Why are the Rich so Timid; 930 Slant-nose; NSX for SALE?

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoke and Tire podcast.

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All right.

On this episode of the program, I talk about a revelation I've had about selling the NSX

based on the Miles versus Capitalism equation.

I've just been talking to a bunch of collectors for an article, so we go further into that

topic.

Zach has had a go in a very cool slant nose 9-11.

And we have some fabulous topics from our patrons.

That's the Smoking Tire podcast.

Let's go.

Are you sore today?

I'm sore and I'm so tired.

You are?

I had to get up at like 6.30 to take center to the airport, so I have not caught up

on sleep.

But yes, I am sore.

I was amazed at how sore I was when I was home, when I got home, and then how fine

I was today.

So that's pretty good.

Day 3 hamstrings.

The problem with hamstring work is that they finally stop hurting on Day 3, and you're

like two days away from having to do legs again.

I know.

Well, my trainer just went to Japan for 10 days.

That is helpful.

I have no, I'm so spoiled, no trainer for 10 days, and I'm home all of those days.

Don't you write down like, I guess you don't because he tells you what to do.

He also left me like a, it's not about that.

I'm not paying for that.

I know what to do.

It's the, it's accountability.

Sure.

I'm like, I'm exchanging money for my own accountability.

Totally get it.

I would do it.

Yeah.

I would totally do it.

It's probably, outside of cars, it's probably the most like luxurious thing in my life

is trainer.

Sarah, she's like, what would you buy if you won the lottery?

And I thought about it.

And I went, I would go to Red Bull's physical therapy building that surely exists

somewhere.

And I would be like, please fix my spine.

Yeah.

And all the money in the world here.

Yeah.

Zach and I just got back from a little trip.

And we had, we went, well, for reasons that will become incredibly clear soon, we went

to Zion National Park, which was quite lovely, great fucking perfect time of year.

It was gorgeous, fall colors, bright sun.

But I was slightly underdressed in the morning.

It was a little chilly, it was a little cold up there.

I sold Matt and my beanie for $1,000.

But it was, you know, we drove a very long way to take a, I don't know, reasonably challenging

hike.

And, you know, to go from long car to hike to car is not good for one's body.

Yeah.

So generally frowned upon doing things like that.

And yet here we are.

We did it.

So, soreness achieved.

But better, better today.

Nice to see you all.

So many fun things to talk about.

Not really.

There's a few.

There are a few.

The fun, okay, there's a couple things.

One is remember how when we talked a couple episodes ago when I was driving the 918 about

like what a bummer it is that most people that can earn enough money to buy a 918 won't

put miles on it because when it comes to car enthusiasm, like car enthusiasm is great until

capitalism can beat it.

If you're, if you're a capitalist, like hardcore, like if you, you know, if you're, if you're

a money making machine and you've got million dollar cars, you can't, the mentality of

the value of the car going down is too powerful, even more powerful than the dream of the

little kid who would daily drive that car.

It's, I think the feeling of loss in a human is like a psychologically hard thing to handle,

even if it's just my car that was worth 700 grand is now 678.

So what's funny is, is that it happens at scale, at like a, like an entry level scale.

Right.

Like the, I think the most entry level partial, the reason I bring it up is because

I just came from a, from an interview I did with a big time car collector, more money than

got, you know him, he's a, he's a friend of ours, he's a friend of ours, not a friend

of theirs.

And he's a man of incredible taste, okay.

There's no arguing this dude buys dope, interesting shit, deeply interesting shit, not a surface

level collector at all.

And he's got a lot of stuff that's incredibly unique and the amount of money that he just

told me he spends just keeping his shit going is crazy, crazy.

But this is what, this is what he's into and he can afford it, fine.

He, I took the time to poke into, he has a, I don't know if I can say what it is.

He's got a, that Ui Gimbala Marsian thing, that off, it's a, it's a, it's like a, it's

like a, the fucking, if the 9-Eleven Dakar was Bruce Banner, this is the Hulk.

It's based on a 9-Eleven Turbo, but it's a big, it's a, it's an off-road 9-Eleven.

Look at this fucking thing.

Yes.

Oh.

It's that.

This is Gimbala's kid.

Not Ui Gimbala.

Right.

What's the, Ui was the guy who died.

It's the kid, Gimbala.

Whatever the son's name, Gimbala.

It's not look, didn't Singer make a Dakari thing and then they got, they had to take Porsche

off it.

It looks a little bit like it.

It looks similar.

This one's a little more like Spaceship-y.

Okay.

It's not, I feel bad I said Ui Gimbala.

It's definitely not, it's, it's his kid.

I can't remember the kid's name.

Is it Mark?

Mark.

Yes.

Sorry.

Mark Phillip Gimbala, does that sound right?

Maybe?

Yeah.

Anyway, it's, it's an off-road thing.

Whoa.

It's very expensive.

They're not making a lot of them.

I was poking around it.

It seems very nicely made.

It's a manual transmission.

It's like a shitload of horsepower.

You know, it's, so it's based on the, it's based on the 911 Turbo S.

Okay.

And then it's taken from there.

So it's, so it's not carbon, it's metal because it's made from a Turbo S.

I believe the body is full carbon.

Oh, okay.

Except for maybe the doors.

Right.

But the Unibody.

It's not like a roof where the Unibody shut.

No, no, it's not like a roof.

Okay.

It's like a coach-built and Dakar-ized Turbo S.

Turbo S.

Whoa.

Effectively.

With a manual gearbox.

Whoa.

Yeah.

And I mean, look at this thing.

This is a, and I, you know, how does it drive?

It's amazing.

You know, I was like, dude, let's fuck, let's go out.

Yeah.

And rip this thing.

And even he, he said, I can't do it.

It's too valuable.

I go, hey, guy's name, fuckhead, because he's our age.

Right.

Oh.

Yeah.

But he's not much older than that.

Right.

And I could, I could talk to, you know, he's not that rich.

I could talk to him.

I go, what are you doing?

And he goes, it's too valuable.

I can't do it.

But what's the point?

And I go, I go, you can afford it.

Like you literally can afford it.

And he's like, it's not about, and he said, he said it back to me.

He goes, it's not a Ford.

It's a state of mind.

It's too valuable to, he, this, by the way, this guy's daily is a Dakar.

So it's not like, like he's, he, and he said, I'll go beat the balls off

the Dakar.

Will he though?

I don't know.

Okay.

And that, and I say that if you're listening with respect, because he might not be a off-road

go fast rally person.

He also isn't that, which I think is, is a skill someone learns either by doing it

like an idiot when we did in our twenties and then continuing, or you go to rally

school, you get a taste for it in your, in adulthood, and then you go keep doing

it.

Sure.

But I don't know.

And I don't know if he ever actually will do it.

He basically said that mentally he could, whereas in this, because it's valuable, and

it's, you know, A, it's, it was so expensive and B, it's worth apparently a lot more than

he, that, you know, he's turned down whatever, so multiple.

So it's already gone up.

Yeah.

So did you ask him, like, why did he buy it?

I didn't get that deep into it.

Okay.

I, I was really.

I know you were focused on a different topic.

I was there for a different reason.

I had a limited amount of time, but I just, I bring it up now.

Yeah.

And I mean, if, if, if the audience really finds it that interesting to figure out why

somebody who dreamed of maybe something and now has it might not use it for the thing

that it's meant for, like, dude, just look at any fucking boomer and their C five

Corvette dude.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, true.

Look at any, that was, that's where I was going with this was the other level.

These are the extremes.

The nine 18 is like close to the top, but not as a, we're now talking about a guy.

And by the way, he goes, he goes, it's funny that you were driving the nine 18 last week.

We're back at the collector's garage now.

It's funny you're driving that.

He goes, I just bought one with 13,000 miles because I would like to put a few thousand

miles on it and have it not go down in value.

And I was like, I think that's pretty smart.

But like also it could go down in value.

Like you can afford for it to go down in value.

The amount of cash burn you have to just keep this fucking whole show going.

Right.

Is right.

It's very good point.

Is money that you're not, you know, getting back.

And I so and I'm not like this as this isn't to shit on this dude.

Like, I mean, I just, I think he accurately the thing, the thing that I

thought about at a certain level with the nine 18, this guy who could buy a fucking

hundred and fifty nine 18s if you wanted, can't mentally get past.

There is a level where he can't use the thing for the thing.

Yeah, it's a higher level.

Right.

Yeah, like maybe someone like you or me.

Like if you got, if you got all of a sudden a bunch of money, like you

might buy, I don't know, a Ferrari 360 and daily it, like Venonatra or

something like that, right?

Yeah.

Like, but you, but you, you know, so there's a scale where it all happens.

I wonder if for him and other people that have, you know, earned the money to get

to that, like if every decision they made from when they were 16 to 40 has been

so focused on optimizing, building their bit, like everything they did was

optimize, build, don't like cut loss.

Yeah.

And it's just like it's in their DNA, it's their muscle memory now.

And they go, I can't, I can't turn that off when I'm thinking of my

cars, I'm thinking of it the same way I thought of my business, which is just

a bummer.

Well, yeah, because, because the way people justify buying cars to themselves

is that it's an asset that I'm not spending the money.

I'm parking.

Right, right, right.

I'm going to get it back.

It's a good investment.

They're going up, honey.

You know, that's true.

Whatever you have to tell yourself.

And I'm not better than that at all, by the way.

No, of course, you've bought a lot of cars, timed them well.

Yeah, and some of them, and the ones that I've had the most fun with were the ones that

had miles on them and some fucking English on them and they weren't so pristine.

I'm about to, yeah, I guess I can say it, why the fuck not.

I'm about to list my NSX at auction because it's, it's just, it's too nice to fucking

use as a car.

It's driving me nuts.

Can't do it.

That's my, but I'm thinking about it.

I'm there, I'm doing the thing where I like, I'd be careful how I get in it because I don't

want to wrinkle the seat and I don't want to do any of that.

It's got to go.

Can't do it.

You haven't driven it that much.

Is it?

So a question about this.

I bought it in 2023, right, 2023?

Yeah, I bought it in 2023, summer of 23, and I've driven it 3,100 miles.

Not that much, but like, not nothing.

Is it, is it too nice of a version of NSX or is it like something else where you, it's,

there's six cars, it's too many and you need five or something like that.

Yeah, I thought that car was going to be a car that I could like use kind of like an

everyday or car because it's easy and all the controls are light and everything.

But then like miles are kind of expensive on really low mile NSX's.

When I got to like hit 20,000 miles and I was like, oh, and now is like the difference between

one with 20,000 and 25,000 or 20,000 and 30,000 is a substantial difference whereas in a way

that one that has 60,000 and 65,000 is virtually no difference, right?

So just with that car and it's also like pristine and it's also, you know, it's

just, and also I have too many cars and the thing that car was supposed to be to run around

town car, that's the fucking banks.

All day, every day, all day.

Plus when you have press cars, when you have press cars, like if you were, if you, if all

you did was own this parking garage and didn't get press cars, maybe you'd cycle through

the six more often.

But when you added those in, you're like, well, I have to drive this.

And which ones get chosen, you know, top of the list, bottom of the list.

Don't have time.

Yeah.

So, you know, our friend with all the cars, part of the reason I chose him to interview

for this story, which is a story about people that have big collections and the nuts and

bolts of the big collections are, is that he has a full-time mechanic and a full-time

collection manager.

What's that like?

You know?

So anyway.

Wow.

But yeah, it just, it was, it had me thinking that it had, there's no scale that it doesn't

happen.

Now, it doesn't mean there couldn't be, you know, a car, the rare car collector that

truly doesn't give a fuck.

It happens.

You know, the guy who was like camping in his Ferrari F40 or whatever.

Oh, yeah.

Brian, something like that.

Yeah.

Great follow.

Yeah.

Like, you know, there's, there's people out there that don't give a fuck and

like, God bless them.

Maybe they've like, maybe that's like royalty money, or maybe it's like hockey stick profit

curve tech money where they got the fucking money so fast they can't spend it fast enough.

So whatever, whatever it is, like, there's ways around it, but like in your, in your

kind of like old school capitalist view of car collecting, it always beats the enthusiasm,

I think, or 90% of the time it does.

But I, but I think you hit on a good point though, where if someone, if it's a boomer,

or whatever, anybody who saved a lot of money for a lot of money to them for a long time to

buy like the thing, they had a thing on a poster on the wall and they were like, for 30 years,

I've been thinking about this vet and now I have one for them to go out and drive the

shit out of it.

It's probably really rare psychologically because most people are like, this is a

precious thing.

Yeah.

I worked really hard and I just like driving around, but I'm not going to beat on it

or I'm not going to risk it because I'm going to risk hurting this thing that I've

loved for 30 years.

So maybe it happens even at this high, high scale.

It does.

So it's a tough, it's, it's tough.

Because the cars are usually a lot tougher than you think they are, you know, and as

long as you don't literally break it, the next person just sees the number on the

odometer and the fucking service records, you know what I mean?

As long as you're not like literally abusing it to the point of breaking, engineers put

in a lot of effort to like, like nothing would go wrong if you drove your own car

like we drive press cars.

Like nothing.

They'd be fine.

Yeah.

Like they'd be totally fine.

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What's weird is with cars like the Gambala, like Porsche, Corvette, some of the less expensive

cars, whatever, they've made their name by being durable and winning races and doing

endurance stuff and people go, oh, you can buy used ones and they're still really strong.

But these really, really expensive one-off, five-off builds, their marketing video

is like, look what it can do.

But if no one does that with them, then that legacy kind of, it's all based on marketing

and kind of fizzles.

It doesn't have that endurance.

Yeah.

Well, that's part of why Porsche sports cars or so have become such a thing now because

for the last 15 years, there's been all of this both from within Porsche and from

the outside, all this media of like people doing shit with their Porsche's on top

of racing, like whatever, Triple Zero, Type 7, Luft, whatever the fuck, air, water, like

you see them out doing the thing all the time, yeah.

The number of times we're in the canyons during the week, weekend, and you see Porsche

groups go by, I mean, it's got to be 10 to 1 versus Ferrari groups or any other make

besides BMW.

Yeah.

They're not all super expensive.

No.

It's all like 996 and two generations back boxers.

Yeah.

Like that happens, too.

Mm-hmm.

Shout out to the Motoring Club.

But yeah, anyway, it just, it got me thinking.

What do you think is, where's the lowest, what's the, I can't think of anything cheaper

than like basically Corvettes where people would buy them and keep them that precious

for so little money.

Oh, the GNX, remember that documentary?

I think, I bet there's Volkswagen folks like Beetle folks, Carmen Gia folks, I don't know

what the entry price is.

I think there's probably a price floor of like a $20,000 car.

Below that maybe people, it'll be precious to them because they bought it and they love

it, but they won't preserve it because it's just below that price you're not

going to get something that's cool and in that pristine condition.

Right.

It won't be that pristine to begin with.

This happens a lot when people are buying brand new cars.

When you have the funds to be buying fine cars, brand new, that happens a lot.

Or if you're buying them used like new, like for instance, you're fortunate enough

where you could find a Testerosa with 300 miles on it or something, an 80s one, something

like that.

And I've now fallen into the low mileage trap twice.

I don't want to say it hasn't served me well.

I'll probably turn a profit on the NSX, unlike the BMW M3, but like, and then I've enjoyed

driving it.

I'm not saying I haven't enjoyed driving it, but it's, I feel, and you know, I talked

about it with Spike.

The NSX is a two-year experience.

Yeah, I agree.

Once you drive it a few times, you go, okay, I get this.

I get why people like it.

I get it's nice.

But like the other thing an NSX does is like go 300,000 miles.

So if you're not going to do that, you know, it's a really comfortable car for that.

Like I love them as GT cars, but around town, like the shifter is perfect, but the steering

is not.

Yeah.

Ergonomics are okay, even at my height in size and stuff, like the seats kind of

lean back.

And you go, oh, I understand why we have the car, the supercars we have today

because of this thing, but this was still a step.

It's a great car to own if you don't also own a GT4 or a Boxster Spider.

If you have a Boxster Spider, you can draw a straight line from this now better.

Yeah.

Almost any mid-engine car from the last 18 years is better than the NSX and is an evolution

of it.

Yeah.

It was fun for a bit to have the 328 and the NSX and the Boxster at the same time

because you could draw a line right through those cars.

Mid as fuck.

There's a shirt.

So that would be a good shirt.

So mid.

That would be a good shirt.

Hey.

Copyright.

We got one.

Sometimes we think in t-shirt.

I'm just going to write that down.

Yeah.

Just in case.

T-member.

I'll remember for sure.

Yeah, right.

My brain's fantastic at that.

Oops.

I put a new cartridge in my fountain pen today.

Since I've had this pen, it's been about, let's say, six months since I've had this

particular Lamy Safari in aluminum, I'm on my third cartridge.

Cool.

Which makes me very happy.

And actually, I found a fucking really good use for these pens.

The fountain pens are like different colors.

So I use a black one at home, a blue one at the office, and a green one on the road.

And so I can now go back and look and go, and just in case I care ever, where did I write

those notes from?

Are the notes also, well, if you're at the office and you write notes about press cars

and work stuff.

Yes.

Is it all in the same color?

See, a smarter person would use the color theory in order to identify almost like one

does on a computer.

Right.

Like highlighter.

A sheer novelty of where was I when I wrote that, because like I keep wondering, yeah.

This is, I like, this is like, I don't want to carry through.

I want to carry no pen.

Yeah.

I want there to be a pen where I'm at.

I don't want to carry three pens.

That's the wrong solution to this problem.

You've taken like the location services on an iPhone where you take a picture.

You've made that as manual as it gets.

It's analog shit.

It's analog as hell.

It's a fucking founted pen.

Yeah.

It's not, it's not even, you're not writing the location.

You're just doing a certain color.

That's cool though.

Totally.

It's going to organize your memories.

So, you know, in 30 years you can look through these and go, oh, I wrote this in Spain.

I am now, I'm proficient enough in the process of notebooking that I do not feel

the only way my notebooking process can be improved from here.

I feel is almost impossible, which is to actually have a notebook that's made with the columns

and shit in it that I actually need.

It's going to happen.

I would, I'll bet you whatever you want.

I've searched for this for a long time.

I know.

I've tried the bullshit AI.

My confidence in AI is completely lost based on the search results for this particular

thing alone.

It has, it has given me weeks, chat, GBT has given me, and I talk about my, my East Coast

programmer team, Mike and Brandon, they, they're my go-to computer people.

They're high, high up executives in computer shit.

They're my, all my go-to.

Even they, nope.

There were no prompts that resulted in.

Oh, and trying to find.

Finding if any company actually makes another note, kind of notebook.

But does any other companies that will make a custom notebook?

They will not make custom pages.

Got it.

They'll make all kinds of custom colors.

You can, you all, you basically cannot get.

I think this will happen one day.

It's one day.

It'll be great.

And if anyone really does know, custom page notebooks, they cannot be, repeat after

me folks, into your fucking chat, GBT shit.

They cannot be spiral bound.

Right.

You can get a hundred fucking spiral bound notebooks.

Custom.

Sure.

They can really look like a, like a moleskin style.

It's gotta be bound.

Hardcover bound book.

And that's, that's probably where the challenge comes from because some companies mass

producing these pages and then another company buys them and binds them.

Yeah.

Dude, I mean, and, and the amount like what sucks is like I would spend a good amount

of money to order a hundred of them and it would last me the rest of my life

and you, the rest of your life too.

But that's like, at a corporate level, that's like nothing.

Yeah.

You know, you go to, you go to a custom book place and it's like, that's like the

second smallest order you could get of even production level shit.

But the pressure of making sure it's perfect because then you know, you use the

first one, you go, you know, if I, because I, that's how you would say it, you

go, if I could change one thing, I go, well, we have 99 of these.

Yeah.

So maybe I need, I need someone to get, buy a blank one and then just

hand draw each pay.

I'll just pay a little person and you know.

They could do that.

Some day and do it on every single page.

Someone could do that in like a day.

On 300 pages?

Yeah.

They probably could actually.

If you have a, if you, you know, if your parameters are specific, if they

made a special...

If you just had a ruler and a, and then three colors of fountain pens, you

could do it.

Oh, wow.

Calling all calligraphers, I guess.

Or out of work architects or something.

Yeah.

They're good at lines.

Yeah.

So, that's a summary procedure.

Someone asked a question on the last show about buying a Porsche

Panamera with 14-way seats and putting in a 18-way seat.

Right.

We said that would be a stupid thing to waste time and money on.

Our, our in-house Porsche expert, Marco at TLG Auto, said it, you

literally can't do it.

Yeah.

It does not work.

Yeah.

He said, even if you plug in all the right wires, the programming

and the harness and the computer will freak out.

And he tried to do it with a GT3.

He tried to put in the race buckets and take out the sports seats.

Well, that's actually the more practical information for our

audience.

True.

If you want a GT3 with buckets, you got to buy the car with

buckets.

Yeah.

You can't go, oh, yeah, I'll just get a set of buckets on fucking,

bring a trailer or something, because it won't work.

You'll have airbag lights according to him and maybe more problems,

I'm not sure.

Yeah.

But basically, you can't do it.

But the reason I brought that up is because you got to just

drive one of his cars, which is a slant nose 930.

Is it a real slant nose?

No.

I forget.

It was converted.

But it's a steel conversion, right?

Yes.

Not a fiberglass one.

So in terms of how they drive, it's representative of what a

steel slant nose 930 would drive like.

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And now back to the show.

Yeah, so this is a 74, 9-11.

The second owner, when he took possession in 76,

had it converted by a guy in LA.

Well, actually guys, name is important.

His name is Danny McLaughlin

and he built a bunch of racing body work

for 935s back in the day.

So he did high quality stuff

but it also has a factory turbo, 930 turbo engine,

transmission, suspension and brakes.

So it's like, it's not a factory slant nose turbo

but it has all of the underpinnings of one

and then the body work is pretty damn legit.

And it's not made of just fiberglass.

I think the front valence is fiberglass

but the fenders, the hood

and anything else that was put on it is steel.

Yeah, this was funny because I've said

before on the show, like I didn't like the slant nose.

I think they look weird.

And I still think from some angles,

like the profile, the drop from the windshield

is aggressive. They are weird, yeah.

You can see everything.

But at certain angles, it looks rad

and I kind of am starting to get it.

Like the front three quarter or head on

with the fender flares, like it was a pretty fun thing.

This color is a desert beige.

It's pretty cool and everybody loves this thing.

I had a guy pull up next to me in a Panamera,

roll his window down and just start clapping

on the highway.

Young people were just like staring

and giving thumbs up.

It's the right period color and it's a very pretty car.

Slant noses are a little awkward to me.

I do prefer a pontoon fender in a road going 9-11.

But the interior of this thing,

this car is extremely cocaine.

This is got, it's got the supple leather

and all these fucking extra weird bells

and whistles in this thing.

Seats are maybe just like late 80s seats.

Very comfortable thing.

They're definitely not from a 74.

You couldn't get those in 74.

But whatever, they're fucking sweet power seats.

There's just leather everywhere.

And the leather is such, I mean it's got,

it just feels really high quality

because back then there's probably like one kind of leather.

And now there's like blends

and there's this synthetic this

or I don't know, it just felt thicker.

Felt more like baseball glove leather,

a little bit.

It was really nice.

Now, why am I, now I'm questioning myself about that.

What is the first year you could get

the eight-way power seat in a 9-11?

I feel like it was later than that.

But maybe I'm a fucking idiot.

This is it, this says it was offered from 85 to 94?

That sounds right.

With the, starting with the Carrera through the 964.

That's what that sounds more like.

This is on Pelican parts.

Yeah, because my 87 Carrera came

with the eight-way power seats.

My Safari car, that had power seats, that was an 87.

Okay, so yeah, not 74.

Yeah, yeah, eight-way adjustable and this person,

this is Pelican parts form,

but it says 80 something.

It was a nice addition.

I mean, this thing, it was very comfortable.

This would be a great car to drive

like thousands of miles, except it's loud inside.

And it's like the sound deadening technology back then,

just, I guess doesn't exist.

I mean, the tire noise isn't crazy,

but it's just air, tire, diff, trans,

and it's not insulated with 600 pounds of insulation.

And so I drove from TLG down here,

did, commuted around a little bit, drove back,

and I just was on the 405 at 65 miles per hour

going, it's pretty loud in here.

You know, there's just a lot more noise

coming into the cabin.

Yeah, the only really quiet 911 of that period

was the 959, which is not a,

it was like they did so much to make it that way.

It was really surprising.

Yeah, I mean, this is just how cars were back then.

Cool though, it was cool.

It was cool and fast.

Just a good thing, as Thaddy said,

to drive from here to your vacation house

in Santa Barbara, that's what it's for.

I wouldn't want to track it.

Canyon 710s, like, you know, the steering is light

and very, it's just like light, slower ratio,

and then, you know, gearbox is like,

there's a, not a stiffness to these things,

but it feels like there's rubber holding

onto the shaft as it moves.

Do you know that sensation?

Like you're going from two to three,

and it's like you're pushing through some rubber

as you get there.

You can't do like a fast throw.

Yeah.

And it's not difficult like a Tremac.

Oh, really?

Yeah, for ours, it's a slow gear change.

Yeah, it's a slow gear change,

but man, it was a cool thing,

and everybody loved it to see it.

Do you still, do you like air-cooled cars yet?

Yeah, I'm coming around.

I'm coming around.

I still think the argument of like,

the superiority versus water-cooled

is something that I will probably argue

for a very long time, but I think.

If the superiority is that they don't boil the water,

they don't even eat, I guess.

Yeah, but if you have a good radiator and stuff,

like those don't overheat.

I will say that I have had in my old cars,

I always, every time I have an old car,

I have a temperature issue of some kind.

Usually it gets fixed and then it's fine,

but like having owned old water-cooled cars

and an old air-cooled car,

it is really nice to not have one less gauge

you have to monitor.

Oh, you mean that your old water-cooled cars

have had problems?

Yeah, the Tundash,

the Ferrari 328 have had,

you know, occasionally an issue with either the radiator,

there's a bubble in the cooling system.

That's usually something simple like that,

you have to, but the 328,

I had to fucking burp the cooling system like once a week

and that's like normal, apparently.

And that's annoying, so you should not have to do that.

I think what I'm doing is I'm unfairly comparing

Porsches from the oil, yeah, I'm gonna say,

oil-cooled era to the water-cooled era.

So there's also different generations, different technology.

If I was selecting sports cars from 77,

then I'd have a fair comparison,

but it won't support my argument.

Compared to the shit that everyone else was doing

in the 70s and 80s, the air-cooled stuff

is absolutely mechanically superior.

Yeah, okay, then I will concede that.

Cause people get mad, they go,

I hate when we change to water-cooled,

and you're like, why?

That's when I get confused.

Yeah, no, that Porsche had,

they had to do that eventually,

but like, if you're talking about vintage shit,

fucking, it's expensive to maintain,

but it's very headache-free once you get it, you know,

right, and you'd never, ever, ever have to worry

about it actually overheating.

I think, I like air-cooled cars

cause they're old and I like old cars.

But then when I drive, I literally got out of this thing

and then four days later we drove this other car

and I went, oh yeah, modern steering ratios

are really nice, modern steering feel is better

in a lot of ways.

So there's definitely things that modern cars do better

even from a subjective standpoint.

Should have had an extra caffeine.

Well, this might wake you up if you were to come

into the business here and see this particular thing.

This is a funny thing I wanted to show you.

Oh, this is a roll into the shop?

Or mechanic advice?

Mechanic advice.

Is this normal?

And here's what you're.

Oh.

Is that battery smoking?

It's smoking or steaming.

And from what I've read below, both are bad.

Both are really bad.

Yeah, so this is like a battery charger

in the waiting room that's charging two.

In the lobby?

In the lobby.

Oh no.

And there's steam or smoke coming out of the edge

of one of the batteries.

Wow.

Yeah.

So we once pulled, we once had to pull out a battery

from a very old car and the battery was,

I mean it must have been from the 80s.

Like old, the car came in,

the car came in on a flatbed, did not run.

But we were, you know, asked to just try

the most basic measures to get it to run.

So we took the battery out.

And when we pulled the battery up,

like the top came off the battery.

Oh.

And like it spilled like some acid,

like actual, like in the, it was,

and we're like, okay, you know,

let's, now it's a problem.

Now it's a problem.

Whoa.

We had to go slightly hazmat.

That's really bad.

That wasn't great.

But yeah, if your batteries plugged into a,

any kind of charging device,

steam or smoke, equally problematic.

Yeah.

The advice there was leave the room immediately.

We also once had a battery that we was dead

and we tried to bring it back to life

using the big battery booster,

which does work sometimes.

Like batteries, like even when we keep them

on tenders, batteries die every five or six years,

even if they're on tenders.

But like, so we tried to,

we tried to at least,

we took the battery out of the car,

like was in this video,

but not fucking in the lobby.

And we had it on a battery tender.

And after about 15 minutes,

we started to hear it bubble.

Like it was a little gurgling sound.

Okay.

And it was an immediate unplug

and put the fucking battery outside.

Right.

You know, and we had to call

like the special electronics, you know,

disposal line and said,

hey, we want to dispose of this battery,

but it's gurgling.

And they were like, well,

put it outside and leave it there

for like 24 to 48 hours.

Before they come get it.

And they said like,

and like if it stops gurgling,

you know, then it's fine

and you can just take it to like,

you know, auto zone or whatever.

Or if it's still gurgling,

definitely call us back.

I was like, okay.

And you can also,

and this is like if like lithium ion batteries,

if they're swelling or steaming,

take them outside and call the fire department

because they have the technology to deal with it.

And like, yeah, that's why you call us

before it burns down a building.

Yep.

But no, I saw this is,

I get a newsletter.

Do you get oligarch watch?

No.

Do you get popular information?

Yes.

So popular information is like really important.

It's like an accountability newsletter

by a guy named Judd Legum.

And then when fucking Elon Musk

bought his way into the government,

they started a newsletter called Musk Watch

because he was like firehosing information,

actions and stuff that was like very consequential

so fast it deserved its own newsletter.

Yeah, Joe Rogan asked him about all of that stuff

when Elon was on the show recently.

And now they have,

they've added another one,

which is oligarch watch,

which I really recommend.

And it's just a roundup of like everything

these technocrats are doing every day.

And just, it's not even opinion.

It's just like, this person did this.

And like this person did this.

And it's just a record of the actions of these folks.

Is it fun to read?

It's real fun.

Oh, okay.

And so anyway, on the earnings call,

Elon Musk said that FSD drivers

will soon be able to text and drive.

Basically saying that's all people really wanna do anyway.

And so using the technology that we have

and the driver,

because they don't have camera monitoring, right?

So you look away, no problem.

And if you're on FSD, you're not supposed to use your,

you don't need your hands anyway.

So they're just basically gonna let,

release the permissions and let you text and drive.

This is illegal in 48 of 50 states and DC.

It's a good point.

And Puerto Rico.

Right, yeah, you get a ticket for it.

Like it's literally like,

if you're using that, that's still an L2 system.

You are in charge, you are driving

and like people are gonna do it.

But I'm just saying like,

he's basically just said like,

we're gonna let you do this thing in your car

that's illegal.

Well, and I guess then there'll be the question of,

I know the answer is no,

but is Tesla gonna go to every state

demonstrate this new technology

and show that someone could text and drive and do this?

Or will he leave it to the consumer

to have the discussion with the officer

on the side of the road?

Well, there's a parallel.

They're saying that they will have

a functioning robo taxi service.

And it's basically people in regular cars using FSD.

It's not an actual robo taxi service.

They haven't, like, there's people in there.

Why are you looking at me like that?

But is his robo taxi service mean you're the taxi driver?

You drive your car, pick me up,

and you use FSD and that counts as a robo taxi?

That's what they're doing now.

In Austin and they're saying they're gonna expand

this to other cities,

but it's just a regular car with FSD

and there's a person using it

and they're calling that a robo taxi

as opposed to Waymo where there is no driver.

And as of two days ago,

Waymo's can drive on freeways in LA.

Waymo's can now drive on freeways

in a couple major cities.

I think Phoenix, San Francisco, LA, maybe one other one.

Maybe Austin.

And there's a big different,

Waymo did a lot of testing.

They still do it around here

where there's a driver, a person in the driver's seat.

But they did it without customers

to get the data and proven, da-da-da.

But Tesla, again, is like, we need the money now.

So we're gonna call it robo taxi,

but there's a driver and then you get in the back.

The definition of robo anything

needs to be without human, doesn't it?

We 100% need to ride one of those and film it

and see how many corrections are made.

But also, he's saying that you're gonna text,

you can text and drive with this system,

which is a, man, I just, I hate everything.

I think every earnings call,

it seems like there's always a hyperbolic statement

to bring in more money, right?

Yeah, I mean, it's all bullshit, obviously,

but it's, this one is, see,

the thing is this one isn't bullshit

or it doesn't have to be bullshit.

Like, when he says like, stupid shit,

like, you see, he also said that you won't need,

the government could save money

because they wouldn't need like a parole department

because basically if you did a crime,

you would be assigned an optimist robot

that would follow you around

and make sure you didn't do crime.

Exactly, that was another very dumb thing

he said recently to bring in more money, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

An optimist robot that follows you

around and makes sure you don't do crime.

What?

That's how you sell 350 million optimist robots.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Right.

Weirdo.

That's, none of that is a thing.

So let's see, so selling and maintaining robots

would be cheaper than the parole department.

And I'm sure that the entire US parole department

is expensive, that's, those are humans,

but I think humans should probably keep an eye

on criminals more than just a robot

that follows you around.

You could have a surveillance state controlled by Elon Musk

that watches the criminals.

Right.

I'm just saying that to him seems like a good idea.

He's full, he's full of ideas, certainly.

But yeah, this one.

You know what he should do?

He should do an interview with Ross Duthat.

And then also I saw, do you see this morning

that Stellantis is recalling two years

worth of four by E-jeeps, 113,000 jeeps

because there was sand and debris got into the blocks

during the casting process.

Oh my God.

And they all have bad, bad engine blocks.

But they had a recall for these,

a few years ago because of fire.

The 4XE is having trouble.

Yeah, it seems like maybe you shouldn't get one.

But yeah, so this is the,

the self-destructing turbo engine.

I saw it on the drive.

It's the bottom of this page here earlier today.

It's, yeah, it's Grand Cherokees.

Remember we drove the Grand Cherokee 4XE?

That was rough.

Well, so they recalled 375,000 of them recently

over fire risk.

And I remember this.

Oh, you have parked it outside.

It's holding the park outside.

And now they're recalling, I mean.

Were the batteries steaming?

I think there's a risk of that.

They're steaming something.

So now, but now self-destructing turbo 4.

Sand contamination.

That's not great.

And I know we're not, you know,

there's a lot of recalls that happen across the industry.

Toyota, they just recalled more Tundras.

Turbo 6s.

They recalled even more of them

cause it's like a manufacturing problem.

I mean, it's not a foreign body like sand entering it

but it's causing a similar issue.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

That's not great.

Building cars is hard.

But man, the 4XE has had a rough time.

That remember the one we drove?

Yes.

It was terrible.

It was.

And it was in theory working properly.

And it was really bad.

Well, the hybrid integration was weird.

The way it would click on and off was weird.

Then the transmission programming was strange.

It was very like jerky and unrefined.

And we were at the airport, we got in it,

we drove for 12 minutes and I was like,

the RAV4 hybrid does not do this.

The one that my wife drives every day

is pretty seamless.

And this thing, it was like surging a little bit

and kicking on weird.

And more vibration.

I mean, it was just a bad execution of that idea.

And it was not a particularly old and beat car.

I mean, it wasn't brand new, but it was fine.

Yeah.

Weird, really weird.

Wait, oh, I just thought of something.

One other thing, and then it went out my brain

the other way.

Talking about recalls, talking about bullshits.

I don't know.

Do you see this funny definition

of each Porsche video going around?

Oh, I did see that.

That was pretty funny.

The definition of each 911.

Yeah, very concise and funny.

That was very good.

Yeah, shout out.

Redline Raphael did a great job.

I never heard back from the Angelus Death Highway guy.

I don't know if we talked about it on the show,

but I told him that I would consider

paying for humans to animate his next thing.

Oh, I mean, to do it of the level he did,

it would cost a lot of money.

Well, I don't know what it would cost.

I mean, I have no idea.

I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to be great.

I mean, it's not like the animation was

that great on the AI one, but I don't know.

I said, I emailed him, or I forget who he emailed.

He emailed me and whatever.

And I said, you know, your writing is really funny.

It sucks.

I'm against this fucking AI slop art.

And he was like, yeah, I mean, I get it,

but sort of what you're going to do.

And I was like, well, what am I going to do?

I was like, I don't know.

Maybe I'll fund some fucking human-made art.

So I said, find out what it costs

to get a 60-second thing made, you know?

And if it's like reasonable, I'll just pay for it.

He could do, because the writing

is always the most important thing, right?

Because if the writing was bad,

then it doesn't matter how cool it looks.

And also, if it's simple,

there's plenty of cartoons that had crap animation.

We met a guy at Mission Man's Source Party

who's like a voiceover artist

that's funding his own cartoon on YouTube.

But you could do the same Angel's Death Highway jokes

with like simple line art comic animation

and it would be just as funny.

That's what I'm saying.

It might be crazy expensive.

It might be not that expensive.

I don't know.

My guess is shitty animation is like 2,500 a minute.

Oh, I have no idea.

And like good animation is like 50 grand a minute.

Yeah.

I'm not saying I'm necessarily willing to spend

either of those amounts of money.

I'm just saying that like I don't know

and that's my idiot's fucking guess.

I got it.

I was working on a show concept a couple years ago

and the quote for an animated trailer for it

blew my mind.

So what are you talking about?

Trailer is 90 seconds?

They showed me a trailer for a different show

that was about a minute, two minutes long.

And it was black and white.

And they said that that had cost $50,000.

And I was like, how?

And it's just I don't know the industry.

So if people are listening, things have changed

where I was smoke was being blown up my ass

or something totally fair.

And I'm sure if you get animators in a different country

it's cheaper.

If you get them here, it's more expensive.

But yeah, I was really shocked by that number.

It'd be great like, well, no,

that would go back to AI.

I was gonna say if you could...

I was about to be like, I just invented AI.

You just did the Silicon Valley thing.

If only you could type a prompt

and get a line art of a comic.

I was like, no, that's what it is.

Yeah, that's what it is.

Yeah, you need to draw it and make it move.

Well, what you need is for people who make art

to be able to have homes.

Totally, I'm on board with that.

Yeah.

So if that's a thing that I can meaningfully

contribute to, cool.

That would be cool.

You could produce a Instagram cartoon

written by Angela's Death Highway.

Yeah.

It'd be funny.

In between, right after we sell our Netflix game show

that me and Zach and the guys from the dollop

got really drunk at my house and I made Benny Hanna

and we came up with a game show

that's actually kind of funny.

I would say we hung out.

Two of the group got very drunk.

Which two?

Me and Gareth.

You and Gareth.

Gareth and Dave was also pretty drunk.

He was by the end, yeah.

We had an amazing time.

They were super fun.

Me and Gareth were really drunk.

It was midnight and you were still doing,

you were opening new sake bottles

and I was like, wow, I can't do that anymore.

I just don't have it.

Gareth got to my house on foot,

which is fucking weird.

Like is really, that's strange to begin with.

I happen to be outside,

like shuffling a car into the driveway

and I see a shadowy figure arriving to my house

and carrying like bags.

It almost looks like a homeless person.

Very much so.

He had a backpack on that was stuffed to the gills

and he had like a Trader Joe's canvas bag

stuffed to the gills,

but that was stuffed with seven bottles of sake.

So if you, and holding a phone

with a charging cable hanging from it

because he was watching the Packers game,

but if you saw him walk past your house,

like one of your neighbors,

you would 100% think that that is someone

who's looking for a place to sleep

and get hammered for the night.

Yes, 100% and he walked basically a mile.

From the grocery store to my house

with the, do this tote bag of Trader Joe's

with seven bottles of sake and it was so heavy.

This must have, this bag must have weighed 25 pounds.

And he was draped over his like forearm

and it was dug so deep in his forearm.

It was fucking crazy.

I was like, you're out of your mind, dude.

It has a handle,

but that hand was being used for the Packers game.

Yeah, so he was, I mean, he came to party.

He came to play and we did not disappoint.

Benny Haun at home with all the sake

and then we came up with a game show

and some other pretty funny ideas.

And it was a good game show.

Like, and you guys were wasted.

I'd had like a few sake

and Sarah, my wife was there

and she was basically sober.

And like you were, we heard you laughing

over at one end of the table

and then you just pitched for the show with the title

and she was like that, oh yeah.

She was waiting for it to be like this stupid drunk idea

and she's like, no, that makes a lot of sense.

It's not bad.

No, it's not bad at all.

You know, like, what we were doing at dinner

was like not all that much different

from an actual Hollywood writer's room.

For sure.

I mean, that's basically what that is.

That was a good time.

So maybe we'll have a game show out of it.

I don't know, that would be awesome.

Or we might go tour with the dollop

in foreign countries, which would be,

they probably forgot about, but I would.

We're not forgetting about it.

I'm not forgetting.

Yeah, that would be so rad.

Fucking TSTX dollop Reykjavik, let's go.

Yeah, if you listen to both shows,

tell them that you want that to happen.

Yeah.

Okay, the people, let's go to the people.

And the people are very important to us.

We love you over at patreon.com

slash the Smogntire podcast.

Y'all is at the best.

He keeps the ship afloat.

I think we...

You can ask questions for the live show

and then listen to them during the live show.

You can get the show the day it's recorded

instead of waiting to Tuesdays and Thursdays.

You can get extra show every month.

You can get ad free show.

Your time is valuable.

In fact, there's a literal price you can put on it.

And I believe it's $8 a month.

Yep.

And yeah, for $8 a month, you can save minutes.

We should...

You can save TST.

Well, you can, but like at $8 a month,

we should see how many minutes of ads.

It's nine minutes a show, right?

Of ad reads, probably.

Yeah, nine minutes a show.

So $18, so $36.

So yeah, if you make more than $16 an hour,

this is actually profitable.

That's a great point.

That is like, this is how rich people think.

If you make more than $16 an hour

than getting to that level of Patreon

and not having to have those ads,

that is a profitable enterprise, my friends.

So let's see what those folks have to say.

Plus, if you come up with funny usernames,

I'll read them.

Jin and Taconic State Parkway says, well,

for Zach, thoughts on performance variants

of the Jeep Grand Cherokee,

the original SRT-8 all the way through the Trackhawk.

I'm considering a regular SRT

as my next do everything car.

That's the 6-4 Hemi car.

I mean, they're fun, but I don't,

that's not what I want from an SUV.

I mean, we drove that one years ago on that rally

and I remember we took it to the track in Colorado

and we were chasing CT-S's and stuff.

Like it was pretty quick.

And it's a fun amusement park ride,

but you just lose so much in miles per gallon.

The sporty suspension doesn't do anything for me.

If I'm buying an SUV, I want it to be a do everything

in terms of off-road, comfortable, quiet,

reasonably efficient.

So I just don't think it makes much sense.

They don't do anything for me.

I mean, it was a fun press car

and then I forgot about it immediately.

Also some of the worst fuel economy imaginable.

14.

14 is a non-track-hawk.

If you're talking about a track-hawk,

it's single digits all fucking day.

I don't know whether I'm the Boxster or the Jag.

They say the first generation businessman

builds the business, the second sustains it

and the third blunders it away.

Is there a parallel in this generational trend

and why is it the Mitsubishi Eclipse?

I mean, that's kind of funny,

but like, sure.

Focus groups, efficiency regulations and things like that.

It's the crossover-ification of everything, I mean,

but if you pick a beloved model of really any car,

like let's, and you go a couple of generations

down the road, it's usually kind of watered down, right?

Isn't that why people like the originals of stuff?

I mean, I guess it's like it's like it's the original

coontosh, narrow body, periscopo, right?

And then you got the wings, like mine.

And then you got the anniversary.

You know, same kind of deal.

I think you can find that.

I think there's good payloads there for sure.

How about Mustangs, right?

65, 65, 66, pretty fucking good.

Yeah.

77 to 69, oh yeah, that's the shit.

73 to 75, the long schnoz.

Right.

And it holds up pretty good.

Well, then you came into like oil crisis stuff,

so that's outside factors.

But I think in the company, the Mitsubishi example's tough

because the Eclipse is not a core thing

to that company's business.

Like the 911 is Porsche, right?

So of course the sports car is gonna be kept

very consistent for the most part

and be a high quality thing.

But the Eclipse, I mean Mitsubishi,

like they make fucking airplanes and cranes

and commuter cars and stuff

and they made a sporty car.

But I don't think it was one of the pinnacles

or sorry, one of the pillars of the Mitsubishi brand.

And so they were able to, they messed it up.

They didn't put as much care into it, I think.

Yeah, yeah.

Under the cuff says, do you feel the lore

of the NSX has been justified?

Yeah.

I think the NSX delivers on all the things

it's supposed to deliver on.

But it's a 30 year old car at this point.

So more than that, 35 year old car.

Sure.

So compared to other 35 year old cars, it's awesome.

Compared to 20, 25 cars, maybe not so much.

But it's a classic.

So in context, they're fabulous.

Of course.

KEI, JETRONIC.

That one's tough because when I read it out loud,

it just sounds like the regular thing.

But when it's written, it sounds very funny.

Everybody wants a slick top, doesn't specify the model,

because it saves weight on the top of the vehicle.

But what is more slick top than a convertible?

Well, that's not how that works.

I don't understand why convertibles

don't get more love,

especially as it relates to performance.

All of the 80s, 90s cars people like to drive

as a slick top were offered in manual convertible tops.

So they were, I'm not even gonna read that last bit

out loud because it's factually inaccurate.

Convertibles are not often lighter.

The center of gravity might be lower

because the top is cloth and with thin bits of metal,

I guess, in those older cars.

There's often significant bracing

that goes into the doors and all that stuff.

And so in almost any example you could find,

the convertible variant of a car is gonna be heavier.

Let's pick one.

Let's just pick one.

They say 80s, 90s people, pick a car, Zach.

You wanna go Mustang?

Yeah, sure.

SN95 Mustang GT, curb weight, coupe and convertible.

I bet you got about 300 pounds,

200, 300 pounds heavier for the convertible.

Center of mass being lower, that's true,

but I think the extra mass does worse

for the performance than the mass being lower,

not to mention structural rigidity.

Until you get to really high-end cars

like carbon tub cars and stuff like that,

the coupe is a more rigid structure.

Okay, Zach's got some numbers.

So this is from...

This is a 1995 Mustang specs.

It's from, I don't know, some...

LMR.

LMR restoration.

These are pretty much known weights.

I'm not, okay, here we go.

V8 coupe, 32.76,

V8 convertible, 34.52.

Yeah, so it's an extra 175, is that right?

175 pounds?

Yeah.

It's a little less difference than I thought, actually.

That's surprising.

How about in the V6?

The V6 coupe is 30.65.

Yeah, it's about the same.

Same weight chains for the V6 and V8.

Yeah, so...

Yeah, so in that car, it's 175 pounds heavier.

And I can tell you for fucking certain

that a GT convertible Mustang of that era

is not as rigid as a GT coupe.

So that's what...

Now, I don't wanna shit on convertibles

because there's a lot of value in convertibles,

specifically because a lot of enthusiasts don't want them.

Convertible structures are a little flimsier

than coupe structures.

And the way that manifests itself is you can feel

a little bit of a little chassis jiggle sometimes

over like railroad ties or things like that.

Basically twisting force.

Yeah.

Because there's nothing on top binding the ends together.

It's all bound down at the lower part.

Right.

And so carbon tub cars solve that problem.

The coupe and the convertible have the same rigidity.

So that's at the very high end.

And then at the medium high end,

convertible 911s like modern ones like 991 and up,

those feel tight.

The two plus two convertibles

are the ones that rarely feel.

When you got a back seat, bigger car,

like even at the high end,

I mean, even if you get like a Bentley GT convertible,

you can feel a little jiggle sometimes.

Just the amount of space that's open.

You know, there's just a lot of room for it to twist.

But like having said that,

like if there's a difference in cost

and usually the enthusiasts keep the coupes higher.

So if you wanted to get into a car,

a convertible is a good way to do it

at a lower price point, particularly 911.

911 convertibles are like fun as hell

and not a lot of people love them.

Can you zoom in on this one?

Oh yeah.

Okay, Jerry was a race car buyer.

Pretty good.

That's a good name.

Getting ready to get rid of my F80 M3.

I have a single mass flywheel and twin disc clutch

as well as some carbon chips.

Are those like the?

I think it's a damage to the roof

because he says later he can get it repaired.

Okay, chips in the carbon.

Is it worth my time to swap back to the stock clutch

and get the carbon roof repaired to bring in more money?

I'm worried the clutch feel and flywheel chatter

will turn away some buyers.

The OEM clutch setup is about 3K.

I would DIY the install.

Carbon roof repaired is about 1500.

Oof.

Okay.

That's tough.

So the question is,

I, so 3K, so this is just a math problem.

You know, I think your car will be more popular

with a stock clutch.

Yes.

Especially if it's a brand new one.

Yeah.

I mean, if it's like literally a brand new stock clutch,

like that's nice, that's good.

Unless it's like 800 horsepower

and we'll blow the stock clutch

in the first third gear pole.

But if you're selling one that's 800 horsepower,

the buyers know it's modified anyway,

so then you wouldn't have to change the clutch.

Sure.

Now the question is, I don't know

if it will raise the value by 3K.

Like,

I probably would not do the roof.

I'd probably leave the roof.

Assuming the wear and tear on the roof

is commensurate with the rest of the car.

If the rest of the car is like,

is a really nice example that's gonna bring good money,

then I would do the clutch.

If it's like kind of a, not a beater,

but like if it's high miles and track time

and you're like the third owner or whatever,

maybe not.

I agree and I think you'll probably have more trouble

selling it in the normal avenues.

Like, you're not gonna get as many hits on,

I don't know, like we'll bring each other maybe,

but just putting it on a CarMax,

not CarMax, Facebook Marketplace.

I think you're gonna have to go to the people

and you're gonna have to like put the car on forums

where people track their cars

and they know what the single mask flywheel's for.

You have to go to the buyers that are informed on this

and might want to do that to their own car

or are planning to drive it the way you drove it

and then they might see it as a little bit more of a boon

than someone who wants a stock car

and they're like, well now I gotta take this shit off

or I don't like the feels

or you gotta convince them that it's good.

You don't want to do that.

Yeah.

Jeremiah Dicklesworth, the third.

Am I crazy to want to trade in my 991 Turbo S

for a Lancia Delta Integrale Evo?

I have 10 cars.

So this would not be a daily driver,

but more of a North Carolina, Tennessee mountain toy.

Tail the dragon car.

It's pretty cool.

Yeah, Turbo S is not helping you on tail the dragon.

That's a lot of horsepower, a lot of weight

and those are some tight and technical canyons.

God, are they good fucking roads though?

So if you've never driven a Delta,

they're really cool, but they're different.

They have very like unique characteristics.

They feel like the sort of grandfather of a Golf R

and a Focus RS and stuff like that,

but they have a weird kind of driving position

because it's a fucking Italian car from the 80s.

They're kind of tricky to maintain.

I don't know where you would take one in your area.

And if you can't fix it yourself,

you might have an easier time servicing your Porsche

or any Porsche than one of these things.

And it's an old school transverse

Haldex type all wheel drive system.

And so it's mostly front wheel drive,

but sometimes a little bit goes to the back

and or some goes to the back.

It's a great attitude.

It's a great look.

They're fucking cool, but it's a 30 year old hatchback.

And so it's gonna feel kind of slow

and kind of weird and, you know, you got 10 cars.

So like that's okay, but and I could, you know,

we've spent enough time in Turbo S's to know that you can,

they could become normal cars like pretty quickly.

Very true.

It's not that they're not awesome and special,

but like, if you got one of those

and you drive it for a couple of months,

like it becomes just your car.

Yeah, especially on the roads there that are so tight,

like you're not, you should get a 911 T or something

and with a shorter rear gearing

or you can't only do that,

but if you want something more exciting, I get it.

They just, the dots might be tough.

That's a passion car.

If you look at it and you think it looks so amazing,

you're not gonna hate it.

Like that's, I think what that's really what they want.

Like if you see a photo of one

or you've seen a saddened one and you go,

that looks, that looks like what I fucking need,

you probably won't hate it.

They're quick, they're fun to drive,

they make weird noises.

They just can be a little bit annoying to deal with.

Ron Zara's daily is his.

I mean, I saw him at Willow and I was like,

oh, is that thing blowing up again?

He goes like, he goes, it did have a problem

when I first bought it.

I fixed it.

I don't know if you need advice,

damn him, he'll know who to go to.

But he's like, after that, I take it to the store,

I take it to stuff, like he drives it a lot.

So you gotta get it sorted out,

which could be tricky like you said in that location.

But once you do, it might be okay.

Yeah.

I mean, alternatively, you know,

if you wanted to get weird,

you could like call up HPA

and get like a nutty, you know, Volkswagen.

Yeah.

For a lot less than a turbo S,

you can have him put you a fucking monster engine

in a Golf R and have the craziest little nutty sleeper

down there.

That's kind of the modern Delta Integraale.

Yeah.

That could be a real good time.

Yeah.

Or you know what?

Even like, I mean, this is a person

who's passionate about this car.

So there's no practical thing,

but like it also makes me wanna have

like a really sick Honda.

Yeah.

Like a sick hatch with all the suspension

and the right seats and the perfect shifter.

Like, you know, yeah.

Flying monkey, can't fucking figure out a weekend car

all over the place, can't decide on anything.

I'm looking at 996s and 7s,

but the looks and sounds of a Shelby 350

and a Mach 1, 50 or 60 grand.

Southern New England, no canyons, twisty back roads.

Would I be nuts to consider a Mustang

over a Porsche for back road driving?

Must have a back seat for the little one and three pedals.

I mean, are you nuts to consider a Mustang or a Porsche?

No, you're not nuts.

Shelby 350 is rad.

Yeah.

And a Mustang Mach 1 is rad.

And the back seat is a little bigger than a Porsche.

And very slightly bigger than like,

I was gonna say you could get in a mirror.

Yeah.

But I think the back seat of the Mustang is bigger.

Yeah.

I mean, are you nuts?

No, not at all.

The only difference I'd say is the Mustangs

will feel like much bigger cars.

They're fucking big.

And not all the roads in New England are big.

I mean, a Mustang's not too big

for New England roads by any means.

The view out the front also makes them feel

even bigger versus a Porsche.

So, I mean, fortunately, you could try one of these

and then the other.

You might be able to fucking turro a 997, possibly.

You might be able to try some of these on turro, possibly.

Is there a Ford?

No one's got any, they're running dark horses

and all the Ford experience stuff now.

Oh, yeah, Skip Barber's using the old Mustang.

They're using the old ones, yeah.

Dude, I think, I don't think you would be nuts

for back road driving.

I think the Mustangs will probably be cheaper to run,

cheaper to service.

996's are 25 years old.

Now 997's are 20 years old.

They're gonna have needs.

Even if they're 50 grand, they're gonna have needs.

My physical therapist who I'm going to see

right after the show, he had a little Indie shop up here

working on his C4S.

He bought it for like 42 grand.

He put another seven, eight into it.

It just wasn't ever quite right.

I had him take it to BBI, another 10.

But now it's right.

Now the car's sorted, but like turns out

that first shop didn't know so much.

And so now he's sorted, now he's good to go,

but like, if you buy a Mustang Mach 1,

that should be a turn-key experience.

That's like a three-year-old Ford, you know?

Like that shouldn't be, that's a different thing.

So, and budget and long-term maintenance budget,

also not the same thing.

Belgian Spa Day bought an Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint for 25K.

I think it would be a pretty good buy.

Is there another car for 25K that would be

a better fun daily?

Depends what you define as fun daily.

I mean, if you live in the city,

I might rather have a GTI, smaller, hatchbacks are good.

But I feel like a lot of people

who bought 2020 and up, Giulias liked them.

25 grand for a good-looking sedan,

assuming it's nice, that sounds like a pretty good deal.

I wish I could say I was looking

at $25,000 daily drivers for comparison,

but I genuinely don't know what that gets you

in the current market.

Maybe I shouldn't have read that question,

because I didn't have a good answer.

I should try that first.

Listen and sometimes watch.

Now that manual swapped C63s are a thing,

assuming it's done well,

would that significantly improve how much fun it is?

Yes, we have said this over and over about,

not over and over, a few times,

about all early 2000s Mercedes

would be improved with manual gearbox,

assuming it's done properly.

Okay.

You probably have.

Okay, I have to go soon.

Yeah, you gotta go soon.

Three days of graceful racing.

I'm doing an engine swap on an ND Miata.

Tremac is doing a release of the Transaxle

from the GT500, which we talked about.

I plan on making 500-wheel horsepower in this Miata.

Would you keep it manual,

or would you swap over to the DCT?

Money, no object, wiring, no problems.

Okay, if you were building a 500-wheel horsepower Miata,

would you want a manual or a DCT?

I would want a manual.

I wouldn't unless I'm racing it.

Yeah.

You know, if I'm doing,

yeah, even then, manual,

because then you've basically made

a tiny Japanese Cobra.

Yeah.

And it's gonna be fun.

I'd want the manual.

I think it would be cool.

I've seen that,

I don't know if Tremac is the DC,

because that's a Transaxle, not a transmission.

So like, if you're doing an engine swap,

Miata uses a traditional transmission configuration,

not a Transaxle.

So like, wouldn't you use the BMW transmission DCT?

That's probably more places.

Yeah, that's a good point.

I'm seeing that being used,

I saw some guy did a Mark III Supra with a BMW DCT.

Whoa.

That's pretty slick.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm into that.

I don't want it.

I don't want it for myself like, cool, you know.

So, but this, I don't think,

I mean, the question of would you want a DCT is legit,

but I don't think that's the right gearbox for that.

Probably not.

I think, cause you could probably put a Tremac in the Mazda,

but it's like the Tremac 6060, not this Tremac.

This is good to be the last one.

Rage against the touch screens.

When you're in a social setting,

not car related and you don't know many people,

how do you recommend approaching a stranger

if you spot them wearing a high-end watch?

For example, hey man, nice Patek might be too forward

or maybe the person doesn't want,

oh, can you scroll down a little bit?

Maybe the person doesn't want attention

to what's on their wrist.

Okay, advice on watch enthusiast engagement

without making it awkward in a group.

This is an easy no-brainer.

Every single person wearing an expensive watch

wants you to notice it.

Every single one.

Otherwise they wouldn't fucking do that.

There's no difference on your wrist

between a $1,000 watch and a $200,000 watch most of the time.

I'm not, they fit different and blah, blah, blah, blah,

but like, let's get fucking real.

They all want you to notice.

So maybe they don't, okay, it doesn't mean you scream,

hey man, nice Patek, I could cross the room.

But you go, walk up to him and you go,

hey, hey bro, you fucking do the nudge.

Like, yo man, I see that.

You point at the wrist, I see that, I know what that is.

You know, you don't even, if you do notice,

oh, is that a fucking, is that a 1542 B?

There's a, you know, and if it's like,

if it's not some like super baller watch,

if it's a Speedmaster or, oh man, speedy, blah, blah,

like, they all want you to say something.

They all want you to notice, trust me.

If it's the only people who might side eye you

is if they're literally wearing like a Submariner,

because that's just the thing they thought to buy

and they're not real enthusiasts.

Like that can, hey man, and you're like,

they're like, whatever, man, I just like got it.

Like that can happen.

But if they're wearing an AP

or they're wearing some like real shit

or a Grand Seiko, you see someone in a Grand Seiko,

go talk to them.

They'll talk your fucking ear off about that motherfucker.

You know, like, they want you to see.

Like, just like, don't like,

hey, is that really 300 grand?

Like, hey, you know.

We want to talk to them, not like, identify them.

I think there's a difference.

Yeah, you want to identify yourself

as an enthusiast of this hobby.

Hey man, is that super cool?

Is that what I think it is?

I've never seen one of those in person.

You know, I saw that on Hodynki,

but I've never actually seen one.

Wow, look at that, oh cool.

Oh, I've just got to find whatever here.

And like, you're in the club.

It's all good, yeah.

Thanks everybody.

We're gonna end this one

because I'm gonna go see my broke physical therapist.

You know, it's funny you tell me this

because I've been there a couple months

and I got a text from them a week ago

that was like, hey man, we'd love to get you in

for some sessions.

Yeah, he had, I mean, between this

and he bought an absolutely tragic Land Rover Discovery.

He wanted to be Disco Guy.

Oh yeah.

And he is not Disco Guy.

Disco Guy is like, you're like a fucking dirt,

Disco's are for dirt bags, seriously.

You have, cause you have.

The world has a Disco.

Huh?

The world has a Disco.

Yeah.

Does it run?

Like, yeah.

Yeah, it does serve.

They're for dirt bags.

And like, this is, he doesn't wrench on himself.

You know what I mean?

He's like, he doesn't know.

It always feels broken.

He couldn't, yeah.

Okay, yeah.

He got rid of it.

He got a fucking 2023 Tacoma.

There you go.

That's what he wants.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank you to our patrons

for asking such good questions.

We love you.

Thank you to everyone else for listening.

We appreciate you just as much,

but not really as much.

And yeah, and we'll see you guys next week.

Bye.

Why are the Rich so Timid; 930 Slant-nose; NSX for SALE?

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