¶ Off The Record and Podcast Intro
What up everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off The Record. Look, the holidays is not the best time to be driving spiritedly, right? There's drunks out there. Your uncle is probably one of them. So be safe this holiday season. But if you get in a pickle...
If you're going a little too fast, then get up in a jam because the officers want to raise some holiday revenue. Off the Record is here for you. They will set you up with a qualified attorney in the jurisdiction where you got that ticket and they will fight it.
on your behalf. All you have to do is go to offtherecord.com slash TST, input some crucial information about yourself and what happened, and they will go to work. And then you won't hear from them for a while, and then you'll probably get the... text that I love to get where it's just, who is that? Oh, it's off the record. Your ticket was completely dismissed. A lot of times that does happen. Sometimes it's not quite that awesome.
But usually, they have very good news. So, offtherecord.com slash TST. Remember that if you get pulled over now and forever. All right, on this episode of the show, I went down to a car show in San Diego with the RTR. Spec 5 Mustang, took a few Waymos in the rain, and read a children's book. It's the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go! They're all looking at me. How are you feeling?
Same this is today this Sunday, so this is literally week three I flew home from Texas and felt like crap on this day three weeks ago I would say I'm – it's better. I would say better. I haven't taken – since the day you told me to stop taking Mucinex, which is what, Thursday? Yeah. And it's Sunday? Definitely coughing still. Yeah. But like –
I don't know, maybe a little less. Wow, there's like fucking 12 o'clock boys going by outside. That's a bigger group of motorcycles than I think I've ever heard go by the studio. Yeah, they don't... The big groups that ride around Venice and Santa Monica, they don't come through here, which is a bummer. They're probably on their way there. I like the wheelie group. I'm here for it. Yeah, normally they roll up Slauson, not Sentinella. That's true.
¶ Holiday Plans and Snow Adventures
Hi, everybody. I guess this will be going out before New Year's, so I hope you had a good Christmas. Did you have a good Christmas? Did you do a thing for Christmas? We tried to do a thing. What happened? Well, we wanted to go rent a cabin up in the mountains for the snow. Yeah. And it's such a warm winter. It didn't snow. Strangely.
It snowed on Mount Baldy, but that's it. It snowed at 8,000 feet. Yeah, yeah. So we couldn't find a cabin to rent at 8,000 feet. Are there any cabins to rent at 8,000 feet? I think in Mammoth Lakes you can, but they're all going to be super booked because everyone wants to go skiing. They got so much snow.
Like Idlewilder, that's like five, right? It is. I found a great map. I got a map that does topography and elevation using Google Calendar. We were doing homework. We were really trying. Using Google Maps. You said Google Calendar. Oh, you're right. Sorry, you're right. It's like topography laid over Google Maps. What do you think topography and Google Calendar would look like? Just wondering.
The highs and lows of the week, I guess? You know, the valley would be Wednesday. A topographical map of your mood. You know, it would tie into your, like, whoop strap or something. Actually, I guess it would be starting on Monday, it's a climb. Yeah. And then on Friday, it's a cliff that falls into a nice pool.
And then you just chill. And then you go back up the mountain for a Sisyphusian. So you'd have to go to Mammoth Lakes or like Tahoe or something to get. Even Tahoe got snow, but when we were looking for houses that week, it was saying that Tahoe was going to be like 35 degrees at night. It cooled off for them, luckily, and they got pretty hammered. Mammoth got so much snow, they closed the mountain yesterday.
There was an avalanche. Was it at Mammoth? I think it was at Mammoth. I think so. And two ski patrol guys died, I think. Yeah, it was bad. Yeah. I saw a video of the flakes falling in Mammoth. It looked like what you usually see in Utah. Huge, huge snowflakes. I have never seen more snow in my life than mammoth after a big snowstorm. I went up there with Steinman once after like a fucking dump dump and I shit you not, we almost couldn't find the house.
You couldn't see the house. There was nothing. Everything was buried. You couldn't see. You know, they had to, like, cut. tunnels into like the gas stations and stuff like you would just you're just driving through a fucking 20 foot deep wall of snow
It was the wildest shit I've ever seen. That's cool. It was so much snow. It's cool if you get there once they've cut all the trails. Yeah, it was crazy. Oh, yeah. Two injured in an avalanche at Mammoth yesterday. Oh, good. They didn't die. Yeah. All right. yeah i think they got a couple of feet per day so anyway we we looked around for like how far are we willing to drive and it was just going to be
¶ LA Rain, Home Life, RTR Intro
cold and rainy which is like the worst so we didn't do anything yeah might as well be here it'll be mild and rainy exactly uh it was a delightful rain in los angeles i didn't do i say i didn't do But what I mean is I didn't do shit for work. I did a lot of unexpected entertaining. Yeah, you did. I cooked a brunch and a dinner for like 10 people each at my house. fucking like two nights in a row. And yeah, it was a lot. I did a lot of home economics. I haven't heard that term in such a long time.
Yeah, it wasn't really economics, it was just cooking. Cooking and spending is what it was. Yeah, you're feeding the town. Yeah, and now my nephew Cole is here, so fortunately, he's 17 and into photography and cars so this is like a pretty easy one for me fairly light lift but I'm playing tour guide uncle so I took him to
I took him to Rancho Santa Fe, Cars and Coffee yesterday, which is a great Cars and Coffee down in like north of San Diego. I posted zero pictures. Okay. I posted zero pictures. A lot of people. posted pictures and took pictures of the RTR Spec 5 Mustang that I drove down there, which I did send you a picture of the car that I took on a different day. But it is a pretty cool looking car.
It's basically – RTR now has a partnership with Ford where it is an aftermarket company but it can be – you can buy them at some Ford dealers sort of like a Roush or a Saline would be.
¶ RTR Spec 5: Details, Price, Features
which is a pretty cool gig. I mean, we love JR and Vong Yitten Jr., whose company this is, and, like, very proud of him. I mean, they have the Spec 3, which is... sort of the tuner Mustang you'd expect. Full suspension, cool wheels, front rear fascia, some graphics, and a big-ass supercharger. That's the tuner Mustang you expect, and Zach did a video with it. Correct. So full, full disclosure, they store these marketing vehicles at Westside.
So I don't – they didn't – I didn't even tell them I was going to be talking about this car. I asked if I could borrow it to go to Cars and Coffee, and I didn't even say it was so – I'm going to say whatever I want to say about this car, but I benefit financially from this car's presence directly. They pay me to store the cars here and my guys to deliver them to other people.
So if you think that means I won't criticize the car, you don't know me very well, but there's your disclaimer. It's very true. That's someone I was talking about that, you know, can you be objective to someone else? And I was talking to another journalist and they were like, Farrah, I have seen you take their flight, take their hotel.
Take their wine and then tell them their car sucks directly to their face. Like, I've seen that before. Don't tell me the flight is going to buy us here. Anyway, these guys pay me every month to park the cars here. So the Spec 3, Zack drove. You should go watch that video. The Spec 5 is a little crazier because it is a full, like, wide-body car. It also has huge brakes. It also has a giant supercharger.
It makes even more horsepower. This one's like 850 horsepower. And it's kind of like a GTD Lite. That's sort of what they're going for. You know, the wide body and the different geometries. Now, it doesn't have... Inboard suspension. It's this is not a multi matic product But it's kind of like halfway to a GTD in terms of it sort of has a GTD-esque look. It has a similar power figure and similar power delivery, but it's a stick and you keep your back seat.
And you keep your trunk. What is the exact price? Does it have a price on the website? I want to say it's like $160,000. Yeah, I think it's $160,000. Yeah, okay. And then from there, you can get them painted like crazy colors. Like this one that I'm actually, this one is 002. It's silver. But the Bronco, the RTR Bronco that we have that glucker's driving this week is mystachrome and if i was going to get an rtr car i would spend the money to paint it it looks so fucking cool um
It's very, very cool in person. And I would, if I was going to spend $160,000 on this Mustang, I would 1,000% have them paint it fucking mystochrome. Because the Bronco looks...
¶ RTR Bronco and Driving Impressions
extremely awesome yeah that's it that's cool yeah the bronco looks super cool and i'll and it and it that's the one and it uh it rides really really nice on the road i delivered it to glucker myself um which is a funny thing for me to be doing but i did it
And it rides really nice, but those racks and stuff they put on it, which I'm sure are very useful when you're going camping, man, them motherfuckers whistle at 70 miles an hour. Really? Oh, boy, do they whistle. Wow. All that stuff does. That car does not need to. It may be louder on the highway either. Yeah, because the roof is already just Lego'd together basically. It's Whistly.
I think, but, you know, RTR didn't make the roof, but it just is what it is. I never thought, because I've seen, there's a car near your house, actually, it was a very clean Bronco driving around with the gas cans, you know, bolted to the side, and everything on the car was spick and span clean. Actually, If you're out there, shout out to that dude. He's a fan. That guy also has a cool Colorado.
Chevy Colorado that's, like, you know, upfitted and stuff. He's got three or four different rigs. I just wonder if those cans whistle on the highway. Fuck yeah, they do. Oh, yeah. The rack on my Safari whistled, like, that shit all does. Yeah, it's not great. I mean, it serves a function, but it's not great. We can start a new business that makes little wings that go on gas cans mounted to the sides of trucks.
It's like the wind buffeting thing. Did it make them look like the aero things on the semis? Yes. It's like the Thule rack on the front, but now it's a tiny one. Oh, man. But that's the problem for half the folks who have that stuff. And I'm not saying the guy who lives in my neighborhood has that, but half those people.
It's you know you want it. It's got to look like that. You don't want you don't want it to look You don't want to bring arrow things on there just little little fins. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it's just that's the problem You just can't go can't go fast without it going So anyway, we drove this Spec 5 down there. It is very fast. It's very loud. Unlike the Spec 3, it does not have a quiet mode. It only has a loud mode.
And so, you know, the two hour highway drive down there was, I was fine for me, but it was a lot for Hannah. A lot of loud. But like essentially. This is, and yeah, $160,000 plus tax or whatever is a ton of money for a Mustang. But if you want into a GTD. You're lucky if it starts with a three. Wow, yeah. Probably at this point, I mean, maybe it starts with a four. I don't know. But, like, even just MSRP, if you could get one, it's a three-something for a GTD. So this is halfway.
¶ Sponsor Segment: FitBod, DeleteMe, Quince
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free shipping 365 day returns quince.com slash tire and now back to the show i will say that this looks because the spec 3 i drove looked like something from the outside that you could modify
¶ Spec 5 Performance, Colors, Collectibility
for pretty, you know, not too much money. Like if you put a little deck spoiler on your Mustang GT and some other stuff because it's underneath, it's the engine, it's all the other pieces. If you look at the parts list for the Spec 3 though, it's pretty long. Yes, it is. It's really extensive. It's very long. But the things you see. Yeah.
There's like six things that you actually really notice. Right. Whereas this, with the fenders and stuff, like it clearly is different. Yeah. And I mean, this also has a very long parts list. 870 horsepower. What is the suspension? There it is. RTR tactical performance adjustable coilovers, sway bars, two-piece front rotors, 20-inch forged wheels, PS4S tires.
I wonder if it's the same suspension you get, because the Spec 3 also was tactical performance adjustable stuff. I was curious if it was different, spring rate or whatever. I'm sure it's damped and everything for this car. Yeah, and I think they changed the geometry, or is it just much wider wheels? 305 and 315. I have to go back and look at the notes to see what the other one is.
I could just Google it. It might just be much wider wheels, but I'll tell you what, whatever the setup was, the alignment wasn't too bad, so it actually tracked pretty straight. It wasn't annoying. Yeah, same with the Spec 3. I think maybe I need to, like, yeah. You are right. These tires and wheels are much wider than these. The Spec 3 is 275 front, 295 rear. So that's where it is. That's where it goes. But it was pretty cool. And, like, I mean, you know.
uh that that cars and coffee is like pretty heavy hitter down there it's uh it's a lot of richie rich and then also a lot of uh solid creativity uh and stuff and so to get to get that much attention uh in a mustang is good work for RTR. People are really digging it. In terms of actually using it as a car,
if you wanted it to be your car. This could be your car. I hope there's maybe a way to make it a little quieter at this power level. Maybe it's not, but I wouldn't want it to be my car all the time at this volume. It's loud. It's a 25-year-old's loud. But most 25-year-olds don't have $160,000 for something like this. It drives really nice. It really does. I mean, it's still fucking huge because it's a Mustang.
It doesn't have a lot of bad behaviors, and it's got a shitload of torque, so you can lug it down to 1,200 RPM in traffic. Just leave it in second, whatever. It's fine. And it's obviously more practical than an actual GTD is with a backseat and a real trunk that's not impacted. So it was pretty cool. I mean, I think it looks, if you go, you were flipping through the colors before, and I think some of the colors look better than others. I mean, the press car being silver really shows off.
because the wide-body panels are kind of like, oh, look, color shift paint, mystochrome, 15K. Urban bamboozle. I don't know what that is. I didn't either, so I had to search it.
Is that it? It's like a greenish. Mustang RTR. Let's see. Whoa! This is like the green version of Mystochrome. Yep. And it's got some yellow when the sun hits it, and then it goes to green. You know... it's not bad actually it's pretty cool i kind of dig it yeah i think i think i'd like it better on a smaller car i think it's a lot on a big car like this but like imagine it on like a fucking clown shoe.
oh yeah how sick that would be right that'd be kind of cool because yeah where the where the sun hits it it's it's a little bit nicer looking than that was a phoenix yellow oh yeah yeah that was a little bit more baby vomit in my opinion this is a little bit nicer but the mr chrome is so cool mr chrome is fabulous I mean, that color looks great still. If I was going $160, I'd go $185 for the Mystochrome. And I tell you what, I bet you'd get your money back for it, too. I bet you, you know.
I don't know if I mean, I'm sure something like this will depreciate in the short term. Right. And maybe like a Yanko. Right. You know, nobody gave two shits about Yankos for a while. And now they're a million bucks. And so this this is sort of that kind of thing. The manufacturer adjacent. sort of tuner thing, these may be appreciated down the road. Either way, they drive really nice right now, but I bet you that option returns itself. Yeah, probably.
Because it's the rarest color on the Terminators and stuff, right? For sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. And the most desirable. Maybe that fan I met who has the Mr. Chrome Terminator decides he wants to sell it because it's not a great LA car, but he wants to go to a good home. Zach Klappman would give it a good home. You should. If you can get yourself, if you can get your hands on Mystichrome. Now, Mystichrome is the Gen 2 color. Mystic is the Gen 1.
They did two generations of it, and the Ford people get real in a tizzy because I just call both mystochrome. And they're not exactly the same color, but they're close. Okay.
¶ Sponsor Segment: Cash App and Smalls
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¶ Pop Culture Anecdotes: Baywatch and Bars
order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com slash tire and now back to the show mr chrome looks better but i like the 96 cobra better than i like the I don't like new Edge Mustangs. Gotcha. They don't do it for me. Yeah, I get it. I think...
I think the 90s car is a better looking car. Overall, it's also just like a more organic shape I always like. It's just when I see that lower front valence that tells me Terminator, it just snaps in my head and I like it. You have a Pavlovian response. to the 0304 French bumper of the Mustang Cobra. No one's watching Baywatch for the acting. Believe me, I know. And that's what that is. Holy shit. You just dove into my head because I went to Choo Chow last night.
You know Chucho? Dave and Sabrina's bar? If you're in LA, go to El Chucho. I talk about my family's restaurant, Bluey's, in Venice on the west side. Venice and Santa Monica. Best fucking breakfast burrito in Los Angeles. Especially now that Bill's gone. Bill's is the only one that was closed. Now nobody's closed. Go to Bluey's and get a breakfast burrito. They own this bar next door called El Chucho.
On the TV, it's a very small bar, and we went there the other night. Was it last night? Yes, it was. It was last night for someone's birthday party. Stopped in to say hi. And they've got a new thing where they're only playing Baywatch on the televisions. And that's it. They'll only play Baywatch. on the whole time, which I think is a problem for me. What was the ratio of genders attending this bar? I'm just curious. This place was full of hot girls. Wow.
Which is, apparently, I had to be, I was like, I guess, womansplained by Jillian that I'm just old and don't get it, which is fine. I can, but, so here's the thing with this bar. This bar. only serves beer and wine and only serves like biodynamic beer and wine and like alcoholic kombucha and like stuff like that. And to be perfectly honest with you, as much as I love the two people running it who own the place, I've never had a tasty beverage there. And I've had many beverages there. Okay?
This is the funniest ad for this place. You're like, check it out, and then next paragraph. No, no. The beverages are not very good. But it is full of young, hot women every time I've been there. I don't know. Is that like a thing? And it's like it's not like a great space. It's like a tiny little box and a pool table takes up half of it. And most of the square footage of the place is literally stools on the sidewalk, which, again, fine.
But, like, what is drawing that crowd to this place? Well, I think the area it's in, it's flanked by a mix of... houses and apartment buildings. That might sound dumb to people, but in LA, there's places where it's just apartments, places where it's just houses. I think there's a lot of population density there. And so to have a place that you can walk to, because the whole neighborhood north of that
That street is kind of expensive. And if it's a house, it's really expensive. And there's not a lot of bars, I guess, just in that area. There's not. So it's the one magnet. And if it's kind of aimed at being healthy, that helps. And there you go. Yeah. But, I mean, I'm impressed. I am impressed. Yeah. I have yet to have a tasty beverage, though.
Which is kind of funny. They just need to bring in the, what is it, the wine, like, they don't put nitrites in wine in Europe, right? I don't know. And that's one of the differences. Just bring that in because the wine still tastes good. Which is just crazy because next door they make the most delicious food, the most delicious coffee, the most...
delicious smoothies. They know what good is. You've got to ask them next time you see them. I'll have to. Ask about the choices. Yeah. I don't know why I started with that. Oh, because of Baywatch. So Baywatch is on the TV. Here's what's depressing about that. I watched Baywatch on mute for three to four minutes, right?
I watched it on mute for years. Yeah, yeah. Continue. And, man, you know, I really, it's like 30-something years old. It's like 90. Yeah. I knew the name of every single actor on Baywatch. Wow. Yeah, I hadn't accessed any of those names in quite a long time, you know, other than Pamela Anderson, but like, wow. I had not thought about David Charvet in a while. Exactly. No, but who does he play? Oh, he's the young guy on Baywatch with his hair with what you would call the butt cut.
Your memory is amazing. This was last night. No, but I watched that show a lot as a young person, and I know three names from that show, and one of them is not Dave Sharpay. Yeah, well, yeah. Couldn't tell you. And I watched it with Sound On, and I was like, oh, the plot, and the guy who's the cop, and they spun that off into Pacific Blue, and all that stuff, but I don't know the names of the people who played the people. It was crazy, and I was ashamed. I was ashamed for knowing that.
I think your brain is just like a really impressive sponge. It's just weird. And some things don't stick at all. And some of those things are important. Sarah and I went to ramen last night and I was like, oh, we haven't been here in a while. And she goes, she looks at me and she goes, we were here last year. And I said, we were.
and we ate dinner and the whole time she's just she's like you really don't remember eating here with me do you I was like I have no recollection it must have been five years ago she's like no no no 2024 so that's what my brain's doing So anyway, wrap it up. This Spec 5 thing is pretty cool. I don't, I don't, if there's a demand for, if you guys want us to make a video, we can make a video. I think in some of these colors where the blade is a little less contrasty, I think it looks really good.
I think it looks really good in the dark colors and stuff. I don't know. The bright colors, I might try to paint more of the black stuff, but I think it looks nice in general, and it's loud, and it's fast. It was a good time. They do PTS. If you could do colored clear coat over the carbon. Like if you had one of the bright blues, that contrast is kind of aggressive. But if you could do colored clear over it, that might be rad. Yeah. It was fun.
¶ Vespa Dreams, Car Auction, Waymo Experience
I like JR. I think he builds a fun car. Yeah. That was fun. I'm having a good time on this Vespa, too. The new 310. This is going to be expensive. We're talking about the auction tomorrow because my car is going to be done. I'm not going to say it out loud. You can't jinx these kinds of things. But I'm going to write it down where if the car hits a certain number.
I'm going to get the new Vespa. It's got to hit a certain number. We're not going to just spend frivolously. We have other things to do with that money.
The new Vespa is awesome. You should write it down and put an envelope and just leave it on the table here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then tomorrow for the show. And then we'll open it after the auction. Yeah, yeah. I'll put, I'll put, you know what I'll do? I'll make levels. Like if it gets to this, we'll do this. You know, if it gets to this, we'll get a nice dinner.
If it gets to this, you know, we'll do something really cool. We'll go take like an overnight somewhere. If it gets to this, you know, I'm going to buy a Vespa. Nice. I like that. Yeah. Treat yourself. And then I could either sell the old Vespa or teach Hannah to ride it, and we could Vespa together, which I think would be fun. We could also double up on this Vespa. It's enough power to do that, but you know.
She would probably like riding around. It's like it's shrinking the pow. We did it in – we Vespa'd in Nantucket. I have seen her Vespa, but she – but those were like fucking 50s or something. But does she like – the movement of it, the freedom of it. I don't know if she would like it in Los Angeles. I think in Nantucket it was different, but like, I don't know, maybe we get a little trailer and tow the Vespas somewhere and then...
Scoot around. Tell him to ice race. We're going to be old soon. We've got to find something to do. Yeah, that's true. We need to figure out what our old activity is going to be. Vespa-ing. Best thing. It could be. There's fucking worse things. People tow around weird shit behind big-ass motorhomes. Totally. Makes sense. You park the motorhome, you gotta run around. Yeah. I mean, the POW would be a lovely thing to tow around, too, but... It was fucking...
Pissing rain, so not much got done. Although that spec 5 was a good time in the rain. I tried a Waymo in the rain. First off, their wipers turned on. Which is purely for your comfort. Really? Is there no camera behind the windshield? Like, you know, most cars have that forward-facing radar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's a good point. I didn't think about the fact that the wiper would be clearing that camera.
Okay, you're right. I'll have to look at that a little. Can you pull up a Waymo? Let's pull up a photo of a Waymo. Let's see if... Ooh, type Waymo Rain, and let's see if we get an image of one with wiper streaks, and we can – let's just see if we can get – can you show wipers? This is a tough mission to do in real time. I think it's possible that the wiper could clear one of the cameras, though. That's plausible, for sure. Either way. It was very good at driving.
It was very cautious. It saw, you know, it saw everything. It basically, in a 15-minute ride, and, you know, anecdote isn't data, obviously, but the data says they're safe drivers in the rain. My experience was it drove perfectly safely in the rain. However, I took it to my office. And as I say over and over, it drops you off in the back by the trash. Yep. Oh, boy. Which, when it rains, okay. That alley has the drainage. Yeah.
So fortunately, I was sitting in the back, not the front. And I was able to crawl across to the other side where there was not... A huge puddle. Oh, because if you had gotten out on the seat you were in, you would have stepped into a puddle. I would have stepped into a puddle that was fucking deep, deep. It would have gone into my shoe from the top. Oh! Yeah.
fortunately i shimmied across to the other side and i was and that side it was not fully dry but it was it was like you know maybe an inch yeah yeah so you can't you just can't be like hey buddy you're in a fucking puddle that's That's a great point. They need sensors for that. There should be a thing on the screen that says, like, nudge. You know, like a nudge button that would go, this is not a suitable...
place to stop, scoot up 10 feet to the next available place to stop. That would be a useful thing to do. That's a good idea. I've also now sent three or four reports about it taking the wrong way out of my neighborhood. I'm hoping that that – I want to see how many reports I have to send before it stops doing it. Makes the unnecessary left. It takes the long way. It goes north to go south.
Which is like... This is a good experiment. How many reports will it take to change the behavior of this robot? Yeah, to like draw their attention. They go, man, we're getting a lot of reports from this place. But I'm also, I think I may have just messed up my study by talking about it on the show. Possibly.
Because somebody may know somebody at Waymo who goes, hey, go find Matt Farah's Waymo account and re-look at his reports. Right, you circumvent the actual process. It might kickstart a system. I'm not intentionally doing that, but it could totally happen. I know for a fact that people who work at those companies listen to this. So anyway, maybe it'll happen.
So if you're listening and you work at WeMo, don't help solve Matt's problem. Just let the system solve Matt's problem. Unless you work in the department who's meant to see the reports anyway. Correct. It's a wrinkle. I know. This is a problem with experimenting on myself.
This is like selecting tiny bits of data to support your theory that eating just meat is good for you. Yeah. Or like just, yeah, yeah. Deciding I'm like, you know, going to be vegetarian for like, you know, a random week of each month. Beasles isn't bad for you, man. Yeah. But it was a good driver in the rain. I was pretty confident. We live and work right near the hub where these things go to sleep. Yeah, the hive. Yeah.
And so I think there's a disproportionate number of them just in our area because they're always coming or going in addition to the ones that are actually shuttling people around. But my nephew was just like, this is crazy. Because he lives in Savannah, Georgia. Are there any? No. Whoa. And he saw a couple last time he was here, which was like, you know, a year and a half ago or something, but he was like...
You know last night or coming home. They're just like I guess it was like shift change So as we were coming by here, they're all like turning in there and he's like there's like six in a row Did he ride in them with you? No, but we're gonna take one to dinner tonight Yeah. I'm curious what his take is as a young person who might be up on new technology and far more malleable than we are. Yeah, fully tech. Right.
had an iPad at a very young age. I'm curious if he'll just go, yeah, this makes sense, or if he'll still be shocked by how good it is, even though he's had technology for a long time. I mean, almost everybody has exactly the same reaction, which is, wow, this is incredible. And then within two or three minutes, they're scrolling on Instagram or something, which is a crazy thing that like just.
People just go, okay. It doesn't do anything crazy for like two minutes, and they're just like, this is safe. It's funny. That's how quickly we get used to something or trust something. I do it assuming it's dangerous like I seriously do like I do it like for my own like scientific research assuming Like, something bad will happen. Driving the Myers-Manks is like that, too. That's probably more dangerous. It is. Well, it definitely is. But driving it, driving that thing around, I'm like...
I'm like, I am really enjoying this, and I understand that this is very dangerous. Oh, sure, but the joy overwhelms the danger. Yeah, yeah. It's like anything that's dangerous. Yeah, I do the math, and joy wins. It's like 90-10 joy. Yeah. Like, explain, you know, to a bass jumper, like, you know this is dangerous. Yeah, but it's awesome. It's this awesome. But at this altitude, I jizz. Yeah, exactly. My heart jizzes. But if I don't open the chute, then no jizz. No nothing. Yeah.
Did you make tea in a Westside bottle? Yeah. Did you use hot water? No. I just dropped this green tea into cold water. Is that a thing? Cold tea? I mean, I guess it is. I mean, I've had it. Iced tea is a thing. Usually it takes way longer to steep. Just like... Just like cold brew coffee. Yeah. So I'm not sure how steeped it will be. So everybody's doing science today. This is definitely science. I'm definitely doing science. You may have botulism in there too. Who knows? Yeah.
How is it? Still tastes like water. It's got a hint of green tea at the very end, but that mostly tastes like water, although it looks like tea. It looks like tea. Yeah, yeah. It looks successful. Leave it. Maybe by tomorrow it'll be tea. We'll be here in the morning. Yeah, that's true. Who knows? Now that I've sipped it, it'll definitely turn. We've got to plug our pal Kristen Lee, who I love very much, who is a car writer.
¶ Kids Car Book and Wiper History
for a long time. And she's written a book, a kid's book, called The 50 States, Things That Go. And basically what it is, is a state-by-state atlas, I suppose. or I should say it's an alphabetical list of states, and then a bunch of fun transportation-related facts for kids about each state, such as... Grand Rapids, Massachusetts, was famous for personalizing its streetcars. The spirit of St. Louis streetcar was named in honor of the aviator Charles Lindbergh, who was a...
Nazi supporter. No, it doesn't say that last part in the book. The kids don't need to know that. That's the second version. That's the adult version. It's the one in high school. The 50 states, things that go nighttime edition for your adults in the room. No, get one for your kid. We love Kristen. She's the best. And you should buy her book of –
500 facts that showcase the vehicle's history and spirit unique to each of the 50 states. That's awesome. When I was a kid, I would love that book. I had a bunch of those transportation things. Remember the cutaway books where it would show the inside of a train engine F1? car, all that stuff. And this is pretty luxuriously made. Like it's like a nice like it's it's a very like high-quality thing doesn't feel like hard bound the cover has a 3d It's like embossed to it. Yeah embossed. Yeah
And durable for children is how I would describe it. Yeah. I'm going to have to send that to my nephews. They'll like that. Thanks, Kristen. Go buy it. You can buy it from probably. Jeff Bezos, but you should buy it from somewhere else. This is Abrams Books. I like bookshop.org. Speaking of what? Rain, a woman from Alabama invented windshield wipers.
Mary Anderson. Mary Anderson. Did you ever see the movie about the intermittent wipers? Oh, fuck. Is it called? I want to say it's called Flash of Genius. and it is a movie about the guy who invented the intermittent wiper, and then the idea was stolen from him, and he, like... Basically went nuts trying to sue the automakers to get credit for it. Is that right, Flash of Genius? I think that's right. Yeah, maybe?
The internet, is the internet letting you down, Zach, today? No, I'm just, he developed an intermittent windshield wipers based on the idea he patented, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so someone stole his idea. Yes, they did. But is that the right name of the movie? uh yes the name of the movie all right cool yeah it's kind of a fun one people also rejected anderson's attempt to sell the license of the patent they thought uh
Her device was lacking commercial value at a time when cars were still relatively rare. Her patent expired in 1920 without having gone to mass production. And then, of course, by the 20s, Cadillac began installing wipers as standard features. Using designs that follow the basic principles of her device. America! She was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame after she died.
Cool. And her family gets generational wealth from that, right? I have bad news probably. I don't have time to look for it, but I'm just going to guess. I'm going to guess they do not. Yeah. Yeah.
¶ EPA Standards: Car Costs and Fuel Economy
Speaking of patent changes, before we go to questions, I want to talk about this EPA thing real quick. Did you see this last week? Well, I remember... talking about how when they did that little funky thing where they didn't change the fuel economy standards, but they got rid of the fines.
I remember saying, oh, he's basically getting rid of fuel economy standards and being called alarmist by a couple of people. So I'm sorry. Go on. So this is a story the administration talked about a week or two ago. to relax EPA standards on vehicles. And the statement they've put forward to the public, though, is that this will make cars cheaper by almost $1,000, without specifying how, of course.
They say, hey, the cars are going to get simpler, which means they're cheaper to build, but it's going to be cheaper for you to buy a car by up to $1,000. This is what they stated. So I got a message from someone who wants to remain nameless. They work for... A very large car company at a pretty high level. They want to keep their position also hidden. It rhymes with Chevrolet. No.
I'm not even going to get that close. But basically this person said, I had put out a post saying I think this is going to be BS. And he's like, you're right. Because... OEMs will only save around $1,000 per vehicle on average with these changes.
They said, my company is not passing any of that along to the consumer as a price reduction. OEMs will get a little boost in profit. And he said- No, but trickle down economics. Right. It trickles down. They're getting hammered on tariffs. So this person said, why do you think- these companies are going to want to help you save $1,000 when everything's gotten more expensive for them to build cars.
He did say there's a small maintenance benefit. So I asked what that was. This is quote, the predicted maintenance benefit will be very minor in terms of its impact on total cost of ownership. they're looking at getting rid of things like active grill shutters high efficiency alternators and stop start so that means the like the active grill shutter motor won't break anymore that is something that they have to repair repair under warranty a lot um the alternator
and starters used for auto stop start are more expensive. Today I looked on Napa Auto Parts and stuff. I couldn't find the difference between, I was looking up. you know, a truck starter. I couldn't find one that was designated as for auto stop start or not. Every starter I found was basically three to 500 bucks. You'd probably have to like compare.
One from like an F-150 that from the last year before it was like standard. I tried to find that because I know that some of the companies sunsetted stop start during. I don't know why I just said F-150, by the way. Like, I don't know. It's because you.
There's literally an F-150 on the screen. It's not because this person works for Ford. I have no idea. So if someone knows, if someone put in the comments, like, auto stop start starters cost this much, but for a non-auto system, it's this much. It's probably, I mean, it's...
Probably just a more durable starter. I mean, it's going to be starting more. Yeah, exactly. So it's probably just more, you know, just better made, you know. Well, the autostop gets used more, obviously. It gets used every time you're driving, you know.
whatever, five times a mile depends on your drive. So they have made them more robust, but it's going to break down. They might be fucking starting and stopping 100 times a day. For sure. Yeah. So that is definitely a part that's going to wear out more often. profit something that's funny when they talked about the maintenance I was like my first thought was because they're eliminating diesel exhaust fluid that's what I mean by lower cost of ownership oh yeah that's possible that
That would be bad. Diesel exhaust fluid, it works. It does work. It does work. It works. And then I did some math. So for people, if you're enticed, I did by this $1,000 thing. What did you major in in college? Communications. But I took math. So the current average fuel economy nationally is 24.4 gallons. Let's call it 25. Miles per gallon. Miles per gallon. The current national average price of fuel today, according to AAA,
is $2.82. So if you drive 12,000 miles a year, you use 480 gallons of gas, you spend $1,353 on gasoline. If the average goes down by just two miles per gallon based on these changes, your fuel costs will go up to 14.71 and if it goes down three miles per gallon uh it goes up to over 1500 so basically if it goes if mpg goes down by three miles per gallon you will spend that thousand dollars in five years of owning the car
So the thousand dollars you save on the MSRP, if they give you that savings, you spend it within five years. And what's so interesting about this is in 2022. Previous administration put out a story saying, hey, we want average fleet economy to go up to 49 miles per gallon. It was projected to save people $1,400 at the pump, but cars were going to cost $1,100 more. So it's pretty funny that both of them.
Both administrations were doing the same thing for people's pocketbooks, just in different directions. And, of course, there's environmental effects by reducing EPA standards. Yeah, if you could have every car – have the average be 49 miles a gallon, sure. And I imagine that average is probably calculated by a bunch of cards.
cars being EVs. Yes, that's fleet average. So that's a super high number. I was just using, I found average miles per gallon for small light vehicles based on NHTSA, and that was at 25 miles per gallon. And this also assumes that gas stays 282. Sure. Now, if it goes down, obviously you save more money. But if it goes back up to 350 nationally, like, that's a problem. I mean, just like...
The fuck. And, like, I like, you got, like, I hope everybody knows that, like, I like cars. I do. I do like cars. I don't, I'm not trying to, like. say we need to get rid of cars but like how if you like live on the fucking earth are you not just under a common understanding that like These cars should probably burn less gas over time. Like, how is that?
A fucking controversial political opinion. They're like, hey, the chemicals coming out of the back of this fucking truck or car and the amount of... flammable fuel going into the front of this truck should probably be less over time. Fucking rockets. I mean, is this like that's it's crazy that that isn't just like a baseline of being a fucking a human. I know. Well, but the.
we know like the campaign started in the 70s by exxon yeah to put forth you know disinformation about the effects of people on climate change that's been 50 years uh in action and the effects are obvious yeah so There are a lot of people out there that think the source of changing climate is from one thing, not another thing or whatever. And that's how. You know, you could wind back the show. Go find it if you want. I did say I didn't think those...
the full-on internal combustion ban, I was like, I don't think that shit's ever going to happen, or at least not anytime soon. I said that when they announced it. None of the math supported that. The timeline was too aggressive, and the infrastructure wasn't reacting in time. I got into a fight with Dave Anthony about it on Twitter. He wasn't your friend for a while. No. And now we're friends. And now that's funny to us. Because, like...
He wanted it to be true. And, like, everyone, you know, people of authority at the time said, like, it's happening. And I was like, no. And, well, when I posted this story, my reaction to this thing.
I know that there are a lot of people, possibly some listening, that are arguing and getting very loud right now about... what causes climate change do humans impact it i don't want to debate them on that so here's the numbers of how it affects your wallet like you're being told that this will save you a thousand dollars if gas if the efficiency of cars goes down by
X, you will not save $1,000 within five years. And if gas prices fluctuate up at all, which they have a lot in the last couple of years, that savings goes away. So just wanted to say that. Yeah. I mean, I get that, like. EVs aren't for everybody and the charging network cannot support a 100 percent EV mandate. No shit. But how do we not understand? As people that even if like – even if we understand that climate change comes from a variety of sources.
a minority of which is personally owned vehicles. Like, personally owned transportation is not by itself the majority of drivers of climate change, but it's not small. But, like, how the fuck do we not understand that making them more efficient over time is, like, just the thing that we should be doing? I don't know. Like, that line should never be going the other way. You know what I mean?
Even if it has to stay flat for a while. You know? Like, even if it doesn't continue moving forward for a little while, that line should just never be going backward. Yeah. That's crazy. I agree. Progression of technology. That's crazy.
I mean I realize I'm talking like someone who was born in 1981 and didn't really understand how like government worked until essentially mid-Bush, right? So I get it. I'm not old enough to have like seen everything. But like … Man, it really did seem like at least, you know, from between Bush and, you know, Trump won anyway. At least from the 80s to then, line of vehicles efficiency was going up pretty significantly. And that was a good thing.
were in la in the 1970s maybe uh or saw even a photo or video of la in the 1970s because like yikes The air is pretty good here now. Yeah. You can see across the city. Yeah. All the time. Yeah. The air is really nice here now because of that. Anyway. So people should go to them. Yeah. Let's go to them.
¶ Patreon Q&A: Dream Meal, Ferrari, Volt
Of course, I'm talking about those folks who support us over on Patreon. Patreon.com slash The Smoking Tire Podcast. We love you guys over there. These are the last. Is this the last show of the year? Yeah, this will air Tuesday the 30th. Yeah, I guess so. And the next one I think we're airing Friday because of the new year. Oh, wow, yeah. How about that? Okay. So be it. You guys have really kept the ship sailing across the ocean in 2025, and we really appreciate you guys.
And, of course, Patreon is how you ask questions for the show. It's where you catch the live stream. It's where you get the show before everybody else, such as the day. It is recorded, not waiting. It's where you get the show without ads. And it's where you get extra show. All that shit.
going on over at patreon.com slash the smoking tire podcast thank you guys so much it's the best way for you to support your favorite car podcast maybe even your second favorite car podcast i may have just inspired you to support Spike's Patreon or something. Actually, he's not my favorite. I should probably support my favorite podcast.
Lucas Harper's inflamed sense of artificial identity. You have four hours. Oh, this is great. A non-car question. Four hours to make a meal for someone, bless you, and have an intimate dinner at your house. Who are you inviting and what are you making? Unlimited budget. Bonus, you get one chef alive or dead to help you. Who are you choosing? Boy, is this a fucking question. Okay, so...
Make a meal for one person, four hours, and I get a chef to help me? Any chef? Any ingredient? Can I say Carl just so I can talk to him again? I would have Carl in my kitchen with me making the matzo ball soup again with me writing down and videoing every fucking detail. and the person I would want to eat it with is just him. That's it. That would be perfect. I would take that. Do you have one of those?
I mean, I'd probably choose Bourdain so I could just talk to him and learn things. Yeah, that would be another good choice. And I would try to make whatever the greatest Italian dishes he knows how to make for Sarah because we love Italian food. But yeah, that would be the choice. If I was going to have Bourdain make me something, it would be steak frites because he worked at – it was Leal. He made thousands of steak frites. He probably made a real good steak frites.
575 Super Dave America says, if you could give the Safari treatment to any Ferrari, what would it be? Safari is a good name. I really like that. Best Ferrari Safari. Well, the obvious answer is the FF or the Lusso. Right. Which would look cool. It would look extremely cool. If you wanted to go a little more classic. I mean, you know, the 308 rally cars were really exceptional. That's like pretty much what that is. Dude, an old Daytona would look great.
Cool. Meaty. It would be meaty. Yeah, meaty, fitment, lifted and stuff. That would be pretty awesome. Yeah, picture the 240Zs that are safaried out, and then you could easily imagine what the Daytona would look like. That would be bitchin'. Right? Why don't you think we see more safari cars in urban areas with bad roads? I mean, I think that that was not a thing that people were...
I mean, it obviously was a good idea. I mean, 2018, when I got my Safari 911, the title of the article I wrote for Road & Track was, A 911 Safari is the Ultimate City Car. So I don't think this was an unknown idea, but I think a lot of people are not really willing to. compromise their sports car for that. It also changes the value of that car a bit. It can go up, but it can also hurt it if people aren't into what you've built. Right. Beep beep noodle is the username chat GPT gave me.
I have a 2019 Volt. GM has a history of giving up on good ideas after pumping tons of money into them. Truth. But don't you think ditching the Volt tech system is near the top of that list? I do. I do. I think especially now that plug-in hybrids are the thing. I think GM, they were there first. They had a great system.
You know, the Volt was a sweet plug-in hybrid in 2013 that worked really good. 2009, sorry the Volt came out. I had a 2013, but they were fucking awesome. But yes, I do think it is. I mean, I think they could go back.
I do think they could pivot to it. They were there already. They could make it again. But yeah, it does seem short-sighted. But it wasn't just that GM... gave up on the good idea after pumping money into it they didn't know how to market it uh they were just like they didn't know how to tell people like how it worked in a simple way like no they actually made it
Like, I think Johnny might have said this because we were talking about it like the idea of just having a gas engine that's a generator to charge batteries, whereas the Volt. Under certain circumstances, it would be a generator. Under other circumstances, it would actually drive the wheels. GMs just shouldn't have told people that. They should have just said, yeah, it's a generator.
Like you wouldn't have known. But you got it. I mean, they have to tell people what's going on. I mean, but they shouldn't have. Why? Because it made it more complicated. They should have just simplified it. It's an electric car that can charge itself. That's it. They should have just said that. Or they should have talked about plug-in hybrid or something. But the way they marketed it, no one really understood how it worked and really understood why it was that much better than a Prius.
I think Prius has first mover advantage for so long. Convincing the public that you can compete is really hard. People thought they were like a Prius, but really it was actually much better than a Prius.
¶ Patreon Q&A: Audi S5, Mach-E, Used Watches, Outdated Tech
The Roger Farah podcast. Might as well. I've mentioned before that a used Audi S5 is a great daily driver value under $50,000. I'm not – yeah. Yeah, it could be. It could be. Is there anything in today's market you'd choose over it? Probably, yeah. i mean i would choose a lot of four doors over it you know i mean the the s5 is awesome and it's good at that job but
A big two-door coupe is not as useful as a four-door, especially if you have the same engine and all the same stuff and they handle about the same. Who cares? Just have that back door. Yeah. I mean, we had an 09 Audi S5, and it was nice at the time when it was new. And I'm sure it would still be kind of nice today if it was well kept. But I... I probably wouldn't want one today. I mean, honestly, you could have...
If we're talking about that type of car, like I'd rather have an E92 M3 today, to be honest with you. I'd rather have a few other things. I mean, 50K, I'm into 997 Porsches, and I'd much rather have that. You could get a CTSB coupe, probably, for that money. 50 goes a long way, and an S5 is not what I would be doing with it. No, sorry. Ted Theo Logan. Toying with an EV lease for a three-day commute in Minnesota. Am I the market demo for a Mach-E rally? Yes. I am pro Mach-E rally.
A little bit of snow. Yep. A bit of highway. Yep. And then they say a bit of off-road capability for when I visit some camping properties. It's great for that. For fire roads and snow tracks and stuff like that. 100%. Yeah. I mean, as long as that campground is within reasonable range of a charger or your primary house where you can charge it up, look at your infrastructure. But that car does so many things well, and they have described all of them. Yeah. Josh J.
As someone who partners with a watch micro brand, how do you feel about buying one used as opposed to supporting the small business? I've always wanted this one brand, but I found their price too high. I managed to find a user. one for less and although I love it, I feel a bit of shame for not directly supporting a growing brand. I think you are supporting a growing brand.
The fact that somebody was able to sell that watch secondhand to you, watches need to have a secondhand value. If the secondhand value of this brand's watch was zero, Nobody would buy another watch from the company again. So a watch does need to have some kind of secondhand value. There needs to be someone there to buy it when somebody buys it from the company and doesn't want it anymore. That would, like, suck.
I mean, imagine just like our watch, this watch. If this watch, which was $1,200 new, was sitting on eBay. for six months, for $250, buy it now, no takers, I'd be like, oof, that's not great. you know um someone was like hey matt i saw one on ebay and like it went for like 1500 like it went it went for over like all right cool like there's that you know even though they're sold out like somebody wanted one that bad and then that's what like
Like that's pretty cool. So like you're not supporting the brand directly but you're wearing it. Maybe you tell somebody about it. I mean, the brand you mentioned is pretty obscure. Imagine what would happen to new Porsche pricing if no one cared about the old ones. You're an ambassador for the brand. It's showing people that it's still a cool brand.
thing to have even if it's used like there's it builds excitement all that stuff yeah and by the way like i mean like that brand like they'll be fine maybe you'll buy a used one or a new one when you can afford it if you still like them like you it's nice that you're thinking about this But like, yeah, just like with a car, like you're still allowed to go to the Porsche meet if you buy the car used. And like no one knows. Like you put that watch on and like.
Nobody knows you bought it. You're the only person like you. After that, no one am. But you should not feel shame. You should be okay and happy with your new watch. That's fine. She says my mini is just right, says I was scrolling the classifieds recently and noticed that the new model year. Lexus RC350 and RCF still come equipped standard with a CD player. Do any other examples of current cars have any outdated or weird tech like this?
Not really, man. I haven't seen a CD player in a minute, and I haven't driven a Lexus RC. Holy shit. When was the RC track edition? That must have been... Seven years ago? No, but there's a... 2025, here's Autoblog, says there are a few CD players. Oh, is this a gallery or can we just scroll? Okay. Lexus, yes. Get rid of this window. Oh, boy. Pop-ups. Keep going. Lexus IS. Shocker. Old-ass car. Lexus RC. Shocker. Old-ass car. All right. Subaru Outback Touring. Subaru Outback. Yeah.
Car for old-ass people. Subaru Legacy. Yeah, same car. That's it. That's it. All right. So four cars, two makes. Yeah. Two Lexuses and two Subarus, basically. Yeah, okay. So tell mom – yeah, I mean – Once the screen takeover happens, all the outdated tech really just goes away. But those markets make – I am actually surprised there's no Mercedes or something because this is obviously aimed at slightly older people. Sure.
I'm kind of surprised there's no, like, S-Class or E-Class, maybe. No, Mercedes New Tech. Mercedes always says that we're always like, if you put my mother in a new Mercedes, she'd have no fucking clue what was going on in there. But if they had a CD changer in the back, she might go, oh, cool, I can put some of my albums in here. Still rock the CD changer the vanquish same six Going on going on 20 years. Oh six. We've had the car 20 years
I've had the same six CDs in there. Do you still have your CD collection from when you were a younger person? Oh, dude, it's probably in a cabinet at my house somewhere. I think my parents have mine somewhere. Yeah, I think somewhere. They're in a binder. I bet half of them are scratched to shit. I don't think I have, outside of that car, which is 2,900 miles from here, I don't think I have a CD player at all.
Neither do I. Not anymore. Took mine out. My computer doesn't have one. The one in the NSX, which I'll only own for a few more days. Oh, no! The Countach. The only car I have with a CD player. Wow. It's disassembled. The POW has a cassette deck. Oh, wait. No. No. No. The Delica has a Clarion Double Din. But does it tilt down to reveal a CD player? I don't think so. Or does it just tilt down to go into the dash? It doesn't go—it's not a flip out. Oh. It's a fixed double din. Okay.
It might be like a kneeling, but I don't know. It's been too long. You've got to hit the button, or it might have a tape deck back there. That's what mine had. No, this wouldn't have happened. I don't know. Anyway.
¶ Patreon Q&A: Electric Turbos, Books, Apocalypse, Driving
All carbon tubs go to heaven. If electric turbos and electric superchargers are not powered by the engine anymore, are they not basically the same thing? I would say... They are unless so far. Now, I can't say this about an electric supercharger because I've not examined one. great detail. But the electric turbos that Porsche use are still partially powered by exhaust gas. They're not fully electric. The exhaust gas does take over.
at a certain point. I forget if it's... I forget exactly what RPM it takes over, but there is a point at which the RPMs are... The flow of exhaust gases is enough to get that thing going on its own, at which point it starts harvesting electricity. Electric superchargers. Is there a point, Zach, in an electric supercharger at which point the power of the accessory drive belt, which would normally drive – overtakes the electricity?
I'm trying to look. I don't think so. I think the big difference, though, is that by definition, turbochargers at some point use the exhaust gas to power that turbine. With a supercharger, it's always powered by an external source. It's always powered by the belt. or the other belt, or in this case, electricity. So maybe that's how, and maybe the PSI...
for a turbocharger can ultimately get higher because it uses that exhaust gas as it spins up. So I don't know if you know what the PSI of the new 992.2 turbos is. I've never heard. It's like 30. It's in the 30. I've never heard. I've never heard of a supercharger getting anywhere near as much boost as turbos make. New Turbo S gets 26.1 PSI boost.
I don't know of any supercharger that makes that kind of – unless maybe you're talking about a diesel. So the stock GT500 from a few years ago made 9 PSI. Yeah. So a third, yeah. Good question, though. And now we know the answer. Nobody cares about my G70. Fight the good fight, brother.
I've been reading Autonorama as per your recommendation, and it's great. Any other good books you've been into lately? I just finished The Image. It's from 1962, and it will make you want to bang your head into a wall. In case that's the kind of thing you're interested in. It basically talked about the problems that we're having. with algorithmic news and silos of information and news about nothing and influencer culture in 1962. It's fucking...
Crazy. It's so crazy and so frustrating. It's called The Image. And the foreword is written by Douglas Rushkoff, who wrote Survival of the Richest, which is also a must-read, because it's fucking crazy. It's basically about what billionaires actually think is going to happen and what they're actually trying to do when the inevitable apocalypse comes. Oh, good. Yeah, it's good. Feel good movie of the year. Zach, do you and I think we're included in those plans?
Nope. In some form. Serfdom. My only hope is for you and Sarah and me and Hannah and the four cats and Tucker to get in the Delica and go to the Yellowstone Club. And hope they let us in. I was not expecting that answer. That's our only hope. Hey, we met once. I can cook.
Yeah. I know how to make matzo mal soup. Carl taught me. I was just going to be like, let's just steal a sailboat and head somewhere else. Oh, no. That's the real. Listen, that's the real plan. But we can't talk about that too publicly. Because when sailboats go missing. When there's one little earthquake and a 120-meter yacht goes missing, they're going to come looking for Captain Farah. Yeah, yeah, they are. Oh, God. But, like, you guys out there, like...
You know how easy it is to steal boats, right? Stealing boats is only a problem if there's people to catch you later. Because you have to come back to shore eventually. Just don't go to the same shore. But, like, what if shore isn't there anymore? Go to a different shore. Yeah, what if shore is gone? If shore is gone, your problem is solved. Most boats will just turn on. Especially the big ones. Dan Henderson.
Says, what car offers the best driving experience at non-criminal speeds? I've already owned all the Miatas and love my ND, but I want to move upmarket that won't put me in prison. For wanting to shift often... And going to Redline is possible. I've owned MR2s, Boxsters, Caterhams, and more. This is a problem. I mean, look, you've got your BRZ. You've got your GR Corolla. Those are fun.
I mean, if you can find a great Fiesta ST out there somewhere, those are a good time. Or why don't you, like, go old school? My Ferrari 328 was, like, awesome at non-criminal speeds. Yeah. Like, vintage. Yeah, or even, like, the POW, the Delica, something where the— The POW's not fun. No, no, but—well, I think there's—it's a different kind of fun, right? Like, it's—is it—
Silly, whimsical fun. Are you excited to just drive it and listen to it versus rev it out? No, I think what Dan is talking about is a slow is fast sports car, not just a shopping cart that looks cool. That's right. I mean, Lotus Elise, if I don't see Lotus Elise on the list, that's in your wheelhouse there. And then vintage. Go with an G-Body 911. Them shits aren't fast. Especially shorter gearing.
Because then you can drive it and shift a lot. That's true. Yeah. If you can find an air-cooled car that's got short ratios in it, that's a good time. Yeah. Yeah. Old cars. Older cars. Yeah. I don't know whether I'm the Boxster or the Jag, says. All right. What do we have here?
¶ Patreon Q&A: Toyota, Raynaud's, Million-Dollar Cars
Let's see. Toyota is the largest automaker. Okay. Toyota's business model is totally different than the others who build throwaway cars. Why is it that no one else tries to design and build cars to last millennia like toyota does i mean i'm not so sure that that's what toyota is doing in 2025 like I am certain that that's what Toyota was doing in 1995. And they've managed to stretch a lot of that out until 2015, 2016. But now that like...
Everything's a hybrid and things are more computerized and turbocharged. You know, there was like no such thing really as a bad Toyota powertrain for like 25 years. And now they've got like some problems with some of them. And I don't think nobody else tries to build cars that last. But I think that... When Toyota wanted to make a push to the U.S. marketplace, in particular behind the wind of Lexus, you know, they were going for
They put a ton of money into those cars. That Camry that came out that kind of looked like the LS400. I think it was the 92 Camry. The unkillable Camry. That's a fuck. They put so much. money into that car, into making it durable and really, really good. Think about what they were building in like 94, the Previa, that Camry. Like the Corolla, the first like the rounded Corolla. Oh boy, I'm sure there's at least two other cars. There was the Celica. There was the MR2.
Until 95, like they were building like not only pretty dope stuff, but like a whole line of cars that were like basically unkillable. And that's not really broadly true anymore. That's true. Yeah. But they were trying to make a big statement in the US market about their cars. And they earned customers for fucking life doing that. It was a very, very smart bet. But I don't think they've had to keep that up this whole time.
Yeah, either they have stopped trying or they've just run into problems with all these new systems that have to be added to cars for turbocharging or other suppliers. I think they're... Tacoma or their tundra problem right now is linked to a supplier for like the metallurgy stuff or you know Turbo suppliers. But all their cars that were like the unkillable cars use like very old simple powertrains. They don't use the new high-tech shit. Right. And the Prius is reliable.
Like that is but like the as we've seen in some people's videos and stuff like the actual gas engine in a Prius is like so understressed Yeah, but like of course it lasts fucking forever and the battery is pretty under stress too because it's only really working at very low speeds and it's not getting fucking fast charged and stuff like that.
A Prius is a pretty under-stressed car. And if they were making four bangers in the 90s that were super reliable, overbuilt, or just built the right way, now take that engine, put less stress on it, or similar technology, and put less stress on it, it should be fun. Forgot about the Supra. I'm listing off my cars from the Toyotas from the 94. I forgot, like, the most durable tuner engine in fucking history. And the Tundra, which, didn't the first-gen Tundra have a 1UZ in it?
Ooh, good question. No, it didn't. That's not true. It did not. I think it had some kind of UZ. It was some V8. No, I don't know what it was. It was a V8. Was it related to UZ? It was. Was it 1UZ? 99 to 2004. Was it a 1UZ? It was a 1UZ FE. Oh, yeah, that's it. Yeah, so it did. So, yeah, so that's just like that. That five or whatever year period where every car they make was like fucking unkillable, they're still carrying the momentum of that. You know? Yeah.
And now it's just falling apart. There's an article on The Drive that explains all the reliability problems they've been having for the last year. Yeah. Two guys in the back of Alexis Texas says, this is a perfect question for me. Are there any cars with climate control systems that can blow hot air at your feet and cold air up higher?
I have Raynaud's disease, so my feet and hands are always cold in the winter, so I blast the heater at my feet and use a heated steering wheel, but I drive with the windows down so the rest of my body doesn't get too hot. Man, that's fucking annoying. That's tough. That's tough. I'd rather leave the window. up and blasts the heater down low and AC up high, but I haven't found a car that can do that. Boy, do I have a car for you, sir. Let me introduce you to the 1991 Bentley Turbo R.
which can do that. Fucking crank it on your feet. Crank the AC on the rest of your body. You have the two dials for each side, right? Wow. Because I haven't seen a new car that has that. Yeah. Bentleys. Yeah. 80s and 80s into 97. The newest one you can get is a 97. Matter of fact, you know what else you can do? sure you get the Rolls Wraith. Okay, the cheapest car. Can you please, on the Googles, get me the interior dashboard.
like the dashboard view of a 2004 Rolls-Royce Phantom. This may be the cheapest. You put 2002, and that is not a car that exists. Is that what you said? You need 04. 04 was the first year, at least in America. We need the interior. Let's see if you have the double dials in that phantom. Can we see the dash, please? There's your shot. Do we have a high and a low? I don't think so. I don't think it has it. I can't see him there.
You may be able to find like a real shitty phantom for the right amount of money that has it. No, it doesn't. Okay. Yes, it does. Can you zoom in on this photo? It's pretty grainy. So I'm pretty sure those horizontal dials have a high and a low on both sides.
Because you see on the right one, you see there's a white mark on just the low half? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. And then I think you're right. There's another white mark just up to the left. Yeah. So what you need, sir, is either a Bentley Turbo R. There it is. Yes, that is it. The high and the low. You need a 2004 Rolls-Royce Phantom. There you go. What are those costs now? Look, I didn't say that this car would be...
affordable just that we would find one. What a solution. Good on you. I was going to say find a car that has cooled seats and you just run the air conditioning. Air-conditioned seats while you have the heater cranking on your feet. Or install a cool shirt in your car. You know, blast the heat and chill the body. Yeah, but then you've got to wear that thing the whole time. Did it say what this sold for?
Do you want to pull up Bat? Probably Bat for Phantoms. Let's look at Bat and let's see what it would cost to get into a Phantom. You're not going to like this. You're not... Oh, 512M is on bat. Oh, that's so good. Okay, let's find some sold... Ouch. Sold units. 39K miles. Sold for 90. Wow, 22K miles. The cheapest you're getting is 66 grand. Sold for 66,000, though. Look, I've got to be honest. It's less than I thought. How about bottom right, 16,000 mile.
Oh, that's back in February. We need newer than that. Show me white. That was also 2020. Oh, it was? Yeah. Holy shit. So few of these on bat. Okay. Show me September. That one. This is a 22,000 mile 04 Phantom. Oh, with blacked out chrome trim? Yeah. Okay, let's go down. It's got 22,000 miles. It's repainted in white. Let's keep looking. Current owner purchased and added less than 1,000 miles. Okay, let's keep going. Let's see what the inside looks like. It's just black. Black with burl wood.
All right. Superficially doesn't look terrible. And 22,000 miles for a Rolls Royce should be fine. It makes you wonder if it smells weird. Also makes you wonder if it was crashed. Yeah, the repaint. With that low mount. But, wait a minute. Oh, that's the CD player. There it is. There it is. There's your double climate control wheels right there. Yeah. Double fans, double climate. Okay. So, 66K.
You could be rolling in a phantom. And maybe you could get a prescription for it, and your insurance will pay for it. Yeah. There you go. Raynaud's disease handled. Doctor. Doctor, I have found a solution to alleviate. I'm so glad we could help you solve this problem. That's amazing. Choonhound, what car would you like to own that you have little to no appreciation for visually? I wouldn't want to own a car that I don't appreciate visually.
Right? No, because then I've got to walk out and look at it and drive it around. I wouldn't want to do that. I mean, there's cars that, like, I would own. Like, I didn't really care. The Mach-E, for instance, like, I didn't feel a way about that. You know what I mean? It was fine. It was really for my wife more than for me, and it was fine. But, like...
I guess you could say I had little to no appreciation for it, but I wouldn't want to buy a car I didn't at least kind of like looking at. I think the Mach-E had some good angles. I thought it was a good-looking car from front three quarters. I think they did some pretty nice stuff with it. The little roof trick they did made it look good. Pretty cool. So I think you could have gotten uglier or less interesting looking EVs for sure. For sure. More egg-like if you wanted. I mean, okay.
No, because all the exotic stuff looks kind of cool. Eh. I don't think I have one. I think there has to be an appreciation for it visually. Blurple says, what cars are you most excited to drive next year? I'm looking forward to the Aston Martin Valhalla, which we should be doing this year. ZR1. I already did that one, but yes, we'll get a ZR1 and you'll find a way. This rear-wheel drive Bentley Continental Supersports. That's wild. That seems like a pretty good time.
¶ Patreon Q&A: Future Drives, Montana Tags, Urwerk Watch
I'm looking forward to driving the Manx on ice. Countach. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Really. I mean, really that. Really that. And whatever project you go into after NSX leaves. Well, the Mercedes. We're still excited about that project, actually. Because like the Manx, that's something we can actually kind of use a lot, which I think would be pretty fun. We saw at... Rancho Santa Fe Cars and Coffee. One of the things we saw that Hannah really liked was a corduroy interior on a BMW CSL.
And she really liked that. And I could absolutely get on board with Corduroy. Sure. I've been thinking Herringbone, but Corduroy would be really fun too. The other thing we saw was one of the boldest things I've – did I – oh, shit. Did I say this earlier on the show? My brain may have let me down. Did I say that the boldest thing I saw down there was a Mitsubishi Evo 9 with Montana tags and its hood just popped open?
I was like, dude, you are, you're fucking riding the lightning, bro. That's crazy. This guy's in San Diego, like 2,500 miles from Montana. He's visiting. He's still visiting. He's visiting with the hood popped in his emo. Bro. Fucking so many, so many Montana tags on cars that didn't need them. Yeah. Habibis, these guys are rolling down there with fucking like 991s. stock on Montana tags. Like, you fucking loser. That's so lame. You stick. Mark Farrar, the tired smoker.
Saw wants thoughts on the Ulysse Nardin and Urwerk collaboration. Can you get a photo of that one? These are two companies that both make weird watches. And it is called the Ur Freak. And I happen to think these are cool. They call this a wandering hours complication. AP has come out with a similar watch. As a matter of fact, Mr. Segura is wearing the new AP Starwheel in his new special.
teacher don't think i didn't catch that tommy buns uh it's a funny special i do recommend it it is it is funny he spends the first fucking 15 minutes talking shit about people who ride vespas which is which is quality but yeah no i think This is cool. I mean, this is already...
A complication that Urwerk has done before. And it is sort of halfway between the Ulysse Nardin freak and the Urwerk, whatever their other wandering hours watch is. But it's pretty cool. So basically this thing in the center.
uh it spins and then also there's this it's a triangle there's three points to it and each each point has a tumbler on it and those things spin that's cool and then go back up to the to the dial and they all spin together and then you can see zero to 60 down the right side of the watch so the one that is pointing upward when it hits the zero, and it will remain upward as it goes through to the 60. So this watch we have on the screen is showing 845. It's pretty sweet.
It's a pretty fun complication. Oh, good. It's only $122,000. I was going to say, this doesn't sound cheap to engineer. No, it's not cheap. That's pretty clever. That is very clever stuff. Wow. Yeah. Those are really fun. I mean, I get why those are very expensive. They're made in very small numbers, and they're just really fucking cool. Is it really thick because it has all this tumbler stuff? It was 44 millimeters wide. Go back to the...
It's probably not so thin. See if you go up. See technical data on the right. Let's see what the case size is. This is 13.77. That is a chonky boy. Yeah. It's a chonky boy. We call that a summer watch. Short sleeves. Not under your long sleeves, yeah. Not terrible. You can see some shit that gets up to like 15, but yeah.
¶ Patreon Q&A: Garage Tours, Watch Tips, Wagons, Odometers
Christian says, your how to drive a manual video did very well. Would you make a video of teaching someone how to drive a manual? A fan or obviously a female would do numbers. I don't think there's benefit to the audience there. That video is meant to teach you, the audience, how to drive stick. Seeing someone else learning, I don't think would give the same kind of benefit.
Gin and Tonic, Gin and Taconic State Parkway. Would I ever do a personal garage tour video? I mean, no, I don't think, I don't like the, hey, look at my stuff videos and like the cars are all over the place.
uh they're at different places and and um it's just i don't know you you know what they are you don't you don't need to see them i feel like we do a lot of content like on the podcast but also we always do a video about each car separately yeah and so just doing the same thing to bring them all together seems uh redundant there's people that do that stuff and i'm not trying to knock their hustle like if their content is just about their own cars but
I try to keep that stuff to a minimum. I feel weird doing it. Johnny E.V. Gerberman got a 1972 Omega Seamaster DeVille as a hand-me-down for Christmas. It needs a service. Are there any Instagram watch restores?
recommend better off taking it to my local watch shop i i don't know about instagram restorers i would do one of two things take it to your independent watch shop or send it to my independent watch shop those are the two things um If you live in a major city, just Google independent watch.
service, repair, and find a place with great ratings. Fortunately, that watch is common enough that there's parts and whatever, and it can be serviced. If not, shout out to Marina Bay Watch Company in Marina Del Wey. Delray, ask for Mike, and you can FedEx it in, and they'll work on it. So, yeah. Speedy P says, oh, oh, that was, sorry. Thanks, BDP, but we already kind of did that one earlier in the show. XanderDavis15 says,
do I do as a civilian to get the knowledge that you gained by getting the press watches without spending stupid money and buying the wrong watches because they look good on Instagram? That is easy. You try them on. I mean, excuse me, I should rephrase. That is simple, not easy. Like, almost any watch has a way to try it on somehow. You might have to go somewhere. You might have to order one that has a return policy. You might have to find a watch group where maybe one – but like –
The only way to do that is to try the watch on. I was fortunate. I got to wear it for like a little while. So I got to learn a little more than you might. Most of these watches, you put them on once or you wear them for a very, very short period of time, and you kind of get it. Matt's missing Countach part says, what is the worst million-dollar-plus car? That's kind of funny. The worst. The worst million dollar plus car. Well, there's probably something out there that's like...
old rare that we wouldn't care about that sold for a million dollars. I think the question is trying to get us to say the worst new million dollar car. That's, I mean... I don't want to say the worst one. I think I've said on here where I would put my money if I was going to buy a million-dollar car and where I wouldn't put my money. Right. I would buy – I'd buy a Koenigsegg. Although I hear they have reliability issues, but they have a lot of new techs. Of course they do. Or...
I mean, singers are too expensive for that, but, you know, or a roof, like a roof is worth a million dollars. Yeah. So the cars I'm skipping are the places I would not put my million dollars. Yeah. There's that coach-built Bentley thing. I think it was called the Bacalar or something that was effectively like a GT convertible with kind of a coach-built body on it. And that was...
a million dollars, and you could have that. I'm sure there's some Mansory cars where the price that's added, it's 20 or 50 grand of carbon. but they charge $100 or $200 for it, where it adds to the price tag, and I don't see the value there. Yeah, I mean, probably the 959 Porsche. Just because of the service, the service costs are so crazy, and there's so few places you can take it, you know? Or like the 6x6, like the crazy Mercedes G-Wagon. Probably that. That's really dumb. Yeah.
A 6x6 could be the worst million-dollar car for sure. Yeah. Uh... There... Well, Dre from Houston wants a story on a car that there isn't a story on, unfortunately. Avant to go fast. You say it like Dracula. Avant to go fast. That's not a very good Dracula. Sorry. I want to go fast. Thoughts on the W211E63. AMG wagons. I'm pretty sure these were sold in the U.S. They just were not sold in big numbers. There's a review from Current Driver about it. Yeah, they were sold in the U.S. I mean, it's...
They're, you know, fine. Head studs, right? E63s, head studs, all E63s. Other than that, wagons are good. You know, cheap speed. That's a good, loud wagon. Yeah, cheap speed. I reviewed the... E63 non-wagon. Wait, can you get a picture of the 211? Is that the four-eyes headlight? It's this one. It's, yeah. 07. I reviewed that certainly as a sedan, so that's buried back in there somewhere. That's rad. Yeah. Fast wagon is good. No new... No new revelations on old E63s, though. Let's see.
Oh, that Jim Khanna. I do not know the answer. I have no idea. Can you scroll down, Zach? Chris from Colorado says, a few episodes ago you talked about this ground-up 911T that Zach drove. You said mileage doesn't matter for a full restoration, which makes sense. Is it a thing for people to buy aftermarket odometers and start it at zero? like singer does that at zero so what should the cutoff be for restarting an odometer i mean once a car has been like fully torn down to nothing.
I don't really give a shit anymore. I think an odometer at zero could be beneficial. The title might say TMU, True Mileage Unknown. It would have to be a pretty big build. Gunther, Singer, they do zero mile cars. Did you know what this one was? Did you remember? What the odometer said? Was it rolled back to zero? I don't think so. I'd have to look at my stuff. But I don't think it was rolled back to zero.
It wouldn't make much of a difference for me, please. I don't know why I said please there. What is the cutoff for me? I would say if I was tearing a car down to the shell. I would consider it. But... If I knew I had an accurate odometer anyway, I might just leave it alone so that I didn't have to do the DMV paperwork and answer to somebody later. I think the car would probably have to be pretty substantially changed too.
Like if I was restoring it like to factory – if it was just old and tired and I was restoring it to factory, I wouldn't restore the – I wouldn't do zero miles. I mean those cars, the other ones also leave the – like they leave this building called a Singer Reimagined or whatever. So –
I think you add some of that into it. It's definitely a murky area. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is a thing for certain people to start it at zero, but I wouldn't probably do it most of the time if I was doing my own build. Yeah.
¶ Episode Wrap-up and Final Thanks
Anything else? Is that it? No, that's it. Great. Great. Well, please don't get drunk and drive home, particularly on New Year's. It's bad to do all the time, but it's really dumb to do on New Year's. This episode's airing. Friday after New Year's because the one we do tomorrow with NSX. Well, I hope you had a good New Year's. If you're listening to this, then you didn't die on New Year's. So that's good. Correct. That's a baseline. You should buy Kristen's book if you have kids.
I'll be sending this to the young people in my life. Hope Zach doesn't mind. And yeah, thank you to our patrons and to whoever bought the NSX. I hope that went well in the future past. Right? Yeah. And we'll see you guys later. Bye.
