Driving a Special Lotus at Willow; EPA changes; New Watch; &A

Matt Farah modified his watch; the EPA will stop paying attention to cars (and a whole lot more); driving a special Inokinetic Lotus Exige at Willow; and.... Patreon Questions include: HELP! My terrible-driving friend wants to go racing A programmer's opinion on the AI discussion Base 981 Cayman: Good intro track car? Is the GR86 a "mini 911"? Ferrari 812 GTS vs 12Cillindri Should EVs flash brake lights when using regen? Would Acura ever make an AWD Integra Type R? Cars you could identify by smell Are Hublots cool? Best month to buy/sell a car? What's wrong with the diesel crowd? Why no love for the Porsche 914? Efficient commuters for TALL people Is a McLaren 570S a good budget supercar? How to stop distracted driving And more! Recorded February 13, 2026 Show Notes Hello Fresh Go to https://HelloFresh.com/smokingtire10fm to Get 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan. 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 up everybody, welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off the Record. We love them over here because I know that Off the Record is looking out for me 24/7 when I'm on the road, no matter where I am in the continental United States. Because their coverage extends to basically 97% of the continental United States and some Alaska and Hawaii. Off the Record is a service that connects you with a qualified attorney to fight any ticket you might got, no matter where you are, right? So, you get a ticket near home, maybe you have somebody, but what if you're in a different state? You don't want to go back there and deal with the court system on your own? That's why Off the Record is here. All you have to do is go to offtherecord.com/tst.

• 0:45Matt Farah?

  That's offtherecord.com/tst. Then, you're going to upload a photo of the ticket, some information about what happened, your version of events, so to speak, and Off the Record will fight that ticket on your behalf, all the way to the Supreme Court, if need be. And, uh, most of the time, they get it done over there. And their goal is to get those points off your record. You don't want points on your record because it could affect your insurance, could affect potentially your employment, a variety of other things. So, offtherecord.com/tst for 10% off all legal services. They are out there looking out for you. All right, on this episode of the podcast, I did some, uh, road and some racetrack driving

• 1:30Matt Farah?

  at Willow Springs in the Lotus 111 RS, a sort of resto-modded version of a Lotus Elise that I think will definitely find an audience. Uh, Trump has, uh, decided to essentially get rid of environmental regulations entirely, uh, effectively, uh, decimating all, uh, fuel economy standards. And, uh, I got a cool watch. Yay. It's the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go.

• 1:59Matt Farah?

  Oh, did you see the watch?

• 2:01Speaker 01

  Mm-mm. So, oh, it arrived?

• 2:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:04Speaker 01

  Great. Oh, that's right, we were waiting for it and then it didn't show up. That's really... This is genuinely like, really funny.

• 2:09Matt Farah?

  Isn't that awesome?

• 2:10Speaker 01

  You know, uh...

• 2:12Matt Farah?

  On the one hand, I get to say, "Hot tub time machine." It is a hot tub time machine, actually.

• 2:18Speaker 01

  When did you think of that?

• 2:19Matt Farah?

  Uh, today. Like, yesterday.

• 2:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:22Matt Farah?

  But, uh...

• 2:22Speaker 01

  That's great, but...

• 2:23Matt Farah?

  But also, it is, uh, it is such like, uh, an appropriate commentary, I think. Not the like, "I'm such a genius," I also just looked at it and went, "Those look like hot tubs." But like, it is a commentary on the fact that I think people get on the forums and shit are so like nerdy about timing things with their chronographs. And I have like four chronographs and I never, if I need to time something, I'm using my phone.

• 2:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:51Matt Farah?

  I just, but like, it doesn't mean like, but like, so...

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Well, for those people, that is their fountain pen.

• 2:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, it's, uh, it does remove some of the functionality for like, but, but it, the part of the, it, it's essentially going to remind me that I was never gonna use the fucking chronograph anyway. That's what, that will be the reminder of that.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  No, I think it's, it's like, I think it's a really rad idea, truly, 'cause there's some, you know, like, I enjoy Demolition Man, the movie, I would watch it again. But you have the theme bathroom, I wouldn't do that.

• 3:26Matt Farah?

  Sure, that's understandable.

• 3:28Speaker 01

  This is really funny. This is a great use of circles.

• 3:32Matt Farah?

  It is a great, it's a great use of a guy who's really good at painting small things.

• 3:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:37Matt Farah?

  And, uh, circles.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And, uh, and taking a thing that is, is one of many just like it, and, uh, this one is mine.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  And the hands are still in there, right?

• 3:47Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 3:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, so like...

• 3:48Matt Farah?

  The chronograph still works.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  So time's going by for them, so the people in the hot tub can keep track.

• 3:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  And get out when it's appropriate.

• 3:53Matt Farah?

  Are we live?

• 3:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:54Matt Farah?

  Oh, you can pull it up on the Instagram. We're talking about, I got my, finally got my custom watch back from the dial artist, oh, who I have to invite to collaborate on this post, 'cause I, I forgot. So we, I had this idea that I, I thought that sub dials in my white Speedmaster looked like hot tubs. And the dial artist who does micro artistry thought that that would be funny and sent me a rendering. And, uh, I sent him the watch, just like the fucking Lamborghini engine.

• 4:26Matt Farah?

  Sending your own shit overseas and then getting it back. The customs bullshit is mad stressful. Cause it's like, this is, yes, this is an expensive watch, uh, that comes, you know, is of an origin of a country that's fucking tariffed. Although slightly less tariffed now, cause the president of Rolex sucked Trump's cock. That's what happened. I seize it. I seen it.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  He bought a bunch of world Trump coin. No, I didn't.

• 4:54Matt Farah?

  The president of Rolex, a president of Rolex came to visit Trump and literally gave him a golden Rolex desk clock.

• 5:01Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 5:01Matt Farah?

  That is now sitting on the fucking Resolute desk and the tariffs went from thirty-nine to fifteen percent. Having said that, so yeah, this is government by patronage, right? This is how it works now.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  The number of golden gifts that have literally been given to him. It's like, didn't, uh, didn't, uh, Tim Cook gave him like a gold?

• 5:19Matt Farah?

  At least it's not, uh, Heinz, what do we bring at Trump? You know, like they know, just whatever, as long as it's fucking gold. Who gives a shit? Uh, but shipping your own shit and then coming back and they go, you know, country of origin. Well, like Switzerland, but actually I already bought it in America and paid taxes here. And so, so when it got held up in customs for eight days, I was like sweating fucking buckets. Um, there was, thought they were gonna fucking jam me up. Saying I just bought it out of Switzerland or something. You know what I mean? So fortunately it arrived. And it arrived covered in blue customs tape. We have opened your shit.

• 5:59Speaker 01

  They opened and looked at it.

• 6:00Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah. They took a peek.

• 6:01Speaker 01

  But I guess they, did they see some record of it going out to UK? It's like, they know it's, it's, this is not a one direc-, uh, one direction.

• 6:08Matt Farah?

  They did not see a record of it going to. No, cause they just shipped it FedEx. I didn't like, and I didn't put a note inside like, hi, boys, this came, I'm back. But on the customs form, you had to fill out a form and I put, I did put, this package, this watch originated in the US. I shipped it to Europe for repair and now it's coming back. Which is exactly what I said for the engine. It was exactly that. It's my thing that was going for repair.

• 6:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:35Matt Farah?

  Not upgrade, not customization, repair. That's the word. The more I get into like business and there's gonna be someone rolling their fucking eyes out there. The, the very specifics of words on forms.

• 6:50Matt Farah?

  Well, like when I went to the Gardena government, trying to get the applications to have cars and coffees at, at the store. Or things like that. I said the word "events." To a normal person, sure, cars and coffee would fall under event. No, no, no. No, no, no. An event to a city person is like a fucking petting zoo and a marching band. Yeah, yeah. Carnival rides and like, traffic is getting obstructed and there needs to be an ambulance on site. Like, all I'm doing is having, as far as, are parties. Now, a part, a party is different, so anyway.

• 7:28Speaker 01

  So on the form, you should have written "party."

• 7:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And then they'd be like, "A party? Of course it's a private property." Like, no one gives a fuck. You know what I mean? But like, you say "events", and they think like, the shit's going down. You know, they think like, semis are unloading, you know, carnival rides. So anyway, that's, that's where we're at. Same thing with the customs form. Send it out for repair. It's a little fucking more-you-know-knowledge for everybody that's... Um, but I'm super stoked with this watch. It's fun as hell.

• 7:54Speaker 01

  Very cool.

• 7:55Matt Farah?

  Um, and it, I think it comes through really nice in the photo, but in, in, the water is very shiny and reflective. It has a, a good, a good sheen to it. Man, this shit is so fun. And it fucking feels really nice to pay an artist to make art that's for you and really cool. The Dial Artist, uh, Chris, out of the UK, uh, does micro artistry on, on watches. I mean, he'll probably paint on anything, but he does some really dope shit. Uh, last year, he painted, uh, a satellite view map of Bora Bora on my Rolex Explorer. That's pretty cool. He has some like Jackson Pollock-y stuff and some, like, pattern. Yeah. Oh, that's real cool.

• 8:40Speaker 01

  That's cool. So he like, I think sprayed like, through these tiny, I mean, what, uh, stencils, right? So they made these tiny, tiny stencils and then the middle, middle of the watch says "fuck nine to five."

• 8:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's pretty rad. Yeah.

• 8:52Speaker 01

  This is super cool.

• 8:53Matt Farah?

  He does some really fun colors and like, cartoon characters and stuff.

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 8:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I love Chris. He's great. If you want, if you want him to, if you want to change up your watch... And like, cause sometimes like, there's a watch called, I think it's like, it's by Mr. Jones Watches. And I think it's called like Another Lazy Sunday or something. And it's like pool floats going around a pool.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 9:18Matt Farah?

  It's a dope watch, but it's like a kind of a novelty watch. It's not like a nice watch. And so, there's a fun thing about like turning a nice watch into sort of a novelty watch. Is it called Another Lazy Sunday? Perfectly Useless Afternoon, which is a fun watch, but it's like, it's a bit of a novelty. Like, that's not an everyday watch.

• 9:38Speaker 01

  Well, this just, this looks like the watch was, and it was designed to just do this.

• 9:42Matt Farah?

  It is.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  It's like, it's a two-dimensional cartoon drawing essentially of someone sitting in a float, like, what's the inner tube, in a pool. Whereas yours, it's obvious that it was a dress watch, whatever you wanna call it. And then it had art added to it, yeah.

• 9:54Matt Farah?

  For this, the, uh, the, I think her leg points at the hours and the rubber ducky is the minutes.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  Cool.

• 10:01Matt Farah?

  I think.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  I mean, that's cool too.

• 10:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's fun. It's fun, but I can't use that to tell time every day. That's crazy.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, that'd be tough.

• 10:07Matt Farah?

  Um, welcome to the program. Brag about my fucking watch. Actually, I just wanted to excuse the plug, Chris. Please, send, send him ideas and have him paint your watches. It's not that expensive. He should probably be charging more, to be honest with you, for what he does. Who else can do that? Like, there's no comps.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's pretty rad.

• 10:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's like you go on Etsy, "Let me send you my Speedmaster." Um, I just had a nice two-hour transit back from Willow Springs. My very first member day. Uh, very exciting. Uh, there's like, cause there's, there's member days in terms of like, there's 20 days a month where I can show up and use the track. And like, would probably be the only person on it.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 10:50Matt Farah?

  Including next week, when we go with the Maserati.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:53Matt Farah?

  Uh, like, we'll probably be, there's, I was talking to one of the other members today, who was very cool, shout out to John from Colorado, who said he was there yesterday, and he was there for seven hours, and it was just him.

• 11:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:05Matt Farah?

  Which is fabulous.

• 11:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:07Matt Farah?

  But this was like a day, so there was maybe like 10 members and some guests. Jensen was there. He says hi. He was giving ride-alongs in a 4RS Club Sport.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  Whoa.

• 11:19Matt Farah?

  But they had all the Club Sports out and they had these Janettas.

• 11:22Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Those are rad.

• 11:23Matt Farah?

  They had two Janettas and they had like six or seven Club Sports out. And we could just take them. Like, we could just rip them. Uh, Club Sports on slicks, which was, uh, which was very good. Uh, they had instructors. Um, I hadn't driven the new track layout yet. Um, I really had fun.

• 11:43Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, you hadn't.

• 11:45Matt Farah?

  I haven't driven it since, yeah, but we were busy.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  I drove it to the media day, but at the open house, we were just like walking around.

• 11:49Matt Farah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  What'd you think?

• 11:52Matt Farah?

  Um, I really like it for, uh, for purposes of car testing. I really, uh, I really think that for evaluating the kind of things that we want to know about a car, you and I and our audience, I think it's a fabulous place to test cars.

• 12:08Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:09Matt Farah?

  Um, it's got tight corners and open corners.

• 12:12Speaker 01

  The S section's great.

• 12:13Matt Farah?

  On camber, off camber. Yeah, and you can get a car nice and loose there, um, without, you know, really having a problem, which I'm, I'm very much into. Um, so I'm stoked. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. We use the chicane thing after the, um, but we don't, you don't have to. But I think when we're running lap times there, we, we should. I think we should use that one.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 12:36Matt Farah?

  So, um...

• 12:37Speaker 01

  Otherwise, you just, we don't need two straightaways when we're doing testing. And then it'll just eat the brakes. Uh, if we use that second straight out of the carousel, it'll just eat more brakes. It's like a downhill braking section.

• 12:47Matt Farah?

  Yeah. No, it's, it's cool. I, I liked it a lot. I thought it was a fun, a fun little track. I think more than...

• 12:56Matt Farah?

  500 horsepower there is probably wasted a little bit.

• 13:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, definitely.

• 13:01Matt Farah?

  It's only so fast you can go there.

• 13:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:04Matt Farah?

  Which is fine, but the surface is great. It's a lot of fun. This place is a slide. It looks nice, I think. So I had a go in a 4RS Club Sport, which was fun. I got about, I don't know, 10 laps in that. I did a 124, which I was told was respectable for having never driven that car before.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  I think so. All I know, I know Corey, I think Larry ran around a 127 or 6 in his Time Attack car.

• 13:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, that's, that sounds right. I mean, this is a, this is a factory fucking 4RS Club Sport on slicks. So I think that the, the guy who was showing me around the first time, his first name was shit. It was either Alex or Andrew, but his last name was Edelman. Nice guy. He did a 22. But we both, we both said if I, if I had a whole day with that car, I could get to that. But that was a lot of fun. And then I went out, pulled up the red car. Our buddies at EnoKinetic, formerly known as Sector 111, they're now called EnoKinetic. They lent me this.

• 14:11Matt Farah?

  This is a, this is their 111RS, which is a total package for the Lotus Elise or Exige. The, the list of, of, of things that they do is fucking extensive. But it's, it's a full, basically you give them an Elise or an Exige and about, depending on which way you go with it, between 60 and 80,000 dollars on top of the car. Okay? And so it's not a Singer thing. It's not like a reimagining. But the goal is to take that car that is a great car, but is now 20 years old.

• 14:57Matt Farah?

  And make it drive like something that you'd want to drive today. Folks gotta take a break because support is coming in from HelloFresh. I am gonna get back on that HelloFresh this spring because nothing hits like home cooking. And HelloFresh makes it easy to do more of it this year with recipes that feel good and that taste delicious night after night. I love to cook, but what I don't love is deciding what to cook. It takes up too much of my brain space and then I find something that I like, but it's like it needs a marinade overnight or it needs some other thing that's like takes six hours. And so what's great about HelloFresh is I know that their recipes don't take very long to make. They just don't. We're busy, we get home from work, we don't want to do it.

• 15:42Matt Farah?

  We do want to do some cooking. So HelloFresh has over 100 recipes each week, including stuff from around the world, meals that help you beat the winter blues. They wrote that. And they have bigger portions to satisfy everyone with high protein, GLP-1 friendly and Mediterranean options. There's tons of wholesome ingredients, sustainably sourced seafood, antibiotic and hormone-free chicken. And it's really great because there's less waste because you don't have to buy some big jar of spices you're only going to use once or buy an entire head of lettuce just to use half of it or whatever. There's, it's so easy, the recipe cards, there's these big clear cards with photos and easy to read, anyone can do it.

• 16:25Matt Farah?

  And you keep that card and then you can multiply that recipe if you like it later and make it for a big group, for a party, you know what I'm saying? So if you like to cook, you want to cook and you want to cook tasty food, but you don't have time to always search for new stuff and you don't want to waste any food that you're not going to make, HelloFresh is it. That's where it's at. So go to hellofresh.com/smokingtire10fm to get 10 free meals plus a free Zwilling knife, $144 value on your third box. Offer valid while surprise lasts. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan. Do it again, hellofresh.com/smokingtire10fm. Smoking Tire 10 FM.

• 17:10Matt Farah?

  You got that? Now, back to the show. So the engine is, it's still a 2ZZ, but it's built by Mountune. So it's a fully built engine from 2ZZ from Mountune with this, uh, this new type of blower that's more efficient than the old kind of blower, so much so that it no longer requires the intercooler. So it's a non-intercooler. Wow. So you save weight and complexity, uh, and it doesn't need it. And Shenoo says, Shenoo is the owner of Inochinetic. He says if you're, if you're literally running like endurance racing, then you would run this blower with an intercooler. But like outside of that, like even for a track day, you don't need the intercooler. And like my experience, it was like a beautiful day today.

• 17:55Matt Farah?

  It was high 60s, low 70s. It was beautiful. Uh, cars did not, did not build up any heat at all. It was fine. I mean, I did, I think my longest session in this car was maybe like 18 minutes, but like it didn't move. I don't, I don't see what would have changed if I kept going. It was fine. Um, so you get this engine, it's 275 horsepower, um, which is, and the car weighs 2,000 pounds. All right. They've cut like 400 pounds out of the car somehow. Uh, it has zero sound insulation. It has carbon bucket seats. It has a very light wheels. Whoa, this interior. Yeah. It's got the, the open linkage short shifter. Um, they do a full, it's full suspension. It's their spec, you know, shocks.

• 18:40Matt Farah?

  They, they, but they also. They rebuilt the gearbox. But they also nut and bolt the car. So you get all new mono ball bushings. They like, they rebuild the steering rack. They have different, like they literally restore the whole car. So everything is either upgraded to their spec or restored to OEM spec with new rubber or whatever, right? Um, they have these, uh, different links that, um, they don't change the actual steering ratio, but they make more angle per, they effectively change the steering ratio. Right. Um, they sharpen it up. Um, and I mean, look, this is a very. Very fast little car.

• 19:26Matt Farah?

  Probably weighs nothing. It literally, it weighs like between two thousand and twenty one hundred pounds. Yeah. And it makes two hundred and seventy five horsepower. So like it rips. Um, and because it's light, um, I mean, like, look, it's loud and buzzy. Is no fucking insulation. The weather stripping sucks. You know, you can take the roof off. It's an Elise, this one. So the roof would come off. Um, and it's not what I'd call comfortable. Like that seat is not comfortable, straight up. Yeah. Um, I have to wear not, not just driving shoes, but really narrow driving shoes to drive it. I cannot drive it otherwise. And, uh, and it's, it's, it's pretty, um, aggressive.

• 20:07Matt Farah?

  Um, having said that, because it's so light, it actually rides well. Like it's, it's loud and buzzy and brrrr, but when you, if you can tune that out, when you hit a bump, it actually takes the bump really well because there's not a lot of mass that it has to resist. So it's actually sprung like, compared to like a Porsche or something like pretty soft. So you can take curbing on the track and if you hit a bump on the road, it's not like a nightmare. And also because it's light, it doesn't need very wide tires and, and so it doesn't like dart around. So actually at like seventy on the highway, like pretty relaxed. Um, it's in the city, it is not relaxed. It's idling. You can tell that it's all like hard mounted because it's like, you know, like,

• 20:53Matt Farah?

  but once you get it past like thirty five hundred RPM, even when you're cruising, you cruise at like four. It's geared short as shit. So even when you're cruising, you're cruising up high. Um, the power band is like four to eight.

• 21:07Matt Farah?

  And, and it's smooth at four, but at two or idle, it's like terrible.

• 21:14Matt Farah?

  That's Lotus life, you know?

• 21:17Matt Farah?

  But it's a, you know, I'm thinking about, Chinoo said, most people who get these have a hundred grand into their cars. And if I think about what a hundred grand gets you outside of that, this is a pretty fucking fizzy experience for a hundred grand, considering you're being handed back what is effectively a new Lotus.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  Right. I mean, this is definitely, this is the lightweight answer to the track performance problem. Because otherwise you go Porsche, it's gonna weigh, it's gonna weigh a lot more than this. It's not a heavy car compared to some of those peers.

• 21:48Matt Farah?

  No, but like my Spyder is like a thousand pounds more than this.

• 21:51Speaker 01

  Right. So this is, this is nothing.

• 21:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 21:53Speaker 01

  Um, you know, C8ZR1, a hundred grand gets you a lot of that, maybe even Z06, but heavy car.

• 21:59Matt Farah?

  Well, it's a different, it's, one isn't better or, or worse, it's different, right?

• 22:04Speaker 01

  No, I'm just thinking of, if you want to go to the track and you're gonna spend six figures, you know, there's a lot of cars out there, but...

• 22:09Matt Farah?

  But it's more than just go to the track. This, this car is actually, I think, a better street car than it is a track car.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  Really?

• 22:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I think it is. Because if you really, really want to go as fast as possible at this point, you probably want paddle shifters. Like, you can get a car that will go faster than this for, maybe not the same amount of money, but like, in the, in the ballpark. You know what I mean? You, you get a C8Z06 on the right set of tires and you're going quicker than this around the track. Easier.

• 22:37Speaker 01

  Especially on a track with more, with more straights or longer turns.

• 22:41Matt Farah?

  This, what, what's great about something like this, like, because in the video, I did make a video of this, by the way. Uh, I shot in the Angeles forest in the morning and then in the track. So it's a street and track drive with this car. Uh, in the Angeles forest, or, or on, on a good road, you're having a really, really good time at seven or eight tenths, and it feels like you're going about 25 miles an hour faster than you're actually going. And so, um, on the road, you're, you're ripping. You feel everything. You're leaning into the corners. You're heel towing, the shifter's super satisfying, you know? You're having this analog experience and you are going fast. You're feeling G-forces in all directions, proper.

• 23:26Matt Farah?

  But the numbers are not as high as like if I was driving a Bentley Speed.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  Oh, sure.

• 23:32Matt Farah?

  You know what I mean? But I could be going way faster and like feeling nothing. And so, you know, if your goal is lap times, this isn't the fastest way to spend a hundred Gs. But if your goal is to feel some fucking fizz for a couple of hours a week, this is up there. I mean, and, and, uh,

• 23:54Matt Farah?

  you know, it's a, it's a, it, it, it's a simple car because it can be. It doesn't need all the fancy shit because it doesn't have all this weight to manage or size to manage.

• 24:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:03Matt Farah?

  Now, downsides, I, I absolutely hated getting in and out of this car. It was fucking terrible. I did not like it. And so consequently, as you may see in the video, each section is just a bunch of mounts synced together. Because I, without you or someone, I could not possibly get in and out of this car a hundred times this morning like it would take to make a video normally. I set up the camera. By the way, the case doesn't fit in the trunk. I had to, my racing gear, the camera gear, everything was shoved into the passenger side of this car. You can't put anything in the back. So.

• 24:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, that makes sense.

• 24:41Matt Farah?

  It does have a trunk, but Shenu didn't take out his like car cover and stuff, so it was all full of stuff. So like, this was really cool. It's just a very distilled experience. That's like super fizzy in short bursts. Um, and it is, it was quick on the track, but it's also like, it's work. You know, it's your, it's, it's a lot of, uh, a lot of shifting. The steering is heavy. It's a manual steering rack, the small steering wheel. And there's quite a couple of cases at Streets of Willow, particularly coming out of the bowl and coming onto the front straight where you have to do that two, three shift right at the track out onto the straight.

• 25:25Matt Farah?

  So you're fully loaded up with your left hand and trying to do a gear change that's a push away gear change at the same time. So, so there was a, that's a, that's a tough bit of motion. And in this steering wheel, the horn buttons are on the spokes in the leather.

• 25:43Speaker 01

  Oh, how many times did you honk the horn?

• 25:45Matt Farah?

  The guy at the, the guy in the fucking nest at the exit of the bowl was like, why is this guy keep fucking giving me the what's up? Like, what's this, what's the thought?

• 25:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, cause you had your thumb in there, cause you're, for the leverage.

• 25:55Matt Farah?

  I must've thought I was out of my mind.

• 25:57Speaker 01

  That's funny.

• 25:59Matt Farah?

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• 26:42Matt Farah?

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• 27:22Matt Farah?

  AG1 has over 50,000 verified five star reviews and 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, an AGZ sampler to try all the flavors, plus free vitamin D3 and K2 and AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order. Limited time offer, only available while supplies last. Drinkag1.com/tire, drinkag1.com/tire. You're gonna get all those flavors. And I'm gonna tell you, you're gonna end up in two places, Berry and Tropical. That's really what it's all about. I've tried all the flavors. Those are by far my favorite. They got the original, they got the citrus.

• 28:06Matt Farah?

  Berry and Tropical, they crush. I really like a Tropical in the morning. Berry's a little more, you know, dessert-y. And so, uh, yeah. Drink AG1.com/tire. Drink AG1.com/tire to get that free AG1 sampler, AGZ sampler, to try all the flavors, plus free vitamin D3 and K2, and the AG1 Welcome Kit with your first AG1 subscription order. That's a lot going on, but supplies won't last long. Drink AG1.com/tire. Drink AG1.com/tire. And now, back to the show. You know, and they've, and he's done, uh, he's done some, uh, some nice, uh, suede work on the dash and the door cards.

• 28:50Matt Farah?

  You can see there's a radio deck delete, but it actually does have a stereo. You just connect to a Bluetooth thing, and there's like Focal speakers, and they sound pretty good, actually.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  Can you hear them at all?

• 29:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 29:02Speaker 01

  When you're moving?

• 29:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I was like blasting Rise Against in the canyons, it was good.

• 29:06Speaker 01

  Cool.

• 29:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, it sounded, it sounded nice. And it has air conditioning as well.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  I think this would be, obviously, tons of fun. I mean, this is like mid-engine Miata answer, but with a little bigger budget than a Miata. It sounds rad.

• 29:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah. It's very light, it's very responsive and very fizzy, but, but also you, you know, feeling everything means feeling everything. And so, you get the down and the upsides of that.

• 29:28Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 29:28Matt Farah?

  Um, on the track, you know, at the limit, I found it to be, uh, predictable. You'll see in the video, it, it doesn't have a lot of, a lot of vices. Uh, there's a, there was a couple of places where it got a little bit loose, but it was, uh, it was very manageable. It does not have traction control or anything. Um, the brakes are great. Um, and, uh, in general, it was, it was an absolute ride. It was a good time, so, yeah. It's too uncomfortable for me, I won't be buying one, but if you're like 5'10" and thin... Or 510 and under and reasonably thin or reasonably limber. These are alright. It's fun. The seat is like bare carbon with a piece of ham on it. Fucking tough. The padding is very thin suede, but.

• 30:13Matt Farah?

  It was that. There was a long drive on the road this morning. Yeah. If it fits you perfectly, then it might be alright, but. And also it's, it takes a while. I think it's a dry sump. It takes a while to get the oil fully warmed up. And until it's really soaked with heat, it is very vibraty and buzzy. So it smooths out when it warms up. Interesting. Interesting. Go figure. Wonder why that is. Go figure. It's a good time though. Looks cool. I mean, the spec is red. Little bit, little bits of red, like bare aluminum. The Eddie Van Halen roof is a fun tribute. You see that? You notice the roof is the, is Eddie Van Halen's guitar? Oh, I didn't know what that was. Okay. Well, that's what it is. It's a fun.

• 30:59Matt Farah?

  It's a fun vibe. Yeah, that's cool. Why not? I mean, it's, for people listening, it's bright red. It's got gold wheels. It looks cool. I do like these wheels a lot. That's a, that's a nice looking wheel. Yeah. 16s in the front, 17s in the back. Cool. Yeah. This looks like so much fun. And I didn't, I probably would have really enjoyed it with the top off, although I didn't have anywhere to leave the top. So I, you know, I had, so anyway, but it's, it's pretty cool, man. Uh, there'll be a video coming and, uh, you know, shout out to, uh, to Eno Kinetic. And if you, if you want one of them, they are building them. They're pretty cool.

• 31:35Matt Farah?

  But yeah, we are, we are gonna have us quite a lot of fun at this here, this here little racetrack. That is wild. Yeah. I have a, I also have approval for the M2CS to go on track. BMW M2CS. Yeah. After Ice Race, we get it. Whoa, awesome. Yep. That's fun. Should we talk about the fact that greenhouse emissions aren't a thing anymore?

• 32:01Speaker 01

  Uh, we can? I didn't read the details. I know they're trying to get rid of Stop-Start.

• 32:05Matt Farah?

  Well, yeah, they, they basically threw out the, uh, the Obama era finding

• 32:13Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 32:14Matt Farah?

  that greenhouse gases were a threat to public health and effectively all emission standards are based around that.

• 32:22Speaker 01

  Including at factories and stuff.

• 32:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 32:25Speaker 01

  It's not just limited to cars. It's like, so, so neighborhoods that are near power plants or other things could also be affected, um, in the long term.

• 32:34Matt Farah?

  It is a crazy thing that we are, that, that, that rolling back, like, limits on, like, like air? Like air?

• 32:45Speaker 01

  The science of air.

• 32:46Matt Farah?

  Like?

• 32:47Speaker 01

  The science of air is just being thrown out.

• 32:51Matt Farah?

  So this, you know, the, the, um, this guy Zeldin, who's the, the, the head of the, of the EPA, uh, Lee Zeldin, is, basically, you know, he's a super, super Trumper and his mission, he was, he's one of these guys appointed by Trump with the mission of specifically destroying the agency that they are supposed to be leading. And so, since...

• 33:17Speaker 01

  It's like Betsy DeVos, right?

• 33:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. So, uh, so let's see, the, uh, the things he's done, this guy's done so far. Uh, in March 2025, he presented what he described as the largest deregulatory announcement in US history, where as he reframed the purpose of the EPA, which is Environmental Protection Agency.

• 33:41Speaker 01

  Now it's ensure profits always?

• 33:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah, "Towards deregulation in energy production in lieu of public health and environmental protections." Announces plans to repeal dozens of major environmental regulations, including protections for wetlands, limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks, and the, and the endangerment finding the legal basis for regulation of greenhouse gases. Cool, guys. Project 2025 is going really well.

• 34:07Speaker 01

  Uh huh. Yeah.

• 34:08Matt Farah?

  Uh huh. Nice. Good thing they didn't know anything about it.

• 34:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, not at all. You can look at that website called like 2025 Tracker and it just shows you how much they've accomplished from that agenda.

• 34:16Matt Farah?

  They don't know anything about it.

• 34:16Speaker 01

  No, no, not part of it.

• 34:17Matt Farah?

  So, I got an email this morning.

• 34:22Matt Farah?

  From a person, uh, whose name I don't need to use, but who is the head of media and public relations for WeatherTech Laguna Seca. Oh. And, uh, they wanted to have a little chat with me, and they were very nice, uh, about, you know, the conversation we had. They did not attempt to refute any of our opinions at all, uh, but they said that they have a statement and would I mind reading it? And I said, sure. I said, I'll read, I will absolutely read your statement. Uh, and I, but I said, I'm like, we're gonna like editorialize afterwards. Like, we're gonna, we're gonna

• 35:06Matt Farah?

  talk about your statement. Like, and she's like, that's okay. Uh, but if you wouldn't mind, it's not very long and I will read it. Sure. Here we go. Uh, so there's a, it's not very long. Ready? And so this is referring, by the way, if you listen to our last show, uh, we talked about, or two shows ago, uh, but the one before Johnny, uh, we talked about this, this, uh, this dude who was at a track day in his, in his Nissan Skyline and he pulled over in a red flag situation and a front end loader, uh, went onto the track and hit him and from behind while he was stopped. Mm-hmm. And we were talking about that, that incident. And it's pretty fucked up, actually.

• 35:49Matt Farah?

  So, uh, well, as the, if you listen to last show, we're pretty firmly on the side of the owner of the car here. Yes. Pretty firmly on the side of the owner of the car. So, but, but, uh, it is only fair to, to read the, the statement from the track. And this is, to be particular, this is the track specifically. Uh, the, the PR person did want to make it very clear, and I, and you'll, you'll hear why in a second, that this was a, a track day run by a professional track day company. And in, according to, according to the PR person, when that person, that, a company like that rents the track, they, they ascend, effectively assume a hundred, a full operations of the track. Got it. Got it.

• 36:33Matt Farah?

  This is what they say. And, and I'm just repeating what they said exactly. But that's not the statement. That was, that was her, um, her framing of the thing, which she said I could say. By the way, I did not agree to speak with this person off the record. I said, like, everything we say, like, I'm gonna say, but, but, there, other, that was the, that was the only interesting bit. And, and I, and I asked, did the person driving the machine work for the track day company or the track? And she goes, "Both."

• 37:12Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so.

• 37:13Speaker 01

  Interesting.

• 37:14Matt Farah?

  Incident today, incident statement. "An incident involving a track support vehicle and a race car occurred at the facility during a privately operated on-track event in December. The track continues to work through the process with diligence and timeliness." End of statement.

• 37:35Matt Farah?

  There's another one, though, that's current status. "WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca continues normal operations and scheduled activities." The faci, the faci, I don't know if I want to read this. "The facility remains focused on delivering safe, well-managed events while the review process related to the incident during the privately operated event in December continues." End.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  Oh, so it's a statement just saying it's being looked into?

• 38:02Matt Farah?

  It's being looked into, it's nothing. I, I thought that there would be much more of a statement, I was very surprised to see that it was just...

• 38:09Speaker 01

  That's a sandwich, no meat, that's...

• 38:11Matt Farah?

  I mean, I, I, I think...

• 38:14Speaker 01

  Well, especially because now, as we, as we talked about on two shows ago, the owner of the GT-R has retained a legal representative. They reached out to the track, and the guy also, the car owner also published what those lawyers said

• 38:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  in their letter to the track, so, this seems like the track's way of saying, "We're looking into it with our legal team," and they're probably, they're probably now gonna fight over who has to pay, you know, WeatherTech Raceway or the company that was operating the track.

• 38:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  And it'll probably come down to, was the company, if it was TST Promotions, did we tell the front loader they could go out? Or did someone else who works for the track tell them they could go out?

• 38:52Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 38:53Speaker 01

  And how does that all work?

• 38:54Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 38:55Speaker 01

  Uh, that's messy.

• 38:56Matt Farah?

  That is messy.

• 38:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:57Matt Farah?

  So, uh, you know, I said, I said I would read it and I did and it doesn't tell us anything other than the track would really like you to know that they were not running the event

• 39:09Speaker 01

  Right.

• 39:10Matt Farah?

  when this happened.

• 39:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:11Matt Farah?

  And like, no fucking shit. Like, I mean, okay, it doesn't, uh, it doesn't surprise me that this was at a track day that was run by a track day company.

• 39:24Speaker 01

  Oh, but, well, I mean, I do, I do understand why they're putting that out there because if it's not in the headline, if it's not, you know, if people don't read deep into the article, it might not mention, hey, this was ran by a track promotions company.

• 39:34Matt Farah?

  Sure, and I could see.

• 39:35Speaker 01

  And the headline is gonna say Laguna Seca Weather Tech fighting against blah, blah, blah. So they'll, they, they have to kind of specify that.

• 39:42Matt Farah?

  Well, and, and, and many people maybe don't know that if a track day company rents the track, you know, they bring their own flaggers. They bring, they bring their own personnel largely. The question of someone who's driving heavy machinery, now that to me, just a guy, not a lawyer, seems like if you're driving heavy machinery, you only work at that track. You're not part of a touring circus with.

• 40:09Speaker 01

  I bet that's true, and I bet it, let's just call him Terry. You know, that day Terry is paid by, maybe, paid by the track promotion company who's hosting the event, but Terry also is there when IMSA shows up.

• 40:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  And it's Weather Tech operating the thing. That seems like paper, this is almost like a Samantix argument, and they're just deciding who is going to have to pay GTI guy.

• 40:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I mean, I hope somebody does.

• 40:32Speaker 01

  I hope somebody does. I, I don't think there's a way they can't.

• 40:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 40:34Speaker 01

  I mean, this was, watch the video.

• 40:37Matt Farah?

  It's too legit.

• 40:38Speaker 01

  Car is bright red.

• 40:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you cannot let this go to a jury.

• 40:42Speaker 01

  You definitely can't. Yeah, they, they won't.

• 40:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 40:45Speaker 01

  They'll let it get as close as it needs to be and they'll realize that, you know, GTI legal team is not backing down and they'll go, ah, okay, and they settle.

• 40:52Matt Farah?

  It's a bad look.

• 40:53Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 40:54Matt Farah?

  Fucking, you know, buy the guy's car.

• 40:57Speaker 01

  I think they will, and I'm sure, you know, large companies of which I don't run, like, I'm sure they always have to, they have to look at it because if they just, if they just wrote a check the first week. Then people, there are shitty people out there who might try to, you know, bait a front loader into hitting them and so they could get paid by Laguna Seca also. There are shitbags out there.

• 41:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 41:16Speaker 01

  So they just have to like do this investigation, but the optics are bad.

• 41:20Matt Farah?

  Yes, they are.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:22Matt Farah?

  They're very bad. And I feel bad for the guy. His car's fucked up. Now he's got, and he's gotta wait around now and.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  This thing is.

• 41:28Matt Farah?

  It's a nice car.

• 41:29Speaker 01

  It's a really nice, it's like a custom-built sequential box, you know, red R34 and now the entire, you know, right rear quarter panel is basically in the wheel well.

• 41:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I'm not sure if it's totaled or not, but it's ugly.

• 41:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's ugly. So that's a bummer. Um, the, uh, that's really all I got. It hasn't been very long since we did our last program.

• 41:52Speaker 01

  It hasn't. It's true.

• 41:52Matt Farah?

  It hasn't. So here we are.

• 41:54Speaker 01

  Should we talk about Integra Type S or save that?

• 41:56Matt Farah?

  Uh, we can. Yeah, we can. I still have another, I still have a few days with it. We could marinate it a little more.

• 42:02Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 42:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 42:03Speaker 01

  We'll marinate it.

• 42:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah. But it's been 40 minutes. I think we could, we could, we could go to the people. Why not? There's a lot of, a lot of people. You can stop sending me your truck requests now. Your truck recommendations. I just, we're, we get a little redundant and it's becoming clear that as time goes on, people are actually listening to the nuance of what I needed less and less. The trucks are getting bigger and more diesel-y.

• 42:28Speaker 01

  And older, I found. And, and I mean, I, I applaud, I appreciate people saying like, this is what works for me. But it was like a 15 or 18-year-old Suburban.

• 42:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  And I just know you're not gonna get that.

• 42:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Thaddeus, Thaddeus was like, dude, like, oh, three Escalades are so cheap right now. I'm like, what are you kidding me? What do you think an oh, three Escalade smells like?

• 42:50Speaker 01

  Ask Zach Mertens. He bought one for, um, Dom Mazzetti.

• 42:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 42:54Speaker 01

  Uh, you can also get, um, our friend Derek Powell sending me diesel Range Rovers. Like, he has one and tows his car with it. They're like 20 grand on our, they're, those are nice, too.

• 43:04Matt Farah?

  For a reason. Yeah, yeah.

• 43:05Speaker 01

  But I think you need something newer for taxes and liability and all those things.

• 43:10Matt Farah?

  No, the leaders are, it's, it's still, it's still, nothing, nothing is even close to the, the Cayenne S Hybrid and the, and the, uh, the Durango RT. Nothing is even close to those. Those are like, hit, they hit all of the marks. Unless like a great used Bentayga comes up, because that one might be YouTube interesting.

• 43:33Speaker 01

  Uh, that it will be. Will it be interesting enough to pay for, well, some of itself?

• 43:38Matt Farah?

  I don't know. We'll see.

• 43:39Speaker 01

  Like, how reliable is it? We'll find out.

• 43:41Matt Farah?

  It's probably not like that much less reliable than like a Cayenne or something. It's all kind of the same.

• 43:45Speaker 01

  That's probably true.

• 43:46Matt Farah?

  Probably the same kind of stuff.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  But that versus, wow, this is funny. Bentley versus Dodge.

• 43:50Matt Farah?

  Brand new Dodge versus seven-year-old Bentley?

• 43:56Speaker 01

  Oof. I honestly don't know where I'd put my money. I really don't.

• 43:59Matt Farah?

  I don't either.

• 44:00Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 44:01Matt Farah?

  We gotta buy both and see what happens.

• 44:02Speaker 01

  RC, the Hemi engine is a known quantity. If it was a, if it was the new inline six.

• 44:07Matt Farah?

  Oh, that would be a question mark. Sure. Yeah, question mark. Uh, let's go to the people, of course, Patreon.com slash the smoking tire podcast. That's where you get your questions in when Zach posts up the, uh, the show event. You can put them in the comments there. People still ask me how to do that, but that's how you do it. Uh, you also get the show early. You get the show before everybody else. You can get the show without ads. You can get extra show and you can get exclusive access, uh, early access and sometimes exclusive access to, uh, merch collabs and stuff. I was just thinking about, we should do another tactile turn pen.

• 44:40Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 44:41Matt Farah?

  I, I, I've been using one of the ones they sent me as like a demo that I hadn't thought of much of at the time, but I really like it now. It's like a little smaller and like more portable for like, bring it on.

• 44:52Speaker 01

  Yeah. I use mine every day, but it is kind of thick.

• 44:54Matt Farah?

  The thick one?

• 44:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah. This one is like a little thinner. It's like the thinness of like, it's like, uh, somewhere between, it's more like, maybe like a pilot pen, thinness of that. Yeah, I like it. Um, so anyway, let's get, let's see what these folks have to say. Uh, Mixmaster Cylinder, want to talk about me and Johnny fighting about AI. Uh, I think Matt and Johnny both have valid perspectives. As a software developer that's been programming for 28 years and works for a smaller AI company, I can see that my highly paid skill writing code is heading towards having zero value and it fucking sucks. On the other hand, the genie is out of the bottle, so if I want a shot of staying in tech.

• 45:37Matt Farah?

  I need to get good at using this and I recommend anybody with a white collar job do the same. Matt is right that L L Ms are coming for your job, but I don't think hating on it is productive.

• 45:50Matt Farah?

  For what it's worth, I don't write code at my job anymore and pretty soon I won't have to review it either. I can't see how my current salary is justifiable long term.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 45:58Matt Farah?

  I appreciate the perspective. I disagree with you that hating on it is productive. I do think hating on it is productive. I think, I think spreading valid criticism is of AI to people that may not have thought of it that way is incredibly productive, especially when fucking talking is your job.

• 46:19Speaker 01

  Well, I also think the, I think the information about it has led to the pushback we've seen in cities and states.

• 46:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the Super Bowl commercials, whereas the shark jumping, the hate on all the AI Super Bowl commercials this year was like pretty fucking heated.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  But I think like Ron DeSantis, who I don't agree with on a lot of things, he, he's trying to get them to ban AI data centers in Florida. There's 10 states right now that are trying to push back against it. And I think that only happens with a discussion and information being kind of spread to people about the pros and cons of it. Otherwise everyone just goes, oh, I guess it's fine. And then they wake up and their power bill has true. Power bills, people's electricity bills are doubling and tripling in areas where they've built a super data center like that. And no one got a two, three X rays in the last two months.

• 47:06Matt Farah?

  I spoke to somebody from Memphis and that's where the X AI data center is, the one that fucking that was running the gas turbines. He says the smell within like a mile of that place is like heinous.

• 47:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And I mean, look,

• 47:27Matt Farah?

  I don't think AI is coming for everything the way that people say it's going to. I mean, it's, it's obviously going to be here to stay on some level, but I think it's, it's very important that we have either a regulatory framework to protect people, whether that means their, their jobs and unions, or whether that means a fucking, what do you call it?

• 47:55Matt Farah?

  Universal basic income, or, you know, like, the fucking Alaska oil pipeline, for instance, right? The citizens of Alaska get paid from the oil that goes through the Alaska oil pipeline. Like, it comes back through state taxes. Like, the value that is created out of AI for a very small number of people, that in many cases, where individuals or very small groups of people are more powerful than entire governments of nations, and are accountable to basically nobody, like, that's really, really bad. And they have all of our data, and can fucking do anything with it. Like, that's so bad.

• 48:39Matt Farah?

  That's so bad for, like, 99.9% of all the humans on Earth.

• 48:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think to, uh, what was his name?

• 48:47Matt Farah?

  So, hating on it is fucking productive.

• 48:49Speaker 01

  I, I think pushing back against it, like, it's, it's, it's not too late, and I think we've been fed this thing, like, it's gonna solve every problem, and it may solve some problems, because it computes speed really fast, but we shouldn't accept everything, because it does some things really well that do help us. And the only way to, uh, like, modulate this a bit is through pushback.

• 49:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah. AKA, hating.

• 49:11Speaker 01

  Hating, yeah. Hating, marching, whatever, right? Call your senators, congressmen.

• 49:15Matt Farah?

  I still can't figure, I might need to get some special pair of glasses just to read the fucking TV.

• 49:20Speaker 01

  Are these readers?

• 49:21Matt Farah?

  These are readers.

• 49:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, so the Mac, the distance is, yes.

• 49:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh, oh, uh, granny shifting, not double clutching like you should. Can you specify what you enjoy about driving your Countach? Is it the raw driving experience, the childhood poster effect, how it makes you feel, the attention it garners? All of the above? All the above? Is it fast compared to modern cars? Uh, no, but it's not slow, either. I would say it's, it's like comparable to like a C6 or C7 Corvette, in terms of like, how fast it will go.

• 49:57Speaker 01

  That's pretty fast.

• 49:58Matt Farah?

  It has a lot of power, but it's also a 5-speed with long legs, so it's got like, sort of, long.

• 50:03Speaker 01

  Powerbands up top, as well, right?

• 50:04Matt Farah?

  Powerbands up top, so it's got like, kinda, long gears.

• 50:06Speaker 01

  What's a red line?

• 50:09Matt Farah?

  Seventy-eight, maybe?

• 50:10Speaker 01

  Wow. I think it's much higher than a C67.

• 50:13Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, I know. It's four cam V12. Um, it's, when you're in it, it's very small and very low. And you can't ever for a second forget that that's what you are driving. You, whatever you're doing, it's, I'm in a fucking Countach right now, whereas there's a lot of other cars where I can kind of forget. Porsche 959, as amazing as it is, but if you were cruising down the highway for an hour and a half, you would absolutely forget that you were in a 959. Um, that's probably a good thing because it's very refined and nice, but also like, it's kind of why I don't lust over a 959, um, as cool as it is. This is like, all the time, it's like, fucking Countach, all the time. Um, and it's not necessarily just the attention, because I'm not,

• 50:57Matt Farah?

  I don't need to just seek attention. It's, it's like, the people, the number of times that someone tells me that they have never seen one out in the wild, that's it. It's like, this is the first one of these I've ever seen. That's pretty cool. Um.

• 51:17Matt Farah?

  It's an unforgettable experience. It's just, it's, it's, it's, it's one of a very few, like, overwhelming driving experiences, which is really, but also it's very nice. Like, it's not, doesn't feel like a race car. It's like, really comfy. Comfortable, and it rides well, and like-

• 51:33Speaker 01

  It feels very fancy. Even like, old switchgear, blah, blah, blah, like, you get in, you go, this is nice. This is some fancy, high-quality shit.

• 51:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah. PTS Normal is a 981 base Cayman in stick, a good beginner track car? Yes, it is. Yes, it is. I don't see why not. Um.

• 51:53Speaker 01

  Not too fast, mid-engine is catchable, and usually, you know, without too many problems. That's pretty good.

• 51:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, uh, they, they're easy, like, if you blow the gearbox, you'll total the car. That's the one thing I would worry about. Like, you, you could, that is a real thing that could happen.

• 52:11Speaker 01

  Oh, and this person already had, wait.

• 52:13Matt Farah?

  I'm tired, he has a Miata, a Miata, uh, track car. And, uh, oh, and also has a GT4 RS. Oh, well, then, yeah.

• 52:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:22Matt Farah?

  Yes, a Cayman in stick. I just drove, uh, one in Miami. I raced that car. That thing was like, so forgiving and easy, and it was nice. I, I do think it is. Paper GT3 RS wings. That's a rise against reference. I have a good friend that wants to get into track days and budget endurance racing. They're excited to get into the hobby, but my dilemma is they're not very good at driving. General car control, awareness, reaction time, all leave something to be desired. My question is, should I tell them my feelings as an honest friend that maybe this isn't the right way to participate in the hobby? Should I leave it up to track day instructors and licensing programs to make the call?

• 53:05Matt Farah?

  I'd hate for someone to invest the time and money just to be disappointed later.

• 53:08Speaker 01

  It's a funny spot to be in.

• 53:10Matt Farah?

  It's a funny spot to be in. I like where you're coming from, but two things to consider. I have seen bad street drivers become good track drivers.

• 53:21Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 53:22Matt Farah?

  I've seen it. So if this person's not a great street driver, does not make them hopeless for track driving.

• 53:29Speaker 01

  No, not at all. It's a skill that can be learned in anyone, like just anyone who has eyesight can be taught and learned to get at least to a really good, you know, good level. You know, semi-pro or, you know, strong amateur with dedication. It depends on how long it's going to take them to get there. And how long, you want them to be competent. I think the real thing is if you're sharing costs, you're doing lemons, you're doing champ or something, does this person want to put their money in the pool and risk of getting crashed?

• 53:58Matt Farah?

  So let's assume no. Let's assume that their friend just wants to do this thing and this is your friend and, you know, you want to go endurance racing. I haven't been invited, but I've been in the car with you and I'm going, you know what I mean? In that case, don't say shit. Let this person go to a racing school and have an instructor tell them they suck or make them better. You know, have them, you know what I mean? Do not, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't off the bat, maybe pay for an expensive seat in an endurance race that they might not fit in or. You do, but you insist that you drive first.

• 54:35Speaker 01

  You do that? I mean, just, I hope they get started, depends on their budget, of course, like relatively cheaply to them. I mean, the good, the thing is, if they want to jump into a more expensive series, then you have to have a comp license, right? So they're gonna have to go to school.

• 54:48Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 54:48Speaker 01

  But if you do, if they do Lemons, you just need a driver's license. And that's where they'll, they'll experience black flags, they'll see, I mean, it's a mixed bag out there.

• 54:57Matt Farah?

  You, honestly, I wouldn't. Would you recommend someone do Lemons without doing at least one racing school first?

• 55:05Speaker 01

  No, I'm saying you legally can. You definitely should not do that.

• 55:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, no, don't do that.

• 55:11Speaker 01

  But, but for this person, if they're not gonna race with them, then I, as you said, they, this person's gonna have to go out and stumble for themselves.

• 55:17Matt Farah?

  Totally.

• 55:18Speaker 01

  And if they choose to go cheap racing in a series that doesn't require a racing license of any kind, I mean, they're just, they're gonna have an expensive weekend.

• 55:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, no, I mean, look, here's what, here's what you, you, the, the most I would do as a friend, is I would say, without saying anything about their driving, is like, look, if you really want to get into a race, you have to do a school first. You're gonna, you're gonna have a bad time if you don't do it. And so, then they'll at least get a baseline, you know? And the instructors will, you know, maybe humble them a bit.

• 55:54Speaker 01

  And you can, like, racing school is so fun.

• 55:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it is.

• 55:57Speaker 01

  So pitch it to them like that, like, it's gonna be so fun, you're gonna learn in that way when you buy your race car, build your car, like, you will be faster, more competitive.

• 56:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And I wouldn't, and don't count them out as a driver, not hopeless.

• 56:10Matt Farah?

  Travis Pastrana's primary care provider, I have occasionally heard people describe the 86s as a mini 911. Do you think this is an accurate description? No, not at all.

• 56:22Speaker 01

  The engine's in the front.

• 56:24Matt Farah?

  Do you think a sorted turbo 86 can match the performance of top trim 911s? Or is there something just inherently better about the Porsche chassis that can't be matched? Well, hang on a second.

• 56:40Speaker 01

  Wait, 911 Cayman chassis?

• 56:42Matt Farah?

  The 91, just, I...

• 56:44Speaker 01

  Okay, just go 911.

• 56:46Matt Farah?

  Here's the thing. There's a couple of questions in here. Do people, do you think describing the 86 as a mini 911 is an accurate description? No, not at all. I don't know where that comes from.

• 57:01Matt Farah?

  I mean, these are both great handling cars with low centers of gravity. But like...

• 57:07Speaker 01

  The only thing I can think of that gets close would be like an Alpine 110. Because the engine, especially the original one, the engine was technically rear engine.

• 57:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 57:15Speaker 01

  But otherwise...

• 57:16Matt Farah?

  Or the Lotus, maybe, kind of.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  Maybe, but it's mid-engine, so like, where the engine is located absolutely defines how a car feels. So the comparison kind of ends right there.

• 57:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah, GR86, I mean, I disagree with that assessment. Can a sordid turbocharged 86 match the performance of top-trim 911s?

• 57:36Speaker 01

  No.

• 57:37Matt Farah?

  Unlikely, unlikely, yeah.

• 57:39Speaker 01

  Top, because if you, if this person had just written 911s, the answer is maybe. But you say top-trim, taking turbo, GT3, any of those things?

• 57:49Matt Farah?

  No.

• 57:49Speaker 01

  It would have to be a crazy-built 500-horsepower GR86 on slicks.

• 57:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and you could, and the Porsche would be a GT3 with comfort seats and the air conditioning on and the dude blasting Led Zeppelin, smoking a cigarette, lapping you.

• 58:05Speaker 01

  Look, you just drove it streets and you ran the 124?

• 58:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 58:08Speaker 01

  And the instructor ran a 122?

• 58:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 58:10Speaker 01

  And that was a 4, you know, 4R, oh, it was a 4S, right?

• 58:14Matt Farah?

  4S Club Sport.

• 58:15Speaker 01

  4S Club Sport. But compared to Larry Chen's Time Attack-built turbocharged, stripped...

• 58:20Matt Farah?

  Was that an 86?

• 58:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:22Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, so here we, okay, so fine, here you go.

• 58:24Speaker 01

  And he's a couple of seconds behind him.

• 58:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so like, so, but I think, uh, yeah, I mean, you could get in the ballpark, but it would be unlikely that you're gonna go out there in a Time Attack 86 and beat a new GT3 RS.

• 58:40Speaker 01

  Now, I...

• 58:41Matt Farah?

  Unlikely, possible, but unlikely.

• 58:43Speaker 01

  The internet is definitely gonna send us some links of some crazy Time Attack cars that are running crazy times. So anything is possible, but I think it's difficult and would cost a lot of money.

• 58:52Matt Farah?

  I mean, and also like, if you're talking, you will have built a race car. You will not have a street car anymore.

• 58:58Speaker 01

  Right.

• 58:58Matt Farah?

  That car won't have an interior in it, basically. It's not gonna have like, power seats anymore, or a radio, or anything. It'll probably have Lexan windows and shit, compared to a road car. That's what I'm talking about. If you then want to compare to the race car, you're five seconds behind the pro in the GT, in the Cayman, not even the cup car. You know, you talk about the cup car is probably two more seconds. Excuse me. Uh, Christian says, "Do you prefer the Ferrari 12-cylinder over the 812 GTS? The 812 seems like it sounds better." It does. It doesn't have the particulate filters, it sounds better. That's an easily solvable problem, in the aftermarket.

• 59:41Matt Farah?

  Um, so, I wouldn't write off the entire car because of that. Um, having said that, I think they drive similar, and I prefer the looks of the 812.

• 59:54Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 59:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, my brain was dyslexic. I also agree. 812 was prettier.

• 1:00:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Travis Pastrami on Rye Country Day School. When I, when we moved to Rye, I was like obsessed with it being the name of bread. And no one else seemed to notice.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  Nobody knows.

• 1:00:14Matt Farah?

  They were like, "Listen fatty." I was like, "It's called bread."

• 1:00:17Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:00:18Matt Farah?

  Uh, should EVs, excuse me, be required to flash their brake lights when decelerating in a heavy regen mode? Driving behind them sometimes feels like driving behind someone with burned-out brake bulbs. I've found that EVs do turn on their brake lights when they're in a high regen mode.

• 1:00:39Speaker 01

  Uh, I don't, I can't, if I'm behind a car and the brake lights come on, I can't tell if they're braking, or if the engine's doing regen.

• 1:00:46Matt Farah?

  Well, I, the only reason I think so is because I, it was in a place where...

• 1:00:54Matt Farah?

  Like, it was on like, flat ground. And so someone was just like, driving badly. They weren't, I, I think-

• 1:01:01Speaker 01

  I've been in that car before.

• 1:01:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:02Speaker 01

  I've been in that Uber. But, uh, yeah.

• 1:01:05Matt Farah?

  I mean, I, yes, the answer is yes, I feel like they should, and I, I don't know if there's a law for it. And I, I do think some already do.

• 1:01:15Matt Farah?

  Tickle your pickle for a triple nickel. Boy.

• 1:01:20Matt Farah?

  When doing a comparison test, do you find that rain narrows the gap or widens it in terms of which car is superior dynamically? Uh, does the rain hide a good or bad chassis, or does it expose it? I mean, the rain, fucking tires get, get all over the place in the rain, because they normally send us tires with the stickiest shit possible. So, if it gets, if it gets wet out, it gets really messy. I hated the ZR1 in the rain. I thought it was a disaster. And the Temerario, which had much more normal tires, was fabulous in the rain.

• 1:01:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:53Matt Farah?

  And so I was like, oh, the Temerario's like a much better car. And then I drove in the dry, and I was like, oh shit, the ZR1 is fucking where it's at. It was just like, on slicks.

• 1:02:03Speaker 01

  But I think there's also things where the lower G-load of the rain could hide, you know, things like, some cars when they compress the spring all the way, you could have bump steer, you could have weird behaviors, and you're not gonna reach that in the rain.

• 1:02:14Matt Farah?

  Right. You're not gonna push any of the car as hard, so you're not gonna-

• 1:02:18Speaker 01

  You might not have the lateral grip to just find that out.

• 1:02:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:23Matt Farah?

  Tragic Pastrami. Is there a case to be had for an Integra Type R that's like a hybrid all-wheel drive, sort of like a baby NSX in reverse? Oh, so like, it had electric motors on the rear axle? Interesting thought.

• 1:02:41Matt Farah?

  But I don't think that platform was really designed for that, and it would put a bunch of weight in the back.

• 1:02:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:47Matt Farah?

  And it would be kind of weird. I think if there's gonna be an Integra Type R, it, it has to be lighter and more raw. Like, that's just what that would be. Like, that formula is established.

• 1:02:59Speaker 01

  Yeah. But I don't think they'll, I think the Civic Type R-

• 1:03:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:02Speaker 01

  Does that job.

• 1:03:03Matt Farah?

  It does. I, I really like the Integra Type S. We'll talk about it next, next show.

• 1:03:09Matt Farah?

  Long Beach Blue Balls, should I judge my neighbor who left his C8 uncovered under a pile of snow in his driveway? You should buy that person a beer.

• 1:03:19Matt Farah?

  Isn't it great when someone just like doesn't give a fuck?

• 1:03:22Speaker 01

  Uh, oh yeah, I, for some reason, my brain was like, they just left the roof off also. I was like, I think they had a beer.

• 1:03:28Matt Farah?

  That's a boss move. That's a boss move.

• 1:03:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, that person doesn't care.

• 1:03:32Matt Farah?

  Um, let's see, uh...

• 1:03:39Matt Farah?

  Uh, let's see. Oh, Tom Marinello. "I recently acquired a C4ZR1. Now we're fucking talking." This is, that is $25,000. Very well spent, my friend. Uh, "I was amazed that after 35 years, it still has the distinctive late 80s, early 90s GM smell. Boy, do I know it." "Took me back to my mom's 88 Beretta GTU." She had a GTU? Killing it. Uh, "Are there any makes and eras of cars that you could sit in, blindfolded, and have a good idea of what you're in just by smell?" Oh, yes.

• 1:04:14Speaker 01

  80s Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs.

• 1:04:16Matt Farah?

  Yep, that's, yep, the GM. That's the same, that'll be the same as this GM, yeah. How about Volkswagens? All Volkswagens, 90s, all BMWs, mid aughts, for sure.

• 1:04:30Matt Farah?

  All, uh, the Volkswagen smell like crayons. Yeah. Uh, "I could get into any G-body Porsche and know exactly that smell that I'm sitting in." Anyone that has like a full interior. 90s Mercedes, or Mercedes that has like an MB Tex interior, I could probably get away with. And a muscle car vinyl.

• 1:04:53Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:04:54Matt Farah?

  In the sun.

• 1:04:55Speaker 01

  Off-gassing and, uh, you know, uncatted exhaust, sure.

• 1:04:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:05:02Matt Farah?

  "Negaro Blue Balls." "What is a corner on a track that's more intimidating than it appears in the sim or photographs?" That's a good one. A corner that sneaks up out of nowhere on a track, doesn't look hard.

• 1:05:15Speaker 01

  Turn 9 Laguna Seca.

• 1:05:17Matt Farah?

  Turn 9.

• 1:05:18Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:05:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:18Speaker 01

  After the corkscrew is where you're, it's high speed, it's downhill, and the camber changes. And there's a wall to the right, which is where you will go if you really mess it up.

• 1:05:28Matt Farah?

  That is where the poo came out in the Valkyrie.

• 1:05:31Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:05:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:34Matt Farah?

  Also, turn 11 at Laguna Seca. Just the left-hand 90 degrees that everybody overcooks.

• 1:05:40Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:05:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:43Matt Farah?

  I mean, honestly, eight and nine at Big Willow. It doesn't look like much, but, but, uh, but when you're there, all of a sudden, it is very strange.

• 1:05:52Speaker 01

  I think you're just, you're aware of the, the lack of runoff and the consequence. And the speed can be, I don't know, 90 to 140, depending on what you're driving. It's, it's a lot.

• 1:06:05Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 1:06:06Speaker 01

  Uh, turn three at Laguna, or sorry, turn three at Willow, until they resurfaced it, it had the bumps in it. You know, so it's, you're going pretty fast, right-hand corner, and you said, so the whole time, you know, your chassis is a little unsettled, a little unsettled.

• 1:06:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:24Matt Farah?

  Good question, though. There's also a bunch that are less. There's a bunch where the three dimensionality of real life makes things like quite a bit easier. Road Atlanta is hard as shit on a sim, but in real life is like no problem for me. It's weird, the dimensionality of it. Hero of extended warranty, pretty close.

• 1:06:48Matt Farah?

  Uh, why do Hublows, especially the Big Bang, get so much hate in the watch world?

• 1:06:56Matt Farah?

  They're part of an era. They came up, they came up quickly, they kind of came out of nowhere. In the beginning, they were using other movements and they have sort of a gaudy style that represents sort of a lot about watches from 15 years ago. And when people started to get more into like vintage and a little more into like smaller cases and stuff like that, um, these, this style of watches, which was more like the Schwarzenegger, Stallone, big wrist, macho, you know, that now, uh, we've gone back, you know,

• 1:07:39Matt Farah?

  at least the last few years to the sort of more like slim hipster with his vintage whatever. And like, these are like not cool.

• 1:07:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm sure they'll come back, cause that's how fashion works.

• 1:07:50Matt Farah?

  It's cyclical.

• 1:07:51Speaker 01

  You know, their collection is called the Big Bang Collection. And it is big and it's got a lot of stuff going on.

• 1:07:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so, um, yeah, they, now, and people are not, having said that, they are like, they are fully like high-quality Swiss product. And if, if you like how they look, like, I'm not gonna make fun of you. You see the one that, um... Nino's dad, because of course he's got a bunch of Hublos. Blue collar baller from Detroit, right? Wore the fucking iced out Hublo to Nino's wedding.

• 1:08:24Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 1:08:25Matt Farah?

  It was gold and iced, the whole shit. I was like, did you buy that off like fucking Gucci Mane? What are you doing? What is this thing? It's crazy looking.

• 1:08:36Matt Farah?

  Oh, man.

• 1:08:40Matt Farah?

  Okay, wait. If you were to buy one car a year and only hold it for a year before you sold it, what's the ideal month to buy and sell to allow the order of the seasons, the greatest enjoyment? Well, I mean, if you have it for a whole year, you get to enjoy it for all the seasons, right?

• 1:08:59Speaker 01

  It doesn't really matter.

• 1:09:00Matt Farah?

  I mean, I suppose the cycle of new car, excited, and then it becomes normal, and then it, maybe you get over it, right? So...

• 1:09:09Speaker 01

  I would buy middle of summer, because then it will feel like I have two summers of driving. You know, I get to drive half of it, turns to fall, winter.

• 1:09:17Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:09:17Speaker 01

  Come back around, I get another summer, and then I get to sell it.

• 1:09:20Matt Farah?

  It would definitely change, my answer would change depending on what the car is. You know, like, this year I'm buying like an Arctic Trucks.

• 1:09:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:09:28Matt Farah?

  I would like maximum winter, please. Yeah. Interesting thought. God, imagine buying and selling a new car every year, though. Fucking headache. Uh, lichen hyperspor?

• 1:09:40Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 1:09:42Speaker 01

  That's pretty funny.

• 1:09:43Matt Farah?

  Is that?

• 1:09:44Speaker 01

  Well, lichen is like, you know, a type of, uh, I don't know if it's a fungi, but like it grows on rocks, like a moss. Hyperspor, just, you know, it probably spreads by spores like fungi does. So, but it's lichen hypersport.

• 1:09:55Matt Farah?

  Oh, lichen, oh, I missed it. Oh, you have to speak it out loud before you get it.

• 1:10:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's great.

• 1:10:03Matt Farah?

  Is that, is this a joke? I hope this comment is a joke. But like, it's pretty funny. So would you mind shouting out my new venture called grillbetter.ai? It watches you cook a steak and randomly shouts, "You better flip it at unpredictable intervals." It's for guys with no friends who want to grill outside.

• 1:10:23Speaker 01

  The site's not live, but you could buy it. Someone could buy it.

• 1:10:25Matt Farah?

  That's funny. Uh, keep going.

• 1:10:31Matt Farah?

  Rumors of my select... rumors of my selectria sunrise greatly exaggerated.

• 1:10:41Matt Farah?

  That's a Rise Against reference also, but I respect it. I sometimes feel isolated as a diesel enthusiast who lives in reality and understands climate change is real. I can see that perspective. Why is the diesel scene so toxic compared to gasoline enthusiasts who can admit exhaust isn't good to breathe while still enjoying cars?

• 1:11:01Speaker 01

  I feel like that's a very good perilous question.

• 1:11:03Matt Farah?

  It's a very loaded question.

• 1:11:05Speaker 01

  It is.

• 1:11:06Matt Farah?

  I think it has something to do with...

• 1:11:06Speaker 01

  How many generalizations do we want to make?

• 1:11:09Matt Farah?

  Doesn't it have more to do with the fact, I think, that most diesels are like trucks? And then most, like, a lot of, a lot of conservative-type people are likely to buy those types of vehicles, percentage-wise.

• 1:11:28Speaker 01

  I think probably correct. I think, and work in industries that tend to be conservative.

• 1:11:33Matt Farah?

  I don't think, yeah, I don't think correlation is causation here, but I, but I can see why you've ended up in that position. I do...

• 1:11:40Speaker 01

  But I will say that there's plenty of, you know, gasoline enthusiasts or part of the industry that's involved in gasoline cars that also probably like climate change and have donated against it.

• 1:11:53Matt Farah?

  I think it's just that, like, gas, like, diesel people can, like, roll coal, like, that's like, that's them, like, owning the libs, is like rolling coal. Gas, like, gasoline people don't have that. I mean, I guess they have the burnout, but diesel people have that, too.

• 1:12:09Speaker 01

  But during that trolling phase of literally rolling coal, there were videos of, like, a truck would pull alongside a Prius and smoke it out. So you, you're not just, you know, doing a burnout over here and someone watches you. You're literally, like, affecting the air that's coming into their car.

• 1:12:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:24Matt Farah?

  That is fucking such loser shit.

• 1:12:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, remember when Gail Banks was like, dude, that's so stupid?

• 1:12:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:30Speaker 01

  The god of diesel performance was like, do not roll coal, you're losing horsepower.

• 1:12:33Matt Farah?

  Uh, Laguna Seca Genesis, are Porsche 914s that bad or undesirable that they haven't gotten as expensive as other Porsches, or were they worth so little that the current cost of entry seems reasonable? The problem with a 914 is it costs as much to run one as it does to run a 911. You know what I mean? Like, you buy one for $25,000 or something, and then you find out the annual service is five grand, and you go, what the fuck? Like, you know, it's not like, uh, a Beetle or something. Like, you, you, you still have to buy Porsche parts, you still have to get, you know, Porsche service, and Porsche this, and Porsche that.

• 1:13:15Matt Farah?

  Like, it's gonna be fucking expensive, and unless it's a 914-6, or some other kind of like, super hopped up one, the driving experience is not...

• 1:13:24Speaker 01

  It's not fast.

• 1:13:25Matt Farah?

  It's not fast.

• 1:13:26Speaker 01

  So you're buying a slow car that costs as much to maintain as a fast car?

• 1:13:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and that you have to explain to people is a Porsche. That they don't know is a Porsche. Now, I've driven a couple 914s, and like, given sufficient power, they're a good time.

• 1:13:40Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:13:40Matt Farah?

  You know, but, that's why.

• 1:13:43Speaker 01

  And the 914-6s are expensive, correct?

• 1:13:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh, Paint2SampleBonnieBlue says...

• 1:13:50Speaker 01

  Jesus Christ.

• 1:13:52Matt Farah?

  "I'm looking for the best gas-efficient vehicle for my 6'5" friend driving a ton for sales. Uh, he went from Tahos to a Ford Edge Limited. I'm thinking Lexus Hybrid ES or TX. Last podcast reminded me of an Acura. I mean, yeah, Acuras, uh, but they're not the most, uh, the Lexus hybrids are...

• 1:14:18Speaker 01

  The ES is awesome.

• 1:14:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:19Speaker 01

  Two of Sarah's, Sarah's dad had one, her mom has one, separate cars. Like, her mom's car is 12 years old and feels brand new. Her dad's car was two years old, it is brand new.

• 1:14:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:30Speaker 01

  Like, they have tons of space, they're really comfortable, good highway car.

• 1:14:33Matt Farah?

  The thing about the TX, and my dad, for some reason, doesn't learn this.

• 1:14:39Matt Farah?

  The seat doesn't go quite far back enough. So if your friend is six foot five and it's all legs, I would skip Lexus and Toyota SUVs. The seats, they're like an inch short of where they need to be. The RXs and the TXs, all of them. And the Highlanders and shit too. The ES does not have that problem. Toyota i4skin. Cars and Bids recently had a McLaren 570S sell for 89K and I can't help but think that's a shitload of car for the money. 60K miles and there was a lean on it, wow. That is a shitload of car for the money. 60,000 miles is an awful lot. I can see why.

• 1:15:23Matt Farah?

  There's lots of other McLarens out there that have still, like you want some miles on your McLaren, but not that many.

• 1:15:32Speaker 01

  And the repair costs. And I don't know what the reliability record is of the 570s, but I know that McLaren has kind of a up and down reliability record. So it is a ton of performance for the money. Wow. That would probably smoke the Lotus around a racetrack. But if something breaks or has a problem, now you're paying supercar prices to fix it.

• 1:15:55Matt Farah?

  Keep going. Don't have an answer for those, I'm sorry. We sit on front porches and swing life away. That's, I think, just the lyric of that song. But okay. Dream blunt rotation with people in the automotive industry. Most of these folks don't smoke weed.

• 1:16:14Speaker 01

  Or you've smoked blunts with the ones who do.

• 1:16:17Matt Farah?

  I've already smoked.

• 1:16:19Speaker 01

  Your dreams have been realized.

• 1:16:21Matt Farah?

  Let's see. Do we do, you know, is it racing drivers or is it actual?

• 1:16:27Speaker 01

  I think designers.

• 1:16:28Matt Farah?

  Designer, yeah. You'd probably want to do Gordon. You know, you'd want to have

• 1:16:36Matt Farah?

  Gandini, probably, just for funsies. You'd want to have, hmm.

• 1:16:43Speaker 01

  What's the guy's name that did the makes?

• 1:16:45Matt Farah?

  Freeman? Freeman Thomas, yeah. He probably would get down.

• 1:16:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Everything's too colorful and awesome and fun.

• 1:16:52Matt Farah?

  We could probably make that happen at the ice race. I don't know if he's going, but that'd be awesome. And Jamal and Richard Toddhill.

• 1:16:59Speaker 01

  I'll say T-Pain because he's kind of in the automotive industry now.

• 1:17:05Matt Farah?

  Federal Investigator, what would be a good solution to crack down on distracted driving? Man, we're hosed. We don't have detention spans anymore and driving sucks and traffic sucks.

• 1:17:21Speaker 01

  And police budgets are already high. Like, the only way to do this is more, oh, you know, if they put cameras up everywhere, which they're going to eventually, probably, and if the camera could detect you're looking at your phone.

• 1:17:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:33Speaker 01

  That's the only way.

• 1:17:34Matt Farah?

  Automated enforcement is probably the only way that will do it. And I don't think anyone would ever vote for that.

• 1:17:38Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:17:39Matt Farah?

  But, yeah, I think we're fucked. I mean, I think we're fucked in that regard. I have absolutely no... Public transit, actually. You'd get a good number of those people that don't want to be driving in the first place.

• 1:17:53Speaker 01

  That's the best answer and the one I want to see done.

• 1:17:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:58Matt Farah?

  Mustang Geek, is there room in the marketplace for a reimagined Fox Body Mustang? I would say that there is, based on what I see people paying for finished product at auction. If you, if someone, like, if you and I were to do a Fox Body that had a Coyote motor and a great, you know, independent rear suspension and a great chassis and a full interior that worked, it wasn't like, super over the top, but there was a great, nicely interior, we could probably sell them for a hundred grand. Probably.

• 1:18:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:35Matt Farah?

  Could you sell them for three hundred grand? Like, doubtful.

• 1:18:39Speaker 01

  And how many could you sell? I think that's always the question, too.

• 1:18:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I mean, it would be challenging. But, you know, people are paying forty, fifty, sixty thousand dollars for, like, other people's, like, home-built versions of this. So, if there was a brand that was able to do it, you know, with a level of expertise that was good, I mean, there's some pretty cool shit. Did you see the thing that RenTech announced? That RenTech is doing a 560 SEC with a V12 in it.

• 1:19:09Speaker 01

  Whoa.

• 1:19:10Matt Farah?

  You know, all right, cool, good times. So, that'll probably be expensive.

• 1:19:17Matt Farah?

  But I do think you could probably get 100 grand for a really nicely done Fox body. Coyote motor, T56 or Voodoo motor, you know, GT350 motor. Six-speed gearbox, nicely sorted suspension.

• 1:19:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, but you won't get a million.

• 1:19:38Matt Farah?

  No.

• 1:19:38Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:19:41Matt Farah?

  Uh, no, boy.

• 1:19:44Speaker 01

  Oh, we're on page six at nine.

• 1:19:45Matt Farah?

  Uh, we're not getting through all of them, so. Uh, Christie Yamaguchi main.

• 1:19:50Speaker 01

  So funny.

• 1:19:51Matt Farah?

  Uh, I want a convertible for under 20K that I can get in and out of for relatively flat money. Is that a nice Miata, cheap Boxer, and a fairly cheap S2000 or something else? Convertible fun car for 20K. So, I would say, get the nicest BMW 330ci E46 that you can find.

• 1:20:15Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:20:15Matt Farah?

  Not an M. 330ci. That's like a really nice car to drive that would be in and out of money, but...

• 1:20:24Speaker 01

  I think S2000 is probably the safest bet on this list. Uh, there's too many Corvettes. I don't know.

• 1:20:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean...

• 1:20:33Speaker 01

  It depends on how long you kept it. You know, if you... One year, you might go in and out for flat money, but if like three years, the Corvette's just gonna go down. But S2000s are still like talked about, sought after, you know, famous.

• 1:20:44Matt Farah?

  You could get a C4.

• 1:20:48Speaker 01

  ZR1?

• 1:20:49Matt Farah?

  ZR1, which has a Targa roof.

• 1:20:51Speaker 01

  You could do that.

• 1:20:52Matt Farah?

  And that would be about 20K. And you could get in and out of it for flat money. Um...

• 1:21:09Matt Farah?

  Uh, I don't have... Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep... Sorry, there's a lot of people have nice things to say, but...

• 1:21:18Matt Farah?

  Uh.

• 1:21:20Matt Farah?

  Okay, ya boy Paulie.

• 1:21:21Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:21:22Matt Farah?

  Nineteen, and I bought my first collector car, a driver grade, green 1995 Dodge Viper. Now, I have to say, green, assuming it's like the, the British racing green, is a fabulous color for a first gen Viper. It probably looks, it looks, I bet it looks great.

• 1:21:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, the British racing one is awesome. The other one...

• 1:21:44Matt Farah?

  Is there another one? What's the other, like nuclear waste green?

• 1:21:47Speaker 01

  No, it looks a lot like the, um, I'll pull them up. It looks like that Miata kind of seafoam green.

• 1:21:53Matt Farah?

  Oh, wait.

• 1:21:54Speaker 01

  And it could just be the picture.

• 1:21:56Matt Farah?

  Well, oh, this one.

• 1:21:58Speaker 01

  So there's that green, and maybe it's the same.

• 1:22:00Matt Farah?

  Oh, this one's more like an Aventurine. Huh. I wonder if this is it? You think this is the one the guy just bought? This is last year.

• 1:22:09Speaker 01

  And then there's this one, but I'm not sure if this has been repainted, but it looks...

• 1:22:12Matt Farah?

  Ah, that looks great. That one, I think that's the same color, just in different light.

• 1:22:16Speaker 01

  Different setting, different light.

• 1:22:17Matt Farah?

  And different wheels.

• 1:22:18Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 1:22:18Matt Farah?

  Great color, though. Fuck, that's awesome. These, these wheels do not help it. Okay, uh, so, he said he got it for what? Bought it for thirty-four K. Uh, is there anything I could have gotten that provides a more special experience for the thirty-four K that I paid? Well, where do you, where do you say special? I mean, cause you could certainly buy something that would provide a more, like a different experience.

• 1:22:47Speaker 01

  You could buy something that has windows, sure.

• 1:22:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, you could buy like a Lotus Elise, that, that could be a similar, a similar experience.

• 1:22:56Speaker 01

  But I think this has a presence that beats the, the Elise. I think Elise is fun, probably better to drive in most ways.

• 1:23:02Matt Farah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:23:02Speaker 01

  But this, like, this has curb appeal, presence, sound.

• 1:23:07Matt Farah?

  I don't disagree.

• 1:23:08Speaker 01

  It's wild, yeah.

• 1:23:08Matt Farah?

  You could probably get some, um, weird imported like JDM shit that would probably be really cool. Um.

• 1:23:18Matt Farah?

  Like a, uh, like a, uh, what do you call it? It's not the skyline, like a Sylvia, you know, you could get like an S15 maybe or something like that. But honestly, for, you know, for 34 grand, you're 19 years old. That's a very interesting first collector car. Don't die.

• 1:23:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, be careful.

• 1:23:36Matt Farah?

  Please make tires. New tires. You gotta, if you, if this doesn't have new tires on it, you, you really need new tires. And I'm, I'm talking your date codes need to be five years or less. And they need to fucking match. Your fronts and your rears, they need to match.

• 1:23:50Speaker 01

  Buy four new PS4s for this thing.

• 1:23:53Matt Farah?

  And that car will then be easy to drive. Yeah. Scion Songs of the Counter Culture. Now we're talking. Uh, I learned about a Porsche from the 60s called the 356B Carrera Abarth. I think they only made 100. Do you have experience? I've never driven one. Jerry's got one.

• 1:24:11Speaker 01

  Of course he does.

• 1:24:12Matt Farah?

  Of course he does. Uh, Drifting in the Name of. I like that. Have you ever given your opinion on stance? Respect all builds or get the fuck out of here with that trash?

• 1:24:24Speaker 01

  Dude, I think they look cool when they're parked. When we see it on the road, I just worry. Cause it's, you know, the contact patch is tiny, but.

• 1:24:30Matt Farah?

  I don't like a static height stance. I don't mind if you have an air suspension and you drop it. Hard park. That's fine. That's okay. I like the, I think the Japanese VIP style is fun and silly.

• 1:24:41Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:24:42Matt Farah?

  The pillows and the tea trays and shit. That's great. It's a good time. Uh, I do, I, you look, I, I, I respect pretty much all styles of car modification in their, in their own way.

• 1:24:56Speaker 01

  I just think there's something very aesthetically appealing. It's like, but for me, it's like an art piece. It's just parked there. Extreme angles on the wheels. It reflects a ton of light and sure.

• 1:25:06Matt Farah?

  Uh, MX 5 inches. Yes. Uh, what are your thoughts on the Recaro seats in Mustangs compared to the heated and cooled couch seats? Um, I, I had an S550 in the past. I think I might want another one with Recaro's. I'm six foot, 235, and I hated the Focus RS seats. I'm with you. Uh, I would only buy a Mustang with the, the Recaro seats. I don't think the, the couch seats are very good, especially if you're talking about holding you in when you're handling.

• 1:25:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:37Matt Farah?

  It was, uh, I would get the Recaro's. I think you'll fit. Um, yeah. And I hated those seats too. Uh, dri- uh, dri- oh, wait, hang on. We'll do other.

• 1:25:49Matt Farah?

  Other, um. People. The art of losing traction. Uh, what's the most annoying non-car guy statement you've ever heard? I was at my dad's for the Super Bowl and one of his buddies was trying to convince me and my dad's other friends how peppy his dart rally was and it made my skin crawl. Well, it might be built, I don't know. Sure. It's maybe Musto's dart with the fucking 800 horsepower. Right. Um.

• 1:26:17Matt Farah?

  I mean, it's gonna be obvious, but recently it's the, it's the, the,

• 1:26:25Matt Farah?

  the, the wholesale adoption of the self-driving hype. The, you know, the, the, I have, I have actual friends who are not car people who genuinely believe that like FSD is better than dri- at driving than them. And my one friend is such a horrible driver that that might actually be true. Uh, but you have to be a really bad driver for that to be true. And he is a very bad driver going back 20 years. So like, maybe he's the use case. I do think he's untrainable in that regard. Um, but yeah, it's generally when I hear people repeating bullshit about self-driving cars that drive, that, that people refer to things as self-driving cars that aren't self-driving cars mainly. That drives me fucking batshit.

• 1:27:15Matt Farah?

  All right, last one, and then we're ending this show. Tackophile says, I'm considering lifting my BRZ. I'm wondering about the spectrum of off-road suspension setups and where I should be aiming. Uh, there's, there's several off-the-shelf coilover setups designed for rally or rally cross. Um, but I'm not sure that's what I should be looking for. I don't really want something that rides higher but harsher than stock. Ideally, I want more ground clearance and travel, but with a reasonable ride quality and handling. I don't know enough about what's possible or even who to ask. Good question. Mm-hmm. I do not have specific experience in this regard, the BRZ. Um, but rally and rally cross is where you should be looking because, mainly because.

• 1:28:03Matt Farah?

  It's sordid science for those folks and they can set you up, those systems are adjustable. So you can adjust your damping, you've single adjustable, you can get triple adjustable if you've got more budget and you can say, "I want this set up soft, I want this set up harsh with an adjustable suspension."

• 1:28:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. It shouldn't be harsher because the lift from a reputable rally company will be coming from like the control arms or the mounting points, it's not going to be lifted by the spring.

• 1:28:37Matt Farah?

  By a heavier duty spring.

• 1:28:38Speaker 01

  Because that's what my lifted Crown Vic was, it was lifted by the spring and it rode like shit.

• 1:28:43Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 1:28:44Speaker 01

  But rally cars traditionally, I mean you watch them move, like they're kind of softly sprung, there's a lot of wheel motion to absorb the bumps and keep the car settled and the tire on the ground.

• 1:28:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:53Speaker 01

  That's who you should be talking to.

• 1:28:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, and you should, I mean if you're genuinely going off-road, you should also be investing in skid plates for that car too.

• 1:29:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, not a bad idea.

• 1:29:01Matt Farah?

  Thanks everybody, I know there are a lot more questions, we will hold over the productive ones until next show, but I appreciate y'all. We will be back next week and I'll see you guys later, bye.