, it's worth a shot.
Honestly, I didn't even know it had a 15-inch, like, street.
I didn't know that.
I didn't think they did.
I thought like a truck tire, maybe, but I didn't think they had a 15.
Oh, they got R2s, man.
Yeah.
It's, it's really cool.
They got, they got a, it's a 325, 325-50-15.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's huge.
I mean, it's wide.
Yeah.
That's the problem.
The problem is, is it actually going to fit.
But you don't know until you try, right?
And the front, he suggested a 275-60-15, and I wanted to go with the 50-15 because I wanted
to match up the sidewalls, but we ordered both, and so we're going to do a trial and
a comparison and see what works, man.
But yeah, it's felt, I felt really guilty every side shot that I take.
Yeah.
Advertising good year when my tire sponsor is Nitto, so.
Well, you know, you've got, you've got the lifts and the quick jack and stuff over there.
So you could, you could put the car up, take one side of the wheels off and just roll the
tire into the wheel well, right?
Lower the car down, get it, get it to about ride height, put the tires on the ground,
you know, and just kind of see, you know, are the hubs lining up in the middle, take
a quick measurement, see how it's going to fit.
You can move that front tire around, you know, at ride height without even a rim on it.
You can just move it around in the wheel well just to see turning radius, just kind of how
it used to give you a quick idea.
Before you even bother mounting a tire or any of that stuff, you can get a couple photos
over to Nitto and go, this is, you know, kind of where we are, take a couple of measurements.
But yeah, 325 in the back.
The monster.
The monster tire.
I mean, it'll, it'll use every piece of it for sure.
It's two inches wider of a footprint.
And I just, I don't know if that's going to work out, but like I said, you don't know
until you try.
And so.
Yeah.
With the, with the wheel that you have now with the current offset, the current specs
on that wheel, the current backspace, do you have any room front to back?
Like, I mean, if it's two inches wider.
And you don't change the wheel, you need almost an inch on the front and then the back.
Right.
You know, so if it's all in the back, then you got to change the wheel.
I'm better on space on the interior than the exterior of the tire.
Right.
I've got more room on the inside than I do the outside.
So.
Yeah.
That's, that's the opposite direction because if you, with that wheel to bring it in.
You have to change the offset to bring it out.
You can add a little spacer.
Right.
So if you push the wheel out.
Yeah.
So a lot of this.
Yeah.
You got to cross your fingers for sure.
Yeah.
But look, this is, you know, it's, it's worth a try and part of it.
And it's, it's fun.
The only not fun part is going to be, you know, mounting and dismounting those wheels on the
one set of, or those tires on the one set of wheels that I have, the one set of knockoffs.
I wish I had two sets.
Right.
So I could just interchange the two as opposed to having to go out and buy a tire changing
machine or go to discount tire every three days.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But if it fits well, then yeah, you can, you can get another set of wheels.
Exactly.
Start working on the, on that part of the equation, right?
How many, how many sets of wheels and tires can you, can you have for that thing?
I'll tell you what, I was bitching and moaning about the luck, about the, the knockoffs.
Yeah.
They're really easy.
They're super easy.
As long as they line up with, with the studs, you know, initially it's a no brainer.
Right.
Yeah.
So it's just the pucker factor, you know, that you could be going, shifting from third
to fourth, going 90 and see one of your wheels rolling next to you at some point.
But with the little guards that put on the, the caps, oh, all that's.
Yeah.
Yeah, you should be fine.
Yeah.
You should be fine.
Just in the back of your mind.
That's all.
Yeah.
First car with knockoffs.
Yeah.
You know, we, you know, like I said, the racing cars have the clip in it, so it doesn't back
out, but you're right with.
I know that's, that's the clip that I'm.
And, and Adam's cars, when we drove the Lamborghinis around like even, I think one of the Ferraris,
the 330, like took that to Leno's garage and then took two of the Lamborghinis to the,
to Rodeo, to the, to Bruce Myers, like Father's Day show that he, he curates on Rodeo Drive
and, and yeah, got it before we even get it.
We just grabbed the lead hammer just to give it another, just, just to check just before
we hit it.
And then actually I took one of, I took the black Lamborghini 350 GT early in the morning,
from the garage to Chateau Marmont to film a, it was a Gucci sunglasses commercial with
James Franco.
So he was directing it and he was in it and he had called somebody on his team had called
Leno and said, we're doing this commercial.
We need a car.
This is kind of the idea that sort of the look of the commercial.
We really liked the car to be vintage and be black and, and, and Jay was like, I don't
have anything like that.
Now, I don't know for sure.
Maybe Jay was like, leave me alone.
Don't drive my shit.
Like it's good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then so he was like, call Corolla.
Right.
So then Adam called me.
It's like somebody on Franco's team wants to borrow the car.
We've got the car.
What do you think?
Should we do it?
And I was like, aren't you planning to sell that car?
It was like, he's like, yeah, I go, well, then do it because we'll be in a Gucci commercial
with James Franco.
Right.
And we'll get some good video footage to put up at RM.
I think we took that car to Amelia Island at RM.
And we just ran to get a better shot for it.
Yeah.
So we got a great commercial shoot out.
I was like, let's do it.
So, um, uh, yeah, but you're right.
Early in the morning, you know, fired it up, made sure of the fuel in it.
Um, uh, got the tighten the wheels, tighten the center locks, got it down there.
And then which was interesting was so I met with James Franco.
And I was like, here's the car.
It's fairly easy to drive.
I know you can drive stick.
Luckily he does.
He knows how to drive stick.
I go, but, you know, it's, it's carbureted.
It's got, you know, a bunch of carburetors on it.
Basically it's got individual throttle body and visual carbs on it.
It's got, uh, uh, stacks on it, basically the website.
Uh, I think it's, uh, that was on top and, uh, the 12 cylinder and he, he was fine.
I was like, so, you know, give it a little throttle.
Don't worry like, don't, don't worry about, you know, like give it some, you've got to
give it some throttle as you're letting out that clutch a little bit.
And you know, he, he was good.
Uh, he ran to find, he came back in and, um, he was just like the e-brake is sticking.
So I didn't even think about it.
We never used the emergency brake in that car.
Right.
Like we park it.
We just put it in gear.
We just, I never used that e-brake.
So he parked it and used the e-brake.
And when he let push the button and let it down, it, it just stuck.
Right.
It just stuck on the wheel.
He was like, it's dragging.
I was like, Oh, I don't know.
I was like, hmm, I was like, let's, let's switch seats real quick.
It was like, and let me drive.
And, and I just had to like throttle it hard to get off the clutch to, to get it to
move while that break was on.
And, and it was dragging that break.
And I'm, I'm, I'm just pulling up and down slightly on that e-brake lever.
I'm trying to get enough heat to, to make it, to make it expand, right?
To get it off.
So it took a few tries and then it worked.
It, it loosened it all up, you know, but I had to like, I had to like fly up and down
sunset and start hitting that break a little bit.
Franco, James Franco is next to me on it.
And he's like, so what is this that you're doing?
I was like, I'm trying to unstick that e-brake for you.
And the way to do it is I just got to get some heat into it because we can't get
it underneath there and, you know, spread the galliper or any of that stuff, you know.
And it worked.
And then he did a great job.
And then their, their crew, they, we did it early in the morning just to get a little
bit of sunset, but also like, they were filming at Chateau Marmont, but it was a driving
video.
So it was like, they needed to, to film driving like about sunset, sunset, boulevard and stuff.
I was like, guys, this is a very expensive road to permit, right?
And they're like, yeah, we're not, we're not really doing it that way.
That's why we're doing it at the bottom of the order.
So they, it worked out.
They, they, instead of putting cameras all over the car, there was some go pros, I think
inside the car, but it was really about taking a van, taking the van and the van had a,
the camera guy, side doors open, camera guy was in there with a rig.
And then I was in the van with him sitting behind him and someone was driving and they
just did a drive along.
So they had a good.
The guy driving the van.
Yeah.
As a plane.
Yeah.
So, and it worked and it ended up being, it looked, it looked great, but it was funny
because we all got there early in the morning and the car was set up and everybody was doing
their thing.
And then I was like, well, James Franco must live nearby or something, right?
And I was like, no, of course he's staying at the hotel, right?
Cause so he just comes down out of his suite and he's like, all right, we're ready, ready
to do this.
The only, the only part that was that sucked was they were like, all right, great.
What do we, what do we owe you for this?
I was like, you know, just come on in, be a guest on the Adam Krohler show, tell them
what you guys are doing, plug the movies, doing whatever.
And he's like, really?
I was like, yeah, this would be expensive.
You know, by the way, to rent a car like that, you know, that's $10,000, you know, like it's
not for filming and all that stuff.
That's just getting it there.
Yeah.
And how to be a different, it's got to be a different rate actually driving it.
It probably, yes.
Technically you would, you would have waivers and insurance and all kinds of shit, right?
So we just showed up and we let Franco drive the car and that was it.
And Adam was like, if you get some money out of him, he's like, keep the money.
I was like, all right.
And he goes, but see if we can get him on the show.
And, you know, at the time I was like, come on the show, do it.
And he was like, a hundred percent.
I'd love to do it.
I'd love to be on the show.
Then it's done.
It's filmed.
We wait like a month.
We call us PR people, call us people.
And we're like, hey, we heard that commercial went well.
Love to have you on the show.
And they're like, yeah, we're not putting them on your show.
Exactly.
And I was like, well, why not?
And they go, well, whatever the normal like blowoff is.
It's like timing's not right, you know, busy, got a film movie, whatever.
And I said, okay, but just to be clear, like, you know, this was a trade.
This was a deal that we did.
We spoke to James Franco.
He's very sweet about it.
Said he wanted to do the film or do the show, be on the podcast.
And then I don't even think he knows, right?
But his team was like, yeah, we're not doing that.
And then fast forward to like a year later, it was James Franco was doing a movie.
And they were screening the movie at like the Sony lot.
I'm trying to think of like, who was in that movie for getting his Brian Cranston.
It was the movie was like a comedy with Brian Cranston and James Franco, if I remember correctly.
And Brian Cranston and Adam are friends.
And it was big part of Adam's like crowdfunding campaign that we did for another movie.
He was hilarious.
He was great.
He called in.
He was on camera.
So it was Cranston's idea to go, hey, Adam, why don't you come to the Sony lot and you
can moderate this Q&A and it'll be funny and it'll be me to be James Franco and a couple
of people from the film.
Adam's like, great.
I'd love to do it.
So now Adam's backstage with James Franco going, you know, hey, let's go.
Let's go.
Let's do this Q&A.
Everything's great.
Everything's great.
And then afterward he's like, so what happened with doing the podcast?
Like he's like, what are you talking about?
I was like, you know, we did the film.
We did the commercial with you guys.
He set the car over and worked out great.
And I'm sure Gucci paid you a ton of money to do their commercial, direct it, act in
it.
And of course he was like, I don't know what you're talking about.
He's like, yeah, I thought I was going to do your podcast or whatever.
And then I don't know, shortly after that, I forgot what happened to Franco.
I think he hit on somebody when he was teaching.
He teaches like film course in New York.
And it was at the height of the cancel culture thing.
So he got, he sort of like canceled himself.
Like somebody was like, James Franco hit on me during class and, you know, it was a
student.
And then he's like, I'm just going to go hide for five years or whatever he ended up
doing.
But anyway, that's our, that's our James Franco Ferrari story, but I don't know that
he was on the podcast.
I don't know what happened there.
I don't even know how to comment.
Yeah, that's all right.
All right, let's take a quick break.
We'll be right back.
Hey guys, it's Matt again.
We'll be right back.
This isn't just a game.
It's a once in a generation event.
The Harlem Globetrotters 100 year tour.
Celebrate 100 years of high flying dunks, 100 years of showstopping moves, and 100 years
of changing the game.
Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.
This game is once in a century.
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Go to Harlem Globetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100 year tour.
Okay, so just looking at what's going on in the news and with SEMA next week.
So SEMA is next week.
I'm going to be out there grabbing a handful of interviews.
Like I said, we talked a little bit about that before.
I'm going to get a little time with Ring Brothers, but Steve Strope.
I don't know.
Do you know?
Have you met Steve Strope?
You know Strope, right?
So Strope's got like long hair now.
He's had long hair, hasn't he?
Yeah, he has for a little while now.
So he's at SEMA.
He's debuting a car.
I don't know exactly what.
Is it a CUDA?
I don't know what he's got.
Maybe it's a CUDA.
So going to get a little time with him.
If you guys don't know Steve Strope.
So Strope, great car builder, but he likes to.
He does this cool thing where when he sits down with his client and comes up with this car idea,
he likes to sort of create this backstory of a car going, you know,
what if this was the 60s and it was James Bond, but James Bond drove an American car instead of,
you know, instead of Vast and Martin.
But it's still needed to have like that suave-ness to it and stuff.
Like what would that be?
And let's turn that into, you know, a Mustang or something.
Or he took the opposite way.
He took this Mustang and, you know, put this Indy car engine in it and gave it a Martini livery.
And he's like, what if, what if Mustangs were racing in Europe back in the day?
And comes up with these really interesting themes for these cars.
One of the cars that he created as well, several in Fast and Furious.
I'm just the one that you guys might recognize was called Hammer.
I think it was in two of the films.
Where you really see it is, I want to say the Tokyo Drift one.
At the end of Tokyo Drift and that like parking garage, when he was like, hey, somebody wants to meet you.
Or somebody wants to race you and they cut to like Toretto just at the very end.
Like by, I don't know if it's part of the end credit or the end.
I'm pretty sure this is the car he was in. Toretto was in that this car called the Hammer.
Really, really cool piece.
He does some badass stuff, man.
Yeah, he does some really cool stuff.
But I tell you, one of the cars that I really, really love.
Well, he did two.
One was for a company called Anvil called this Anvil Mustang.
I don't know if you guys recognize this car, but it had this really cool like, like the engine just sort of like exposed.
And raw instead of all hidden underneath stuff, just super clean.
And then he did this cantilever suspension in the rear.
Now we have it in the Mustang GTD.
But years ago, this was this was in the back of the Mustang that he built.
Really cool piece.
Definitely one of my favorite SEMA builds of all time.
And then he brought a car to the studio and it's probably up on our YouTube channel, but probably from 12 or 15 years ago.
He calls it the Martini T5R.
This is what if Mustang had a very sort of European racing influence to it, like gave it a Martini livery, kind of a stripped down interior looks so cool.
But look at this.
This engine.
That's just the side.
Let me see if I can find a shot.
Here we go.
So this was like, it's a little tough to kind of zoom in on this.
You could probably see it.
You'll see it on the YouTube video, but this is the split indie Ford indie engine.
So the intakes are way out here onto the side.
It's not in the middle of the engine.
And then he just took the two like fog light scoops and just took a little bit of hose and it just blows a little bit of cold air without a box or anything.
So you don't hide it on there.
It's such a cool piece because if his projects were a television show, remember rides?
Yeah.
Less is more.
Everything counts.
Find details.
Expert craftsmanship.
100%.
Yeah.
Awesome cool stuff.
I think he did episode of rides.
He must have, right?
He's done some tea.
He maybe did a couple.
And he's been by the studio and he brought a couple of cars over and over the years.
And I know that martini Mustang was there.
It has to be up on the, on the, on the YouTube channel on our YouTube.
He's been around for a long time.
He's got his own ideas on his own way.
Yeah.
Doesn't conform.
And his shit is, is beautiful.
You know,
I like, it's along the lines of, of the ring brothers in a way, right?
For me in that stuff is raw.
I mean, the ring brothers cover stuff up by beaut by art sometimes,
but for the most part, everything they do is top notch,
but it's not, it doesn't overwhelm you.
Yeah.
Right.
That's, that's my interpretation.
And just, just a lot of thought to it.
It's not, and you've got to look at the big picture and you got to look at the
story of what you're doing and sort of the theme.
It's not really just looking at little pieces of the car going,
Oh, the bumper needs to be tucked in and it needs to be sectioned.
And then, you know, the back needs a little bit of this.
It's like, is that fitting the overall theme of it?
So here's the car on our YouTube channel 12 years ago with a young Steve
strobe here standing in the middle with his short hair.
And so this was 12 years ago, but I guess if you just look up like Steve
strobe, martini Mustang car cast, you'll find it on the YouTube channel.
I'll try to post a couple of links on social media as well,
but he just does this great walkthrough of the car and it's,
and talks about the engine and it's just such a, such a cool piece that
it's worth going back and, and, and watching.
That's a cool car.
Yeah, it's a cool car.
So looking forward to catching up with him.
We're going to talk to ring brothers, probably a little bit about,
get more detail on the, the Aston Martin that they built.
I think they have a Mustang coming out there.
Who knows what else they have.
They're always surprising us.
I'm going to talk to trick rides.
That's, that's what's his name.
We had the other whom I thinking of.
Jason angle, Jason angle.
Yeah, pretty.
He had classic recreations doing this great Mustangs and stuff.
And then maybe, I don't know, maybe sold the company and came back.
So he's got some new stuff going on.
And then, yeah, going to, going to chat with our friends at Holly,
see what, what, you know, on the parts side of things, what they have.
That's new, of course, a, a Tremac.
So, you know, the TKX been around for a few years.
You have it now in one car.
It's going to end up being in a bunch of vehicles in your garage.
And when he was on the podcast before,
he was talking about taking the Mustang, the GT 500 DCT transmission that they make
and putting it into a late model ish Ford lightning.
But I think what they're going to be debuting at the SEMA show is a transaxle,
which is badass now, right?
Because now the transaxle, half shafts go into it, it shifts in the back.
This is more like what the Mustang GTD has, you know,
and if that's going to be available to the aftermarket,
I think that's going to be interesting because the podcast I did recently
with the Roadster shop and those guys talking about the chassis,
their, their, their, I guess their spec series, sort of the turnkey chassis
for all sorts of muscle cars and trucks and lifted trucks and late model muscles,
90s Mustangs, the one they're debuting is a new Camaro, like 80s, 90s Camaro.
And they've got options on there.
And yeah, it'd be interesting to go to those guys go,
listen, you're making all these chassis, you have all the data.
What if we wanted to do a transaxle version?
So instead of a live axle, you, they have independent rears that they,
they make for certain platforms going, let's do, for example,
like the Fox body Mustang chassis, what if we do that with a transaxle?
Would that fit?
Can we make that work?
Oh, it's only a matter of time.
It's, it's right.
Those guys are going to go, I'm down for the challenge.
Let's do it.
Like what do we got to do?
Is it going to be both end?
We need to change the floorboards a little bit in the back.
Like, can we make it work?
So it's going to come down to that conversation with Tremac going,
you created a transaxle, but how, how compact is it?
Like how, you know, it's really about like when the TKX came out,
they're going, well, we've got the, the Magnum, the six speed,
but it's big.
It doesn't fit in a lot of muscle cars.
And the T five that they have is a little long in the tooth.
It doesn't handle the power, right?
So, and they had the TKO, I guess, which was still kind of a big case.
And a little clunky on the shifting, but was a five speed smaller than the six
speed.
So the TKX just has kind of the latest and greatest smooth shifting handles the
power, but the transaxles can be about packaging, right?
If you're going to offer it to the aftermarket, it can't be massive,
you know, but now we're talking about better weight balance, right?
If you take that, the TKX is, I don't know, is that 80 pounds, 85 pounds?
It's 82 pounds.
If you can take that roughly 80 something pounds from the front middle and move it to
the rear middle, could be interesting, right?
Could be interesting.
I mean, that's essentially what, what Corvette was doing before they went to the rear engine,
to the rear mid engine and what the GTD has done.
They're doing the transaxle.
Nissan GTR, you know, transaxle, so many cars doing transaxle for that, for that better
weight balance.
So, yeah, we're going to talk to Mike Kidd about that, see what's going on.
And I didn't know that that's a release.
I just saw it like on social media or their announcement or whatever to like come see
us at SEMA.
Here's the press release.
Here's the transaxle.
I'm like, this is interesting.
So you'll, you'll, you'll end up doing an independent rear suspension, not a live axle,
obviously an independent rear with the transaxle, which is basically the rear end and the transmission
all in one unit.
So the, the half shaft axles will go into it and then a drive shaft or torque tube or
something going in.
So now you've got to be thinking about the projects that are on your, on your chalkboard
or your whiteboard going, hmm, what's next?
Yeah.
What's, what's next?
All right.
So as I was saying, next week, because I'm going to be at SEMA, I'm going to drive as
many interviews as I can.
I'm going to try to release episodes, maybe some bonus episodes during the week.
It's not all going to come out during SEMA week because I think I have like eight or nine
interviews lined up.
But, and we'll probably end up doing a couple of interviews depending on how long they are.
I'm a couple of interviews in a single episode.
So maybe we'll get two or three interviews in one episode and maybe we'll get three or
four in another and another two somewhere else.
And then we'll just kind of figure out what the rollout schedule is.
But, but yeah, looking forward to it should be fun trying to get some YouTube stuff there
as well, but I'm a one man band.
So we'll, we'll see how it, how it turns out.
But you can do it.
All right, buddy.
I think we're going to wrap things up.
So you're off next week because I'll be at SEMA.
I'll be here in the garage.
You can sleep in.
You don't have to do the podcast.
Oh yeah.
Is that a thing?
Yeah, I wish.
I wish, but it's all good.
It's all good, man.
Well, let's have some fun this week and hopefully have some very positive news on the Cobra being
100% shaken down and.
Yeah.
Ready to rock.
I think in, you know, when it becomes available during, you know, maybe during this little
bit of a winter season, it'd be interesting to get that thing on the dyno, you know, maybe
when the gears and stuff are done, get it on the dyno.
See what kind of power it's making.
Make sure it's fully dialed in, you know, it'd be.
And put some miles on it.
Put some miles on it.
If anything, I just want to just, just to see that thing on the dyno in a video and
just see really what it's like here.
You know, it'd be badass because we've been talking about for so long and I don't know
that that engine's ever been dyno.
Like there's estimates on it and when they were.
I don't think it ever has.
Number two, it'll also give me the opportunity to get it in fifth gear for the first time.
Yeah, that's true.
Because I try the other.
I mean, it's just.
Yeah, I need about 20 miles of road and no one on the road next to me.
Yeah.
Well, the gear change in the rear will help.
Right.
If you're going to.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's because it won't be as long, you know, won't be because it's not really a top speed
car.
No, no, I don't want it to be a top speed car by any means because reaching that there
is what is the top that top speeds 200 miles an hour in that thing.
Yeah.
I wouldn't imagine I could never imagine going anywhere close to that in that car.
Yeah.
It's just like you're driving on a little go car and as you're as you're as you're
increasing the speed parts of it feel like they're flying.
It's just weird.
I feel like Fred Flintstone driving a frickin sitting on top of a NASCAR motor, but that's
that's what you want.
So I mean, it is with it.
All right.
That'll be that'll be fun.
It's really kind of see what those numbers are doing.
But all right, guys, thanks so much for listening and, you know, see my next week.
Hopefully you guys tune in.
Follow us on social media.
I'll try to get as many posts as we can.
But yeah, it'll be busy until then.
Keep the air and the spare in the bag of the wheel.
All right.
This isn't just a game.
It's a once in a generation event.
The Harlem Globetrotters 100 year tour.
Celebrate 100 years of high flying dunks.
100 years of showstopping moves and 100 years of changing the game.
Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.
This game is once in a century.
Be there at American Airlines Center on February 15th.
Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100 year tour.
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From all of us at Believe, have a merry Christmas everyone, and a happy holiday.
About this episode
Steve Strope shares his creative process behind building a Martini-inspired Mustang, blending vintage racing aesthetics with modern engineering. The episode also features a humorous recount of Matt's experience filming a Gucci commercial with actor James Franco, highlighting the challenges of driving a vintage car on set. The conversation touches on car modifications, the intricacies of filming, and the unique stories behind custom builds, making it a captivating listen for automotive enthusiasts.
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