Manual Swaps (and Drama); How Mustangs Get Expensive; Q&A

How in the heck do Mustang GTDs get priced over HALF a MILLION dollars? It's tricky. Matt Farah and Zack Klapman talk about the most expensive option on Ford's newest speed machine. They also discuss the Avant WagonFest at the Petersen Automotive Museum; why swapping the transmission on your cool Mercedes is the perfect upgrade; some strange goings on with a transmission shop; and answer questions from Patreon including: How do you talk someone out of getting the car they want? What's the strangest hypercar gimmick? Which concept car would we buy? Will crossovers eventually turn into wagons? Why not? Which car company will build the first "enthusiast" EV? Or has it already been done.... Is ceramic coat worth it? New WRX or used Civic Type R? Would the Ford Ranger SuperDuty work in the USA? You have unlimited money: which special car would you modify? Would an expensive, bespoke Miata sell in the USA? You're buying an Arial Atom. Manual transmission or sequential? Which car would you give the Mercedes "bouncy" suspension? And more! Recorded May 19, 2025 DeleteMe Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://www.joindeleteme.com/TIRE and use promo code TIRE at checkout. Car Gurus Buy or sell your next car today with Car Gurus at Car Gurus! Go to https://www.cargurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. New merch! Grab a shirt or hoodie and support us! https://thesmokingtireshop.com/ Want your question answered? To listen to the episode the day it's recorded? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! For a 10% discount on your first case go to https://www.offtherecord.com/TST #cars #comedy #podcast Tweet at us! https://www. Twitter.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Twitter.com/zackklapman Instagram: https://www. Instagram.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Instagram.com/therealzackklapman Click here for the most honest car reviews out there: https://www.youtube.com/thesmokingtire

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, your favorite automotive podcast. I am Matt Farah and today's episode is as always brought to you by Off the Record. We love Off the Record here. They are here for us and they are here for you. And I love when you guys tell me that Off the Record keeps points off your record. I don't have to tell you anymore. You guys are now telling me because you're using the thing left and right. Basically, if you get a ticket, you don't plead guilty. Step number one, don't plead guilty. That's for suckers and idiots. Then you get Off the Record. You go to offtherecord.com/tst and then Off the Record will ask you a few questions about what happened, why did you allegedly get pulled over, you sent in

• 0:42Matt Farah?

  a photo of the ticket. They will then fight that ticket for you. You don't do anything. They go to work in the background and then they get back to you later and they're like, "Hey, guess what? Dismissed." It's a beautiful system. OfftheRecord.com/tst. Don't be a sucker. You gotta get Off the Record. They are the clutch hookup when you're road tripping, when you're driving around, when you're commuting, when you're having a little fun, you need to know Off the Record's there for you and they are. OfftheRecord.com/tst. 10% off all legal services at Off the Record. All right, on this episode of the podcast, we are talking about Mustang GTD pricing.

• 1:25Matt Farah?

  We're talking about a return to gross vehicle weight that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. We got some information on that. We're talking about why I'm a little nervous about AI and how people could be persuaded to buy cars using AI chatbot fake friends. We're talking about racing school buses in Panama and something is happening down in Texas. It's the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go.

• 1:55Matt Farah?

  Well, it's Monday morning. Didn't really, I mean, this weekend was like, I don't know about you. For me, this weekend was a pretty slow-moving weekend.

• 2:03Speaker 01

  Really? But you did, you went to like, two car shows, didn't you?

• 2:06Matt Farah?

  Well, I went to Good Vibes on Friday. I guess Friday is also the weekend for some people. It's not the weekend for me, even though I go to a car show up on a mountain for half the day. Because I do spend the second half of the day, super stressed out at work, about getting things done before the weekday is over. That time between noon and 2:00 PM on Friday, very stressful for me. Because I stupidly go to Good Vibes. And, uh, and I really have to get emails and all kind of work shit done before like, 1:30, 2:00 PM on Friday, because otherwise, East Coast hours, it's lost into the fucking ether.

• 2:44Matt Farah?

  But because, and then, uh, I, uh, I didn't go, uh, I didn't go out on Saturday. Instead, it was raining. Hannah and I stayed in and did Lego Cat, uh, which is beautiful. I'll post pictures on Instagram. It's pretty sweet, actually. We were waiting for, to get the one of Cricket, sitting next to the Lego Cat that looks just like Cricket. Um, and we did go to Home Depot and get a little bit of spray paint, to selectively spray paint some of the pieces on the Cat to make it look more like Cricket.

• 3:13Speaker 01

  Oh, cool.

• 3:14Matt Farah?

  Like it's a tuxedo Cat, but we put Cricket-specific markings on it, which is fun, fun little project. And then, uh, Wagon Fest on Sunday. Uh, Adam and the guys at, you know, Avant's Magazine, they do a great job. Um, they put out a really nice magazine. And, uh, they keep inviting me to stuff. They put me on the poster, which I've got a bunch of them, but look at these. I got a big rack of Wagon Fest stickers with the Taycan on it. So, uh, I don't know, uh, how I'm gonna give these out. They probably gave me, they gave me this and then another stack of these.

• 3:48Speaker 01

  It's like 50.

• 3:49Matt Farah?

  This is probably 100. And, I don't know. You think that's 50? You wanna make it interesting?

• 3:55Speaker 01

  I think that is 32.

• 3:59Matt Farah?

  You think that's 32?

• 4:00Speaker 01

  I think that stack is 32.

• 4:01Matt Farah?

  Nah, it's a low enough number. I'm gonna count it live. I think this is more like 60.

• 4:08Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 4:09Matt Farah?

  Sorry, this is not gonna be riveting radio. Maybe we'll run it in fast forward.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  You can do that.

• 4:13Matt Farah?

  But listen, if you're listening to this podcast at not even 9:00 AM on a Monday, you're, you're trying to kill time, right? But here we go.

• 4:24Matt Farah?

  Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Wow. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, thirty. One, two.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 4:35Matt Farah?

  One, two, three, four. Eight, nine, forty. Three, four, five, six, seven, nine, fifty. Exactly fifty. Wow. These are, stickers are way thicker than you think they are. Okay, so I have a hundred of these stickers. And that was probably only about twenty-five seconds of wasted radio.

• 4:51Speaker 01

  No, that's not bad.

• 4:52Matt Farah?

  Counting. I can count pretty fast. I pride myself on it. I talk about it on dates, really. First dates, always.

• 4:58Speaker 01

  Sarah talks about my fast math, my server math. She's like, it's impressive.

• 5:02Matt Farah?

  You do server math?

• 5:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:03Matt Farah?

  What kind of server math are you talking about?

• 5:05Speaker 01

  I was a waiter for like nine years.

• 5:06Matt Farah?

  Oh, right. So, yeah.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  If someone's like, you know, what's?

• 5:09Matt Farah?

  Percentages.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  Forty-seven plus sixteen or something. I'm just like, and then just, yeah.

• 5:13Matt Farah?

  Like pot, like my dad?

• 5:14Speaker 01

  No, no, no. Not percentages of like annual return.

• 5:17Matt Farah?

  Interest rates, yeah.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  I can't do that.

• 5:19Matt Farah?

  He trained, he practiced that. If you can, if you can already do the four function, you could teach yourself the interest rates. There's a way to do it.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 5:27Matt Farah?

  That sounds like the kind of thing Sarah would do, though.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  Oh, she would train herself.

• 5:31Matt Farah?

  I'm surprised Sarah hasn't already trained herself to do that, by the way.

• 5:35Speaker 01

  It just isn't necessary for her survival. But if it is, I'll be fucked.

• 5:38Matt Farah?

  Frankly, I'm gonna consider her an underachiever if she doesn't. She doesn't. The way she talks about shit, I would not be the least bit surprised to see her next weekend and be like, you know, I taught myself to do interest rates in my head.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  But she like read a series seven trading book. She's like, I should learn this. I'm like, okay, it's just five hundred pages.

• 5:56Matt Farah?

  Just the kind of person that she is, and I respect that. I, very few things surprise me about her, and I mean that in a good way. She achieves at a high level. And like, just tries things that are very high level, like for funsies.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Right. That makes me feel very stupid.

• 6:13Matt Farah?

  Listen, I mean, I've been there.

• 6:17Matt Farah?

  I have definitely been there. Um, but yeah, anyway, Wagon Fest was fun. Um, obviously, it's lots of wagons and it's at the Peterson Museum and the Peterson Museum is great. It's the best, the best car museum, but it's it's a it's traditionally a terrible place to go to a car show, especially from where we live, because it's just like, wake up, turn on your car, drive into thirty minutes of shitty traffic on very bumpy roads and then park in the parking lot, and then do do it the other way. So to get to do it in my electric car was like a real, I was like, oh, this is living. This is absolutely living. But, um, wagons, so obviously heavily dominant Audis.

• 7:00Matt Farah?

  In fact, the entire, uh, if slightly inside baseball, the photos on my Instagram, the upper deck of the Peterson, um, parking garage, which is where Cars and Coffees and car shows happen, the roof is sort of a two-tiered. There's like the top roof and the top roof only covers half of the second level down roof. So it's levels three and four of the parking deck, but there's like it's part of it's open, part of it's covered. It's kind of nice, actually. Um, so the entire top level Audi RS or Audi RS6s.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 7:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah, there was probably like, I don't know.

• 7:35Speaker 01

  That's dozens.

• 7:36Matt Farah?

  Sixty.

• 7:37Speaker 01

  That spot, yeah.

• 7:37Matt Farah?

  No, I'm bad. Obviously, I'm bad. I count over.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  No, but look, look how long, I mean, that's fifteen cars down and there's multiple rows up top.

• 7:44Matt Farah?

  There was, yeah, there was definitely dozens of RS6s and many other Audi Avants as well, including a B5 RS4. Hola. And, uh, there was all your, um, all your boilerplate items, um, all of your E-Class wagon variants. Um, you can't, I didn't take a good picture of it, but right where the mouse is there, that's a row of about six CTSV wagons, uh, in a row. Um, you have a variety of

• 8:10Speaker 01

  Subi component, of course.

• 8:11Matt Farah?

  Subis, a variety of BMW wagons, your requisite Volvo 850R in yellow, uh, wagon, which you could spot out from anywhere, always a treat to see one of those, uh, Chevy Nomads, um, uh, Ferrari, uh, Ferrari Lusso.

• 8:27Speaker 01

  F1s and Lusso.

• 8:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's a good, that's a good one. Sport cross.

• 8:30Speaker 01

  I, or yeah, I, well, I S three hundred, but sport cross.

• 8:33Matt Farah?

  I saw a sport cross, fucking, like, as soon as I left my house, and turned onto the main road that's in front of my house, which is, I don't know, as far as the Peterson, eight, seven, eight miles.

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 8:44Matt Farah?

  From there, my house to Peterson. Soon as I turned onto the, the main road in front of my own house, I saw a sport cross, I went, he's going to Peterson. I see two of these a year.

• 8:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're very rare.

• 8:55Matt Farah?

  And so, and he was, I saw it, I saw.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  Followed him the whole way?

• 8:58Matt Farah?

  Saw him there, yeah. Uh, Datsun five tens, uh, there were some other Taycans, that Neptune blue in the top right of that photo, was on some big ass motherfucking rims, and, uh, it was big rims and it was on drop links too. And the homie who was driving it was very cool, and swore the ride wasn't ruined, and I didn't believe him for one fucking second. Everyone, everyone says, here's what everyone says, my customer, who lowered his Taycan on drop links, said the same shit. I go, how's the ride? He go, oh, it's fine, it never scrapes.

• 9:29Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:29Matt Farah?

  That's what they, they're, if it doesn't scrape, it's fine, not like, does it feel like driving on bump stops?

• 9:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, is it more comfortable, less comfortable?

• 9:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 9:39Speaker 01

  Does it feel like you're in a race car?

• 9:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and then I ride in the car, and I'm like, oh, fucking hell, no, absolutely, no, man, I mean, uh, like, no offense, if you wanna look, like, everything's a trade off, right? Everything's a trade off. So, maybe you don't have back problems and are comfortable with a luxury car that rides poorly.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  How old was the owner of this car?

• 9:59Matt Farah?

  Uh, give or, my age, give or take.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Usually, you know, the younger people are down for a little bit of gluttony, or sorry, punishment.

• 10:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  You know, and they're just, they'll deal with it, and then they turn thirty two, and they go, you know what, car's a little low.

• 10:11Matt Farah?

  I, I mean, it depends, it depends when and where you're driving, I mean, I don't know, I, I, I, not everybody values, like, having a great ride in a luxury car, I mean, there's, I, if you just look at the luxury cars that I store here. More of them ride poorly than ride well. I mean, even some, we have like two Brabus S-classes here on like huge rims and rubber band tires. Like, you know, whatever.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  That's been a problem since, I mean, what, the early 2000s?

• 10:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 10:41Speaker 01

  Like when rims just started growing and the tires had never, you know, they can't grow in proportion.

• 10:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  So you get thin tires.

• 10:47Matt Farah?

  I mean dude, and even like my Taycan, I went from 20s to 21s. And like, the car doesn't ride as well. Like, they're light, the wheels are lighter, the tires are a higher quality, the suspension is still stock, but the car does not ride as well. You know, that's what you do, that's what happens.

• 11:04Speaker 01

  It's a bummer, cause like, you know, music videos or photo shoots, I mean, the ads for wheels, especially in the 2000s, were very effective.

• 11:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 11:12Speaker 01

  Because damn, I mean, look at concept drawings, that's a perfect example. The tire is always one pencil line. For, for, for decades and decades, so like, that's the best look, is wheel fills tire well.

• 11:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I, I cannot argue with that. Like, if you look at my car compared to that other dude's car on big rims, and other ones I've seen on big rims, like, they look better. Like, the guy, the rims that inspired my rims that I saw in another Taycan, his were 22s. Like, he had the 22 version of what I've got, the 21. So like, I was never gonna look as cool as him, but like, I'm like, I gotta drive this thing in Los Angeles. Like, yeah, it's not just going from the garage to the show, it's going like, on that shitty road to the Peterson, like, just to do things.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  And most of these people also live in Los Angeles, that's the funny thing. You know, if they came from Nevada, Arizona, where the roads are usually smoother.

• 12:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 12:06Speaker 01

  Then I would get it, but if they're local.

• 12:08Matt Farah?

  Also, we, we went in the Peterson Museum, and I was, we were just talking about the Ford G290 on the show, and there it was, in the Peterson, parked next to the Chrysler ME412. And these are two of my favorite, uh, functional, running, concept vehicles of, of all time. Uh, right in my fucking wheelhouse. You got the Chrysler, when they were, um, Daimler Chrysler with Mercedes, and it's got a, a quad-turbo V12 in the back, uh, which is clearly the Mercedes V12. You can look in the, in the engine bonnet, and it's like, the intake runner is like literally the S600 intake runners. Which, hey, no problem, works good enough for fucking Pagani's. Matter of fact, that engine like...

• 12:52Matt Farah?

  It might be close to what like a Wira had, you know, ultimately. Uh, not with four turbos with two, but like this was like, they were almost ready to produce this fucking thing. The ME 412 and the GT 90, which is so awesome looking, uh, is also a quad turbo V12 and, um.

• 13:11Speaker 01

  Ford one looks like, it looks like NASA built the back half.

• 13:15Matt Farah?

  The lunar rover.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's like it tapers and the intakes are so aggressive. It's amazing. I remember the issue when like the magazine cover, when this Chrysler car came out and I was a kid and I went, what Chrysler's making a supercar? And I was totally for it because when you're a kid, you just want more supercars. But also I remember being confused seeing the badge on the front going, sure, but like, I see town and countries all over the place, you know, and sea brings and stuff like that. It was weird.

• 13:45Matt Farah?

  And the details of this car that made it to like the crossfire is the most inconsequential shit. Like the strikes on the hood on the front bonnet and the wheels.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  But look at, look at the size of the emblem on the front.

• 13:57Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  I mean, it, it covers half of the front bumper between the headlights. These look like Nissan 350Z headlights.

• 14:05Matt Farah?

  That's all handmade shit.

• 14:06Speaker 01

  I know, I mean, that was way, way before the 350Z, but shape wise, if you shrunk it about 30%, you put that on a Nissan.

• 14:14Matt Farah?

  Oh, I don't know if this was before the 350Z. I think the 350Z, I think this came out right around the time of the 350Z. Is it?

• 14:25Speaker 01

  Nissan 350Z came out.

• 14:27Matt Farah?

  That was like oh, four, oh, five?

• 14:29Speaker 01

  It was oh, two.

• 14:30Matt Farah?

  Oh, two. Yeah, I think this was, this was around that time. This was, this might've been later. When was, when, I think this might've been oh, four, oh, five, the ME 412. I don't know.

• 14:40Speaker 01

  I mean, these lights might be handmade, but they look.

• 14:43Matt Farah?

  But they look a lot like it. Really?

• 14:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, let me pull up this photo.

• 14:46Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 14:48Matt Farah?

  I really like the knockoff blue Hallibrand style wheels on the GT. Uh huh, those look pretty. Okay, so it's got that projector in pretty much the same space. Yeah, in the lower half. Click back.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  It doesn't have the LEDs on the top. It's larger.

• 15:05Matt Farah?

  No, I think the projector protrudes a little bit. No, it doesn't.

• 15:10Speaker 01

  No, it didn't. But this is.

• 15:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's pretty close. They might have started with the 350Z housing and then cut part out of it or something.

• 15:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is longer on the Chrysler.

• 15:21Matt Farah?

  But good, I mean, that's a fucking spot though, Zach. That's like, I mean, that's a detail that I may not have spotted that one. That's a good, and I didn't for 20 years. Did you find out what year it came from though? That's why we started down that rabbit hole.

• 15:35Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 15:36Matt Farah?

  Which came first. Was it even plausible that they stole the Z's headlights? And I think it was. I think it was, this concept car was shown in like 05, 06 maybe.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  Produced in 2004.

• 15:50Matt Farah?

  Oh, it was so.

• 15:51Speaker 01

  The Z was before it.

• 15:52Matt Farah?

  Hmm, so the myth is not busted.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  Oh man, when you see the front shot of this, these headlights, these headlights are gigantic. Yeah, they.

• 16:00Matt Farah?

  Oh yeah, big ones.

• 16:01Speaker 01

  Those are huge. Okay.

• 16:03Matt Farah?

  Wow, everything in this photo fucking rules. This is the concept lawn of Pebble Beach from what I guess would have been 04.

• 16:10Speaker 01

  So yeah.

• 16:10Matt Farah?

  So you've got a spiker behind it. I don't know what that thing is over there that looks like an interpretation of a shit. I don't know. It's a, it looks like something like similar to that Jaguar. Turbine concept, but it has weird like 80's style strakes on the side of it.

• 16:29Speaker 01

  These strakes are odd. The headlights look a bit like Tesla, but then you got like a Bugatti nose or a Bugatti intake here. That's a weird looking car.

• 16:37Matt Farah?

  And then there's, there's like a Bentley in front of it that would have just been like the current Bentley at that time.

• 16:44Speaker 01

  Like someone just parked there and got out and they were like, oh, don't, that's Clint, that's Clint Eastwood's car.

• 16:49Matt Farah?

  It's the Rodney Dangerfield, park it, park it for me, would you? Sir, this is the concept lawn. Yeah, whatever, you know, make it a parking lot.

• 16:59Speaker 01

  Here's the concept.

• 17:03Matt Farah?

  Uh, yeah, they should have made that. Yep, should have made that. Um, Ford should have made the fucking GT92, that was sick. And if you've ever seen a Ford GT, like an 04, 06 Ford GT on those GT90 wheels.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:20Matt Farah?

  Like, like.

• 17:21Speaker 01

  Are these actual center caps?

• 17:23Matt Farah?

  They're, I don't think they're real knockoffs. Um, I don't, it would have been dumb to make real knockoffs like that. They could be a center lock wheel that just has a decorative knockoff style flair.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  Right, maybe.

• 17:35Matt Farah?

  I mean, it was a fucking concept car, but, uh, you, those Hallibrand style wheels look pretty cool on a modern Ford GT. I've seen it a couple of times. I forgot who, forget who made them, but they were badass. Um, wow, we got so many minutes of radio out of that. Um, okay, a couple of like important things, though. Folks, gotta take a break from the action because today's episode is brought to you by CarGurus. Making a big car purchase should come with confidence, not confusion. And CarGurus helps you cut through the noise, showing you the best deals and in-depth vehicle details so you can feel confident about your purchase. When it comes to your big deal, you deserve the best deal.

• 18:19Matt Farah?

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• 19:04Matt Farah?

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• 21:57Matt Farah?

  at checkout. And now, back to the show. Uh, one, so, this, I, I don't know what to make of this, but I sent you the text over the weekend. We talked a couple of weeks ago, because someone asked, that was, was that the pro show that we had talked about, EAG, a couple of weeks ago, or was that the public show? I think it was the public show.

• 22:18Speaker 01

  I think so, because, yeah, the pro show was two days ago.

• 22:20Matt Farah?

  Someone asked about the shop that was doing manual swaps in, in Texas, and what, like, my quote beef was, or whatever with them. And the answer was, like, the, the owner got forced out for, like, scamming people, basically. That, and, and the last I had heard was they were under new, total new management, and everything was okay now.

• 22:38Speaker 01

  And to, to be more specific about scamming, wasn't, weren't they, they had a lot of deposits for cars?

• 22:43Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  But they weren't producing the cars as quickly as they needed to.

• 22:46Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 22:47Speaker 01

  And there was a lot of money being spent on other things.

• 22:50Matt Farah?

  Things that weren't getting cars done.

• 22:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:52Matt Farah?

  Yes. That was the accusation that was, you know, I don't, I don't know, you know, we don't, I don't want to get in a legal situation, but that, that was the accusation. And the guy, whose name was Art, was forced out of the company. That was the last I heard of it. Okay? And for, and I don't, I don't know why, because I never followed them before on Instagram, but as I'm scrolling Instagram yesterday, I see a, a video that comes, a reel that comes through from This E A G and there's art and he's in it. And he's getting into one of their like a proto a car there there's like a development and it's for a Maserati Gran Turismo.

• 23:36Matt Farah?

  And like there he is getting in the car and like driving it off and I'm like. Well, I thought this dude was out like what the fuck? And I go to their Instagram page and there's like a couple of recent videos and like. Cause I you know, this was I don't know a year ago or so and I stopped thinking about it because I why do I care? But because people keep asking me about it.

• 23:59Matt Farah?

  And this just showed up and I was like, so I stopped thinking about it for a long time, but now I go and it looks like the last couple of months. This dude is like all up in their Instagram again. I don't know what the fuck is going on down there, but like. I don't know, I just like. The last thing I said a couple of weeks ago, we talked about this and I said the guy was gone and so he's clearly not gone. So I don't know if like if it was gone or back, I don't know if he's. I don't know if they gave him the food and beverage job, you know?

• 24:30Speaker 01

  He's not running the company, he's hosting a a late night show, he's not running the casino anymore. From casino, it's I want to add to everything we said before is allegedly, yeah, exactly.

• 24:40Matt Farah?

  No, well, there's no allegedly, it's him in the fucking videos.

• 24:43Speaker 01

  Not that, I meant what he what they were accused of, what he was accused of.

• 24:46Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, and by a lot of people and it was all over, you know, it was it was it was a real thing. It was not maybe, I don't know if if the the offenses were. Uh, if he was held criminally liable or if there were, I know there was multiple civil actions against this person, but um. But anyway. You know, there were a lot of people who were very angry about cars that were sitting down there for a very long time and and. Somebody was living quite an expensive lifestyle.

• 25:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:17Matt Farah?

  And the work wasn't getting done and so anyway. This dude is now back in their Instagram videos, so make of that what you will. He might be running the fucking food and beverage job, but I doubt it.

• 25:30Speaker 01

  Maybe he's now their head tech, because they they realize like, you're good at putting the transmissions in the cars.

• 25:35Matt Farah?

  He wasn't, he never did. No, no, he never did that. He was, he he always had other people doing the mechanical work. And I'm not saying he had no know-how, but when I met him and ever every time since, he was the business owner, he was not a wrench.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 25:48Matt Farah?

  And he's not wrenching in this. He's he's demonstrating in social media. He's wearing like the the glasses, the the meta glasses. And like driving like stick shift prototypes around. Uh but you could tell it's him. Because he has the tiniest, skinniest legs and arms, like he looks like he's going to just turn to dust. And his face is like gaunt, like a fucking Holocaust survivor. And you you see his face, you go, I can't, I can't miss that guy.

• 26:15Speaker 01

  Wow, okay.

• 26:16Matt Farah?

  I'm not trying to like make a thing of it, but like that dude's back at that company, so I'm just saying.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  Feel like situations like this, everything will reveal itself in in due time.

• 26:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I I don't know what the deal is, but like, but because manual swaps are now like a thing that people our age are using to get the car we want, actually. It's like a like, then like, I get emails, like, did you see there's on on Bring a Trailer right now is a CLK Black Series with a manual swap. Uh there's a guy who hit me up uh in email who is going to bring us, I believe, an SL uh fifty-five with a manual swap done using uh mostly factory parts. I mean, the I manual swapping early two thousands AMG cars is a very good idea. Because all of those cars are fabulous drivers' cars.

• 27:13Matt Farah?

  If you can get past the transmission or change the transmission, which is awful. Um I drove like an average quality one that was a complete game changer like ten years ago, and I've never forgot it. And so when you start talking about all of those, you know, automatic Porsches, automatic BMWs, automatic Mercedes that become options. Yeah, this thing's already up to 100 grand. And it's a high-mile relatively car, 28,000 miles, which is not a lot for a Mercedes, but it's a lot for a black series.

• 27:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I think, I don't know if the previous generation, the one before us, was not into swaps, or maybe parts availability made it impossible, or technology made it impossible. But our generation seems more focused on how does it drive? And how can we optimize the fun of this thing?

• 28:02Matt Farah?

  I think there's a certain, I don't know if it's generational. I think there is a certain contingency of people who mainly, you know, investment-concerned collectors, who want a car that's perfectly original and would not be happy with a swap. And I think there's other people who go, I don't want the, I can't afford, you know, that, the manual 430? But man, this fucking high-mileage paddle car is like 90 grand. And the swap is 25, and like, man, 115 grand for a manual Ferrari mid-engine? Like, I could, I could swing that, you know, so.

• 28:44Speaker 01

  But also, this, swaps like this, like this CLK and other cars, like you said, I mean, you're taking the one real negative about, there were so many cars that came out in that era that were like, wow, these are amazing. I love this, the engine and the handling and the brakes, and the steering feel, and the styling, and all the da-da-da. And you're like, oh, but shifting it and driving it makes it feel like it was made in 1984. And it's so much worse than these other cars that were offered with manuals from their competitors. But if you can change that one thing.

• 29:13Matt Farah?

  Learn that. 2014, vanquish.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  Right.

• 29:16Matt Farah?

  We were there. We were, we were as usual with everything else, way ahead of the fucking curve on this shit. But I think this car with a manual would probably be a really good time. And it's, if you can find a car that's not, you know, super-low-mile Pebble Beach investor grade.

• 29:30Matt Farah?

  Um, the twenty eight thousand miles on a Mercedes is not a lot. So this car is still gonna be in. I mean, I'm not endorsing this car, but a twenty eight thousand mile black series will not be a piece of shit. In the way that, you know, there's certain cars that couldn't keep up with that kind of mileage, so.

• 29:48Speaker 01

  Right.

• 29:49Matt Farah?

  Shifter knob looks nice. The the center console looks nice. Yeah. I bet this.

• 29:54Speaker 01

  That's very tidy.

• 29:55Matt Farah?

  I bet that's a fucking good time. Someone gets one of these in LA, get at me. I'd like to, I'd like to try it. And like, honestly, even that fucking video with, uh, you know, what's his name down in Texas, driving the Maserati Gran Turismo? I was, I was even, you know, despite his, whatever I think about this guy personally, I was sort of like, oh, manual transmission Maserati Gran Turismo is pretty sweet.

• 30:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:19Matt Farah?

  Can't hate on the concept.

• 30:21Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 30:21Matt Farah?

  You know, like, that sounds pretty awesome, actually, because those are cheap, cheap, cheap.

• 30:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, they sound great.

• 30:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, those are cheap enough where you genuinely wonder if, you know, even if the manual swap's like ten, twelve grand, it might not be worth it if the car's thirty.

• 30:37Speaker 01

  It, it probably won't be from an investment point. You need to be, I think, wealthy enough where you don't give a shit about that. And you're like, I'm gonna have a good time.

• 30:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 30:44Speaker 01

  That's for a very specific.

• 30:45Matt Farah?

  But if you're doing that, you're not buying a used Maserati Gran Turismo.

• 30:49Speaker 01

  Two people will, you know, two people, it's like.

• 30:52Matt Farah?

  If you're doing that, you're doing, doing it with a Ferrari five nine nine, not a Maserati Gran Turismo.

• 30:57Speaker 01

  Well, how much does a five nine nine cost? Hundred thousand dollars.

• 31:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but you're talking about rich people shit.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, but, but there's a difference.

• 31:03Matt Farah?

  That's a lot of money to us, not to like, rich people.

• 31:05Speaker 01

  No, but I'm saying if someone, someone might not be able to afford five nine nine plus conversion, but they can afford Gran Turismo.

• 31:11Matt Farah?

  Oh, sure. Yeah.

• 31:12Speaker 01

  That's, that's what I mean.

• 31:13Matt Farah?

  Yeah, no, I just like, it's to me, uh, uh, look, I've, I've spent more money on cars than the car was worth several times in my life, so I'm gonna not throw too many stones in the glass house. But if a used Maserati is thirty and it's fifteen to swap it, that's a, that's a tough proposition.

• 31:31Speaker 01

  It is. It, the math is not great for anything other than you're having a good time. And then ten years later, you go, ooh, that, I kinda lit that money on fire, didn't I? But you'd have fun.

• 31:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And it would be, I mean, it would be like objectively better than the car was before. So if that's your dream, that's cool. I know a guy whose dream is a Maserati Gran Turismo. He's a lovely guy, and he could afford twelve Maserati Gran Turismos, and that's what he likes. He lost one in the hurricane in Naples.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 32:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I mean, is there a better Naples car?

• 32:03Speaker 01

  I was gonna say, like, that's where they all are.

• 32:05Matt Farah?

  That is a. Cote de Napoli.

• 32:07Speaker 01

  That's a good, that's a good car.

• 32:08Matt Farah?

  That's a Naples car, yeah. His pedals look good in his black series, that's alright.

• 32:12Speaker 01

  The spacing looks good, that's why I wanted to look at that picture.

• 32:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 32:16Matt Farah?

  So, we got, I got an email from somebody who was... Because we talked about the collector that I knew who priced out a Mustang GTD.

• 32:25Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:25Matt Farah?

  And said it started with a six.

• 32:28Matt Farah?

  Several people took that... We didn't make a clip of that, but several people took what I said and turned it either into clips or to, uh, in Instagram reels and shit, which we do not get paid for. Doesn't even, doesn't even really get linked back to us, it's just, it's pure theft. Doesn't help us in any way. Uh, or turned it into like pieces, like someone for, I think, the drive turned it into like a story, which is okay, and I appreciate them listening to the show. But someone got mad.

• 32:59Matt Farah?

  Because they thought that what this collector said to me is a mischaracterization

• 33:07Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 33:08Matt Farah?

  of the pricing of the car, and to prove it, they sent me the pricing of the car.

• 33:13Matt Farah?

  And, this is, this is pretty exact. Uh, and, uh... So, I, uh, he said, "It is possible to get a car that starts with a six." "You have to do that stupid thing that people do on the Porsche configurator, where you just, you try to check as many boxes as possible." So like, um, I'll skip, there, the, uh, base car, 322. Carbon car, 365.

• 33:41Matt Farah?

  Uh, black roof is free, body color, 5Gs, carbon, 10Gs. Performance pack, 46,000.

• 33:49Matt Farah?

  Or 40,000 if you've already got a carbon car. Uh, stripes, 5 to 15,000, depending on color. Uh, interior titanium package, 10Gs. Car cover, 1,000 bucks. Tow hook, 5 hundy. Uh, painted calipers, 2,500. Black is included, painted, uh, other colors. Custom paint, 20K, stage 1, 25K, stage 2, 55K, stage 3, plus 5 if you want the roof painted that color as well.

• 34:20Matt Farah?

  Color lockout to make ensure your color is the only one is 25. GTD graphic on the rear wing 750 mirror caps in carbon 2500. I I based on that built my my GTD and I got to 442. Uh, you have to go pretty. I mean, you have to get, I mean, if you check all of this shit, it does get to six. But you have to check all of it.

• 34:47Speaker 01

  You need like especially paint. It sounds like you could do a three-stage paint and lock it out. And that can be in on the roof and that could be like $80,000 just for paint.

• 34:55Matt Farah?

  Right. So 60, it would be 85 if you want a full stage three custom paint with lockout. And then 86 if you want the GTD graphic and then you can add 15K and get to 101,000 if you do some crazy stripe also. 15,000. So, you know.

• 35:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah. So like, but it's like the GT3RS. It's the same thing. Like you can make a GT3RS start with a six. Our friend's car did.

• 35:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:28Matt Farah?

  But you have to try.

• 35:30Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 35:30Matt Farah?

  Hard as fuck.

• 35:31Speaker 01

  You have to get special phone numbers for people that are in the, you know, special wishes and you have to come up with the ideas to make. You need to have special wishes.

• 35:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah. You have to try really hard to get a GT3RS at MSRP to start with a number like that.

• 35:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:46Matt Farah?

  And you have to like know people. Uh, in this, maybe you don't have to know people. I mean, it seems you kind of have to know somebody to get a GTD at all. But you gotta, you gotta go ham. Ham.

• 35:57Speaker 01

  Did you, were you able to get one to a six just by?

• 35:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah. If you check everything.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 36:01Matt Farah?

  It's, it's, it's like 60 something.

• 36:03Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 36:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 36:04Speaker 01

  So I, I guess then we should clarify because when we were discussing it, it seemed like the, you know, the markup was insane or like the car was being priced higher than we originally thought it was, but it's just you have to tick every single option.

• 36:16Matt Farah?

  Just that the, this person said, what, you know, there, there's and, and I did, you know who the person is. That makes sense.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 36:25Matt Farah?

  Doesn't it?

• 36:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:25Matt Farah?

  We know the, we know the person and. Them saying, "Give me one with everything."

• 36:31Speaker 01

  Right.

• 36:32Matt Farah?

  Is fully on-brand. So, um, okay. I would skip a lot of stuff here.

• 36:40Speaker 01

  Right, was there anything in that category of, or anything that gets it to a six that you liked? You know, you built one, did you build the restrained one?

• 36:49Matt Farah?

  Oh, you want to know what I built? I'll tell you what mine was. Mine is a carbon, body-colored roof, performance pack, with a stage-one color, roof matched, and a car cover. That's it. Yeah. Do you want to do one?

• 37:09Speaker 01

  Uh, what is that?

• 37:11Matt Farah?

  That's a different thing, but I'll do the math if you want to.

• 37:15Speaker 01

  I don't want to do it live, because I want to look at, like, I don't know what the titanium interior option is, but since we're in Magic Money Land, like, do I want that or not? I don't know. I needed to take a look at it, I guess I could pull up a photo.

• 37:26Matt Farah?

  It's probably like a titanium roll cage instead of a, you know, a stainless one, maybe, or something like that?

• 37:31Speaker 01

  That's kind of cool.

• 37:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah. But, point being, and point taken, you have to try to get into that. You sort of end up with a silly speck car. I mean, it'll probably look cool. Now, I will say that there is an, if you're a heavy bike collector, there could be an argument to be made for the color. Long-term, shit that's painted a super-custom, one-of-one, provable, sunderwich, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, comes-with-a-blowjob kind of color, you might get your money back on something like that down the road.

• 38:11Speaker 01

  But your taste needs to be the taste of many.

• 38:15Matt Farah?

  Well, that's the thing, it has to be that. You have to get a custom color that also would have really mass appeal.

• 38:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 38:22Speaker 01

  And I think that's really challenging, because Ford knows that the mass-appeal colors should be available to more people. Like, the colors they're famous for, or the things that are more popular, they're going to make more than one of those. I mean, to choose a one-of-one color that hasn't been thought of, but the masses love, and, sorry, the masses, like, the masses love it, and then the population of people that can afford this car at second-hand also love it, that's tough.

• 38:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh, and the way I interpret stage one, two, and three is stage one is the equivalent of a Porsche paint to sample where it's an extended palette. Um, and stage two is gonna be the same extended palette, but some, some extra, either extra metallic or some other, cause it's only, it's a $5,000 difference, 25% more. So that's just like either a further extended palette, or like metallic versions of other colors or something like that. And then the 55 is gonna be color matched. You bring us a chip.

• 39:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 39:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And possibly, there might even be another level where, you know, um, like, like Bo's car, for instance, where he invents a Mystic Chrome type color. And fuck me, let me tell you something, here's where it could be worth it. If you can lock out Mystic Chrome. That's, like, there are a couple of colors. There's a couple of Ford heritage colors from the Mustang back catalog, and if you can lock out those specific colors, that would be worth it.

• 39:52Speaker 01

  I would hope that Ford would have that color in one of the public facing stages.

• 39:57Matt Farah?

  No, it's a really hard color to paint. The paint itself is super expensive.

• 40:00Speaker 01

  Sure, but maybe.

• 40:01Matt Farah?

  Maybe that's the 25. Maybe that's the 25.

• 40:03Speaker 01

  That's what I'm saying. Like, I, I hope that that's not, they're not just waiting for one person to make the phone call, cause it's, it's pretty awesome.

• 40:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah. But if you could, if you could lock that out on the GTD, they, I doubt they'd let you because it would probably disappoint too many people. Um, you probably have to bring in the color yourself. Like, you, you can't lock out, you know, you can't lock out a stage, a, a color from PTS. It's like, here's a chip, nobody else. That's how you probably, you can't. But that's, I could see that being, that would be an amazing investment.

• 40:36Speaker 01

  Now, what would be cool is if you said, alright, make me a Mystic Chrome, but instead of, you know, purple being like, let's call it the base color, just for simplicity, cause that's what it looks like. Uh, if you're like, British racing green as the base, but it's Mystic Green.

• 40:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, well, Porsche has, uh, I believe four Mystic colors, or they don't call it that. Um, Jesus, what do they call it? Can you look up what the Porsche? Color shifting paints are, um, they're a hundred grand. And they have, there's different bases. Bo, Bo came up with his own, which is purple. And that's the Bowberry.

• 41:13Speaker 01

  This one is called celestial jade sunderwush?

• 41:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, that. That one, I've seen that one in person, actually. It was at the Audrain. No, the one at the Audrain was like, the bamboo, uh, metallic sunderwush, something, something. And it was, bonninos! It was the highest MSRP of a GT3 RS I'd ever seen. Previous generation, and it started, I think, I, I think with a seven. The guy showed it to me. I think it was a seven.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  Urban bamboo?

• 41:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah, urban bamboo. Yeah, yeah. It, it, I don't, I don't think pictures will, so I saw it on GT3 RS, but that is the color. And, uh...

• 41:58Speaker 01

  You need a walk-around video, really?

• 42:00Matt Farah?

  Oh, the other, it's chroma flare. That's the fucking name. So python green, magic magenta, shifting carbon, and explosive gold. But urban bamboo, um, is what I saw on the GT3 RS, and it was b-shitty. That's not even a word. Batshit. I tried, I tried, yeah, I tried to, I think batshit became one word. Uh, so we should put that on a t-shirt. If you Google GT3 RS urban bamboo, you will get the, the one car. I think it's the only car that has it. And the, cause it has a full white, white leather interior. It's fucking insane.

• 42:34Speaker 01

  That's nuts, cause I found a GT2 that's in chroma flare.

• 42:37Matt Farah?

  Oh, maybe it was a GT2 RS.

• 42:40Speaker 01

  Oh, it is a white, well, it's a whitish interior.

• 42:42Matt Farah?

  It might have been a GT2 RS and not a GT3 RS. I'm sorry.

• 42:47Speaker 01

  Cause if you're going to invent a color, you should have the most expensive car.

• 42:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's it. Yeah, it was a GT2 RS. I apologize. That's how you get to a fucking seven. But yeah, the chroma flare, uh, urban bamboo with the white leather on the bucket. Is there an interior photo of this thing? Scroll it out. It's fucking nuts. It's got all these signatures on the underside of the bonnet.

• 43:12Matt Farah?

  The guy, at the time, look, it's got a white trunk, a white leather trunk. The guy said this was the most option GT2 RS ever. I mean, he was the owner of the car, so... But like, if you look at it, like, it's possible. I mean, it had the silliest stuff I've ever seen on a car like that. There it is, there it is, look. It's white leather with, uh, with, uh, houndstooth inserts, white steering wheel rim, white dash lower, black dash upper, white rocker panels.

• 43:46Matt Farah?

  It is fucking crazy. I don't think the interior looks good.

• 43:50Speaker 01

  I don't think it does either. And this is the thing of like, if you do a lockout color and you, you're like, this is the most expensive GT2 RS ever, you need most people to go, "That is amazing."

• 44:01Matt Farah?

  I think I would have made some different decisions on the inside. The outside, I think, is quite beautiful. That chroma flare paint with the gold wheels, I think, looks great.

• 44:08Speaker 01

  It's very cool, but I don't think that the white pairs with those exterior colors. Not even that, like, I don't like... White interior is, is difficult to maintain if you sit in it, ever, but I think it just looks weird. It's very harsh, it's a very sharp white inside.

• 44:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 44:23Speaker 01

  And the outside has like gold wheels, there's some gold in the paint.

• 44:25Matt Farah?

  You know what? If that interior was a cream, it would crush. I honestly, not, maybe not the steering wheel, but if the, if the leather bits, the other leather bits were a nice cream, it could look fabulous, but that white jarring is the right word.

• 44:40Speaker 01

  This is paper white. That's what this is. This is, this is office smack.

• 44:44Matt Farah?

  It's the movie Belly. Remember Belly?

• 44:46Speaker 01

  No.

• 44:47Matt Farah?

  It's, it's, the entire aesthetic of the movie is that. It's tough to watch.

• 44:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, cream is great because, uh, when more light is hitting this paint, it is a more cream gold color. And then when it's in the shade, it actually turns to like a jade aqua. That's pretty rad.

• 45:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, well... So, those are a hundred thousand dollars, those paint, those paint colors.

• 45:07Speaker 01

  That's, what a crazy sentence, but, you know.

• 45:11Speaker 01

  I understand, like, like, hot rods can get $50,000, $100,000 paint jobs.

• 45:15Matt Farah?

  That shit ain't painted at the factory. I mean, that's, that's a, that's done like you would do a hot rod.

• 45:20Speaker 01

  And when I was searching for this car, I found the company that makes that paint. Like, it's, you know, someone had to invent the color shifting technology. And then, you know, you have to shoot it perfectly.

• 45:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 45:31Speaker 01

  And maybe more than once.

• 45:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah. The, uh, yeah. Shout out to the homie Bo who got Bowberry Metallic, which is, he invented a chroma flare paint. Rules. Um, did you see the email from our pal about David Twig about the, about gross vehicle weight?

• 45:50Speaker 01

  No, I, I thought you were gonna say the Panama thing. Um, I did not see the one about gross vehicle weight, so.

• 45:54Matt Farah?

  Oh, well, we can talk about, so, in, uh, like, 12 years ago, uh, Zach and I and Tom and Thad went to Panama. And, and we did an episode for what was actually, it wasn't the smoking tire, it was for Drive, and it's still there. And, uh, we went to Panama, the country, not the city in Florida. Um, I should say the city in the country.

• 46:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, uh, yeah, we went to Panama City, Panama. We've also been to Panama City, Florida. Very different experience, yeah.

• 46:20Matt Farah?

  Panama City, Panama's better. Um, and, uh, and our plans completely fell apart as soon as we got there. And so we made this film about trying to figure out what to film. And actually, I think it's one of the better things we've kind of ever done. It was like, really, really well made. And we ended up finding these guys who raced these school buses on the highway, and it was scary as hell. But earlier in the video, we look for this drug lord's racetrack that was abandoned in the woods. And we sort of find it, or what's left of it, the grandstands. Well, in the, however many years since then, that track has been reopened and is now a track.

• 47:01Matt Farah?

  And the AP has a photo story, they're now racing the school buses at the track.

• 47:06Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 47:07Matt Farah?

  Uh, which is awesome.

• 47:09Speaker 01

  Quarter mile instead of rolling.

• 47:10Matt Farah?

  So it's sanctioned. They actually have like sanctioned school bus racing at a real motorsport facility. And one of my clients here at the shop um is from Panama City and has an awesome fucking car. And has, you know, invited us to come back to Panama and and do some more things uh and see what's happening. And when we were there last time, there was so much construction and development. I was like, man, we do have to come back and when all this is like completed and see like what's going on. And uh I flew through Panama City twice in the last eighteen months.

• 47:42Speaker 01

  Really?

• 47:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so I've only been in the airport. I hadn't hadn't left the airport. Uh, when my dad and I went to South America.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  Oh, right. I was like, what press launch was in?

• 47:51Matt Farah?

  No, no, no. Well, I did uh once with South America and then once when I went to, I can't fucking remember. It doesn't really matter, but um um it does look like a much more modern and developed city, even as you're just flying into and and out of it. And so I'm, I really would like to go back. Do you think maybe like, it's like, we could do like a Patreon thing where like?

• 48:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:15Matt Farah?

  We do like a special film for the patrons if we raise a couple thousand bucks to to go down there?

• 48:21Speaker 01

  The A Y G move.

• 48:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah. If we get to, I don't know, whatever it, if we could raise, I don't know, let's say maybe like six thousand, seven thousand dollars. We could maybe kick in for the rest personally and have a have a a car adventure, catch up with some of our old people.

• 48:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, find you well.

• 48:38Matt Farah?

  Some new people. Now there's a track there. We could do some other things. Uh, apparently my, yeah, Autodromo Panama, that's it. Recognize the grandstand? The grandstand on the right is the grandstand that was there before that was left. We were up on that hill behind this photograph, on the road, eating uh arepas.

• 48:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:58Matt Farah?

  Contemplating what to do and looking down on this racetrack.

• 49:00Speaker 01

  It was all covered in like grass. Like I think the dirt was cut, but there was just grass growing through everything and cracked pavement and shit.

• 49:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And now there's uh now there's racing there.

• 49:09Speaker 01

  Cool.

• 49:10Matt Farah?

  So I'd like to go back to Panama.

• 49:15Matt Farah?

  I was, um, oh, well, we do have, we do have an update from our friend David Tuig about how gross vehicle weight is calculated. So we can, I can literally talk about that, or I can sort of read his email, but it's like a thousand words or so on gross vehicle weight. Do we want to do that? Or do we want me to talk to you about why I'm, why Mark Zuckerberg's saying AI therapy and AI friends are really bad?

• 49:45Speaker 01

  Well, that one kind of explains itself.

• 49:48Matt Farah?

  But it relates to cars. This is a great quote I read.

• 49:51Speaker 01

  What a terrible idea.

• 49:52Matt Farah?

  From, uh, from a site, uh, one of the newsletters that I read criticizing, um, you know, technology. Um, what he's not saying is that those AI friends will seem like real people. Your years-long friendship will culminate when they convince you to buy a very specific truck. Suddenly, they'll blink out of existence, having delivered a conversion to the company who spent $3.47 to fund their life.

• 50:24Speaker 01

  Oh, so the AI will nudge you towards purchasing something?

• 50:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah, cuz like right now, AI is just roasting through money.

• 50:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:33Matt Farah?

  Well, how are they gonna make it back? Well, how does Mark Zuckerberg know how to make money? You are the product.

• 50:38Speaker 01

  Right.

• 50:39Matt Farah?

  So, so, you know, this AI chatbot that slowly over time, you really start to feel like is a friend cuz you're lonely, you're gonna ask, you're gonna talk to it about stuff that, you know, they might be able to nudge you in a way that someone has, has paid them to nudge you. Now, we've talked about it in terms of self-driving cars, but an AI chatbot to a lonely person is even easier, way easier.

• 51:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, very true. I mean, there's been problems, there's plenty of stories out there of like, you know, a guy falling in love with the AI chatbot. A young man, unfortunately, unlifed himself last year, and that was a big story. This article on futurism.com, and I saw this stat going- Around, but basically less than, I think it was like forty four percent of CEOs who responded said that they were realizing value from their AI investments. So half or not.

• 51:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 51:31Speaker 01

  So there's, so like to your point, they're spending a lot of money on AI. It might not be working for their company or whatever their objective is. A way to make up that delta.

• 51:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 51:41Speaker 01

  Is have the AI try to sell you shit.

• 51:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and, and, and if it's a, if it's a, if it's just a chat, a computer program, right? Or a series of computer programs, whatever. If it's a chatbot.

• 51:52Speaker 01

  Series of tubes. Such an old joke.

• 51:54Matt Farah?

  Like, why, rather than, you know, Ford, to use an example, paying, you know, five cents a click. Why wouldn't they pay five dollars that, so that an automated thing would over, would slow roll a sales pitch into a friendship to you.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 52:14Matt Farah?

  Over six months. I mean, that's, that's fucked some fucking dystopian ass.

• 52:18Speaker 01

  Well, if you mix, like right now, if you go on ChatGPT and you say, hey, give me, give me a list of the top, you know, three quarter ton trucks made in the United States.

• 52:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 52:27Speaker 01

  And which one is the best that I should buy for this and this and this. And right now, you know, it pulls from the entire internet and whatever, and it'll spit out an idea. But a car company could say, hey, like the way they influence Google search results.

• 52:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 52:41Speaker 01

  Let's influence this so it says that the best one is blah, blah, blah.

• 52:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 52:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:45Matt Farah?

  And like, just apply that to everything. Just.

• 52:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, AI therapist, that's very dangerous.

• 52:52Matt Farah?

  Well, for sure.

• 52:53Speaker 01

  The nudging is very dangerous.

• 52:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah, there's, and, and the, you're telling me these people are going to resist the opportunity through ethics? For a company to pay them to fucking have their chatbots steer you to something?

• 53:07Speaker 01

  I, I saw a, a post last week about Grok and how it's trying to talk about this South African immigration thing. And, and this person screen grabbed, like, first they asked about the South African immigration thing. And so it spit out, you know, this, this answer that had a very subtle direction. But then this person asked about something unrelated and Grok added the South African story to the answer. The answer, the question had nothing to do with South Africa at all.

• 53:35Matt Farah?

  I recommend Gabby's for hummus around the corner.

• 53:38Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 53:38Matt Farah?

  And while you're walking there, maybe consider white genocide.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  That was really, it was so out of left field. So not the subtlest program.

• 53:46Matt Farah?

  I'd call that right field, my friend. Far right, far right field.

• 53:52Matt Farah?

  Um, yeah, it's, uh, it's all bad.

• 53:56Speaker 01

  Just pay therapists.

• 53:57Matt Farah?

  And just, please.

• 53:58Speaker 01

  Billionaires pay taxes, then we can pay therapists, socialized medicine, et cetera, et cetera.

• 54:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Um, okay, now we should talk about gross vehicle weight.

• 54:06Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 54:06Matt Farah?

  Do we care about how gross vehicle weight is calculated?

• 54:09Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 54:10Matt Farah?

  Um, I, I wanna read the whole email. I probably shouldn't, cuz it would take too long. The last time I tried to paraphrase David, I got like two, like, really angry emails that I was somehow disrespecting his expertise by not reading every word of the email. Something that I guarantee you David would find ludicrous, because of course I respect his expertise.

• 54:32Speaker 01

  If you wanna read his thoughts in their entirety, go subscribe to the Intercooler, where he is a contributor.

• 54:38Matt Farah?

  Yes. Okay, so, I'm gonna fucking take some words out selectively to make this a little punchier for radio. How about that? But I appreciate every word that David wrote here. Long story short, each OEM figures out their own gross vehicle weight. It's basically the maximum weight the car's structure can stand. And so it's up to the OEM to figure out how many people, uh, bags, fuel, cargo, cargo, et cetera, before something breaks. Um, oftentimes, it is limited to a tire rating. Uh, from there, it's usually axles and the strength of where axles meet the, uh, body in white. Okay?

• 55:18Matt Farah?

  Uh, this can be pretty accurately digitally simulated long before any physical cars get built. Uh, so, about, he goes, here's where it gets fun. In Europe, uh, European law defines that a human is 75 kilograms, and that a person will have 25 kilograms of luggage with them. So the average five-seater car needs to be designed for 500 kilograms, or 1,002 people. Okay? People plus bags.

• 55:45Speaker 01

  1,002 pounds.

• 55:46Matt Farah?

  1,002 pounds, sorry. Of people plus bags, okay? In Japan, many cars, uh, used to be designed around an occupant mass of 55 kilograms. That's 121 pounds, which explains a lot about my Nissan Pow.

• 56:07Matt Farah?

  So, um, you know, anyway, that's how you get to it. It's the sum of mass plus cargo. Now, here's an example. A Mercedes E-Class base brochure says curb weight of 1,810 kilograms. Gross vehicle weight of 2450 kilograms. Curb rate includes 90% of a fuel tank and the driver at 75 kg. We can work backwards to get to their gross vehicle number. So blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, math, math, math is, uh, uh, like, okay, hang on. So 1810 plus 5, that's the 10% fuel. Uh, plus 4 times 75, that's the other 4 people.

• 56:50Matt Farah?

  Uh, plus 5 times 25, that's everyone luggage, is 2240. Okay, and that leaves, uh, 210 kilograms for other cargo. For instance, if the suitcases are heavier than the weight, or if the people are heavier than the weight. If there's a roof rack, if there's a bike rack, etc. So it's that much, and then they leave 210 kilograms of cushion for overweight anything, and that's just for an E-Class. He said, "What's really funny is in the US, because of course, there is no one legal standard for how big or heavy an occupant needs to be." SAE says 150 pounds per person, plus 50 pounds per luggage,

• 57:35Matt Farah?

  uh, per person's luggage, which is surprisingly a bit lighter than the EU's standard person, which makes me chuckle. That's editorial. Makes me chuckle, that's me, not him. Many US carmakers use 150 plus 50. No simple formula, and quite regional.

• 57:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:53Matt Farah?

  But that's how you get there.

• 57:54Speaker 01

  That makes sense.

• 57:55Matt Farah?

  Yep, it does.

• 57:56Speaker 01

  It's funny that we don't have a standard here. They're like, "Who's gonna tell me what the standard size should be for a human being?"

• 58:01Matt Farah?

  Did you see, uh...

• 58:02Speaker 01

  For safety standards.

• 58:03Matt Farah?

  You know, I'm sure it was kind of like a TV test, but like, I think it was, uh, Matt Watson, that guy in England.

• 58:09Speaker 01

  Car Wow guy.

• 58:10Matt Farah?

  Car Wow guy, got, had a, had a runway and a Cybertruck, and a couple other, like, regular fucking cars, like, might have been like a Fiat Panda, like, regular cars. Like, not sports cars. And they just were cruising at a constant speed, and all jammed on the brakes at the cone at the same time. And, I mean, the, the Cybertruck took... Eighty feet longer than these like regular ass, yeah, like so much longer than the other cars to come to a stop. It was like, it was a pretty good. Now, it's a TV test, right? I don't, I'm not saying that CarWow is dishonest in any way, but it, it was, it's clearly one of those tests that is optimized for

• 58:53Matt Farah?

  screen visual, uh, more than necessarily like 100% scientific, peer-reviewed accuracy, but I mean, three, uh, three guys appeared to hit the brakes at the same time. I don't, I don't, I don't think there's like real fuckery happening.

• 59:10Speaker 01

  Well, so, so Motor Trend, when they tested the Cybertruck last year, their 60 to zero was 126 feet, which was eight feet longer than a Ford Lightning.

• 59:20Matt Farah?

  I mean, eight feet is a bit in 60. Maybe they were going faster than that. Maybe they were going like 100 or something. They were on a runway.

• 59:26Speaker 01

  Usually, I mean, they do some pretty high-speed testing and.

• 59:29Matt Farah?

  They're on a runway, so maybe they were going faster. I didn't, they didn't, I saw it on Instagram.

• 59:33Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 59:34Matt Farah?

  So they didn't say, I'm sure in the YouTube video, they go, we're gonna go to 100.

• 59:38Speaker 01

  Here's what I'll say, like, in, in, not in their defense, but like, as, they do things for entertainment, but when I've watched their videos with various

• 59:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 59:45Speaker 01

  rolling tests and stuff, if one of the drivers messes something up, they'll say it on the radio. They go, I hit the brakes too late, I hit the gas too late. They'll do it again, do it again, and then they'll get to a point where they go, that's about as good as it's gonna be. So maybe they had to redo it.

• 59:57Matt Farah?

  I don't know, but the clip on Instagram, which was posted by them, indicated a much, much longer braking distance. And I think if that, I haven't watched the video, but if that's a, I don't think they would post that, a misleading clip.

• 1:00:10Speaker 01

  I totally agree. It may very well be, take that long. I'm saying, you, you said they make things for kind of television. I think they do a good job of making sure it looks pretty damn objective, but because they do that, that truck may take that long to stop. It just might be higher than 20, than 60 miles per hour.

• 1:00:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:00:27Speaker 01

  What a piece of shit that truck is.

• 1:00:28Matt Farah?

  Oh, it's, do I, did you see they're sitting on 800 million dollars in inventory? They're sitting on 10,000 dollar, 10,000 unsold Cybertrucks. 10,000.

• 1:00:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:41Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:00:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:42Speaker 01

  Well, uh, that's why they'll sell 400 million of them to the US.

• 1:00:47Matt Farah?

  Alright, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Donnie will bail them out, maybe, maybe. If he's like fascist enough, maybe Donnie will bail them out. Should we go to the people?

• 1:01:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:01Matt Farah?

  I think I'm at the end of my...

• 1:01:02Speaker 01

  You got a lot of questions.

• 1:01:02Matt Farah?

  Oh, did you see the photo I sent you of, uh, of the driveway of the house in Pebble Beach?

• 1:01:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:07Matt Farah?

  How fucking great is that?

• 1:01:08Speaker 01

  Very big.

• 1:01:09Matt Farah?

  I booked, uh, I booked a house for us in Pebble and Zach and Sarah are gonna come too for part of it. And, uh, and I finally, you know, they don't, on the, on the site, they don't give you the address. But they give you like a general, like a circle.

• 1:01:22Speaker 01

  Area, yeah.

• 1:01:22Matt Farah?

  And there's only so many places within the circle that it could be, so I just like went on the street and just like clicked through until I found the house. And when I got there, the driveway, it's a three-bedroom house, the driveway looks like it holds like nine cars.

• 1:01:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:36Matt Farah?

  It's so luxurious, I could three-point a trailer in there, which I actually might have to do. And, uh, yeah, and we, there's a couple, uh, things we can, that we can actually walk to.

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 1:01:46Matt Farah?

  Which is pretty cool.

• 1:01:47Speaker 01

  Oh, that's fantastic, yeah.

• 1:01:49Matt Farah?

  Um, I don't wanna say what they are, cuz it'll give away where the house is.

• 1:01:53Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:01:53Matt Farah?

  But, but there are a couple of things we can walk to.

• 1:01:57Matt Farah?

  But, uh, yeah, let's go to the people, there's a lot of, uh, things.

• 1:02:04Matt Farah?

  Lot of things like, uh, the amount of coffee I had tonight.

• 1:02:07Speaker 01

  Did you overdo it?

• 1:02:09Matt Farah?

  Maybe by like a point five.

• 1:02:12Matt Farah?

  Little bit of a heater this morning.

• 1:02:19Matt Farah?

  Okay, nice cams. Oh, I forgot to promo the Patreon. Uh, Patreon is where you ask us questions, it's where you watch the live stream, it's where you get the show before it goes up for everybody else, it's where you get the show without ads, it's where you get an extra show, it's where you get early and sometimes exclusive access to merch collabs and, uh, things of that nature. Uh, so, patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast is where you get her done. Um, we have, by the way, uh, I think seven people have contacted me so far and have all three canons and want the last two, so we've allocated them the guaranteed slots for the last two.

• 1:02:59Matt Farah?

  Um, this week will probably be the last week to guarantee those, cuz we're gonna be doing, uh, orders in, in a week and a half, I think. So, if you have all three and you want the last two guaranteed, um, this is probably your only chance to, to do it.

• 1:03:18Matt Farah?

  Nice Cam says, "My dad really wants a Ferrari F8 Spider. How do I convince him to get a 750S instead? He can't shake the fact that the McLaren will depreciate like crazy and the Ferrari has more brand value and beauty."

• 1:03:33Speaker 01

  I mean, I don't think you're winning that argument, Nice Cam. If your dad thinks the Ferrari is better looking and retains its value, like, those are pretty strong arguments.

• 1:03:43Matt Farah?

  I don't, yeah, I don't think you should try to talk your dad out of getting the car he wants.

• 1:03:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:49Matt Farah?

  It's his money, just let him enjoy it. If he gets the Ferrari and he hates it, maybe he'll go to the McLaren. But if that's what he wants, just let him get it. I don't like talking people out of cars that they want unless there is something horribly wrong with the car, and there's nothing wrong with a Ferrari F8 Spider, that's a fine car.

• 1:04:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel like Nice Cam's is going, "But the steering feel is so much better and the ride is very, very infinitesimally better." That's not gonna work.

• 1:04:17Matt Farah?

  My money, even with my money, I would rather have a 750 Spider. I would. I'm in love with how they drive. But I'm not gonna try to talk somebody out of a Ferrari if that's what they want. Zach's RFK impression, "Doug mentioned he'd love to buy the one and only Cadillac CN concept car. If there was a concept car you'd like to own, what would it be and why would it be the Ford Indigo?" You fucking nailed it. I think we talked about it recently.

• 1:04:42Speaker 01

  I think that's why they mentioned it.

• 1:04:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it would be the Ford Indigo, for sure. That CN concept car was parked right next to where the ME412 was, but it wasn't there when I went there, so I didn't actually get to see it. But I've seen it before.

• 1:04:58Speaker 01

  I would go the Cadillac 16.

• 1:05:00Matt Farah?

  Cadillac 16, that's a great choice. Or, I mean...

• 1:05:05Speaker 01

  What was the Mercedes version of that? They made that really long...

• 1:05:08Matt Farah?

  The Maybach Accelero is actually the other one that I would really want to have.

• 1:05:13Speaker 01

  That's better looking than the 16.

• 1:05:14Matt Farah?

  That would be very exceptional.

• 1:05:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:18Matt Farah?

  Here for Matt's Cats, the new Toyota Venza and VW Atlas are lower and ever so slightly more wagon-y than their previous generation. Could wagons be poised for a comeback? I think crossovers will slowly morph back into wagons and they'll be wagons again before you know it. They already, some of them already really are wagons, just resized to fit 22-inch wheels.

• 1:05:47Speaker 01

  Absolutely agree. The wagon, the crossover is a lifted wagon, but I don't know if they'll ever get to go back all the way to wagons because too many people like the hit point, they like being able to see, they like the ingress egress. I think those things are here to stay.

• 1:06:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Even after, we're about to, after this podcast, you know, make the six-month update on the Taycan video, but I have to say, one of the only things I don't like about the Taycan, and there's very few of them, is getting in and out of a low car with small doors that often. You know, for someone my size and shape and with a busted ass back, a crossover, you know, getting in and out of a crossover is a nice, easy thing.

• 1:06:28Speaker 01

  I drove my wife's car here because she's out of town. There's a reason.

• 1:06:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Up to your ass and gasoline, which will be the first manufacturer to give us a compelling enthusiast EV? Well, first off, and why is it already Hyundai? I mean, I don't, that's not to say that. The Hyundai Ioniq 5N, I have to say, it's hard, if you drive that on a track or in a sporty situation and you're not having some fun in that, I would, I would question what would make you have fun, you know?

• 1:07:07Speaker 01

  I think people want a small sports car. People want a Miata EV.

• 1:07:11Matt Farah?

  Well, that's just, I mean, I don't know.

• 1:07:12Speaker 01

  I think that's what they're waiting for.

• 1:07:13Matt Farah?

  People don't buy that many Miadas.

• 1:07:15Speaker 01

  Very true. No, they want the Icon. They want that. I agree with you. I think, I think the 5N is like, it has almost everything other than being a large crossover, but it's got the sound and the shifters and the speed and the handling and the steering feedback. It's better than the Mach-E Rally. The Mach-E Rally is super fun, but the 5N has the extra things, like the fake gears and the sound, so.

• 1:07:37Matt Farah?

  Spartan Huxley VR Love Child. Very deep, but I like it. Uh, because we got a guy for everything, including detailing. Thoughts on ceramic coating, but more so on top of PPF. I've heard mixed opinions. Uh, bought my Boxer, uh, 4.0 with PPF already applied, but I'm interested in ceramic. Um, uh, we put ceramic, or what we call, what it, uh, we use ammo reflex, which is a ceramic like coating. It's not exactly the same as ceramic, uh, but it does the same thing. We put that on top of PPF all the time.

• 1:08:13Speaker 01

  405 does it for all their big wraps.

• 1:08:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah. It makes it really easy to clean.

• 1:08:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:17Matt Farah?

  I mean, it actually does. I, I, they're really in, the only downside of putting PPF, uh, putting ceramic on top of PPF would be like, s- applying it sloppily and somehow like getting over wipe on your trim or whatever and like fucking it up. But like, if you do a good job or if it's professionally done, other than the cost of doing it, there isn't really a downside.

• 1:08:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:43Matt Farah?

  And the, and as Zach, uh, pointed out, um, the PPF shop that we use here at West, Westside, which is 405 Motoring, they do it by default. If they do, if they PPF your car, it just comes with it. So it's kind of like the standard at this point to just do it. Um, both of my cars have that and it makes it really easy to clean. It's so nice. Enrico Palazzo says, don't, uh, I agree with your previous statements about buying teenagers fast cars. Uh, are there any enthusiast cars that you would let a kid drive? Um, sure. Yeah, there, there are. Um.

• 1:09:17Speaker 01

  I think, yes, I would say front wheel drive cars, you know, GTIs, maybe Fiesta ST, uh, a Focus ST, something like that. Uh, this person lists me out, uh, and the 86. I wouldn't do that because young people in rear wheel drive cars are probably, especially in 86, like they're gonna go try to Drifto and that would get them into a little more trouble. Audi TT depends on what, that's a good choice, but it depends on which generation. You need to make sure it has the downforce problem solved.

• 1:09:43Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah. If it's a first gen car.

• 1:09:45Speaker 01

  First gen one, cause, cause a kid's gonna top it out.

• 1:09:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I mean, you wanna, you want to. Give somebody a kid a slow car that has good inputs. So I'm not against a Miata as long as it's like one that has the the modern safety features. I wouldn't put a kid in an N A Miata, but if it's like an N C or yeah, then you're probably fine.

• 1:10:10Matt Farah?

  You know Volkswagen, you know Golfs, G T I. I don't think a G T I is, you know, particularly sketchy car. A variety of naturally aspirated Subarus, you know.

• 1:10:27Speaker 01

  Or honestly, even W R X like W R X is quick, but it's all wheel drive. They can't like slide around. It's not that fast. I think it'd be hard to get yourself into a ton of trouble. And the trouble you could get yourself into with that is just over cooking a corner, which you could do in a G T I or basically anything else.

• 1:10:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah, a like a Focus S T or Fiesta S T, something like that. What you know, name your 200 ish horsepower, front wheel drive hatchback. You know, that's kind of where I would I would be stay be in.

• 1:11:01Matt Farah?

  R S, forget about it. Off the record has been an absolute lifesaver. They are, man, they they are the best. But I'm trying to be more proactive in avoiding tickets. Do you drive with a radar detector? What do you like? Should I get it built into the car? What's the strategy here?

• 1:11:18Matt Farah?

  In Los Angeles, where I live, I don't need a radar detector in my day to day life. There is very few, very little speeding enforcement in the city. And there's too much traffic to speed anyway. Where enforcement happens is right where our city meets desert, right at the edge. That's where you get all the enforcement. So, but on a road trip, then I'm then I'm running full countermeasures. I do the Valentine two. Technically, it's the Valentine one gen two, but Valentine two just sounds better. And then and then I run ways also, and you're pretty well covered if you run them too.

• 1:11:57Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:11:58Matt Farah?

  There's people who like laser jammers and if you're driving the same car all the time, then it makes sense because you have to build laser jammers into your bumper and stuff. Um, but I'm always driving different stuff. I have my little kit. I have a little, um, it's like a dop kit, like a bathroom bag and it's got my Valentine two and all the accessories. It's got my phone, uh, windshield mount. It's got like a couple different like iPhone cables for different power ports. Um, and it's got, uh, like a, a 12 volt, uh, one to two like splitter. And it's just like, I grab that bag and I throw it in my suitcase anytime I'm going on a road trip, uh, or gonna be in a rental car or like P Cody or any, or any of those kind of road trips.

• 1:12:43Matt Farah?

  And then I'm fully, fully covered.

• 1:12:45Speaker 01

  Smart.

• 1:12:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's that. Those two combined, you're pretty foolproof.

• 1:12:50Speaker 01

  I would add that if you're driving the same car all the time, uh, I, I recommend hardwiring it into the roof because then you don't occupy your USB lighter thing and all that stuff.

• 1:13:01Matt Farah?

  Right. Um, Gavin Sullivan was saying Doug was singing the praises of the current Subaru WRX. Uh, what do you think of that compared to a used Civic Type R? Similar money in Austin. New versus used isn't in fair, but isn't fair, but that new WRX is not a serious performance car.

• 1:13:22Speaker 01

  No. And we drove the WRX, what's it called? Tune TS, whatever.

• 1:13:27Matt Farah?

  T, yeah.

• 1:13:27Speaker 01

  It had, you know, the additional things. Um.

• 1:13:31Matt Farah?

  It was slightly better, but it still is not a serious performance car.

• 1:13:35Speaker 01

  I, I think, I think the, the Civic is such a good car in basically every way, except it doesn't have lumbar support.

• 1:13:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:42Speaker 01

  And I know I complain about you, we, we complain about that a lot, but Ross Bentley and I can't remember the guy's name, Eric, they just did one lap in a Civic Type R and they had the same complaint because they did 2,000 miles in the thing in like 10 days.

• 1:13:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:56Speaker 01

  Um, but otherwise like the Civic is a, just it's a nicer car. The, the inputs are great. It's faster. The handling is good. It looks way better.

• 1:14:03Matt Farah?

  Fix for the overheating thing?

• 1:14:05Speaker 01

  I think so.

• 1:14:06Matt Farah?

  On the track? There was like a, a deal, like a factory or dealer level fix for that, right?

• 1:14:11Speaker 01

  That was more common with the last gen. Does it happen with the new one too?

• 1:14:14Matt Farah?

  Well, isn't FL5 the last gen?

• 1:14:18Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:14:20Matt Farah?

  I don't know. I don't know.

• 1:14:22Speaker 01

  FL5 is the newest one.

• 1:14:23Matt Farah?

  Is the new one?

• 1:14:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:24Matt Farah?

  No, like the new, new one?

• 1:14:26Speaker 01

  Twenty twenty-three and up.

• 1:14:27Matt Farah?

  Oh, really?

• 1:14:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:27Matt Farah?

  Oh, get that.

• 1:14:28Speaker 01

  According to Google.

• 1:14:29Matt Farah?

  I thought it was the shredder helmet one.

• 1:14:31Speaker 01

  I thought it was too.

• 1:14:31Matt Farah?

  What was that?

• 1:14:32Speaker 01

  Look at twenty twenty-one.

• 1:14:34Matt Farah?

  What's that one?

• 1:14:35Speaker 01

  Wasn't that F8 or something?

• 1:14:36Matt Farah?

  Fuck, I don't know. Who can keep track of all this shit? What are we supposed to be, professionals over here? Uh, I don't know what the, what that one was, but if it's the, if we're talking about the current one, it's like not even close. Not even close.

• 1:14:52Speaker 01

  I don't know where to find this.

• 1:14:54Matt Farah?

  If it is the, even if it's close, it's a closer thing if it's the old one. If it's the current one, not even close. Uh, Mr. Wagon, uh, we've discussed our feelings about how unnecessary.

• 1:15:04Speaker 01

  FK8.

• 1:15:04Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 1:15:05Speaker 01

  That was the shredder helmet.

• 1:15:07Matt Farah?

  Got it. Okay. Uh, yeah, that doesn't make any sense. Uh, how unnecessary big pickup trucks are and that the majority of these owners, uh, with, would be better off with a midsize, like the Ranger, uh, Hilux Tacoma. Uh, market trends in the US obviously differ. Uh, do you think Ford's, and I, by the way, know nothing about this recent announcement. I'm hearing it from Mr. Wagon. Ford's recent announcement about a Ranger Super Duty would be a good compromise for those buyers if Ford's decided to sell it in the USA and market it properly at the risk of eating into their F-150 moneymaker. I don't think Ford would ever eat into the F-150. Did, have you heard anything about a Ranger Super Duty?

• 1:15:50Speaker 01

  I haven't.

• 1:15:50Matt Farah?

  This is a, this is a global market where more Rangers are used as work trucks than, um,

• 1:15:59Matt Farah?

  uh, too smart for America. Yep. Okay. So it's a Ranger with more towing and hauling capacity, just like a, uh, just like an F-150, and I bet you, yeah, most Americans would probably skip that.

• 1:16:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:15Matt Farah?

  I, I mean, I personally might not. The Ranger Super Duty, uh, oh wow, yeah. Gross vehicle, uh, mass, is that mass, GVM?

• 1:16:28Matt Farah?

  Is ninety-nine twenty pounds. That's a bunch.

• 1:16:32Matt Farah?

  Well, that would be sweet. Yeah, we can have it. Um, I don't think they'd sell it here. I think, I think that overlays, uh, too much with the F-150, which is already here.

• 1:16:41Speaker 01

  Correct. Gross vehicle mass.

• 1:16:42Matt Farah?

  Mass?

• 1:16:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. Mass, yeah.

• 1:16:45Matt Farah?

  Um, okay. Looks cool, though. I get it. I get it. But I do like me a small truck. Man, I'll tell you what, that Amazon money, fuck.

• 1:16:57Speaker 01

  Dude, they got so many.

• 1:16:58Matt Farah?

  I'm getting all this slate trash just shoved in my face.

• 1:17:03Speaker 01

  They got a lot of reservations.

• 1:17:04Matt Farah?

  Uh, well, yeah. Okay, good. But like, leave me the fuck alone.

• 1:17:08Speaker 01

  What do you mean?

• 1:17:09Matt Farah?

  Oh, every, oh, so many ads, so much.

• 1:17:12Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:17:12Matt Farah?

  Sponsored Reddit posts, sponsored Instagram posts. Um, ooh, I just got one of those scammy EZ Pass texts.

• 1:17:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:21Matt Farah?

  Yep, those are great. Everyone's gotten one of them. Got to pay my ticket. Uh, Christian says, if you had unlimited money, what precious car would you modify the hell out of? Uh, Ferrari 288 GTO rally car.

• 1:17:36Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 1:17:37Matt Farah?

  As it was intended.

• 1:17:38Speaker 01

  That would be nuts.

• 1:17:38Matt Farah?

  288 GTO was going to be a Group B car.

• 1:17:40Speaker 01

  That'd be insane.

• 1:17:41Matt Farah?

  Right?

• 1:17:42Speaker 01

  I love that you, when we talked about like the Gunther Singer roof thing, you were like, ooh, the Gunther might be too extreme for me on the track. But now you're like, 288 Group B rally car.

• 1:17:53Matt Farah?

  No, but like, that would be fun on the street.

• 1:17:56Speaker 01

  That would be super cool.

• 1:17:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah. What about you?

• 1:18:00Speaker 01

  Uh, I think I'd take an LFA, but put a different transmission in it to start, just because the single clutches are not for me. Put a really good dual clutch in it.

• 1:18:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I don't have the answer to Hyman Roth's question, I'm sorry. Matt loves Pearl Jam. Do I have the freedom to do a collaboration with Sheffield Watches? Or working with Notice? Is this not an option for me? I can do anything I want. I happen to very much like the guys at Notice. I also, the guys at Sheffield are really nice, too. But they're doing their thing over at Sheffield. I don't need to do a watch with them. We're already talking about an all-new watch at Notice. We're trying to bring the price point down, so a few more people can buy it. Not as cheap as Sheffield. Sheffield's like $200, $300.

• 1:18:48Matt Farah?

  I am unable to make the quality of watch I want to make for that price, but I can make it for under $1,000. And so, but if we're gonna make a watch, it has to be... It can't just be a new color or a different bezel. It has to be a new watch. So, we're working on a new watch at Notice, all-new. Angle of the dangle. What is your Lamborghini Mount Rushmore? I suppose that means like a car I can't have or can't buy?

• 1:19:23Speaker 01

  No, I think like what would be the four Lamborghini models that you would put on?

• 1:19:27Matt Farah?

  Oh, the four. Oh, I misunderstood that, what that meant. The four.

• 1:19:33Matt Farah?

  Countach, Miura.

• 1:19:35Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:19:39Matt Farah?

  I mean...

• 1:19:45Matt Farah?

  Dynamics aside, probably like a Ventador.

• 1:19:50Matt Farah?

  And...

• 1:19:51Speaker 01

  Dynamics included, I'd go Huracan.

• 1:19:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I would go Storato. Huracan, Storato.

• 1:19:59Speaker 01

  That's a good one.

• 1:20:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:01Speaker 01

  I'd definitely do that over LM002.

• 1:20:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's not a high point for them. It's an oddball, but not a high point, yeah.

• 1:20:12Matt Farah?

  I don't.

• 1:20:15Matt Farah?

  Okay, hang on a second. Prashawn says, "The new Mustang seems to be holding up quite well in IMSA, which got me thinking. Do the general driving dynamics of race-ready road cars carry into their GT3 cars? Like, road versus racing BMWs, Huricons, Mustangs, etc.?" Uh, yes.

• 1:20:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:20:37Matt Farah?

  I would say yes. Yeah.

• 1:20:39Speaker 01

  Specifically, I listened to a good episode of It's Not the Car Podcast, and Jeff Brown, who's like a race-team engineer, he's talking about when they were campaigning with Mercedes AMG GTs, they had to do very little with that car when it was given to them. It just handled really well. They didn't have to do much, other than do like, good alignments. Other cars they've received from other companies, they'll have to do a lot of cooling work, or other, like, bracing, or, you know, whatever's allowed within the rules, to make the car go as fast as they want it to go, or handle the way they want it to handle. So, if the OEMs put the money into developing the street car, it's gonna make the race car perform much, much better.

• 1:21:22Speaker 01

  And, you know, a lot of times, they'll go, when they're engineering the street car, they're looking to the future for GT3 racing, IMSA racing, etc. And, you know, they want to work within those rules, and they want to give the race teams as much as they can, and give the public as much as they can, within the confines of the costs, of course. Matt is cleaning coffee.

• 1:21:44Matt Farah?

  Weak, weak sauce, Farah. That's what I get for spilling my coffee. Uh...

• 1:21:53Matt Farah?

  Oof, that's... That, Bad Gardener says, and I'm not gonna answer his question, but I appreciate the question. "You're building a home in LA. Each room will have an automobile as decor."

• 1:22:07Speaker 01

  One car in each room.

• 1:22:09Matt Farah?

  The idea of this makes me want to jump off a bridge. Having a house with just cars in the house is... I, I, you know, you have these secret dreams sometimes of living in a big warehouse, you know, like, fucking Top Gun, you know, Maverick, or whatever. Fuck, or fucking Donnie.

• 1:22:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:28Matt Farah?

  You know, and, and, and living in there with your, with your cars, but like... The fundamental needs of a car and the fundamental needs of my living space, they're at odds, frankly, they're not same.

• 1:22:44Speaker 01

  Well, I think our friend, right, he had one car in his office.

• 1:22:49Matt Farah?

  Uh huh.

• 1:22:50Speaker 01

  And that's fine, but if you do a car per room is just like, now you're taking up all this space. And it no longer becomes cool, it becomes garish really immediately.

• 1:23:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:01Speaker 01

  So I think you'd have to have one car.

• 1:23:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:03Speaker 01

  That means a lot to you and that's it. You know, or you can have the garage with the glass wall and you can see it from inside.

• 1:23:10Matt Farah?

  Right, yeah, the idea, yeah, being able to look down on the garage or something like that. You ever see Tanner's house in Newport?

• 1:23:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:19Matt Farah?

  Tanner had an elevator in his house that would lift his car up into his office, which was above the garage.

• 1:23:25Speaker 01

  So amazing.

• 1:23:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, which is pretty rad, yeah.

• 1:23:28Speaker 01

  That guy is the coolest.

• 1:23:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:31Matt Farah?

  But no, in each room, oh god, that's a no-go, yeah. Barbecue sauce on my titties is considering living life more and saving up to have a sports car before there's kids in the picture. For 30K, do I get a 996, probably auto so the wife can drive it too, or a PDK 986 Cayman? Which would you prefer? Is the auto in the 996 bad? Yes, it's very bad.

• 1:23:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the Porsche's auto, yeah, it's horrible, it's really bad, you should not get an automatic 996.

• 1:24:04Speaker 01

  PDK.

• 1:24:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah, there are a reason an automatic 996 is eight dollars, they suck, yeah. You should get a PDK, the worst PDK is better than the best auto.

• 1:24:15Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:24:18Matt Farah?

  And, yeah, PDK, you have to then make sure, for an early Cayman, you have to make sure you get the sport paddles, not the thumb buttons on the wheel.

• 1:24:26Speaker 01

  I forgot about the thumb buttons.

• 1:24:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah, right, yeah, there was a time Porsche was like, not everybody needs these fucking paddles, which is hilarious, but you could do it.

• 1:24:36Matt Farah?

  Byron's car, Byron's car came with the dumb buttons and he did a steering wheel out of a Macan with paddles and it works perfect.

• 1:24:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:49Matt Farah?

  Uh, up, uh, wait. I don't know what. I have absolutely no idea what the thing is that that he's talking about. Uh, while you figure it out, Benetton Driver says, "You've been asked to be paid crew on a 50-foot sailboat delivery from LA to Hawaii. 30-day passage. You each must take one additional crew member. Who in the automotive scene are you choosing?"

• 1:25:14Speaker 01

  Are we trying to stay alive, or is this just someone you could be on a boat with for 30 days?

• 1:25:18Matt Farah?

  Someone you could be on a boat with for 30 days?

• 1:25:20Speaker 01

  Okay, because those are different things.

• 1:25:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:22Speaker 01

  Like, if I need someone to help me make the voyage, it's you. Because

• 1:25:27Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 1:25:27Speaker 01

  Otherwise, I'm gonna die.

• 1:25:29Matt Farah?

  No, you're paid. You're paid crew. You're paid crew. So someone's in charge

• 1:25:33Speaker 01

  Alright, great.

• 1:25:34Matt Farah?

  telling you what to do.

• 1:25:35Speaker 01

  Alright. There's a great Instagram I just found of a guy. He built, he's sailing a boat from Oregon to Hawaii right now, and he's never done anything like that before.

• 1:25:41Matt Farah?

  With his cat.

• 1:25:42Speaker 01

  With his cat, yeah. And he's like, he's got a thing leaking, and he's like, "Oh shit."

• 1:25:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:45Speaker 01

  "I built this myself." And you're like, "Oh, we're all here for this adventure."

• 1:25:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:48Speaker 01

  That's wild.

• 1:25:49Matt Farah?

  Um, I mean, the automotive scene, and I assume I can't choose you. Um, so, I would say...

• 1:25:59Speaker 01

  Who could you sit with for 30 days on a boat?

• 1:26:03Matt Farah?

  Scotto, maybe?

• 1:26:07Matt Farah?

  Um, although he would take up a lot of space on a boat. He wouldn't enjoy it. He's very tall.

• 1:26:14Speaker 01

  He's so tall.

• 1:26:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh...

• 1:26:18Matt Farah?

  Maybe like

• 1:26:21Matt Farah?

  Jethro. He's really like mellow and easy. You know, even. Even keeled.

• 1:26:27Speaker 01

  That's a good, oh, there you go. Yeah.

• 1:26:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:33Matt Farah?

  Uh, Blurple.

• 1:26:35Speaker 01

  Oh, I found the Jag conversion thing.

• 1:26:37Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay, what is this?

• 1:26:38Speaker 01

  It's a... Oh, I placed it already. Company is dropping, uh, big engines into Miata's.

• 1:26:47Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 1:26:48Speaker 01

  And, but they're, you know, they have, it's like, uh, singularizing Miata in a way.

• 1:26:53Matt Farah?

  Oh, boy.

• 1:26:53Speaker 01

  I mean, not quite as expensive, but...

• 1:26:55Matt Farah?

  I certainly hope not. What, I wonder what en, what engine are they using? Go to the about. Uh, our, our vision, okay?

• 1:27:04Matt Farah?

  A slow-moving website, just like a Miata. Um...

• 1:27:08Speaker 01

  Nice, that was solid.

• 1:27:10Matt Farah?

  Uh, they don't tell us, keep going, go down. When do they tell us what the fucking... Come on. Explore, build options, there we go. What can we do with these things? I mean, I like the name Rocketeer, I hope it's not copyrighted. Turnkey conversions, there we go.

• 1:27:28Matt Farah?

  What do we have? Jesus, his website's so slow. It's pretty, but it probably looked great when they were loading it locally at the developer's place, you know?

• 1:27:38Speaker 01

  Very good point. Alright, here we go.

• 1:27:40Matt Farah?

  Okay, that is a V6, and what is it?

• 1:27:45Matt Farah?

  I mean, it looks fucking good. Can you go up, what does it say at the top of this, what this is? MXV6. Oh, AJ30, okay, so AJ30 is gonna be the... Is that the 3.0-liter engine from, uh...

• 1:27:59Matt Farah?

  The, um... Like, the XE and the F-Pace? Is that what that is?

• 1:28:03Speaker 01

  Based on a Ford Duratec V6.

• 1:28:05Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay. Oh, is it...

• 1:28:07Speaker 01

  It's originally a Porsche design, bought by Ford. Causeworth, cylinder head.

• 1:28:12Matt Farah?

  Oh, so it's like an SVT Contour... This is, it's half a Vanquish engine. That's what this is.

• 1:28:20Speaker 01

  It was used in the, uh, early 2000s, S-Type, X-Type, XJ, and then later in the XF, the weak one, and the Lincoln LS.

• 1:28:27Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay. And they build it and make it racy. I bet it's fun. I bet it's a good time. I mean, I, you know, Flying Miata, uh, is doing LSs here. I think, I think if someone's gonna spend that kind of money, that in America, they probably want an LS. Not to mention, the LS E-Rod is a 50-state motor swap. So if you really wanted to go that route, you could have something that was carb legal, but like, looks cool.

• 1:28:54Speaker 01

  It does, I think, what was their question, was like, would this work in the US? Probably not, because of the engine, and it also looked, I imagine these are expensive. I mean, some of these builds on their site have like, really nice, you know, bespoke-looking interiors, and I don't know...

• 1:29:10Matt Farah?

  Go to build options, restomod on the left. What do they have for?

• 1:29:14Speaker 01

  Do you think the Miata market is strong enough for this?

• 1:29:15Matt Farah?

  No, but they're, I mean, if they need to sell 10 cars, yeah, there's 10 nerds. You know, but, uh, it doesn't say price on request.

• 1:29:24Speaker 01

  Oh, because you just build it to your spec.

• 1:29:26Matt Farah?

  You really, you really have to love Miata's for this. I mean, and I understand why somebody would love a Miata like this. If you're the right size and shape and you love the vibe of this, then spending 50 or 60 grand to have a perfect, you know, Miata, like, that makes sense. I totally get it.

• 1:29:45Speaker 01

  A similar buyer to the, uh, manual swapped, um, Maserati from before. It's like, oh, you're losing this money immediately, but it's going to be the most perfect, wonderful Miata in the world.

• 1:29:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:57Speaker 01

  It's the built by legends version of the Miata. That's what it's like.

• 1:30:02Matt Farah?

  Kind of what this is.

• 1:30:02Speaker 01

  That's what this is. So it's rad.

• 1:30:05Matt Farah?

  It looks like fabulous work. It looks like a beautiful engine. Those, those valve covers look exactly like my Aston Martin valve covers.

• 1:30:14Speaker 01

  They probably are, right?

• 1:30:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah, they probably are.

• 1:30:16Speaker 01

  Ford modular shit.

• 1:30:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Well, I mean, dude, it looks rad. And if I was over in England or wherever they're doing this, I'd love to have a go. But in the US, they would not use, even if this company came to the US, they'd use E-Rod LS motors. They're a lot more power and they fit. Um, and that one, the guy in Florida that took over flying Miata's LS swap thing, that thing was nasty. It's a good time. Uh, Blurple is currently in Saudi, using a VPN, I hope. Uh, and I haven't seen any of the wild supercars that the region is known for, but there is tons of BMW and Mercedes SUVs. Uh, if you were to live in a region like Riyadh, what would your fun car of choice be? Sand, sand toys.

• 1:30:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:59Matt Farah?

  Desert shit.

• 1:31:00Speaker 01

  Uh, this person below them replied and said, you want something with big suspension because the roads there are terrible.

• 1:31:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:06Speaker 01

  They'll eat your car.

• 1:31:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I would, I would definitely want a sand car.

• 1:31:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:12Matt Farah?

  For sure.

• 1:31:13Speaker 01

  I want something, I forgot that, remember Formula Off-Road in Iceland? Bring that to the dunes. Like, that's the kind of thing I would want to do there. You know, 1,000 horsepower, just screaming up a hill.

• 1:31:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Flappy McPaddleton has a question that I don't have the answer to. Is thinking about getting a, an Aerial Atom and says, "Which transmission do I get?" I didn't know there were multiple transmissions available.

• 1:31:38Speaker 01

  I didn't either. The ones I've driven were both.

• 1:31:41Matt Farah?

  I've only ever driven a manual. Yeah, I've never seen a...

• 1:31:49Matt Farah?

  And while you're...

• 1:31:52Speaker 01

  What does it say? Does he mean sequential versus three pedal? Or like, traditional H-pattern?

• 1:31:57Matt Farah?

  Oh, I would just get a regular stick. You don't need a sequential gearbox unless you're racing.

• 1:32:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:32:02Matt Farah?

  Sequential gearboxes on the streets suck.

• 1:32:04Speaker 01

  Especially if you're not getting the most extreme Atom, if you're just getting any of the other ones. Like, manuals, fine. They're plenty fast and exciting. And the shifting action is pretty good. It's, it's cool.

• 1:32:13Matt Farah?

  What engines are they using now?

• 1:32:15Speaker 01

  Uh, the last one I drove had a turbo, it had the Civic Type R engine.

• 1:32:18Matt Farah?

  Oh, so they're probably using the Civic gear linkage too, which would be really nice.

• 1:32:21Speaker 01

  It felt nice. It was cool.

• 1:32:23Matt Farah?

  I drove two. I drove an old Honda one, and then I drove when they were using the, uh, the Cobalt SS Turbo GM Eco-Tec one, which was also insanely fast and sketchy.

• 1:32:36Matt Farah?

  JF's Transverse Skidmark, oh wait, if you could add hydraulic suspension bounce mode to any car for shits and giggles, what would it be? I mean...

• 1:32:47Matt Farah?

  It doesn't matter. The point is, it doesn't matter. It, it doesn't need to match the car. Just bouncing is enough.

• 1:32:55Speaker 01

  Oh, why do I always forget that? What's the Nissan Paws Coupe counterpart?

• 1:33:01Matt Farah?

  Oh, Figaro?

• 1:33:01Speaker 01

  Figaro. Cause it would be, it's such like a cute, silly thing anyway, and then if it started bouncing around...

• 1:33:07Matt Farah?

  Tiny car, hydraulics would be awesome. Josh says, "I saw a 992.2 GTS the other day with a big factory wing. Is Porsche trying to up the performance cred of the GTS now that the GT3 has essentially become unobtainable?" What you saw is the factory aero kit that is available on all Carreras. And they're going back to, all the way back to the 996? Even...

• 1:33:35Matt Farah?

  The 993 did not have a factory. No, the 993s, you could get, was there a factory Aero? I don't, I don't know, but maybe. Yes?

• 1:33:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:33:47Matt Farah?

  Um, so yeah, you could all, I guess you could always get a factory Aero kit. Oh yeah, it's the, it's on the 993, the double wing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's ugly.

• 1:33:56Speaker 01

  I think we just don't see them very often. I, the number I see on the street every year is like two. Most people around here just rock 911s that just, no wing, no nothing.

• 1:34:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah, back in, back in the day in New York, when 996s were new, I feel like a lot of people got the Aero kit on the 996.

• 1:34:14Speaker 01

  A lot of people wear chains there with their shirts open, so I get it.

• 1:34:17Matt Farah?

  Fucking Goombas. Yeah.

• 1:34:19Speaker 01

  It's an extroverted city in some way.

• 1:34:22Matt Farah?

  Okay, hang on. Keep, uh, keep going down. I want to do one, uh, one more. Oh, there we go. Suck It Up and Buy the Linglong says, what supercar has the silliest gimmick to try to appeal to people with more wealth than brains?

• 1:34:40Speaker 01

  Hmm, well, going, I'd say the Bounce Mode. It's not a supercar, but like...

• 1:34:44Matt Farah?

  Well, the Bounce Mode is just, it does serve some purpose.

• 1:34:48Speaker 01

  It does in some places, but not really in the United States.

• 1:34:51Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 1:34:52Speaker 01

  So that's why I think it's kind of a gimmick.

• 1:34:54Matt Farah?

  Right. Well, it could get you unstuck in snow.

• 1:34:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't think you'd get stuck in snow in those cars anyway.

• 1:34:59Matt Farah?

  I don't think you would either, but it does, that one's easy because it's just like, the hardware was already there. Someone just had to program that thing in to do it.

• 1:35:10Speaker 01

  I bet it's more helpful, I bet it's more helpful in sand than snow, but I'm happy to be corrected, Maybach, if you want to bring me to a snow driving adventure.

• 1:35:17Matt Farah?

  I mean, almost all of the silliest ones I can think of, true silliest gimmicks are done by Tesla. I mean, like, almost all of them. FSD, FSD is by far the silliest gimmick to separate people with, uh, from their money.

• 1:35:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I would argue because they have, whatever it's called, like, uh... Their current autopilot thing.

• 1:35:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:41Speaker 01

  They have like a half measure there, so they're giving you a version of it and they're promising a future version that doesn't exist yet.

• 1:35:47Matt Farah?

  That you pay for now.

• 1:35:48Speaker 01

  Right. I think the supercar gimmick is, I'd say drift control, which is similar to the hydraulic bouncy thing. They have these sensors, they have the E-diffs, they have it all there. And for the select few supercar owners who go to a track and then are willing to shred some tires, like it's a great teaching tool. But what percentage of supercar owners don't use it? Ninety-six percent probably?

• 1:36:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Yeah. Um, man, gimmick, gimmick. What is like real gimmicky? I mean, I really hate the red, I'm over the red Lamborghini start button cover thing that I have to flip up and down every time.

• 1:36:31Speaker 01

  The aerospace?

• 1:36:32Matt Farah?

  I get it. It's like a plane.

• 1:36:34Speaker 01

  Are you sure you want to start it?

• 1:36:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:36Speaker 01

  Are you sure?

• 1:36:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:37Speaker 01

  Got to lift this thing.

• 1:36:39Matt Farah?

  And I'm over, I really don't like where all the controls are on the steering wheel and densely packed in a way that even though I can reach it without taking my hands off the wheel, I have to take my eyes off the road. I'd rather keep my eyes on the road and take my hands off the wheel than the other way around.

• 1:36:59Speaker 01

  Hmm. Yeah, I agree with that, just from a UI perspective. I don't know, it's hard, because with supercars, like, a lot of their functions are useful if you drive them fast and really hard, but if you don't do that, then, you know, your hydraulic pop-up wing under braking, like, doesn't matter unless you drive hard enough to use that.

• 1:37:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah. But I do think, yeah, most like, supercars and hypercars don't need a lot of gimmicks. It's usually EVs, you know, or cars where the driver's experience isn't as engaging, that they have to come up with gimmicks to substitute for the absence of true feel, you know? Drift control is a great example, you know?

• 1:37:53Speaker 01

  Well, like the Tesla, what was it, the Falcon door, it was called like just show and display mode or whatever, where like-

• 1:37:57Matt Farah?

  The dance mode and shit.

• 1:37:59Speaker 01

  Music and the things flap and like, look, the hardware is there, how do we make a thing that will go viral in video content and get attention? Like, here's a way to do it.

• 1:38:08Matt Farah?

  Uh, last one, Zat Flatman. Do you have any strong opinions on the Porsche 930? Is the driving experience worth the $150,000 price tag? I mean, if all you're looking at is driving experience, then it's hard to take any G-Body 911 and go, this is a $150,000 driving experience, because off the rack, the truth is, they, that none of them really just feel like that, unless you're talking about like the ultra-light club sport or some race, special racing version or something.

• 1:38:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. Especially if you compare it to any modern car, like, they don't feel as sharp or as fast or as tight.

• 1:38:52Matt Farah?

  Um, having said that, driving those cars, it's, they're nice and small, they're ergonomically correct, they're very reliable. Um, 930 specifically, like, I don't love the four-speed cars. Some people really like the four-speed cars. Um, that long, laggy, peaky powerband, um, with the four-speed car is, you know, you get those old-school turbo characteristics where you're in and out and in and out of the powerband all the time. The, the final year 89 G50 car is, in my opinion, much better and worth the premium. Um, but it's money in, money out, right? So is it worth 150? Well, it's not gonna cost

• 1:39:34Matt Farah?

  you 150, cuz you're gonna get most of that back, if not all of it, if not, maybe a little more. Maybe you'll get a little less, maybe a little more, somewhere in the middle. You're not spending that money, really, you're parking it. You know, um, I don't think, I don't, I don't see a world in which the 930 market completely collapses for some reason. Those, those are desirable cars, and even if that trend dips a little bit, it's not gonna completely collapse, and if it does, just hold on to your 930 for longer, drive it, and eventually it'll come back to you.

• 1:40:12Matt Farah?

  If you like the idea of it, you'll probably like driving it. Um, but I've driven four-speed cars and I've driven five-speed cars and I much, much prefer the five-speed car. The four-speed car I drove had a turbo, the last one had a turbo craft motor in it and it's really tuned for big power and and and also torque to come on lower and it was nice, but it was probably a fifty or sixty thousand dollar engine in the car, so it's not the experience of a stock car. In fact, uh, our friend ACP has a really nice four-speed car. It's like an eighty-three, maybe. Uh, it's a Euro spec car that was brought here legally in the eighties and like a gray market car.

• 1:40:56Matt Farah?

  He's looking to sell it soon, I think. Nice car, driver quality, but very well kept. Anyway, that's our show.

• 1:41:04Speaker 01

  Cool.

• 1:41:05Matt Farah?

  That's, that's the show. We have to get back ahead before I go out of town, don't we? So, I mean, we have to do four shows this week. That's a lot of shows. It's many shows. We're gonna have to comment on many topics.

• 1:41:19Speaker 01

  We have thoughts.

• 1:41:20Matt Farah?

  Let's hope things happen.

• 1:41:21Speaker 01

  Things always do.

• 1:41:22Matt Farah?

  They tend to. Uh, thanks for playing along, everybody. Uh, thank you to our patrons for asking such great questions, patreon.com slash the smoke and tire podcast. If you want to get in that game and, uh, we will see you later this week. Bye.