The End of Pitt Race and Porsche's "Tunnel Mode"

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Let's just go, you know.

Audio is working.

Let's just start it.

And if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work, and we do it over.

Who is this new Ethan this week?

I don't know.

Low stress.

I know, I'm trying a new thing here.

He was about ready to office space us and the equipment.

Welcome back to Switchcast Season Six.

I'm your host, Doug Tabard, here with my co-host, Tyler Sanders.

And Ethan Huffnagle over here, the new and improved international executive producer.

He's got a sense of humor tonight.

He just doesn't care what's going on.

It's fantastic.

We are light and breezy.

Heck yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, let's see.

Switchcast is a podcast where we know what we're talking about despite evidence to the contrary

and a lot of opinions on the internet to the contrary.

Yes, so many opinions this week.

For multiple reasons, we'll get into that, but I do want to talk about

where I've been right over the past few years.

Like, I feel like some of my prophecies are coming true.

Okay.

Not with Carvana yet because, but I did watch yet another video

where somebody went into a deep dive about their business practices.

And they're like, this thing is a scam.

Yeah, like this doesn't work.

What's going on?

Right.

It doesn't make sense.

I'm telling you, I don't have any money left to put into Carvana stock

because I bought the car.

But you know, tell me like two years ago if I would have just dumped my life savings.

Carmax stock might be worth looking at.

But you know, this is not a stock advice show, not financial advice.

It's just, it's low.

They have a lot of debt too, but it seems like they're a real company

and they got a new CEO.

So maybe they'll turn things around, right?

I don't know.

But let's see.

We'll come back in a year and be sad because it's just going to popped off.

We both could have had F-15.

It's never really been crazy.

It's at like 30-something now and it's high.

It was like 50.

Carvana has done wild extremes.

But if anything, that is evidence to why it is a scam because you can make incredible

money with big swings.

So if, for example, you wanted to manipulate the P&L and show crazy losses,

so your stock tanks and then you buy it and then miraculously have a rebound

and save your company and then the stock goes crazy.

And then you post record profits and more record profits.

So your stock goes even more crazy.

But those record profits were buried in two related companies that were owned

by your previously convicted for fraud father.

But you're making billions of dollars while the stock goes up.

You don't need to make actual money in any of these companies because

whatever money you claim to be making on your P&L, you're like 10xing with your stock.

Doug, this sounds very specific and you've looked at this before.

Right. Whereas CarMax is an actual picture.

Their stock is an actual picture of what their company's doing.

There's no wild swings.

It's just like, oh, they're down 20% because their company's sucking right now.

Oh, they're up 10% because their company's not sucking right now.

And it's like very small swings reacting to real performance.

It's not just vibes.

Yeah. Anyway, we started the warm-up lap without announcing the warm-up lap.

But hey, warm-up lap, what is fueling this podcast?

Well, I've got some Weller 12 here tonight.

Decided I wanted to keep it easy breezy with my whiskey as well and this stuff is delicious.

Is that the green label?

No, this is the black label.

The green label is a little watery, not my favorite.

The antique and the 12 and the full proof are delicious.

I think I have some antique 107 upstairs somewhere.

I'm drinking my Cosmok Palatin.

I call it that because it doesn't have vodka in it.

It is sparkling water, cranberry juice, organic cranberry juice.

I don't know why I'm looking at the camera or doing an audio podcast.

I'm practicing.

This is force of habit.

Pineapple juice and lime juice.

That sounds like a pretty tasty concoction.

Mine is just corn that sat in a barrel for 12 years.

But it smells like apples.

A local salvage dealer that I'm friends with, not because I'm a good customer,

because I don't buy salvage cars.

But anyway, a local salvage dealer picked up, they texted me today,

they bought two custom signals as the brand Acron Police Speed Trailers.

They put up on a road, so they read your speed up and print it out in large.

And then flash the blue lights.

Yes.

They're going a little too fast.

He says he's pretty sure that they still function.

He's like, any good ideas on what to do with them?

I feel like if you had a dozen, we could come up with some really great ideas.

Why would you need a dozen?

Because you just park them all on a cul-de-sac or something in a row.

Just bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.

And set the speed really low.

12 miles an hour.

Yeah, if anyone else has some good suggestions or wants them,

yeah, I don't have any brilliant pranks or anything great to do with that.

I feel like that's a good thing for a Karen to own.

And I'm not a Karen.

Somebody to literally put it in their tree lawn.

They're going too fast.

They set it to like one mile an hour below the speed limit,

and then just stand outside with a rolled up newspaper.

Let's see, this might almost be its own topic.

But we've talked about Montana LLCs before,

and we made a video on why they're not a great idea.

We did not talk about the legality of them because we're not attorneys.

And even if we were attorneys, we're not attorneys in all 50 states.

So anyone that makes a blanket statement about them being legal or not legal,

is wrong fundamentally because you can't make a statement about state law,

like just was it carte blanche would be the thing covering everything?

Yes, yeah.

Yeah, but a lot of people took issue with my opinion that they're not great ideas

because the potential consequences outweigh the immediate gains.

However, some YouTube guy who likes building big trucks and setting Ferraris on fire and stuff

got arrested by Tennessee authorities this past week, and it is all over the interwebs

because he's famous, and it was for sales tax evasion, not federal state sales tax evasion

for titling said Ferrari in a Montana LLC.

Oh, but I'm sure he does business in Montana, Doug.

I'm sure he owns a business there, otherwise he wouldn't do this, right?

Well, that's what everybody says.

Oh, well, you own a business there, it's legal.

Again, you're not an attorney.

Stop saying these things.

I'm not either, but I'm not going to say this is legal or this is illegal.

However, Tennessee has made it quite clear that in their eyes, it is illegal, and they

deem it a felony, felony tax evasion, hence why he got arrested.

And he was complaining that he didn't get any notices in the mail or bills or fines before

this, they just showed up and arrested him.

I do love that train of thought.

They didn't tell me I was going to get arrested.

So how was I supposed to know I needed to follow the law?

I made the mistake of engaging with some people in a discussion on Facebook about this.

And I'm like, well, yeah, it's a felony.

Why would they send you advance notice that they're going to arrest you because they don't

want you to either move assets, you know, all of a sudden come into compliance,

flee the country.

Yeah, for the state, I guess in this case.

All of the different things you would do if you knew you were about to be arrested for this thing.

And people went off on me for that.

Oh, no, no, no, you don't know anything.

One guy called me a retard.

Nice.

Because he said, I tried explaining this to you.

I'm like, you didn't explain anything to me.

You just said, no, he should have gotten a notice.

And I actually did a very little cursory.

I love using that word.

I did a cursory search.

Ooh, there it is.

And I did not use AI answers because AI sucks.

And most of the time, they're wrong.

I went to like state's websites.

I went to legal, you know, law firm websites and almost all of them said,

yeah, no, you don't get advance notice for a warrant.

You don't get told that there's a warrant out.

Yeah, that would seem that would seem insane to me that you would get a notice.

I could pop up on your phone like a notification or get something in the mail like,

get out of here.

They're not they want to catch you.

That's why they.

Yeah.

Yeah, you don't you don't get warning in advance.

Well, you know, I robbed a store and I didn't get like a letter

saying they wanted their stuff back first.

Like I was going to make restitution first.

I just got arrested.

No kidding.

Because they saw you on the security camera anyway.

So I am fascinated to hear and see what happens.

Like in the end of this, because the YouTuber in question posted on their Instagram story,

a very like in intense stream of things like they picked the wrong guy to like make an example

of and I'm going to fight this and I'm really wondering what sort of ground they think they're

standing on.

I think maybe they purposely picked the quote unquote wrong guy.

It's the right guy for them because they're sending a message to everybody that,

hey, we don't mess around.

And I feel like this was inevitable.

I don't know if there's any way that you can look at how blatantly this loophole or this

scenario, this path is used to register very expensive cars.

I don't understand how you think it would not eventually go away.

It's not a secret.

Well, and it again depends on the state.

Somebody posted that in Kansas it is absolutely a felony and they've proved it multiple times

and like it's very hard to get around it there.

But I found an article from 2022 Knox County, Tennessee, man pleads guilty.

This is from Chattanoogan to cheating Tennessee taxpayers out of money by failing to pay taxes

on vehicle.

So a 77 year old James Russell Rice pled guilty to tax charges in Knox County criminal court.

So this is not the first time that this has been a criminal issue.

And so for all the people trying to say that this in Tennessee anyway, that this is a civil

issue, they should have sent him notices just like you can just pay the fine like Tennessee

has prosecuted and convicted people before at least James Russell Rice or maybe other

ones for this very scenario.

So obviously Tennessee believes it's a criminal issue.

And I'm sure they've got all they need to continue to make it one this time.

So I feel like there's two outcomes for this.

He's going to find a loophole.

He's got good lawyers and he might win in the end, but Tennessee will get what they wanted,

which is a ton of PR and they'll scare people into registering or coming into compliance

and paying a bunch of money.

Or if it's going to be like a Martha Stewart type outcome where I don't know if you watch

a documentary about her no prosecutor for insider trading and her like three months in jail.

And it again, documentaries are biased.

Documentaries should not be called documentary.

They should be called opinion pieces.

But from my perspective, watching it, it was totally we're going to make an example out of you

and the like the crime, I mean, the consequence was way out of line for what actually happened.

And I feel like he could be the hillbilly Martha Stewart in the state of Tennessee.

But in doing this, so we made a video 11 months ago about this, I stand by everything we've said.

But I also rewatched the Steve Lado video from seven years ago, which he's an attorney.

And he said the same things that we said and he got the same flak that we did.

Oh, really?

Yeah, we must be doing something right.

Right. But what I came up with my moment of brilliance on this to all the people who think

like, oh, this is just it's totally illegal for them to force sales tax, force you pay sales tax,

you know, whatever. Property taxes might be unconstitutional.

And there's a big movement in Ohio to actually abolish property taxes also in Florida,

and they may get abolished. But for the sake of argument, let's say that they are unconstitutional.

If everybody agrees on that, are we going to stop paying our property taxes?

I don't. I don't think so. There's pretty severe consequences.

Exactly. It's not because we agree or disagree that they're legal or illegal,

or because we like giving money to the government. It's because they will take our house.

So yeah, I don't like property taxes. I think they shouldn't be collected.

I think they're taxation without representation, but I'm going to pay them because I don't want

the government to come take our home. I don't believe it should be that way, but it is.

And that's kind of how I feel about the Montana LLC thing. Like, yeah, just because I think you

should tag your cars and pay sales tax on it is not because I believe in sales tax.

It's because I don't want them putting me in jail over stupid plate on my car.

Exactly. Or taking your car.

And people cannot figure out that nuance. It's all just like, it's a loophole. It's legal.

Like, you're just throwing the word loophole out like right off. You're just dropping this right

off. What does that even mean?

That usually it means it's free, right, Doug? That's exactly. Oh boy.

It's crazy. Like, do you want, is it, the people that love to argue that kind of stuff,

it's like, is it worth the aggravation, the time, the legal fees to prove that you were right?

Do you desperately need to be that right to cut, to game the system or just maybe don't deal with

it because you have better things to do?

Oh, all the people on the internet don't actually have Montana LLCs. They're just arguing because

they're like sovereign citizens came out to play. And then a few of them actually are.

But I feel like the ones who actually are stay quiet about it because they're not,

they don't want to brag about it. Yeah.

So with that, I told you our warm up lap was like a main topic. Spicy, spicy.

But I don't want to make the same points we already made about that because, yeah,

it's, I'm just going to point people back to our video from a year ago because it will,

it's going to age well.

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you found them on Switchcast. Very sad news in the automotive world,

pit race, which is a fantastic track facility outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

in Beaver Falls or Big Beaver, whatever they call it. That's some very Pennsylvania city.

Yeah. Yes, it is. Just add Berg on the end of it. You got Pennsylvania. Beaver Berg.

Big Beaver Berg. It sold to a developer or it is in the process of sale pending zoning

approval because we've talked with Dan from savepitrace.org about some of the finer details

of this transaction and it is still pending through the city council and it has not been

100% approved and on the county website it does not show the transaction yet. So our guess is that

the funds are in escrow pending the approval of this sale. But high level overview,

the owners of the facility bought it in I believe 2001. They've put a ton of money into it, added

buildings, added a skid pad, carting track, added another mile and a half I think of track to it.

It's become a world class facility. I would argue it's the best facility in the Great Lakes region.

Mid Ohio has more history to it, but the facility itself is, it's aged a bit.

Can you use a bit of a new coat of paint?

Yes, and then some and I think it got a new coat of paint, but it still has pine paneling in the

VIP suites. So yeah, it's a 400 acre facility. It's not surrounded by developments for the most

part. So it's not dying to noise complaints, but it's dying to AI and big corporate. So the

alleged price for this track is $110 million, which is far more than it could conceivably be worth

as a racetrack itself, because racetracks are passion projects. It's very, very difficult

to make money at them and the liability is tremendous. You put the Armco in the wrong spot

and a freak accident happens and then you get sued because the Armco was in the wrong spot.

And it sounds like theory, but that has happened to tracks before.

There's a lot of things frustrating about this. For the motorsports community,

it is frustrating not only in the immediate sense, but also with the potential of this

happening in the future. One of the points that Dan made is that racetracks are not

generally popular with their neighbors. It's an environmental concern, it's a noise concern,

tire disposal, fluids, etc, etc. There's a lot that goes into that and the data centers are not

typically popular either. So they potentially see racetracks as an easy target of, okay,

well, they already have special use zoning or conditional zoning. They're already in nuisance,

so a data center won't be any more of a nuisance. It'll just be more ugly.

And make it so that the local power grid is overstressed and people have constant blackouts

and brownouts. And there you go. And that's the problem is racetracks are generally good for

their communities. They are employing local people. They are giving back to the community in

the form of investment or events. And they're bringing people to that location.

They are bringing people in. That is where revenue comes from. You ask any city council person or

treasurer and large developments don't typically bring in money. People are

drain on resources because they've got to have schools and buses and everything and then deal

with the traffic and increase their infrastructure. Large companies aren't always a benefit because

they give them tax abatements. But boy, when you bring in money from outside, that's great

for your community and tracks do that. And there is it is kind of amazing to me. I went to Watkins

Glen this year for the first time to see the IMSA races. Fantastic track. I love it was so cool to

see it in person after driving it constantly in video games for like ever since I've I don't

know played racing sims. There is stuff around there that's just called like now Watkins Glen

is a state park, but there's so much stuff that is themed towards the people who are passionate

about some kind of motorsport coming to stay and participate and spend their money there.

And it's it's cool to go see the different I don't know the different areas of the country

as well. And now this is just kind of an area that's going to be another building that probably

employs like five people because the whole thing is run by computers. Yes, computers.

But it is a strain on, like you said, the local power grid.

You think a place where a racetrack could be is going to have great power infrastructure?

Let me tell you. Yeah, it's a strain on the local water supply. There's an engineer testifying

at the city council meeting tonight. As we make this recording, there's actual smart people that

have done research and reports about this. And he's looking at a place in Virginia where they

did a data center alley and looking at the massive increase in power costs and water costs for

residents and decrease in water pressure where they're like they're just taking all the resources

and residents are getting priced out. So and this is also that when you search on Google,

you get a BS AI response or people can make photos of you looking Studio Ghibli style for

some stupid reason. And there's a great report on the Save Pit Races website as well that's

talking about why this data infrastructure is like going to be obsolete. Like it's almost

making it self obsolete because like if you think about how big computers were 50 years ago and

how terrible their computing power is, and now we have everything on an iPhone, same thing with

the AI data centers, the processing is getting more efficient. It's reducing its energy consumption

massively its size. So we don't necessarily need these massive data centers, they may be actually

phasing themselves out. And by the time some of these places get built,

they won't even need them anymore. So on the one hand, you have they are currently a massive drain

on a resources. On the other hand, you have well, what if we give up a historical site to

a massive data center? The other possible problem is after it's done being a massive drain on

resources, you don't even need it anymore. And it just has is this big eyesore and you've lost

what something you can't get back, you can't get a racetrack facility back after you've raised it

and put a box there. And like one of my favorite things about Pit Race is the elevation change,

they're probably going to level that if the building is going to go there, you can't really

build on on level ground. So like the environment itself will be forever changed.

Here's another. This is anecdotal. So correct me if I'm wrong, but this came from my wife whose

anecdotes are typically accurate. She doesn't often need to be fact checked. But she told me that

Lordstown, which is famous for the Chevy Cobalt factory, and a town that relied totally on it,

it's basically a trailer park and giant factory. Yeah, and it's interesting on the

interstate to drive on the interstate. It is a giant ugly factory and it decimated the economy

when they shut it down. There's been a number of scammy EV companies to come through there.

And like that economy needs quote unquote reinvigorated that they need to do something with

that building. Now again, it's not necessarily going to employ a bunch of people. But if any

place you would put a data center and it wouldn't change things very much, it would be Lordstown

and their council voted against it. Their planning commission zoning board, whatever,

voted against it. So they didn't want it there. But a place like pit race that's amazing,

they're going to let one go in there and ruin something great. It's just awful. And there's

allegations that there's shadiness going on behind the scenes because of how the zoning

rules are written. And it's it's actually not going to the zoning board because certain laws

were changed in advance of this such that the city council can maintain control of this whole process

because the zoning board in Beaver Falls is apparently against this. Okay. But they don't

have a say on it because things that were already changed a little while ago recently on the city

council level. So there's there's some allegations of potential corruption there too, which wouldn't

be unheard of for a city council. Can we say Twinsburg anyone? So it's just the whole thing

smells and it really stinks. Like, listen, I get it that the owners probably want to retire

and they have a big paycheck coming their way. But there's also supposedly other people who are

willing to pay a bunch of money to also keep it a racetrack. Maybe they couldn't match the offer

of the data center. They probably couldn't because there's a whole other thing with the finances

of the whole AI data center industry that is kind of like it's like, what's the thing that

eats itself, the Auroboros or whatever? I don't know. There's like the dragon that's eating itself.

It's like kind of where's this money coming from? It's all hype. It's all vibes. It's all VC

investment and it's going to have to like dry up at some point. Yeah. So anyway, so that allegedly

the sale is not complete. However, they're already listing everything there for sale

via Kiko auctions, including such things like they've got the Ford Tourists,

Ford Crown Victoria's with the push bumpers that they use for driver training. They've got

the fire trucks. They are also listing nine miles of Armco. They're listing the urinals,

the stalls in the bathrooms. I mean, they are selling absolutely everything. The owners are

trying to squeeze every last cent out of this place, which to me is just a bad look. I understand

sell the signs, sell the memorabilia, sell the cars, but like you're selling the guardrails

and the urinals. Yeah. Really? That feels weird. It's weird. There's a photo of a washing machine

in here. It's got a pit race sticker sticker. This isn't the first nor will it be the last track

that we lose to noise complaints, developments, et cetera. But I think it is a sign of impending

doom when a facility this well, well manicured, I guess for lack of a better term that's nicely

enslaved from the suburban population and has plenty of money behind it still sells out. And

if I'm a conspiracy theorist here, which I think a lot of people are about the situation, this is

like a black rock situation. They're going to take away all the places for us to enjoy cars

off road and then they're going to regulate our cars out of existence on the road,

which is going to be bad. But let's not camp there. Let's talk about good memories of pit race.

Yes. I was fortunate enough to go to the hooked on driving event that took place the last

weekend that they were open. It is probably the last event that ever will happen at pit race.

And it was an adventure. It was cold. It was a little wet at the beginning. There was a lot of

cars. There was like 40 cars per session. I have never seen so many cars wreck in my 20 years of

tracking. A lemon's race barely has more incidents. Whoa. Was it just people like an

experience was a greasy like track? It wasn't that greasy. The first session was a little greasy

and then it dried up quickly. But I left early on the first day because I had commitments.

But by the time I left, I had run three sessions and at least five cars that I counted had hit the

wall. Whoa. Maybe more, including two during my three sessions. One was a Mustang. One of them

during a checkered flag lap, which is supposed to be your cool down lap. Yeah. And I saw many more

cars off track. I saw a Miata off track on the warm up lap. I got passed by like this Audi R8

race car thing and like a lap later, they went way off into turn one. They missed the braking

zone, whatever. I was like, well, that's what you get for passing me. Nobody's faster than I am

unless they're out of control. So get that same feeling when somebody passes you on the highway

and then they get pulled over a mile later. Like, yeah, it serves you right. But I realized something.

Do you know what happens when you lose control of a vehicle and slide out? Well, I fought the

yaw and the yaw won. Next. So I don't know how many more crashes happened because the next day,

the Sunday track, it was like super rainy, but like it was almost every session was delayed or

ended early because somebody hit the wall. It was in, I've never seen anything like it. Never

seen anything like it. But the crew was great. They cleared them quickly. They got everybody back

out on track. But we've had some great other memories there. I've been going there about 20

years. Tyler, you run the track there. I have been once. And it was awesome. This was the first

time that I had ever driven a Porsche. And the first time I had ever driven a GT3, you know,

but so it was like, gosh, 2017 or something like that. I didn't even have my 911 yet.

And I did the extreme experience like track day thing and I paid like $400 to drive three laps

in a 991.1 GT3. And the moment of stepping out onto the track to get into a Porsche is seared

into my mind as like such a like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm doing this moment because I had

dreamed of doing something like that my whole life. And I'd like thankfully I'd like played enough

racing sims that I sort of knew what I was doing. And like the instructor guy like didn't tell me

to do it. He's like, no, just like, go for it. You know what you're doing. I felt really cool.

I was like, all right. And I didn't spin because if he tries to tell you anything,

you're not going to listen anyway. So they've just given up. They're like, yeah, it's fine.

But I did get to like, I'm mad at it on the straightaway on after the last turn,

which is a glorious experience for somebody who had driven a Buick

Century and a Sable wagon is my only cars at that point. So very fun memories in my heart.

The first time I was ever there, it was I looked up the photos. I still have them. It was with my

it was a bunch of college students. And it was with our friends,

moms, Mercury Sable. Oh, nice. Yes. And our other friend Audi A4. Yeah, it was great. We have four

people in the Mercury Sable doing the autocross course. And then I had my first off track spin

there turn one, which that turn, you know, doesn't exist anymore because they have the longer track.

But yeah, turn one of the shorter track, I guess the North track or whatever it's called now.

Um, yeah, when went way off and somebody has a picture of me like full sideways dirt flying

all that. We can't find it. But there there is a picture. And then I think that same day,

a friend of mine went and he wasn't registered for the track day, but they do the lunchtime

parade laps where you don't have to wear helmets like anybody can go out in any car, pick up truck,

whatever. And it's a lead fall. There's no passing. There's no tire squealing like you're going

normal road speeds. And I rode with a different friend in an NSX and I threw the keys to my

buddy for the S 2000. Well, he didn't know the rules. So he goes screaming by everybody down

the straight. And then we and whatever. So we come in and then he's still out there and we just

hear like I'm just waiting, waiting, waiting for the like that's my car. Never happened.

But he's spun out. He's spun out on the parade laps. That's amazing. Oh man. Yeah. I also,

I also did a pit maneuver during the lemons race entitled pit maneuver. Oh no. Did you do this on

purpose? No, but it was lap traffic. There was a class C car. We were class A. I was chasing

another class A car down. We were going through the kink and this class C car was had been all

over the place the entire race like they outside inside just picking random places on the track

to the point where every time I got around them, I'm like, I'm scared to pass them because they're

just so wild. Well, I just, you know, followed the other class A car through the kink full speed

flying by this class C car. They decided that they were going to take the apex, which

it was technically rightfully theirs because they were ahead, but they were lap traffic.

And I didn't feel like being forced off into the grass. So I just break as hard as I could and

tap the rear quarter and just like perfect pit maneuver, put them into a spin. Nice. And they

were in a Honda Odyssey, like the earlier ones. So lower center of gravity, but I'm still watching

like, I hope they don't flip. I hope they don't flip. But I just kept driving. And then the guy

came over to our pits and was like yelling at me, demanding an apology for it is insane because

because he didn't know how to drive. I had somebody on a cart track do that to me and I ended up

pit maneuvering them, throwing them into the wall and their cart hit the wall so hard it

left the ground and they skidded across the track and he yelled at me afterwards. And I was like,

the line, I was next to him and he cut over. Oops. Not a good time. Well, when I went through the

penalty thing, I explained to them what happened. I was just like, I didn't want to go off. So I

hit them and they literally looked at me and they said, yeah, try to stay away from them because

they suck. Nice. I was like, hey, confirmation. Let's go. And usually lemons people, they're

always like, just admit it was your fault. It doesn't matter what you did. Just say I was wrong.

And I'm like, I'm not going to say I was wrong. Yeah. Because my ego is too big and I wasn't

wrong. But they confirm. Yeah, you weren't wrong. Just just avoid that car. And then the guy wanted

to like pick a fight with me because I wouldn't apologize. I'm like, go pound sand. I just I

didn't say anything because I'm like, it's not going to go well. I have a temper and

I'm just I'm going to ignore you. I was like torquing the wheels or something. I just like

didn't look at them. But anyway, quickly shrewd negotiator.

Before if anyone has 120 million bucks and they want to slide in and offer real quick on pit

race so it doesn't become a data center, that'd be great. But yeah, was trying to sell a set of

wheels on Facebook Marketplace this week. And I listed the them they have old tires. And I

used three different words. I said they're old. They're unsafe. Their garbage, I think was the

three words that seems pretty you should not these tires must be disposed of and we can dispose of

them for a fee. But like, here's the wheels for sale that happen to have terrible tires on them.

One of the first messages I get are, can you send me a picture of the tread on the tires?

No, it doesn't matter. Garbage. No. Oh, no, I can't go back and read. Go back and read. I mean,

I guess you could use them like on a track day or something like that if you have a terrible car

and you're just trying to slide it around on purpose. I guess I learned how to drift or something.

Use old tires. But oh, that's another thing they're selling through the Kiko auctions is old tires.

Seriously? Yes, just stacks and stacks and stacks of them. Well, I was to pay to get rid of those.

You can't sell those at an auction. There's lockers with miscellaneous contents.

Like somebody couldn't even empty that there's 20 pages of stuff here. This is kind of crazy.

It's insane. I'm going to the preview just just to go. I think I don't want to buy anything on

principle. It's I don't know. I'm going to go. I might shed a few tears, but I'm going to go. Hope

to see you there. It's December 3rd. I think Saturday the let's get this right here.

Hit two tables with chairs, no contents. Saturday, December 6th. Yeah,

or we could all just go protest. It's not going to do anything, but yeah, we could go protest.

Anyway, that is a wrap both on this episode and maybe on pit race, but maybe not.

Maybe there's a Hail Mary in there somewhere. Go check out savepitrace.org, support them,

support their efforts and learn so that maybe it doesn't happen to other tracks as well.

Switch cars is the enthusiast dealership where we buy, sell and consign only cars that we like

ourselves. Check out our handpicked inventory online at switchcars.com and mention switchcast

for special pricing. You can find more information online at switchcars.com or come visit our show

room in a beautiful twinsburg Ohio where you can experience the switch cars difference.

Someone sent me an article this week from auto blog about Porsche's tunnel mode. I was like,

oh, this is kind of a cool feature. And then I started reading about it. And before you read

about what it was, what did you think it was? I don't know. Like it just made the exhaust louder

like we all want to do is like a valve exhaust. They don't have to hit the button. They'll like

sense that you're coming up to a tunnel and open the valve. Yeah. Or maybe it's like an extra valve

exhaust. It bypasses the resonators like it quote unquote straight pipes that are something fun like

that. Well, let's read the article from our auto blog highlights anyway. Porsche's proposed tunnel

operating mode will detect when you're approaching a tunnel in a number of ways. These include using

route information from your GPS navigation system. It knows forward facing cameras. It knows

and the vehicles traffic sign recognition system to identify that there is a tunnel ahead.

Next, the driver will receive a visual and or audible notification about 500 meters before

entering the tunnel and can choose whether or not to activate the system. Oh, driver has a say in

something. This can't be real. Once they activate the system, the car automatically initiates various

steps to provide an emotional acoustic experience for the occupants. I don't like the way that sounds.

The windows are rolled down sport mode is activated. The transmission shifts down to a lower gear to

raise revs and exhaust valves if any open up. There's also provisions to raise the temperature

of the air conditioning and activate the heated seats during the cold weather ensuring occupant

comfort comfort. All the driver needs to do is to floor it, which is probably technically

breaking the law. The patent also includes provisions to bring these oral thrills

to Porsche's battery powered models by sending synthesized engine noise through the speaker

so that drivers don't have to miss out on the fun. Oh, no, they do get to miss out on the fun and

they can deal with it. That's the choice they made buying an EV. Hold on. Driver refrigerator.

You get to listen to a refrigerator. The patent details a second tunnel operating mode designed

specifically to do the opposite and suppress cabin noise.

Wow. Brain hurts.

Dude, you know, Doug, I put my car into tunnel mode when we brought it back from Philadelphia.

No less than three times. You know what I did? I downshifted about two gears,

opened the windows and floored it. It's not that hard.

I read the article and I was like, I don't I think I hate this so much.

Well, the title of the article is Porsche's Tunnel Mode is proof that they understand driving

joy better than anyone. I disagree. The other thing, and this could be, you know,

I'm going to dog on autoblog here for a second. I apologize. The photos of the cars that they

picked to put into this article are a G body 911 and a 997.2 GT3 cars that are so far away from

needing or even having the technology to do this to somehow display the like dedication of the

Porsche brand to your experience. Give me a break. I didn't catch that, but that's that's a great

observation. So dumb. It's too much going on. If you have to use cameras and GPS to know that

you're approaching a tunnel to have Porsche do all this stuff for you, if they really understood

driving joy, they just give you a manual transmission and allowed exhaust in the light car.

Yeah, I'm about to pull up our book Why We Drive by Matthew Crawford.

Yes, another shameless plug for this book. It's about the mechanical connection to a car and us

doing things and learning skills and how that gives us pleasure and actually makes us smarter.

You have to part the thing that is crazy about this is is yet another way that we are that somebody

is using technology to take an experience away from to not require a human to engage in the

experience. You just have to sit back and enjoy. Yeah, voice command, approve. Yes, I'm coming up

to a tunnel. Please make it awesome. I don't understand. Like wouldn't you want to do that

yourself? It's the movie Wally all over again. But you know, the problem is if they take this

all the way, they'd go, okay, well, we're going to do this. But we're also going to have integrated,

we're going to know what the speed limit is because of our, you know, traffic sign recognition

system. So you will not be able to exceed the speed limit when in tunnel mode. We're also going to

check local noise regulations for you and you won't be able to exceed the decibel level that is

exceeding noise regulations. And then somebody's going to sue them because they get tinnitus

as a result of using tunnel mode and because Porsche did it for you. It's just

take me back. Take me back. I did not. Why do we have two topics of here is technology ruining

our lives now? Okay, that's going to use the AI data center that's on top of pit race to power

in the model. This stupid thing that's supposed to make driving better when they took a dang race

track away from us. Honestly, this just feels like a software developer solution to a problem that

doesn't exist. And this is something that I've noticed. And I've got friends that are software

developers. I am slash used to be one. I pay attention to stuff. Used to be one. I work in

Excel and PowerPoint and Word now. I tell other people, I ask other people to do things and then

follow up when they're not done. And then we're behind schedule. It doesn't matter.

Why entirely lost my train of thought? That's okay. Software developers doing things.

Yes. So software developers love to find a problem that doesn't exist. So they have a reason to

develop something that fixes that problem. And it feels like somebody within Porsche was like,

I'm passionate about driving, but a software developer, let me find out how I can merge

these two passions together to create a thing that people are going to love. Hate it.

Yeah. So let's talk about some other great features that may or may not be solving problems that

do or do not exist. One of them, speaking of pit race, I encountered this past week. And this is

not a typically, typically, this is not a particularly new feature, but it is stability

management. I like stability management. I do not like that after 2010 or so in most vehicles,

you cannot shut it off entirely. It says it's off, but it still engages. Now I'm going to say

why this is a real problem. Now you can say, well, this is only on the racetrack. It shouldn't

be a real problem otherwise. But regardless, it's a problem. I had a 997.2911. I turned

PSM off, which is Porsche's stability management. It would still flash at me out of some of the

corners because it was kicking in. It didn't like what I was doing. The yaw sensor said,

oh, well, you got too much yaw going on. But you turned it off. And I was under throttle

and it was pulsing the rear brakes. So it overheated the rear brakes so much that one lap

before the end of the session, I lost my brakes. Like I could not stop. I had to downshift,

like barely made a corner. And I did a whole lap of like hardly using the brakes thinking,

okay, I'll just do like a cool down lap, still nothing. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. How did did you just

let the car sit for a while? Yeah, had to let it sit for a while. And I finally had to figure out

a way around it to basically like artificially straighten the car in the middle of a corner

to trick the car into not thinking I'm sliding anymore. And it was sounds dangerous. It is.

It's more dangerous than the PSM itself. Yeah. So I know that they're all about liability,

but just like let us let us have to like sign something before we turn it off or whatever.

Like, yes, I accept the risk. Okay, turn it off all the way. I don't know. Let me do it.

I also get annoyed. This is way less intense. But this is like, have you ever noticed, Doug,

when you're driving through a parking lot, especially at night, and GM vehicles have

their reverse lights on, and they're not moving. I haven't noticed that. So GM vehicles, well,

they all just kind of look like amorphous blobs. For some reason, I believe it's GM,

I guess I hope I'm not wrong. Otherwise, the comments will eviscerate me.

They like to, when you are, it's like when the parking lights are on,

their reverse lights are also on. So you think somebody could be backing up into traffic as

you're going through the parking lot or like backing up into you or whatever when all they're

doing is locking or unlocking their car. And they stay like that until the headlights go off.

It is insane because that like indicates an action. And I think the reverse light that is

indicates that the operator of the vehicle is taking an action usually. And I'm assuming that

some of this was a like helps you find your car or makes people more aware of their surroundings

because they think something's going to happen. I just think this is a really stupid idea.

And I don't think it actually satisfies its intended consequence or its intended outcome.

Here's one along the line of Porsche's tunnel mode. There is a video sent to me by Pete Jackson

of a synthetic exhaust device that you can put on your car, could be an EV, could be anything.

But it's a fake exhaust sound. But the sound itself is about the quality of like a 2000s video

game. I think this was from SEMA. You literally can't tell the difference. He's like, you can do a

pickup truck and you can do a Ferrari and he changes it. And I'm like, they sound the same.

But what people don't know, well, they do know Porsche is doing this. But even internal combustion

manufacturers have been doing this for years. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's there already.

You just don't know that it's there. There are a lot of sound is synthetic.

And it's so dumb. I if I ever bought a car that had a speaker inside playing, I'd pull the fuse,

I'd unplug, I do whatever I needed to do because even if it doesn't sound that good,

I just want the way the car sounds. That is what is more important to me because I'm not who my

posturing for myself. Now you mentioned one that's pretty crazy with the the Ionic or whatever,

you can't change the brakes. Yes. And we're going to come back to that later. Okay, fine. There

but there is a there is a thing that involves needing access to the computer system in the car,

which you need a certification and like an account that involves the federal government

somehow to prove that you should have access to this information. You need all this stuff just

to be able to undo or like release the electronic parking brake so you can change your brakes.

That's insane. Insanity. That's insane. And it's like on the surface,

I don't because cars have so much data in them now and capture and store and calculate whatever.

I don't want Joe Schmoe having access to that, but also I should be able to change my own brakes

without having the certification paying thousands of dollars for this tool is so dumb.

How about automatic emergency braking? How do you feel about that one?

I think it has its uses for people that don't pay as much attention as they should.

Yes, like if somebody's behind me texting, I hope they have automatic emergency braking. For me,

I don't really think I need it, but that is how I feel about it too. I want it for everyone else.

I just don't want it on my car. And you know, lane keep assist, I think, again, for the texting

could be useful, but I have noticed something driving my fiance's car. If I don't put on my

turn signal when I'm merging onto a highway, the dashed strip as the as the on-ramp ends

will trigger it and it will jerk the wheel back to the right. And now some could argue,

maybe I should put on my turn signal, but who am I signaling to the people on the on-ramp

behind me? The people on the highway know that I'm merging onto the highway. Like maybe I'm just

more focused on turning right. Yeah. And like maybe I'm just more focused on trying to successfully

merge into traffic than like keep my blinker on. I to that end, I don't like lane keep assist. I do

like blind spot assistance. I think that is a very good feature. Even though I check my mirrors

and have my mirrors set right, they say, oh, if you have them adjusted properly, you don't have

a blind spot. Not true. If you have ever driven a Lamborghini Diablo, I like that feature as a

backup. Yes. As an extra like, oh crap, I really didn't see them. Well, and I just had that trigger

for me driving a few days ago when I was on the highway. I was like, I'm going to make a move.

And I looked like over to my, I was checking around me and I hadn't looked to the right yet,

which is the direction I was going. So I wanted to like get my bearings before I moved.

And I ticked on the turn signal before I had was like about to look and it already had like

bonged that like, hey, somebody's here that I hadn't seen yet. And I wasn't moving yet,

but it was nice to just have that reminder. So just in case I start listing over or like

whatever, like somebody's there. I was okay with that. I do like that. Yep. I also like

rain sensing wipers. That's a great technology. Those are good. Yeah. Yeah, those are good.

I like really basic stuff. Any lock breaks solid stability control when it will actually

listen to you also solid heated steering wheels. Great. Wait, did you just say stability control

is solid tech? I when it when it listens to you when you can turn it on when you can like

when it responds to your desires. Like if you want it on, it's a good technology, I think to

keep people kind of like, you know, on the straight and narrow. But if you try to turn it off,

then it becomes bad technology. That's another one of those technologies I like for everyone else.

I don't need it. I'm a superior driver. I don't need that type of thing. But you know what new

technology I do like? What's that rain sensing wipers? Oh, you know, Doug,

okay. Well, I'm pretty sure that those came out before Ethan did. Didn't they? Oh, yeah, right.

Totally forgot about that. That's all right. That was the only scripted part of our show. And

I don't know where we're not used to it. Anyway, on to plate to sample our ever popular game where

we name off the, no, we read a vanity plate. And the other person asked to guess the stereotype

by saying what car is it on? I got a plethora of submissions this week, just to read. Yes,

thank you all for your submissions. We, they won't all make it on, but please keep sending them.

This game is brought to us both in concept and financially by Solon Spine. If you are crooked,

they'll set you straight. Oh, I like that slick. Yeah. Literally. And I was thinking this week

of an analogy of like, why, why is it good to, you know, consult a person like Dr. Hoover that can

fix your body? And it's like, you know, because he's all about not having surgery, invasive surgery,

specifically spinal surgery, if you don't need it. And I was thinking about like single stage

paint cars. So many people have come to me with older porches and that paint is all faded. They're

like, oh, I was going to get it repainted. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, don't. Well, it's all faded.

It's like orange. I'm like, yeah. And you just like polish a little part of it and you show them.

It's like the original paint's still there. You can just polish the car and bring it back. And then

you still have the original paint. You're not like so cars only original ones, your body's only

original ones, your body is actually made to heal itself like the blood gets in there and does things

and what I don't know as medical stuff. But science, it's worth getting a second opinion

before you repaint your car or have major surgery. So go see Dr. Hoover at Solon spine. Okay, Tyler,

what is your first plate? All right, for you, Doug, RAV eight.

Okay, it's a Toyota sort of sort of with a V eight. Wait, no, it could be RAV eight.

RAV. Yeah, it's RAV space eight. Oh, RAV eight. RAV eight.

Hmm. It's a V eight Toyota. It's like a RAV four. Is this Sequoia?

No, so I like where they went with this and I was curious if you were going to get it.

It's essentially the Lexus version of the RAV four. Does it have a V eight?

No, no, it's just like better, more, more different or whatever. So instead of a RAV four,

it's like the next level up, which would be RAV eight. I don't know. I thought it was created.

No, it would be like five. The next level after four is five.

Yeah, I guess that's true. But yeah, it's like, what is this? Something X 350H,

like whatever terrible model name and they tried. All right, I tried. Sorry.

You didn't try. They tried. That's not your plate. Okay, here's one for you from Brian

No. Okay. Keep them coming. No, I didn't even say anything to Tesla. Gross.

Like model three or what are the, the, the low end one? They should apologize for that play.

I knew you wouldn't get it either. Next up for you, Doug, Sweden low.

Uh, Volvo knew. Yes. And it looks a little lower. 93.

No, it's like, it's some convertible 9,000. I think is what it is. Some 90s, but it's a,

that's a great plate. I love that plate. Okay. Here's an easy one for you from Justin on Instagram.

9 H2O. Uh, oh, it's an air cooled port. Uh, nine, six, four, nine, nine, three G body,

some kind of air cooled. G body, nine, 11. Nice. We needed to lay up. Oh, no, it was my,

it was my boys. Uh, next up for you, Sigma boy, S G M A B O Y Sigma boy. I mean, there's like

SIG Sigma. There's Sigma like a Greek letter. There's, does he belong to a fraternity? Is it a

BMW M new package, like M sport package? That's a good guess though. This is worse.

Worse is worse. It's a, it's a Tesla model Y. Oh, yeah. Okay. It's pretty gross. All right.

Here's one for you. Idaho plate from Sean on Instagram. Yay.

Huh. Do you need the number of A's? I do. I do. Um, I think there's five, but my

eyes are playing tricks on me. Uh, is that a something cheerful and fun? Maybe. Um,

I guess so could be a, could be a Miata. Nope. Um, it could be

a Toyota Supra. Nope. Um, I guess the same things all the time. So I'm trying to expand my horizons.

No idea. What is it? Ferrari? It looks like a GTC for Luso. Uh, okay. FF basically. You get it?

Yep. Uh, for you, Doug, I a coca, uh, Dodge Viper. No, Jen one. It is not. Uh,

early nineties Chrysler. Yes. I think this is early nineties or late eighties. It's a LeBaron

and it's a pace car. That's good. It is an Indy 500 pace car LeBaron. Yeah, I like it. I like it.

All right. Michigan plate. Uh, this one from David on Instagram was his

with Z's was his. Uh, is this like an escalade? Nope.

Well, good guess. Okay. Is it like a Corvette? Nope. Cadillac CT4V. Okay. No,

CT, CTS for whatever they call it anyway. Okay. But I ran the plate and apparently

they've traded it in because it's now a 2013 Mustang Shelby GT500. Ooh, okay. Big power.

Yeah. Big power. Not enough break. Big power. Uh, yeah. So I don't know if they got it in the

divorce or she just requisitioned it from the his and hers side of the garage and said that,

nope, I get both sides or something. Where, uh, where was that plate from? Michigan.

Oh, interesting. I have an Ontario plate here for you that is was hers.

Cadillac CT4. No, it is not. This is actually no relation to the car. It's a C4 Corvette of all

things. All right. So, uh, okay. All right. Last one for you. I think, uh, Vanity of Maine,

one of my favorite pages. Such a good real man is the plate. Oh, this is a Volkswagen bug

or Kia soul. No, or Nissan cube. No, uh, smart car. No, a real man and the plates in Maine. Come

on. It is a Ram 1500 truck, but the great part of it is it is upside down in a river bed.

Real man. Love it. Real man. Don't know how to drive their pickup trucks.

Real man. Meet the stereotypes of owning a Ram, which is they have, I don't know if you

know this, they have like the highest rate of DUIs and the highest accent rate. Oh, yeah.

That's amazing. It's a bad stereotype. Judging by how they all drive on the road,

I can understand. It's the Nissan Altima of trucks.

Thank you for joining us for switch cast with Doug Tabott and Tyler Sanders produced by Ethan

Huffnagle. Switch cast is an automotive entertainment and opinion show and nothing we say should be

taken very seriously. We do not give tax investment, legal emotional or professional advice. And the

only licenses we hold are driver's licenses. The opinions expressed on this show are exclusively

held by the people pontificating at that moment and do not reflect the values of our producers

or sponsors. Our theme music is provided by Emily and Ivory. You can stream their full

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