Pod Insights The Smoking Tire Jerry Seinfeld About this episode Jerry explains his philosophy on cars, color choices, Porsche, and so much more. We talk about the cars he noticed as a kid, the most important thing to him about driving, meditation, working in the sandbox, driving in LA, one-offs, regretful sales, and more.
Recorded March 18, 2025
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Transcript 16,749 words · 3 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Matt Farah? What's up everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. It's a big week here on the podcast and Off the Record is still with us. Of course, if you want to use Off the Record, we have a new code for this year, TST25 on the Off the Record app. Throw away your old codes, or go to offtherecord.com/tst. Why should you do such things? Well, let's say you get a ticket, you've been pulled over for something and are ticketed. Don't argue with that police officer on the side of the road. Instead, take that ticket and call or go on the app to Off the Record,
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1:21 Matt Farah? or use code TST25 on the Off the Record app. Well, folks, we're almost at 1,000, and we are celebrating number 999 with a dream guest. The most famous coffee drinker on the planet, Jerry Seinfeld, has agreed to give us 90 minutes of his time, and we're at his car hangar. It's an airport hangar, but it's full of cars in Santa Monica, sitting down on his couches, drinking his sparkling water, and being pretty overwhelmed by the experience of having coffee with the world's most famous coffee drinker. With no further introduction, it's Jerry Seinfeld
2:04 Matt Farah? on TST number 999. Dropping in. 999. This is episode 999.
2:15 Speaker 01 Oh, I thought it was 1,000.
2:17 Matt Farah? No, so 1,000 is going to be an eight-hour Podcasting extravaganza next week with a bunch of guests and please, please drop by the studio if you're around. But no, this one, this is the lead up to that. The, the guest I was, I could have asked, but for five years have been not wanting to ask. I didn't want to be the guy. So he called it in. Now we're at the hangar with Seinfeld. Thanks for giving us 90 minutes, Jerry.
2:44 Speaker 01 You'll be asked again in another 11 years, however long it took us to get here. I think we've been doing it since 2012.
2:49 Matt Farah? Episode 1,998. We'll continue the tradition. Thank you for doing it.
2:54 Speaker 02 Did you have an MG Midget?
2:56 Speaker 01 No, I did not. I liked them. My mom had one.
2:59 Matt Farah? Somebody else's MG.
3:00 Speaker 02 You drove one once.
3:00 Matt Farah? I've driven a couple MGs. Yeah, yeah. A supercharged one.
3:04 Speaker 02 That's where I started. If you want to know my story, I know you've got stuff and I can't wait to get to it. My story began, uh, I grew up on Long Island. The parents, all they had, it was just old American stuff, mid 60s. We had two Ramblers. We had a 54 Chevy, you know, just giant stuff. And then one day there was this car dealer on Merrick Road and they had MGs in Triumphs. And I had never seen, and things like this.
3:34 Matt Farah? Cars with curves?
3:35 Speaker 02 With little fabric roofs.
3:37 Matt Farah? Yeah.
3:38 Speaker 02 And I thought, well, this is for kids. These are cars for kids.
3:43 Matt Farah? A 16 year old's car, yeah.
3:44 Speaker 02 And the MG Midget, which I still think, and the MGB in its day, I still think has an aesthetic perfection.
3:51 Speaker 01 Totally agree. When I see the MGV, absolutely. When I see them on the road, I just look at it and I go, that is the perfect like rear sloping roof.
3:58 Speaker 02 Yeah.
3:58 Speaker 01 Short, the proportions are right. They literally always turn my head.
4:02 Speaker 02 Yeah. And I think everybody kind of is still trying to do that.
4:06 Matt Farah? Yeah.
4:06 Speaker 02 You know, but of course you can't anymore, you know, size wise.
4:10 Matt Farah? It drives me insane that how, how big cars are compared to when, I mean, particularly this, you know, the stuff you drive, which is generation before me, but like my spot- Rider outside, just stop there. That's the biggest the car needs to get.
4:25 Speaker 02 Although, let's be honest, you want to talk proportions, which I'm sensing you have a feel for, and I am obsessed with, the Boxster, um, project car, what do we call it? The prototype?
4:41 Matt Farah? The prototype, the original from like 93 was amazing.
4:44 Speaker 02 Yes, the Detroit Auto Show car. The proportions of that car, they just did, uh, I think it was Panorama, just did a design issue. I don't know if you read all this stuff?
4:54 Matt Farah? I do.
4:55 Speaker 02 Just looking at that car, and I'm very friendly with Grant Larson, the proportions of that original concept, the Boxster concept, is still way, way better. And I was thinking, I wonder if I could get them to build that car for me, the real thing?
5:10 Matt Farah? A hundred percent you could.
5:12 Speaker 02 I could?
5:13 Matt Farah? Listen, you could. One of my, one of my-
5:15 Speaker 02 Isn't that a great idea? Yeah.
5:17 Matt Farah? Well, look, you've already gotten them to sell you like the last air-cooled car, the first this, the last this.
5:22 Speaker 02 That was in the old days, that wouldn't happen anymore.
5:24 Matt Farah? No pole anymore?
5:26 Speaker 02 No, actually, I do have an amazing pole. Um, but that's another story.
5:31 Matt Farah? But didn't you, okay, but have you seen recently, somebody had, uh, Bertone remake the original Countach concept car?
5:42 Speaker 02 Oh, really?
5:43 Matt Farah? And I don't know if it actually runs or not, because, you know, it doesn't have the, the nacoducks in the side. It's like, it's super clean. I mean, it, it looks like, you know, it's like a clay model, but, but apparently it rolls. And I don't know if it can run, because it looks like it has no air intakes or anything, but they did actually recreate the concept car for a person.
6:04 Speaker 02 Okay.
6:05 Matt Farah? So, we can make some calls.
6:06 Speaker 02 As soon as we're done here, I'll get on the phone. But anyway, you, I'm sure you're, you're prepared. You're, what, the great thing about your show is you're always prepared.
6:15 Matt Farah? That's not true, but, but I, I'd like to think it's very kind, but I-
6:19 Speaker 02 Well, then you, you do a good job of fake preparing. So- But for this momentous occasion, I'm sure you've got some stuff.
6:28 Matt Farah? We have some, we have some things we want to talk about, but I'm more, even before we get there, you know, when we got here, your, your, your gentleman, Robert, who was awesome, he said, I'm moving some things around. I go, okay. And, and it was only when you literally walked in the door that we learned that you chose the seven cars in this room for us specifically. Can you give us just a once around the room and then a, what, do you have a one sentence maybe about each car, what you love about it?
6:58 Matt Farah? We'll get a photo of it for the, for the YouTube people. We'll get some shots of them.
7:01 Speaker 02 Well, my,
7:05 Speaker 02 I, I would say the pinnacle car that I own is the 9083 that won the Targa in 1970, driven by Joseph and Brian Redman.
7:15 Matt Farah? This is the Can-Am car, no windshield, head sticks out the top wedge thing? Is that what we're talking about? Am I wrong? Am I right or am I wrong?
7:23 Speaker 01 You're a car guy. The 90308?
7:27 Matt Farah? No, wait. No, wait. Am I, am I off?
7:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, you're way off.
7:31 Matt Farah? Okay.
7:32 Speaker 02 This is the, um, I didn't bring my phone thing. What do I need my phone for?
7:37 Matt Farah? Oh, no, curvy, small, light, curvy, but with eight cylinder engine, right?
7:42 Speaker 02 It's not curvy. It is an eight cylinder.
7:43 Speaker 01 Gulf livery, right?
7:45 Speaker 02 A 771 Gulf livery, the two big orange arrows.
7:49 Matt Farah? Yes, alright, got it, got it.
7:51 Speaker 02 And if you go to Sicily and if you drive the route of the Targa Florio, there's an incredible mosaic on a wall of this car. And it's in, in Italy, so even they revere this particular car. It's not Italian. But that is the, but next to that, my 55003, which you see there, the 159 on the door.
8:13 Matt Farah? Yeah.
8:14 Speaker 02 That car, that's the livery it ran in the third Carrera Panamericana, driven by, um,
8:21 Speaker 02 Hans Hermann and uh, who's that other guy, very handsome guy? Uh, but uh, so that's the first four cam spider made. It was the third prototype of four prototypes.
8:36 Matt Farah? Jeez.
8:36 Speaker 02 And so that's the first four, so to me, that was the magic formula of the company. This crazy engine.
8:43 Matt Farah? Yeah.
8:43 Speaker 02 You know, with no valve float, overhead cams, the lightweight body.
8:48 Matt Farah? What is, what does that car weigh? It's gotta be 1,600 pounds or something like that.
8:53 Speaker 02 Not that much. I would say 12, 13.
8:55 Matt Farah? Really?
8:55 Speaker 02 I would say 12, 13, yeah.
8:57 Matt Farah? That's a weird, it looks, it's an odd looking car. I mean, I don't, I don't know if I'd call it classically pretty in the 550 cents.
9:04 Speaker 02 I would.
9:04 Speaker 01 It has the large fenders like the uh.
9:07 Speaker 02 Stand up and look at this. I mean, are you familiar with Commander Cody? The, the, the, uh, movie serial of the 50s where the guy put on the silver helmet?
9:17 Matt Farah? No.
9:18 Speaker 02 The leather jacket and he would turn the thing and he had a rocket on his back and he would just fly off. You never heard of Commander Cody?
9:24 Matt Farah? I only go as far back as the Rocketeer 91.
9:27 Speaker 02 Okay, that's what it's based on.
9:28 Matt Farah? Yeah.
9:29 Speaker 02 The Rocketeer is based on Commander Cody.
9:31 Matt Farah? Okay, cool.
9:32 Speaker 02 Okay, so that car to me is Commander Cody.
9:35 Matt Farah? Yeah.
9:35 Speaker 02 It's just an aluminum spacesuit that you wear.
9:39 Matt Farah? Yeah, it's like, it's like Porsche's a version of like what the, what we were doing with jet age American stuff at the time. The sort of motorama. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
9:50 Speaker 02 Well, it's similar. You don't remember that either, but you know.
9:52 Matt Farah? The rocket belt?
9:52 Speaker 02 The Bell Rocket Belt from the mid 60s.
9:54 Matt Farah? I remember seeing, I've seen videos on YouTube of it going horribly wrong.
9:57 Speaker 02 Yeah. So next to that is my uh, 550A, which is the, uh, 550A is so much better than a 550. Um, it has the tubular space frame. It just handles better, it's more solid. And that particular car Sterling Moss drove in Argentina when his Maserati broke down and Porsche said, well, we have a car you could drive. And he jumped in that, you know, the picture of him in the air. And he drove that and won his class with that car. And we recreated it in that exact look that it had on that day.
10:29 Matt Farah? What did it look like? Cause I, cause I heard you tell Spike that you, you had the car and then found out it was that.
10:36 Speaker 02 I had it for 10 years and didn't know it was this special car.
10:39 Matt Farah? So what did it look like before?
10:40 Speaker 02 It was uh, you know, been sitting in a field for decades. Just totally deteriorated, yeah.
10:48 Speaker 02 But original body, engine and gearbox.
10:52 Matt Farah? It's, I mean, that's, that's, and the paint on it now, it's got this sort of matte gray. How, what is, what is, how do you describe what it is? I mean, matte gray, but.
11:02 Speaker 02 We found it underneath, I, I think the little cowl, see that cowl thing on the back?
11:08 Matt Farah? Uh huh. Behind the headrest?
11:10 Speaker 02 Yeah, the headrest thing. So underneath in there, it was original paint.
11:14 Matt Farah? Oh, okay.
11:15 Speaker 02 And so we matched that.
11:17 Matt Farah? Good move.
11:18 Speaker 01 That car also, isn't only like 110 horsepower, it's not a really powerful car, but it's, but it still won these races because it was a lightweight momentum car, which is so impressive.
11:27 Speaker 02 Which is, you know, and I had a feeling you were gonna ask me today, and I'm sure you've got great questions, but I thought, I wonder if he's gonna ask me, what is it that draws you to the Porsche brand? I thought you might ask me that, and I already have the answer for you.
11:43 Matt Farah? Well, let's, let's go.
11:45 Speaker 02 It's one word, philosophy. What's the philosophy? So what you're talking about, what is appealing about that car, or why was it successful? What is the approach? What is the philosophy? That just drew me, has always drawn me. It's, I also, I, I like the aerodynamic consideration in a time when people didn't really even understand what aerodynamics were. And I love the minimalism, and I love the thoroughness of the engineering. So philosophy and design language would be my answer.
12:18 Matt Farah? I was about to say, well, why not Lotus then? And then you said thoroughness of engineering. And I said, that's why not Lotus.
12:23 Speaker 02 I started, I did, I was very attracted to Lotus until I found out, uh, how they were made. So yeah, so that's the answer to that question, if you're curious.
12:33 Matt Farah? So, but, but was there one car? I mean, the original, the one, was it the 550 when you were a kid?
12:40 Speaker 02 No, I didn't know about these cars until the 90s.
12:43 Matt Farah? Oh, okay.
12:43 Speaker 02 I didn't even know about 356s till the 80s.
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14:16 Matt Farah? site-wide at Proper Cloth. That's code TIRE with the link in the video description. And thank you to Proper Cloth for sponsoring today's video. Guys, gotta take a quick break from the action because support for today's episode comes from DeleteMe. They make it easy, quick, and safe to get your personal data off the internet at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable, not to mention surveillance capitalism. DeleteMe does all the hard work of wiping you and your family's personal information from data broker websites. They know your privacy is worth protecting, and so when you sign up and give DeleteMe the information that you want deleted, they're
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16:27 Speaker 02 Uh, Sam Cabilio.
16:29 Matt Farah? Oh, really?
16:30 Speaker 02 He really introduced me to this world, the earlier stuff. I was interested, I started with cars really obsessively.
16:40 Speaker 02 I would say 64, 65. I saw these MGs, so it was MGs. Porsches were so out of sight, you know? Even an MGB to me was like, well, if you're like some super successful guy.
16:53 Matt Farah? Yeah.
16:54 Speaker 02 With all kinds of money, maybe you could get an MGB. But to me, it was MG Midget, Fiat 850. Those are the cars I was interested in. Triumph Spitfire.
17:05 Speaker 01 In American cars at the time, because that was muscle car age, of course.
17:08 Speaker 02 Yeah.
17:09 Speaker 01 But you weren't interested. Why, why was that?
17:11 Speaker 02 Excess. I hate excess. In comedy, I'm sure you understand the essence of comedy is minimalism.
17:22 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah, removing all the extra words.
17:24 Speaker 02 Yeah.
17:25 Matt Farah? I think I, I, I mean, I'm not going to try to, I'm just going to recall that when I saw you perform a couple of years ago in LA, I think it was while you were, you were working on stuff for, I'm telling you for the last time, maybe, you had a joke that had zero extra words in it. The whole, the joke was like, there wasn't a single extra word or syllable.
17:45 Speaker 02 A joke?
17:47 Matt Farah? There was one in particular that impressed more than.
17:51 Speaker 02 A joke? Yeah.
17:53 Matt Farah? Yeah.
17:54 Speaker 02 I just met.
17:55 Matt Farah? How, how many minutes before I dove into a grin, into a hole? Okay, 12, good.
17:59 Speaker 02 Yeah. Do you remember the joke?
18:00 Matt Farah? No, and I will never, ever attempt to say it back to you after that kind of.
18:05 Speaker 02 Right, but.
18:06 Matt Farah? But I remember there, the, the skill involved to remove every extra word.
18:11 Speaker 02 Yeah.
18:11 Matt Farah? That was what I.
18:12 Speaker 02 It's because comedy is a, really a musical medium and so it has to have rhythm and tightness. So, you know, I love, you know, comedians love the word tight. I love the word tight, you know? Keep it tight. You gotta tighten that up.
18:31 Matt Farah? Yeah. The, the Porsches all, you know, when you start driving a lot of them, especially like we do, and we drive a lot of other stuff too, compared to so many other stuff, the bodies feel like vacuum sucked down over the important bits.
18:47 Speaker 02 Right.
18:48 Matt Farah? Which if you drive, my favorite example is like a Mustang. A Mustang looks, is like the opposite. It's like you put an air pump in there and inflated the body up a bit.
18:58 Speaker 02 What about the early Mustangs?
18:59 Matt Farah? Not, not so much. Those are, those are.
19:01 Speaker 02 When I met you, you were driving that crazy Mustang. Remember that?
19:04 Matt Farah? Oh, the Fox body. Well, you know, I liked that era because those were small.
19:08 Speaker 02 Right.
19:08 Matt Farah? That's the smallest, lightest Mustang they ever made in the history of the Mustang. It was great.
19:13 Speaker 02 Oh, really?
19:13 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah. The notchback one.
19:17 Matt Farah? Oh, I say something interesting and it's stupid.
19:19 Speaker 02 What?
19:21 Matt Farah? I say an interesting fact that it's stupid. You say one and it's like, oh, you didn't know that.
19:27 Speaker 02 Wasn't the original Mustang quite, it was quite tight?
19:30 Matt Farah? It was, but if you actually park one next to mine, it's a little bit, mine was a little smaller and a little lighter.
19:36 Speaker 02 Wow.
19:37 Matt Farah? They're properly small. Yeah, they feel like, almost like escorts.
19:40 Speaker 02 Do you still have that car?
19:42 Matt Farah? No, I sold it. Moved on to Porsches. Once I started driving Porsches, I couldn't, I couldn't drive other things anymore.
19:49 Speaker 02 So when I met you, you had not driven Porsches at that time?
19:52 Matt Farah? I hadn't owned any. I had not owned any, yeah.
19:54 Speaker 02 And what was the one that got you?
19:56 Matt Farah? It was the Lee Keane Safari car. Remember that one? Thing was great. And that was a fun, I mean, it was a really fun, awesome little car. I daily drove it for three years.
20:05 Speaker 02 You still have that?
20:06 Matt Farah? Sold it to get the pink car outside. I can't do this. I can only, I have to cycle. I can't do this.
20:13 Speaker 02 Of course. I cycle too in my way. Do you agree
20:20 Speaker 02 that every car you've ever sold in your life, you regret it? Every single one?
20:27 Speaker 01 I would have them all back.
20:28 Speaker 02 You'd have every single one back?
20:30 Matt Farah? I would not agree.
20:32 Speaker 02 Really?
20:32 Matt Farah? I would not agree. I've sold, I would say, there's a bunch of cars I've sold because I genuinely did not like them. And I don't miss them.
20:43 Speaker 02 But it was yours.
20:44 Matt Farah? I don't care.
20:45 Speaker 02 Oh, okay.
20:45 Matt Farah? Sometimes I care. I'd like, there's a couple of things I'd like to get back for sure, but, but it's a, it's a minority, I would say.
20:52 Speaker 01 Is it, is it because, like, wanting them back is because you had such a unique experience in that car?
20:58 Speaker 02 It's just your story.
20:59 Speaker 01 Or it's just a story?
21:00 Speaker 02 It's your story. So what's the, the one you regret the most?
21:04 Matt Farah? I'd like to have that Mustang back. I think maybe.
21:07 Speaker 02 Maybe you could get it.
21:08 Matt Farah? I probably could. It's been sold like three times since I've had it. I had a Nissan Skyline. I'd like to have that back. That was very cool.
21:14 Speaker 02 Here's another, I'm obsessed with the psychological mechanisms of car people.
21:21 Matt Farah? Sure.
21:22 Speaker 02 And have you had this experience? Have you ever gotten a car back that you sold?
21:30 Matt Farah? Uh, no. My, one of my good friends, Vinnie, bought his 65 Cadillac back after about 10 years and he was so stoked on it. He was so excited to get it back.
21:41 Speaker 02 When you sell a car and get it back, it's like, uh, it's, it's a really intense experience. And that car, I, I've done that a few times. I have a black 997 4.0 that I sold.
21:55 Matt Farah? Oh, the best.
21:55 Speaker 02 Went through a couple of hands. I know the best. Your, um, show that you did at PEC there.
22:02 Matt Farah? I drove all of Andy's favorite cars.
22:04 Speaker 02 That was a great show.
22:05 Matt Farah? That was a fun, that was a good day. I shot that on my birthday and I was like, this is the greatest.
22:09 Speaker 02 Yeah. And I remember you talking about the 4.0. Um, so when you get a car back that you lost?
22:16 Matt Farah? That one particularly. I just saw Andy last month.
22:20 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
22:20 Matt Farah? And he, we were talking about it and even he says it's all about the 4.0.
22:24 Speaker 01 When you've bought cars back, were you chasing them from, like, how long was it after you sold it till you went, oh, I want to chase that back? Or did they just fall into your lap? Or is it a mix of both?
22:34 Speaker 02 They usually would fall into my lap. I, I bought one of the cup cars from the cancelled 964 cup series.
22:41 Matt Farah? Oh, yeah. Cause you could drive those on the street, right?
22:44 Speaker 02 You could drive them on the street. That was my first time driving a race car on the street and it was so insane. I bought it at Beverly Hills Porsche. I was there getting a service for my 88 Carrera and they had this weird thing there and I go, what is that? And they go, they just canceled this series and we got two of them. You want one, you know? And, and I bought that car and sold it, I think, four times and bought it back.
23:06 Matt Farah? I was about, I was about to ask, how many, how, what is the car where your name is the most?
23:10 Speaker 02 And then I got an RS and that's a little better.
23:13 Speaker 01 Now, have you done, because you, you drove it and you went, man, this is insane. I can't do this anymore. You sell it, then you'd regret it? Okay. So that's the undulation?
23:21 Matt Farah? I mean, have you done the math on, on the buying and the selling? Where did you end up financially? Is that pretty even Steven? Or, or did you end up paying more for the car than you made back cumulatively?
23:34 Speaker 02 When I was a kid and I would get 25 cents from my mother and I would go to the candy store, I would spend that 25 cents. And I have not changed.
23:47 Speaker 02 Since that day, I would go immediately and spend all 25 cents. And I do, and I, I just like to work as hard as I can. And I assume if I just keep working and I don't look at what I'm spending, I'll be okay.
24:01 Matt Farah? Yeah. God, I'm.
24:04 Speaker 01 My dad did the same thing, but it didn't work out.
24:08 Matt Farah? Yeah, if you're not operating on a level, that is a bold strategy.
24:14 Speaker 02 I don't know. I believe in the living life with a little, little devil may is a good way to live life.
24:21 Matt Farah? Yeah.
24:21 Speaker 02 To hell with it. Who cares?
24:22 Matt Farah? But when you go through the, the buying and selling, it happens in these waves.
24:27 Speaker 02 Yes.
24:27 Matt Farah? Where you, where you go down a hole and decide that you don't just want a nine, six, four Carrera. You're gonna need maybe several.
24:37 Speaker 02 Maybe everyone they made.
24:39 Matt Farah? All of the ones they made.
24:41 Speaker 02 Here's an interesting thing, a little, we'll do a little quick sidebar life thing. Selling can be as addictive as buying. And fasting can be as addictive as eating.
24:54 Matt Farah? Okay.
24:55 Speaker 02 But we don't need to go down on that, but that's, that's kind of what something I've been thinking about lately.
24:59 Matt Farah? Selling is fun. I mean, there's.
25:01 Speaker 02 Selling can be addictive.
25:02 Matt Farah? Yeah. I mean.
25:03 Speaker 02 There's a rush.
25:03 Matt Farah? You know, you know enough car dealers to know that there's, there's car dealers that you and I both know that are junkies for being a car dealer.
25:13 Speaker 01 They love that victory, right? I mean, money on it and it's like selling a sock or something like that.
25:17 Speaker 02 It's just transactions movement, you know?
25:19 Matt Farah? Yeah.
25:20 Speaker 02 Yeah, but that's my new one. Fasting is as addictive as eating.
25:23 Matt Farah? Okay. So in terms of cars, are we fasting right now? Are we in a fast period?
25:29 Speaker 02 No.
25:31 Matt Farah? Okay.
25:31 Speaker 02 No, I, but I'm really, uh, I'm really in a good place in that. I'll tell you what, that three O R S.
25:40 Matt Farah? Which we agreed earlier was the most nine 11 of nine 11s in this room anyway.
25:45 Speaker 02 Happy that makes me hear you say that, because that's what I think.
25:48 Matt Farah? Every RS product for the last 50 years is chasing that.
25:53 Speaker 02 Yeah.
25:54 Matt Farah? Yeah.
25:55 Speaker 02 Oh, this is, this is whole day was worth it.
25:58 Matt Farah? That and the coffee.
25:59 Speaker 02 So you've driven one?
26:00 Matt Farah? Yes.
26:01 Speaker 02 Have you ever driven one?
26:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, I drove Porsche Museum's yellow one in Germany.
26:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
26:06 Speaker 01 It informed, retroactively informed in my brain, everything that Porsche has done since then. Because I was a Porsche curmudgeon for a long time, because I worked for a company that did a lot of their production work, and so I was just grumpy about that job. And I would be like, these cars aren't that good. And then I would drive one to film it, and I'd go, well, that one's pretty good.
26:24 Speaker 01 Finally, after six years, I was like, I'm an idiot. I drove the 2.7, and it all became very clear.
26:30 Speaker 02 Yeah. And then that is, of course, the next level. And I had never driven one of these till I owned it. I bought that.
26:38 Matt Farah? How many of those are there?
26:40 Speaker 02 There are, I think, 55.
26:42 Matt Farah? Yeah, not a lot.
26:43 Speaker 02 But that's an 18,000 mile original car.
26:47 Matt Farah? But you're not, but, well, you don't care what the odometer says.
26:51 Speaker 02 Yes, I do.
26:52 Matt Farah? You do?
26:53 Speaker 02 Yeah.
26:53 Speaker 01 Because he's addicted to the sound.
26:55 Matt Farah? You can't, you can't.
26:56 Speaker 02 It's just a cool thing to find.
26:57 Matt Farah? You can't possibly put, I mean, you care about it in terms of like, its condition now, but that's not going to prevent you from.
27:03 Speaker 02 No, no, no, no.
27:04 Matt Farah? Yeah.
27:05 Speaker 02 No, with these guys that have these zero mile cars, they save them for me.
27:12 Speaker 02 I ruin them.
27:12 Matt Farah? They had like that, that white collection that just went up. There was a whole room of like 85 cars with no miles on them. I can't, I understand if you love cars and you have the means to buy a bunch, and you can't possibly put enough miles on each car for it to make a dent. I get that. That's pretty much where you're at. I don't get the zero mile bubble preservation at all.
27:34 Speaker 02 I had a good line one time on, on one of Spike's shows, if you get to heaven and you have the lowest mile Porsche, you lose.
27:44 Matt Farah? Clickenhouse, like 10 years ago, was like, it's like not having sex with your girlfriend to save her for the next guy.
27:50 Speaker 02 I'm gonna, I'm gonna red pencil that line. The sexual. Car analogy thing is, no more of these metaphors.
27:59 Speaker 01 It's a tired one, too.
28:01 Matt Farah? Okay, well, look, it went back to oh four, alright, fine. I even said back in the day.
28:04 Speaker 01 It's not your line.
28:05 Matt Farah? Not my line, fine.
28:06 Speaker 02 Jay Leno tries them some, no more Jay, no more. I don't want to hear about how this is similar to some girl experience.
28:14 Matt Farah? It works at the Concorde. It works in the Catskills real well. No, the other one, the other most Porsche Porsche that I ever drove was the, from that same secret warehouse in Stuttgart, they had the Club Sport prototype with the Kevlar body.
28:31 Speaker 02 32 Club Sport?
28:32 Matt Farah? Yeah, and it was 2,200 pounds and I drove it and it felt like it was 350 horsepower. And I went back and I was like, what is in this engine? They're like, nothing, it's 2,200 pounds.
28:42 Speaker 02 Wow.
28:43 Matt Farah? It was crazy.
28:44 Speaker 02 I hadn't heard of this car.
28:45 Matt Farah? Yeah, it looks, you can't tell it from a, from the, the Club Sport that you know, the 85 to 87, except the body, you, you know, you do one of these like a fake Cobra and it's carbon Kevlar.
28:56 Speaker 02 Wow.
28:57 Matt Farah? Yeah.
28:57 Speaker 02 Like the 59?
28:58 Matt Farah? Yeah, it's crazy.
28:59 Speaker 02 Wow, cool.
29:01 Matt Farah? How do you, how do you, where do you place 959 in your, in your orbit of special Porsche?
29:09 Speaker 02 The 959 gets a pedestal. It's a unique, I think the feeling of everything with that car, when you open the door, when you start it, when you drive it, every interaction you have with it, you go, this was just a different project. And I, and I think it was the pinnacle of Porsche idiocy, which is why I love it so much. It's like, they just lost their mind here.
29:36 Matt Farah? Yeah.
29:37 Speaker 02 I mean, what is more attractive than a car that they were losing 250 grand on each one?
29:44 Matt Farah? Yeah.
29:44 Speaker 02 There's nothing more attractive than that.
29:47 Matt Farah? Even today, I gotta tell you, when I read a story in the news, like I had a Chevy Volt and I loved my Volt. And I'd read in the news, you know, GM loses forty-eight thousand dollars a unit on the Chevy Volt. I go, great. I've just bought a ninety-five thousand dollar car for forty-two seven. You know, same thing with the Taycons. I bought this used Taycan. Oh, Porsche's losing money on this. Fucking great for me. I've just bought a three-hundred thousand dollar car for sixty-four grand.
30:16 Speaker 01 LS four hundred, right? Didn't they spend a huge money on that?
30:19 Matt Farah? Yeah, Lexus LS four hundred.
30:20 Speaker 01 These moonshot cars are always great because they overdid it because they had to.
30:24 Speaker 02 I think the nose on the Chevy Volt is a fantastic design.
30:28 Matt Farah? The original one, the first one, yeah.
30:30 Speaker 02 The first one. The back is a disaster. The nose, whenever I see one on the road, I have to look at it. I get a little jolt of pleasure.
30:38 Matt Farah? I swear to you, no bullshit. It's one of my like two or three favorite cars I've ever owned. Yeah, it taught me a lot. It really taught me a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:47 Speaker 02 About what? Efficiency?
30:49 Matt Farah? Yeah. And the fact that like I actually enjoyed driving around the city in a small car instead of a big car. I enjoyed doing errands using electricity instead of gas. I just prefer that. And I just, and I just, I was converted from, I was driving a fucking Raptor and I traded for a Volt. So, yeah, I learned, I learned a lot and nobody cared. No one cared when I talked about it. Everyone thought I was an idiot, but I loved it. I don't care.
31:16 Speaker 02 Do you know where the word Lexus came from?
31:19 Speaker 01 No.
31:20 Matt Farah? No, I don't either. Even though I read the book and it's probably in there.
31:24 Speaker 02 They were trying to come up with a name and all they had on the board was it's a luxury export for the US.
31:31 Matt Farah? Oh.
31:31 Speaker 01 Wow.
31:32 Speaker 02 And that's where they got it.
31:33 Matt Farah? It's the Nabisco formula of car naming. The LS four hundred, though, is one of the, one of the most incredible vehicles of all time.
31:42 Speaker 02 I bought one for Larry David as a gift.
31:45 Matt Farah? Guys, support for the Smoking Tire comes from the podcast Drive with Jim Farley. You know Jim Farley. He's the CEO of Ford. Not only that, this guy has a GT forty and a Cobra and all. Kinds of amazing vintage American metal that he races wheel to wheel at places like Goodwood. He's a boss and you gotta check out this show. It's where Jim talks to some of his favorite people about what they drive and what drives them to succeed. They just started season three with some sick new guests, including Vicky Butler Henderson, the British racing driver and fifth gear personality. Randy Nonnenberg from Bring a Trailer and T-Pain, the musician turned drifter.
32:25 Matt Farah? Guy's got skills, actually. Um, I listened, uh, I listened to it the other day. It is great. Jim is a great interviewer. He's insightful. And, uh, it's interesting hearing these folks open up to him. I really am about it. I support Jim's venture here. To listen to Drive with Jim Farley, just search Drive with Jim Farley in any podcast app. That's Drive with Jim Farley and thank you for supporting this episode.
32:50 Speaker 02 When the R's TV series got picked up in 91 and he drove it for years.
32:56 Matt Farah? I bet. I can picture Larry David being the kind of person who would roll an LS 400 for two decades.
33:02 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, he did.
33:04 Speaker 01 They'll last so long, they're great.
33:05 Matt Farah? Until probably until the Prius, right? Until the first gen Prius. And then he became Mr. Prius.
33:10 Speaker 02 And last night I had, we had dinner and he was in a, the new electric Macan and over the moon about it.
33:17 Matt Farah? Oh, good. What color? Can we, can we say it without?
33:19 Speaker 02 Burgundy interior.
33:20 Matt Farah? Good taste.
33:21 Speaker 01 Nice.
33:21 Speaker 02 Yeah.
33:21 Matt Farah? I was gonna get one and I bailed last minute because in between when I ordered it and when it got delivered, the EV market just took a huge dip.
33:31 Speaker 02 Yeah.
33:32 Matt Farah? And it all of a sudden felt very expensive. And so I bought a two-year-old Taycan for 50% off instead.
33:39 Speaker 02 How do you like that?
33:40 Matt Farah? I fucking love it.
33:41 Speaker 02 I hear people love it.
33:42 Matt Farah? I love it.
33:43 Speaker 02 I've never been in one.
33:44 Matt Farah? You haven't? Wow. Oh, I wish I brought it. You could have a go. But, um, the, have you driven electrified vehicles at all?
33:53 Speaker 02 I, Spike got me in a Tesla Model 3.
33:58 Matt Farah? Yeah.
34:00 Speaker 02 I, I, I love the design on, on that car. I think that's a great design.
34:05 Matt Farah? It's not bad.
34:05 Speaker 02 It's like, that's appealing to a lot of people.
34:08 Matt Farah? But I think you'd like a Taycan because it drives like a Porsche.
34:11 Speaker 02 I'm sure it does.
34:12 Matt Farah? It steers like a Porsche. It's, it's great.
34:14 Speaker 02 I'm sure it does.
34:15 Matt Farah? But you know, for, it's just with your, for you, driving is an opportunity to take out something special, right?
34:22 Speaker 02 Yeah. I, I need the explosions.
34:27 Speaker 01 Are you disinterested in EV powertrains?
34:30 Speaker 02 Yes.
34:30 Speaker 01 Okay.
34:31 Speaker 02 Yes.
34:32 Matt Farah? When, you know, when you're, do you use driving as a, as a, as a thought, when you're writing, as a way to write, or do you have to observe people?
34:41 Speaker 02 Pure pleasure.
34:42 Matt Farah? Okay. Interesting.
34:44 Speaker 02 So one thing I miss about not living in LA is driving all day. But I don't think driving in LA is like...
34:51 Matt Farah? Driving in LA has become less fun.
34:53 Speaker 02 It's less fun, yeah. But in the 80s and 90s, it was great.
34:56 Matt Farah? I keep, everyone just like tells me, just sunset to PCH, just back to sunset.
35:00 Speaker 02 It was great, great. You just go by, if you go at Times, I have a Subaru S209. Do you know what that is?
35:09 Matt Farah? Yeah, I do.
35:10 Speaker 02 And I drove it from Beverly Hills Sunset to the 405 two nights ago. What a great car.
35:17 Matt Farah? You have one of those now?
35:19 Speaker 01 That's awesome.
35:19 Speaker 02 Yes. I love Subarus.
35:21 Matt Farah? Seriously?
35:22 Speaker 02 Yeah.
35:23 Matt Farah? I don't, how did I never know this about you, that you love special Subarus?
35:27 Speaker 02 Yeah, I love special Subarus.
35:28 Matt Farah? Because of the flat engines?
35:30 Speaker 02 Yeah. And I like their attitude.
35:32 Speaker 01 What was the first Subaru you ever owned?
35:37 Speaker 02 I think it was probably the, the RA, WRX STI, uh, record attempt car.
35:46 Matt Farah? Oh, wow. Okay.
35:47 Speaker 02 I got that one. And then the 209 was better than that, so I got that. And I, and I sold it, and then I just bought it back last week. And now I'm totally in love with it.
35:58 Matt Farah? How interesting that you have a secret Subaru habit.
36:01 Speaker 02 Yes, I do.
36:02 Speaker 01 I'm an STI fanboy. I'm into it. Oh, really? I had my M6 for a couple of years.
36:06 Matt Farah? Yeah, they're great. Is the 22B on your radar?
36:09 Speaker 02 I'm aware of it. Looks pretty cool.
36:11 Speaker 01 It is fantastic.
36:12 Speaker 02 Yeah? Have you driven it?
36:13 Matt Farah? Yeah.
36:13 Speaker 02 Is it great?
36:14 Matt Farah? Yeah.
36:14 Speaker 01 The one you want is the Prodrive one that's full carbon.
36:17 Matt Farah? Yeah.
36:17 Speaker 01 That's not, doesn't have as much prominence, but they do full carbon body, so it's lighter and even more insane.
36:22 Speaker 02 There's not too many, you know, here, here's what's gone. And you're too young.
36:29 Speaker 02 My friend, you know Sam, so he just got an incredible Volvo P1800. A red car with 10,000 original miles.
36:39 Speaker 02 When I started with cars, the way companies expressed their national character through these machines.
36:46 Matt Farah? Yeah.
36:47 Speaker 02 Was so entertaining. Right?
36:50 Matt Farah? Yeah.
36:50 Speaker 02 And this precious few left that do it, and I think Subaru was one. They expressed their national character and the Japanese automotive character is fantastic. They have a great automotive passion and I love what they do, so.
37:07 Matt Farah? In like the 70s, the cars were so of their countries.
37:12 Speaker 02 Yes, but not like the 60s.
37:14 Matt Farah? 60s, yeah, but I was thinking about French cars in the 70s being so insane.
37:20 Speaker 02 Yeah, so insane.
37:22 Matt Farah? You know, with like the one spoke Citroen wheel.
37:25 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:26 Matt Farah? One spoke and it's at 3 o'clock, people are like, ah. Spoke up and just ate some acid and went to the office.
37:32 Speaker 02 I had a Dovcevo for a couple of years.
37:34 Matt Farah? Yeah, did you like it?
37:35 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah.
37:37 Matt Farah? They're, in the same way the old Porsches are simple.
37:40 Speaker 01 Yeah, everyone I know who owns one or has driven one a lot, love it. And these are car people, journalists, like Harris has one, Sam has one.
37:46 Speaker 02 Really?
37:47 Speaker 01 They just love those machines.
37:49 Matt Farah? Yeah, and I think Andrew Frankel's got one as well.
37:51 Speaker 02 Really?
37:52 Matt Farah? Yeah. I don't think it would work in LA. I don't think it would hold up to LA traffic.
37:57 Speaker 01 No.
37:58 Matt Farah? This is, this is actually, it's become a tough city for sports cars because it's just, it's just so much traffic. It's hard on the cars.
38:04 Speaker 02 Yeah.
38:05 Matt Farah? So I gotta get, I'm getting up at like 6 a.m. to go drive.
38:07 Speaker 02 Wow.
38:08 Matt Farah? When I, when I want to do that. And then it's glorious.
38:10 Speaker 02 Yeah.
38:10 Matt Farah? I mean, there's nothing like a, like a 6 a.m. run up the hill.
38:13 Speaker 02 Right.
38:15 Matt Farah? When, um, I read in an interview that you, you talked about meditation being like really useful for, you said, what was the exact quote? For making, it's a great tool for making things make sense.
38:33 Speaker 02 Never said that.
38:35 Matt Farah? Perfect, okay, next. Yep, there we go, but.
38:41 Speaker 02 If you don't meditate, and of course transcendental meditation is the Tiffany of meditation. All these stupid online apps are useless. If you want to do it, do the real thing, which is TM, like the Beatles learned from the Maharishi. And then I learned it in 72 because of the Beatles. I got interested in it, and I've been doing it since 72. But if you don't meditate, it's like you don't have any spoons in your kitchen. It's like, are you kidding? I mean, this is like the tool. It's the ultimate life/work tool.
39:20 Matt Farah? It's been recommended to me like a dozen different times. I've just never put the effort in.
39:25 Speaker 02 It doesn't take any effort. That's the beauty of it. It's 100% effective, 100% of the time for 100% of the people, and it's zero effort. And what it is, the best analogy I ever came up with for it, it's like you have a cellphone, and I'm going to give you the charger. And anywhere, anytime you want to zap up your battery, you just plug it in, and that phone comes right back, doesn't it? That's what TM is. For example, let's say you didn't sleep great last night. And we're sitting here today, and you're going, "I wish I had a little more energy." Because to me, energy is the only thing, the thing of greatest value in life, period, is energy. Because it's how we do everything. I could rest right now.
40:08 Speaker 02 I could put this mic down, and we could just turn this thing off, and I could just go meditate right now. You would think, "Well, if I'm really tired, I'll take a nap." That's all you have. It's ridiculous. Your nervous system has been built to do this for hundreds of thousands of years. And you don't know that the software is just sitting there waiting for you to access it. You just have to learn the technique, which is about as complicated as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. All right.
40:39 Speaker 01 And how long would you do the meditation here on the couch before we start recording?
40:42 Speaker 02 Twenty minutes.
40:43 Speaker 01 Twenty minutes. I've done the, I know it's not the same, but like the non-sleep deep rest where you do like some breathing and stuff. And it's 10 minutes and the reset that happens after that instead of napping is pretty wild.
40:55 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's along those lines.
40:56 Speaker 01 And the quietness of the mind and stuff is pretty incredible.
40:59 Speaker 02 Yeah, but in TM you don't quiet your mind, you just let it go crazy.
41:03 Matt Farah? Huh. I do that, like my meditation is actually driving or motorcycles is usually, it's not a meditation so much as it is a narrowing my focus and like turning off the other noise.
41:17 Speaker 02 Well, obviously I understand what you're talking about, but it's a completely irrelevant. You're, you're using the word in a way that's completely irrelevant. You're saying, I don't exercise, but I walk through the airport. Okay. Well, then you don't exercise.
41:32 Matt Farah? Right. Okay. All right. Fair. Sorry, people. We are, we're at an active airport.
41:38 Speaker 01 We use this moment to change.
41:38 Matt Farah? Apparently the dumpster is, oof, being dropped on my car.
41:43 Speaker 02 Very good.
41:43 Matt Farah? Right outside.
41:45 Speaker 02 Dumpster sounds. Very good. I like that.
41:50 Speaker 02 I wasn't sure what that was.
41:52 Matt Farah? My wife was like, why are you nervous this morning? I was like, cuz if I leave a little hole, Jerry is going to throw me into it. A lot of people are going to hear it.
42:02 Speaker 02 That's the terrain here. That's why we get paid.
42:05 Matt Farah? Yeah. So everything in this room is at a minimum 36 years old, right?
42:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, that would be the newest.
42:14 Matt Farah? This is the newest, 87 maybe?
42:16 Speaker 02 Eighty-eight.
42:17 Matt Farah? Okay. So when you, are you interested in, in what's being built today?
42:24 Matt Farah? Are you interested in anything new?
42:25 Speaker 02 I, I mean, I just got the new nine 11 ST.
42:28 Matt Farah? The best.
42:28 Speaker 02 Ooh. What can we say?
42:30 Matt Farah? Did you drive it yet?
42:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, I drove it for six hours last week and I was in heaven.
42:38 Speaker 02 Absolute heaven.
42:39 Matt Farah? Pretty close to that one over there.
42:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
42:43 Matt Farah? Given the size of the current car.
42:45 Speaker 02 Yeah.
42:45 Matt Farah? What color?
42:46 Speaker 02 Midnight blue metallic with the cognac interior.
42:51 Matt Farah? Nice.
42:51 Speaker 02 No graphics. I just want to drive.
42:54 Matt Farah? Low key.
42:54 Speaker 02 I just want to drive.
42:56 Matt Farah? Fantastic.
42:56 Speaker 02 I have a 918 and I got that in navy blue. Navy blue, if you don't want to bother people, if you want to buy something crazy, but you don't want to bother people, that's the color. People will wave my 918 in because it's navy blue.
43:13 Matt Farah? Really?
43:13 Speaker 02 Yes.
43:14 Matt Farah? If it was acid green.
43:15 Speaker 02 This guy's trying not to bother people. He just loves his car, that's all.
43:20 Speaker 01 There's not a lot of Lamborghinis in navy blue because I think a lot of the owners are trying to be loud.
43:24 Speaker 02 Yes, of course. And they should.
43:27 Matt Farah? My pink car, they let you in.
43:29 Speaker 02 A navy blue Lambo is a cool idea.
43:30 Matt Farah? Navy blue Lambo would be good. I have not seen one in a long time.
43:33 Speaker 02 Do you think that the Murra is maybe the most beautiful design ever?
43:38 Speaker 01 Ooh, yeah.
43:39 Matt Farah? I think because of my age, it is my duty to defend the Countach in that particular thing. But I understand why our age gap would lead you to where you are, and I'm pro Murra in general.
43:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, the Countach is, the thing that's so genius about the Murra is it splits the feminine masculine dynamic. The Countach is more masculine.
44:08 Matt Farah? Definitely. All the wedges are.
44:09 Speaker 02 Yeah. But that's a cool car.
44:11 Matt Farah? I have the, some original Bertone vellum drawings that I got from, I guess there was like an estate sale or something over it.
44:20 Speaker 02 Oh, really?
44:20 Matt Farah? Yeah, they were selling off all kinds of stuff. They tried to sell me the one-third scale Countach styling buck model.
44:28 Speaker 02 Oh, my God.
44:29 Matt Farah? It's 13 grand. You want it?
44:30 Speaker 02 No, but you should have it.
44:32 Matt Farah? I don't know where I'd, it's giant. I don't know what I would do with it.
44:34 Speaker 01 Those drawing schematics are amazing.
44:36 Matt Farah? The drawing schematics are amazing. So I've got, I've got the Murra, the Countach, and the Stratos.
44:40 Speaker 02 Here's one of the greatest, I love the Stratos.
44:42 Matt Farah? Stratos is awesome.
44:43 Speaker 02 One of the greatest moments I've ever had. I think it was Road Rat, which is a great magazine.
44:49 Matt Farah? Yes, yeah.
44:50 Speaker 02 They were doing a thing on Giordeto Guigiaro, is that how you say it?
44:55 Matt Farah? Giugiaro.
44:55 Speaker 02 Giugiaro?
44:56 Matt Farah? Yeah.
44:57 Speaker 02 And they showed him, and he was talking about when they brought him over to VW. And VW showed him the Fiat 128, which was my first car that I ever owned, the Sport. And they said, "We want something like this." And he told them, "It is impossible to achieve the efficiency of that car." I love that. It's impossible. And there's a picture of him and he's holding a Bic pen, which you know is my pen of choice. And so he's holding a Bic pen and he's explaining to the VW executives in the late 60s that you can't, you're never gonna match the Fiat 128.
45:33 Matt Farah? It's just too, it's too perfect, it cannot be improved on.
45:37 Speaker 02 Yeah. He did pretty well with the Golf though.
45:39 Matt Farah? He then did the Fiat 131, didn't he? I think he did the-
45:42 Speaker 02 I think he was gone by then.
45:44 Matt Farah? Oh, was he? Okay. The 131 rally car is kick ass.
45:47 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
45:47 Matt Farah? That's real good stuff.
45:48 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
45:49 Matt Farah? That's big box flares.
45:50 Speaker 02 In the Alitalia delivery.
45:52 Matt Farah? I drove that thing.
45:53 Speaker 02 Really?
45:54 Matt Farah? Yeah. In the, this guy named John Campion, who unfortunately died, had a full collection of Fiat and Lancia rally cars. And he invited me to go to Jacksonville.
46:07 Speaker 02 Did he ever display them?
46:07 Matt Farah? Yeah, together, Amelia.
46:10 Speaker 02 Oh, at Amelia.
46:10 Matt Farah? Or maybe somewhere else, too.
46:11 Speaker 02 I thought I saw one, what's that thing in Pebble, the-
46:15 Matt Farah? The Pebble Beach Concorde?
46:17 Speaker 02 The big, uh, the other thing that they do. Yeah, the Quail.
46:20 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah. He might have had them in the Quail for sure. But I got to go drive the 131, the Stratos, the Escort Mark II and a bunch of rally cars. And it was really cool, except that it was in North Florida, so there were no corners.
46:34 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
46:35 Speaker 01 They also had rally gearing, so they had very short rear diff ratios. I remember you're in 4th gear at like 9,000 RPM and 30 miles per hour in the video.
46:44 Matt Farah? That was when I drove the Stratos.
46:45 Speaker 02 Yeah, tell me about that.
46:46 Matt Farah? Well, it was the actual Monte Carlo Rally Stratos.
46:51 Speaker 02 Wow.
46:52 Matt Farah? Which is amazing, except that it was still geared for the Monte Carlo Rally. So it was a 5-speed and at, you know, 7,000 RPM in 5th, I'm going 62 miles an hour.
47:04 Speaker 02 Seriously?
47:05 Matt Farah? On a dead straight road in Florida.
47:07 Speaker 02 Oh, my God.
47:08 Matt Farah? And it was set up for like rally, so it had this like super sharp twitchy steering rack and like a really tight dip. I mean, it was like a, it was a totally unrestored, unrefined race car, but it was the most absurd, you know, overwhelming thing.
47:24 Speaker 02 But it was a great experience.
47:25 Matt Farah? Yeah, it was really, really cool. The street cars are supposedly lovely.
47:28 Speaker 02 Yeah.
47:29 Matt Farah? How do you, what do you think about?
47:31 Speaker 02 Maybe my favorite Italian car.
47:32 Matt Farah? So, okay, it's, I mean, it's certainly the, the most striking. Have you owned one ever?
47:38 Speaker 02 No.
47:38 Matt Farah? Would you?
47:40 Speaker 01 Do you own any Italian cars? Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
47:42 Speaker 02 No, that's okay. I, I was gonna bring my Fiat collection here. I have a French blue 850 coupe. I have two 128 Sport Ls. That was my first car. I have two of them. And I know they've got to be the nicest ones in the world because none of them survived. And I have a 124 sedan, four door sedan, the famous Rene Julien jump car from that. Yeah, the jump.
48:08 Matt Farah? The actual one?
48:09 Speaker 02 No, no, just, but that was the first car I bought in LA. Here's another, so I, when I moved, so I started in comedy in 76. Four years later, I decide, okay, everybody's saying I'm one of the better guys in New York. I gotta go to LA. I gotta go to the next league. And I, I had saved up $2,000 over the four years. That's all I had. I got to LA, I went to a used car lot. They had a Fiat 124 sedan that was $2,000 and I bought it.
48:37 Matt Farah? Okay.
48:37 Speaker 02 And I was.
48:38 Matt Farah? That's car math. Every penny I've got.
48:40 Speaker 02 Every penny.
48:42 Speaker 01 Cause had you saved that money to live on when you got out here?
48:45 Speaker 02 No, I saved, yeah, to live on, yeah.
48:47 Speaker 01 And yet you burned it all on a car right away.
48:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, I bought it, yeah, and I was broke.
48:51 Matt Farah? That is, I mean, the, the story that I heard of from, from Jay, and apparently it's, it's true, of him like when he moves here, like dailying a Countach for a year or so.
49:02 Speaker 02 Really?
49:03 Matt Farah? He said he daily drove a Countach in 1984 or something.
49:06 Speaker 02 He had one. He didn't daily it.
49:09 Matt Farah? Maybe he has embellished. It's okay. Sorry, Jake.
49:11 Speaker 02 Well, we do that for entertainment purposes.
49:14 Matt Farah? Wait, we took a lot. Oh, don't you have a Jolly somewhere?
49:18 Speaker 02 Uh, no, I drove a Jolly with Louis C K and comedians and cars and it was great.
49:25 Speaker 02 I've had a lot of Fiat. I love seventies Fiat. I love Daniele. They were brilliantly executed, not for Americans. But you know, I was, you know, if you can do a tune up and an oil change and you like fixing broken things, they're great.
49:42 Matt Farah? And if you go to Monaco or Nice or any of those places, you go, oh, this makes total sense.
49:49 Speaker 02 Total sense.
49:50 Matt Farah? Right? Is there anything better than driving a tiny car in Europe? It's so, so good.
49:57 Speaker 01 Cause I drove that when we filmed Drive years ago, I drove the SLS Black Series back from France. And trying to park that in various towns in Europe.
50:05 Speaker 02 Really?
50:06 Speaker 01 Was an exercise.
50:06 Matt Farah? Yeah, we did a film.
50:07 Speaker 01 Was far too wide for most of these, you know, two thousand year old cities.
50:11 Speaker 02 Cool car, though.
50:12 Speaker 01 Very cool car.
50:12 Matt Farah? It was a cool car, just very hard to park. It was right hand drive.
50:17 Speaker 02 I love that you're obsessed with space taking, cause so am I. Sizes. But don't you think Porsche expanded to the nine nine two to get the double wishbone front end? Isn't that why they did it? It wouldn't fit in the nine nine one. And it's an amazing steering system.
50:37 Speaker 01 It is really good.
50:38 Matt Farah? But I'm not sure I care. I'm not sure that the trade off for me personally is worth it.
50:47 Speaker 02 That's fair.
50:47 Matt Farah? Even though usually like every thing about Porsche is, especially when I go on a launch and I meet Andy or Oliver or any of these guys. Every decision they make is totally defensible, totally defensible.
51:01 Speaker 02 Right.
51:02 Matt Farah? Even if I personally disagree with it.
51:04 Speaker 02 Right.
51:04 Matt Farah? So they can say, well, we had to make it this size for the double wishbone suspension or because we wanted to. We had to make it bigger in the back so that we could move the engine two centimeters forward for the balance or whatever. Those decisions totally defensible. Do I necessarily think that my ideal car should have been that? No, but okay.
51:25 Speaker 01 Cause that's when I think you run into the friction between the objective of the company, which is to win more races or set better lap times. And then, you know, the objective of the customer.
51:33 Matt Farah? Or safety or whatever.
51:35 Speaker 02 Yes, but you can't drive the the ST and say this going in this direction was a mistake. You can't say that.
51:41 Matt Farah? So that's what's funny about a lot of these, um, a lot of the decisions that Porsche make. Cars like the ST disproves.
51:48 Speaker 02 Exactly.
51:49 Matt Farah? Well, we do it because it's better, it's faster, it's more efficient. This is like, the ST is flipping at 200X right now.
51:57 Speaker 02 Yes.
51:57 Matt Farah? That is the most in demand car of the, and you can't give away Macan electrics. What are you thinking? You know what I mean?
52:06 Speaker 01 Well, it's like with the new nine 11T, they, they put rear steering on it and some other things. Because to, to delete rear steer is only for the ST.
52:14 Matt Farah? Yeah.
52:14 Speaker 01 So if they had kept rear steer off of the nine 11T, you'd go, wait, so the cheapest nine 11 also has this awesome feature.
52:20 Matt Farah? Yeah.
52:21 Speaker 01 That the most expensive nine 11 has.
52:23 Matt Farah? Right.
52:23 Speaker 01 So they kind of sometimes have to like hamstring themselves.
52:26 Speaker 02 What are they trading at STs now?
52:28 Matt Farah? The last, uh, the last one I saw was like 800.
52:31 Speaker 02 No way.
52:32 Matt Farah? Enormous money.
52:33 Speaker 02 That won't stay there.
52:34 Matt Farah? It probably won't, but like, what I've learned recently is that there's enough people for whom what there is just no difference between some extra numbers on a thing.
52:44 Speaker 02 They have a thing called the internet. There's some people are using it to make money.
52:53 Matt Farah? But yeah, I, I, I, I don't know what it's like to have that kind of money to spend on a car. But when we got the ST press car and we put a thousand miles on it in a week. And I said, I, I get this, I get every bit of this.
53:07 Speaker 02 Yeah.
53:07 Matt Farah? You know, and, and it's.
53:09 Speaker 02 So that's nice, you know, there's not too many companies we could say that about.
53:12 Matt Farah? No, I know.
53:13 Speaker 02 That, that have lost, haven't lost a thread.
53:15 Matt Farah? I really, like you, it makes you wonder why Ferrari, Lamborghini and these other McLaren, when they see the value that some of the, the manual transmission engaging experience stuff brings to these cars, why they don't make it a priority. They could, cause they could clearly sell it for all the money in the world.
53:33 Speaker 02 Yeah.
53:33 Matt Farah? Imagine Ferrari came out with a rear drive, a rear drive manual, no hybrid 296. They'd sell them all.
53:39 Speaker 02 Not their style.
53:41 Matt Farah? That's true. Whimsy is not what Ferrari does.
53:44 Speaker 02 Right, right.
53:45 Matt Farah? Ironically, the Germans are doing it, which is strange. The Germans aren't necessarily whimsical either.
53:51 Speaker 02 They're not, but they're good businessmen.
53:53 Matt Farah? Yeah.
53:54 Speaker 02 And they see the business model makes sense.
53:56 Matt Farah? Mm-hmm.
53:57 Speaker 02 We've got the fans going crazy.
53:58 Matt Farah? Yeah.
53:59 Speaker 01 It's actually a logical decision, not a whimsical decision.
54:01 Speaker 02 Yes, exactly.
54:02 Speaker 01 But we, the benefit is we get whimsical things.
54:04 Speaker 02 Right.
54:04 Matt Farah? So, as you know, in your collection, which is many, many cars throughout, you have, you have at your literal fingertips access to some of the greatest cars throughout Porsche's history, right? And that is a, that, you're like, wow, wouldn't that be nice? Oh, that's me.
54:22 Matt Farah? So what are, you know, for, for, for, for the rest of us, and certainly people far wealthier than me, you've got companies like Singer, Gunther, Todd Hill, Workshop 5001, and, and 20 or 30 other companies that are willing to build you a sort of highlight reel 911, from any period in history, basically, you know, at a variety of price points. Do any of those projects interest you at all? No?
54:51 Speaker 02 Who are these people? As I have said so famously for so many years in my stand-up act, who are these people? I bought, as you may or may not know, the classic club coupe, which was Porsche took a 1999, a, a, a RAT F996.
55:12 Matt Farah? Yeah.
55:12 Speaker 02 And they said, what would we have done back in 1999 if we had the money at that time? What would we have done? So they made two of these things, and the entire tech department of the company focused on this. These guys ain't doing that. What they made with that car, they made the greatest GT3 that could have been made in 1999. They put a brand-new engine in it, they, you know, the design of it, you know, Grant Larson did it. And it's unbelievable. So...
55:53 Speaker 02 Think of the size of the enterprise of Porsche engineering focusing on your car. Isn't that what you want?
56:02 Matt Farah? Yes, who, other than you, who has access to something like that?
56:06 Speaker 02 Anybody that can afford a 911T, you're getting that.
56:09 Matt Farah? Okay.
56:09 Speaker 02 You're getting that.
56:10 Matt Farah? Okay.
56:11 Speaker 02 And that's what I want. I want that division working on my car. I want, I want those engineering geniuses working on my car.
56:20 Matt Farah? Well, they clearly, they're starting to feel the same way because, did you see at Pebble Beach last year, they quote, "reimagined" a Speedster. Did you see the Speedster?
56:32 Speaker 02 I did.
56:33 Matt Farah? It was the 993 Speedster? And, I mean, whatever you think about it aesthetically, that was done at Porsche, sort of.
56:41 Speaker 02 I built the first 993 Speedster at Porsche back in 05.
56:49 Speaker 01 I'm laughing because he's like, "Did you see this car?" You're like, "I actually built the first one."
56:53 Matt Farah? Yeah, this was the second one.
56:54 Speaker 01 I know, but, yeah.
56:56 Speaker 02 But, it didn't quite work, actually, Matt.
56:59 Matt Farah? Why didn't it work? Wait, you mean the most recent one or the one you had?
57:02 Speaker 02 The one I had.
57:02 Matt Farah? What about it didn't quite work?
57:04 Speaker 02 Felt heavy.
57:05 Matt Farah? Oh, because it's based on a cab, right?
57:07 Speaker 02 Yeah.
57:08 Matt Farah? And then they add the tonneau cover and, okay.
57:11 Speaker 02 And if you ask me, what is my favorite automotive experience, honestly, to tell you the truth, that 57 Speedster is it. I don't think anything feels better than that car on the right day, on the right road, in terms of simplicity, elegance, and sports car interaction.
57:34 Speaker 01 Does, does outright speed ever, like, where does that land on your hierarchy?
57:38 Speaker 02 Pretty low down.
57:39 Speaker 01 Okay.
57:39 Speaker 02 Pretty low down. I'm more into, um...
57:44 Speaker 02 Communication.
57:44 Matt Farah? Yeah.
57:45 Speaker 02 Is this the S A S T? We go back to that car.
57:48 Matt Farah? Well, we love cars to engage.
57:49 Speaker 02 And I'm talking to it. And I have never had anything made of metal reach that part of my brain.
57:55 Matt Farah? Right, right, right.
57:57 Speaker 02 And that's thrilling.
57:58 Matt Farah? Well, that's the, I mean, for me, anyway, that's the point, is to engage with machinery.
58:03 Speaker 02 Right.
58:04 Matt Farah? I mean, I like my-
58:05 Speaker 02 Which we could explore that from a psychological perspective, but maybe we're better off not.
58:09 Speaker 01 I interviewed a doctor about that for an article I did for Road and Track.
58:13 Speaker 02 Really?
58:14 Speaker 01 About why do people enjoy manual transmissions versus automatic transmissions?
58:18 Speaker 02 Oh, that's interesting.
58:19 Speaker 01 And I had this theory, I'd looked up like the nerve endings in the body. And I was like, oh, well, our hands have tons of nerves and our feet have, so I said, is it just more information? And she nodded and she's like, that's very adorable. She's like, it's basically because you were around manual transmissions as a young person. It's just neuropathways built when you are, you know, the same reason like we love music from our childhood more than new music. It's, I was exposed to mechanical things and manual transmissions when I was in my formative years versus if you're 20 now and you drive a paddle shifting car.
58:52 Speaker 02 No, that's not right. My kid is 19, okay? He started driving manuals and went nuts.
58:59 Matt Farah? Yeah.
59:00 Speaker 02 Where's the, he had-
59:01 Speaker 01 But did he grow up riding with you and seeing how much you enjoyed them and that kind of stuff?
59:05 Speaker 02 No.
59:06 Speaker 01 No?
59:06 Speaker 02 I don't think, I mean, riding with me, yes. See, understanding why dad is doing this? No, he didn't know why.
59:12 Speaker 01 How old was he when he first? Did you ever let him shift the car when he was like six?
59:17 Speaker 02 I taught him, I taught all my kids to drive manuals.
59:19 Speaker 01 Yeah, same with me.
59:20 Speaker 02 They had to learn to drive on a manual, right? And-
59:24 Matt Farah? Once you, once he demonstrated aptitude, does he get keys to special cars? No, no, does he get keys to the special cars? Do we let him?
59:36 Matt Farah? I don't want to ruin the kid.
59:40 Matt Farah? Yeah.
59:40 Speaker 02 I'll let him go. We can go together.
59:42 Matt Farah? Together.
59:42 Speaker 02 We can go together.
59:43 Matt Farah? That makes sense.
59:44 Speaker 02 Yeah.
59:44 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah. Does he have a favorite of your old cars?
59:47 Speaker 02 Yes, he actually loves my plain box stock 88 Carrera.
59:53 Matt Farah? Huh.
59:53 Speaker 02 Which was my first 911.
59:55 Matt Farah? I mean, that is a fabulous car.
59:57 Speaker 02 It is.
59:57 Matt Farah? G50, easy to drive all the time.
59:59 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
1:00:00 Matt Farah? That's actually, I, I, I've been thinking about like, I'd like to have another air-cooled car.
1:00:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:00:06 Matt Farah? And that would pretty much be
1:00:08 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:00:08 Matt Farah? The one.
1:00:08 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:00:09 Matt Farah? In terms of like, a great car for LA playing around.
1:00:12 Speaker 02 Definitely. When are they ever gonna develop one model for 25 years, from 63 to 89?
1:00:19 Matt Farah? Yeah. Only Lamborghini does that.
1:00:24 Matt Farah? Lamborghini's on a, on a, on an 11-year product cycle.
1:00:28 Speaker 02 Is that right?
1:00:29 Matt Farah? The Aventador came out in 2011, and they made it until the end of last year.
1:00:35 Speaker 02 Wow.
1:00:35 Matt Farah? And the, uh, Huracan came out in 2014, and they made it until the end of last year. So 10 and 11 years.
1:00:44 Speaker 02 All Lamborghinis, what's your favorite?
1:00:46 Matt Farah? Oh, Countach.
1:00:47 Speaker 02 Really?
1:00:47 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:00:48 Speaker 02 The look?
1:00:49 Matt Farah? The look and just the, the attitude, the
1:00:51 Speaker 02 Right, right.
1:00:52 Matt Farah? What it represents in time and space. You know, I have one. You saw it a long time ago. It's being restored now, finally, but, um...
1:01:00 Speaker 02 That's cool.
1:01:01 Matt Farah? Um, that's just where, you know, I'm not like, competitive. Are you competitive with cars?
1:01:07 Speaker 02 Competitive with who?
1:01:08 Matt Farah? Like, just, I mean, you know, if you, if you go to a, you know, you go to a place, uh, and you've got the coolest car, that kind of thing. Does that make you feel good, or do you care?
1:01:17 Speaker 02 I have no interest in other people.
1:01:19 Matt Farah? Okay, so, I don't either, but, I like when, I like driving that car because I feel like wherever you go with it, you're the winner.
1:01:29 Speaker 02 Oh, okay.
1:01:30 Matt Farah? It's just that one little thing. I don't compete on any other level with anybody. I don't give a shit. But that makes me feel nice.
1:01:37 Speaker 02 That's nice.
1:01:37 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:01:38 Speaker 02 I don't know. No, this just has to be the coolest thing to me.
1:01:41 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:01:42 Speaker 02 That's all I care about.
1:01:42 Matt Farah? That's fine, too. Yeah. Um, the, what is the, the, oh, how do I say this?
1:01:50 Speaker 02 Coffee is fantastic.
1:01:52 Matt Farah? Is it? I'm so glad you like it.
1:01:54 Speaker 02 I love it.
1:01:54 Matt Farah? Well, there's a whole bunch more. Okay, how, what is your process? Because I asked you about the new stuff and you said the ST and you told me about blue. But when you're deciding on a color combination and envisioning a car.
1:02:06 Speaker 02 Great question.
1:02:07 Matt Farah? What is the thought process?
1:02:08 Speaker 02 The thought process is,
1:02:13 Speaker 02 what is the mood of this experience? And so what do I want to express? The 934, a flat fan, full-on race car in, that is continental orange. That, if that car was silver or white.
1:02:33 Matt Farah? It would not have the same.
1:02:34 Speaker 02 Forget it. I mean, when you're driving that.
1:02:36 Matt Farah? It's not the same.
1:02:37 Speaker 02 Yeah, if you're driving that, you want orange. So what am I, what is the,
1:02:48 Speaker 02 what is the feeling I'm trying to create from this experience? And that determines the color. Also, what does the car want to be? For example, I have the Sport Classic and I got it in yachting blue metallic. Because I thought, this car has an elegance to it. It's not full-on crazy. Whereas the ST, that has, that has to be something pure.
1:03:09 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:03:10 Speaker 02 Something uncorrupted, that is not a combination of things. A pure thing. Because it's a, it's a pure car, so the color has to have a pure.
1:03:20 Matt Farah? That's interesting.
1:03:22 Speaker 01 Can I ask about the color choice for the 918 then? What was the 918's personality to you? And that made you choose that color?
1:03:29 Speaker 02 Well, I was, when I went into, to spec it, I thought, I'm gonna get it in white. Because I think white is really Porsche's color. And it's, all the 60's race cars were white. And I kind of think that's their personality. There's a cleanliness to their thinking.
1:03:48 Speaker 02 And, and then I saw it in black. Black is really my favorite color for a car. I love car. If the car is the absolute, the only other color I would consider for the ST would, would have been black. Because if something is the best, perfect, what I call, I made up this term. I made up a lot of terms. If it's a moment car, the 40 is a moment car. In this moment, the whole story made sense. In this model.
1:04:17 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:04:18 Speaker 02 When you, when you've got that, you don't want to add color to it. So I get it in black.
1:04:23 Matt Farah? The ST press car we had was black.
1:04:25 Speaker 02 Really?
1:04:25 Matt Farah? And you know what happened? It hid everything about it that said ST.
1:04:30 Speaker 02 Right.
1:04:31 Matt Farah? Nobody looked at it twice.
1:04:33 Speaker 02 No.
1:04:33 Matt Farah? No, it had no graphics or anything.
1:04:35 Speaker 01 Well, the fender vents blended in.
1:04:36 Matt Farah? The fender vents disappeared. It was an invisible car.
1:04:40 Speaker 02 Right.
1:04:40 Matt Farah? It was actually a bad choice for a press car. You really want to show those things off.
1:04:44 Speaker 01 When I drove on the launch, it was like Ruby Stone or something.
1:04:46 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:04:47 Speaker 01 So that was quite vivid, yeah, sorry.
1:04:48 Speaker 02 But to answer your question about the 918, why was blue? Um, well, that was the color of my first car. I'm really very drawn to navy blue and black and white. Those are really the, and really bright blues I like too.
1:05:04 Matt Farah? Have you seen South Sea's blue metallic yet? It's a new color for this year. It's like, ah, it's unbelievable.
1:05:11 Speaker 02 And I considered it for the ST.
1:05:13 Matt Farah? Did you?
1:05:13 Speaker 02 I did. But then October 7th happened. And I, and I changed, and I became a different person. And I just didn't want anything bright.
1:05:25 Matt Farah? Oh.
1:05:26 Speaker 02 I mean, that's, you know, obviously.
1:05:28 Matt Farah? All right, well, sure.
1:05:29 Speaker 02 But that's.
1:05:30 Matt Farah? Beautiful color.
1:05:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, it is. But I'm, I'm just in a different mood now.
1:05:35 Matt Farah? Okay.
1:05:35 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:05:36 Matt Farah? All right. Um, what, other than the waves of, you know, clearing, thinning the herd, you know, where you decide I must get rid of all of these Volkswagen Beetles and not just one? What, what, what about, uh, I just made that up.
1:05:49 Speaker 02 I love Beetles.
1:05:50 Matt Farah? I know.
1:05:50 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:05:50 Matt Farah? Of course, but what, what, where, where do you decide, okay, maybe I'm over this one? Maybe it's, maybe it's time to go.
1:05:57 Speaker 02 Well, you know.
1:05:58 Matt Farah? If it sits for a while?
1:06:00 Speaker 02 Nah, it's, there's an emotional attachment that either forms or doesn't form. That is actually, I am emotionally involved with this thing.
1:06:09 Matt Farah? Mm hmm.
1:06:10 Speaker 02 I actually care about it.
1:06:11 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:06:12 Speaker 02 You know, and there are cars that are fascinating, entertaining, um.
1:06:20 Speaker 02 Wonderful experiences on certain days, maybe not too often. And sometimes that bond doesn't happen. It doesn't grow. And then you can sell the car and not miss it.
1:06:32 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:06:32 Speaker 02 But then there's the other ones that, you know, you can't.
1:06:35 Speaker 01 Can I ask you about the 903?
1:06:37 Speaker 02 908.
1:06:38 Speaker 01 Sorry, 90803, right? Uh, the Gulf Livery one.
1:06:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:06:44 Speaker 01 It looks terrifying. But is it? Because if it raced on Targa Florio, it has to be compliant and whatnot. Like, I mean,
1:06:50 Speaker 02 It's terrifying if you think my feet are in front of the front axle. That's a little scary.
1:06:55 Matt Farah? Yeah, you have to not think about certain things.
1:06:57 Speaker 02 You don't think about that, but like most Porsches, and like any Porsche that I've ever driven, and I've pretty much driven everything from a 962C to a 917, but that car is a dream to drive. It's fluid and easy and comfortable and nothing... The air doesn't flow over anything I've ever driven like that. That thing is you really feel like I'm Superman.
1:07:26 Matt Farah? It's like a streamliner almost vibe.
1:07:30 Speaker 02 It's what we were talking about, the Bell Rocket Belt. It's a rocket pack. I'm just flying and, I mean, I was into motorcycles as a kid and I had, I never had anything really good, but that motorcycle feeling of this, the bike can disappear.
1:07:47 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:07:47 Speaker 02 And I'm just flying through the air here.
1:07:49 Speaker 01 That was the best part about motorcycles. I felt like a superhero.
1:07:52 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:07:52 Speaker 01 Just untouchable, which obviously you're not, but.
1:07:55 Speaker 02 And you can see people drive. You can see that they're feeling it when you watch guys on great bikes.
1:07:59 Matt Farah? Is that, I mean, you, I think you told Spike your favorite Porsche to drive was that, the Can-Am one, the very wedge. Is that a 917?
1:08:07 Speaker 02 Can-Am is a completely different race series, Matt, that has nothing to do with the Targa Florio.
1:08:12 Matt Farah? I know, but I'm, I'm talking about a different car now.
1:08:15 Speaker 02 Oh, okay.
1:08:16 Matt Farah? Talking about a different car now. This is, this is a car I think that was the, the 917 after, when they cut the roof off it. It was just the open, the open car.
1:08:27 Speaker 02 Oh, that, that would be the 91730.
1:08:29 Matt Farah? Yes.
1:08:30 Speaker 02 The Sunoco car.
1:08:31 Matt Farah? Nine, yeah.
1:08:32 Speaker 02 And I drove that, I owned that car.
1:08:33 Matt Farah? Yes, that's what I was getting at. So, sorry if that was confusing.
1:08:37 Speaker 02 I'm sorry.
1:08:37 Matt Farah? That car, you now have no windshield, you have no roof.
1:08:40 Speaker 02 Right.
1:08:40 Matt Farah? Your head is just out of the car.
1:08:42 Speaker 02 Yes.
1:08:43 Matt Farah? And it is, you know, sub 2,000 pounds and it's a thousand horsepower plus.
1:08:48 Speaker 02 Right.
1:08:49 Matt Farah? That can, is there, is there a universe in which that is not terrifying? Is that regular, can you drive that around regularly?
1:08:58 Speaker 02 Yes, unless you're an idiot.
1:09:00 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:09:00 Speaker 02 You're not gonna drive it the way a professional would drive it. You're gonna drive to your own ability and then you'll be fine.
1:09:08 Matt Farah? Okay.
1:09:08 Speaker 02 And then you just wanna experience it.
1:09:11 Matt Farah? Well, that's, I think what works about Porsche is even the really fast stuff is docile. That was kind of, I was, I was sort of in a slow shitty and roundabout way trying to get at the most extreme Porsche race car that you could think of is still fairly docile. That's what I was getting.
1:09:29 Speaker 02 Yes, you put a 917 in first and you let out the clutch and you're doing 23 miles an hour and you know what is happening.
1:09:37 Matt Farah? Yeah, okay.
1:09:38 Speaker 02 And you're having a new experience.
1:09:39 Matt Farah? Yeah, that's important.
1:09:41 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah.
1:09:42 Matt Farah? I think that it's different from a lot of-
1:09:44 Speaker 02 You're touching something in your brain that you never touched before.
1:09:47 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:09:47 Speaker 02 That makes sense.
1:09:48 Matt Farah? The, the McQueen car that you sold recently, did you ever get to have anything resembling a, a proper go in that or was it always part of a display piece?
1:09:56 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, no, no. I drove, I've driven every car I've ever owned as hard as I could with, to my ability, which isn't great. But I, I would, I would go to Willow a lot and I drove the 917 at Willow a few times and coming down that front straight with your foot to the floor in the 917 is good.
1:10:17 Matt Farah? Yeah, that's, that's a-
1:10:18 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's good.
1:10:19 Matt Farah? That's a special experience, I'd imagine. As long as you don't think about where your feet are.
1:10:23 Speaker 02 So, once you've done that, you go, okay, I, I can let go now. I really wanted somebody else to enjoy it, honestly.
1:10:30 Matt Farah? Hmm.
1:10:30 Speaker 02 You, you've just, sometimes you feel like, I can't enjoy this anymore and-
1:10:38 Speaker 02 I don't know, it just seemed like the kind of guys that would love it, the age that they are, the timing just felt right.
1:10:46 Matt Farah? Right.
1:10:47 Speaker 02 You know what I mean?
1:10:47 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah.
1:10:48 Speaker 02 Like in 10 or 15 years, I don't even know if people are gonna be interested in things like that.
1:10:51 Speaker 01 Right, that's a good point.
1:10:51 Matt Farah? Yeah, it is generational.
1:10:53 Speaker 02 Yeah, and I wanted somebody else to enjoy it. That's why I sold it.
1:10:57 Speaker 01 And it's a very extreme car, and I'm gonna say this carefully, I don't wanna be ageist, but like, like you said, people need to be a certain age and ability, I think, to drive that car.
1:11:05 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah.
1:11:06 Speaker 01 And you don't want to hold on to it, and they wait till they're 92, and it goes downhill, and they're like, "Well, now I can't even really drive it hard."
1:11:11 Matt Farah? Now's not the time to have a huge Duesenberg collection.
1:11:15 Speaker 01 Oh, right.
1:11:16 Speaker 02 I think they're supposed to be pretty good, though, aren't they?
1:11:18 Matt Farah? Duesenbergs?
1:11:19 Speaker 02 I never drove one.
1:11:20 Matt Farah? They're, for brass-era cars, like, yeah, they're good, but, but there's a looming sort of situation in the collector car market in which a lot of those cars, pre-19, pre-World War II cars, are owned by very old people.
1:11:38 Speaker 02 Uh-huh.
1:11:39 Matt Farah? And some of these collections are huge. Some of the implications of inheritance taxes and all are huge. And so there's this sort of looming situation where a lot of these Pebble Beach Concorde kind of cars are owned by people that are just getting real up there, and it's...
1:11:57 Speaker 02 Are you saying that they're gonna go off a cliff?
1:12:00 Matt Farah? There could be a crash, because nobody under 50 wants a brass-era car.
1:12:04 Speaker 02 I know, but you know what? And I'm sure you've noticed, because you keep track of all this stuff, that 550s struggled recently on the, on the, on the market. And I tried to sell one last August, and it didn't sell. And then I decided to keep it, and I just can't believe that younger people don't see the greatness of those cars, and what they are, and how much fun they are. I mean, that is a full-on 50s race car that I could go take to the supermarket right now.
1:12:44 Speaker 01 When did you learn about that car, and how special it was, and what it raced in? Like, what age were you?
1:12:51 Matt Farah? Like
1:12:52 Speaker 02 Oh, that one?
1:12:52 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:12:53 Speaker 02 Uh, that was about 10 years ago.
1:12:55 Matt Farah? Oh, okay.
1:12:55 Speaker 02 But I bought my first 550 in 93. And I didn't know what it was.
1:13:01 Matt Farah? Were they considered, were they particularly special then?
1:13:04 Speaker 02 No, no, I didn't know what I was buying. It was a re-bodied car, not re-bodied well. It didn't run very well. And I just thought it was a beautiful shape. And then I sold it and then, uh, but I've, I've got a good, good group of Porsche spiders.
1:13:20 Matt Farah? I think young people, when you're, when you can't recall a car from your own youth.
1:13:28 Speaker 02 It's not from my youth.
1:13:29 Matt Farah? Yeah, it's true.
1:13:30 Speaker 01 I honestly think that's pretty amazing that you just found it later in life and liked it so much just for its merit. And you don't need the story. You don't need to go, it's famous.
1:13:40 Speaker 02 No, no, no, no.
1:13:41 Speaker 01 I think it's a good lesson for anybody, car shopping.
1:13:43 Speaker 02 It's ignorance. You're ignorant. Have you ever driven a, a speedster like that, like that white car?
1:13:49 Speaker 01 No.
1:13:49 Speaker 02 Okay. I guarantee you, you fall in love with it.
1:13:52 Matt Farah? They're awesome.
1:13:54 Speaker 02 It's awesome.
1:13:54 Matt Farah? They're awesome. Yeah. I mean, even any well sorted 356 is awesome.
1:13:59 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:14:00 Matt Farah? You know, they, I've driven four or five different ones and they're all, unless they're like totally messed up, they're great. Yeah.
1:14:06 Speaker 02 Which they often are.
1:14:07 Matt Farah? They can be pretty, they can be messed up. Yeah. But the, I, do you think that if you didn't get a chance to taste what a 550 was at a time when it was still reasonably affordable?
1:14:19 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
1:14:19 Matt Farah? Cause now the context of that is it's like a 3 million, $5 million car.
1:14:24 Speaker 02 Right.
1:14:25 Matt Farah? Back in the day, it was an old fun toy.
1:14:27 Speaker 02 Right.
1:14:28 Matt Farah? So that maybe the young people are going, well, look, if I, 5, 6 million, if that's what I'm looking at, I'm going to go to Christian Koenigsegg or I'm going to call Gratio Pagani or, you know, something to show off on Instagram with.
1:14:40 Speaker 02 Yeah, I guess.
1:14:41 Matt Farah? I don't agree with it necessarily. I just think that that's an explanation for why certain people are below a certain age are not drawn to those as much.
1:14:50 Speaker 02 Hmm. Well.
1:14:51 Matt Farah? I don't know, they may just be too old for some people, even though they're simple and easy to drive.
1:14:58 Speaker 01 I, I would disagree. I think, I think it just takes the experience on your palate and we've done this too.
1:15:02 Matt Farah? Right, yes.
1:15:04 Speaker 01 We, I think when I was younger, probably you too, we were like, I'll drive the fastest thing, the fastest thing. And then you get in the press game and you're really excited for a while. And we've both come full circle and you go, I like the Volt and I like light cars that are slower. So if you're really a wealthy person and you drive five Koenigsegg's, you're probably gonna get tired of chasing the hypercar, uh, you know, carrot all the time. And then go, well, what else is out there? What kind of other flavors are there?
1:15:29 Matt Farah? Yeah, I hope so. I'm, I'm already, I'm back, I'm back to slow cars. I've circled around.
1:15:33 Speaker 01 Right.
1:15:33 Matt Farah? That one, I touched the pink car. I touched the top of the fast car and now we're back to,
1:15:38 Speaker 01 Right.
1:15:38 Matt Farah? I've got this Myers Manks coming. I'm so excited.
1:15:41 Speaker 01 Electric.
1:15:42 Matt Farah? Radial. I got the,
1:15:44 Speaker 01 Radial? What does that mean?
1:15:46 Matt Farah? It's the classic one, the old school one, and they put an aircraft engine in the back of it. A three cylinder radial aircraft engine.
1:15:52 Speaker 01 Wow, I mean, that sounds really interesting. You know what I was gonna ask?
1:15:56 Matt Farah? You'll like it. I'll show you a picture when we're done. You'll like it.
1:15:58 Speaker 01 I was gonna ask you, because I thought you might know, I was just sitting here today and I see these little planes go by. And there's something about the sound of those engines is great. Why is it so great?
1:16:11 Matt Farah? Because of airplanes, because it's, it sounds like old, you know, uh, Spitfires and history and stuff like that. This engine, it has GM LS internals, pistons.
1:16:23 Speaker 01 Who's building this?
1:16:25 Matt Farah? Manks is. The engine is from a company in Australia called Bespoke Engineering that Manks bought.
1:16:31 Speaker 01 Wow.
1:16:31 Matt Farah? So they're, so they're building them.
1:16:33 Speaker 01 That sounds really cool.
1:16:34 Matt Farah? It's the coolest looking engine you've ever seen. And at idle, it sounds kinda like a Corvette. And at above like 2,000 RPM, it sounds like that. It sounds like a, like an aircraft.
1:16:44 Speaker 01 What's the displacement?
1:16:45 Matt Farah? Uh, 1.8. And it's 170 horsepower and 130 torque.
1:16:51 Speaker 02 Wow.
1:16:52 Matt Farah? In a 1530.
1:16:54 Speaker 02 Holy cow. That's gonna be great. What color?
1:16:58 Matt Farah? Stratospheric blue metallic.
1:17:00 Speaker 02 Wow, this is fantastic.
1:17:02 Matt Farah? You can have a go when it comes in.
1:17:04 Speaker 02 Oh, this is a huge winner. Yeah, that's great. I don't know what you're talking about, but I love it.
1:17:10 Matt Farah? I'll show you the photos later. And Freeman Thomas is their head designer. Do you know Freeman?
1:17:16 Speaker 02 Of course.
1:17:16 Matt Farah? So we got to, me and my wife worked with Freeman to like, design the whole thing. It was so fun.
1:17:22 Speaker 02 Wow.
1:17:23 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:17:23 Speaker 02 And they're gonna build these in some kind of quantity?
1:17:26 Matt Farah? They're, they're building, uh, I think they can build 20 or 30 of the radials a year. So mine is number seven.
1:17:35 Speaker 02 Unbelievably cool.
1:17:36 Matt Farah? Yeah, they've already, they've built two and mine will be done in May and I'm hoping to take it to Pebble Beach this year.
1:17:41 Speaker 02 Oh, wow. What's the other engine, like the normal one?
1:17:44 Matt Farah? Well, they have the flat four, the Volkswagen engine, and they have a Will Hoyt engine. You can get a 2.4 Will Hoyt engine. It's like $60,000 to put in one of these things. It's like 240 horsepower, some insane, you know, thing.
1:18:00 Speaker 02 But you've never driven a 550 Spider, I'll wager.
1:18:02 Matt Farah? Not a real one, just a Beck. Never a real one.
1:18:07 Speaker 02 That's like saying I haven't had Fruit Loops, but I've eaten Styrofoam packing material.
1:18:12 Matt Farah? I know, I know.
1:18:12 Speaker 02 It does it with food coloring.
1:18:14 Matt Farah? I would never try to present a Beck as driving a real thing. No, I've driven real Speedsters, I've driven 356s, but never.
1:18:20 Speaker 02 Man, you really need to add that to your library of knowledge.
1:18:25 Matt Farah? I know someone who just referred to, I believe it was a fleet of 550s that you said you had. Was it a gaggle, a fleet? What was the group?
1:18:34 Speaker 02 I have a nice group. I have a nice group. And I have one that I could put you in today.
1:18:39 Matt Farah? Whatever.
1:18:42 Speaker 02 Cause it bothers me that you don't know what it feels like.
1:18:46 Matt Farah? Let's go. 100%. Let's go. I'll take your worst one.
1:18:49 Speaker 02 I have it. I have the worst one.
1:18:53 Speaker 02 Which is also the best one.
1:18:55 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:18:55 Speaker 02 In that it's the most sorted. I have one that is so sorted, it's a Corolla. You just jump in and go.
1:19:03 Matt Farah? Do you have any, like, really high mileage examples of any? I know you have that blue, that blue kind of like, very patina'd car.
1:19:12 Speaker 02 Please don't mention that car.
1:19:13 Matt Farah? Oh, really?
1:19:13 Speaker 02 I sold it.
1:19:14 Matt Farah? Okay.
1:19:15 Speaker 02 And that really hurts. But that was a...
1:19:18 Matt Farah? That was the Norm MacDonald car from Comedians and Cars Getting Coughed.
1:19:21 Speaker 02 Oh, no, that was my Speedster. No, I don't have, I kept that.
1:19:23 Matt Farah? Okay.
1:19:23 Speaker 02 I love that car.
1:19:24 Matt Farah? Yeah, the super patina'd car, right?
1:19:26 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I love that car.
1:19:28 Matt Farah? Which, with Norm MacDonald, it's the best Instagram clip of all time. Is, the hypocrisy was not the worst part of Bill Cosby.
1:19:39 Speaker 02 It was the raping.
1:19:40 Matt Farah? It was, fuck, Norm's delivery.
1:19:43 Speaker 01 Again.
1:19:44 Matt Farah? Holy shit.
1:19:45 Speaker 02 Oh, he was the best. So great.
1:19:48 Speaker 01 Do you ever forget about a car you own? Because you have a lot of them?
1:19:51 Speaker 02 No.
1:19:51 Speaker 01 Okay.
1:19:51 Speaker 02 No.
1:19:52 Matt Farah? You never went, oh, shit.
1:19:54 Speaker 02 But I do forget what they feel like.
1:19:57 Speaker 01 That makes sense.
1:19:57 Speaker 02 I do forget. I drove my 964 Speedster yesterday. And I had not driven that in a handful of years. Man, I know what it's like. I mean, Spike and I came up with the word carnage. When you, you just don't remember, oh, I really love this thing. My best car word, and this is, I'm gonna give this to you as a gift. You, you gotta use this word, you'll, because you know what this is, but you've never had a word for it, is carclimate. Carclimate is almost any car you get in, after a certain number of miles, you like it.
1:20:35 Matt Farah? Yeah, okay.
1:20:36 Speaker 02 At first, you might not.
1:20:37 Matt Farah? It's acclimate for a car, right.
1:20:38 Speaker 02 So I took acclimate, and I added car, and it took me years to create this word. I go, I wonder, what is this? Because, you know, I used to get things sometimes, you go, oh, this doesn't feel quite right.
1:20:48 Matt Farah? Right, yeah.
1:20:48 Speaker 02 And then, like, a half hour later, you're loving it. What is that? You carclimate.
1:20:53 Matt Farah? Yeah, you have to recalibrate your body to the car.
1:20:57 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:20:57 Matt Farah? This happens to us a lot, because we're driving new, we drive new cars every week. So, I mean, you know, same as you, obviously.
1:21:02 Speaker 02 Right.
1:21:03 Matt Farah? But with us, we're driving a car we've never driven before. Right. You're, you're driving something that you haven't driven in six months.
1:21:09 Speaker 02 Right.
1:21:09 Matt Farah? I've, we're, they're dropping something off at the house. We have absolutely no idea. You know, that first 15 minutes where you're trying to like, set the radio, like, and your mirrors and drive is like a nightmare.
1:21:20 Speaker 01 I think one of my favorite things is when you can carclimate very quickly with a new sports car or press car and you go, oh, I get it. It's gonna do this. I feel comfortable right away. That, that usually to me is an indicator that it's gonna be a good car. Four hours later in the canyon.
1:21:34 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah.
1:21:35 Matt Farah? You can get a car's vibe in a hundred feet. You do not have to go far.
1:21:40 Speaker 02 That's interesting, isn't it?
1:21:41 Matt Farah? A hundred feet is enough sometimes.
1:21:44 Speaker 02 I remember one, I think it was Andy Pruninger talking about the 911R when you just back out of the driveway, you get it.
1:21:51 Matt Farah? Yeah, like a single clutch, the single mass flywheel.
1:21:53 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:21:55 Matt Farah? They, they, the chatteriness, he was like.
1:21:57 Speaker 02 How about the fact that this guy?
1:22:02 Speaker 02 When I meet you, 15 years ago, what'd you say?
1:22:04 Matt Farah? When did I meet you?
1:22:05 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:22:06 Matt Farah? Uh, 2014 or 15, 10, I guess 10 years, yeah.
1:22:09 Speaker 02 Okay, 10 years ago. So this guy, I meet him at this coffee place in Malibu, we go. And, you know, he's a car insane person and
1:22:20 Speaker 02 obviously he doesn't want a job. He doesn't want to work. He doesn't want to leave the, the sandbox of love that he has. And he doesn't, and I, I did the same thing. He never took a job that you could stand, cause you wanted to do what you love.
1:22:39 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah.
1:22:39 Speaker 02 And then the world came around to you.
1:22:42 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:22:42 Speaker 02 You gotta feel so fortunate, uh, living when you did. It's kinda like, you know, Bill Gates always talks about, if I was born five years in either direction, I don't have any of this, you know? But it was kinda the same for you.
1:22:55 Matt Farah? I was lucky. If I didn't.
1:22:56 Speaker 02 You were really lucky.
1:22:57 Matt Farah? Have, if we didn't have the creation of YouTube at the time, that it was, you know, and, and kind of being the first guy to go, hey, here's a thing we could do and we're lucky, yes, we are.
1:23:08 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:23:08 Matt Farah? And also like, you know, I had parents that put me in the right place and things.
1:23:12 Speaker 02 Right, so that's the end of your book, no more questions? You don't have anything?
1:23:15 Matt Farah? Nothing in writing, no. This is nothing, nothing in writing. I, I, by the way, it's been 90 minutes. This is the show. It just, it just goes. It absolutely just goes.
1:23:25 Speaker 02 I, I mean, I do this, uh, just for the, uh, the, the feeling of it is so unique.
1:23:32 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:23:32 Speaker 02 Cause you can't, you can't talk to people about cars, regular people.
1:23:36 Speaker 01 No, they look at us like a crazy.
1:23:37 Speaker 02 You wanna talk about it.
1:23:38 Matt Farah? Okay, here's, here's a, I wanna.
1:23:41 Speaker 01 We need our support group.
1:23:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:23:42 Speaker 01 You gotta find your tribe.
1:23:43 Matt Farah? It is, we have to find our own. Sometimes we find them on the internet. We, we, I was lucky enough to find people out here.
1:23:50 Speaker 02 Right.
1:23:50 Matt Farah? Uh, that, that, that maybe I've seen on TV and that don't disappoint. I actually got to hang out with one of your, uh, a character actor from your television show, Mr. Phil Morris.
1:24:01 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah, Phil's great.
1:24:02 Matt Farah? Who played Jackie.
1:24:03 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:24:03 Matt Farah? Uh, he's also into cars.
1:24:05 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:24:05 Matt Farah? Is anyone else from the show into cars besides you and Phil Morris?
1:24:09 Speaker 02 Um, I know Phil was.
1:24:11 Speaker 01 Julie is into drifting, she's big.
1:24:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, big into drifting, yeah, yeah. Um, I don't know, maybe.
1:24:18 Matt Farah? All right, he's, he's good, he's good though, I like Phil. Um, we've, we've got a good car community here in LA. I hope they reopen PCH soon, cause it is causing problems.
1:24:26 Speaker 02 I drove up at the other day, just to see how far you could get.
1:24:30 Matt Farah? Were you turned away, or did they say?
1:24:32 Speaker 02 Yeah, but I got up to Entrada, which was pretty good.
1:24:35 Matt Farah? Okay.
1:24:35 Speaker 02 I saw the water, and that made me happy. I was in the 964 Speedster with the top down, and I saw the water. That's all you want.
1:24:43 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:24:43 Speaker 02 Well, no, you want more, but, yeah, crazy.
1:24:46 Matt Farah? Are you a road tripper?
1:24:48 Speaker 02 No, I used to be.
1:24:49 Matt Farah? You used to be.
1:24:49 Speaker 02 I've driven cross-country a handful of times.
1:24:51 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:24:52 Speaker 02 In fact, in 99, I took an 89 Speedster from New York to LA and never put the top up once.
1:24:59 Matt Farah? That's awesome, that's a good move. Even in the rain. That's a good move, I like that. What is, what was the speed where you could stay dry? Do you remember?
1:25:06 Speaker 02 We didn't stay dry.
1:25:08 Speaker 01 You just get a wrinkle.
1:25:09 Speaker 02 That was really dumb, but I just wanted to do it so I could say I did it.
1:25:12 Matt Farah? Sure, sure, sure. I just drove the Spyder RS from LA to Thunder Hill, which was eight and a half hours, and I did it with the top down.
1:25:20 Speaker 02 Wow.
1:25:21 Matt Farah? And I reapplied sunscreen a lot. It was a lot.
1:25:24 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:25:25 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:25:28 Speaker 02 You probably don't know that I have a Morgan plus eight.
1:25:30 Matt Farah? I know you love Morgans.
1:25:32 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:25:32 Matt Farah? I do know that.
1:25:33 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:25:33 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:25:34 Speaker 02 And remember they made 50 in 2018, the last, because they had those last 50 BMW V8s.
1:25:40 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:25:41 Speaker 02 And I got number one of 50. It was for sale. No miles on it.
1:25:46 Matt Farah? Is it a coupe or convertible?
1:25:49 Speaker 02 Convertible.
1:25:50 Matt Farah? The plus eight is a convertible.
1:25:51 Speaker 02 No, they made the convertible and a speedster.
1:25:54 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:25:55 Speaker 02 But I got the green convertible.
1:25:58 Matt Farah? Those Morgans are.
1:25:59 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
1:25:59 Matt Farah? They're awesome. Did you see the new one?
1:26:01 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:26:02 Matt Farah? Do you like, what do you think?
1:26:03 Speaker 02 I was disturbed by the rectangle at the front.
1:26:08 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:26:09 Speaker 02 Rectangles are not Morgan.
1:26:10 Matt Farah? No.
1:26:11 Speaker 01 I agree.
1:26:11 Matt Farah? And I.
1:26:12 Speaker 02 Did you notice that?
1:26:13 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:26:13 Speaker 02 That line. Morgans are about those lines.
1:26:16 Matt Farah? The sweeping curve. That's all of it.
1:26:19 Speaker 02 But I'm thinking maybe I'll warm up to it. What do you think?
1:26:23 Matt Farah? I'm trying to hold my judgment until I see it in person.
1:26:27 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:26:28 Matt Farah? But I'm not blown away by what I've seen on the screen.
1:26:32 Speaker 02 Right.
1:26:32 Matt Farah? You know what I mean?
1:26:33 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:26:33 Matt Farah? But I'm pro Morgan. I'm pro the existence of Morgan.
1:26:37 Speaker 02 Yes, yes.
1:26:38 Matt Farah? That company has to survive.
1:26:40 Speaker 02 Yeah, they will.
1:26:41 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:26:41 Speaker 02 They will.
1:26:42 Matt Farah? Do you have an outfit for your Morgan?
1:26:43 Speaker 02 No, no.
1:26:44 Matt Farah? A scarf of some kind?
1:26:46 Speaker 02 I do tend to wear a scarf, but I never put the top up.
1:26:48 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:26:49 Speaker 02 And I can drive it. 38 degrees is my number. With the heat on and gloves, I can drive it, but I won't put the top up.
1:26:58 Matt Farah? Forget warmth gloves. What are your opinion on driving gloves?
1:27:02 Speaker 02 Against.
1:27:02 Matt Farah? Against. Oh, I'm heavily against.
1:27:05 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:27:05 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:27:06 Speaker 02 Just for the feeling.
1:27:07 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:27:07 Speaker 02 Why would I want to put something between me and the steering wheel?
1:27:11 Matt Farah? There's nothing worse than someone driving a modern car with driving gloves.
1:27:14 Speaker 02 Pretty bad.
1:27:15 Speaker 01 If it's a wooden wheel, it can make sense.
1:27:17 Matt Farah? It's really bad. Although I will never, ever, ever get an Alcantara steering wheel ever again. I have it in my Spyder and it is a 100% mistake.
1:27:26 Speaker 02 Why?
1:27:26 Matt Farah? Because I mentally.
1:27:29 Matt Farah? Grip my steering wheel gingerly because I don't want to like wear it out in a way that if it was just leather, I wouldn't do.
1:27:35 Speaker 02 Matt, they're wearing you out.
1:27:37 Matt Farah? I know. Do you know how often, I mean, I don't, maybe you don't have to do this and you probably don't, but every once in a while, I have to remind myself to enjoy the nice thing. Let it wear out and replace it if it does or whatever, as opposed to worrying about wearing it out in the first place.
1:27:54 Speaker 02 In the Talmud, they actually say to have the ability to have nice things and not enjoy them is against the belief.
1:28:04 Matt Farah? I totally agree with you and yet my mental block stops at steering wheel.
1:28:10 Speaker 02 So you can't just buy a new Alcantara steering wheel, you want the original wheel.
1:28:14 Matt Farah? Of course I could buy a new Alcantara steering wheel and I don't even care. I do not care.
1:28:18 Speaker 01 You should get the wheel recovered in leather.
1:28:20 Matt Farah? Neither, neither money nor opportunity prevents me from easily solving this problem, today or eventually, but it's just a thing.
1:28:30 Speaker 02 Well, let's kick that door down, Matt.
1:28:32 Matt Farah? I mean, even mentally, you, it does like the, the car over here, the Sterling Moss car. Now you know that it's a historic thing.
1:28:43 Speaker 02 Yes, yes.
1:28:44 Matt Farah? Does that, does that, does that go? It doesn't.
1:28:46 Speaker 02 No.
1:28:47 Matt Farah? God, being that rich is so great.
1:28:49 Speaker 02 I know, that's why I told you about the 25 cents.
1:28:51 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:28:52 Speaker 02 The art of not caring, Matt. The art of not caring.
1:28:59 Matt Farah? You're, you are the king of it. You're absolutely the king of it.
1:29:03 Speaker 02 And by the way, I had a couple of cars, my 59 Carrera GT Speedster, which is pretty much the ultimate 356. I was sitting at a light in Colorado on the Colorado Grand and a drunk lady at 12 noon plowed into the back of it. This is an all original 8,000 mile, it's the best Carrera GT Speedster in the world. And she just plowed into the back of it. And I took it to the body shop and we banged it out and we painted it and I'm still driving it.
1:29:41 Speaker 01 Have you ever blown an engine or had one explode while you're driving?
1:29:44 Speaker 02 I did explode. I have a hot rod Speedster and it had a, who built that engine?
1:29:54 Speaker 02 It wasn't Will Hoyt, but it was... And I blew it, yeah. But now I have a Polo in there, which is great.
1:30:01 Matt Farah? Oh, the...
1:30:03 Speaker 02 The Dean Polopoulos.
1:30:05 Matt Farah? Yeah, that's... I haven't tried one yet. I've heard really good things about that.
1:30:07 Speaker 02 Really great. I'll show you that car if you want to see it.
1:30:11 Matt Farah? Thank you for the time.
1:30:12 Speaker 02 It was awesome.
1:30:13 Matt Farah? 999. I only got thrown into holes three times. That's better than I would have thought.
1:30:19 Matt Farah? It's better than I would have thought. It's really been a pleasure, Jerry. Thank you.
1:30:23 Speaker 02 Pleasure.
1:30:24 Matt Farah? Thank you very much.
1:30:25 Speaker 02 And congratulations. Congratulations on your life. You've made a lot of really solid moves.
1:30:32 Matt Farah? Thank you.
1:30:33 Speaker 02 Number one is your wife. Who I've never met. I don't know who she is. But the fact that you even have one, you're a winner.
1:30:39 Matt Farah? Somebody puts up...
1:30:40 Speaker 02 And then you built the car world. You built... I did the same thing. I did the same thing. Somebody asked me this. I always take questions at the end of my shows. And somebody asked, "What made you want to be a comedian?" I said, "I just thought, if I could be anything in the world, what would be the funnest thing?" And that's how I went about it.
1:30:58 Matt Farah? If I couldn't do this... Now, I'm not saying I would be a comedian. But if I had to choose two kinds of people to hang out with forever, it would be chefs and comedians.
1:31:09 Speaker 02 Really?
1:31:09 Matt Farah? And I'd be perfectly at home whether I was up to the task of doing what they do or not.
1:31:15 Speaker 02 Right.
1:31:15 Matt Farah? Just being in the room, off to the side is enough.
1:31:18 Speaker 02 Oh, because people that are just in love with their thing.
1:31:20 Matt Farah? They just love it, and they're on a mindset and a plane, and there's a level of camaraderie, but also shit talking. And like, God, I love that. I know you prefer comedians over anybody.
1:31:32 Speaker 02 Yes.
1:31:33 Matt Farah? What is the second genre of people that you might like to hang out with?
1:31:36 Speaker 02 Funny people.
1:31:37 Matt Farah? Well, that's comedians.
1:31:38 Speaker 02 There's a lot of funny people. You're funny.
1:31:40 Matt Farah? Oh, funny people that are not...
1:31:42 Speaker 02 Yeah. I don't talk with people that aren't funny.
1:31:45 Matt Farah? There's some like, blue collar guys that are just the funny, you know...
1:31:51 Speaker 02 Sure. That's why I live in New York. Everyone's funny in New York.
1:31:53 Matt Farah? Anybody knocking in Philly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:31:57 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:31:58 Matt Farah? That's...
1:31:58 Speaker 01 Is that just the culture there where one person was funny and people said, "I gotta compete with that person"?
1:32:02 Speaker 02 Yes, I think so. And the difficulty of living there, and then you don't leave.
1:32:08 Matt Farah? Yeah.
1:32:10 Speaker 02 Why don't you leave? This is horrible.
1:32:13 Speaker 01 So you have to make fun of it a little bit.
1:32:14 Speaker 02 Because I'm having some laughs here.
1:32:16 Matt Farah? Yeah, yeah.
1:32:18 Speaker 01 That does get you a long way.
1:32:19 Matt Farah? Can I get another coffee? Yeah. Man.
1:32:21 Speaker 02 All right.
1:32:21 Matt Farah? $9.99, folks. Thank you all for watching.
1:32:25 Speaker 02 Smoking tire.
1:32:26 Matt Farah? Jerry Ferris.
1:32:27 Speaker 02 You made it to the promised land.
1:32:28 Matt Farah? We have. 1,000 episodes.
1:32:29 Speaker 02 All right.
1:32:30 Matt Farah? The key to still being here is to just do another one. Just keep, you know, you just keep going.
1:32:36 Speaker 02 Just keep going.
1:32:36 Matt Farah? Just keep going. And that's how you keep going.
1:32:38 Speaker 02 I remember having a dinner with Paul McCartney and Chris Rock one night. And we had this big, long conversation about what we do. And we boiled it all down to just keep going.
1:32:50 Matt Farah? Yeah. Yeah.
1:32:51 Speaker 02 That's the only answer in life.
1:32:53 Matt Farah? Yeah. Someone asked Eddie Vedder what the secret was to their, you know, their long career. I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan.
1:32:58 Speaker 02 Right.
1:32:59 Matt Farah? Well, the most important thing is the band can't break up.
1:33:05 Speaker 02 Right.
1:33:05 Matt Farah? And that's where we end. See you guys later.
Previous Taycan Problems; Buy a Mustang GT350?; Q&A Next 1000 w/ 17 Guests! (Sam Fane, Jay Leno, Emelia Hartford, Larry Chen,Spikes Car Radio, and more!) Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated