Does the Maserati MC20 GT2 Deliver on its Wings?

Matt Farah and Zack Klapman find out if Maserati MC20 GT2 Stradale is the track car it looks to be; Matt goes deeper down the rabbit hole of a new collectible; we ponder why Buick still exists; and Patreon questions include: Our favorite Subaru ever Will the U. S. EV market shrink? Resurrected names that were better than the original. Is my watch tough? What would we drive in a 1000-mile vintage race? Ducktail spoilers: verdict Should German car companies keep making middling performance cars? Does a C8 Z06 really feel that different from the regular one? How to brake in a high-downforce car? Isn't ADAS good for normal people? MK7 GTI or Golf R? And more! Recorded February 23, 2026 SHOW NOTES DeleteMe Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://joindeleteme.com/TIRE and use promo code TIRE at checkout. AG1 For a limited time only, get a FREE AG1 duffel bag and FREE AG1 Welcome Kit with your first subscription order! Only while supplies last. https://www. DRINKAG1. COM/TIRE.

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 episode is, as always, brought to you by Off the Record. We love Off the Record here at the Smoking Tire because they are looking out for us 24/7/365. Wherever I drive a car, whatever state, whatever jurisdiction, I know that if I get yoinked, Off the Record is right there backing me up. All I gotta do is go to offtherrecord.com/tst, send a photo or scan of the ticket along with a description of what I was doing at the time, my version of events, if you will, and Off the Record goes to work. 95% of the time, you just get that text message just long enough later

• 0:43Matt Farah?

  that you've completely forgot about it saying dismissed. Other times, you gotta take a little extra action. Either way, they are looking out for you. It is affordable and it's high quality and you're supporting your favorite podcast when you use them. It's a three-peat winner, folks. OfftheRecord.com/tst. That'll get you 10% off all legal services booked through Off the Record. Once again, OfftheRecord.com/tst. All right, on this episode of the podcast, Zach and I are driving back from Willow Springs in the Maserati GT2 Stradale. We give a thorough review of the car, plus I did some very, very

• 1:27Matt Farah?

  nerdy things this weekend, and I start pulling out my pens, if you know what I'm saying. Plus, our ideas for the best way to get into a prestigious vintage racing event for under 50 Gs. It's the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go. Everybody, welcome to Roadshow Smoking Tire Podcast in the car. You see Zach and I are a master of efficiency. When you are in the gig economy for a long time, you must be a master of efficiency. So, one of the-

• 2:03Speaker 01

  Like DoorDash while driving Lyft. So you pick up people, it smells delicious, but you're delivering food, not to them.

• 2:10Matt Farah?

  Viewing the car for YouTube.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:12Matt Farah?

  You know, the whole thing. And, um, wasn't it Parker who did the?

• 2:16Speaker 01

  And you're sponsored by, uh, the clothing you're wearing.

• 2:18Matt Farah?

  Was it Parker who did the, uh, driving Uber for you, I think with, for YouTube? I think he did. Um, anyway, we're in the, uh, Maserati GT2 Stradale. That's the tracky version of the MC20. We are driving home from Willow Springs and what I was sort of getting at was that unpaid transit time, unpaid, unproductive transit time is one of the hardest parts of this gig. And so one of the best ways to work with that is by recording shows in the car. So I know it's not as optimized as shows in the studio, but we have exactly an hour and a half from Willow Springs back to the studio.

• 3:00Matt Farah?

  So why not use that time to do a thing that also takes exactly an hour and a half? Like, so, um, so should we just start with the Maserati? I guess.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, you just spent the morning driving it on the track.

• 3:17Matt Farah?

  Morning on track.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  Having a pretty fun time. You had the track to yourself, like a fresh powder day. Um, I drove this car at, uh, Ascarri in Spain.

• 3:27Matt Farah?

  Was it a year ago?

• 3:28Speaker 01

  I think it was like about a year ago. It was like a bronze one. I drove it on the road also, but the roads are very different there, of course, from here. So people saw my video, you know, my take, but I was very curious to see what you think about this thing.

• 3:40Matt Farah?

  I mean, we ended up in sort of the same place, didn't we? I think the thing about the regular MC20 is it's, it's a supercar that's great up to like seven, eight tenths.

• 3:56Matt Farah?

  Not as good as like Porsche and Ferrari and McLaren when you really start pushing it, but nice to use every day. This car has more downforce, little more horsepower, less sound insulation, these stupid bucket seats, lighter wheels, stickier tires, better brakes. So it is an upgrade package, better cooling. You know, it's an upgrade package that's designed to make the car work better on the track.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:24Matt Farah?

  The thing is, in, in my experience this morning, it sort of mirrored what yours was in Ascarri, although you're much more limited because they had. They had restrictions for you and I could do whatever I wanted.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 4:39Matt Farah?

  The car is very competent. It objectively does things pretty well. Except the brakes aren't where they should be, given the, given the, the rest of the car, honestly. And the fact that this is an upgrade package, still the brakes should be better.

• 4:58Speaker 01

  Right. Now, do they feel like they didn't slow you down as much as they should have for the pedal?

• 5:02Matt Farah?

  They don't have the initial bite.

• 5:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:05Matt Farah?

  That you get out of almost any other set of ceramic brakes. I mean, they feel kind of like ceramic brakes from like 2008. You know, where they're very soft on the tip in. Whereas if you drive a Z06 or ZR1, if you drive, I mean, I recall on the MC20 launch, that was same track, two years ago, whatever it was, three years ago, we made the mistake of driving a Blackwing to the launch.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, we did.

• 5:31Matt Farah?

  And we drove the MC20 and got back in the Blackwing. We're like, holy brakes!

• 5:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. And that, and that review, we only did on the road.

• 5:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  And as a grand touring car, I think it's a pretty strong thing.

• 5:41Matt Farah?

  It's nice.

• 5:42Speaker 01

  And then we drove the Spyder one, whatever convertible, like in the canyons. And rides pretty well. It's got, it's a long car, kind of long wheelbase. Looks fantastic. I, I just love the shape of it. Before they add all the carbon to it, but I think they've changed the character a lot, but they haven't gotten it as far as where Porsche gets the, you know, the 911 to the RS or McLaren when you get into like the, I don't know, 750 land.

• 6:07Matt Farah?

  And also Maserati's racing version of this engine makes 740 horsepower. This only makes 10 more than the, the standard one. So yes, it's lighter. It's like 135 pounds lighter. It's a little sharper. It's louder. It's a lot less comfortable. The seats, but it's only like a little bit tuned up, you know? And it's a big price jump.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  You know what the only spice that's added is a neat discomfort. You know, like during the drive bys, the car's not that much louder outside. It's not a very loud car. It's a very small V6 and it just sounds kind of like a vacuum.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  Like an Alvin turbo.

• 6:52Matt Farah?

  It doesn't sound like anything in the car either. In fact, like as you'll see in the video, you know, on the track, it's like, it's, it's not, it's not setting any new standards, right? It's not blowing any minds. If you, if you're experienced, McLaren 750 or a ZR1 or something like that is, is much more explosive and sharper as well.

• 7:19Matt Farah?

  But the real problem is if you're not going to hit those marks, if you're not going to be faster, if you're not going to be sharper, more explosive, I need, I need a little more emotion. And particularly with a helmet on, this engine just like, doesn't sound like anything. Like if I go down four gears from a like,

• 7:42Matt Farah?

  it's, it's generally like pleasant, but it's definitely not exciting.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  I think it sounds so much, I'm just realizing this, it's sound much like the Amira. Like you've got a V6 right here. That had a little blower whine, but that car costs a hundred thousand dollars, you know? So this car, three times as much, not three times the sound, not even a little bit. Plus the turbo quiets things down a little bit. It just, it just lacks like any of the verve and spice and kind of passion stuff. Where I think the road car is a totally good like art piece to drive around.

• 8:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  But this tries to be this extruded like, you know, extroverted track thing. But it, it can't like, it's like someone on, someone on steroids who can't fight. That's what I, I, we got wing, we got canards, we got air vents. But it's just like, not that quick, not that exciting.

• 8:35Matt Farah?

  And the regular one is a fast, fun, comfortable, usable, daily supercar. And this one takes away a bunch of the usability of it, but it doesn't exchange it for like all that much more fizz.

• 8:53Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:54Matt Farah?

  Um, having, I mean, look, it's not, not fun, but this car is three and a quarter. Like when, when stuff starts, when stuff starts talking about numbers that start with a three, I need my head blown off. You know what I mean? Like especially now that the ZR1 is in the game.

• 9:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:15Matt Farah?

  Because the ZR1 delivers the performance that you typically had to spend 400,000 on a 750 to get, you can now get that for 220.

• 9:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:29Matt Farah?

  That type of speed and that type of like, oh my, you know, like wants to tear the tires off the ground kind of thing.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  And I think like, what does a 296 start at base?

• 9:41Matt Farah?

  Fords? Fords, yeah, they're, they're, they're more expensive and they're sharper.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  But that's the thing.

• 9:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 9:48Speaker 01

  Yes, it's more expensive, but that is not, it's not the 296 track version, right?

• 9:52Matt Farah?

  Right, no, it's a regular one.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  CS, it's a regular one, but I think it's got a more exciting sound by a huge margin. Still, it's also a small V6. Uh, transmission's fantastic, steering is sharper, uh, it's just got like, you get more sound in the car. I just think it's a better, more exciting thing. And it's not even yet the 296 CS.

• 10:11Matt Farah?

  Right. Now, if you, yeah, if you're talking about the, the Speciale or, uh, or whatever they're called now.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, any of the Pista models, like those were all turned up a notch. This, this is trying to be that, but it doesn't, it can't even compete with the one that is the entry level car.

• 10:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Which is like a shame because I actually like the car. Like I think it's very pretty. I think it looks, I think at this price point and in this category, looks really do matter. And I think it's prettier than anything Ferrari is making right now.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  I think the regular.

• 10:48Matt Farah?

  The regular one is, this one, it might jump the shark a little bit. And maybe like, I haven't tried to build one, maybe you could get one with a matching roof or like, you could maybe like, let's call it erate it up a little bit. Where you, where you, you know what I mean? You know what I'm talking about? Where you like paint match the stuff?

• 11:07Speaker 01

  I do, but man, Maserati, like what a comparison. Like if you could do make this a little more Corvette, you know, that would really help the aesthetics.

• 11:15Matt Farah?

  And also, you know, I've, I've been spending hours crapping on these seats and they are actually optional. So you can, you can get, oh. Maybe you can get the GT2 Stradale with the regular seats, which actually might be the move. I mean, it would be the move because nothing about its GT2 Stradale-ness makes it worse of a car every day. But the seats.

• 11:42Speaker 01

  That's true. The ride is still pretty good.

• 11:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah, like the marketing says, the, the, the press release I read for this. It's like barely street legal track car like, bro, horse like. Guys, taking a quick break because Delete Me is supporting us today. You know about Delete Me because I've been talking about them for like a year now. Delete Me knows your privacy is worth protecting and so they really, really work hard. It's all they do to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. You know, the talking points, people, what it does is it's a protective shield that goes over your online life. Right? Like to exist on the internet, you have to provide personal information.

• 12:29Matt Farah?

  You're signing up for services, you're buying things, you're existing as a human on the internet, right? But also those services that are delivering you value, then you're the product. Like they take your information and sell it out the back door, right? Like the liquor at the club in Goodfellas. And so what you need to do is then find that liquor and reclaim it for yourself. The way you do that is with Delete Me, but they don't deliver you liquor. They get the things off the internet that you want off the internet. It's not just a one-time service. They're always working for you, constantly monitoring and removing the personal information that you don't want on the internet.

• 13:09Matt Farah?

  And I should know as someone with an active presence online, but also a family that has very little presence online. I would like those people protected and I've had friends that have been, you know, identity thieved. And certainly I've had to deal with scam, phone calls, text messages, things like that. So I do love Delete Me. It has notably reduced the amount of scam calls and. Text messages I've gotten for sure. So take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to joindelete.me/tire and use promo code

• 13:54Matt Farah?

  tire at checkout. One more time, that's joindelete.me/tire and enter code tire at checkout. Joindelete.me/tire code tire. And we're also supported today by AG1. You know what I'm saying? Motivation, it comes and goes, but habits show up even when you don't feel like it. Habits are easy and AG1 is the easiest habit you can start now to support this kind of consistency even when your motivation is not perfect. Like, working out is really hard, requires motivation. Like, that, you're gonna get sweaty, you need to change your clothes, maybe a shower, maybe even a trainer, maybe something else. But AG1, it's so easy.

• 14:35Matt Farah?

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• 15:19Matt Farah?

  By the way, AG1 now comes in Original, Citrus, Berry, and Tropical. I like the berry with a backup of tropical. A chaser, if you will. AG1 has over 50,000 verified 5-star reviews, comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee. For a limited time only, go to drinkag1.com/tire to get a free AG1 flavor sampler and

• 15:44Matt Farah?

  An AGZ sampler to try all the flavors, plus free vitamin D3 at K2 and the AG1 Welcome Kit with your first AG1 subscription order. Limited time offer, only available while supplies last. That's drinkag1.com/tire. Drinkag1.com/tire. And now, back to the show. I have been dailying this thing around LA for six days. Like, it's fine. Other than climbing in and out of it with these seats. Out of that, you could absolutely daily this car. So, I don't know, I'm laughing at the, you know, thing. The software, simple.

• 16:27Matt Farah?

  You know, you don't have to, you're not gonna get lost in it, which is good. And I haven't had anything about it fail, or freeze, but it does take a minute to boot up. You know, when you turn it on and get that disclaimer, and that accept button doesn't do anything for 30, 45 seconds. That's a little slow to boot up. And then also, it makes a couple of beeps and boops that I, that are not accompanied with any visual indicator of any kind, and I cannot figure out what they mean. No clue what they mean. And I've turned off all of the ADAS beeps and boops, so it's not that.

• 17:10Matt Farah?

  They happen at random times, and there's two different chimes I've heard. Couldn't tell you what they do. No clue.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  I heard one, yeah, same. I was in the car today, and it did a little bing, and we looked around, and we looked at the gauges, and there was no, there was no visual.

• 17:26Matt Farah?

  Nothing.

• 17:26Speaker 01

  Nothing.

• 17:27Matt Farah?

  Usually the chime is, "Hey, asshole, your parking brake's on," or, you know, something.

• 17:33Speaker 01

  Cause there's the horn one, there's the little Italian horn, but that's like, the forward collision warning.

• 17:37Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  And it does it if you're, if you don't have the blinker on, to change lanes and you move lanes, it kind of alerts you. But that one, we identified. But yeah, there's a lot of other little big bongs.

• 17:48Matt Farah?

  Boxed in by this.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  Got no cup holder also.

• 17:51Matt Farah?

  No cup holders is tough, I'm sorry to say, even in my... Even in my quote track day car, I would like a cup holder. I do, I cause I'm having a coffee on the way to the track.

• 18:03Speaker 01

  Right. Um, how was uh transmission like on the track? You know, you, you did a lot more laps than I was allowed to do.

• 18:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 18:10Speaker 01

  So how was that up shift, down shift speed?

• 18:13Matt Farah?

  It's fine. It's effectively the same as it is in the Corvette. It's the same gearbox, Tremec, uh, DCT and you know, in my opinion, that, that gearbox does what it's told. Um, the, the speed of the shifts and the response time from paddle to gear change is well within my tolerance of, of not criticizing. It was fine. Uh, if you bang the red line, it stays there. Um, it's got, actually I think this, this may be the best implementation of shift lights on the steering wheel I've seen. They're hidden. They're totally hidden in this carbon fiber top of the steering wheel, but they're just

• 18:54Matt Farah?

  and they, they're really nice. That's dope. Cause they're just, it's not this big. It's not like a screen in there.

• 19:02Speaker 01

  Right. Well, I mean Ferrari has that too.

• 19:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 19:04Speaker 01

  But you can some, you still be able to see the seam where they put the light in the wheel.

• 19:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 19:08Speaker 01

  That's gone now.

• 19:08Matt Farah?

  Now you can't see, you can't see or feel anything. So that's great. Um, yeah, no, there's like, there's a good bit about this car to like. There really is. It's just that at this price point, you gotta like, you gotta wow the shit out of me, you know? And, and at, at at least a couple of boxes. If there's 10 categories and you're charging 300 grand, you need three or four of those categories to be 10 out of 10. You know what I mean? And the rest need to be like sevens. Like you can't, you can't have a car that's a bunch of eights or a bunch of sevens and then charge that kind of money for it.

• 19:49Speaker 01

  Well, cause the competition.

• 19:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  From McLaren, Porsche, Corvette, I mean, they're charging either the same money or less.

• 19:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 19:57Speaker 01

  And they're hitting those markers of like, the transmission is perfect. The braking response is what you expect and want.

• 20:05Speaker 01

  You know, getting in and out of all those cars is easier.

• 20:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Well, without the roof, when you have butterfly doors and no roof cutouts.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:12Matt Farah?

  And then carbon buckets, uh, you, you have a, a sort of worst case scenario of having to crunch. Me and Zach look like.

• 20:22Matt Farah?

  Some broken ass people getting out of this car.

• 20:26Speaker 01

  Pulled ourselves in here.

• 20:27Matt Farah?

  Oh, it's not great. It's not as bad as that Lotus last week, but it's close.

• 20:31Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah. That was a smaller car.

• 20:34Matt Farah?

  That was tough, yeah. So, who is this car for? I hate to say it, it's not a good reason, but it's really like someone who is unsatisfied with the other mainstream offerings and just sort of wants to be different.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  If you don't want to wait in line at Ferrari, if you don't want to buy their SUVs before you can get into something.

• 21:00Matt Farah?

  Maserati will happily sell you.

• 21:02Speaker 01

  They'll happily sell you this, yeah.

• 21:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so, and I think if you, you know, if you if you're fortunate enough to be in the kind of social circles where

• 21:13Matt Farah?

  a lot of other people have GT3s, or a lot of other people have Lambos, and you know, in the kind of circles where people drive this stuff, like, that's possible.

• 21:23Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 21:24Matt Farah?

  There is something to be said for being different.

• 21:27Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 21:28Matt Farah?

  You know, this is different. You're gonna be the only guy at the track day who's got one. You're gonna be the only guy at the Cars at Coffee who's got one. Maserati does mean something, the name. It's a carbon tub car, I mean, it's it's very much a supercar. And if you're not gonna be pushing it beyond the limits, you know, constantly, and you really are honest with yourself, and you're really just gonna be driving it around, then it's cool.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  I mean, it definitely looks the part.

• 22:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 22:02Speaker 01

  And then if it starts to play the part, you know, maybe its accent falls apart, you know, here and there, like, throughout the scene, because it's not perfect on the racetrack. You did some sick slides, though, speaking of going over the limit. So was it talkative? Did you know that was about to happen?

• 22:19Matt Farah?

  It's not very talkative on the entry. Uh, the, the steering feel does not have much, the steering does not have much feel. Uh, having said that, the chassis itself is extremely balanced. And so, once you get it loose, it's very easy to hold the angle and adjust the angle with the throttle.

• 22:43Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 22:44Matt Farah?

  Uh, and it is well behaved on the unwind for the most part. But on the entry, it's not, you can't really pendulum it because it is very mid-engine. It's not a rear, super rear biased.

• 23:04Matt Farah?

  And the steering isn't telling you what's going on. Like a McLaren, you can, you could slide it on the entry because your steering is so great. That, this you kinda can't.

• 23:17Matt Farah?

  But it does hold some decent slides going on the exit.

• 23:21Matt Farah?

  Once you've got it crossed up, it's very easy to hold it there.

• 23:24Speaker 01

  It appeared so.

• 23:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 23:27Speaker 01

  Uh, there was some good tire smoke.

• 23:30Matt Farah?

  Uh, do these Coupes get smoking?

• 23:33Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 23:33Matt Farah?

  Cool.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  Several times.

• 23:35Matt Farah?

  Uh, those are all second gear slides. They were not, coming onto the front straight, I banged the rev limiter in second. The burnout on the launch, I did into three gears.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  Whoa.

• 23:46Matt Farah?

  That was a three gear.

• 23:46Speaker 01

  First one, the first one you did late, nice 11.

• 23:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 23:50Speaker 01

  And I mean, these tires don't smoke up like, I don't know, third gear hellcat. Like, it's not billowing out, but it is, it is visible wisps.

• 24:00Matt Farah?

  It is, it was, it, I mean, anything is fun to slide. I will say that when you are, when you are sliding it, it doesn't have any terrible habits. You just hold, hold your throttle position and gently wind and unwind the wheel and it will, it'll stay balanced, which is very nice.

• 24:18Speaker 01

  Now, for me, like Maserati. I love to love them and I want to love them. And we drove that last Gran Turismo and I was really impressed with it as like an eight tenths

• 24:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  long distance and then take a canyon between highways.

• 24:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 24:32Speaker 01

  Totally capable fun, felt really balanced even like everything about it. I was really surprised, pleasantly surprised despite how similar it was in appearance to the old one.

• 24:42Matt Farah?

  And then when we had it on the track for performance car of the year, when you really tried to drive it past the limit of grip, it was very unhappy.

• 24:51Speaker 01

  Gotcha.

• 24:51Matt Farah?

  That was all wheel drive also.

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 24:54Matt Farah?

  Part of that is why, but, but it was, it was not happy to be doing that stuff. Same as the Mercedes SLs and GTs now, the AMG GTs. They're fabulous within the, within grip. They're awesome. They're fast, very competent, comfortable, great in the canyons. But if you start to want to do big slides, they, they get very confused. And so, but that's, that's a very small number of people that are doing that.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  Oh, definitely. I just, I just think Maserati, like they've been such nice art and it's pretty good at looking good, going pretty fast, but not, not the fastest.

• 25:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 25:34Speaker 01

  So this seems like an example, and I'm not trying to disrespect the company constantly if it sounds like it. If they try to turn that volume knob from eight to 10 or to 11, I don't know if they don't have the development, they don't have the budget for it. I don't know what happens. It's just like they can't, or maybe it's just the car, uh, you know, the bones are not there to begin with. Like it's a fantastic GT car, but you can't make it a track car.

• 25:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, you know, car and driver weighed the regular MC20 and even though it was a carbon tub without any hybrid stuff in it or anything, it was like 3,700. Like high 37s. So they, you know, if, if they've shaved 135 pounds out of this, this is still over 3,600 pounds with a carbon tub and no hybrids. Like, that's a lot. That's heavy. Like, so it's, even though it's carbon, it's not as efficient of a, of a chassis or setup as it could be.

• 26:36Speaker 01

  Oh, I kind of wonder where the weight comes from because it's, we got no cup holders. We got a lot of visible car. I mean, it's, and I'm not trying to be, like, it's a pretty Spartan car.

• 26:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 26:46Speaker 01

  But I don't know, maybe the doors are made of steel or something.

• 26:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's heavier than a lot of the cars that it is competing against.

• 26:58Matt Farah?

  So, and, and the ones that, where the weight is the same, they've got hybrid systems in them. And the hybrid systems are delivering that sort of special sauce that make the cars feel just like insanely fast and responsive. You know, on the other hand, like, there's people that absolutely do not want to buy a hybrid car. They're not buying a 296, they're not going to do an Artura, they're not doing Lambos, they do not want the hybrid. So like, you know, this is like fairly traditional setup. It's got an internal combustion engine and a, you know, and a, and a light-ish weight body. So for most people, truly for most people, this would be a very, very fast car.

• 27:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, very true.

• 27:44Matt Farah?

  We're, we're in pretty rarefied air in terms of being able to critique this thing and go, well, it's, it's eight tenths. The vast majority, I scared the shit out of Hannah on the 90 the other day.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 27:57Matt Farah?

  I mean, it didn't, and it didn't take much, you know?

• 28:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's fast. I mean, you get into it and like that boost kicks and it really goes.

• 28:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 28:06Speaker 01

  We're just, we're just, we're nitpicking as we can compare it to its competition.

• 28:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 28:10Speaker 01

  Like, that's what you have to do. I, but I still think that the road car and especially like the Spyder is one of the most beautiful. And mid-engine cars made like pretty much of any era. I just think it's a fantastic shape, great thing to drive around, a great thing to park, has tons of presence, fast enough. I wish it sounded like a little more, but maybe there's aftermarket exhaust from somebody, although it is a small V6. You gotta be careful with that.

• 28:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah, limited options there. You could make it sound terrible accidentally. You know, what surprised me is in my head, I went, oh, you just buy, just buy the, the regular one, like used for half price. According to that, you know, they, they have depreciated more than some other supercars, but not as much as you think.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 29:01Matt Farah?

  If you, if you want like a low mile one, you're looking at 200 still.

• 29:05Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 29:06Matt Farah?

  Like the cheapest one that sold was 155 and it was an early coupe with like 18,000 miles on it. Not that 18,000 is, is all that many, but you know, that, that was the cheapest one. So, uh, they haven't depreciated in the first couple of years quite as fast as I thought they would. So, so that's, I mean, that's good news. I guess if you own one. Uh, bad news if you expected to buy one at half price so fast, you know?

• 29:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. I, I thought they were going to drop faster than that, to be honest.

• 29:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah, me too. Me too. Uh, so that's the, uh, the GT, uh, GT2 Stradale. There will be a video up, uh, to track driving, some smoky slides and things like that. Uh, that'll be up, I don't know, in a couple of weeks because we gotta edit that shit. Uh, so on the way up to the track, Zach and I were talking about, he went, he went to a Magic the Gathering tournament.

• 30:03Speaker 01

  I did? Oh, yeah. I didn't go to a tournament.

• 30:07Matt Farah?

  It wasn't a tournament?

• 30:07Speaker 01

  No, it was like a house party that had four or five tables also set up for funsies.

• 30:12Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay.

• 30:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:13Matt Farah?

  So it was, so it was a Magic the Gathering tournament and, um, and you know, that's, that's fairly dorky. No, I'm not hating. I used to play Magic the Gathering, but that is fairly dorky. But yesterday I went to the California Pen Show at the Torrance Marriott.

• 30:33Matt Farah?

  Which was every bit as dorky as I hoped it could be. By the way, when I told our friends Jen and our friend Sarah about this, they were both like in. They couldn't wait.

• 30:46Speaker 01

  Oh, I was about to ask what the demographic of men and women was at Depend Show. Cause I was curious if at the Patrick's the other party I went to, it was like 50/50.

• 30:56Matt Farah?

  Okay. No, it was, um, this was, this was

• 31:01Matt Farah?

  more women than you would have thought. Like this was pens, uh, cause also it's like, it's like, you know, fountain pens, but also like calligraphy and artistry pens. And then there's the whole sub-genre of like the Japanese pens, which are, uh, just a different like style of pen. Like the kind of stuff you would see at like Muji, you know?

• 31:25Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 31:26Matt Farah?

  So there's like those cheap pens, which could be anywhere from $2 to $10 or $15. And those are a lot of your Japanese pens, uh, and stuff like that. And then you have, yeah.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  What was the square footage of this convention?

• 31:42Matt Farah?

  Oh, more than you would think. I would say there were probably...

• 31:47Speaker 01

  Dozens or hundreds?

• 31:49Matt Farah?

  Of booths?

• 31:50Speaker 01

  Of square feet.

• 31:51Matt Farah?

  Of square feet? Oh no dude, there was probably 10,000 square feet.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 31:57Matt Farah?

  It was a big ballroom and then a smaller ballroom at the Torrance Marriott.

• 32:04Speaker 01

  Got it, okay.

• 32:05Matt Farah?

  There was probably like 100 to 120 vendors of pens, papers, journals, things like that.

• 32:14Speaker 01

  What was the most expensive pen there that you know about?

• 32:17Matt Farah?

  The most expensive pen I saw was, uh, like $100,000. And it was literally like gold and rubias.

• 32:29Matt Farah?

  I mean, it was it was jewelry. It was a pen. It was like a fucking.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  It was like it was like a new pen or was it was it from four hundred years ago?

• 32:36Matt Farah?

  No, it was new, but it was fro- it was new, but it was done by like.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  Jacob the scribbler. Jacob the jeweler.

• 32:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I know, like like it was some.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  Iced out.

• 32:46Matt Farah?

  Yes, it was gold. It was like a scepter that happened to right.

• 32:51Speaker 01

  He's trying to take a scepter, shrink it, put a little equality in it.

• 32:55Matt Farah?

  It was big and it was thick and it was covered in jewels.

• 32:57Speaker 01

  Okay, alright.

• 32:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah. But that was like, that was like pretty unique. There was only one or two vendors that were selling pens that were like actual jewelry and covered in like diamonds and shit. Everything else ran the gamut from vintage pens, you know, real estate, a real, a, a, a estate sale, you know, type vintage pens to new pen manufacturers had their had stuff to sell and like independent art, like there's like small independent pen companies like that'll that'll make pens out of like a resin or wood or different interesting materials and stuff, okay? And so

• 33:43Matt Farah?

  the dorkiest people were the were the the vintage pen people. These are like these are the nerdiest people I've ever seen in my life, talking about, you know, the ni- the gold nibs from the forties versus, you know, all this and they've got just a crazy variety of stuff that is it's different, but it like looks mostly, you know, it looks mostly the same, like how many black and gold pens can there be?

• 34:12Speaker 01

  You know what I mean, like? But they are to pens, but we are to cars, like, you know.

• 34:15Matt Farah?

  For sure.

• 34:16Speaker 01

  And so they could talk about the whatever the pen version is of like the brake doesn't engage early enough when it travel.

• 34:22Matt Farah?

  For sure, but it's it's with a car. Well, I'll tell you, with a pen, it's closer to a car than like a watch. Cause you don't like, you feel how a watch fits on your wrist. But you don't feel the machinery in there moving, you know.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  You don't use it.

• 34:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah, whereas how a pen physically meets the paper can feel a little different. You know, and and and the ink can flow different depending on if we're talking fountain pens like the actual nib or is it a gel or a roller ball or you know, whatever so. So like, I like these fountain pens now because I don't have to press down. I just glide it on the page. I don't have to like grip it and press it in and I really like that. I can have such a loose. So, you know, we've we've talked about it before, but it's always been like. I didn't want to just like go hard into this stupid collecting stuff.

• 35:18Matt Farah?

  But I'd like lose the pen or something. So I started with the the pack of six pilot disposable fountain pens. I said, all right, if I get through these, I'll buy a twenty five dollar.

• 35:32Speaker 01

  Right.

• 35:32Matt Farah?

  So I got a twenty five dollar pen. I liked it. I had it for like a year. And then and now I got like a the the metal version of that one was like a fifty dollar pen. The Lammy Safari. So I've had that for about a year. Haven't lost it. Gone through a couple of cartridges. So is this is someone just spraying their windshield? Yeah. And uh, so I was like, all right, the pen show, you know, if I could, maybe I'll now bump up. To something that's like a hundred bucks. All right, you know, not like, but what I found out is like watches, there's a really big gap. In between fifty and about.

• 36:16Matt Farah?

  Two seventy five, three hundred. There's almost nothing that's good in between that. Wow. Like for fifty, you can get a basic pen. With a decent nib that will just be one color of something and will just kind of look all right. It won't look like anything. It'll it'll just be a pen.

• 36:39Matt Farah?

  But if you want something that looks cool. Whether it's made of resin, or wood, or metal, or like whatever, you're probably spending $250 to $300. And I was very shocked at the number of people that were there.

• 36:56Matt Farah?

  At the number of pens that were in the thousands. They were in the four figures. Between 1,000 and 10,000. There's a lot of pens where I picked it up and I went, "Oh, that's a very nice pen. I'd like, I'd like to..." "How much is that?" $4,500. "Whoa!"

• 37:11Speaker 01

  And what, so what makes the cost that high? Is it the material it's made of?

• 37:15Matt Farah?

  It's, it'll be, it'll, it'll be like, it'll be made of some really nice material. It'll be made by hand. It'll be, it won't just be a resin mold. They'll, they'll have made 100 resin molds and chosen the very best one. You know, it's, it's the little things that make, you know, why, why is, why is a, uh, think, think 911 Carrera T versus GT3 Touring? From 50 feet away, why is one of these twice the price of the other? It's all, it's all those things. Or a watch.

• 37:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:51Matt Farah?

  Why isn't Rolex five times the price of a Notice Canyon? Well, you need to, you need to be up close and see small differences. So, but, but I, I, I was like, alright, so I, if I'm gonna actually spend any money at this place,

• 38:06Matt Farah?

  you know, I have to up my budget a little bit. But also, there were so many vendors that unless I saw something that really spoke to me, I wasn't, I didn't feel forced. So I, I ended up buying two pens. And I will show them to you. I have them in my pocket.

• 38:21Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 38:22Matt Farah?

  I took them out of the man bag before I put them in my pocket.

• 38:28Matt Farah?

  So, okay, pen number one.

• 38:32Speaker 01

  Wow, it's like in a cigar case.

• 38:34Matt Farah?

  It's in the cigar case. It's from, it's from a small company in Philadelphia. And what's hilarious is I fucking forget the name of the company. It's just in a, it's the cardboard tube.

• 38:45Matt Farah?

  So, this is an anodized aluminum that's been like color treated in sort of a fun way.

• 38:52Speaker 01

  This is Sean, Sean Osen?

• 38:55Matt Farah?

  Sean Osen, okay, sure. And you unscrew it to take the, to take the cap off. But I like that it's metal and I like the color profile. And this one has an extra fine nib on it, which is the very narrowest one. So that when I write in my notebook, it won't bleed through.

• 39:15Speaker 01

  Got it.

• 39:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah. So, I haven't, I like this pen. This pen was, uh, was $200.

• 39:22Speaker 01

  You could change the cartridges, right?

• 39:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah, different colors. Uh, this one has cartridges, but it also has, uh...

• 39:31Matt Farah?

  There's a thing, there's a thing, it's called like an adapter or a converter, it's called a converter. And you can use it as the pen that sucks the ink up of the nib. Or you can just use interchangeable cartridges. I like interchangeable.

• 39:44Speaker 01

  So for people listening, it's like two different colors of gray, kind of like splotchy paint with then yellow accents that crisscross on it. Sort of like...

• 39:52Matt Farah?

  It's like, uh, like Eddie Van Halen's guitar.

• 39:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:56Matt Farah?

  Pattern.

• 39:56Speaker 01

  Oh, it's like a Lotus.

• 39:57Matt Farah?

  Like the Lotus.

• 39:57Speaker 01

  It is like that.

• 39:58Matt Farah?

  Hold it up to the camera.

• 39:59Speaker 01

  And then the, uh, the nib has like some, what's it called? Um, engraving on it.

• 40:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah, well, the engraving says who made it and what kind of nib it is, so. Uh, and then, by the way, the nibs, they can be made of different stuff. So this company offered steel and titanium nibs. The titanium nib was a $200 premium.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 40:21Matt Farah?

  So this same pen with the titanium nib was $4 on premium.

• 40:24Speaker 01

  Right.

• 40:24Matt Farah?

  So I did not, I elected to not get that.

• 40:26Speaker 01

  That's the ST, because then it weighs just a little bit less.

• 40:29Matt Farah?

  I just, I wrote with both nibs and, and I, there was not a huge difference.

• 40:34Speaker 01

  Little second.

• 40:35Matt Farah?

  Now, there are some pens that use a gold nib, and I really do like gold nibs, and they are very expensive. They're like $400.

• 40:44Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 40:45Matt Farah?

  So, so that's pen number one. This is the other one. This one is a little more expensive.

• 40:50Speaker 01

  Alright, this is in a felt case?

• 40:52Matt Farah?

  The, I, I put it in the case.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. It's got like a bronze clip?

• 40:57Matt Farah?

  Well, when you take it out, you'll know the whole...

• 40:59Speaker 01

  Whoa!

• 41:00Matt Farah?

  So this pen is made of brick, it's, it's steampunk.

• 41:03Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 41:03Matt Farah?

  This is made of resin.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  Up your alley.

• 41:05Matt Farah?

  But on the inside of the resin, it has a knocked tin...

• 41:11Matt Farah?

  Uh, surfacing with interspersed with watch gears. Yeah, so it's this total steampunk vibe. That I really like. It's like you're looking at some really old school machinery. That's happening in there.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  Well, it looks like it's, it looks like there's a bunch of little squares riveted together to make the body of, you know, like a torpedo.

• 41:33Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  That you made yourself and then it's got all the uh, the little gears kind of sprinkled about.

• 41:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 41:39Speaker 01

  That's cool.

• 41:40Matt Farah?

  So then this company had, this was called uh, I believe it was called Eagle Pen Company. Um, and they had some other stuff that was dope too. They had, they had a couple of pens that were made of fully disassembled watches, including the dial. But this uh, this steampunky guy really spoke to me. So I think this one, this one was a little more expensive. This one was three twenty-five. Uh, but it does have a slightly higher end dib on it. Uh, and I, I think they're both really cool. So hopefully I won't lose them.

• 42:14Speaker 01

  I was looking at that. I thought the handle length was different.

• 42:17Matt Farah?

  They're slightly different.

• 42:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:19Matt Farah?

  Um, you know, and, and these are, you know, I'm not going to travel with them. I have my travel fountain pens. The other pen, my fifty dollar pen, that's now my travel fountain pen.

• 42:29Speaker 01

  Right.

• 42:30Matt Farah?

  So these can live on my desk.

• 42:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's cool.

• 42:32Matt Farah?

  And this is a very stupid hobby. I mean, it really is, but like.

• 42:36Speaker 01

  They kinda all are. They're all, all our hobbies are pretty stupid.

• 42:39Matt Farah?

  Uh, my back, aw dude, I've hit the hourly limit of these seats.

• 42:43Speaker 01

  These are so dumb.

• 42:44Matt Farah?

  Uh, where's my little felt case there?

• 42:46Speaker 01

  Oh yeah.

• 42:46Matt Farah?

  So, I mean, I, I, at least I did it right. I didn't just start by, uh, from going from nothing to going from.

• 42:53Speaker 01

  You did that thing like a parent, like you started with a goldfish because you wanted a dog.

• 42:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 42:57Speaker 01

  If you take care of this.

• 42:58Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 42:59Speaker 01

  You know, prove that you're really into having a pet. And you did that. That's very good.

• 43:04Matt Farah?

  I, I feel like I'm about at my, because the idea of spending over a thousand dollars on a pet to me is like, a little sickening. You know, even though like, like, look, I. Other people could go, but you spent how much on a blank? So like, I get it, I'm not throwing stones, but it would just, uh... You know, there's steps with watches too, right? Like, you gotta, there's jumps in, in quality, right?

• 43:29Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 43:30Matt Farah?

  But with a pen, once you get to something that feels nice in your hand, and has a cool look, and a gold nib, you're at the end of the functionality, and then it's like jewels and shit.

• 43:42Speaker 01

  Well, then, but then you get it, I think the difference is the watch you wear in public.

• 43:46Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 43:46Speaker 01

  Other people see it, other watch people see it. Not, not necessarily like you want to show off, but other people will recognize what you've purchased, and they might be into it also. The pen, if you mostly use it at your desk, no one sees it very much for you. So that slippery slope of now I'm getting past the gold nib and I'm just collecting to collect, like, that's what pulls people in. And they just, it's like people that have 50 different knives.

• 44:07Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 44:08Speaker 01

  It's all the same, and I think dudes, dudes love to collect stuff. We get into a hobby, and we get really like into the minutia, we get a bunch of the things, and then we move to the next one, and whatever, we all do it.

• 44:20Matt Farah?

  If I, I can imagine like, if I was like a lawyer in court, you know, and my, my pen was like part of my courtroom wardrobe, you know? Match it to my tie or whatever the fuck.

• 44:33Speaker 01

  Sure, you can do that.

• 44:33Matt Farah?

  That's a, that's a thing, you know?

• 44:35Speaker 01

  I think, but I think it's cool because it's something that, that makes you happy to use, even if no one sees it.

• 44:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 44:42Speaker 01

  Dance like no one's watching.

• 44:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Um, yeah. I do, that's why I really liked, uh, this, the metal one was about supporting a small business from Philly, and the other one was like, I, I like, I'll leave that sitting on my desk, and I will enjoy seeing it there every day. Uh, but if you've never ridden with a fountain pen, I really do like that you just don't have to apply any pressure to the page. That's really nice. My hands, if I, if I write a lot, uh, feel better afterward.

• 45:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, because you're not pushing down, using all those muscles.

• 45:17Matt Farah?

  Uh, do you want, were you looking at questions?

• 45:18Speaker 01

  I'm trying to pull it up, yeah.

• 45:20Matt Farah?

  Did I have, I did have something else in my notebook that I wanted to discuss on this program, and let's see if I can remember it.

• 45:36Matt Farah?

  Um, what does that say?

• 45:38Speaker 01

  This thing sounds terrible right now. It's like cylinder

• 45:40Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 45:42Matt Farah?

  And here in eighth year, it's real clattery. I can't. So what is, um, is, is, is pre-check open or closed right now?

• 45:51Speaker 01

  What?

• 45:51Matt Farah?

  Did you hear about this?

• 45:52Speaker 01

  No.

• 45:53Matt Farah?

  I hope this doesn't age poorly in the show, but yesterday they announced, or two days ago, that because of the DHS shutdown, that they were closing pre-check in Global Entry.

• 46:05Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 46:06Matt Farah?

  And then there was a huge backlash, obviously. They said, no, no, not, not pre-check, just Global Entry.

• 46:13Speaker 01

  Uh, I don't know.

• 46:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I don't know either.

• 46:17Speaker 01

  Oh, right. Cause the shutdown, they shut down DHS specifically. Um, I don't know.

• 46:22Matt Farah?

  My, and my guess is that they're not shutting down, like the bad things, like ICE raids. They're shutting down the things that people find convenient and that will demand, will compromise in order to have them reopen because they don't want to be a convenience.

• 46:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. Cause like, that's the political strategy. Like, I think the Democrats right now are initiated the shutdown because of ICE and other stuff.

• 46:47Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 46:47Speaker 01

  But they will, you know, the other party will try to make them look as bad as possible, vice versa.

• 46:54Matt Farah?

  But I've got four flights in the next week, including an international.

• 46:58Speaker 01

  Oh, that's right.

• 46:59Matt Farah?

  I'm going, I'm coming back from ICE race and I'm going to Spain, straight turnaround to Spain.

• 47:05Speaker 01

  I mean, if there's any reassurance, the last time I flew in from a different country, I was, I landed, I went, oh, I still haven't done the Global Entry thing. And then I walked up and they had the new ICE scanners.

• 47:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 47:14Speaker 01

  And it was faster than the Global Entry line.

• 47:16Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  I went through so quickly at LAX. So.

• 47:20Matt Farah?

  All right. Well, should we get to the people?

• 47:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:23Matt Farah?

  All right. Patreon.com slash the Smoking Tire Podcast. If you want to ask questions for the show, uh, partake in the show when it is live, which is most of the time, uh, when we're not in the car. And of course, get, uh, ad-free experience, get extra show, get the show early, get exclusive access to collabs. Oh, Zach and I have a new collab in the works that is going to be very fun, um, with Nick.

• 47:52Speaker 01

  Oh yeah.

• 47:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 47:53Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 47:54Matt Farah?

  That's gonna be the shit. And that's gonna be something that people did not see coming. It'll be a little different.

• 47:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:00Matt Farah?

  So that'll be really cool in time for the summer. And, uh, yeah.

• 48:05Speaker 01

  All right. Yamaha BB says, what are our favorite Subarus we've driven and why?

• 48:11Matt Farah?

  It pretty much starts and ends with the RSTI swaps.

• 48:15Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 48:16Matt Farah?

  I mean, that's really it. There's JDM STI. I've never driven a real 22B. But the JDM 2-liter STI engine, I like better than the US 2.5. And a 2.5 RS with an STI powertrain is about as good as it gets in the States, you know?

• 48:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. Small, light, fast enough. Yeah.

• 48:41Matt Farah?

  I drove that Japanese Legacy that had the sequential turbos. Remember in Connecticut, we did that for two?

• 48:48Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 48:49Matt Farah?

  And that was neat, different and weird. If you want it to be neat and different and weird. But that's about it. Wow, my back is fucking hurting right now from this cut.

• 49:02Speaker 01

  For people listening, my back is not, the only part of my back that's contacting the seat is from about the middle of my lats, about four inches down in my ribs. That's it. Nothing above, nothing below. No lumbar, like no lower part of my back is touching the seat right now. It is like, it's like your back is leaning against two, I don't know, like half-cut watermelons. It's weird.

• 49:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 49:26Speaker 01

  Terrible. Um.

• 49:31Speaker 01

  Uh, Peaches for Free says, I got a, I received an IWC Volvo Ocean Race Edition for a birthday.

• 49:39Matt Farah?

  Wow.

• 49:39Speaker 01

  And I don't know anything about watches. Does this take wear and tear well?

• 49:44Matt Farah?

  Yes. IWCs are very tough watches. They, you could beat the shit out of them. You know, don't get it wet unless you are sure the crown is screwed down so you don't get water in there. But yes, all IWCs are tough watches, particularly what, which one did they get? Ocean Racing something?

• 50:02Speaker 01

  Volvo Ocean Race Edition.

• 50:04Matt Farah?

  I mean, that's gonna be a tough watch, right? Ocean Race, that's a, that's a pretty elemental thing.

• 50:10Speaker 01

  Sturdy.

• 50:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 50:12Speaker 01

  Deuce Alpha Omerz. I think it's two Alpha homies. Deu Alpha Omerz says, "Your manx gets you parked next to bajillionaire cars."

• 50:26Matt Farah?

  True.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  What would we buy to do a vintage rally like the Copper State 1000? So if we had 50 grand to spend on a pre 1974 car?

• 50:35Matt Farah?

  Somebody, and I want to say it was Colin Comer at Hagerty, wrote a great article covering that exact thing. What is the cheapest way I can get into a prestigious vintage rally? And prestigious vintage rallies prioritize story and heritage and historical significance over make, model, right? So you shouldn't try and get a shitty Porsche. You should try and get some fucking terrible car that ran in LeMans in 1972.

• 51:15Speaker 01

  The thing that was like an F-Class.

• 51:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah, like I think in the article, there was like some Triumphs that were like junk that ran in there, like Alancia, Fulvia or something, like weird two-box stuff that that there were strange factory teams for, you know, weird Fiat's and stuff. Look up Colin Comer's article, but like what would I, what would we buy? Like I would be looking for something like that.

• 51:47Matt Farah?

  You know, maybe there's a, maybe there's like a Corvette somewhere that was, that was like an SCCA race car or something.

• 51:56Speaker 01

  That would be rad. If I could, you know, like a Triumph, the little Spitfires are very cool.

• 52:05Speaker 01

  Maybe, I don't know, GG350 is lame, but I would still want, that's what I would want to drive. Something loud and kind of fast from period.

• 52:13Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 52:14Speaker 01

  But if I need to apply and get something weird and obscure, like a Bug Eye Sprite race car from back in the day.

• 52:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 52:21Speaker 01

  That would, that would be exciting and weird.

• 52:26Speaker 01

  What do we think about duck tail spoilers on 997.2s?

• 52:29Matt Farah?

  I like them. I'm pro. I think they're pro the existence. I like, I like when you balance it out with a GT3 chin splitter though. I don't like when you, when you do the duck tail but leave the base.

• 52:42Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 52:43Matt Farah?

  You gotta balance that.

• 52:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, you need that. Michael, very simply named Michael, says, "Why does Buick still exist in GM's lineup? Shouldn't it have gone the way of Pontiac, Saturn, and Voltimobile?"

• 52:57Matt Farah?

  I mean, for a while, the answer to that question was China, but I, I don't think they're buying any Buicks in China anymore. I think they're buying BYD's shit over there now.

• 53:07Speaker 01

  I don't know. I would have to look up, uh, their annual sales here and globally. I feel like they sell a lot of rental cars. I do see their crossovers around a fair bit, but I don't know if that's enough to sustain them for the next 10 years. I'm, I am also surprised they still exist.

• 53:24Matt Farah?

  I am too. I, I don't know. I mean, what it would, what it would take for me to buy a Buick today? I, I'm not really sure, but I've never seen it. I mean, I think Buick, if, if GM, you know, performance really wanted to,

• 53:44Matt Farah?

  to, to try and do something interesting, I think a Buick Grand National that was like, like an electric drag car

• 53:55Matt Farah?

  could be cool. Like, if they got the design right and they made it, you know, the Cadillac IQ motors or whatever in there, like, that could be cool.

• 54:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, they, they need something like that to rejuvenate.

• 54:12Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 54:12Speaker 01

  You know, the interest of anyone under 60 years old.

• 54:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 54:15Speaker 01

  So, I don't know, but I don't know if that would then, if they have the money to do that, to even try.

• 54:22Speaker 01

  Ali Dainshivar, Dainshivar, says, "Do we think, uh, do we think Mercedes, BMW, and Audi should keep their light, high-performance trims like the S3, S4, the 43 and 53 AMGs, and the blah blah BMWs? Given it seems like BMW has phased those out on the 5 and the 7 series." I mean, I think yes, like the S3 is a good car and they sell a lot of them.

• 54:48Matt Farah?

  They didn't phase them out. They made them electric. Now with BMW, it's the M.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  Oh, the I.

• 54:55Matt Farah?

  I5 M60 or whatever. So they refocused those.

• 55:04Matt Farah?

  And by the way, those, the ones I've driven in the BMWs are not very good.

• 55:10Speaker 01

  I think, I think the 53 AMG is a good car. I think the engine works great, smooth, fast, powerful. I think it's a great midpoint and the performance is enough where I think it justifies that name being on there. That wasn't the case always, especially like, I don't know, 15 years ago, when they were just slapping those into the badges on everything.

• 55:28Matt Farah?

  I don't, I don't at all hate, you know, M performance and then M or the, the S and then RS. Like that's fine. What I really don't love is when they do the S line, which is where you basically get the wheels and the bumpers, but with the base engine.

• 55:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:45Matt Farah?

  That I, I don't love. I'm not like offended by it, but it seems like you're cashing in the equity you built by building fast cars.

• 55:56Speaker 01

  Yeah. You're a spectator at, at a football game, wearing a jersey. You're like, oh, I'm, I'm also an S Audi. Like, no, you're not. You don't have any of the horsepower.

• 56:08Speaker 01

  Uh, we actually talked about that already.

• 56:10Matt Farah?

  Of course we did.

• 56:12Speaker 01

  Uh, your poorest patron says, what is our take on the current Rolex AD environment? And where would we buy on the gray market?

• 56:23Matt Farah?

  Well, I have heard that it is easier to buy some watches now. That, you know, some of that hype balloon burst, uh, you know, people that, that thought that watches were an investment grade thing that would just keep going up. I think they've figured out that that's not the case entirely. So there is stuff you can get, you know, you still have to do the, the bullshit. I mean, you still gotta jump through the hoops and.

• 56:56Matt Farah?

  My advice if you want to buy a Rolex from an authorized dealer, brand new, is to, is, has always been the same. Pick an occasion that's like a, a thing that's happening in your life, and you want to get the watch for that occasion, go in there, tell them about the occasion, tell them why you want to match that watch, whatever, and then immediately start asking, you know, could I get this watch in time for this occasion that's a few months down the road? Immediately start asking about getting the watch engraved. Uh, because if you're gonna get the watch engraved, you're not gonna flip it. Nobody engraves a watch to flip it, so,

• 57:39Matt Farah?

  in my opinion and experience, that's the best way to project to these folks that you're not trying to make money on a flip. Oh! Well, bottomed out, right?

• 57:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:52Matt Farah?

  We hit the bump right there, and it takes all the fucking damper out of it, and it's actually possible to bottom it out. Wow. Oh, my back, dude. Oh, this sucks.

• 58:07Matt Farah?

  Um, okay, so, at Gray Market, I mean, you know, Bob's, Crown and Caliber, European watch, um, you know, eBay with their authentication program. Um, but, uh, yeah, I, I think, I think unless you want a fucking white dial Daytona or something, or a Pepsi GMT, I think you could sell it to an AD and I think you would get the hookup.

• 58:34Speaker 01

  All right. Uh, Listen and Sometimes Watch says, "How much more special does a C8 Z06 feel compared to the Stingray?

• 58:41Matt Farah?

  A lot.

• 58:42Speaker 01

  Does it feel more special when you're not in the canyons?"

• 58:45Matt Farah?

  Yes, the engine, the powertrain feels like a Ferrari powertrain. Not like a fucking truck powertrain.

• 58:52Speaker 01

  Every time you start it, every time you accelerate, decelerate, downshift, it will not sound like a Camaro.

• 58:59Matt Farah?

  Correct.

• 59:00Speaker 01

  A truck, a Corvette, like it'll just sound so special.

• 59:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's that the Z06 sounds and revs and feels and gives the vibes that are most commonly associated with the best Ferraris. Not, not Chevys.

• 59:18Speaker 01

  Uh, it kills me not to notice, says with the EPA no longer regulating tailpipe emissions and tax credits for EVs gone. Do we think the market for EVs will dry up in the United States?

• 59:30Matt Farah?

  Not entirely, but you know.

• 59:32Speaker 01

  It will shrink.

• 59:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 59:34Speaker 01

  But I think a lot of people that, I mean, like you're an example, that have driven EVs go, well, I'm never going back.

• 59:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 59:40Speaker 01

  I daily, it's just, there's too many benefits, but they've taken a bunch of money out of it. So, or sorry, a bunch of the financial incentives and that will definitely shrink the market.

• 59:53Speaker 01

  Covered that.

• 59:56Speaker 01

  Let's see, I blow horns. Have we driven high downforce cars where you have to ease off the brake pedal before braking from high speed? As the downforce bleeds off, or do we just let ABS sort it out?

• 1:00:11Speaker 01

  So if you're driving high downforce.

• 1:00:12Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  I guess when you go to the brakes, do you release gas? Let D cell kind of work its magic, then brake, or do you still go directly from gas to brake?

• 1:00:22Matt Farah?

  So go.

• 1:00:22Speaker 01

  I have to break.

• 1:00:23Matt Farah?

  I've never driven, I mean, I've driven a couple of slow prototype cars. You know, like sub 2,000 pound, but like 200 horsepower cars where you do have downforce. But it's not like Le Mans grade downforce. And then I just drove the, I spent the day with the Mustang GT3, which does have downforce. And no, I've, I've not done that thing that is described there. I go, I'm on my, I'm left foot braking. And I'm going from full gas to full brake, pretty, pretty hard.

• 1:01:00Speaker 01

  I think something they're, they bring up though, is if you're driving a really high speed, if you're up at 160, 70, 80 or above. You can't just come off the brakes, or sorry, come off gas and go right to brakes. If you're doing like a top speed of it, and you kind of want to like eat onto it.

• 1:01:15Matt Farah?

  Sure, if you're going to an amount, yeah, yeah. Yeah, if you're going 200 miles an hour, you need to like come off the gas, let the car settle, then hit the brakes.

• 1:01:26Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:01:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, you can't just go gas brake.

• 1:01:31Matt Farah?

  Most of the time, if you really do have a ton of downforce, you might be more likely to do like, when it's sketchy to do that is in a car like a McLaren 570 or the early Koenigsegg, when you have no rear wing and you transfer that weight forward without a stabilizing element in the back and the fucking back wiggles all around.

• 1:01:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:01:52Matt Farah?

  That's like the, uh, the Zinger VMAX did that shit too.

• 1:01:56Speaker 01

  Audi TT.

• 1:01:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  You know, the back end getting light.

• 1:01:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:00Speaker 01

  Very dangerous at high speeds.

• 1:02:01Matt Farah?

  So I, I think if you have a balanced downforce package, you should be able to go from gas to brake as fast as one can, you know, unless you're talking about like literal land speed cars or something.

• 1:02:15Speaker 01

  Um, Temple of the Unimog. Uh, with many cars coming back as flops, parentheses, like the Prelude, the Eclipse Cross, Blazer EV, what are some nameplates that were resurrected and were better than the original? That's tough because I feel like a lot of the cars that kept getting better, they, they kept around.

• 1:02:35Matt Farah?

  That's a good point. They just stuck around. They didn't kill them and then bring them back.

• 1:02:38Speaker 01

  Like, I feel like the sixth gen Camaro is the best Camaro. But they never, they never, you know, they didn't sun, they didn't put it to bed for 10 years. And you know, they think things go to bed for two years while they make the new one and then they bring out the next generation.

• 1:02:52Matt Farah?

  Oh, that's so interesting. Um, but if they brought back a name from the Bronco.

• 1:02:59Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:02:59Matt Farah?

  Bronco is the, is the obvious one.

• 1:03:01Speaker 01

  That's the best answer.

• 1:03:03Matt Farah?

  Uh.

• 1:03:04Speaker 01

  That was gone.

• 1:03:05Matt Farah?

  You could say Toyota FJ, maybe? How about Corvette Stingray?

• 1:03:12Speaker 01

  Just bringing back the name.

• 1:03:13Matt Farah?

  The name Stingray, yeah. Uh. How about, have any of the? Oh, Aston bringing back the Vanquish?

• 1:03:23Speaker 01

  Oh, that was a good one.

• 1:03:24Matt Farah?

  The new Vanquish is epic.

• 1:03:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:30Matt Farah?

  What other, who else has got? Toyota hasn't brought back any dead names.

• 1:03:38Speaker 01

  Well, the Supra took a long break.

• 1:03:40Matt Farah?

  The Supra? Oh, that's an interesting one.

• 1:03:42Speaker 01

  That car got better in... Yeah. The new one is better than, I think, the Mark IV. Mark IV is the legend.

• 1:03:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:50Speaker 01

  You could still get it, but now you can get a ton of power out of the B58. And it also handles way better.

• 1:03:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:55Speaker 01

  So that's actually a better driver's car. It just doesn't have all the problems.

• 1:04:01Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 1:04:02Matt Farah?

  Good question.

• 1:04:03Speaker 01

  That's a good question.

• 1:04:06Matt Farah?

  We have 15 minutes.

• 1:04:07Speaker 01

  Alright. Send Prelude says, "You're very vocal about being against ADAS, but they can't help but think but for 95% of regular drivers, it probably helps prevent fender benders and small accidents. Do we think it is beneficial for the average, non-enthusiastic driver?" I mean, I think it definitely is.

• 1:04:26Matt Farah?

  Yes, I do. But I think if you're an enthusiast, attentive driver, you need to be able to fully disable it, and it needs to stay in the settings where you left it. Like, my problem with ADAS isn't that it exists. It's that it's when it can't be disabled fully, or when you have to go through this process every time you start the car. And that process is very obtuse and a waste of time and a waste of energy, and it's in menus and particularly in a luxury car. It's not a luxurious experience.

• 1:05:05Matt Farah?

  But yeah, I'm not against the... My, I actually, I mean, rather than having a quote "self-driving" car where you zone out and take a nap, I mean, I think we should have cars that you drive yourself, but are basically un-crashable. And ADAS is what's on the way to that. But some of the systems suck, and if you can't turn them off every time and you want them off, like, that stinks.

• 1:05:37Speaker 01

  Steven J 24K has a 2020 992.1 Carrera S, but it's PDK. Enjoy it, but thinking about swapping it out for a 911 with a manual, maybe a cab. Something more fun, more visceral, under 150 grand. What should they do? What should they buy?

• 1:05:59Matt Farah?

  Uh, Spider?

• 1:06:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. If you want convertible, manual, fun.

• 1:06:06Matt Farah?

  I'd probably just get a Spider. Yeah. But if you want a cab, like a 911 cab, dude, a Carrera T cab with a stick would be fire. That's a lovely car, it's true. The new one with the 6-speed? I, you're just maybe getting in under 150 for one of those, but if you can, if you can swing a Carrera T cab, light on the options, that would be fabulous.

• 1:06:33Speaker 01

  Wow. Quadra Foliofe says they bought a brand-new Maserati Grecole Trofeo for a third off MSRP.

• 1:06:40Matt Farah?

  Dice.

• 1:06:41Speaker 01

  Would we buy an MC20 for a similar discount?

• 1:06:44Matt Farah?

  A third off, so that would be $110,000 off. So I would, so this, this would be then 220 instead of 330.

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  I still wouldn't buy this car, but I would buy the regular MC20 for a third off in a second.

• 1:07:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I would too. Yeah.

• 1:07:04Speaker 01

  Um, I love VAG, VAGCOM or VAGCOM.

• 1:07:09Matt Farah?

  VAGCOM.

• 1:07:09Speaker 01

  Uh, 2027 purchased. They want to spend 40 grand, rear-wheel drive, manual, no track use, just a fun thing.

• 1:07:17Matt Farah?

  I'm sorry, I was passing. Say that again?

• 1:07:20Speaker 01

  If you have, if you're spending 40 grand for a fun rear-wheel drive manual car that'll ever see a track.

• 1:07:26Matt Farah?

  That Corvette, right?

• 1:07:27Speaker 01

  Corvette or second-gen CTSV? Are those still?

• 1:07:32Matt Farah?

  Uh, sure. Or like a 996, you know, Carrera 4S?

• 1:07:40Speaker 01

  Wow, you used to be able to get turbos for that money. That's nuts.

• 1:07:42Matt Farah?

  For 40 grand?

• 1:07:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:44Matt Farah?

  Uh, you'd get a terrible turbo with an automatic for that.

• 1:07:47Speaker 01

  No, you used to be able to get.

• 1:07:48Matt Farah?

  I know. No, you still could. If you want an auto, you can get one for 40 grand, but yeah.

• 1:07:54Speaker 01

  Uh, I feel like we've covered that a lot.

• 1:07:59Speaker 01

  Thoughts on the Mark 8 GTI versus R for daily and occasional spirited road driving? And where would we put the GR Corolla in that mix?

• 1:08:11Matt Farah?

  If you can afford a Golf R, it's a better car than a GTI.

• 1:08:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:17Matt Farah?

  I mean, it's way faster, the gearbox is tuned better, the suspension is a bit more dialed in. You can't sort of oversteer it if you try hard.

• 1:08:30Speaker 01

  But even if you don't, you can feel the rear diff like pushing you around turns. It just feels different dynamically.

• 1:08:36Matt Farah?

  And the resale is better.

• 1:08:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:39Matt Farah?

  The GTIs are fine, though, if you're just commuting around like and you don't need the extra performance, like a GTI is fine. A GR Corolla will feel more motorsporty.

• 1:08:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:51Matt Farah?

  They're much sportier tuned than GTIs or GR Corollas are, or Golf Rs are.

• 1:08:59Speaker 01

  And I think the GR Corolla has heavier steering than the Golf R.

• 1:09:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, heavier steering and a faster ratio.

• 1:09:05Speaker 01

  Youthful, exciting.

• 1:09:13Speaker 01

  Have we considered the Defender Octa as a towing vehicle?

• 1:09:16Matt Farah?

  No, I haven't. Does the Defender Octa have a good tow rating?

• 1:09:20Speaker 01

  This person uses it for their open Brian James trailer to tow stuff to the track.

• 1:09:24Matt Farah?

  Oh. I think they're really expensive.

• 1:09:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think they are.

• 1:09:29Matt Farah?

  I think that shit is well out of my price range and there's no such thing as a used one. Yeah, they're all brand new, so I think I gotta bow out on that. The leader, the top of the leaderboard is still like a two-year-old Cayenne hybrid.

• 1:09:47Speaker 01

  Let's see, with all the talk, oh, this is Tickle Your Pickle for a Triple Nickel. With all the talk about the new Grand Tour Cast, do we think it's time for Top Gear to come back? Do we think the original formula should return or should they rework the entire program?

• 1:10:03Matt Farah?

  Top Gear, I mean, look, if you go watch old Top Gears now, and I don't mean the specials, I mean like the studio shows.

• 1:10:12Matt Farah?

  Look, it was great. It was influential. It was great. But like, I don't think that we need to go remake that. I mean, they tried to remake it like four times afterwards.

• 1:10:26Speaker 01

  I mean, I thought they did a good job when they had Rory, Chris, and Matt LeBlanc. I think they should have let that continue. But I think nowadays you can get so close to the car reviews online from so many channels. Like, they'd be really hard pressed to fight for the attention of everybody. And so you need the specials, but now you're gonna have the grand tour on Amazon doing that stuff too. So I don't know if they'd want to try to compete.

• 1:10:52Matt Farah?

  I also like, I don't, I mean, look, with respect to Thomas and James, who I love. They're great and are very good at their jobs. Like, they're some of the best, you know what I mean? So I'm not jealous or mad. I'm happy for them, you know, for getting this gig, right? But like, to me, like, an iconic show is so tied to the cast of that show that remaking the format with new people just doesn't interest me as a viewer. Like, I don't want another Top Gear because Top Gear to me was those three guys.

• 1:11:33Matt Farah?

  And like, I was happy when Chris got the gig. I was happy. Like, I'm not, I'm not saying that it needs to die because those guys left. But like, the reason that I watch that show, when I go back and watch old episodes, is because of the chemistry and the writing between those guys, I think is unique in the space. In the same way that there can't be another Bourdain or whatever. Like, it's a very specific, it comes from a very specific perspective and place and is delivered in a very specific way that I really related to. And that it wasn't that, oh, you could plug somebody else,

• 1:12:15Matt Farah?

  even if they're a good writer, into the format of the show and have a show that's just as good. Good or anywhere close, really. You know what I mean?

• 1:12:23Speaker 01

  I would go the other way, because I watched the new Naked Gun, which I think is hilarious, and it's very much in a style of comedy that we don't see a lot these days. But I also like the old one. But I think you have to plug in, you can't just plug people into the format. You need people that are as clever, have the rapport of the old guy, of the past trio. You need all that stuff.

• 1:12:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:45Speaker 01

  To try to make something that is, like, I guess, as good. You know, it has to be really entertaining, funny, insightful, and witty. And it has to have all that stuff and a little bit of shit talking, too. So you can't just say, here's three people that are gonna go on car adventures. They have to have the glue that was those folks. But I welcome the new entertainment. I mean, I like Throttle House, and they're like, they're two funny dudes that are doing good car stuff and doing things in an entertaining way.

• 1:13:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:11Speaker 01

  So.

• 1:13:13Matt Farah?

  Last one. This is the end of our, the end of our drive here.

• 1:13:16Speaker 01

  Flying Monkey says, "With ADAS functions becoming more prevalent in the industry and requiring more steps to disable them, do we think there will be a point where insurance companies will start denying claims if they discover that the driver turned off ADAS?"

• 1:13:32Matt Farah?

  Hmm, no, I, I don't. How, I mean, no, I mean, you just, I think the, the, uh, the precedent there is traction control or stability control. I mean, if you, if you turn off traction control and you have a crash, I don't, I'm pretty sure your insurance company cannot use that as a specific way to deny your claim.

• 1:14:01Speaker 01

  Sounds like a train is coming.

• 1:14:03Matt Farah?

  Our brakes are very, very dirty from the track. It's squeaky. They need to be hosed off. But I don't, you know, I'll have to, we'll have, we definitely have at least one listener that is in the insurance business. And if you are in the insurance business and you're out there and you've ever heard of claims being denied specifically because ADAS was turned off, or you've even heard rumblings that that could be a thing, please do let us know. We're gonna go to my office. That is our program, folks. We appreciate our patrons particularly for asking such good questions today. And we will hold over the ones we didn't use for the next show. Although, next show, I'm actually gonna be in Montana with Mr. Wes Siler. Yeah.

• 1:14:48Matt Farah?

  So that'll be fun, live from my Airbnb in Big Sky. And we'll see the rest of y'all after the motherfucking ice race. Peace.