Crazy Toyota Driving; Mercedes Engine Surprise; Lawsuit Update

Matt Farah talks is being surprised by a non-V8 Mercedes AMG; Zack Klapman walks us through his back-to-back drives in 3 generations of GR Corolla (and how the cars differ) AND describes the shock and joy of driving a 2-mile rally stage; Twitter (now X) loses its lawsuit against Matt's wife; plus we answer Patreon questions including: The moment we decided to leave our normal jobs $20k convertible challenge What ONE mod turns a good car into a bad one? Should I manual-swap an R129 Mercedes? Which watch should be a car? BMW E46 GTR vs Calsonic GT-R Why does my car feel weird? Dream drift car build Car owner stereotypes that are true Are we satisfied? Which car did we miss out on? And more! Recorded October 8, 2025 DeleteMe Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://www.joindeleteme.com/TIRE and use promo code TIRE at checkout. Smalls For a limited time get 60%$ off your first order when you head to https://www.smalls.com/tire Rula Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/tire #rulapod TruWerk Get 15% off your first order at https://www. TRUEWERK.com with Code: TIRE New merch! Grab a shirt or hoodie and support us! https://thesmokingtireshop.com/ Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! For a 10% discount on your first case go to https://www.offtherecord.com/TST Want your question answered? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast Instagram: https://www. Instagram.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Instagram.com/therealzackklapman DeleteMe Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://www.joindeleteme.com/TIRE and use promo code TIRE at checkout. Smalls For a limited time get 60%$ off your first order when you head to https://www.smalls.com/tire Rula Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/tire #rulapod TruWerk Get 15% off your first order at https://www. TRUEWERK.com with Code: TIRE New merch! Grab a shirt or hoodie and support us! https://thesmokingtireshop.com/ Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! For a 10% discount on your first case go to https://www.offtherecord.com/TST Want your question answered? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast Instagram: https://www. Instagram.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Instagram.com/therealzackklapman

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

• 0:00Matt Farah?

  What's up everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's podcast is brought to you by Off the Record. We love Off the Record over here. They're looking out for us all the time. Wherever I drive, I drive confident. If I get a ticket, Off the Record is going to defend it to the death, or to the pain, or in court. They would go to court. If you get a ticket, don't plead guilty. Get Off the Record. Go to offtherecord.com/tst. Off the Record will defend that ticket in the precinct jurisdiction where you got it, up to and including going all the way to court, trial, etc. You don't have to do nothing after you hire them. You just let them get the work done. And offtherecord.com/tst will

• 0:45Matt Farah?

  get you 10% off all legal services with Off the Record. They're great. We love them over here at the Smoking Tire. Make sure you use them and drive safe. All right, folks, on this episode of the podcast, we talk about the beauty of AMG inline sixes. The statistical predictions for what would succeed and fail in our YouTube channel have actually come perfectly true. My wife beat Elon Musk in court and Zach got to try a smorgasbord of fast Toyotas on both the racetrack and a rally stage. It's the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go.

• 1:28Matt Farah?

  Shout out to Ms. Lala. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the program. We have a whole bunch of things to talk about. Do you just pour like regular water into your coffee?

• 1:41Speaker 01

  It's tea. So I'm cooling it down so I can drink it faster. So I get the energy during the show, not after the show.

• 1:46Matt Farah?

  Right, right, right.

• 1:47Speaker 01

  Got to time this plane. It's just English breakfast. Good.

• 1:53Matt Farah?

  Is it the same amount of caffeine in a cup of tea, cup of coffee?

• 1:55Speaker 01

  It's less.

• 1:56Matt Farah?

  It's less.

• 1:57Speaker 01

  And it's different. I just, I'm reading Michael Pollan's book, uh, like, Plant Drugs, Your Mind on Plants or something. So the first, first one was about opium poppies. Like, it's four sections.

• 2:07Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  I'm on the caffeine section now. So there's other things in tea that like mellow out how the caffeine feels. It's not just about how many milligrams there are.

• 2:16Matt Farah?

  Got it.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  But there's also usually fewer milligrams, roughly, don't come at me, bros, like, than in a cup of black coffee.

• 2:23Matt Farah?

  Got it. Got it. Got it. I'm on plants.

• 2:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, you are.

• 2:26Matt Farah?

  I'm on, you know, sometimes.

• 2:28Speaker 01

  You're kind of vegetarian.

• 2:28Matt Farah?

  Sometimes I'm on plants.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I mean, sometimes I'm drinking them.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:32Matt Farah?

  Sometimes I'm, uh.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  Alcohol is made from plants.

• 2:35Matt Farah?

  Smoking them, you know, well, sometimes you're on plants.

• 2:40Matt Farah?

  I'm not snorting them. I just got insta congestion from a sneeze that happened 15 minutes ago. And despite all the nose blowing I could muster, it's not gone away yet. Thanks to everybody who bought a ticket to the Willow Springs event. Uh, I see no profit sharing of any kind, but it is now sold out. There's apparently a flip market. Multiple people have contacted me.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 3:05Matt Farah?

  About, yo, you know where I can hook those tickets? And I'm like, ah, I don't. I'm sorry.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  I might have actually only bought extra ones.

• 3:13Matt Farah?

  Did you?

• 3:15Speaker 01

  The links were a little wonky for, for me for a minute.

• 3:17Matt Farah?

  Oh, I, I did have extra tickets that I gave back to them because I don't know what to do with them. So I don't have no extra tickets. I'm not participating in the flip game. Cannot.

• 3:27Speaker 01

  That's the circular economy, Matt. Nvidia is doing it with OpenAI. We should do it.

• 3:32Matt Farah?

  I know. I, you know, we could be really much richer if I was willing to just scam every dollar out of every little thing.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 3:41Matt Farah?

  You know, that's usually how people get, uh, richer. But no, but people are coming. We're doing a live podcast. Don't know what time yet, but during the event. We will figure.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  We're gonna be there.

• 3:52Matt Farah?

  We're gonna be there.

• 3:53Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 3:53Matt Farah?

  Figure it out. Yeah. Um, in the meantime, uh, like three people emailed me and said, you have to talk about the fact that this racetrack pit race outside of Pittsburgh is, uh, was bought by somebody and they intend to close it and not just redevelop it. It's not like if they're putting housing or something there, I'd, I'd be like, ah, it's a bummer, but we need housing. No, they're, they're putting a data center.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  Oh, God.

• 4:20Matt Farah?

  Ew, like.

• 4:21Speaker 01

  Your, all your electric bills are gonna go up and the water use.

• 4:24Matt Farah?

  That's the most insulting, like.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  But have you seen Sora 2, Matt? Look at this video. It's a dolphin driving a car. And you're gonna remember it for, and you forgot. And it's gone, and it's gone.

• 4:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah, exactly that. Exactly that thing. And, um, yeah, I, I've never been there. Um, I don't have any, a personal connection to it, but from the emails I've gotten, it's apparently like the only even moderately legit motorsports facility in the area. It's where they did that vintage Grand Prix. This overhead view looks like a pretty nice place to drive a sports car.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  Yep, does.

• 5:03Matt Farah?

  Um, so, uh, uh, it's a very, it's a real bummer, but there's also, uh, there was a petition. I sent Zach the email. There was a petition that we'll put in the, in the notes of this show. So all you have to do is sign the petition. I don't know what the petition's gonna do. This is a.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  Actually, it, it might work because Microsoft just bailed on building a data center in near Minneapolis, I think, because the community pushback was so aggressive.

• 5:28Matt Farah?

  Oh, really? Okay.

• 5:28Speaker 01

  So.

• 5:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I mean, there, oh, there it is. Safe pit racetrack, uh, from closurechange.org. Uh, forty, forty-eight hundred signatures. Uh, and that's an important part of, uh, our car culture. And I think, I think. I swear, I'm so overloaded with news that it's hard to keep it straight, but I swear, someone just proposed some common sense legislation that says if you move near or build or buy a house near an existing motorsport facility, you are not allowed to complain.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  I saw that too. What state was that?

• 6:04Matt Farah?

  I forget what state it was, but finally, someone, same kind of thing, you know, like, let's fucking go over here. So, I signed it and, uh, and you guys certainly can too. It doesn't cost you nothing.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  Um, let's see, Iowa did it and...

• 6:26Matt Farah?

  Land famously full of racetracks, Iowa.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Oh, North Carolina just passed it. Yeah.

• 6:34Matt Farah?

  People might be in NASCAR country.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, NASCAR, Protect the Right to Race Act or bill.

• 6:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, a racing facility shall not be subject to any action brought by a surrounding property owner under any nuisance or taking cause of action if the developer obtained all the permits for construction, dibba, dibba, dibba, dibba.

• 6:54Matt Farah?

  While the track was there.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  Where the facility is located around the track. Yeah.

• 6:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you can't move near a racetrack and then complain about it. That's like fucking...

• 7:02Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, it's like if, if they, if they built the track or even got all the permits for it before the other developer around it showed up, then you can't complain.

• 7:11Matt Farah?

  AKA finders keepers.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  Aight.

• 7:13Matt Farah?

  AKA fucking, I'm, I got, it's got, it's very Ameri-, there's nothing more American than saying, got mine, fuck you.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  Well, it's funny, it's two conflicting parts of America. There's, there's, Iowa's here first, which America didn't listen to when we first arrived. And then there's, actually, this is ours. Can you turn this racetrack down? That's actually more American.

• 7:34Matt Farah?

  Oh, it's actually shit. You're right. It's more American to do the shitty one.

• 7:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Oh, you're totally, actually, well, yeah.

• 7:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I know. It's definitely more American to do the shittier one. You're very right, Klav.

• 7:51Speaker 01

  If your last name is Custer and you own a racetrack and you're mad about the neighbors getting mad at you, that's an awkward moment.

• 7:56Matt Farah?

  Come to the final night of destruction at Custer Raceway. It's gonna be a big one. Run down.

• 8:05Matt Farah?

  So, but anyhow, to go back to that, that's why it's very important that Willow Springs is a success. So we don't end up in a place where they have to sell it and build some fucking data center. Cause dude, that's where they would build a data center, isn't it? Like just on the edge of like a smallish town.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  Probably.

• 8:25Matt Farah?

  Doesn't have the power to fight them.

• 8:27Speaker 01

  Kind of middle of nowhere. You know, they should build a data center at California City if they're gonna do it.

• 8:30Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  Like just puts, no one's there.

• 8:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:33Speaker 01

  For the most part.

• 8:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah. There's I think like 12,000 people there.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  Then go further east. There's no one there.

• 8:38Matt Farah?

  Keep going.

• 8:39Speaker 01

  Just go to the desert.

• 8:40Matt Farah?

  Speaking of, did we actually ever talk on the show, cause it happened while I was gone? Did we talk about it when I called in from the racetrack about Hannah's lawsuit?

• 8:50Speaker 01

  Uh, no, you texted me.

• 8:51Matt Farah?

  I texted you.

• 8:52Speaker 01

  Are you allowed to talk about it?

• 8:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 8:54Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 8:54Matt Farah?

  Fucking done.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 8:56Matt Farah?

  So, I mean, for those who didn't know, my wife used to work at Twitter. And there's a lot of people that like, don't understand how timelines work. And like to think that like, I only don't like Elon Musk because of the Twitter layoffs. Which is a hilarious thing to think, because I literally also, they used the same one where I called him a fraud on Joe Rogan. They used that clip also. That happened before she even worked there. So, those two things can't also be true.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:26Matt Farah?

  Point being, right? It's the same, yeah.

• 9:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah. So, point being, when she and, you know, 3,000 whatever other people were fired, more than that, however many it was. Uh, she didn't take the settlement. She fucking fought the fascist. She sued. And, uh, it took two years and whatever during which time she mostly was not working. But she fucking won. That's awesome. She, uh, she, she won, um, essentially, you know, two years of salary. She won, um, her, all the stock she would have gotten. But at like thirty percent interest on all of it. Really?

• 10:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's not, it's not like, it's not like retirement money by any means. But like, and it doesn't necessarily make up for the mental anguish of being like cast aside as worthless and then along with thousands of other people and then not being able to find a job for two years. Um, but, uh, it does more than financially make up for it. And like, most importantly, like you fucking beat bullies by standing up to them. Totally. Like you don't, you, you know, like, I think, I think it's, it's, it's the percentage of people that are winning their trials. Uh, just in Hannah's, the law firm that she worked with is like high eighties.

• 10:52Matt Farah?

  Like, like the high eight, if you fight him, like high eighties is your percentage of winning. Cause they didn't have grounds for firing. Yeah, cause it was fucking bullshit. They just said it and hoped it would go through. Bully, yeah. Yeah. So anyway, she, uh, has won a fucking enormous amount of money. Uh, which is great. Now we're gonna redo the landscaping in the front yard. She's gonna go get herself some fucking diamonds. Get iced up. Um, and we're having T-shirts made that says, I beat a fascist in court and you can too. Uh, which everybody should be wearing those. Yeah, pretty much. Um, but yeah, I mean, look, it's, I guess it was. In some ways, like a privilege to be able to fight.

• 11:37Matt Farah?

  She didn't need to like live on the one month salary that they were offering in that one month. And maybe other people did.

• 11:46Matt Farah?

  But it, you know, definitely was the right move to like tell him to go fuck himself and sue.

• 11:52Speaker 01

  Another reason, among so many reasons that having like your emergency fund for everybody is like, you should do that. If you don't have one now, start saving for one for so many reasons. But sometimes these companies will fire people and they'll offer them, penny, offer you pennies for silence or acceptance.

• 12:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 12:09Speaker 01

  And to be able to say no and keep your integrity is, is a privilege and a strength if you can.

• 12:14Matt Farah?

  And I will have to see how much she's comfortable saying and it'll, not until the fucking money hits the account. But like, you know, she signed the original, you know, the original paperwork when she went to work there. But she did not sign the thing, you know, when, when she was fired where it was like, take this money and sign the fucking non disparage. Like she definitely, she signed the NDA in the beginning, but did not ever sign like the non disparage.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's the one you don't want.

• 12:43Matt Farah?

  I think she can, I think she could tell some stories. Pretty sure she, the printer story is too good. A little bit that was reported on the printer story.

• 12:52Speaker 01

  Print your code.

• 12:52Matt Farah?

  The tiny bit that was, that was published in the news isn't anywhere near as funny as the entire truth of the printer story. It's fucking too good to not tell.

• 13:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the tiniest bit, just Google, print your code. You'll, you'll find it. Add the search term Twitter and, and.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  That's kind of like the these, these things should not exist at once. It's like, you know, put this code on paper.

• 13:19Matt Farah?

  Print your code.

• 13:20Speaker 01

  Write it in cursive.

• 13:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but there was a whole bunch of other reasons that print your code is really, really stupid and bad. But yay for my wife, uh, fuck fascists.

• 13:34Matt Farah?

  So that's a good thing, but like there, here's a kind of a bad thing. Folks, this episode is brought to you by Delete Me. Right now, the headlines are chock full of data breaches and regulatory rollbacks, making us all vulnerable, but you can do something about it. Delete Me is here to make it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online. Delete Me is not just a one-time service. They're always working for you, constantly monitoring and removing the personal information you don't want on the internet. In fact, New York Times Wirecutter has named Delete Me their top pick for data removal services. And it's, this is so great. I use it, it's so easy. All you do is you make an account, you sign up at Delete Me,

• 14:19Matt Farah?

  and then you put in your information, like where I live and used to live, phone numbers, employers, etc. And then Delete Me goes to all the big data broker websites, searching for the things that I want to search for, automatically deleting it, filing takedown notices, everything. It could be social security numbers, it could be addresses, it could be information about my family members. And they send me this report of what they found, and then they delete it all. And then every month, they send me new reports and the number keeps going down, down, down, down, down by a little bit. And it's an ongoing service. I know they're always looking out for me, not just the one time. And I have seen a reduction in like spam texts and phone calls and scammy things and things like that.

• 15:04Matt Farah?

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• 15:44Matt Farah?

  Rula is, guys, this is so money because it is so hard to find the right therapist. That's just hard in itself. How do you know you're gonna go, "I'm gonna tell a stranger all the things about me that I really don't tell anybody else." That's why you go to therapy, to have that impartial, dispassionate person help you talk through things where you can't talk through them with your friends or your family or whatever. I've seen a therapist for the last 20 years and it's immensely helpful, but starting over, I wouldn't even know where to start, right? And then you have to talk about insurance. Your health insurance covers medical stuff, but it shouldn't be so hard to get it to cover mental stuff.

• 16:28Matt Farah?

  And so Rula is here for you. Telehealth from Rula is more convenient and accessible for millions of people. Rula isn't just affordable, they stick with you through your journey, making sure you get the best therapy and that you're making progress. With Rula, every provider is carefully vetted and chosen for their experience. You'll always know you're in the hands of quality providers who are dedicated to making real progress in your care. The first step to your journey, on your journey to mental wellbeing is easy. Rula starts by just asking you a few questions about what's important to you, and then provides a list of licensed internet providers who match your preferences. You can schedule your preferred time and meet with your therapist as soon as the next day.

• 17:12Matt Farah?

  So go to rula.com/tire to get started today. That's R-U-L-A dot com slash tire for convenient therapy that's covered by your insurance. Now, back to the show. Remember when we talked about like, like, you know, like what's depressing about YouTube? Like things that are work, things that don't work? Like basically what Kevin said. Like, you wanna be successful on YouTube, talk about drama or like shit on something popular. Talk about money, right? Or like, do the like, big, the big risk thing, right? Take a, take a big financial risk. And I was talking to someone about our video, top

• 17:53Matt Farah?

  videos of the, in the past 12 months, and I pulled it up in the, in the analytics, our top videos. Numbers one, two, and three are...

• 18:03Matt Farah?

  Shitting on the Cybertruck.

• 18:04Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm. Yeah, by a long shot, I'm sure.

• 18:07Matt Farah?

  The, the zinger, which, uh, which the title of which is a title I hate but need, which is, is, this is the only car that's worth 2.3 million dollars. It's an incre- I, I can't even believe I had to write a title saying that because to say to an audience with a straight face, this thing is worth 2 million dollars is like a fucking douche-ass move, but it undoubtedly works. And number three is buying a depreciated used Taycan. Those are our, like, literally the three things that he said are our number one, two, and three videos. One I didn't enjoy making, the Cybertruck one. One I loved making, but didn't, I'm ashamed that I have to title it that.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:52Matt Farah?

  And the other one, yeah, it did well. I had to spend 70,000 dollars. I had to buy a whole ass car.

• 19:00Speaker 01

  All you have to do that is do that every two weeks. Uh, like, you know, some other influencers have done.

• 19:05Matt Farah?

  And then, by the way, in case you're wondering, do you wanna take a fucking whack at what all seven of the remaining top 10 have in common?

• 19:14Speaker 01

  Uh, money?

• 19:16Matt Farah?

  The Porsche 911.

• 19:18Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 19:18Matt Farah?

  All seven of the remaining ones are Porsche 911 videos.

• 19:21Speaker 01

  You're a feverish audience.

• 19:23Matt Farah?

  So, like, it begs the question, like, I mean, it gen- it genuinely begs the question, especially based on what I was saying to, uh, Motoman George Notaras a couple of weeks ago while Zach was gone. He shitcanned his whole channel because it was baggage and started over with a new channel.

• 19:42Speaker 01

  Why didn't he do that? Just to get rid of old videos that were dragging stuff down?

• 19:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah, he was told by experts that his own channel was holding him back.

• 19:50Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 19:51Matt Farah?

  And he, and he shitcanned it, made one last video that's like, here's where I'm going, here's where to find me. And, you know, he was getting 25,000, 35,000 views. You know, his first video he puts up at the new channel is like 90,000. And his second one is 50,000. It's still way abo- you know, it's, and his engagement is up, his comments up. People are finding him that have never heard of him before. So, it does beg the question, like, do we fucking shitcan the whole channel? And start a new channel that's like...

• 20:27Matt Farah?

  T S T Porsches or something. I mean, seriously, like if that's what it's gonna be like, I we didn't, we've made videos about a million other cars.

• 20:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:34Matt Farah?

  But like, this is where, this is what people are going to.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  Hmm. I don't know. I have to talk to more experts in person for sure, but that is curious that you could, because we've talked before about the the algorithm helping out new people. And if it thinks you're new.

• 20:48Matt Farah?

  Our channel might be too old.

• 20:49Speaker 01

  It might be too old, which it is.

• 20:50Matt Farah?

  Our channel might be just too fucking old and like, I'm pretty sure that like with the podcast and with the Instagram and with whatever. Like, we probably could get a good chunk of whatever our million subscribers are like, whatever of those are like real active people. We could probably get them and like, who knows, maybe we could like make more money with fewer subscribers on a new channel. Because they'd be real engaged people.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  I wonder if there's something in the algorithm where having like, you know, quote dead subscribers, like if.

• 21:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 21:22Speaker 01

  If so many of your views are coming from outside your subscriber base and your views are not that high. If it if the algorithm just goes, oh, okay, we're just gonna keep burying this.

• 21:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 21:30Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 21:31Matt Farah?

  So, I mean, it is entirely possible that that we could be getting crushed under the weight of our own channel.

• 21:39Speaker 01

  Of our own success. Let's let's be nice.

• 21:42Matt Farah?

  I mean, yeah, I mean, well, that's the other thing is you that doesn't happen unless you first are successful. You have to have been around for a while, but we might have to go fucking Jefferson Starship. You know?

• 21:54Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:54Matt Farah?

  I mean, it doesn't mean like throwing away the brand. It literally just means a new like URL.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  Right, and you just call it T S T.

• 22:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you would call it, yeah, some, you know, something.

• 22:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:04Matt Farah?

  That that would be immediately identifiable as us, but just like a different fucking link.

• 22:09Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 22:09Matt Farah?

  So.

• 22:10Speaker 01

  Kevin, I know you're listening. Email us.

• 22:13Matt Farah?

  Dude, he, I mean, like, he couldn't have been more right. He would the one, two and three, each an example of the three things he said would work, all of which I don't like doing.

• 22:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's the, I mean, that's the hard thing for sure.

• 22:28Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 22:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:29Matt Farah?

  Right. It's dude, and I and I'm so like, I was thinking about it this morning, like, I'm really jealous of Doug. Because Doug's car review videos are we're experiencing the same trajectory as ours. Bigger numbers, but still. And but now he's got all this data from the auctions. And so now he's got, you know, his clips and his videos are like market analysis, which God bless him. He likes doing, but like he has the data.

• 22:56Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 22:57Matt Farah?

  And like, you can talk about money in sort of a non douchey way. Uh, by doing that.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true.

• 23:08Speaker 01

  Vin, Vin did that a little bit on his channel. He's done some of these like used nine 11 comparisons where it's like. My friend bought this for 20, this for 30, this for 40.

• 23:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 23:17Speaker 01

  So it's like approachable amounts of money and relative, of course, but like compared to what nine 11's cost new. You know, it's a 10th or a a fifth of that.

• 23:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 23:26Speaker 01

  And it's kind of like market analysis with driving and sounds.

• 23:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I mean, there's there's. There's different ways to do things, but um. It is, uh.

• 23:38Matt Farah?

  It was depressingly, uh, clear by looking at those things like what, you know? What, what is going to be successful?

• 23:46Speaker 01

  I should look at the click through rate because I think I played with the titles of Zinger a bit.

• 23:51Matt Farah?

  Didn't you do an A B test or something?

• 23:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, they do like A B C test now, which is really handy that it's built into YouTube. Um, I wonder how much is like from the. The picture, the craziness of the car, the story is kind of exclusive. And then how much is the title?

• 24:03Matt Farah?

  There it it comes together. I mean, yeah, there's not a lot of people that have driven those cars. They are weird, you know, they immediately look different. And, uh. And the story had just come out about them setting the track records, et cetera, et cetera. So like that one, yeah, good, good, good storm of things. Title didn't hurt.

• 24:23Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 24:23Matt Farah?

  You know, title didn't hurt, sure. And there's other things about the Taycan video other than. Host risk is risks, huge amount of money on depreciating thing and and there's. You know, maybe something about the Cybertruck video. Besides, it's just popular person shitting on other popular, you know, thing.

• 24:43Matt Farah?

  But but it just it brings that kind of thing into focus.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  Definitely. Yeah.

• 24:48Matt Farah?

  Pretty sharp because the other end of it that was bumming me out because I now I remember why I was talking about it. Because we did the totem GT video and I was talking to my dad up at Pebble Beach and he was asking how videos were going and I was like, it kind of fucking sucks because it has nothing to do with how good a job like you do. It's like it's that you could do, you could make a nice video, but like I showed him this to the totem video, which is like, such a beautiful car, really interesting in theory, like all the things that we want. You know, analog and light and blah, blah, blah, blah, crazy. And it's just not done very well compared to the hyper car that everyone says they're sick of. You know, and

• 25:32Matt Farah?

  and oh, by the way, here's the revenue on this one and here's the revenue on this one and yikes.

• 25:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:39Matt Farah?

  You know, and and so, you know, for what is effectively the same amount of work.

• 25:44Speaker 01

  I mean, I think that makes sense to me because the zinger is if you're in into if you're into any kind of car. And you see that thing, you're gonna go, what the is that? I'm gonna watch it. The totem is like, you have to be, I think, into a restomods, into European restomods, maybe into alphas. Like, I think it's just a smaller market. Even though I think the craftsmanship, you know, of it appeal should appeal to everybody, but to get that across in a thumbnail is really, really hard.

• 26:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I guess I I guess maybe zingers SEO is better than I think it is, but also it does look like alien spacecraft. That that goes a long way. Alien spacecraft is a thing.

• 26:20Speaker 01

  It looks insane, man.

• 26:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it doesn't look like a car.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  Uh uh.

• 26:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 26:24Speaker 01

  It's F zero, like you said, the front shot, straight up F zero.

• 26:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah, they can't all be that, unfortunately.

• 26:30Speaker 01

  And if they all were, the audience would get bored.

• 26:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and and and actually, you know, I read through some of the comments in the totem GT video, it seems like every everybody, a lot of people were commenting about the tire rub. I mean, on the one hand, to give a car like that to the media to drive on video where you know what's gonna happen is sort of. Terminally stupid. That's just a dumb thing. It's because people are gonna remember that. Like, people are, when people, if someone goes, "Oh, did you see that video?" "Have you seen this totem thing?" Someone's gonna go, "Yeah, I saw Farah's video." It like rubs everywhere. Like, "What the fuck is that about?" And they're gonna remember that thing. It's not, no one's gonna be like, "Oh, well, you know." If it's a magazine test and they can't hear it, you could forgive it.

• 27:14Matt Farah?

  It was basically set to like show car, show car height for quail, to like look cool. Like, they, they lowered it, essentially, and they didn't raise it back up a little bit for us to drive it. That's what Ricciardo said.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  Okay. I didn't think, I didn't think it was that low, but I, I will say that it's a new company, and if that's all that's wrong with that car, which to my opinion really was the only negative, then they can change that pretty easily.

• 27:42Matt Farah?

  Well, there was two negatives for me. One was the, the steering feel.

• 27:45Speaker 01

  Oh, that's right.

• 27:46Matt Farah?

  The geometry, the way that that changed, and, and, and Ricciardo from Totem pretty much said that that really can't be changed. That's because they had to bend the steering shaft around the much wider twin turbo V6. Remember, there was a straight line four there, so the shaft would just go straight past it. Now it's got a knuckle in it. So that, and then other geometries, like, there's just not really a way around that.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  Got it.

• 28:12Matt Farah?

  Because they have to sort of use the firewall from the original car.

• 28:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 28:18Matt Farah?

  Kind of like all that's left. So, yeah.

• 28:20Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 28:21Matt Farah?

  And then, so there's that, but then it also was rubbing in corners. He, he said, "Look, we set it really low, so it looked really cool at quail." The normal ride height is like, you know, half an inch higher, and it doesn't rub. Which, I, I believe, I believe they set it low to look cool, and I believe they didn't take the 30 minutes or whatever. However long, 30, however long it takes to raise it back up, I believe they didn't do that. But I believe that the car has another option besides rubbing.

• 28:52Speaker 01

  I, that's what I'm saying is, I think that that is, it's not a flaw, like a fundamental flaw to the construction of the vehicle. It's something that they can get rid of.

• 28:59Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  The steering, unfortunately, it sounds like they can't get rid of, so, you know, if you're shopping for these, test drive one first, but,

• 29:06Speaker 01

  and I, and I think they, they, they're gonna see this video, and they're gonna go, "We don't want this to rub." And they're gonna, you know, make adjustments, or have someone else drive it, or whatever, and... Like, I have faith that that company will be around, because I think their work is so good.

• 29:20Matt Farah?

  Sure, yeah. No, it's not, even the steering, like, it's, it's not great, but it's like, man, the rest of that thing is so nice, like, uh, maybe I wouldn't like it, but like, most people would live with it. Most people wouldn't see it as much of a problem as I do, but like, it's a very beautiful car, it sounds really cool. It's clearly, it looks fast on video, which is a tough thing to do. You know, for a car like that, it's, it looks fast, but like, it's, it's actually far faster than it looks. It's really, really, really nuts. Um, so please go check out that video, it's over on the, uh, the Dead and Dying YouTube channel, to figure this one out. Um, and before we get to some questions,

• 30:07Matt Farah?

  because we do have a lot of those, um, some saved from last episode, some new ones. Um, you know, I'm driving, I, I've had a revel, bit of a revelation today. I'm driving this Mercedes, uh, C L E fifty-three convertible. And, uh, this has the inline-six in it. And I gotta say, folks gotta take one more quick break, because support is coming in from Truework. Fall weather changes fast, it gets hot, it gets cold, it gets wet, it gets windy, it gets hot again. Sometimes all in one shift, or one hike. Truework is performance workwear, built like it matters, because it does. Truework is founded by a trained professional, who was tired of wet, heavy gear weighing him down.

• 30:52Matt Farah?

  Truework set out to make workwear that keeps pros comfortable, capable, and ready for whatever the day throws at them. Designed with advanced performance fabrics, for lasting comfort, all-day mobility, and year-round job site protection. Every piece is tested on job sites with trade pros, so when conditions change, you're still ready. With over 50,000 5-star reviews from pros in every trade and every climate. I wore the True Work button-down t-shirt on my most recent trip because it, I packed it specifically for its temperature flexibility. I had absolutely no idea what the weather was going to be. It turns out it was going to be completely different than

• 31:32Matt Farah?

  I packed for. I did not need to bring shorts at all. But my True Work over shirt was good for every single condition. It got hot, it got cold, it was excellent. You can get this gear too. Upgrade your day with workwear built like it matters. Get 15% off your first order at truewerk.com with code TIRE. That's T-R-U-E-W-E-R-K.com code TIRE. Also today, Smalls is coming in hot, and I love Smalls because Smalls loves my cats like I love my cats. We are, we are one big happy family, and I was just gone for two weeks. They are

• 32:14Matt Farah?

  so happy to see me again. They are sleeping in bed with me. They're sitting by the fire. It is fabulous, and I want them to live long, luxurious, happy, healthy lives. That's why I feed them Smalls. My cats, they can't live without it. It's so delicious. They prefer Smalls way more than the Fancy Feast, way more than the Blue Buffalo. I did the side-by-side taste tests. They all went to the Smalls. They've got fewer hairballs, they've got great energy, healthier weight, and they've got a very, very soft coat. My cats love me, and I've actually done a new thing where I used to, for a long time, I

• 32:56Matt Farah?

  mean really like 25 years of owning cats, I had all my cats eating from the same bowl. And they would eat one at a time from the same bowl. It's kind of an interesting thing. And then I saw in Jackson Galaxy's book to do, you know, four separate bowls and have them feed eat at the same time every day, you know, morning and night for a sort of better energy flow. And I actually did this with the Smalls and now the cats are not eating dry food in between the wet food, Smalls, breakfast and dinner. It's money. And I first used the Smalls as the topper to transition the cats to it. And now they are eating it twice a day, every day. It is great. So what are you waiting for? You can give your cat

• 33:37Matt Farah?

  the food they deserve to for a limited time. Because you're a listener of the Smoking Tire, you can get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com/tire. That's smalls.com/tire. One last time, 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com/tire. And now, back to the show. And I gotta say, this is the motor. This is, AMG once did some pretty cool inline sixes, like back in the day, like the W124s had inline sixes. And they had a couple of nice inline sixes. There was like

• 34:16Matt Farah?

  a C36 or E36 AMG that was like, pretty cool. I had like a hot, you know, dual overhead cam head. And it was sort of like a BMW S54 type of engine. So this has this six cylinder. And man, when you kind of, it's smooth, really nice. The car, I think the car looks great, actually. And, and when you rip it, this thing is like, this has this real nice slick inline six, like a BMW on a good day. Like a, like a good BMW inline six.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  I hear what you're saying. Go fuck yourself.

• 34:53Matt Farah?

  I'm into it.

• 34:57Speaker 01

  Now, would you take this over in four liter, you know, twin turbo?

• 35:00Matt Farah?

  Well, like, that's not like an option right now. Like, I, you know, that 63 is like the four cylinder. That's gone.

• 35:07Speaker 01

  So this is definitely better?

• 35:08Matt Farah?

  This is way better than the four cylinder. Way better. And like,

• 35:14Matt Farah?

  Obviously, that four liter V8 in the in the big E sixty three is awesome. But given like what's great about AMGs is like the the real AMG engines. That feel special are like are good. And and and that's kind of what makes it. And so this one is one of those where you go, OK, it's not it's not the most powerful. Can you actually look at I don't even know how much power it makes. I'll know when I need to know. I don't need to know yet. I've been driving it for one day. Uh, how much power does this make?

• 35:44Speaker 01

  Let's see. Four twenty nine?

• 35:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it feels quick. It's and it's a it's a mild hybrid, so it's got a little bit of electric, a little bit of electric assist. The stop start's really nice, got good seats. I actually really like the ride. And uh.

• 36:00Matt Farah?

  Is there more information?

• 36:05Matt Farah?

  The the convertible is a hundred grand even, and it's got this one's got a bunch of options on it. You know, good, good paint, good wheels. But uh.

• 36:12Speaker 01

  Oh, wait, I might have been wrong. It might be.

• 36:16Speaker 01

  Six hundred horsepower?

• 36:19Matt Farah?

  No. That's an E. This is the CLE, which is more like gonna be more like the. I think the C class. Let's see.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  Four forty three.

• 36:32Matt Farah?

  That's yeah, that's probably right. Yeah, OK. Four forty three at fifty eight hundred. Yeah, that seems right. So it it scoots. It feels it feels powerful and quick. I I like this.

• 36:43Speaker 01

  It doesn't feel problematic the way like the inline four is so buzzy and.

• 36:47Matt Farah?

  No, no, it feels like a luxurious engine. Yeah, that's the problem with those forty five with those four cylinders is like. They're juiced up like, yes, they objectively make a bunch of power. But they feel like tuned up Evo motors. They don't feel like luxurious product.

• 37:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:03Matt Farah?

  This is a luxury engine for sure. I'm I'm into it. Yeah, and actually, my my trainer, who is the is the the arbiter of like. Is this car cool in the streets? He was he was like, he saw that car and he was like, how much is that, like hundred and fifty, hundred and sixty grand? And I was like, no, it's a hundred flat. And he was like. That's it. That's the one right there. It looks good. It looks better than the SL. It looks nice.

• 37:29Speaker 01

  Nice. I haven't seen the front of it. I think it was parked here when I got here, but yeah, the engine makes sense. I love, I know I'm biased, but like the inline six is the lack of vibration. It's a smooth luxurious experience.

• 37:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  In a car like that, it makes a lot of sense.

• 37:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 37:42Speaker 01

  If you're gonna go lesser than the big rowdy rumbly thing, don't drop to this buzzy four cylinder.

• 37:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah, especially like this is the 53, but that's somehow the 63. Like fuck out of here. Like, no, that's not good. That's no good.

• 37:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:55Matt Farah?

  So, yeah. Uh, let's go to the people.

• 37:57Speaker 01

  Actually, can we talk about Toyotas for a little bit?

• 37:59Matt Farah?

  Oh dude, I've completely forgotten.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  Cause I went last week, two weeks ago, I went to Sonoma to drive every Toyota available on the planet.

• 38:09Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 38:09Speaker 01

  This was, this was Toyota-thon.

• 38:11Matt Farah?

  Alright.

• 38:11Speaker 01

  And what I think it was is, I mean, me being a cynical sarcastic asshole was like, they don't have any major changes to any of the cars, so they just brought everything. And like, do you wanna drive all these little increments at the track? And I said, yes, I would love to do that.

• 38:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  Because the great thing they did, they had the 2026 GR Corolla out there. They had a new, the final edition Supra, GR86 Yuzu edition, and then

• 38:36Matt Farah?

  Yuzu?

• 38:37Speaker 01

  Yuzu edition.

• 38:38Matt Farah?

  Like the fruit?

• 38:39Speaker 01

  Yes. It's yellow, it's got quad exhaust and

• 38:43Matt Farah?

  It tastes delicious when you lick the dash.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you can eat the car.

• 38:48Matt Farah?

  Does Snazberries taste like Snazberries?

• 38:50Speaker 01

  A hundred percent. I mean, it's a very cool, it's a good yellow. It looks a lot like Sonic Yellow or anything else.

• 38:58Speaker 01

  And then they had the Corolla like cross Cabrio hybrid thing. And I was like, I'll drive up on the racetrack, please. But

• 39:06Matt Farah?

  Open lapping?

• 39:07Speaker 01

  Open lapping. Um, wait, no. Yeah, yes, open lapping, once you do like orientation, but you had to do a pit in, pit out. Couldn't do a flyby on front straight into turn one. Kinda understand why. Also disappointing.

• 39:22Matt Farah?

  Disappointing.

• 39:22Speaker 01

  Kinda understand why. They made up for it. Uh, they let us drive a rally course, like a dirt road with no walls.

• 39:32Speaker 01

  I was shocked in the GR Corolla. It was like two miles long, dude. Really? Yeah, so I'll tell that story first. I'd be over there all day. Um, their line for it was big, so I got in line for that. And you go for a ride with Ryan Turk. Mm-hmm. Super fun, uh, video, I'm putting up a little Instagram video tomorrow. Ryan is not a rally driver, as he stated and as we know. And what was funny about it- He's a Formula Drift driver. Yeah, if you're, if you're listening, like, yeah, he's a Formula Drift driver. He's a very good one. He's been doing it for a long time for Toyota. And they kind of put him in this because he's like a brand ambassador. But meanwhile, there's a gentleman who is doing, uh, like the Scandi flick instruction over at a dirt lot. Yeah. Who's like a seven-time national rally champ in the United States.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I said this to Ryan, I was like, that's how you know how little money there is in actual rally? Like, people do it for the love of the game, and it's the most fun in the world. Yeah. But like- The champion is like- The champion's over there because no one knows who he is. Yeah. And he was such a nice guy, I forgot his name, uh, I'll remember it later. Um, and so he would just teach, you know, the, the pro guy would just teach you to do a Scandi flick in a dirt lot. So Ryan takes me on this ride. We hit 106 miles per hour up in the hills above Sonoma. On dirt? On dirt. Yeah. Over crest, big slides, and we get done. And he's like, alright, well, you can get in line and then get in one of the other cars. And I do, and there's a guy sitting right seat, his driving instructor. The, the lack of oversight was perfect, Matt.

• 41:00Speaker 01

  Like, it's not like the guy just didn't say anything. Yeah. And I was making a video, so I said, alright, let's do hand gestures. So if I need to slow down or stay right, just do that. And he's like, great. That's what we did. Mm-hmm. I didn't hit anything, he didn't feel, he didn't poop. Yeah. But, I mean, I was sliding this car at 60 miles an hour. Awesome. Like, left hand, third gear, and then there was a handbrake turn at the bottom of a hill. So much room for error. Wow, would you use the handbrake in stock cars? Yeah, dude, it was, and this is Toyota, like- Were they automatics or manuals? Uh, no, manual.

• 41:32Matt Farah?

  They were having you use the handbrake?

• 41:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was the greatest.

• 41:36Matt Farah?

  That's fucking nuts.

• 41:37Speaker 01

  And shocking, shocking.

• 41:39Matt Farah?

  How was it on, how were they on dirt?

• 41:41Speaker 01

  Really good. Uh, the, the car I drove on dirt was a 2025 and we can get into the differences. Um, uh, I was very impressed with how it soaked up all the little bumps and ruts and it just felt like really composed going around. Thing rotated really easily. Uh, tires, I think it was on PS4s.

• 42:02Matt Farah?

  On the dirt?

• 42:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. So at 70 miles an hour, it starts to like hum and skim.

• 42:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 42:07Speaker 01

  Um, I felt it much more than when Ryan was driving. When he was driving, I was having a good time. But when I hit 70, I was like, this feels up on its toes, you know? Uh, but dude, the rotation was good. I mean, turbo lag is very evident after the handbrake turn especially, but.

• 42:22Matt Farah?

  Those, those things have no balls below like four grand.

• 42:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:25Matt Farah?

  That's why the TAC is like so, one, if 1,000 to 4,000 RPM is like an inch and a half and then 4,000 to seven is like six inches.

• 42:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's very clever of them to do that. Um, it, but, but the shocks did a great job. The diffs did a great job. Uh, I didn't do left, I think I had left foot braked once and of course it's Toyota, so it cuts the throttle. So you really have to be careful about that kind of on off stuff.

• 42:50Matt Farah?

  You know what didn't? The Audi RS3.

• 42:52Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 42:52Matt Farah?

  RS3 would let me left foot brake, actually. I was, I was kind of impressed. And the Golf R did too.

• 42:57Speaker 01

  Did you have to put it in a mode to do that?

• 42:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the maximum, whatever. I mean, it wasn't like a special mode, but it was like whatever the highest performance track or, I think in the Golf R it was Nürburgring mode. Yeah.

• 43:09Speaker 01

  I wish, I understand why this car doesn't do it because of, you know, little unintended acceleration thing back in the day.

• 43:15Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 43:16Speaker 01

  But, uh, but it did a great job on, uh, on the dirt. It was a really good time.

• 43:20Matt Farah?

  That's sweet.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  And then, uh, drove it on the track. And driving generations back to back to back is so valuable because the leap from 24 to 25 in the GR Corolla was so noticeable. They had changed, they put a little, there's a new spring inside the shocks. They had a softer rear sway bar, firmer rear. springs, they made thicker bolts in it, which they had on display, which I thought was, I made fun of it at the time. And then the rest of the presentations, like, we also changed the bushings, the springs, put a spring inside the shock, change the sway bar. I was like, you should focus on that.

• 43:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 43:57Speaker 01

  Cause that did a lot.

• 43:58Matt Farah?

  Kind of while you're in there.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  They did the bolts for the 2024 year, but what I noticed is that the 24 car feels soft, feels, uh, the steering just feels like a little bit too squishy. And light and you could feel the rear inside wheel picking up on some of the tighter corners in Sonoma. 25, that was like gone. Uh, and then 26, they retuned the steering even more. They changed some suspension pickup points. And then the big thing was they added 46 feet of glue to the shell. And they're, you know, that was like, 25 was like, they did a big changes.

• 44:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 44:30Speaker 01

  And then.

• 44:31Matt Farah?

  Now they're like, we added glue.

• 44:32Speaker 01

  We added glue, which does a lot. I mean, I think they did it on the Civic Type R or something. That was a big story. But coming from the 25 where you could feel these huge changes, the car was way more planted, it rotated better. 26 was like, small tweaks, did feel better and had even better squat.

• 44:46Matt Farah?

  They're changing the car every year, though.

• 44:48Speaker 01

  They are changing the car every year and it is improving and it was good to have that perspective. Um, it was fun.

• 44:55Matt Farah?

  The only 24 I drove was the Mariso, which was like the crazy one. And I, I didn't like, I mean, I liked it on the track. It was, it was very stiff and abusive on the street. I thought it was kind of silly. Um, the, the 25, uh, premium was nice. Or whatever the, the middle one, the good bits, is it premium, whatever it is, was, that was nice.

• 45:16Speaker 01

  That's all you need, I think. I had a great time driving it on the track. It felt way more like planted, agile. Everything about it was better. And the 26 was even better, but if you get a 2025, like you'll still be happy.

• 45:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 45:28Speaker 01

  But I would definitely get that over the 24.

• 45:30Matt Farah?

  Cool. What else did you drive?

• 45:31Speaker 01

  I drove a Supra, which, uh, that was like really small changes. Where's my note?

• 45:38Speaker 01

  Supra was like a lot of software stuff. They changed diff maps, shock maps. They changed, they quote revised the camber angle. That's called an alignment. That was in the, that was in the, that was in the presentation.

• 45:53Matt Farah?

  Revised camber angle. That's a pretty good one. I like that. I'm gonna use that.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  That was funny. Um, little stronger underbody brace and some aero tweaks. That was harder to notice the difference and like, what it was interesting is jumping from the GR86 to the Supra. And then you notice how heavy the Supra feels and, you know, it's a fast car, but you just don't feel like you're as, I don't know, like locked in. It doesn't, it just doesn't feel as focused. The GR86 is so good.

• 46:21Matt Farah?

  I think the, the, the 86 is actually the better car.

• 46:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:25Matt Farah?

  A lot, in a lot of way, other than just speed.

• 46:27Speaker 01

  Other than speed, but through the S's.

• 46:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 46:29Speaker 01

  I mean, the GR86 obviously changes its direction more quickly. It just feels lighter and more fun and

• 46:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  I, I like that car so much.

• 46:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the downhill sections of Sonoma, if your sector times are better in the Corolla.

• 46:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:43Matt Farah?

  Obviously uphill, yes, power is gonna, is gonna carry you. Um, although a lot of the uphill sections at Sonoma, one, two, two of the three uphill sections of Sonoma are braking zones.

• 46:58Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 46:58Matt Farah?

  Turn one is a braking zone.

• 47:00Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 47:01Matt Farah?

  Turn three is a braking zone and then whatever turn up the hill before going down the big carousel. That, that one's on power, but that's only one.

• 47:08Speaker 01

  That's on power.

• 47:09Matt Farah?

  Oh, the, the, the in, inside mildly uphill inner back straight.

• 47:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, almost flat nearest makes no difference kind of thing, but I mean, the Supra was much quicker than the GR86 there.

• 47:21Matt Farah?

  But like, I think, uh, I bet the difference would be less than you think. I mean,

• 47:26Speaker 01

  I think so. It, it was a really fun day, but, um, yeah, the changes to the 86 was Brembos and better dampers and like the Yuzu gets the performance stuff that the other ones got.

• 47:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  But it's mostly just appearance stuff. It has quad exhaust.

• 47:39Matt Farah?

  Ooh.

• 47:40Speaker 01

  Which like,

• 47:40Matt Farah?

  It's a lot, one per cylinder.

• 47:42Speaker 01

  I know, and that's, I know they did it with the STIs, but the, the GR86 engine is like better.

• 47:48Matt Farah?

  Unnaturally aspirated. Come on, we don't even.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  With naturally aspirated four. It's just too many exhausts. It's trying, the tryhard.

• 47:54Matt Farah?

  The, oh man, speaking of which, the new John Cooper Works Mini. You know they do the the center tailpipe?

• 48:02Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 48:02Matt Farah?

  The new one is center, it's just one.

• 48:06Speaker 01

  Like a boxer.

• 48:07Matt Farah?

  Not a double, it's just one, but it's one round like two. It literally looks like a bung hole.

• 48:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:15Matt Farah?

  And here's what's really crazy. It's actually a dual exhaust, but the other outlet is hidden under the fucking bumper. So there's a dual, there are two outlets, but you only, you have to look at the rear, rear angle. I bet you no one's actually taking a picture of it. Yep, there it is. Look at the little blue bung hole.

• 48:37Matt Farah?

  It's so weird looking.

• 48:39Speaker 01

  Weird looking. That, I feel like I'm looking at a specific, uh, species of baboon.

• 48:46Speaker 01

  Where, uh, where'd it go?

• 48:47Matt Farah?

  I bet you Mini doesn't show that angle on their website.

• 48:51Speaker 01

  Oh, come on.

• 48:52Matt Farah?

  Dude, you're not, they're not even gonna show it. They're so ashamed of their exposed pooper. They're not gonna show it.

• 48:59Speaker 01

  It's quite big.

• 49:00Matt Farah?

  Dude, as soon as they pulled that car up, I was like, yo, what are you?

• 49:07Matt Farah?

  It looks stupid.

• 49:09Speaker 01

  It looks really weird, yeah. Uh, what is it reminding me of? You know, um, when you're behind like a Baja bug?

• 49:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 49:16Speaker 01

  And they have that one big like boom tube thing sticking out the back. Yeah, I think that's the only time it's okay, cause it, the bodywork around it is square-ish.

• 49:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 49:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, the dual, it needs the dual.

• 49:27Matt Farah?

  There's no good reason for not making that the dual thing. It's really.

• 49:32Speaker 01

  It looks aftermarket, that's the problem.

• 49:36Matt Farah?

  I don't know, like, like Mini, like, come on, what are you guys doing?

• 49:39Speaker 01

  Cause their dual, their dual exhaust looked great.

• 49:41Matt Farah?

  It did.

• 49:42Speaker 01

  It was always a great symmetrical fit.

• 49:44Matt Farah?

  Dude, go ahead. This is the JCW, like, it's always, the whole, always, Mini has been base one, single tip, S, JCW, double tip. Always, like, this is very sad looking. It looks like it's just got a prolapsed anus, honestly.

• 50:02Speaker 01

  It has a busy weekend.

• 50:07Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 50:08Matt Farah?

  The mini poppers edition.

• 50:14Matt Farah?

  Alright, let's go to the people for a few minutes. I know they got a lot to say over at Patreon.com/the Smoke Tire Podcast. Ask us questions for the show, get the show live, get the show before everybody else, get the show extra, and a whole lot more. Oh, Nike's, I thought, I almost forgot. I gotta do a shout out to Built by Basil. I think it's Built by Basil, might be Basil.

• 50:37Speaker 01

  Bezos?

• 50:38Matt Farah?

  Not Bezos, definitely not Bezos. Built by Basil, Basil, for making me this custom shifter knob for my Spyder. It's made from old skateboard decks, and it's, it's, it's color matched for my interior with a sort of iridescent dyed red, and then a black, I think it's ash of some kind, a black ash, with a shift pattern on top in red, and silver, sort of a shaft to match the silver trim on my interior. I am very stoked.

• 51:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:17Matt Farah?

  I, I, I, I don't regret getting the Alcantara Race Tex on the seats and the doors. I love that. Steering wheel and the shifter, I don't love it. I, I don't grip it like I would normally grip it. It's annoying.

• 51:32Speaker 01

  Cause you know it's a precious material.

• 51:33Matt Farah?

  Cause I know it's precious. So I, I'm waiting for the, eventually the Alcantara or the Race Tex on the steering wheel will wear out, and I'll just have it replaced with leather, and that'll be that. But the shift knob with the Built by Basil, we get to avoid that. This is nice. This won't wear out. I like, I like, I like when the shift knob won't, like, isn't affected by my palm sweat.

• 51:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's cool. I like those wooden type, yeah, wooden shift knobs.

• 51:58Matt Farah?

  I do too. This is very, very pretty. I'm excited for this. I hope I can install it without breaking it. And it comes with a little allen key, so I should be fine. Right, so, the people say... Lucky man to count on both hands, the one I love. I, I respect for just, uh, for just using Pearl Jam quotes as usernames. But let's try and tie it into something. Like, I'm a lucky man to count on both, uh, feet the clutch I press. Like that kind of thing.

• 52:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, make it automotive themed.

• 52:32Matt Farah?

  Uh, do you remember what the aha moment was when you made the decision to leave your normal jobs to pursue a career in automotive journalism? Yes, I was stopped on the street by my first fan in New York.

• 52:46Speaker 01

  Interesting.

• 52:47Matt Farah?

  That was it. Don, you're good at this, okay.

• 52:50Speaker 01

  From like 08?

• 52:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 52:51Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 52:52Matt Farah?

  Full time, let's go.

• 52:54Speaker 01

  Cool. I, I just, when we started doing the car show and I was able to quit waiting tables and then we lost the car show. And I was like, I definitely don't want to go back to waiting tables. Like, I'll just be, I'll just be broke for a while.

• 53:07Matt Farah?

  Dual wielding Chevy Barretta's say 2000's 20K convertible challenge. NC Miata, uh, Z3 or Z4M, Boxers, C5 or something else. 20K.

• 53:21Speaker 01

  Uh, 20. That seems like a lot for Miata, but I go Miata.

• 53:26Matt Farah?

  C6 manual for, for 19K.

• 53:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:30Matt Farah?

  It needed work, but that wasn't, Target top.

• 53:34Speaker 01

  Uh, that's true. That, that C6 did need seven grand to work.

• 53:38Matt Farah?

  True.

• 53:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:39Matt Farah?

  Convertibles are cheaper than, than coupes though.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay.

• 53:43Matt Farah?

  You can get a nicer C6 convertible than you could a C6 coupe for 20K.

• 53:48Speaker 01

  I would go C6 coupe. And then I would be, although that, I would go Miata.

• 53:53Matt Farah?

  20K gets you a pretty nice Miata.

• 53:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:56Matt Farah?

  It's like not a shitty one. Like, 20K could probably also get you a 370Z.

• 54:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I gotta listen to it. My thing with Miata, Miata is the only car that when I drive it now with the top down, I go, this is great. But when I drive a Corvette with the top down, I go, I wish this was a coupe. I just want the top up.

• 54:14Matt Farah?

  I'll tell you what, wild card, you could get a, the nicest E46 330 CI convertible around. Like the nicest one around for 20K.

• 54:26Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 54:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Or probably like a driver grade E46 M3 SMG if you wanted to as well. Uh, grounded to the ground, uh, do you remember a time when you saw a nice build go one mod too far? Yes, I've seen that. I've seen it a lot. You know where I see it a lot is like, like in Porsches with like specifications? Where they do one, one custom color thing that's like too much that fucks it up like, you know? Uh, what does they say? An engineer knows how to, how to build and artist knows when to stop. So people don't like know when to stop. And so I've seen people, yeah, they get one thing custom color matched or contrast colored.

• 55:11Matt Farah?

  And the whole thing sort of fucking falls apart. I don't, I don't want to name names, but, but like you could, I mean with mod, with, with mods like,

• 55:22Matt Farah?

  I mean,

• 55:25Matt Farah?

  with mods, the thing that kills it is like fake badging, like

• 55:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:29Matt Farah?

  inventing a model that doesn't exist or like, or pretend badging it as something it's not.

• 55:35Speaker 01

  I have a good example, uh, Thad sent me this like 67 Mustang for sale. Cause he knows Sarah and I are like curious about owning a fastback. Um, and it had a good engine, good transmission, da, da, da, blah, blah, blah. But they had stuck those three Buick holes, those press on things onto the fender, which looks dumb. Wasn't any ever part of Mustang and also it makes me question this person's decision-making ability entirely.

• 56:00Matt Farah?

  Right. I have seen cars where the car mods chosen were so bad that you then can't, yes, you then can't trust this person to do anything else either because. Like that's where you decided that was good.

• 56:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, this person used like castor oil for oil changes, you know, or like peanut oil.

• 56:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Into the Void says, Zach, how content would you be with a G80 M4 and a Rivian as your two car garage?

• 56:27Speaker 01

  I have no idea, but I I just rode in a Rivian R1S when I was of a button willow. Nice car, ride isn't good. We've talked about this before. R1T rides well.

• 56:37Matt Farah?

  The R1T is better.

• 56:37Speaker 01

  And the G80 M4, I think also rides too stiff. So I'd be stuck with two cars that I don't really like the ride of. Also, I wouldn't want the M4 because the two doors is too long. It's it seems wasteful to me. So that's not my jam.

• 56:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Datsun says, uh, started listening to the beginning, from the beginning and got here. Wow. Nicely ju- nicely done. Given the amount of tech and ADAS systems that are so common now. Uh, beyond the Manks, any interest in older cars where a relay is as advanced as technology gets? Not really, no. I mean, I I mean, even the Manks runs on a Motec, dude. You know, the Manks like has an old vibe, but like is a modern engine running on a full on like motorsport grade ECU. Like, I I think, I was thinking this month I would write a column for Road and Track about about

• 57:29Matt Farah?

  why it's important to like support these companies that are building like really nicely done, like old cars, but that are designed to be done, driven in like the modern era. Like that could be like Revology, it could be Manks, it could be Icon. It could be like, you know, Singer, whoever the fuck, you know, and there's other people making different stuff, but like that shit is just way more interesting to drivers than even like the newest supercars or whatever. So like, I don't, I don't want something that's like carbureted. I don't, I don't really give a shit about that. But I just, but stick shift, you know, key start, you know, uh, simple interfaces, not a lot of screens. Knobs, levers, like, yeah, count me in for that. But electronic controls on the engine.

• 58:14Matt Farah?

  I like fuel injection. I like an ECU. I'm I'm okay with those. Those aren't, that's not too much for me. Right? Are you in that same boat?

• 58:22Speaker 01

  No, but I, but I like old cars. We've talked about it. Like I like muscle cars. So, but I want it to work. Some cars, it seems like work better with an EFI system. Some cars get confused or grumpy and they work fine with carburetors. So I just want something that works, but the old, simple shit is a good time.

• 58:36Matt Farah?

  And I don't mind the existence of ADAS systems as long as you just turn them off once and then they stay off. I mean, I don't, I don't want to have to fucking hunt and peck for 30 seconds every time I start my car. Fuck that dude. Um, Johnny E.V. Gerberman, uh, do you think manual swapping an SL500R129 would be worth it for a vintage GT? I think it could. I think it could potentially add some interesting flavor to that car. Yeah, definitely.

• 59:08Speaker 01

  Would that be better than the generation we drove? Uh, I mean, that's really just up to you.

• 59:14Matt Farah?

  I think you'd end up in kind of the same place. Yeah. R129s are soft. They're squishy. Uh, but they did make a factory manual. Camisa owned one. Six cylinder only. Three, a 320 manual. Um, 91 to 93, I think you get it, but like, it brought a lot of money on Bring Trailer. Um, but like, yeah, I, I think a manual swapped SL500 would be very interesting. I really do. And I think it probably would be a, a, a cool talking piece and it would probably be very nice to drive and you'd probably get your money back out of it if it was done well. It's probably easier to do than the more, than the 04 that we drove. There's probably less computers.

• 59:54Speaker 01

  Probably.

• 59:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah. It makes a little less power, so you could, you're a little less wear on the gearbox, but like, it could probably be cool. I think it'd be fun. It'd probably feel sort of like a Corvette, honestly. Um, just like the one that we drove, didn't it?

• 1:00:07Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:00:08Matt Farah?

  Uh, Demerit Parkway. Excellent. Uh, the Merritt, the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut is right by my, by my parents' house and Demerit. Very nice. Uh, what is the price point crossover between a watch and a car as far as which you'd rather have? For example, I'd rather have a 5K watch than a 5K car, but at 50K, I'm probably going with the car.

• 1:00:36Matt Farah?

  It's an interesting thought exercise, but, but my brain doesn't really work like that. You know, like, it's not.

• 1:00:46Speaker 01

  I think it's just, it's very relative, though.

• 1:00:49Matt Farah?

  So the question is really like, what's the cheapest car you'd want to have?

• 1:00:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, and what, uh...

• 1:00:56Matt Farah?

  Right?

• 1:00:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I guess what's the most expensive watch you'd want to have? Like, there might be a watch out there that you know about that's 500 grand, but I'm sure there is. But if you had that money to burn, would you spend it on that? Or would you spend it on, you know, an amazing car that you can drive around in?

• 1:01:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so...

• 1:01:12Speaker 01

  Singer deposit?

• 1:01:13Matt Farah?

  Right, so the, so I suppose it's, it's a fun either or. But if you have $500,000 to spend on a toy, whatever it is,

• 1:01:25Matt Farah?

  let's just, you have to have so much more than that.

• 1:01:30Matt Farah?

  It's like you, you can't, it won't be either or, right? So, I would say that the cheapest car in today's world that I would realistically want to spend any kind of money at all on is like 10Gs. So like, under 10Gs, like, right? Like, you're like, yes, there's some like gems out there. There might be some super special thing for like no money. But like, if you're talking about a car you or I would want to buy, 10's pretty rock bottom. Uh, whereas a $10,000 watch is an unbelievable thing. That's a fucking, you can, you can go home. That's it. You could, you can tap out right there.

• 1:02:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:02:08Matt Farah?

  If you're not a fucking junkie like me.

• 1:02:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:02:11Matt Farah?

  Uh, so 10 is the number where watch beats car. Anything under 10. Over 10, there's a gray area, right? Cause between 10 and like 100, there's like amazing watches.

• 1:02:25Speaker 01

  And amazing cars.

• 1:02:26Matt Farah?

  And amazing cars. And so now, it's like, well, what are we doing over here?

• 1:02:31Speaker 01

  And actually, in that range, you're getting cars that might also be appreciating, like watches.

• 1:02:35Matt Farah?

  Correct. You get both cars and watches that are investment grade. So now, we're not necessarily spending, now we're parking. We're gonna, we, we could get that money back. And then over 100, like, I'm not, uh, yes, there's one or two watches that are deep in the six figures that I think are amazing. And if I was really rolling like that, I could somehow justify spending 200 grand on an MB&F legacy machine.

• 1:03:03Matt Farah?

  I would not feel comfortable wearing it outside. And not because I'm like one of those they're gonna cut off your hands people like that shit is. Not saying it doesn't happen, but that shit is way blown out of proportion. Uh, but still I'd break it like.

• 1:03:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, you bump into a railing.

• 1:03:20Matt Farah?

  Into something like, yeah, I, I, I, I couldn't be trusted to wear something like that around. And that's why I wouldn't buy it, even if I had the money, because I'd fucking wreck it. So I'm with watches, I'm capped out at. I own one watch that it makes that I would be uncomfortable scratching. Just one out of like 30. So, and I only wear that one once in a while and I feel like a little bit of a weirdo. Even though nobody else gives a shit.

• 1:03:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, you only wear it in that room in your house that's just all padded walls.

• 1:03:50Matt Farah?

  I put it on, I jack off and then I put it.

• 1:03:53Speaker 01

  Because it's got a winder in it, right?

• 1:03:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I call it the baller.

• 1:03:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's how you, that's how you wind your watches.

• 1:04:00Matt Farah?

  That would be, someone should write a satirical column about that. About being addicted to fucking wanking, but it's okay because that's how I keep my perpetual calendar.

• 1:04:09Speaker 01

  Every day I take a different one out of the case.

• 1:04:12Matt Farah?

  Um, oh boy, watch question again, Franco specials. What is the watch strap you guys were always recommend? There's like a few, I like Bosphorus leather out of Turkey. I like the strap tailor out of England. I like under the cuff straps also out of England, those are for Natos. Um, I like, uh, rubber bee and Everest. If you want the, uh, the rubber, uh, oyster flex style straps. Uh, Horus straps makes a good, a good strap. And, uh, I did taste the, and yes, I did taste the Frank Sinatra Jack Daniels. It was good. Thank you, Franco. Control all DeLorean.

• 1:04:53Speaker 01

  That's a good one.

• 1:04:54Matt Farah?

  Good, yeah. I recently had a child and I was thinking about starting to get a few watches to keep, to have something to hand down to her when she's older. Uh, what would be the best investment? I mean, dude.

• 1:05:08Speaker 01

  That's this one we, I mean, it's, no one knows what the future is gonna be.

• 1:05:12Matt Farah?

  Yeah, this is, so like, here's the thing. You, you had a daughter, something to hand down to her. Women like Cartier. So you have two, you have two, two schools of thought here. One is, you buy yourself a watch. You wear it, you make memories with her and stories and it's your watch and you eventually pass it to her as a memory of you. Or, you buy a dope, whatever dope Cartier tank you can afford and stuff it in a safety deposit box. It's not going to appreciate. It's just gonna be what it be, but women love Cartier.

• 1:05:53Speaker 01

  Cause another thing is, a watch that he might like that fits his wrist, may not fit her wrist.

• 1:05:59Matt Farah?

  May or may not.

• 1:06:00Speaker 01

  So that's another thing of like handing it down, like now you can wear it and she might go, that's a 42, I don't wear 42.

• 1:06:05Matt Farah?

  Right, yeah, now that's the thing, you know, if you're gonna do the move where you, you wear it yourself, you should pick something on the smaller side so that if a female wanted to wear it, it wouldn't look insane. Hannah wears a vintage men's watch that I got her. Her watch is a 34 millimeter, but it was, that was a normal size for the 1990s when that watch was made. Uh, our good friend Jen has a whole collection of men's Submariners and IWCs that are on the smaller side for men, but then they're a little big on her, but like, that's the vibe.

• 1:06:37Speaker 01

  Cause they're from back when men were tiny men.

• 1:06:39Matt Farah?

  My mother, I gave my mother a Notice Canyon and she has a fucking tiny, I, the, the number of links I had to take out of this fucking thing to fit her, I was like, I, I took out all the links. I took out like every, but like, you know, it's a little big, but, but she likes it. So, but don't go get a fucking Panerai.

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:06:57Matt Farah?

  You know, unless you wanted to wear it as like a necklace or something, you know? Uh, Brandon Chin, if you had 10 laps on a track of your choosing, would you rather drive the BMW E46 GT-R or the Calsonic Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R? Also, what track? Easy, easy, easy. Calsonic Bathurst.

• 1:07:20Speaker 01

  Uh, I'm gonna go M3 GT-R, cause I know that I just wanna hear the noise and have the oversteer, even though the Calsonic is such an important car in history. Um.

• 1:07:33Speaker 01

  Never agree? Yeah. Never agree. I wouldn't even make it a lap, I'd probably crash.

• 1:07:42Matt Farah?

  I suffer from lotus electro-

• 1:07:45Speaker 01

  That's great.

• 1:07:46Matt Farah?

  -electro dysfunction. Electro dysfunction. That's pretty funny. You've experienced your stance against Instagram handles on cars in many podcasts, but are you willing to make exceptions? I've personally experienced two positive examples at car meets. I see someone's amazing build, but the owner's not nearby and being able to find their IG to see the build process can be enlightening. Two, it's easier for owners to find cool pictures of their car posted online from the car meet if I can tag them in the post. In either of these examples, they don't post any illegal driving. I mean, yes, I suppose that those are helpful situations if you did want to like find pictures

• 1:08:30Matt Farah?

  of yourself and/or find the person driving that car.

• 1:08:34Speaker 01

  Right. Look, for every bad spiritual leader that gets caught touching a kid and gets sent to jail, there's probably one that doesn't do that.

• 1:08:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:44Speaker 01

  If you don't know what I'm talking about, check the news.

• 1:08:47Matt Farah?

  Yeah. No, look, I think it's fucking lame. I do. I think it's fucking lame. If you're at a car meet, like, that guy'll be around eventually. Wait. I don't, look, it's okay if you don't think it's lame. It's really okay. I don't, if you don't think it's lame to put your Instagram on your car or to put other, have, for other people to do it, like, that's fine. You don't have to think that. I think that. I think it's fucking lame. So, whatever. And that didn't, your reasoning, while valid, didn't change my mind. I don't, I don't need to see pictures of my own car on Instagram. I don't give a fuck. And if people want to find me, they can find me. But, like, I get it, sure.

• 1:09:31Matt Farah?

  Either of those two things involve people wrapping up their personalities in their cars, which I don't think they should do. Oscar Mayer's Manksmobile, that's fucking pretty, pretty good. Pretty good! I just got new tires and an alignment for my daily crossover. Something seems off, but I can't tell if it's the tires or the alignment, or a little of both. Can you describe and differentiate driving characteristics attributable to the tires versus an alignment? Man, that's tough. That's fucking tough. Okay. Well, let's, let's process of elimination this one from cheapest to most expensive. Right?

• 1:10:13Matt Farah?

  Cheapest fix is you should check your tire pressures. It's possible someone didn't do a good job of setting your pressures.

• 1:10:20Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:10:21Matt Farah?

  So if your alignment is good and your tires are all brand new, your pressures might be off. Maybe one's a little low or two a little low. So, once you get that sorted, next is make sure that, I mean, assuming your daily crossover, these are probably not like directional tires that are, where one is mounted backwards potentially. But if they are, for some reason directional tires, there'll be an arrow pointing forward that it says rotation. So you want to make sure that those are looking, those are, those two things cost you zero. Next, I mean, something feels off.

• 1:10:57Speaker 01

  I mean, I wish they were more specific, but I would say that if you've addressed those things, if the car is pulling in a direction and you're, if you're on a road that you know is flat, it's not crowned, it's not, you know, cut because of semi trucks driving on it, it's not slanted at all, it's not grooved, find a road that is, let's just call it neutral, and I think if the car is pulling, then it's probably an alignment issue. Because if you have new tread on all four tires, they're all, they're all even circles, there's no reason that it should pull one direction or another.

• 1:11:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And, and yes, something seems off is a little vague. So the pulling is the, is your obvious one, that once the pressures are set, it shouldn't pull. The last one is, your steering wheel could be misaligned, which happens sometimes, a lot, this, it's happened, I've had to go back to alignment shops. Multiple times because my steering wheel alignment was off one or two degrees and it drove me off the fucking wall. Um, so that's another one where your car could actually be tracking straight, but your steering wheel's off. So you're now holding your steering wheel straight, creating a misalignment. Um, so that's it too, but like generally like, and also if you had old shitty tires and now you have

• 1:12:13Matt Farah?

  brand new tires, the car will feel different. So something feels off, I wish was a little more descriptive, but um, if the tires are new, they're set to the right pressures, it, and they're not facing the wrong direction, it's probably not the tires. It's probably alignment or steering wheel alignment. Yeah. Either way, once you check your tires, you're going to probably end up going back to the alignment shop.

• 1:12:37Speaker 01

  Probably.

• 1:12:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:40Matt Farah?

  Dre from Houston, is there anything, a car that you feel like you missed out on owning up to this point? Uh, if you're talking about stuff that it was like, buy it when it was new, sure. I mean, I missed out on the Ford GT I could have bought for a lot of money, but still less, a lot fucking less than it costs me now, and that's probably gone forever. The one thing is like, there's shit I want, and then I don't get it, and my brain kind of moves on.

• 1:13:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:08Matt Farah?

  You know?

• 1:13:08Speaker 01

  That's a good sign.

• 1:13:09Matt Farah?

  Like the Shelby GT350, I probably get an email once a month. Like, hey, I know you said you wanted one of these and I, I'm selling one with a thousand miles and like, you always said you wanted one. It's like, no, I wanted to buy one new in 2016 to use as a car. Like it, that, it wasn't some childhood dream that I need to circle back on.

• 1:13:27Speaker 01

  Right. Yeah. I think, uh, I think I, I want to own like, I want to own a mid, mid-engine car. I haven't owned that. Like there's categories I want to hit, but there's nothing that goes like, ooh, I wish I'd owned that. And now they're too expensive.

• 1:13:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:40Speaker 01

  There's just so many things you can get. Well, actually Skylines. Now they're too expensive.

• 1:13:44Matt Farah?

  R34s for sure. And, and although I liked my 328 a lot, something tells me that if I had bought a Testa Rose, I'd probably still have it. I think, uh, they're a little more comfortable, a little more refined and a little more, not usable. They're the same amount of usable, but like. You don't think that would overlap with the Countach too much? Well, the Countach hasn't been driven this whole time, so probably not. But I think they're very, they're very, very solid cars, Testeroses are, and I think I, I think over time I'd probably appreciate that a lot. Plymouth Jewish Space Laser. Nice. Would it be Jewish Plymouth Space Laser?

• 1:14:27Matt Farah?

  I think you, I think grammatically Jewish goes before Plymouth. Maybe, yeah. You always want to mention that they're a Jew first. Right. Just so everybody knows what we're talking about here when I talk about Soros. Uh, I've had my SLK 55 AMG for a couple of years, rare car, very interesting and rare car. You should manual swap it. Uh, I was looking into supercharging it, but after watching your SL manual swap, I'm starting to think that might be more fun. Thoughts? Yes. A hundred percent. I guarantee you, you, if you SL, if you manual swap that car and you hate it, you get 75% of the cost of the swap back when you sell it, if you market it properly.

• 1:15:13Matt Farah?

  That's a car that somebody would see on fucking Cars and Bids. Mm-hmm. And go, "That looks awesome and it's already done." Yeah. You know what I mean? And even for you, I think if you've already liked the car, don't supercharge it. That's, it does not need that, that's dumb. The real problem is the traction control system on those, which is heinously bad. Uh, you'd have to eliminate it entirely and then you'd have a little fucking hot rod to be a good time. But yes, manual swap all day, all day, every day. Let us know how it goes. Bad Gardener says, "Numbers and income aside, how do you feel about your current place in your journalism careers? Do you think you're as satisfied as you've ever been in Kings of the World? Are you still building?

• 1:15:57Matt Farah?

  Do you miss the TV days even though they didn't pay?" I don't know. How do you feel?

• 1:16:02Speaker 01

  I miss the TV stuff because we got to do adventures and like plan the adventures. I mean, we didn't get paid a lot doing them, but the money that went into the production budget allowed us to do cool stuff. So that was really fun.

• 1:16:18Speaker 01

  A king of the world? No. I mean, I think, I think we're all, I feel like I'm still evolving and, you know, finding things to do and, you know, exploring the different ways you can be an automotive journalist, host, wherever you want to call it.

• 1:16:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:35Matt Farah?

  It's when you work on YouTube and doing podcasts, like, yeah, okay, numbers go up, numbers go down, whatever. But you're, we're just like, we're just like here kind of by ourselves. And so, so when I go work with the magazine on like Performance Car of the Year or whatever, and it's like, there's 30 people there and everyone's got a job, you know, and someone comes up to me and goes, "Your job is to send all the cars sideways now." And I just go, "That's my job?" Like, what? Like, A, there's like fully imposter syndrome because I am not Chris Harris and I can't do some of the things that Chris and Jethro or like one of these psycho British guys can do.

• 1:17:18Matt Farah?

  But at the same time, it's like, okay, like a little bit of pressure, like fucking, like you could, you could have an expensive day right now. So, you know, you need to like up your game as high as it goes. And like fucking do a good job here and make this look awesome, but not break the car. And, you know, if you do it right now, you know, but still like to go back to 30 years ago or 35 years ago, to go, one day, someone is going to ask you to slide a Lamborghini to look awesome for a magazine. And like that's, that like, that's the, like this magazine that you're reading, someone's going to go, "Hey, Matt, you..." Half million dollar car, big fucking slide, ten guys with cameras. Uh, okay.

• 1:18:03Speaker 01

  I mean, is that, in a way, that's what you've been working towards?

• 1:18:06Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:18:06Speaker 01

  So, it's cool.

• 1:18:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, if you don't get to set the lap times, at least you get to do the slidy bits.

• 1:18:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:11Matt Farah?

  You know, like, it's one or the other, but like, it's not, it's, and, uh, and I do think in some ways, the magazine offers a lot of what the TV show offers, but it's more fun. Because you don't have the bullshit stuff that goes with TV production that makes the fun thing less fun. You know, like, with the magazine, a lot of ways, it's like, actually more pure. You have to stop down to do still photos and like, whatever, and you have to sit at your house and, and write it out, but like, you're, you have the adventure in a very pure way.

• 1:18:41Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:18:42Matt Farah?

  Which is, which is really, really nice. That's fucking good. And also, you know, when you grew up fucking having people tell you that you're like, only anywhere because, you know, your father and this, or, and or some, you know, a little bit of money, or blah, blah, blah. That didn't come from that.

• 1:18:56Speaker 01

  He can't drive for shit.

• 1:18:57Matt Farah?

  He can't drive for shit. He tapped out in that McLaren after three corners.

• 1:19:04Matt Farah?

  Um, Zach's Man Jam A Pillars. Uh, build a drift car from scratch. What chassis and engine would you pick and what track would you want to test at?

• 1:19:17Speaker 01

  If I was, if I was gonna build one, I'd do S13, um, or maybe E36 sedan. Like, those work. They're known quantity. The dream build, of course, is the 33, like, highboy Ford drift car, but reality, I would just get an E36 or a S13.

• 1:19:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, uh, uh, I, I, it, it doesn't, it almost doesn't matter what the chassis is, right? You're, you're building the whole thing kind of anyway. Um, I thought the Z was fun when I did a Drift 101, that supercharged Z, I thought.

• 1:19:47Speaker 01

  That was great.

• 1:19:48Matt Farah?

  Made a nice drift car.

• 1:19:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:49Matt Farah?

  Uh, that LS E46, I thought was a fun drift car. Yeah, those, those are cool, like, the LS 240s and stuff, those are, those are fine. Um, you know, I-

• 1:20:02Matt Farah?

  To me, a drift car is a tool. It's not, it's, I don't actually care what the outside is like, so I like, yeah, I want to have a Fox body, but like, they're shitty drift car platforms, actually.

• 1:20:12Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:20:13Matt Farah?

  They're not that good. I'd rather have the car that actually is the good platform for that activity. It's just a, just a tool to do the fun thing. And, and I wouldn't, uh, I wouldn't take that as a, as a style statement necessarily, you know?

• 1:20:28Speaker 01

  I wa, did you watch, uh, Gridlife at Laguna Seca this year? It looked awesome. I need to go to that. I keep putting other things in the way. But Hurt got to drift the Twerk Stallion like down the corkscrew.

• 1:20:39Matt Farah?

  Oh, cool.

• 1:20:39Speaker 01

  And he had a 360 camera on the roof. And the whole thing looked sick. Did the whole course, like, that dude is living Forza dreams.

• 1:20:45Matt Farah?

  That, that seems like a very good time.

• 1:20:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:51Matt Farah?

  What track, yeah, I mean, drifting Laguna would, would be really fun. I, I got to do it a little bit with the 750, slide around Cota. That's a, that's a pretty fun place to be doing that.

• 1:21:03Speaker 01

  What's the, I don't know, what has great like back and forth S's? Like linking stuff like that, something?

• 1:21:08Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 1:21:09Speaker 01

  Well, no.

• 1:21:10Matt Farah?

  Road America.

• 1:21:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21:11Matt Farah?

  Or Road, Road, Road Atlanta. Road Atlanta turns like three through five or whatever, has, has good S's. And then that whole, at the end of the back straight, you can use with the actual Formula D section.

• 1:21:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21:24Matt Farah?

  Road Atlanta would be a good, yeah, it'd be a good one, yeah. Uh, Tim A., would I ever drive the Demand Spider on track? Like at the new Willow Springs? I'm curious how far off a Spider would feel from a GT4 on track. I mean, they shouldn't feel really any different. I mean, they're the same from the, from the shoulder down. They're, they're exactly the same car, exactly the same. Um, the roof structure and there's a wing. Um, so I suppose you have, you'd have more rear grip, um, on track with the, with the GT4. Maybe like a little better turn in, possibly from some difference in chassis rigidity, maybe?

• 1:22:06Matt Farah?

  Um, uh, my, my car now has PS4 S's on it, so it wouldn't have as much grip as when it had the cup tires or if it had the Dunlops, but like, it really wouldn't be like, I mean, it'd be fast because of the motor, but like, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be that much different. Like, there's, I don't think it would be able to... Like, it's not like I wouldn't drive it on the track, like, but like, I'm not gonna go out of my way to, cuz I'm not gonna learn something new. I don't really give a shit. I don't think it's a compelling video. Um, the audience has told us a hundred types, different types of ways. They don't like fucking track videos anyway. Um, so, that's okay. Comfortable as a street car. Uh, okay, wait.

• 1:22:50Matt Farah?

  What's happening here?

• 1:22:51Speaker 01

  Basically...

• 1:22:53Matt Farah?

  Oh, I have no idea. I mean, that, the first half is like, call Paul and, what's Paul and Todd? Hooked on Driving? Is that what they bought?

• 1:23:00Speaker 01

  Everyday Driver? Oh, yeah.

• 1:23:01Matt Farah?

  I bought Hooked on Driving, right? Isn't that it?

• 1:23:03Speaker 01

  I think so.

• 1:23:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Whipped Cream Saves Lives. Where do I do track days in Utah and Colorado? I, I don't know for sure, but Hooked on Driving is our friend Paul and Todd. They're out of Utah.

• 1:23:13Speaker 01

  High Plains Raceway has great instructional days at, right, uh, east of Denver. Go there.

• 1:23:18Matt Farah?

  As does, um, um, Utah Motorsports Campus.

• 1:23:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:23Matt Farah?

  Um, and PPIR has stuff too. Pike Speaker International Raceway. Um, and, uh, let's see, and I'll be going with OEM tire sizes. Would you recommend to install parts from Carbond for suspension? Such as mono ball kit and tow link, or just stick with OEM and sta- okay, wait, hang on. Hmm, I'm guessing you've never done track days before, which is fine, just based on the type of questions here. This is a new track person. Don't fuck with your car.

• 1:23:55Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:23:56Matt Farah?

  Just leave it alone. Go to, go to the track, see what happens. Leave all the systems on, listen to the instructors. Eventually, not in day one and probably not in year one, but eventually, you may want to change some of the characteristics of your car. And if that time comes, if, then you can start talking about it, but like...

• 1:24:20Speaker 01

  Cuz you wanna have the knowledge to understand why that part of your car is inferior to what you want to do. So if you just go buy this mono ball kit and stuff and put it on because the forums tell you to do so, you won't know what it was beforehand, you won't really feel what it's fixing. So I would take that money that you'd spend on mods and spend it on tires, track days, instruction. And then you'll be a more informed buyer in the future.

• 1:24:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:44Matt Farah?

  Do the Lancer Evolution, last one and then we're out of here. What car owner stereotype do you think holds the most truth? Mine was when I worked at a Volvo dealer, quite literally 95% of the customers that came in were listening to NPR.

• 1:24:59Speaker 01

  It's funny.

• 1:25:00Matt Farah?

  It's a pretty good one.

• 1:25:00Speaker 01

  Everybody's wearing turtlenecks.

• 1:25:03Matt Farah?

  I would say here in LA, Tesla drivers not being, not being very attentive. Tesla drivers really not being the kind of people that care about the task of driving.

• 1:25:16Speaker 01

  They're the new BMW M drivers.

• 1:25:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 1:25:18Speaker 01

  There are some aggressive Model Y and three drivers out there, yeah.

• 1:25:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's, that's one. What's, I would say that Pagani drivers are wearing expensive shoes. That's a...

• 1:25:34Speaker 01

  Very relatable. Yeah, everybody around the country is like, yup, they're probably tired of that example.

• 1:25:39Matt Farah?

  Um, I mean, like Porsche people and the color, the thing with colors and options, you know, being obsessed over, I did Spike's show earlier today. He must have said, whatever the color is of his car, iridium green or something, for his new Spyder. He must have said those words eight times in the one hour I was there. Which is like, it's a beautiful car, it's a nice color, great, I'm happy for them. You know, Spyder RS with comfort seats, that's a fucking, that's a choice right there. But yeah, Porsche people and their colors, all, all the time. Myself included, I'm not fucking, it's nice to kind of have a white Porsche, because no...

• 1:26:21Speaker 01

  He goes, "White."

• 1:26:21Matt Farah?

  Nobody asks about their color.

• 1:26:23Speaker 01

  Which white, yeah.

• 1:26:26Matt Farah?

  Thanks, everybody, we love you very much, our patrons are the best. Get in on the action at patreon.com/thespokentyre. Thank you to all of you on this one. And more podcasts coming live from Willow Springs this weekend. I hope you got a ticket, it is sold out. But it's gonna be a really fun time and Zach and I'll be out there all day on Saturday, so come say hello. Thanks, bye.