Vantge S Review; Upside Down Project; Detroit Car Week 2026

What up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by

Off the Record. We love Off the Record. They're looking out for you. If you get a moving violation

in any of the 50 U.S. states, don't plead guilty. Get Off the Record. Go to offtherecord.com slash

TST for 10% off legal services provided from Off the Record from your friends at TST. Once again,

go to offtherecord.com slash TST to get yourself represented by a qualified legal attorney in

the jurisdiction where you got that ticket, any moving violation, big or small, offtherecord.com

slash TST. And also this morning, welcome to Avants. You guys know Avants, right? It's a quarterly

print magazine. It's a cool editorial website, an Instagram, and they do awesome in-person events

all over the U.S. I've known about Avants for a long time. My red car was even on the cover

of their magazine. And now they've got a new membership program allowing you to save money

on things that you're buying anyway, like tires. Avants members get 10% off a discount tire,

plus an additional 10% off all Michelin and BF Goodrich. So if you spend 1500 bucks on a set of

cup twos, you're going to save $300 just for being an Avants member. It's only $99 a year,

and it comes with a $70 Griot's Garage gift card. So it's basically paying for itself right off the

bat. Now you can use code TST for 10% off your membership. Go to avants.com slash TST and use

code TST to sign up. One more time, avantsavantst.com slash TST and code TST for 10% off your

Avants membership. And thank you to Avants for sponsoring the show today. All right, on today's

episode, we talk about the Aston Martin Vantage S, which is just a delight. Plus, Zach and I

are not going to Car Week this year. We have different plans entirely, and Ford has sent a Ford GT

Mark IV around the Nurburgring in six minutes, 15 seconds. We discuss this and more on today's

episode of The Smoking Tire. Guys, The Smoking Tire is giving away a 992.1 Turbo S in partnership

with Dream Giveaways. We're giving away a $275,000 car with some slick choice mods. The proceeds

benefit charity, and you don't have to buy any merch. It's a straightforward entry process. So hit

the link in the show notes and get entered to win today. They had it. We just got it. We just

walked in the wild, just walked in the store and bought it. So I found out my... Not only that,

they had a lot, like... A bunch of rums. Yeah, they probably had 150 different rums. They had the

Zafra 21. I didn't look, but they might. I found out my neighbor, whatever, dog neighbor, whatever,

but he's really into rum, and I started talking about it. I was like, it's $60 a bottle of rum

is way better than $500 bottle of bourbon. He's like, kind of. In a way. Thank you. I was just

talking about doing a rum tasting. I got one for myself as well, and I had a little sipski

last night with a big rock. Fucking excellent. For people listening, we drink this in

BVI, Plant Array, 20-year-old rum, and it was so smooth, but not sweet, aggressively smooth,

like cheap rum. Can I just open the box open to show the bottle, because the bottle's cool.

So we did a rum tasting on Cooper Island, which I can't recommend highly enough. It was fabulous.

Talked about it, and look at this. It's a bottle. It gives you that little, that pirate wrap, you

know, that you need. It was probably like, when you're like hucking bottles on a pirate ship,

this gives you like extra grip, you know. And it also, if they... It keeps them from clinking

together and shattering over time. Yeah, and you could hang it from something maybe too,

but god damn is this shit. It's really good. We're gonna fuck this all up, like we did with...

Remember we went to Kentucky in 2013 and tasted Blanton's, and then wouldn't shut up about how

great Blanton's was, and then became $300. So we should buy 10 of these, sit on them.

I'll tell you what. I started... I actually bought three bottles. One for you, one for me,

and then I sent one to Big Rodge, because Big Rodge actually likes rum. No way. Like he's never

really fucked with it like this, but he'll like... If he gets a cocktail, it's a rum and coke or a

darkened stormy. That's his cocktail, yeah. And he has nice bourbons. And he knows about bourbon

and whiskey. He likes it more. Yeah, but yeah, he doesn't really... I go to the South Carolina

every year, a couple times a year, and there's never any whiskey drank from the last time I was

there. So he'll have some when we're having some, but on his own, like no. So I sent him a bottle

of this and be like, I think we need to get about this rum life, because this is a different...

For people like us, this is uncharted territory. It is, but it's also more affordable territory

than the bourbon territory. I think if you pour this, I wish we hadn't talked about this,

we could trick Johnny. Pour this in some bottle and be like, this is a $4,000 bottle, a fan

sent us a sample. Oh, I think you could tell that it's not. Yeah, it's not. I mean, these very good

rums are like bourbon in that they are oftentimes aged in bourbon barrels or aged in whiskey barrels

or wine barrels. And so you end up with something that's like a... It's in the same family of flavor

profiles, but it's not exactly. If you actually put whiskey next to this, you'd go, these are not.

They go down the same freeway and they take slightly different flavor off frames.

Yeah, but one's in the carpool lane. Yeah, different metaphor.

The bourbon gets a little spicy and has like a little more alcohol at the back, I think,

and these are just smoother. Yeah, bourbon's a little more corn, and this is a little more vanilla.

Yeah, that's true. Like bourbon, a good bourbon to me is like a, it's like breakfast almost,

you know. What? It's got a breakfast smell. We have wildly different breakfasts. The sweetness

and corn. Oh, maple syrup type thing. Syrupy sort of thing. This is like very vanilla forward,

but anyway, that is for you. Thank you. That's right. I'm glad I drove today,

because as soon as I walked to work, I would just be carrying. Walking down the street.

I mean, listen, if you're walking down this street carrying a bottle of booze, it says...

Like Garth Reynolds coming to your house for dinner, just showing up with bottles and bottles of

peanut grocery bags. Oh my God, that's so funny. He walked really far with all that

fucking alcohol, and then we did it, but we really did honor him by drinking it.

By the way, in a recent episode of The Doll Up, he fucking, they sort of shouted us out,

but also talked shit while doing it. He basically like, yeah, he basically said, like, cool,

we got really drunk at his house and they sent us home in Waymo's, which was funny,

but also there may be some ties to Epstein. Like that was what he said.

That is unfair. It was pretty tough. It was uncalled for.

I am not in those files. It was brutal. I forgot. I heard that. I was listening to the show, and

I was like, I should probably follow up on that. I think that's... He just went for the easy,

low-hanging joke fruit. I was like, yeah, Epstein. I mean, look, I know I had... I know I've actually,

I know I've personally hung out with three or four people that are in the Epstein file.

That's true, but look, Gareth is technically from the UK, I think, born here. So is Prince Andrew.

Right. So I'm just saying, small island. Definitely related.

Definitely. There's some connections. The Jeans don't lie. Right.

Right. Sidney Sweeney said that.

That's marketing. Right. Fuck.

Hi. Hi, everybody. Smoking Tire podcast.

Bilkerman. Cars. Allegedly. Allegedly cars.

We have things. Oh, man. There's things to talk about today. I actually found a lot of

things to talk about today. So many things have happened since we did a show two days ago.

First, I want to complain about something. Social media sucks my fucking asshole on April 2nd,

because the algorithm is feeding you all these people's leftover April Fool's pose,

because it's not timeline anymore. Your TL isn't your fucking TL, it's your AL.

I don't know if you can do it on the desktop version of Instagram.

Oh, can you not sort chronologically?

Well, on Instagram, you have to go to the tap down and go to following,

and then it's in order. But it's not the default.

And that's not on the desktop. Which is dumb, because I could serve stuff from three weeks ago.

A lot. Very annoying. And when you're on desktop particularly, and for my sanity,

I only keep Instagram on desktop. I don't have social media on my phone. It's better for you.

I don't want to say you. I don't want to project my own onto other people. It's better for me.

Buy all of that. So anyway, Instagram definitely doesn't want you using Instagram on your fucking

computer. They want you on a phone. So using Instagram in terms of clunkiness, it's about

2013, what Instagram desktop is. But yeah, but with algorithms. So yeah, that drives me nuts.

Okay, so get this. There were some great, did you see some great April Fool's car content?

I saw Z-Tuning that built Z1 Engineering that built that 400Z I drove.

Uh-huh. I did not see this.

There was like the new titanium trumpet exhaust.

That's sort of funny.

And they, I mean, they did, they did very good, like probably AI animation,

like it looked like hand welded for trumpets.

That's pretty funny.

Into pipes. That was a really good one.

I think I saw that in Cabo on the bunch of pickup trucks in about 2003.

Yeah, you heard it for sure.

There's just some good stuff. Some of the aftermarket companies had a really good time.

Yeah, a couple did. And then I just, you know, I just zoned out for April 1st because I'm not

fun. So I didn't really, I didn't get in. I don't get in on like social media trends.

I posted a picture of Finn, like my cat.

No, you know what I told you?

You know what I posted was the picture, the memory of Carl.

The day that Carl came to visit in LA and we made matzo ball soup or he made matzo ball soup.

And then we went to APL and fucking ate everything on the menu.

And then he threatened to throw me off my own roof in Venice.

If I didn't buy the Coontosh, all of those things happened in one day.

That was a good, that was there.

Yeah, we went three up in a vast advantage.

And that was 2018. That's how long the Aston Martin Vantage has been out in its current iteration.

Current-ish iteration.

Wow.

Because this was the, this was the first press car.

Matter of fact, this wasn't the first press car.

The first press car was the white one that was the year before.

This was the facelift.

This was the sorry we've fixed the grill one.

Because the lights were too small in the beginning.

Oh, that's right. Because the first one was 2016.

The first one was 2016 or 2017.

Because I drove it on drive and that was a long time ago.

Yeah.

And then, and that one was, that was slower than it should have been.

They were like, it has as much horsepower as you can go.

Sure. Sure, AMG didn't fuck you.

Um, okay, I can't believe you guys fit two people, three people in this car.

Well, I mean, look, two of them were, you know, probably fucking.

So they were, you know, on.

But no, nonetheless, the fact that, and also for like, for people listening,

Carl is sitting on the woman.

Not the inverse.

She's, well, she, uh, shout out to Britain.

She's great, but she's probably four inches taller than him.

Okay.

Yeah.

She's like, she's like tall, like, you know, like, like, like a, like a model.

She's built like a, like a model.

And he's the, you know, he was like a little looking like a troll.

Logistics, fairness.

And it wasn't in particular, we didn't do this all the way to Hollywood to APL.

We, I picked him up at his hotel, Marina Del Rey.

We went to the Ralph's in Marina Del Rey, and then we went to my house in Venice.

Oh, it was like a 10 minute drive.

It was a 10 minute drive.

And then we took a fucking Uber to Hollywood.

But, um, but this dude made, I posted the recipe on Patreon.

The greatest matzo ball soup in the history of matzo ball soup,

which I think I might make this weekend.

I haven't made it in about a year, but we're due.

We should you want to make matzo ball soup this weekend?

Sure.

It takes like fucking four hours.

It uses every dish in the kitchen.

It's so labor intensive.

So you might go to town this weekend.

So if it does, I'll definitely, I can just sit there for five hours.

Yeah.

But so, so it made me, because I'm, uh, we were driving the new Vantage, the S.

And, uh, it made me, I was looking, I was like, ah, I remember when was it that me and Carl,

I went, had, had our day in the, in the VA advantage and it was 2018.

So it's been a little, it's been like nine years as fucking things been on the market.

Yeah.

Which is like, you know, a slow gestation to perfection.

Cause usually they'll tweak things.

Then like GR coral, I know I've mentioned a lot, but I drove 24, 25, 26.

The change from 24 to 25 was totally noticeable on a racetrack.

Yeah.

Big jump in one year.

And the change for that one, you know, it was a little more not,

it wasn't a huge amount.

The jump from 24 to 25 was a big one.

Five to six.

Well, this is the, and this being the S, it's, it's like, I like to say S is for sorted.

And like that's, if you click one post to the left on, we can just go right into it.

The Aston Martin, not a full, a full post to the, to the current one, to the Vantage S,

which I drove for most of the week.

And Zach just had a quick go in because I thought it was a day longer than it was.

And I'm very sorry for that.

Folks, taking a break from the action today, because this episode is brought to you by FitBod.

Dude, there are so many ridiculous fitness influencers on Instagram who are trying to

sell you less for more, right?

They've got a system and it's like a multi-level marketing thing.

And it's like ManoSphere adjacent.

It's all bad stuff, but FitBod combines workout planning,

tracking, you need to stay consistent, a whole bunch of helpful tips and demonstrations

to help you make more progress, right?

Like when I'm working out, I cannot work out without professional help,

whether that's a trainer, physical therapy, I can do cardio, I can do a couple basic things,

but I need my workouts adapted to my brokenness, my, my fitness journey.

And so when you have something like FitBod, right, it makes working out an easy process.

It's like having a personal trainer in your, in your pocket, because it customizes workouts

based on your goals, whether that's targeting a muscle group, having better recovery,

weight loss, better energy, et cetera.

And it shows you how you're working your way through that process, right?

You can get, learn new exercises and techniques from FitBod.

There's all these demonstration videos.

And it would help you get to a goal with a sort of step-by-step process.

It's super, super easy.

And now when I'm working out with weights, I used to not like weights anymore.

I realize that now when I work out with weights, I have to like start light and get heavier.

And with four days a week, the key to my workouts is getting to the next one.

So I don't push super weight.

I just try to like, I work out today, I get sweaty, I get tired, and I make it to tomorrow.

So it's super important to have a coach like FitBod, because they create a personalized

workout routine based on your goals.

Those workouts adapt to your growth.

FitBod tracks your muscle recovery, so you can avoid burnout and keep up your momentum.

And all these workouts are fine-tuned by experience, certified personal trainers,

bringing out best practices, and bringing their exercise science to you.

And you can level up those workouts with customized fitness plans with, again,

over a thousand demonstration videos.

So level up your workout.

Join FitBod today to get your personalized workout plan.

Get 25% off your subscription or try the app for free for seven days at fitbod.me-tire.

That's F-I-T-B-O-D dot M-E slash tire.

And oh boy, in my 44th year on this planet, Bluetooth has supported our podcast.

That's right, the future of erectile function is here.

Bluetooth gold is changing the way millions of men are having sex in 2026.

That's right, the new arousal boosting formula combines passion and performance into one tablet

that dissolves under your tongue for a super fast onset.

No more waiting for a pill to kick in.

No more moments ruined by performance anxiety.

The results you want when you want them.

Because most ED meds only focus on blood flow,

Bluetooth gold goes further by combining two ingredients for blood flow with two

for mental arousal and connection.

So you're not just physically ready, you're actually in the mood.

This type of innovation is why Bluetooth gold is the number one brand in erectile dysfunction.

The process is simple and all online.

Get started today at bluetooth.com and go for gold.

And then it says to riff on these thought starters, but to be honest with you,

Bluetooth hasn't sent me any product.

Get on it, Bluetooth.

I'm going to need to get some Bluetooth.

I'm going to need to discover my options at bluetooth.com.

This read came out of nowhere this week.

I was not prepared with product in hand.

I can't tell you about my boners.

So we've got a special deal for our listeners.

Right now, when you get two months of Bluetooth gold,

you get the third for free with promo code Tire.

That's promo code Tire.

Go to Bluetooth.com for more details, important safety information,

and thank you for Bluetooth for sponsoring the podcast.

But for God's sakes, man, get me some Bluetooth gold over here.

We need to endorse this product accurately.

And now back to the show.

Did you enjoy your day though?

Yeah, I mean, if I hadn't gone on the launch of the regular one,

I would have been kind of annoyed.

But it was close.

It was similar enough, things so fast.

And I do the emotional side of me would buy this over a 9-11 turbo.

The mental side of me would buy the turbo.

That's kind of my TLDR.

Yeah, that's like the thinking man's choice.

And this is the like, let's fucking go.

This is the Ferrari man's choice.

Right.

But there's no Ferrari at this price.

I really like this thing so much.

It's like, I would describe it like Carl's matzah ball soup.

After fucking so much time simmering on the stove,

the ingredients have really come together in a very nice way.

Whether it's applying the talents of the Formula One engineers in the off-season,

or whether Andrew Kay who did the Valhalla had his hands on this thing.

I didn't go on the launch for this, so I didn't speak to the engineers.

But like, everything is super fucking harmonious in this car.

The power, the tip-in, the brakes, the gear changes, the steering ratio,

the rebound on the shocks, like all of it.

Like it does exactly the thing you pretty much want it to do all the time, which is lovely.

And then it has 671 horsepower in a very short wheelbase.

And so you can spin the tires all the way into third gear if that's what you're trying to do.

The only thing about this car, there's two things I don't like about it.

One is the 8S, which they need to make it stay off through restarts.

This is just, this is not good.

And then the other is, all at all advantages, there was nothing that's been changed about this.

It's like, I need like, I can drive this car for 90 minutes

before needing to like get out and stretch.

I need one to two inches more legroom seat travel.

That's the only reason I would get a 911 GTS, which is the same real price as this,

because turbos are more.

This is cheaper than a turbo now, but more than a GTS.

Wow.

So it's, yeah.

A loaded GTS, you can knock on the door of this.

A loaded GTS is more than the base price of a Vantage S.

This one is 198 base, 248 as tested.

Wow. I mean, that's so much money also, but it's a lot of money.

What's a turbo base to?

A turbo base is like 230.

Oh, geez.

Okay.

You know, and the one, the Turbo S that we are giving away.

And by the way, our Turbo S is a .1.

The new one's even more expensive.

Our Turbo S is 275, but it's loaded.

It's got a bunch of options in it.

Go to our Instagram, link in bio to enter to win our Turbo S, by the way.

The best Turbo S is a free Turbo S.

Very true.

That's absolutely true.

But it really makes this thing seem like, I mean,

and again, we're talking about funny money for rich people,

but it does make it in the game of top Trump seem like kind of a bargain.

Well, I think it's a competitor finally, which it wasn't

in the middle, in my opinion.

It's a dynamic competitor.

And I think it's also the aesthetics are there now for the most part.

Very pretty.

It, the speed is there, which wasn't there for a little while.

It was almost like, like the Vantage, the V8 Vantage in those earlier days was

closer to the 911, not the Turbo, of course, but like,

it was pretty good dynamically.

It had pretty good power.

And you could, you could make the case for it.

And then I feel like in the middle, it just, it aged poorly and they made some bad decisions.

They didn't have the money basically.

And now it's kind of well, and also out in context, in the first half of this car's

life cycle, the AMG GT was a thing, which had the same engine and a better gearbox.

And it was cheaper, cheaper and arguably prettier.

I agree.

And the interior, much prettier.

Like as a place to sit, made a great race car.

And you know, this is just my, my take when I drove this car on the old one on the track.

It just felt like, it felt like there were some horses that didn't make it on the boat

from Germany to England.

You know, I don't know.

The AMG GT's always felt faster, tighter, all that stuff.

So, but now in the nine years they've been making this, they've gone inch by inch,

refining this, getting better, getting better, more power, tighter, better dampers, better

handling, better brakes, better wheels, better cohesion.

The AMG GT is still competent, but is now a fairly soft GT car, less pretty, heavier.

It kind of turned into the SL.

Well, they did.

They merged those two things into one product.

And then also, all 9-Elevens have gotten more expensive faster than this has gotten more

expensive.

That's true.

And so now you can get, you know, a pretty bad motherfucker Aston, which is in the hierarchy

of exotic car, probably perceived higher than most 9-Elevens, for what is actually like,

you know, seems like fairly reasonable money.

I think if you ask most people at a curb what costs more, this car or a GTS,

they're going to probably go with the Aston because the name, the marketing, all that stuff,

it is, and it's a rarer thing to see.

So, the S is only 14 more horsepower than the regular car.

Yeah, it's not money.

It's more about the handling and stuff, right?

Yeah.

And it's damper tuning, it's got the ceramic brakes and all that stuff that come with it.

And then there's trim, but it's usually, it means more to me as like a signifier within Aston

Martin of like, we've finally nailed this one.

Like, whenever you get to an S, you're like, ah, the biggest difference was the fucking rapid.

Remember the rapid?

Dude, the first one was a pig and then the S was like, whoa, what'd you guys do?

This is all right.

You know, fucking ripped.

We went to the launch, was it a track?

It was at Atlanta Motorsports Park.

Wow.

It was like, it was a hard track.

I was like, wow, this is fucking all right.

You guys are doing it.

And it was like, it was a bit, but vanquished to vanquish S.

You know, the last Vantage S was a big change, although arguably the seven-speed manual was

a step back from the six-speed, but you know, that notwithstanding.

Fucking cool car.

Very cool car.

It's so nice.

Everyone who saw it like loved it, although I did not get a lot of like love on the street.

Like people, like I think I mentioned that there was an identical car and even that person

like didn't acknowledge it.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of like just, you know, people in traffic looking at it.

There's not a lot of like, if you're seeking attention, it's the wrong car is what I'm saying.

Now, what cars have you driven in the last year that did get lots of attention?

That's a good question.

Like, I'm wondering if this is just people in traffic looking at their phones and they're

not really noticing cars that.

All right.

Well, LA is a tough, because there's, there are so many nice cars that you really print.

You have to drive something wild for people to really give a shit.

You know, that's a very good question.

I would say, well, if I have to narrow it to new cars, that makes it tough too.

Oh man.

That's a harder question than I expected, glatman.

Guys, taking a break from the action because support is coming in fast, like Jim Farley,

the CEO of Ford, who's now got a podcast and you're always asking me what I'm listening to

when not recording this show.

And right now it's this, the new season of drive with Jim Farley in it.

The Ford CEO talks to some of his favorite people about what they're driving

and what drives them to succeed.

Like Formula One driver Daniel Ricardo.

Listen, there's a well-worn trope about racing drivers not being interesting to listen to.

But if there is one that is interesting to listen to, it is Daniel Ricardo.

I think this guy's takes on stuff and life are great.

And look, Jim is a racing driver also.

I personally raced against him like two months ago.

And for me, a CEO that drives race cars on the weekends

is about the pinnacle of CEOdom when it comes to car companies.

So the two of them together obviously have a lot of things to discuss on drive with Jim Farley,

which you can get on your podcast app.

Very easy to find.

Drive with Jim Farley.

Check it out.

Have what have you experienced those people really looking at?

I'm really, I'm really struggling to answer.

I mean, there's like when the C8 was new because it was a new idea.

Sure.

That got a lot of attention.

The Alpine, but it got question marks.

Like I had more people say what is that and look at it.

But I was shocked by the number of heads that turn.

Also in Monterey was Car Week.

I mean, I guess the specter, although it was a little more than I wanted,

driving one of those revologies around where it looks like a brand new 1969 Mustang like that.

That gets a lot of the, I mean, I'm a broken record, but the Manx.

Yeah, of course.

I mean, the Manx.

Because that's an oddity and it's also bright.

I mean, it is literally a bright signal in traffic.

I drove it to dinner last night in Venice and driving into the sunset, going around the marina.

I just, I was like, it's so sparkly.

I just said, I said, I was like, it's so sparkly.

She's like, do you hear yourself?

Dude, the depth of the of the gel coat.

Yeah, it's crazy.

When we were at the factory and I looked at it,

I mean, it was a little bit like being on a hallucinogen.

It is, it shifts.

There's thick clear coat and then you can see it's like looking at a bed of crystals.

Right.

You know, and you could like zoom into it.

It's, it's nuts.

Right.

Because it's not paint with flake in it.

Right.

The flake is suspended in the gel, which has a depth to it.

And therefore there's flake at different heights.

So that when you move your head back and forth or turn across the light,

it creates a fucking trippy shift.

Yeah.

It's the best.

It's fabulous.

But like, yeah, I'm just saying not a lot of like,

like not a lot of street cred in terms of if you want a tent.

Now, it doesn't mean we went, I took it up to up the mountain on a Friday.

People asked about it.

People are interested in it.

It, it, you know, it's very, no one, no one was like, ew.

You know, and, and it's a, I forgot because I haven't,

I haven't had a coop in a while.

The ones we've, I've taken home for the last six years have both been roadsters.

The hatchback.

Great.

Yeah.

Golf clubs.

I delivered a gun safe to Corey.

I mean, one of those.

It was my golf clubs, my golf shoes, a duffel bag, because I had a shower before going to

Sergio's after golf and, and then a gun safe there.

Like, oh, I took the gun.

The gun safe was in the empty space in the top right where the, where the, but we got a picture.

This is a lot of the golf clubs go across, you know, like a Corvette.

But you got a lot of bags.

It's a lot of depth until you get to that small.

And then my shoes and my shoes and that other thing go up on the, go up.

Those are my other shoes go up on the shelf up top.

Like you could, you could live out of this car for a couple of weeks.

Definitely.

For sure.

Yeah.

If you wanted to like travel the country road tripping, this would be an excellent car to do it in.

The, I was, the only thing when I jumped in this car that I did not like about it is the seats

by compare, comparing two and nine 11s, like 18 ways compared to an 18 way.

But I think the, the thigh bolster is just, is a little too short and that's kind of it.

So for really long term driving, I think you like a very long.

I do.

I like it to go to the knee pretty much.

Yeah.

I want almost like, you know, horse like, no, you like a long thigh bolster.

I do.

Yeah.

I want as much support because I think for me with my body, like the more pressure moves back,

like the more it's on my spine and tailbone and I have problematic tailbone due to the

snowboarding wrong.

I actually, if I extend the thigh bolster too long have like, it creates a problem somewhere else.

Sure.

Yeah.

So I need, yeah.

But.

On the 18 ways, I put it out like maybe an inch.

Yeah.

But if, if I, but even if I don't put it out at all, it's still kind of fine.

Well, you spent more time in this.

So how did you find?

I agree to see the Porsche seats are better.

If you're talking about an 18 way, it's better.

If you're talking about like a base Porsche seat or a bucket, I'd rather spend the time in this.

But that one inch of leg room that I don't have in this car.

Like here's, here's how I know it, that it's a difference.

I spent a half a day driving at barefoot because I had like flip flops on and I was

going somewhere with flip flops.

So like I drove it an hour each way barefoot go to golf.

I drove it all the way to fucking more park 60 miles each way barefoot.

And when I can stretch my legs out or tuck my feet like behind the pedals or whatever,

different sensation at the end of that trip than trying to drive it with the shoes on,

where I have that extra, you know, half three quarter inch on that pedal.

Right.

Yeah.

It's so it's interesting for people like just highlighting how different everybody is.

Right.

I think have the same inseam.

32.

Oh, I'm a 30.

Okay.

That's different.

Yeah.

That's 30, I'm 31, 32 inseam, depending on.

An inch different, but that's pretty like.

But that inch, it's nothing and it's everything.

It's a, it's a big difference.

It's not just the inch, but also the fact that specifically Porsche's pedal box is wider.

There's no engine up there.

You might notice.

And so even if I'm wearing these NBs, which you see my new NBs, these are the 1000s.

These are kind of fun.

Even when I'm wearing NBs, I can put my left foot between the brake pedal and the dead pedal

all the way down and the Aston didn't didn't have a space.

You do feel like you're sitting a little closer.

You know, like in a Formula One car in this thing, like the tunnel is really tall.

The, I mean, the door sills on everything now are really tall, but I felt like I was

really sunk down in the car.

And some people, Harris famously really liked to sit as low as possible.

I do too.

I like a little more visibility.

Like sometimes, you know, people are looking just over the top of the wheel.

And I want to be able to see more than that.

But just think the hips on this thing are very wide.

Yeah.

It looks like overhead view of this and 911 to be very interesting.

I don't know off the top of my head the measurements, but like this almost looks

like a rear engine car.

It's probably not.

Yeah.

I bet you like the stag, the wheel tire proportions are not that different.

A 911 will have this thing from zero to 60.

Obviously the traction is going to be an issue here versus a 911.

But beyond that, if you got, if you got two, two buddies, you know, dicing it up on a canyon road,

or if you've got two, two people in a track day running lap times,

I think it's going to come down to driver.

I think he, I think the better driver could drive the car.

Either of the cars faster.

I don't think there, I mean, it might be, you know, a small number of a small amount

of time, a lap difference if the stig is doing it or something.

But like on any given track day, the better driver will be faster in either this or an

equivalently loaded up 911 GTS.

I think a 911 Turbo S would probably be quicker than this on a track.

I think it's capable of that.

But also all wheel drive.

All wheel drive.

Super clever and everything.

That makes sense.

2025, the rear track width of the Vantage was 65.2 and 2025 GTS rear track width is

61.2.

Requires more.

Requires more actually.

That's funny.

I backed it into my garage.

I was really paying attention to those walls.

Yeah.

Got big hips in there.

Fucking cool car.

Cool thing.

Uh, I guess we'll talk about the M2CS next show.

We should, we should say we should, should we talk about Dream Cruise?

Yeah.

This year, Zach and I are changing up a little bit.

We're not going to go to car week.

Instead, we're going to go to Detroit for the Woodward Dream Cruise.

I have rented us a beautiful house.

I'm not going to say exactly where it is, but it is very affordable.

God, what a terrible fucking picture they use to promote this.

That makes it look like a boring ass sock hop, cars and coffee, doesn't it?

It does.

If you don't know what this is, I've been before like 10 years ago.

It's, it's pretty fun.

It's the same weekend every year as Pebble Beach.

It's in Detroit and on Woodward Avenue, like for like not the entire length of Woodward,

but like miles and miles of it, it basically becomes anything is street legal, whatever,

you know, historical car.

Yeah.

One of those.

Yeah.

That's even the Wikipedia pages better.

So thousands and thousands of cars.

Like, you know, we talk about Pebble Beach traffic is a crazy place to find yourself, right?

You could be in traffic at Pebble Beach and there's a Ferrari 250 LM next to you and

there's a 73 RS that raced in period in front of you and like, that's a crazy thing.

But you do that enough and you change.

This is, imagine that same traffic, the same level of like surrounded by craziness,

but it's not the shit you see at Pebble Beach.

It's tuner cars and crazy muscle cars and a guy that built a fucking sleigh that's

towed by eight Harley Davidson's these somehow controlling.

You like, I like to joke that the word contraption is never used at Pebble Beach,

but it is in Detroit.

And even in this photo, which is just pulled off Wikipedia, look,

the parked on the sidewalk, you've got, you've got tens of thousands of people lying in the

sidewalk, just watching people cruise their crazy shit back and forth.

And then you've got car shows the whole way.

Yeah.

They're open to the public.

Almost nothing is ticketed.

You've got like Pantera Club here.

I'm a huge fan.

It goes all the way down.

Dude, there's like, yeah, there's like 30 Panterras right there.

And there's, look, there's a C4 Corvette with a green wood kit.

There's some kind of bizarre little yellow hot rod thing behind it.

There's a, I see a Porsche.

I see a 911 cab back there.

I see another C3 Corvette at the traffic light.

Is that like a Diablo or something?

That gray thing?

Like there's like a prototype.

Yeah.

What is that?

I think it's a C5.

Oh, is it?

It looks like something kind of wedgy.

It does look wedgy, but the front looks C5 to me.

But you will absolutely see Italian exotic,

classic Italian exotics and crazy shit.

Oh, a police cruiser with some kind of giant drag set up.

So anyway, we think this would be fun.

Hell yeah.

A change of pace, something different to do, see, and talk about.

We got a house.

Oh, is that a map up top?

Oh, dude, that's this photo.

What a great photo.

This is the kind of shit.

This was from 2020.

Sorry, I have to.

But that photo was, dude, look at all the stuff we can find in this one photo.

Oh, this is gold.

So you've got a starting from the bottom right.

We've got a Trans-Am 70.

Something with a giant blower.

Hell yeah.

You've then got like maybe some kind of Roush Mustang convertible next to it.

An Acura NSX 2017.

There's an Excalibur.

There's like a Unimog with a bunch of dudes rolling rolling in the back.

Buick, not often seen today.

Buick.

Yeah.

There's like 66.

Maybe a GTO.

Looks like a 66 GTO convertible.

Then behind it some weird Bel Air modified thing.

Whoa, that's terrible.

But that's what that, yeah, that's like a 58 Bel Air with a Corvette grille.

And that's just a bad, that's a, that's a contraption.

Then a F-150 with fucking MAGA flags on it.

Yeah.

And then some kind of a Firehawk maybe.

Yeah.

Trans-Am-E and then a Challenger.

Maybe a Red Eye or a Demon.

Oh, it's over here now.

And then a Muscle Cars.

There's an Eldo.

Yep.

Right.

Fintail Caddy going the other way.

So this is just, this is one random snapshot of a thing.

I'm so about it.

I mean, I need to go to Hodgess Knights like annually for a couple years,

and this is like a much bigger version of that,

which will have way more cars.

Well, not more cars, but a wider diversity of cars.

Well, it's just a different vibe.

It's a totally different thing.

And they do the, do they still do the roadkill nights,

like Drag Race down the street?

I think so.

Awesome.

Crazy.

So I've put in a few phone calls to people that might be able to get us

interesting and unique cars to cruise in.

You know what I haven't called the guys with the drift hummer?

That thing's nuts.

The drift hummer was pretty good.

That was pretty good.

Yeah, Cummins Diesel, right?

Yeah, it was a Cummins, no, it was a Duramax.

1,000 horsepower Duramax with an Allison gearbox and a rear drive conversion.

Yeah.

It was very good.

So, and I do have one story idea that's very,

that I don't want to even talk about until I know if it's going to happen

or definitively not happen.

But anyway, the reason I bring it up is because I'm sure we have some fans in Detroit.

And so if any of you guys know about interesting things,

and please don't give us like, don't say roadkill nights.

If you know some like interesting cool local shit that's going down in Detroit

for Dream Cruise, specifically stuff that's, I would say in the sort of

Royal Oak to Birmingham corridor, which is I think where we're going to be

probably spending most of our time, do let us know in the comments or whatever.

And I'm trying to see if there's a way we can do a live show there.

So we'll see, but we do have the house, which is a starting point.

And yeah, people, if people are a little burnt out on Pebble Beach,

I think this is going to be a fun, a really fun alternative.

It's so different.

And like the question will be, if we get our trailer, do we end up like hauling

like the Manx or something out there?

Does that become something that's worthwhile?

The Manx will be a good thing to cruise around there.

It would.

It fits in.

It would.

But it's a long, you know, it's probably like a three day.

It's, no, I drove the fucking Tycon back from there.

It's four days.

And you're towing now.

Yeah.

But I was driving an EV.

So that's the same.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

That's the same.

Average speed, mate.

That's a fucking wash, dude.

Average speed.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I, you know, oh, four days.

That's a long time.

No, if I had to, I would just ship it.

But I don't want to tow it that far.

That's just a waste of fucking time.

But anyway, shout out to Detroit.

I love, I love Detroit.

I don't care what anybody says.

I'm just kidding.

It's cool.

I do love Detroit.

I mean, I haven't been there in 10 years.

Detroit is a city full of flavor.

It's a good time.

Yeah.

Dream Cruise is the best time to be there.

It's a total, total shit show.

Just, I mean, how many people show up for this thing?

It's got to be hundreds and hundreds of thousands, right?

Hundreds of thousands.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's not like, it's not like, you know, the, the tour

de elegance, right?

Which is the thing that if you want to win a trophy at

Pebble Beach Concourse, you have to do this drive down

Big Sur and back.

And you have to complete it in order to, to win.

Not to show, but to win.

And so watching it is fabulous.

You pull over on the side of this extraordinarily

beautiful place and these fucking $10 million, you know,

Gilded Era shit comes by and race cars.

And you've seen the photos.

You know what it is.

But it's like an hour, you know, it, it happens.

And then it's over.

This from Thursday until Sunday morning, this is going on.

It doesn't turn off.

I mean, maybe it turns off kinda like three in the morning.

I don't know.

I was asleep last time.

But like far as I know, it doesn't turn off.

And the house I got is walking distance from Woodward.

So like we can get absolutely fucking shithouse at our,

at our house and then just walk over to Woodward

with a Yeti cooler.

I mean, I can't imagine there's open container laws

in this city.

There's basically no laws.

No, not during this.

We saw plenty of people sitting on the sidewalk.

Just if you have a cup that looks like nothing.

Yeah.

Post up.

Yeah.

We, look what we have, buddy.

Exactly.

It's going to be a fucking Ram August.

Just for, I was just curious about the scale.

So the hot August nights loop is four miles long.

The, the Woodward dream cruise is 16 miles long.

That's how, so that many more cars,

that many more people hanging out.

Yeah.

Whoa. That's crazy.

Dude, it's so, like I, the last time I went,

it, it took me something like an hour and a half to do a lap.

Like it was, it was like, it was like a whole,

a whole morning basically.

Yeah. Cause you're at idle speed, right?

Basically.

Yeah.

I mean, unless you find yourself at the front

and then you're obligated to like hammer down two gears.

No one is trained for this like us,

us cause we live here.

You know, stop and go traffic for 16 miles.

We've done it.

We are frozen.

And then what's crazy is you go like a couple of blocks

off of Woodward either way,

and it's like back to normal Detroit.

Yeah.

It's not, it's not like you have to deal with the traffic

to go anywhere.

Like you go to just a couple of blocks

and then it's like just.

It's a bigger city.

Whereas Monterey is, it's kind of traffic everywhere

cause there's only a few,

few ways to get around the city.

And I love car week, but I just, I looked and it's been,

it's been nine years in a row I've gone.

So it's, and I've gone like 14 of the last 16 years.

So like, I think it's a, and actually the two years I didn't go

fucking went to, I've went to this.

Car week every time.

Yeah.

I'm excited.

So yeah, we got a, we're gonna, we need,

we need a couple of things.

We need a car to cruise.

And then we need to figure out, you know,

what, what we can get that's a,

that's a cool enough daily.

So even when we're not cruising, we're still rolling.

You know, obviously it's going to have to be

something American because all those cars are there.

But, and we're going to maybe, maybe have wives

and maybe have friends.

So it'll probably have to be something big, but.

So Escalade V.

It'll be Escalade V.

Basically what I'm saying is we're going to

require an Escalade V is what I'm saying.

Yeah.

Burning through gas so fast.

Yeah.

I mean less, I don't know.

Idling in traffic or just.

TRX, the new, the new TRX will get like one mile per gallon.

Probably.

Well, we're going to have, you booked it.

You booked it.

We're going to Road America.

You're, you're racing.

Well, even if I'm not racing, I'm going.

I'm coming over.

Imagine you fly all the way and you actually know.

It's just the license falls through.

Johnny, Johnny is out and you are in.

And so yeah, team, it's going to be you and I

and fucking Tato Siderman and Tommy Kendall.

Rad.

Amazing.

Your first race with a competition license

is going to be with Tommy Kendall.

So cool.

That rules.

Never, never would have dreamed this in my life.

Fantastic.

You'll likely be handing the car off to him.

Because it's probably going to be Tato, me, you.

Well, I don't know.

I don't know.

Last time that was, it was, it was going to be

Tato, me, Johnny, Tommy, but then Johnny tapped out.

So it was just me, but it would probably be

Tato, me, you.

Cool.

But like, whatever, it's going to be fun.

That's rad.

Amazing race track.

Do we.

Dodge got us a Hellcat Durango.

Yeah.

To get from Chicago to the track and then to run practice.

Tato, the day I went over there to do sim training with him,

he's like, how do you think the Durango will be like on the

track?

And I go, what do you mean?

And he goes, like, how do you think it will handle some of

this stuff?

And after, this was after he had shown me like his line

and hitting these bumps.

And I was like, you mean like curbing?

He goes, yeah.

Like I knew he was asking something without asking.

I go, I don't think you should do it four up first.

I think you should do it one person because, and then I

explained to him moose test, gross vehicle weight limits.

And how center of gravity, like, and he had never heard the

moose test.

And I go, well, let me tell you how this works.

So I think he should go out by himself and see before he

starts doing school.

I don't think Tato's signing the fuck.

I don't think he's signing the loan agreement.

I don't think he's definitely not insured to drive his vehicle

on a racetrack.

Absolutely fine.

Then you can do the, because, you know, we could do the

taxi laps.

Bro, I am 100% capable of this.

You are.

I am.

And I have precedent and rode America with the track

hawk.

Right.

I was, and you, excuse me, rode Atlanta with the track

hawk and you absolutely can take an extremely generous,

not necessarily the exit.

You don't want to, because you don't want your outside loaded

up rear tire in grass.

What you can do is cut the apex extremely generously to

where if you're turning, let's say you're turning left,

only the half of your right tires need to be on tarmac and

the rest of the vehicle can be basically in grass.

Full wheel drive.

Go watch my track hawk video.

It's from, I don't know, 2019, 18 maybe, 17 maybe, but it's

basically the same shit.

Yeah.

So we're going to Dream Cruise and we're going racing and

rode America.

You can actually, if you're in that area and you want to come

say hi during the race, like you can, we will be there.

Tickets are cheap.

Someone, a fan hit us up, it's like $10.

Yeah, to get to WRL, of course.

It's a really cheap ticket and you can get a day pass or

yeah, and it's all access and you can get like a weekend pass

for $18 or something like that.

So very affordable.

Speaking of racing, did you see the, did you, the press

release the morning, this 4GT Mark IV ran a 616 at the

Nurburgring?

What?

Technically it was like 615, like 97 or something, but we'll

call it, we'll call that a 616.

And yeah, so third fastest time ever?

And fastest gas only car.

Third fastest time ever for what like category?

Well, but ever behind the, the Volkswagen, like ID, whatever

the fuck thing.

And then the 9119 Evo.

Yeah, those two and then this.

And they also, which is amazing.

I mean, and fastest petrol ever is also amazing.

They also like made, kind of made up another fun,

fun statistic in the press release.

They said also it's the fastest vehicle ever that you can buy,

which is a total, that is, that is the first time anyone has

ever made that distinction as regards Nurburgring time.

So I applaud their PR department for making up a new

statistic to crown themselves king of.

Does this guy, it can be really instantly invalidated, by the

way, if Volkswagen just sells the IDR to somebody, anybody.

It's like when they make up Guinness World Records, like

there's this crazy stunt guy.

I fall on Instagram and he's like new world record.

And what he did is they rode, guy strapped two car.

He's, he's operating a motorcycle next to him.

No rider on it at like 150.

And then he sends the motorcycle off a ramp and then he's

still strapped to the car.

So they just sent, they just ghost rode a motorcycle at like

150 off a ramp and he's like new distance record and went for

unmanned motorcycle, probably zero.

Yes.

For unmanned motorcycle jump.

Yeah.

The guy is like Shiboda.

Motorcycle distance record.

I'll find it for you.

But yeah, making up records, they all do it these days.

But that is.

But also, it's, I mean, look, that's also, it's also really

stretching the quote that you can buy.

They made, I think, 67 of these things.

What is it?

Doesn't look street.

I mean, it's not really.

There's no headlights.

No, they don't claim it's street legal.

It's, it's fast as that you can buy.

Yeah.

Which, I mean, maybe there's an implication there.

But I mean, it's a fucking sick car and that's a crazy time.

Did they make, is this all new body panels in the back?

These intakes look even bigger than on the regular GT.

I think they have changed some things.

But that also might be like the most perfect angle.

That's true.

Of it.

This is a little wild.

No, I think they're bigger.

I think they might be bigger on the Mark IV.

These, this whole gap looks bigger.

But.

And also the front bumper doesn't seem to have headlights.

No, no, there's no headlights.

I think these are just tape and intakes, Nacoducks.

But that said, what's the powertrain?

It's still the same.

Yeah.

I mean, effect.

Yeah.

I mean, I think it has, it has more power than the road car,

but it's not, it's not a different engine.

It's the same engine.

Because the IDR is full electric.

Yeah.

The 919 Evo is hybrid.

Yes.

So it's pretty rad that it's closing in and it's just gasoline.

Yeah.

Whoa.

Crazy, right?

Really crazy.

Good for them.

Six fucking 16.

I saw last week the.

Something, something.

We'll just call it 616, but like, god, motherfucking damn.

I think Ford's GTD unofficially beat the ZR1's time.

Yeah, I saw that.

But I, well, someone, somebody, somebody said they did that.

But then I thought that maybe it was a mistaken story

and they actually should have been, it was actually this

and they heard the rumor wrong.

Oh, really?

They got the car wrong?

Well, I don't know.

I think if Ford actually did it, they probably would have

just said like, why, why not say it if you do it?

I don't know.

I'll look it up.

We got the time, the fastest road registered car on the road

was the MG1.

629, which, you know, sort of barely road legal there.

But oh, power is up on the mark four to 789 from 650.

And it has a sequential gearbox.

So, you know, yeah, obviously it's a race car.

So it's got race car shit.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Good for them.

6 minute 15, 9, 7, 7.

Fuck it, he fuck.

That's kind of crazy, isn't it?

It's very crazy.

That's kind of crazy.

Okay.

And before we go to the people, because we're going to go

to the people, get this sack.

I called Schaunt over at CMS Motorsports.

I look at your car every day.

Our friend, you drive by it, you've seen it.

Walk by it and I look for progress.

Yeah.

Do you see any?

No.

Okay.

That's because there hasn't been any.

But there has been some.

You just haven't seen it.

Got it.

Right?

I know what you're saying.

It's because...

I know there were other ideas developing.

What we're doing is building a ballroom.

It's been cancelled recently.

So they have another shop in the valley, because of course you do.

When you're an Armenian, you always have another shop in the valley.

Well, and the place here is...

It's tiny.

It's small.

Right.

So I call him and I was like, hey man, you know, and the last...

When we last left off, it was a month ago and he said,

when doing the powertrain swap, and again, if you're just hearing about this the first time,

I got a free Mercedes 124 Cabriolet and I'm trying to make it awesome on the kind of cheap.

That's what I'm trying to do.

And my friend, Shant, who owns CMS Motorsports, maybe you've seen him.

He's one of, if not the most ridiculous Mercedes-Benz builders in the country.

He does all these insane Euro tuner cars, pre-merger AMGs.

He collects all these cars and these parts at Pebble last year.

He built a shooting brake, a wide body, like AMG Hammer.

That was just so cool.

Yeah, and won the awards.

He's very creative and his team is very talented.

And so anyway, I was...

He's wanted to do something with me.

I've wanted to do something with him.

This fucking free Mercedes fell into my lap and I said,

well, wouldn't it be cool if we took this E320 and turned it into the 500E Cabrio

that Mercedes never made?

Shant was like, fuck to the yes, my brother.

So first step is a V8 and a five-speed automatic gearbox.

The M119, which is the 500E 4-cam V8, is actually not a great engine.

I mean, it's a fine engine, but it's like you don't need a 4-cam engine

for a car that's going to putter around in traffic.

What you want is torque.

And also the 320, which my car is, has a different length of engine compartment

than the original 500E.

It was longer.

The M119 is a physically big engine.

What you actually want is the E55's engine from 99 to 01.

That the four-eyed square, the first E55, 369 horsepower naturally aspirated,

five and a half liter V8, that's the engine that you want.

It's physically smaller and it is incredibly robust.

And so anyway, that's the engine we got.

I didn't realize that there were some other key differences.

And so what he was doing was going to build,

his brother was building something similar to this out of a coupe.

So he was like, we're going to do it and if it works good,

then we just do it for your car.

So to make the engine work, it's smaller, it fits.

You also use the gearbox, it fits.

But this 2000, 2001 E55 is throttled by wire and also has digital gauges.

And he wants it to look stock.

So he told me and I thought he was just going to finish his brother's car

and then we'd come back to mine and whatever.

He got a very short way into his brother's car when he said,

you know, this would just go better if we build both cars at the same time

and just do double everything.

You know, if we do it on this car, if it works, we just right on this car.

So he's a little further than I thought.

So they have two E55 engines running on stands.

They have two functional wiring harnesses.

They're still trying to figure out the gauges,

but they have running engines on stands.

They have gearboxes.

And so they actually sort of have a lot of the

mechanicals needed for the powertrain swap ready to go,

which surprised the shit out of me.

I didn't think they were anywhere.

They also have all four replacement body panels ready.

Whoa.

Like they're not.

Oh, shit.

Yeah.

He's like your front and rear quarter panels are done too.

Like you're getting close to install time for this stuff.

Yeah.

Whoa.

And he was like, he was like, so yeah, like next week,

you should come like see where we're at.

And I was like, wait, really?

Like we're like, you've made bodies.

Like, oh, yeah, we've made.

He's like, this is going to be an all steel E55

it's going to look just like Mercedes made it.

But it's, you know, but it's going to have this,

this better engine.

And I was like, shit, we need to go see the material guy.

We got to pick.

We got to do leathers.

We got to do inlays.

We got to do, you know, make sure we order that.

The fabric, the right fabric that we like.

Get that shit done.

Dude, that's crazy.

I walk by like it still looks like this.

Yeah.

No, he hasn't put any of the things on the car,

but they've got all the parts ready because they didn't develop a bunch of shit.

Whoa.

I don't know if he's got the front and rear bumper handy yet,

but I think he didn't need to make those.

He just bought those.

But the fenders he had to make, right?

The fenders he had to make because the, you know,

because this is a two door and the E55 was a four door,

you can't just make the way it meets with the doors is completely different.

So you make it look just like the E55 fender or the, excuse me, the 500E fender,

but you make it by hand.

Nice.

But out of metal.

Yeah.

That's great.

Which is rad.

Yeah.

And the hood, the hood, the trunk lid are both staying.

They're fine.

And, uh, yeah.

So that's, that's pretty sweet.

It's happening.

Yeah.

Dude, that's a lot further than we thought.

Yeah.

Crazy.

All right.

So I want to go to the people, but man, it's been, I really, what is wrong with me?

I chugged a little bit of water before and now I have to pee.

That works.

Will you, uh, will you plug everything they get with Patreon?

Sure.

Um, if you're a new listener, what you get on Patreon is pretty awesome.

For a long time, people were asking us, Hey, can I get that episode sooner than when it

would go up on public?

When is that episode going up?

People are really excited about it.

So if you join Patreon, uh, depending on the tier you sign up for, you can get an ad

free experience listening and watching.

You can also get the shows early, right after we record them instead of waiting a day, a

week, a month until it's time to drop them to the public.

You can also get exclusive or early access to rad collabs like the notice watches that

Matt has designed and, uh, top tier people, champion tier, you can get our car review

videos ad free.

And we also are starting to pepper in some BTS stuff, uh, some polls asking people for

feedback on our content or style of things.

You get a whole bunch of stuff.

It's over at patreon.com slash the smoking tire podcast.

Tears start at just three bucks.

And now what do we do?

Wow.

He's urinating.

Oh, did you keep them entertained?

I did.

Yeah.

That's right.

Okay.

What do we have going on here?

Did you already tell them what they get with the Patreon?

So I don't have to do that.

You're right.

I did it.

Wow.

That's a relief.

Nishant Ketterpahl says, uh, any thoughts on, on this, uh, car replacement, uh, replacing

an Audi S4 B 8.5 Audi S4 with 100,000 miles with a 50,000 mile

mark seven golf or mark 7.5 golf R manual year round driver in Michigan.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Okay.

Perfect.

That's fine.

Yep.

I think that's fine.

Yeah.

This question is more complicated.

And in SoCal, what should replace a high mile Maserati Quattroporte S that will surely

need very expensive repairs soon?

Four door automatic and not so collectible.

So a bit of abuse is fine for 50 to 100 K.

I mean, I would say almost any lightly used AMG car.

There's so many E 63s and CLS 63s or, or even, uh, uh, you know, GLE 63s and all that shit.

50 to 100 K gets you all of that.

All of them.

They, they may, they start cheaper than that if you want to do.

Dude, you could probably get a lightly used E 63 wagon for that.

Yes, absolutely.

Couldn't that would be my jam.

That's what I would do.

Yeah.

I feel like that's the Maserati flavor versus anything from BMW or, or Audi.

I mean, there might be a brand new alpha Julia left on the lot somewhere.

That's true.

Like a Quattroporte.

Yeah.

Like you get the fast one brand new.

Yeah.

Quadrifoglio.

Yeah.

LL Coolbean says, uh, with Metallica scheduled to play at Sphere later this year.

I'm wondering what would be each of your dream shows to see there?

I mean, fucking Metallica is not far off.

I'm, I'm going to that.

Uh, your Metallica was at Sphere.

I texted Christian to see if it's going to be a good one.

It's going to be.

Do you have dates set and shit?

No, but I, I, you know, the, the person or person who was there is,

is Christians person and I'm friendly with her as well.

And she's, she's fabulous.

And, and if it had only been like a month or two since we saw you two,

I would probably text her directly, but it's been like a year and I haven't seen her and

I don't want to be like, Hey, hey, you know, I kind of want Christian to ask for me.

So I, I'm flexible on the dates and we are going.

I'm just, I'm waiting to find out.

Keeping it open.

Do you have a dream show there that would be, I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll make,

you mean, if you ask me to, I tech, when I saw Metallica was playing there,

I texted Christian also and I said, is this going to be a good one?

Yeah.

Because there's so many variables.

It shows there.

And he said, yes.

Yes.

Um, that will be rad.

I also, I always thought this fear would be good for more, I don't know, like slower music

because the visuals can really play, but I don't really know.

But I thought glass animals would be cool, something like that where it's a little,

a little trippy, if they really spent the time on the visual side of it.

Yeah, they probably could.

You'd have, you'd need a budget that I'm not sure glass animals could pull off.

But like, I'd see where your head is out there.

I think nine inch nails would be fucking epic because you have trends, creativity,

and, and I think the music would lend itself well to that.

Yeah.

Metallica is going to be crazy.

Cause I, you know, when I saw it, when I went to that, um, the power trip festival thing,

the treatment, which is the company that is doing a lot of the sphere stuff,

did Metallica's set at this festival and it was bananas.

Whoa.

The, the visuals that they did for an outdoor festival were about the best I've ever seen

for Metallica.

I had no idea that Metallica would have visuals besides just zooming in on their faces.

Like I didn't, didn't expect that.

No, I mean, they had the whole, it was fucking crazy.

Cool.

Yeah, it was really cool.

Really cool.

And they had a lot of fire.

I don't know if you can do fire in sphere, but you need to be a, you need to be a big

band to pull off that venue.

And you also can't be like, well, the dead.

You either can't be an improv band or you need to like be an improv band.

Like the dead, I know what they had to do to make that.

They had to like make so much more than they needed because they might be like,

let's play or let's make this stretch this song.

Yeah.

And so they had to make the, the, the visuals much more like flick flexible than you too

did where it was incredibly like precise.

Metallica is precise.

I've seen Metallica three times.

I don't think I've ever seen a band that's more precise than Metallica.

Even Lars.

Dude, go with Corey.

Corey, when he came, he hates Lars so much.

It's so funny.

That's rad.

I think I would throw a curveball.

I bet a symphony there with the right crazy visuals and maybe some enhancements would be good.

Oh yeah.

You know, bring your drugs for sure.

I would never.

I don't know.

Not necessarily not cross stable.

I would never.

Afila, great disturbance in the first.

This name is so good.

That's really good.

Cancel that project.

That's one of my favorite names.

It was a really bad name.

Not the username is good.

Afila for a car.

Terrible name for a car.

Commercials were weird.

Great username.

Your pet's not included.

Your own pet's not included.

Best cat and best dog among auto journalists.

That's cold.

Judge people's cats.

I haven't met any journalist dogs.

I don't think.

I must have met journalist dogs.

Doesn't.

Exactly.

That's a good one.

Like we have friends that have dogs, but.

I'm not really sure other.

Yeah.

We don't see a lot of these folks in their own homes.

Journalist dogs.

Oh, okay.

Andrew Collins puts up photos.

His dog a lot.

It's a half Aussie.

So that one.

Wes Seiler.

Harris puts up photos of his.

What is it?

American Bulldog.

Like living in the GT3.

Yeah.

He's got one of those.

And Wes Seiler who was on the show has dogs.

Cats.

Obviously Michael T. O. Van Ronkel.

Who was the guy who along with his partner adopted the three kittens that I found with Hannah in

the tree.

And those cats are.

Unbelievable.

I've never seen.

Like the idea that one could randomly end up with those cats is crazy.

They're so beautiful.

So well behaved and so social with strangers.

Like it's they're amazing.

Yeah.

Good cat.

Great cats.

I wish I could have kept them.

Coheed and camber.

Oh.

Ace.

Superb.

Mid 2000s reference.

If I will we will accept any and all 2000s alt rock.

What is Coheed referring to.

The band.

Coheed and Cambria.

Oh I didn't know it was a band.

You've never heard of a band Coheed and Cambria.

They're kind of like kind of like my chemical romance.

They're there of that same.

They're the deep impact and what's the other fucking movie Armageddon.

The Armageddon and deep impact of that type of music.

Got it.

My parents have an 80s fiat spider 2000 and the engine feels pretty meh.

No shit.

I've heard the carb versions of these engines are loved.

But this one leaves me wanting so much more even though the fuel injected system is quote

better.

What are some other cars that would be better if they were worse.

I mean a lot of snobs will tell you that Lamborghini Kuntoshes are better with carbs

but I don't necessarily agree with that.

Yeah I think some cars I don't know.

I hear people say the sound of the carb makes it but the cars I've driven that have carb

carburators are so loud exhaust wise that I can't really hear the intake.

The Morgan three-wheeler I hate to say going to the super three which they make now it has

a car engine and it's quieter and it has more power and it has more emissions excuse me a

few remissions I'm sorry and it's more reliable it's less vibrating and all of those things

make it worse than the motorcycle engine.

You lost the umpada umpada steampunk thing.

Sorry guys you didn't know why we were here in the first place.

Yeah that's true.

I mean a lot of new cars and they make them too stiff and the quest for lap times makes

it worse for 90% of the people 99% of the time.

Sure like respect to Ford and what they've done with this Ford GT the Nurburgring like

that's insane but if I had to go spend a day had to if I got to spend a day and there's

two cars in front of me and I'm going to drive you know the mountain passes in Switzerland

or our roads here or I'm driving from here to car week and I get to drive a current gen

Ford GT or I get to drive an 06 Ford GT I will take the 06 so like it's slower it has less power

it's a manual it's not it blah blah blah blah and when they tried to race one it was garbage

as a race car but but it's better on the road because it's worse.

Yeah okay LL Cartier I work mostly from home but have to drive out of state once a month.

I want to do it all car for long drives and quarterly track days and I have racing experience

so the car needs to be legitimately fun. I'm thinking 996 Porsche first gen M2 E90 M3 I've got

35 grand and it's got to have a backseat big enough for a baby. Okay I really like the specificity

of this the car is pretty much for road trips and track days so that's a tough thing because a lot

of ways those are like kind of opposites. They are but I think the cars he's listed I mean the

dual ability of those is very I agree is part of that cars ethos like and you can get M2 as I'm

looking at cars and bids around 30 grand with 26,000 miles on them really I've talked to people

that have these cars and they all profess the reliability of them and I say how many miles

are on the car and it's like 30,000 they're pretty fine so that might be a good choice check the forms

but a first gen M2 is a great choice it really is a 996 it's not that there's anything wrong with it

but if it hasn't if it doesn't have like service records and I don't mean service records that

are like the oils changed and blah blah blah I mean like at this point the newest 996's need like

bushings and they should have had like motor mounts and like all the shit that comes up these

are 20 year old cars so for you like a great great 996 that needs nothing is gonna be like 4550 grand

probably you know the kind that you're gonna like road trip and track days are like two

pretty high pressure environments you're gonna strain this car at the track and you're gonna be

far from home a lot you know a lot with this thing and and and these are out of state drives

probably for work or for something important I'm guessing so like it's not that these cars aren't

dependable but like the one you buy is gonna either have needs or you're gonna pay for the one that

doesn't have needs I know this because my neighbor just bought a 996 4s and he's into it it's a great

color combo it's got reasonably low miles and he got it for a good price it's a it's got like

60 some thousand miles I think he paid 40 grand for it but right in the first like week

some things have like come up you know like at the check engine light is this and he hit a bump

and heard a thing and now he needs to get it checked and you know just just stuff and then

do you think an s would be more expensive than a 4s because it's less sought after there are no

996 s's sorry just not regular real drive sure it'll certainly be less expensive than a 4s

less expensive than 4s oh yeah yeah yeah but 35 grand is a low but they all it doesn't matter

they all need something yeah yeah so like your money if you could buy like a five year old car

or a four year old car for that kind of money versus a 20 year old car if you like need it as a car

you know I mean I would do that like my home my neighbor like has a regular car like so if this

thing's in the shop he's whatever he's fine okay oh there listen there's a here here's a question

just real exactly related to what we were just that with 996 coupe price is now hitting 40k

for the good ones at what point is a 996 no longer quote worth it is it a 40k driving experience in

2026 or are there other two plus twos that deliver a similar experience for that price

there are no cars that feel like 911s yeah there's no similar experience doesn't exist

because there's nothing else that's a rear engine I mean I mean yeah it's just that's that's that's

why that car is what it is there's nothing like it there's no substitute one might say

but like 40k was 30k five years ago like in like inflationary reasons so like

everything else is like is more expensive it's not like there's some new option that's come out

that's affordable and affordable alternative to the 911 I mean they're kind of just like

isn't sorry to say I think this person has to write down you have to remove the rear engine

platform and feel from the equation and and think about what else do you want from a driving

experience like do you want precise controls do you want speed do you want grip and handling do you

want a quiet quiet interior on a highway like other aspects that the 911 also has can you get

those somewhere else for 40 grand or less like I think the M2 delivers a lot of those things just

as an example but if you wanted like outright grip and maneuverability you could drop to like a GR86

but it's not going to be quiet on the highway like a 911 doesn't have the and doesn't have the

curb presence of a 911 so you have to look at other things you want because 40 grand is pretty

cheap yeah I mean low budget yeah and and you know either you can pay pay for a good one or you

can get a cheaper one and have to put question mark you know into it once you get it home my my

fucking poor physical therapist got this 996 also a 4s and dude the cat blew out like a thousand

miles into him owning it and an OEM replacement cat was like nine thousand dollars and even the

magna flow like you know carb he wants to pass smog he's like no this is a fucking this guy's

like a hot rod guy he's a fucking physical therapist the the the magna flow replacement

that would pass carb it was about 3800 still a huge amount of money but it was backordered for like

four months and so homie's car just sat at bbi who felt very bad but like couldn't do anything

and he had to you know he had to do a bunch of stuff to this car he had to have the shifter

linkage adjusted to the service the cats have just have the the the car like corner waited

because it had coilovers on it but they were like set up all fucked up so you know he bought this

car and then he had to do immediately within a thousand miles like seven eight thousand dollars

where the shit and then the car had to sit for a while you know 10 to 20 percent the value of the

car yeah and that hurt that hurts because you go i wasn't planning i was you when you bought a car

you wanted to spend x you didn't if you if you knew you were going to have to spend 20 percent of

that right afterwards maybe you would have just bought a more expensive car yeah yeah so chef

carl's spice tolerance going to go into tuscany for a month in the fall doing a food wine tour that

sounds all right uh is it worth trying to rent an interesting car bike or scooter while i'm there

or is the transit and walking situation good enough well i mean if you're staying in tuscany

for a month the uh the food why so this sounds awesome by the way congrats if you're doing the

food wine tour presumably they are going to bring you to the places you need to go i hope so

you don't need any transport for that i think having said that when hannah and i went to

tuscany for our food and wine school slash tour we did rent a little hatchback alfa julietta

it was fairly shit it was not that fun um but at the moments that we weren't you know required

to be at a place like we did have options and then once the school ended we did drive around

to some different places and drive to rome and whatever um

so like yeah having having transport if you're in tuscany for a month you is probably good

because there's villages and you in between the villages i'm sure there's some kind of transit

but like if you've got the budget to rent a little something something you probably want to

yeah it's amazing you can hike but there's like the wine trail and you can like hike the wine trail

between the villages which is awesome um i love tuscany the user formerly known as donnie's cell

mate as men who had their uh early to mid 20s in one of the roughest times in american history

what general advice do you have for jesus right 20 25 year olds going through our more formative

years of adulthood right now shit uh yeah i mean i i was i was 26 uh when the oh eight crash

happened so i certainly saw saw one of them uh when i was in my 20s uh dude i don't fucking know

um there's a lot of unpredictables i mean with well there is one thing that's predictable and

that's that people will continue eating and shitting so if you get into an industry that

involves people eating or shitting you will be foolproof uh no i mean i don't know man uh

we should probably ask my dad that because he's been through like five recessions my dad when i

talked about the the economic situation right right now uh my dad liked to remind me that he

bought our first house uh in new jersey at 19 interest in 1979 for houses used to be a lot

higher the houses were cheaper and yeah the whole thing there but like that is true yeah no but uh

you say that but um i think uh i don't know patience maybe i think the power of compounding

interest i mean that is a thing like i'd say uh start investing or start at least saving

that's what i'd say is someone in their 20s like i don't know it's hard you're not making any much

money and you want to do a lot of stuff just save some money like five or 10 of your paycheck even

if you save it in cash which is depreciating because saving money now will give you options

or security later and that's something i wasn't able to do or figure out till i was like in my 30s

sure and it it can allow you to quit a job that's terrible or go back to school or a trade school to

get a better job or do a different thing like money gives you flexibility and you can't have you

probably won't have a lot of it in your 20s but you can at least have some where it gives you

less stress some options um that's a good point i would say that and look there are like to your

point matt there are going to be some jobs that will last through ai the the guy that's going

around and he was like a an ai programmer at google is saying jobs and trades like things that require

hands yeah he's like hvac robots are not going to be able to install crawling and crawlspace do that

shit for decades 100 years like yeah getting a job like that it'll pay well it'll be physical

it's it's not sending a computer but which is probably a good idea i mean jobs that require

some physical activity that a bolted in machining robot can't do is probably a good idea yeah uh

making things building things fixing things you know fixing people's people's real world problems

you know also like you know like you you just said i mean with with saving i read this book

recently and it wasn't a fucking very good book but but and i didn't get a lot out of it so that's

why i haven't talked about it but one passage that did work for me and i'm not going to be the guy who

quotes the book but he was talking about saving and he basically said you by saving you're buying

your future time like which is a good way to think about because i think one of the problems i hate

to be i'm not going to be the guy who's like these kids don't want to work like i some of the people

i talk to in other industries are very much like these kids don't want to work and i'm sort of like

look if they don't see that their work is building to something if they don't see that their company

or their society or their city or their civilization will somehow take care of them for the work that

they're doing but why would they try why wouldn't they just take every day off they can take or

and whatever and be a fucking slacker like if it all seems bleak then of course what are you investing

for right so i like understand that young people like feel that way and act act maybe act accordingly

but yeah if you can save money what you're buying is your future time which you know

odds are you'll live long enough to want some odds are like you'll you'll you'll want to have

some time in your future at some point where you want to be able to make a choice to short term

or long term not work yeah so like you kind of have to start early if you don't want to you

you don't want to find yourself at fucking 45 with nothing that's that's shitty yeah it's real

bad because you're you will also have to continue eating and shitting yeah and i yeah when i see

people that are like walmart greeters at advanced age and maybe some of them might be doing because

they want something to do but to be obligated to work at a very late age i think would be really

hard and it and especially physically difficult mentally difficult and to put yourself in that

if you can prevent that position now because you can if you're in 2025 even just with a little bit

of savings and money i would recommend that and also go out and live and meet a lot of people

from a lot of different walks of life and like go make mistakes and expose yourself to lots of

different stuff that too that too do the lancer evolution pretty good it's good when we think

of douchey or trashy drivers dudes in lifted trucks or g 37s come to mind first maybe for you

yeah in la in la they're 90 model threes yeah what do trashy women drive this question can't

get me in trouble at all um i think what is a trashy woman i think it always depends on where

you are like yeah regionally in the city you know shitty people drive everything some just have

bigger budgets yeah depends on how you define trashy too yeah a cooled 9 11 says thinking

about those hypercar collectors who rarely drive their cars do they service them based on mileage

or time and if time would you be hesitant to buy a low mileage example versus a high mileage car

that's had more frequent servicing i a lot of those folks send the car to service once a year

whether it gets driven or not so i i imagine most cars you're buying in that there's going to be a

couple of shitters out there there's going to be cars that have been you know crashed or

fucking oh that one was you know prince jeffrey's fucking car it's got glitter all over it and it's

full of fucking sand or something maintenance skipped no i mean we don't have a lot of hypercars

here at westside collector car storage but we have a lot of high value air cooled stuff and you

know your singers your gunthers your your roofs and stuff like that and and then your your run of the

mill quote you know supercars the the vast majority of these cars will go to service once a year

whether they're driven or not um so it it miles don't bother me on cars if i was if i was mclaren

shopping i'd want some miles i don't want to i don't want a car that's got 1500 miles and sat for

two years i'll take a i'll take an eight nine thousand mile car that's that's been through a few

services and been through a set of tires and you know because those you know seals like you want

that liquid splashing around to every part of the seal if it just sits and then gets serviced there's

stuff deeper in the engine or in the diff or whatever that's just not really getting any

attention from like the liquids and it might dry out quicker yeah ideally a car does you know

thousand to two thousand miles a year you know kind of minimum keeps things moving

dude elitist arrow on shopper says thoughts on the refresh 2026 lexus is um you know what's so

funny i didn't even know there was a refresh i was driving down labrea the other day and i saw this

weird looking lexus front end and i was like what is that a prototype what is it and no

it was the facelifted is which has a very prius like nose on it is that would you describe that

as it looks like a toyota eyes front end more so than a lexus i see like i see like g r corolla

and prius in this front end more than i see lexus i wonder if toyota has come to i mean

still has the giant mouth it does that lexus started um i think it's pretty good looking car

you know i'm not saying it's bad i just i i saw this on the street and i was like oh

shit i guess lexus went and did it without telling your boy over here so wait let me see 2026 i think

the prius has oh come on toyota i don't know i feel i feel like it i mean obviously it's a bigger

it's a much bigger grill but from the the the middle section up i think it's got

some prius in this hood looks very gr and 86 to me the bolt which i think it's a good looking

well you're right it's more it's more 86 and gr corolla than it is prius yeah um but i with you

i didn't know they were going to refresh it keep it going they this thing's got legs they keep just

changing the every couple years they change the headlights i know it's a facelift and i haven't

driven one since the is 500 the 500 i've been driven a regular one since along before that i mean

like 22 miles per gallon so bad 60 and six seconds that is these are bad numbers not

these two things are why i didn't buy an is 300 back in the day they're not that fast but they

consume a lot of gasoline yeah and that's still the case yeah how about that interesting um

um

revved up like a deuce front collision warning systems are i'm assuming pretty effective

what do you think of a rear collision warning system to potentially prevent getting rear ended

in sudden traffic slowdowns etc is a really fascinating question how do you suppose that

would work right so let's let's play this out i am uh okay here we go i'm here and uh i'm i'm

coming to a coming to a stop okay here we go i'm coming the microphone is traffic so i i come

i come to a stop okay and now here you are barreling down and so what is my rear collision

avoidance system going to do right because it because what are my choices a front collision system

stops you yeah because you are moving uh i don't know if they have evasive steer plugged in now

but like a rear one if you are stationary yeah it would have to then begin moving right and is it

it would have to look ahead of you and to the sides theoretically i guess to the sides see

what gaps exist around you and then decide to accelerate aggressively and shoot for a gap

between cars or moving lanes also while reading the language of the car that's approaching behind

you and going if i duck to the right lane that car is not going to do that it's going to stay

of the course and hit the car that's in front of me just seems like complicated and dangerous and

also if you're not if if this system has come on it's because a rear ending is imminent and you

haven't already taken an action sure so now the car is going to start driving by itself

and you're not going to know why aggressively and you're going to freak out and slam on the brakes

probably hampering it from doing the thing it's trying to do i think the all right if you really

want to prevent getting rear ended what we need are obviously rear mounted rockets that will blow

the car up will be more effective if it gets too close yeah or a ramp that you deploy you have a

ramp on the back of the car and if it's if it's pending it drops and it sends the car over you

also imagine how many you know how many times you drive a car and it has the front collision

warning that just turns on no like you're taking a left on a street imagine if it suddenly accelerated

because it thinks there's a rear ending happening uh-huh problematic how bbi autosport is there a

perfect place to test a car that showcases everything about its driving dynamics in one

location proving grounds yeah uh-huh yeah and oem no way i mean second to that i think there's

there's an argument for the nirburgring uh i think that you one would have to

because because the nirburgring is a place the nirburgring is also a thing that people like

when i say the car was tested on the nirburgring like you assume that somebody is out there trying

to go as fast as possible should one wants to they could also use the nirburgring as a road

to test ride quality to test all kinds of different things if you wanted to like the nirburgring

can be used for other things besides pure speed so i'm suggesting that you could use the nirburgring

for everything even things that are not related to speed but then you essentially have a proving

ground right uh well bmw they use los angeles and i think they do a lot of um efficiency

testing here we see them in the canyons a lot they're probably doing i mean i think in the can is

you can do ride quality you can't do limit you know grip or braking but i think what i would

want is a road that has bumps heartbreaking some sweepers and then uh just a lot of bumpy

shit so i don't one place but la pretty good yeah i mean i would say that the the the pairing of

a racetrack and you know angeles crest highway in the angeles forest is a pretty good place and

that's why most oems can be spotted up there once in a while yeah i blow horns uh can you

describe how the forces and sensations in the steering wheel and seat change when one fits

lightweight unsprung components like carbon ceramics or carbon fiber wheels sure um so

you'll have less resistance to start spinning the tires so when you accelerate you'll have less

mass to get moving so your acceleration will be snappier and more responsive you'll also have less

inertia going forward when you transfer from throttle to brake at the end of the front straight

and because your wheels and rotating mass is lighter your brakes have to work less hard to

slow that all down and then you have a gyroscopic effect of your front tires turning in a straight

line and that helps to keep your car going in a straight line so lighter wheels have less resistance

to turning in a direction off of straight and so it's like literally everything about a car

gets better the input the steering feels lighter because the wheels are lighter but it's also more

eager to turn because you have less gyroscopic effect going forward um the brakes work better

because they have less mass to stop the power gets down better because it has less mass to

start um so yeah you can really feel that kind of stuff

prayer prayer of the refugee wagon with montana plates great do either of you remember the

moment that you met do you remember what your initial thoughts of one another were and how

those thoughts may have changed was our first in-person meeting at the barbecue at redondo

was that my house right yeah you came to my house i know but i'm saying did i meet did i meet you

in person before that i don't think so writing for the site no i met you i met you over email

first okay and then you came to my house i like zack right away i did i was like oh this guy's

fucking cool great i have a friend i remember you seemed like a very confident adult and i work as a

server with a bunch of let's you know people frozen adolescents yeah because you were like

you had a house that you rented right and you seem to know everybody you're very much in command

of the situation and you had sideburns and i was like oh this is like this guy knows this person

kind of in charge of shit yeah you don't have those sideburns unless you really know and i and my

girlfriend lived with me so i guess you're like someone can stand this guy oh you're Tracy Tracy

was living with us yeah yeah you just seemed like an actual adult and i was like that's funny yeah

yeah yeah you didn't seem like a child oh that's but i was like i like this guy this is all right

yeah friends yeah i was i was very much in the when i my first year in california

i was very much like trying to make friends like i would say i'm not doing that i was i have so many

yeah and even so i think you meet a lot of new people yeah i mean i think we we hit it off and

then very soon after you you guys were like do you want to come help on shoots because you're

not insane yeah that was great yeah uh yeah i i would say have thoughts have thoughts my thoughts

changed i mean no not really i mean i don't i don't want to like

not have a good answer to that but like you don't you don't stick around for 15 years with somebody

unless you like like them i agree uh okay wait darien lux says

can you all right with the recent valhalla video can you list the seven figure performance cars

you've driven oh there's a okay veyron sharon konex egg pagani utopia konex egg excuse me agara are

you

pagani utopia pagani wyra karara gt 918 enzo mc 12

ssc some of the singers seven figures sing oh yeah every singer except a turbo dls and that weird

karara thing that no one's driven yet all the roofs everything everything no not the scr

no that was 700 800 okay but the roof the the the the the roofs that are over whatever the

rodeo is over a million and the the twin turbo one is over a million

uh i'm trying to think gunther's close gunther with tax the gunther turbo gunther turbo is over

a million yeah uh the zinger oh yeah the zinger is over two million yeah the

hmm there must be more there's definitely more i can't i uh hmm

hmm this is a tough one

that's a lot that is a lot mclaren f1 that was not over a million new but i think it generally

falls into what people would refer to is that sort of thing uh what are other are there other

um like hypercars that are that i'm not thinking of there must be i'm trying to work my way around

revolta i'm trying to work my way around the quail um no no not roto is like they're like

six is sevens but that's crazy but but no uh taut hill oh oh 9 11 k taut hill 9 11 k uh

uh obviously valhalla uh yeah i think that's a lot senna mclaren mclaren senna were those

under a million yeah okay they're like seven sixty all right but holy trinity cars i think we can

we can probably put them in the similar similar vibe yeah that's that's a bunch right i think

i think that's a bunch oops i tapped the table says uh congratulations it's 2002

and you're in charge of casting jason statham's vehicle for the transporter what is he driving

instead of what he already was driving i looked up the first ctsv was until 04 and that because

that would have been a fun one but in 2002 i mean i'm those are that's a very well cast

thing other aside the m5 i think would be too attention seeking the fact that he has a

seven series it's under more under the radar it's got the small wheels well i think that

there's supposed to be livery cars essentially right it's like this is a limousine yeah you know

and also fast are you could be it could be our nage t Bentley our nage t true not as subtle but

fast and straight line but british uh um uh gtr was gt st go for skyline skyline four door

yeah or understated i'll go chaser a chaser chaser that's kind of no one will expect that

but a lotus carlton that also would be that's what the bad guys would drive to chase you i think

tell me ccs is going to have one of those for sale soon we're selling one on on bat pretty

soon it's really nice uh christian says what do you think about rivian partnering with uber did

rivian partner with uber what if i if i missed that um um over rivian partner to deploy up to

50 000 fully autonomous robo taxis oh boy bold word choice rivian uh huh okay well

this is let's see the story uber will invest 1.25 billion through 2031 subject to the achievement

of autonomous performance milestones this is at rivian dot com funny uber is or uber or its fleet

partners are expected to purchase 10 000 fully autonomous r2 robo taxis with the option to

purchase 40 000 more in 2030 initial commercial deployments for san francisco and miami in 2028

scaling to 25 cities through 2031 is the r2 gonna have lidar yes okay i believe it will be at least

lidar ready yeah so we'll see i mean this is i don't know how many cars have come out and how

that's a lidar ready yeah we've driven a couple of them it's all about like getting the cost down

deploying them in the testing so this is uh and then 2030 is a i think a very bold timeline

considering they considering that in this press release they say this all depends on them achieving

autonomous performance milestones right so which that tells me that rivian has not proven yet

that they can meet those milestones sure they have to do that and then you know they'll sell

more cars but okay yeah and i mean rivians are an emotional purchase our friend tim i would say

has a problem with his want to purchase an r2 and it's he needs it just needs to be over already

yeah he needs to stop talking about it yeah just ask her out just just get it yeah just ask her come in

does it lower the brand value i mean listen not selling cars lowers the brand value and selling

40 000 cars to uber probably makes rivian shareholders feel nice even if it's even if it's a

only if you can make them drive themselves kind of deal i think i would say that

look toyota sells 400 000 rav fours a year in this country does does seeing them everywhere

lower the brand value and make people not want to buy them obviously not because they keep selling

for so if the car is good seeing them around won't i think diminish that value well i'll say

that lug i mean remember when lincoln came out with the continental in like 20 whatever it was

13 to 15 sometime and i thought it was like a pretty nice car and then i just saw like 10 of them at

the airport as liveries and i was like oh never mind i agree but i think the difference is that

with uber cars they look like normal cars with except for that little sticker the livery cars

they're all black they have the numbers they got the number on the back and you didn't see them

anywhere else right that's true crucially we didn't see them anywhere i think that's the big thing

yeah i think it's i think it devalues rivian less than if they said

rivian is now offering a ride share special where you can you know lease it by the week or something

you know for for that directly from the company yeah that would probably devalue it more

blurple says a car selling a question i'm ready to part ways with a car of on since new and i have

few questions the car is a project that's 90 finished needs interior and repaint what is the

best platform to resell a car that isn't carb legal or able to pass smog i'm not interested in

returning the car to stock do i set a reserve that pays off the debt owed oh god he's got a

project car with a loan on it yikes do i let the market determine the price which is likely less

than the debt owed or do i try something else to recoup the funds for modding the car damn

the obvious i mean dude fuck debt owed no interior no paint really hard because you're

you know it just means your market is smaller you need your market are people who see the dream

you had and they think they can complete it so yeah i mean selling what what platform to sell

a car that isn't carb legal it doesn't really make make a difference you can sell a car on any

platform that's not carb vehicle as long as you say as they'll say like you know can it be registered

and you just know right and it'll say that too but like bring a trailer cars and bins like they

don't go fuck they'll list it just means you're selling to 49 states and people in california

will be less likely to buy it yeah or sketchy people that's 49 states and some sketchy fucking

motherfuckers here um looks here here's the thing you gotta run comps for this car

setting a reserve based on what you need to get is a is a strategy i i get i totally get it

that may be totally incongruous with what the market says this car is worth so like ask yourself

if you auction this car and it doesn't sell and and you don't you don't get the money and you're

now stuck with the car because it didn't get to your threshold are you happy about that or are

you annoyed because now you're stuck with the car but you didn't take less or if you go no reserve

send it and you get less than your own and you got to write the bank a check put the cars gone

and it's over and you go on your life is which of those scenarios is better it doesn't sell you

still have the car or it sells and you got to take a little fucking haircut on the loan so

i would i would add a third option that i know this person said they don't want to do but if you

insurance fraud exactly right zack you light it on fire get full coverage i don't know no i would

i definitely would not suggest that in a public forum um people do it i was gonna say if you put

it up with a reserve that you need and it doesn't get met that is telling you you have to put it back

to stock so you right now you say i don't want to do it i get it's a pain i don't know how much work

has been done on this but that might tell you no one wants to buy this project you have to separate

it back to a regular car that doesn't have paint but at least have an interior and shit and then

sell that and then sell the parts and then you're still gonna lose money yeah so that's a bummer

yeah it's a bummer i man i don't know everyone's situation but i do not recommend taking your car

apart and turning it into a project if you owe money on it that's that's a tough place to find

yourself i mean if you're if you're a business that does like if you're building a sima car sure

oh no that's not what we're talking about but as an individual it don't do that that's hard yeah

that's hard uh let's save the rest it's been uh it's been a good run we'll save the rest for

the next cruise show thank you to our patrons for asking such great questions we appreciate it

thank you to everybody else for listening and playing along and we will see you guys next time bye

Vantge S Review; Upside Down Project; Detroit Car Week 2026

About this episode

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from The Smoking Tire