The ZR1 Is Conquering Basically Everything

Welcome to the Abantz Podcast. I'm Dan.

I'm Nick.

We're not together.

And there's a delay, because there's a massive storm.

I mean, I wish I was in Arizona, but I mean, it's been...

Our good friend Michael has been down in Auburn rescuing people for the last two nights.

You know, good for him.

But it's been pretty... We had a levy break and it's, you know, no jokes aside.

Yeah, when people here find out I'm from Washington, they're asking me all about it.

Like, it's all over the news down here too, apparently.

Not that I've turned on the news down here, but people here are very aware of it and asking,

like, oh, are you trying to get away from that water?

And I was like, yes, that's exactly what I did.

But it was more than I expected to get away from.

I didn't know it was coming, but here I am.

Yeah, exactly.

And it was going to be bad, but man, this is nasty.

And then the poor snow people, we feel bad for all of you, because all that got washed away.

Apparently a bunch more is coming, which is probably going to make things worse.

But I don't know how much, just that's going to last with how crazy the weather's been.

So yeah, I hope you got good tires, those Michelin cross climates and some good snow tires,

something because it's not fun getting around there, I've seen.

Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, we're recording this on the Tuesday before, I mean,

and it's, we're supposed to get a big windstorm.

So hopefully, you know, all these trees and everything around here,

the roots are so soft.

So I had to get out of my house today.

As you know, I work from home and I have a tendency to like stay at home a lot.

And I decided to go do some retail therapy and ended up at Home Depot,

which, you know, any good, you know, tool person will do wandering around.

And I, in typical, you know, Dan's not here, so I have to do things on my own,

which sucks.

But I was, I've been, I've been looking at getting a new shop back for the shop,

obviously, and I've been looking at the new Milwaukee stuff.

Big surprise, I know my garage is red.

And Home Depot had it mislabeled.

So I got a nice discount.

And I was laughing with Dan before we started.

It's the big, the big catch on this new vacuum is the fact that it has a button

at the end of the hose that you can turn the vacuum on and off.

Just so we're clear, this hose is only like six feet long.

Like I could reach back and turn the power off,

but I don't know if I, I don't know how I've lived this long without,

without having a vacuum with the button that's Bluetooth on the end of it.

It's giving me a good reason to clean the whole garage and reorganize stuff.

So, but that, you know, a little retail therapy never hurt anything.

And, you know, everything's on sale.

The batteries for the damn thing.

I mean, I'm going to use my existing batteries are more expensive than the vacuum cleaner.

So I got to work my way up to that.

That's one of those like, totally unnecessary, super nice to have features.

Who would have thought a Bluetooth button on a vacuum hose would be so handy,

but I can totally see how that would be handy.

Because, you know, just turn, especially when you're in just, you know,

cleaning out the car or something,

being able to just to turn it off and, you know, not have that extra noise.

But yeah, completely unnecessary, still a cool feature.

Glad they did it.

I'm glad you found one on a good deal too.

That's a cool vacuum.

I mean, it's also, I mean, and I get it,

most of the people that buy these things and these high end tools

are using them on job sites.

And so they're, you know, they're talking about how it will, you know,

on full power on one of the big 12 volt batteries,

it'll, it will last, I think it's not 12 volt, it's a M18.

M18, yeah.

Yeah.

It'll last 40 minutes.

And I'm thinking, I'm barely going to have the thing on for probably

20 minutes vacuuming the car,

but it will be nice to be able to take it anywhere without having to plug it in.

I do have the miniature one, but I wanted something a little bit more

garage friendly in the fact that I can take on the spiders and things like that.

Yeah.

So I have my DeWalt back, my hand back that I care.

And I love having the battery operated one for the road trip.

Like it's in the trailer mounted in the toolbox there.

So I can, I always have a vacuum with me and right here with all the dust.

Super nice to have.

So if you've got the space having a portable vacuum that runs the batteries is a

great to have option.

Or like we said before, modify your old Dyson v6 that everybody got at Costco

that the battery is now dead on.

Stop buying the Dyson batteries.

They're crap just by the adapter for whatever tool batteries you're using.

I have noticed that they are picky.

You want to make sure that they are compatible with the newer style

batteries.

Like some of those power stack batteries don't always work with those

adapters.

You get newer adapters and you don't want to run them to empty on those,

on those battery adapters.

The DeWalt backs, they'll walk you backs, whatever you can run those

empty all day.

It doesn't matter.

But the ones of the adapters you want to keep like run an oversized

battery.

But with the Dyson v6 with one of my nine amp hour batteries, it runs.

I've never even come close to draining it.

Like cleaning like three vehicles.

There's still tons of power left.

It doesn't actually use it as much as I thought.

So that's the way to go.

Yeah, it is interesting.

I mean, I will always, I will keep the compact one for the truck

when we go places, especially like when we're in Moab.

But this is going to probably stay at the house.

It could be portable, but it's still a six gallon, you know,

wet drive back.

But I'm excited.

I'm waiting for the bags for the things.

So it doesn't make too big of a mess.

But it's, I mean, you know, like you and I, I started to go

down this whole like, I saw an ad and I was like, oh, that

would be nice to have.

And then you just start, and I have watched so many videos now

of all these comparisons and things.

And obviously a lot of the guys that are doing the comparisons

are doing job site stuff.

They're, they're talking about, you know, how you can do it,

use it for 45 minutes and how, you know, it picks up this

large debris and things like that.

And obviously I'm using it for something a little bit different,

but it's probably, you know, an elephant gun to take on a

deer, but I'm happy to do it.

So nice.

I actually got a new toy this week too.

The unit in our rates went on sale for about a hundred bucks

off.

So I picked up an R8 to upgrade my R7 in my Raptor.

The R8 has the mute button on the front.

It has Bluetooth, which does have some nice options for

configuring it and for tracking like a GPS lock out.

It's just nice to use with the app, the R8 companion app.

I don't think it's, it's not a huge upgrade as far as

detection over the R7.

It's not really at all, but I just like the way it works

better.

And so I'll just sell my R7.

If anybody's interested, I've got a lightly used, very

good condition unit in R7 that I will put up for sale with

all the accessories.

So make me an offer, tariffs are up, prices are high.

I actually recently did some shopping for the, for the

new car, which we will talk about in the future

episode, but ended up picking up the Escort Maxcam

360.

So because I wanted something with a built in webcam

in it and that seemed like the best deal and they

were doing some, you know, I did Black Friday

did it, but I'm kind of, you know, I, it's been

a while since I've had an actual Escort and I

really liked, I mean, I had one of the original ones

and it was great.

So I'm interested to kind of see how this works.

And I'm also got it to the point where if I don't

like the way it works, it will, we'll go back, but

we'll see.

I wanted the webcam feature more than anything.

Yeah, I want to skeptical the dashcam features in

it, but apparently it seems to work.

Okay.

I mean, the basics, does it record somebody hitting

you?

Yes, then good.

That's probably all you need.

And that's what I want.

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll do a nice review on that.

There's, I mean, everybody was shocked that

about us reporting that Jaguar had fired their

director.

And I think a lot of people are interested and

really excited to see if Jaguar will turn around.

So I'm hoping so too.

Yeah, it was kind of obvious in the last episode

or I guess it was the episode before that, but

I'm excited to see the opportunity this presents.

Jaguar would be foolish to waste it.

They have the perfect opportunity to say, hey,

we're changing direction based on your feedback

and give customers what they want.

Jag, I mean, think about, I always think about

the F type and the SVR and like Jaguars had some

cool cars even recently.

And so I hope they get back into that model,

especially with all the electric stuff lifting.

I think in 2030 was supposed to be the day that

dropped that date.

And now we're going to talk about this later in

the episode, but there's been some big changes

to that, which we saw coming from a mile away.

So.

Yeah, pretty obvious.

Actually, I don't know if I told you this,

but Uncle Peter picked up 24 F type brand new

off from Jaguar Bellevue, the limited edition one.

And it is stupid comfortable, stupid fast.

It's the way Jaguar should be.

But and I will be doing a review of the car

in about a month or so when we can get it

on the road because it's on a cup two or

something like that right now.

So it can't be driven.

So yeah.

Yeah.

The absolute worst tire for the Pacific Northwest.

I mean, it's a good tire.

It's a great tire.

It's just terrible in the wet and the cold.

Yeah.

The car was originally sold.

It's great when it heats up.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a sports car.

So yeah.

What do you got on the agenda tonight?

Sorry, you cut out for a second there.

What did I have for the Carter tip tonight?

I said, no, well, yeah, I was going to say

what's on the Carter tip and what kind of

fun automotive news did you dig up for tonight?

Oh, okay.

Well, let's start with the Carter tip.

Yeah.

I got a couple of things.

So speak the terrible weather and be think of this,

but it also even think of it down here

because there's dust blowing around.

And it's how often do you actually

to wax your car?

We'll wax their car all the time.

And what's the difference between wax and polish?

Right now is a great time to know

if you need to wax your car.

Go out there and look at the outside.

And if the water's not beating up on it,

that's your first sign.

And so wax, let's talk about the difference

between wax and polish is first polish.

You use to remove fine scratches and swirls.

So you would start by stripping your paint down.

All if you're going to polish,

you're going to strip it down

with an automotive wash that's designed to do that.

Citrus washes, things like that.

Griots sells them.

You can get ones that are made to take it down.

Take all the disinfectants off the paint.

Then you're going to clay bar it or synthetic clay bar it.

Again, goes here, forensic griots.

And then you're going to polish those fine scratches out there.

And then you're going to go to that waxing step.

And then waxing, you said,

around in Washington, I've noticed,

you probably need to wax your car

about three times a year if it's your daily driver.

In states like California, once a year maybe.

It depends how much you're stuck in traffic.

And then most places on an average of twice a year.

If it's in really hot, hot sun,

like you don't have a dedicated shaded parking spot,

this thing's always outside.

That's almost worse on your paint than rain

because it's constantly getting sun bleached.

So you're going to want to do a really,

give it really good coats of wax

at least two or three times a year.

And then if you want to just bypass all that

because it's kind of a chore,

just go see our friends at Aztec.

You know, go see your friends at Metropolitan,

see one of the Avon's partners,

get that ceramic coating on there.

Make sure you've got it.

This is another reason why you should Aztec your car

because it's got UV, excuse me,

UV protectant in the Aztec,

in the paint protection.

And so you don't have to worry about those things.

Can you wax BPF?

Sure.

Do you need to?

No.

In fact, it's not really,

it really doesn't really have much of an advantage.

Ceramic coating it absolutely does.

Ceramic coatings are graphing coatings

or whatever the latest one they have now

over the top of that PPF

and it's going to make it even better.

It's going to add a nice hard layer on top of it.

Ceramics are way harder than wax.

So they stay on.

They're not totally permanent,

but there are some pretty permanent ceramic options

for people if you don't daily drive your car.

So if you, this is kind of a no-brainer.

If you have a car that you just reserved

for the weekends and sunny days,

ceramic coatings are awesome

because you never have to worry about the wax.

So just some tips there.

Well, and as you were mentioning about griots,

they've got a lot of products where they're

building ceramics into their products

where it's not necessarily going to give you

the longevity of a true ceramic coating,

but it will definitely add some

of a protective layer for at least a couple of weeks

or until you wash it several times.

Yeah.

And there's one of the things that Nick,

I think told us with those griots ceramic,

ceramic spray, if you spray that

while you are drying off your car,

it works really well for applying it.

And that's, and if you look,

I think Project Farm did a test,

and griots actually came out on top

for the non-permanent coatings.

So there's a huge difference

between spray on coatings.

Don't get the marketing confused.

The kind that you have with the professionals apply,

that takes serious paint prep and cleaning to do that.

Like most products, like paint,

like PPF, it's all in the prep.

You can put it on,

but if you're not prepping the surface right,

it's kind of a waste.

And so that's what you're really paying for

when you pay for those products.

The product itself isn't that expensive,

but getting your car ready so that it is in,

you know, optimal condition to take that coating,

that's what you're really paying for.

So you're paying for the prep.

It's worth it.

So that's why I'm just going to have a professional

do it every time.

I don't want to do all the prep work.

I used to have the time.

I don't anymore.

So.

Agreed.

All right.

So let's talk fun automotive news

that everybody saw coming from a mile away.

A big announcement this week

Ford is dropping the F-150 Lightning

because nobody bought it.

Big shocker.

It had huge over promises of range.

It under delivered them.

I still like the truck.

I think it's useful for what it is.

If you just want,

if you want a commuter and you want a truck,

it's a decent option.

The Rivian's far better,

but the Rivian's also $30,000 more.

Cyber truck.

I still think it's a terrible truck.

It's weird looking.

If you like it, great.

It's whatever.

It's fine.

It's got good crash safety ratings

and the range is okay, I guess,

but I still think it's a weird spot.

But as far as hybrid or a fully electric trucks go,

Rivian kind of owns that market

and they've done a great job at it.

Ford really kind of blew it on that.

So they're dropping the truck entirely.

Big shocker.

Hybrid is where it's going.

Yeah.

I've had several conversations

with the Vaughn's members

and they go, well, we see them everywhere here.

Well, yeah, this is Seattle.

That's why we see a ton of the Rivians,

a ton of the Teslas.

Electricity is a big selling point here.

When you go other places,

you're not seeing as many of them.

It is true.

If you drive I-90 between here in Issaquah

or here in Bellevue,

you will see Ford lightnings everywhere.

People have bought them here.

We don't debate that,

that they sold well here,

but it's the rest of the country that Ford is saying

that they didn't sell well.

Yeah.

It's kind of unfortunate in the sense that,

I hoped Ford of all people would be able,

Ford being the king of trucks

with their best selling vehicle

for God knows how many years with the F-150,

you'd think that's something

they could have hit out of the park,

especially within a truck,

you have so much room

for that battery platform

that you don't have in other vehicles.

But they got, I think,

at most like 75 miles less range

than they anticipated

and it was plagued with reliability issues,

which to be fair,

Ford has a recall on every product,

every other week

and a software update

that I received over the air

it feels like every two or three weeks.

So that's not new,

but it's a whole lot.

The more you look at electric cars,

the more you need to think about them

less as vehicles

and less as,

and more as software platforms.

They're usually dependent

on the software being good.

And yes,

that hardware is obviously important too,

but when you don't have all that software

sorted on a vehicle like that

and you run into so many issues,

you really piss off customers

because they're a lot more like that.

They're a lot more dependent on that software

being really fine tuned.

And as we've talked about many times in this show,

software isn't something

vehicle manufacturers typically do well.

Look at your infotainment system

and how slow and buggy it gets after two years.

Well, electric vehicles

are kind of running into that same thing.

It's not really a surprise

that the Koreans have really figured this out

because they've done electronics very,

very well.

Look at NVIDIA, Samsung,

companies like that over there,

they know how to build electronics.

So of course,

they do pretty well in the electric market.

Sort of makes sense, same with China.

And so,

seeing these failures from Ford,

GM, the American brands

kind of is par for the course

when you think about it from that perspective.

Who does electronics well?

Who does software well?

Guess what?

It hasn't been America for a long time, unfortunately.

You're correct.

You're doing drones well.

That's fair enough.

That's another subject.

Do we do military tech well?

Lord knows what's at the basis of that, though.

I mean, you know, to your point

about Ford, yeah, there is a recall

on everything, on every Ford

for something.

And it's usually technologically based.

And a lot of them can really,

not necessarily brick a car,

but really take the enjoyability away from it.

You know, if something within the dashboard

goes bad.

So I don't know,

you know, I think like you said,

the more hybrid route,

I think is where we'll end up, you know,

as we talk about the pendulum

and the fact that we swung way, way electrical.

And I think we're going to,

we're not going to come back to the old days

of nothing but gas.

But I think more hybrid will be

on the market.

Yep.

Speaking of that,

speaking of more hybrid on the market,

guess who else is canceling EVs?

Oh, let me see.

Who else is big?

That would be our friends at Porsche,

who people were quick to point out

that we said Porsche was canceling their EV plans.

They were like,

no, they're just canceling it from the GT3

or the GT4 RS and the GT4 cars.

Like, no, no, no.

We knew this was coming.

The writing was on the wall.

The boxer in the Cayman,

everything was supposed to be EV only

until they realized,

oh, wait a minute, everybody knows

our customers don't want that.

And so, of course,

those are going to be going back to hybrid,

which is good.

I don't know.

They already,

the hybrid 911s have already been doing pretty well.

And it doesn't make sense to have a full,

like to move the 718s

over to a full electrical lineup anyway.

Like there's small cars.

They don't put out a lot of emissions.

I think this was under the pressure

that everything must go electric

over in Europe by 2030.

Then it was 2035.

Now it's like probably not at all.

So that's, yeah, that's going away.

I couldn't be happier to hear that.

Hybrid is great.

I wish they would just stick

with ice motors and those things

because they sound so good.

It seems very sacrilegious

to make a Porsche completely electric.

Like I get the,

what is the big shooting break sedan

that's not the Taycan?

Is it?

The Cross Turismo?

Okay, that was it.

The Taycan Cross Turismo.

Cross Turismo, okay.

I mean, having one car like that,

I think is great.

But I think with Porsche,

the heart of those cars,

I mean, Ferdinand Porsche

would probably roll over in his grave

if he knew what they were doing

with his cars.

You can't, at the end of the day,

if you show me a video

of somebody driving a Porsche

and you take the sound away,

I can still hear it in my head

because that's the lasting effects

that Porsche has on automotive enthusiasts.

But I don't think that,

like you said,

if there's not customers

to buy these cars,

they're going to stop making them.

And I think Porsche has, you know,

the normal Porsche customer

has spoken up and said,

we don't want this.

You know, I'll take some hybrid.

I'll take, you know,

I'll take a little bit of extra boost

or maybe a little extra power,

but I want to hear that engine.

I want to hear that Boxer engine.

Yeah, exactly.

Like you said it right,

the Taycan is a great platform.

The Porsche does EVs well for the record.

If you've driven a Taycan,

they're going to take on,

they're great to drive.

They handle great.

They're really cool cars.

They're one of the better

layout cars as well.

When you get in them,

they're fun to drive.

But the small vehicles, the 718,

it just didn't make sense.

I think it was just kind of

shoving it down their throat.

And now they have to just,

they're saying they have to

redesign the 718 platform

entirely because the battery

was part of the structure

of the floor,

which is also a terrible

design in my opinion.

That would have made those cars

virtually worthless down the road

because it would have been

too expensive to replace

the batteries.

It's my guess.

I don't have the,

I haven't looked at the engineering

side of this to know how

difficult it would be to pull

a battery out of one of those,

but saying it's part of the

substructure worries me a bit.

So I'm glad they're doing that.

I hope they switch to

like a electric-turbo

hybrid system with like

an all-wheel drive.

That could be really fun.

Corvette did it really well

in the e-ray.

Like there's a good,

there's room in that market

for that kind of competition.

And Porsche coming in,

it just maybe probably

a slightly higher price point

with the GT model hybrid

with those electric turbos

could give like that.

Because if you think of the e-ray

being in the hundred and,

they're about a hundred to

a hundred and forty fully loaded.

There's a pretty wide range there,

but Porsche could come in

at a hundred and twenty,

a hundred and sixty

and probably sell all day.

And so I hope they take a note

from Corvette's playbook.

And I think people,

more people should

because Corvette's doing pretty

well.

So,

more competition,

more hybrid competition,

more hybrid competition, please.

I'm going to be interested to see,

you brought up a good point

with Corvette

because I was watching

Top Gear just released

an episode today

where they were in America

and they were testing the ZR1

against the GTD,

the new Mustang.

And it's,

when you put the stats up

against each other,

there's no real beating

the vet,

which I find surprising.

I mean price,

performance,

you know, zero to sixty

for the Mustang

was like three point two.

The vet was two point three.

Like it's half the price,

if not a quarter of the price.

And then you add in the ZR1X

when you get,

so you get the electricity

out of the, out of the e-ray.

I think that that's going

to dominate that market.

And I think,

and I have,

I'm trying to say this gracefully,

I think they're in different markets,

which is funny

because I think people

that are spending

a half a million

to over half a million

for a,

by the way,

the GTD is a beautiful car.

I've had,

I've had an opportunity

not to drive one,

but to see one.

It's,

everything about it is amazing.

But I think,

you know,

a ZR1

is more

obtainable

at

190 to 230

kind of thing in that range

than,

than 500,000

for that GTD.

Obviously,

there'll be a little bit more,

there's going to be a lot more

ZR1s,

ZR1Xs,

things like that,

but

I think,

and I will be interested to see

if the ZR1 market,

how many people are buying those,

driving them,

sitting on them,

on the Xs to show up.

Yeah.

So I've been browsing

the Corvette forums

just for fun

speaking of which,

and,

I know.

Corvette forums?

No,

I know.

I've never, right?

So I've been looking at

ZO6 prices,

Z-ray prices,

ZR1 and ZR1X prices,

and

I know for a fact

that a few people are getting

ZR1Xs with no ADM,

I know,

same with ZR1s,

ZO6s are really

not selling that well.

So if you could find

them on a lot that you

like,

the discounts are being

publicly published

like,

there's one in Salt Lake City

I was looking at,

not just out of curiosity,

I'm not shopping

ZO6s,

and

it was a

hundred and,

I think it was a

hundred and fifty-six

MSRP

optioned out

and they were selling it

for one forty-five.

That's,

and that's a twenty-five

ZO6.

So that's already

saying a lot.

These prices are coming down

because those cars aren't

selling like they hope.

When I said Corvette

is doing well,

I meant performance.

Numbers-wise,

nobody,

they're really not.

Sort of pre-Covid

market,

they're not as bad as that

where you're seeing

like those massive

twenty-thirty-thousand-dollar

discounts.

I'm hoping for that,

then I might be shopping

for one.

But the fact that

you're starting to see

ZO1s and ZO1Xs pop up

at 80 without ADM

is a good,

good sign for the

consumer.

And you're right.

I think the GTD is a

more,

it's in its own way,

I think it's a more

special car

because I think it's

more limited

than the ZO1X is

going to be.

And I could be wrong.

It's a little harder to get,

a little more limited production.

But I mean,

even the 4GTs,

the latest gen 4GTs,

suddenly became affordable

for a while

because they made more

than they said they would

and continue to do so.

I'm wondering if the GTD

could go the same way.

That could turn off

a lot of GTD owners

if they do that.

But that's a really

special car.

And if you're a

Mustang person,

that's as good as it gets.

I mean, there's never been

a better Mustang

performance-wise.

And the ZO1X,

there's never been

a better Corvette.

Even if you are mad

about the mid-engine part,

the numbers that's putting,

that car is putting down

is absolutely insane.

And for the money,

so that the public,

the prices have been

published in the ZO1X

is what it was getting at.

People are showing their

window stickers now

because if you go to

the Chevy site,

you weren't able to

see it for a long time.

But now people are

showing ZO1X's

are hitting the floors

of 270.

That car,

I mean,

it's insane to say

270 is a bargain,

but it's a bargain

for what you're getting.

For that level of

performance,

you're in hypercar territory

already.

So, and you know,

you're getting hybrid,

you're getting a car

that meets 50 state

emissions.

I mean, you're not

hybrid like people are

thinking, but it's got

all the right guts

for what everybody

wants.

It's the looks that

are going to be

controversial.

It's the Corvette

nameplate that's

going to be controversial.

You just want to throw

down numbers, dominate.

It's going to be the ZO1X

period.

I don't care what you're

driving.

Are people taking

delivery of those yet?

I mean, because I know

the ZO1s were at

230 or so.

But I didn't know

if they had started

introducing the ZO1X

as yet.

Not yet.

I haven't seen anybody

actually take delivery

yet.

I've seen people

show that they're

in production.

I guess I should

check the forum again

to see if anybody's

actually posted pictures

yet.

But I know they're

in production.

I know people are

expecting to get

high on ones

or when one sells at

Barrett Jackson to

Hendricks Motorsports

and he takes the

001.

Then I know, oh, they're

in production now.

Yeah.

Speaking of electric cars,

go ahead.

Yeah.

To your point back

with Ford, Ford

lied to people with the

GT.

They absolutely

lied to the newer

GT, by the way.

Because

if you don't remember,

there was a big thing.

You had to submit

an application.

We were going to

make a certain number.

They were going to

make a certain number.

And then they came out

and went, oh, we're

going to double that.

And it just

cut the knees out

from everybody

that thought they had

these special specs

and things like that.

Then they

introduced special

versions in the

second batch with

these carbon series,

which don't get me wrong.

That was the

right thing to do.

But it was just

that was a real

kick in the

gut to people.

I mean,

the values have come

back, obviously.

And there's been

a lot of people who

don't do that.

I hope they don't do that

with the GTD.

Obviously the

demand is there.

I think there's plenty

of people out there

that will gladly give

forward $500,000

for that car.

And probably up to

600 for some of

the carbon series

cars.

So we'll

have to see.

I hope Ford

learned their lesson,

but then again,

they like money.

Yes,

and all the

manufacturers do.

Interesting thing

about the GTD,

fun fact I should

say about the GTD.

So there is a note

right from the factory.

You get a brand new

when it comes right to you.

They actually want you

to not drive your car

for 30 days

when you get it.

And the reason they're

getting that note now

is because it's cold

and that paint

hasn't cured yet.

And so they're

literally asking

drivers, I mean,

you can, you can do

whatever you want.

It's your car.

But they're

asking drivers not to

not to drive them.

They want them to sit

for about an extra 30 days

to allow the paint

fully cure

versus letting them

sit at the factory

and wait,

I've seen that with some

of the dealerships that

the owners of dealerships

that have taken then.

Also, there's some people

that are using the excuse

and this is true

that if you take a car in

that has just been painted

like that and has an

off-gast

and you put clear bra over it,

when you take that

clear bra off someday

you could end up

pulling the paint off

which would then expose

all the beautiful

carbon fiber underneath.

But still,

that's a big issue.

And I think a lot of

people don't quite get that

and it is tough.

I don't get me wrong.

You wait that long

for a car

and the dealerships

don't drive it.

I mean,

that'd be easy

if you took delivery in the

winter.

I follow this

one of these YouTube

channels,

they're in Alabama

and they took delivery of one

and they had to sit

for 30 days

because they couldn't

even take it to the clear

bra place until

it had off-gast.

Yep.

We saw people that

after they would

pick up their paint

or would paint their cars

even after it was cured.

You know,

throwing it through

the heat booth

they're like,

no, just if you can

get an option.

But with a GTD

you probably do.

So,

that would be an

interesting daily driver

if you didn't.

It would be a great

daily driver.

I would love that.

Like, I mean,

it's,

I was,

one of these days

I just want to sit

in one

because I want to see

that active

suspension working

in the rear-view mirror.

That's my,

yeah.

Yeah,

I'd probably crash

watching my

rear-view suspension.

But,

officer,

you don't understand

what I'm saying.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I was going to bring

you something cool

from our friends at

Rivian again.

So,

Rivian is introducing a,

it's not a new technology

but it's new for them

and it's new

for most electric cars

and that is LiDAR.

LiDAR has been around

a while.

What is it?

Distance and

ranging.

Is it

laser?

What does LiDAR stand

for?

Light detection and

ranging.

LiDAR stands

for radio detecting

and it's light

detecting and ranging

is what LiDAR stands for.

So,

basically,

it emits

like millions of

these little laser pulses.

Like,

think of a laser

show with all the smoke.

Well,

it's doing that

about a million times a

second.

And it's

doing that all over.

You can't see it.

It's not in the same

frequency that we

look at.

So,

it doesn't blind you.

But this gives you

a much better view

of your surroundings

than radar

or cameras.

And it uses all

of those things.

So,

you can see

that LiDAR is

saying that they can use

that auto drive feature

even on roads without

markings.

Markings are a big deal

for self-driving.

You have to have

clear signs

and clear lines

and no massive

potholes.

So,

basically,

if you don't live

in Washington,

self-driving works pretty

well.

If you

live in a state

where they actually

use the taxes on the

roads instead of just

throwing it out the

window at God knows

what,

it's not going to

play off,

especially in those

really poor conditions

where you can't see

as well.

I don't mean poor like

you shouldn't use

auto-driving when it's

snowing or when it's

fogging.

I'm talking about

like just like really

dark conditions on a

back road somewhere.

This is going to

eventually what gets

us into that next

step.

And it will be

really good for things

like taxis,

things like that

where they need to

actively avoid small

things that can still

do damage.

Rocks on the road,

we saw somebody

in California because

they had a rock in the road,

didn't drive around it.

Things like that

where people

running out,

they can see things

coming really, really

quickly.

Slam on the brakes even

harder so this is a good

safety technology.

I hope we see more

of that in all vehicles.

I don't mean

for self-driving,

I just mean for cruise

control.

We've joked about

how bad the auto-cruise

and lane departure

systems are in our

fords.

It kind of ping-pongs

back and forth in the

lane.

This is going to be

the thing that keeps

you.

Well, and as you were,

I mean a lot of these

systems air on the caution

side of it,

they won't even turn

on in the snow

because one,

the sensors get

covered up

and two, they're

smart enough to know

that they're not

getting good readings

and things like that.

And it's also why

your car yells at you

to put your hands back

on the wheel

and it's going to,

you know,

it'll drive you off

a cliff.

Or like our cars

which will yell at you

to put your hands on

the wheel.

Don't get me started

on that one.

Software.

I was yelling at it.

I was in the car

by myself yelling at it

today.

So,

our hands are on the wheel.

If there's a robot

uprising in our,

it's taking our

car's feedback

and our yelling

and our voice assistants,

we're going to be

some of the first to go.

Oh yeah, Alexa's

going to kill me

and that's the most,

that's the only

abusive relationship

I have in my life.

Right?

Yeah.

I would never speak

to a real human

like that,

but you know,

Skynet comes,

yeah.

Oh man,

I wish we were down here

still, man.

This last weekend

we did a hike,

we did Zion Canyon

and then

up to Bryce again

and family in town

and

the roads are clear

and dry

and beautiful

and empty

and it was just,

it's beautiful.

It's,

wish you were here.

I mean,

so many times,

it's,

it's a stronger

possibility all the time.

I think,

you know,

the more every time

I'm going to pay

things like that,

I'm going,

I don't like this

or paying four to some dollars

for four,

over four dollars a gallon

gas.

So I don't know.

I mean,

I'm Washington's our home,

but it's tough.

Like,

I mean,

it,

it looks so

well,

I'm being,

that's my problem.

I think if we come visit,

I don't know

if I'd want to come home.

So,

Oh, I don't.

The weather is nice.

Warmer,

I think we,

next time we will

shoot for a little warmer

in the summer,

and you know,

319 a gallon doesn't hurt

either for gas.

So it makes it pretty affordable.

I mean,

your adventurous just

hop in the car,

grab Kate,

grab the dog,

come say hi.

It's tempting.

I mean,

like I said,

if I,

I could work from anywhere.

I,

you know,

I'd love to,

it's,

it's in the cards somewhere.

I,

you know,

we need to,

I know her and I both have a,

a traveling spirit.

And so I think we,

you know,

we'll end up in that area

for some,

to see.

Well,

I just hope you come down and explore.

Cause you,

you guys would love it.

So much sightseeing.

And it's so,

so accessible.

I just,

yeah.

Yeah.

I heard it's really nice in the summer,

nice and cool.

You know,

totally.

Same weather as Vegas pretty much.

So if that does anything.

Yeah.

I don't,

don't compare it to Vegas.

I hate Vegas.

I can't do Vegas.

No,

I'm not a Vegas fan.

This is nothing like Vegas.

It's just hot.

Yeah.

I got you.

Same latitude,

longitude.

Latitude.

Yeah.

Well,

excellent.

Latitude.

Yeah.

Well,

I mean,

this will,

this will come out next week around Christmas.

And,

and then I,

we only have like a couple more weeks before you're back here

and we can start doing stupid stuff again.

Could you come rescue us?

Come on.

Yeah.

I should be back by the fifth or so somewhere back there.

Then we can all go play in the snow and the water maybe.

Yes.

It's probably going to be water.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Excellent.

All right, man.

Well,

I miss you.

Yeah.

We miss you too.

Looking forward to seeing you get back.

And I guess we'll chat with you next week.

For this episode of the Avants podcast as always,

I'm Nick.

And I'm Dan.

And don't just get there.

Enjoy the drive.

The ZR1 Is Conquering Basically Everything

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