Jethro Bovingdon

Jethro Bovingdon is one of the top automotive journalists working today. He's written for all the big magazines, hosted videos for numerous online platforms, and a host of the Top Gear USA reboot. He can also drive his a** off. Topics today include how his hypercar testing has gotten repetitive; what he looks for in a car; his greatest drift ever; adventures in the USA; why Matt is wrong about Caterhams; that 996 project; and the scary difference between a fast writer like Jethro and the true driving professionals. Patreon questions include: What makes a door handle good or bad? First time 'Ring rental: manual or automatic? The best driving route in Europe is... Why are E39 M5s so expensive (or are they?) How to prep your vehicle for the rainy season Carplay in old cars: yay or nay? The anxiety of owning a fragile car Did Jethro's name help his career RHD vs LHD And more! Recorded September 25, 2026 https://www.instagram.com/jethrobovingdon https://www.roadandtrack.com/author/284772/jethro-bovingdon/ Show Notes: Avants https://avants.com/tst use code TST for 10% off your membership! Fitbod' Get 25% off your Fitbod subscription or try the app FREE for seven days at Fitbod.me/TIRE. Hims Ready to reach your goals? Visit hims.com slash tire to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you DeleteMe Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to www.joindeleteme.com/tire and use promo code TIRE at checkout. Truewerk Go to https//:truewerk.com/tire and use code tire to get 15% off your first order. TRUEWERK, Built Like It Matters. Want your question answered? To listen to the episode the day it's recorded? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast #cars #comedy #podcast Instagram: https://www. Instagram.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Instagram.com/therealzackklapman Click here for the most honest car reviews out there: https://www.youtube.com/thesmokingtire

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

• 0:00Matt Farah?

  What's up everybody, welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Avance. They're back and we love Avance because they help enthusiasts save money and enjoy their automotive passion more because members get sweet discounts on things they're buying anyway, invites to exclusive events, and a beautiful quarterly print magazine. We've known Avance for a long time. I've been a part of their magazine. I've gone to their parties and I have been a member for years. Why? Because tires. I buy a lot of tires and even if you don't buy a lot of tires and only some tires, you will find this to be helpful because Avance members get 10% off a discount tire and an

• 0:45Matt Farah?

  additional 10% off Michelin and BF Goodrich. So if you were to spend 1,500 on a set of Michelin Pilot Sports, you save 300 bucks just because you're an Avance member. But get this, it's only $99 a year to join Avance and they send you a $70 gift card to Griot's Garage when you sign up. The membership literally pays for itself. So use code TST for 10% off your membership. Go to avants.com/TST and sign up now and then code TST for 10% off. All right, folks, on this episode of the podcast, my pal Jethro Bovington is in town. He has

• 1:28Matt Farah?

  worked with Top Gear, Evo Magazine, he's worked with me at Road and Track. He was one of the hosts on the reboot of Top Gear with Dax Shepard. And he is a great guy. He's an amazing driver. He's funny and it's a privilege to work with this man. And we've got him in studio today. It's Jethro Bovington on the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go. Yeah, the one I drove had an auto like that's, you know, can't be, nothing's perfect. You could probably, somebody here could handle that.

• 2:00Speaker 01

  I mean, they did manuals for ages and then suddenly they, every time I drove a press car, it was an auto. I didn't really get it, but.

• 2:06Matt Farah?

  Maybe the journalists were wrecking the manuals.

• 2:09Speaker 02

  We're live now. We're live now. Just letting you know.

• 2:14Matt Farah?

  There we are. All right. Water. Do you read the sign? Don't, don't ignore the sign.

• 2:22Speaker 01

  I will.

• 2:23Matt Farah?

  Live by the sign, Jethro Bovingdon.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  I don't, I'm generally don't bang on tables.

• 2:27Matt Farah?

  You'd be surprised.

• 2:28Speaker 01

  I'm a calm person.

• 2:29Matt Farah?

  That's true. The English don't talk with their hands. They keep it subtle.

• 2:33Speaker 01

  I don't have Johnny's big fucking meat hands.

• 2:36Matt Farah?

  It's not that much of a Johnny problem either. It's, it's like just, I think people that are not on the radio a lot.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'll do my best, but remind me.

• 2:46Matt Farah?

  Nice to see you.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:48Matt Farah?

  For, for joining us. We have, boy, do we have a lot of time to spend together.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  We do.

• 2:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're gonna be all talked out.

• 2:55Matt Farah?

  Jethro and I are rolling a Hyundai Elantra eight hours on Sunday with Thunder Hill. That this drive, this is probably the worst drive you could do on the West Coast.

• 3:07Speaker 01

  And even worse for you, I'm currently not insured on the car. So you're doing the entire drive.

• 3:11Speaker 02

  That's a lot.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  I'm gonna snooze. I'm gonna make sure this paperwork isn't resolved until Monday.

• 3:19Matt Farah?

  I think the worst drive you can do in America is like New Jersey to, you know, Florida, just 95. And people do that drive all the time. It's terrible. Soul crushing. That's what we're in for.

• 3:32Speaker 02

  I think Arizona through Texas because it all looks the same basically and it's one highway.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  America's too big. This is a thing I say to my wife often. You should not, I flew in from North Carolina. It's a five hour flight and you're still in the same country. Like from the UK, I can be in halfway down Africa, basically.

• 3:51Matt Farah?

  I know, I know that when I have to go to Tenerife to drive cars, that it's easy for you and I'm like zonked by the time I get there.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  It's wild. It's so big. But yeah, no, it's cool.

• 4:02Matt Farah?

  It has its advantages. The bigger, the bigger the place, the less likely you are to be caught speeding.

• 4:08Speaker 01

  That is true. I actually drove from Indiana when I needed to drive Laura's automatic MX-5.

• 4:16Matt Farah?

  Oh, that must have been.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  From Indiana to LA. So I did that on my own in like, what did that take me? Three days, maybe?

• 4:22Matt Farah?

  That's a terrible fucking drug, car for that, for that mission. That's hard.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  It was during COVID. I think it was COVID stuff going on. Laura was moving to the UK. Her lease wasn't up, so she got it transported to her parents in Indiana for a bit. But then I came out here to do Top Gear America. So we needed a car.

• 4:42Matt Farah?

  And you needed street cred. So you rolled.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. But we were moving back here. Laura needed a car back and I was like, I don't mind driving it back, but it was a mission.

• 4:51Matt Farah?

  And that's, that's essentially when I bought the Taycan in North Detroit. I effectively did, you know, the same drive, but in an electric car, I did it with the cruise control, radar cruise set to exactly 74 miles an hour. Yeah. Cause that's the balance between range and, and I'm getting passed by trucks and shit.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  I'm impressed by how enlightened you are towards electric. I guess it's an LA thing because I live in like the countryside. I just, I'm determined never to have electric until I absolutely have to.

• 5:23Matt Farah?

  I mean, like, I get that.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  I don't despise them. Like I drove the Lucid Sapphire last week and I was like, this is unbelievably impressive. It's quite cool, but the, they hold my attention for like half an hour and then it's just gone.

• 5:38Matt Farah?

  But that's, okay, but like, look, it is a, it is a, to live somewhere where you can drive an engaging car all the time as your car is, is like a lovely thing. If you try to do that here, it sucks.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, it does.

• 5:54Matt Farah?

  It super sucks. And so, and, and other places that are just American sprawl or cities or whatever, like most of the time is not what we were doing this morning.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:04Matt Farah?

  Most of the, and for that purpose, as you experienced, I have the right tool.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true.

• 6:08Matt Farah?

  But the rest of the time, it's this shitty traffic and bumpy roads and red lights.

• 6:13Speaker 01

  And that's, yeah.

• 6:14Matt Farah?

  And that's nice.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  That is the difference. Unless you live in London, I don't. So in the UK, I'm, any drive I go on, I can actually be on a good road. I don't have 100 miles straight of amazing road like you have, but any journey, I can be like, there's a few roundabouts to skid around and there's like a cool country road that I can, I'm like, I'll take that road instead. So you get much shorter enjoyment, sustained enjoyment, but it's every single day and potentially every journey, which is cool.

• 6:44Matt Farah?

  Where I grew up in Connecticut, we had backroads, B roads. That, that was an option there. And so when I was growing up and, and I had a Mustang in high school and then I got a Mini Cooper, John Cooper works in my twenties, you, I could rip that like every day. Like the, the sports cars legit sit for six days a week because I'm just puttering around. But that, my friend, is where the manx comes in.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  You're such a manx lover.

• 7:13Matt Farah?

  It's downstairs. You just take that motherfucker around the block one time and tell me you don't think it's the greatest. Just, I'm serious.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Does everyone love it who's driven it?

• 7:21Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  They do?

• 7:23Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 7:24Speaker 01

  Because it is.

• 7:25Matt Farah?

  Do you know who loved it? Well, I got a great, the best endorsement I've gotten so far was Maz from Singer.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 7:31Matt Farah?

  Maz, I, he showed up and he goes, I really want to drive that. And I traded him the keys and he goes, take mine. And I looked over and it was the DLS. And I was like, let's fucking go. But he came back. He said, it's absolutely fabulous.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:43Matt Farah?

  You gotta try it.

• 7:44Speaker 01

  Okay, I will.

• 7:45Matt Farah?

  Sunday before we go.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  It is everything, when I look at it, I, every part of my being says, I will hate this car.

• 7:52Matt Farah?

  Why?

• 7:53Speaker 01

  I don't know. Cause it's got VW Beetle roots and it just doesn't, I don't know.

• 7:58Matt Farah?

  Loosely.

• 7:59Speaker 01

  They don't chime with British car culture. I don't think at all. So I, so I just look at it and I'm like, that's just like this weird beach buggy thing. It's gonna be crap. It's gonna be like a crappy kit car, but I'm prepared to try it.

• 8:11Matt Farah?

  No, I'm, no, it's, I don't, I don't, I mean, it's a little of that, yes, but I think, I think you, you would appreciate its charms, which are many.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  I think you're probably right.

• 8:21Matt Farah?

  The engine also makes it a lot different. It's a much more complex piece of machinery.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  And you drive it all the time?

• 8:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 8:32Matt Farah?

  I don't have to go far. You know, like I live close, I run errands, like I use it as just a run around car.

• 8:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  It's like a Caterham, but with none of the dynamic fun.

• 8:43Matt Farah?

  Not none, not none.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  Some. None of the dynamic ability, but it is very fun.

• 8:48Matt Farah?

  Okay, I think it drives like a better Porsche 356.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 8:51Matt Farah?

  Is actually how it drives.

• 8:53Speaker 01

  Well, I don't know what that feels like. So I've never driven a 356.

• 8:56Matt Farah?

  Really? Never?

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Never. I think I've driven one.

• 9:00Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  50 yards.

• 9:01Matt Farah?

  No way.

• 9:01Speaker 01

  I was at Porsche Experience Center in Silverstone. We were doing some test and I had to move one. That's as far as it's ever been. So I've never driven one. And again, I love Porsche. I couldn't, I never look at a 356 and go, wow, that's cool. It just doesn't, it doesn't chime with me at all. I don't know why. It's just, I've never driven one. It just seems too vintage.

• 9:23Matt Farah?

  I think, all right.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  They are gorgeous.

• 9:25Matt Farah?

  I can't believe that your curiosity has not, here's why you should drive it as a, an anthropological exercise.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:35Matt Farah?

  Because the first, I don't give a shit about them either. If I never owned one, like that's fine. But all I had driven were like old American cars at the time. And my 50s cars experience was not great. The first time I got in one of those and I was like, wait, wait a minute, what? Wait, real brakes? Wait, like, like good steer? I was, my mind was absolutely exploded by how effective all of the inputs were.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  I want to drive one. It's not like.

• 10:07Matt Farah?

  Somebody get Jethro a 356.

• 10:08Speaker 01

  It's just, I'm always, my work always takes me to like the newest one, or when I go back in time, it's always like, and I am incredibly spoiled and I'm not ungrateful about this, but it's like 2.7 RS, 964 RS. So I've driven all that stuff. But because of the mags I've worked for and the videos I've done, no one goes back as far as 356.

• 10:31Matt Farah?

  They're SEO death.

• 10:33Speaker 01

  Exactly. And I hate that because my life now is the algorithm.

• 10:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  I'm, like I say, unbelievably lucky, but my life is now many hypercars over and over again. And I love, I love driving them individually, but I get to the point, like I do so much for Top Gear. I do all of that, nearly all of their hypercar stuff. And they'll ring me after I've had my first car. How is it? And I'm like, it's like, how fast is it? I'm like, well, it's like as fast as a W1 or an F80 or a Zinger.

• 11:02Matt Farah?

  They're all the same.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  They're all the same. They're different versions of the same thing. And they're unbelievable. Like the capability is insane. But I do, I still yearn for like driving some simple stuff. I love getting in a hot hatch. I love getting in my Porsche. I love driving just simple stuff. It's really nice. I love the hypercar stuff, but there's so much of it.

• 11:25Matt Farah?

  See, this is, this is how I circled back to that stupid Sparkling thing. It is the anti-vax.

• 11:31Speaker 01

  I, I want a Caterham because I know you don't love them. I think they are.

• 11:36Matt Farah?

  If I was your shape, I might love them. I'm fat and I don't fit in them.

• 11:40Speaker 01

  You're not fat.

• 11:41Matt Farah?

  Even the Ameri, I'm, I'm less fat, but I certainly was when I tried. But that's just not the car for me.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  They are the greatest car. They are, they are, I think they are.

• 11:52Speaker 02

  The difference of opinions is so funny. I don't love them.

• 11:56Speaker 01

  I drove, I had one, I was still at Evo and there was one, they had a long-term test car and it was sat in the garage, in the car park. And I was like, can I just take this for a while? And it was like middle of winter. It was a 360R, I think. So like 190 horsepower maybe. I just drive it everywhere. I was like, this is the greatest thing. I don't know how to describe it, but we are so unbelievably reliant now on everything, on every electronic assist. You have nothing, like literally nothing. So it finds you out, but it also teaches you more than any other car. And you can be sliding them at 30 miles an hour on a roundabout next to other traffic. They're just the best. And

• 12:38Speaker 01

  then when you drive them quick, the last really quick one I drove was a 420R with a sequential box.

• 12:44Matt Farah?

  Whoa.

• 12:45Speaker 01

  And you're just like, the noise, you're sliding the car, pulling gears, riding curves. And you're just like, this is the greatest. There's nothing better.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  That sounds fantastic.

• 12:54Speaker 01

  500 kilos.

• 12:55Matt Farah?

  I mean, maybe if I got to really try one on like an airfield where I could actually have that kind of a, I've only driven them on the street.

• 13:03Speaker 01

  You should.

• 13:04Matt Farah?

  And they've just never done it for me.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  And they take a while because you sit on the rear axle. You, even if you can fit in them, you end up, the amount of times I broke indicate, because they have like little toggle switches and stuff. And when you're driving them, you just snap them off because you're like, you're trying to slide the car and stuff. But when you, when you get in tune with them, they're, they are literally as much fun as an F80, a W, any of that stuff. They genuinely are. They're the best. They're awesome.

• 13:33Matt Farah?

  I mean, lightness is like, you just, you, there's no rev, there's lightness plus revs.

• 13:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:39Matt Farah?

  Is, is like, it's like a linear, you know, a linear scale. Like weight go down, revs go up, fun go up.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  And if you race them, even better because they have bond or aero. So you can get a tow. So no one ever gets away. So whoever's leading will get caught because you just tow up to the back of them.

• 13:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 14:00Speaker 01

  So whether you're first or 20th, you, you will literally be rubbing bumpers. The amount of times I came in, I'd been chasing a car and their rear number plate would be black from where my wheel was turning on their plate, you know?

• 14:14Speaker 02

  The algorithm fed me some footage this week of wheel to wheel Caterham and like someone's front tire hit someone's rear tire and then like that car just went flying.

• 14:22Speaker 01

  That can be dangerous.

• 14:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:23Matt Farah?

  You're talking about rubbing fenders in an open wheel car. That's a, that's a nope for me. Sorry.

• 14:29Speaker 02

  Basically, you're basically doing like, it's like the same with the dirt oval cars where it's just like open wheel. Cause the fenders are for show.

• 14:35Matt Farah?

  They end up on their roof all the time.

• 14:37Speaker 02

  Exactly, yeah.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  Caterhams, I don't think they're that bad, but I, I've raced them against each other and they're, they're the best. But I, I think me and Dicky Meaden were in a race one. And it was really wet or something and they started to put us in with all these GT cars. And we were like, no, like we don't want a cup car smashing into us. In a Cater, we were like, no, we're gonna go home. Thank you very much, but no.

• 14:59Speaker 02

  All right. So Matt, we need you to drive a Caterham on a track. And we need you, Jethro, to drive the Manx. Just like to ply where the beach is and back.

• 15:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm down for that. But you need to fit in the narrow body Caterham because the wide boy is not the same.

• 15:13Matt Farah?

  Well, I've, I only fit in the wide one. That's the only one I've driven.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  We have to find a way. We'll out get some.

• 15:18Matt Farah?

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• 17:24Matt Farah?

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• 19:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't like the wide ones. They're weird. They're like, you get in them and they feel right but wrong. It's like that uncanny valley thing. You're like, this isn't, this isn't the same thing. You need the original.

• 19:52Matt Farah?

  I think, I don't.

• 19:52Speaker 01

  OG.

• 19:53Matt Farah?

  Unless, I'm gonna have to start the Ozempies straight up.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  Are you just pretty slim these days?

• 19:58Matt Farah?

  I don't think I could get in the skinny one. You, I don't think you appreciate just how skinny the skinny one is. Don't you have buckets in a 996?

• 20:07Speaker 01

  I do, yeah.

• 20:08Matt Farah?

  I can barely, them shits are a no-go for me. Porsche's bucket.

• 20:13Speaker 01

  The wide, the wide elephant ear buckets.

• 20:15Matt Farah?

  The ones that are this big up here and this big on.

• 20:19Speaker 01

  They're the greatest seat ever. I can drive them for a thousand miles.

• 20:23Matt Farah?

  You can, you can, yes. I can tell if I'm having a fat day or a thin day based on how I fit in Porsche buckets.

• 20:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:30Matt Farah?

  The new SCs, they're getting progressively fatter.

• 20:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I noticed that. I think they put, it depends what ones. Do they do different sizes?

• 20:38Matt Farah?

  I don't think so.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  How do you?

• 20:40Matt Farah?

  They're expensive. And look, they're seven grand.

• 20:42Speaker 01

  How do you get on with McLaren center seats?

• 20:44Matt Farah?

  Oh, get out of here.

• 20:45Speaker 01

  Oh, they're the worst for you as well.

• 20:46Matt Farah?

  That's a no-go.

• 20:47Speaker 01

  That's great.

• 20:47Matt Farah?

  That's a no-go at all.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  I despise them with passion.

• 20:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, they're, when you, once you're in it, it's okay. But if you're trying to do some things throughout the day and climb in, it's that hard edge.

• 20:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, you can't get in them without injuring yourself. And then every time I get, you're rolling around anyway. Yeah, they suck.

• 21:03Matt Farah?

  Especially if you have them in a spider, where you don't have a roof cut out now. You can't drop down in. You have to crawl in that little hole.

• 21:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true.

• 21:10Matt Farah?

  Fuck out of here.

• 21:11Speaker 01

  No, they're bad.

• 21:11Matt Farah?

  No, comfort seats in McLarens, always.

• 21:14Speaker 01

  Yes, yeah, agreed.

• 21:15Matt Farah?

  Um, all right, since you've ever, you've never actually been on the show, have you?

• 21:21Speaker 01

  I've been on your show.

• 21:21Matt Farah?

  Have you?

• 21:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:22Matt Farah?

  How many years ago was it?

• 21:23Speaker 01

  Oh, ages ago.

• 21:24Matt Farah?

  It was forever, forever.

• 21:25Speaker 01

  I've done it once with Johnny. But obviously Johnny was here, so I didn't really have to speak, which was cool. Um, I think I might have done it one other time.

• 21:36Speaker 02

  It's really nice to have an ally in that.

• 21:38Matt Farah?

  That's amazing.

• 21:38Speaker 02

  Fucking A.

• 21:39Matt Farah?

  Um, well.

• 21:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, you were on in 2021.

• 21:43Matt Farah?

  Since you've been here, you've been around. You, you've, yeah, like you mentioned, become the hypercar guy.

• 21:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel like that.

• 21:49Matt Farah?

  You've been for a minute, but it's even, even more so. But, but now, uh, now we've also got, you know, the resto, the resto mods, the crop of them.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 22:00Matt Farah?

  And, uh, and, and you and I have Performance Car of the Year coming up in, in, in five days or four days, whatever it is.

• 22:07Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 22:08Matt Farah?

  At the other end of our drive to Thunder Hill, which actually we have some good cars coming.

• 22:13Speaker 01

  We have some great cars, don't we? Yeah.

• 22:15Matt Farah?

  You, we've got Valhalla, which you drove.

• 22:18Speaker 01

  I've driven it.

• 22:18Matt Farah?

  And I drove, we were at the same thing. That was a very good time.

• 22:21Speaker 01

  Oh, so good.

• 22:22Matt Farah?

  That's a very good time.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  That was good. That was a great trip, wasn't it? Because we were on the pre-launch, launch, right?

• 22:29Matt Farah?

  Long lead.

• 22:30Speaker 01

  So the launch people were staying at a different hotel in San Sebastian. So we had that cool hotel, but it was a shame it wasn't San Sebastian. But we just had freedom.

• 22:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Um, freedom is good.

• 22:40Speaker 01

  And then do you remember I got busted on the way back?

• 22:43Matt Farah?

  Not by the police.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  Not by the police.

• 22:46Matt Farah?

  No, Jethro flew, did a top speed test on the freeway.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  I, I didn't quite go top speed, but I left the circuit. It was late, last always last.

• 22:56Matt Farah?

  He was the only, he was the only one, by the way, that, that, that took a Valhalla home for the evening. The rest of us left them at the track because he wanted a sunset shot or they were doing something.

• 23:08Speaker 01

  And then the next day, we were driving it on the road. So we drove this thing all down the track. It was great fun. It's, it's actually a hell of a car. They've done a great job.

• 23:15Matt Farah?

  It's a 750 plus.

• 23:17Speaker 01

  And then we got on, where were we? Navara. So you get on basically, it's almost like the end of a motorway. You can't, you go access road, roundabout, up the ramp. And it's dark, it's Spain. I'm like, there's no one around. So by the, I think by the time I got on the main road, I was doing like 165 because I just pinned it up the ramp.

• 23:35Matt Farah?

  Whoa.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  And then I can see this little Citroen in the distance, this little like hire car. And I'd, by now, I'd got to 300 clicks on the speedo. It's 186. And I was like, I might as well max it because it's got there so quick. So I was like, I think I'll just max it. But then I could see this car and I was like, I can't overtake someone at 200. I was going to do 217. I was like, I can't overtake someone at 217. That's just rude. So I like backed off and like went past this thing at like 175. Um, and then afterwards discovered it was the chief chassis engineer for the Valhalla. And he didn't know I was taking it. So he was like ringing all his guys, who the fuck's in the car?

• 24:16Speaker 02

  Which PR engineer, PA, whatever's moving the car.

• 24:20Matt Farah?

  Which like detail, you know?

• 24:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, right, right.

• 24:22Matt Farah?

  Which tire guy is like.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  And he goes, it's just overtaking me at like 150 mile an hour. And one of the guys goes, oh no, that's Jethro. And then he pinged him the file and they sent me the file. I'd overtaken him at like 178 or something. And I just, and I could see this, I, after I'd overtaken, I slowed down because you can't drive at that speed the whole time. So I'd like, I was driving quick, but not too quick. And then I pulled into the hotel and like was getting all my bags out and stuff.

• 24:46Speaker 02

  And an hour later.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  And then he pulled up, he was like, what were you doing? I was like, oh, yeah, um.

• 24:51Speaker 02

  He's getting a sunset shot of the speedometer.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  What can you do?

• 24:55Matt Farah?

  That, that car is blindingly fast.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  It is.

• 24:59Matt Farah?

  Uh, we've got the Bentley Supersports.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 25:02Matt Farah?

  Which I got to have a quick go in.

• 25:03Speaker 01

  I've driven too.

• 25:04Matt Farah?

  Did you have a longer, I drove, I got six laps at Laguna Seca. Did you get more than that?

• 25:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, I drove it in the UK initially on Dunsfold, which the Top Gear test track, which is obviously an iconic place, but sort of sucks to drive. Um, and then I drove it again recently in Portugal. It was, it's fun.

• 25:20Matt Farah?

  I haven't tried it on a road yet.

• 25:21Speaker 01

  Nor me.

• 25:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, nor me. I think it'll be much better on the road, actually.

• 25:25Matt Farah?

  Better than the track?

• 25:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, because it's great on the track, but it's still 2,000 kilos and all the rest of it. But it's, I like what they've done. It's funny that Frank Vallas has gone to Bentley and been like, shall we just build a GT3?

• 25:40Matt Farah?

  It's like, sure. It works over there.

• 25:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's work there. It's got Manti wheels.

• 25:45Matt Farah?

  It does have Manti wheels.

• 25:46Speaker 01

  Manti wheels, which is awesome.

• 25:48Matt Farah?

  The Bentley Dark Horse they're calling it, which is pretty fun. Which is pretty funny.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  I did, that was my, when I first saw it, I was like, oh man, they've built, they've built a bloody Mustang. But it is a cool thing.

• 25:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's rad. It's rad. Um, it, but I, they wouldn't let me at the launch turn off traction control. So I haven't gotten to do the thing that it's really for.

• 26:08Speaker 01

  It is great on the Trofeo RS tire. Like it feels quite hooked up and accurate. You can slide it, but it's, on the normal road tire, it's sort of comedy. Like it, it wheel spins constantly.

• 26:22Matt Farah?

  Oh, good.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  Like literally constantly, yeah.

• 26:24Matt Farah?

  That's what we need.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  You can bonfire the tires for miles.

• 26:28Matt Farah?

  Well, we'll see how many they've sent.

• 26:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're gonna need a lot.

• 26:30Matt Farah?

  And we will, we will minus one.

• 26:32Speaker 01

  They're gonna need a lot.

• 26:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the Manti wheels are, it's a kind of a cool touch, though.

• 26:36Speaker 01

  I'm intrigued what Ferrari bring with Speciale. Because we got a Speciale. I just did Top Gear's Car of the Year, which I don't think's come out yet. But they sent a Speciale with nine sets of mounted tires on carbon wheels.

• 26:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 26:52Speaker 01

  It was awesome.

• 26:52Matt Farah?

  Well, when we had the regular 296, they sent, I think, seven sets.

• 26:56Speaker 01

  Nine sets.

• 26:57Matt Farah?

  This, that's crazy, but the, bringing their own fuel was crazier.

• 27:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, they didn't, to be fair, they didn't do that in Portugal. But they, we turned up because the, the guy had rung me who organized everything. He's a great guy. He's insane and like a form-filling nightmare, which I hate, but he's brilliant. And he was like, yeah, Ferrari only bring in two guys. And I rang him and I was like, well, there's an entire race truck, like a full, like Formula One race truck.

• 27:25Matt Farah?

  I'm sitting here looking at the biggest hauler you've ever seen in your life.

• 27:28Speaker 01

  There was like nine guys. They, they had so much support. And I'm like, this is stupid. And I know some people are like, they're effectively cheating. But I'm like, everyone's got the chance. And they didn't, they didn't bring their own fuel. They, they brought the car, they just, they weren't playing with it all the time. They were just putting new wheels and tires on when it was an issue. And it was, yeah, it was cool. It was really cool.

• 27:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the, uh, I think their excuse was the, they didn't trust the quality of the, of the Northern California 91 octane.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  Probably fair.

• 28:00Matt Farah?

  Probably fair, but everyone else, I mean, you know, I guess, I mean, look, like you, I, I don't think it's cheating. Like you said, anyone could, if that's what they want to do.

• 28:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, Porsche sent a set of wheels and tires, but didn't even send a guy to change them.

• 28:13Speaker 02

  That's like their thing, right?

• 28:14Matt Farah?

  No, they sent Kyle.

• 28:15Speaker 01

  We had no one in Portugal.

• 28:17Matt Farah?

  I'm willing like.

• 28:19Speaker 01

  Cool, but like we're busy, like we're really busy. So the chances of us changing the top, we're like work, you know, video, video is insane. Like it's such a labor intensive thing. So yeah, we didn't do much tire changing of that. But yeah, the Ferrari thing is cool. And I love when you're doing lap times, they, they literally tell you to crash. They're literally like, it doesn't matter about damage. Just get the time. They literally say that to you. When, before you go out, they're like, don't worry about damage, just push. Sure.

• 28:51Speaker 02

  It works for you, right?

• 28:54Speaker 01

  I mean, what an amazing attitude.

• 28:56Speaker 02

  That's nuts.

• 28:57Speaker 01

  They are so driven.

• 28:58Matt Farah?

  How you saying this possible?

• 29:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. I'm like, don't worry about it.

• 29:02Speaker 02

  They didn't have that attitude. I got to drive the SF90 like at Fiorano, but it was a different kind of event. And they did not have that attitude.

• 29:08Speaker 01

  No, that's different. But when, when there's data on the car, they are literally, I've had it two or three times where they're like, just don't worry about damage, just, just push.

• 29:17Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 29:18Speaker 01

  And that's it. Which is, you always worry about damage because you've still got photography to do, video to do. But it is quite a nice freedom to be like, if I smash up a couple of wheels or something, it's gonna be fine. Don't worry about it.

• 29:30Matt Farah?

  That's great.

• 29:31Speaker 01

  So we've got Ferrari especially.

• 29:32Matt Farah?

  The M2CS.

• 29:34Speaker 01

  Which will be good.

• 29:34Matt Farah?

  So Zach and I drove it here and took it to Willow Springs and didn't actually love it.

• 29:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, you guys didn't like it, did you?

• 29:41Matt Farah?

  But other people that we know are good at driving and like good cars have said good things.

• 29:47Speaker 01

  What tires was it on when you had it?

• 29:49Matt Farah?

  I don't remember off. Maybe, I don't know.

• 29:52Speaker 01

  I drove it a year ago.

• 29:54Matt Farah?

  Maybe?

• 29:54Speaker 01

  I drove it a year ago in Europe and I enjoyed it. I thought it was good. But you know, I drove last week that was good. M3CS. What do they call it?

• 30:02Matt Farah?

  Handshelter.

• 30:04Speaker 01

  Handshelter.

• 30:05Matt Farah?

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• 30:45Matt Farah?

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• 31:28Matt Farah?

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• 32:08Matt Farah?

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• 32:53Matt Farah?

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• 33:35Matt Farah?

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• 34:16Matt Farah?

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• 34:25Speaker 01

  And I actually really liked that. Yeah.

• 34:27Matt Farah?

  So the program manager for that car is the guy who won our watch giveaway contest.

• 34:35Speaker 01

  Oh, nice.

• 34:36Matt Farah?

  For the blood drive of two years ago. He's a BMW program manager.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  It's cool. It's a good thing.

• 34:41Matt Farah?

  It's rad.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, because it's like the least powerful engine.

• 34:43Matt Farah?

  But it's light.

• 34:44Speaker 01

  But it's lighter. It's got all the CS stuff. And I, you know, we talk about cars don't need to be fast. So you can't then moan about it having 40 less horsepower or whatever than the normal CS. But I thought it was really good fun. That M3 is weird because it's big and heavy, but it, they do drive really, really well. So, yeah, and I enjoyed that. But the M2, I think you will like it. I think it'll be a good one.

• 35:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the one we had was very like pushy on the corner entry and then snapped to oversteer pretty repeatedly.

• 35:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, it shouldn't be like that for sure.

• 35:16Speaker 02

  Had we, I know this is a discussion in the comments, I should remember. Had we dropped pressures in the tires or did we leave them as they were? It wasn't that hot a day.

• 35:23Matt Farah?

  We dropped them, but like maybe not enough. You know, we didn't, we didn't like consult with what the optimum pressure was, but we dropped them.

• 35:32Speaker 02

  We did.

• 35:32Matt Farah?

  Till they were like in the twenties. I mean, it was, we got them as low, like.

• 35:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, you never know. But some of these cars are a bit different, you know, like 992 first, the GT3s, every one I drove was different. Some were really good, some were actually pretty crappy, you know, it depends. Yeah.

• 35:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah. It didn't, it didn't agree with me for one reason or another, but I'm, I'm open to being, to being changed.

• 35:57Speaker 01

  It looks cool. I think it's great.

• 35:58Matt Farah?

  It does look cool.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  I don't love that new M2. The last M2CS was so good.

• 36:03Matt Farah?

  There's a reason they're so expensive. They're very pretty.

• 36:05Speaker 01

  Even the comp, I loved the comp. It was great. It was a really cool thing.

• 36:09Matt Farah?

  We've got the Nismo Z manual.

• 36:11Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 36:11Matt Farah?

  Which is, I've drove it and I, I mean, this is gonna be one of those ones where I really liked it in isolation.

• 36:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:20Matt Farah?

  You know, when it was, when I went there just to drive that, it was great. When it's back to back with other cars, maybe.

• 36:26Speaker 01

  How much is, it's expensive, isn't it?

• 36:28Matt Farah?

  No.

• 36:28Speaker 01

  It's not?

• 36:29Matt Farah?

  No, it's under 70,000.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  Okay. Cause I am a bit like you. I think they're cool.

• 36:34Matt Farah?

  I really liked it.

• 36:35Speaker 01

  I love the 350Z from back in the day. Like I did a couple of 24 hour races in like just mildly modified road cars. So I have huge affection for driving them. I had a couple of long-term test cars. I followed a 250LM around the Nürburgring in a 350Z at like sunset. It was unbelievable. It was like, I just sat behind him. I was like, I'm just gonna sit. It was.

• 37:00Matt Farah?

  Was that part of work? Were you shooting it? Or was it just for fun?

• 37:03Speaker 01

  No, I was on a track day.

• 37:04Matt Farah?

  Oh, wow. That's crazy.

• 37:05Speaker 01

  So this was before, I mean, they would have still been worth a lot of money, but not whatever they're worth now, a hundred million quid or something. But yeah, we went to, there was an RMA track day at the ring. We, I don't know what we're doing, maybe a job, maybe a jolly, whatever. And at the last lap of the day, I went out and I caught it as we were coming up towards the carousel. And I was like, I'm just gonna sit behind this thing. And I just watched it go around in the sunset.

• 37:27Matt Farah?

  Was he going quick?

• 37:28Speaker 01

  Pretty well. Yeah, pretty well. So I love 350Z. So I'm quite keen to drive that thing.

• 37:34Matt Farah?

  It's hard to kill those cars. They are very durable.

• 37:38Speaker 01

  They are strong. We did Silverstone 24 hour in one. We did blow the head gasket and we just put more water in it every pit stop. And then we finished that race, we did okay. Like two weeks later, I was racing it again somewhere else. And I turned up and said, did you do the engine? They're like, no, we're just gonna put water in. They just kept putting water in it and we just raced. It was brilliant. I loved that car. So I'm quite intrigued. They're pretty old school now, aren't they? The Nismo Z, but I think it'll be fun.

• 38:07Matt Farah?

  I think people say that, but it's not really fair. There's been a lot of improvements. Like, I mean, the general architecture is kind, yeah, but like, it doesn't feel like an old car when you drive it.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  No, I like them.

• 38:21Matt Farah?

  I drove it. It was nice.

• 38:22Speaker 01

  I'd rather have them than a Supra, I think.

• 38:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's tighter.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:28Matt Farah?

  It's, it steers better.

• 38:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:29Matt Farah?

  Brakes better.

• 38:30Speaker 01

  I agree.

• 38:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it was good.

• 38:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're good.

• 38:32Matt Farah?

  Uh, I think, do we have a dark horse SC?

• 38:34Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:35Matt Farah?

  We do have a dark horse SC.

• 38:36Speaker 01

  Which no one's, or everyone drove last week, maybe?

• 38:39Matt Farah?

  Last week at Sonoma and I, they kindly invited me, but because of this.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:44Matt Farah?

  And also I'm driving it for two weeks straight in October for, for one of the road and track experiences. Yeah.

• 38:51Speaker 01

  I took your place on the road and track European trip.

• 38:54Matt Farah?

  I know.

• 38:55Speaker 01

  I'm doing Nürburgring.

• 38:56Matt Farah?

  I know. It turns out you can go.

• 38:58Speaker 02

  Well, it's good you've never been there before.

• 38:59Matt Farah?

  It turns out you can go on like 25 of these things in America and they won't let you go to Europe.

• 39:04Speaker 02

  The credits don't transfer.

• 39:06Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 39:06Speaker 02

  That's the thing.

• 39:06Speaker 01

  But it is, it is October at the ring. So I was, I spoke to them last week and I was like, guys, just so you know, like the ring is different to other places. And if it's raining, there is a good chance someone crashes. Like it happens quite a lot. So I'm intrigued to see how it goes. But I did a call with all the people attending last week and they all seemed super excited and they're all like, I've always wanted to go to the ring. And I'm like, let's hope it's dry.

• 39:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah. But I'm glad they're doing, they're, they're doing a, a European trip. I hope it goes, it goes well and they continue it. So I get to do one at some point. No, we got, uh, we got Hudson, uh, Hudson 400 at the end of October. I think there might be one or two slots left and then Palm Springs, Palm Springs and then to Temecula in February. That's gonna be cool. Experiences dot road and track.com. Um, what other, what else is in this list? Uh, the Elantra NTCR that we are driving up, which will be, I mean, it's, it's got a couple of little upgrades over the regular Elantra and it's got a little bit better brakes and uh, it's got a wing.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  Okay. We've got Turbo S.

• 40:19Matt Farah?

  We have a 911 Turbo S.

• 40:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:21Matt Farah?

  Hybrid one.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:22Matt Farah?

  It is on the, the less hardcore of the two suspension options.

• 40:28Speaker 01

  Oh, it is.

• 40:29Matt Farah?

  It does not have the, the hardcore track suspension.

• 40:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. I'm intrigued. So I get to do the lap times, which is always fun.

• 40:36Matt Farah?

  Privilege. Good time.

• 40:38Speaker 01

  It's a small track for some really fast cars, isn't it? I remember I did 296 there a few years ago. That felt quick around there. There's no ZR1X though. We've got Grand Sport, right?

• 40:49Matt Farah?

  No, we have a Grand Sport. Yeah. Which I drove, uh, already and you drove.

• 40:55Speaker 01

  Very briefly. Yeah. I was doing some stuff last week, but I mostly drove the ZR1X.

• 41:00Matt Farah?

  Once you drive, if you drive ZR1X for 20 minutes and then you get into Grand Sport, it's like a Miata.

• 41:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's.

• 41:07Matt Farah?

  It's like going in an MR2.

• 41:08Speaker 01

  That car is the GT-R of its generation, isn't it? ZR1X has just changed the game completely because it is so fast. Like it's faster than I think probably any hypercar. Maybe one or two hypercars would be quicker for about three minutes before they overheat or break down or whatever. Does he want to just do it forever? It's insane. And it's.

• 41:31Matt Farah?

  And they'll sit in traffic and it's easy and the nose lift is really fast.

• 41:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, everything works.

• 41:38Speaker 02

  Well, and turns and breaks well, right? I mean, if you watch episode one, oh, you didn't watch it, but like episode one of the grand tour, they take the Hennessy F5 to Thermal and Jethro, or not Jethro, um, Jensen drives it and he gets back in and he's like, that's terrifying and that's not ready to go around corners.

• 41:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 41:52Speaker 02

  He's like, it, it, turning and stopping is not what it does. And I think the ZR1X, they had to beat it by, it was close. But I'm sure over five, 10 laps, the delta would be much greater.

• 42:02Speaker 01

  Oh, it's, and if you didn't have Jensen driving you as well, someone who's got that level of ability.

• 42:08Matt Farah?

  Regular average thermal members just putting that thing in the wall.

• 42:11Speaker 01

  I think the ZR1 is great. I would have the rear wheel drive one.

• 42:15Matt Farah?

  Rear drive one has better steering.

• 42:17Speaker 01

  That X is fast. It's outrageous. It's shocking really. Yeah.

• 42:21Matt Farah?

  It's real, you drive it and you go, wait, they just, they're just gonna sell this to people.

• 42:25Speaker 01

  But what does it do? Because the GT-R to me was the moment in time. Everything chased GT-R. In fact, everything followed that formula now. Everything has gone that way. Four wheel drive, dual clutch box, twin turbo. There's no point chasing the ZR1 because where does it end? Where does it go for everyone? So maybe it's the reset point where you just go, well, we can't do that. Let's concentrate much more like Porsche have done with GT3.

• 42:52Matt Farah?

  Dude, even John Hennessy is fuck, is doing a naturally aspirated stick shift car. Even, even the 2000 horsepower guys like, you know what? This is getting shady.

• 43:02Speaker 02

  Well, have we gotten, I mean, we've gotten very far with making huge power pretty reliable. But have we hit the wall finally? You know, the wall used to be at like in the nineties, what? 600 horsepower? Then we got to like a thousand and now these guys are selling 2000 horsepower cars that you can get delivered to your house. Mostly work. Have they just, that's what metallurgy can stand. So we have to go a different direction finally.

• 43:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't, I, the more you drive, the more you realize that that stuff is stupid. It's impress, it's unbelievably impressive and I love driving that stuff, but if I had all the money in the world, I wouldn't have a single car with a thousand horsepower or anywhere close, I don't think actually.

• 43:42Matt Farah?

  When I drove, drove the ZR1 in the canyons and I drove the Grand Sport in the canyons, with the exception of like two brief bursts of full throttle, I went the same speed.

• 43:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, you do.

• 43:56Matt Farah?

  You just, you're limited by the road, the conditions, the visibility, your own morality.

• 44:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:03Matt Farah?

  You know, how fucking stupid you are and are willing to be around other people. At a certain point, you just can't, like you can't do anymore.

• 44:11Speaker 01

  That's true. I think 750S actually, that would be, that would wear a top out.

• 44:15Matt Farah?

  Well, that's also kind of the reason I like Valhalla is that it is, and, and 750, is that they are so pleasant and interesting to drive at five tenths.

• 44:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, they are.

• 44:26Matt Farah?

  A 750 at five tenths is a really nice experience.

• 44:30Speaker 01

  You get in it, it's a cool environment. It, the steering's gorgeous. It sounds cool. Like everything about that car is awesome. It's the car that's sort of, I always say to McLaren, it's sort of killed you because there isn't really a better version of what you do. It, it's everything. Do you know what I mean? That when, when the GTS or the GT, whatever they called it, came out, I was like, but the 720 is just as comfortable. And then the Senna came out and I'm like, well, a 720 is basically as fast. It's like, there's no, there's no point looking beyond that.

• 45:01Matt Farah?

  You have hit peak everything.

• 45:03Speaker 01

  It's so good.

• 45:04Matt Farah?

  What are you supposed to do now?

• 45:05Speaker 02

  Well, they're gonna build an SUV. That's, they pivoted, right?

• 45:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:09Speaker 02

  Do you, do you think that cars, so the ZR1X is basically set made hypercars kind of obsolete almost? Not obsolete, but like democratized that sort of speed.

• 45:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:18Speaker 02

  So you think cars like Gordon Murray's stuff, which is focusing on tactile sensation and being really light?

• 45:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:24Speaker 02

  Will steer the industry a little bit?

• 45:27Speaker 01

  Not for mainstream, unfortunately. It's, it's a great time to be a billionaire, isn't it? It sucks for everyone else.

• 45:33Matt Farah?

  As opposed to all the other times it's been bad to be a billionaire.

• 45:36Speaker 01

  It's, it's got worse.

• 45:38Matt Farah?

  Other than maybe 1932 in America, it's been pretty good.

• 45:41Speaker 01

  But I just, I went out to Pagani recently and I did, it was awesome. It, we went, we went to the factory. My flight got canceled. I was a bit late, but anyway, we went to the factory. We borrowed Zonda F Roadster. This was Horacio's car. Wira, what was it called? HP? So it was his own car. It was a Pagani car. So it had the BC motor.

• 46:04Matt Farah?

  They just like make up addition, new additions all the time.

• 46:07Speaker 01

  It was a Spider, but it was, um, yeah. So it was Horacio's car. So it had all the BC engine and everything, but his like slightly softer chassis, no aero.

• 46:15Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 46:16Speaker 01

  And then Utopia. And I used to go to Pagani when I was younger, I guess. And he'd be spouting on about fucking Leonardo da Vinci. And I'm like, come on dude, like, you know, I get it, but, but the more the world's goes insane for power and downforce, the more you go then you're like, this is what it's about. Like this guy has got the right idea. The cars are beautiful. They're still fast. Like they're 850 horsepower. Everything you touch is gorgeous and perfect. And you got, you walk around the factory, if you have the money, you would buy one instantly. Like within 10 minutes of walking in, you'd be like, yes, I am. Even if you didn't like cars, nothing. It's insane. It's so cool.

• 46:57Matt Farah?

  The guy I know, Zach and I were asked the other day if we know anybody who won the lottery. And we know two people who have won the lottery. And one of the two, about, I saw him very soon after winning the lottery and he was driving a, an Aventador SVJ and, you know, having, having a good time. Nice guy. Not, not low key guy, other than the cars. Nice guy. Young, in his twenties. Saw him a year later and he had, he was at the Quail ordering his eighth Pagani.

• 47:28Speaker 01

  Really?

• 47:28Matt Farah?

  He went from one Lamborghini to eight Pagani's in a year. And he was wearing the full squadra Corsa outfit.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, the full thing. I tell you what though, that Zonda, I know there's, I've seen Camisa been saying the Zonda sucks. Did he say that on your show?

• 47:44Matt Farah?

  Uh, I don't think, I don't, I don't think, I don't think Zonda sucks.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  Message me about that. The Zonda's awesome. It was so good. This, this one was brilliant. And then, yeah, it's just like, it's a giant Lotus Elise. Like I remember the very, I went there.

• 47:57Matt Farah?

  I never drove one. I drove a Wira and a Utopia.

• 48:00Speaker 01

  It's so good. It's so good. I remember.

• 48:03Matt Farah?

  They're all manual? All Zondas?

• 48:05Speaker 01

  No, they, up to the Zonda F, they were all manual. And then they went down this single paddle shift gearbox route for a while. Now you go to the factory, it is full of Zondas and Wires coming back to have manual gearboxes fitted.

• 48:20Speaker 02

  Well, were they using the same single clutch that like, as they say, the helicopter?

• 48:24Matt Farah?

  The Utopia still got it.

• 48:25Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 48:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, but you can have the manual as well.

• 48:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 48:28Speaker 01

  And I think they're like 80% manual, but the whole place is just full of cars. Yeah, they're coming back for manuals. And the Zonda, I went, one of my first jobs for Evo was going out and I was like the young. Experience what Pagani's like. And Pagani was brand new, basically, and it was the C12S. I think they'd already driven the C12, which was like 400 horsepower, and they went and drove the S. And I remember just being in it, having been in Lambos and so. And I was like, this is like big at least. And it still feels that way, but with like a 7.3 litre V12 that rips.

• 49:00Matt Farah?

  Does it still feel fast?

• 49:02Speaker 01

  Um, yeah, it's 650 horsepower, that one, club sport. It's 1200 kilos, because it's carbon.

• 49:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 49:07Speaker 01

  It was fast and we're on this gorgeous road. And then the, did you like the Wira? Because the first ones I drove, I didn't really like.

• 49:14Matt Farah?

  I did not like the Wira. I never drove. The only one I ever drove was early. I never tried one of the later, crazier ones. And I thought the Utopia was extremely cool, but I thought the 6200 RPM redline was odd.

• 49:30Speaker 01

  That is the problem. That is the problem.

• 49:31Matt Farah?

  That was an odd thing for such an expensive car. But it was, it was, I would love to take it on a road trip. It was clearly set up. They even told me, the, the guy who was my babysitter said, everyone is now ordering a car to come on the Redunos.

• 49:47Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 49:47Matt Farah?

  And this is the car that they want. It's set up for a road trip. All right. I can't argue with that. Okay.

• 49:53Speaker 01

  And they will play around with dampers and stuff, but I, I loved it. And the Wira was this HP, so Pagani's car. It was awesome. And I don't think they look anywhere near as cool as a Zonda or a Utopia, actually, but it was wild. It like, and it had the single clutch box and it was actually pretty good. It was, but it was a proper car.

• 50:12Speaker 02

  Did you like the flaps?

• 50:13Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, it did.

• 50:15Speaker 02

  The arrow, active arrow?

• 50:16Speaker 01

  I mean, stupid, but cool. It, it was cool. But the Zonda, we did proper oversteer, like big slides on the road.

• 50:25Matt Farah?

  It's old school shit.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  I was like, we have to do this. I was like, Pagani will forgive us. He has to forgive us.

• 50:32Matt Farah?

  That's big entry speed.

• 50:33Speaker 01

  Oh, it was awesome.

• 50:34Matt Farah?

  That was a, that was a fast entry there.

• 50:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, that road is great. It's just above Rome.

• 50:40Matt Farah?

  Wait, where is that?

• 50:42Speaker 01

  I'll show, I'll show it to you on a pin. It's above Rome. It's an amazing road. And it, there's no one up there. It's like the moon.

• 50:48Matt Farah?

  What country is it in?

• 50:49Speaker 01

  In Italy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's awesome. So, yeah, Pagani's cool, still. Who knew?

• 50:56Matt Farah?

  Send us one for performance car of the year.

• 50:58Speaker 02

  Well, they've been doing, you know, everyone now, like Singer or, or the Totem, when companies make all their own tiny pieces, we all get very excited. I mean, and as we should, but the person who I think really started it all was Pagani, you know, 20 years ago.

• 51:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, we went around the factory and he showed us the steering wheel and it was like a billet. He was, I think it's a, it's a 43 kilo billet. And they show you the before and then the various stages and then you end up with this steering wheel.

• 51:24Matt Farah?

  I remember the Utopia, yeah, it is a billet steering wheel. That's a crazy thing to think about.

• 51:29Speaker 01

  They're cool. They're really cool. So, yeah, I really love that.

• 51:32Matt Farah?

  That, that company, when I drove that car, it was like, like, like, you know, Christian, Von Konigzig is, you know, Alienware or whatever. And Matte, you know, he, at the time, he just wants to go as fast as fucking possible. And I was like, Horatio Pagani is finding new and innovative ways to make the car as expensive as possible.

• 51:53Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 51:53Matt Farah?

  How can I make this assembly more expensive?

• 51:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. But he's, his car collection is awesome as well.

• 52:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a man of taste.

• 52:03Speaker 01

  We went up, I went to his place once and he's got like that Porsche 935, you know, the track only one. He's got all this cool stuff, 4GT, 2005. But we went out in the factory this time and he had his NSX and S2000 sat out the back as well. He's just, he gets it. He's got all the right cars, Carrera GT. What else has he got? He's just got all the stuff that you want. He's a dude. Fair play to him.

• 52:29Matt Farah?

  Building and selling cars to buy more cars. That's how we do it.

• 52:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love it. He's, he's cool.

• 52:34Matt Farah?

  Fucking great, man. And how is your car?

• 52:37Speaker 01

  My car?

• 52:38Matt Farah?

  996 GT 3.2? What did you call it?

• 52:42Speaker 01

  I just called it the 996.3.

• 52:44Matt Farah?

  Dot three.

• 52:44Speaker 01

  So, yeah, so my car is basically a.

• 52:47Matt Farah?

  It was up there. There it is. On the Nürburgring. It looks like Nürburgring.

• 52:50Speaker 01

  So it's a 996 that was cheap. I paid 10 grand for it years ago.

• 52:54Matt Farah?

  Nice.

• 52:54Speaker 01

  And then it eventually went pop. It all became, we got carried away. We put a 991 Carrera S engine in it. So 3.8. It's awesome. And do you know what? I, you're the same. We do so much work stuff and it's great. But last year I went to the ring twice just for fun. And just, I took my son one time and I went on my own another time. And it's, I loved it. I was like, I reconnected with like, actually, why do I love cars? It's to go and do this stuff, drive around. But I went to the ring with it not that long ago.

• 53:27Speaker 01

  And Jörg drove it, Bergmeister.

• 53:29Matt Farah?

  He give you notes?

• 53:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:31Matt Farah?

  What did he say?

• 53:34Speaker 01

  He actually, do you know what he struggled with, which I hadn't even thought of a Nord He, because we talked about it. I did a best 911 ever test and he came down. It was really good fun. He struggled with right-hand drive in a manual box.

• 53:45Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 53:46Speaker 01

  He was like, I've, he said, the only time I've ever done this on a racetrack was for, he was a guest on a V8 supercar race in like 2005 or something. He was like, I've not done it since. And he couldn't drive, he couldn't really get his head around it. And he was like, because I wanted him to do a time. And he just, he couldn't quite, he was like, it's messed up everything. It's like messed up my rhythm.

• 54:11Speaker 02

  I bet.

• 54:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. So he, he struggled with it, but.

• 54:15Matt Farah?

  Oh, that's a bummer. He would have, he either would have done some really heroic shit or totally exploded your transmission.

• 54:21Speaker 01

  Exactly. Yeah, yeah. But he did, I'd set it up over a couple of trips and he didn't want to change a thing. So I felt really good about it. And we had exactly the same notes, like in the middle of a corner, it's got a bit of understeer. I think the diff's too aggressive on the overrun. And that was the only, he was like, otherwise it's fucking great. Like it's quick, it's good. And then I went out with him to feel truly humbled in the MR, GT3 RSMR. And I was like, this is so far beyond what is, is normal for any hu, I was like, I've driven with a lot of quick drivers. I've raced at the ring in quick cars. And I was like, this is an alien experience.

• 55:05Speaker 02

  Okay. But you, because you, you're a very fast driver and most high level drivers are like outspoken about being nervous passengers because you tend to be in control, you want to be in control. Do you still feel that way with pros like him?

• 55:18Speaker 01

  No.

• 55:19Matt Farah?

  No.

• 55:19Speaker 02

  No. Okay. So you trust what he's gonna do?

• 55:21Speaker 01

  I trust him.

• 55:22Matt Farah?

  You also are like, you talk about racing the Nürburgring where you go, you know, you go out there and they tell you the delta from you to the pro is 25 seconds.

• 55:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 55:32Matt Farah?

  And you work your balls off and you cut 10, 12 seconds off your time. And you go, where are the other 12?

• 55:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:40Matt Farah?

  And he showed you where they are. So where are they?

• 55:44Speaker 01

  Every fucking where.

• 55:49Speaker 01

  I have never, the high speed, he's using, you know what driving with him's like anyway.

• 55:56Matt Farah?

  I've been on a normal track with him, not the Nürburgring, and it was a very wild experience.

• 56:02Speaker 01

  The speed he carries in, the amount of track he uses, the econo, he's aggressive, like he's not a fingertip sort of driver. And this is what I love about all dri, you hear smoothness is quick and that's true. But all drivers have their own style and he's aggressive. The speed in the high speeds that I just couldn't believe. There were bumps and cambers and shit on the ring that I'd never even experienced. There was like, we went through Sveenkreuz, which is like this fast left-hander. He comes over the brow flat, jumps, lands. He's way out to the right and then he comes right inside and the car sort of jumps in the middle of the turn. And I'm like, I didn't even know there was a

• 56:42Speaker 01

  bump there. And it's like, everything he does, the margin, I'm sure he had a margin because I was in the car. It feels like there's zero, like literally zero margin. We come up through, you climb through the fast bit, there's a fast left, which I'm always cautious on because I spun there once and didn't crash, fuck knows how, because it's like 130 mile an hour entry speed. And he's coming up, I'm like, he's gonna have to brake a bit. And it's like a lift, he's in, and then he's on the curb, on like, just on the edge of the grass, on code, like on the wind mirror. And you're just like, this is insane. And then we're coming up for mini carousel and I'm like, yeah, well, we're just gonna bounce out of it. We're gonna just drop into it and fly out the other side. But the, the grip

• 57:27Speaker 01

  that he found, I couldn't believe it. I loved every second of it. It was awesome. And it is.

• 57:34Speaker 01

  I think I'm all right at driving. Like, I'm an okay driver. I've got a good car control. So for camera, I'm really, I've got that skill set. Like, I can, I can make a car look really cool. But when you drive with someone like that, it's, it's a superpower. It's truly like a superpower. It's, you, you just think it's physics, right? The tyre has so much grip.

• 57:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  You drive up to the limit of grip, that's how fast you can go. But it isn't. It's like some sort of freestyle thing. Like, they have this feel that, that they're extracting the maximum grip, then they're going over, then they're coming back. And they're just, they're wringing every little bit out of the car.

• 58:13Speaker 02

  And like, they know, they know if they're two inches over on turn seven, then they can be in a different inch than you might find on turn eight. And then like a different, and it's those tiny things.

• 58:22Speaker 01

  I don't think they think. That's the other thing. It's, they just go.

• 58:27Matt Farah?

  How many laps does he have there?

• 58:29Speaker 01

  Oh, loads.

• 58:29Matt Farah?

  It's gotta be, you know, 20,000 or something.

• 58:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, he does a lot of the car stuff. He's raced there. He nearly won the, he would have won, but the car broke down. Like, he's.

• 58:38Matt Farah?

  He might be able to almost autopilot that lap.

• 58:41Speaker 01

  Oh, it's incredible.

• 58:42Matt Farah?

  You know, if, if it requires, if he, if it, to set a record for him requires 100%, I bet he could use 10% of his brain and give you that ride.

• 58:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, probably.

• 58:53Matt Farah?

  Like, almost autopilot.

• 58:54Speaker 01

  Well, he told me, because I asked him about that, they'd just set the lap record a couple of weeks before. And he said, it was, he said, I didn't sleep that night.

• 59:04Matt Farah?

  Wow.

• 59:04Speaker 01

  And, and he did one lap. He did one lap. Because the engineers, he came out, he did one lap, and the engineers were like, can you go again? And he was like, no. And they watched the video, and they're like, no, don't go home, basically. But I said, well, you've qualified for Le Mans for the N24. And he was like, yeah, but when you qualify, you want to race the next day. He was like, when I do a lap record at the ring, you get the lap record or you crash. There's, that is like, you are pushing, he said he pushed so much harder than a qualifying lap. Because in a qualifying race, you're like, you've got three teammates, and you don't want to crash. And the next day, you're racing. He said he was at like, maximum, maximum, maximum. He said, never driven like it, which I just thought was super cool.

• 59:46Matt Farah?

  Now, you need to go back and watch that video. This is, was the GT2 RS Manti?

• 59:51Speaker 01

  No, it's the GT3 RSMR.

• 59:52Matt Farah?

  RSMR.

• 59:53Speaker 01

  That he recently did. It would have been earlier in the summer. Yeah.

• 59:56Matt Farah?

  We need to re-watch that.

• 59:58Speaker 01

  He's a dude.

• 59:59Matt Farah?

  It's that, I mean, that car, which, you know, I just got to have a go in, and you got to have a go in. I, I am, I will easily admit that that's more car than I, within the time allotted, could make use of.

• 1:00:11Speaker 01

  Or any, or almost anyone.

• 1:00:13Matt Farah?

  You know, and, but I, but, and, and especially because when you have so much aero, and you still have a road tyre. I mean, it's, you have to drive in a very specific way for that.

• 1:00:23Speaker 01

  And you have to, they don't have a lot of power. So that's the other thing. Like, it's really high energy style, because it's carry speed and be aggressive on the throttle. So it's both of those things. A lot of these, you drive a Ferrari Speciale, it's mega. Like, it's awesome. But it's so much power that you're actually pretty ginger on the throttle, because you're just going to overwhelm. GT3, not. You're like, turn in at maximum, and then punch the throttle. So it's like this unbelievable, high energy style. It was mega. It was super cool.

• 1:00:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah, those cars have like, so little torque, that you can just kick it.

• 1:00:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:00:59Matt Farah?

  At full power, and you're not going to like, overspin the rear tyres. So you might as well.

• 1:01:04Speaker 01

  You're effectively squeezing all of the margins of when you make inputs. So everything becomes continuous. There's no like, turn, wait for the front to bite, gently get on the, it's turn, bang, open the throttle. Everything is immediate. So, the ring, that's perfect, because you want stability. You don't want stupid wheel spin and stuff like that. But it's, yes, to watch it is incredible. It was awesome. And he's a dude. He came, we did best 911 ever for Top Gear. He came down. He arrived, he was only there for a day. But he, he came down, he, he had to leave at like, 5:00 in the morning to get there. And he was like, yeah, I had a great time, drove down, maxed my car out. And he was like.

• 1:01:44Matt Farah?

  What did he roll up in?

• 1:01:44Speaker 01

  A G, just a GTS. But it's like, it's.

• 1:01:46Matt Farah?

  It's like company car.

• 1:01:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. And he, and he said to me, he said, well, any day you don't do 300 is a wasted day.

• 1:01:52Speaker 02

  And that's what you told Aston Martin. Awesome.

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

• 1:01:55Matt Farah?

  Put that on a t-shirt.

• 1:01:56Speaker 01

  Yeah. And so he, and then he stayed until 6:00, 7:00 in the evening. And he had like a four-hour driver, drive, because he had to get to Visac, or I think it was Visac the next day. And he loved it. He drove 2.7 RS, 964.

• 1:02:10Matt Farah?

  That is a good day.

• 1:02:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, this was, this was awesome.

• 1:02:13Matt Farah?

  That's all right.

• 1:02:14Speaker 01

  It was so much fun. The.

• 1:02:16Matt Farah?

  The, when he drove me in a GT3 at Ricardo Tormo, same place I was for the Manti, I could not believe how wide his racetrack was.

• 1:02:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:30Matt Farah?

  His racetrack is easily 10 to 20 feet wider than my racetrack everywhere.

• 1:02:37Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:02:38Matt Farah?

  Couldn't, I could not believe it. And he, I don't think he would do this when racing, but he was like, hockey stopping the car, which was weird. Like, his entry, it was like, it was literally like, err, err.

• 1:02:52Speaker 01

  Really? As he was going into the turn?

• 1:02:54Matt Farah?

  He was hockey stop entering in like, every corner. It was really crazy.

• 1:02:57Speaker 02

  Like, using oversteer to scrub speed?

• 1:02:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And like, instead of the brakes. Uh, it was very interesting. But it was like a crazy thing to see.

• 1:03:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:06Matt Farah?

  Like, I, I was like, I don't, I don't know how any of this works.

• 1:03:08Speaker 01

  It's a dude. I, I, one of the, I don't love passenger rides normally, but when you, like I say, that's one of the great joys of this job. And that's why, do you know, I'm always amazed when journalists think they're good drivers? You know, you meet them, and they're chatting to you in the bar, and you're like, you've been in this job, you must have driven with some really good guys. And I could do 1,000 laps of the ring, and I wouldn't go anywhere near as quick as Jörg. Like, no, no way. I just, I couldn't do it. And I, I, the first time I experienced that was, I drove with Walter Roll on a GT3 launch. And I was like, and often you get in a car with a pro, you're like, oh yeah, I can see like, he's braking a bit later, he's doing it. And with him, I was like, nah.

• 1:03:50Speaker 01

  This is, this is a whole different, and, and those top guys are awesome. So that's one of my favorite things about the job, actually, to do. It's really cool.

• 1:03:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah. If you get, if you get a chance to go for a ride with those guys, it's insane.

• 1:04:02Speaker 02

  The challenge is, for me, is processing the information. Like, I watch their feet, but then I'm like, oh, I gotta watch their hands. Then I watch their hands, and I've lost track of the feet. And I'm trying to pay attention to like, where are we turning? And where are we braking? And there's just like, and it's, I just start laughing, because I'm trying to like, take in so much while we're going full speed.

• 1:04:15Speaker 01

  It's that freestyle thing that I love. It doesn't feel, when I drive, when I'm doing a lap time, I guess I'm doing it on instinct, but I am thinking like, oh, the front's bitten, I can like, start to get on the pad. But for them, it just feels like this fluid blur of stuff.

• 1:04:30Matt Farah?

  The brain is not involved anymore. Yeah.

• 1:04:33Speaker 02

  Well, they have that Miles Davis thing, right? What is it? After you play for 10,000, not 10,000 hours, but like, he's basically like, once you learn to play, you put the music away, and then you just play.

• 1:04:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:41Speaker 02

  And that's what they do. Because whereas we, and I'm much slower than you guys, but we're still using the brain of like, okay, gotta get this right, and we can do here.

• 1:04:48Matt Farah?

  Well, we apply it differently. No, the way we do it is, we can go 80 or 90% of our maximum while talking.

• 1:04:57Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 1:04:58Matt Farah?

  And not sounding like an idiot. If instead of doing that, we spent all of the energy trying to go as fast as possible everywhere. If we were lucky, we might have ended up doing that.

• 1:05:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:08Matt Farah?

  You know, being a Jörg Bergmeister.

• 1:05:10Speaker 01

  And you have to start when you're a kid.

• 1:05:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And I'm like, natural talent and all, you know, all that other shit too. But like, ask Jörg Bergmeister to go 80% of his own pace and narrate a video.

• 1:05:20Speaker 01

  That is true.

• 1:05:21Matt Farah?

  You know what I mean? Like, no disrespect, but like, I talked to those guys at the dinners and shit, and, and he's like, I don't know how you do this while talking, you know? And I'm like, I don't know how you do this at all.

• 1:05:33Speaker 01

  We, we exist in different universes.

• 1:05:35Matt Farah?

  He's a, he's this fucking dude, though. He's all right. And shout out to Timo Bernhard, who's also a fucking dude.

• 1:05:40Speaker 01

  All those guys. And again, that's another thing I love about the job, is once you get part, there's always a bit of bullshit, isn't there? Like, you're negotiating about accessing. But once you get to the drivers and the engineers, they're great.

• 1:05:52Matt Farah?

  They're a good time.

• 1:05:52Speaker 01

  They're, Ferrari's the same. Like, you get there. I love Rafa, the test driver.

• 1:05:57Matt Farah?

  Oh, them guys that show up with the tyres are awesome. They're, they're, the Lambo guys were fun, too. They brought the Revuelto last year. They were fun.

• 1:06:05Speaker 01

  They just, once you're past the PR machine, it's great. Because you're just, you're dealing with people who just love cars, and are super proud of what they've done, which is, yeah, always a fun thing to do.

• 1:06:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Um, we have questions from the people, from the patrons. We're going to get to that. But before we do, do you have somewhere to be?

• 1:06:24Speaker 01

  No, I didn't know how long we've been talking.

• 1:06:26Matt Farah?

  We've been talking for an hour.

• 1:06:27Speaker 01

  Have we really?

• 1:06:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:29Speaker 01

  Actually, I was thinking 25 minutes.

• 1:06:30Matt Farah?

  It goes by.

• 1:06:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:06:32Matt Farah?

  It goes by. Uh, we, it's very important. Teased it on Instagram. Uh, we must get your official review of my car.

• 1:06:42Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:06:42Matt Farah?

  I mean, you only had like, a 10-minute go. But, but, you know, not a lot of people get to drive that car.

• 1:06:47Speaker 01

  It's, well, yeah. First, thank you for letting me drive it.

• 1:06:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah, no, I insisted you drive it. We're talking about the Spider, which I took up the mountain today after getting it back from service.

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  So I am a Boxster fan. I, it, the weirdest thing about Boxster, I don't really like convertible cars, but I always prefer Boxsters to Caymans. And I don't really understand why. I don't know if it's because the Cayman's a bit close to a 911, and then I just miss the rear engine-ness of a 911, which is like, such a great feeling. But I love Boxsters, and I think the Boxster Spider's great. But yours is totally different, really, isn't it? Like, the engine is a totally different character. So much grunt, isn't it?

• 1:07:26Matt Farah?

  It changes a car a lot.

• 1:07:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, just tons of grunt, completely different noise, which is, it doesn't even sound Porsche-like, does it in some ways? It's a completely different experience. So it just adds a new dimension. But you've got all the grunt, you've got this different wild noise, and then you've got a mega Boxster Spider chassis. It feels so light and narrow. I drove up in a Carrera T, new one, which, which is really, actually a really good car.

• 1:07:52Matt Farah?

  We're giving one away. Stay tuned.

• 1:07:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. But, but compared, like, it's so light and narrow, and the steering's bobbing around in your hands, and it just feels a bit more alive. And. As we talked about before, as performance just ramps up, it's that tactile stuff that's going to count more and more. So I, yeah, I thought it was cool.

• 1:08:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, as I, even as I was driving it today, I was thinking about it like, why, what makes it really special? And it's like, it's a 2013 car that they kept making until this year. So like, the AC controls and the key and the gauges, and it's like, that shit was peak in like, 2013. I got the little LCD cluster in the, in the rings and the rest is analog. I got a little screen. I got levers and buttons and shit. Pull straps and keys, like, but it's a 2022. And then it's real fast and loud.

• 1:08:45Speaker 01

  Really fast.

• 1:08:46Matt Farah?

  It is very fast.

• 1:08:47Speaker 01

  It sounds great.

• 1:08:48Matt Farah?

  And the gears are better, too.

• 1:08:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, the whole thing, it just, it feels right. And it feels, it doesn't feel OEM, like it's because it's got that wild noise and that torque, but it is polished enough that it feels, it takes the power. The chassis takes the power, no problem, which is, which is very cool. Before we go to questions, can I just say, I should talk about that car hack that I started.

• 1:09:11Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, we have to plug that. I forgot. Yes, the Car Hack. Is it live yet?

• 1:09:16Speaker 01

  It's live. We've done like a super soft launch. So the idea is basically people like you, me.

• 1:09:22Matt Farah?

  TheCarHack.com?

• 1:09:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:09:23Matt Farah?

  That's CO or dot com?

• 1:09:25Speaker 01

  Dot com.

• 1:09:25Matt Farah?

  Dot com.

• 1:09:25Speaker 01

  Um, I think that, yeah. And you.

• 1:09:29Matt Farah?

  Oh, look, there's me.

• 1:09:30Speaker 01

  There you are. And it's just the idea that people, like you do on the show, but if people want more tailored advice or personal advice, they can ask you a question, you can send them a voice note or an email. If people want to do like Zoom calls effectively with experts, they can. And I'm trying to get all the people I like, plus Johnny. I'm joking, Johnny. I'm trying to get all the people I like and I respect. So we've got Tiff Nadell on there and you can just spend time with people.

• 1:09:58Matt Farah?

  You can hire us as consultants.

• 1:10:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:10:00Matt Farah?

  Personal, individual car consultants.

• 1:10:03Speaker 01

  And it's.

• 1:10:04Matt Farah?

  Couple tiers.

• 1:10:04Speaker 01

  Yeah. And it's like, if it's something, you want to buy a car, if you want to spec a car, if you want to talk about 18-way seats versus buckets, if you want, and you can go right up to if you want one of the experts to come on a test drive with you or whatever. So it's a work in progress, but we are getting there.

• 1:10:21Matt Farah?

  Oh, I didn't realize that my prices were that, were higher than everybody else's.

• 1:10:25Speaker 01

  Yours are a lot higher.

• 1:10:26Matt Farah?

  Oh, they are?

• 1:10:27Speaker 01

  I believe.

• 1:10:27Matt Farah?

  Well, you got, all right. Well, just, just make, make mine the same as like Prosser's or something.

• 1:10:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, but no, because yours, you're doing only the tier higher, I believe. So you can start on the basic tier.

• 1:10:39Matt Farah?

  Oh, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:10:41Speaker 01

  So you can start on the basic tier.

• 1:10:42Matt Farah?

  I elected out of the basic tier.

• 1:10:43Speaker 01

  Which is literally like a voice memo. Someone sends a question, you send them a voice memo. But I want to plug it because I'd like people who do our job to just get a little bit of extra money. And also, it's quite cool to connect to people who are actually buying cars. I spent my life talking to people who are buying cars on DMs. So I thought, don't want to take the piss, but it's nice to just get a little recognition for the work done.

• 1:11:06Matt Farah?

  I'm in.

• 1:11:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:11:07Matt Farah?

  I'm, I'm, I'm on there.

• 1:11:09Speaker 01

  So we will do more pushing and social media in the next few months. And then hopefully it'll become a thing. And it'll be UK people, American people initially.

• 1:11:17Matt Farah?

  Zach, you should get on there.

• 1:11:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:11:19Matt Farah?

  Cool.

• 1:11:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, you should.

• 1:11:20Matt Farah?

  Uh, yeah.

• 1:11:21Speaker 01

  I'll sign you up.

• 1:11:22Matt Farah?

  Dot com.

• 1:11:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:11:23Speaker 02

  It's like Patreon cameo for advice. That's very cool.

• 1:11:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly right.

• 1:11:27Matt Farah?

  Sorry, I should have done it up front.

• 1:11:28Speaker 01

  No, I should. I didn't realize we've been talking for so long.

• 1:11:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it happens. And of course, you probably don't need the lower tier of this. If you're a patron member, Patreon.com's a patron member. That's not, that's a, that's a, that's a, cancel, we said that. It's the same thing. If you're a patron.

• 1:11:46Speaker 02

  Or a member.

• 1:11:47Matt Farah?

  Or a member, but really a patron. Patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast. That's what I mean. You can watch the live stream. You can ask questions of the show. You get the show early. You get extra show. You get the show without ads. You get access to exclusive collabs and merch that Zach and I are doing. The tactile turn pen collab is up. I think there are single digits left of those, by the way. If you want to get that, it's in the show notes. And let's talk about queer shifting gears. What have you? You've mentioned, oh, we've been talking about the bad door handles versus the good door handles on Porsches lately. What is the difference from someone who's never going to get seat time in them?

• 1:12:25Speaker 02

  Well, go to theCarHack.com and we'll answer the question.

• 1:12:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. The difference is, we are in a world where car manufacturers are creating problems for themselves and doing things that no one ever asked for. And then, and then someone else in the company goes, why don't we just put the old door handles back on? Everyone goes, yeah.

• 1:12:43Matt Farah?

  We get charged more.

• 1:12:44Speaker 01

  So, yeah, the old ones are good and the new ones suck.

• 1:12:46Matt Farah?

  No, but the literal difference is, the good door handles, which are on my Boxter and are on the 911ST and the GT3RS, are like pull, like you reach over them and pull.

• 1:13:01Speaker 01

  They're a door handle, is what you're trying to say.

• 1:13:03Matt Farah?

  The, the other ones, like in the 992 and my Taycan.

• 1:13:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, they, they sort of present. And you can't actually fit your hand in them anyway, can you? They're this weird, I don't get it.

• 1:13:14Matt Farah?

  And in the case of my Taycan, which might be a software issue, I don't fucking know. Sometimes when you walk up to them, they, they'll be open, presented, as it were, but then the door's still locked. So that, those are the bad door handles.

• 1:13:32Speaker 01

  They are. But yeah, like I say, we're living in this weird, I just got in the new BMW IX3 and I just sort of got in and I'm like, why? Why does it look like this? Why does it feel like, I just don't get it.

• 1:13:45Matt Farah?

  Because we're in the future.

• 1:13:47Speaker 01

  But it's so much worse than what we already had.

• 1:13:51Matt Farah?

  No, I don't, I don't actually want it either.

• 1:13:53Speaker 01

  I don't get it. And funnily enough, the new manufacturer like Rivian and people, I know they've got a lot of touchscreen, but you get in those and they feel like a car interior. Whereas you get in a Mercedes now and it doesn't. And you're like, how have the people who've been doing this for a hundred years forgotten? And these people who have just popped up are making nice minimalist, cool looking interiors. It's bizarre to me. The world's gone mental.

• 1:14:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the, when the legacy brands go super high tech, it does not go so well.

• 1:14:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, they, they affect, I just did something in Top Gear because I borrowed an Audi e-tron something or other. And it was such a shit box. I lit, I was like, I, I've owned like a Top Gear, WhatsApp Gear. I'm like, I am going to set this car on fire. I hate it so much. And I was like, as soon as you abandon everything that you once were to create this, whatever this new thing, why would you buy that? And I wonder everyone in the UK is buying a J Coo or one of these Chinese brands because they're actually much more like normal cars than the Audis. And it was, I just couldn't believe.

• 1:14:55Matt Farah?

  If it's just going to be a box with screens.

• 1:14:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:58Matt Farah?

  Then, you know, what am I paying extra for, really?

• 1:15:00Speaker 01

  This thing was not an Audi in any way, shameful for it. It was awful.

• 1:15:03Matt Farah?

  That's a bummer.

• 1:15:05Speaker 01

  I was gutted.

• 1:15:06Matt Farah?

  We are, uh, we're waiting to see, I mean, it's not going to matter to a lot of people, but the Bentley Torquay.

• 1:15:11Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:15:12Matt Farah?

  I got, went for a ride in it.

• 1:15:14Speaker 01

  Oh, you did?

• 1:15:14Matt Farah?

  And I got to touch and play with the dashboard. That's about it. I was very disappointed at the lack of tactile things.

• 1:15:22Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 1:15:22Matt Farah?

  No plungers, digital air vents.

• 1:15:25Speaker 01

  Why?

• 1:15:26Matt Farah?

  Because I think they're, they went cheap because it's shared with Cayenne.

• 1:15:29Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. It's actually quite good value, isn't it? For a Bentley.

• 1:15:32Matt Farah?

  For a Bentley. It's the cheapest Bentley. It is the cheapest Bentley.

• 1:15:34Speaker 01

  I, I agree with you about Bentleys. They're the greatest things. Like, whenever you drive one, you're like, I want a, I'm not a Bentley guy. Oh, I am a Bentley guy.

• 1:15:43Matt Farah?

  No, you definitely are. You're just not rich enough to afford one. I've never met anybody that isn't a Bentley guy once they've tried it.

• 1:15:50Speaker 01

  There was a period about 18 months ago where I needed, I didn't have a long-term car. And I was like, I need a car. I think it was to go to Le Mans because I was doing the Le Mans stuff. And I came incredibly close to buying a 13,000 pound Bentley Flying Spur. And I was like.

• 1:16:05Matt Farah?

  13,000?

• 1:16:06Speaker 01

  They're so cheap in the UK.

• 1:16:07Matt Farah?

  Was it like an 06?

• 1:16:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was like 05, 06. And I went to look at it and I thought, this is really dumb, but it's 13 grand. And I, and I, I think Laura came with me and I was looking around. I was like, I can't have this. This is stupid. And they don't even look cool. They look like an old Toyota Revences or something. And then I drove it around the corner and I was like, yeah, I would have this. This is cool.

• 1:16:30Matt Farah?

  13 grand.

• 1:16:31Speaker 01

  It was 13.

• 1:16:32Speaker 02

  It would break. It would cost you so much money to keep that thing going.

• 1:16:35Speaker 01

  You know, a Continental GT in the UK, you can get them for sub 10 now.

• 1:16:40Matt Farah?

  Get out of here.

• 1:16:41Speaker 01

  Yeah. Auction, they're regularly going for eight and a half, nine grand.

• 1:16:44Matt Farah?

  They must, they must need 25 or something.

• 1:16:46Speaker 01

  It is unreal. They're so cheap.

• 1:16:48Matt Farah?

  Blown turbo.

• 1:16:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. Cause we have this weird thing in the UK that new cars, I think are more expensive than here, but used cars are way, way cheaper. Cause when I was here doing Top Gear America, I wanted to buy like an E60 M5 manual because we didn't get that in Europe. And in Europe at the time, they were like 12 grand. And then over here, they were like 40 or something. So.

• 1:17:07Matt Farah?

  Do you think it's like cultural? Like nobody, nobody that only has 13 grand in Europe, like wants to seem like they have much more or like, whereas in America, we're always trying to like floss.

• 1:17:20Speaker 01

  I don't know. I don't know what it is, but Bentleys in particular are incredibly cheap. Like Flying Spur, you could easily buy one sub 10 and a Conti GT sub 10.

• 1:17:30Matt Farah?

  It must cost 10 a year to run that car.

• 1:17:32Speaker 01

  Oh, I'm sure. But you're at the point where it's like, it's your, it's not your car. You know, you might just buy it for fun to have, you know?

• 1:17:41Matt Farah?

  Just drive it till it breaks.

• 1:17:41Speaker 01

  And just drive it till it breaks. And then, yeah, like it's, it's almost.

• 1:17:44Matt Farah?

  I mean, if you were going to do that, I'd rather get another $25,000 Turbo R and, and sell it for 25,000 when I was done with it.

• 1:17:53Speaker 01

  I mean, that shape Turbo R, if you buy like in the UK, there, you see those at auction now for like seven grand. It's insane.

• 1:18:01Matt Farah?

  Wow. You could actually keep that running for.

• 1:18:04Speaker 01

  How much is a Phantom out here? Like the new Phantoms are like, they're like 40, 40,000 pounds in the UK.

• 1:18:10Matt Farah?

  Don't tell them. Don't tell them. The 04s are like, fuck it. The 04s, it's like, do we get a Camry or do we?

• 1:18:17Speaker 01

  They're the coolest thing.

• 1:18:19Matt Farah?

  I drove by the other day. There's a, there's a, there's a family that lives around the corner from me that owns a funeral home. And they have four white Rolls Royces. And for some reason, I don't know, it has nothing to do with the funeral home, one of the white Rolls Royces is a Phantom drop head.

• 1:18:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:18:37Matt Farah?

  And drove by my house one day and me and Hannah were outside. She goes, what is that? And I go, that's your next car, baby.

• 1:18:47Speaker 01

  I saw, I was looking at one in, I think I went to Silverstone, there was an event on there was one at auction and it went for like, I don't know, forty five grand.

• 1:18:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah, here we go. Look, oh fours are fifty five to sixty three.

• 1:18:58Speaker 01

  I'm not massively into the new rollers, but the Phantom is the one. The Phantom, I love. I think they're so gorgeous.

• 1:19:07Speaker 02

  Great way to get around.

• 1:19:08Matt Farah?

  All the ones that are sold are selling in like the sixty, like, all right, the featured one on the bottom left, I like that. Oh, five, twenty nine thousand miles.

• 1:19:18Matt Farah?

  Baby.

• 1:19:18Speaker 01

  Look at it.

• 1:19:20Matt Farah?

  I showed up with this.

• 1:19:22Speaker 01

  You need to get one. Look how cool it is.

• 1:19:25Matt Farah?

  I could sell the Taycan and get this for, for like straight money.

• 1:19:29Speaker 01

  Oh, look how cool it is.

• 1:19:32Matt Farah?

  That rules.

• 1:19:32Speaker 01

  I love those. And they're so big. Even now, they're absolutely giant.

• 1:19:38Matt Farah?

  It's, they're so great.

• 1:19:39Speaker 01

  They're so cool. Yeah, I think I'm gonna campaign for you to get that.

• 1:19:42Matt Farah?

  Have one for like three months?

• 1:19:44Speaker 01

  He had one for a little while.

• 1:19:45Speaker 02

  He really likes the big, but like he goes X sixty fives. Like, he really likes those things.

• 1:19:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:19:49Matt Farah?

  I mean, I feel like I, at sixty thousand bucks, I gotta be in, there's like, there's like a buy here, pay here exotic lot in Venice that like two months ago had the Phantom Coupe.

• 1:20:00Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:20:01Matt Farah?

  They won a buck oh five for it. And I was like, oh.

• 1:20:05Speaker 01

  They're just.

• 1:20:06Matt Farah?

  Look at the wood.

• 1:20:07Speaker 01

  I mean, it's just the next level. They're brilliant. I don't remember when they came out. Do you remember when they first came out? I was, I was, I was at Evo and we, the pictures like came up on the screen and we were like, what the hell is that thing? And then like within about ten minutes, we were like, yeah, this might be the coolest.

• 1:20:24Matt Farah?

  When I worked at the rental company in oh five, we had two of them and every time I got to deliver one, I was like in heaven.

• 1:20:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:31Matt Farah?

  I drove one from, from, from LA to Vegas once. It was the greatest.

• 1:20:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think you should get one.

• 1:20:37Matt Farah?

  That would, remember my Uncle Ben's Taylor guitars he was showing me?

• 1:20:40Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:20:41Matt Farah?

  That, this is the wood that looks just like his Taylor guitars. God, I love that car.

• 1:20:46Speaker 01

  It's gorgeous.

• 1:20:47Matt Farah?

  I got, we gotta get one.

• 1:20:48Speaker 01

  You should get one. It's gonna be an expensive day for you.

• 1:20:51Matt Farah?

  I wonder what the average running costs are of these fucking things. They gotta be terrible.

• 1:20:56Speaker 01

  I mean, I don't know, because the great thing about them, people are just wafting about in them. Do you know what I mean? No one's cornering and um hard, no one's revving them out. So they probably are pretty okay, you know?

• 1:21:09Matt Farah?

  That or like a Wraith. A Wraith could be where it's at.

• 1:21:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, but they feel cheaper.

• 1:21:16Matt Farah?

  Like a seven series. They do feel much cheaper. When I, when I drove a Wraith the first time, I was like, oh, this is a BMW.

• 1:21:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's weird, but you do. Cause I drove one down to France and it was mega. It was raining. I did a Beaujolais run for this magazine and then it was pouring rain and you know, they're heavy in there. It just ripped through France.

• 1:21:35Matt Farah?

  A British car in the wet is a superior experience. Any British car in the wet.

• 1:21:40Speaker 01

  But it did feel cheap compared to a Phantom. Phantom's where it's at.

• 1:21:44Matt Farah?

  They're like, we got them guys. Now let's squeeze this lemon.

• 1:21:52Matt Farah?

  All right.

• 1:21:52Speaker 01

  That was a diversion.

• 1:21:53Matt Farah?

  Did we even talk to the people?

• 1:21:55Speaker 01

  No, we did one.

• 1:21:55Matt Farah?

  No, we didn't. David Hasselhoff Meister Kinksame.

• 1:21:59Speaker 02

  Great name.

• 1:22:00Matt Farah?

  Heading to Germany next month. I get, gonna drive on the ring. Never done track day, so I'm gonna do a rental hot hatch at an instructor. Should I get an auto or a manual? I'm proficient in manual, but never been on a track, let alone the Nürburgring.

• 1:22:13Speaker 01

  Ah, auto for sure.

• 1:22:15Matt Farah?

  Paddles will make your life easier. Yeah, you've never done a track day. One less thing to think about.

• 1:22:19Speaker 01

  I mean, if you've never been on a track, the Nürburgring is one hell of a way to introduce yourself to track driving.

• 1:22:26Matt Farah?

  Think of it like a road. Just drive it like a road. If you drive the Nürburgring like a road, you will still have a very good time.

• 1:22:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:33Matt Farah?

  I promise.

• 1:22:33Speaker 01

  It's the best. It's the best, unlike anywhere else. You've got, you've got to go.

• 1:22:39Matt Farah?

  Uh, we've talked about head to head. We're not talking about old head to head ignition videos.

• 1:22:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:46Matt Farah?

  Matt Faraday's cat cage. If you were doing a, if you were doing a road and track experience in Europe, what country or countries would you want to drive in? What track and what car? All right. If we were planning a luxury European road trip, where are we driving to?

• 1:23:01Speaker 01

  Well, we've got this one coming up, which is Ring and Spa, which is good. I will one day live in Spain.

• 1:23:08Matt Farah?

  Yep.

• 1:23:09Speaker 01

  Spain is the greatest country in the world. They don't give a shit about working. The climate is awesome.

• 1:23:18Matt Farah?

  But they really care about paving roads well.

• 1:23:20Speaker 01

  Amazing. They, I remember going there a lot and it was right when everything was talking about Spain's bankrupt, you know, cause they went through a real rough period and I was like, they might be, but man, they've done it in style. Like all the airports are gorgeous. The cities are gorgeous, the roads. So I would do, there's a road called the N two sixty that goes through the Pyrenees. And you could probably start somewhere like Navarra, which is near San Sebastian. I'd start in San Sebastian, spend a day at Navarra. I'd do the N two sixty and you can run all the way through the Pyrenees to Barcelona. And end up in Barcelona. You could do the Montserrat Road on the way into Barcelona.

• 1:23:57Matt Farah?

  Road was kick ass. Where, what, what were we driving there? What did I drive there?

• 1:24:01Speaker 01

  And that track.

• 1:24:02Matt Farah?

  That's the track. That's the, uh, park motor. Circuit park motor.

• 1:24:06Speaker 01

  Park motor Castioli. Is that right? That's brilliant.

• 1:24:09Matt Farah?

  That's the shit.

• 1:24:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:10Matt Farah?

  That's what I do. I fucked up on the podcast. I thought when they, I thought, I confused it with Ricardo Tormo. So when they're like, I, I was like, oh my God, we're going to the best track ever. I got there and I was like, oh, that's not the same place.

• 1:24:23Speaker 01

  Castioli, it's, so yeah, I'd do Navarra. I'd do San Sebastian, Navarra. I'd do the N two sixty, which basically takes you all the way through the Pyrenees, past Andorra, down to Barcelona via Montserrat and then end up at that Park Motor Castioli. That would be awesome.

• 1:24:38Matt Farah?

  That is the tittays.

• 1:24:38Speaker 01

  Spain is the greatest.

• 1:24:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Even if you just did a full lap of Spain and Portugal, that would be incredible.

• 1:24:46Speaker 01

  Yeah. Every time I go to Spain, it doesn't matter where, north, south, middle, you're like, oh my God, the cities are gorgeous. The roads are amazing. There's like ten racetracks within a ten mile radius.

• 1:24:56Matt Farah?

  Not many sports cars though. I mean, really, very few sports cars.

• 1:25:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Well, you, Britain is probably the highest concentration of sports cars, which is weird because we don't have that much room, but it was always known as like Treasure Island amongst the um, car manufacturers, because everyone bought top spec cars in the UK, but you drive through Europe, everyone's got a base model, small car, basically. So, yeah, it's strange, but Spain is the best. That's what I would do.

• 1:25:21Matt Farah?

  Uh, Vision two thousand two. Lots of recent hype about the E thirty nine M five in all forms of media driving up prices. I don't think it's recent hype driving up prices. It's that car's time. That car's twenty five years old now. That's, that's how it works. Uh, even though it's peak BMW performance standards, there is a ceiling on E thirty nine prices due to it being a quote daily rather than a more special dedicated weekender of rare, yeah.

• 1:25:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, probably. I think, but they're so high mileage, certainly in the UK, all, they're always a hundred and twenty thousand, a hundred and forty. So I think if you have one that's done, like Zuckerman's got that one that's done about twelve miles, hasn't it? But if you get one that's done twenty five thousand mile, I think the ceiling is high, basically.

• 1:26:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah, there'll be a big gap in between the museum grade collector ones and the rest of them, which is kind of like E twenty eights. I mean, E twenty eights, if you want a, a hundred and fifty, two hundred thousand mile E twenty eight, that's not an expensive car.

• 1:26:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. I would instead, although I really like them, an E ninety M three is such a great car. E ninety M three, manual saloon. Fuck, yeah. They are just, they're great.

• 1:26:32Speaker 02

  Just for like cars and bids, there's a result of ten thousand dollar E thirty nine M fives, twelve thousand dollar E thirty nine M fives. Like they, they're, they go very low if the miles are high.

• 1:26:41Speaker 01

  They've, they've finally started to really go up in the UK. So they're suddenly quite expensive.

• 1:26:45Matt Farah?

  You've driven one recently?

• 1:26:46Speaker 01

  I drove one a few years ago and I did enjoy it, but I'm, I have so many great memories of E sixty M five too. I love them. They're so cool. I remember driving one in, it was in France, we were doing a job in the Champagne region of France. I picked up from like Munich, drove down to France and on the way back, the nav, I went dynamic and it just took me um, de-restricted autobahn, basically the whole way. And I was just pinned. This thing was limited, but it would, the limiter wouldn't kick into a hundred and seventy two.

• 1:27:17Matt Farah?

  You know, I've never found an act, you know, they all say limited, whatever. I've never in a BMW actually hit a limiter ever.

• 1:27:24Speaker 01

  This one had a limiter, but it was like one seventy, but I remember it was in a wagon. It was the state one. And I was, beautiful, perfect road, right? Beautiful sunshine. There was one car like on the inside and it went downhill and then it went up this steep thing, but totally de-limit. I'm sat at a hundred and seventy two on the limiter. And I'm like, I think he's fine. He'll stay. And I went down the hill and then the, the rise was steep and it didn't fucking move.

• 1:27:47Matt Farah?

  Whoa.

• 1:27:47Speaker 01

  Sat a hundred and seventy two up this steep hill and I was like, yes, this is a car.

• 1:27:52Matt Farah?

  The first car I ever did two hundred miles an hour in.

• 1:27:54Speaker 01

  Oh, it was?

• 1:27:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:56Matt Farah?

  Ocean Parkway, Long Island.

• 1:27:57Speaker 01

  Oh my God. I love those. But an E nine, if I was gonna just buy E thirty nine size car or buy an E ninety M two, uh, M three, I think they're great.

• 1:28:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh, caddy daddy. I need help with a custom license plate. Finally brought my, my dream daily a CTSV wagon. It's black with white. I have two kids, so a dad theme is a plus. Oh boy. How about lucky sperm?

• 1:28:27Speaker 01

  Can you have any plate over here?

• 1:28:29Matt Farah?

  No, the, the government has to approve it.

• 1:28:31Speaker 02

  Yeah. So sometimes you have to get really creative.

• 1:28:33Speaker 01

  And what is the cost? Is it expensive?

• 1:28:35Speaker 02

  It's fifty dollars. In California, it's like fifty bucks.

• 1:28:39Speaker 01

  Cause you know, in the UK, like a plate can be a million, could be a million pounds.

• 1:28:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I attended an auction. It was fun.

• 1:28:45Speaker 01

  If you get like, I don't know, one B or something, it would literally be hundreds of thousands of pounds. Like personal plates are thousands.

• 1:28:53Speaker 02

  New York, it was a New York plate and the plate was New York from the seventies. I think they sold that for huge money.

• 1:28:58Matt Farah?

  So if you had something like that, it, you could, you could then auction it or whatever. But like generally, like in your state, if it's unavailable and you come up with it, you can get it as long as it's not like crass.

• 1:29:10Speaker 01

  Obscene.

• 1:29:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Um, you can get, you get creative though. When I was in New York back in the day and we bought this um, a replica Cobra, the Shelby Cobra replica, but had a NASCAR engine in it, because I was a moron and did not need that. Uh, but the license plate was uh, M A K U P zero zero. So make up double zero, which was make you poo, which was fantastic. And we got away with it somehow.

• 1:29:37Speaker 01

  Oh, I don't know about this one though.

• 1:29:38Matt Farah?

  Caddy daddy, huh?

• 1:29:39Speaker 02

  You could do something like, I was thinking like Gas Not College, but it's kind of, that's what you're spending your money on today.

• 1:29:47Matt Farah?

  Uh, roll, rollin' heavy.

• 1:29:50Speaker 01

  I'm not good at these.

• 1:29:52Matt Farah?

  We need, we need, we need a workshop this longer.

• 1:29:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29:55Speaker 02

  Great wagon, though. They're so fun.

• 1:29:57Matt Farah?

  They are excellent.

• 1:29:58Speaker 01

  They are cool. Those things are great.

• 1:29:59Matt Farah?

  No depreciation. Good car. Don't rob me. No problem, sir. Uh, in, in preparation, uh, for the El Nino year, you should do a segment on prepping one's vehicle. Uh, the starter, I need to update the tires on my wife's family SUV. We live in, live in Southern California. Uh, you don't need to prep your vehicle for, for rain. You need to make sure your tires are okay. And if, if you have a, a regular, uh, uh, family SUV, uh, dude, I, I mean, a, any brand name tire, all season tire is probably gonna be fine. I would, I would read tire racks, reviews, user reviews. I mean, I'm not personally picky

• 1:30:42Matt Farah?

  about regular tires on regular cars. Um, you know, I, I, I happen to think Michelin makes a fine quality tire.

• 1:30:49Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 1:30:50Matt Farah?

  Outside of that, I mean, reviews and whatever. Um, but you shouldn't have to do much. I mean, it's gonna be wet.

• 1:30:55Speaker 01

  For a bit of rain, yeah, you'll be fine. Don't worry about that.

• 1:30:57Matt Farah?

  Dude, well, it gets, you know, it gets shady around here because our drainage is terrible and people don't put fucking to good tires on their cars. Their shit is bald and, and so it does get bad.

• 1:31:09Speaker 01

  Just a good brand. Like, and the tires are, I love, have you done tire testing? Have you been to a tire facility?

• 1:31:15Matt Farah?

  I have.

• 1:31:15Speaker 01

  It's the best.

• 1:31:16Matt Farah?

  It's so cool.

• 1:31:16Speaker 01

  And the amount of technology they pour into it is crazy. So just don't buy cheap shitty stuff.

• 1:31:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh, kidney grill transplant list. How do you feel about modern CarPlay capable head units in 20-year-old cars? Uh, refreshing my, uh, E46, wondering whether a modern head unit would feel out of place or oddly date the car? Zach has an answer for you.

• 1:31:37Speaker 02

  I mean, the head unit I did looks exactly like the one that came out of the car, but it has CarPlay. So that's why I like that.

• 1:31:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:43Speaker 02

  But if you also, this person's running, like you have a phone mount, so if, if it's playing in your stereo and you use the phone mount for nav, like I don't think you need to spend much of money and deal with the trouble I've dealt with, like with some little electronic uh, problems with that new head unit. Um, I think.

• 1:32:00Matt Farah?

  You could just pass the aux?

• 1:32:01Speaker 02

  Just pass the aux. Like, this, this screen works totally fine for me for navigation. I don't need to look at it that often. So I think you could save yourself some money and maybe some audio trouble if you just pass the aux.

• 1:32:12Matt Farah?

  If you have Bluetooth, like already, and you're okay with a phone mount and using that as a screen, you could keep it tight.

• 1:32:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. I don't love the phone.

• 1:32:21Matt Farah?

  What do you, do you have a, the Porsche one in your car? Would you get it?

• 1:32:24Speaker 01

  Some shitty old thing. Um, I would, I probably would, but I tend to just use my phone. I do look at it occasionally and think, oh, it would be nice. Cause the car's so nice now. It was a shitter when I bought it, but it's such a lovely thing now that I would like it to feel a bit nicer. So yeah, I, I would do it, I think.

• 1:32:41Matt Farah?

  So in the, in the Mitsubishi Delica, our van that we have, we have a Alpine double din, you know, CarPlay, like, you know. It's, it's a fucking, you know, whatever. And, and it has the mic, you know, it has a, for, for, for talking on the phone and it has a USB to keep the phone charged. And, and it's as modern as you would want a stereo in a 1991 minivan to me. But Hannah's been driving it for two months because the Taycan has been getting fixed. And she said, you know, my neck, my next car,

• 1:33:12Matt Farah?

  even if I, my, she's like, I, she kind of wants a new novelty car. I think she's bored of the Pal. Which is fine. She wants a new novelty car, but she says it has to be modern enough for her to have like real Bluetooth and like be able to like have a phone conversation and stuff. So.

• 1:33:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. You need a Panda after your little Italian adventure.

• 1:33:32Matt Farah?

  She wants a Panda so bad.

• 1:33:34Speaker 01

  Those are the greatest.

• 1:33:35Matt Farah?

  Four by four Panda she wants.

• 1:33:37Speaker 01

  They're the greatest.

• 1:33:38Matt Farah?

  I think it would cost double to get one here what it would cost to actually buy one of them fucking things.

• 1:33:42Speaker 01

  Probably, yeah, but it would still be cheap. It would still be cheap. They're the greatest.

• 1:33:47Matt Farah?

  I, I gotta see what, so the newest one that she could have is gonna be a 2002.

• 1:33:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:33:53Matt Farah?

  Model year. What is a 2002 Fiat Panda? Is it a four, they made a four by four in 2002?

• 1:33:59Speaker 01

  I don't know that they did in 2002.

• 1:34:02Matt Farah?

  Do we have to consult with James May on all matters Fiat Panda?

• 1:34:05Speaker 01

  No, they would have done a four by four.

• 1:34:07Matt Farah?

  That's a nine deuce? That's not a ninety.

• 1:34:08Speaker 01

  No, you can't have that one.

• 1:34:10Matt Farah?

  We need to be a newer one than that.

• 1:34:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, you can't have that.

• 1:34:12Matt Farah?

  No, that's a shit box. I don't, we can't have that. No, it has to be a, a more modern Panda than that.

• 1:34:18Speaker 01

  So you could have the one.

• 1:34:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah, like this one.

• 1:34:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, this, this is.

• 1:34:21Matt Farah?

  The O3.

• 1:34:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, so you could do that.

• 1:34:22Matt Farah?

  So in 2028, I could get a O3.

• 1:34:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I, I got one of those for my son.

• 1:34:28Matt Farah?

  Keep it at a warehouse over there while the prices go up.

• 1:34:31Speaker 02

  Everyone's really waiting to import these.

• 1:34:32Speaker 01

  I got one for my son when he learned to, to drive. I love driving it. It's a 1.2 with like 54 horsepower.

• 1:34:40Matt Farah?

  I think Hannah and I need to go to Europe. Buy one there, road trip it, and then ship it home.

• 1:34:47Speaker 01

  They're great. They're the greatest.

• 1:34:49Matt Farah?

  And what do they cost?

• 1:34:54Speaker 01

  Three grand? You know, like, yeah, nothing.

• 1:34:57Matt Farah?

  All right, that's the goal. For less than the cost of a plane ticket.

• 1:35:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, nothing.

• 1:35:02Matt Farah?

  Should I buy a car for less than the cost of a plane ticket?

• 1:35:04Speaker 01

  I bought my son one for like 1,300 quid or something.

• 1:35:07Matt Farah?

  But I just need left-hand drive, so we have to go to mainland.

• 1:35:09Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah. You could go to Italy. Yeah, they'll be cheap. They'll be cheap.

• 1:35:12Matt Farah?

  That's a good move. We should do that. Hannah would love that. Let's go to Italy and get you a Fiat Panda.

• 1:35:18Speaker 01

  If you speak to Giorgio and ask him what his greatest achievement ever was, he says Fiat Panda. That's like the original Fiat Panda. Yeah, he's like, this is the greatest design I've ever done because it's perfect. He's, this is a guy, so he says the goal for that, the Panda or the goal for the two perfect cars.

• 1:35:33Matt Farah?

  Spatially efficient cars.

• 1:35:34Speaker 01

  This is, yeah, the guy's done everything.

• 1:35:36Matt Farah?

  Rules, but that's a good idea. I should go plan that for 2028.

• 1:35:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:35:40Matt Farah?

  Get us a Fiat Panda. You wanna go buy shit boxes in Europe, Zach?

• 1:35:44Speaker 02

  I'll attend while you buy shit boxes.

• 1:35:47Matt Farah?

  Three grand? You gotta buy, you gotta get one too.

• 1:35:49Speaker 01

  I'd just buy a couple.

• 1:35:50Matt Farah?

  No, three grand, you gotta get a daily over there. Just get one of like their cars and we just bring it back here. Is it daily?

• 1:35:57Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:35:58Matt Farah?

  Five-speed, is it, are those Pandas all diesel or are there the gas ones too?

• 1:36:01Speaker 01

  They'll all be little petrol engines. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:36:04Speaker 02

  They're pretty cool.

• 1:36:04Matt Farah?

  Have you read?

• 1:36:05Speaker 02

  It's like a newer, less expensive Pal, essentially.

• 1:36:09Matt Farah?

  They're way better than, the Pal is so not a car.

• 1:36:12Speaker 02

  The horsepower similar? Wait, what?

• 1:36:14Speaker 01

  They did a hundred horsepower Panda.

• 1:36:16Speaker 02

  Whoa, was this a race car?

• 1:36:17Matt Farah?

  Super Star S.

• 1:36:18Speaker 01

  The hundred horsepower's cool because it's got like wide body and stuff. Yeah, it looks like.

• 1:36:22Matt Farah?

  What's that called?

• 1:36:23Speaker 01

  It's called the hundred horsepower. Hundred HP, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're wicked.

• 1:36:27Matt Farah?

  Well, the Pal's 57, so we need to do better than that.

• 1:36:29Speaker 01

  They ride like crap, so you have to get, there's a few aftermarket suspensions for them, but they're really sweet.

• 1:36:34Speaker 02

  This is crazy.

• 1:36:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:36:36Speaker 02

  The slope is slippery, right?

• 1:36:38Matt Farah?

  Is there in a bath?

• 1:36:40Speaker 01

  They have, a lot of them have little above badges and kits and stuff, but yeah, a hundred horsepower is a good car.

• 1:36:45Matt Farah?

  Luke S., how do you deal with anxiety caused by ownership of a car that we love to drive, but, uh, never know when it will require fixing again?

• 1:36:55Matt Farah?

  You gotta get rid of that car. That's a, you can't, that shouldn't be stressful, right, Zach?

• 1:37:01Speaker 02

  Well, it's funny because when I was driving the Golf R with my wife, I was like, you know, we, this could be something we could rotate into if I could get rid of my M3. Uh, we'd have to get a used one. And I was like, but it is a German car. And she did, there's this nice silence and she goes, and I was like, you could drive it because it's automatic and she can drive manual, but she doesn't do it very often. And she's like, I want to drive your car when it's a car that won't break just because it's being driven.

• 1:37:24Speaker 02

  And I laughed so hard because it's, it's not like, she's not out doing the canyons or racing. She's like, I just wanna be able to drive the thing. I was like, okay, so maybe not, not an old school flag, maybe.

• 1:37:36Matt Farah?

  That's so funny. I think you gotta get rid of that car, dude.

• 1:37:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, or you need a second car or you need a bicycle. I mean, yeah.

• 1:37:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. I've got a brother who's a mechanic, so that's my number one.

• 1:37:46Matt Farah?

  And if you get the good roadside, gotta have that good roadside assistance.

• 1:37:51Speaker 02

  You have to have backup plans, plural.

• 1:37:53Matt Farah?

  You know what, what sucks about, is I, I drive my cars on Sundays a lot, you know, and that's when something breaks and the shop is always closed. I can't flatbed it straight to the shop. I gotta flatbed it here and then get another flatbed and go to the shop.

• 1:38:07Speaker 01

  I mean, the other option is become a motoring journalist, drive like five million dollar hypercars and realize that your car doesn't break half as much as they do.

• 1:38:16Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 1:38:17Speaker 01

  Then you'll be like, you'll be totally relaxed.

• 1:38:19Speaker 02

  When we went up the hill in the Eccentrica, which car overheated? Mine or the Eccentrica?

• 1:38:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's great perspective.

• 1:38:26Matt Farah?

  Would you like, would you like to know how much my client spent to keep a Porsche 959 going for three years?

• 1:38:32Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:38:34Matt Farah?

  You could have bought an R8 GT and no insurance, lit it on fire, burned it to the ground.

• 1:38:43Speaker 01

  Every time I drive, I, like I said, I love these cars, but I'm like, oh my God, like the more you spend, the less reliability you get. It's like, literally, it's like a graph. Like as the money goes up, the usability and reliability goes down.

• 1:38:56Matt Farah?

  Isn't it funny that we're so addicted to the idea of it and the allocations and being in the club that when it, that they keep it all a secret?

• 1:39:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:39:05Matt Farah?

  They fix it on the sly. Like, I, I at least, I, you know, I, with, with Manx, you know, I'm, I knew what I was buying. The first customer engine, weird ass experimental thing. It works shockingly well.

• 1:39:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:39:19Matt Farah?

  And it has broken twice, but neither time had to do with the engine. It was literally like a blown fuse. It was stupid. Um, and, and, uh, and I'm okay with, like, I am okay having the weirdest car around and being the, the beta tester, but I don't think a lot of these guys know that they're doing that.

• 1:39:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's insane. Like, I often drive super expensive, like Resto, my Porsches or whatever, and I'm constantly texting the people who built my 911. And I'm like, just a reminder that you've built the best Resto on 911 that's ever existed because it works.

• 1:39:51Matt Farah?

  When you, I mean, I don't know if you, if you, if you are comfortable saying, because someone just asked me about this, about just putting a bigger fact, finding a factory, oh, someone on the, on the show, a guy asked us, yes, last show, he could buy a 997 Cup car with a blown motor for 15 grand. So I was like, well, the move is to take the motor you have, throw it in the garbage and just buy a working motor from another car. So you bought a 991 engine and shoved it in 996, so you might be able to put that, a 991 engine in the back of this Cup car.

• 1:40:28Speaker 01

  I think if you were just doing a race car and you don't care about all the stuff, like mine is very OEM, like everything works and it was a nightmare.

• 1:40:37Matt Farah?

  This is already a race car.

• 1:40:38Speaker 02

  It was a long project, right?

• 1:40:39Speaker 01

  Oh, it was incredible. They honestly spent hundreds of hours making it work.

• 1:40:45Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay, so it's not a simple thing.

• 1:40:46Speaker 01

  No, although there is a company that's looking to do it. So I'm intrigued, an American company looking to do this conversion. So I'm intrigued to what they come up with. But if it's a race car and you just need something that makes it go fast and you don't need to care about all the other stuff, I don't think it would be too bad. There must be, I mean, Metzger engines are expensive for sure.

• 1:41:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but, uh, but you don't need, actually need a Metzger.

• 1:41:05Speaker 01

  No, you could probably get one of these 9A1 engines, yeah.

• 1:41:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Matt's cats are my Roman, so many references to my cats today. Matt's cats are my Roman Empire. What's an automotive pilgrimage that every enthusiast should experience? I mean, the Nürburgring is the obvious one.

• 1:41:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it is.

• 1:41:24Speaker 01

  Autobahn is still a great.

• 1:41:25Matt Farah?

  Driving on the Autobahn.

• 1:41:27Speaker 01

  The Autobahn is a great feeling. And I hear a lot of people say, well, not much of it's T-restricted. I drive it all the time and loads of it's T-restricted, as long as it's not like rush hour. And just being able to travel at 150, 160 for a few hours on end, it reminds you how cool cars are. It's like, cars are amazing. Like, look at the shit that we've created. It's brilliant. So I think that's for sure. What else?

• 1:41:51Matt Farah?

  I mean, it.

• 1:41:53Speaker 01

  TT is, guess what? Isle of Man TT would be.

• 1:41:55Speaker 02

  I want to go to that so bad.

• 1:41:56Speaker 01

  I've never been either, but I know everyone who's gone says it's the wildest thing.

• 1:42:00Matt Farah?

  Magazine to pay for that one. And the Daytona 500, cliche as it is, is a cra- is a crazy thing to see.

• 1:42:08Speaker 01

  Le Mans is great. Le Mans is cool. But Nürburgring 24 is the best race. If you want to go to a race, that's to watch is amazing. But yeah, loads of stuff in Europe. What about, yeah, US Daytona?

• 1:42:19Matt Farah?

  Going to Daytona is one. Car Week at some point, I mean, is a real crazy thing to see. Honestly, the Woodward Dream Cruise is a crazy thing to see that we just did this past year.

• 1:42:31Speaker 01

  There's so many good things, though. That's the great thing, isn't it?

• 1:42:34Speaker 02

  Depends on what you're into, I mean, racing. I think going to see any, any car factory, especially if it's a, you know, the cooler one than whatever car you're into, but like, Corvette factory or Ferrari factory, just seeing truly how the thing is made is pretty rad.

• 1:42:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, and go to Ferrari, that whole area, you can tour all the places. You can go to Pagani, Ferrari, the whole lot.

• 1:42:52Speaker 02

  Lamborghinis right there.

• 1:42:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, that'd be great.

• 1:42:54Matt Farah?

  Murray Long, last name. What car feels better in left-hand drive versus right-hand drive or vice versa?

• 1:43:02Speaker 01

  Everything feels better in right-hand.

• 1:43:05Matt Farah?

  Dude, I, you know what's really funny? I'm really bad at getting in and out of supercars on the right side, like gracefully. Like, I have not programmed my body to do it, and it's really bad. It's, I look so dumb when I get in and out of a car on that side.

• 1:43:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't know. There are, there must be ones where you're big time compromised when it goes right-hand drive. I would think most stuff is better in left, because everything's developed left-hand drive.

• 1:43:30Matt Farah?

  So the Germans, in my experience, have absolute disdain for the fact that they have to build right-hand drive cars. And so they make the dead pedals, all kinds of fucked up.

• 1:43:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And you often find with the old Italians, that the, the wheel arch intrusion is even worse in the right-hand drive ones. They've managed to fuck it. And the steering box will be on the wrong side, and it'll have some janky linkage over to it. So I would say generally left-hand.

• 1:43:56Speaker 02

  It's like a police system.

• 1:43:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah, we had a right-hand drive Diablo in storage briefly, and it was really weird.

• 1:44:02Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:44:03Matt Farah?

  Really, really weird.

• 1:44:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think any of that Italians. But I would guess Japanese stuff, you'd always want right-hand drive, just because it's cooler.

• 1:44:09Matt Farah?

  Well, most of it's you, 10. You know, there, there isn't such a thing. Deactivate cylinder firing in the West Bank. How much did the name Jethro contribute to your career success?

• 1:44:21Speaker 01

  That was it. That was it. Just that.

• 1:44:23Matt Farah?

  Well, it's, in America, Jethro's like a redneck name.

• 1:44:26Speaker 01

  It is, it is.

• 1:44:27Matt Farah?

  But it's very much not in the UK. Or is it?

• 1:44:30Speaker 01

  No, no. Well, there is still a bit of a country bumpkin thing going on with Jethro, but it's just rare. I've never really met any in the UK. My mom is Catholic, so it was like a biblical name.

• 1:44:41Matt Farah?

  I mean, but it was, oh, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So your mom didn't watch the Beverly Hillbillies?

• 1:44:46Speaker 01

  No, she's, uh.

• 1:44:47Speaker 02

  She loves Dukes of Hazzard.

• 1:44:48Matt Farah?

  Pointed out to you, the, the character in the Beverly Hillbillies?

• 1:44:50Speaker 01

  Must have been when I was pretty young. It must have been when I was pretty young. But no, I did, I like it for having a job where you have some public facing, because everyone knows who you are pretty quick. Like, when I started in the industry, like, everyone remembers straight away.

• 1:45:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:04Speaker 01

  It works. Yeah, so I don't really think about it. But, um, yeah, it probably helped a little bit.

• 1:45:08Matt Farah?

  It does help a little bit.

• 1:45:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:45:09Matt Farah?

  People only need to remember the, one of the two names.

• 1:45:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:45:12Matt Farah?

  Oh, have you seen Matt's review? What the fuck does that mean?

• 1:45:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, which Matt, yeah.

• 1:45:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's worked. It's, I think it's helped, for sure.

• 1:45:21Matt Farah?

  Definitely.

• 1:45:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:45:23Matt Farah?

  Is that our list?

• 1:45:23Speaker 02

  This one, last one.

• 1:45:25Matt Farah?

  Oh, sorry. Yamaha BB, I've seen some gnarly slides from Jethro on his Top Gear videos.

• 1:45:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:45:32Matt Farah?

  What is your favorite car to slide around of all time and favorite car of this year to sled?

• 1:45:39Speaker 01

  911s are, are great to slide, because they just take that set with that rear engine. I love doing it in cars that other people won't do it in. So I, I like the risk and reward ratio. Like, I'm.

• 1:45:54Matt Farah?

  Because of sketchiness?

• 1:45:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, I just like to be like, I, I don't take undue risk, but I take fairly calculated. Like, I'm really good if there's a video guy stood, so I'll be like, you're like, fully in the death zone. Just don't be there. Like, and I say to videographers all the time, a lot of people can't do this. Don't fucking stand there for, for anyone, like, but, but the best stuff to slide. I mean, the Zonda was cool. This year, the Zonda, I really enjoyed doing. That was a lot of fun. Uh, but the best ever, I did a 4.0 liter RS this year as well on the road, and that was awesome. Just like, fully lit, that noise and everything. But sliding cars is my favorite thing. It's great. It's incredibly cheesy and slightly cliched, but it's great.

• 1:46:37Speaker 02

  So fun, huh?

• 1:46:38Matt Farah?

  It's very fun. I, I disagree with it being cliched. I think it's, I think it's more fun than racing them.

• 1:46:43Speaker 01

  It is. It's, it's awesome. And I actually really enjoy four-wheel drive cars. I love figuring them out. I love going through a corner and being like, oh, it's doing that. But if I approach it a bit different, I love decoding them. So I love things like GTRs, like, because no one really slides GTRs. But you, you can do any car, you just have to figure it out. So I love that.

• 1:47:00Matt Farah?

  Chris Harris used to like, and maybe still does, but like, would pride himself on being able to slide the unslideable car.

• 1:47:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's the cool thing.

• 1:47:09Matt Farah?

  People would be like, nah, this one, this one doesn't work. And he'd be like, yeah, yeah, just.

• 1:47:13Speaker 02

  Dude, do you remember during the drive thing, 10 years ago, but we had a CLA?

• 1:47:17Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:47:18Speaker 02

  We had a bunch of cool cars, and then we had a CLA, and he slid it at Chuck Walla. And it was, you know, traction off all that stuff, but he was like, okay, you huck it in, you basically enter backwards and then confuse the front-wheel drive system. And then it would drift for half the turn, and then it would realize what you're doing, and then like, oh, no, no, no, and chastise you. But it was just the way he had to figure out how to huck it.

• 1:47:37Speaker 01

  A lot of those four-wheel drive, you are, you're driving around what they're trying to do. So they're trying to preempt what you're doing, and you're trying to trick them. It's pretty cool. I did the Hennessy F5 thing this year on their test track, and I was like, we need to do a slideshow. And you can't turn the traction off. And they're like, no one's ever slid it, you can't do it. And I had it pretty good.

• 1:47:56Matt Farah?

  You can't turn the traction off?

• 1:47:57Speaker 01

  It wouldn't fully, it won't fully turn off. So it will, it's got 2,000 horsepower. So even, you can make it do it, but, but it's got a yoke. So you're like grabbing bits of it, and it, that was cool.

• 1:48:08Speaker 02

  Grabbing the column at that point.

• 1:48:09Matt Farah?

  The yoke is terrible. That's just no, that's awful.

• 1:48:12Speaker 01

  It's not good. No. It's not good. Not for sliding. But that was fun, because I felt good, because they were like, yeah, no one's done that before. And I was like, okay, cool.

• 1:48:18Speaker 02

  That car, watching, did you, I don't know, did you watch Grand Tour?

• 1:48:21Speaker 01

  I did, yeah.

• 1:48:22Speaker 02

  The first episode, like, Francis doing whatever, 190 on a very dusty, not that wide runway for that racing thing they did. And I'm watching it, like, we all get caught up in competition, but I'm going, this is 2,000 horsepower. That track is dirty as fuck. This, I was, thought I was gonna watch that dude crash, because I'm just waiting for the wheel spin to happen.

• 1:48:42Matt Farah?

  Oh, well, you get, you get a bit of a rooster tail.

• 1:48:44Speaker 02

  Huge, dude. This track, it was like a smaller, narrower Mojave, much narrower, probably like, I don't know, four lanes wide, that's what it looked like, but covered in dirt. So he's just going down, and the rooster tail is gigantic, because there's so much, like, sand and shit on the track.

• 1:48:58Matt Farah?

  When I drove the Zinger, it was doing that. I got fucking, at Willow Springs, I was getting like rooster, like the, the vor- the swirly vortexes behind the Zinger.

• 1:49:08Speaker 01

  That's a cool car. I like that.

• 1:49:09Matt Farah?

  Zinger is all right. Zinger's like, they're, they're actually, I think they're doing it right, because that car, for that much money, it, if someone called you and said, how, you go, that's different. That is very different from everything else.

• 1:49:25Speaker 01

  Exactly. It's, it's like Pagani's got its own thing, Koenigsegg, those guys have got their own thing.

• 1:49:30Matt Farah?

  They have nailed the fighter plane vibe.

• 1:49:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. It's cool. And that, that 3D print stuff is awesome. It really is.

• 1:49:36Matt Farah?

  And driving it with both windows down, and it's like, the, the way that air moves around it when you're going really fast is like, pretty glorious.

• 1:49:45Speaker 01

  Can they sell that layout? Because I feel like you were talking about those Pagani Radu, you know, or whatever. People want to go with their partner and enjoy those cars. Like, no one wants to get in the back of that thing.

• 1:49:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I don't know about that. Zach did it for five minutes.

• 1:49:56Speaker 01

  I reckon the next one will be.

• 1:49:59Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, very uncomfortable.

• 1:50:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. The next one will be side by side, I reckon.

• 1:50:02Matt Farah?

  Three-seater. They should do a three-seater. That's a perfect company to do a three-seater.

• 1:50:06Speaker 02

  It was like sitting behind you on a Vespa. I mean, really, like, my legs were around your seat.

• 1:50:10Speaker 01

  It's unpleasant.

• 1:50:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:50:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. No, it's pretty.

• 1:50:13Matt Farah?

  It's really good in the front. The front's comfy.

• 1:50:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it's cool.

• 1:50:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the front's super comfy.

• 1:50:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, no, it's, it's a really cool project. I like those guys.

• 1:50:20Matt Farah?

  The one that, that I drove on track had the comfort seat in it, which was really funny for the high downforce. You know, if I was going on a road trip, I was like, this is, it's literally the Recaro seat from an Audi RS3. So I was like, you know, like, if I was driving this anywhere else, this is great, but it's like collapsing under my weight on the track. Like that Dark Horse or performance car of the year with the base seats. That was bad.

• 1:50:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:50:44Matt Farah?

  Well, thanks for coming, Jethro.

• 1:50:46Speaker 01

  No problem. Thank you for having me.

• 1:50:48Matt Farah?

  An hour and 45 just goes right by, doesn't it? No, no, it's not too long.

• 1:50:51Speaker 01

  It's exactly right.

• 1:50:53Matt Farah?

  Um, but I'm glad you enjoyed my car.

• 1:50:55Speaker 01

  I did. It was great.

• 1:50:56Matt Farah?

  One of a very small number of people that gets to drive it.

• 1:50:59Speaker 01

  I'll report back on the Manx.

• 1:51:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, no, we're gonna, if not, if not this afternoon, then Sunday before we go north, you should just have a, a spin around the block, because it's, it's a special thing.

• 1:51:09Speaker 01

  Okay, cool.

• 1:51:10Matt Farah?

  Um, and thank you for your, uh, for such good questions today, patrons. We appreciate you guys. Thank you to everyone else for listening, and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye.