Racing at the Cleetus 900 Was Insane

Matt Farah and Zack Klapman recap their time racing in the July 18, 2026 Cleetus 900. This event is much, MUCH more than a race. 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). Quince Make your summer wardrobe easier. Go to https://Quince.com/tire for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Avants https://avants.com/tst use code TST for 10% off your membership! Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! For a 10% discount on your first case go to https://www.offtherecord.com/TST 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 Instagram: https://www. Instagram.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Instagram.com/therealzackklapman 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

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Matt Farah?

  What up everybody, welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. This week's episodes as always are brought to you by Off the Record. We love Off the Record here at the Smoking Tire because they're out there looking out for you. As you're going down the road, as you're summer road tripping, as you're weekend canyon carving, and as you're commuting to work, whatever it is you're doing in your car, you know that if you get that Off the Record app, it's in your back pocket. You've always got their team of lawyers across the country. Should you get stopped by the police for doing something a little out of line, they are going to go to bat for you. All you gotta do is go to offtherecord.com/tst. Don't plead guilty, get Off the Record.

• 0:45Matt Farah?

  They'll connect you with a qualified attorney in the area where you got that ticket. They'll fight it and man, do they have a very good success rate. I hear from you guys all the time that Off the Record saved your backside. So, one more time, offtherecord.com/tst gets you 10% off all legal services booked through Off the Record. OfftheRecord.com/tst. All right folks, on this episode of the podcast, Zach and I, we survived our first Cletus race and came back to tell you all about it. Plus, we review the Cayenne GTS we were driving for our week-long trip to the Northeast and

• 1:30Matt Farah?

  boy, did we get stranded out there. It's the Smoking Tire Podcast, let's go. We avoid a lot of crashes?

• 1:37Speaker 01

  So many, so many. I went and like on the plane, I watched the highlight, the video they sent. So I got the outside shots of it. And some of the things that had happened in the car, I wasn't sure what was going on, but now seeing the replay, I went, oh, that person hit Cletus on purpose and then did a burnout against him, which you and I drove past, but there was so much smoke, I couldn't tell what was going on.

• 1:59Matt Farah?

  Oh, that's so funny.

• 2:00Speaker 01

  So, yeah. I learned a lot, yeah.

• 2:04Matt Farah?

  I almost, like, I had quick hands and avoided T-boning Richard Childress in the driver's door.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm. Someone spun him into the wall and he was facing backwards and then you go past him and I go past slower because I had more time to react.

• 2:19Matt Farah?

  That was a whoa.

• 2:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, who, I got close to him once and I backed, I was like, do not hit the 80-year-old legend.

• 2:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but he was hitting me like crazy.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  That's fine, fine. I would, I was like, if I hurt this man, they will kill the person they don't know, which is me, and they will, you know, celebrate him forever.

• 2:39Matt Farah?

  Driving the number three.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:41Matt Farah?

  You don't, you don't kill someone driving the number three, that's no good.

• 2:45Speaker 01

  I explained it to Sarah last night, like, his car and who he was, and she was like, "Oh, wow," I mean.

• 2:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but dude, that motherfucker had no front bumper left by the end of the race.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, he had to come in, they cut it off.

• 2:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:58Speaker 01

  That's in the video, but they had to rip his bumper off with a sawzall.

• 3:01Matt Farah?

  He smashed into me a bunch of times. A whole bunch of times. Are we good? Does that, do we exist?

• 3:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're here.

• 3:10Matt Farah?

  Hi, hello, hello, welcome back to Los Angeles. We actually are, you're gonna hear this out of order, we have one more show we recorded in Connecticut that's gonna go up on Thursday, but it's nice to see you all again. If the show is a couple hours late, it's because it took Zach and I three days to get home from New York.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  Did it.

• 3:32Matt Farah?

  A good time. Detour to Boston, no worries.

• 3:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:37Matt Farah?

  Little planes, trains, and automobile shit. The automobiles portion, well, yeah, we went automobiles, we took a fucking expensive-ass round-trip Ubers to JFK and back.

• 3:50Speaker 01

  We went to JFK as sightseers. And, uh, yeah, so we took an Uber and then we took another one and we took a train. Train was really nice.

• 3:58Matt Farah?

  The train was good.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  The Ascela train was nice. A friend of mine who was also in Boston at the time, he's like, "Oh, man, the train sucks." And I was like, "What are you talking about?" And he goes, "He took non-Ascela."

• 4:07Matt Farah?

  No, no.

• 4:07Speaker 01

  Non-Ascela was, I guess, I think, more problematic, but it was great.

• 4:10Matt Farah?

  I have Amtrak experience from, uh, from going Philly to New York, back and forth. Actually, Philly to Stanford, I would go to that same station, um, from college. And like, the Ascela, if you've got an extra $30, the Ascela is definitely the shit. Uh, or, you know, medium grade. If you've ever been to Europe, the Ascela sucks, but outside of that, or Asia, it's, in America, it's good.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  It's good.

• 4:33Matt Farah?

  Good for America.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:34Matt Farah?

  Uh, but then, yeah, walking distance to hotel.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  That was nice. Saw some really old stuff in Boston.

• 4:40Matt Farah?

  Boston at 7:00 AM on a perfect day is a really nice place. By 9 o'clock, not so much.

• 4:46Speaker 01

  It's like New York City, if there was a zombie apocalypse and no one went outside. Like, we were the only ones walking around, pretty much. And New York is not like that, you know?

• 4:55Matt Farah?

  Uh, if you go, if you went to like, Wall Street at 6:00 AM, it would be-ish like that. Like, where people work but not really live.

• 5:03Speaker 01

  Mm, okay.

• 5:04Matt Farah?

  Uh, but, but, yeah. It was, it was a, uh, interesting side detour, but here we are.

• 5:08Speaker 01

  I liked it.

• 5:09Matt Farah?

  All worth it, because we got to do a fucking, uh, Cleetus race. The New England 900, which, right up until we got there, we didn't really know how, what, what 900 meant. Like, are we going 900 miles? Is this race 900 laps? Exactly what is it? It was 90 laps. Um, and, man, there's, there's so much to talk about, about the day that we had out there. Um, but I, I really would like to start with the fact that, considering, especially considering, the fact that their product is chaos.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 5:50Matt Farah?

  You know, is, is, is crashing and, and, and really putting on a, a show for an audience.

• 5:59Matt Farah?

  The professionalism and organization and the helpfulness and friendliness and sort of general on-itness of the entire staff.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 6:12Matt Farah?

  Both the Freedom Factory people, because I guess it's like a big touring circus.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:19Matt Farah?

  And also the guys at Stafford were lovely. That's a, I don't do a lot of oval racing, ever really, but we met the owners of the track. One of them was racing in the race.

• 6:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:29Matt Farah?

  And they were just the nicest people. And it was a really nice track. The surface of the track was really good.

• 6:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, the condition was great.

• 6:36Matt Farah?

  Conditions were nice. It was clean and, you know, it was good.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  Their bathrooms were clean, and some other bigger tracks we've been to. I mean, this is a small track.

• 6:43Matt Farah?

  Nice, nice little track.

• 6:44Speaker 01

  Small footprint, like, in the forest. And everyone was just so nice and helpful. And, I mean, the Cleetus team, they were doing so many things, because there are a lot of pieces to this operation. And everyone was, that I met, were like, in a good mood, working quick, on top of stuff, but also seemed to be having a great time, because they're still filming Mayhem.

• 7:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  Or some of them, as we'll talk about, got to drive in Mayhem, because that's like, what a company perk.

• 7:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  I don't know if they rotate through their staff every event, or if you have to, like, work your way up to that, but 25% of the field are people that work, I think, at least, part-time at Freedom Factory.

• 7:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And like, remember, like, I mean, this is many years ago, but when I went to watch Guy Fieri do an episode of Guy's Grocery Games, and he had like, five jobs at once, and everybody was like, really calm about all of it. I was like, this is like a well-oiled machine.

• 7:37Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 7:38Matt Farah?

  Like, this whole experience was like, a louder version of that, basically. And Garrett, you know, Cleetus, is a really sweet guy. I mean, really, really fun, really, really cool. He's fucking like, 6'5", you know, good-looking dude. You understand with his attitude, his sort of general vibe, his look, and his brain, like, oh, this is why this guy is like, very, he's not, he's like, in his early 30s, this dude.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, but he was...

• 8:08Matt Farah?

  He's fucking on it.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  I remember we were standing at the wall after the Ultima race. And, you know, in the day, he had given us the safety meeting. He had done a two-hour meet and greet. He had raced in the Ultima race, which we'll talk about. And, you know, he emerged unscathed, which is not easy. He's emceeing stuff.

• 8:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 8:27Speaker 01

  Like, he knows he's the face of the operation. He's also helping oversee everything, although he's got Alan, who's like the real logistical dude.

• 8:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  And I said, this is amazing.

• 8:37Matt Farah?

  That guy's got brain power.

• 8:37Speaker 01

  I was like, Clitas, this is amazing. You're, you're driving in two races, you're doing all this stuff, you're talking to the people. Like, that's just a really impressive... And he's doing it all with like a nice smile, but calm.

• 8:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  And he goes, "How lucky am I to do this? Like, why would I not do that?" And it's a great point.

• 8:52Matt Farah?

  I mean, it is, but it's also like a kind of a testament to like a good support organization.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 8:58Matt Farah?

  That like, there's not a lot of like running around and like, you know, sort of like playing catch-up to anything. Even when the, the product that they're selling is like, you know, madness.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  Right. I mean, they've been doing this now, I think, for nine years. And so, they've refined it. I don't know, I don't know if it was this rougher in the early days than things usually are.

• 9:19Matt Farah?

  Imagine, imagine the first two or three.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  Maybe, yeah. And they just, they learned and, I mean, I just, I went in the support trailer, like in the infield. Every bin was labeled, labeled. They, like, they have thought of every possible problem with the drivers, performer, and the crew. And there's just a solution is easily visible, or someone knows where it is.

• 9:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 9:40Speaker 01

  And, uh, you know, we've been on TV productions, which, granted, different, but smaller. A lot more running around, usually.

• 9:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  So...

• 9:47Matt Farah?

  And, I mean, when you've got like cars crashing and blowing up and like, just a lot of general unpredictability in what you're trying to cover.

• 9:58Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 9:59Matt Farah?

  It's like, wow. That, like, it's one thing, like, when I watch, when I watch Guy Fieri do it, like, you know, they're cooking in a fake grocery store. Like, there's limited boundary, you know, I mean, it's, it's still a big production, but like, this is like louder, bigger, and with, you know, a bunch of people.

• 10:18Matt Farah?

  Racing that like have

• 10:22Speaker 01

  Zero experience.

• 10:23Matt Farah?

  Zero to track record holder. That was who was racing in that race. Like, like Ryan Priest, I believe is the track record holder there.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  That's, yeah, I think you're right.

• 10:36Matt Farah?

  And, and then there was also someone in our race that had literally zero racing experience.

• 10:42Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 10:42Matt Farah?

  So like, that's some spread.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:46Matt Farah?

  In a small track.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  And then, you know, the other events of the day, who knows who's driving in those? I mean, surely some of them do some racing. But I bet some people want, this is their first thing and they show up with an Altima or a van and just go for it.

• 10:59Matt Farah?

  Right. So there's three races. Folks taking a break because Factor is back. Now, picture this. Hunger strikes, you're exhausted. You've had a long day at work. You've had a long day running around after the kids. You've had a long day out in the fields, whatever. There's healthy food in the fridge. But you just don't have it in you to build that dinner. But it's Factor. They're here. Eating healthy is not a willpower problem. It's a setup problem. Till I found Factor. Cause as I've told you guys, one of my problems, ironically, as someone who grew up large and in charge,

• 11:40Matt Farah?

  is I forget to eat. I forget to, I forget to factor in time to make healthy choices, which do take more time, more energy and more thought. Except if you've got Factor. Because Factor solves the setup problem with fully prepared meals designed by dietitians, crafted by chefs and delivered right to your door. Meals that can be built around your goals. Cause they've got so many meals, right? So whatever the goal is, it could be weight loss, overall nutrition, more protein, GLP-1 support, strength and workout recovery, the Muscle Pro collection, oh boy, oh boy.

• 12:19Matt Farah?

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• 13:03Matt Farah?

  from green juices to peanut butter energy bites. Those are awesome. I really like the peanut butter energy bites. It's ready in two minutes. Factor does the shopping, the prepping and the cooking, and delivers it straight to your door, saving you time for everything that you love this summer. So head over to factormeals.com/tire50off. I know they make these codes really complicated, but it's so people don't swipe them and steal them. Factor meal, they're just for you people. Factormeals.com/tire50off, and then use code tire50off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until September 27th, 2026.

• 13:48Matt Farah?

  See website for details and thank you to Factor for sponsoring today's show. Support is also coming in from Quince. One thing I love about summer is how easy everything feels. The days are a little more relaxed and I find myself reaching for the same comfortable go anywhere pieces again and again. That's why I keep coming back to Quince, focusing on well-made essentials that naturally become those everyday staples you actually live in all season long, like the 100% European linen pants and the shirts. They're easily breathable, easy to throw on, and the summer upgrade your rotation needs, starting at just 34 bucks for linen. That's crazy. That's crazy talk for linen. I brought one of their shirts to our Connecticut trip. That's right, I did. The stripey one. Their tees are soft enough to live in all day

• 14:33Matt Farah?

  and the lightweight cotton sweaters are exactly what you want when summer nights cool down. I got two of those sweaters. They're sweet. Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands, working directly with ethical factories, cutting out that middleman. So you're paying for exceptional quality and not brand markup. Like I said, the lightweight sweaters are money. It's like an open weave. It's very breathable. It's light. They got just the right amount of stretch and the fit is excellent. It's good for the California night, where it looks like it's going to be warm, but it's a little colder than you think. Quince has become a trusted favorite for everything from home to travel to everyday

• 15:14Matt Farah?

  essentials. It's not just clothes. So make your summer wardrobe easier. Go to quince.com/tire for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com/tire for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com/tire. We were in the Crown Victoria race, which is the most legit of the races. Their team provides what are intended to be identical Crown Vics. They don't let you open the hood. They don't let you adjust the tire pressure. They don't let you do anything other than

• 15:54Matt Farah?

  make sure your seat and harnesses fit properly and decorate the car as you see fit. And my nephews, I have to say, Jack and Henry, absolutely crushed. It's like a BMW art car. It's like a Warhol. It's very avant garde and colorful and delightful. And I'm not sure my sister will ever forgive us for introducing them to spray paint. I was originally just letting them use brushes and shit. And then, then we had some extra spray paint from Zach's car and they were occupied for the next...

• 16:31Speaker 01

  When, when, I think Jackie, just like, I look over and he's standing on the roof, like folded over and just spray painting something.

• 16:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 16:40Speaker 01

  And, yeah. I remember as a kid, I got to spray paint something and it was like pivotal, just so enjoyable.

• 16:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  And they went nuts. But this, like, your car was so easy to find in footage for me. It was so helpful for like slating and stuff because it's bright yellow.

• 16:56Matt Farah?

  See, I am, I am truly an editor's subject.

• 16:59Speaker 01

  They gave you a good canvas.

• 17:00Matt Farah?

  I know how to talk to an editor.

• 17:01Speaker 01

  Like, this is what they should do. And I don't know, did you ever tell Cleetus your idea, but you should put it out in the world now, like?

• 17:08Matt Farah?

  Oh, to just have kids come paint everybody's car?

• 17:11Speaker 01

  Like, make a wish, whatever, make some sort of charity thing where the kids get to paint a certain number of cars.

• 17:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  In however they want is a great idea.

• 17:20Matt Farah?

  I think that should be a thing that gets done. It is, it was really fun to watch, actually. And I bet you, if it was me and I was like six and got to paint a car that then went out in what appears to be to a six-year-old a professional-grade race, I would think I was the, I would tell everybody that shit at school.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, that would be one of the best moments of life, truly. Yeah, it was super cool and your car looked amazing.

• 17:44Matt Farah?

  It was very fun. My car drove really nice, I have to say. I mean, you know, I hadn't driven it, so, so we got no practice. They don't let you touch the car, aside from fitting the seat.

• 17:59Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 17:59Matt Farah?

  So, we drove, you know, you drove 100 yards and you're qualifying.

• 18:04Speaker 01

  That was nuts. And it was, alright, you guys are gonna roll onto the track, you have your outlap, and you have three. So you have three laps to qualify and learn how your car works. And, you know, we've driven cars, like, we've jumped in stuff a lot.

• 18:17Matt Farah?

  Drove in a Crown Vic before.

• 18:18Speaker 01

  But still, like, you know that you're getting three laps and then you go racing a couple hours later and you're gonna, it was a real educational race, I gotta say, you know?

• 18:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  You're building the plane while flying.

• 18:30Matt Farah?

  So, you know, there's 24 cars in the race. I qualified, and I, you know, you, you, this is a short-track race. You can't win it in qualifying, right? But you can definitely lose.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 18:44Matt Farah?

  And two people crashed their cars during qualifying.

• 18:46Speaker 01

  That's true. I forgot about that.

• 18:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah. So, just learn the car, figure, try and figure out a line, try and figure out the limit of the tires, try and figure out the brakes, try and figure out if you can change gears manually, effectively or not, and don't fucking hit the wall. So, I qualified P18 out of 24. Not impressive, didn't sound good when he read in the drivers' meeting, but like, multiple people were like, actually, being at that two-thirds spot is a, is a fabulous place to be for the first half of the race.

• 19:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, we'll get to why.

• 19:23Matt Farah?

  And Zach's had a different mission, which is don't fucking explode your spine further.

• 19:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, as people, listeners know, like, I'm back in serious back pain and I'm leaned over a lot. And so I was really nervous going into this and truly every like hour was going, should I pull out of this thing? Like, should I see if Parker wants to take my seat? Should I tell, like, should I just not do it? Because, you know, and then they show the highlight reel. And then in the safety meeting, they're like, alright, everybody, it's not really a demo derby. This is what Cleetus says. He goes, "It's not a demo derby. We really want to try to race." He goes, "But if Priest is up front, I'm taking him out." And everybody laughs. Like, half the conversation of a 20-minute, very funny driver's safety meeting was about when it is actually okay to hit people.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Cleetus then says, "I plan on touching every car in the field."

• 20:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah, he does.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  And I'm like, "I'm in the field?"

• 20:19Matt Farah?

  He did.

• 20:19Speaker 01

  So I was pretty freaked out. So I, my qualifying, I was 20th. I was happy to be at the back and not have hit anything. And it turned out my quote "strategy" would work out pretty okay.

• 20:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I mean, it's, what's funny about this race, unlike, you know, an endurance race or something, or a race that's in a series for points, is like, the cars only kinda have to make it to the next race.

• 20:44Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 20:45Matt Farah?

  They're not yours. Some of these guys are, you know, there were four NASCAR drivers and two Formula Drift drivers in this race.

• 20:53Speaker 01

  There were five guys that work there.

• 20:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 20:56Speaker 01

  You know, if I worked there, and especially if I worked on the cars, I go, well, if I, I gotta fix it anyway. I'm gonna bang it up.

• 21:01Matt Farah?

  And boosted boy Kyle, who was a very sweet guy. I talked to him a little bit. I don't, I didn't know him at all. I talked to him a little bit before the race. He's done every single one of them.

• 21:11Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 21:12Matt Farah?

  So, I mean, he is a YouTuber, but he's done every one of these races. He says he lives like across the street from the track, from Freedom Factory.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 21:19Matt Farah?

  So like, he's at all of them.

• 21:20Speaker 01

  That's awesome.

• 21:21Matt Farah?

  So, you know, you know, there was 10 out of, I think it was 10 people in the, in the race. It was their first race. But of those 10, one was, you know, one was Childress, one was, um, what's his name? Fucking Bobby Earnhardt, who is Dale Jr.'s nephew, who was a lovely guy.

• 21:43Matt Farah?

  Anyway, the, the competition was like, for the most part, pretty fucking fierce, if I'm honest.

• 21:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. It was, almost everyone had more experience driving oval racing than us, except for two people.

• 21:58Matt Farah?

  Two people, yeah.

• 21:59Speaker 01

  I think Ben Hobson, who's a Formula Drift, uh, pro, pro driver.

• 22:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  Me, sorry, meaning like, what's it called now, FD Pro?

• 22:07Matt Farah?

  Pro 2, maybe, yeah.

• 22:08Speaker 01

  So he's, he's Pro 2 teammate with Von Gitten, who was also there. He was brand new, and then there was a guy.

• 22:14Matt Farah?

  But if you're an FD driver, like, you can fucking drive.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  Oh, you can drive and you can slide, and then there was the guy that was the sponsor from Wayland, who had never done anything like this.

• 22:22Matt Farah?

  So.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  In us.

• 22:23Matt Farah?

  So, in us. Um, and, uh, you know, have a decent amount of racing experience, but not on ovals. That's a new thing, so I was fucking stoked and, uh, you know, just, just sort of happy to be there. And so after we qualify, they have this Nissan Altima race, which, in, in, in which ca, in which they don't provide the cars. Fans sign up and bring cars. The cars are not caged, okay? It's run what you brung, but as long as it's a stock Altima.

• 22:55Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 22:56Matt Farah?

  It can't, it has to be completely stock, so like, Cleetus has an SCR.

• 22:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 23:00Matt Farah?

  But like.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  And Speedy Cop was telling us, uh, that even if you, like, so the SCR has an LSD.

• 23:06Matt Farah?

  Jeff Speedy Cop Block, he's a fucking lunatic, too.

• 23:09Speaker 01

  He is an absolute lunatic. Um, he's like, you know, the SCR has an LSD, and he, and Speedy Cop had like a manual V6, but he's like, I can't take the LSD out of an SCR in a junkyard and put it in here, because that's not stock. So, it's interesting that like, they're so strict about that regulation, and yet.

• 23:27Matt Farah?

  Think how out of hand that would get. I mean, it could, it would be even worse.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:31Matt Farah?

  Like, it would be even worse, so.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  And, and we should say that they run this on the smaller oval, because if these cars were on the big oval, they'd be going way too fast, because they're way faster than the Crown Vix.

• 23:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah, they're 300 horsepower.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  And they're lighter.

• 23:44Matt Farah?

  And they're lighter, and Cleetus told me, he goes, he goes, "You wouldn't believe."

• 23:50Matt Farah?

  People will, he goes, "Look around, a bunch of these cars have tags on them." He goes, "Pete," he goes, "The optimism." He goes, "There's people that legitimately think they're gonna drive their Altima home from here." And I think he said that before the race started.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:07Matt Farah?

  And I was like, "Really? Why do they think that?" He goes, "I don't know, and when you see the race, you will be, you will wonder why they thought so too."

• 24:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. Cause you win, you know, the purse is 2,500 bucks. So if you're a dumb person, you will drive your car there. And you have this amazing delusion of grandeur, and I get it. And you're like, "I'm gonna race this thing, I'm gonna win, I'm gonna go home with the prize money. No one's gonna touch me, cause I'm gonna be too fast."

• 24:34Matt Farah?

  I don't even think this oval, the mini oval's an eighth mile. I think it's a 16th or something mile, whatever, whatever that is. Like, it's like a quarter mile, might be a quarter mile.

• 24:44Speaker 01

  I'll get a picture of Stafford.

• 24:45Matt Farah?

  No. It might, it's not, no. It might be a 16th mile, right? It's tiny as shit. Um, you couldn't, you couldn't run track on it. Anyway, it's, uh, what did it have, 42 cars in the field?

• 25:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, if they do 40 laps.

• 25:04Matt Farah?

  42 Altimas, and, uh, uh, this, this might have been the most, the most brutal motorsport I think I've, I've ever seen. And they, well, at one point, it was, there, it looked like a war zone out there. And we walked up to one of the, um, Freedom Factory guys. I forget his name, but homie with the long white beard who looked like a shorter John Daly. You fucking rule. Now, there he is, there's the photo of him, this guy. I fucking love this guy. He's only holding a red and a green flag. He said, "There are no yellow flags in this race."

• 25:41Speaker 01

  And we asked that because this is, I don't know, lap 24. And we, if you go here, uh, just for people watching, uh, to our left, we're standing at the K-Rail. There are cars with bumpers, there's cars in infield.

• 25:53Matt Farah?

  Command plus that a couple of times? Zoom in on that one.

• 25:56Speaker 01

  The big thing is the dust cloud, because people have started cutting the infield as the apex.

• 26:01Matt Farah?

  Okay, here's my favorite car in the whole race, zoom in on number 50 there. Is that it? Is that Mr. Crabwalker?

• 26:08Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:08Matt Farah?

  Yes. Okay, this is my favorite car in the whole race.

• 26:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:11Matt Farah?

  This fucking car, somehow, it got like, both its rear wheels fakakta out of alignment, as if it had rear steer, but locked to the left, full, full left, okay? But, this is a front-drive car. I'm sorry, like, it's, the wheels are pointed to the right.

• 26:33Speaker 01

  So the rear wheels are towed out, and the left rear wheels are towed in, and I mean, like, 10 degrees.

• 26:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah. So, it's as if you had a rear steer system that was fully locked in a left-hand turn.

• 26:45Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:46Matt Farah?

  But, it's, you know, it's a front-wheel-drive car. So, this thing, it, it's better this way than the other way.

• 26:51Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 26:52Matt Farah?

  But, he was basically doing a full drift around the whole track involuntarily, while driving the front wheels, like, clean.

• 27:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:03Matt Farah?

  And he did, like, over half the race, like this. It was amazing.

• 27:06Speaker 01

  But, so here, like, you know, out in the distance, there's a car pulled over here. The infield got, and it got dusty in this where you couldn't see, and there were dead cars strewn around, and this is when we asked that guy, we go, "When do you throw a yellow?" And they, they said, "We only throw a red, and only if cars are right in the racing line."

• 27:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  And you kind of look, and you go, "Well, the racing line doesn't exist." So, I think a lot of these guys are real close to the racing line, but they, they let it run. I don't think they red-flagged this whole race, and...

• 27:34Matt Farah?

  They did one.

• 27:35Speaker 01

  They won?

• 27:35Matt Farah?

  One red flag, because there was, it, in the, the, right now, in the, in this photo, the densest part of that smoke, or dust, is the, the apex of the far corner.

• 27:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:48Matt Farah?

  And it's, a car did die, and like, right there. And so, they did have to...

• 27:53Speaker 01

  That was the beginning of it.

• 27:54Matt Farah?

  But, uh, yeah, Speedy, so Speedy Cop won that race, which was, which is just, it was a crazy thing to see.

• 28:01Speaker 01

  I mean, these, these folks are going four to five wide into a turn that's really for two cars, maybe three Legends cars, and, and Speedy said that last lap, he was turning in, I mean, people just T-bone each other, and they use the other car to keep them inside the track, and they'll just shove you out.

• 28:17Matt Farah?

  That's just...

• 28:18Speaker 01

  Which, I have also seen happen in NASCAR, uh, shout out Parker Kligerman, um, but... This is really violent. There's a car with an airbag deployed, like the curtain. I don't know if it went off there, or if it had already gone off. I mean, the destruction that was happening, fluids everywhere, was total madness.

• 28:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's truly the roller derby of motorsport.

• 28:37Speaker 01

  Yes, that's exactly what it is.

• 28:39Matt Farah?

  You know, if, if, there's two kinds of people listening to this. People that are, have actually seen roller derby and know what I'm talking about. People are like, "Roller derby, huh huh huh." More like, no. Roller derby is the most violent sport I've ever seen. People, like, people do. The injuries I have seen in that sport, after dating a roller derby girl for four years, were as gruesome as anything I've ever seen in any other sport, ever. It was just shattered bones. I mean, horrible, horrible sport. It's so violent. This was that. And so, after that, you know, you know, cleatest races in this fucking thing.

• 29:21Matt Farah?

  I don't even remember if his car finished or not. I don't actually think it did. But, you know, now the track-

• 29:28Speaker 01

  Oh, it didn't, because he's here now.

• 29:30Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, that's him standing next to us and the race is still going on.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  And the race is still happening, so, yeah.

• 29:34Matt Farah?

  Right, so, he then has to do, you know, sort of like a, like a hosty bit to a 7,200-person crowd while they clean the whole track. So, he's doing like bits and games to like an enormous-

• 29:52Speaker 01

  6,000 people, whatever.

• 29:53Matt Farah?

  I said 7,200.

• 29:54Speaker 01

  Oh, 7,200.

• 29:55Matt Farah?

  7,200 people, and they're doing all kinds of, you know, games and prizes and fun little bits, which, you know, is, after getting out of a really crazy race, to go straight to that is something.

• 30:07Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 30:08Matt Farah?

  And then they do the Van Prix, which is like the Ultima Race, but it's minivans, and they put a fucking jump in the track.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 30:16Matt Farah?

  Not just a jump, it's a jump with a flatland.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 30:19Matt Farah?

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• 31:00Matt Farah?

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• 31:43Matt Farah?

  Plus, the magazine, plus all kinds of cool regional events that Avance does around the country for their members. I've been to a bunch of them. Their Monterey Car Week party is a great time. So, you can go to avants.com, A-V-A-N-T-S dot com slash T S T, and then use code T S T for 10% off. So, that's another 10% off your membership. This thing is basically free. In fact, it could potentially be money, mucho money saving for you. avants.com slash T S T. Use code T S T for 10% off. Thank you to Avance for sponsoring the pod.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  And you are required, so the van prix is interesting. It is a judged event, so it's crowd response. Who put on the best show?

• 32:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 32:30Speaker 01

  But, every van is required to hit the jump at least once. And you can hit it at whatever speed you want. You can hit it going front or backwards. People did that. But some people chose to hit the jump every time. Until there, as long as their van survived it. And like, I thought the Ultima race was the most violent, crazy thing I'd seen. And this, for me, this one, there were fewer vans. But the sends, like, the height they were obtaining of like, seriously five feet off the deck, landing flat on asphalt. And then the sound of like, a bank safe hitting the ground. And they go around again, and they do it again, and they go around again, and do it again.

• 33:07Matt Farah?

  And the real reward of being a driver in this event is that they put the jump right in front of where the Crown Vic drivers get to hang out.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:17Matt Farah?

  Uh, so you get the up-front view. I think, no, I mean, like, because of the jump, the carnage is also completely excessive. And from where we were sitting, we got to look, look the drivers right in the eyes as these things fucking nosedived into the asphalt. I think the Ultima race was more violent from a racing perspective. Like, people crashing into each other harder and just like, people continuing to try to race with their cars like even more fucked up maybe than the vans. But the jump is unique. Totally. It doesn't even look like that big of a jump when they put it down.

• 33:57Matt Farah?

  But the way the van like, kaka, and it like, it like, uh, donkey kicks a bit, what's it, what it is.

• 34:05Speaker 01

  I've got a video that I'm trying to grab.

• 34:11Matt Farah?

  I, uh, the first time we saw someone hit one of those, I think the wheels were like eight inch, eight feet off the ground.

• 34:18Speaker 01

  For real. It blew me away. I was like, oh, they're gonna get a foot of air. Cause the ramp is 10 degrees, it's pretty low. And then, but it donkey kicks so hard, and I think Cleetus told us it's kind of by design, it's like, you'll, you'll see. And, boy, did we ever see. Uh, let me, I'll pull it up really quick and...

• 34:35Matt Farah?

  It was, it was a, a true spectacle. Also, I mean, these vans, uh, no roll cages, stock seats, three-point belts, which, uh, okay, here's the, is this lap one?

• 34:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, it really, the fact that the van is front-wheel drive, it's so front-heavy, and then it donkey kicks the back, you know, because the front, it's not just the wheels that go off, it's not a smooth takeoff, the front bumper bounces off the ramp, which then kicks the rear wheels down into the ramp, and then it has a sort of double bounce effect on the rear wheels.

• 35:25Speaker 01

  So when I did that article for Road and Track about how to jump a car, and I got to interview the guy from Global Rally Cross that literally designed the tabletops, they were like, "In the early days, the ramps, the takeoff was too short, and it caused the donkey kick, and the landing was too short."

• 35:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  By making the takeoff ramp incredibly long, and then the landing incredibly long, they're like, "We can make a jump as big as you want, and the car can hit it at almost any speed, once they clear the gap, and land as deep or as short, and it's gonna be pretty safe." This is what the early days were like.

• 35:57Matt Farah?

  This is the exact opposite of that. It's no landing, it's a flat-landed jump, yeah, it's unbelievable.

• 36:05Speaker 01

  It was so nuts.

• 36:07Matt Farah?

  I also, I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed at the ability of most of these vans' suspensions to handle even more than one of these.

• 36:19Speaker 01

  I agree.

• 36:20Matt Farah?

  You know, there were vans that hit this thing 15 times.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 36:25Matt Farah?

  Which I don't know how those people are alive.

• 36:27Speaker 01

  Well, we talked to one of the kids, and it is a kid, like, he gets out, and I was like, "You guys are insane." And he goes, "That was the best." And I said, "How old are you?" And he's like, "20." I went, "Yeah, right, I get it." You know, and me with current back problems, I am, I'm Sendi from the future, you know? The ghost of Sendi past, or whatever. And he's just like, "Yeah, have fun."

• 36:49Matt Farah?

  It was batshit. What a thing to see.

• 36:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:53Matt Farah?

  And then, you know, I think, as a driver, you know, you watch that, and then you get into a car with a cage, and how can you not be like... Like, well, I am responsible to put on some kind of a show here. So like, I was like, I, you know, I don't want to crash out of this race. I want to finish the race, see if I can do well, you know, but like, if I gotta hit somebody, so be it, like, whatever. And I got hit a bunch.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  You did.

• 37:23Matt Farah?

  I mean, it was, it was, it was a, and some of those, like, you know, on TV, if you get brushed into the wall, that doesn't look like a big deal. That's a fucking hard, that's a hard.

• 37:34Speaker 01

  It's a shake. It's a shake. There's a video, it'll be in the collab video, but there was one of my favorite moments, kind of like lap 20, but I'm behind you and Ed and you and Ed, and his car is bright green, yours is bright yellow.

• 37:46Matt Farah?

  Shout out to Ed Bullion.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  Ed Bullion was quicker than I expected.

• 37:49Matt Farah?

  He was also, I can't believe we didn't mention him earlier. He was a rookie, he has very little, he has no wheel-to-wheel racing experience. He's done some like time attack type stuff. He has some track experience, but, but almost no wheel-to-wheel experience. But he fucking sent it.

• 38:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:06Matt Farah?

  He, he did a, he did a fabulous job. I have, I had to show some respect to Ed.

• 38:11Speaker 01

  Definitely.

• 38:11Matt Farah?

  And his, his aggression was, was amazing.

• 38:15Speaker 01

  He.

• 38:16Matt Farah?

  And he had some, he showed some skills. He really was, he really was good.

• 38:19Speaker 01

  He was, you and him were like neck and neck for most of it.

• 38:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 38:23Speaker 01

  And he got crashed, he got spun around twice. The third one like broke his tie rods and his car was done, I think.

• 38:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  But like, he was involved in a lot of pretty gnarly accidents and then kept going and kept going and until, until literally one, you know, later in the race, I'm following him and I see sparks and I get to the right and I was like, oh, your front right suspension is collapsing, you're just dragging subframe and it just, like, shooting out like a friggin' rocket. It was amazing.

• 38:52Matt Farah?

  That's where the, that's when the marshals, it's when they see the sparks, like, ah, let him do one more for the crowd before he comes in.

• 38:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, he pitted in, um, I mean, there's so many stories to tell from this thing, truly.

• 39:03Matt Farah?

  But, uh, no, Ed, Ed did great. So, you know, it's, it's.

• 39:09Speaker 01

  Oh, where I was going with the hitting the wall real quick is you guys are in front of me and I'm watching. So you're on the outside and I'm watching Ed, I'm gonna get in the camera, like you're, you both are exiting corner one. And he smacks into you and pushes you like wide and you guys kind of rub and I'm like, whoa. My friends are car fighting and I'm like literally staring and watching and not at all watching what I'm doing and I hit the wall. And you can see in the in-car, my head goes and then from your rear view, you could see my car and my car goes. And I, I literally was like, okay, Zach, time to focus, like stop watching other. I was watching the movie and I needed to focus.

• 39:48Matt Farah?

  Oh my God, that's so funny. Were you able to slate sync my camera to the, to the other video?

• 39:54Speaker 01

  You know what helps slate? Caution cameras. So you and I, you and I were synced. I didn't sync, I didn't sync it with the whole broadcast.

• 40:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 40:02Speaker 01

  Um, I could have done that, but I did it later, but I synced ours easily because of caution, uh, the green lights.

• 40:07Matt Farah?

  Did both my cameras survive the whole race?

• 40:09Speaker 01

  No.

• 40:10Matt Farah?

  They're only the rear?

• 40:11Speaker 01

  Your rear made it the whole race. Your front, my, my front died at like lap 76 or something like that.

• 40:17Matt Farah?

  There was no, there was almost no way it was gonna fucking last the whole race.

• 40:20Speaker 01

  Yeah. Next time we'll do external batteries or something like that.

• 40:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Yeah. The race was, the race was from a time perspective significantly longer than I thought.

• 40:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:31Matt Farah?

  We were sort of, we, we, we sort of thought the race was gonna be about an hour and a half. The race was like two hours and 20 minutes or something. It was long. Um, there was a lot of cautions.

• 40:42Speaker 01

  A lot. Eleven maybe. A lot.

• 40:46Matt Farah?

  There was a lot. Uh, there was, so, okay. Uh, let's see.

• 40:49Speaker 01

  You want to start at the beginning?

• 40:50Matt Farah?

  I mean, I, we don't have to like.

• 40:54Matt Farah?

  I was, I was trying to drive in the beginning. I think I was trying to be too clean actually and about, you know, and I, I sort of lingered around whatever. 17th, 616th, something like that. And a car, you know, I would gain position when cars would crash out and I'd be like, well, if I can hang on for a while, I can get a bunch of positions this way. And I found, you know, so when you would go to the, when you go to caution, they go single file. And for the restart, you'd go double file and they would have a cone and you would have to pick a side. And so it would actually be kind of random who ended up sort of where in the restarts.

• 41:38Matt Farah?

  And I found out, I started doing math early. If you went high, you'd gain probably two positions almost every single time.

• 41:47Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 41:48Matt Farah?

  And so on one of them, I gained like five positions. I had a really good fucking choice on one.

• 41:54Speaker 01

  Well, I was right behind you. What was funny about that is before the race, I told Cleetus about my back. And I was like, because he said, when you throw caution, we're going to reset you. And I said, how do I stay at the back to not be in the fracas? And he's like, oh, just pull over, let everyone go by, get in the back, that's fine.

• 42:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 42:09Speaker 01

  And I was like, great, that's what I'm going to do. So we were at the back and you and I chose high and all of a sudden we're sixth and seventh in line. Like, and I went, well, I'm fucking in it. Like, let's just do it, you know?

• 42:18Matt Farah?

  So the restarts are really where it's crazy. I mean, because they're literally, the people behind you are having their bumper on your bumper and they're pushing you into the cars in front of you. So you kind of just gotta like, be like, alright, like, that's what's happening right now. And, you know, half the time, that would result in somebody crashing.

• 42:40Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 42:40Matt Farah?

  And half the time, it wouldn't. So at one point, we didn't even make it a full lap three times in a row.

• 42:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:47Matt Farah?

  I'm like lap 68 or something.

• 42:49Speaker 01

  That's when the race director, who, super pro, but in the safety meeting, Cleetus was like, there will be times where, I think his name was Ryan, Ryan's just trying to communicate with you guys. There's times where he might sound mad at you, but he's not. There's times where he might be mad at you. The three in a row, he was mad at all of us.

• 43:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was like, what the fuck are you guys doing?

• 43:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, and he wasn't wrong. It was a lot of cautions toward the end. But man, it was wild to watch from the back and then watch later in the replay, those starts. And, you know, everyone's going, going, and then someone just wiggles a little bit. And I would think like, we got new tires, shout out Nido, we've got long wheelbase cars. But they pirouette real fast.

• 43:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 43:30Speaker 01

  It's just, it's like this domino effect.

• 43:32Matt Farah?

  Well, if you lose the back end and while someone's pushing you, you know, that's, that's that.

• 43:37Speaker 01

  Everyone just spins around.

• 43:38Matt Farah?

  That happened to me on like lap three or something. I ended up spun into the grass and I was like, really kind of glad to have gotten it out of the way that early in the race. I was like, oh, alright. And so then I had, you know, four or five laps to sort of like, drive fast by myself on the opposite field to sort of catch up to the back of the field, learn the track a little better, like at speed. Eventually, fucking Cleetus comes around and I'm like, and he, and he fucking, fucking taps me on the side and I'm like, okay, but then I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna stick my fucking nose on his bumper and chase him right around the track and like learn how to do this properly,

• 44:19Matt Farah?

  just like a lead follow and watch his brake lights and watch his front wheels. And I, that's when I was like, okay. Fucking late brake, hockey stop at the apex, smash the throttle, straight wheel to track out. And one brake, one gas, that's it. Left foot on the brake. And after that, I was like, now I was like, alright, now let's fucking go. I wish I could have done the first half of the race, sort of knowing that, like, but now we know.

• 44:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:47Matt Farah?

  And then it got, then it got real fun. I, I battled with Richard Childress for like 15 minutes. This dude was on it. I mean, he, he might be 80 fucking years old, but this is a guy who knows how to race a car.

• 44:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:58Matt Farah?

  Running a number three, black car, uh, where it's like, you can't hit, you can't hit him, but he can hit you.

• 45:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:06Matt Farah?

  Kind of crazy.

• 45:08Speaker 01

  I, I, right before the race, he was parked next to me and I said, hey man, you know, any advice for a total newbie?

• 45:13Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 45:13Speaker 01

  And he's so nice and he's just like, let them figure it out at the front and just stay out of the shit and then, you know, start racing towards the end and that philosophy worked.

• 45:23Matt Farah?

  That's actually, yeah, that's pretty much what everybody said. Um, the, honestly, the craziest people were the, the dudes who just worked at the Freedom Factory. All of them guys like were the most unpredictable, crashiest drivers. And one of them, Who, you know, I, I think tried to pretend like his fucking radio wasn't working. You know, they, they would resort you in the cautions and, uh, and fucking he, and he would be like, I was told by race control to like go in front of, you know, and he was just like, no. He's like, wouldn't give up the position and hit me. I was like, what the fuck? And, and then he gave me the finger. I was like, what the fuck?

• 46:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, there were a couple of people, you know, they'll call it out, they'll go, you were 419, I was 55, for example. And if we ended up, if I ended up in front of you during a caution, they'll reset it to what it should be. And they go, oh, 55, move behind 419.

• 46:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 46:18Speaker 01

  And they'll go 12, move in front of zero. And there was a call on the radio that was like five times in a row, like, hey, zero, I need you behind, or whatever the number was, like, zero, you gotta get behind, like, guys, we need to, you know, and someone, either their radio stopped working, because Ed did say his stopped working for some reason at lap 20.

• 46:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  Um, or they were pretending to, because they're just, you know, using it to get an advantage.

• 46:39Matt Farah?

  And in, in the case of me, they told me to get in front of this car. The dude fucking hit me, wouldn't let me in front, and then they didn't like say anything again. I was like, alright, but I, I didn't, I decided that I didn't really like care that much. Uh, you know, where we finished, I just wanted to like have a good race, fucking get to the end. You know, try, try, do my best to, to, to, to put on the best fucking show I could.

• 47:05Speaker 01

  I was having so much fun, you know, mixing it up with all these different people, depending on like where cautions flew and stuff. And, you know, in the beginning, I was trying the whole like trail braking and, and braking a little softer. You know, it's funny, so three days before the race, I had a Zoom call with Parker Kligerman, which I filmed, and I was like, give me all the pointers, I've never done this before. And my idea was that I would use this secret weapon, beat you, and then show you the video today on the show. Well, that worked out real well, didn't it? Because I finished four spots behind.

• 47:38Matt Farah?

  Did not work. Sorry, Parker.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  I was like, you know, trail braking differently and all this different stuff. And then for me, at the end of the race, like the last eight laps, it worked out better if I braked earlier, let off earlier, and then let all four wheels just carry me around. And then I like, I passed Vaughn, I passed Ben, I passed Speedy Cop. Like, I didn't like the hockey stop, but it was just so much fun, like, watching other people's wheels, watching how some people seemed to come in so hot, and it would work, and they'd go around, and then the next lap, they'd come in too hot and just and they would just spin past you into the infield, and you're like, alright, that's a little too much.

• 48:16Matt Farah?

  When I, when I say the full hockey stop move, it wasn't a Formula Drift slide. It's not that. It's like, three degrees of oversteer. It's like, just, just where you start to take the wheel back the other way. I feel like that unloads the front right tire a little bit from getting, from getting worn down.

• 48:41Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 48:42Matt Farah?

  And it helps you able to turn in earlier, like, later into the race. Like, most of the position I actually gained was by people either crashing or by guys going really fast up front and blowing their front tire off.

• 48:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:57Matt Farah?

  And going in for a, for a new front tire, which you could do. You could, it was amazing. They had a pit crew for everybody.

• 49:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:05Matt Farah?

  So if your car broke, or something was off, or you wanted new tires, you could go in and get them.

• 49:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:10Matt Farah?

  But I was like, doing the math on that, and I passed, almost everyone who went in for a front tire, I actually passed.

• 49:17Speaker 01

  I went in, I went in when there was a caution, and I watched it later, and I actually got back out before the caution ended anyway. And it was actually because I hit the wall, and I was also curious how my tire was doing, and they were like, it's fine. So that's when I learned I wasn't driving it as hard as I thought, because, I don't know about you, but I couldn't feel any real loss of traction in the front. I had to watch for when the car was going the direction it, I didn't want it to go.

• 49:41Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 49:41Speaker 01

  So there's very little, little feedback.

• 49:43Matt Farah?

  Nah, yeah. The hardest part of the whole race for me was actually, you know, when you, on the restart, you It's a column shift, you've got to get the car into first gear. Otherwise, it'll just, it'll bog. And in the column shift, it's, you know, it's one at the bottom, two, and then D. And if you're, you know, in a racing situation, it's incredibly difficult to actually hit two. And not go past it to D.

• 50:15Speaker 01

  Well, I would add that, you know, the distance at the, at the actual control module, like in the, in the steering shaft, let's say that the distance from one to two is one millimeter. But the flex and slop somehow at the end of the column shift where you're holding it.

• 50:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 50:29Speaker 01

  Five inches.

• 50:30Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 50:30Speaker 01

  So like, I messed up that start, I think I only got it right once or twice, of going one to two, because the times where I tried to do it and went to D, I was actually slower than just leaving it in two and flooring it like early. It was, it was worse for me to go to three, you know, one to D, and it would bog, and then have to go down to two and downshift, and that was worse than just leaving it in two the whole time.

• 50:52Matt Farah?

  So here's what I found with my car. And I found out the very sort of end of the race. If I just, if my foot was on the floorboard, right, and I went, and I went past two to D, it would still only shift once to two.

• 51:09Speaker 01

  I was wondering about this.

• 51:10Matt Farah?

  It was easier to get to two from D while braking for the next corner. So it was actually, that is, that was the move. It was go duh duh, is way easier than trying to stop it in the middle.

• 51:25Speaker 01

  Got it.

• 51:25Matt Farah?

  And once I figured that out, and then I could always downshift down to two as I turned in, and sometimes it would engine brake the rear, and it would help me get a little, a little extra.

• 51:35Speaker 01

  I should have done more experimentation, but there's like, there was so much information to process, so much to pay attention to. I mean, the highlight video, like the number of real accidents that you and I weaved through.

• 51:49Matt Farah?

  Oh my gosh.

• 51:50Speaker 01

  Where at times got hit a little, but still made it through. I mean, like this was slalom shit.

• 51:54Matt Farah?

  I felt like I had a true days of thunder moment. And during the, where there was shit spinning. Around me and I was like whoop whoop.

• 52:02Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 52:03Matt Farah?

  I was like, yeah buddy.

• 52:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was turn one when Ed hit the wall hard like you and I went right. And then a car was spinning like fuck and we had to go left around this whole thing.

• 52:13Matt Farah?

  That was awesome.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  The other thing that I was disappointed is the whole nitrous situation. So they, so every car has a 10 pound nitrous bottle in the back. And what, all they tell you is save it for the end. And if you have to hit the nitrous under full throttle, if you don't, it will blow the intake off the car. And I talked to like, we talked to Vaughn, we talked to Kurt Busch, we talked to Parker, like, save the nitrous, save the nitrous. Well, in watching the replay, I learned a bunch of the people at the front use the nitrous by lap 10. Like Priest was hitting the button on lap 10 to just main, to keep position. Cause they know that passing is hard without it.

• 52:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 52:47Speaker 01

  Um, so that was pretty interesting.

• 52:49Matt Farah?

  So were they out of nitrous by halfway through the race?

• 52:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. Um, but throughout the race, they were counting down.

• 52:56Matt Farah?

  This is like these fuckers in Seattle that tell everybody it rains all the time. Just to keep them away and keep Seattle to themselves.

• 53:03Speaker 01

  That very well might be true.

• 53:04Matt Farah?

  This is the, this is the, everyone save the nitrous, save the nitrous, just so they can use their nitrous and stay ahead of you.

• 53:11Speaker 01

  I mean, the irony is that if I'd used it earlier, I would probably been up in the middle of the, the fight. And then gotten hit out anyway, but.

• 53:18Matt Farah?

  Nobody could really tell me, cause they go, it's a 10 pound bottle. And I go, how many seconds of nitrous is that?

• 53:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:25Matt Farah?

  Cause I, you tell me it's 40 seconds of flow. I can count that down. I can remember that, but like no.

• 53:31Speaker 01

  One of the commenters said, I think it's 60 seconds.

• 53:36Matt Farah?

  Uh, then I probably did have a little bit left.

• 53:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, so through the race, they were counting down in our ears. They go, hey, guys, we're at lap, we're at lap 10, we're at lap 20, we're at lap 30. And then once we started crashing out all the time, they stopped doing that. And I, they didn't tell us lap 20, they didn't tell us lap 10. And then, so basically where I'm going is like.

• 53:57Matt Farah?

  We didn't know where we were again until there were like 10 laps left.

• 54:00Speaker 01

  I didn't even know that.

• 54:01Matt Farah?

  From, yeah.

• 54:02Speaker 01

  I didn't know we had 10 left and then I didn't notice the double white flag for two left.

• 54:06Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 54:07Speaker 01

  Uh, and so all of a sudden I had hit it a little bit and I was like, okay, when's the, they're going to tell me 10 laps. And I'm gonna start using this bottle and passing fools. And then I drive by and I look up and I go, check your flag, fuck.

• 54:17Matt Farah?

  Oh. No, I remember after the, um, the triple caution. That was 18 laps to go. I remember that there were 18 laps remaining when the triple caution happened. So after that, I was like, alright, on the third triple, on the third caution, I was like, now, now it's time to start using it. And I absolutely noticed the difference if the car was in first gear when you hit it. In fact, there was a substantial, I was full throttle, then button, and it was a kick. So it was probably like a 50 shot on a 200 horsepower car.

• 54:53Speaker 01

  I think that's what it was. And that explains why, on some of the restarts, there was a car, I think it was number 24 Kyle, would pass every time. And I was like, how's he doing that? It's because he's hitting the button in one, and he's just behind me, and then they hit go, and he's next to me.

• 55:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's, so people were using it earlier than they were saying they were, should use it, but.

• 55:11Speaker 01

  So, soon junior.

• 55:13Matt Farah?

  They put it on the, the button is on the left side of the dash. So if you're using the button, you kinda need your other hand to steer. So it's really hard to column shift, steer, and use the button. That's how I found out, I was like, I'm gonna try the D thing, because I can just be sloppier with it with my right hand while I'm steering.

• 55:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:35Matt Farah?

  So that, that I think is, I think they put it on the dash, rather than somewhere more accessible on purpose. So you have to take a hand off the wheel to use it. I think that's an intentional choice.

• 55:45Speaker 01

  That might explain why so many people crashed on the straightaway. Truly, on restarts.

• 55:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, maybe.

• 55:51Speaker 01

  Because they don't have their hand on the wheel, and all of a sudden, like, oh shit, and you can't catch it. That really makes sense. Because there was some interesting stuff happening.

• 55:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah. But goddamn, was that a fun, fun race, man.

• 56:03Speaker 01

  So exciting, interesting. And then, they do this livestream. I mean, they've got, they've got livestream cameras in the cars, they've got drones, they've got commentator, I mean, it is, the coverage is as good as any IMSA race I've seen. It was amazing. So, I don't know, for, for 20 bucks, or whatever it is, for the livestream.

• 56:23Matt Farah?

  It's a hell of a product.

• 56:24Speaker 01

  A really impressive production.

• 56:25Matt Farah?

  I mean, and then the fireworks display was, you know, they were using terms like blast radius, and I was like, ha, ha, ha. And then, no. No, it was a fucking huge fireworks display.

• 56:36Speaker 01

  I was like, shouldn't those go higher before they explode?

• 56:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah, fuck.

• 56:38Speaker 01

  That was cool. And then I love that, um, you know, in between the events, they have to clean the whole track up. So they run the van race and then there's fluid everywhere. And they did this tire roll, which was basically they brought a bunch of people down from the crowd and the goal, I don't know, where are they? A hundred feet? You're a hundred feet away from a wooden board that has a hole in it that is like half an inch too wide for a tire. And the goal is to roll the tire into the board. And so I'm standing next to one of the producers and he goes, yeah, we just built this thing. It's a new idea and 30 of us tried it at Freedom Factory and none of us got it. He's like, so I don't really know how this is gonna go. First person gets up, 17 year old kid who just graduated high school, like literally whatever, a month ago. And he's, and he's just spends a

• 57:22Speaker 01

  lot of time like looking, looking, pushes it gently, doesn't force it, just lets gravity take it. Fucking first shot.

• 57:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 57:30Speaker 01

  And you only get one shot and it rolls through. He wins $5,000. The crowd goes nuts. And I think the producers were like, oh shit, well, we need more time to clean stuff. So then they added more money and they started, you know, raising the stakes again. So for every miss, they'd add a grand to the prize. But like, what a cool way to involve the crowd. They get a huge reward. I mean, the kid was obviously so stoked.

• 57:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 57:54Speaker 01

  I mean, what an amazing moment for him.

• 57:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it was good.

• 57:56Speaker 01

  It was just a really great clever idea just to, as they break up, uh, you know, the races. Just what a production, the whole thing.

• 58:04Matt Farah?

  It was, and you know, and Cleetus is a, is a, you know, the fact that he was a, a host quote first, before he became a driver, you know, or fucking P T Barnum was, uh, it helps because he's actually emceeing the whole thing and he's very comfortable doing it. He makes a very good, he makes for a very good host.

• 58:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 58:24Matt Farah?

  So that's pretty, that's fucking, it was, it was an unbelievable time. I mean, I gotta, you know, is this our crash avoidance clips?

• 58:31Speaker 01

  This is our crash avoidance.

• 58:32Matt Farah?

  Can we, can we watch it? We're gonna, we'll put it on, it's gonna be on Instagram by the time this, uh, this show goes up. So Zach is in the black 55 and I'm in the, uh, yellow and art, art car.

• 58:44Matt Farah?

  Oof, was that Cleetus in the wall?

• 58:46Speaker 01

  That's Cleetus.

• 58:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah, alright.

• 58:49Speaker 01

  So, that's you and Ed and Matt hitting each other. That's when I get distracted and hit the wall.

• 58:56Matt Farah?

  So funny. Oh, Ed, so there's some Richard Childress oversteer.

• 59:01Speaker 01

  Someone, Richard Childress in the infield, someone hit the wall.

• 59:03Matt Farah?

  Oh my god, there's cars just everywhere. Here's the days of thunder moment. Where there's, no, there about to be cars just, yeah, there's just cars spinning all over the place.

• 59:13Speaker 01

  You go around, this is me.

• 59:15Matt Farah?

  There's like a, yeah, oh my god.

• 59:19Matt Farah?

  This is.

• 59:20Speaker 01

  This, like, that was me and this guy just, I thought he was about to turn in and hit me. More, more days of thunder.

• 59:26Matt Farah?

  Oh, here's.

• 59:27Speaker 01

  This is the craziest crash.

• 59:28Matt Farah?

  That was a huge pileup you got right through.

• 59:33Speaker 01

  Cause this is your, so your camera first.

• 59:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 59:36Speaker 01

  We've got two cars that spin to the infield. And so everyone stays out wide and they go, okay, like, we're gonna just drive around what's happening. Well, those cars still have momentum in the infield and they decided to, and they decided to rejoin the track, whether by choice or not, and then they just.

• 59:50Matt Farah?

  And spin it, they started to come across.

• 59:52Speaker 01

  Come across and hit Ed.

• 59:55Speaker 01

  And you, and that's like, you, and you get hit.

• 59:58Matt Farah?

  So, and the dude I hit, I bumped into there, that's the guy David who owns the track.

• 1:00:04Speaker 01

  Oh, it is?

• 1:00:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the white car.

• 1:00:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that was David, he owns the track.

• 1:00:08Speaker 01

  Like, he hits you, and then he goes wide and ends up like, almost hitting the accident. And then you and I go through. I mean, there was just, look at me, there's five cars stopping on the track. Speedy cop hits Squirrel McNutt.

• 1:00:20Matt Farah?

  Oh my god.

• 1:00:21Speaker 01

  And then they all come to a stop.

• 1:00:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah, dude, look at Farah!

• 1:00:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that's you and I passing, you know, we got another person facing the wrong way again. And it all happens, like, so quickly.

• 1:00:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:33Speaker 01

  And the cars aren't going that fast, but when these accidents happen, they, the cars stop moving so abruptly and then cause more problems.

• 1:00:40Matt Farah?

  And you have Crown Vic brakes.

• 1:00:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, you do. Mine were warped. Like, this is where, you know.

• 1:00:47Matt Farah?

  It's just, it's carnage, man. This is, this is like, for years, if you just so much as rub fenders with somebody in a race that I've participated in.

• 1:00:57Speaker 01

  Straightaway crash, on a start, sure.

• 1:01:03Matt Farah?

  Oh my god. You're just gonna be, you know, you get penalized if you do shit like this.

• 1:01:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Like, I watch F1, but I, this was like a palate cleanser for all of the track.

• 1:01:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And that's Ed. Look at your fucking sparky, man.

• 1:01:19Matt Farah?

  Sparky. Wow. That, yeah, that accurately captures what being in that race was like, I think.

• 1:01:26Speaker 01

  Look at Ed's car, just.

• 1:01:31Matt Farah?

  Good times. Really good times.

• 1:01:33Speaker 01

  Amazing time.

• 1:01:33Matt Farah?

  I hope that, uh, I ended up finishing 7th.

• 1:01:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:37Matt Farah?

  Which is, uh, pretty respectable. I'm happy with that.

• 1:01:41Speaker 01

  I was 11th.

• 1:01:42Matt Farah?

  Zach finished.

• 1:01:42Speaker 01

  Absolutely happy with that.

• 1:01:44Matt Farah?

  Moving up nine spaces for you, moving up, uh, I moved up nine spaces as well, 18th to 7th.

• 1:01:49Speaker 01

  We both moved up nine and I didn't get hurt.

• 1:01:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:52Speaker 01

  Honestly, I was the most comfortable all day, just sitting in the chair.

• 1:01:55Matt Farah?

  Actually, that was a super comfortable race car.

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  It was. It was more comfortable than Deborah Elsie.

• 1:02:01Matt Farah?

  It was more comfortable than the BMW at DURL.

• 1:02:03Speaker 01

  Because all the seats seemed like brand new. I mean, they are really on top of it. I can't thank them enough. I've been wanting to do this for years, you know, and, uh, I'm really glad that we had the opportunity.

• 1:02:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:15Speaker 01

  And I was like, I was nervous, nervous, nervous. I got three laps in, I started having fun. I was like, I'm so glad I'm in this chair right now.

• 1:02:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:21Speaker 01

  And I didn't bail out of it. Especially after hitting the wall and realizing.

• 1:02:25Matt Farah?

  You're not gonna die.

• 1:02:26Speaker 01

  It didn't hurt and the chair's good.

• 1:02:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, if you're strapped in, you're good.

• 1:02:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:31Matt Farah?

  Please invite us back.

• 1:02:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:34Matt Farah?

  It was very, very fun. We didn't totally destroy your car. Put up, put up a good, good showing, I think, so.

• 1:02:40Speaker 01

  I think not destroying the car, because I met the guy, the guy that adjusted my seat. He's like, I'm the body guy. I go, what do you mean? He goes, well, after these come back, we gotta hammer stuff out we can, or we change the doors, you know, we, they keep these cars alive. They don't want to build a new cage. And, uh, all right, body guy, like, I made your job pretty easy, so.

• 1:02:57Matt Farah?

  Oh, great time. What a good time. We did make them, we, we, we didn't ask the right questions beforehand, like when they were like, gates open at 10, driver's meeting is at, you know, 4. We weren't like, what time should we actually show up? So we showed up at 10 and we were, we had a very long day in the sun.

• 1:03:16Speaker 01

  We did.

• 1:03:16Matt Farah?

  I was very tired. So, so we stayed at the world's worst Red Roof in East Hartford. Yikes.

• 1:03:23Speaker 01

  It was, uh, you know, honestly, the bed was firm enough. I was, the bed was better for me than, uh, the nice place, the Dagny we stayed at in Boston.

• 1:03:30Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah? It was? Oh, good. I'm glad you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

• 1:03:33Speaker 01

  But the shower and bath situation, I was like, oh, I'll be in the sink.

• 1:03:40Matt Farah?

  Uh, wait, do we want to talk about the Cayenne or do we?

• 1:03:42Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:03:42Matt Farah?

  We should talk about the Cayenne. I think if we, if we, should we? Yeah, well, well, let's do, let's do Cayenne first, right?

• 1:03:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:50Matt Farah?

  Cause, uh, Porsche was very kind. They let us borrow, uh, the new Cayenne GTS, which is a 493 horsepower, uh, gasoline only, non-hybrid, uh, excuse me, twin-turbo 4-liter V8, uh, in, of course, uh, Carmine red. They, they call it GTS red now, but it's Carmine red.

• 1:04:16Matt Farah?

  Really, uh, really neat car. A lot to like, honestly. It's, uh, it's fast and loud.

• 1:04:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:23Matt Farah?

  Sounds good. The steering is really nice. The ride is really nice. They fucking, they've dialed in these air shocks. So nice. Like, the, compared to the ones like in my Taycan, like granted, this is a GTS, but it's also newer. Like just the, the, uh, the rebound on the air spring is really nice now. Um, they, they're really, it's really well damped. Just like such a nice thing to drive around, like to use as a It's not, you don't have to, it's granted it's a Cayenne, but like, it's not too harsh, it's not too sporty, you can use it as a car, but it still gives you a good sporty vibe.

• 1:05:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:05Matt Farah?

  And, you know, we're in Greenwich, Connecticut, backroads, like, they're windy and they're undulating and like, having a car with great steering and a good gearbox, like, is important.

• 1:05:15Speaker 01

  Definitely.

• 1:05:15Matt Farah?

  Actually helped. Improved our vacation work trip.

• 1:05:19Speaker 01

  I mean, for a way, to have a vehicle to run around where we were with like, curvy backroads, curvy highways, pretty smooth tarmac everywhere, it was a very good tool for that.

• 1:05:28Matt Farah?

  Almost everywhere, because you, before you came to Connecticut, I went down to Long Island to see my in-laws at the beach, and I have to drive across Long Island and where they are down on the south shore, the tarmac is a garbagio, is exceptionally garbagio. When you get across that state line into Connecticut, it's a whole other level of tarmac quality. And so, on some of the really hard edges, there's no way to hide that it's got the big wheels and, you know, the sport setup. So it's not great on the really harsh edges.

• 1:06:08Matt Farah?

  If that's your life, I might consider not a GTS. But, when the road is decent, this is great. I really liked the seats, you know, it's, there's nothing revolutionary about it. It handles well, the rear steer makes it feel incredibly agile, but, the start-stop.

• 1:06:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. Start-stop and the auto brake.

• 1:06:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:34Speaker 01

  These are two things, and, you know, I drove a Cayenne GTS.

• 1:06:38Matt Farah?

  Can I have this?

• 1:06:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. Three years ago, I went to Atlanta, drove the then newer Cayenne GTS.

• 1:06:45Speaker 01

  And I remember I was turning on a mountain road and there was an engineer behind me and all of a sudden the car slammed on its own brakes because it thought I was like heading towards a cliff and I was literally just driving on a curve and I pulled over and I was like, "Did you see that?" And he goes, "Yeah, I did." The reason I bring that up is because you and I were trying to make a left turn onto a highway and there was a gap and you hit the gas to drive left across oncoming traffic and it hit the brakes.

• 1:07:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  Just, and like that's two different times with years of, you know, I would hope, what's the word I'm looking for, development time where it almost caused a pretty big problem.

• 1:07:20Matt Farah?

  Like it, yeah, like I was making a left across two lanes of traffic. There was enough room to make this left, but after I had moved about three feet, the car decided that no, I would not be making the left. I didn't have enough room and it stopped me in a place that is dangerous.

• 1:07:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:42Matt Farah?

  Which is crazy, but then you have the start-stop, which to me is like, in this, it's like pretty unforgivable in this car, the way that this operates. And I had a problem with this three years ago or two years ago with the S version of this same thing. Basically, in an effort to be as efficient as it possibly, possibly can, because this is a heavy thirsty car with no hybrid assist or anything like that. Shout out to my, shout out to my in-laws' house in Long Island. And, okay, in an effort to be as efficient as possible, it cuts the fucking engine off before you stop moving.

• 1:08:25Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:08:26Matt Farah?

  Which is insanity. I mean, like real, like pulling into a parking space, I'm halfway, you know, into the space and the engine cuts off.

• 1:08:36Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:08:37Matt Farah?

  Now, as I'm decelerating, it cuts off at like, let's call it five or six miles an hour, from five to, before you get to zero. The problem is then, it doesn't lock the steering as you're going from five to zero. But let's say, holy shit, actually, I need to either coast a little further because I'm braking to zero. I need to either coast a little further or I need to apply throttle.

• 1:09:10Matt Farah?

  When it goes to start the motor back up, it locks the steering for about a second. Cause it's not a particularly good, fast engine startup.

• 1:09:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is a little slower than some other cars.

• 1:09:22Matt Farah?

  It's a little slower. That if you have 48 volt mild hybrid, it'll do really fast. But this, it doesn't have it. It's a traditional starter motor. So it's like, when it restarts, it like thinks, cranks, and then fires. But in the meantime, you have locked steering. And so you are in a seriously precarious position. Because multiple times, this situation has happened to me where I've slowed down almost to a stop. But I was then gonna make a left. I was waiting for a car, an oncoming car to clear, but then I was gonna make a quick left. But now I come off, the engine shuts off, I come off the brake, and now I can't make the left. But I'm trying to turn and the steering's fucking locked.

• 1:10:06Matt Farah?

  This is like crazy.

• 1:10:08Speaker 01

  Well, the other time it happened is you were parking and you know, you're pulling in, you're just like a right-hand turn into a lot, into a parking spot between two cars. But it turned off and then locked the steering and you needed to adjust our position in the spot.

• 1:10:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:21Speaker 01

  But it, it stopped us before we had completed pulling in. Like you were gonna pull in all the way and then like back, back up shimmy. But it stopped us like seven, three quarters of the way into the spot. And it just like turned off all of a sudden. And I, I wish that the car's proximity sensors, which it obviously has many, cause it stopped us from turning left across traffic, would go, oh, you are parking now. There's other cars around you. Maybe we leave the engine on so that you can, you know, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, and then be done.

• 1:10:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah. The, this is a choice. This isn't like something's broken. Like they've decided, can they, and we, I, I told them this years ago. They've decided that the, that in the name of efficiency, the car should do something super, super dangerous. And that's fucking crazy to me. Like, I, I, you know, and, and, you know, the hybrid one obviously doesn't do this. Engine comes on, engine goes off, like whatever. I just, and the only, there's an easy way to fix it. Just like, don't turn the fucking engine off until the car's stopped for two or three seconds. Like, how hard is that?

• 1:11:31Matt Farah?

  I can't fathom why a company would make this choice. How much, what tiny fractions of a percentage of efficiency they're saving by not idling the engine for a couple more seconds, or making sure you've actually come to a stop.

• 1:11:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it's, you know, with EU regs and stuff, and like, because they report all the CO2, and does this get them 100 points less on that report or something? Like, so is that the lesser of two evils for them? But operationally, still pretty problematic.

• 1:12:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And, you know, you have to, there is not a hard button to disable the start/stop. It's in a touchscreen. You have to go into vehicle, and then do it. So it's two button presses to turn it off.

• 1:12:22Speaker 01

  And, as you showed, like, if you turn it off, but then you change modes, and like, you go to sport mode for a bit and go back to normal, didn't it turn auto stop start back on? So even if same driving session, you haven't turned the car off, it's just the mode change, it puts it back, which is annoying.

• 1:12:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah. So, that would really drive me insane. I would find a way, like, I don't know.

• 1:12:45Speaker 01

  Like, if they could do an OTA update where they, for that last complaint, if you have manually turned off auto stop start, the car should know you don't want it on for that drive, regardless of what mode you changed to.

• 1:12:58Matt Farah?

  I completely agree.

• 1:12:59Speaker 01

  Just update that.

• 1:13:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah. But this, I can't, it's so dangerous. I can't believe they're selling a car like this. It's just crazy. Because the rest of the car's so nice. It's got plenty of room in the back. Big trunk, great brakes.

• 1:13:14Speaker 01

  Seats were great for me.

• 1:13:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Comfy seats, great steering, you know, no glitches in the software, like, CarPlay integration was lovely, like, generally, like, an incredibly nice thing to use, you know, in the Northeast as your car.

• 1:13:33Matt Farah?

  Just a fabulous thing, but like this, it's like, fucking, come on, man. Because, because you just won't remember to turn it off every time. You're, you're just gonna forget, and it's gonna remind you that you forgot by doing.

• 1:13:46Speaker 01

  In kinda scary ways, though.

• 1:13:47Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:49Matt Farah?

  And, and, uh, and then, you know, because what happens is if, if, if you're, if it turns off at the wrong time, then it's, because it's a sporty, uh, gas one, you, you fucking smash the throttle, and then it's like real jumpy. You know, the turbos spool up and, wah, you know, and you're like, whoa, shit, you know? You go too hard the other way with it.

• 1:14:10Matt Farah?

  Really, really fucking infuriating for something that's like a lux, considered luxury product from a brand that knows better.

• 1:14:17Speaker 01

  I mean, yeah, they're so good at most things.

• 1:14:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:20Speaker 01

  This is just one of those, this is surprising, uh, lack of refinement, especially because it's a complaint we've had before.

• 1:14:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, crazy, but I, you know, other than that, I, I do really like this, uh, like this vehicle.

• 1:14:34Matt Farah?

  But when we took my dad's hybrid to pizza, that's really all you need. Shout out to Sunrise Pizza.

• 1:14:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, that definitely rode softer, which was really nice, of course, and having the hybrid helps a lot with so many of these things.

• 1:14:47Matt Farah?

  And it has massage seats.

• 1:14:48Speaker 01

  Oh, it did?

• 1:14:49Matt Farah?

  Mm-hmm. Yeah. Also, shout out to my friend Mike Zimmerman, who fucking rode his Husqvarna from Long Island to the race on the fucking Connecticut-Massachusetts border, backroads, and then at midnight, when the race was done, rode a fucking home.

• 1:15:07Speaker 01

  I think they did, it was 320 miles that day.

• 1:15:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:10Speaker 01

  Just, you know, rocking around New York backroads.

• 1:15:13Matt Farah?

  But half of that was after midnight.

• 1:15:15Speaker 01

  I know. Yeah. And I was like, are you gonna ride back right now? And he was like, yeah.

• 1:15:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:19Speaker 01

  He was really excited about it.

• 1:15:20Matt Farah?

  He left his house in Long Island, took the ferry over to Connecticut, did all these backroads, came, got to the race at, you know, whatever, 5, you know, the whole time of the race, and then rode his motorcycle two and a half hours home after the race on like a supermoto.

• 1:15:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:36Matt Farah?

  Gnarly.

• 1:15:36Speaker 01

  Very cool.

• 1:15:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's a boss move.

• 1:15:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, shout out to him and Julian.

• 1:15:40Matt Farah?

  You love to see it. Uh, but yeah, thanks to Porsche for, for giving me a, a ride for the week. Um, fix your start stop please. Let's go to the people, uh, over at Patreon. Patreon.com slash the smoking tire podcast. It's, uh, where you go to ask us live questions on the show and then watch the show live, watch the show early, get the show without ads, get extra show, and get early exclusive access to collabs and things, uh, such as the dope ass blazer I'm wearing right now. You can buy it. I just fixed our website, so our merch tab, uh, directs to the blazer site. Zach's blazer is up there as well. Did Nick tell us who sold more blazers so far? You were ahead last time.

• 1:16:21Speaker 01

  I haven't, I, I haven't checked since then.

• 1:16:22Matt Farah?

  No, you were, you were ahead last time, but this is, uh, my, my blazer and I fucking love it. And, uh, oh, our newest collab is coming very soon with tactile turn, uh, the pen maker again. We've done one with them before. It was great. We are now making the pen that I've been carrying around for a year. The smaller brass pen, but I have here a prototype. So this is what, this is what the brass looks like when it's new compared to what it looks like after Matt's fucking hands have been holding it for a year. So it has a patinaed, right?

• 1:17:03Matt Farah?

  And then this is, uh, this is what the clip is gonna look like, uh, that goes on it. It says the smoking tire down the clip. It's subtle. It's not, not super aggressive.

• 1:17:12Speaker 01

  Well, it's a bright red clip, but then the brass pen, so it's a good contrast.

• 1:17:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it works, but the one that we're making is the size of mine.

• 1:17:18Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. Yeah. I was gonna say, they do look different.

• 1:17:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I actually, I, uh, I asked for the, the wrong thing in prototype. Um, but it's the smaller one that is, uh, really, really nice for your everyday carry as well as, uh, to leave on your desk, but it's smaller. It's a little lighter. But with the brass, it, you get this patina after like, uh, a year. It's pretty cool, huh? So that'll be fun. That's gonna be exclusive for patrons at first. And if we have any left after they are done with them, then they will go to the general public. Look at those handsome guys in those blazers. Wow.

• 1:17:59Speaker 01

  I don't know what this is doing.

• 1:18:00Matt Farah?

  What happened? Does the website just have problems?

• 1:18:02Speaker 01

  I'm trying to go to that and CloudFlare wants lots of verification.

• 1:18:06Matt Farah?

  Wants to make sure that you're not a robot?

• 1:18:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:09Matt Farah?

  Except you are.

• 1:18:10Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 1:18:10Matt Farah?

  Hmm. Very interesting. Uh, let's go to the people. The Duffle Shuffle Retirement Club says, is the Crown Vic the perfect car for automotive dirtbag activities? And what other cars stand out for this task? Cleetus said, and he's right, that the Crown Vic is the great equalizer. I mean, in qualifying, the difference between first and 20th was one second.

• 1:18:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:34Matt Farah?

  In the race, it was less. In the race, it was about a half second.

• 1:18:38Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:18:39Matt Farah?

  Was the difference in lap times between first and last.

• 1:18:42Speaker 01

  Everyone got quicker.

• 1:18:43Matt Farah?

  Well, and you can't go as quick in a field of cars. You know, you're limited by space and you drive a little differently than if you have a whole track to yourself. But, but, um, and also people at the back that might have been more conservative in qualifying got, get quicker. Um, but it, you know, it is hard to pass people in those cars. It's, they're, they're the same speed. And so, you know, you've got this nitrous thing, but also, you know, and that's worth, uh, maybe a half a second a lap on the nitrous. And then even, you know, super duper talent is only worth about a half a second a lap in this kind of racing. So.

• 1:19:24Speaker 01

  And if you really over, if you use too much nitrous on a straight and you really overcook it in a corner, you know, either you'll drift too much and lose speed, or you will hit a wall.

• 1:19:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh, what other cars stand out? I mean, dude, anything with a V8 and a manual is really your, your king of, your king of dirtbag cars. I think, I think the 2010 Camaro SS has overshadowed the Fox Body Mustang as the king of dirtbag cars.

• 1:19:49Speaker 01

  That's probably true. Yeah, that's a good time. I mean, F-body Camaros, like, things that like you'll see on a lift, like, lifted for fun, which is cool. I feel like that indicates that the platform is ripe for fun.

• 1:19:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh, I saw in Greenwich, the day before you got there, which is, you know, fucking the land of, you know, blue, gray, and tan. I saw a lifted Crown Vic duly that was a guy advertising his canine guard dog business, like, German shit. And it was, the guy was sitting in it.

• 1:20:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:20Matt Farah?

  Talking to somebody in a parking space, and he was the meatheadiest meathead fucking ever, just sitting there trolling for fucking mommies in his dirtbag ass Crown Vic.

• 1:20:33Speaker 01

  I can't believe that car was allowed in the town, honestly.

• 1:20:36Matt Farah?

  I know. I know. Greenwich is like a sundown town, but if you have a junky car.

• 1:20:41Speaker 01

  Well, because here, like, I've seen, where was I? I was at a shooting range, and this truck pulled in with a huge wrap livery on it. It was like a lifted, weld wheels, everything, but it said canine dog training on it. But it was like a new Raptor. You know, it was, it was an $80,000 truck, not a $2,000 Crown Vic lifted and turned into a duly.

• 1:20:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Josh G. says, what skills transfer from endurance or road racing to the cleanest 900? And what aspect of this different type of race craft surprised you? Um, I mean, knowing you can't win the race in qualifying or on the first lap.

• 1:21:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, saving the car.

• 1:21:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and sprint racers don't think like that, you know, in these, if a race is 30 minutes long, they, they don't think like that. They're going for it on turn one. I'm used to doing a two-hour stint in a race car and then having to hand the car off to somebody else and maybe even to other people. So like, I, I know to make the car last, you can't fucking win if you don't finish. And, you know, how many cars finished the race out of 24? 14.

• 1:21:43Speaker 01

  14.

• 1:21:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, so, and a whole bunch of them were really fast. Cleetus didn't finish.

• 1:21:49Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:21:49Matt Farah?

  You know, like, at least.

• 1:21:51Speaker 01

  Squirrel didn't finish, I think.

• 1:21:52Matt Farah?

  Couple of the NASCAR drivers didn't finish. Didn't Ryan, did Ryan Priest finish?

• 1:21:57Speaker 01

  Oh, he might have been out too.

• 1:21:59Matt Farah?

  Ryan Priest may have not finished. I mean, these are fucking NASCAR drivers, so like, techni-, you know, beat them, you know, like, uh, so yeah, if you don't, you can't win if you don't finish, certainly.

• 1:22:10Speaker 01

  I think, I mean, eyes up as, as much as you can, and now you're limited because of Hans and like, you know, looking around at one, you can't look to the other side of the track, really. But, just trying to look ahead and look for the cues that there was a crash happening proved really helpful.

• 1:22:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:24Speaker 01

  As soon as I saw dust, I lifted.

• 1:22:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:27Speaker 01

  And I was watching, and I go, okay, I need to brake, or I need to get around this person.

• 1:22:30Matt Farah?

  Sure. Um, and different, I mean, really, it's just, in road racing, there should not be any contact.

• 1:22:40Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 1:22:40Matt Farah?

  Really, ever. If there is any contact, even small, you're getting, you're getting a talking to.

• 1:22:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:45Matt Farah?

  If not an outright penalty. And in this, it's just like, you know.

• 1:22:50Speaker 01

  Rubbing racing.

• 1:22:51Matt Farah?

  Fucking get with the program, dude. And so, I've, I've never been in a racing series where, uh, where contact is this prevalent, um, and expected.

• 1:23:01Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:23:02Matt Farah?

  You know, so that was, that was, I expect, you know, I expected it, they told me this was gonna be it, but then you're in the car.

• 1:23:08Speaker 01

  I mean, I came away with a, a deeper respect for NASCAR and cup drivers and whatever, because the starts are kind of violent, and you just gotta learn to move, let the car move a little bit. People are pushing you, you're pushing people, and that's just like, yeah, stay in control while it feels a little out of control, which is true of racing, but, you know, they're, they're just managing like, this contact friction shit, in addition to crazy aero, that we never deal with, or people don't deal with in IMSA, F1, you know, whatever.

• 1:23:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh, Johnny E.V. Gerberman, uh, if you had the same idea as Cleetus, where you bought 40 of the same car to run, but not a Crown Vic, what would you pick? We were joking years ago about doing the 12 hours of Sebring with all Chrysler Sebring's. I think they did that in Chomp or something, as a themed race. Um, but like, uh...

• 1:24:03Matt Farah?

  Uh, Crown, the Crown Vics are really like, unique in the space. In that they're just such fucking tanks and they have V8s. And they're so ubiquitous and there's so many like, like, so Camrys I, I think i- is a logical answer, but they'd be, the fact that a Crown Vic is rear drive and, and V8 is, that's, it's a vibe, because they cut the mufflers off these things and they sound like fucking race cars.

• 1:24:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:34Matt Farah?

  And that's, you can't do that in a Camry, you know, you've seen the, the like Toyota celebrity races and whatever and like.

• 1:24:42Speaker 01

  But those are also, the other problem with a Camry is like, it's a unibody car.

• 1:24:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:45Speaker 01

  So on these things, like, it's body on frame with the Crown Vic, so they can pull body panels off and put new ones on. And like, they can keep these race cars going as long as possible, but if you had, if you had a bunch of Camrys and they're smashing each other up, all of them are written off pretty much, otherwise you're gonna have to like, hammer out unibody, I mean, you can't just like, take, it's not Legos.

• 1:25:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:06Speaker 01

  So that would probably add your cost and, and the durability, I mean, these things, the engines last pretty much forever. All of them had a cutout for cooling, I think they had better radiators.

• 1:25:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the big scoops, yeah.

• 1:25:16Speaker 01

  To, to, they basically keep them cool and, uh, yeah, and they can repair pretty much anything else.

• 1:25:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah. That would be, there's not a lot of other really good options in, I mean, you could talk about early Chargers, right? Like 05, 06.

• 1:25:33Speaker 01

  That'd be fun.

• 1:25:33Matt Farah?

  You know, 5.7 Hemi Chargers.

• 1:25:35Speaker 01

  It'd be fun, still a unibody car.

• 1:25:37Matt Farah?

  They're unibody, they're, they're like 350 horsepower, six, like, they'd be fast.

• 1:25:41Speaker 01

  Well, I, I was thinking like, if you went 90s Silverado 1500s. And, but you'd lower them so that, you want that weight, uh, distribution low.

• 1:25:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it might be tough to make them.

• 1:25:53Speaker 01

  Safe.

• 1:25:54Matt Farah?

  Safe and or comfortable, because if they're a single cab, they wouldn't be very comfortable, like. Uh, there's, and also with the Crown Vics, like, that second gear being exactly the right length for this type of oval, oval racing is kinda unique in the space also. And you'd have to have a more complex car or, you really don't want, even want a car that has a clutch pedal. I don't think that would be that beneficial to, to people in this race.

• 1:26:21Speaker 01

  It would only help on starts, but then it would, people would launch transmissions, because these folks would drive them like, they'd be slamming like a dog box and they'd be changing out transmissions, so you just, like, the whole. Production, I mean, it's a traveling circus. That's amazing. So you need the cars to keep working and keep the maintenance down on those things. Like, everything about this is really well thought out, and the cars are part of that.

• 1:26:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah. If money wasn't real, like, Fox Bodies would be a good time.

• 1:26:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26:48Matt Farah?

  But, uh, yeah, but I, but they're too expensive. Uh, continuous south-a-please. Nervous in the Nurburgring says, "Best snack during the race in Connecticut?"

• 1:27:01Speaker 01

  Didn't have a snack. I did get hungry at lap 62.

• 1:27:04Matt Farah?

  I got, I, I really controlled my water in and, and thank you for giving me the electrolytes before the race. That was a good idea. And I didn't have to piss, but I also was not that thirsty. I, by the last 10 laps, I was getting tired. I was like, man, it's, I've been in this car for fucking two and a half hours right now. Like, it's getting, but, yeah. A second Jay-Z has hit the Supra. Uh, what other kinds of racing would you like to try that you haven't been able to try yet?

• 1:27:36Speaker 01

  Off, well, in a perfect world, off-road racing. Like, like, absolutely. I don't think I will do that.

• 1:27:42Matt Farah?

  Your back might not enjoy that one yet.

• 1:27:45Speaker 01

  Again, perfect world, off-road racing for sure. But I would like to do more oval stuff, dirt oval, or, I mean, it was, it was harder than I expected, even knowing what I know about driving. And I think it'd be just fun to learn that skill. And, you know, as an observer, sometimes, like, the racing seems boring compared to stuff with more corners or more dynamic movement. But when you're in there, like, once you're competing and there's cars near you, it doesn't really matter. Like, it is very exciting to do.

• 1:28:14Matt Farah?

  Oh, when you're in the car, it's, say what you will about it as a spectator sport, when you're in the car, it's extremely exciting.

• 1:28:21Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:28:21Matt Farah?

  Um, in, in many ways, more exciting than road racing.

• 1:28:24Speaker 01

  Because of the proximity.

• 1:28:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I mean, you're just always, always an inch from somebody.

• 1:28:31Matt Farah?

  Dre from Houston says, "How do you guys handle car guy talk that's obviously bullshit?" "I had a lengthy conversation with a gentleman about his one of one Corvette C6" "that is naturally aspirated, non-nitrous, that's beaten C6s, Z06s and Hellcats" "and blah, blah, blah, and all I could say to him was, you showed him." "I mean, yeah, you just let, you just let people talk and say, 'That's cool, man. Nice to meet you.'" "Kind of."

• 1:29:01Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:29:02Matt Farah?

  "I've tried to correct people, or whatever." "You can, you can, if you really, you can, if they start to be ridiculous, "you can start to ask questions that you already know the answer to" "and ask, and see if they'll, you know, how far into the weeds they'll get." "But, I have to deal with a lot of people saying some pretty weird things to me about cars" "and you just go, 'Yeah, man, that's cool. Nice. Aw, man, I'm glad that, that seems like the right thing for, for you.'" "Perfectly, you know, and then, yeah, then you move on." "Alice in Snowshades."

• 1:29:39Speaker 01

  That's really funny.

• 1:29:40Matt Farah?

  What else, Alice, is there a truck that's, a car that sounds like Alice? "Why did it take so long for manufacturers to slowly increase the steering ratios in performance cars? "Was it not something consumers wanted?" "Do you mean, um, quicken the ratio, which actually would be, reduce the steering ratio" "from like three, three turns lock to lock to two?" "Why did it take so long?"

• 1:30:13Matt Farah?

  "Well, um..."

• 1:30:18Matt Farah?

  "I think if, hmm, why did it take so long?"

• 1:30:24Matt Farah?

  You may need, no?

• 1:30:27Speaker 01

  I, my guess is that steering was really slow for a long time, right? Like 40s, 50s, 60s. Some of that was because you needed small gears so that the lever, you have the leverage to turn the wheels, right? But then power steering came in, but I think it was just the times where people wanted a slow ratio. And it took a long time for a different car company to go, let's try making it a little quicker for either, probably for racing. So the driver doesn't have to do hand over hand. But that has to take time to trickle into the street cars. People have to learn to get used to it and like it. And then journalists go, oh, we really like that the Ferrari has much quicker steering. And therefore it's easier to drive on this track or these corners. And now it's like, you know, everything that's kind of sporty.

• 1:31:12Speaker 01

  Combination of having ePass and I think just the Joneses is people go, yeah, I want a quicker ratio. That I don't have to turn around and around as much, is my guess.

• 1:31:22Matt Farah?

  It may also coincide with stickier tires that could handle a sharper turn in, firmer suspensions, things like that. I mean, imagine you had like a Dodge Polara that had a Formula One style steering rack. You wouldn't actually even want someone to be able to steer the car faster than that, right? So it all kind of has to evolve together, I think.

• 1:31:43Speaker 01

  Plus the pendulum did swing too far. For a little while, we would complain that the Ferrari ratios were too quick. It was just, you had to move your hands so minutely to get the angle you wanted. And it was really easy to overturn.

• 1:31:58Matt Farah?

  But it was definitely a little, it's, I like it better now than if you go back to early 90s cars particularly. Early 90s was really peak where sports cars still had old school kind of steering. By, by, you know, 2005, 6, like the 996s and, and the, the, the, let's say, oh, C6, C7 Corvettes, things like that. The steering ratio started to get much quicker.

• 1:32:29Speaker 01

  And then they got progressive racks. I don't know when those were invented, someone will correct me, but that, that was also the stepping stone.

• 1:32:35Matt Farah?

  Beeping eight assholes says, "What does original miles mean when describing a car?" It could mean that the odometer hasn't been rolled back, that the engine hasn't been replaced. Usually, usually it means that like, nothing major's been replaced and the odometer accurately reflects

• 1:32:56Speaker 01

  The engine life, I think.

• 1:32:57Matt Farah?

  The mileage on the car.

• 1:32:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:32:59Matt Farah?

  You know, you haven't had any like, major accident rebuilds, major componentry replacements, or inaccurate odometer readings. Usually, that's how I take it.

• 1:33:10Speaker 01

  I always take it as, the engine has the same miles the odometer has. Like, so the engine was never swapped, or blown up, or whatever.

• 1:33:17Matt Farah?

  And a lot of times, people, if they do a full resto on a car, they'll reset the odometer to zero. So, if it's an old car, if it's an old, you know, Mustang, or something from the 60s, then if it has 5,000 original miles versus 5,000 miles since the restoration, is how I would take it. Sunderwoosh, optional carbon cuck chair says, "Recently encountered two 9/11 Dak cars at a gas station hundreds of miles off the beaten path in bumfuck nowhere." That's cool. "Where's the most unexpected place you've encountered something cool or rare?"

• 1:33:56Matt Farah?

  Unexpected place you've encountered a cool or rare car?

• 1:34:01Speaker 01

  Hmm. Fish on a water... I mean, I saw a Taurus X today, and I didn't even know what it was.

• 1:34:05Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:34:06Speaker 01

  Like, wait, they made this while making the Explorer?

• 1:34:08Matt Farah?

  It was the freestyle, and then they rebranded it Taurus X.

• 1:34:12Speaker 01

  Weird.

• 1:34:13Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Hmm. Unexpected place you've encountered something cool or rare?

• 1:34:21Matt Farah?

  I saw an Aventador in Tenerife.

• 1:34:25Matt Farah?

  Didn't think I would see an Aventador in Tenerife.

• 1:34:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:28Matt Farah?

  In Monaco, I saw a 1989 Cadillac Fleetwood that had been registered in Monaco since almost new. I thought that was pretty wild.

• 1:34:36Speaker 01

  That's a pretty good one. I think when we were at the Nürburgring, there was that taller, the old Mini, that was taller and had white rally wheels. It kinda looked like it would drive in the forest around the Nürburgring.

• 1:34:48Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 1:34:49Speaker 01

  And that was just like, you know, M3, GT3, blah, blah, blah, and then this thing was out there.

• 1:34:54Matt Farah?

  Hundreds of mile, I mean...

• 1:35:00Matt Farah?

  I've more, I've more been like impressed when I've seen like, I've been off-roading in off-road vehicles and been so far in the middle of nowhere on a trail and seen like a Jetta.

• 1:35:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:35:11Matt Farah?

  Like with like six farmers in it just fucking bouncing on the bump stops, you know?

• 1:35:17Speaker 01

  That famous video of the town car in Moab.

• 1:35:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:20Speaker 01

  That like pulls up next to these Jeeps and then just goes up whatever trail. It's got like a bicycle and the trunk's open and it's just, it has enough grip, you know?

• 1:35:28Matt Farah?

  If you don't give a fuck, you can do anything with any car. It's like that, what was the French, um, the grand tour thing they did with the French cars? Where they just, there was just talk, the whole special was about how the French just treat their cars like absolute disposable.

• 1:35:45Speaker 01

  I remember that one.

• 1:35:46Matt Farah?

  Garbage and they just did a bunch of quote, "normal things" in their French cars that destroyed them.

• 1:35:52Speaker 01

  It's called Carnage à trois.

• 1:35:54Matt Farah?

  Oh yes, right.

• 1:35:55Speaker 01

  Carnage à trois.

• 1:35:56Matt Farah?

  Uh, I miss when AI just meant to shop in Westchester. Uh, is there a point at which doing low annual mileage in a car is worse than doing no mileage? Between competing interests of family and work, I find myself struggling to do more than a couple hundred miles a year in my fun car. Would I be better to park it and store it for a few years until things calm down? Or is some miles better than no miles? It's usually 15 to 25 mile drives at a time. I believe if you get the fluids up to temperature and things moving up to operating temperature, it's better to do that once a month than to do nothing. By a lot, actually.

• 1:36:38Matt Farah?

  If you can stomach also servicing the car every other year, you're, then you're, then you'll be alright.

• 1:36:45Speaker 01

  If it just sits.

• 1:36:46Matt Farah?

  That's not good.

• 1:36:47Speaker 01

  Seal starts to dry out because you need, you need the fluids inside them to sling around and like you wet the top of the seal.

• 1:36:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:54Speaker 01

  Otherwise it's going to dry and crack more quickly.

• 1:36:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah, self-lubricating systems. You, you gotta get that thing up to temperature, uh, once or twice a month if you can. I mean, and even if you can't, even if you can't drive it, like it's, driving it is the best, but even if you have to idle it until it gets up to temperature, like that's better than nothing. We do that here with, with cars. Edward Shifter Hands, I am looking to add a new car. I have a Camaro SS 1LE manual, and I'm looking to add either a big body cruiser or something four by four. I live in the country in Texas, so something alternating to drive to work on back highways. I wouldn't mind something unique with some character, but it needs to be relatively reliable. A big body cruiser or a four by four.

• 1:37:40Speaker 01

  Okay, I wish we had the budget.

• 1:37:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:42Speaker 01

  That's the only, that's, yeah, cuz I'm like, well Ranger Raptor would be great, but that's a $50,000 truck.

• 1:37:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:47Speaker 01

  Um, and I don't know if that's in your budget, so.

• 1:37:50Matt Farah?

  Interesting big body cruisers. So, I mean, I, you, I wanna say like a 96 Chevy Impala SS, but like, eh, I would say Mercury Marauder with a fucking Kenny Bell Supercharger on it could do it.

• 1:38:05Speaker 01

  Definitely, that's a great thing.

• 1:38:06Matt Farah?

  You know, I would say some kind of, uh, Mercedes station wagon.

• 1:38:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:14Matt Farah?

  Could do it.

• 1:38:15Speaker 01

  Go Accord wagon, if you wanna go like, super reliable.

• 1:38:18Matt Farah?

  Right, right.

• 1:38:19Speaker 01

  And, cuz if you're out in the middle of nowhere, Texas, make sure that you're near a service center, like if you have a Mercedes wagon, for example, that can take care of that thing.

• 1:38:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, I, you could go like a, a big body Mercedes, uh, like a, like a SS500 big coupe.

• 1:38:36Speaker 01

  I'm gonna go two-door Tahoe.

• 1:38:37Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:38:38Speaker 01

  Cuz that's, it's got style, it's a truck, but it's also kind of like a, a big cruiser.

• 1:38:44Matt Farah?

  I do like a two-door Tahoe, they're fun.

• 1:38:46Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:38:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's a, that's a good choice. Two-door Tahoe's a good one, I like that one. Yeah, or maybe an '03, like, F-150 Lightning, if you could find a really nice one. Those are, they're, they're pretty comfy.

• 1:38:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:39:00Matt Farah?

  They're fast, those are cool.

• 1:39:01Speaker 01

  That's a cool one.

• 1:39:03Matt Farah?

  Tycon Care of Business.

• 1:39:06Matt Farah?

  I'm looking at a Z8 for a summer weekend car. Uh, what are your thoughts? No Porsches, no Corvettes.

• 1:39:12Speaker 01

  My thoughts are yes.

• 1:39:13Matt Farah?

  I love a Z8, big fan.

• 1:39:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, no notes.

• 1:39:16Matt Farah?

  Cool car.

• 1:39:17Speaker 01

  One of the best looking cars ever made.

• 1:39:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah, they're fun, it's a fun 710's car.

• 1:39:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:39:21Matt Farah?

  If it's not, it's not a GT3, but it's a nice touring car, looks great, comfortable.

• 1:39:27Speaker 01

  Sounds good.

• 1:39:28Matt Farah?

  Sounds good, yeah.

• 1:39:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:39:30Matt Farah?

  Uh, relatively flat depreciation, uh, if you use it, um...

• 1:39:36Matt Farah?

  They're, you know, they're kind of expensive to run, sort of like the E39 M5, the services, but it's, but, but, but flat depreciation, so pay the cost to be the boss, and they still look awesome. Probably the best BMW, best looking BMW.

• 1:39:50Speaker 01

  And the inside also looks amazing.

• 1:39:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Your poorest patron, I doubt that, sir. For a city person that has off-street parking and can charge using a basic 110 outlet and does less than 200 miles a month, would an electric car be a burden? Never had one debating trying, trying an Ioniq 6. 200 miles a month? An electric car would not be a burden.

• 1:40:17Speaker 01

  Nope, and it's actually a great choice.

• 1:40:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah, even if you only ever had to use public charging, 200 miles a month?

• 1:40:23Speaker 01

  You could charge it once a month.

• 1:40:24Matt Farah?

  You could charge it once a month, and you'll be fine. I think, I think an Ioniq 6 has at least a 300 mile range, if not close to four. It's a very efficient car. Weird looking, but efficient.

• 1:40:34Speaker 01

  And if you're driving, I mean, this is like eight miles a day, you can charge that on a 110 overnight, no problem?

• 1:40:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you can add about two miles per hour on a 110 charger. So, you know, you park that thing overnight, you can add 30, 30, 40 miles, uh, no problem.

• 1:40:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:40:56Matt Farah?

  So, uh, I think you'd be fine, honestly. Run GMC.

• 1:41:02Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 1:41:02Matt Farah?

  Uh, listening to you guys, uh, talk about how the Testa Rosa is somewhat of a disappointment, and Chevy keeps pace at a cheaper price point. What do elite companies like Ferrari have to do to distinguish themselves as elite hypercar manufacturers? Well, I mean, in my opinion, the cars have to look really great.

• 1:41:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:41:23Matt Farah?

  They have to look unmistakably beautiful. That's just my opinion. And if they don't deliver on that... And they're, you know, and they used to have very exotic engines compared to what the American manufacturers were doing. And now Chevy's got a flat plane crank naturally aspirated V8. It sounds like a fucking 458.

• 1:41:41Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:41:42Matt Farah?

  They've got a twin turbo motor that sounds like they're, that sounds better than the Ferrari's current twin turbo V8. Like, if the car's not beautiful, like, what are we gonna do?

• 1:41:53Speaker 01

  I think that's what you're left with. And I think the interior should also be beautiful and interesting and made from materials that, you know, GM couldn't touch because of the cost. You know, GM's always gonna have, they'll have leather, fine, but they're gonna have, but the button selection, the design of things, that's where Ferrari and other companies could shine. And they're not right now with too much capacitive and stuff. That was high-tech a little while ago, but I think you gotta go back to like

• 1:42:18Matt Farah?

  Levers.

• 1:42:19Speaker 01

  550's style, like levers, toggles, you know, things that look and feel expensive.

• 1:42:24Matt Farah?

  Dude, imagine, think about a 90, in 1995, you had the 355 GTB and you had a Corvette ZR1. They were about the same in terms of performance. And I know that because I just wrote it for the Evoluto story. About the same in terms of performance. But look at the two of them. There's a reason that, you know, that you look at the leather, you look at the interior, you, they're not, they're not the same at all. The sound of the engines, the way that the, the way that the whole thing is put together. Now, they're both mid-engine, they have the same sort of engine type of technology, the exotic technologies, the interiors

• 1:43:07Matt Farah?

  are, screens. In fact, GM has more buttons now than, than the other ones. You could argue that the Ferrari interior is more beautiful than the GM interior, but it's, is it that much? It's, they're not in completely different universes of quality.

• 1:43:22Speaker 01

  And we've driven cars that are cheaper than Ferrari, but their gauge cluster can do more things than Ferrari.

• 1:43:28Matt Farah?

  So, that's sort of why we can, we're talking about them in the same vein. Like, if they don't hit the mark of untouchable beauty and interiors that are really a cut above what the other car's doing, the mystique only gets you so far.

• 1:43:46Matt Farah?

  And you don't need to put an aftermarket exhaust on a Corvette Z06, I assure you that. But you would on a Testa Rosa. Lexus on Fire says, "A 911 Carrera S manual." You can't, you'd have to get an old manual, I guess. A used S manual, because now you need a T. And C8 Z06 are about the same price. "What would be the better purchase for someone who would like a daily driver and commuter in the northeast on, four out of 10 on the twisty scale roads? I intend to drive it all winter on plowed road with a good set of snow tires, 10,000 miles a year."

• 1:44:30Matt Farah?

  I mean, for a true daily driver,

• 1:44:36Matt Farah?

  I'd rather have the 911.

• 1:44:37Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 1:44:38Matt Farah?

  It's a little more comfortable, it's a little more user-friendly.

• 1:44:44Matt Farah?

  A C8 Z06 is a fabulous weekend car, but I'm not really sure I'd like to daily one in four seasons. Even though I think it would be a fucking boss move for you to do it. If you said, "I'm dailying a Z06 in four seasons," I'd be like, "Hell yeah, brother. Good for you. You're a fucking, you're a boss." But if you're asking which is actually the better move, probably the 911.

• 1:45:09Speaker 01

  You know, if I'm driving in the winter, I'd like to have as much visibility as possible. And I think, you know, rearward over the shoulder and stuff. The 911 has a much bigger greenhouse for that reason. That's part of it for me.

• 1:45:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:23Matt Farah?

  I think, yeah, I think I'd rather have a 911 for four seasons in the northeast. But either, fuck, you'd be a boss if you got that Z06. You would certainly have respect of this podcast. Johnny Lieber Contrary Man. Lieber, Lieber Contrary Man? Lieber?

• 1:45:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, Lieber Contrary Man.

• 1:45:44Matt Farah?

  Lieber Contrary Man? Ever driven an Iskari? Have not. I have not. Um, the biggest bush says, I asked about a few weeks back about a change for my E92 M3 in the 70 to 80 K range. I have a curveball opportunity. Guy I know locally looking to sell his 99 speed yellow 911 Carrera, factory aero kit, optional LSD. Uh, done my homework on them, but any thoughts on early 996s in general? They don't do it for me. Um, they, they don't really do it for me, but speed yellow is all right.

• 1:46:24Matt Farah?

  Um, uh, factory aero kit, some people care about. I don't really care. LSD is a, is a, is a, is a good option to have. Uh, there's a, that looks like a speed yellow. Aero kit package right there. Um, I don't know. Speed yellow is bottom right is the brighter, the brighter one is speed yellow. Uh, that looks like it's a couple of different colors, doesn't it?

• 1:46:48Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah.

• 1:46:49Matt Farah?

  That one is, that has been painted badly. Uh, but, um, you know, it's, it's, it's not for me, but it's a, it's probably a nice entry point into 911s.

• 1:47:00Speaker 01

  Hmm. And I like, how do, if you like the styling and then that, for me, that's what matters. Like if you like the styling, if you like the way these wings look and stuff, then get it, like truly. And if someone doesn't like it, well, fuck them. That's a better one, right? Yeah.

• 1:47:13Matt Farah?

  That's a, that one's, looks less crashed.

• 1:47:16Speaker 01

  Evenly painted.

• 1:47:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah. That, that one, that's, that one looks, that one looks all right, huh? Uh, huh. Flying monkey. Um, oh, do we already? Uh, when buying a car, I know you guys have rules and one of them is no Florida cars. Can you expand? Do you mean any car with any history of being owned in Florida or only currently registered owned Florida vehicles?

• 1:47:42Matt Farah?

  I I'm I mean, all Florida registration is a red flag to me. All. History or current. Because Florida is the fucking has floods, they have hurricanes, and it's the fucking title washing capital of the universe. We were just talking to somebody. Ex- oh, you know, our friend, very recently, about how part of their actual business model is fucking washing titles through through their business in Florida.

• 1:48:11Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:48:11Matt Farah?

  For imported cars.

• 1:48:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, that that and one other place.

• 1:48:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think you just like, I would have to get a really thorough PPI to really look at. Are there signs of moisture, mold, flooding? I mean, there's so much rain there, like, if especially if the car is you is really used. Are all the seals really good?

• 1:48:30Matt Farah?

  Hmm.

• 1:48:31Speaker 01

  You know, uh, or any of them cracking and then water seeping in somewhere? There's just a lot of like, risks, I guess.

• 1:48:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:37Speaker 01

  Always feel wrong.

• 1:48:38Matt Farah?

  And also the hu- yeah, the humidity and it's nasty, it's nasty. People so many people put a lot of chemicals on their bodies there, like lotions and things that end up like just all, it's just, it's just gross, like. There's forty-nine other states, just buy cars from the other states. That's just my rule. I I'm not telling you buy them from Florida, but you asked, so I don't buy cars from Florida, so. Jacking off the record, Tesla's Cybercabs are popping up in Miami. Uh, do you think two-seat taxis have a place in US cities like Rickshaw's or Tuk Tuk's in Asia, or do four-seat taxis still make the most sense? I saw a Cybercab in LA, actually. Small.

• 1:49:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:24Matt Farah?

  Um. I I haven't done math on this. I mean, of all the the the grifty, scammy shit Tesla has done, making the Cybercab a two-seater.

• 1:49:39Matt Farah?

  Is not high on the list of things they've done for me that's problematic. I mean, I'm sure somebody did some math.

• 1:49:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:49:47Matt Farah?

  And found that the vast majority of cab rides are two or less people. And maybe for some sort of efficiency reasons or packaging reasons or what the fuck ever reasons, they decided that the math is better on doing that.

• 1:50:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:50:02Matt Farah?

  Even a business like Tesla does do some things in good faith.

• 1:50:07Speaker 01

  And I agree, we speculated before about the whole like average, average passenger ride is one or two people. And then a side benefit, whether it's planned or not, is if there's a party of four and they're all going somewhere, they can take two, you know, cybercabs.

• 1:50:20Matt Farah?

  Maybe, yeah.

• 1:50:21Speaker 01

  And then Tesla gets double the revenue for this group.

• 1:50:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, Waymos go in the other way with, you know, their, their new vanny things that hold even more people, I think five people.

• 1:50:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:50:32Matt Farah?

  So if it was me, having, having done no actual research into the taxi business, just fucking on vibes, I would probably have vehicles that sat four people. Because why not? But like, you know, who knows? He's a trillionaire, he must be smarter, he must know the answer, he must know everything. Uh, she likes a choke to get started. First time ever yesterday, I got stranded on top of Mount Baker in Washington. The fuel pump died on my SC and I had to get towed 100 miles. Have you had to get a roadside tow?

• 1:51:08Speaker 01

  So many.

• 1:51:09Matt Farah?

  Oh, yes, I have.

• 1:51:10Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, are you kidding? I have a BMW.

• 1:51:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:11Speaker 01

  I didn't get towed in my Crown Vic.

• 1:51:12Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I've had, I've had two in the Countach. Uh, I had to do my own recovery in Pebble Beach when the Manx blew a fuse on me. Uh, yeah, I mean, many, many. My 328 died once, I forget why.

• 1:51:26Speaker 01

  Um, my car, my car gets towed somewhere at least once per year, for sure. I threw a helicoil, well, I threw a plug out of the Crown Vic up north of Santa Barbara, had to get towed like 130 miles to a place that could put a helicoil in it.

• 1:51:42Matt Farah?

  Threw the accessory drive belt off the vanquish doing a donut in the Grand Prix New York parking lot. Had to get towed to the dealer.

• 1:51:50Speaker 01

  I had to get flat towed with a friend in his RX-7 because we ran out of gas like cannonballing from Colorado to the Bay Area and then the engine blew up about a day later.

• 1:52:00Matt Farah?

  We had to get that Koenig Testerosa towed.

• 1:52:03Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:52:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Pro tip, if you call roadside assistance and they say, "Are you in a safe place?" And you say, "No," they show up fast as fuck. That's a pro tip from your boys here. Speed master, and then I have to go. Recently modified my ND Miata with a short final drive and it's now the most engaging street car I've ever driven with three shifts to get to 60. And sixth gear is so long that my highway miles per gallon is unchanged.

• 1:52:31Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 1:52:32Matt Farah?

  Other than your Spyder, what other cars could benefit from much shorter gears? So, there's not a lot of cars that could necessarily benefit from just a universal final drive change, right? A lot of times, you need to... cars can benefit from changing all but the top gear, for instance, or something like that, like my Spyder. Fox body Mustangs, we used to do the rear ends in all the time. Camaros, you know. Mustangs are currently available with multiple rear ends from the factory as an option. So, that's pretty cool.

• 1:53:08Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:53:08Matt Farah?

  Various trucks, and maybe a Crown Vic race car.

• 1:53:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:53:16Matt Farah?

  Probably.

• 1:53:16Speaker 01

  I put, when I did my Crown Vic, the LSD, I think I shortened the gears slightly. And I'm gonna do it in my car when I get my axle seals done.

• 1:53:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah. So, many, many cars can benefit from advantage in gear ratios. The Acura, the NSX, honestly, you can do a shorty gear set in the first gen NSX and it makes quite a difference. I have to interview some people right now, but thank you all for listening. We enjoy you. Thank you for your patrons, patronage, patrons and your good questions today. I'll let you have more details as soon as I have them on our Tactile Turn collab. Please, if you're gonna get our Blazer, get it in by August 6th. That's the limit for cutoff for orders. And, yeah, we'll see you next time. Bye.