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The New Corvette! Porsche Saves the Manual, Four Seat Lamborghini!
The New Corvette! Porsche Saves the Manual, Four Seat Lamborghini!
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About this episode
Doug DeMuro and friends kick off with big channel news: a new “Key” YouTube channel aimed at higher-quality, more cinematic automotive content. The main car talk hits hard—Honda kills its EV plans, ending Sony Honda Mobility’s “Filo” project, while Corvette doubles down on no manual rumors for the new Grand Sport. Lamborghini’s CEO says they’re missing a two-door, two-plus-two, sparking debate about whether that market still exists. Porsche’s patent hints at a manual-style EV shifter, and Nissan adds a manual to the updated Z. The crew also covers Mercedes-Maybach’s VIP electric van, Jaguar/Land Rover designer Jerry McGovern’s exit, and Rolls-Royce coachbuilding. Later, Doug’s “Doug’s take” auction blurbs are retired, and the hosts share personal stories: a sold SL65, a hunt for a first-gen Viper, and a Porsche Hill Country rally experience.
Topics:
2 plus 2
Alfa Romeo
carsandbids.com
concept car
convertible
EV
GM
Honda
H-pattern
manual take rate
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Chapters:
00:00:00 THIS CAR POD!
00:00:13 Our New Channel Key
00:02:08 Afeela Is Dead
00:08:22 C8 Corvette Grand Sport Revealed
00:15:56 Lamborghini To Make A GT
00:21:20 Porsche To Make EV Manual
00:24:59 Nissan Z Nismo Gets Manual
00:30:45 Mercedes-Benz To Make Maybach Van
00:33:10 Land Rover Designer Leaves JLR
00:37:02 Homologation Special AMG GT
00:40:01 Rolls-Royce Coachbuild
00:42:32 The End Of The Doug's Take
00:45:46 Talk Cars
00:50:05 Slate
00:53:12 Amazon Truck, Montana Plate
00:55:02 Doug Has The First New California Plate
00:58:35 Filippo's Wheels
01:03:52 Kennan Sold His SL65
01:11:50 Kennan Went To Texas
01:15:03 Market Report
01:16:17 Ferrari Daytona
01:19:19 Community Questions
01:20:27 Release The Saturn Files
01:23:42 When Is Ryan Coming On The Pod?
01:25:02 What OEM Would Doug Work For?
01:26:24 Will The Manual Panamera Go Up In Value?
01:29:29 Why Don't You Include Exhaust Sound Clips Anymore?
01:31:01 How Does California Car Culture Compare To Your Home Towns?
#dougdemuro #carsandbids
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Filter:
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Brand
Alfa Romeo
"Are you excited? I'm incredibly excited. Are you excited? Is it going to be only about Alfa Romeo? There's going to be other stuff, right?"
Alfa Romeo is an Italian car brand that makes sporty cars. People who like driving usually pay attention to Alfa Romeo because they feel engaging to drive.
Alfa Romeo is an Italian automaker known for sporty engines, stylish designs, and a strong enthusiast following. In podcasts like this, mentions of Alfa Romeo usually signal a focus on driving feel and performance-oriented engineering.
Brand
Honda
"I mean, Honda's doing this. Every American automaker is also kind of taking the same path... However, as a result of Honda's reassessment of its automobile electrification strategy announced on March 12th..."
Honda is the automaker making the big decision about how it’s going electric. If Honda changes course, it can ripple out and affect other companies that were counting on Honda’s plans.
Honda is discussed here specifically in the context of changing its electrification strategy. That matters because it determines what technologies and assets other partners (like Sony Honda Mobility) can rely on.
Term
turn signal
"Slammed his brakes to get to the stop sign, floored it through the intersection, turned to that his turn signal. I was like, you know what?"
A turn signal is the blinking light that tells other drivers you’re turning. They’re pointing out that the driver signaled after doing something aggressive.
A turn signal is the vehicle’s indicator used to communicate intended direction changes to other drivers. The mention here is about the driver’s sequence of actions—braking, accelerating, then signaling—suggesting an odd or inconsistent driving style.
Car
Toyota bZ4X
"...hey ended up getting themselves into stuff like a BZ4X, although that technically hasn't been canceled ..."
The bZ4X is an electric SUV made by Toyota. The podcast mentions it in the context of whether it’s still going to be offered or supported. That’s important because it affects long-term ownership plans for an EV.
The Toyota bZ4X is an electric SUV from Toyota’s bZ electric lineup. The podcast mentions it “technically hasn’t been canceled,” which points to a discussion about the car’s status or future availability. It’s discussed because buyers and owners pay attention to whether an electric model will continue to be supported.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
"...s move on to the next new story, which is the new Corvette Grand Sport. Surely this must be an exciting mom..."
The Corvette is a sports car made by Chevrolet. The Grand Sport version is a higher-performance version meant to drive more like a track car. People talk about it because it’s a special Corvette variant, not just the regular one.
The Chevrolet Corvette is an American sports car known for strong performance and a long-running history. The podcast mentions the “Corvette Grand Sport,” which is a performance-focused version that typically aims to feel more track-capable than a standard Corvette. It’s discussed because it represents a specific, enthusiast-oriented trim within a widely recognized model line.
Concept
spy shot
"We talked a few weeks ago. There was a spy shot on like a pull out on Angela's crest or something like that of a Grand Sport. And indeed the Grand Sport is coming."
A spy shot is a leaked photo of a car prototype before it’s officially announced. People look at it to guess what the new car will look like and what might be different.
A “spy shot” is an unofficial photo of a prototype or near-production vehicle taken in the real world, often before the manufacturer officially reveals it. Enthusiasts use them to infer design changes, bodywork, and sometimes trim or performance cues.
Term
manual transmission
"[600.3s] We do know also that they have continued to tamp down rumors of a manual transmission. [605.1s] They have said very clearly that there is not a manual coming."
A manual transmission is a gearbox controlled by a clutch pedal and gear shifter, rather than an automatic or dual-clutch system. The episode is focusing on rumors and official statements about whether a manual version is coming.
Brand
GM
"Especially because GM is so committed to manuals and other performance cars. Camaro had one right up until the end."
GM stands for General Motors. They’re saying GM has a history of offering manuals in some of its performance cars.
GM is General Motors, the parent company behind Chevrolet and other performance brands. The speakers are pointing out GM’s historical commitment to manual transmissions in performance models.
Concept
manual take rate
"Apparently late C7 manual take rate was absolutely low. Well."
“Take rate” is the percentage of buyers who choose a particular option—here, the manual transmission. Low take rates can discourage automakers from offering manuals because they don’t sell enough to justify the complexity and cost.
Concept
secondary market
"I mean the real enthusiasts are going out from there selling for 20 30 percent more on the secondary market. Not that I'm saying that would happen to C8 but there's certainly demand..."
The “secondary market” is the market for used or resold cars, after they’ve already been sold new. If people pay more there, it usually means the car is hard to get or very popular.
The “secondary market” is where cars are sold after the original retail sale—often via private sales or dealers buying and reselling. When enthusiasts pay “20–30 percent more” there, it usually reflects scarcity, hype, or strong demand.
Company
Square
"They're running Square and you can tell. [966.7s] And support for today's episode comes from Square [969.0s] and they've got big news."
Square is a service that lets small businesses take payments (like card payments) and keep track of sales. The host is talking about how it makes checkout quick and gives you receipts right away.
Square is a payments and business-operations platform that helps businesses take card payments and manage sales. In this segment, it’s being used as an example of “fast checkout” and “instant receipts,” which are features that improve how quickly customers can pay and how clearly owners can track transactions.
Concept
EVs
"...he said that they're continuing to work on EVs. They're not sure and blah, blah, blah."
EVs are cars that run on electricity from a battery. They’re talking about Lamborghini working on electric versions, but not everything is confirmed yet.
EVs are electric vehicles, meaning the car is powered by an electric motor and battery rather than a gasoline engine. The segment notes Lamborghini is “continuing to work on EVs,” but with uncertainty about timing or specifics.
Term
2 plus 2
"[1225.9s] It wouldn't be a 2 plus 2. [1227.3s] No one's buying that. [1228.2s] Name a car that's... [1242.9s] If they're thinking about a 2 plus 2 as a Ferrari-California competitor,"
A “2+2” is a car with two seats in front and two smaller seats in the back. It’s a way of saying it’s not a full family car, but it’s more usable than a true two-seater.
“2+2” describes a car layout with two primary seats up front and two smaller rear seats, making it feel more practical than a strict two-seater. In this discussion, it’s used to evaluate whether buyers would want a four-seat sports-style car versus other body styles like SUVs.
Car
Lamborghini Roma
"The Roma... The Roma Spider, and then there's the Amalfi. ...into the Roma, which is like a relaxed, kind of old guy in Newport Beach kind of car."
The Lamborghini Roma is a Lamborghini meant for cruising—more relaxed than the brand’s most extreme cars. They’re describing it as the kind of car you’d see people driving around casually.
The Lamborghini Roma is a front-engine, V8-powered grand tourer with a more “relaxed” character than many of Lamborghini’s sharper, more aggressive models. In the segment, it’s described as a laid-back Newport Beach kind of car, contrasting it with other Lamborghini designs.
Car
Lamborghini Portofino
"Hey, pull up the Lamborghini Portofino, if you will. I'm so sorry, what? The Lamborghini Portofino."
The Lamborghini Portofino is a Lamborghini you can drive with the top down. It’s meant to feel more like a comfortable grand tourer than a track-only supercar.
The Lamborghini Portofino is a convertible (hardtop) grand tourer positioned as a more approachable, open-top Lamborghini. It’s often discussed alongside other Lamborghini “coastal” nameplates because its design and market positioning differ from more hardcore models.
Concept
concept car
"And this is a Lambo concept car. Wow. And they took the Lambo concept, and they made the Dodge and Treppen."
A concept car is basically a “show car.” It’s built to show off new ideas, and it doesn’t always become a real production vehicle.
A concept car is a prototype/show vehicle built to showcase new design directions, technologies, or engineering experiments. Concept cars often include features that would be impractical or too expensive for mass production.
Term
H pattern
"or you can put it into manual mode [1367.3s] and have a traditional H pattern. [1369.6s]"
The H pattern is the classic way manual cars let you move the shifter to pick gears. It’s called that because the gear positions look like the letter “H.”
An H pattern refers to the layout of a traditional manual gearbox, where gears are selected by moving the shifter through an “H” shaped gate. When a system can mimic an H pattern, it’s trying to reproduce the feel of a conventional manual even if the underlying hardware is different.
Concept
pattern but no clutch
"What car was it that had a pattern but no clutch? That was a Saab?"
They’re describing a gearbox that still uses a gear-shift pattern, but you don’t have to press a clutch pedal. The car does the clutch work for you.
This phrase describes a transmission feel where you can select gears using a traditional shift pattern, but the car handles clutch engagement for you. It’s a key concept in semi-automatic and automated-manual systems, bridging the gap between manual and fully automatic driving.
Concept
too little, too late
"It's too little, too late though, because, Is it?"
It means the update is happening, but not soon enough to really help. The speaker thinks the car’s reputation or sales momentum is already moving in the wrong direction. So the fix may not be able to save it.
“Too little, too late” is a common phrase meaning the change arrives after the moment when it could have mattered. Here, the speaker implies the manual transmission is an improvement, but it won’t reverse declining interest in the model. It’s essentially a commentary on timing and market perception.
Car
G35
"There was the coolest car on the planet. And the G35 was the coolest other car on the planet."
The Nissan G35 was one of Nissan’s sporty cars back in the day. The speaker is saying it was also considered one of the coolest cars around, similar to the Z. It’s a way of describing how strong Nissan’s lineup felt at that time.
The Nissan G35 is a mid-size performance sedan/coupe from Nissan’s enthusiast lineup in the mid-2000s. The speaker mentions it as the “coolest other car,” placing it alongside the Z as a top choice for enthusiasts at the time. This helps listeners understand the era’s Nissan performance identity.
Concept
mid-cycle facelift
"I mean, that's pretty clear then, right? Like you do one mid-cycle facelift, you let it run for another decade."
A mid-cycle facelift is like a “refresh” during the model’s lifespan. It’s usually small changes to keep the car looking and feeling current before the next big redesign.
A mid-cycle facelift is an update manufacturers do partway through a model’s life—often styling changes, revised tech, and sometimes small mechanical tweaks. The hosts are implying that doing one facelift and then letting the car run for a long time can make it feel dated versus competitors.
Term
convertible
"I like that they didn't even bother with a convertible. Also kind of gives you an idea of how they feel the success has gone. All the previous, many of the previous years have had convertibles."
A convertible is a car where the roof can open up. If they don’t make one, it usually means they’re focusing on a different style of car or different customers.
A convertible is a car with a roof that can be removed or folded down. When a manufacturer skips a convertible version, it often signals they’re prioritizing other body styles or targeting a different buyer segment.
Term
zipper
"...the top is a zipper or so... You can see the zipper... That purple is one giant zipper. And you can unzip it."
They’re describing a roof that opens like a giant zipper. Instead of folding like a normal convertible top, it unzips to open up.
A “zipper” roof refers to a convertible-style top that opens using zipper-like tracks rather than traditional folding mechanisms. This is a distinctive design choice because it changes how the roof is packaged, how quickly it can be opened, and how weather sealing and rigidity are handled.
Term
traction
"Probably it got hit because it lost traction due to the fact that the tires are Porsche crests. Also, those are some wide tires."
Traction is tire grip. When traction is bad, the tires can’t hold the road well, so the car can slide or lose control.
Traction is how well a tire grips the road. If traction is poor, the car can lose grip during acceleration, braking, or cornering, which can lead to sliding or crashes.
Term
VIP shuttle
"But all we know is that it will be a purpose-built VIP shuttle. And we think that it will have a lot of screens. What? And we can move on to the next news story."
A “VIP shuttle” is a fancy van used to move people around in comfort—usually important clients or executives. It often includes upgraded seating and entertainment like screens.
A “VIP shuttle” is a premium passenger transport vehicle, typically with enhanced comfort, privacy, and entertainment features compared to a regular shuttle or van. The segment specifically mentions lots of screens, which is common in high-end executive transport. The concept is about tailoring the cabin experience for passengers rather than focusing on cargo utility.
Brand
Rolls Royce
"So Rolls Royce has also announced something new. So they are introducing their Coach Build collection. Now, I don't know if you remember the sweet tail and the boat tail."
Rolls-Royce makes very high-end luxury cars. They’re introducing a special customization program where customers can get more involved and see the engineering process behind their cars.
Rolls-Royce is a luxury car brand known for bespoke customization and high-end coachbuilding. In this segment, they’re talking about a new “Coach Build” program that’s meant to involve customers more directly in the creation process.
Term
vanity plate
"[3527.1s] Are you happy about this? [3528.6s] I think I got to go get a vanity plate and then return to a regular plate to get a new one."
A vanity plate is a license plate you personalize with your own letters or numbers. Not every combination is allowed, and you usually have to request it through the state.
A vanity plate is a personalized license plate with chosen letters and/or numbers. People use them to show a name, joke, or personal branding, but the exact format and availability are limited by the state’s rules.
Company
CarsandBids.com
"[3819.9s] On Cars and Bids. [3820.7s] Because that's... [3821.1s] We're trying to push that website on Peter. [3823.1s] Yeah, yeah, yeah. [3823.7s] That's CarsandBids.com."
CarsandBids.com is a website where people buy and sell cars, often through auctions. They’re mentioning it because they want listeners to check it out.
CarsandBids.com is an online marketplace for buying and selling cars via auctions. The hosts mention pushing the website on “Peter,” indicating it’s part of the episode’s promotional context.
Car
Saturn SL
"[4940.9s] We've auctioned a Saturn SL. [4942.3s] We actually had the Saturn video on the calendar over last summer, but I pulled it off. [4948.0s] Look at this car. [4953.0s] I love the Saturn SL. [4953.7s] The curved rear glass. [4956.2s] It was an attractive car."
The Saturn SL is a small, everyday car made by Saturn (a GM brand). Doug is saying he really likes how it looks, especially the shape of the back window.
The Saturn SL is a compact car from Saturn, a GM brand that was known for simple, practical transportation. In this segment, the host highlights the SL’s styling details—especially the curved rear glass—which is part of why it’s memorable to enthusiasts.
Brand
OEM
"I think people who work at OEMs, OEM being car companies, headquarter car companies."
OEM just means the company that makes the car in the first place. So if you’re talking about working for an OEM, you’re talking about working for the actual automaker, not a parts company or a shop.
OEM stands for “original equipment manufacturer.” In car talk, it usually means the automaker that designs and builds the vehicle (as opposed to aftermarket suppliers or independent shops).
THIS CAR POD!
Our New Channel Key
Afeela Is Dead
C8 Corvette Grand Sport Revealed
Lamborghini To Make A GT
Porsche To Make EV Manual
Nissan Z Nismo Gets Manual
Mercedes-Benz To Make Maybach Van
Land Rover Designer Leaves JLR
Homologation Special AMG GT
Rolls-Royce Coachbuild
The End Of The Doug's Take
Talk Cars
Slate
Amazon Truck, Montana Plate
Doug Has The First New California Plate
Filippo's Wheels
Kennan Sold His SL65
Kennan Went To Texas
Market Report
Ferrari Daytona
Community Questions
Release The Saturn Files
When Is Ryan Coming On The Pod?
What OEM Would Doug Work For?
Will The Manual Panamera Go Up In Value?
Why Don't You Include Exhaust Sound Clips Anymore?
How Does California Car Culture Compare To Your Home Towns?
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Hello and welcome to this car pod.
I'm Kenan.
I'm Filippo.
I'm Doug.
And let's start with the news.
The biggest news of the week is key.
Filippo.
We have a new channel.
We got a new channel.
A new channel.
Producer Sean, along with other people who are very gifted,
created a new YouTube channel for high quality automotive content.
Everybody's always like, why not more cinematic?
Why not more quality?
Why not invest real money into making good stuff?
And I'm in the parking lot with my bad camera.
But now we have that.
You can't complain anymore.
So find it on YouTube, subscribe.
The first video is out now.
It's about JDM car culture, our very own Ryan Lopez.
He of HVAC fame is the host of that and a lot of other great, great videos.
There's great stuff coming.
I've seen some upcoming key videos.
They're awesome.
This truly is a chance for producer Sean, who by the way is on the podcast next week.
It's a big deal.
This is a chance for producer Sean to let his creative juices flow and create some
really high quality, cool car stuff that's going to be awesome.
Are you excited?
I'm incredibly excited.
Are you excited?
Is it going to be only about Alfa Romeo?
There's going to be other stuff, right?
Because if it's just Sean, if you let him go, that's what you're going to get.
I don't even think there's an Alfa Romeo in the first few episodes.
Wow.
Well, there will be one eventually.
But yes, I am excited.
It's good stuff.
It's going to be legitimately, wonderfully, excitingly good.
I am tremendously excited about it.
Sean has always, Sean's going to talk about this more next week in the pod, but Sean
has always had all these great car content ideas.
He's finally in a place to be able to do some of them along with a fantastic team that
we have and go subscribe to this channel and check out our content.
It is good.
Find it in the description below and go watch the first video.
We're going to pin a comment.
Let's pin a comment.
From now on, we're going to pin a comment saying, go subscribe to Key until you do.
I'll be watching you.
You the police?
And sting.
No.
Okay.
Key is big news.
The other big news of the week, almost as big as Key, but not as big as Key is.
The Fila is dead.
So what happened to that PR person we were talking about last week?
Yeah, you got to assume that they're also dead.
No.
Obviously not.
But I assume that they may not have a longer job.
We talked last week about this being likely.
So Honda has stopped pretty much all of their EV initiatives.
Sony Honda Mobility is no more.
Sony Honda Mobility announced that they've decided to discontinue the development launch
of its first model and its second model.
Collectively.
And all models.
The models.
It comes following discussions between its parent companies, the Sony Group Corporation
and Honda MotorCope.
Okay.
They are throwing Honda massively under the bus in this entire statement for good reason.
Well, Honda's the one who makes cars.
So without Honda, they can't make cars.
Okay.
I want to posit something.
I have a question for you, Filippo.
Yeah.
Kenan, you can take this one too.
They got the fellow in the office, the White House there, the Trump fellow.
Yeah.
The President of the United States.
Yeah.
The President of the United States, the Trump guy.
And things could be better.
Right?
You can't get to an airport.
You got Iran.
You got the oil crisis.
Brown.
Forming.
All lies.
I get to airports all the time.
Pretty good.
Let's just say there's a possibility that the Libs get their act together and find a decent
candidate, which is admittedly we'll see.
But let's say that happens and the Trump fellow is gone.
Yeah.
Do you think that these companies that are turning their...
And even right now, gas prices are shooting up.
Do you think that these companies that are turning their backs on EVs, may it's either
soon with the Iran situation or sort of soon with maybe a new presidential administration,
do you think they might regret not developing EVs further?
Yeah.
I think they will.
I mean, to be clear, Sony Honda Mobility, there were some concerns about their future,
regardless, had they produced the Fila 1 or the Fila 2 or the other models.
I'm not sure that was ever viable.
But I think that stopping that development will be really problematic.
I think it will also...
I mean, Honda's doing this.
Every American automaker is also kind of taking the same path.
And I think that we will see them regret that in the near future.
Now, do you think that Sony will regret that they can't be in the car business?
Yeah.
They'll keep making streams.
They'll make technology.
I want to legitimately read this because it's quite depressing.
I'm going to read just one line.
Well, it was written by someone who's...
Yeah.
Please illegitimately read that to us.
Yeah.
However, as a result of Honda's reassessment of its automobile electrification strategy
announced on March 12th, Sony Honda Mobility will no longer be able to utilize certain
technologies and assets that were originally planned to be provided by Honda.
It does not have a viable path forward.
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
No one's surprised.
The Fila is done.
To be fair, it didn't have a viable path forward with Honda's technology.
We've been laughing about a Fila since they announced pricing, since they announced models.
I'm going to tell you something.
If you want to be successful as an EV automaker, this ain't it.
No.
It was very technology heavy.
This ain't it.
It ain't happening.
This is not the car.
The good news is that Sony Honda Mobility will continue discussions with Sony and Honda regarding
future business plans.
It is so itchy because Apple for a long time had considered making it.
Yeah.
But decided no.
Yeah.
Which I think was kind of, it was.
They had invested a lot of R&D and decided to do it.
Sony decides to go out and do this and fails miserably at it.
Before it even starts, before it even becomes something, it is not easy to develop a car.
I think a lot of tech companies look at it and think, oh, it's a Skipper platform.
That fellow from South Africa did it, though.
That fellow from South Africa did do it.
He started it with a Lotus.
But also the guy from Florida who we talked to on this very podcast that day that it was
hot.
Okay, yeah.
He did it.
What about that?
And the Saudis are doing it today with Lucid.
It is.
Sort of.
It's interesting to see the Japanese automakers kind of not really innovate in this space.
It is interesting.
It is interesting.
The Japanese are like, we don't need EVs.
Yeah.
Meanwhile Nissan really excelling.
Honda now has had multiple quarters of quite poor results.
Yesterday.
I came to an intersection.
I came to a stop sign and a fellow in an Aria got there after me.
But he discontinued.
Slammed his brakes to get to the stop sign, floored it through the intersection, turned
to that his turn signal.
I was like, you know what?
Guys got an Aria.
I'm going to let him do his thing.
You know what I mean?
Discontinued, though.
That's kind of what's my thinking.
It's like if you're at the point in your life where you got an Aria, you got, you know
what?
You drive it like that, sir.
You need that.
I'm giving you that.
I do wonder.
There are a lot of one year only EVs.
The feel.
I never made it to one year, but there are a lot.
And you kind of wonder if people become desirable later in life.
They will not ever become desirable, but you do wonder about support.
Like there are definitely people who bought some of these EVs, assuming that like, especially
retired people who are assuming this would kind of be maybe their last car, that like
it was, they've resold reliability and their, their mild juice case has gone down and all
that.
And so they ended up getting themselves into stuff like a BZ4X, although that technically
hasn't been canceled yet.
It's a BZ now.
Right.
Or a prolog or ZDX.
Indeed, canceled.
And problematic because it's not a Honda product really.
Support dealers are going to have to support a two year product.
Yeah.
Right.
Forever.
With GM architecture.
And that's, try explaining that to some old person who bought one.
You actually have to take this down the street to John Smith Chevy.
They're like, what?
I bought a Honda because it was reliable.
Yeah.
That's going to be a weird situation.
Anyway, good luck to that.
No surprise about a Fila literally zero.
I would have called this the day that it was first announced.
In fact, you first told me about it on this very podcast.
We could go back and watch the clip, but I have a suspicion.
I wasn't particularly supportive.
No, it talked to you though or something.
Dude, if it looks like that.
It did.
It could.
It could.
It could whisper you sweet nothings.
They ran a lot of ads that tried to connect Sony cameras to the.
It was.
You know, it just doesn't.
I have a Sony camera.
Now that I think about it, I have a Sony camera.
Oh, you're a fan of Sony.
I feel bad now.
All of the cameras that's being filmed right now.
All of those are Sony cameras.
Oh my God.
This company we love.
We love the cameras.
Stick to the cameras.
We don't realize how integrated they are into our lives.
It's like when circuit city tried to make a car dealership.
Right.
As high school musical taught us, you should stick to the stuff, you know.
Okay, let's move on to the next new story, which is the new Corvette Grand Sport.
Surely this must be an exciting moment for Filippo, the resident Corvette.
Yeah, it is.
We talked a few weeks ago.
There was a spy shot on like a pull out on Angela's crest or something like that of a
Grand Sport.
And indeed the Grand Sport is coming.
The announcement at Sebring.
More details will come between the time you're watching this and the time we're filming.
Like it's theoretically more details are being announced tomorrow.
Yesterday.
Yesterday for you.
You know more than we do.
Yeah.
How does it feel to live in the future?
And therefore we don't have much to say.
No, but we do know that it has little red stripes on one corner like other Grand Sports
have.
We do know also that they have continued to tamp down rumors of a manual transmission.
They have said very clearly that there is not a manual coming.
That there were rumors of it because a supplier had made a manual that could theoretically
fit with the engine.
But the chief engineer for Corvettes had made very clear that is not coming for them.
Now the Tremec did make that is supposedly making a transmission for swaps that's coming
in two years.
It'll be an interesting swap because of the center console design.
How do you make that work?
Okay.
I will say it's quite an interesting quote.
So Tony Roma is the Corvette engineer is a chief Corvette engineer.
Right.
And his quote says Tremec showed something at SEMA last year that I wish they wouldn't
have shown.
It's not real.
So it's rare for an automaker to throw their larger suppliers under the bus.
Maybe it doesn't actually exist.
Maybe it's not actually ready.
I think Chevy is probably perpetually a little bit disappointed by the persistent rumor that
there's going to be manual transmission in this car.
Possibly because a manual transmission would really be a really strong asset.
This is a fantastic car.
One of the best sports cars on the market.
It'd be cool if it had three pedals.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Mid-engine V8 manual.
I mean that is.
Especially because GM is so committed to manuals and other performance cars.
Camaro had one right up until the end.
The black wings got one both four and five.
And their take rates must have been pretty decent on those.
I would think like people.
Yeah.
Apparently late C7 manual take rate was absolutely low.
Well.
Do you mean abysmal?
I know.
Very poorly.
It sounded wrong.
English is the second language.
Don't forget.
You're too low.
Excuse me.
Very low and that's part of the rumor.
Short with the market.
I mean the demand for it's there.
I would also argue this is an argument that I would provide to Tony Roma and one of his
restaurants.
I would say look.
I would say look.
I would say I totally agree that the C7 demand for manuals was low.
Yeah.
But the C8 is reaching a totally different kind of buyer.
It's a.
I presume it's a younger buyer.
There is more youth interest in this car than I've ever seen before.
It is much more a performance car buyer who actually probably wants to exploit the capabilities
of the vehicle as opposed to some of those C7 owners.
Should we know.
They would argue as faster.
Totally.
But who want to enjoy it.
I mean you look at Porsche you see what's going on there.
I wouldn't be surprised if.
Two manual models.
Yeah.
But GT3's it's like all anybody wants.
It's a distinction between whether the car is successful in the used market or not.
I mean the real enthusiasts are going out from there selling for 20 30 percent more on the
secondary market.
Not that I'm saying that would happen to C8 but there's certainly demand especially
for C8 relative to degree seven.
I totally understand C7 take rate was low.
I think that was more of the boomer gene short kind of buyer.
I think the C8 buyers are a little bit different.
Well it doesn't have to be offered with every model.
Like a manual zero six.
Like I think we can all get behind that that would be a pretty.
I would even do a manual grand sport presenting the grand sport is like other zero sixes
which is or other previous Corvettes which is that it has some of the zero six upgrades
not the powertrain.
That would be a pretty cool car.
By the way there's talk of for the first time there being two grand sport models.
There are rumors that there'll be a grand sport X which is the e-ray rebranded as a grand sport X.
Hey anything they can do to justify the investment in the e-ray.
Pull up the C4 grand sport.
I want to talk about this for a second.
Do you?
Yeah.
I've never loved the C4 grand sport.
The C4 grand sport is my all time favorite Corvette.
We sold in.
Grand.
Space.
Sorry.
Grand.
It's not a.
Yeah.
He's not a giant Corvette enthusiast.
He's a Maserati grand.
This is my all time favorite Corvette.
I love this car.
More than the C401.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Really?
The C4 grand sport is the coolest looking Corvette of all time.
It came at the very final model year of C4.
It just balled out.
Ooh.
355.
I love the C4 grand sport and it's still to this day.
Occasionally think about picking one up.
And you know we got this WS6 bird in the office.
Makes me want one of these even more.
I want to get into some late 90s early 2000s America.
Let's go.
Doug is ready for his jean shorts era.
Pull up the interior.
This was not a jean shorts car.
This is for connoisseurs.
This is for real adults.
Look at this red interior.
Yeah.
You had this interior back in 96.
You were somebody.
Can you go back to the photo of the 355?
Can we just agree that anybody that's actually buying a 355
should just buy a C4 grand sport?
Yeah.
Especially because it's a roofy, lifty, offy.
No.
Okay.
Move on to the next news story, please.
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Okay, which is the C-4 grand.
Oh, Lamborghini.
Okay, Rodentrack is reporting.
Rodentrack, famous magazine,
or possibly they're not a magazine anymore,
they're reporting that the fellow who runs the Lamborghini there,
Stefan Winkelman, or Stefan, if you want to call him.
Best dressed CEO in the world.
Rodentrack was talking to him at the 12 hours of seabring
and he said that they're continuing to work on EVs.
They're not sure and blah, blah, blah.
But what we're missing is a grand touring car,
a two door, two plus two.
Now this surprises me because Ferrari has had this
in their lineup for decades and it has never been successful.
Ever.
It's always been the car that they make you buy
if you want to get a nicer car.
It's one of them.
You got to get a Roma and you got to get that.
They've added more to the lineup.
But back in the day, it was the one.
Like if you bought a 612, they would have a conversation
with you about some high performance something else.
Yes, and everybody loves to say that.
That was the car that old man Ferrari loved himself,
two plus twos, like that was it.
Enzo, the last shot of Enzo driving a car,
he's in a 412 or is it a Pujo?
Anyway, the point is that Lambo says they're missing this.
Aren't you astonished to hear this?
Yeah, because real estate.
A two door, two plus two.
Right.
What I feel that covers the two plus two thing for them
is the Urus.
That's a large SUV.
Yeah, because that's what the market wants.
That's what the market wants.
Who's looking for two door, two plus twos anymore?
Who?
Is there anyone out there in the world?
You know, whatever we say to these hypotheticals
and people get in the comments,
like actually, I'm looking for a $13,000 two-wheeled pickup truck.
I bet you no one's going to get in these comments
and be like, yeah, I want a $380,000 two door four seat Lamborghini.
That's every 9-11.
Yeah, basically.
Yeah, because those people are cross shopping
at Lamborghini.
Is Lamborghini going to hop in at the $90,000 price point?
A new 9-11 is $125.
Okay, are they going to hop in at the $125 price point?
No, it's a $400 something dollar car.
They also said in that same interview
that they've ruled out a sedan and a small SUV.
Well, that makes sense.
You know, well, you remember the sedan, the Astoke?
Oh, pull it up.
Pull it up.
I still have to this day have a Hot Wheels level.
My kids play it all the time.
It's incredible.
You know this car?
The Astoke, yeah.
Yeah.
The Astoke.
This could have happened and then Filippo screwed it all.
I went into their headquarters and said, do not build this.
You did, but I think that is so cool.
Yeah.
That was just before Aventador, so go all that stuff.
At the front end, honestly, the Lambo design,
like so many of these cars, the design language translates
so much better to a Ford or sedan than it did to an SUV.
The Aventador has still, after 10 years, never been attractive.
This car looked cool.
Look at that flare that comes out of the rear door for the van.
Lambo did it right, though, by not making this car.
They probably got close.
I mean, this looks pretty production.
Yeah, I agree.
In the end, they were like...
They were right not to.
I mean, I wouldn't have been so sad.
It was the wrong time.
It was the recession.
And then a couple of years after the recession,
the markets start changing for SUVs,
and then they think about it.
Really, the recession?
That looks so far ahead of its time.
I feel like it was 08.
I think you're correct, but that is far ahead of its time.
I mean, yeah, because these headlights kind of ended up
on the Huracan, which was much later than 08.
But very interesting.
Very interesting.
Nonetheless, I agree.
This is a wild thing that they feel this is what they're missing.
I kind of get it.
I mean, they have a small two-seat, two-door car.
They have a larger one.
They have a larger one.
They were well-toed.
What can you add?
You already have an SUV.
Well...
You add something that's maybe a little bit more...
Off-road SUV.
Exactly.
It wouldn't be a 2 plus 2.
No one's buying that.
Name a car that's...
We're not successful anymore.
Mercedes...
Okay, about 125 grand.
Or 250 for a turbo, right?
You're not that far off.
But that's the Huracan, or whatever it's called now,
the John Tamari.
If they're thinking about...
It's interesting.
If they're thinking about a 2 plus 2 as a Ferrari-California competitor,
that's a different conversation.
I would retain that.
What's the Ferrari-California called now?
It's not the Portofino.
The Roma...
The Roma Spider, and then there's the Amalfi.
Amalfi, that's what it's called now.
They keep moving to the different coasts.
If they're talking about that, that's interesting.
It's a different market from the angled Lamborghini design...
That's true.
...into the Roma, which is like a relaxed,
kind of old guy in Newport Beach kind of car.
Interested to see...
Hey, pull up the Lamborghini Portofino, if you will.
I'm so sorry, what?
The Lamborghini Portofino.
I'm not familiar.
I got a trivia question for you on this one.
The Lamborghini...
If it's not...
...Portofino.
Pull up the picture of this.
Wow.
The Chrysler Lamborghini Portofino.
Flippo, what car do you see in that?
I see a lot of Dodge and Treppen.
Dodge and Treppen.
You know, Chrysler and Lamborghini were best pals at this era.
One loaned the other.
Who knows who.
And this is a Lambo concept car.
Wow.
And they took the Lambo concept,
and they made the Dodge and Treppen.
It had got dual scissor doors.
It had dual scissor doors.
Yeah.
That's nuts.
Can you imagine?
That must have worked terribly.
How could that make any sense?
It does make sense for Ingress and Ingress to a degree.
Both of those completely get out of the way.
That Koenigsegg I drove was like that.
Oh, no, it had one giant one.
But imagine having to close this.
What do you do?
You go like...
Well, it's insane especially because they must hinge on each other.
So does that mean you have to close them at the same time?
Yeah.
How do you close the back?
Well, that's a good point.
Or they latch on each other.
It obviously doesn't.
Maybe they latch on the bottom somehow,
which probably isn't allowed.
Not structurally.
So good.
But yeah.
Wow, that is cool.
That was the Lamborghini Portofino,
which became the Dodge and Treppen.
Think about that.
Boy, will I.
Man.
Nothing else to think about.
Next news story, please.
Ah, yes.
On the topic of manual transmissions.
Porsche, as we know, is selling lots of...
What a transition.
Recently, a patent had come out.
Now, this isn't a new patent.
This was actually submitted in 2024.
But this is the first time that we're hearing about it.
Do you remember the Koenigsegg ESS transmission,
where you'd have an automatic and a manual at the same time?
Yeah.
I remember they talked about it.
Is that real?
That's real.
Now, Porsche also believes that you can do this,
and they filed a patent for this.
So the idea is that you have a lever that you can select automatic mode,
like anything else,
or you can put it into manual mode
and have a traditional H pattern.
Now, it's not actually connected to the transmission.
This is a totally separate unit that would be shift by wire,
which I'm sure Porsche appears will be very upset about,
which I kind of understand.
But nonetheless, they're looking at this.
You have to imagine, because they're thinking for EVs,
that could be something that they're going to offer.
I'm going to give you some bad news here.
This is an EV transmission.
I agree with that.
That was my analysis of that.
However, I think it would be kind of cool still be able to shift gears in an EV.
Totally.
Because if there's anything that the Ioniq 5N proved to you and I,
it's that shifting that way feels pretty organic and really cool.
And even if we're forced to have EVs one day,
if we can still row our own
and they build the parameters where it can feel like a manual and engaging,
I think that's pretty cool technology.
Totally cool.
So I'm really curious to see if this comes to fruition.
I mean, just because it's a patent does not mean they're going to make it.
But I suspect we're going to see this in Porsche EVs in the future.
It makes sense in EVs.
Porsche has already hinted a few times that the Hyundai N shifting thing
is something that they're interested in.
They're looking into, et cetera.
This has been talked about.
It would make sense for Porsche for whom people love the physical act of shifting so much,
not just the pedals and the sounds, the physical thing,
to develop, to be the ones who develop a manual for that purpose.
I agree.
And of course with the EV Cayman and Boxster,
it's like this seems like a very natural thing to integrate into that
and will upset us a lot less.
So we'll see.
It depends on how well it's done.
Apparently they would use electric motors and springs to give the shifter feedback
and have the faces of the engine.
If any company can be trusted to judge that correctly, it is Porsche.
Porsche and Honda make the best shifters in the business.
Totally.
Although I do wonder about the early integrations of this,
I suspect will be interesting and maybe look back.
Like they have with SMT and its weird quirks.
Yeah.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is looked back on someday as like, huh,
that was a weird.
Maybe.
But maybe it will be the beginning of something that flourishes into something else.
Who knows?
But we'll find out.
I just love that unlike GM Corvette understands,
they need to be offering manual transmissions in their sports cars.
Yeah.
There you go.
They're looking at a manual automatic.
I know.
I've always loved this idea.
Conceptually.
Yeah.
Do you remember the MR2 with the SMT?
I don't.
What car was it that had a pattern but no clutch?
That was a Saab?
There was a Saab, but there's also some Citroens that also had that same concept.
Yeah.
Don't forget the Ferrari Vallejo.
Oh yeah.
That's right.
The Vallejo Ferraris of course had.
Porsche did that also.
Porsche had Sport-O-Matic.
Sport-O-Matic.
Doesn't that not have a clutch?
I don't think that had a clutch.
It didn't have a clutch, but was it a pattern?
Anyway, there were a few.
There were a few, yeah.
Yeah.
That's worked even more.
The Ferrari Vallejo, the F40 Vallejo.
The F40 Vallejo built for the Agnelli family.
Just one of them.
That's the F40 we want.
Right.
That's right.
The automatic.
The only automatic.
The F40.
I wonder where that car is.
Probably worth five X.
What a manual one.
The Agnelli's personal car in the later years is taking all his mistresses in it.
Yeah.
Just imagine watching him try to get into that car toward the end would have been really
rough.
And then he puts it in, you know, he just, it's just buy it to sell.
Very impressive.
It's a lot of technology for him.
Yeah.
But nonetheless, very cool.
Yeah.
On the next news story.
This is a big one, folks.
The Nissan Z has been given a minor facelift in Filippo.
And this is what we talk about.
It is a minor facelift, but it is a facelift.
And also crucially, there's a new paint color.
Which is unreal green.
Oh, it is unreal.
No one's going to buy it.
That's why it's unreal.
Unreal.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Unreal.
I don't know.
I don't speak English good.
But much, much more importantly, the Nizmo Z will have a manual transmission.
The Nizmo Z is finally getting a manual, which I should have had from day one.
It's too little, too late though, because,
Is it?
Yes.
Yeah.
Dude, no one's buying this car.
This is the end of the Z.
Do you have any, do you have any epilogue you want to give to the Z?
Maybe a eulogy, perhaps?
Or maybe an yuru, as you say.
No, no, no eulogy.
I've never really felt that strong about the car, but I am excited to the Nizmo, which
by all accounts, drives quite well.
We'll have a manual and be a little more engaging.
In 03, when I was a 15-year-old, and the Z came out, changed the world.
There was the coolest car on the planet.
And the G35 was the coolest other car on the planet.
And this is like kind of a whimper.
And you wonder if maybe Nissan should have put some money towards succeeding instead.
Well, a couple of years ago, it was kind of exciting that they did anything with it.
I know that they reused the same 370Z chassis, a lot of the same components to make the Z
no number this time, a little bit more updated.
And it looks great.
It's a good looking car.
Don't see many of them.
Maybe we'll see like two or three of these.
Yeah.
I'm sad because I believe that it is a wonderful car.
You've driven it.
I mean, it's a very competent car.
Yeah.
And it is just such a shame that it was too little, too late with this thing.
I mean, it's so cool.
I think it's cool.
I expect it will, in the end, make money.
Ultimately, they were using the platform of the old car and a lot of the technology,
the old car.
Back in the camera, the old car.
But that trick can only be used for so long.
And it does show where we are with sports cars.
I mean, that's pretty clear then, right?
Like you do one mid-cycle facelift, you let it run for another decade.
I like that they didn't even bother with a convertible.
Also kind of gives you an idea of how they feel the success has gone.
All the previous, many of the previous years have had convertibles.
But good news.
New wheels.
New wheels.
New.
You can get unreal green.
And I don't know if you've noticed.
It's very hard to see in the picture, but the tires actually say Nissan on them.
You can't really see if it says Nissan right here.
I don't know if that's something that they're actually partnering with or that's just Photoshop.
I imagine that is just Photoshop.
There's also a tan interior color.
Green tan.
Green tan.
That's the color.
You know, many years ago, I was at the Porsche museum there.
And there's a Porsche with Porsche crests in the tires.
Oh.
And it also has the top.
It's a zipper.
Ooh.
It's called the Pan America.
You want to look it up?
No.
Not really, but sure.
Pan Americana.
I'm sorry.
Pan Americana.
Okay.
Now you're thinking to yourself, there's no way this car has Porsche crests in the tires
and the top is a zipper or so.
That's what you're thinking, right?
Right.
Huh?
Oh, this thing.
Yeah.
Wow.
There's the tires.
Zoom on in.
You can see the Porsche crest in my back tire.
Man.
What a car.
All right.
And then you go to this.
You can see the roof.
You can see the zipper.
That purple is one giant zipper.
And you can unzip it.
Oh, it's so cool.
Oh, it's so cool.
Yeah, I saw this once there at the museum.
Are you sad that it didn't make it?
I thought to myself, boy, this company's had some terrible ideas over the years.
It's probably really late.
I'm sure that this company still exists in any capacity.
Look at it from the rear three quarters.
That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen, man.
No, I've seen it.
It looks like it got hit somewhere between a nine and a half.
Probably it got hit because it lost traction due to the fact that the tires are Porsche crests.
Also, those are some wide tires.
Well, they're narrow.
Well, it has no body weight.
Of course, they look cool.
But the top is very light.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But right up until your zipper gets some stuff in it and then you can never use it.
Exactly.
Like a YJ.
You have to take it to the zipper guy.
Here's the zipper guy.
Wow.
All right.
I don't know why that came up, but I owe the tires.
Love Porsche.
Yeah, sure.
Good reason as any.
All right.
Quick recommendation for your next drive.
And I mean this generally.
This is right up our alley.
There's a podcast called Drive with Jim Farley.
Yes, the Ford CEO, Jim Farley.
And look, how often do you actually get this kind of unfiltered access to someone running
one of the biggest car companies in the world?
The podcast is him sitting down with fascinating people, talking about cars and what actually
drives him to succeed.
Daniel Ricardo is on it.
Sir Chris Hoy, the Olympic cycling legend turn racing driver is on it.
The guests alone are worth it.
I checked out a few episodes and it's a kind of car conversation that doesn't feel like
a press junk.
It's genuine.
It goes deep.
And coming from someone with Jim Farley's seat at the table, the perspective is pretty
unique.
It's exactly what you want queued up for a long highway stretch.
To listen to Drive with Jim Farley, just search for Drive with Jim Farley in your podcast
app.
That's Drive with Jim Farley.
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Next story, please.
This is something Filippo?
We spoke last week about how a new Mercedes minivan is coming to America and was just revealed,
which is the VLE.
We've now gotten confirmation that it'll be a Maibach VLE, or the Maibach VLS, actually.
Wow.
It'll be larger than the VLE.
Obviously, you know, VLE, VLS.
Maybe it'll be a VLC someday.
But all we know is that it will be a purpose-built VIP shuttle.
And we think that it will have a lot of screens.
What?
And we can move on to the next news story.
It's very compelling.
Wow.
How exciting.
A purpose-built VIP shuttle.
So you don't have to build one yourself.
A lot of people have converted the Metris into like a Maibach Metris.
You reviewed one.
Yeah.
Now Maibach will make a larger van, which looks better and it's going to be better.
A Maibach van.
This is going to be, it's $200,000 is the number that's being bandied about.
Sure.
Yeah.
Pretty big, but it's a purpose-built VIP shuttle.
And most importantly, I can't wait to review one, because that video is going to blow up.
That month, Sean's going to be like, yeah, we hit the numbers.
Yeah.
And also, about a few years after it comes out, you can buy for $55,000.
Yeah.
But can you imagine, Felipe, all this stuff, there's going to be a fish tank in this van.
There's going to be a fish tank in this van.
There better be.
And it'll have a 100-mile range.
Do you think they would ever do an AMG version of it and give us the R63 back in our lives?
Wow.
I bet they will.
They will make a Mercedes Maibach VLS with EQ technology AMG.
Perfect.
Or some combination of those words.
Right.
Only 75 characters for the name.
You don't think this is pure electric?
Of course it is.
They'll still call it with EQ technology, won't they?
Mercedes Maibach VLS with EQ technology.
No, no, because the electric, pure electrics, they don't share body plastic.
I'm wondering if the van is fully electric.
Do we know these vans like the ID Buzz?
The VLE has been revealed as fully electric.
The VLS is technically a different model, so we don't know.
Man, you know what I hope they have?
I hope they have cobblestone flooring.
I bet they will.
That was, there was a, I believe it was a Cadillac that had that at one point.
Famously.
It was a rare option.
Only ones come to market with it.
Nice to see that here in the van.
Next news story, please.
All right.
Jerry McGovern.
Jerry McGovern.
He formerly of Jaguar.
Jaguar Land Rover.
This is, sure.
You are not giving enough credit.
He designed the Defender.
He designed the new Range Rovers.
He's done it all.
He designed the new Defender.
Jerry McGovern did a lot of stuff.
And he's, he's, he's just announced that he's leaving Jaguar Land Rover.
We reported about six months ago that he had been fired.
And then like two weeks later, they were like, oh, no, he wasn't fired.
No, no, you're wrong.
Oh, sorry.
Well, now he's finally decided he's retiring.
He's seven years old.
He's going to move on to his own.
He's starting his own consultants.
What all car designers do when they retire from car designing,
they're going to do a consultancy where they do a little bit of work designing
the finishing touches of bread makers.
And for a lot of money.
Works out.
And Jerry McGovern, and, and, and he's designed some of the all time great
vehicles, including, and this is what it says on his Wikipedia.
He was the lead designer of the critically acclaimed Land Rover Freelander.
That was a good looking car.
Folks, we're losing this great mind to designing bread makers.
This is, this is, if we sold the Freelander.
We have, of course.
How lovely.
Jerry McGovern.
It's a good looking car.
Jerry McGovern.
That orange reflector, same as my Ford GT.
I remember when these came out and they were great looking cars.
I love Freelander.
You know, that's true.
They were actually good looking.
The era of that TV is something.
It's funny how they all disappeared.
That's not a show either.
Well, they all disappeared because they were notoriously unreliable.
Unreliable.
Horrible cars.
Absolutely horrible cars.
In fact, if you bought this one, I'm sorry.
I had a friend in Italy.
Thank you.
Whose mom had a Freelander when they came out.
They were rich.
Obviously.
I remember in Philly, there was one in a consulate with a tiny consulate plate, and it was a
manual diesel.
That's right.
Those days are.
By the way, there are a couple of other pieces of Jaguar news out this week.
Ian Callum, who was a design director from 1999 to 2019.
Yes.
And a famous person revealed that they had designs for the, a new XF, a new XJ, a redesigned
F type and a redesigned F pace that were ready.
I don't know if they're ready engine from an engineering perspective.
But they were ready and like, they were going to move forward.
And then at the end, they scrapped them all for the type 00 concept.
Now I want to be deferential to Ian Callum because the man designed one of the all time
great vehicles ever, the Volvo C70, which Jen, the good one.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, yeah, he does quite a few good cars.
V8 Vantage.
Yeah.
Peter Horbury.
No, it's both of them.
Regardless, Ian Callum did the DB7 too, which we have to give the man his credit.
That is the finest $18,000 car you can purchase.
Are they that much?
But no, he did the F type, which I think actually was a true contribution to modern car design
and a bunch of other beautiful cars.
Those cars wouldn't have sold.
So like it's great that they, it's great that they came up with, it's everybody's
so upset with Jaguar for going in this new direction.
They were failing.
A new XF wasn't going to be it.
If they had come up with a new XF, it wouldn't have been like the savior of the company.
It wouldn't be sitting here being like Jaguar is good now.
They redesigned the XF.
Yep.
Good looking car though.
Yeah.
It was good looking.
They sold six of them.
You know, it was also good looking car at the E-Pace, but nobody's ever seen one.
No, the E-Pace is not a good looking car.
You don't like the E-Pace?
Stubby little thing.
Ian Callum didn't touch that.
I promise you.
Regardless, Jaguar.
Jaguar, we'll see how that all shakes down again.
Been more than a year.
We're still waiting for their new product on slot to come.
I have a suspicion we'll be waiting for a long time.
In the meanwhile, Land Rover dealerships are still rocking.
They still have good products such as the Discovery Sport.
And the Volare, which is still available.
The Volare and the Evoque have been forgotten about.
Land Rover has forgotten that they produced them, but I'm here to tell you that they do.
They're still a new Evoque, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Next new story, please.
Mercedes-Benz.
For those of you who truly know us, we're not actually a Porsche podcast.
We're a Mercedes-Benz podcast.
Owner, owner, former owner.
We love Mercedes-Benz.
They have announced that, you remember this came out last year.
They announced that they were doing a Concept AMG GT Track Sport.
Not Track Leisure, Track Sport.
Yeah.
All right.
So now they have announced that they're going to do a Black Series, a new Black Series.
We haven't had one since 2021.
So we're kind of due.
And then they're going to do a homologation version of that for GT racing specifically, which is really cool.
Now they've been talking about this for a while.
We still don't have a lot of details on this.
You should have read the press release.
It was unbelievable.
Very difficult to read.
I had it pulled up.
It was complicated.
Sorry.
What was the 2021 Black Series?
The AMG GT.
The previous AMG GT Black Series.
Set the Nurburgring.
Yeah.
Yes.
That is a serious car.
It's a very serious car.
It looks modified from the factory.
It's insane.
Pull it up.
That was a really desirable, cool, special car.
We see them occasionally.
Yeah.
Really?
Huge wing.
Yeah.
You don't remember this?
It's set the Nurburgring production time.
It may still stand.
That thing.
Oh.
That was called the Black Series.
I thought it was called something.
There were various versions of that AMG GT,
but the top, top, top, top, top, top, topy was the Black Series.
And it is wild.
One of the craziest wings ever put on our road car
until action until the new GT3 RS, to be honest with you.
Look at that wing.
It's crazy.
But anyway, a new Black Series is coming.
And I do think it's cool that they're going to all get it
and go GT3 racing with it.
Now, they're testing the car currently.
They've tested it at the Nordschleife
or they've tested it at Portamount,
a couple of the European tracks.
So they're getting closer.
Development is certainly getting there.
It's going to have a V8 engine, which is lovely to hear.
But we do have a ways to go on this.
They said the GT3 would be allegedly ready
for the 2027 racing season.
So we're close.
But so some follow, you know, stay in the space.
We'll certainly see more of this.
It gives a little credibility to the car.
It does.
The previous Black Series had serious credit
because of the Nurburgring time.
It was a cool car.
But going racing gives credibility to the car.
Oh, yeah.
Obviously, the Mercedes-Benz for 20 years now
has been looking at the 911 thinking,
how do we get in on that?
And they've been trying and trying and trying.
And it's never really been successful.
But this is one way to do it, is to go racing
and then create a car based on the racing car.
Obviously, Porsche does that with their GT3 and GT3 RSG.
Massive success financially and weightless and reputationally.
All homologation cars are cool.
But you take for racing, they're all cool.
GR Yaris.
Yeah.
Yes.
That is a very grrr.
But this I'm excited about.
I love seeing other Black Series come to the lineage.
So we'll see where this develops.
But in the meantime, it's coming.
And they gave us some colors too.
Now, I actually, by the way, the new AMG GT is essentially
an SL coupe.
It's not the most desirable car.
It's not as cool as the previous gen.
However, I think it looks better.
And I do think that a GT version of the current AMG GT
probably will look really cool.
These spy shots give a preview of it.
And they look pretty cool in the spy shots.
They do.
Hopefully, they don't offer this color scheme.
Maybe they should.
You know what?
Someone is going to recreate this in Miami.
They're going to drive around looking like this.
Total.
Next news story.
So Rolls Royce has also announced something new.
So they are introducing their Coach Build collection.
Now, I don't know if you remember the sweet tail
and the boat tail.
Do you remember those?
Absolutely.
I think about them all the time.
So they are now offering something along those lines.
They're being a little bit cagey about what it is.
But they said they wanted to bring their clients closer
and bring them behind the scenes,
to be close to the engineers and experience.
I love this.
They said extreme weather conditions in their cars.
Exactly what every Rolls Royce owner wants.
Makes no sense.
The press release on this is one of the crazier ones I've read.
But they said they'll be welcome into the ateliers
of master craftspeople from adjacent worlds
within super luxury whose dedication to perfection
mirrors that.
Rolls Royce.
Quite a quote.
Todd, AI.
AI, PR, the worst combination that has ever existed
in corporate world.
I couldn't agree with you.
It was just hard to read.
But nonetheless, I do think it is cool that they're offering
more ateliers program.
Not hoping what this means is they're going to do a lot more.
It's everything they said is going to be based on the electric.
Like that's the.
Which makes sense.
You can get for they've said that they will be fully homologated
and road legal throughout the world.
And so start with.
Start with EV.
Makes that so much easier.
Exactly.
But to do.
I love the idea of going back and doing coach building,
like traditional one off.
I mean, that's.
Give me a Dario friend, Katie.
Oh, Dario's got.
Yeah, Dario knows this driver.
He's got a Rolls Royce Wraith with it with a with a shooting break.
Yes.
And let's do that.
I'll take a specter shooting break.
And I'll pay up to 125,000.
Oh, it connects that.
And you're maybe in the ballpark.
I don't even.
I don't even think I can only imagine what.
You know, I think Dario paid.
They've said that the coach bill collection will only be offered
to clients with a deep affinity for Rolls Royce design.
In other words, very, very, very rich.
In other words, anyone they can find who's willing to do it
and has the money.
Yeah, exactly.
Translation of that if you need it.
You have deep, deep pockets, but nonetheless, very cool.
And Rolls Royce as a brand makes a lot of sense to do this with.
By the way, they also said that there'll be people that participate
will be able to join the engineers at top secret test facilities.
What top secret test facilities do you think Rolls Royce has?
Top secret.
Yeah, top secret.
What are they developing there?
A new, a new, a new ashtray.
Top secret.
They're developing a new knurling.
God, what a press release.
Rolls Royce is really trying to get people into the whole thing.
Yeah.
The British have that mystique, though.
All right.
Is that our last news story?
That is the end of the news.
There is one more big news story for you.
Say it.
All right.
After almost six years of six years touching every single auction
that comes on cards.
I touched them all.
You touched them all.
You wrote many Doug's takes.
You edited many, many Doug's takes.
The Doug's take is going away.
We're getting rid of the Doug's take this week.
By the time you watch this, it won't be gone,
but it's going to be gone starting Monday.
The Doug's take.
We've been writing these Doug's takes forever.
So when the Doug's take first came out in the auctions,
I wrote a little blurb.
Yeah, pull up the Daytona.
I wrote a little blurb about every car that went live.
And usually it was like, this car is cool.
Hold on.
Let me find your first car.
Because I'll find the very first auction that we did.
And it was always like, oh, we got something going on.
There it is.
The first auction.
There's my first Doug's take.
They started out pretty tame.
They started out so awesome.
Often they were just a sentence or two.
They were cheeky.
They were funny.
But as we've grown and we're now selling like 50 cars a day,
it's gotten to the point where it's not feasible
to write anything meaningful.
How many E39 and 5s we sold?
How many E46 and 3s we sold?
Where you talk about the S54, 6-cylinder,
and they're tumbling prowess.
I could say something different about every 3.
I'm like, whoa, whoa, move on.
And he said something.
So I have.
And he takes it all out.
But ultimately, it just is not value additive anymore.
Our community tells us they don't really read it anymore.
They've become too generic because it's not really easy
to add that much value.
And so we're taking the Doug's takes out.
Also the comments, the community has grown so much
that the comments provide what the Doug's take
was intended to provide in the first place,
which is like sort of this kind of personal,
interesting tidbit.
But the commenters know more about the individual cars than me.
And so the Doug's takes going away.
Will it appear on any like really special cars?
No, but I've decided I'm going to comment more
because I want to still make sure that I see all the cars.
I still want to look at all the auctions.
It's very important to me with 35,000 auctions,
something like that.
Yeah, just about 36,000.
So, you know, it's still important to me.
So I'm still going to like be there
and I'm going to try to comment more
and like really be a part of it.
But I'm certainly not.
It just got silly that I'm every 100 series Land Cruiser.
I'm talking about the combination of luxury
and reliability and off-road capabilities.
It's just not, it's not even believable.
It's like silly.
Fundamentally, it's become a blocker to sellers.
Like you do an incredibly good job
of touching everything.
But it takes off an extra day.
It adds traveling.
It just slows it down.
And so the cars are going to be able to go through the process
probably about a day quicker on average
since we don't have to wait for Doug anymore.
And you get time back every single day to make better content.
Make more content.
I actually bet in the end I won't get time back
because I'm still going to just be perusing the listings
to try to leave a little comment
on the ones that I find the most interesting.
But I think even that will be more appropriate
for the purpose that the Doug's take originally had.
Like I'm actually saying something about the cars
that are interesting, saying interesting things about the cars
that are interesting rather than dropping on every car.
Like, oh, it's finished in this cool color
and has a clean car face.
It's offered with the thrill of no reserve.
That's right.
It just got too generic.
And I don't think anybody's going to mourn the loss of this.
But we wanted to tell you about it.
We've been doing this for six years
and for five of those I've been begging to get rid of the Doug's take.
I'm glad that you will have some more freedom
and you will still be involved with the cars.
You're not going anywhere.
That's right.
It's exciting.
Now, we have a big talk car segment to do.
We do.
But first I want to tell you the talk car segment
is brought to you by the Mega Track.
I'm sorry.
I'm familiar, but I'm sorry.
Can it pull up the Mega Track, please?
No, no.
I figured it.
Okay.
Have you ever heard of this?
No.
All right.
The Mega Track.
This is part of my car segment.
Was it CK?
No, no.
Space.
Mega is actually the brand.
The Mega Track.
Pull up this picture.
There's some picture.
Oh, here.
Pull up this picture.
Yes, this.
The Mega Track was an off-road super car
that I believe was French.
And they made maybe 10, 12.
And it's huge.
Why is that other car?
Well, I think that car is there
because I think it's another Mega.
But it's like the small Mega.
But it's lifted.
So that's nice.
That's even worse than like the big mini.
It had suspension.
I pull back out.
There's other great photos.
The Mega Track.
Look at this.
This photo here.
The Mega Track is actually in the background.
You don't realize it, but it's huge.
What powered this thing?
I don't remember.
This one.
This one here.
On plates from Vienna in Austria.
Oh, there.
There, that picture.
That one is seen in Monaco sometimes.
But that picture, you can see how big it is.
It's a 140.
It's like laughable.
It's like truly embarrassing.
It was supposed to be an off-road super car.
Of course, it wasn't successful at anything,
including selling the Mega Track.
How did you...
Where did that come from?
He wasn't at some time to do some reading recently.
There it is in Monaco.
The talk car segment today.
There's the Mega Track next to a Yukon Denali.
And look how big it looks.
Hold on.
That is very funny.
These cars were built in Vienna.
Look at this thing.
Were those Audi or Porsche Taylors?
Were those from a 960 or from an Audi A4?
The Mega Track was developed ground up
by the finest connoisseur of the supercar manufacturing world.
That could go either way.
The corporation of Mega.
This picture also, I think, really illustrates
what the Mega Track was capable of.
Wow.
Do you have problems handling your supercar?
Do you accidentally end up off-road?
Well, this was the one for you.
Exactly.
You don't have to worry about it getting scratched or whatever
because it can go anywhere and do anything.
This was the Sturato before the Sturato,
although it was actually two Sturatos.
Size-wise.
I mean, use another one to normal traffic.
I mean, look at that.
It's so ridiculously absurd.
Yeah, that one on Vienna plates
is apparently seen around Monaco here and there.
Someone's driving around.
It's a 400 horsepower Mercedes V12.
Must have been terrible.
Shout out to Schmi who filmed that car in 2011.
Yeah, shout out to Schmi.
But he filmed it going by.
Someone's got to do a quirks and features.
We got to get a Mega Track video.
There's a 959 next to Mega Track.
Let's get you to Austria.
Let's get there.
Those were the two off-road supercar.
That, by the way, is a 143 scale car.
Still giant.
I can't believe someone made a 143 scale Mega Track.
A 143 scale Mega Track wouldn't fit on this table.
I mean, with the fence.
So much bigger than the fence.
It's so hard to understand the scale.
It's ridiculous.
It's the most idiot car ever made.
No, I love it.
I love it so much.
The Mega Track.
I had no idea I'm going to go read about this.
You can do a deep dive.
The company was called Axiom,
but their line of vehicles was called Mega.
And then the Track.
And then the Track.
There were others.
There was also like the Mega, whatever,
and the Mega.
It wasn't just the Axiom Mega Track.
Wow.
Yeah.
Anyway, that's a tough car segment.
That's a great segment.
They're currently the leader in Quadrocycles in France.
Oh, wow.
I went from that.
Which, AAK, the cars that teenagers can drive.
Yeah.
You know what you do?
You take your Mega Track to the Quadrocycle dealership
for service.
Right.
Quadrocycle, Quadrocycle, Quadrocycle.
Mega Track.
You pull up next to the shop.
They're not big enough.
The shops aren't even big enough to fit the Mega Track.
I want you guys to know that they currently offer a Mega
product sale, the Axiom brand.
It is like a lifted, I want the Track.
In this picture, that's what that's the Lotus Europa.
It's parked next to it.
They're actually next to it.
I want to talk about the Scouty Evo.
I want to talk about Slate.
Do you remember Slate?
Of course.
What are you going to say about this?
Because I see what's right in the dock and I don't.
I got a Slate story for you.
It's a Slate story, but it's a Slate Slate story.
Nice.
Do you remember a couple of months ago,
they did that video where the CEO was like,
answer questions.
One of the questions is when can Doug Demure review it?
Do you remember what her answer was?
Whenever.
Whenever he wants.
So for the last two months, I've been working with the Slate
people trying to try to data review it.
And we've set on a date and then they bailed and pushed the date
and we set a date.
They bailed and they pushed the date.
Set a date, bailed, pushed it.
It's happened three or four times.
And the most recent was how about June or July?
This was supposed to happen in February.
In addition to that, that woman is no longer the CEO.
She's the president.
She's the founder.
No longer CEO.
The hardest CEO.
She's the president.
And of course, the price of these trucks has increased
significantly, which is one of the problems when you kind of make
your announcement around the pricing based on the incentives
which could go away.
And so I wonder, whenever he wants to review it,
it has now been pushed, pushed, pushed.
Like, how are we doing?
How are we doing over there?
I think the answer is not, wow.
I personally am hoping they do another Wes Anderson style
thing with, she answers a bunch of questions because I really
enjoyed that.
But I really, I do, everybody wants to see you review this
thing.
So June's nice.
That means it's going to be fall.
Yeah, the fall.
The fall.
Maybe winter.
Well, that's the thing.
It's like, what are we doing here?
Like she said, whenever we want, then we were scheduling it.
We had March 6th on the bus.
Jay Leno did it a month ago.
Where's Doug?
They're not afraid of Jay.
I don't think they're afraid of Jay.
Like Jay drives the car.
He's like, ah, whatever.
Tell me about the car.
The CEO goes on Jay's video, talks about the car.
That's right.
Doug doesn't do any of that.
Doug actually pokes into the things and you watch Doug's
prelude video and you start thinking, maybe we don't give
him any of these.
Maybe we're a little nervous about what he's going to say.
Yeah.
But that makes me nervous about the state of this company.
And they obviously are probably also nervous because of the
EV incentive no longer makes their product as compelling as it
once was.
I mean, we talked about when they first announced it, producer
Sean and I went up to Orange County to their launch party.
That's right.
And we talked about it that week.
And we were a little skeptical that it would be an appealing
proposition at the price they stated, which was 20,000
with tax credit, some of that.
So high 20s without.
They've since said that they'll be in the mid 20s or so they've
lowered it a little bit, but no tax credit anymore.
It's not a compelling proposition at that price point.
It's like the range is too low.
The power is too low.
That's right.
Two door.
It's small.
It's a niche segment.
The Maverick exists.
The Maverick exists for 30 with a four door.
I could, I could just go get a Volkswagen Severo.
But I'm glad you went to the launch.
You don't even say anything about that.
I'm glad I went to the, you went to the launch party because
Ken and also went to that launch party with Emily and afterwards
was a lovely evening in Los Angeles for the two of them.
We did not go into that, but yeah, but Filippo did get a tattoo
while he was there because they were offering that tattoo.
Do you remember that?
I remember the tattoo booth.
I did not get a tattoo.
Oh, that's unfortunate.
I'm not a tattoo guy.
You could have commemorated when you got to see the slate.
Anyway, I'm a little bit nervous.
I did get some ice cream.
That was nice.
A little bit nervous about the slate situation.
As we all are.
A little bit nervous.
Yeah.
Speaking of slate and Amazon, who is a majority or minority partner.
They're an investor.
The other day, I'm driving around here and I see an Amazon delivery truck
with a Montana license plate on it.
Huh.
Now we're not in Montana.
Oh, no.
We're in California.
Interesting.
Now it's Montana temporary license plate.
Here's a theory.
I'm going to give a theory.
I'm not saying they're doing this, but here's what I would do.
I thought it was Amazon trying to limit my tax liability.
You set up a business in Montana.
You buy the trucks from the Montana business.
Which LLC you create your business with?
I think they got their own.
They're calling LLC.
You buy the trucks in your Montana business.
And then after they've been titled in Montana, no sales tax,
you flip them to another state where you happen to sell the car for $1.
And in that state, that's the price you paid because your Montana business
sold it to your California business for $1.
That's just what I might do if I was trying to limit my tax liability
and I was a giant company.
But it was interesting to me because California last week was cracking down
on a dentist in Fremont for doing Montana on his Aventador.
And here I am driving this Amazon truck with a Montana plate.
And I'm like, you know, that's interesting.
And it's a temporary plate.
So they're waiting for title.
So the moment they get Montana title, what would you do if you were a large
company trying to limit your tax liability?
What's interesting here is I would be stunned if they purchased the trucks.
They would lease them from themselves.
I mean fundamentally they would have a financier that is probably themselves.
Own them. That makes it interesting.
I remember most Amazon trucks have the digital California license plates.
I don't want to speak to what's going on.
It's interesting.
The other interesting thing about asking questions, that's all I'm saying.
It's a million observation.
The other interesting thing that California license plates have finally switched
to the new format.
So sad.
The end of the nine series has been reached.
It started in 1980.
They've switched.
I got the very first one.
The photo that you see.
The photo that you see.
No, I have it.
It's in my house.
The photo that you see right now is me with the very first one.
How did I pull it off?
You'll never know.
Did I actually ever arrive?
Yeah.
Wow.
It was on the 4GT.
It was registered at the 4GT for a little while.
Right.
I never put it on.
I got the first one.
So California has made it after 46 long years in the same license plate format that Switch
has been made.
So this is a massive news story, people.
So up on that has been numbers, three letters, three numbers.
And now it's what?
Just flip the opposite.
It's really not interesting.
But this is a big deal.
Three letters, three numbers, one number.
I'm only mentioning this news story because I got the first one.
I'm not mentioning it for any other purpose.
It's a big deal, period.
Are you jealous that I have the first one?
No, but I'm really sad that I never saw a 9Y plate or a 9Z plate, rather.
I actually haven't seen a 9Y plate.
You will see 9Ys.
It seems like they skipped 9Z.
It's so sad to me.
I wanted to see 9Z.
Well, hey, if you're looking for three plates, you'd find that you'll never see a 3Z either.
Let me tell you something or a 1Z.
Let me tell you something.
Isn't 1Z a truck plate?
No.
Let me tell you something.
As the person who got the very first one, I'm proud of the new format.
Love it.
Obviously, it all kind of started with me.
I consider myself the founder of the format, really.
It's hard as a founder.
I wouldn't feel the California DMV.
They were going through and it's like, oh my God, somebody took it.
It's this guy.
Is that the first one?
It was a random chase.
All right.
I happened to walk into the AAA office down by my house in San Ysidro, Modesto.
And there they were.
The previous guy got the last one and I got the first one.
It was pure chance.
Are they starting with A00AA?
No, they're not.
The first one is 00AA1.
We've been showing on the screen for the last 15 minutes.
It's the second one.
I meant to bring it in today, but I forgot, but it's at my house.
No.
The first number is going to be like the last number.
The last number is going to be like the first number was.
Do you understand that?
No.
The last number is going to be like the first number was like the age identifier, basically.
Right.
But what player are they starting with?
Zero's going to be first number.
00AA1.
00AA1.
I don't know if they're skipping something.
No, they didn't skip.
They gave me the first one.
And by the way, it's 0000 because California starts each series with 0000, as some states do.
Are you happy about this?
I think I got to go get a vanity plate and then return to a regular plate to get a new one.
Maybe.
I need to buy a car, maybe.
So you get a great irony of this is you can't put this on any car because then it looks
like you just got it.
At this point, California probably won't let me have this plate anymore.
It's just going to be in my garage.
It's just going to go up on my garage wall as a souvenir of the time that I started it all.
Well, I'll say a couple of things.
One, I didn't care at all about license plates until you came in.
That's all I look at.
It is helpful.
Especially in California where they stay with the car.
I agree.
Because you can tell who's a little sketch and who's not.
But I feel that it is notable.
I feel this is like a California thing to see the plates switch over.
Like when you moved here is like to know what sequence they went to.
And now we've all gotten to see them switch, like do the big switch that we've been waiting for.
Yeah.
Big day for Philippa.
My 911 has WXP 9 WXP.
Yeah.
It's really time.
What are you going to do about the wheels?
Well, I'm selling my BBSs.
On Instagram.
I have a buyer for them.
He actually reached out by email like early on.
What are you going to do about the wheels in the car?
They're gray painted.
So my BBSs are sold.
Yeah.
I have to ship them out.
They're sold.
My wheels that were the OE wheels were refinished by the prior owner.
And he never put them back on the car.
He refinished them in brake dust.
Unfortunately, that there are little...
That's exactly right.
...macked into dark.
He just got them really brake dusty.
And he didn't think about the centered caps.
The center caps aren't like that.
So in this light, it's maybe acceptable.
Nope.
At some point, I will refinish them.
Now, here's the great thing.
He's not gonna.
A, you're not going to.
Never will.
B, the time to do that was...
Well, I don't know.
When the car was on another set of wheels.
That was the time.
We didn't know how bad they were.
You couldn't tell in the box how bad they were.
No, but you could put the center caps in.
I was getting a lot of pressure to change out the BBSs at the time.
I now regret it and honestly wish that the car was still on the BBS.
No, I like the OE wheels.
So bad.
Ryan, don't cry.
Don't give this to Ryan.
They're a little dark.
Slightly gray.
They're a little gray.
It really messes with the kidneys.
I will get them re-done.
The issue is that I don't want to go without the car.
I drive the car every day and I want a key drive in the car every day.
Do you drive?
Yeah, definitely.
But you know what?
Here's your truck.
Some days I don't.
Your pickup truck is on the way from Arizona.
When that gets here, send the 911 and get the wheels fixed.
At some point.
You have to drive around in a carb-rated.
You have to sleep in the bed you have made.
I need to buy new wheels for the pickup truck because they're 16 and a half.
When is the pickup truck coming here?
It should be getting picked up today.
It's coming here this week?
Maybe early next year.
We're just finding this out now.
It's Wednesday when we're filming this.
I have it as an item on here for that reason.
I think it was supposed to be here.
I've been here and it's going to be here this week for three weeks now.
I paid for a shipper yesterday.
It's coming.
Damn.
So this is like real, real.
The fleet was going to be a carb-rated man like you.
What do you have to say?
I will be honest here.
I need to get it titled.
It does not need to pass small, which is great.
And I do need to get new wheels and tires quickly because I can't really drive it that much.
You just mired in wheel and tire problems.
I know.
It's incredible.
I know.
What's the wheel and tire issue on this?
Does it bolt up to other Ford wheels?
Let's throw on some of the Pope's Fusion wheels.
The Pope apparently had a manual fusion.
Who did?
I wish I did.
I almost bought one on Craigslist years ago.
You and the Pope?
I know.
It was probably ex-Pope.
It was in Madison.
Dude, it was ex-Pope.
It could have been ex-Pope.
Man, that's crazy.
What gen Ford fusion?
Because multiple gen's had a manual.
All gen's had a manual.
I think it was the 2010 that pre-redesigned, but like the good facelift.
Yeah.
That was the one I was...
Dude, you were talking about ex-Pope.
Pope John Paul's Fiat Uno on eBay one time sold for like $2 million.
This could have been you.
Imagine the Ford Fusion, the worst car.
You missed out.
Love that one.
Maybe the Vatican would want it back, put it in the museum.
There you go.
The truck is coming though.
Finding new wheels will not be a problem.
It's a family process.
So there are many of them.
It's a family process.
The family's got to be consulted on which wheels they...
How is that a...
All right.
I got some of your questions.
I'm just going to let you have that.
Yeah, thanks.
Appreciate that.
They got a...
Hey, family.
What is everybody?
So we're going to take a family vote on which...
Is that a family meeting?
$212 used wheels and tires we're getting.
If we're going to go down to Sandy Seadrow...
Family.
You and your wife are the ones that have this thing.
Like all that matters is her.
And I don't think she cares about that.
She's family.
Yeah, of course she is.
But like I don't think she cares about the wheel.
Other people.
Are they round?
That would be her question.
That would be an important component.
I will say you can really screw up the wheels on that truck if you get the wrong one.
Because the truck...
But you will undoubtedly do that.
I want to be clear.
It's also not on the OE wheels.
It's on some...
Oh, it's on some aftermarket.
Yeah, from like the...
Great 90s though.
Get the 97.
Pull up.
Can you pull up an Explorer, please?
I will absolutely not get the OE wheels.
I'm trying to say 97.
No, no, no.
On Cars and Bids.
Because that's...
We're trying to push that website on Peter.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's CarsandBids.com.
CarsandBids.com.
There's an app, I think.
It is.
Just for you.
Go down, go down.
The wheels I like...
I like a lot of wheels.
But the ones I want you to get...
Click on that Explorer.
Oh, yeah.
Click on the red one.
Click on the red one.
I don't want to see the white one.
I want the red one.
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
I liked these because they had sort of this, like,
teardrop-y, raindrop-y situation.
They are cool.
Are these...
Are you a five-log?
Probably not.
Yeah, I honestly don't remember.
I honestly do not, though.
Look at these things still on Firestones.
Wow.
This is a nostalgia play.
You can drive around on your Explorer and get killed.
Don't look at the original tires.
Oh, my God.
That looks like a map.
That's really bad.
Oh, Lord.
Are those the original tires?
What?
How many miles do you just have on it?
This one had...
Yeah, it had...
When did we foist this on some unsuspecting?
2000 miles T-M-U, though.
With a salvage title?
Yeah, this is an unusual one.
10 grand?
10 Gs.
How did this one not get cash for clunkered?
Seriously.
Don't you wonder?
2000 miles, that might be real.
It's pretty clean.
I mean, it looks pretty clean.
That's how the seats look to OE.
Yeah, so that's a good...
Damn, Filippo.
Grab those wheels.
Okay, Kenan has much more to talk about.
I don't know why we've been talking about...
We've been sitting here talking about California license plates
and Filippo's...
Well, that's how it works.
You guys talk and I listen.
Tell us about the SL65.
Yeah.
So I recently sold, as people know, my SL65 on the cars and the bids,
and it brought 60,000 dollars.
It's all because of that fourth picture where you're cleaning off the...
Well, that does have something to do with it.
That is how I care for my cars.
Yeah.
It's meticulously.
But this car sold well.
The bidding more...
It was bid up pretty quickly if you look at the actual bid history.
And for the longest time, it was sitting at 45, and then it went to 47.
But in the end, there were a couple more bids and it ended up at 60.
And the car's going to Dallas.
One of the cool things...
It's there, isn't it?
By the time this airs, it'll probably be about there.
It went on a truck on Tuesday of this week.
It was a cool story.
The buyer was talking to me about it.
So he wanted an SL65, and his buddy has an SLR and an SL65,
in addition to a bunch of other cars.
And it was a black on black and red car.
And so he wanted to buy that.
And his friend watched the video I did with Nick on the SL, SL65.
I was like, I can't sell you the SL65.
I have to keep them both.
They're both too good.
Wow.
And so then he ended up bidding on this car, and he won it.
And now it's in Dallas.
Look at this car.
It feels right.
Look at this picture.
This is a Nick Stafford media.
That is real photography.
That's a great photo.
This is me want the car.
And I already drove the car and had it around.
I was a little disappointed in your video.
You didn't give it the full.
You didn't go full throttle on the car.
What was I?
You did like the little.
When something interesting happened.
Probably.
But this car, the thing is like, yes, I'm very happy to sell it.
I'm happy it goes to a good home.
I'm happy to get a very good result on it.
I will miss that engine.
It is just one of the all time great engines.
And I will sing that thing praises until the end.
Kenan SL65 has departed us.
Yes.
And the hunt is on for a Viper.
Kenan is legitimately looking for a Viper.
There are three people I'm talking to.
All first generation Viper's.
All red.
Wow.
And various years.
All three spoke.
All side pipe.
And so we'll see.
I'm working together on a couple of, yes, there's an order.
I'm not in a rush to find the right one, but I'm definitely on the hunt.
Look, everybody has given me a lot of guff about this.
This car, the Mercedes is so much better than the Viper.
It's like, well, yeah, you're missing the point.
We're experienced men.
I want to experience it.
I want to be clear.
I am likely not going to have the Viper for more than six to nine months.
But I just, I have to have it.
There's an itch that I have to scratch.
I want to follow in Doug's footsteps.
Get a manual V10.
You'll be really good at putting the top on and off.
So there's a fun fact about first gen's.
They came with a tonneau cover on the first gen Viper's across the dash.
There are a bunch of little snaps.
That is for a tonneau cover that goes over the whole thing.
So if you want to just cover the interior, you can.
Wow.
So I'm going to get, and there's a zipper so you can zip out.
So is there no roof at all?
Okay.
There is of course a roof, but it's a pain.
That's a fun fact.
But yeah, a lot of people, have you ever noticed that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I figured you would have.
But like, yeah.
I kind of remember at the Peterson, maybe I even, I don't remember.
They have that.
They have like the fourth one made or something.
Yes.
You know what I was?
I was at my kid's school there the other day, you know, over there.
Over there.
Over there by the thing.
And I was walking up to pick up one of the kids there from the school.
Yeah.
And there was a school district van.
And it was an a tonneau line.
And on the side of it, it said Triton V10.
And I'm thinking to myself, how bizarre is it?
That the people driving V10s are Huracan, Gallardo, R8 owners, LFA, Career GT, muscle
guys, and vipers, and then a school employee.
Hey, the V10 knows no bounds.
Everybody has to experience it, whether it's in the truck.
How weird.
I mean, I, of course, I've driven a U-Haul.
My friend Talon has one.
And how he, and he's not a car person at all.
He's had his high school.
A tonneau line?
Yes.
He said at one point he put 27 friends in and drove down to the V10.
I'm sure it was very safe.
But like, yeah, because I hadn't seen this truck forever.
And then he pulled up to this volunteer thing we're doing.
And it said V10 on it.
Today's world, it's so ridiculous.
Young kids growing up today who become car enthusiasts are going to look back at those
V10 vans.
Like we look back at like those old Cadillac V8s that were eight liters and made no power
and be like.
Totally.
Back in the grandpa's days, they were putting V10s in vans.
So weird.
We lived through a great period of automotive history.
We really did.
But I am, again, just thrilled with the result.
Thank you again for reviewing it.
And I was very happy to represent this one.
The car made it easy because it was a very good car.
Do you think he's going to end up with a Viper?
Yeah.
Are you pumped for this?
Yeah.
I think, I would like for you to drive it.
I would love to.
Well, you'll be part of my friends drive my Viper.
Oh, and will this end?
Yes.
It wasn't this time.
And you can be too because you're not going to review it because you've already done
a first gen Viper.
I would do it again, especially if you got a ketchup and mustard.
I should have bought that one.
I was sitting right there.
But I had to, I want the three spokes.
That car was so unruly.
I want the side pipe.
It is.
They are.
They're so unruly.
It's laughable.
You know, another thing I did recently, I went to Texas to the Port of Hill Country
Valley, which I'll talk about a little bit in a second.
But what I maybe realized is how much I love classic cars.
I really love them.
And the Viper is this unusual blend of classic and modern because it has like fuel injection.
You can be diagnosed and they're pretty reliable and no carbs, nothing like that.
But it's so raw and visceral.
And it is about just driving.
Nothing else, just driving.
And admittedly driving situations, you get into a little scary with that car.
But that's what it is about one thing.
And I just respect that.
And I love that.
And I want to experience it.
And it is a very different experience from your 39 and five, which the SL 65 also was,
but maybe not in the right way.
Like it was more relaxed, more easy, more serene, like not, but the Viper is going to be like,
you already have some of that stuff in the 39.
Like the Viper is going to be so like, just you got to control it.
You got to handle that car.
The M five is good at like it does a bunch of things.
And it's just like taking the slider and stretching on one of those.
And the SL's case, it was performance and luxury.
And the Viper's case, it's going to be rawness.
Yeah.
It ain't performance or rawness.
It's still pretty.
I mean, it's a lot of power in a lightweight car.
Groundhog over here.
Sean.
Sean at carsandbids.com.
He didn't like the Viper.
No, but Sean has what we call hot takes in some friend circles.
We know him as hot take Sean and he is often wrong.
So we're going to find that.
I know he hates the Viper.
A lot.
The thing about the Viper, you once said that a great car should be loved and hated
in equal measures by people.
That's how you make like a truly awesome car.
And the Viper is that some people love it.
And the people love it.
Really love it.
The people hate it.
Really.
It is, it is, it is, I was, I was sitting in a light the other day next to a Harley
and I was watching that.
I was watching the whole thing shake.
And I was thinking to myself, German and Japanese bike enthusiasts who see this laugh
at how unrefined it is.
Meanwhile, that's exactly what attracted that fella to that bike is the rumble.
And that's the Viper.
Like Sean's over here.
He's his bad color G-Wagon is behind us.
He's shooting from his, from his high holier than now German car, European car brand.
He's got three European cars.
Since I've known him, he's had five European cars.
Guys, just one of these coastal elites.
Meanwhile, you, man of the people with your rumbly thing.
Born and bred in the Midwest, baby.
So like I, yes, I've also, I've also only owned European cars and I want to own them.
But I want to own an American car.
Like I, and I just think that it is, I just think they are as cool as it comes.
I just think they're the best.
So tell us about the Porsche rally.
I'm going to pull up a picture of the Viper so we can just stare at one.
Yeah, leave that up while you talk.
But yeah, perfect.
That's a great one too.
I actually think this rear, look at that.
That's a cool car.
It's a cool car.
It's a cool car.
Anyway, I went to, I went to Texas with some friends of mine from New Orleans to go drive
in the Porsche Hill Country rally.
Now this is a rally that takes place every year just outside of San Antonio in the Hill Country.
And it's, it's focused.
Some rallies can go to, it's kind of a car show.
Like this was not that.
We showed up and there were 374 cars, a lot of them at this hotel.
But the thing was they're all Porsche bar cars.
So 1989 and Ford Porsche.
So that's 9-11, 9-14, 3-5-6.
1989 and older.
1989 and older.
Yeah.
Correct.
What I realized when I got there is that it is a classic car event and it is focused
on driving.
By the time we get up in the morning at like 7.30 the parking lot would be almost completely
empty.
Wow.
All those cars were out just driving.
They gave us these great routes to drive.
You could drive at your own pace.
You chose when you left.
There was no like organization around.
They didn't dictate when you had to drive.
Yeah.
And so it was just a bunch of people out there driving these old Porsches.
And what I realized is like those cars can really take it.
Like it is a classic car.
I was in a 1973, 9-11 E, which just, just made the most glorious sound.
You know the beginning to Le Mans when Steve McQueen is driving his 9-11?
Does anybody know?
People will know what I'm talking about.
That's what it felt like.
It was just raw and visceral.
And I'm, I'm losing my mind of videos coming out about this thing.
But it was just like we really use those cars 450 miles in less than two days.
Not strong.
And people drove from all over the country.
A group of guys drove up from Monterey, Mexico with a bunch of cars.
People came from California.
Nice.
Drought to.
Yeah.
Paul Kramer drove with a group.
They only did 100 miles on highway.
Everything else was back road.
Got there, drove back again.
Do you, are you a Porsche man now?
Like Spike.
So here's the thing.
I realized that it's coming for me.
Like, oh my God.
It's coming for me.
Oh my God.
However, take mine.
However, I am going, I would, what I realized is most of these people, they just liked cars.
It just happened to be Porsches.
They actually, they were exactly what we liked.
They weren't obsessed over the little deviations.
They were driving the things and they were driving them well.
And as they were intended to be and using them, people were fixing stuff in the parking
lots.
And like it was just, that was real automotive enthusiasm.
I think that is the future of car events to go and use them the way they're supposed
to be used.
Like that was the most pure automotive event I have ever been to.
And I absolutely loved it.
I plan to go back next year.
But I know that I'm going to end up with a Porsche at some point.
In the meantime.
Filippo and I, I'm not trying to be a jerk to you.
I really am not.
But Filippo and I prefer the rare shades event where we look at the, the parked cars are parked
on plinths.
And we look at very similar identical Porsches that just happen to be slightly different
versions of gray and brown.
And we talk about how cool that brown is compared to a different brown.
That's what people and I like to go to.
You're a kissy sky.
There were a couple of people, there were a couple of cars there that were like so nice.
They weren't driven on their own.
And that's like whatever.
But those people brought other cars that they could just cocaine, which I thought was really
cool.
And so I have to say, and it was, I'm very grateful to everybody.
I came up and said, hello.
A lot of people were surprised I was there.
Like, what are you doing here?
But I just want to come in a Porsche person and I'm grateful to my friends who brought
their cars, let me drive.
And the New Orleans crew was great.
And we just had a great time.
So I highly encourage people to get out there, go to driving events.
They are the most fun.
I agree with that.
And on the subject of driving events, I want to move on to the Markerport.
We have two very short things to cover before we have to move on to questions, which are
going to be short today.
I'm sorry.
The Markerport is brought to you by the Suzuki Across.
The Suzuki Across.
Yeah.
Pull up the Suzuki.
We sold one.
I don't know.
The Suzuki Across.
Flippo, do you want to tell?
No.
Tell the audience.
I'd rather not engage.
The Suzuki Across is a four-wheeler.
Pull up this picture, actually, of it, I think, is the best one.
That's the last one.
That's the one I like.
The Suzuki Across is a four-wheeler.
It's a very...
Is that it has four wheels?
It's a very competent, capable, off-road vehicle.
And you have never seen this body design before.
This is brand new car.
Suzuki Across, totally distinct from any other automobile.
And you can tell that it's a Suzuki and not something like a Toyota,
because the center caps have the Suzuki logo on them.
That's right.
And ignore the fact that the plug-in hybrid badge is the same
as you might see on some Toyotas.
Toyota copied that from the Suzuki.
You've had...
Oh, my God.
Did you get shot?
Pull up the Daytona.
This is another thing we have to talk about.
So a couple of...
I can't spell today.
A couple of weeks ago, after Moda, I went and drove this.
1974.
Are you wearing this?
Yes.
Daytona.
Special car.
What an unbelievable car.
Now, I started working with cars and bids six years ago yesterday.
Happy six years.
Thank you.
And I have...
Since we started, I have dreamt one day that we would have a car like this on the site.
And here it is.
A Ferrari Daytona.
You've had two Intations.
Well, yeah, but I'm more of a Ferrari guy.
Daytona's on the site.
It is absolutely beautiful breathtaking.
What was it like to drive there?
So special.
Yeah.
Surprisingly agile.
Once you set the chassis in the corner, then you go.
I mean, fully independent suspension in 1970.
And this engine, the Colombo V12, is one of the most magnificent things.
As I'm sure you know.
Of course.
Yep.
The Tipo...
Yeah, anyway.
Well, forget it.
I'm not going to waste my time.
Anyway, but just to hear the carburetors, it just makes such a wonderful noise.
And the power is good.
The steering...
Everybody said when you're not moving, if you have to do a dry turn, like with no motion,
very heavy.
But once you are moving, I found every engagement point with the car was wonderful.
Yeah.
It really is a special automobile.
And it just felt solid.
It felt like I could have driven that car back from Seattle to California.
Like genuinely.
That would have been so beautiful.
Maybe someday.
Every time I see a Daytona, which is pretty much only at car events, I'm astonished by
just how special it is.
It is a very cool car, very special vintage Ferrari.
It is the link between vintage Ferrari and more modern Ferrari.
It was this design that sort of took them out of the taller grills and wire wheels era
and kind of moved them into the more swept back cars that we kind of more...
Even to this day, more know as the Ferrari design.
It was the last Ferrari to have Bronis after that.
And they offered mags at the time you could get them.
It was literally the link between that one.
It was literally.
But from a design perspective too, it was clearly Ferrari going more modern.
And then after this, for 30 years, they were mid-engine.
And then they brought the 550 back, which this car was in.
There was a car in Driver magazine where they...
issue where they compared this and the 550 Maranello.
And there's a lot of similarities.
If you really look at them on paper, there's a lot of...
One last thing I'll say on this because I know I'm talking a lot today.
But the stiffness of the drivetrain is unbelievable.
Like because it's a torque tube, so it's secured at the front and the rear.
And the transmission's at the back, the trans-axle.
It just when you get on it, the whole thing is tight.
And so you get on it and the foot goes like this.
It just rocks back and then you monster off down the road.
Sean, we got to get a Daytona in the office.
It's pretty special.
Who wouldn't want that?
I will say go watch Kevin's video on Cars and Beds YouTube channel.
Yes, thank you for reminding me.
Sean, if you want me to get a Daytona, you got to get one here so I can drive it.
Bit on this one.
Bit on this one.
But there it is.
We went and we drove the car and it was just the coolest thing I had the greatest time.
And it was a chance for me to meet a hero of mine.
I've jumped of that car since I was a kid.
Totally.
And it far exceeded my expectations.
And whoever ends up with this car is very lucky indeed.
Daytonas have not been appreciated the way that they deserve to be.
And I hope that that changes because it is just look at the thing.
Yeah.
Okay.
Unfortunately, there's no other time for more market report stuff that we wanted to
talk about.
Exteros.
We talked about 97, 360.
We had a good 360.
Pull up the 360 result.
We got to move on to questions.
We're not going to talk about the 360 result.
Pull up.
It's just going to sit here.
It's just going to sit here and you're going to look at.
It's a high mile car too.
Questions of course are brought to you by Cars and Bids.
Cars and Bids is the leading authority on cars and on bidding.
If you want to bid or if you want cars, you go to Cars and Bids.
Dotcom.
Yeah.
Dotcom there.
We have an app too, Filippo.
We do.
Yeah.
We have an iOS app.
And if you've been asking about an Android app, stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
That's two.
My God, he's telegraphing.
There's a future here.
Just minutes ago, I got an email inviting me to join our Android testing.
It's like when Stefan Winkleman said they might do a two plus two.
Oh, this is, this is that level of, oh my God.
Much more certain and much sooner.
I hope this gets covered in all of the industry publications.
Anyway, from OMG Fahs.
First question.
Oh, and remember, you can ask questions.
Go to CarsandBids.com.
Click on the community tab.
The next pod is with Sean.
We don't, there's not going to be a questions thing for it.
After that, you can ask questions.
First question is from OMG Fahs.
Release the Saturn files.
I want to talk about this because people have been asking me about it.
You want to tell the story?
No.
All right.
Here's the story.
Go back to the fall of 22.
Is that what it was?
Yeah.
God, it's been a while.
Summer of 22.
The fella sold his 430 Scuderia on CarsandBids.
I remember the car.
You're a really nice guy.
He lived up in, you know, somewhere.
And he was great.
And he said, hey, listen, he said, since you're up here, he said, I also, as a nostalgia
thing for my childhood, I bought a 1992 Saturn and it's pristine.
Do you want to review it?
And I was like, yeah, sure.
So I did the Scuderia, sold the Scuderia on the site, whatever, then I did the Saturn
the same day.
Yeah.
And the Saturn video has never found a date to go live.
I, by the way, legitimately love the Saturn.
We've auctioned a Saturn SL.
We actually had the Saturn video on the calendar over last summer, but I pulled it off.
Look at this car.
For something else.
Yeah.
This is not the car.
No.
I love the Saturn SL.
The curved rear glass.
It was an attractive car.
Any whom, that's the formal way to say any who.
Will it ever be shown to the public?
Well, I don't know.
What do you think?
Like my thinking is Sean wants us to put it up at some point, probably to stop all the
annoying comments.
Plus to see 2022 Doug.
It's been a while.
Been a while.
No beer.
No beer.
Just give me a shot.
Your hair was longer or shorter?
Yeah.
No, it will be interesting.
I will put it up at some point.
The problem is basically this.
Ever since then, more or less, we've switched to this new format where on Tuesdays, I put
up video reviews with brand new cars.
And on Thursdays, I put up video reviews with cars that were selling on cars and bids.
And the Saturn is neither.
And so it's been hard to find a spot for it.
I get emails from the automakers almost every day, like, hey, you filmed this car three
months ago.
Why is the video gone up yet?
It's like, okay, we got to put that up.
Or, hey, this car's got to go live because the seller needs it to be sold.
So that video's got to go up.
And they all have a higher priority than the Saturn.
But it's out there.
Okay.
Mr. Beast.
One of the top creators on YouTube and Amazon.
Jimmy.
Jimmy.
Has a thing where he pre-recorded videos for like, Jimmy five years from now, 10 years
from now, whatever.
And also for once after he dies.
Oh, wow.
Jesus.
Have you considered just kind of saving that for that fateful unfortunate day?
I haven't.
If it comes up.
April the first falls on a Tuesday or on a Thursday, I think.
So release it then.
Maybe I'll release it for the five-year anniversary of filming it next year, which is probably
September.
That's what you should do.
That's who?
It's in 27.
Look, Sean has popped up the gopher.
The thing is, I want to put it up.
What?
What, Sean?
We should sell his shirt.
We should sell his shirt.
Check out Bird, Sean and Filippo, the Cars and Bids promotion.
Bird.CarsandBids.com.
I want to, I'm going to put it up at some point.
I got to find a slot for it.
It initially was like, ah, it's been a year.
There had been videos that waited a year.
And then there was that video that waited a lot longer.
And I got to find a place to put it.
But it's been hard.
Only fans?
They're going big into non-vat creators.
Next question from Rose76.
Tell us about the mega track.
Ah, you're in luck.
No, I'm kidding.
But man, I'm pretty cool, right?
Rose76, when are we getting Ryan on the pod?
Ryan, I'd love to have him on the pod.
Normally he sits and watches the pod, but we haven't been keeping his interest today.
He's just out of good health.
I don't need to deal with these jerks.
Some day Ryan will go on the pod.
I think pretty soon, actually, Ryan's planning to be on the pod.
I would love to have Ryan on the pod for a lot of reasons.
Mainly to kind of get inside his head, get inside his psyche and see what's all going on in there.
Let's see if we can get an explanation.
And he golfs.
I mean, he's an interesting fella.
He's golfs.
You can talk about it to him.
I don't know.
You don't talk about it to us.
Golf is interesting.
That's definitely what our audience wants to hear.
More golf.
Felipe, you want to have Ryan on the pod or not?
Of course.
Kenner?
Yeah, I like Ryan.
Alright, let's get to being videos with Ryan.
That's true.
You're around Ryan more than all of us.
Ryan, by the way, you can find him most Mondays on the Cars and Bids YouTube channel.
Check out the Cars and Bids YouTube channel.
The New Key.
The New Key.
Go to Key.
You'll see Ryan Lopez 24-7.
Right now, well, depending on when you're lost, it's the next two hours.
You'll see a video with Ryan on the Key channel.
You can even ask him about his hair in the comments.
Okay, next question.
Next question.
Dear Doug from 1cheap987.
Dear Doug, you've mentioned several times you hated working for an OEM and you pity everyone who works for an OEM.
If you were forced to pick an OEM right now, who would you choose for it?
I do not pity people who work at OEMs.
I think people who work at OEMs, OEM being car companies, headquarter car companies.
I do not.
I've definitely never said that I pity people who work for OEMs ever.
I promise I've never said that.
The OEM that I worked for, yeah, yeah, I definitely have some pity there, which was Porsche.
It wasn't my best job.
Let's put it that way.
Let's just say if I had to walk behind Filippo cleaning up all of his slop, that might also be a better job
than the one I had.
I don't know.
We're off the rails at this stage.
It's all over.
Filippo, have you ever thought about working for a car company?
No, not really.
I'm a startup guy through and through.
Even the startup car companies are a hundred times larger than I want my company to be.
Go work for Tello, dude.
Tello is small.
Tello is small, just like the truck.
Just like the truck.
Tello Truck Drive.
If you were forced to pick an OEM to work for right now, who would you choose?
Buick.
Next question.
Buick and Mary Bark and Hans.
Buick.
Next question.
This is a very interesting question from Ricky Marquez.
Will the manual Panamera go up in value in the future?
This question makes an interesting presumption that there is a manual Panamera.
Was there?
Okay, so here's an interesting thing that a lot of people don't know.
When the Panamera first came out in 2010, Porsche made manual transmission rear wheel drive Panameras,
both the V6 and the S.
There are manual Panamera S, never sold in the United States.
This question asks, there's only 146 of them made, will they go up in value?
One time I was in Stuttgart at a business meeting when I worked for Porsche,
the job that was similar to cleaning up Filippo's slot.
I remember right at the factory there in Zufenhausen, which is also Stuttgart,
no one knows why they're called both, but they are.
There's a Porsche dealer right there at the factory.
One time I remember after the meeting ended, I was waiting for a ride back to the hotel or whatever,
and I walked into the dealer and there was a Panamera S sitting there on the show.
I looked inside and it was a stick.
I knew it existed, but I was like, oh my God, this is so crazy.
They killed it real quick, and claims only 146 made, probably most of which were V6s.
I think the Ss are probably the rare one.
How cool, what a cool thing. Do you think it'll go up in value?
I don't know, mine 28s never went up in value.
You have a Cayenne.
But Cayenne certainly has.
Yeah, but it's still not over a sticker, like that one green one.
Also it's only, I think, in the U.S. at the Cayenne.
That's true, but also I imagine if someone, one day, if Nick is still being crazy,
you said 2010, so we've got to wait until 2035.
It's not that far off.
Yeah, it's already 16 years old. It's nine years away.
They're legal in Canada.
You could bring a manual Panamera to Canada today.
If you can find one.
Nick could figure out a way.
Godspeed.
If you can find one.
Surely it was whoever wanted the cheapest Panamera.
Maybe.
I mean, there were probably people who bought Ss.
They looked cool because like the Carrera GT, the Panamera had the shifter up high,
so it was like a high-mount shifter.
Yeah, see if you can pull one up.
Manual Panamera.
See if you can pull up an image from the interior.
They're out there.
Wow.
Right-hand drive and left-hand drive.
That does not surprise me.
Wow.
Look at that.
They're out there.
They exist.
Good shift to position.
They exist.
You want one of these?
Kind of, yeah.
I do.
You know, the sad thing, the truth is the dual clutch was such a good transfer that car.
Swappable, though.
Probably not.
Why not?
Because it's a dual clutch.
We know you got to swap with higher transmission.
Okay, yeah.
Buy an $8400 automatic Panamera.
Spend $43,000 swapping the last remaining manual transmission.
That's cool.
That is vague.
I did not know somehow.
Yeah.
You didn't know they existed?
I think vaguely it was somewhere in my mind, but no.
Didn't the Alpha Giulia Quadrifolder come out of the manual?
Did it?
Yeah, I believe in Italy, correct?
Really?
Damn.
I'd be a cool car, too.
Those are a lot newer.
Those are a lot newer.
But they were only...
Was it the Quadrifolder?
Yeah.
Yeah, it was the Quad.
It was the Quad, yeah.
That's cool.
Next question.
We'll do two more very, very quick.
Two more from Lawrence.
Hi, Doug.
Why do you no longer include exhaust sound clips in the reviews of performance cars like Kennan's
AMG V12 powered SL65?
Kennan, do you want to explain why I didn't do an exhaust clip in that video?
Well, that particular car, it's pretty quiet.
It's kind of the reply.
Doesn't it not rev?
No, it does.
The reason?
The answer to your...
I still do them, to be clear, when I can.
I just did the Viper and we did it.
But to answer your question, almost all new cars do not let you rev in park.
2,000 RPM is the max.
You can rev it.
Almost all.
In fact, the C8, being a Corvette, has a special mode where you can't rev it in park, but if
you pull both paddles at once, you can rev it in park.
You have to confirm that you want to be annoying.
But almost all of the new cars that I reviewed do not do that.
The older ones do, and so I do it when it's appropriate.
I didn't do it for the X5, but for the Viper, we did it.
I did it for the Aston Banquish, which is coming up.
There's a few of the Firebird we have coming up in our office.
But that's the big problem.
You go to rev like the new RS6 Avant and it revs to 2,000.
They're electronic controls.
I forgot that was the thing.
Are there ways?
Is it neutral or drive?
You try neutral, it doesn't work either.
It's the same thing.
Cars stop and will not let you rev.
It's just like...
I'm fine with that.
Why?
Maybe for sound.
There's all these rules in Europe.
Maybe for emissions.
Maybe for just general annoyance.
Maybe to protect the engine from cold revving.
Like you start it and want to show your buddies.
But a lot of new cars don't do it.
From a lot of different brands.
Close to no more on the reason.
But all those sound possible.
Yeah.
Final question from Jolly Swagman.
Final question.
Dear Doug and team members.
Thank you for referring.
Thank you.
You all call Southern California home these days
and you're all plugged into the local car enthusiast scene.
But you've all lived in various places across the US.
How would you compare car culture in some of the other cities
where you've lived?
Yeah.
My happy to answer.
Madison, Wisconsin had way more manual hatchbacks.
Way more of my scene as a result.
Okay.
Yep.
Okay.
Okay.
What about Baltimore?
How was the car culture there?
Great.
Okay.
No, I don't know.
The reality is that before cars and bids,
cars were always a part of my life.
But going to like car events really...
Okay.
But you're driving around Baltimore.
Like what are you seeing?
Oh great.
Great cars that I love.
I love quirky, weird things.
There was a...
In my neighborhood there was a...
There was some old American EV that I'm blanking on.
That was just parked on the street there.
S10 EV.
No.
GM EV1.
No, I'm following that.
There was something that was really interesting.
It was there.
You see cool cars everywhere.
Did you ever...
My folks are in New Hampshire.
A lot of manual station wagon.
We're talking about Baltimore car culture.
You agree?
If Nick was on the pod, we'd have to cut out.
We have to cut out every single word.
Yep.
That would hit the cutting edge.
I'm pretty hard.
And what about your previous flight?
In Cleveland, yeah.
I found that the thing about Cleveland is galvanizing is the weather.
So when it's nice, we can all use our cars.
Galvanizing.
All come out.
Unfortunate word for that context.
Yeah.
ironic, actually.
Yeah, it is.
But it really is.
And so I actually found there was...
I found a great group of car people.
When I live there, a surprising number of exotics make their way in from the coast.
They end up in the Midwest.
And there's also a very, very strong pre-war scene there.
So it's a surprisingly...
And of course, muscle cars.
And there's a pretty diverse, actual group of car enthusiasts there.
And they're all...
We're all very tight.
Because when the weather's nice, we drive and we're out there going to use them.
Yeah.
A very good scene.
Still friends with a lot of people in the Cleveland car scene out there.
So shout out to the land, as it were.
All rust.
Worst car scene in the world, Philadelphia.
You agree?
In America.
No, wasn't there a Veyron Center City for all?
You agree, though.
One time I was walking up Pine and an LFA drove by me.
Sure you were.
No, it was.
I have a picture from like 2015 of this happening.
Worst car scene in America, Philadelphia.
I don't agree with that.
It's a city where the people don't have...
It's not like New York where to have a car, you got to be rich and quirky.
So there are some weird cars around.
Philly's the opposite.
Street parking is horrible.
The culture generally is like things get damaged.
That's just like general Philly culture.
It's not a place for cars.
People did not get into cars.
It's not a driving city.
There are no good, rough Philly culture.
The worst in America.
I'm not saying outside Philly.
I'm not coming for you, Wayne.
That's where Philippo lived for two years.
When he was in his suburban family phase, of course he left that family.
Right.
They don't know that, but yeah.
Oh man.
This is really...
You're close to everybody.
Worst car culture in America.
I don't agree with that.
What do you think is the worst car culture?
There's a lot of cities that don't really have any kind of...
That was Philly.
No, Philly had at least someone.
Every car in Philly had like 14 of those residential parking permits on the back.
Yeah.
And it was a Toyota Corolla.
We liked different things.
It wasn't even cool.
It was Toyota Corollas.
It was nine-year-old Toyota Corolla.
There were also some cars.
One time there was a manual 360 driving around.
There was Skyline, GT-R.
There was a Hubbard.
My God.
There was a VA Vantage.
I'm so sick of you.
There was an S-Cargo.
There was a Viper.
I think that's it though, right?
That was awesome.
That was all of them.
Defender.
We had an RDX.
Yeah.
I own an Acura, people.
Don't ever forget that.
Okay, that's the end.
Ken, give us some parting thoughts.
Well, I don't know.
I'm very happy SL65 found a new home.
Go check out my YouTube channel.
I have one more video coming out on that car
talking about the auction and walking through that.
We never did the drag race.
I have a little bit of news, but that's going to wait.
Here's the teaser you're going to have to wait.
But we never did do the drag race
because Nick and I were scared,
but I'm kind of happy we didn't.
So it's fine.
Plus, then Nick doesn't have to be truly embarrassed in my car.
There is that.
Goodbye, everyone.
Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Bye.
Bye.
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