This sponsor helps if you get a traffic ticket. They can connect you with a lawyer so you don’t have to handle it alone, and they aim to reduce the impact on your record.
An embargo date is basically a “don’t post yet” deadline. The car company tells media when they’re allowed to publish, and if it changes, everyone has to adjust their schedule.
A carbon tub is a structural “cell” made largely from carbon fiber that forms the core passenger compartment. It’s used to reduce weight while increasing stiffness, which improves handling response and crash protection.
Mercedes-AMG’s “Black Series” cars are their more hardcore, track-oriented versions. They’re using that car as a reference for how the engine sounds and feels.
BTS footage just means “behind the scenes” clips—stuff that shows what happened while making the video. They’re saying it’s not always relevant to the car review itself.
McLaren is a famous supercar brand. Here it’s used as an example of a “big-name” performance car that would feel exciting even if it were replacing something more normal.
Koenigsegg makes some of the most extreme hypercars in the world. The host is saying they haven’t driven one in a long time and wants to see what the newer ones are like.
Pagani is an Italian company that builds very special, high-end supercars. The speaker is saying their cars look amazing, but they didn’t fully impress them to drive.
The pits are the area beside the track where teams and drivers stop during an event. Drivers pull in to check the car, reset for the next session, and get guidance from event staff—especially after a spin or minor incident.
Concept
speed sensation vs speed numbers
Sometimes a car can feel like it’s going the same speed even as you’re accelerating. Your brain gets used to the sensation, but the actual speed keeps increasing.
Black trim usually looks darker and more modern, while chrome trim looks shiny and more classic. The difference can make the car look more aggressive or more elegant.
Smeg is a company that makes kitchen appliances like fridges and ovens. They’re famous for designs that look “old-school” even when the appliance is new.
Goodwood Revival is a racing event where people bring older, classic race cars to compete and show them off. It’s also a big social event, not just a race day.
An air-cooled engine uses airflow to keep the engine from overheating, instead of relying on liquid coolant. A lot of Porsche fans prefer the older air-cooled feel and sound.
“Carbs” is short for carburetors, which mix air and fuel mechanically before it enters the engine. Fuel odor from carbureted setups can indicate issues like float/needle wear, leaking seals, or fuel evaporation when the car sits.
A concept car is basically a “preview” car shown at events. It’s used to show new ideas, and sometimes those ideas later show up in real customer cars.
Recency bias means you notice something more after it’s been on your mind recently. So when you start shopping for a car, you may start seeing it everywhere even if nothing really changed.
Lighter wheels help because they’re easier for the suspension to control and they’re also easier to spin up and slow down. The result is usually a sharper, more responsive feel.
LIVE
What up everybody welcome to the smoke entire podcast this episode is brought to you as always by off the record
We love off the record over here
They are looking out for you wherever you are 50 states if you get pulled over for a moving violation
Big or small don't plead guilty call off the record
They will arrange for a qualified attorney to represent you in your case and at a
Hugely high percentage get those points off your record go to off the record comm
TST that's off the record comm slash TST will give you ten percent off all legal services
Booked through off the record one more time off the record comm slash
TST and also this morning welcome to avance you guys know avance, right? It's a quarterly print magazine
It's a cool editorial website and Instagram and they do awesome in-person events all over the US
I've known about avance for a long time
My red car was even on the cover of their magazine and now they've got a new membership program
Allowing you to save money on things that you're buying anyway like tires avance members get 10% off at discount tire
Plus an additional 10% off all Michelin and BF Goodrich
So if you spend 1,500 bucks on a set of cup twos you're gonna save $300 just for being an avance member
It's only $99 a year and it comes with a $70 griots garage gift card
So it's basically paying for itself right off the bat now. You can use code
TST for 10% off your membership go to avance.com
Slash TST and use code TST to sign up one more time avance
A V A N T S dot com slash TST and code TST
For 10% off your avance membership and thank you to avance for sponsoring the show today
All right, let's just get right into it today
We are reviewing the Aston Martin Valhalla a little BTS for my review in Spain go check out the video
It's up now talking about that plus old computers and old music and what would I pay for Mike McCready's guitar?
It's the smoking tire podcast. Let's go
How's everybody doing? It's Monday, isn't it mmm that means Christian will post a meme of some kind
That's true. He's like clockwork. They're good though. They are pretty good. They're good, and I usually haven't seen them before yeah
I think I was just fed an article
That I literally was like the exact like and I read this article like a year ago
And I it was just like copy paste new title and just like posted to a major news site as a new article
Whoa, but I literally recall reading this exact article like a year ago the word-for-word and and I think the title also
Well, it wasn't even like this arch article originally appeared in the doo-doo-doo edition of the doo-doo-doo
It was just like published March 30th, 2020. Yeah, I was like, oh is like Apple news feeding me like throwback
And I was like no, this is just this was written. No, like I've definitely read this exact classic rock station of
Articles crazy. I don't know. Hi. How's how's everybody?
Zach did a lot of work this weekend making sure the Aston Martin Valhalla video went up. So we appreciate that they
I mean it happens, but they moved the embargo date up by a day
Or they by two days. Yeah, it was and they were like sorry
But then like you know Zach had to edit on a all day on Sunday, which which sucks
Fortunately, we kind of make our own weekends, but like we do but our but neither of our wives do right and so that that
When Hannah wasn't working didn't fucking matter what day we did anything. It's true, you know, yeah now weekends matter
Yeah, it's okay though happens now and then and
It was fun to edit because it's cool car. It is a very cool car a lot of shots
Yeah, you did so many slides
You undersold it when you came back from the trip you were like I slid it around I was like all right
And then I'm watching this video. I'm like, oh, this is all right
That's the this is the drift turn and then like literally eight minutes later. I'm like, all right
They're all drift turns. Do I keep all of them? Yeah, you know, see that's the same brevity. No, like this cars like I
Get it's it's like a million dollars. I you know what I mean
So like I if you listen to this podcast for five minutes, there's like there's up-front eye rolls with like it's a fucking million dollars plus
but
it's
Imagine the guy who developed the seven series McLaren in charge of that program
was given, you know, a
Laurenstrol
Sure and a bigger checkbook and 10 years newer technology to say
Okay, impress people for us now and so that's like kind of what this this car is
It's sort of like if you took the vibe of the seven series McLaren car and went well
Like let's hypercar this thing up with like two motors at the front and an E
You know and a motor generator and like all those things
and
Like let's like flex our carbon fiber muscles like let's because they're they're making that stuff in house now the carbon and like
They're making carbon in a it's fuck. It's been so long since I drove this car
I'm like, holy shit. I have to remember what I what I learned in the video. I should go watch my own video
No, no, no, but um, you know the carbon tub and structure is it was done by the F1 team
It's it's incredibly rigid. It's got this fabulous inboard suspension
And remember when we drove the Mercedes black series the AMG GT black series the orange one
Mm-hmm, and we're driving and we're like this engine feels like it feels like a front engine to McLaren with the flat plane
Crank and all that like it felt like a supercar motor just like in the front
Well now a similar version of that motor is in the back of a carbon tub car. So it's cranked up
to make like a hundred more horsepower bigger turbos and and
Aston really gets to you know, they get a Mercedes
engine to start with but they really have
Contractually earned themselves the right to like hot rod the fuck out of these things. So it's different pistons. It's different turbos
It's different fucking valves. It's like it's pretty it's pretty
Medley rebuilt and then you have the tri-motor, you know hybrid system
Which in this thing is fucking cool because not only is it doing torque vectoring and brake vectoring and torque fill
But also the it does the traction control, which is so awesome because
unlike grabbing
The brakes it has this infinitely variable traction controllability
So it can it doesn't I don't use it in the video because I was having too much fun
I was like and off but like I did run some laps with it on
And it doesn't like almost every traction control system you'll ever use in
Some way inhibits your pace. You know what I mean? Like you can feel it pulling power
Or worse when it's break vectoring you feel it going go go go on the brakes and you're like, oh boy
That is not very much not real right
It's like a tank treks it stops the inside
Yeah, and so you stop and you turn left right stop and you turn right a little bit
So it just does a small version of that so when it can do it at the front
sort of infinitely
And when it can do it at the back using the motor generator
It really feels because it's got so much fucking power. You know if if you're trying to put down
800 or 900 horsepower, but but five would do it. Mm-hmm. It really
Manages to give you the five without feeling like it's slowing you down, you know at all
It's doing some like really good math
And then I don't know how many times I said it in the fucking video
We had you cut it down a couple of times
But the steering ratio like is so bang-on like the amount that you turn the wheel to get through the corner
Is the exact right amount? No matter what corner you're in and like that's fucking
And not too much like Ferrari and not too little like you know older cars basically and then it's got you know
It's a carbon tub and it's got these buckets
But because it has the door cutouts or the roof cutouts, which I sort of complained about in the Maserati video
The carbon tub gets really narrow
And then the seats are like kind of like laid back a little bit like it like
Halfway to an F1 car. Sure. Yeah in the impression of you end up feeling in almost this
Like a zero G kind of seat and like unlike the
MC-20 the lumbar pillow was like sculpted correctly and so it was like it was I was in this car for like
I don't know six seven hours
and
It's very comfortable not no problem and also
Not that well like when you open the door, you know the pedal box it like it's it there's a cut forward
So yeah, legs in that's instead of having to like shove them, you know around this corner, right?
The opening to get your feet to the pedals is deeper
You can sweep in instead of like turn yourself into a baby and then put your feet in that combined with the plop down
Yeah, like real nice
It was it very easy to drive on the road like you and and not only easy to drive in the road like
Pretty fun at five tenths
Like I wouldn't say it's like quote fun at 65 on the highway like but it's it has a really good ride
So you can you could put it in comfort mode and you could do a road trip in it
Except for the fact that it has no trunk. You'd have to figure out one of them John Olson
Racks. Oh, yeah, the cargo box situation tough at the door
I mean a true boss would ship their luggage or something sure or have a have a support
Have a friend drive behind you
But I think I think the five tenths is important because there's some cars where it's either boring at five tenths or
It's such a compromised car that you don't even enjoy it and it's not until you start going fast start getting adrenaline start having fun
Where you you go? Okay, these compromises are worth this price or worth or the price is worth the fun
But if it's still exciting and like fun to steer and feels pretty comfortable and looks cool
But isn't like the Konig remember like it's not like that where you're like this sucks unless I'm going a thousand miles per hour
I forget that it sucks. Yeah, so I think that's the good blend for this for a supercar, right and a lot of you know
It's a lot of the really fast DV's there there when you're like launching and doing whatever
They're super fun, and then they're and then they're whatever and and and with and with a lot of a lot of hypercar type cars
It's like well, this is amazing at at a zillion miles an hour
But you know an 80s Ferrari or night is more fun at slow speeds like for a very very fast car
This is really nice to drive at low speeds, and that's what when you talk about like is the steering
Communication good does the brake pedal feel nice? Does it feel?
Small and agile and like does it take a mid-corner bump?
Well, you know can you see through a tight hairpin?
And is it good through an open sweeper and like is it just?
Generally very nice to drive and and like sporty and fun and like it actually it really is and it if you keep it in
Well sport
Quotes sport is comfort right there's like EV to like putter out of your neighborhood
Which actually you you don't even need to do because it's a it's a pretty quiet engine unless you're like really really on it
Yeah, there's the double exhaust which I mean it was in the the AMG GT also
Yeah, that was one of my complaints about it
It didn't sound cool and tough and like the other cars because it was just a fast flat plane
But yeah, I would say it sounds in this like a and I keep making the comparison
But like like a more refined version of a McLaren sure yeah, you could there will probably be some I mean some crazy person
Will make an aftermarket this already has the the
There believe it or not they sell this with two exhausts
They sell us with two exhausts and two different sets of wheels like you can get regular wheels and magnesium wheels
That makes that you can get a regular exhaust or like the titanium exhaust. I'm like for
Who who isn't just getting that for like a million dollars?
Just fucking make it and what were you able to hear both exhausts all the cars had the titanium? Okay, so they were all
The the loud loud not that loud. Yeah, it's a it's a mid-engine twin. It doesn't even have mufflers
You heard me say in the video, you know between the turbos and the euro particulate filter
It doesn't actually have a muffler at all
Oh
The new 4 GT is that a car? I only drove it on a track that car seemed to me like something that would not be fun or
Exciting at 5 tenths the way this is guys taking a break for our friends. Hello fresh supporting us today
Nothing hits like home cooking and hello fresh makes it easy to do more of it this year with recipes that feel good and taste delicious
Night after night, you know last night. I literally gave my trainer Sean
My gym trainer a course in meal prepping helping him at meal prep
For his week, but I was also like hey, you know you could also just join hello fresh
And that way you can have a hundred new recipes every week
Cuisines from around the world meals that help you with extra protein in the gym super
Super protein recipes each week including Mediterranean options. There's wholesome ingredients good sustainably sourced seafood
antibiotic and hormone free chicken and he was like that's okay, Matt
That sounds really good
But why don't you just cook this dinner for me and that'll be like meal prep and that's what I did
But I really did recommend the hello fresh for him because it is so easy if you like love cooking
But you don't like the annoying parts of cooking such as going to the store
Figuring out what to make buying more food than you need and having to waste some of it because you got to buy a whole thing of spices for
Like one recipe. Hello fresh is your jam and now they're throwing in all this good stuff
They've got new grass-fed steak rib eyes
They've got seasonal produce like pears apples and asparagus and there's now three times the seafood for no
Upt charge
But like I said, I love cooking it the recipe cards are good to keep around if you wanted to make multiples of the original recipe for a
crowd and
When I am busy and I don't have time for the shopping or the thinking
But I still want to cook a fresh meal at home. Hello fresh is it go to hello fresh com
Smoking tire 10 FM to get 10 free meals plus a free
Zwilling knife
$145 value on your third box offer valid wall supplies last free meals applied as discount on first box
New subscribers only varies by plan one more time
Hello fresh comm
Smoking tire 10 FM that's smoking tire 10 FM to get 10 free meals and that's willing knife
Also supported today by delete me making it quick easy and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when
Surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable
Data brokers are out there making a profit off of your data
The way it works is you buy something and then you have to give them your data to send you the thing
But then they sell your data to the next guy
That's just how the internet works now and those guys are called data brokers and they'll sell your data to anyone
Right this can lead to identity theft fishing attempts harassment spam calls all of that stuff
But now you can protect your privacy with delete me, right?
All you have to do is sign up for delete me and I'll tell you how at the end
But you give them the information right you tell them your address your phone number your email your job your brothers
Your sister your cousin your former roommate your old address is
Whatever you can think of and then they go looking for that in information on data broker websites
they then come back with you a couple weeks later with a
Probably scary it's gonna be scary how much of your information you'll find particularly the first time you run a delete me search
But like they'll come back with it and they'll delete a lot of it automatically
They'll click a couple of things here and there have to do a couple small proactive steps to
File these takedown notices and then delete me will keep going. It's not a one-time service. They're always looking out for you
They're gonna keep going and then a couple weeks later
They're gonna send you another email and there's gonna still be more stuff
It's gonna be less than before and then on and on and on and eventually that number gets to be really low
But you never gets to zero because they're always we're always shopping and they're always in there
So delete me is on the game. So don't worry about it. Take control of your data
Keep your private life private by signing up for delete me now at a special discount for our listeners
Get 20% off your delete me plan when you go to join delete me
Dot-com slash tire and use promo code tire a check out
The only way to get 20% off is to go to join delete me
Dot-com slash tire and enter code tire at checkout
That's join delete me dot-com slash tire code tire and now back to the show
But you've driven more so only yeah, I mean I drove it
You know, I drove one around like three or four hundred miles in a day and that was it but
At the time it was very exciting
It was new and very exotic and and it drove nicely on the road
But also because it's like a homologation race car and has like so little
Insulation in it all the gravel and all this like it felt it almost felt like cheap and thin
You know like the Senna
Even though it was the opposite to get it that way it's very expensive and you know and
Intentional to do it, but it's part of the reason I like the older for GT better as a road car
Even though this one when you're going really fast is fucking super impressive
But like I don't ask it is really not fucking around here like the guys name
I wrote it down back then is Andrew K. K. A. Y. He was the chief designer and engineer on the 720s
Who's who's in this in now at Aston in this program?
But I
mean yes, it's it's very very expensive, but like you know the
Assumption wasn't just that Aston didn't want to make a car like this in the past
Like the assumption was kind of that they weren't capable of it. You know like oh, they make a great GT
dot-dot-dot, but
Ferraris in Formula one and Lamborghinis, you know, they're a Lamborghini
Aston's in Formula one although this year. I mean, I mean, I mean
previously but you know like
You know in in the sort of Lawrence stroll era the cars went from you know, these are nice GTs
But there's a few asterisks on there to like wait hang on a second
You know to sure now we're in Formula one and even when they when they first got in Formula one
And it was like remember we got the Vantage F1 edition and it was sort of this like okay
It's the safety car, but like it's a you you put a wing on it
You made the suspension stiff and like all right come on now, you know, that's that's cute
But like sort of nice try, but what was that five years ago? Maybe yeah, yeah
And here we are, you know and the Valkyrie
Was a bold statement, but obviously it was it's it's not a real fucking car
It's like a ludicrous thing. That's you know, yes
I mean, I didn't realize I looked at they were in F1 from 59 to 60 and then not till 2021
Yeah, so that F1 edition car was probably 2021 five years ago. Yeah, and and it was cute
Yeah, but it was like a dressed-up version of the existing car and this isn't car was not great
Yeah, or sit in or whatever which driving the s this week and we'll talk about it next show
But times they have a change with that vehicle. Yeah, but you need to drive it a little more
Yeah, have you driven at all? Did you drive it all yet? No, okay?
You need to take the one I drove was a was just a regular no
No, you need to take this one today. Yeah, you drive this. It's this is are we taking it to track this week. No, okay
No, unfortunately sadly
Aston declined they needed they want to you know like sort of Porsche 2
It's not about the car being on track
It's that they they don't want it to beat to go to a track without like a support person being there
They want to make sure the tire pressures are good
They want to make sure the fucking they check the torque
Yeah, they just they want someone to be there and they didn't have somebody so we couldn't do it this time
But but you should still drive it because fuck anyway
You know to go from that vantage F1 edition five years later. We've got this fucking thing which is
Not just insanely fast and made of so a lot of in-house stuff barring the engine
But also it's so good to drive that's a fucking idiot like me
Can with not a lot of practice
Like drift it comfortably around a circuit that I it's my first day at yeah, you know like with like
Reasonable competency not perfect mind you patrons know what's up. There's a shot. You should promote that a little bit
Yeah, they're like this track seemed like it had wonderful
Corners with such good radius Navarra was alright. There were so many places
I know I watched your video and I watched like some of Jethro's
But there were just lots of corners that were friendly to sliding at not 800 miles per hour. Yeah
Jethro goes through multiple sets of tires. We were there together and he got I don't I didn't request multiple sets of tires
I I if I really wanted to I maybe could have
and in fact I Jethro
Was this was smart is I I forgot to do this and he was when he finished his grip portion of his video and wanted to do skids
He asked for super sports
Which I was yeah, yeah, I did not
Which although, you know, it turned out, okay, I think was ultimately a
Little easier it would have made it a little easier
But but it with a thousand horsepower is it was not difficult
But but what's it goes back to that like perfect steering ratio?
Yeah, because whether you're trying to grip through that corner and the front motors are helping you or whether you're trying to
Slide the corner and the front motors are really not helping you
It has the perfect ratio for doing that kind of stuff
but you also get the dynamics of the McLaren
because
To go back, you know, six whatever six years ago
I did that show with Dio Shahara and he was drifting the 720 s on this track
Yeah, and he and he comes in he goes you should try to slide that thing and I said absolutely not
I've never slid him in an engine car. He goes I'm telling you
This is pretty easy dummy proof. Yeah, it was true
So if you take that with the new technology as you've said and then you also give it kind of the magic traction at the front
Like an NSX has yeah
Well now you've got all these system
You know the front maybe can pull you a little bit if it feels you understeer
But then it helps you wag the back a little bit and I mean, you know
Your skills should also be commended because you were like sending it in there. I was why
Dude was so high pressure. It's me
Yeah, and Jethro did it was Jethro's video for Evo or Top Gear
Whoever whichever it was the other guy who was there his video was for the other one
They were the entire British
English I know you can't just be in a track with me in three English like super pros and
Have me not at least put up a good fucking effort. Yeah, I had to do it. Yeah pressure was extremely high. Yeah
Guys taking a break from the action because support is coming in it fast like Jim Farley the CEO of Ford
Who's now got a podcast and you're always asking me what I'm listening to when not recording this show and right now
It's this the new season of drive with Jim Farley in it
The Ford CEO talks to some of his favorite people about what they're driving and what drives them to succeed like formula one
driver Daniel Ricardo listen
There's a well-worn trope about
Racing drivers not being interesting to listen to but if there is one that is
Interesting to listen to it is Daniel Ricardo
I think this guy's takes on stuff and life are great and look Jim is a racing driver
also, I personally raced against him like two months ago and
For me a CEO that drives race cars on the weekends is about the pinnacle of
CEOdom when it comes to car companies
So the two of them together obviously have a lot of things to discuss on drive with Jim Farley
Which you can get on your podcast app very easy to find drive with Jim Farley check it out
That was great right up until the end
If you're listening if you're not a patron the BTS video is no good couple angles great your you also
Undersold, you know you came back and you're like I don't want to put you can tell why you don't put a video
But the reason you told me like I didn't say anything cool afterwards
Which you you know you're on the radio talking to safety and stuff like that was smart, but you didn't say the amazing sound you made
And it's definitely worth going to patron
You're punching and I hope you didn't take it. I was just like it was funny. I were doing the same thing
No, it's funny. No, and you can I'm sure
Anybody can relate to the thoughts that happened in my that happened really fast sure did really really fast
I'm sticky tired, but those I don't know
1.5 seconds were
Just about as scared as I've ever been in a car
And it was great that it happened on like a second-gear corner
Because you came to a halt quickly. It was not a second-gear corner. It wasn't top of third-gear corner
Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean it's an eight-speed car, but it was a top of third-gear corner and
Yeah, I I I dumped the million dollar car into a gravel trap. I had to be towed out
But the car the car was okay full pp. Dude ppf is so good ppf is amazing the car was fine and
It was back on track an hour later after they gave it a
They had to take off the under trays to just like get all the grab
I'm sure I'm raising the wheels off to get the gravel out of it. Whatever, but like it was fine
Hannah Elliot drove it on the next wave
Come on people anyone you see
Anyone who drove the white one it might have been a little dusty
certain places
Um
But yes, I'm not afraid to say that I did try to be a hero and it went a little bit wrong at the it
Dude, here's where it really went wrong. I
Forgot I think I think I did say it in the video
It's we we I think I say like this is I think I say one more lap or this is the last lap
I say it out loud. Yeah, you're like I'll do one more. Yeah, that's you never say that you never say that but in your
Not credit, but like look you didn't spin immediately after you said that because that's usually where the kind of karma shows up
It was like five corners later. No, I was the second to last corner
It was two corners before my day was done. I had to to
To try and nail one in a place. I really hadn't nailed one yet and that was that's a bad idea
But but I felt really confident because I was doing a really good job
So, yeah, you can if you're a patron that video is up. I wish we never ever have
BTS like why would we have behind-the-scenes footage like it like first off like I very rarely break stuff or crash stuff
It doesn't it doesn't happen often
And and it's just if we you if you have it usually it's worth putting in the video itself
We don't do like vlog stuff where we're rolling
Between moments, you know that or it worked well cameras get left on but then we're gone
And they're just stuck looking at the sky or I'm looking at the inside of your suitcase, right? Yeah, but
Anyway, I I didn't it wasn't pertinent to the to the review itself
and
and I don't think
I
Don't know how Aston would feel about it being on the public side of it, but either way I was like finally
Something I can give the patrons. That's like a real good
Meaty funny BTS moment. So there it is up on the patreon right now
But is there anything else that I need to cover regarding the car like what else do we are there questions about the car in that in?
Today's show or or there were not yet. Okay. Well, if there are any in the live stream, but did I mean?
Essentially like it it feels there was one question. Sure someone said
Would you take this a conix of any conix egg or any Pagani?
And I will add although it might be more expensive t33
I
I would have a t33 over all of it if that were a possibility
I'll tell you what as a as a how many times have I said that I'm like an Aston Martin fan despite their like flaws and shit
You know got an old one and we drive all of them and they're imperfect and you want to love them anyway
And so like I you know you you can be
You know an Aston Martin fan despite like despite Aston Martin sometimes, but in this case
I think it's it's such a car that I'm like I'm just such a fan of like whoever's badge was on this
Like if this was the new McLaren, you know, if this was the replacement for the seven series, I'd be like, oh
Okay, you know now we're fucking humming, you know what I mean?
So like that's the get that's the realm that we're playing at now is that like elevation of that
So I haven't driven a new Koenigsegg in 10 years. So Christian get at me. Yeah, let's see. Let's see what that's about
But you know, but I I think I could get one of these serviced in Los Angeles. I'm not really sure
how to Koenigsegg
Pagani's are beautiful, but they don't the the the utopia didn't didn't
Blow me away to drive. Although it's fucking steampunk as hell fucking nasty looking thing really cool
This is a this is a real treat. I really enjoyed my time driving this like it wasn't just that it was fast
It was like
Remarkably pleasant all the time
Getting in and out of it to make the video was zillion times like wasn't annoying other than that. I had to like
Throw all the camera gear because I couldn't put my case the case anywhere
So I had to like it would be and you need a separate camera car or you have to throw
Soft back passenger seat to fill this is a bit like kind of the GT3 RS of super-ish hypercars
Just because it's comfortable usable ingress egress is easy. Yeah, you know those things are usually like when you get into supercar realm
Porsche has always excelled at that because they're normal car. Yeah, it's base is also easy it it
It's a good use of space but it has no storage
But and if you leave it in sport plus which is the set which is everyone else's sport and the engine stays like it's
Sucks when the engine's going on and off like in your basic hybrid modes like nobody's but you got to do it
So I get it flick it to sport plus or individual mode and now the engine stays on and the fact that it's a hybrid is
pretty
Invisible to its operation. It just is a car with great steering and a cool engine and a bunch of fucking power
The brakes don't feel weird the blend, you know, the blend is very nice
You wouldn't know on the street. You're using regen like 95% of the time braking. You'd never know
and
It's just a it's just a
For something that goes so fast and can do so much
It's remarkably approachable and easy and pleasant to drive like all the time
It's really good to look I think it looks good
The one we just the one we the photo that we just put some thumbnail was great that the green whatever victory green
But the other one I drove which is the pearlescent white was fabulous, but you know paint them
I gotta say the way I ever call you white looked good in all the shots
So like the white they use plus the shape of the car
There's so many round shapes that bends light which you know for people like if you look at a white car
That has flat sides or tops in the daytime like it just disappears
Yeah, like crap especially in thumbnails, but this it looked really good still. Yeah
Someone else asked
What did Aston say to you after you spun? Oh?
They just first thought they they asked if I was all right sure as they do and and they said is the car in the wall
I said no, it's not and
And then they said all right, you know, we'll be out and and then they came out
with a tow strap and
and some shovels and we had to dig dig a little bit and
And they'd they drag they towed it out. They didn't have to like crane it
You know crane it out or anything like that and
And we laughed about it. I mean I was obviously very apologetic
I mean I you know I I was
Extremely I was vomiting and apologizing. No, I mean I mean look they they're so cool
Like you knew you went on the launch for the vantage like they're really cool about stuff like this the car wasn't damaged
It was just dusty. Yeah
They they knew I had to do to make it look good in the video and I and I it happened on a track
It didn't happen on the road
you know and and
So they it was good fun
I mean it was nothing, you know nothing was fucked
So it was it was okay, and it was good fun and now they get to make fun of me
Yeah, you know at the vantage launch a driver a youtuber that we both know who is a good driver
Spun on the final like third fourth gear turn on to the front onto the straight
Yeah, didn't hit anything
Yeah, but spun it then pulled into the pits and was like
Whoops and went and ate lunch and then went back out for another session
Yeah, so I'm saying to Aston like they're cool
They were cool if they trust you and you don't hit anything
Yeah, and then they were like and then they were like, you know, are you done?
Did you get all the footage you need to get you know like I think if I needed more footage?
I probably could have waited for them to clean up the car and gone back out again. I mean
They were very cool about it. I heard
Not to start to start rumors, but I heard someone did crash one on a later wave
Not like not somebody we know who I don't know where they were from
Like it's a lot of car
Turn one. I mean that straightaway is big turn one
You were like I could take this flat which blew my mind because I think you're going about a hundred fifty sixty miles per
Hour at that point and then it comes into like a 25 mile per hour
It's like the corner. We talked about it brainered. It's like that where you take this kink at an enormous speed
But the next corner
So it's it's a great corner to slide because your weight is loaded so much on the nose that you just all you have to
Do same reason the McLaren is so good at it when you can initiate a slide
Underbreaking with the weight on the nose it just makes your life so much easier like it just that's like just the right way
Pendulum yeah, because if you try to make it on power, you're trying to recover control versus under breaking you're much more under control
But yeah that corners. I Jethro. I think did take it take that corner flat at one point
I didn't have the balls to do it. Yeah, he's very nervous. Oh, no, that's not right
Jethro said he was at this track and took it flat in the Valkyrie. Oh
Which is sticking your vest a little bit more. Yeah
Yeah, it's it's that first first kink there on the bottom left of the screen
It's like I don't know what would you call that a hundred and fifty degree bend here. Yeah
150
It's like a 30 degree bend. Oh, I guess if I was talking about like triangles. Yeah, yeah, 30. Yeah, I
Mean, it's like a 30 and then it's into a oh, I see what you're doing. Yeah, that's hard
No, there's like a 45 and then it's like a 170 right. Yeah, but this first thing is
3045 and then yeah one yeah, right and look at the length of a straight. I don't know was it half mile? Maybe not
But you you definitely
Are hitting the brakes that
What did I see to did I see 270 kph? Yeah, I think I think so because when I zoomed in on the speedo
Yeah, I was shocked. It was like 220 230 and you had so much straight away left. It was well before the finish line
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, probably it was I think
It's it was so weird if you mean it's so it is so fast obviously it feels
It stops feeling fast probably because of like the downforce and the aero stability
above like a
120 130 miles an hour it stops feeling fast
But then the numbers just you just look at the numbers and they're going up
I said in the video like for like, you know, the the front e-motors never disconnect
They're they're making power to top speed Wow some other cars above a certain speed the front e-motor doesn't do shit
So including I think the zr1x I think but um
But this they keep going but it's for some reason it I mean, you know, we're talking about over a hundred and fifty
It just sort of feels the same but the numbers are like will probably settle down down for us and then just
You know, your brain kind of gets used to that stuff. It's awesome. Yeah, it's crazy sweet car
I mean
For back of that much money it better be sweet, but yeah, I've driven cars that cost more and aren't as good. Yes
That thing is really something
Sold the scooter on
Yeah, two day one that I post that three days sold it yesterday. So two days on
Instagram shout out to
TST fan Brian
from Los Angeles
came down with that cash nice and
Motorcycle movers sending it out to his house in East LA
Tomorrow, so it's a fabulous motorcycle. I will miss it
But I think we're gonna go with the the blue on the new one
The matte blue. It's the it's the mind that I'm selling is a super and the one I'm getting is a super sport
GTS 300 super sport 310. Excuse me super sport
Thought about this this lime green, but we're not gonna do that one
Instead see the blue on the right top on the colors there. Oh, whoops. I know not that one. I mean, that's a dark blue
That's a super tech which I can't buy on name alone. It's super sport and then the
Nice French a little lighter than like a Riviera ish blue
Looks like the water we were just vacationing in Caribbean sea blue. Yeah, that's a good blue pretty cool
Right, it's got black trim instead of the chrome trim. I don't hate it. No, I think well, I think it works
It's a little lighter than a grabber blue for people. Yeah
Yeah, but that'll be that'll be the new the new scoot. Yeah, not sure what it's coming in
But dude cool the shit very cool. I elected not to do the pts
Well, yeah, I don't know they had it you explained to me
Yeah, which is it a couple G's it's a couple G's and they will they will pts your scooter
Yeah, it's a good blue. I know it's a I think I think going with one of the one of the better colors that they that they have
Oh, no, right
Grigio the blue is interesting because there are other colors and I'll put up for people watching people listening. It's like
You can have olive drab green. Yeah, Ray black and then white
So it's pretty like Swedish. Yeah, it's like Swedish Volvo colors with a dash of tactical, but then you have this amazing
Blue, you know, yeah, beautiful electric rain. Oh electric blue. That's just the outlier. It's there in general
I don't love their color lineup right now
Like even the the super tech which is like look the super is only available in red white black. Yeah, no, thank you
The super tech what's what the super tech is only available in blue white
Like navy blue navy blue which this is navy blue white and and this is the in gray. Oh gray. I
Mean, I don't hate those colors, but I need some I need bright and then the yeah the regular GTS is available in the beige
Which I don't hate, but I also don't want I mean here looks more gray
Maybe it looks better in person and then black and and this mint greens kind of night
I mean, this is the color I kind of expect to see that isn't they don't have an orange
There's no yellow, but I guess that's what pts is for oh them that mint green is is not not terrible
Yeah, I'll go like mint green
No, the more I look at this blue. I like better. Yes, I do too because this is also the color of a lot of 1950s
kitchen tile and
Appliances match my my mid mod kitchen is you know what much the color of really would
My grandma's bathroom tile. Yeah
It's it you got to be the right kind of stylish to rock this all the time Verde Annabelle
Yeah, and with the chrome all I'm thinking how is refrigerator, you know, it's like what's the crook?
What's the smeg it's like a smeg what is I think smeg is a turn
It's a terribly named
Refrigerator brand look it up, but it's like new old-looking
It's like new appliances that look like exactly that yeah, it's Vespa X smeg
No, it's a very unfortunate name. Well, who named what first? I think it was smeg an 80 year old company all of a sudden all right
All right, then that's
Yeah
Did you what did we learn about?
Is our is our podcast going to be available on video through Apple?
Podcasts I have not done the research yet, but I think the answer is yes. Okay, so some we just saw that it's possible to get video
the video version of the show of shows in general on
Apple podcast. Yeah, so why not ours? Yeah, and we'll in that's nice
Basically our our host company does have that function, which is great because if we had to move companies
I'd be so sad yeah myself, but it looks like simple cast can handle it
So I'll figure it out this week sweet. Yeah, that's gonna be and it should become available on
Spotify also
Yeah
Were we not on spot? Not for video. Oh for V. Oh video on Spotify. Oh
I was gonna say that that's could be problematic. No video on Spotify. Yeah. Oh, I didn't really know video
I didn't know spot if I was doing video now. They do I don't know people if you listen and use it
Let let us know in the comments because I'm always curious
Like I don't use it on Spotify because of the data
Usage and also like I'm just gonna listen to whatever it is. I don't need to watch people talk most of the time
Yeah
Depends on the show, of course some pull up a lot of visual assets, but I don't know YouTube
I just do more familiar with yeah, if you use Spotify video list now
Okay, we can go to the people in
But yes help to our friends. Yes
Are very good friends former bosses in many regards Sam Smith and Travis Akulski
Both of them worked at Road and Track for a long time than motor one
Some of the best riders and drivers in this game are I've created an event for Goodwood revival called a damn fine way
To 2026 Goodwood revival, so it is
Sort of a curated event you pay a price you stay at an estate with them
You have meals with with the whole group and then they take you to good
You're forced to have meals with them
You know they're available, but I will say these are some of the most entertaining people
I have ever met and they also are super knowledgeable about the like old race cars, so they'll probably be great docents
Yeah, so if you like me otters be like me otters
But I mean Sam's also owned like you know formula fords and raced all this old shitty qualified
Second place in a mini race in Goodwood revival like long ago next to one Chris Harris
So if you're interested in this kind of thing
Go to revival spark.com and there's information about it
And then you can reach out to them for more info on like price and schedule and stuff
It's not the cheapest thing in the world
But it's a pretty rad thing and I think this is one of the greatest motor sports events on earth
Yeah, so shout out to those guys. Oh, right revival spark.com nice
And then yeah, I mean I guess if we're gonna talk about one car trip their entries are open for our rodentrack Pacific Northwest shift
It comes with two
Motorsport days
PIR track day Portland International Raceway also a day at dirtfish rally school. We're driving the Cascades
It's gonna be absolutely
spectacularly gorgeous go to experiences dot rodentrack.com if you would like to come drive with me
You can bring any pretty much any car. It's gotta be it's gotta be a sporty car
But but people ask, you know, can I bring my GTI? Can I bring my Miata? Of course, can I bring my classic car?
Yes, you can someone always does a couple people usually do
but yeah, everything is included and
Two motorsport experiences at this one. That's good. Yeah, PI rally is the greatest thing ever dirtfish is the shit
Which one are they doing first, you know?
The track is first that's good and then dirtfish because you know, there's so much sliding happening at dirtfish
Oh, you wouldn't worry, you know, people get excited. It's in the track. Yes, very hot. Yeah
For sure
But it's gonna be super fun because I love the Pacific Northwest and it's gonna be a great place to fucking drive sports cars
It's gonna be super fun. So come drive with me if you want this summer in in a couple weeks. I'm going out to the desert one
It's gonna be great diet. We are driving the Dodge charger six pack on that one. Hell. Yeah, should be interesting
Hell yeah, brother. Yeah, brother. We can go to the patrons. Thank you very much at patreon.com slash the smoke tire podcast
Last week I posted up
Or a couple days ago that that we had seven
Extra notice canyons that we were available able to build from the remaining stock of parts
So they were sort of a continuation series happy to report
They were gone in about an hour after posting it
So shout out to the seven patrons that got their hands on a continuation series notice canyons and we will have
pink
Excuse me
Brozen fairy metallic
Notice canyons with the all-new deployant class. I'm not wearing it today, but available
for purchase in December
Exclusively to the patreon first
If there are any left they can go to the public. I somehow doubt there will be but but um, I
Wanted to the reason we haven't announced it yet is because unlike last time. I really want to reduce the amount of time
As much as possible in between when you order and when you receive your watch
These are impulse buys for for many folks and so I
We will in order to reduce that time between purchase and delivery. We're not gonna
Make them for sale until they are like literally ready to ship like like that. So
But they're coming soon within within a month and you'll have your watch in time for summer
It's we I just took it sailing trust me. I tested. Is it good for summer and yes, it motherfucking is
Every day in the water eight days in the ocean. I didn't take very good care of it and it's fine
It's great the water resistance the sand resistance the scratch resistance the boat life
It is fine. You could dive with it if you want
So those people over at patreon.com slash a small entire podcast to get all those things we just talked about plus
Access to the live stream access to the show early access to extra show which the pro driver show just went up for this month
Go check that out on patreon and the ability to get the show without ads and a whole lot more
Shout out to them
Uh
Sterling says
Thanks for getting me hooked on are you garbage? Segura was just on are you garbage again? It's very fun. Oh, cool
I've got a garbage question for you. Are you garbage questions are welcome on this show
Is it garbage to get something delivered same day on Amazon to the bar?
You know, you're gonna be at all day. I did this last weekend
Loving my new pair of air pods and deodorant. I it's smart, but it
It's I think it's kind of garbage to be at a bar all day
You know that first off there's there's segments of this story that are garb
You're right being in a bar all day is one, but it could be a sporting event
True, you're there to first a five six hour event. It's like like March Madness. I think people were at the bar all day
So, okay, but yes, that's garbage
Amazon same day if it's not really urgent is pretty garbage
You yeah, there's a lot of we need more clue like clues like if you're at the bar and you go
I have a flight after this. I need my air pods, right?
Okay, but if it's like you're you're impulse shopping because you've had a few and you're like, you know, I do need air pods now
Look new air pods and deodorant. Now that but that I actually think goes back to class that is urgent
And I actually say it's classy because you know you have a problem and you need it solved now
And you went I can fix this but it's very funny that while you're in there for deodorant. Let's be honest
Yeah, that was the more pressing issue. You were like, let's add some air pods. Here's real class
Knowing you have a problem and next time you're drinking at the bar
You
Pre-order pre-order deodorant to be delivered that day, but days ahead of time
I knew where you were headed. You want like your own private bottle of deodorant at the bar that
is gross
That is something they should not keep for you behind the bar
I got halfway through the thought and was like it is not a good idea, but I'm committing that's a team garbage event
That means you and the bartender are both trash
I I was thinking of the deodorant sort of like it was the fresco that I used to bring to the bar except
I realized that they have opposite implications and effects
Yeah, you wanted a beverage at the bar. They didn't offer but they're willing to kind of bend this thing
This is like hey, I smell every time I get here, but I'm not showering or deodorant in at home
Problem needs to be solved elsewhere. Yeah, besides the bar. That's a good point. Yeah garbage fully fucking fucking garbage
Giggity Airlines says nobody talks about dub magazine anymore
I think they had a big impact on car culture like Super Street magazine did thoughts. Did they I?
I mean they certainly had a cultural impact I think for the segment of people that
But read dub magazine a lot. I wasn't really into that magazine because it was more like
Show cars and stereo wheels and stereos and stuff like that and I was more into sports cars
But like respect we wouldn't have donks without dub magazine. Yeah, we wouldn't have had the iconic donk box and bubble magazine
Very true. I think you know it any magazine that
Was pointed at any part of car culture is a good idea
Yeah, and this brought that part of car car culture to more eyeballs and probably I think there's probably more subtle crossover people realize like a
Magazine basically focused on customizing and rims. Well now everyone who gets a sports car is like how should I pts?
My interior should I get custom inters? Which wheels am I getting?
I think those those things have helped each other and also I'm looking at dub now and there's Charon reviews and you know
I'm Cadillac v-series review like the so it's guys. They still exist cars are over there, too. Yeah
Accidental reverse entry says one question for each
Zack you've gone through many iterations with your m3 at one point
At what point do you think you'll be ready to go in the same type of journey with a different platform?
I think like a year, but I
Think I have to decide if I want to go
You know four-door e90. I talked about a lot. Do I just want a fast sedan and is that the best one for the money?
I don't know off to start. It's one of that looking around. It's one of them. You know, yeah
Everyone in my neighborhood right now, you know
My neighborhood is like full of two kinds of people like old retired people and then like people kind of like me and Hannah and
Everyone that's like about the same age or whatever as me and Hannah is kind of like on my first Porsche right now
And so my neighborhood in the last two years is like so full of
997 s's and 996 c4 s's and
Literally like my whole block is filled up with these exact like two cars. I could I could see you going down that train
I could see you in a 997 s
Within 18 months. I think I've talked about it like Cayman s is more attractive to me or
Gts I think it's more expensive though than I'd want to spend sure so but that is it an attractive idea
Yeah, you know Zach's first Porsche. Yeah
And Matt you've expressed interest in having another air-cooled Porsche in the future. What direction would you take it? I?
Would
Do
What direction would I take it? I mean I'd really like to have just like
The this the Safari car was so cool
But the problem is I didn't like really do much with it like I didn't it was a car for a thing
I didn't really do right which that's fine, but like let's not do that again. So it would it would be
the just it would be a nice I
Mean I've I honestly like I've driven some stock ones where I'm like, yeah, this is good
It does not need to be like a build
I would want it to be something that was like very easy to drive with light controls and and that kind of stuff
I haven't oh, I it could also just be the kind of thing you see and fall in love with but like I don't I don't want to get into a into a
$100,000 Porsche build again like anytime soon because like I just I think I
Think a lot of what's really nice about those air-cooled cars is their usability
So I what I would I think really like to have is like maybe just another five speed
G50, you know Carrera sort of like the car I started with
but with like
some more miles
Low hundreds it's had the major service done the hundred K major service, you know, and then
Just drive that a lot, you know take it take it on vintage events
And just drive that a lot and be like ah the miles are fucking whatever the
And just sort of like leave it and drive it instead of like making it a big project. I think that would be fun
Mm-hmm
Not like there's no such thing as a like just something like that you didn't that I didn't have to like think about all that
OEM plus but well used so you don't worry about it. Yeah. Yeah, not not collector grade
You know, maybe somebody else did a did a 3.4 kit or something in it
You know, maybe like one of Marcos clients wants out of a good car that Marcos looked after for 20 years
I mean that that kind of thing like it would be like
You know fad going hey like nudge nudge this this thing is the shit and it's been like
You know the guy died or whatever, you know, whatever it is like something like like kind of like that
We're like hey, there's great value and fucking. Please. Don't start sending me cars
I'm talking about this is from like two people that I know, you know
We're like there's this is this this is the specific thing and there's a ton of value in this and you know
You could you know not have to do much with it for a couple years of the drive that sort of thing
Harlequin e63 AMG, how do you mitigate mitigate mitigate Jesus?
How do you mitigate gas fumes smells for the older cars at WCCS?
Does that present a problem for some of the cars in storage outside of running an exhaust fan in my garage?
My old Mini Cooper just kind of smells from the carbs and fuel tank
There's not a fancy way to do this you run fans
Are at WCCS? We have an exhaust fan that runs at a very low speed all the time
And then filtered air comes in from the outside and it goes out so at WCCS. It's not a problem
The fan is never off. It's only on very low or like, you know
There's three or four different speeds based on how many cars were running at once at home. I
Feel you when my Ferrari was there. It smelled a little fume
the Manx
Although it's a brand new car the the actual like
Seal on the fuel tank, you know, which is up front is like not that good of a seal
So it's not like fuel comes out but like, you know over a couple days if it's hot, you know
It does smell it'll smell a little fume, but at my garage. I have a automatic exhaust fan, too
Yeah, so I think it's just you need ventilation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean if you can get an exhaust fan
That's like small ours is like super small solar powered and activated by like temperature
So when it's warm it turns on and and like once a year
I have to get up on a ladder and like vacuum the dust out of it and that's that's pretty much it
But it's it's a very basic ass solution. So that's kind of what I recommend
You know or just like walk in there with a lit candle once in a while, you know, see what happens
We'd city night court. It's been 16 years since the Clarkson era of top gear came to an end fucking. Where does it go?
Obviously, it was hugely influential influential on Gen X and Millennials. What is the equivalent touchstone for younger generations?
And how do you think those new heroes perceptions of automobiles will drive Gen Z's enjoyment of cars?
I mean, there's fucking youtubers
Yeah, and like they kept doing the grand tour for like 12 more years after this
So it's not like those guys went away. No, I think I think youtubers the
important point is I think
There are more heroes now. It's just everything's fragmented and
There's people that are big fans of car youtubers that you and I have never heard of because they're 20 years younger than us
Or they're just not in that the hour or whatever like and they do this thing like mighty car mods
There are people that probably don't watch
You know driving videos, but love mighty car mods those guys have been at that game very successfully for like 15 years
Right, like there used to be this one show that did news that did car reviews that did, you know
Stunts and they did like road trips right and now there's like four different channels each of which says that does the segment
Exactly and so like they're watching like whistlin diesel for stunts and they're watching
You know Harry Metcalf for road trips and they're watching
This show for news and they're watching, you know, what a Chris Harris for drifting drifting it
Yeah, Harris does the Clarkson track driving sure. Yeah, and so that that collectively is how people get to to a top gear
You know, that's how fucking good top gear was is they did all of those things in one
Yeah, but like it's also a testament to like like almost all of those other things
I just mentioned like did pretty decent
top gear inspired
Films for like fucking no money
I mean, you know
Like they're they're all very like very low budget and basic and often just one or two very talented people
You know applying their craft and an approximating
Sort of what top gear had to spend an awful lot of money to do
I just saw a random reel popped up on my wife's phone and this the short version this guy
Walks around the neighborhood and goes hey, can I paint your car for free and everyone says no and it's like New Tesla says no
Just I mean he has like six people and some guy who as soon as he starts talking he goes oh
That would be awesome. He's like seven. Oh, and this guy is down
Of course, he's got like a sixty-two Ford pickup that looks like shit
And it's rusted to fuck and this guy who is clearly he's like a 28 year old
Amazing painter pinstripe skills painting skills, but he has to have a body shop weld panels on and you know
You get the glow-up he repaints this guy's truck and basically restores the thing and he just does it for free
And he's doing what overhauling did with yeah a production crew of ten or a
Working crew of ten plus production plus half million dollar budgets
And it's just wild that shows like overhauling and the show with Mike Brewer and aunt like those are now independent YouTube channels
Does this make money? I have no idea. I didn't look into that part. I mean either he has sponsors or he just
You know rev-share is big enough probably a little bit of both
Well like there's this guy and how do you gonna make money a rev-share to do body work?
There's a guy named uncle John who is like a construction
Influencer and he just goes around love. I love it. You just said construction
That's a crazy world repair, but he's a world that we love all these videos are like I made a fence for my neighbor for free
She's older, you know
And he used to be a contractor and now he does this and he'll have a sponsored post by whatever sure and that pays for the fence
But it's like yeah, you're going to help people and you know look I people I'm not and I'm not so cynical to think that people
Won't just do something to be nice that the mowing guy whoever the mowing. You know I'm talking about mm-hmm
I want to say it's like SB mowing. Okay, I think is the dude. Oh he goes to people's
Citizens yeah, and he says can I like it's a wonderful thing and like it it looks like it takes him a day to a couple of days
To do like and like respect dude respect
but his
And I'm not trying to be cynical, but like I could see the rev-share
You know paying off of that sure because your overhead is very low
But if you're like
Using a paint a paint booth and like doing body work and stuff like that
It just costs more to do time more money more people more help more fucking whatever like so I just I'm interested in the math of that
No, as was I I watched it was there and I thought now maybe this project got away from him and was larger than expected
Normally he just sprays cars Tesla, but he's like oh god. I'm well
He'd like he had to hire people to cut metal
That's so he might have been a loss on that one
But you're like this dude does the job that overhauling did belong YouTube. I'm like well
It was expensive. Yeah overhauling and not just because of the camera
No, that's right. Yeah, they got all these people so I think to go back. There's just there's content for any kind of interest in cars
Yeah
Prayer of the refugee wagon on Montana tags says
Recently purchased the 2026 Bronco Badlands and people have been stopping me in my tracks to talk about it
It's a nice car and all but it seems to have gained a fair bit of attention from people
In my small and sometimes sheltered little town
Have you ever gotten a lot of attention while driving what you'd consider to be a fairly normal car?
Dude when the Bronco came out
Everybody want to talk about the farm Bronco?
Everybody one of the I'm surprised it's still going on. I mean like
Now like there's Broncos like everywhere
But man people love those things and I get it you you Broncos like a Wrangler
You have to you have to be an enthusiast to have one, you know, it's it's a little compromised as a road car
So like it's enthusiasm. You're saying something about yourself by driving one
I don't know if it's a normal car. Yeah, it's such a like you said it's got it's got the off-road audience is into it
Yeah, that's a pretty large pot
Have I ever we ever gotten a lot of attention driving what you would consider to be a fairly normal car?
That's an interesting question
And I'm sure we have because we've driven cars either right when they first come out or or ahead of when they come out
I've been very surprised every time I drive an Audi RS 3 then the new Audi RS 3 people know
And it's always like it's like a facelift or whatever like people notice that shit right away, which I'm very surprised by
They're really into a new RS 3
It's tough because we don't test a lot of normal cars
Yeah, but like even back in the day like we did like
Think of all the cars we've owned that
You know got attention it I got to go back a long way in the database here
But and it turned out to be a fairly normal car
But when we had when we had the first Raptor. Oh, yeah, people were really very really into that
When I had the Shelby GT 350 are I
Mean I don't you that's not normal, but like, you know, it's a Mustang
People knew what that shit was right away. Yeah
Hmm
I feel like I mean if you drove a Tesla early on people like oh
Yeah, the thing
I reviewed a Tesla Roadster when it was new and people didn't really give much of a shit
No, I think like the S was probably probably when you're the very early one
But that's that's man loose it. No one really cared about no, it's just like I think most people go, huh?
And that's it, you know, like nobody asked us it were anything. Yeah about the sapphire
Huh, oh, well, I mean
Again, it turned out to be a normal car, but I got pulled over
in a in a Dodge Challenger SRT prototype in
2009 doing 90 in a 30 and I got out of it because it was the new
Challenger like and the cop was so so into it that I I could have done anything south of killing somebody and
All this fucking guy wanted to do was check out the car. I mean imagine
This is oh nine imagine you have never seen a Dodge Challenger right now and now you're a cop
Yeah, and this fucking asshole with sideburns
90 and a 30 in the first one you've ever seen so well he took his chance. So that's the wrong kind of attention
When Nissan R32's first became legal you could drive a great, you know a gray R32 around and people would like to lose their mind
Don't be alarmed where Nino's sound drops
I'm in Utah and I want an all-wheel drive
Overlanding van for around 15k. I need the ability to do over 80 miles an hour which rules out VW Synchros and Delica
L300s my heart says Delica L 400 my head says Chevy Express all-wheel drive in the wallet says Sienna
Do you have a recommendation?
So correct if I'm wrong
but I believe that a Delica L 400 is a
True four-wheel drive vehicle like a four by four with a transfer case. I drove and that's the newer Delica
Than mine the rounded one. Yeah, I think that's like an actual off-road vehicle
Whereas a Sienna isn't yeah Sienna is like is got like Camry all-wheel drive like Haldex like that's not
For overlanding. It's for like a snowy day. Yeah, I agree and but they
The Delica if you want a real overlanding van
I think you have to this person has to be really honest about the terrain they're on like you can make a Sienna work
Yeah, well with thoughtful driving
But if you're going up steep stuff and you know the van's gonna be loaded a lot
You're putting a lot of stress on the half shafts and yeah system then yeah
Maybe something a little bit stouter would be smart if you have someone who can work on an L 400
They are dope
They're fucking off when I I tried to convince Hannah to get one of these because it was so much more powerful and drove
So much nicer than ours, but she likes the look of ours
That's the whole thing is the shape so she didn't really care for it
But I think this is a true yeah four by four vehicle whereas the Sienna is not a
Chevy Express fans a real piece of shit. I mean, I'm sorry to say it like yeah
It's based on a truck frame, but like that's a piece of shit. It's like they're
E 350
Right, it's like a 35 year old product. They're still making I mean the I think the pro of that is it's not as much a cab
Over right as the L 400 so it might be slightly more comfortable and also you get parts anywhere
That's the other thing. It's a Chevrolet right so that is a benefit. Yeah, but it's very uninteresting
I don't know. I'm terrible. You're a drive one. Yes. Oh misery. I can hear it though. Yeah
Yeah
She only wants me for my turn in oh
Last week I asked about hobby cat. Oh, that's all right. I don't I don't know about the adventure sailing kayak
I didn't I have not seen that before so I don't have it looks it sounds interesting, but I don't have an opinion. I'm sorry
Listen and sometimes watch
manual AMG
Swaps seem to be getting more popular. Is there a driving experience value in swapping a C 63?
Consider a decent example to be about 25k in the swap to be about 10
I'd like to try one
Every manual swap Mercedes AMG I've ever driven has gotten notably better
Right, I mean that has that SL was lovely dude a manual C 63 would be sick
I drove one. I mean the engine's amazing. They look good
They're still comfortable and then it shifts and you go yeah and putting a normal
Just it would just bring it up to like an eight-tenths car. It's not even a ten-tenths car, but that needs one
That's a great car. We have a clk black series at our South Bay store that is a manual swap
And it is a fucking nice very hot
so
There's more value in manual swapping a better car
Because if you're if it's 10k to manual swap a cheap car and 10k to manual swap an expensive one
Like it's less of a percentage increase in your expensive one
So like you know if it's 25k for a car and 10k that's like it's like 45 whatever 40 45 percent of
The car to swap it versus if you got one that was twice that it would be you know 20 percent of the car
so
It is a math problem
But every manual swap Mercedes I've ever driven was better than stock by like a pretty solid margin
So take that the ghost of Woolworth's
The good both the brand and the and FW Woolworth
Pre-owned lucid airs are available from the mid 30s directly from lucid is now a good time to buy and enjoy until the warranty is up
Maybe maybe I think are for $30,000 isn't it fence. He bought one and he has a video. He's got a video that
Explained some of the issues he's had with it, right? So he bought one new I think right
Didn't he lease it and that's why he hasn't gotten rid of it yet
I think he leased it new for a couple years, and it was a very cheap lease
See well there's an article from January that says lucid responds to scathing air criticism. Well, yeah
That Jason yeah, so he has here the 2025 lucid air touring so I mean look
There's a price at which the headaches are worth it sure
I think the question with that like because the cars are amazing handle great
I think they look great very comfortable when the tech works inside
The only thing I'd worry about is it how many problems is it going to have are they covered and do they have loners to give you?
And how how close is the service center like true?
You know, I mean if Jason's have a lot of issues with a new one or the older ones better
Probably not I don't think so. I mean speculation don't sue me lucid but probably not so you need to just be ready for having issues
It's like owning an alpha, you know you want to be near a service center
Tickle your pickle for a triple nickel says I'm turning 30 this year, but I don't feel like it
But the other weekend I found myself going full uncle mode and sitting in the garage the door open in a lawn chair with my dog
And a beer just looking at my car in the driveway
What's something you've done that makes you realize you're as old as your age?
I mean a lot of things. Yeah naps most things I do now are like 10 to 15 years older than my actual age
Like most things I've like all I've had back surgery in my 20s
Had old shit dude, yeah, I had a guy to see five Corvette
18 like fine. That's some old
Old man shit. You just love reading the news and getting cranky in the morning balances the whole time
Yeah, you've been a comfy shoe man. Yeah beginning
Shit, what is what are some things I mean?
Napping for me napping is when I can squeeze it in and at 2 p.m. I'm just like oh
I'm just asleep and then awake and then productive. Yeah enjoying a nap
Real realizing like how hungover I get when I drink I get crazy hungover now
Whereas I pretty much did not get hungover when I was younger
I think out getting rid of alcohol for the most part has been very helpful and and I think the funniest one is
Realizing that New Year's Eve is just an evening of expensive disappointments and you just stop caring
Yeah, it is it is a night the marketing for New Year's Eve has been fantastic
They're like this is gonna be the best shit ever. You know how much sex you're gonna have you know where everyone's gonna be out
Yes, everyone's gonna be out everyone's gonna be where you're not very few things happen
Yeah, some of my least memorable nights are spending lots of money getting very drunk on New Year's Eve
For sure Halloween wins all the time. New Year's Eve is a bad night. Yeah for going out. Yeah, I'm with you on that
Uh
What else that's a good question. I'm sure there's like I mean the list of physical things could be endless
The fill the list of physical things are certainly endless, but also like buying
like I
Used to always by as a policy by the biggest engine of any car that I was gonna buy
Like just because I knew I would be like upset sure if there was if I saw
The bigger engine out there the AMG business plan down their own, you know, and now I
Do not think like that anymore
I kind of buy the end like with the tycon like we didn't write the I got the slowest one
Yeah, like that EVs. I think I've really shifted that but also
With maturity like making decisions about what I really need out of stuff
And I'd say having a having a daily that is just a whatever car and
Being like I don't need to advertise my
Aggressive car personality seven days a week like when you're younger like I'm gonna drive the fast loud thing every day
So everyone knows who the fuck I am right and what I'm about and now you're like I do that in the weekend
Sure comfort getting comfort seats. I mean imagine telling 25 year old me that I was gonna get a Porsche spider with comfort seats
But the fuck is wrong with you. Yeah. Yeah that that for sure
BM trouble you
What is something you were able to do early on in your video career that you couldn't do now either doing to ever changing
Skill sets or circumstances something you can look back on and say I wish we could still do this
Besides using copyrighted music
Earn money making videos
When CPMs were amazing and the views were like 500,000 views. Yeah. Wow. Yeah again
There was a time that I could that we could support, you know a small a small crew of people to make these videos
That's that's the main one can't do that now
How I here's something we're able to do have someone to subscribe to our videos and then have the videos go to them
Yeah, I mean
That's not the question you're asking but like those are the those are the actual answers to those questions
I really liked driving fan cars
I did it less than you but it also connects to the previous question because after a certain amount of time
I went this is kind of risky for a lot of reasons
I mean that I matured out of that but that was fun
I look back on those times for like very fondly for the most part actually
But at a certain point I like ran out of both things to say and cars
And it was risky
But things I used to do
Yeah, I mean
You see a lot of burnouts don't do so many burnouts anymore used to speed
Used to do a lot of you do a lot of
Rap you know rapid transit back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot more highway speeding honestly
Yeah, that one is like when you if once you do a couple of like real races
I mean amateur shit, but like races where you're in a caged car
Racing other people that know they're racing you the idea of speeding on the highway becomes like almost instantly
Very very dumb. Yep. Yeah
I by the way, I talked to Tato because you went over and use the the sim couple of couple hours of sim training. Yeah, and
Good bad I was better in the beginning and I think I ran out at glucose and forgot about that
I was there for like three and a half. Yeah. Yeah, the screen for three and a half hours sucks
Tato was a great instructor and
There were so many funny moments where he's like
Okay, use all of that concrete on that turn and then he would go now in the real world
There's a concrete block there and if you hit it you could probably break a wheel and it's gonna be really bad
So don't do it nice and I say all right, so should I probably practice within the bounds then of reality and he goes
No, no here use it
We're trying to get down to 232. I'm like, but if we're in the but if we're there, I can't do it. Yeah
but I mean that's just I'm he's great instructor he's super fast and
I
Did not get where I want to be faster here. You can go faster here in this right? Yeah
And then you remember for something real doesn't matter here. Yeah, you get a lower number on the screen
I mean dude his knowledge though of that track like and in the virtual world
He's like, okay
There's a bump here and that's your turn in and I watch and he had to do like one frame at a time moving it forward
He goes you see that dip. I've played a lot of video games. I can spot bad guys really far away
This was two pixels of movement of a dashboard Matt fairy was like that that and he goes see that bump like I barely see that
Bump, you know, you like that's your turn in work
So that's and it speaks though
There's no feel in Sims because in the car you're gonna feel the bump sure and then you're turning
with the sim like I
Like I respect that he by the way
I saw him later because I went to their formula one party for a minute and he I was like how did Zach do it?
He was like great. He's gonna be awesome. Okay complimentary. He is but like okay fine
But he didn't say like I'm concerned
That's good. I mean it's funny his dad, you know walks in
Surgeon he's like how's it going and I could tell his eyes are like we put in this guy in a car
Yeah, and Tata was like nice his brake trace is right like we're just working on the turning points
Like I'm not doing anything that makes him go. You do not know how to control a car
What are these terrible ideas you have? It's just remembering all of the brake markers for every turn some turns you turn in early
Some you turn it late. I'm just I need to memorize those things for Road America because I sure have never raced there before
Yeah, but also like so many of those also are like become a parent once you do it
Once you do it the right way in once in the car
Then you go. Okay. Yeah, and then you don't have to you know, I mean it's so much harder to learn
That kind of stuff in a when you can't feel yeah, you know
That's true
Like you want to the point of the sim is like get past right left right left and then after that
You kind of just like get the subtleties of it, but you kind of wait here in the real car
It's like yeah, and that is fun though. It is fun. It's helpful. Very helpful
So I'm gonna do some some time here and go back up there when he's back in town
But and then we watched a video of him racing
Super Trafeo and passing like 18 cars and seven laps or some crazy number like he started from 39th and
finished
Fourth in class and like 16th overall. Yeah
Just bananas to why and there's a lot more contact in that series in Super Trafeo
Yeah, there's some rubbing racing happening little nudges that people are doing to him as he powers through but man that dude's impressive
Yeah, he's very very fast
Let's see
Find me the squiggles said
I've read before that for the majority of people your favorite era of music is from late middle school early high school years
Mine would be 84 85 86 which tracks. What is yours?
And does that translate to other things like movies and cars all of the above dude?
All the above and for me late middle school would be into high school is
1994 through
2000 so like yep, that's pretty much in line. I think my music
magnet was
Like age 12 to 22 and like I just listen to that shit all the time like it bled into college
I was no lot of college music music you know why cuz you and I
We got downloadable music. So the so I would say that that for music specifically
We were we went from CDs to Napster to Limewire to iTunes all during college
Yeah, and like the year after college
So like because of that because like it became so easy to share music for us
During college and never before I did learn a lot new music. Yeah, it's a good call
Oh, you'd like this radio or you'd buy the album right money. It was finite, right? We were like it was crazy like I I
My first like school computer class was on like an Apple 2
And it was like cock-a-cock-a-clock soft floppies. Yeah, and then I I got to the my first Wi-Fi
Was and my frat house sophomore year of college. Oh
We we had a land at our house
And then I think when they moved to a bigger house, I didn't move in there. We had Wi-Fi was my apartment
Senior no that how we ran that apartment because it specifically was like a new building that had cat 5 cables
Yeah, like in each in each room. Oh, no
Not have had Wi-Fi was not for a few years. No, I did not have Wi-Fi
No, I had but I had like I had fast my college internet was like fast, but I think it was plug-in. Yeah. Yeah
Yeah, anyway
But that that does but I also tracks with movies and cars for me. Yeah, you saw this I
My taste is a lot of things in that era. Yeah
Run GMC. What was the last notable concept car revealed at a car show?
well, I think was it last year the toyota is
The toyota GT the new GT thing. Yeah, I think that's pretty notable
That got a lot of press and was a pretty rad important thing. Yeah
I
Don't vision the BMW
No, yeah class concept from last year, which is now the I3 dude
I'm not gonna get invited to a BMW launch, but I haven't been in a really long time anyway
So whatever like there is an MK a Lincoln MKZ parked on my block right now, and I drove past it
And I was like I'm not wrong the headlights on the new new class. It looks like the MK. It looks so much like
It is it's a choice
Jim Kana is
Safariing dead or will lifted long travel sports cars be remanded as a moment in time or a
Stallwart niche market with brands producing updated Storato's Dakar's etc. I
Mean dude, I think people now that people do understand that a lifted that a rally car is a cool thing
And that there's a market for
Rally type cars for people. I think it will
Remain an option and he both the aftermarket in from some manufacturers
That both the Storato and the Dakar were enormous successes. Thank you
The Raptor brand is an enormous success and there's rumors of possibly a Raptor Mustang. Yeah of some kind
I'm you know, I'm very surprised the Maki rally wasn't called Raptor even if it did something different
I think that would have been a good extension of that brand. Honestly, I think their base would have hated that
Yeah, maybe that they would have been real upset
But I mean, I don't I don't have any indicating an indicator that it's dead as a as a trend. I mean ice race
You know a lot of a lot of Dakars and safari type cars
Granny shifting not double clutching like you should
What are your thoughts on car clubs that don't charge memberships versus those that charge huge amounts for example, oh
I don't know. Well, okay, I don't want to for example car club a versus
Well, I don't know what these two car clubs are I know one is Porsche Club of America, but I don't know what the other one is
but
Would you ever pay $5,000 to be a member of a car club if you weren't automotive journalists?
I mean, here's the thing like what are you getting out of this club?
Are do you are you getting something for your $5,000 like if you're paying $5,000 presumably for a year or something?
Like I would hope you're getting at least like monthly events with like maybe catering or an entertainment
Special access to stuff like if you're getting that like okay
And if you're if you're join a club that is supported by a manufacturer now
I don't I don't know how much PCA is supported directly by a manufacturer
Then like maybe they don't need to charge because they get funding from the manufacturer and they get to do shit
And you don't have to pay and it drives business and cycle cycle, right?
So like I don't know
Or maybe there's a club that just like has a newsletter and nothing else and it costs $2 a month or whatever so
It's I think there's a club for every budget probably. Yeah, and it depends on your budget
So you like do you want to stretch to join this club?
Because it's cool, or does it give you all these things you said?
I remember a few a year or two ago
There was like a car show around the corner and they wanted to charge 50 bucks a ticket
And the to enter your car was also like more expensive
And it was like and we kind of laughed at it because there's so many free car events in LA
It was kind of a bold thing. Yeah, did that provide something special to its members or you know participants?
I don't know but that's what you have to think about
I mean look I can tell you the demand is there for clubs when people email us asking about storage
They do frequently ask with what is the social element? Are you doing events of this?
So the people do want to make real-life connections based on car culture
Because I have this other job and I'm running we don't really do it so much at WCCS
But other people do and and if I wasn't an automotive journalist
I'd probably be you know a member of like
Excuse me like the motoring club for instance, which is you know something like a hundred bucks a month
And they do some events and they have a cool space and like yeah
Like that's a kind of thing where I would go to be a social member of a club if I wasn't doing this but
I think because Zach and I
Because of what we do just so much car culture just lands at our feet like why would we
Yeah, I would just say that like it if I don't know what the clubs are the what they offer the ones you mentioned
But five G's a year for a quote for a car club is like that's a lot. It's a lot of money
I mean that's like dipping into the country club model. I think yeah, that's a country club in the Midwest like that
That might be kind of like we talked about with 1199 foundation when you get to the top of it
It means you get access to like
The meetings with the CHP heads so that you can really rub shoulders and probably like if you're running for office
Like so five grand is it getting you in the room with people that you want to be in the room with and right? Yeah
netwiki
guitars and bids
Suppose Mike McCready feels weighed down by his material possessions and puts everything up for sale for charity before
Retiring on an ashram great. What's my cap on bidding for his actual strat dude?
I cannot afford it. I was gonna say yeah can't afford it
Don't want it if I don't want it if I could I mean that band is one of the most famous bands in the world
Yeah, and there are a lot of extremely wealthy people that would be bidding on it would be it would be deep six figures
If not seven probably seven. I think there's enough rich Pearl Jam
I mean it would it would go to like one of those like that Jim Ursay collection or Hendricks guitar
Or something like that. Well, the Jim Ursay was through the Colts owner
Oh, okay
He died and they've just auctioned off like all they just had the auction so the he had dealt David Gilmour's black strat
That's the that's now the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction. He also had Jerry Garcia's wolf
So that's now the second most and then I believe the third most is the Kurt Cobain
Unplugged guitar how much did the Jerry Garcia guitar 12 million?
Yeah, so well do you think about no, I know rich dead heads and sure and and and the guy who bought it
That particular happened to read an article about it the guy who bought that guitar
runs a
Effectively guitar museum and it's going to display it so it can be I think I think Mike's would go for at least four million then
I think it would be it would be millions for sure
Yeah
That's not to say like I wouldn't love a piece of of McCready or you know Pearl Jam memorabilia I would
something about like
Mentally there's something different for me about a movie prop a
Prop it's like it's a thing to be filmed and then it's just this thing that's like it's almost junk
But it's immortalized on film whereas if you have a musician's actual instrument
Without the musician sure to play it sure
You know I I can't pick up McCready strat and make it sound like McCready
It's got they might have the right tone but like I can't do it and it wouldn't make me feel good to try
You know I like having my my replica
Which I didn't mention when we talked about it, you know, it's it is a replica of his guitar
It's signed by him on the back like it is actually like it's he it's his you know addition
So it is proper signed by him on the back on the headstock with a paint marker, which is pretty cool
but like
Replicating the tone
On I feel like I deserve a replica. I don't even if I had the money. I don't deserve the real thing
I get why a collector would want to collect
The Kurt Cobain unplugged guitar or McCready strat or any any iconic the same way
You'd want to own
He also owned in the ursae collection
Hunter s. Thompson's red shark the the car the red car from fear and loathing
He owned that and that that I think sold as well
But um, so like he had a bunch of crazy shit. I mean really had some
For a billionaire this dude was doing it. Like he was he was buying some good stuff. Yeah, so I get it, but
I don't think I deserve
a musicians guitar
I'd rather have like if it's like a professionals thing, right?
I'd rather have like what could I do?
Like a little bit of justice too is like, I don't know somebody's
Somebody's rally car at least I could slide it around or do something. You know what I mean? Because the other thing
is on you know movie prop
Ingesting the content is watching it, right? It's visual, but with music it's
It's hearing that musician play it when you go to the you go to the shows or to think is
A great thing to do is a fan versus buying some stuff like it's a swag
But you go there and you you could close your eyes and like listen and that's most of it
That's like for me like 90 percent of watching them perform
Um, and so you can't do that when you put it on the wall. Yeah
It's almost sad that it won't be played anymore, right?
Um, yeah, you gotta it's that's the thing is you gotta with a movie prop
It's uh, it's it doesn't need to like to to live in a way, you know
I will say the guy who bought garcia's guitar
The reason I read the story is because the very next day
He took it to a chris, uh, I think it was chris stapleton
And let and let chris stapleton play it for a set sure and he was like well
What else would you do with it other than like let people play it that are worthy of worthy of playing it
Which was pretty cool. That's why I read the story about it in the first place
Yeah, pretty rad
The money or the hammer you can't have both
Allegedly Porsche wants to go higher end than the 9 11. What does that look like to you?
The 9 18 replacement it looks like a carbon tub
hypercar that's
You know someone somewhere between one and three million dollars and and takes the
9 18 technology
Uh to the next level
In my opinion
I mean that's
That's the only one of those cars from that era that doesn't have a successor and like why is that that makes no sense
True, but if Porsche is wanting to go higher end
Uh, and and also simultaneously
Pivoting from evs back to hybrids. Well a hybrid
You know hypercar might might reduce those waters. Yeah
Um and also if they're having trouble
In losing money, uh, we've just discussed this a great way to get a bunch of money
Is to build a low volume car for all the billionaires that will trip over themselves to make it
And you can make like 500 cars instead of 50 000 cars and like print a couple hundred million bucks
It's surprising because the business case is clearly there. Yeah, like all their competitors are doing it every week
And they haven't
Yeah, uh
Kellogg's rice crispy toon
Uh, one uh, one or two more and uh, then we'll uh, then we'll save the rest for next time
Uh, Kellogg's rice crispy toon says when you have a car that you're researching or thinking about buying and all of a sudden
You start seeing it everywhere
I'm currently experiencing this i'm shopping or looking for a cross trek and all of a sudden i'm seeing them everywhere
Uh, what would you call that?
I mean, um recency bias. Yes. I think it's probably the most accurate term. I don't know all of my biases
There's like so many biases and I don't always get the terms right for them. I try but there's a lot and i'm stupid
Uh, but i'm pretty sure recency bias. It's right. It's top of mind because you're researching it and people over emphasize recent events data or experiences
So you're going oh man. These are everywhere now. It's like no not now. They've been there
But you've been researching you've been looking at the shape on the screen
You've been looking at wheel designs. You've been looking at colors. You've been looking at blah blah blah
And now you're just noticing the more in public. It's probably the same amount as we're there last week. Yeah. Yeah
Last one donnie's bikini bot
Shout out to him shout out to the upscale bots that he paid more for to follow me
Nice. Hey, you're following uh accounts increasing. We should uh, I wonder I wonder what'll happen if I turn off the uh
You have to follow to comment if it looks come back if they're gone forever. Hmm. We'll see you another month
Uh, with n shitification constantly being present with any new technology being introduced
What cars have truly gotten better in the sense of driving enthusiasm rather than increasing
Figures in the past five years
Cars that have truly gotten better
Uh in the last five years, okay
I mean the last five years isn't a very long period of time sometimes not long enough for an entire life cycle
Let's just stretch that to 10
Stretchers to 10
I mean models or or here's an easy one. Miata the nc versus the d which came out 10 years ago the nd
Uh, and then subsequent nd variants and what are we three now? We're at three now
Those are all better. Yep
The miata does not seem to get worse or at least hasn't in a very long time and the nd2 is better because the engine got bigger
Uh, amira really good. Amira. Yeah, how about this one?
Not for the people, but the bentley gt last generation to this generation is better dynamically more
enthusiastic
And more a more focused driver's car
Uh brz and all those the filling the torque hole was very helpful. Sure
Mm
Let's see enthusiasm, uh
I mean look I it's
It's not a great seller, but the but I think I think the nismo z has really good inputs
I'm driving the first week in may. I'm driving the the new manual transmission nismo z
I mean better late than never, but I'm actually
I I think the the the last nismo z. I thought was a great improvement off the regular z
And had a really good inputs and was really nicely focused
I oh, um, because I drove all the g.r. Corolla's back to back to back at sonoma
They each year was progressively better the way they just they changed little bushings little mounts little hardware here and there
There was absolutely a noticeable difference, especially from the 24 to the 25 like wow way better
Cool, uh, yeah, that'll do
Oh here wait last one zen's and because it's an easy answer and then we'll and then we'll wrap it up zen says
How much do light difference excuse me? How much difference will lighter wheels make on a daily car?
I understand on sprung weight
But I don't know if that matters on a daily used for spirited drives
I'm getting ready to swap my 21 pound oems for a set of 15 pound
JDM yo memes are those real is that a real name? Is that a goof? I'll look at a man. I don't know that's a correct
but uh, I mean the answer is uh is
When you're on those spirited drives, you will feel the difference when you're puttering around town
You probably won't probably not it's I mean it's it's going to be situational hot holes. Maybe like the wheel might not
It'll spring back up out of the hole a little bit easier, but I don't know if you would even notice
I mean in general unless they're so light the structure is compromised lighter wheels help you everywhere
They help you brake better accelerate better. They're less resistant to turning so they help your turn in
um, they they make everything better so
Even and that you know, it's sort of like aerodynamics like those weight savings
They do scale linearly like down to zero like you know how like like wing like down force with wings increases linearly all the way up to your top speed
right
And also that that line goes all the way down to zero as well right
But like you don't feel anything until you get to 80 but it's happening
You just don't feel it same thing with the unsprung weight like if you're driving down a highway in a straight line
Like you're not going to feel much difference on your unsprung weight
If you're puttering around to the grocery store like you're not going to feel a difference
But like the second you start doing anything dynamic the more dynamic it gets the bigger the differences get yeah
This is literally the last question. Oh it is. Okay, fine
Guardian of dat ass guard
Wait
If you have a project car that is
Quote regular traffic
I'm not sure I invested that term. I know what that term is but I'll maybe you'll figure it out
Okay, but you're heavily invested it and like it a lot. Is it cool to bring to a car meet?
I've been doing a diy restoration on the 90s Ford truck
That i'm passionate about but not sure if it's cool enough to bring to a car meet
It is cool enough to bring to a car meet. Yeah
almost
Any car that is that is your project or that you're working on or whatever
Is cool enough to bring to a car meet. Yeah, and now you can find car meets that are more into the like 90s
Like radwood would be the perfect home for this truck meet forward meet whatever
But at any meet people will always respect diy stuff and you're like oh, I did that someone's gonna be big fan
Yeah, so thank you very much. Uh, of course, don't forget. We've got our project. It's a project
It's not really a project. It's a 9 11 turbo and we're giving it away
Uh, you can go to the website which is dream giveaway dot com slash tst
You can get tickets. No, it's not that remember. Oh, it's not. Oh, is it uh, this is dot com slash tickets slash Porsche
No, we have our go to our code in the description because it's got some extra characters that are important
So basically go to the link down below go to the link in the show notes
But uh, it's very straightforward to enter. There is a charitable element to it
Zach and I have customized the car in an awesome way
You get 75 k in your pocket to pay the federal taxes
It's a very very nice motherfucking car. So you can be able to take that home in august
Uh, but get your entries in now for the uh, 992 turbo s giveaway. Thank you to our patrons
We appreciate you very much if you want to see
Uh, me spinning an Aston martin valhalla into a ditch
You're gonna want to check out video out on patreon right now
And uh, thanks very much. We'll see the rest of you guys next time. Bye
About this episode
The Smoking Tire digs into Aston Martin’s Valhalla, blending review talk with behind-the-scenes chaos from a Spain shoot. They geek out on the carbon tub, in-house carbon work, and a Mercedes-derived twin-turbo V8 plus tri-motor hybrid system that delivers traction and brake/torque vectoring without feeling intrusive. The hosts praise steering feel, comfort at “five tenths,” and surprising drivability despite hypercar compromises like no trunk. The conversation also ranges across car culture—YouTube heroes, manual swaps, club value, recency bias, and a lively Q&A—plus a few sponsor reads and Patreon extras.
Matt Farah tells the tale of driving and drifting the incredible thing that is the Aston Martin Valhalla. 1,064HP of active aero-wearing carbon fiber; a big new step for the British company known for Grand Touring sports cars.
Plus, why watching can be better than owning, and Patreon questions include:
Am I garbage for this Amazon delivery situation?
Was DUB magazine important?
What's Top Gear for the younger generation?
Best concept car at a recent show
Valhalla vs Koenigsegg vs Pagani
Is Safari-ing dead?
Matt's plan for an air-cooled Porsche
Zack's next car
How to get rid of gas fumes in a garage
Normal cars that get attention
An overlanding van for $15k
Manual swap a C63 AMG?
Are used Lucid's a smart buy at $30k?
Old stuff that we do
Things we miss about YouTube's past
And more!
Recorded March 30, 2026
DeleteMe
Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://www.joindeleteme.com/TIRE and use promo code TIRE at checkout.
Hello Fresh
Go to https://HelloFresh.com/smokingtire10fm to Get 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.
Drive Season 4
Listen to Drive with Jim Farley Season 4 at https://lnk.to/drivewithjimfarleyPS!thesmokingtire
Avants: Enter code “TST” to get 10% off your Avants membership
https://www.avants.com/tst
Join Sam Smith and Travis Okulski at the greatest motorsports event on Earth!
Get 4X bonus tickets with any donation of $25 or more. With every donation you are helping benefit some wonderful veterans' and children's charities. Use Podcast Promo Code: SMOKINGTIRE
Promo Code Offer: Get 4X bonus tickets with any donation of $25 or more. With every donation you are helping benefit some wonderful veterans' and children's charities.
New merch! Grab a shirt or hoodie and support us! https://thesmokingtireshop.com/
Want your question answered? To listen to the episode the day it's recorded? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast
Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! For a 10% discount on your first case go to https://www.offtherecord.com/TST
Want your question answered? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast
Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! Enter code TST10 for a 10% discount on your first case on the Off The Record app, or go to http://www.offtherecord.com/TST.
Watch our car reviews: https://www.youtube.com/thesmokingtire