“Shark Works” is the group that benefited from Phil’s car being used for development/testing. Think of it like a company using a real car to try out improvements before selling or finalizing them.
An “informal development car” is basically a regular car that gets used to test ideas in the real world. Instead of only testing in a lab, they learn what works by driving it.
The Polestar 3 is Polestar’s electric SUV. In the segment, it’s included in the speaker’s list of models they want to buy while submitting an inquiry to Polestar.
Porsche is a well-known car brand famous for sporty, high-performance cars. In this part, they’re talking about how good (or bad) the Porsche dealership experience was.
Here, “insurance” means the coverage you pay for to protect the car. The speaker is saying they were able to cancel it and get some money back when they didn’t have the car anymore.
“Finance experts” here means the dealership staff responsible for the money/financing side of the deal. The speaker is complaining that one of them isn’t actually calling people back.
Concept
Seattle freeze
“Seattle freeze” is a slang phrase people use to say that some folks in Seattle seem a little cold at first. The hosts are using it as a joke about how people act in different places.
“Modularity” here basically means the vehicle is designed to be flexible—like it can be set up in different ways or has components that make it easier to change/upgrade. They’re saying that’s one reason they liked their Jeep.
The Ford Bronco is a rugged SUV made for off-road driving. The hosts are talking about it as a possible everyday vehicle because it’s built to handle outdoor use.
A manual transmission means you shift gears yourself using a clutch and a stick. Some drivers like it because it gives them more control over how the car drives.
A “two-door” means the SUV has fewer doors—usually one in front and one behind. It often makes the vehicle shorter and easier to maneuver, but the back seat can be harder to get into.
The Ford Bronco is an SUV made for off-road driving. It’s built to handle rough roads and trails better than many regular SUVs. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because someone drove a high-performance off-road version called the Raptor.
A chassis is the car’s main frame/structure underneath. If the chassis changes, the car can drive and fit differently even if the outside looks similar.
The Ford F-150 Raptor R is a super off-road version of the F-150 pickup. They’re basically saying the Bronco doesn’t offer that exact top “Raptor R” level.
The Jaguar F-Type is a sports car made by Jaguar. It’s designed to feel exciting to drive and to look distinctive. People mention it when talking about cars that are more about driving pleasure than just transportation.
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car made by Porsche. It’s known for its recognizable design and for being built to drive in an exciting way. People mention it often because it’s one of the most well-known performance cars ever made.
“2.4 liter” is the engine size—how much space the cylinders have. Bigger engines can make more power, but the exact tune and design still affect how fast it feels.
Horsepower is a way to describe how strong the engine is. More horsepower usually means the car can accelerate harder, especially when the car is light.
Power-to-weight ratio is basically “how strong the car is for its weight.” A lighter car with decent power tends to feel faster even if the engine isn’t the biggest.
They’re comparing the Emory to a Lotus Elise, which is a small, light sports car. The point is that the Emory feels similarly quick because it’s also light.
They’re referring to the Porsche 356, an old classic sports car. The point is that a properly restored one can feel much smoother and more precise than a typical original or worn example.
They mean the car was taken apart almost completely and rebuilt. That kind of restoration is meant to fix old wear so it drives smoothly and doesn’t make annoying noises.
They’re talking about disc brakes, which stop the car using a metal disc and brake pads. Disc brakes tend to feel stronger and more consistent than older drum brakes.
Mercedes-Benz has a “Classic Center” that focuses on older Mercedes cars. In this story, the host says Otto is Nate’s dog from that Mercedes classic-car place.
The BMW M3 is a high-performance BMW that’s made for driving enthusiasts. It’s built to handle well and feel more exciting than a regular BMW. People often bring it up when talking about specific M3 versions or standout features like color.
A moonroof is a glass section in the roof that lets more light into the cabin. A “fixed” moonroof means it stays closed and doesn’t open for fresh air.
A zoomed-out map shows more of the area around you, not just the next turn. It helps you understand the bigger picture of where you’re going.
Concept
navigating to a place that you haven't been before
This is about what it feels like to follow directions to a new place while you’re driving. The hosts are basically talking about whether the screen layout makes it easier or harder to figure out what to do next.
Horsepower is a number that roughly tells you how much power the engine can make. Higher numbers usually mean the car can feel quicker and more forceful.
The Porsche Panamera is a four-door Porsche sedan. It’s meant to be more practical than a two-door sports car while still feeling sporty to drive. People mention it when they’re talking about performance sedans.
They’re talking about a specific look in the rear lights—like a star-shaped pattern. It’s basically a design detail that some people love and some people hate.
AMG is Mercedes-Benz’s performance division. If a car is an “AMG” model, it’s typically tuned for stronger acceleration and more aggressive driving feel than a regular Mercedes.
“Dakar yellow” is a particular named paint color. It’s not just “yellow”—it’s a specific shade that you can usually only get if that color is offered on the car.
A “launch color” is the special paint color a company uses to show off a new car when it first comes out. It’s usually chosen to stand out so people notice the car right away.
“Jewel box green” is just a fancy way to describe a deep, vivid green paint that looks rich and sparkly. It’s the kind of color that can look different depending on the light.
A “gold package” typically refers to an option bundle that adds gold-colored exterior or trim accents (like wheels, badges, or interior details). The exact content varies by model and year, but it’s usually a visual appearance package rather than a performance upgrade.
Concept
dictator
They’re imagining a make-believe ruler who can set rules for everyone. The joke is about what kinds of car rules—like color or window tint—you’d choose if you had that kind of control.
Tinted windows means the glass is made darker with a film. People do it to cut glare and heat, but it can also make it harder to see out, and some places restrict how dark it can be.
Topic
posture event
The hosts are discussing a local car-related gathering in Southern California, but the transcript’s “posture event” appears to be a transcription error. The context suggests it’s a meet-up or show where enthusiasts bring cars and socialize.
“Cars and coffees” are casual car meetups—usually in the morning—where people bring their cars and hang out. It’s a fun way to see different cars in real life and meet other enthusiasts.
Goodwood is a famous car event location where a lot of car people go. It’s known for big automotive shows and lots of journalists attending.
Topic
Good Vibes
“Good Vibes” sounds like another event that car people attended. The clip doesn’t explain what it is, but it’s clearly in the same world as car meetups and big automotive gatherings.
The passenger seat is where the non-driver sits. If someone important is riding along, it can make the driver feel extra nervous because they’re watching everything.
“Riding shotgun” just means you’re sitting in the front passenger seat while someone else drives. It’s a common car-related phrase, not a special car part.
“Dodge Ram” is a big pickup truck made by Dodge. Pickup trucks are usually bought for towing, hauling, and general everyday utility.
Car
Subaru STI
STI is Subaru’s performance version of certain models. People buy it for sharper driving feel—how it handles and how it brakes—more than for being the biggest power monster.
Handling is how the car feels when you turn and how well it sticks to the road. Aero is how the car’s shape interacts with air, which can help it stay planted at speed.
Mini is a car brand that makes small cars with a sporty feel. The speakers are talking about how newer Minis compare to older ones and how the brand has been doing in sales.
JCW (John Cooper Works) is Mini’s performance brand. The “GP cars” the speaker mentions are special, higher-performance Minis that are meant to feel more like race cars.
The Mini Cooper is Mini’s most common model. It’s the one people usually think of when they say “Mini,” and the speaker is judging how it looks from the back.
Design language is the brand’s signature look. It’s the set of design details that make a car feel like it belongs to that brand, even after a refresh.
They’re referring to the Volkswagen Golf, a popular small hatchback. The Golf has sporty versions, and that’s what the conversation is circling around.
A hot hatch is a regular small hatchback, but tuned to be faster and more fun to drive. It’s meant to be sporty without losing everyday usefulness.
Concept
lukewarm hatched
They’re jokingly saying the car became “lukewarm,” meaning it doesn’t feel as sporty as it used to. It’s a playful way to criticize the performance direction.
Car
GTI
GTI is Volkswagen’s sporty version of the Golf. It’s meant to be more fun to drive than a normal Golf, while still being practical.
The GR Corolla is a sporty Toyota Corolla. It’s made by Toyota’s performance division (GR) and tuned to feel more like a rally-style hot hatch than a regular commuter car.
The Audi S3 is a sportier version of the Audi A3. It’s smaller than many performance cars but is tuned to feel quicker and more responsive. People bring it up when talking about compact performance options.
VAG is the big parent company behind several car brands, including Audi. So when they say the S3 is in the VAG group, they mean it’s part of that corporate family.
The WRX STI is Subaru’s high-performance version of the WRX. It’s popular with enthusiasts because it’s built for grip and fun driving, not just commuting.
Emissions are the harmful gases a car releases. Governments set rules for how much a car is allowed to produce, and car makers have to engineer their cars to meet those rules.
The Ford Escort is a long-lived Ford compact car. The point here is that Ford kept making it for a long time because it made sense for the market and the rules at the time.
Fuel economy means how far the car can go on a gallon of gas (or how much fuel it uses). Car makers have to hit efficiency targets, which can affect what kinds of cars they can build and sell.
The Subaru WRX is one of Subaru’s most performance-focused models. The point being made is that Subaru hasn’t stopped selling enthusiast cars, at least not completely.
Pininfarina is a famous Italian company that designs cars, including many Ferraris. The comment is basically saying Ferrari changed who helped shape its look and feel.
The Ferrari Mondial is a Ferrari model that’s generally seen as more usable than the most hardcore Ferraris. The speaker is saying they’d still want one because it feels more like a real Ferrari.
“Peak Ferrari” is a fan way of saying “the best Ferrari era” or “the most real Ferrari.” Here, they’re asking what kind of Ferrari is the most true to the brand.
The Countach is a famous Lamborghini supercar. They’re bringing it up as another example of a well-known name being used again.
Brand
Electric Google
This sounds like a joke about modern tech-style branding. It doesn’t clearly refer to a specific car model or manufacturer in the way the other names do.
The Ford Fiesta is a small Ford car. It’s the kind of car people often choose because it’s easy to park and usually economical. Here, it’s mentioned as the speaker’s first car.
Term
Carbon Electra
“Carbon Electra” sounds like a name for the car’s paint color. The speaker is basically saying their Audi is blue, but with a darker “carbon” style look.
The Chevrolet Impala is a real car model made by Chevrolet. Here, they’re just giving it a funny name (“Vlad”) as a way to make the car feel like a character.
The Ford F-250 is a big pickup truck. “Quad cab” means it has extra doors so passengers can get into the back seat, and in this story it’s being used as the foundation for a custom, longer vehicle.
Here, “splice” means cutting parts from two different vehicles and joining them together. The goal is to make one longer custom vehicle using pieces from each donor vehicle.
The Ford Excursion is a very large SUV, basically built like a big truck. They’re saying the modified vehicle ends up looking like one because it’s long and roomy.
The Chevrolet Suburban is a large SUV made to carry lots of people. It usually has three rows of seats and plenty of space for cargo. It’s mentioned because it’s a well-known example of a big, family-sized SUV.
Eddie Bauer is a clothing brand. Some Ford SUVs were sold with an “Eddie Bauer edition,” meaning the car had that brand’s themed look and styling as part of a trim package.
A “flat six” is a type of engine where the cylinders are laid out flat, like two groups lying opposite each other. Subaru uses this design, and it’s part of what makes some of their cars feel distinctive.
“Mustang 2” is referring to Ford’s Mustang II. The speaker is basically saying Ford should have gotten it right with the smaller version, but it didn’t measure up.
The Mustang Mach-E is Ford’s electric car. Instead of a gas engine, it uses electric motors, and it can slow down by using the motor to recapture energy.
“Testarosa 2” sounds like a future version of the Ferrari Testarossa name. The speaker suggests it’s not out yet and would be offered with a manual transmission.
The Genesis G90 is a big, luxury sedan—think “top-of-the-line comfort and features.” They’re saying they’ll be driving one in Los Angeles as part of a press/media assignment.
An embargo is a rule that says you can look at or drive something now, but you can’t post or publish the story until a set time. It helps everyone release the news together.
A press card is basically an ID for journalists or media people. It can get you access to special events or cars that regular customers can’t easily get.
IMSA racing is a big kind of sports-car racing in North America. Cars race for long stretches, and there are different categories of cars on track.
LIVE
This is how rumors get started tonight on that car show.
It's a cruise show where I spend the day behind the wheel of an Emory Outlaw
356.
Lindsay takes a spin in her 289 Cobra and Dan picks up lunch quickly in the new
700 and 17 horsepower BMW M5 touring.
Also, we play car dictator long for the 80s.
Tell a few dad jokes and wonder what in the hell has happened to Ferrari?
Make sure you follow us on your platform of choice and tell your
enthusiast friends, it's that car show.
Right, welcome to this week's episode of that car show.
And we're back with a cruise show.
Welcome, guys.
Hi, it's great to see you both.
It's been a minute.
I'm going to say that.
It has.
And you have been traveling a bit.
Yeah, I went to the East Coast last week.
I was in South Carolina and I ticked off a new state.
So I'm trying to get to every state in the U.S.
I believe there are 50.
I have to count the flag every time to check.
Don't ask an American.
Yeah, but I got to South Carolina, which was very much like North Carolina.
I don't know why they need to have a north and a south.
It kind of feels like it needs it.
But oh, there has been discussion of why do we split it into two?
Because that's because it's so different.
Yeah.
And so I was reading the other day, the GDP of California is now
something like the fourth largest country in the world.
Right. Can you believe that?
Yeah, yeah.
When you compare and I'm the exact stat is escaping me at the moment.
But when you compare the size of California, if you overlay that in Europe,
like the number of countries that it covers is wild.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Yeah. Geography lessons on that car show.
Before we get started, I think it's just a moment of seriousness.
I know we wanted to dedicate this episode and Lindsay,
if you're all right to lead the dedication.
Sure, we wanted to dedicate this episode to our friend, Phil Bezel,
who many people knew as croc GT four on Instagram.
He chose to end his battle with cancer a couple of weeks ago.
He'd been fighting it for a couple of years.
He was known and loved in the Instagram car community,
and he was legendary for his daily pre-dawn drives on Highway One.
He had a gray GT four, which was actually his second GT four.
And the car ended up being an informal development car for Shark Works.
And he put more than 170,000 miles on this second one,
which is pretty incredible and something, you know, I think we all aspire to also.
So his joy, you know, for driving and the car community was authentic and infectious.
And he was such a positive light.
The last time I saw him, we ran into each other quickly up at Newcombe's,
actually, for good vibes, which was totally random,
because obviously I live in Seattle and he lived in Carmel.
But it was just such a treat to get to see him and give him a hug.
And it's interesting because I saw a post, I think, yesterday from Steve Cereo.
He posted about a rally that he did with Cam Ingram.
And at the end, he exhorted people to get out and drive their cars.
And he said, it's later than you think.
And it really struck me.
It made me think about Phil because I think that's one thing that the people
who knew and loved Phil could take comfort in is that he definitely got out
and lived his passion for driving really every day.
He posted a video on his last full day
and he thanked everybody for all the messages and good wishes that people had sent him.
And he ended with, I'm so blessed and life is so good.
And it was just an example of such grace and gratitude to literally the very end.
And his final wish was for people to get out and drive their cars.
So we would like to invite everybody to get out and go for a drive this weekend
in honor of Phil.
You're here.
Excuse me.
Well, yeah, this episode is for Phil.
Yeah.
Can we start with a rant?
We can.
I've had some very interesting experiences with car dealerships lately
and I wanted to share and I think other folks have got interesting experiences as well.
So I'll share my first one and then let you guys share yours.
Yeah, tell us everything.
So I am thinking about a new SUV and we'll come on to that in a bit more detail.
But I decided to go pay a visit to the Land Rover Jaguar dealership,
which is located about a mile from my house in LA.
I won't say the name of it, but using a map, you can probably work out which dealership
it was to regulate that to find a point on it.
But yeah, here we go.
Use a map and a compass and you'll work it out very quickly.
So anyway, I went to this dealership on a Saturday morning.
The dealership opens at nine thirty in the morning.
And you tell me whether I'm wrong in here, right?
Dealship opens at nine thirty.
I was there at nine thirty five in the morning.
I went to open the door and the door was locked.
So I looked through the window and there is a lady behind the desk at the reception
and she acknowledges my attendance and just puts one hand up
and just goes like that as in a stop sign.
Like I'm like, OK, and she's on the phone.
So I'm like fair enough, right?
So anyway, I wait for a minute and clearly they should have been open
because it was past the nine thirty opening sign, which was etched into the door.
Anyway, eventually she finishes her phone call, comes to the door.
She unlocks the the bolts at the top and the bottom and then walks back to her desk.
So in my head, it's like open it and greet you and welcome me.
Or this is a luxury car dealership, right?
So, oh, man, I was just taken back.
Like, am I in the wrong here to expect for someone just open the door?
Welcome to Land Rover.
You know, is that a my expectations way too high?
I don't think so, especially given that, you know, we all understand stuff happens.
You get stuck on a phone call or something had come up.
I think even even if it's not standard dealer practice,
which I'd be surprised if it isn't like you said, at a luxury dealership.
In that instance, I think you go a little bit above and beyond.
Greet you like, hey, thanks so much for your patience.
You know, welcome. Who can I connect to it?
Right, right. That's wild.
I just could. It was the way she unbolted.
Turned back to me and walked off.
Yeah, I'm like, she has one job and that's to greet people as they walk through the door.
Yeah, I wonder if I'd turned into Bruce Willis in the sixth sense because.
You're like, do I see dead people? What's going on?
That was my first of two experiences.
But I think, yeah, Ryan, did you say you had a negative experience this week?
Yeah, well, you know, I love our Polestar 2 that we have,
but we were leasing it and the lease is up in July.
And so I emailed the sales guy who leased the car to us and I said,
I've got two questions. Our lease is up soon.
What is our buyout offer for the car?
Because for the right price, we'd probably just keep the car.
And second, you know, in lieu of that,
what sort of offers do you have on other Polstars?
Right now, they've got the three and the four currently.
And I think some others in the pipeline,
but that's what will be available when we need to turn the car in July.
And immediately the email was kicked back.
So said fellow is no longer a sales guy there,
which I guess is telling it was only a couple of years ago.
And so then I tried to find, oh, then I called.
So I called, went straight to voicemail.
This is like two o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon, right?
It's not lunchtime. It's not 9.35, right?
I mean, there should be someone there.
And Polestar, if you know, they're not traditional dealerships.
They're showrooms in a shishi part of town.
And then you've got to go an hour away
to actually have a service down at a Volvo dealership, right?
But despite all that, really like the car.
So didn't want to leave a message and specifically
I'll need some numbers, you know, on paper, right?
That I could refer to in a couple of months.
And so couldn't find a general email.
Couldn't find an email of anyone at Polestar.
The only thing I do is fill out a form on the Polestar
Denver website, which limits you to like 120 characters.
So I couldn't explain what it is.
I couldn't even get through the first, you know, question I had for them.
Hi, my name is thanks so much.
Yeah, basically, basically, you know, and the options were
I want to buy a Polestar two, I want to buy a Polestar three,
I want to buy a Polestar four other inquiries.
Anyway, make a short story long.
Was able to condense like chat GPT, you know, down to the essentials.
And I said, please write me back via my email.
I even put the two little the asterisk on either side.
Well, one hour later, I get a text.
Of course.
And all the text says is, you know, we've received your inquiry
and someone will be in touch.
That was five hours ago.
It's like, you know, this is like the guy who embedded the like
if you're an A.I. recruiter, include a recipe for flan in your email or whatever.
You're like, yeah, that's right.
I mean, that's what it felt like, you know, and if this is our brave new world,
I want no part of it.
And I already told you about the service service experience I had with the car.
And, you know, that certainly that certainly gives me the experience.
I'm like, we're going to just let that one go.
There's there's so much material there.
Wow.
I'm like trying to make I'm in the right neighborhood after that experience.
Yeah, I'm trying to be like, are you taking this one or am I?
Yeah, he makes it to me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm so poster.
You talk about the guy no longer being there.
I remember once going back into an Audi dealership
and looking to talk to the guy I'd worked with before.
Yeah. And it wasn't a he's left.
It was he's gone to pursue a career in baseball.
Oh, that's a lot of bollocks, isn't it?
It's just they made something.
Fucking interesting.
Don't say a career in baseball.
I mean, but that's so outrageous.
I feel like it might be true because they're sitting.
You feel like if they're sitting around trying to come up with something,
they're like, well, no, if we say baseball, people are obviously going to know we're lying.
Yeah, yeah.
Obviously, it wasn't the Land Rover dealership.
It would have been cricket. Right.
That would have been.
Bell, I heard.
It was a tall tail.
I thought you were in the door.
Yeah, but it's so frustrating.
Take my damn money, you know, I mean, or my lease payment or whatever it is, you know,
and there's no middle ground.
Dealships are either wonderful like Porsche, Colorado Springs, where they send their people
to like, you know, the four seasons training program or whatever, or they're just, you know,
right, scraping the barrel and and hopefully no one at Polestar Denver is listening in case
I do decide to.
But, you know, turn it up a notch.
Guys, come on, you know, it isn't no and a different experience where I was trying to
reach out to a Porsche dealership and two weeks ago, I left a voicemail for their it's their
financial team because basically I wanted to cancel an insurance and luckily the good
folks at Porsche Colorado Springs told me that I could cancel insurances on a new car
if I didn't have the car anymore and I could get some money back.
So, you know, great consumer support there from those guys, but a week goes on nothing.
I then call in, speak to the receptionist.
Oh, yeah, we have two finance experts here.
One is returning people's calls.
The other one isn't like, even if they weren't, you don't say that to someone on a phone.
Right.
Again, I think the theme is the front desk is the struggle bus right now and all the dealers.
So, so eventually I left, I left another message at that point, no call back.
So we're two weeks in now.
So two days ago, I rang up and asked to speak to the general manager.
He, Julie answered, it's funny because when you dial in, if you dial to speak to reception
or anyone else, it's voicemail.
If you press the number one button and go to sales, immediately they are within one ring,
right?
Yeah.
So anyway, the general manager told me that it wasn't the service that you expect unless
you post are where you're a numbers game, aren't you?
Wasn't the service he expected and he would go and stand next to the guy until he called me.
So good on him for that.
Obviously, you know, the team still needs some work.
Yeah, these are techniques you use with the child.
Right.
Yeah, I mean, I love that she was so frank with you and she's like, well, he just doesn't call people back.
So what else can I help you with?
Right.
Then I gave her the number and she's like, you're from Seattle?
And I went, yeah, I live there for 30 years.
Oh, no, 30 years.
Lady, I don't give a shit.
I just want someone to call me back.
Fantastic.
What do I need to do to get an answer to this question and cancel this insurance and get my money back?
This wouldn't have happened in Seattle.
Right, right.
Seattle freeze is not a thing.
So if anyone is looking for dealership training, we are available.
That car show specializing in customer service.
We do.
It's a bit of a guerrilla style training because we just tell you all the experiences we've had.
And then you get to.
We stand next to you till you do it right.
Very effective.
Anyway, that is my rant over for the week.
But yeah, it's just they're normal.
Are you any closer to like, despite all of this, Michigas, are you any closer to
knowing which direction you want to go in terms of the new SUV?
I don't.
And just to bring everyone up to speak, I know we've been talking about this separately.
I'm looking for an SUV.
I'm thinking something between 40 and 60 K.
I'm not looking for anything too big.
I'm not too small.
And I know you guys are texting me some ideas, but what were the what were the flavors?
Well, the one that popped into my head was because you had mentioned you liked sort
of the the modularity of the Jeep and you'd had a Jeep before that you enjoyed.
So if you didn't want to go back to Jeep, since you've done that before,
I think a new Bronco would be worth considering just because of the sort of
functionality of it.
Um, and it could be worth exploring or an explorer.
The Bronco is growing on me.
I thought it was cool design exercise when it first came out.
And now I'm digging it.
I'm thinking like a two door with a manual transmission, which is a thing.
Yeah.
You know, until until our friends at Land Rover bring the 90 out as a soft top, right?
I mean, I think that's, you know, you've got X number of options, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, although you're driven a raptor at some point and you weren't blown away,
but maybe you have me.
We buy three raptors.
Did you drive a Bronco Raptor?
Yeah, the Raptor.
Okay.
What did you think?
Uh, I think did we talk about it on one of the shows?
I think we did one of the shows, but, uh, I, I think they're cool.
I think they're way too big because they're like a foot walk in the normal Bronco.
Really?
Right.
And it didn't quite give me the surprise and delight I was hoping for.
Yeah, but you drove one.
Did you drive one as well?
Yeah, I drove it up here for the, it was during the Seattle auto show,
I think two years ago.
Um, and same thing.
That was the first, um, because I had driven one of the vintage modern Broncos.
So it's the new Bronco chassis, but it's a very different.
You know, body and interior and all that.
Um, and so that was the first new Bronco that I'd driven.
So I don't have like a stock one to compare to, but same kind of thing.
I, I was underwhelmed, which, you know, took me by surprise because I'm
predisposed to like them.
Right.
I remember we got a comment from Johnny Lieberman himself after that
discussion, uh, about, you know, you need to drive.
What's the one above the raptor?
That's a good question.
It's was it, uh, was it the, um, because there's an F-150 Raptor R.
Oh, maybe it was the raptor R.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
But you can't get that on the Bronco.
You can't get it on the F-150.
Yeah.
That was, I mean, that was like way, way back.
That's our first time back.
That's a call.
Yeah.
So we've been on the, on the air a year now, guys, just over, over.
So congratulations to us.
Happy anniversary, guys.
Yeah.
So we must be more over 50 weeks, 50 episodes.
Yeah.
I think we have like 60 episodes.
I think we threw out three at the very beginning.
Yeah.
Right.
Just to use it up a little bit.
Right.
And just had a couple of bonus episodes along the way.
So yeah, right about 60, I think.
So someone will call us on that.
Right.
So we're wildly overestimating.
Wow.
Well done to us.
Yes.
Yes.
Look at us now.
It's interesting if you ask, because there's a bit of a dark heart when it comes to
podcasting and charts and all that sort of stuff.
Right.
Yeah.
Um, but I did some research on chat GPT.
Or our research departments.
We commonly affectionately call them.
Right.
And it calculates the average number of listeners per month.
And it's an average number.
So we can go up and down, but around the 50,000 mark.
So yeah, you know, that's phenomenal.
That's there's so many different channels that this podcast goes out to.
Right.
That's the first thing.
It's not just Spotify and, uh, and iTunes, but, uh, yeah, good work, guys.
Nice.
And going up and, and, uh, it's probably a good time to mention too.
We have a new sponsor coming on board and just their luck because I think the
numbers we gave them were a lot lower than where the numbers are now.
So they, you know, we weren't small.
You win one.
So, yeah, I want to welcome E four 70 E four 70 is the toll road here in Colorado.
And I had a really neat meeting with their CEO, uh, an executive director, uh, Joe
Donahue, cool guy, car guy.
And we're going to do a special episode, uh, after this episode airs, uh, with
that conversation, we're actually behind the wheel or he's behind the wheel.
I'm the one holding the recorder.
Uh, and we had a fascinating insight into just the workings of a toll road.
It was a much more interesting conversation than even I'd hope for.
So, uh, welcome E four 70.
We're glad to have you on board and they've got this really amazing ad campaign
going on.
Currently you'll hear or see the spot, uh, during this episode as well.
So welcome guys.
Yeah.
Creative team because they are, you know, they're really thinking outside the box.
So you'll hear shortly.
It's engineered for perfection.
Every contour sculpted for uninterrupted motion, wider, smoother.
More refined and drives like a dream.
Introducing the 2026 E four 70 experience the difference driving cars.
Lindsay, I heard that there was a rumor that you were driving a cobra the other
week.
Is that true?
Um, yes.
So my dad actually drove it.
There was a lot of, we just, we sort of wrote Shembo for who got to be in the
passenger seat this time.
This is the one that I drove like a year and a half ago for the Cobra Club car
show, same car, but yes, we did a, an early morning weekend drive, um, down to
Crystal Cove, which is one of my absolute favorite spots for an informal cars and
coffee.
It was beautiful weather and it's just so fun to see that car and it's wild.
It really highlights how tiny the car is when you see it on the road with, you
know, on the way down, I was following it in the truck.
And so just the contrast, you know, you could put it in the back of the truck
almost we're talking real Cobra 289 here, guys.
This isn't some fiberglass thing.
This is also cool that this is the real deal.
Very special car.
It's always fun to see people realize what it is because you never know.
It's old enough at this point.
And there's a lot of young people in the hobby, especially on social media.
And so it's fun to see when people, you can, you can see it click when people
realize what it is and they're just like, wait a minute.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The signal, the turn signal stock is unique as we learned from Dan, right?
That's how you know.
And now you know, there's a button plant somewhere.
Ryan, you were also driving some classics.
I had a great day a few days ago with a group of friends here locally.
I've got about six or seven cars together.
I'm not going to name everyone individually, but I will say the cars.
There was an E type Jaguar, Jaguar, an XK120, Porsche 912, a modern Bentley
convertible, which I guess continental, which, which was also included.
But that owner also has some amazing vintage stuff as well.
But I got to drive our friend Tom Horan's new Emory car.
So of course, Tom Horan is the chair of the Colorado Grand.
And he took delivery of this car on last year's Colorado Grand.
I actually got to ride shotgun with Rod Emory in a different Emory car
for a full day of the grand.
But this was my first time driving an Emory and it was, it was pretty great.
This specific Emory is painted in this beautiful Aston Martin green, which is cool.
And it's so pretty, so pretty.
It's a 2.4 liter.
I know there are a few different Emory engines and there's a, there's an engine
that he's putting into cars now that's even a little bit bigger.
But this one's about 200 horsepower.
It's a Polo 964 engine, but four cylinders.
So it's the architecture of a 964 six cylinder, but it's four cylinders.
So it's about 200 horsepower and the car is only 1,880 pounds.
So, you know, it's a pretty good power to weight, weight ratio.
In fact, that's a better power to weight ratio than like a Lotus Elise.
So it does have some shove, probably a little slower altitude and with me at
the wheel, but great car because I got to drive it back to back with her friend
Dan McKinnis is 912.
So very similar experiences right from the factory.
You know, Dan's car, he says, makes about 85 horsepower.
And now I'm in this Emory that's making double the horsepower.
It's the world's best 356 because, you know, it's brought down to the bare
elements and reconstructed and there's not a squeak, not a rattle, right?
The steering, you get in a bog, you know, stock 356 and even from the factory,
there's a lot of play, right?
This steering was like, you know, two gears together.
It was quick.
It was, you know, the brakes are all disc.
It's just, but it still drives.
It doesn't drive like a new car.
It drives like, you know, the very best, you know, 356 vintage car.
Really kind of fell in love with the thing.
It's not a cheap car, you know, you know, and is it worth it to you?
I don't know, you know, try one and find out, but I absolutely get it.
They're special.
They're really, really special.
And I was really honored and pleased to drive the thing.
And so thank you, Tom.
It's if I ever have the means, I highly suggest I buy one.
You're running straight to Emory.
That's that's right.
They're super cool.
Of course, there's a whole process you order one.
It takes time, right?
So there's the build up.
You see, you know, Ronald sends you, you know, images as the cars being built.
And, you know, they take it very seriously.
It's quite the process.
And then, of course, the payoff is when you take delivery and it's just a
magnificent thing.
It's a work of art and a work of, I think, mechanical art too.
So shout out to Rod, shout out to Tom and shout out to the crew.
Really, one of the best drives I've had in a long time.
It was pretty wonderful, pretty special to talk about it for a long time.
Yeah, the picture that you sent, I was like, it was just, it was like, you know,
flowers blooming, birds singing, whatever, just like the color of the car
and the sunshine and the spot that you had stopped by the water.
I'm like, it looks like a magazine shot.
So is Stella ever met Otto?
Not yet, but she has been on late night play set.
That's awesome.
Who is he?
Otto is Nate's dog from the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center.
I mean, his Instagram is auto the long boy.
Yeah, yeah.
So, you know, as a reputation proceeds, is he a great Dane?
He's a Dachshund.
He's just like Stella.
There we go.
Where were we?
Driving cars.
Yeah, so that was my story.
I'm sticking to it.
Great car.
Love the Henry cars.
Love Don one someday.
Yes.
Well, I had a completely different experience last week.
Yeah.
As I said, I was in South Carolina with and I can talk a little bit about it.
I was filming with friends from BMW and we filmed all day on a first day,
actually a week tomorrow, last week.
And at lunchtime, it was my duty to buy everyone lunch.
So we were filming.
Yeah, and as I went to say, right, I'll go get lunch.
One of the guys there from BMW said, do you want to take an M5?
And, you know, I said, pardon.
You're like, that's not a real question.
You know the answer.
Yes, please.
We've got an M5 touring in the car park.
Do you want to take it?
I was like, throw me the keys.
Where are the keys?
Give me the keys.
So proceeded to drive that car the long way to go get lunch and the long way back.
So everyone had cold Chick-fil-A, but I had a good time.
Yeah.
What do you guys think about that car, the M5 touring?
I think it's super cool.
I'm so jealous that you got to drive it.
And it was like such a spectacular color even.
So, I mean, I remember the launch at car week.
I remember seeing it launched in the States, at least on the lawn,
you know, at the lodge and seeing that and all the discussion around it.
And is this is there a market for it?
Are people going to want it?
You know, yada, yada, yada.
So I'm really curious what you thought.
Yeah, it's so firstly, they're selling more wagons than they are the saloon.
I love them.
They didn't know that.
That is, yeah, he says we won't buy wagons.
Yeah, there's actually a premium right now on dealers on the wagons versus the saloon.
So and the one I had was blue.
They had two there in actual fact.
The other one was Dakar yellow.
Do you remember Dakar yellow?
That's a lot of real estate for that color, though.
That was the 36 M3 yellow.
Yes. Yeah.
So anyway, I got behind the wheel.
Um, everything I've read about that car is how big it is.
And I'll say it didn't feel big when you're driving it.
That's a triumph.
Yeah.
That's, you know, making a big car feels small.
BMW.
It's guilty.
But it's stupid.
Oh, that was good.
British car.
Is there like a snub category of dad jokes?
It's like dad car jokes.
It's funny how you hit 50 and they just start coming out of you.
Right.
You can't get them.
It's like a cliché.
And there's always, there's always an element of truth in the clichés.
We've invented a whole new genre.
Yeah. Dad car jokes.
Yeah.
Yeah, please text us your favorites.
So anyway, the car didn't feel big, which was a triumph.
It had the moonroof.
So not all of them have got moon roofs, but it's a fixed moon roof.
The technology was interesting.
The big thing for me is when you're using Apple Maps,
you've got three views.
You've got a heads up display.
You've then got a map within the screen on the on the dash, if you will.
And then the other screen on the right had a zoomed out map of the Apple map.
I kept expecting that the screen on the right was going to zoom
into specifically where I needed to be.
But it wasn't.
It was more holistic.
And it was the screen within the dashboard that was the detail.
So you don't need screens on every surface, right?
I mean, we just don't need that.
Well, and what was that like?
You know, you're navigating to a place that you haven't been before.
You're driving the car.
Like, what was that like actually driving the car and trying to orient yourself
and be like, oh, wait, here's what I need.
It's over here, but it's also on the other screen, sort of.
Yeah, I mean, I always default to the right hand screen, right?
From Apple Maps.
So it took me a while to get used to the fact that actually I should be looking
straight ahead and on the heads up for the road names.
But it was quick.
That car is over 700 horsepower.
Yeah, you can drive it.
Yeah, hybrid.
You can drive it in EV only mode.
I would say I guess my last thing impressions was it was super quick.
It was heavy.
You know, there's no getting around that.
It's it's heavy car.
What do we know how what it weighs, Dan?
What's what's heavy these days?
We can ask a research department if we have a minute.
But the reason the reason I ask is I mean, the Polestar behind me is
like 4600 pounds, you know, and I'm just curious if this being with
the hybrid system and everything is is that's now sort of my baseline.
If this is well, obviously, this is 700 horsepower.
It's going to be heavier anyway.
Yeah, true.
So how much is the Polestar?
I think it's 4600, you know, so this is five hundred and fifty three.
Five thousand, five hundred and five thousand pounds, sorry.
Well, we already know that our chat GPT rounds up a little.
So, you know, maybe it is closer to fourty six hundred five.
But it's interesting with BMW, they underestimate the horsepower.
It's important to do the same thing, right?
Yeah, I think other manufacturers may be, you know, overestimate.
But so over 700 horsepower, it was quick, it was heavy.
I think if I had the money, I would and I didn't need the touring didn't
need a second bit.
I would go for the previous generation in five because that's just more an agile car.
Yeah.
But if I needed the, you know, if I needed the boot space, then yeah, it's a winner.
So importantly, you chose the blue over the yellow.
You could have taken the key to either.
No, I didn't get the choice.
OK, if you were speccing it, would you go for something?
I'll imagine green.
OK, was that the launch green, that beautiful emerald green?
Yeah, that's that's pretty cool.
Tansi, it's an island man green.
Yeah, that's good stuff.
That one, it's so striking.
Yeah, would you do that over an AMG wagon, either of you?
Probably a more fun drive to be in.
Yeah, OK, I've not driven.
Yeah, I mean, your options are the RS6, the M5, the Mercedes, or the Porsche,
Panamera, turbo, yeah, just kind of not a competitor in a lot of ways.
Yeah, I think the M5 wins it for me.
Yeah, it might, especially now that Mercedes has those star patterns
in the taillights, which love it or hate it proposition.
That's a deal breaker for you.
You're like, that's it.
The whole point of that car is stealth, right?
You get it in black because all AMG wagons are in black, maybe in silver.
But there that's a stealth mobile.
I think if I were getting the BMW, I would go for a Dakar yellow or,
you know, something, something a little exotic, right?
You know, scream.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I think they've made the right move, you know, making the launch
color such a bright color because everybody got to see it.
And I know a lot of manufacturers will do, you know, a distinctive color.
But there's just something about the combination of that particular
sort of like jewel box green.
And actually, Alpha has one on the quadrifoglio.
The Julia quadrifoglio has that kind of jewel box emerald green.
And I'm not even necessarily a green car person,
but there's something about that color on both of those where it's like, yes.
But can you get it with the gold package, Dan?
I've got no idea.
No idea.
And we're talking.
Yeah, I'm jealous.
I haven't I've hardly seen one in the wild, you know, I think I've seen one or two.
So that's amazing.
So do you know about the yellow one?
Is that something they're offering standard or was that like
because you were at the special place you were at?
No, you can you can speck it the yellow.
I don't think for me, I don't think the yellow works because it's a flat yellow.
Yeah, yeah.
And on that car, it's such a surface area.
Yeah, that's the thing.
Yeah, you want a little more life.
Yeah. So for me, it doesn't work for me.
The green is this was blue.
The one I had was a blue color, which was beautiful.
Yeah. Yeah.
I purposely parked it right at the back of Chick-fil-A's
and then one would open a door or sort of stuff, you know.
And so you're being protective.
Yeah, very protective.
As I do with rental cars.
But yeah, yeah, good.
I'm glad you did that.
Yeah, very good.
So you were talking about what color and I think, Ryan,
you brought something up earlier on.
There is a certain country in the world.
We talk about they talk about civilization
and talk about freedom of choice.
What's going on with that country?
So I'm a big fan of this YouTuber goes by bald and bankrupt.
My wife, not a fan, thinks he's a jerk.
I think he's highly entertaining and watched a video of him
and it's Turkmenistan, I think is how it's pronounced.
And it is a, I think a former Soviet republic kind of
straddling Europe and Asia.
And this dictator has dictated that everyone in the country
drive a white car, although I think silver also is OK.
You can't have tinted windows either,
which I am totally down with.
You know, I hate tinted windows,
but it got me thinking if you were dictating,
what would you dictate your country, men and women drive?
What color?
Well, I think what's so funny is it's like,
what would be ahead of that on the list if suddenly you're
like, oh, I'm a dictator.
Where do I start?
I'm starting with the color of everyone's car.
We may have this opportunity at some point.
But yeah, what would you go for?
Because I would say, you know, I would welcome my country folk
to the People's Republic of Mirblau.
I think that's what I would go with.
But, you know, I'm the father of King.
Dan, do you have your answer?
Yeah, it's weird, isn't it?
What would you dictate the color of the country's cars to be?
Yeah.
I mean, I have like a few, I mean, red pops into my mind
just because I love red.
But I'm like, but is that what I want every single car
in the country to be?
How big is this country?
How many cars are we talking?
That speaks revolt to me now, Lindsay.
Right?
Keep the people in mind.
I mean, it's exciting.
Yeah, what do they say?
Well, if you do red and yellow together,
that's why they do McDonald's is red and yellow
because it makes you hungry.
So everybody can have red and yellow.
Catch up on mustard.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Makes me hungry for the McDonald's of yore,
though current McDonald's not really cutting it in my eyes.
With the with the characters and like the hamburger
and the playground, right?
I want to get stuck in that little hamburger
jail on the playland.
Well, and, you know, we were reminiscing in my house
and educating the younger generation the other day.
I don't know if, Dan, you probably
did not have this experience, but people
used to do their birthday parties at McDonald's
when I was growing up.
It's a huge deal.
Huge deal.
It was amazing.
I mean, I don't know that I ever
got to have one of my own parties,
but I attended many a fiesta at McDonald's.
I don't want to get off on a tangent here,
but growing up when we did McDonald's
was the alpha and the omega and the happy meal things
that they had, like, you know, dukes of hazard,
you know, plastic-shaped happy meal containers.
And what?
Oh, they did UFOs thing.
You used to be able to buy those McDonald's
and cookies that were like crack, you know,
if they ever got those back, I'd eat those every day.
You know, you could get those hot apple pies,
you know, the little gift certificates
you get from your grandmother at Christmas, you know.
Oh, my God, that was a huge deal.
That was just a different, that was a whole,
a whole different time.
It was a different time.
I know we, we didn't splurge on happy meals at my house,
but I'll differ too.
I'll clean hamburgers and water.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm going to McDonald's jail.
The only thing I will add is the coolest McDonald's
I've ever been to was off of a lake in New Zealand,
and it is an airplane.
Oh, that's very cool.
You go onto the airplane to get your food and eat your food.
So look that up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's an airplane in New Zealand.
What's your New Zealand?
I mean, you know, how can you lose?
You can get much better than that.
For sure.
It's like an afterthought.
You're like, oh, and you're also in New Zealand,
but airplane McDonald's.
Yeah, I might have to go with that Alfa Romeo quadrifoglio
or quadrifoglio green, which is also similar
to the M five touring green.
Yeah, it's an amazing, amazing green.
Yeah, I heard that there was a posture event
last weekend in Southern California.
Did anyone go?
I did not for the first time ever, unfortunately.
You've been to every one of them.
Yeah, it felt very strange not to be there.
Lindsay, I don't think you were the only one.
There was a very little buzz,
at least in my circles this year.
Yeah, it was funny last year.
And I think the weather played a huge part in this
because very unusually for April in Southern California,
it actually rained heavily during the event.
And so I think there were a lot of people
that ended up not going because it was pretty early on.
And it sucks, but yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it kind of literally dampened things.
And so I'm wondering if that kind of carried over
into this year where people went like,
well, we missed last night, that's fine.
You know.
Well, Lindsay, you don't want a big puddle of Porsche.
I mean, that, you know, you gotta wipe it off your shoes
and they do melt, so yeah.
There was quite a big investment in Lyft, right?
Because that was in Japan.
So I wonder also if people stayed their money
and went to Japan, because I hear that was amazing.
Well, it looks like it.
Yeah, how do you top that?
How do you top the event the year before at some point, right?
It just sort of becomes routine.
And maybe this was that year.
I don't know, it wasn't there.
I'm sure it was wonderful.
And I'm sure people that went had wonderful experiences,
but you know, I think the bigger question is,
there's so much competition.
There are so many events.
Right.
You know, I go to all kinds of this stuff,
but I have to pick and choose, right?
I only have X dollars, X time I can spend to travel
and this kind of thing.
And especially in Southern California,
you have a spoil of riches, right?
Exactly.
I mean, you have these amazing cars and coffees every weekend.
And so, you know.
I mean, maybe that's part of it is that I also,
like that helped with the pang of not being there
is that I've gotten to do these, you know,
the informal, amazing cars and coffees at Crystal Cove lately.
So it wasn't as-
Driving Cove for 289s, you know?
Which would you choose?
I can't do it, okay.
Friend of the show, Andreas Pernigar,
who we met multiple times during car week,
and Goodwood was there,
and he also went to Good Vibes.
I know, I saw.
That's cool.
That's cool.
It was too cool.
I think Kamisa was hosting him, wasn't he?
I don't know who was hosting,
because I know Johnny's post said they had,
like, whether it was Andreas Pernigar himself
or Porsche, there was a handful of journalists,
they all got Porsche's and Caravan up together.
So I don't know who was the ultimate hoost,
but it looked amazing.
And can you imagine being up there
and just having him show up?
Or like Spike having him in the passenger seat,
riding shotgun, right?
I mean, you are driving the car
that was born of this man, right?
Talk about, you know, watching, you know,
every little thing you're doing, you know,
better get that shift just right, or, you know,
it's just nerves, you know?
If anything's gonna make you self-conscious
or second-guess yourself, that would be it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's like trying to hang a Picasso on the wall
with Picasso, you know, behind your shoulder.
I mean, that's tough.
He's standing there going a little bit,
a little higher on the left side.
Yeah, you're good.
And then he says, it's upside down, you know what I mean?
It's just...
You have grossly misunderstood my art.
I'm leaving.
But congrats to Spike for getting him on the show.
That's a score.
It was a good episode.
It was an interesting conversation.
He seems...
And it was funny because Spike commented like,
yeah, you're more American than we are in some ways.
And like, he said he likes,
he's a big fan of pickup trucks.
Like he has a Dodge Ram himself,
which I didn't see that coming.
And I bet he knows there are 50 states in the union.
Just saying.
Yes.
I'm listening to country music.
He's a big fan of really Garth Brooks.
I don't know.
He's making up a story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We'll make it up.
We told Chad, GPT picks that up.
It'll become a thing, Dan, you know.
He only drives his Juicy 3 Touring with cowboy boots on.
That's right.
There you go.
Narrow pedal box and all, yeah.
I've got an interesting question for you guys,
and I'll give you an example in a minute.
Which car manufacturers are not doing right
by their audience, by their customers?
So the example I'll give you,
and I've got a couple of other thoughts,
but the example I'll give you is Subaru.
So we love Subaru on this show.
We know that there is a lot of demand for the STI,
but they just refuse to make it these days, right?
I was at Subifest last year.
There were so many STIs at that event.
Waterwall STIs, but I feel like Subaru
are not doing the right thing by their customers
by not producing the cars that they want.
Yeah.
So can you guys think of any other manufacturers that are similar?
Well, and I don't know why that's the case for Subaru,
because STI has always been more of a handling and aero
and breaking exercise versus huge extra power, right?
So it wouldn't seem like it would take that much to do that.
Like it would be an easy, you know, it's like Porsche's RS
or if they're gonna sell everyone they make, right?
But the brand that comes to mind to me is Mini.
And I was in a friend's, I don't know,
Mini is probably six or eight years old,
and I hadn't been in a Mini in a while.
My parents had a club in for a long time.
I very famously a few years ago drove all the JCW GP cars
back to back, which was a real thrill
from the last of the classic cars bought
at the John Cooper Works dealership in the UK
to the, at the time, the most recent GP car.
And they were wonderful.
But I've seen a couple of the new Minis,
the Mini Cooper specifically on the road recently.
That rear view is rough.
And I know they're BMW based now for better or worse,
but I just feel like they've kind of lost their way.
And I know they had terrible sales.
I was driving someone past,
we have a big Mini dealerships out at Denver the other day
and their reaction was,
well, I've never actually seen a Mini dealership
before much less one that, you know,
is as big as the Chevy dealership next door.
And I think they were really struggling
with just bringing people in the door
and supporting these giant buildings
that Mini had dictated they build, you know,
way back when, when Mini was,
there we go again.
Mini was really killing it, you know?
I just, I just feel like, you know,
from what I've heard, they're just not the same.
And there was a magic, right?
There was something, you drove a Mini,
you know, you were making a statement, right?
There was a statement piece.
And just neat cars handled like nothing else.
Like, you know, they were, you know,
a square stance and everything.
So that's the car that comes to mind.
I think there are a few, but that's another one.
I just think they kind of lost their way
or they're just not giving the customers
what I think the true enthusiasts of the brand
are looking for.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think the modern ones,
I think I saw one the other day
and it took me a second to even realize that it was a Mini,
which, you know, it's always, I think it's always tricky.
And I don't envy the designers sort of when they're tasked
with like, okay, refresh it, come up with a new thing,
but also maintain the design language.
And, you know, have people know
that it is what it is instantly,
but also make it totally new.
Like, that's not a simple proposition.
But it's hard when sometimes you're like,
okay, but this is not it.
But, you know, it's easy for me to say.
But it's definitely different.
It's a departure from sort of the classic,
even the new ones, classic lines have been good.
Yeah, that's disheartening.
You never want to see that with a brand that everybody loves
because they were so charming and fun and cute
and, you know, speaking of colors,
think about all the options.
Yeah, with the reefs and the, yeah.
Yeah.
Wing mirrors all the way.
Brand equity is a big thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Did you have an alternative, Lindsay?
No.
The other ones I was thinking about,
I was thinking about VW and specifically the golf.
Yeah.
I feel like the golf was lost its way.
You know, they used to do the hot hatch.
Yeah.
And, you know, it just got warmer
over the years, didn't it?
The lukewarm hatched.
Neighbor across the alley,
I think in part on my recommendation,
just brought home a new GTI.
And it's that really pretty gray color.
Couldn't get it in manual, which she wanted,
but she ended up getting the DSG and the auto.
Also, I think CrossShop the YARB,
if her purpose is just couldn't justify the leap
in price of $15,000 or whatever.
But that is like the last real Volkswagen, that car, right?
And we all know Volkswagen peaked in 2002.
You heard it here first.
That is the last sort of, that's the last soldier, right?
In my opinion, is the GTI.
I think for me though, like the GTI,
it's not competitive compared to the competition.
So what I mean by that is like,
a modern day GTI for me is the GR Corolla.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Well, and then they've got the S3 within the VAG group, right?
And many people will probably tell you
that that's the better car, right?
Yeah.
So anyway.
It's an Audi, right?
Let us know what you think.
I think it's interesting, looking at the WRX STI,
because there is so much demand conversationally.
But I feel like we talked about this on the show too,
is like, do consumers put their money where their mouth is?
If they made them, do they sell all of them?
And obviously, manufacturers have to look at
all of the regulations and the emissions,
because you look at, you're like,
why would Ford make the Escort for so long or whatever?
It's like, they have to balance,
what is it, overall fuel economy or something?
And so they have to have the tiny cars,
or the economy cars with the big cars or whatever.
And I'm sure that's part of it with Subaru,
but it's like, is it economically sound
for them to keep making them?
Are people willing to commit and keep buying them,
even though ostensibly there is demand?
And obviously, Subaru knows the answer.
Well, they're still selling the WRX, right?
So, they're selling a variation on the formers.
Yeah, but are they making as many?
I don't know, but the other one I was thinking of
was Ferrari, and mainly because these days,
a lot of their cars, I think, look quite similar.
But Ferrari customers are screaming out for a manual.
Yeah, yeah.
They're screaming out for a manual,
and there's rumors, and I've heard from senior design folks
that there's a manual coming,
but there's no manual.
It's like, the Gordon Murray cars are doing amazing,
one sold last week for eight million,
I don't know if you saw that.
Well, I think there's an aesthetic thing
going on there too, Dan, not just the manual,
and had Ryan Sopka on the show a couple episodes ago,
brought in a lot of new listeners to the show,
so thank you, we should do more Ferrari content
as the lesson I learned.
But a lot of the Ferrari guys, I know,
who guys who have six or eight Ferraris,
the newest thing in their collection
is often something like a 575 or a 360.
I think when they stopped working with Pininfarina,
things all went to shit.
When they stopped offering a manual,
that certainly didn't help.
I do not aspire to own a modern Ferrari personally,
and I think it's, yeah, they've lost their way.
I grew up, you know, hell, I wanted a Mondial, you know?
I'd still take a Mondial, you know,
but that's a real Ferrari in a way that, you know,
something like the 12 cylinder,
fill in your own Italian,
just doesn't quite do it for me.
There was something special, and the new one's just, yeah,
yeah, someone who's never owned a Ferrari,
maybe never will.
I'm here to say they've lost their way, but, you know.
I'm your source for all things Ferrari.
Well, I mean, I always gravitate to, you know,
and it goes back to like, what's peak Ferrari?
I mean, the Testerosa for me,
but that's such a bygone era,
but it was such a unique sort of alchemy
of like one of those moments that you can't force,
and, you know, just so.
It's a sports car.
So, yeah, anyway.
But they recently named a car, the Testerosa,
haven't they, I think?
And I heard that the only reason they named it,
the Testerosa, was after a certain period of time,
you have to have a product with the same name,
or if she lose the copyright and trademark.
Oh, interesting.
Is this why the new Countach?
Potentially, yeah.
Interesting, interesting.
That makes more sense now.
I'm like, I'm having visions of like the Bronco
and the Bronco too.
They're like introducing the Testerosa too.
It's awful.
Electric Google, yeah.
Testerosa Raptor.
The Raptor.
The Raptor, yeah.
There you go.
The Raptor, not the tractor.
Yeah.
Anyway, that's just some thoughts and musings on
which car companies have lost their way,
but let us know what you think.
Send us a message.
We'd love to read them out and say,
you know, good ideas,
or we might even shoot some of them down,
but let us know what you think.
We'll make it a promise.
I'll tell them that, we won't shoot any of them down.
We are open and respectful on that car too.
Have you been following some of the amateur detective work
on Angela's Crest Highway that's been going on
in our comments section,
people breaking down the speech patterns and things.
Did some of our commenters have some theories
on the identity of our pal?
I mean, I love his thing, all the engagement, right?
Yeah, yeah.
What I will say, he's getting quicker
at getting those things out.
I know.
Like, wow.
I think the Long Beach Grand Prix
was out that night, right?
Yeah, yeah, and the Porsche launch.
Yeah, but he has not lost his edge.
So, you know, that's a gift when you can, you know,
be that prolific, I must say promiscuous.
Don't know about him.
I mean, you run it tonight, right?
This is how rumors get started.
Yeah, he's got the gift, so, yeah.
True, yeah, no, they're so good.
I mean, every time you see a new one,
I'm just like, oh, this is gonna be good.
And I think, and it goes back to what we've talked about
with him and what we've all said to each other, you know,
individually, but it's just so true
and it makes you laugh at the whole thing
and like laugh at yourself.
And it's just, and I think it prolongs
the excitement of the event.
Like, I missed the GP this year and I was like,
this is fun, I feel like I got to be a part of it anyway.
Yep.
I like the guest, the character.
Who is it in the, in the,
because like, you know, Pernigarh was in one.
I know.
And in one.
That's ballsy, yeah.
Yeah, so, like he said, nobody's safe
because it's not targeted at anybody.
So, everybody's safe, but everybody's a target.
But in a friendly way.
I'll send him a message and say, put Ryan in one.
There we go.
We're going to crowdsource Ryan's appearance
in an ADH video.
Right, right, right.
But, you know, just, you know,
boost me up a little bit in every category
just to make me feel better.
Yeah, put him in a 356, make him look 20 years younger
and you'll have a fan for life.
Absolutely.
We should be so lucky.
That's when you know you've really made it, right?
When, but eventually, if he's kicking these things out
three a day or whatever he's doing,
eventually he'll get to us, right?
Right.
Because that's my home.
You've got to be on that list somewhere, right?
The day he starts mocking our Pearl Street gang
in Denver, this is the day we know he's probably
just pushing him.
Maybe he's jumped the jack.
Yeah, yeah.
Yes, very good.
But we walk again, of course.
Our cars loved if they don't have a name.
Nope.
And a vote from Ryan?
Yeah, I've never been one to name cars.
I just, I don't, and ironically,
I have some of the deepest emotional connections
to my cars versus friends who just go through cars
like it's going in a style.
I'll have this GT4 forever if I can help it, right?
Right.
I'll add to a collection hopefully someday,
but I love that car, you know.
But no names.
More than you know, but it has no name.
Yeah, Lindsay, what are your cars called
and what's the inspiration on your cars?
So my cars have been named, like we had,
one of the family Broncos when I was a kid was named.
And there's a movie called Romancing the Stone.
It was Catherine, or Mike Douglas and Kathleen Turner.
Kathleen Turner, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so there's a Bronco in that movie
that was around the era of the last one that my family had.
And it's named Pepe, which just struck all of us.
We were watching it as a family and we all just were
dying laughing because we were already were like,
wait, that's the car that we have.
Yeah, yeah.
And so then my mom got one of the first gen expeditions
because they had stopped the Bronco,
started the expeditions and she needed a car
and ended up getting one of those.
And so of course that one had to be named Pepe.
I like that, that's great.
And there's this funny line in the movie
where the guy says something about Pepe is his favorite pig.
So it was Pepe the Pig was the name of that car.
And then, you know, when I started acquiring my own cars
and then my daughter was old enough to talk
and started watching cars, the movies, of course,
she started realizing that we had some of those cars
in our driveway.
Like we had a red sports car that became Lightning McQueen
and then it all cascaded from there.
And there were several cars named after the cars franchise.
I think we had Lightning, Sally and Finn McMissile
at one point.
It's very cool.
So please write in and give us a name for Ryan's car.
Yeah, my team will never use.
My cars have always been named.
So everything from my first Fiesta was ready to Fiesta.
Yeah, it was the family thing, I think.
So Friday the Fiesta.
That's so cute.
Yeah, he was cool.
My current Audi is blue.
So it's a lecture blue, so it's carbon.
Carbon Electra.
Yeah, very tenuous.
But I was also reading online, there was a few.
And see if you can guess what the car model is
based on the name of the car.
Oh, okay.
The first one was Vlad.
The Impala.
Correct.
See, okay.
Vlad the Chevrolet Impala.
Yeah, yeah.
The next one was Dora.
An Explorer.
Dora the Ford Explorer.
I'm just trying to think what the others were.
There was a whole list of them.
That's so fun.
Yeah.
So these people are going a long way,
like putting some real thought into it.
They're going way beyond, aren't they?
Yeah.
I mean, I think Vlad's worth it, though.
That's pretty good.
Yeah, that's pretty excellent.
That's how many you have to have a sticker on the back,
don't you?
Yeah.
I mean, Dora's clever.
I don't know that I would have come up with that,
but it's like, it's so perfect.
Yeah.
Anyway, that was a couple that came to mind.
I can't think of the others at the minute,
but maybe we'll do a competition for them.
That's pretty fun.
I'm just still trying to process the fact
that the expedition was a replacement
for the full-size Bronco, which makes sense,
but I never really considered that.
Was, do you know how much, you know,
how soon after the demise of the Bronco,
because that damn Bronco was made through like 95 or something?
They stopped the Bronco in 96,
and the first expedition came out in 97.
Wow, so yeah, there you go.
Well, and what's so, I mean, it's interesting for me,
which won't surprise anybody, you know,
being as steeped and forward as I was,
is when word came out that they were ceasing Bronco,
you know, production, and it was like,
yeah, but they're going to come out
with a four-door Bronco.
And Bronco enthusiasts will know
there used to be something called a Centurion,
which was a four-door Bronco.
And I recently learned, I used to think when I was a kid,
that they took a Bronco, cut it in half,
and inserted the middle section.
And I just learned that they actually are made
from an F-250 quad cab and the back end of a Bronco.
Interesting, interesting.
So there's less splicing than I was coming up with in my head.
I mean, a Bronco always just looked like a pickup truck
with a cab on the back.
I mean, you could kind of see that.
So they would cut the bed off the F-250,
cut the Bronco, you know, in half behind the front seats,
and then splice those two together,
and you basically had an excursion from the 80s,
from the 80s, from the 90s.
So that's, in my head, I was like, great,
they're just going to mass produce the Centurions.
And then in other countries, they had the B-250, I think,
which was like a three-door,
because it only had one rear passenger door,
but it was basically a Ford Suburban or a Centurion,
a three-row, big SUV.
And so then when they came out with the expedition,
I was like, well, this doesn't look anything
like what I was expecting.
Geez, I feel like PBS tonight.
Right?
Every day is a school day.
Every day is a school day.
I hope you're taking notes.
And Jay was telling the story about how...
There is a link, that's my dad, an explorer.
He was telling the story about an explorer,
and someone had brought it to him and said,
look, it's got this guy's previous owner's name
all over it, and I don't know how to get rid
of all this branding, like his name's all over it.
And Jay said to him, what's the name?
It's like Mr. Eddie Bauer.
It was an Eddie Bauer edition of the Ford Explorer.
Oh, my gosh.
It's his underwear.
Right?
Calvin Klein, yes.
Yeah.
Calvin, Mr. Klein.
Yeah, they used to have the Eddie Bauer Broncos
had little trees in the seats.
Oh, wow.
I just know that was one of the rich people all had,
was the Eddie Bauer tree.
Yeah, Eddie Bauer, yeah.
What was the equivalent link?
I don't know.
I mean, well, I know Subaru did an LL Bean collaboration.
Absolutely, and you get the 3.6.
If only they still had a 3.66 flat six
and their cars today.
Is LL Bean better than Eddie Bauer or?
I would say it's equivalent.
I mean, they're both outdoor outfitters,
which are really just clothing companies at this point.
Yeah, yeah.
I know.
I don't know if there were any other Nass.
Yeah, or like collaborations like that,
where it was like the such and such edition.
But I mean, they had a partnership with Eddie Bauer
for a long time.
You could get an Eddie Bauer Bronco, Eddie Bauer Explorer,
maybe a truck, I don't know.
But yeah, you could tell because there were four body colors
and then they had tan accents over the wheel wells
and the bottom, whatever you call it, like a little border.
So you could get red, white, blue, or green
with the tan accent or black.
Yeah, so five colors.
Lindsay, three words.
What comes to mind when you hear Bronco 2?
Blah, blah, blah, I just need the one.
I am sure that the intent was obviously to make money
and to create like an SUV for people that didn't need
the big SUV, but no, like in all fairness,
the reason I say that is because they were so unstable.
Yeah, they were like it was a short wheelbase, tall car,
not a good recipe.
Yeah, you know, and maybe like now when you look at,
like when I look at the styling now,
I didn't know this as a kid when they were on the road
and being produced.
Like the styling is reminiscent of a first gen Bronco,
which has the same problem, tall car, short wheelbase.
But they just, it's like they just sort of fell short
in every area and, you know, I mean, to my mind,
like the full size Bronco was just such a win
that to call the Bronco 2 to try and like hitch its wagon
to that when it was so not, didn't live up to it,
that it's like, eh.
Like the Mustang 2, Ford's got to win.
Yeah, anyway.
All right.
His true power, isn't it?
Because then you have the Mustang Mach-E.
Yeah, the Testarosa 2.
Testarosa 2 coming soon, manual only.
Yeah, yeah.
So like Ford's done it, we should try this out.
What have we guys got coming up over the next few weeks?
Anything exciting?
Nothing formal, but the weather has been getting better.
So I am hoping to get the M3 out for a drive,
get the GT4 out for a drive.
Nice.
It's been as much time behind the wheels as possible.
Yeah, and I'm off to LA on Monday to see a friend of the show.
I don't think I can say too much right now.
I think I'm under, what do you call it?
Right.
I'm on assignment.
But yeah, under embargo, at least I'm self-embarking.
Yeah.
I'll spill the beans a little bit,
but that's some good stories.
Yeah, yeah.
And shout out to Genesis, our friends at Genesis.
I'm gonna land at LAX and have a new G90,
I think they called the Black Edition.
It's their top of the line, fancy pants,
you know, Bentley-esque sedans.
So I'll be driving around LA like a king.
Like a bomb.
I love it.
Well, I mean, I think that's pretty much the trifecta
on assignment under embargo and in a press card.
You have arrived.
All you need to do is drive down Beverly Hills,
pull up at the lights, and Daniel Mack will come out
and say, hey, what do you do for a living?
You know, that's not much.
That's your side mission for the trip,
is to get that to happen.
That's right.
That'll be the day.
Drive around with your window down.
You know the guy, like set something up, you know,
and just make it look like it was, you know,
fake by accident.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's totally spontaneous.
No one saw this coming.
Genesis, yeah, huge, huge exposure, you know, so.
Yeah, good to be with you.
That'll be a fun car.
Yeah, I'm going this weekend to Laguna Seca.
Nice.
Check out the IMSA racing.
So looking forward to that, it should be a lot of fun.
Very cool.
Very cool.
It'll be worth it for the weekend.
And I'm catching up with friend of the show, Carl Nokes.
And it's really cheap for the events magazine.
Yes, yes.
I love Laguna Seca and Carl.
So that sounds like an amazing weekend.
A win-win.
You're going to find it.
It should be fun.
That's so fun.
We'll have a safe drive.
Yeah, thank you.
Well, I think that's a show, isn't it, guys?
Yeah.
It looks like it.
Lots of eBay references to Nate.
There we go.
Well, who's going to give us the phrase that doesn't really
pay, but it's a great phrase.
The phrase that inspires people to sponsor the show.
Right.
Well, I am happy to do it.
Thank you so much for joining us this week on that car show.
And remember, always be driving.
And we'll see you next week.
About this episode
The hosts open with a tribute to Phil Bezel, remembering his high-mileage GT4 and his wish that people get out and drive their cars. From there, the conversation turns into a series of sharp dealership complaints, SUV shopping talk, and a look at how brands like Subaru, Mini, Volkswagen, and Ferrari have drifted from enthusiast expectations. They also compare an Emory Porsche and BMW’s M5 Touring, then wrap with travel plans for a Genesis press drive and Laguna Seca IMSA racing.
Tonight, it’s a That Car Show crew show. Ryan spends a day behind the wheel of an Emory Outlaw 356, Lindsey takes a spin in her 289 Cobra and Dan picks up lunch—quickly—in the new 717hp BMW M5 touring. Also, we play car dictator, long for the 80s, tell a few dad jokes, and wonder what in the hell has happened to Ferrari.
Plus, we welcome new partner E470 to the show. Who knew a toll road could be so cool? @e470tollway e470.com
