Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
114:25
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Corvette is a famous two-seat sports car made by Chevrolet. It is known for offering high-speed performance similar to expensive European exotic cars but at a much lower price.
Car
Hyundai Genesis
The Genesis was a large, comfortable luxury sedan made by Hyundai. It was designed to offer a smooth, quiet ride and premium features for a reasonable price.
Car
Porsche 911 Turbo S (992.1)
An incredibly fast, high-end version of the famous Porsche 911 sports car that can accelerate like a rocket ship while still being comfortable enough to drive every day.
Person
Matt Quick
A specialist mechanic and shop owner who is famous for taking modern, powerful Mercedes engines and putting them into older, classic Mercedes cars.
Part
limited-slip differential
A part in the car's axle that helps prevent one tire from spinning uselessly on ice, wet roads, or during fast corners by sending power to the tire that actually has grip.
Car
Mercedes-Benz 190E
A classic, boxy compact sedan from the 1980s and early 90s that was built incredibly well and is highly loved by car enthusiasts today.
Car
Mustang Fox Body
The Mustang is a famous two-door sports car made by Ford. It is known for its sporty styling and loud, powerful engines.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Mustang is a popular two-door sports car built by Ford. It is famous for its sporty styling and loud, powerful engines.
Concept
sleeper
A car that looks completely normal, boring, or slow on the outside, but has a highly modified or powerful engine underneath that makes it incredibly fast.
Car
BMW M3
The M3 is a faster, high-performance version of BMW's standard 3 Series compact sedan. It is designed for drivers who want a practical four-door car that drives like a race car.
Car
BMW E30
The 3 Series is a popular luxury sedan made by BMW. It is widely regarded as the standard for cars that balance comfort with sporty driving.
Car
G-Class Gwagon
The G-Class is a large, boxy luxury SUV made by Mercedes-Benz. It was originally designed for the military but is now famous for being a high-end luxury vehicle.
Car
Honda S2000
The S2000 is a small, two-seat convertible sports car made by Honda. It is famous for having an engine that spins very fast and a manual shifter that feels very precise.
Car
Mazda Flair
The Flair is an extremely small, boxy car made by Mazda and sold only in Japan. It is designed to be easy to park and highly fuel-efficient in crowded cities.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
The most powerful, extreme version of the Chevrolet Corvette ever made, featuring a twin-turbo engine that makes it as fast as million-dollar European supercars for a fraction of the price.
Place
Pikes Peak
A famous mountain in Colorado where race car drivers from all over the world compete once a year to see who can drive up the twisty, dangerous mountain road to the top the fastest.
Person
Emelia Hartford
A popular car YouTuber and race car driver who is famous for building incredibly fast cars and racing them.
Car
Nissan Gtr
The GT-R is a high-tech, very fast sports car made by Nissan. It is famous for its incredible grip and ability to accelerate quickly in all weather conditions.
Term
FSD
A controversial software feature in Tesla cars that can steer, brake, and accelerate on city streets, but still requires the driver to pay full attention and be ready to take over at any second.
Car
Genesis GV80
A stylish, high-end luxury SUV from South Korea designed to compete with expensive German and British luxury brands by offering a super comfortable, fancy interior for less money.
Car
Genesis GV60
The GV60 is a small, luxury electric SUV made by Genesis, which is Hyundai's luxury brand. It is known for its futuristic design and high-tech interior.
Car
Kia EV6
The EV6 is a modern, fully electric hatchback-style SUV made by Kia. It is known for its sporty looks and its ability to charge its battery very quickly.
Car
Hyundai Ioniq
The Ioniq is a line of modern electric cars made by Hyundai. They are known for their unique, futuristic designs and very fast battery charging.
Car
Lucid Gravity
The Gravity is a large, luxury electric SUV made by a company called Lucid. It is designed to be very fast, spacious, and travel long distances on a single charge.
Car
Nissan Pathfinder
The Pathfinder is a large family SUV made by Nissan that has three rows of seats. It is designed for family road trips and light off-road driving.
Car
BMW New Bmws
The New Class is BMW's name for its upcoming family of futuristic electric cars. They feature a very clean, simple design and new technology inside.
Car
Audi Q7
The Q7 is a large, luxury SUV made by Audi that can seat up to seven people. It is known for its comfortable ride, high-quality interior, and all-wheel-drive system.
Car
Porsche Cayenne
The Cayenne is a large, luxury SUV made by the sports car company Porsche. It combines the space of a family vehicle with the fast, sporty feel of a Porsche sports car.
Car
Nissan Leaf
The Leaf is a small, fully electric hatchback made by Nissan. It was one of the first affordable electric cars sold to the general public.
Car
Toyota Prius
The Prius is a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car made by Toyota that uses both a gasoline engine and an electric motor to save gas.
Car
Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 is an extremely small, two-door hatchback made by the Italian brand Fiat. It is designed for easy parking and driving in crowded cities.
Car
500e Fiat 500 E
The 500e is a very small, fully electric two-door car made by Fiat. It is designed for short trips and easy parking in the city.
Car
Tesla Model S
The Model S is a large, luxury electric sedan made by Tesla. It is known for its minimalist interior, large touchscreen, and quick acceleration.
Car
Porsche 911
The 911 is a famous two-door sports car made by Porsche with its engine located in the back. Some versions are modified with raised suspension and tough tires to drive off-road.
Part
carbon ceramic brakes
Super expensive, high-tech brakes used on race cars and supercars that don't fade or lose stopping power when they get extremely hot, and can last the lifetime of the car if only driven on the street.
Term
PPI
Having a professional mechanic thoroughly check over a used car before you buy it to make sure there are no hidden problems or expensive repairs needed.
Car
Honda Odyssey
The Odyssey is a large family minivan made by Honda. It is designed to carry up to eight people comfortably with plenty of room for cargo.
Car
Mclaren P1
The P1 is an extremely fast, rare, and expensive hybrid supercar made by McLaren. It was designed to showcase the absolute limit of modern racing technology on the road.
Car
Porsche 918 Spyder
The 918 Spyder is an extremely fast, rare, and expensive hybrid supercar made by Porsche. It uses both a powerful gasoline engine and electric motors to achieve incredible speeds.
Person
David Zipper
An expert and researcher who studies how cities handle transportation and works to make streets safer for pedestrians.
Car
Honda Civic
The Civic is a small, highly popular car made by Honda. It is known for being affordable, reliable, and easy to drive.
Car
Mazda 6
The Mazda 6 MPS is a sporty, high-performance version of the standard Mazda 6 sedan. It features a more powerful turbocharged engine and all-wheel drive for better grip.
Car
Mazda 3
The RX-3 is a vintage, sporty compact car made by Mazda in the 1970s. It is famous for using a unique "rotary" engine instead of a traditional piston engine.
Car
Volkswagen Jetta
The Jetta is a small, affordable four-door sedan made by Volkswagen. It is designed to be a practical and comfortable everyday car.
Car
Mercedes-Benz G500
The G-Class is a large, boxy luxury SUV made by Mercedes-Benz. It was originally built for tough off-road use but is now popular as a high-end luxury vehicle.
Car
Dodge Charger
The Charger is a large, sporty car made by Dodge. It is famous for its aggressive look and powerful engine options.
Car
Alpine A110
The A110 is a small, lightweight two-door sports car made by a French company called Alpine. It is built to be fun and agile on twisty roads.
Car
Ford Focus RS
A highly modified, race-inspired version of the Ford Focus hatchback that has all-wheel drive, lots of power, and a notoriously stiff suspension that makes it bumpy to drive on normal roads.
Car
Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG (W211)
A mid-2000s luxury sedan from Mercedes that has a massive, supercharged V8 engine, making it incredibly fast while still looking like a comfortable executive car.
Car
Mercury Villager
The Villager is a minivan sold by Mercury in the 1990s and early 2000s. It was designed to carry families and cargo comfortably.
LIVE
What up everybody welcome to the smoking tire podcast today's episode is brought to you by off the record as always we
Love off the record and so do you not a week goes by not a week that I hear from one of you kind folks out there
saying off the record
Absolutely saved my backside usually that comes up with full dismissal
but frequently the points are taken off the record because has qualified attorneys in
Nearly every jurisdiction in the US fighting for you if you get a moving violation big or small
Don't plead guilty get off the record
They will represent you on your behalf and you don't have to do much of anything besides submit the ticket a little
Explanation about your version of events and they go to work and I love sitting back waiting for that text message
That says your case has been dismissed man
It's a good feeling go to off the record comm slash TST
That's off the record comm slash TST to get 10% off all legal services
From off the record download that app keep it in your pocket and you are good to go if you get that ticket
You don't have to sweat it. That's off the record comm slash
TST alright folks on this episode of the podcast the Corvette
Zr1 is the quickest zero to sixty ever tested by car and driver
Tesla crashes into a house and use cooked data to allow FSD to work in Europe and
Zach and I review the Genesis gv80 luxury SUV. It's the smoking tire podcast
Let's go guys the smoking tire is giving away a
992.1
Tarbo s in partnership with dream giveaways. We're giving away a
275 thousand dollar 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. It's uh, it's 9 30
No, it's 10 15 in the morning, and I've been up for eight hours
What I woke up at 4 a.m.. In Nashville
Which is 2 a.m.. Right here. Yeah to fly home Zach Clappen
I forgot you flew in this morning. Yes. I've already had a work day this morning
You get to have another one in the same day. That's the good news
It's like you know they say if you if you do what you love you'll never work a day in your life
Well, sometimes you get to work two days your entire life 16 hours in a day. I I'm not complaining
I've just had a lot of coffee. That's a really early start. It is. That is a very early start, but fortunately
I'm I did a real I did like a pretty mature thing in Nashville
I went to see Matt quick who's uh working on the Mercedes and I guess not if you're listening live
But anything but live the last show is my interview with Matt quick
But man did I make this this trip was like incredibly efficient first off
Road the Vespa to the airport
It was a one-nighter and everything fit in a backpack awesome Vespa to the airport
Not only do you just park in the garage across the street from the terminal you park there for free
Yeah, and you park right in the front and so I just like hop off the bike
Helmet jacket stores in the cargo box of the bike and just 50 feet to the terminal
Fabulous, I would do that anytime you travel without the camera case. Yeah, you should do that
Well, I can't fit like a roller board right on the best you travel with just backpack a lot
Not that often no well no because usually if I have back
I almost always have a backpack you have here, but it's usually backpack and then camera tie the camera case to the Vespa
Do some you know well if I style if I remove the cargo box the there's a there is a
Luggage rack the cargo box mounts to this luggage rack
So like it isn't totally inconceivable that I could like
Bungie cord or like ratchet strap the camera case to the bike
Almost like most of the time we're traveling though like someone else is eating that uber bill true
So, you know, whatever fine, but like this is the move like if you're traveling light
There's there's never been a better move. Yeah, I mean and coming home
Land off cross the street helmet on I mean, I think my feet
I think I left the jet bridge at like 846 and I was here at like 902 Wow
I landed last Sunday night and really late
So there was not a line for uber cars, but I still had to wait like 13 minutes and there were no cabs all that stuff
Yeah, you told me it was I was like, oh, it's probably cheap to park a motorcycle. You go back free. Yeah
I was like, yeah, that's free and so that that was really amazing
I did a hundred a hundred miles over the weekend between between Friday and today on the Vespa
So we I work me and Vinnie I rode up the snake. I was like, I'm gonna take this thing. It was fun
Yeah, it was totally so for those you don't know my buddy Vinnie Russo
He used to work for me here at the shop. He's he's moved on but been a friend for 25 years. He rides a
BMW
It's like a B 18. I think it's called the Enormatron. It's a fucking 900 pound BMW
Nazi sled bagger and like
it I call it that because it just has
It's got little visual cues on it that are like real like graph Zeppelin
I don't mean it's not it's not like it's not mega-coded. That's not what I mean
I mean in the truest traditional sense of the word
It's huge. It is a Zeppelin none of these pictures. We're showing give it like there's no context clues here for a size comparison
Yeah, there's a giant motorcycle. There's a reason they don't park this in the in the next photo next to a human
Yeah
It's a huge bike so so me and him riding, you know, I'm on I'm a I'm physically bigger than he is by some margin
Yeah, and I'm on this Vespa. He's on this gigantic bagger. It's a very funny
You're Nemo following the turtle on my Instagram. There's a photo of my bike next to his bike
I posted it this morning there. It's it's actually hysterical in that gallery. There's a
So it's not a great one there. That's
His b18 at my little Vespa. Jeez. It is so big. Yeah, and he has the bags on it. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah
So so it was it was very agile
The Vespa the power is great, you know, no break-in. So I just wrote it straight up there
You can absolutely go up mountains, you know accelerating like, you know, no problem
It was really really fun the highway photos guy on Mulholland got a photo of me
Which I didn't have time to buy before this show, but I'll get it printed
I'll buy it for 20 bucks and put it in the on the patreon and leaning leaning down
You could definitely smell that coating burning off the inside of the muffler a little bit and you could definitely I
Definitely got a little a little heat in the brake pads
Going down the snake, but it's all good. I was this is a good time
This is really really fun and I they delivered it with like a half a tank of gas
So I don't know about the range
But I filled it up all the way on the way home and the range on the dash says a hundred and fifty miles Wow
Where does it get MPG do you know? I don't know. I mean they say they say it's 60
But like it's a 1.8 gallon tank
That's well, that's not a hundred and fifty. Yes, no, it's not it almost certainly will not end up being
I wonder if it calculated because you went down because I was going down. Yeah, probably. Yeah, it it actually
The temperature gauge is real the temperature gauge
fluctuated a bit as I was like caning it up the hill versus coming down and the
Yeah, all the the meters are real
So it does actually the miles per gallon one it fluctuated around a whole bunch as I was riding so
Fucking cool thing though. I mean, it's it's I know you're you don't do motorcycles anymore
But in a safe somewhere safe you should just try it because it's yeah, I don't know
I'm I'm jealous of your Vespa a lot. I wrote a scooter in high school
I got to take classes at UCSC and if you drove a car up there parking was like $20 a day
Mm-hmm if you wrote a motorcycle it was $1. Yeah, so I borrowed my friend's Honda
I can't remember what it was and I wrote my and my parents were okay with it shockingly because they were like that math is pretty
Good, you do ride a bicycle on the same road all the time. Yeah, and so I rode the scooter all the time for for a whole semester my mother
When she first came to visit me after I moved to LA in the redondo house
And she saw that my motorcycle my Suzuki she broke down crying and begged me to sell it
She has absolutely no problem with me riding this scooter all over the place the mental
Yeah, borders that she and others build around scooter versus motorcycle are very fun
It's just as dangerous every bit. You know what it is is dangerous for?
Things hitting you right, but I think there is no culture of speed right in the whole it's a scooter community
I think it says a lot about how people in my family think about me
No, I don't think people in my family are worried about me making a bad decision on a motorcycle
I think they are worried about something hitting me well
I think if that was true she wouldn't have cried about the motorcycle. Oh, no, you're you're probably right
Yeah, you're probably right. That was like you're gonna go too fast. Yeah, you know all the stories of them are bad
Like my fucking little cousin may rest in peace died on a motorcycle. Jeez. Remember?
I remember like 20 21 years old my cousin Evan
purely, I mean I
Hate to say this he kind of never had a chance
He had a lot of problems growing up. He was he was going to be the person that if you gave him a motorcycle
He would die on it. I mean he demonstrated
Years of making very bad decisions in cars
I mean he made a million bad decisions in cars and then got a motorcycle and he a
Car in front of him on a two-lane road in New Jersey was slowing down
slower than a pace he would like and
He went to go overtake the car on the double yellow
Well, why was the car slowing down because it was making a fucking left?
Without a blinker. He didn't use his blinker. He was slowing down to make a left. He didn't expect to get any fucking died
Wow, cuz it's really sad. Yeah, but that's like and I it's it's it's a terrible thing that he died
This is probably I guess about 56 years ago. It's a terrible thing that he died, but like
It was like a purely that that
Motorcycle mindset bad decision of I'm small. I'm fast. I can fit anywhere
Yeah, they'll never he ran from the cops on the bike like twice before I mean literally he is 21
Yeah, this was the person who was going to die on a motorcycle. It just it was gonna happen. I
Can't believe that
Anyway, I don't want to get into family drama and fuck but like that's just it was anyway
Me I'm not gonna be that person. I've said it over and over not on a bike anyway
It's funny that I spent this weekend in Colorado with like, you know
Bunch of my good friends and and meeting their kids and I stayed at my friend's house
He's got two teenage daughters and you know, like my back's really messed up right now
So I stand up. I'm all crooked like they're like you want to play four square. I was like I'm not gonna move
Yeah, I will I'm just not gonna move so they could like dunk on the handicap dude
It was just pretty funny
But they're like oh what happened and I you know, some of my problems are linked to my crash
And I was like the girls never ever get on the back of a bike with the dude in college
Yeah, I didn't I didn't crash with anybody on the bike
But I was just like this I am the cautionary tail
Do not do that because they're approaching that age where some guys gonna be like come on. It'll be fun. Yeah
It's yeah. Yeah, you really have to if you're gonna ride motorcycles. You gotta fucking have
Restraint and get your skills up and fucking wear the gear and just be be in the right mindset
Like you can't fuck the consequences are so high. You gotta can't fuck around, you know the gear like I've said
I was wearing all my gear. I have zero road rash
I had zero for my crash my buddy Nick crashed on his road bicycle this weekend at 30
His whole arm his whole leg were just shaved off dude, and yeah, it was yeah
30 miles per hour that doesn't seem like much but with you know, we're on the bicycle
Certainly when you're on him if you're on a motorcycle
Going 25 or 30 that doesn't feel like anything right that feels like oh if I fell off I could I could run this out
Does feel like that like no no you will have no skin is what if you if you don't land on your feet
You'll have no skin so so um
Actually, I wore my motorcycle boots to go up in the in the canyons
I figured couldn't really couldn't really hurt even though I was on a Vespa normally day-to-day
I kind of just sneakers it but I'm so I'm just so stoked on this thing Ellie's gonna buy one
It's gonna be all kinds of nice. I fucking want to I want to ride it to Monterey
Yeah, I really do and I absolutely could I would need to do I would need to either
Support is coming in from factor picture this you are exhausted, but you're hungry
Maybe you just got back from work or the gym after work or off of a flight or a 16-hour work day
And you've got healthy groceries in the pantry in the fridge and you know how to make healthy food
But you just don't have it in you happens to me all the time
Support is coming in from factor and they're gonna solve that problem for me eating healthy is not a willpower problem
I've been eating healthy variety of food since I was a kid really started focusing on it in college when I started working out a lot
But it can be a setup problem sometimes
I just don't set myself up for success or I don't have the time to cook something I have an edit
I have to finish I've got a really early meeting
I have to get to or I just have to squeeze too many things in the day
And I don't have the hour to hour and a half it takes to prep cook and clean up the kitchen
Factor solve this problem for me and they do it the right way. They've got chefs. They've got dietitians
They're like the X men of food they combine their powers and the result is delivered right to your door
Healthy delicious. You're gonna like it. So with factor
I'm hitting my nutrition goals this season trying to lean out a little bit for summertime if we're honest
And it I can do all that without planning without grocery runs or without cooking or the
Resulting dishes to clean up and factor has meals built around your goals
I like to do lots of vegetables and double protein
Try get a lot of lean protein to help build and maintain muscle mass
Of course getting a little harder as I get into my 40s
So I kind of need all of the amino acids I can get for help and they have choices just for that
But they also have meals built around your goals could be weight loss could be general nutrition
GLP one support. Maybe you have allergies
They can attend to all of those needs and wants and if you're looking for strength and workout recovery like I am like Matt
Is check out factors muscle pro collection every meal is crafted with functional ingredients
You've got lean proteins colorful veggies whole foods and healthy fats factor has banned over 175 ingredients
There's no artificial colors. sweeteners. No high fructose corn syrup or refined seed oils
Just nutrient dense food. This stuff is fresh and never frozen. There are over 100
Rotating weekly meals including globally inspired flavors like Mediterranean and Asian
So there's always something new to look forward to it. Definitely exposes me to new menu items
And I really love that variety and perfect for a hot summer
They have newly launched ready-to-eat salads with vibrant ingredients like alote corn and miso edamame
Plus over 70 add-ons to round out your nutrition from green juices to peanut butter energy bites
I will take a barrel of those please ready in two minutes
Factors shops preps cooks and delivers straight to your door
So you have more time for everything you love this summer head to factor meals calm slash
Tire 50 off and then use code tire 50 off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box
With new subscription only while supplies last until September 27th 2026 see website for details. I would need to either
Buy a windshield and look like a dork for that trip or I'd have to get on a rigorous
Core and ab routine for like six weeks and just do a fucking crazy amount of crunches cuz cuz up to about 60
It's beautiful above 60. You're you got a you're really engaging your abs just to sit up straight
Yeah, you know and and you know, I could I can do that for 20 or 30 minutes or even like an hour if I had
I would put a windshield on because that my bike was a street fighter. They had no windshield and it was breezy
Yeah, exactly and I would I would go back roads if I rode to Monterey
I wouldn't I would not ride on the highway, but you you'd want a windshield
They have the one they have two height windshields the normal one
My green Vespa came with one on it the normal ones like this big and it's about a foot a foot high
Yeah, not that dorky
When you're my height it yeah, it bounces the wind
Directly into your chin and lifts the helmet lifts your it was when I bought the bike and rode it home from Buena Park
30 miles on the highway. I thought my helmet was gonna like parachute me off
It was it was crazy. I couldn't get this thing off and then they have the helmet for tall people
Right, they have the chips helmet. It makes you look like a fucking English Bobby. Yeah, it's like above my head
Yeah, yeah, you need the old CHP helmet from the 1992
It took a snow saucer and they cut it and they put it in front of you
But I mean if you're riding 370 miles to Monterey, especially if you could like take it off when you get there
Truly the gray new balance 993 it is dorky as fuck, but it's luxurious when you're using that
Right, you the highway one ride would be awesome. That's what I'm talking about
Yeah, well, there's a lot of ways to do it. So I would do it. you know avoid highways
I would go up Malibu. I would go you have to do the 101 a little bit because you can't get through you do the
101 to Santa Barbara, which is a good section get off at Santa Barbara
You go on the 150 whatever 152 over Los Alivos Los Alamos up to that way and then you cut down across
58 maybe
Wherever the 33 meets at the top of it you cut across and you can get get sort of to
Pch that way. That's a two-day ride. I think oh for sure. I wouldn't like I would yeah
I would for sure that you want to enjoy it. Yeah, like I
You I physically could do it in a day just to prove that the Vespa is a real motorcycle, but like why
torture yourself oh
When someone in Chad says pro tip from someone who rides a sport bike everywhere if you pack enough stuff behind you
You can use it as a back rest for a hundred percent also
I would have some kind of duffle bag behind me. Yeah strapped to the
To the cargo box or to the seat or something that yeah, that's a hundred percent pro tip love it. Yeah, that's a fun idea
You should do that. I I think I will do it. I'm gonna see if I can get your Monterey
I don't even have to do it for car. We it would be cool next week next year like for instance
If assuming the Lamborghini is done if we want to go back to car week you we could get a press vehicle
You could drive to Monterey with our trailer and tow that and tow my car
I could also drive
That's why I thought you're headed a vest. I could touch caravan. Sure. That's interesting. So we'd have to ship a lot of stuff
Well, uh
If the passenger seat which we don't want to put things on is just soft duffle bags under the floor
Is there any trunk in that car? Oh, yeah behind the engine. Okay, you can actually do a set of golf clubs
Oh, but like you can't do car week luggage is the most luggage. I carry. It's a good point
I've got like 75 fucking outfits. All right. We'll trailer. That's fine. No
We can it's your car. I'm not gonna tell you where you know what to do look you're recently refurbished if I die and
Hannah dies
It's your car. Oh, is that in the book? Mm-hmm
It's in the binder. Okay. If both of us die that is that becomes your car
This is a very macabre opening. I probably told you that but just let the record show
There was a financial motive let's think about how dumb that would be
I'm gonna kill you and Hannah so that I can inherit in a somewhat reliable extremely expensive to maintain
Vehicle yes that I can't flip and move. It's a real short sighted investment strategy
I mean, I am a short sighted person often, but even I know this is a bad idea. Oh my god. That's so funny
I'm not good at crime. All right enough about about Vespas because uh, that was all to say
I wrote it to the airport to go to Nashville. I had interviewed Matt quick from quick classics in Tennessee last week
But I also uh, you want to grab those photos? I sent you I we didn't really talk about
the cool shit
That he had there because I got to drive a couple things while I was there and I want to give you a couple quickies
So I'm just gonna go through whatever just the beginning of the get there we go
So here we have a photo of the current state of my Mercedes and as you can see
The engine is installed
Um, uh, so yeah, it fits no no modification to the firewall now. There was 1234
This is an eight or nine bay shop, okay? It's it's it's a good size. It's not huge. Everything is clean
It's organized of the nine bays in the shop eight of them were five and a half liter powertrain swaps
This is now like this dude's business
um
The this I think is if you're gonna go because because my car he's expecting 150 hours of labor
He's done 74 hours of labor on my car. So I have to these swaps are it's about 150 hours
And and basically he's if you're going to invest the the money into the labor
The five and a half liter naturally aspirated v8 is the best balance of power
Weight usability and reliability. So everyone just kind of goes for that
Um, you he can do a 62 It's a lot more expensive. We talk about it in the in the show
But eight of nine projects this guy has going on right now are this exact
Thing about half of them are manuals half are automatic. So so the engine's in the gearbox is in
There was a delay of about three weeks because um, the head the shop that makes the headers was backed up
He finally has the headers
I saw my beautiful one off super sprint exhaust from italy looks fucking great and actually
Uh, he had another car over there that had the same engine and exhaust setup. It sounds meaty
It's not loud
It's like it was a little loud because it was parked against backed against a wall in an inside garage
So when he fired it up cold, it had a bark. Sure. Um, but I think outside when it's just idling
It would just have a nice sort of baritone. That's what I would want from this kind of car
You want like the deep rumble that the older mercedes had not not the new amg back down to the pop pop pop
interestingly
Matt said later it's incredibly easy to fuck up the sound of an amg motor by using
Poor poorly tuned or low quality aftermarket exhausts
So like he's like a lot of times the way to do it is to use the real amg mufflers
Which give it the correct sound, but if you put like the wrong kind of mufflers on
It'll sound like a truck. Yeah, it'll sound like an uh, like a bad badly tuned truck
So with the super sprint it keeps it. It's it keeps it with this motor like pretty tight
And it's a dual exhaust
But it runs like it's one, but it's two
It's two parallel things that run together
So it looks like a single exhaust, but it is a true dual exhaust. It's kind of neat. Yeah, so
That's that's going now here on the inside. You can see it looks
Almost original
Like you'd have to look and be like well, what's changed other than the knob
But the entire mechanism is from the 2002
We're looking at the shifter plate and you can see the plus and minus at there. Yeah
So you do have you know, it's not amazing
But you have some kind of manual control over your gears, which is cool. Yeah
Um, and what's the w and s that winter and summer. Yeah winter and
Board I guess
Maybe winter summer. There's only two. It's not three. So you got to choose one or the other
We
Do not have traction control
All right, which is fine. Sure
Um, it wouldn't be good in this car anyway. No, it wouldn't
Um, and we're actually getting rid of the burlwood the burlwood's going and it's going to become
It's going to be aluminum. That doesn't look great. Uh, yeah. No, no, it's not. So here's uh differential. Yeah. Yeah
So we are getting is a limited slip differential
Cool, which is good car did not come with one as I learned in the previous show
Only I think matt said only two or three
Mercedes in history came from the factory with a limited slip differential and we know wasn't the slr
No, it's the six the 6.9
um
Oh, fuck. Well, he says it in the last show and and for the life of me. I can't remember now, but
Um, the 6.9. Did you see uh quick tangent, you know big time the guys that split off from uh, I think doughnut
I think uh, um, I mean they do great stuff. We met we met him at or I met him at uh, the willow springs track day
Jeremiah, um, they they made an lsd by just using jb weld and just like full on glorming it into the whole case
Like instead of like welding this stuff together. It's not lsd though. It's a locked. Yeah. Yeah, it's like a lot
But just with just imagine toothpaste
I wonder how long that'll hold. I don't know, but I was like what is amazing. That's pretty fucking wild. Okay
so garage full of projects, um
Every car in here was getting a five and a half liter engine even the even the old one actually that's not true
The black wagon is matt's personal car that has a 62
And a manual and it is a nasty thing
Quick break from the action because support is coming from true work
Working outside in the spring time means you're dealing with chilly mornings hot afternoons and everything in between
We experience this all the time when we film up in the mountains
Not to mention the mud the rain and whatever else the weather decides to throw at you
You need work wear that can keep up with the changing conditions and true work has you covered
Most work wear is made from cotton blends which restrict your movement and get soaked after just a few raindrops
And if cotton gets wet and it's cold out you could have a pretty serious problem on your hands
Just google it. Trust me
But true work uses advanced performance fabrics to build products designed specifically for work on the job site
Springtime is the perfect season for the t2 work pant. It keeps you comfortable over a wide range of conditions
These pants are amazing. They have a four-way stretch for bending kneeling and climbing
They're water resistant against the rain and they have nine intelligent pockets to keep all the tools
Just where you need them nine pockets
You edc people out there who like to take pictures of your phone and your knife and your thing and you're watching your other
Thing this has a place for all of them. This is the trapper keeper that you get to wear
These pants have been tested and validated for over 10 years by real trade pros working in real job site conditions
With over 15,000 five-star reviews
It's worth experiencing the difference for yourself when I started in this job of production
I would wear jeans because I thought that jeans were durable and that was the work pant
And after six months of kneeling on asphalt to film cars
I would inevitably tear
The jeans at the knee because they don't stretch very much and I have to go patch them or get a new pair of jeans
And I was burning through pants and it was also uncomfortable now problem solved smart pants for smart people tough pants for tough people
Put them together
You have the kneel de grass tyson of pants the he did not authorize this statement
The work doesn't stop just because the weather changes upgrade to the t2 work pant and stay comfortable no matter what the day brings
Get 15 off your first order at true work dot com with code tire. That's t r u e
w e r k dot com
Code tire t i r e true work built like it matters
Because it does cool. He's actually looking to sell it. He built it for himself
So if anybody wants to spend a hundred k on a fully and the interior is money black black
It's fucking great manual manual 6.2 liter 500 horsepower
te wagon
Wow, it's hot boy shit for sure. Well, it is super sleeper. See if it has pictures and yeah, there's a million pictures
So there's an s l like an 80s s l here
Um, that's got out. You can see the uh the engine cover there that s l that's the 6 2 actually that silver engine cover
Is the 6 2 engines that engine's so much bigger than yours
It is a lot higher to modify the hood a little bit and to put a 6 2
In mine or even to use the 6 2 engine cover, which is prettier than the 5 5 engine cover
He has to modify the firewall. Yeah, so keep going
Uh, oh other way
Wherever I didn't what happened here. Oh, so this so I drove this is matt daily driver. This is a 190 e
narrow body car not a cause worth
Uh, and it's some special rosso edition. This color is a limited edition color, which a wine
Yeah, he didn't really care. It's the really the interior. It comes with like an insane
factory interior
All this cloth is factory factory. So he said he spent years looking for one just for the cloth
I mean, this is like completely understand it looks like tetris like psychedelic tetris being played like door cards
Tetris is very good that really does look like tetris
The car's super dirty because he took it on the over crest rally this past weekend
So this is a 190 e with the 430 v8 from like a clk 430 and a six speed manual
and like a really nice
dialed in set of like kw's
And the go back the wheels that are on it are from the clk 230
He says and I have not done the research. These are the lightest
Factory wheels the Mercedes is like ever made. They're like 13 pounds a car. They're forged
Uh, I think there's 16. Maybe there's 16 and they're forged. So they're super light and the thing was on like retistine
You know all seasons
bro
I had a go in this car
That's a fucking that is the absolute titties. This car is like
3 000 pounds
perfect weight distribution
dialed in like cruiser plus suspension with like a good bit of travel and like
Just the right amount of lean into corners
And a 300 horsepower 300 pound of torque v8 with like great gear ratios
The clutch was like a little
Fox body mustangie there's a little a little the clutch was a little 90s muscle car. Okay outside
A little heavy considering it's a small light Mercedes and he said that was a choice
He he put in the
I'm gonna do burnouts clutch and not the I want this to feel totally stock clutch. He said there is
Another option that he could do with this exact swap that has a lighter clutch pedal
But it has a lazier flywheel and it's not as like durable or sporty. I support his choice. No, it wasn't it was fine
But it was just like
Almost all of it and the shifter which it has like a short shift kit
That the shifter feel and the clutch pedal feel was a little fox body mustang which I don't hate
but
The rest of it was fucking ace all the gauges worked
You can't tell it's like it's just a nothing looking car from the outside
That's a little v8. That's cool. It you remember 3 10. Yeah, remember the the um
The alpha male montreal. Yep. Do you remember how that how that sounded great small bore v8 with like just tonal
Like just one of the best sounding cars. I think this I drove this
I was like this sounds like the fucking alpha montreal cool
He fucking mishmashed and exhaust with like whatever was laying around and it just like
Sounds really nice and like I was like, yeah, dude 2000 miles in this like makes a shitload of sense
He drove this from tennessee to wisconsin did a rally and drove it back and got in
The night before I met up with him. Wow
I mean testament to reliability also, but yes, apparently he puts lots of miles on these cars
Okay, all everything everything he talked about was I've put 10 000 miles on that. I've put this
You know, he basically said if we had
If we had the wheels and tires for my car
Even like ugly and unfinished as it is he'll be able to just get in it and drive it to california rather than ship it
And I was like, don't do that. We'll ship it. Wow
But so this is this was like
This little 190 is one of
The finest sleepers i've
Really ever seen not and not actually not because it is like so fast
But because it's just like it's
It's easy to drive it fast
It's like and it's like he he kind of stopped
At the right at the sweet spot. Like it doesn't have 500 horsepower, right?
You know that it's kind of like through the rear tires. They're like 2 15s. Those are really narrow. Yeah
You would not be doing yourself any favors with more power than this. No this in the color
The stance of it all of it looks
Uh
Executive grandpa a bit from the period like it doesn't look like it's going to be a performance
Yeah, and then if they turn it on you're like, huh? Yeah, they shift you go, huh? Yeah, that's a rips
It was it drove beautifully. It was really real. I was like I almost was like
You want out of this? Like, you know, this is the kind of car that you should have
This you would love this. I bet it would it seems like sedan m3 ish
Well, because it's the same steering as the cause worth. Oh, yeah
That's all it's the same weight distribution is the cause worth like the things that people like about the cause worth are mostly present
In the regular 190. I don't like the one I drove. I never drove a real cause worth
I drove a 190 that had been modified as close to one as possible
And it was steering and balance was fantastic, but the engine was slow as dog. Yeah
Yeah, there's slow as that apparently the european spec ones are like a little less restricted and slightly better
But nevertheless
Of the same shit, but with a fucking small v8 in there. Yes, please. Yeah, definitely all day cool
I was like, bro, you
Actually just take pull this entire powertrain out and put it in a 190 cause worth and you have like
The perfect 80s like rest of because I would I would want I mean if I was just making this in my imagination
Like a slightly more aggressive aesthetically would be cool. Maybe the wing or like any flares
Yeah, but this but in this spec it's just very sleepy. He's going for sleep. Yeah, and it's a great contrast to the interior being all crazy
you know
Um, but really fucking cool
And if he if you'd like, you know, the best the best bmw I ever drove is an e30 with s54 in it
This is like kind of like the Mercedes version of that and uh
It it made me very excited to drive mine because mine has
A hundred more horsepower than this. I mean, it's a little heavier. It's got you know, it's an automatic
But like it's going to be very fast
Yeah, it's going to be a really cool car, dude
Yeah, and then keep keep punching through the photos real quick
There's because there's one more thing I want to show you
That I drew. Oh, what does that last the tap? Oh, there we go
Yeah, so there's that that's the 4.3 the engine bay is very tidy
Uh in this little 190. I mean just a just a fabulous fucking sleeper. Yeah, really cool. Yeah
Factory engine cover. It's got a c it's yeah all the cars have like a c. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah
Keep going
This
Is parked outside. This is uh matt's girlfriend's daily driver
See anything fun happening here? Can you identify what's going on in this photo? I mean the shifter is is uh
Suspicious what kind of Mercedes is this sack?
Oh wait
Is it a three windshield wipers? Yeah. Oh, is this a g-wagon? This is a manual g-wagon. Well, this is the lockers as far as matt knows
This is the only modern manual g-wagon g 55. There's an o3
G 55 with a six speed manual all the lockers work still everything works
So he manual swapped it. Yeah, but then they kept everything else working because all the lockers
According to him are downstream of the gearbox. So you just put the fucking manual in
And and just you need a different drive shaft and just connect it lockers don't care and the lockers don't care
Cool. He said you have to modify the firewall a whole bunch to make the clutch pedal work because
At you know back in the day there were manual and automatic g wagons at a certain point they
When they updated to this version, whatever the the the one they were selling in
Though I guess our late 90s to early 2000s. There were no more manuals
So they modded they got rid of the mounting point for the clutch and also so putting a physical clutch pedal and this
was a huge pain in the ass, but actually
The rest of it he says was kind of not he just like put the manual in and got a drive shaft and it sort of worked
Which is pretty awesome. Pretty cool. Yeah, he said he might be looking to sell this one. So if anybody out there is interested
in a o3
Fairly
medium scruffy g-wagon, but a working manual one
I like I like the floor mat looks like an uh
Turkish rug sort of whatever it is. This was not like presented for me to photograph as a journalist
I just happened. I had to go in it. I did drive it. It does work
um, this is a fucking
280 sc or it might have been a 220. I don't know, but it's a coop
Uh, this has the 6.2 liter swap with a six speed manual. Dude, that's awesome. Extremely legit. Wow. It's on air ride
Um, and he told me how much this cost
And I was shocked at how small the number was
If this had a brand name on it
This would be a seven figure build probably or high high six figures and it was not that
Wow, it was not that at all dude. These are so nice, but they need a little go like there's the guy
He has a green
sedan that goes to the car stuff here
It's got like an ls swap with a manual and it looks pretty good
There's some things that don't work perfectly, but it's like such a cool idea. Remember marcus's down at heritage
Oh, yeah, I mean that was that's this it's basically this
Six figure build that one really was but it's a very nice idea. Yeah, so this is pretty cool
Uh, that that's a that's a fun project. There's my donor car. Well, this is the sad e 55 that my
Powertrain came out of the tape about to keep the door closed. Yeah, because it got side swiped
So the doors wouldn't stay closed. It was actually almost the perfect car to get a powertrain from because like
It it it did run and drive when it was taken apart. It was just side swiped
And and we had to uh, you know matt had to he he tore down the engine to a point
And fully fully serviced it did all the major
Items and he did not find any any real problems. So that's good. There's I guess
some coolant uh
O rings and and little hoses that over time swell and when they go
Oil gets into the coolant or coolant gets into the oil one or the other. I forget which that it mine mine
If he drove another five or 6000 miles
That might have happened, but it didn't happen. Then you get the milkshake
He showed me one where that did happen and it was a mess. It wasn't great. So you had the interior
The interior of the 190 really cool is really cool. I can't believe that stock. Yeah
Um, is that all the photos I sent you there might have been one more
This is the interior of his wagon. So this is a minty fresh
You know 92 or 93? Yeah
Good wood the wood still good condition. He's got that lotus xyz shift knob the metal one on there
I thought it was s 2000 at first, but he was it's lotus. Yep
The s 2001 is not as round as it's a pro tipo also that is a momo proto tipo
Dude, yeah
We're a good car. Yeah with these early cars the 91s 92s. You definitely want to
Either disable or take out the airbags
They're gen one airbags. You you don't even want to have those in a crash. So mine is a 95
So i'm gonna leave the airbag at the second gen airbags are actually safe
So but but if you have an earlier car, you could take out the airbag
But yeah, ace I started this one up. This is a fucking bad motherfucker cool thing
Yeah, and he's got this cool module
That converts the key signal to the digital signal for the 62 So you still use the blade key
You don't need to use the stupid modern irreplaceable key. Yeah. Yeah, you use the and all the gauges. So it's fucking cool stuff
It's really nice. Yeah, so shout out to uh to matt quick down at quick classics in
Tennessee, that's the same wagon, right? Yeah, that's the wagon. Yeah. Yeah, man that will sell quickly
It will I I I told him I said look if you you know, he wants he wants real money for it
But it's a fully sorted. I mean he built it for himself. Does that thing is sorted?
I said if you want real real money for that car
You send it to shunt and have him put an amg kit on it
And like make it make it look like a million bucks to match what's already been done because it's
Sleepers are great, but like people don't pay huge money for a sleeper. And I think if he invested
20k in the bodywork on that car it would return 30 or 40
On the resale that's probably true. You know what I mean, but I think it was still so quickly because it looks
It's still it's still a good-looking wagon and I think the longer roof shape actually helps with the narrower fenders whereas the sit-in
I don't know. Maybe I'd want like a little bit more flair. Yeah
I think it will sell really well
But like, you know shunt's red one that I tried to buy and he won't sell me
I'd say make it look like that. That does look awesome. It looks amazing. Yeah. Yeah, like I've asked him once a year
If I can buy it and he says it's no it's his wife's car. I know I want it to be my wife's car
Does Hannah want it to be her? Yeah. Oh no, she saw it. She was like that
Yeah, we would be if we were starting from zero
We would be doing a wagon, but Aunt Liz's car must remain free family plus you like convertibles
So we yeah convert a convertible cruiser is fucking cool, man
Um
And nashville is all right, dude. I stayed as first time I ever stayed in a hotel shout out to the russell hotel in nashville
it's a
A counterless hotel you check in like an airbnb. There's a code to get in the hotel
There's a code to get in your room, but there's like no people
Which that was weird, but it was actually nice and according to them the money they saved by not having that staff they support
The like it's like if for every
$100 you spend at the hotel like 50 of it goes to getting beds for unhoused people and showers and stuff
It's a former church very cool
Um, and I tried mead. I went to a mead bar. I've never had it before. Oh, yeah, it was interesting
I think it's delicious. It was very dude. There was hangovers will be
Legendary well, I only had I had two I was like because it's so sugary. I was like this would be a problem
yeah, but uh shout out to bad luck burgers and whatever the fucking
Meadery is that bad luck burgers is in to delicious smash burger
uh walking distance from my hotel and uh, and I had some meat and it was quite nice really tasty
So many different flavors of it and they can do different things
They had like a hundred varieties
I was like just start me at the basic and then give me the one upgrade from the basic and it was very good
Yeah, it's like halfway between beer and wine
Uh
Yeah, I think it usually has like it's a little thicker tasting
So, yeah, they they said a lot of mead you get is very syrupy
And this place brews their own and really tries to make it not syrupy
The first one was sort of like
On the level of like a dessert wine in terms of sweetness
And then I tried one that was like lighter and sparkling
And uh, and that one I really liked sparkling me. Wow. I mean, yeah, it was good. It was like a champagne kind of vibe
The last time I had mead which was
Nine years ago it was like ren fare where they give you the cup
But then they make you chug it while they pour more meat in and it's like, you know
Some bucks a woman who's like yelling at you and that's just how the business works on you've just had like a hundred ounces of
Yes, it was that hangover lasted 30 hours. It truly did. I bet. I mean, I was dude. I was so tired after yesterday
I was like this was like 7 p.m. It was like burger two meads
And I was asleep at like 8 30 because I had to be up at four to be on the flight back
but while I was gone
Uh car and driver did 1.8 second zero to 60 run in the zr1x. That's the the quickest accelerating
Car they've ever tested actually, which is pretty cool
And then jr hildenbrand set a new record in the zr1 at pike's peak for a production car. I think uh-huh
The zr1x which is pretty cool. So the so good uh, good on them. Good on uh, chevrolet
Yeah for for having the quickest
Fucking zero to sixty and 1.8 the quarter-mile at 89 at 155 nevara is still quicker
Remax still quicker in the quarter, but the fact that they're having they're in the same conversation
Is really amazing tenth of the price. Yeah, and it's you know old tech. It's like this is a gas engine
You know the electricity seems to win all the drag races, but this is so close
Still on a drive 10 to sixty and 1.8. Yeah rear-wheel drive. Well, actually this is a little front dash of front
A dash of front. So, uh, that's crazy. This is the first.
I don't know. Well, maybe car and driver never tested a remair a nevara, but there were definitely sub nine
Nevara quarter-mile numbers. Yeah
Um, but crazy, right? I mean just just super fucking crazy. So shout out to them
Did you see any of the pikes peak coverage this weekend? No, uh, I saw Amelia was the is the fastest woman ever
Up pikes peak in her zr1 or azr1, which i'm happy. I'm very proud of her
That's awesome. And what a crazy vehicle that's such a fast vehicle because last year she did it in the
Gt4 club or whatever
A lot faster three times the horsepower
Holy moly shout out to her but gt4
Up pikes peak is going to feel like a slow car. It just is and the zr1 will feel like like
It'll feel like a 600 horsepower car here. Yeah as you climb. It's still very fast like a big step. Yeah. So that's amazing
Yeah, uh, rob holland had a really a lot of people had a big crashes the bumpy section
I guess is bumpier than ever. I mean, there's larry chen had a photo of a gtr like all four wheels off
Getting air in the bumpy section and then it crashed like moments later
So a couple people had big issues in those bumps. I saw rob holland's crash. That was nasty
The aftermath of that car is like the wheels ripped off. Yeah
Well, it's like crashing into a fucking cheese grater, isn't it? I mean, it's just big boulders that'll just rip things off
You know, yeah, luckily him and other people went into the mountain not off the mountain
Right. Was there an outside shot of that? I only saw the the in-car of rob's crash. Oh, yeah
There's an outside. Well, they yeah, there's a video that I think larry put up. I only yeah the fucking the in-car was gnarly
um
But the cage did its job, huh? Well, I should say I don't know if there's an uh a shot of the crash happening
There's a shot of the car. No, no. No, I know I meant uh, I meant a shot of the crash. I mean, there's the car and it's just
Shredded. Yeah, I would describe that car as shredded. Yep. That's a salvage
um, yeah, yeah a lot of crazy stuff happening and then uh
Rob dom had his
Like that guy is so happy go lucky. Yeah
He's like, oh my power steering line like popped off
On corner seven and just sprayed his whole windshield, but he still drove the whole way and the like at the start line
You can see like you came with your normal eyes
And then once it popped off, it was like everything had been blurred by 70 percent. Holy shit truly looking through the same camera
It was a great comparison. You're basically driving. You're like if I stay on black stuff
I'm alive if I hit blue or brown stuff
Meaning sky or is he still going fast or just kind of getting there just kind of getting after it
Wow, he didn't know he was but like shout out to that guy that's continuing on with all those. I mean he couldn't see anything
That was like randy
Two years ago with the fogged up windscreen. Yep, couldn't see anything. That's crazy. No, I didn't I didn't catch pike speak outside of that
But it uh, it does seem uh, quite gnarly. Do you want to zack?
Talk about the genesis gv80 right now. Yeah, do you want it or do you want to uh, well
Yeah, we can talk about the tesla's faked data europe
uh, bullshit data
I think we we started it with johnny. Yeah, we did but we the that story was that showed and then became unpayable
That's but bottom line is uh, they used a bunch of incredibly misleading data to get fsd passed
legislators in europe and
Which leads to things sort of like
um
The story from the uk that about three dozen people fucking sent me of the the
supposedly using fsd
Tesla that crashed into the woman's house and killed her. Yeah. Yeah
I think they said it was on autopilot, which I guess is different than fsd
But nonetheless
Video that car was going
Yeah fast and it went into it looked like a cul-de-sac basically
Yeah, it looked like it just went into a cul-de-sac at 40. Yeah and just continued into a house. Yeah, so that was really alarming
uh
So anyway, there's that a lot of weird shit happening. Yeah, but I mean that's that is the story really there is it's it's uh
basically
Like we were talking about here in the u.s
um
That their software is
safer than a human driver is based on cherry-picked data that includes
you know, uh
not
Factoring it against other cars that have a dash but where where it's not hands-free a dash
That's compared to all cars on the road in the u.s
Some of which are very very old some of which are very dangerous
And it included things like comparing it to trucks and motorcycles as well
Which is just like it just is crazy like it if you actually
um compare the fsd and autopilot data versus a
Uh, uh a good
Driver a detentive driver using the latest a dash in a modern car of similar age
That even the oldest tesla could be
If you just factor that in you get rid of motorcycles and you get rid of
Teenage like it's actually not any safer and in some cases it's less safe
Um, so that's the the gist of the story from roiders
Um, there you go the the second paragraph the roiders investigation published june 15 2026 found the tesla submitted self-produced
fsd safety figures to regulators in sweden and the netherlands seeking european approval
Uh, those numbers relied on the same methyl methodological
Slight of hand sleight of hand that independent experts have been flagging for months. It's also the same
Uh, sleight of hand that ed nedermeyer ed nedermeyer and i talked about like two years ago here in um on the podcast
There's there was the study that's called like the noah something study because it was a
A researcher named noah that debunked tesla's original claim. Yeah, there we go
So so so tesla claims it's seven times safer
But uh, the the numbers crumble when you read the fine print
So one thing they did is tesla counts only severe airbag deployment crashes in its own fleet
But then compares that figure against broader u.s crash rate which includes minor fender benders
Reuters calculated this comparison alone inflates the claimed safety advantage by roughly three x. Yeah, not three percent
Three x right um fleet age bias. Yeah, averaged us vehicles 12.8 years old
but the average tesla is 4.1 years old newer cars crash crash less often regardless of what software runs on them
And uh, the 32 000 live saved figure assumes every u.s vehicle freight trucks motorcycles and your neighbor's aging sedan
Is replaced by an fsd equipped tesla this uh tramps
Researchers told Reuters this transforms empirical data into speculative marketing
So, uh, yeah, I mean basically like that's bullshit. So in case people are like and they are
Get over it. Where you fucking Elon hating like to shut up about it already
I'm riding my motorcycle on these roads, dude
I'm I'm I've not consented to be a part of this. Well, and they continue to do things. Yeah malfeasance. So it's not like
You know destroy it's not like the things you're referencing
Happened in the past five years ago and you're still hanging on to that like this was written two days ago. Yeah yesterday
But like it is it's just them doing the thing they did in america five years ago again
Right, it's just this like we said it over and over we said it over to anyone who would listen
And like nothing fucking happened. And so they're just doing it again
like
That's why we say it like just so that somebody might hear it and fucking do
Something
Nothing will happen here. They'll fucking approve it here. Anyway, they'll they'll but like
I basically just read a whole article that's like why people don't care that other people are dying using this stuff
And it's it's basically just it boiled down to a
They're they're stupid and it won't happen to me. Sure as if that's everybody's thought. Yeah, that's the cigarettes
Yeah, when it was known to cause cancer everyone's like, ah, that won't happen to me
Or my grandfather smoked every day and lived to be 90 or whatever. Sure
Motorcyclists. Yeah, but you just
You don't notice
like
Like it's like using chat gpt all the time. You don't notice that it's like degrading your ability to
Analytically think it doesn't it's degrading your ability to like research on your own
Like even my own wife who does research for a living like three days ago. It was like I gotta stop using this
Like it's making me worse at this. Wow
And alex roy who uses these systems all the time. He's like admits to me very much
He's like this is making me a worse driver. I am relying on it. I'm less attentive
I am becoming a worse driver because of this. Wow, because he's just letting the system. Yeah
It used the more the more cognitive shit that you offload to a computer and it's
Having a system that's like mostly really good
That like appears to be perfect right up until it fails when you're not expecting it to fail
Like that's more dangerous actually and we've been saying this for years than having a system that's just really bad all the time
Like early fsd was really bad all the time
Now you have a system where people like johnny and camisa are doing whole poll posts about oh now it's fixed
Oh now it's amazing
Meanwhile just drove through someone's fucking house
Right like these and meanwhile this like johnny was here three days ago or whatever talking about no, no, it's amazing
No, no, this is amazing
And they're fucking lying to regulators about their software at the same time these are happening and then one's crashing through a fucking house like
Like you guys
Like because because johnny johnny wasn't me he's like my my statement is anecdotal
It's like okay, but then we have the anecdote of this driving through a house. Yeah, like do they cancel each other out?
That's like meeting in the middle
We meet in the middle between johnny had a good time and this lady's dead
What's the halfway point there zero? You know what I mean like uh, that's that's this false like
You know
The independent voter or the fucking it's this meet in the middle thing that's like a sets up a false
Middle like the in between of
Two people had or people are having a good time and someone died
Isn't like right in the middle. It's actually like we have to like
Well, so you say it depends on how you weight things, right? Yeah
So if you put too much weight on the positive anecdote, but not on the negative anecdote correct
And like the positive is like people are having a good time
People are checking their fucking phone while they're thing it seems like the car is driving itself
Most of the time people don't like driving in traffic anyway
and you and they're
Going around saying it's safer. So most people are not going to question it. They're just going to believe that voice
It's safer and it certainly looks like it's driving. Okay
But like that's not the same the equal and opposite side of
14 people have died
Did you watch clarkson's farm yet the new season? No, so there's an autonomous element to it
Which is really he basically he gets like a couple of autonomous farm vehicles and he loves them
But he makes a great statement. He's like
Autonomous cars in his opinion are silly because if you still have to be present and like ready to take the wheel or steer it
Then just drive the car because it's not hard
But with the autonomous farm equipment
Like one thing is planting seeds that he used to have to tow with a tractor it does it he can do other things
Right
So and you know until
The autonomous cars are so good you can sit there and actually work on a laptop
Well, that's what the levels are that's that's what the levels are so right now
We're not there so it's like
It's a thing we don't really need that doesn't actually give you that much benefit right like like the tesla is level two
straight fucking up
um
Now they're uh, they're
Robo taxi, I believe
Has to be
level
Four I guess I saw one the other day in town, but I couldn't see if there's a person in it or not
I guess the robo taxi would have to be level four by design because there isn't a person
Driver seems like a way mo right
A way mo is level four because it is it is autonomous with a remote backup available in an emergency
But geofenced to a particular area. I suppose a tesla robo taxi would be the same
Uh, yeah, I guess that they know the levels don't define it as lidar and radar or whatever
It's it's it's what is the level of control a human has to have but
Uh, yeah, I suppose but certainly the fucking cars that people have are level two
I mean just that that they they they
Anytime they're faced with legal exposure like in court or to the dmv or a cassette at hearing
They say something different than they say to the customers pretty much
anyway
gv80
Gv80 is a genesis gv80. So after I drove uh the the gv60 electric one
I was like this thing actually approximates bentley in a pretty good way
Let's get the one that really looks like a bentega and see if it is pretty if it's close
To the bentega and in some ways it kind of is but in some other crucial ways it is not
Zach, what do you think you drove it for just as long as I did? Um,
Very stylish. I like that. Um very comfortable seats. The inside of ours was white
Which we talked about I think like the day before like why do you press car?
Why are companies giving us press cars with white seats?
They do wear out poorly, but man, they do look nice. They photograph well
They photograph well, but also like you open this thing and everything is like quilted and aluminum and it it feels like a spa
it feels upscale because
Because of the you know the white leather like when you go into a spa or something
That's usually going to be white because it's like clean and pristine
You know, it's like a cloud. It's like a little bit like a nail salon. It is but it's nice for looking in there
High-end nail salon this we should say this is the full long roof one
They have a gv80 coupe now, which I don't I'm not really that I don't like about cvs. I don't I don't care
But interestingly
This one that we drove the full roof has the 375 horsepower twin turbo v6, right? So it's a fine engine. I wouldn't call it
Special but it's fine. But it serves the purpose and for this car. I don't care
I just like I really don't if it turned it on it sound like a v8
I might be like, oh, that's cool once but this thing to me is
You know serene transportation that should be comfortable and kind of smooth inside outside whatever more isolating than engaging
Exactly. I agree
Interestingly, the coupe has a unique engine. You know that the coupe has an available twin charged
V6 so it's twin turbo with an electric supercharger on it. It's cool. It's like
30 more horsepower 34 more horsepower
And about the same more torque less lag maybe less lag
I don't really give a shit but
Okay points for trying
Um, okay, I'm kind of with you. I think the the interior is quite lovely. Yeah
The seats the steering wheel the doors they do a pretty good approximation of budget Bentley. Yes, absolutely
The materials aren't as rich as you get with Bentley
But the quilting is very nice. The shape and contour of the seats is really nice. Really good. Really adjustable. Yeah
the HVAC controls
Do a pretty good Bentley impression actually and some of the aluminum does too
I think the dash is is laid out nicely. I like the big scrolling knob
Uh, I do too, but I kept hitting it, you know, it's like an MMI knob for people who are more familiar with BMW right in front of the shifter
Right and I did even after two days and I'm sure I get used to it
But like they're what two inches apart the diameter is almost exactly the same
Um, and I think I just found myself using the touchscreen more than that
Yeah, interesting. I think if they made that scroll knob half an inch smaller in diameter
You'd probably not run into that right you wouldn't get confused. Uh, another and another a quick complaint about the scroll knob
So it had, you know, it's huge screen
All these menus you can move across like entertainment settings and everything
But a weird aspect of it was because it's such a long screen and let me go back to yeah, it's a 24 inch
Sort of square screen. It's basically the same as the Ioniq and the ev6 and stuff like yeah, the same screen giant long narrow rectangle
So this is the perfect example. So you've got all these menus, right and for people listening, there's a six different
Home screen home screen blocks like iPhone size icons and there's a couple of pages of this
So if I wanted to touch the one on the far right
I had to like lean forward to touch it
So if I use the scroll knob, I can get over there
But if I click over one thing too far a whole new six set of icons move over so you don't
It doesn't move them off the page one at a time
It goes six at a time and that's that's just like a little ui thing
I would want them to fix it makes it a page swipe and not a
Continuous scroll. Yeah, because if I could continue a scroll
I could bring those things closer and touch them with my hand if I want to but they just go away
Right. It's a very simple gripe, but I found the screen really cleared and easy to use
Steering wheel controls are still really good
Uh, I mean just I wish the
Lucid rode like this
The lucid gravity we drove. So you liked this ride better than the lucid. Yeah interesting
I I found this ride to be a little strange
so I found that
The low speed damping the general
Body motions and how it sort of goes over rolling contours of pavement were good
It was soft and supple not sporty. No, but luxurious
But it had the 22 inch wheels the high speed damping the impacts the hard edges on asphalt
Really sent shutters into the cabin
and because
It's you know, it doesn't have the structure and it's maybe it's unfair to actually compare it to a bentega like that's
Yeah, that's unfair. This is 60 grand. No, this one was like 85. It was pretty loaded
but but but it may be unfair but
One thing I get from a car like that and other luxury suv's
You don't you get a real sense of solidness
And when the wheel would hit an impact it would send this
sort of shutter through the car
That was it wasn't horrible
But it was unrefined now. Maybe
You just need to get the 20 inch wheels instead of the 22 definitely a good idea good idea
Maybe these wheels are kind of cheap and really heavy and so the and they don't retune the dampers for it
But I've actually found if you if you put the dampers in sport
It did help a little bit
They were like too soft in soft and so
Anytime I would hit a little pothole or a little edge in the on the 405 the expansion joints
It would send a little shutter through the car in a way that was
unrefined when I got in the car like if I went to a jess's dealer and I got in this car I'd be like
Fucking hell. This is dope
Everything's comfy and fresh and nicely laid out and really beautiful design and luxurious looking
The more I drive it the less of a luxury car it became to me
I mean I thought because it does start at 59 grand for like the weak engine bentega starts at 200
So maybe it's unfair, but they're clearly going for bentega. Sure, but but it's the team version
You know, so it is cheaper and I I'm sure I'd hope that there's different engineering in the bentega like
In the the unibody the bushings like all that stuff if it's heavier more refined or smarter
Or whatever like it all works to isolate that cabin because the Bentley ride
You know it does remove the driver from as much of life's instructions as possible
There also there wasn't as much rear seat room as I would have liked true
It's a little bit tight. I just rented when I was in Nashville for a day
I rented a new Nissan pathfinder
Which has its own issues but actually had a lot of rear seat room and it was a three row
So I was impressed actually with just compared to the genesis the rear seat room of the new pathfinder of all things
But um and then also
It has a big key fob like the key fob itself is kind of big
And then it has little tiny buttons on the side of it. So you and I talked about hard to read
Very small like I have to put my glasses on to see if I'm going to press lock or unlock
And there's this whole other
Flesh side of the key that there's no buttons on well, there's there's buttons on each side of the key
Like if you lay the key on the ground, then it's on the left and the right side
There's like three buttons on each side. Yeah, they're all tiny. Yeah, truly like
Quarter inch by a quarter inch maybe but the top and bottom of the key have nothing. Yeah
And you're right like we talked about this the key fob is very thick
The only thing I could think of is maybe they've had to add more computing power into it for proximity stuff or other functions
Yeah, that's the only excuse because it was like it was pretty chunky
It's pretty chunky and then and when you're looking at the fob lock and unlock are right next to each other
and the only difference
On the tiny little icons
Is like that one
Millimeter gap where it shows the lock is like open like I
I know my eyes are like not great up close or small things anymore, but like that's crazy
It was way it was hard to see
Like it was just you know, maybe you get used to it. You go to the top one is lock or the middle one
But I feel like that could have because especially because they've clearly put an amazing amount of work into like the interior
You know how it's laid out how it feels how it looks and then this fob looks cheap
But also takes up a ton of space in a bad impression of a Bentley key because the Bentley keys also tend to be kind of big
But they're big and heavy and made of metal. Right. Where are the buttons? They're on the fucking normal side. They're not on the sides
Yeah, and funny enough that Nissan pathfinder the buttons were on the right place
but
They it was so cheap that they were all just like it was like a black fob with black buttons and black
You couldn't read any of them. Oh, like it wasn't even like they're attached black. Yeah black in black
Like they didn't even like print it in white or
I was like, wow, they're fucking give it up on fobs
I I don't I the one complaint about the ride on the Genesis
I don't think would be a deal breaker if I was in the market for this type of vehicle
Yeah, I just came away like I think for the money
I like the interior better than new BMWs. I think it's far more intuitive. I think it looks better. It looks more expensive
Yeah, um Mercedes really depends on the model, you know, the whole like their screens have gotten too massive
So I don't miss that at all. So I think they're punching above their weight class as they have been for a while
Pretty successfully, but you do make good points, especially backseat room. You know third row backseat room is yeah
but if and if if you know
If I was at the very high end of one of these if I was thinking about getting one fully loaded you're you're crossing over into
Cayenne territory, that's true. Audi territory Audi q7 territory
And so at that point if I cared more about driving dynamics, I'd probably lean towards something german if I cared more about
A serene experience while sitting in traffic
I'd probably go with it and I think that's what I was looking for most of the time with suvs and
I just felt like it rewarded that or met that expectation
met that expectation I'd like to try have a quick go on one with the 20s and see if that
If this thing if this whole package was just tuned for the 20s
And then someone's like we need to bling this mother mother up and put some heavy ass wheels on it
And it probably just made it
Yeah, it's a shock to the same between the two and they don't re-engineer for those wheels. That's a good point
Yeah, but um, I do like this tan. I would definitely the green exterior with the tan interior is very dope
Diamond stitch seat the seats were really good. They are
Yeah, they did a great job and it's they don't have massage, but they have that sort of active
Rolly thing. That's right. Yeah, the lucid's massage seats were pretty impressive. Those are good. Those helped me a lot
Yeah, I I use massage seats all the time when they're in cars that come with the stereo is very good in the in the jazz
Is I I liked it a lot. I just I I wished
It didn't have that one quality from the ride, but maybe it's different wheels
Anyway, let's go to the people patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast is where you ask us questions for the little program here
It's where you get the show live early. It's where you get extra show
Which by the way pro drivers and champs were recording that show tomorrow
But uh, probably tomorrow probably tomorrow wednesday if you want to catch it live
Uh, it's also where you get access to exclusive collabs and things that we are doing with brands that we like
Um, we're very very close to having our next product out
We were just sent a video of the sizing samples because yeah, this one comes in different sizes
But uh, it's gonna be really fucking cool
And
Let's see what the people have to say
Zach's underdrive police says, uh
My complex meaning my apartment complex, I guess offers free ev charging
Is it worth getting a 5000 dollar early nissan leaf as a beater just for a work commute?
Which is 30 miles round trip
Well
Question
Is getting an extra car
For 5000 dollars
Just so you don't have to pay for gas
a good idea
Because how long would it take you to spend 5000 dollars in your own car on gas?
Meanwhile, you still have to ensure and maintain that other car. Yeah
I might argue that if you have a 30 mile round trip that opens you might be able to get
Rather than a leaf
I mean you could get a plug-in hybrid and almost never commute in using gas and then have
Gas for your for any other use case you need you could also probably I mean, I don't maybe you get a full a good ev
Uh, and just have that as your car
If you have free ev charging at home
How often are you driving more than 250 miles in a day? Probably not that often very often
I think I'm assuming they're they brought up the leaf because it's so cheap. It's like
That's in their budget of either either they don't have a lot of money for a second car
Or it's just kind of like throw away money, but still you make a great point
That this person has to do the math on what are you spending on gas per year?
Yeah, you know, I think average is like a thousand bucks across the country. I'm shocked
Five grand plus insurance. Yeah, you have to drive this thing for six years maybe to make up that difference. Yeah
I'm surprised at
How little I spend on gas a year
As compares to
Buying another car just to save money on gas. You know what I mean? Like
Like that and then it's just me you're you're like I said your mileage may vary but like 30 miles round trip every day
You know if you had a a very fuel like if you got a Prius
you know, that's like
five bucks in gas, right, so I mean
I don't know
Something tells me it doesn't make sense to buy
A really cheap EV that has very limited use case just for this task, right?
Maybe if you could find for seven or eight or 9000 dollars like a fiat 500 e
That still has like a hundred miles of range in it instead of this leaf that might have like 50
That's true. You know that's that'll get real tight and that only assumes if all the battery life is there
quick thing according to
11 thing average American uses
575 gallons of gas a year multiply by four right now, which is like average price. That's 2300 bucks a year on gas
so but
This also asks the question like does this person drive their other car a lot on the weekend
So if it's only these 30 miles like I think your savings drop because you're not going to be using this EV
For a hundred percent of your trips, right? So it's actually not going to save you
2300 a year might save you 1100 a year. So you have to drive it for many many years to make up the money
Yeah, I feel like you'd be better off getting a slightly
Nicer use the because like getting something that's like if you can afford it. I realize we're talking about real money, but like
Say an early model s or something for like 12,000 dollars
That's probably like the floor for that for a working model s, you know what I mean?
So you could probably drive it for like flat-ish money, you know, if you don't break it, you know what I mean? Yeah
Yeah
Good math though, but do the whole math out. Yeah
Duffel shuffle retirement club of all the vehicles you've ever owned. Which one would you like to see turn into a lego kit or hot wheels?
uh
Safari 911 safari crumb Vic. Yeah
The lifted one I do
Delta integrale H fully
That's funny. What cars existence did you learn about most recently? Oh, that's interesting
I did just learn about something new and now i'm struggling to
Remember what we learned about the alpina sedan concept that doesn't exist
right um
Did I cease to have I seen a car that well, I mean that
Matt quicks mercedes that 190e
Rosso edition with that crazy interior. I did not know that was a thing
I'd never seen that before so that's that's that's a new thing crazy stock interior. Yeah, I'd never
I didn't know mercedes had a harlequin. I didn't really had that much whimsy in the building. Yeah, never so that's that's certainly a new one
um
I did also just learn from steve rimmer
That there was a launch shia 037
From in period that was made to be all-wheel drive
There was like a prototype of one that they cancelled group B. So they never
Actually made it but like there was one at least one
Somewhere well, they saw the writing on the wall, you know, they barely won that championship with rear-wheel drive and then after that
It was all a driver nothing
So that's cool. Hey mercedes says the have you learned about a new car recently?
With carbon ceramics being standard on the e-ray. Do you see that affecting the value negatively?
Trying to sell to potential second or third owners who may not be willing to pony up
For the much more expensive service compared to say a 06 with steel brakes
Ceramic brakes are supposed to be like lifetime. I mean, uh, if you're street driving a car
Which let's be honest
99 of e-rays are going to be street driven cars
If you're street driving an e-ray not to mention you've got fucking regenerative braking
So you're all you're already using your actual brakes like half as much right because you've got regen
That should genuinely be a lifetime service if you unless you're talking about cars with
A 100000 miles on them and that have been driven really hard
They shouldn't need brakes. Yeah, I mean, you know the cost to replace them according to a quick google is 20 grand
But they're also supposed to last at least a 100000 miles
So
Yeah, it's like one of those things are like, oh, should I worry about this? Probably not
Yeah, I mean I certainly
I don't think the ceramic brakes will affect values negatively any more than a hybrid system will
Yeah, and usually
You know, they're really informed buyer might shy away from the carbon cars
Most people that are most people that will shop for the most expensive car they can afford
So if they if they're going to get a second hand at e-ray or a third hand e-ray
They're going to buy the one that has the most specs the same way the person who bought it brand new
They're going to oh
I can reach for the carbons because they think they're race car driver
So I think you're still going to have plenty of market
Yeah, and and if someone was really a track rat for some reason and really care if you're a really a track rat
And somehow ended up choosing the e-ray
And you really cared you you buy a set of ap's
You throw them on you put your carbon ceramic brakes in the box
Put them back on when you go to sell the car right and that's what a lot of people
People with gt3 rs's do this all the time take off the ceramic brakes to put steel racing brakes on
And then so funny. It's crazy. It's so weird. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy
But it's that it's not not a super good start and you can check
I mean, you know, you go you get a ppi done on the car they go
Well, this there's this many millimeters of pad left and we bless you and we expect that to last you know this much
I think the crazier one much crazier is
Recent late model amg's with steel brakes
And you're 30 40 000 miles and those pads are going them shits are like 15 grand
For steels for rotors for rotors and pads on an amg car
Well, it's so expensive. Wow, so expensive and and people are absolutely shocked by the replacement cost
Um
Car yenta says of the current and upcoming evs, which are mildly off-road capable
Which would be best for comfort on the road?
Adding a rooftop tent and must have a sunroof unfortunately not available in the mock e rally
I mean, I haven't driven the new cayenne electric, but that's probably good. Can I ask a question?
If you have a rooftop tent on top of your car
Why do you want a sunroof?
Maybe they want a sunroof when the rooftop tent, okay?
Just because they wrote a plus b plus c i'm like, can you go up through the sunroof into the rooftop tent?
I don't think so. I think the floor is important. Um, all right. Well, uh, what comes with a sunroof? It's an ev
A lot of these cars come with a full glass roof. Yeah, you know rather than a sunroof
um
I mean, what are the what evs are well? Hang on a second. You've got your rivian
Right
You've got your I don't know about a rivian sunroof. I don't think I'm looking up. I don't think rivians have sunroofs
But you've got the electric g. Oh dude the electric g wagon
That's your shit right there
That definitely has a sunroof. It's the same body structure as the other g wagon. That's gonna have a sunroof
Yeah, the rivian has a electrochromic roof. So there's no sunroof. Uh, yeah, dude electric g wagon is where you're at
Or possibly cayenne
I
Don't know I this is a hard one because we don't research what cars have sunroofs
But my in my immediate guess is going to be g wagon
But man imagine
Your fucking range of an electric g wagon with a rooftop tent 12 miles. So bad. Yeah
Uh grind my gears said do you think careers in automotive suffer from lower wages and salary?
Because so many people are enthusiastic and passionate about it. Do you think people accept less
To be there doing the thing in your career?
Have you accepted less than was appropriate because you've got a chance to be a part of it? Well, I certainly have
Totally there's been fun. Yeah, I've done things that were full on work
For zero dollars just so I could have 20 minutes a seat time in a car or say I was there or something
Yeah, that happens. Uh, I won't name the oem, but there's an oem that
pay
From what I've heard pays its employees less than some of its competitors because people are so
Excited about the brand. They're like, yeah, we're we're this cool, but we're gonna pay you less than the people we compete with
Yeah, I mean I don't careers in automotive is a huge umbrella
Sure
So do I think a guy who's a fucking tech at a Honda dealer's fixing odysseys is there for the passion of it? Not necessarily
Would someone take a lower wage to go work at a race shop or to be a part of something bigger?
Yeah, probably and if they if they do well there
The next step is they become a master and they oh, maybe they open their own shop and they make a bunch of money, you know
Or maybe they
Develop a skill set that is invaluable and they could charge a fuck ton of money for you know down the road
I mean guys like marco guys like charlie agapoo
You know them guys I I don't
I as far as I know both marco and charlie agapoo pay their employees very well
but but uh
There are certainly people that are willing to go work at places like that
For less, you know to get in the door. Yeah, because they're excited. They're excited about being there
And certainly the early parts of
Whatever you'd call automotive journalism or influencing or whatever like yeah people do all fucking
I ran I ran side gigs just to support the smoking tire for like three years
Yeah, I went out and got freelance jobs and just dumped it into this
Like we made no money for a really long time. Yeah, um, we we podcasted for two years before selling a fucking ad
We made videos on youtube
For fucking at least a year and a half before selling a single ad
And we and we made content for like seven years
before
Making decent money. Yeah, but I mean I had a real job with it for 11 years. Yeah, I mean it's it's
But so yeah, I mean but the the action is the juice as they say
I mean I I'm fortunate enough that I was able to like turn myself into a personality
And that's a better way to make money than being a fucking cameraman, you know
I mean if you're if you're a cinematographer a photographer in automotive like yeah, dude
You're gonna do a lot of free gigs in the beginning
Uh carbon monocoque and ball torture best sandwich to eat while driving a stick
Um
Well
It's got to be clean and tidy. Yeah, nothing with uh nothing with sprouts
Nothing with a sauce but also it can't be greasy because you're touching the steering wheel afterwards
Uh
Right very true. It's got to be kind of a simple meat cheese
honestly, I would say
uh
A grilled cheese sandwich if I got a grilled cheese sandwich will hold its structure kind of greasy though a little bit
Yeah, because it's supposed to be toasted in butter hot dog
I mean just a hot dog that isn't too overly condimented. Yeah, that'd be very easy driving the bun is dry. Yeah
Yeah, or like a non a non messy burger
Like it won't be a great burger is going to be a little messy, but I would go with like a like
turkey lettuce
Probably beats no no uh pickles because tomato can drip all over the place and then a simple cheese
Something with everything has to have structure. Sure the entire sandwich. Yeah, it's has to stay together. Yeah, the most important thing. I man
other day
At a fucking great sandwich. I went to a Jewish deli pan and I went to Highland Park
We were trying to explore new areas of LA. We don't really go to went to Highland Park went to a Jewish deli
Pretty solid pretty fucking solid. Honestly the sandwich was my tuna melt was excellent, but
Classic error
They did not shred the lettuce. They just laid a sheet of iceberg two sheets of iceberg
Well, that's like a slip and slide. Yeah, you know, I mean that's that shit is creating a problem
Carl taught me this it makes so much sense a shredded lettuce
It creates a lot of friction
So when you scrunch down
It holds everything all the edges of the lettuce dude. It holds. It's a lot of surface area
It's a lot of tension. It holds everything together really nicely the sheet of lettuce. It's slip and slide
It's like if you're driving on a slab of granite, but if you turn the granite into gravel
Right, and then if they're both are wet. Yeah gravel is much better 100. Yeah
That's it told dude Carl's sandwich constructing when he when we go get a burger
And he'd be like, you see how this is wrapped so the steam comes out the side. He's this is a fucking genius like so anyway
That's what you want shredded lettuce
um
Okay
I feel okay
I feel that also I feel there's been a mass movement of content creators backing away from unique builds and engine swaps
In favor of period correctness and out-of-the-box performance is the world of engine swaps and over-the-top tooling
Tuning falling back into niche for the majority of enthusiasts and why yeah, dude
Relatability and money
They they for the last 10 years guys like freddy and you know mad armstrong and all the build people
You know them
Hmm
They did what people do they escalated they they they I don't want to say fell into the trap
but like
It just they it was just that was what the culture of that type of programming was that the next thing and
And the next they had to keep one upping each other and at a certain point even they couldn't do I mean at a certain point even even
freddy
You know bless his heart, you know guys extremely talented is you kind of hit a wall
I mean a certain point you go
I don't know if I can if I or anybody can build a McLaren p1
If I or anybody can rebuild a portion 918, but like
That's the end of that road. Where do you where do you go from that? You know, so
um, I think
Other people like james pumphrey and like scato
Maybe vinn and ron do a certain degree although they're they've they've moved up higher end a little bit with their porches and ferrari's
But at a certain point I think they go well, let me
Let me get back to basics. Let me do something that's a little more manageable and the audience decided right away that
That maybe there was something to be learned and appreciated from that. Yeah, I agree. I think
When they're doing these crazy swaps, especially when the internet requires you to do more
More than an ls because everyone does an ls and they go
Do something different do something different
I mean hoonigan end up doing like the godzilla swap and the crazy what 632 chimero thing they did like
You have to just keep raising the bar of difficulty price engine size
And if you don't have the resources of that kind of company or if you don't have the skill of like soupy
You go, oh, I now have a frankenstein. That's really hard to work on and get running
I mean vinn had a couple of things like z36 was was troublesome
Like you can just paint yourself in a corner and eventually you want to return to something that works and is much more simple
And also the audience will get bored of a certain genre of content and eventually they'll just they'll move on also
Yeah, I think the audience
Has moved on in a lot of ways from these sort of
vicarious living
In these in the supercars and shit. I think they're kind of like
Oh, definitely. They don't get on give us anymore. Definitely. Yeah
Uh tim a what current model car feature feels like the biggest step back from 10 years ago
Step back from 10 years ago. I mean
Cars you have to log into
Like a car like new Porsches if you don't like log in with your Porsche connect account. Yeah
They will fucking pop up windows at you like forever
Like is this cars that are 10 years old and they had a new feature that now feels like a step back
Or new features that feel like versus 10 years ago. What new feature feels like a step backwards
I mean, obviously like surveillance capitalism and the app thing isn't a step backwards
Technologically speaking, but like it definitely makes cars suckier. I mean, it's not a new thing the over screen
I think I think Mercedes like the Genesis is a good example of how you can have screen here
Hard buttons below looks nice looks modern also looks classy Mercedes is doing the opposite
Tablet, you know, it's like a giant T of screen and I just think that's too much. Yeah
Conversely idiocracy is actually a documentary says what is a modern car feature that you feel you can't live without
radar cruise
Yeah, radar radar cruise is the shit. I would take that. I mean backup cameras are really is what they mentioned are
incredibly helpful for parking and safety
but I
I drive my car doesn't have either of those things and I miss radar cruise when I'm on the highway far more than I miss backup cameras
I agree a going on a road trip without radar cruise now kind of sucks. Yeah, it's fucking nice
Not not I'm happy to steer. I'm gonna pay attention. I'm looking at the road
I'm gonna steer the car
But when you're in the car for 78 hours being able to like relax your feet stretch legs a bit that shit is money
Yeah, and not just be focused on
Clicking your cruise up and then down like trying to adjust to the cars around you is really annoying. Yeah
Some systems are better than others
But a really good one. Ford's is very good. Ford's is great. GM's is really good, too. Yeah
Carb's legal bakery says a new study conducted by the New York Times found that the increase in average vehicle hood height
Has led to thousands of pedestrian deaths. Yes
We talked about this a lot
with David zipper
Um, David zipper, uh, who is a a fellow at mit and a friend of mine and very much
an advocate for
Pedestrian safety urbanism stuff like that. Uh, did a did a big piece on this and yeah
Yeah, definitely the the increase in the hood height
Not just because of the damage, uh, that it will do to a person's body when it hits them, but also, uh, the restriction and visibility
From the driver's seat when you have a modern, uh, truck or suv with wow 47
This is an interesting comparison because the hood heights got taller because
With the uh, the goal was pedestrian safety, right?
Part of it was not in trucks. No, but in cars because I'll go back to the focus of the escape
Part of it was having more distance between the hood and the engine
So that would crumple and you wouldn't hit something super hard when you fall onto it
Also, then you wouldn't you know, if the car hits you in the ankles
You don't fall three feet till you hit something right but now with trucks where it's you know
Six inches taller than the car like you're just getting hit higher up on your body
And that's a different problem hitting your torso
Like instead of instead of sweeping the leg, you know, it's actually just smashing into your torso
Yeah, I'm 47 inch hood height on this Chevy Silverado. That's
High and so, um, yes, I mean we this isn't
Actually new. It's just that the uh, the mainstream
Uh media, you know, the new york times, uh, this was in sort of wonky urbanism circles for the last two years
But please go back and listen to the smoking tire podcast
Episode with david zipper who we talked a lot about this. Yeah, cool
Yeah cars being huge is bad
But cars being tall is actually
Like the worst for pedestrians. Yeah
Keel and toe says with the recent release of the outie new velari and $700,000 pricing
There is there also a shrinking market for 100k to 200k cars. Yep
Yep, yep, that's the k-shaped economy. Yeah, the k-shaped economy is all
all products
And services will gradually point towards billionaires
And and stuff and it's like it's not even like just like the quote middle class like
like
The former upper middle class is basically going to be not have anything to target it to them either
Yeah, I mean we're seeing I think the average price of 9 11 press cars we got has crept towards 200 even with
9 11 t or s's
I mean, you know corvette still has cars that are immediately in between 100 and 200, but there's far fewer cars there
Then there's way more 1400000 dollars. Yeah, how many uh, however many
New velaris they're going to meld at 700k
They've found that that is a better business model than building 10 times that many at 70k, right?
Yeah, that and that's what everybody is learning and I just sent you the article about watches same thing
The the watch industry the volume is down
The profits in many cases are up
because the average
transaction price
For some of these watch companies is so high
And that's where all the margin is. You know like like rolex. They don't publish specific reports, but like
But but yeah, it's it's it's the the the lower end
They're selling less volume and at the higher end there's more diamonds more fucking custom shop
More off catalog more super special everything where someone might pay
$700,000 for a special watch and versus them making
More watches to make them available for people who can afford them the
we're going to see a real hollowing out of the
The the middle of of all markets. I mean there's just there's just people who make things that are
Even sort of luxurious are going to find ways to move up market and target the people that are not affected by
a down economy
Oh cat question trike baronson says I have a feral cat. I'm trying to be friend at home
We've been giving her food treats and letting her inside to scope out the house
This has been going on for a couple weeks
She's still super skittish and on edge when coming around she's around three years old
I should add that when I let her inside we open the door and keep it open so she can leave when she wants
She never stays more than a few minutes
Feral cats are tough
If it really is a feral cat
It may never be able to be like domesticated. I mean it's it's nice of you to feed it
It's nice of you to give it treats. It's nice of you to let it inside
If it becomes more comfortable and like indicates it wants to stay like if it eventually like lays down in your couch
And goes to sleep that's a little different than if it just like scopes and then dips
Um
If this is a cat that once had a home and was abandoned
You have a better shot if it was born wild and you're trying to domesticate it at three years old like
That's going to be up to the cat
It may not go well for you
If if if she will take treats from you
Like from your hand then you she's you've got a chance if if she won't come near you, but we'll take food
It's probably just a feral cat that is happy that someone's giving it food
I and I'd add that I've seen some videos about like person rescues puppy and puppy is shaking and terrified for months
Yeah, because of what it had before. Yeah, it can take a really long time, you know
A couple weeks is not that long. Yeah, it's not that long. Um, but it's I think you're actually doing the right things
I just don't know where it'll end up and how because feral is like a
A specific term to describe a specific like a a wild cat
Like and you can't unless you find one when it's like a kitten you can't always domesticate a wild cat
Even if they like food that you're giving them
Like the the the cats down at the south base door like I can't I they're
They're out there fucking junkyard cats like I right I can feed them
I can you know, if I see one injured or something I could do something but like I can't take them home or anything
Ferrari luchador
That's a good one 15k. What's the best used car to buy to learn a manual?
Uh, must have four seats
Dude anything japanese from 1995 to 2007 civic mazda 3 mazda 6. Yeah a cord
I mean any of those things or a golf or you know, uh, uh, a golf or a jetta. Yeah, like
Yeah, the world is your oyster, but we need more specificity down like whether you're using it for what's your interest
What is your life like? You know, what do you need? But uh, yeah get some of the japanese. Yeah, but there isn't like
There isn't the best you're talking about learning manual like you you know something that's been taken care of and you know
Is it something with a forebanger the clutch will be lighter. That's easier. Yeah
Uh, don't amg whiz on the electric fence
Uh
I just had an o7 g 500 in the shop with big off-road tires
Is it do she to drive a g wagon if you're actually using it for off-roading? No, no, I think we'll get respect
Yeah, they do. I mean they're good at that. I've done. I've done off-roading a g wagon is great
Two in the ruby one in the star
How long ago does a minor car fax incident need to have taken place before it starts
Impacting resale value less does it change based on the starting car value?
Let's assume no pictures of the damage, but the repair was done. Well
I mean the answer is forever
Like a car that was damaged and repaired
Like someone's gonna ask questions about that. So like
What can you do? You say it was the repair was done. Well
You got to get as much documentation as you can to show that the repair was done. Well, it maybe you can go back
And find the original invoice from the shop that it was done
Maybe you could find in
Photos from the from the crash. Maybe you have to like
Take the wheel off and like get some better like photos of whatever the fuck to show that it's good now
Like there's only so much you can do. Yeah
The only the only other thing that helps is if the popularity of that used car goes up a lot
People will start caring less. Sure. Yeah
Or if you have a car that is like I assume you're not talking about this
But if you have a car that is so rare, you know
Yeah, if it was in the bottom of the ocean, but it's a Bugatti and they're like, I don't know. It's uh, it's a patina. It's restoration spec
Uh, all-wheel drive biased. Uh, how would a Mach-E rally be as a replacement for a Forrester XT?
So good assuming
This person wants to take it on ski trips assuming the skiing is either within the range of your battery or there's charging
on the way there
Um, I mean I spent the week anyone and we'll talk more about it on the next show
But like they ride great the blue blue cruise is a fantastic seats are so comfortable
Um, and you know, we've driven it in the dirt. Yeah, it's fun as hell
It's the way they program the diffs traction control and everything
Is going to be more fun and better than your Subaru with traction off
Like it is such a good car for that kind of stuff
So I think it'd be a fantastic snow vehicle as long as the range works for your life
Yeah, I mean, we've never done some winter range tests
So you're gonna have to to get an answer to that question go to people that have I mean
It could be car or it could be real world
You know reports on some forums somewhere that you got to do some searching for but
There's obviously going to be battery performance issues in winter
You can minimize that by preconditioning the battery before you leave the house, you know, if you rent
If you go on a ski trip, maybe you're renting a house. Maybe that house has a charger
I mean you you can you can precondition your battery on a 110 charger
Bring an extension cord when you travel. Yeah, you don't even need the the 220 to to do that
So you can set you get your climate control going and you can get your battery condition just on a 110
You know, so you can it might take a little extra effort, you know on your part, but like you could certainly
Um
Mitigate a lot of the negative effects
And plan I mean like ski resorts want people
Coming who have electric cars. So most ski areas
Have you know having to have an electrify america or a fucking
You can charge these on tesla chargers now like
There's places to charge what I would do before you buy this car is is pick a ski pick a saturday
And just go on google maps or like like the electrify app and just look at how busy those are
And try to figure out like is there a line for the tesla chargers?
That's 50 cars deep all day and then sort of that you might because you don't want to go
Oh, yes, there are chargers you want to say how busy are they how saturated is the market there?
Because that might really impact your day. Yeah, but I think
Yeah, I think most people can can have the
Uh ski trips without it being too much for problem now
Chubba red bar cheddar says people seem to love the focus rs now
Do you think they've forgotten about the rock hard suspension or if they accepted it?
Uh
With respect
That's a very trumpy people are saying
Who and what and where I mean who are where I have seen no no stories about the greatness of the focus rs
I mean like any
Car when they stop making it the values stabilize and people can get a little more for used cars, but
I have seen
absolutely nothing about
Some greater trend of people love the focus rs now
Have you no I I agree
There's always going to be someone who's a fan of it and they'll do an article because they need content or a video
And be like oh, we're we're going to miss these but it doesn't mean
It doesn't mean you have to this person has to forget about the suspension or the seats
Yeah, I don't miss my focus rs. It doesn't mean I don't smile a little bit if I see someone like ripping one somewhere
Like they were fast
And for doesn't make hatchbacks anymore. So I'm a little bit nostalgic about a time when they did but
Plus when people bought them when they were new including you
They overlooked some of these things because they were excited about the car
They're doing that again, even though the car is old like that doesn't change
Uh
I
Again same pts a kindershiza says uh, why do w2 10 e 55s get more love than w2 11s? I
I don't know
Do they I mean I get this these are these are real forumy questions that are intended to sort of
Drive debate among zealots, I guess
But like what is the evidence that the 2 10 gets more love than the 2 11? It's probably just getting
Maybe my guess would be
As people age into nostalgia land. They start to celebrate the car. They loved
The people that love 2 10s are slightly older than the people who love 2 11s. And so that's the way if we're seeing
I agree the 2 11's way better looking car
That's the supercharged one and the 2 10 is the one like I got right yeah
And and also the 2 10 is the one pull up a picture the 2 10 is the nose just looks flat and like the first one
Is the 2 exactly it's the first one
I
I would first off I would seriously dispute that
The 2 10 gets quote more love than the 2 11. I I'm just asking questions. I would dispute that
and
I dispute that the people are saying premise of this
Yeah, and the second question I've answered three times and I'll answer it again
Why did we use the 2 10 powertrain instead of the 2 11 supercharged powertrain? The answer is
I don't need the extra power the supercharger provides and the the generational difference in powertrains
Fucking opens an entirely insane rabbit hole of needs
The engine gets taller because of the blower the electronic architecture of the of the system is completely different
Basically, there's no benefit to the power. There's no benefit to the usability
There's no benefit to the dependability and it costs about 20k more
That's why
Pooh poo brown wagon wagon
I've read on forums people are saying every question is a people are saying
AMG GT
Parts are pretty slim outside of the dealers
But values are down and they seem to be a good alternative to something like like a 9 11
Do you think aftermarket support for them will grow?
Well, it depends on the parts they need
You know if you need suspension sure aftermarket could support that
But if you need a fan blower motor or you know like some sort of coolant temp sensor and you know
Assuming it wasn't crossed over from other like other cars. Uh, it could be hard to find that stuff
Like those are the things like you've talked about the NSX
The shit that goes wrong that the aftermarket is never going to make that only came from Acura or only came from Mercedes
It depends on if Mercedes is supporting the longevity of these cars
right, uh
Ferrari duquet thoughts of the bmw and we talked about that in a previous show
Two in the frozen berry one in the mahogany metallic
As someone who also worked at footlocker in high school certain shoes stood out to me
What shoes stood out to you?
Well, I had all of the tuned airs. I had like eight colors of the nike tuned airs
I had the first foam posits. I bought a lot of shoes when I was back working there because I had a discount
The first foam posits I had in two or three colors. I had the 96 Jordans with the zebra stripes. Those were dope
I had the
Very first jump man when they came out with the jump man
I was working there then
I had air. I had the first air max 95s
I was working at footlocker in 95 and got the air max 95 when it first came out
It's not an immediate success the way it wouldn't when you first saw that shoe
You would not guess that they'd still be making it 30 years. Wow
Uh
Don't rob me watch strap recommendations for a trip to cancun watch comes with a leather
Which is not good for water. No shit. Should I switch to a steel bracelet nato nylon or other recommendation?
Uh, well
Your two choices really for I don't like natos. They don't do it for me
But but you're my chewed my my choices for summer water sports are going to be the steel bracelet or like the
under the cuff
Fkm rubber the rubber with the deployant. That's my jam. So yeah, I like the rubber straps
Fkm or or silicone with a with the uh with a deployant the kill mary rubber strap. Yes
Last one then we're going to call these are the last two. Okay
Uh christian says uh growing up. Well, I'll take the second part. Uh first go buy a c4 zr1
Did I watch the indy car race at road america this past weekend? No
Christian says growing up. I hated cars with tan or brown interior. I hated wagons and hatchbacks and now that i'm 30
I love these things
What has changed in your taste since aging the same shit that always does
You don't need a race car for the street
Like thinking you need a race car to drive on the street is like the most juvenile shit ever and I think
In my like tan. I always saw tan interiors on old mercedes diesels or driven by older people
So to me it was the interior choice for the older boring person. That's interesting and it was like, oh black is
Sports cars are usually shown with black interiors. And so that's probably where I landed
My first like four cars
Had gray interiors
Interesting all had gray. Yeah, Subaru has a gray. Subaru is the gray cloth
My Mustang was gray the nautica villager was gray with the weird
Nautica
Things on it. The corvette was the first car I got with a black interior. Wow my jet was black
Pontiac was white vinyl
Low back seats white vinyl do summertime so sticky white vinyl. Yeah
That's it folks. Thanks very much
Uh pro driver show tomorrow. We'll talk about all the things I can't talk about in public. You know what i'm saying
No, i'm saying the secrets. Thank you to the patrons for asking such good questions
Thank you to matt quick again for his hospitality down there in nashville. Can't wait to get my car back if you want to get the
Manual swapped or a full powertrain swapped late model mercedes. That's your guy right there
And uh, go check out that show if you haven't yet and thanks everyone else for listening. We'll see you later
About this episode
Matt and Zach dive into the record-shattering performance of the new Corvette ZR1, which just clocked the quickest 0-60 mph time ever recorded by Car and Driver. The duo also tackles the latest Tesla controversy, discussing a recent house crash and allegations of manipulated Full Self-Driving data in Europe. Finally, they share their hands-on review of the Genesis GV80 luxury SUV and swap personal stories about motorcycle safety, Vespa commuting, and the realities of two-wheeled road hazards.
carbon ceramic brakes
David Zipper
Emelia Hartford
FSD
limited slip differential
Matt Quick
Pikes Peak
PPI
sleeper
Alpine A110
Audi Q7
BMW 3 Series
BMW M3
BMW New Class
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Charger
Fiat 500
Fiat 500e
Ford Focus
Ford Mustang
Genesis GV60
Genesis GV80
Honda Civic
Honda Odyssey
Honda S2000
Hyundai Genesis
Hyundai Ioniq
Kia EV6
Lucid Gravity
Mazda 6 MPS
Mazda Flair
Mazda RX-3
McLaren P1
Mercedes-Benz 190E
Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG
Mercedes-Benz G-Class
Mercury Villager
Nissan GT-R
Nissan Leaf
Nissan Pathfinder
Porsche 911
Porsche 918 Spyder
Porsche Cayenne
Tesla Model S
Toyota Prius
Volkswagen Jetta
Original notes
Matt Farah and Zack Klapman discuss the new record set by the Corvette ZR1; a Tesla crashes into a house; the company Tesla lied to the EU; and a review of the 2026 Genesis GV80.
Patreon questions include:
Why content creators are backing away from crazy swaps
Best used manual to learn on? $15k budget
Worth getting an EV JUST to commute in?
Does the auto industry underpay because CARS?!
Which of our cars should be a LEGO?
Do carbon ceramics effect resale value?
Which EV is best for camping?
Best sandwich to eat while driving
New cars that feel like a step back
Modern feature we can't live without
Are bigger cars actually more dangerous?
How to befriend a feral cat
And more!
Recorded June 24, 2026
Show Notes
Factor
Head to https://Factormeals.com/tire50off and use code tire50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box, with new subscription only, while supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
Truewerk
The work doesn’t stop just because the weather changes. Upgrade to the T2 WerkPant and stay comfortable no matter what the day brings. Get 15% off your first order at https://TRUEWERK.com with code tire. TRUEWERK, built like it matters, because it does.
Enter to WIN our AMAZING 2025 Porsche 911 Turbo S!! https://www.dreamgiveaway.com/tickets/porsche?promo=SMOKINGTIRE
Promo Code Offer: Get 4X bonus tickets with any donation of $25 or more. With every donation you are helping benefit some wonderful veterans' and children's charities.
Podcast Promo Code: SMOKINGTIRE
Want your question answered? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast
Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! Enter code TST10 for a 10% discount on your first case on the Off The Record app, or go to http://www.offtherecord.com/TST.
Watch our car reviews: https://www.youtube.com/thesmokingtire
Tweet at us!
https://www.Twitter.com/thesmokingtire
https://www.Twitter.com/zackklapman
Instagram:
https://www.Instagram.com/thesmokingtire
https://www.Instagram.com/therealzackklapman
The Smoking Tire
Zack Klapman, Matt Farah
0:00
114:25