The BEST Engine Swap You Can Do For Cheap Ft Minnoxide

Welcome back to the Martini Works podcast.

We sold Alex, and we got two dudes for him.

If you guys want to introduce yourselves, please.

Sure.

Well, I'm Harris from the Minoxide podcast,

and I'm here with my Ford-loving co-host.

Yeah, I'm Dan with Gunna Garage and Minoxide.

Awesome.

Welcome, gentlemen.

Yeah, we're stoked to have you guys.

Interesting take to have podcast on podcast.

So we're excited to learn a lot about you guys

and what you do.

You have a lot of really cool episodes.

You guys haven't checked out Minoxide.

Head on over there, give them some love,

and check out their episodes.

They interview all types of crazy automotive enthusiast shops,

performance stuff.

It's just crazy.

So who are you guys?

What do you do?

How did you get started doing this podcast journey?

Well, first of all, it's really weird

being on this side of the microphone.

It's crazy.

It's been a couple of years since I've done a podcast.

Yeah, no, this all kicked off for me.

I mean, it's safe to say Minoxide started in 2018,

which was right around when I was getting into college.

I had nothing going on, bored out of my mind.

And I couldn't even have my car on campus.

So on the weekends, I tried to take advantage of it

and go to car shows.

And I saw these guys were getting tickets

to the local auto show for free, because they

had pages on Instagram that were just posting photos.

I'm like, I can do that.

And I wanted to do with my brother,

but I ended up doing it by myself,

doing just a bunch of phone photos.

Then eventually my dad's like, why don't you

do an actual real camera?

We have a real camera sitting over here.

So I did that, got into photography,

started charging people eventually

after doing a bunch of free photo shoots.

Got really big into automotive photography for a few years.

Then I started running rallies, much like you guys with RVRR.

So did that with my partner for a while.

We did like, we tried to do the whole two-day thing,

got up to three days, rebranded like twice,

like just, you know, and then I went out on my own.

And then I lost a shit ton of money

and decided, can we sit on it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

Yeah, I've heard Alex.

He's a sailor.

Yeah, lost a lot of money on that front.

But while I was doing the rally on my own,

I also wanted to do a podcast.

And I wanted to do like the whole,

just kind of build a brand thing.

So like, I'll do a magazine, I'll do a podcast,

I'll do events, I wanted to do everything,

just anything automotive you could think about.

And then when that kind of went sideways,

I'm like, I'm gonna take a break

and I'm took about six months off or whatever.

And I'm like, why don't I just do a podcast

under the Minoxide banner?

And that's where this was kind of born.

I had to find a co-host that filled in those gaps for me.

And at the time, it was my buddy, Sean,

because those gaps were, I'm not very,

what's the word, hands-on with cars,

or at least at that point, I wasn't.

So I needed somebody to fill in that gap

while I could fill the tech side, you know,

cause I mean, I don't know if Dan could run a podcast,

I'll let you know how that goes, but.

But.

I'm good at this part.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The talking way.

But so anyways, Sean and I, you know, did that

and we realized that we wanted to interview guests.

So every single week, I, to this day,

I still haven't missed a week ever.

Nice.

Wow, that's huge actually.

That's like the hardest part.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, episode drops, 169 drops today.

Right.

So it's like, that was a big thing.

And then Sean became a communist

and moved to California.

Oh.

Well.

That's why I didn't joke.

No.

That's what I joke about all the time,

but he moved over there and at that point,

I actually had to find a new space

cause we're using his garage guests for coming to us.

And then we partnered with ratified motorsport

and it was basically like a little,

probably was like a storage closet.

It was an office space.

Turned that into like kind of like a Joe Rogan style

booth or whatever.

Got a lot of comments about that.

I always used to joke that they got sold out

of the Theo Von Blue curtains, you know?

Yeah.

Red it is.

But anyways, did that, did 10 episodes solo,

so I'm at SEMA, got lots of awesome introductions.

That was my first SEMA as well.

Oh wow.

Lots of introductions.

And then I was like, well,

I kind of want to co-host again,

just again, fill those gaps.

So here's the funniest thing about all this.

I actually wanted Dan to be my first co-host

before I went with Sean,

but the problem was is Dan was an hour away

and I had zero interest in driving to his place

at that point for every single episode.

Every single weekend.

Sean was like six minutes away from me,

three if I'm really speeding,

but that was kind of it.

So that's how Dan came back on to show us

and if he'd be interested.

And 120 some episodes later,

it's like, you know,

we're talking some really awesome, awesome people

and we realized that we had to travel

because we love interviewing people.

Like we started doing more of this

like chop it up on the side sort of series,

but we truly do get to see like a lot of America

and seeing like what people stand for.

So I think that kind of brings us up to today.

That's amazing.

Do you have any tips?

Cause like we went to Gatlinburg recently to a show.

We actually had a few people come up to us

and be like, how do I start an automotive podcast?

Going through all that,

is there anything you learned or any tips

you'd give to somebody that wanted to start

their own podcast?

The biggest thing I tell,

cause like I've helped other friends start brands

or pages or whatever,

some more successful than mine,

but it's like,

if you can admit to yourself

that you're gonna fucking suck at something,

that's the first step.

Everybody thinks they're gonna do a well.

You have to be honest with yourself.

Like you're going to suck.

And if you can admit that you could suck

for the first 10 episodes minimum,

that's what I tell people,

whether it's your first Instagram post, whatever.

If you're gonna admit that you're going to suck,

then you have a baseline to get better.

So that's the first piece of advice I give everyone.

Yeah, for sure.

It's like anything else.

It takes practice.

You gotta do it time and time.

Man, I look too.

I look back at some of my first videos and I'm like,

Oh, it's hard to watch.

It's everyone.

No one came out the gate swing

in with their first video.

It's a fact.

Some people do though.

And I've met some of those guys in the industry

and they give me advice too, right?

So there's some people that are just like

that one hit wonder right out the gate.

I always give props to Street Alpha

because he came out the Street Alpha podcast,

I just specify.

I love hanging out with that guy

because he's really doing the thing too.

And he came out swinging right out the gate.

You know, we're talking millions of views right away.

And I'm just saying, you're thinking like,

what am I doing wrong?

And I was comparing and I'm like,

oh, I can improve this.

Here's what he does.

And I hate that phrase that comparison is the thief of joy

because if you're truly honestly for yourself,

you won't run into that issue.

You can just find ways to improve.

And that's exactly what I've done.

And that's how we got here today.

Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it.

I think it can be bad to do comparison,

but if you can look at it in a healthy way,

there's so much you can learn.

I mean, it's an open book out there.

Go watch and see what's working and what isn't working.

That's some phenomenal advice.

Getting back to maybe more personal life.

How'd you guys get into automotive stuff?

Do you want to go first or?

Sure.

I have been just into cars since I was a kid.

My dad used to drag race like Camaros

and things like that back in the day.

Well, sure.

We became Ford people.

And then him and I bought a, with my uncle,

a 79 or no, an 80 Mustang Cobra.

And then it was one of those deals

where it just kind of sat around,

you go out and you buy a project with your dad

and then it sits in the garage

and nobody ever works on it.

We also had a couple of 69 Mach 1 Mustangs.

Again, we got them to a certain point

and then sold them off.

And then we got into Harleys for a little while

because the cars take up too much space.

So we rode bikes, then I started having kids

and then the whole bike thing didn't really make sense.

So then I got back into cars

and then at this time, work was going really well for me.

So I was a huge Foxbody guy.

True.

So I just started buying up Foxbodies like crazy.

I'm telling you, like every $1,500 marketplace Foxbody,

I was like, I'm on my way.

How many Foxbodies have you owned at one time?

Well, I haven't gotten rid of any of them.

They're all in my house, so yeah.

I am not joking.

If you come to my place,

there's probably at least 15 of them laying around,

if not, like I've kind of lost count at this point.

I have a good like four or five really nice cars,

like the ones I keep inside the shed

and then I have parts cars and things like that.

They're in piles all over the place.

At one point I might have them at other friends' places

and they were like, you gotta come get your car.

Did you say you have impacted the Foxbody economy?

Yes, yes.

I am the reason now they're $6,000, $7,000

for a piece of shit.

So then I just started getting into that

and then I remember I was on my way to a car show

and I couldn't, my alternator went out

for like the seventh time and I'm like,

I'm on the way and you gotta,

until your battery dies and then you're sitting

and you're waiting and I'm like, all right,

this is crap.

So I had just gotten another contract at work

so things were going well.

So I told my wife, I was like,

I'm gonna buy another car.

So I was shopping or whatever.

I wanted something newer

and I landed on a 2015 Mustang GT competition orange

and I remember posting it in a Foxbody form.

I was like, I took a picture of the center account.

I was like, look, 25 grand and now I got cup holders.

And then that car, I saw a friend of mine,

Paul Rody from Hudson, Wisconsin.

He does crown all the time.

And I saw his car all stickered up.

And I'm like, dude, rally.

I started Googling and looking in.

I'm like, that's what I need.

This whole sitting at a car show with a lawn chair

and new balance shoes, like that's not for me.

So I said, all right, cool.

So I started Googling and trying to figure it out.

And I came across RVRR.

And so I did year two of RVRR

and I was hooked immediately.

And so then after that, it was a snowball of

Whipple the car.

That was the very first mod.

I was gonna do an NA build, all that stuff.

Then you're looking at two, three, four grand,

sometimes even between doing all that stuff.

And I'm like, you know,

I'll spend an extra six and get a Whipple

and be good to go.

Heck yeah.

So then I just, then I got into modding cars

and running rallies.

And then it just snowballed into a very expensive,

unhealthy relationship.

As this thing tends to do.

I gotta ask, what is it about Fox bodies

that just has you infatuated with them?

I'm an 80s, 90s guy.

Like I grew up, I was born in 82.

So like all through the 90s, my uncle had one

and actually let me drive it to high school a couple times.

He had like a 91 GT, white, you know,

all the cool ground effects that everybody hates now.

And I just, I'm just being a Ford guy.

And, you know, we had those mock ones

and I love F-150s, like my truck guy too.

I've got some diesel trucks and things too.

It just, they just, I mean, they're still,

I mean, they're so versatile

and they were kind of like great drag cars

right off the gate.

Not that I'm a drag racer by any means.

They just kind of fundamentally loved by all, to be honest.

Absolutely.

Here's what got you into cars.

Dude, so my, let's back the bus up for a second.

Ooh, I'm already getting the company lingo.

Mark will get that one.

So my parents are immigrants to this country, right?

So they were always working like kind of like

just regular jobs,

but then my dad eventually got into selling cars.

And he's been in the dealership industry,

I think about 25 years now,

maybe a little bit longer now.

But I remember as a kid, I'd always get hot wheels.

There's probably a million of them

somewhere in the corner over here, but like,

but I remember I got a PlayStation 2

and Gran Turismo, I think it was Gran Turismo too

at that point,

but the red Viper with the white stripes,

that might have been silver if my memory's flaking on me,

but I know it's red and white.

And that was just my favorite car at all times.

And then obviously I grew up Mo Park

because my dad's a minority owner

at Dodge dealership now.

So it's like, you know, I got to check out,

you know, when the Hellcats first came out,

I was like, what's that whining sound?

That's stupid.

CO3 Terminator, and then you can figure out

where that came from.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Funny enough, actually, I remember my first time,

like in a manual car, it was actually a Grabber Blue,

I think it was a 500 at that time.

I think it was like an 08 or an 07.

Yeah, funny enough, he's like,

hey, watch this, if I let go of the clutch,

the car shuts off.

That's a weird flex.

He's like, show me how,

he was trying to give me two seconds.

I screwed rockin' back and forth with the light,

just shut the, yeah, just stall it.

I'm gonna have it lunge forward violently

and then shut off.

I remember that feeling exactly.

It was literally like on Canterbury Road,

like I remember it was awesome.

But, and then I've stalled many cars since.

But no, it was just kind of always

kind of like those video games and all that.

And I kind of took a little bit of a break

like during the middle school years,

I got really into Minecraft

and making money off servers and all that stuff.

Yeah, I don't know.

But then I got back into it,

like I started hanging out with this Russian kid

in middle school, I had to specify, of course.

And we started, I heard about cars and coffee and all that.

And then I really like, borderline got really obsessed.

And then that brings us up to the story earlier,

getting into all that stuff.

So, yeah, always love cars though.

That's super dope.

So, where are you guys at currently?

What's your daily driver or your fun car you have now?

I hate it.

I hate it so much.

Perfect.

So last October, I think it was,

maybe September, so I had a Mark 7 GTI at that point.

Typical, whatever, IS-38 turbo on there, intercool.

All the basic mods to make around,

yeah, see, to make 340 wheel, 390 torque, whatever.

It was the best car I've ever owned to date.

I'm still young and I'm 26 years old.

But what's it called?

Love that car.

It started to act a little funky

and I'm like, you know what,

let's go let some other 16 year old deal with this.

Threw it up on Marketplace, got the right price for it.

And at the same time, I'm trying to work a deal

at BMW of Minnetonka to get a Mark 8 GTI.

It was like the right price, right?

It was 6,000 miles, I think I got it for 29.5.

Like it was like a steal of a car.

And I loved it at first.

It was very updated interior, Audi-esque and all that.

It's the worst car ever made.

Yeah?

I agree with you from the bottom of my soul.

We picked up a Mark 8 GTI.

It's been the worst car we've ever owned.

Oh my God.

Do you have electrical issues up the, oh yeah.

Dude, the other day I told him, I'm like,

hey, damn, my entire screen just shut off.

I get this part.

Oh my God.

Oh, no.

I was hoping it was just a fluke.

No.

I was too.

Do your dome lights turn on and off

when it gets cold out?

No, shut up.

I gotta tell this story, dude.

Last year we're in Detroit, right?

And it's middle of winter.

I think it was like 10, 20 degrees.

And all of a sudden the light starts flickering on and off

and I'm like, what the fuck's going on, right?

And then we realized that because the car is cold,

we just got into it and every time our breath would go on it,

the lights would turn on and off.

Like, you know.

All that haptic stuff.

Yeah, the haptic stuff.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

So my foggy breath or whatever you call it,

every time we'd breathe, the lights would turn on and off.

Oh my God.

That's a cool feature.

Thanks, Volkswagen.

I'll sink down the road.

That's exactly what I want.

The haptics are the worst thing ever.

You know what, I'm not trying to keep it somewhat PG,

but the other day I went to go,

two or three days ago, I go to back out of my garage

and I'm like, all right, it's cold out.

We're in the Midwest.

It's freezing up here.

And I'm going to go turn it up, the heat,

and it's frozen and then everything just shuts off.

And I'm like, so anyways,

I want to go test drive an STI the other day.

Yeah.

Good.

And after driving it though,

the thing is though is like,

I really do love the interior to Mark 8.

Yes.

It's awesome.

Except for the haptics and all the electrical nannies

and all that, it truly is an amazing car,

but it's also so heavy.

It's such a pig compared to,

I think 200 pounds heavy on my last car.

So that's what I'm in currently.

So funny you say that because like the exact same experience

when everything's working and it's good,

I love the car.

It's amazing.

It's actually my wife's and she loves it too,

but it's so many weird electrical gremlins

and they're nonstop and we've taken it to Volkswagen.

I don't even know how many times and it's-

I should probably do that.

Yeah.

Well ours is just about out of warranty too.

So it was like, we got to get this stuff figured out.

It was like the parking sensors were going off.

Our SOS light was going off and calling emergency services

and just the other day even,

we had, we're just backing out of the garage

and one of the sensors picked up a leaf.

I don't know.

It slammed on the brakes like to the point

where our seatbelts locked up for like,

there was nothing.

I don't even know what happened.

I can't, okay.

So part of being a car guy is you back into places

all the time.

I can't do that, especially if I'm doing groceries

and I'm all back into the garage

and like backing at a reasonable pace

just slams on the brakes, give me a whiplash.

Like, this is super sensitive.

It sucks because it could be such a good car

but they like tried to jump too far ahead with it.

They made it too Audi.

Yeah.

They took the GTI out of the GTI

because like, I love the Audi interior

sort of style is again, very bougie.

I'm champagne tastes over here,

don't get me wrong.

But the problem is it's just,

for example, we want to do our little friends rally, right?

I went to go buy some Koenigs

which are the best wheel ever.

Nice.

Trying to get that sponsorship for years now.

And I went to go get some Hexa forms or whatever

because I wanted to have a summer tire

for this friends rally.

I'm literally, I'm the only cheap car in there.

Everybody else is like super cars and all this.

And I remember like when I found out that it was a pig

is when I went into oncoming traffic,

like cut the mustard and everything dude.

And I'm like, yeah, this car is not my last car.

Man.

But no, that's, it's got a warranty.

It's a daily.

The whole reason I got that car

because growing this podcast,

I have to invest everything into it.

The travel costs, as you guys know, are not exactly cheap.

You know, to do the put on the show is not cheap.

So the toys kind of took a backseat

and it's again, more about our guests.

Yeah.

Plus Dan lets me drive his shit.

Oh, there you go.

What are you driving?

Uh, which day?

What's running?

I daily, I've got a 2016 super duty,

six, seven power stroke, mild lift,

tune, deleted, all that good stuff.

And then I have a, I had a Lincoln town car,

which I still have to get rid of.

But I also have a 2015 Lincoln navigator

that is my first three, five EcoBoost.

And that one's fun.

The things you can do with a 7,000 pound SUV

with wind turbo V6 is kind of fun.

And then as far as for like fun cars,

right now I'm mostly driving a 2021 Shelby GT500.

Ooh.

Yeah.

That's got a lot of the VMP treatment on it right now.

I'm still waiting to pull it down and tune

once I can figure out who and how I want it tuned.

I've been burned by some tuners before

and I've had with the 2015 we were talking about earlier,

I had a couple bad engine experiences

that get very expensive.

And the drivetrain on the GT500 is like 25, 30 grand.

So I'm trying to not experiment too much.

Yeah, no.

That's fair, understandable.

I just kind of started with this building cars thing

and it's been trial by fire, I feel some of the times,

you know, you kind of learn as you go.

And then, you know, sometimes you look back and you're like,

oh, I was talking, I don't know if you heard me

talk about that fuse earlier,

that blew in my fuel controller.

Stupid, stupid little two cent mistake, but it's,

you learn now I'll be checking that for now on.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

We know we have a whole, my wife drives a 2013 Mustang GT

with a pro charger on it.

Those would be our two main.

Well, don't forget about the new daily,

which I still don't believe exist.

Oh, the Mach-E.

Ooh.

We went electric, you know, I'm telling you,

we're traveling around, we're interviewing

a lot of these car people, right?

Most of these big time shop owners, things like that,

a lot of them are getting these EVs as dailies.

First of all, the government is giving them away

or, you know, automakers, they're not selling them

like they were the Mach-E.

When I first looked at it, it was like a 50 or $60,000 car.

I bought one with 1,200 miles on it,

not even a full year old for 35 grand.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, it's full warranty bumper to bumper,

all that stuff still.

So it works great for my wife

to get back and forth from work.

The one who really sold it to me was Cannonball Garage,

Arnie, he's the current Cannonball record holder right now.

He got a Silverado, an electric Silverado.

The RST or whatever it's called.

When he told me, it's like a microwave or an appliance.

He's like, it just does everything I need,

I don't have to worry about it,

I turn it on and it does what I need to do

and I go to whatever.

And I was changing, the wife had the navigator before

and I was changing the oil every month,

spending $5, $600 on gas for her to drive an hour to work.

And now I plug it in, she goes to work,

I never think about the car,

it just goes where it's supposed to go.

She's not paying for gas,

it costs me like $25 a month to charge it in my garage

and I never have to think about it again.

Fair enough.

So that was what really sold it on me.

You can still use the navigator,

actually never donned on me driving the navigator

for whenever, but I don't hardly get around.

True, too early.

No, that's my dad's.

Well, I'm sorry, I do have two navigators.

It's in between the 10.5.

I do a lot of salvage vehicles.

Even my GT500, I bought it, body work all done already,

still needs paint, but it's wrapped right now.

At the time the car was $125,000, I paid 70 for it.

So, and I tracked my cars,

I beat the living hell out of them

and I didn't want to do that with $125,000 car.

So, the navigator is the same way,

I bought it off auction and I put a new front end.

So I had to buy a parts truck to fix the other truck.

And then the parts cars never leave my yard.

My neighbors hate me, it's bad.

I have my own junk yard for sure.

Interesting.

It's cool to hear though,

like someone that's into power, into tracking,

into racing, doing that kind of stuff,

but being open to an EV and then, you know,

trying it out.

Dude, we see that so much.

So many people are so standoffish about them.

And it's like, I mean.

It can't be a car guy, N and EV owner.

It seems like it's not a thing.

Yeah, exactly.

But I think they do have their place

and it's impressive some of the tech that's gone into them.

What's your thoughts on the Mach-E

holding the Mustang nameplate?

That bothers me a little bit.

Sure, sure.

But I think just from some of the people we've talked to,

like I said, I kind of would,

so they were doing this thing with the OEMs

where like with the gas guzzler taxes and stuff.

And then they had to like,

for some of these things to do like the Hellcat

and the GT500, right?

They have to buy like,

they have to get like credits from the government

for, you know, emission stuff.

Well, I think by giving the Mach-E a Mustang name,

it helps offset the V8s and the Supercharged V8s, right?

I think it was something like that.

Maybe double check that one, folks, but.

I don't know for sure.

I mean, it would make my theory and my theory only.

Don't make me feel better.

But otherwise, no.

You're not all horrible.

It could have been an escape,

or it could have been the Maverick

instead of that weird truck that is the Maverick.

I do like the Maverick.

Here's the other thing when it comes.

You can get a Ranger over a Maverick though, like.

This looks weird to me.

We've noticed that the more,

the more horsepower guys are accustomed to,

like the big shops.

The more luxuries guys have,

the cheaper and like easy stuff

is so much more appealing to them.

So like, again, fast guys for some reason

are loving the EVs right now.

This is just the appliance you plug in.

Like freaking Calvo.

It's not working on their 1,000 horsepower car constantly.

They get it broken all the time.

Yeah.

I kind of get it though.

It's like, like you said, it's like, yeah,

these owners of the shop,

the guys that are like constantly fixing shit

and working on shit,

they just want something

that they don't have to worry about.

But like you said, you're like,

I'm not doing a damn oil change every month anymore.

I'm not paying.

It's like, it just works.

I'm fixing everything else all the time.

I just want something that works.

That totally makes sense where they come in.

For sure.

Yeah, Mark, A, G, T, I, and that plan goes there too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, no, no, no, no.

Man, like it's nice knowing there's someone else

out there going through that,

but it's also horrible to know that

because I was just hoping these issues would be fixed

and it'd be good.

What you were telling me,

I should sell mine yesterday.

Yeah, well, that's how I'm feeling now too.

Yeah.

But cool.

We're going to take a quick break

and we'll be right back.

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All right, welcome back.

Now I am interested you guys.

It seems like you're into the power function side of things.

What's your take on stance cars?

Oh, he's gonna come right out the gate with that.

Yep, yep, yep.

I'd like to think, well, I'd love to hear your take.

Actually, this has got me interested, but here's the thing.

That's what I was always interested in, right?

Like I was always just like wheels, coilovers,

and I think that really makes or breaks a car.

We've had some VIP car guys on the show

before we learned a lot about that scene.

And it's super cool.

Basically anything that requires a lot of effort,

I think me and Dan both agree on this, hopefully,

that we can respect it, right?

But then it starts getting goofy.

Like who's that guy to burn down?

It was in our exchange.

Oh yeah, oh my God.

Yeah.

I think the name says it all.

Is he still with us?

He's doing his own thing.

He's out there vibing, doing whatever.

But the point being, that's where, again,

I've seen where those kind of cars can have a lot of effort,

and I can respect it.

Like if that's what makes you happy, cool.

As long as you're not on the speed bump in front of me,

making my life a living hell, cool, whatever.

I've even had stance guys reach out

to be on the show before.

Personally, it's just not what we're interested in.

And we've kind of strayed away from the show car

and people on our show.

Not that there's anything against them.

I love you guys.

But I just talk to whoever I'm interested in at the time.

Sure, totally fair.

Totally fair.

Dan, what are you thinking?

You fucking sucks.

Yeah, that's what you feel.

Again, I think some of them look really cool.

I think some of them look really ridiculous.

Like you went way too far with it.

I'm kind of, I like things clean.

So things that are overly modified,

especially when it comes to looks and things.

I don't need it to look like you just went to O'Reilly's

and bought everything with double-sided sticky tape.

You know what I mean?

So it's OK.

And again, anybody who's in this car industry, I'm cool with.

Like I appreciate all of it.

But I prefer to do things with the cars

that are built for.

For me, it's getting the adrenaline rush.

I do a lot of track days and things

like that when I can.

But the adrenaline and the stuff I get when

I come off of a 30-minute session at Road America

is I can't even repeat it.

I mean, it's in this car.

I'll tell you how you can repeat it.

You get a stance car and go over a speed bump.

Same adrenaline.

Crazy adrenaline.

Freaking out.

I've been on a rally with 20,000-dollar wheels.

Well, yeah, that's crazy to me.

I hope that you don't hit them on anything.

And then the rubber is stretched out to the edges.

So I was on a rally with somebody one time.

And they were like, they got a flat tire.

And they were calling around to discount tire.

And I was like, they can't help you.

You're going to bring that in and be like, I have an 84-inch

wide rim.

And I'd like you to put a 2-inch tire on it, please.

They're going to go, no way.

Get out of here.

So it's a guy.

Yeah, exactly.

No, I felt so bad for her on that one.

That was a tough one.

I think they actually called Alex on that one.

Well, it was during an RVR.

All right, it wasn't going to call her out.

But thanks for bringing it all up.

Oh, as if you gave enough details.

Yeah, yeah.

It just, I think some look really cool.

I think some, like this car is styled like something

that could be, I would look at it and be like,

that'd be cool stance style.

But there's some that body lines and things like that

doesn't need to be that way.

Well, actually, here's a question for you guys.

OK, so what defines stance, right?

Like, is it just basically like, all right,

good wheels and blah, blah, blah, blah, or like?

I think in the sense of that question,

it was more so the more cambered out.

These look like there's a tie rod broken.

And you're tired from that stance, right?

Listen, someone stepped on it.

Yeah, yeah, OK, OK.

In the more broad term of things, I mean,

you can have functional stance.

You can have a meaty stance, too.

So you could go that way with it.

But in the essence of that question,

I was definitely leaning more towards the car

show side of things and fender to lip type

fitment or cambered out.

Yeah, the stretch tire, yeah.

Yeah, I was really into it.

I really enjoyed it.

I would say, like, as I got older,

I stepped away from it a little bit more.

But I still appreciate it so much because I was into it.

And like you guys said, which I really appreciate, too,

is, like, it might not be my style,

and it might not be my thing, but if you did it properly.

There's levels to it, as I see it.

You put the effort in it.

Because, I mean, it's like anything, right?

There's so many different sides of the car scene

and where you can go with it and what avenues you take.

And from mini truckers to low riders to car show cars

to crazy drag builds, each one spends just an insane amount

of money and time in their craft and what they do.

So I've always really, I don't know, I haven't been picky.

I don't see myself in one corner of the car scene.

I kind of am broad in it.

I enjoy all of it.

Well, you brought up mini trucks there.

So the episode we're dropping today, actually,

it's like patients' metal fab.

Like, they got their start in mini trucks, right?

And like when they were like, because I never

pushed harder on the questions on that

until this last episode, I was like, what goes into that?

And they're like explaining what goes into a mini truck.

And they're like, yeah, there's a lot of like big names

in the industry that got their start in that scene.

Because it's not easy to have a pretty bad-ass mini truck,

apparently.

Yeah, no, not at all.

It's funny you brought that up, too.

Like, that was one scene I never really understood.

I was never into.

And then I had a couple of friends who were in it.

And I met just through the car scene

and caught myself a few late nights at the garage,

hanging out with them and seeing what they did

and what they put in.

Now I love them.

I got to, there's something about the mentality of like,

oh, I'll just make the frame myself.

That is like.

You're not just putting on coilovers

and doing a few things.

What do you mean you're just going to try it?

Like, yeah, we'll figure it out.

Like, holy shit.

Literally every centimeter of the vehicle is custom.

It's touched.

It's changed.

And it was like, wow, I didn't realize that looking into it.

Was that technically stance?

I guess it was.

I would say that's stance.

It was a form of it.

It's definitely broad.

I do think there are some very poorly stanced cars out there.

Oh, 100%.

Trash.

Just like I said, it comes back to that whole effort thing.

It's like, I know people who have a lot of camber

on their cars, really stretched tire, really low.

But it's like the suspension that they put on it,

the time that they put in to figure out what wheel specs

they needed to run this amount of camber,

like the tire sizing to be able to get the car to actually

track straight going with that type of fitment

and everything like that.

Spending all that money, all that time, all that effort,

versus someone just being like, oh, I just took the springs out.

Which was a real conversation we had at Gullumberg.

It's like, and it's like, oh, I don't care that the bumpers

all beat the shit.

I'll just spray paint it back to a different,

kind of somewhat similar color.

It's like.

You sound like a drifter.

Yeah.

Hey.

That's the same thing.

There's low effort.

And then there's, I know guys that take so much pride

that they get one rock chip and they are taking the car apart

and learning how to paint and going all into that.

So it's just.

Coming back to the Volkswagen conversation.

Get into the Mark IV era again now.

Yeah, those guys literally go nuts with their car.

Sealing every single hole from factory and everything, dude.

It's nuts.

Absolutely.

So leading into that kind of overbuilding,

underbuilding, what do you guys think

is like a good power level for like a daily driver?

When do you think it's overkill?

And where do you think like the sweet spot is?

I don't know.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a thousand horsepower

Mach-E.

It's electric, baby.

Doesn't it?

It pulls as hard as my GT500.

That's crazy.

All the way up to about 95, and it's like, OK, this sucks.

The GT500 will hit 190, and you won't even know it.

But yeah, no, it's fun.

I think it depends on the car, too.

If you have just the NA 600 horsepower Corvette,

you're probably fine.

But then you start getting something nasty,

and it's like, what can you deal with?

What I can deal with, I'm 26.

I can deal with a lot.

But then some guys, they just don't have that ability

to take the abuse either.

Also, here's the other thing.

I don't think horsepower really has much of an impact most

at a time, especially when it comes to turbo cars.

It's like, you're not always at 2,000 horsepower

on the street.

I literally had a friend.

He put, what was it, 20,000 miles on his 2,000 horsepower

Enthmodo Viper.

Enthmodo Vipers are in their own class, though.

That is its own class.

But dude, he drove from Minnesota down to Oklahoma

and back.

Damn.

No problems whatsoever.

He took people for rides down in Oklahoma.

Like, it's possible to daily drive a high-power car

because you're not always at max RPM.

Just because it can do that doesn't mean that it's

doing that.

And I will do that.

Yeah.

If you're responsible enough with all that power,

that's the tricky part.

What I've found, too, as I've aged as a car enthusiast,

is recognizing my limits, too.

It's like, I think I get to a certain horsepower in a car,

and it's like, well, I can't even push this to the slightest.

And I've found that I can be just as happy in stock Honda

S2000 and ripping that in the back roads

and have as many smiles on my face

as like driving a twin-turbo 1,000 horsepower Audi R8,

depending on the situation.

What about a stock Mark A GTI?

How does that?

Are you so happy?

That makes me cry a lot.

And stay up at night wondering where I went wrong.

It's so funny, and we're getting back on that.

But it's like, I've had such, well,

I say good luck with Volkswagen's,

but they really just all have their problems,

but you pick them up.

All roads of misery lead back to Volkswagen.

Some of them you can cope with, yeah.

Electrical gremlins probably are the worst issues

you could have in a car.

I'd say like, you're just chasing stuff.

Like the whole parking sensor thing on the front bumper

was fixed by replacing the shark fin antenna on the roof.

He's crazy.

What?

Yeah, they told us that.

I was like, please don't do that.

I don't want to be back here for the eighth time.

We know that's not going to fix it.

They're like, it's in the instruction book.

Yeah, and they're like, we have to go through it.

It's procedure.

So just let us do it.

Oh my god, OK, it's under warranty.

So go ahead, try.

We replaced your right license plate screw.

Yes.

I think that's going to be fine, yeah.

Literally.

But it worked.

So it's like, I don't even.

And I never would have found that.

That's insane.

I wouldn't have even thought to try that.

So yeah, that's not fun.

That's not a good time.

But yeah, it's just interesting.

It's cool to hear the wide variety

that the Mach-E is pulling similar to this.

So it's 0 to 60 is like 3 tenths of a second off

of what the GT500 is.

But again, the Mach-E is all-wheel driver thing.

So I slip a little bit when I get going.

It's the perfect car.

But it all depends on what it is when we're talking horsepower

too, right?

Because what I get in a 800 to 1,000 horsepower Mustang

and feel pretty good all day long as far as reliability

goes, pretty good as long as you're coming in.

So she's got like an ESS on it or something?

Yeah, yeah.

But would I get in 1,000 horsepower Subaru

and think that was going to live more than a couple of drives

around the block?

Probably not.

So how much do you want to punish yourself depending

on what you're driving?

Yeah, absolutely.

Brother, we were watching before you guys came.

It was one of the shorts you guys did on the Subaru-powered

helicopter.

Oh, that should have blew my mind.

Yeah, I know.

You have to be like, no, you won't find me anywhere near a

helicopter with a Subaru engine in it.

I mean, they have a bad rat.

I'm sorry.

Both of those things have terrible reputation.

But that's the crazy thing.

So I did a bunch of research on it.

And like a ton of planes and helicopters

have Subaru engines in them.

I did not know that.

Yeah, it's a lot of like most ones.

I'm going to write those ones down.

Like a flat.

You know that 737 in the bottom of the Pacific?

Yeah.

That one.

With that being balance, right?

I mean, the whole thing with Boxer engines

is meant to be smoother, right?

No.

What do you think of the sound?

I love the sound of a Boxer.

I enjoy it.

I like how the Subaru is sound.

It's the best sounding floor banger.

Yeah, I had a FRS for quite a while.

And that was my first new car that I modified

and did stuff to.

And I remember putting the exhaust on it for the first time.

And I did the whole unequal length header and everything

like that.

It really Subaru-ed it up because it had the F-A20 in it.

And I loved it.

I was like, this is the best sounding car ever.

I think they sound good.

I don't have a hate towards Subaru's.

I just don't want to own one.

I'm happy to see others have fun with them.

They can have their fun with them.

It's just the track record.

Isn't fantastic.

Have you guys had any, besides the Mark 8 GTI,

any nightmare cars or any cars have just been trouble to you?

I had a Chevy Silverado that I absolutely hate.

The one Chevy you had or what?

I do have a Beretta.

I have a 94 Beretta Z28.

Oh, cool.

Z26.

I'm not a GM guy, but I had a Beretta Indianapolis 500

pace car in high school, a 90.

And I did like that car a lot.

So I have another one.

Although it's at a shop, and it's

been there for like two or three years,

and he was supposed to just do an engine replacement,

and I keep getting to run around,

and I don't know what I'm going to do there.

Oh, man.

I've owned one Chevy that I blew up.

Yeah.

It's a Equinox.

I have a friend of mine that's got a 2019, 2020.

He just called me the other day, and he's like, hey, man,

126,000 miles.

I need a new engine.

I'm like, why?

Yeah.

Well, it's that DOD delete, the cylinder where they shut off

half the cylinders.

It's a horrible, horrible thing.

Chevy 5.3 is known to be a pretty reliable engine, right?

Like, you can see one at 300,000 miles, no problem.

But now we're just going to shut off half the cylinders

while you're cruising down a highway.

That seems like a really good idea.

So now they become where they get oiling problems,

and then the engines blow up before you get to 140.

We've got another friend in the same group,

and he's got a Gen 1 Coyote F-150 with like almost 300,000

miles on it.

Not any issues.

So there's just things that some people

do sometimes that you're like, all right.

And most of the Chevy's I've owned were from that like 05

to like 2010 era when they were getting bailouts and things.

And I think they were cutting corners,

and all the buttons were rubbing off,

and all the plastics on the inside.

And I just don't think they had the fit and finish

or the look that I get.

But Dan does have a C8 ZR1 allocation.

Oh, OK.

But it's like, wait a little bit.

I want to drive one.

I don't hate, like, I choose to give GM guys shit

just because that's the, like, if you can't have fun.

Yeah, exactly.

It's the rivalry.

But you know, would I drive a C7 Z06 around

and probably have a really good time?

Absolutely.

But it's, I got to choose one to pick on that.

That's better enough.

And I'm just sitting here in the middle, Mopar.

It's chilling.

Mopar.

Not a part of the film Rivalry.

Yeah, you're saying big Mopar guy into that.

And then how'd you end up in Volkswagen?

So actually, that's kind of a funny story.

So when I got my Mark 7 GTI,

so let's see, I was leasing a Gladiator at the time

and I was coming up on my mileage or whatever.

And I was like, I want to get rid of this thing.

Yeah, Cherokee and Gladiator.

Dude, by the way, Cherokee, the Cherokee Trailhawk I had

was one of the best cars I ever had.

Really?

I love that thing.

Dude, I was a demon in that car.

You mean with the red tow hooks?

Yeah, the red tow hooks.

The red tow hooks.

Dude, one of the best cars I ever had.

Then in the Gladiator, I was getting rid of that.

So anyways, somebody traded in a S4 at my dad's dealership.

I think it was like a 2011 or 12.

And I heard good things about that sort of era.

I had like an APR tune and all that stuff on it,

which I was a little hesitant on.

So I hit up my buddy Kyle at the time

and I'm like, hey, what are your thoughts on this?

He's like, it's all right.

I probably won't go for it or whatever.

And I was like, and there was other reasons

I didn't go for that car.

Yeah.

God, it was a murderer.

But apparently, allegedly, that's what I heard.

It's wild, OK?

I didn't ask for any details.

By the way, if you're a murderer and you have a car to sell cheap,

I will buy it.

I don't care who you are, what you got.

Yeah.

I have no self-respect when it comes to that.

I'll continue on that story in a second.

But talk to some detailers who do hazmat.

No, I can't imagine.

I've heard stories.

That's got to be the worst job in the world.

Disgusting.

But so anyways, I asked Kyle, I'm like, hey,

would you ever sell your GTI?

Because I drove it a year prior for my series

I was doing at the time.

I can't remember what it was called.

Basically, I would just go test drive people's cars

and review them or whatever.

And at that point, I was making about 100 horsepower

or less or whatever.

And I liked the car at the time, almost put in a tree.

But I asked him, would you ever sell it?

He's like, no, but whatever.

Three weeks later, he gets back to me.

He's like, so what's your offer?

I'm like, what do you want to sell it for?

Got it for a good price.

It was a little bit COVID inflated,

but I managed to talk him down, got the cone eggs included.

Nice.

Sponsor me, Koenig.

Are they behind me?

Are they behind Alex's shirts over here?

But what's it called?

Yeah, and then that's how I ended up in that car.

OK, interesting.

So would you consider a dodge?

Or is there a reason you?

Oh, yeah, no, so I'm really glad you're here.

This changes every day.

I get that.

I'm that way too.

That's the sickening part about what we do, right?

Is we, every time we leave a podcast,

me and Dan are like, so we're buying one of those,

right?

I'm literally on Marketplace before I leave

I can only imagine, dude, like you get to know like things

that you've never even heard of or like seen before.

Oh, yeah.

When they tell you the real truth.

It was like that, like Alex would make videos

and I used to edit his videos in the past.

And by the time I was done editing the video of him

explaining about a certain car making,

I was like, this is my dream car.

I'm like, this is me now.

Searching how much these things actually don't do.

I still, and I'll get back to your dodge question.

I still really, really want, and maybe Dan agrees with this,

I still want to get like an E36, E46,

and EcoBoost Swap, because we had GemSport on.

They're near Detroit, and that's what they're known for

is EcoBoost Swaps, and they are amazing

in like throwing into it E36 or 46.

Dude, I've seen so many EcoBoost Swaps lately, they're crazy.

So, you should listen to that episode

if it interests you at all, because the reason is

the RBs and the 2Js, all that stuff is crazy.

You can put an $800 EcoBoost.

I have an S13, and it's like I've been seeing,

you know, on Facebook and everything,

and the Instagrams is everyone's like, yeah.

So you follow Josh ST then?

What's that?

Do you follow Josh ST on Instagram?

Yeah, so EcoBoost Swap, S13.

Exactly, yeah, so it's like, you know,

SRs are getting expensive.

It's like, KAs are, you know, they're KAs.

Like they can be decent, but it's like, you know,

EcoBoost came in fucking everything.

You can go get them for dirt cheap,

and it's already a boosted platform.

Any old Riley's grab a gasket, a part, a piece, yeah.

Interesting that, I mean, it totally makes sense.

I haven't seen that.

I didn't realize everybody's EcoBoost Swap and everything,

but it does make sense as you say it.

What are your thoughts?

I'd like to hear your thoughts of being a big Mustang guy

and enjoying the EcoBoost platform.

It was kind of controversial.

A lot of people were upset with the four cylinder

turbo Mustangs, you know, it needs a V8, it's American.

What's your thoughts on that?

So I also kind of respect the tuner aspect of things,

like I'm a big V8 guy, but I also,

like I went before I got the G500,

I was shopping for a Focus RS.

Nice, nice.

So I wanted something, I've been driving these big,

heavy cars for a long time, and I was like, dude,

I want to just like turn the wheel and have the car go

without me having to muscle it.

It'd be kind of fun.

So I don't mind, I have a wrecked EcoBoost Mustang

at the house right now, again, in the junkyard.

Every question we ask, it leads to a new car

that's in the stable.

I do have one of those, actually.

I love it, I love it.

I have an 88 Thunderbird turbo coupe.

They came two, three turbo from the factory and 88,

you know, it's a big, giant iron block shitty turbo,

like 190 horsepower deal.

But I'm like, it's going to get EcoBoost swapped.

So that's why I have the car.

It's rather than buying an engine like a normal person,

he buys an entire wrecked car.

I'm a big co-part guy, by the way.

I love co-part sponsor me.

That's awesome.

Man, yeah, EcoBoost and E46.

I thought the same thing though,

like when I was going into that podcast,

I was like, so how I met that guy was through,

I don't know if you guys ever saw that Cybertruck

that went viral a few years ago

that hit a Corvette at Woodward,

but it's basically a pre-runner Cybertruck, right?

No, I did not see that.

Because of that guy,

we got to meet the guy behind JemSport

and we, again, I'm like EcoBoosting.

Okay, damn, let's go learn about this, I guess.

Because that's our approach for our podcast.

Like we want to learn by the end of it

or have a great time, sometimes they mix.

And we were just like, wow,

this is like a really legit platform

because like that drift car, Josh Estee,

it's like he's done probably a few hundred runs

and you know, drift cars probably beat the car

more than any other application I imagined.

So yeah, no, I'm sold on that.

We said it can take like 300 pounds

out of the front end, too.

Wow, yeah.

I think it was two or 300 pounds or something like that.

I think, yeah, no, it's legit, right?

And they were debating the EcoTech platform,

but the problem was is I think the EcoBoost came out

just slightly cheaper, I think it was.

I think that's why I did, I don't know,

listen to the episode.

Oh, but to answer your dodge question though, 100%.

And I think people who are nagging on the new hurricane

don't know anything because I think it's gonna be

as good as the S58 because you're talking about,

I think it has a forged crank in it,

it has all these like forged parts,

like it just has high end parts in it.

Now, the EV, actually, me and my brother

both considered getting the EV one

because the lease deals were insane.

They were, I heard you talk about it, yeah.

Yeah, nuts, yeah.

We were driving by and we were like,

that was not the right place.

Yeah, like there's no way that's real,

but they're doing it.

I'm telling you, they're giving away.

They are!

Well, you say that, and I have a follow-up question

for you, sir.

So we looked into it and my brother even entertained

the idea of the Wagoneer S, which is an awesome EV.

It was a badass Jeep or whatever,

but when he went to go call insurance though,

even though the lease would have been

like, I think $299 or whatever month,

they're cheap for a $70,000 car almost,

the insurance I think was like $600 a month.

Ooh, what?

Yeah, $600 a month.

Now granted, my brother's a young'un.

Yeah, okay.

He's five years younger than me, right?

But either way, it's like, you know,

I mean, to be fair,

from the insurance company's perspective,

if you're gonna put a 20 year old

in a 600 horsepower EV, yeah.

So I get it, but at the same time,

it's like, all right, cool, the car's cheap,

but now the insurance is the roof

if they even take you.

But I actually, if things go well,

I would strongly consider pre-ordering one even,

the new Hurricane powered charger,

I'll call it a Daytona, a Skapec, six pack or whatever.

Cause I think the tuning on those is gonna be insane.

Too bad it's such a heavy pick of a car.

I would love a Dodge Viper as anybody would.

Right.

Being, Enthmodo used to be right in my backyard, right?

So I would literally hear those cars allegedly in Mexico.

And also my neighbor was ratified motorsports.

I would occasionally hear a thousand horsepower RS3.

So just all these V10 sounding cars.

I think, I think, and also, I don't know, guys,

seriously look into the new four cylinder

that Stalantis is about to put out.

It might, again, it's too early to tell,

but it could kind of be, it's something to look out for.

It's like a, it's derived from the hurricane.

I don't know.

Interesting.

I'm just mumbling at this point.

I like it.

I like hearing all that.

But we don't talk about mopars too much.

No, we never get to talk about mopars.

I don't blame you.

There's nothing to talk about.

There's nothing to talk about like domestic stuff.

Yeah.

It's just like all of our, I feel like most of our friend group,

it's just like all these imports.

Yeah.

It's BMW, it's Honda.

It's...

It doesn't do life.

She has an EcoBoost.

And she's really liked it.

Yeah.

EcoBoost Mustang.

And that's treated her well.

But cool.

We'll take a quick, short little break and we'll be right back with you guys.

Just like Santa, I've made a list and checked it twice.

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All right.

So I want to know what the future looks like for you guys, for min-oxide.

What's your goals?

That's the problem is I hate talking about my goals online when it comes to like, you

know, I'm going to get this car next year and people are like, is that people call

me a liar?

Yeah.

You said this one time that you were literally were just figuring out as we go along.

So let's not talk about how our search changes every week for what cars we want.

Yeah.

That's why we don't say anything.

Yeah.

I almost got a super off auction actually.

This is before I got chicken from that job.

I was actually looking at getting one off of auction and I think it was like 45 or 50 at

the time.

I'm like, not the same kind of auctions I shop, no, no, like, like, uh, Menheim and

stuff.

Okay.

Yeah.

Like not a co-part auction.

A little bit different.

Not the dent and ding sound.

And I almost put the trigger I want.

I think I had like work wheels on them or something.

I was like, it was nice.

And then I'm, you know, chickened.

So but anyways, point being, um, yeah, no, I, uh, I do have some plans with

this.

We're going to have a PRI next month.

We're going to have 16 guests.

We got suckered into a 16th, um, and some really big names and all that.

And that's kind of like me swinging for defense is like, where are the biggest

names in the industry?

PRI.

Like I respect SEMA, but you know, PRI is owned by SEMA.

So it's like that's performance oriented and that's mostly what our podcast

is.

Right.

Um, so that we do want to start the whole build side of our channel.

Like, you know, we always hear other people's stories, uh, and granted Dan's

been building cars forever, but like, I want to start that chapter of my life,

you know what I mean?

Uh, so that's kind of where we see that going is probably just a lot, a lot of

cool episodes next year, uh, and hopefully getting into the build side of

things.

That'd be super cool.

Well, you know, I have to, if you guys got something in the works,

two ideas, tell me, but it's like, what, what would you guys do?

Like, what kind of car would you guys do?

Do you want me to start with yours or mine?

Because we're using my shop, uh, cars that I have laying around,

when it's going to be a Ford.

Okay.

Um, I don't know.

We can talk about it.

Um, I just, uh, I've had a 93 Cobra laying around for a long time.

I bought it as a roller.

Um, somebody had drag race before.

So it's got a scatter shield in where the transmission tunnel is.

Um, the, um, rear end has got everything braced and welded in nice.

Like somebody did a really nice job.

And so I've been trying to figure out, I was going to coyote swap it and I

had a motor ready to go and then I blew up another engine in another car.

So I took that engine and put it in there instead.

Um, so then it's just kind of been sitting there and, uh, I just put a

deposit down on another salvage car two days ago.

Two days ago.

Yeah.

And so I'm picking up a 2007 GT 500 with low miles.

So that's a five four supercharged, uh, 500 horsepower, 485

foot pounds of torque stock.

Dang.

Um, so that's going to get transplanted into the Fox body.

Damn.

Okay.

It's a way lighter car.

Yeah.

So it'll be, well, not to mention that's just where this starts.

I mean, they came factory forged internals, all that stuff.

So you can turn them off easy, pull it down, swap the blower out and

you're, you're cooking with gas.

Now it's, uh, yeah, it's, it's going to be, uh, it's an SVT still car.

So I think it's going to be cool.

We're going to transfer over the seats, all that stuff.

So I just, uh, when I saw the whole car package and I had this idea, I was like,

you know what, I think this would be a lot better than just

made sense to drive train.

Oh, well, after I stopped, stopped laughing, uh, I was like, all right.

This actually would be really cool.

Cause like, I was like, what are you going to do with this?

Uh, and then he said he was going to put it in a Cobra.

I'm like, okay.

So one of the three Cobras actually gets to run again.

Actually, no, the other two run or two or fine.

Yeah.

But no, that's, I'm excited for that one.

It just makes sense for what we do.

And that'd be a fun one to take on a drag and drive.

I'm not sure if you guys, you know, do you guys know what dragon drives are?

I've heard of them, but yeah, just like road rallies, but for performance guys,

you know, you know, had to compete at the track and all that.

So there's some road rallies that are still got performance guys.

This is drag, uh, specific, you know, it's more competitive.

Yeah.

100% right.

Um, but no, I think, I think that's going to be a cool build.

I'm really chomping at it.

I want to do a GR 86.

Oh yeah.

Um, yeah.

And that, again, I want to do that off a co-park because they're only like

10 grand on there, fine.

When it's like hail damage or something, it's like it's going to be a track car.

Anyway, so we'll see.

That's the ideal goal.

But again, things change all the time, um, especially with the show.

We talked to some like the E 46 thing.

Never would have even gone on me last year.

Yeah.

So who knows?

Uh, but hopefully that really intrigues me too.

I'll get another EcoBoost motor if you want.

We'll go for it.

Yeah, you get the EcoBoost.

It's like about $2,000 for a crap one.

It's like if you're going to drift or something.

I do love me a 90s BMW.

I like, I don't know what it is about them, but that, that does.

Same.

Turn my crank.

We just love everything, dude.

Like that's the problem is like we can enjoy most things.

Like even Dan, like I remember we did a podcast in Chevy seats and he's like,

this is really comfortable.

I will say I'll share the track.

Like I've not, we've met a lot of people that drive some high horse

power, nice cars and they track them and stuff.

But in I'll share the track with Miata's.

Nobody's ever driven a Miata and told me that they hated it, whether

you have a cool car or not, but I'm not really sure what Honda

fits are doing out there.

I just want to know.

Come on.

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, is there a thing with them?

I don't know.

Yeah, I guess I don't see the allure, but that's why they're basically

like the modern day, like EG hatch.

Like, yeah, like they're just.

It's kind of like you're like, you can go local parts or get any part

you need, easy to fix, cheap to get into, can beat the piss out

of them consistently and nothing's going to go wrong.

You know, it's going to take all of your views and you can get into

it super cheap.

That's the allure of it.

And I think it's kind of, but to be fair, it was like, we had the

first, like the same, but I remember we went to VIR.

We were down there for an event and there was Honda fits, Hawking

everywhere, and we're like, what is going on?

And they're like, guys are something about these cars, man.

They're, they're, they're just it.

They're like the great, just like entry way into racing.

And then they're like, and then I can drive to work in it.

I can get like 38 MPG, pick up groceries on the way home.

It is a little when I'm in a GT 500 was 760 horsepower and I've

got my helmet on my gloves and I'm like, I'm a race car driver

and I fly by a Honda fit.

And I go, what in the hell just happened?

I can't put me doing out here.

I can't bring about that.

Are those a new Miata then?

Like the front wheel drive feels like, you know, wait, yeah,

front wheel drive for like the same purpose.

So right, like entry level, you just be easy to get into

like cheap parts everywhere.

There's a ton of them.

Yeah, it's just another.

They do have a dedicated community.

Yeah, it's a huge community.

Charlie has one, I think.

Yeah, he's had mudflaps on it.

Yeah, they're good cars.

So with the Mustang build that you guys are planning on doing,

is there a goal in mind with that, whether it's like,

take it to the drag strip or do road rallies?

I found out about this two days ago.

So Dan, so did I.

So did you want it?

I love it.

Shout out to Eric down at Midway Mustang.

If you're into Fords and you want to buy a transplant engine,

he buys wrecked salvage cars and parts them out.

You just raise your own prices.

Nice one.

No, it's cool.

I'll don't worry.

Eric doesn't cut me any deals as the prices are going up.

Anyway, it's it's super cool.

I bought a lot of stuff off of him over the years

and he had a car he was getting ready to chop up

and he sometimes you'll toss him out there

and see if anybody wants it whole.

And it seemed like the right price to me.

That's what you got your other GT500, right?

Was that Eric helped me source that car

through somebody else.

That was a car that was owned by another auto recycler

that he was getting.

He was building the car to do one lap of America,

the GT500 that I have that I drive now.

And then he got an allocation for a C806.

And he said, you know what, I'm going to switch routes.

So I bought the project from him

with exactly what he had into it.

Gotcha.

So we talked about big engines,

talked about little engines, talked about flat engines.

Only one engine we haven't talked about.

I need your guys's thoughts on it.

Yeah, I need, I need your thoughts on the old Rotaries.

Do you have any experience with them?

Have you talked to anyone that's been in the Rotary seat?

People about them.

The Rotary shop would be a cool podcast.

We've had one, well, so we've had people on that worked,

like for example, one of our sponsors,

like he started tuning on Rotaries.

Tune by Sean, shhwn.com.

But, but no, also we had Antonio on

who exclusively works on Miata's and Mazda's in general.

And he kind of specialized in the R8 Renesis.

They had the Renesis of all things.

Yeah, right, so.

Yeah, cause like, I don't know if you guys are familiar.

Even most Rotary guys just say that's trash.

Yeah, yeah.

But there's like apparently like some magical Rotary combo

which I can't speak to the details of,

but like it's some combo between the Renesis

and then whatever the.

The irons from a.

Like a REW?

Yeah.

The RX7, like FD ones or?

Yeah, yeah.

So it's just some weird magical combination

that just works really well

and just allows you to flow better and all this stuff.

No, it just seems that they're still

gluttonous for punishment.

Like the people.

We'll put them in the Subaru crowd.

That's fair.

It is the same mentality.

Yeah, we know it sucks, but they're so good.

That's exactly what it is too.

It's like if you can take the punishment,

it is one of the best driving experiences

you can have too.

Like it's just,

I don't think we've talked to anybody that hates them.

I have tracked a single turbo FD and two rotor

and it was.

You drove that car on a track?

I did.

Oh.

That little track down in.

Oh, that track.

Yeah.

So track is almost there.

Pierre almost killed you.

Yeah.

And it felt a lot like my car.

Sure.

It was probably half the horsepower,

but the power to weight and the balance.

The car was great, right?

So it was, I was like,

I didn't really feel much of a difference

other than that was manual and it was great.

And I bet that car would be awesome

with some more like modern stuff.

Cause that's like a 20 year old build.

Like, you know, the same thing like you,

who was it that we were talking to beforehand?

Like literally the guy when he saw it,

he's like, here's my Google drive

of all these documents.

Oh yeah.

And here's the builds and the parts

were like 20 years old.

Yeah.

And it's like.

That needs a T 56 though.

Cause the trans was still,

I think the stock one or original one built

or whatever.

It's very weird and it's not great

under a certain RPM.

Gotcha.

And as I'm banging through gears,

I can see him wincing every single time.

He's just waiting for it to blow up.

And I'm like, you said I could drive it.

Yeah.

I just asked, I owned RX8 for quite a while.

And that was like.

I almost bought one in Detroit last time we were there.

I love that car.

Cars, man.

Like it was like one of those like childhood,

like dream cars, like growing up playing the video games

and stuff.

They look awesome when we were kids.

That car is freaking cool.

It sounded so weird.

Cause I didn't know what was going on with them.

Like it sounds different.

Like a brick and stratton.

Yeah.

So it was like, you know, I had the opportunity to get one.

And I was like, dude, it was like six grand.

It only had 40,000 miles on.

I was like, yeah, let's freaking try it.

You know, yeah, like let's see what happens.

And dude, it was like my favorite car that I've ever owned.

It was such a fun car.

Dude, it was just something about like how smooth it was.

Like old guys fucking loved it.

Like I'd roll up to a gas station.

That's your audience?

Yep.

Dude, old guys love rotary engines.

Dude, they will sniff them out and they

will come talk to you at every gas station.

Maybe it's because you're always at a gas station

because they're like 10 miles a gallon.

But like, dude, we would, I drove it to Tennessee

and back when we went down for a car show.

And literally like every gas station we stopped at,

like never failed.

I was like, hey, that one of them wankle cars.

And I'm like, sure is dude.

And they'd come over, they'd talk me over.

They had like a snowmobile back in the day

that had a rotary engine in it.

They thought it was the coolest shit or something,

you know, along those lines.

But dude, it's just such a good driving car.

And that was another one that we, you know,

started to see pop up like at the tracks more, you know?

Yeah.

People are, the RX-8 chassis is a super good chassis.

Well, isn't it too, you're saying the factory,

like suspension geometry.

Oh, it's insane.

They did a really good job.

Like chassis wise, they just nailed it with that car.

It's awesome.

Driving experience compared to your FR-S

because I've heard same thing about that.

I'd put it in a similar category,

but like what the RX-8 has going for is that, like,

obviously it revs out so high.

So it's like, you know, my people love the S2000.

It's like, you can just rev it out forever.

It's like, yeah, the RX-8's got, you know,

9,000 RPM red line or whatever it is.

So it's like, it just goes and goes and goes and goes.

We're not worrying about a crankshaft at that.

No, yeah, yeah.

It just, it's just all the driver feedback

that you get from the sound of the engine,

because like, you know, we had like no cat on it.

It was, you know, pretty much just open exhaust.

They had a ready exhaust on it.

So it's like, you get the sound from it.

It revs out forever.

It revs out super high.

Sounds super unique.

Like it's so smooth, like with the engine,

like you don't get like any vibration or anything.

It shoots big flames.

It shoots huge fucking flames.

It was just all the feedback that you got from it

was a ton of fun.

So if you had to choose between the FR-S and the RX-8.

Oof.

Okay.

There's one caveat here.

Which one would you EcoBoost swap?

I'd EcoBoost the FR-S all day.

You think that's a better platform for that then?

Yeah.

Okay.

I think swapping non-rotary engines into rotary cars

is a sin.

Oh, that's why.

I can't wait to buy it off of the old car and I'll have to swap it.

I feel like EcoBoost swapped RX-8

would actually go hard though.

It probably would.

Oh yeah, I guarantee it would.

It would hurt my heart a little bit.

And I get it.

I respect it too, especially after you have it.

Like keeping the rotaries in them, keeping them alive.

I do respect that.

Well, if you have it all right, you have to, right?

Exactly.

You're going to add some pointer or another.

You have to have those blinders on like,

there's reliable stuff over here.

No, I don't see them.

No, that's all right.

You can have it.

EcoBoost swap the Marq-8.

Like I said, that's the issue.

Yeah, no, it's not.

More like ECU swapping or fucking that.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Body swapping.

Yeah.

Jesse swap.

I would genuinely like, again,

I just want something that has warranty right now

so I can focus on growing this thing.

I don't know what I'll get into next for a daily.

Again, I test drove the STI the other day.

Or not the STI.

They don't have STIs in this generation, I think.

A 23 WRX the other day, because that's apples to apples.

And I really did like it.

I thought about it.

But again, getting back into that cushy interior,

I don't know.

So I don't know what's next.

But I don't foresee this one sticking around for long.

For sure, fair enough.

Sure.

Well, thank you guys so much for coming on the podcast.

We appreciate you so much.

Where can people find you?

Minoxide everywhere.

Got a garage for Dan for whenever he posts on there.

Yeah, I lax on it.

I'm an old guy, right?

So I bring some experience to this and personality.

I think I've got a pretty decent personality.

But I try and do my own social media stuff and I am garbage.

That's all right.

We'll make sure to link all that in the description

for you guys to check them out.

Yeah, go show them some love.

Thank you guys.

Do post every once in a while if you do want to come look.

Yeah, you are Kulalski's.

Yeah.

I want to see just a sea of foxbots to see that photo.

He has that photo.

OK.

He has that.

What is it?

Nine foxbots?

He's like just sitting there.

Yeah, it might be more than that.

That was like 10 years ago.

That's a outdated one.

Yeah, at least 10 more.

And that was just the cars that I

was able to roll out there.

There's lots of parts cars.

Awesome.

Well, thank you guys so much for listening.

And we'll see you guys on the next Martín Work

Podcast.

See you.

Thanks for having us.

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And I'm talking about tires head on over to Martini Works

because we have Continental, Pirelli, Michelin,

all with different rebates.

And they're pretty dang good.

So buying tires isn't the fun part.

But having new tires is super fun.

It makes your car feel actually planted

and connected to the road.

So when's a better time to get them

than when you can get a rebate on them?

Head on over to Martini Works.

Get the homie hookup and get a nice rebate

on a set of Pirelli's, Continental's, Michelin's,

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