0:01

And it next to each other it was like these two trucks

0:03

have the same bed length I've

0:06

never I don't think I've ever seen that you know when you see that I've

0:08

never seen it that is a rich You

0:10

might be a redneck kind of thing.

0:12

It's either your cheap class or trash.

0:14

Yeah, you have enough money You're like no.

0:17

No I'm choosing this yeah Lucas

0:19

says nostalgia drives classic

0:21

car purchases Do you think younger generations

0:24

will be less nostalgic for the past being

0:26

that their young lives are so much better?

0:29

Documented than ours what's

0:31

up everyone welcome to the smoke and

0:33

tire podcast Today's episode

0:35

is brought to you by off the record we

0:37

love off the record I've used them a bunch

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and I hear from you guys all the time

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gone forever. It's handled. It's

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so money. Offtherecord.com slash

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TST or code

2:37

TST10 on the Off the Record

2:40

app. All right, folks, on this episode of the podcast,

2:43

I review the Aston Martin DB12.

2:46

We talk about Mercedes possibly going

2:48

yoke in the S-Class, say

2:50

it ain't so, and why we're not so

2:53

excited about drive-by-wire

2:53

steering. We do a bit of housekeeping

2:56

in terms of why the ads are

2:59

the way they are and

3:01

how we need to proceed

3:03

forward with the logistics of this

3:06

show. We also talk about the craziness

3:08

of Joey Diaz and his new

3:10

book, Tremendous. A little bit of a word

3:14

adjustment regarding the Audi Q8

3:18

e-tron I drove recently. And

3:20

we've got a whole bunch of great questions

3:22

from the Patreon.

3:23

It is a crew show. Welcome

3:26

to the Smoking Tire Podcast.

3:28

I have like 10 pages left in this notebook.

3:31

Nice. I started this notebook on April 8th, 2021.

3:37

Which one are you going with next? I

3:40

have like eight more of these. Oh, I thought you...

3:43

The blue ones. Okay. I might go with

3:45

a different one though. Oh, you have more? Just to

3:47

change it up. Go with the press launch book? I might go with the press

3:49

launch book. I don't know. Aston Martin threw

3:51

a pretty nice one in the old swag bag. I've

3:53

been using the Hyundai Santa Cruz one because it has a pen

3:55

holder. Oh, that's nice. And it's thick leather. I

3:58

really like it. Pen holder's good.

3:59

all my pens. I have slots in my backpack,

4:02

they're still gone. I actually got a pen

4:04

holder that goes around the,

4:06

that's like straps to the outside of

4:08

this, but then it doesn't lay flat.

4:11

It like sits up like that. Right, and you can't slide it

4:13

in next to your laptop and stuff. Right,

4:15

yeah. There's no perfect solution, I

4:17

don't think. But the one that's on the spine,

4:20

that's probably pretty good.

4:21

The Hyundai Santa Cruz has like

4:24

an equal amount of storage on their notebook

4:26

as it does in the bed of the truck. I

4:30

mean, it's obviously sort

4:32

of like bullshitty, and I don't

4:35

like memes, but I saw a very funny meme

4:37

that was like, it showed like a Honda Ac-D

4:40

pickup truck and like a giant

4:42

fucking TRX Ram, and

4:45

next to each other, it was like these two trucks have the

4:47

same bed length. Oh my God, that's incredible.

4:50

It was actually pretty funny. What

4:54

is the TRX? Five foot? Six

4:56

foot. Probably five. I mean,

4:58

I didn't like sit there and fact check the meme

5:01

and the Ac-D is probably a little narrower

5:03

than the TRX's, but like, yeah,

5:06

it's probably pretty close. Like in terms

5:08

of like actual hauling capacity,

5:10

it's probably pretty close.

5:15

Five foot, six, five foot, seven. Yeah.

5:18

So what is the... 67 inches. What is a Honda

5:20

Ac-D bed? It's

5:23

going to be like in millimeters. They're not going to have a

5:25

fucking US metric, US number for

5:27

that. Six foot four. They're the

5:29

same. Yeah, with that. Wow.

5:32

Yeah, that's funny. Yeah. It's a mini

5:35

truck. That's so funny. It is. Yeah.

5:37

I mean, like, I only have

5:39

a couple friends who like, no, my,

5:41

the sample size of Matt's friends

5:44

does not really intersect with like

5:46

people who really need trucks. Yeah. But

5:49

I have a couple very utilitarian

5:51

friends, a couple, one of whom

5:54

drives a fucking Ac-D

5:56

as his truck. It's got the, it's got

5:58

like the lift back. Fuck, it's

6:00

on like JDM little wheels,

6:03

it's a three cylinder. What's he use it for? He

6:06

has like four or five

6:08

Airbnbs in Palm Springs, and

6:11

that's just like his maintenance, furniture

6:13

moving, gardening, like, I

6:17

mean he's not towing a fucking, he's

6:19

not towing a race car with it, but like he

6:21

throws shit in the bed and moves furniture with

6:23

it like all the time. If all you have to do is carry lightweight

6:26

things, like gardeners and pool cleaners

6:28

all use the same, two wheel drive,

6:31

small Toyota pickup truck, and it lasts

6:33

forever. And like the Maverick will be the same

6:35

thing. Yeah.

6:36

Hi everybody, crew show today.

6:40

This is, I think, not,

6:42

no, we have one more show we're recording tomorrow

6:44

before we leave for our

6:47

UK podcasting road trip,

6:50

if you happen to be listening to us in England, which

6:52

is a decent possibility, that's our second most popular

6:54

country. We're gonna be at Goodwood Festival

6:56

of Speed, we're gonna be doing live podcasts

6:59

at the Lotus Stage,

7:01

I guess it is, on Friday and

7:04

Saturday. We've got The Kaiser,

7:06

who is a guy who

7:09

started out, I guess doing like almost

7:11

like video game car renderings, and

7:14

then has actually built

7:16

some real cars out of

7:18

it. Yeah, he designed some

7:20

body kits and things. He's a great follower on Instagram.

7:22

Holy fuck, he's got 990,000 followers on Instagram. Damn,

7:28

great fucking car

7:30

designer, that'll be really interesting. And then we've got

7:32

Jensen Button, JB is gonna be on

7:34

the show, and I don't

7:36

know if he put it on his Instagram.

7:39

He sent me the pictures. Did you see JB's singer

7:42

that I sent it to you? JB's singer,

7:45

Casisse Redd. No way. Oh,

7:47

you told me about that. He got a Casisse. He

7:49

was like, Mike, you're not

7:51

gonna believe what color I got my singer.

7:54

And not only did he get Casisse Redd,

7:56

he got in Casisse Redd. Every British person you do an

7:59

impersonation of. It's all magnets. It's

8:01

all magnets. It's all magnets. It's all magnets. It's

8:03

funny. Asymmetric

8:05

seats.

8:06

He got the bucket driver's seat and the

8:08

comfort passenger seat. Cool. Which

8:11

is a fucking G movie. Yeah, it's smart. That's

8:13

pretty G. That's really cool. I don't think

8:15

I've ever seen that. You know when you see that? I've never seen it.

8:18

That is a rich, you might be a redneck

8:20

kind of thing. It's either your cheap car. It's

8:22

classy or trashy. Yeah, or

8:24

you have enough money. You're like, no, no, I'm choosing

8:26

this. Yeah. So JB

8:29

will be on the show. And then we're

8:31

going to be doing Sunday the 16th in the

8:33

evening at Caffeine and Machine

8:36

outside

8:36

of Stratford upon Avon. And

8:39

Caffeine, you don't need any special tickets

8:42

if you're at the Goodwood thing. If you're in Goodwood,

8:44

just come. If you're going to be

8:46

at, if you want to come to Caffeine and Machine Sunday, July

8:48

16th, you will need to buy a ticket

8:52

and you'll get it on

8:54

the Caffeine and Machine website.

8:57

I don't know if the link is up

8:59

just yet, but I talked to them

9:02

yesterday and they will, where

9:07

do you go?

9:08

Go to- Oh, Yard Tickets. It's going to be in

9:11

the Yard Tickets section

9:13

and it will say, you know, live podcasts,

9:15

smoking tire, all of the money,

9:18

we're selling tickets this, a hundred

9:20

percent of the money will be going to charity. They

9:23

have a mental health charity

9:25

with kind of a funny name.

9:27

It's like- Yeah, I Love You Man. Is that the

9:29

show they do? I Love You

9:31

Man is the- Series. Series that they

9:33

do. And it's like a live podcast,

9:36

but it's not recorded. It's just

9:38

a live chat. And they,

9:41

they give

9:43

all of the charity, it's

9:45

something about like living not

9:47

miserably or something like that. I

9:50

can't remember the exact name of it, of

9:52

the charity that you do. But it's something about

9:55

mental health and not being miserable and

9:58

whatnot.

9:59

And so we're doing the show

10:02

there. Is you know, because you've

10:04

been speaking to Phil, our podcast

10:06

show tickets included if you get an evening

10:08

yard show cast? I believe so.

10:10

Okay. Yes, I believe so. Cool.

10:13

And I think if you show up like before a certain time,

10:16

you don't need a ticket.

10:17

I don't really know exactly how it works, but

10:20

if you buy an evening yard ticket for Sunday

10:23

the 16th, that counts. Got

10:25

it. And there may be some additional

10:27

podcast tickets for that

10:29

event as well. There's

10:31

going to be about 200 tickets you could buy total.

10:35

And obviously if you're coming, please bring your

10:37

cool car if you happen to have one. And

10:39

if you don't have one, that's okay too. There'll

10:41

be cool cars there. Yeah. Speaking

10:44

of classy and trashy, the most recent, are

10:46

you garbage episode? It's

10:48

really funny sometimes like

10:51

how

10:54

little certain people know

10:57

about cars. And I just like, when

10:59

I listen, the podcasts I listen to are

11:01

not car podcasts. I listen to history podcasts

11:03

and comedy podcasts. And

11:06

you know, Segura obviously is a huge

11:08

car enthusiast and knows a lot about cars. Rogan

11:11

knows a bunch about cars. Like there's people

11:13

who know a bunch about cars. But

11:16

the AYG guys, even though there's a

11:18

lot of chat about

11:20

cars and driving and stuff like

11:23

that, it's funny like the

11:25

things that they didn't know, like someone

11:27

brought up like a Miata and

11:30

they were talking about when the Miata

11:32

came out, how it was like cool for like a week

11:34

and then instantly became not cool. And

11:37

they were totally shocked to find

11:39

out that you could buy a brand new Miata right now.

11:42

Really? They didn't even know. They're

11:45

like, how much does a Miata cost? And their producer

11:48

Toby was like, a new one?

11:50

They're like, new one? What

11:53

do you mean? Can't get a new one. He's

11:55

like, no, you can't. It's like 30 grand. And

11:57

like, what do you mean? They couldn't cop.

11:59

Like they like they killed it and

12:02

brought it back right like they hasn't been going this

12:04

whole time, right? Like these

12:06

are people they're out on the street like presumably

12:08

they've seen a fucking Miata, you

12:10

know, so well, I guess I mean Kevin

12:13

lives in New York City, right? Yeah,

12:15

so I don't know how often you would see Road

12:18

comics there. They're they're touring the

12:20

cold country. Even

12:22

if you lived in New York City

12:24

You'd see it once a decade. You

12:26

think you'd see I don't know. I don't know. I don't

12:28

know Surprising

12:30

for hilarious a bit of five minute

12:33

five minute bit of radio Where

12:35

these guys realize that not only can you

12:37

still buy a Miata? But that they've been

12:39

making them this whole time. It's pretty it

12:41

realizes like just how niche

12:43

within a niche we can be Oh, yeah,

12:46

we are like there's we're talking about

12:48

like some pretty niche shit But then there's

12:51

like a couple levels before you get to

12:53

they still make the

12:54

Miata. That's like yeah Well, we're like

12:56

in a we know the chassis designation

12:59

and they don't even know it exists. I

13:01

Really liked the new a YG.

13:03

It's very funny. We got tickets We're gonna go see them in

13:05

San Diego on the 27th of

13:08

September come see a YG with us Why

13:10

are we not going to LA because I'll be in Germany.

13:13

That's why

13:14

right Oh current

13:17

events asked in DB 12 Embarg

13:20

it with worst embargo second worst embargo

13:22

ever July 4th For

13:25

at 4 p.m. Pacific time

13:27

that is a horrible embargo horrible for here

13:30

Yeah, horrible for it seems like a lot of places

13:32

too because I looked at some of the British

13:35

outlets That that posted

13:37

their shit on the embargo July

13:40

5th midnight England time There

13:43

their Instagram posts had like no

13:45

likes no comments after

13:47

a couple Is a weird time

13:49

even if your fan base is in the UK I do wonder

13:51

what like if you're Henry catchpolar

13:54

or Roy Reid What percentage of their viewers

13:56

are in the United States because their views are tend to

13:58

be huge. Yeah, so I'm just

13:59

curious. It's probably a lot.

14:02

I mean I wouldn't be surprised if most of

14:04

the UK based outlets have more

14:07

fans in America than the

14:09

math. More people. Yeah. I mean isn't

14:12

all of England is like less than California.

14:15

Population-wise? I think so. I think

14:19

it is. It might be. I might

14:22

just be throwing out this. 67 million.

14:27

So it's probably a little

14:29

more than California. But California is 40. Okay.

14:32

So it's less than California and Florida.

14:34

Yeah. You know it's less than two of our

14:36

states. So anyway DB 12

14:39

the video is up. I

14:42

spent a lot of time filming it and Zach spent a

14:44

lot of time editing it. So please go

14:46

watch it. Not just that. It turned

14:48

out really well. I think it's really good. I actually

14:50

think it's it's I

14:54

tried to go for a Bourdain

14:56

vibe. Why does

14:57

this. Why is this TV unmutes itself

14:59

every time I turn off. Stupid TV. There's

15:04

it's it's I shot a lot. Aston

15:06

also did gave us a little

15:08

little alley-oop there with an excellent

15:11

B roll package. One of the most comprehensive

15:13

B roll packages. Super comprehensive.

15:15

Not only that they didn't just hit the same color.

15:18

It was the same license plate of the car. I really

15:20

oh they do. Yeah they put me in the B roll car which

15:22

is fucking so helpful. Suck

15:25

fucking ace. Shout out to Aston for fucking

15:27

making that

15:28

little little things count. The

15:31

license plates match. It's really good.

15:33

So especially because I'm so glad it was

15:35

there because it would have been really hard for me to get

15:38

all the drive bys they got on those

15:40

tight and technical French countryside roads.

15:43

Just big car to be making a lot of U-turns.

15:47

Seems like it's getting okay

15:50

views in the first first couple of hours.

15:52

Please go watch it though because we

15:55

put a lot of time into these things. I mean

15:58

well I have a dog in the fight. but it's a good video

16:00

and you tell a very good arc and it's

16:03

a very comprehensive story. And this is a brand new big

16:05

step for Aston Martin. Cause

16:07

man, like I'm such

16:09

an Aston fan that when I would drive the bad cars,

16:11

I'd go, am I wrong? Is it

16:13

me? And then you'd go, no, why is the back

16:15

wheeling around this corner? Like that was a DB11 issue.

16:18

And then the button thing.

16:19

The center stack in this. It's

16:22

very nice. It's great. It looks like you could put

16:24

it in a Porsche or whatever. And that's great.

16:26

Yeah, somewhat benchmarks like the Panamera

16:29

or the Bentley GT, basically. It's

16:31

got that same kind of high center that they weren't

16:33

really known for. The

16:36

powertrain is excellent. The engine

16:38

is completely behind the front axle.

16:41

Yes, it is somewhat of a shared

16:43

motor based on Mercedes architecture.

16:45

They change a lot. It's got a different compression

16:48

ratio. It's got different turbos,

16:49

different cams. Does

16:52

that really change how it feels

16:55

compared to how it feels in a Mercedes? Like,

16:57

it's subtle. This makes

16:59

peak torque at like 3000 RPM, which

17:02

is a little higher than Mercedes. Did you notice that being

17:04

a thing or feeling it? I did

17:07

when you went to launch it. Gotta take

17:09

a quick break from the action, folks, to

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today's

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show. And now,

19:21

back to it.

19:23

Because it's a torque converter and not

19:25

a dual clutch, there's only so

19:27

much it lets you brake boost it. And

19:29

so even when you do a launch, it

19:32

doesn't launch from peak torque. It

19:34

engages and then it

19:37

comes up a little bit. So

19:39

it's not the, it's

19:41

got a bunch of torque, but it's not,

19:44

it doesn't have that Mercedes muscle

19:47

car-y shove where it feels like

19:49

a lot of the AMG cars,

19:51

they make power up top, but it feels

19:53

like they're designed to really

19:56

make a shove at 1800 RPM. And

19:58

this doesn't have that.

19:59

It's it's but it's nice

20:02

to rev. It's nice to drive. It's it's nice

20:04

in automatic mode It's nice in manual

20:06

mode the gearbox is very responsive

20:09

the suspension Reengineering

20:11

is really really good One

20:13

of the things they've done is they've added a

20:16

wet mode in the traction

20:18

in the in the drive modes You've got wet GT

20:21

Sport and Sport Plus Before it

20:23

was just GT Sport and Sport Plus

20:25

and wet was built into the GT So

20:28

does that mean that GT was kind of neutered

20:30

or the GT mode was super neutered

20:32

before now the GT is

20:35

Moved up and everything else also

20:38

moves up. Wait is there comfort to? No,

20:41

GT is comfort. Yeah GT is comfort

20:43

But but it that even is much

20:45

better than it was before cool traction

20:47

control isn't as like super super

20:49

invasive even in GT mode This

20:53

one had ceramic brakes the one I drove none of

20:55

the cars there had the steel brakes They all had

20:57

ceramics. So nobody knows what

20:59

the steel brakes are like, but the ceramics were great There's

21:02

the the build quality was superb

21:05

the the

21:05

the fit and finish These

21:07

are press cars. So light grain

21:10

of salt but still Really

21:13

nice nicely done and and

21:16

I compared in the video I compare

21:18

it to the Bentley GT speed in the Ferrari 812 Truth

21:21

be told the price is closer to the

21:23

Ferrari Roma

21:25

than the 812 But it was really

21:27

that sort of super tourer. Yeah

21:30

Marketing thing that made me

21:32

roll my eyes like into the back

21:34

of my fucking head

21:37

That's why I Use

21:39

the 812 as the comparison and not

21:41

the the Roma the 812 I mean, that's what

21:44

the 812 is a supercar engine

21:46

but in a rain touring layouts, right? So

21:48

that's yeah, that's where you're gonna go with that term. Yeah,

21:51

it was like the top of the line front-engine car

21:53

really

21:54

But dollar for dollar with the Roma.

21:57

I'd probably rather have the Aston

22:01

They both drive beautifully, but the

22:05

haptic shit in the Roma would be

22:07

like a... Oh yeah, the interior is really

22:09

annoying. Yeah, it was terrible. So this is much

22:11

more usable. I'd much rather have this as a

22:13

daily. How is this steering in this versus

22:16

the Roma? Roma is light as most Ferraris

22:18

want. Light and really quick

22:20

steering. The Roma is really

22:22

quick steering. This was halfway

22:25

between that and the Bentley. It was good.

22:27

Yeah, that's good. It's good. They

22:29

did not use rear steer. They said

22:31

they

22:31

put it in a prototype and they didn't

22:33

like how it felt. It felt kind of like

22:37

slidey, like Mercedes's rear steer.

22:39

And I told the head engineer,

22:42

like, yeah, like Mercedes does it badly and

22:44

Porsche does it really well. And he said, but

22:46

there's other things about Porsche that make

22:48

that rear steer work as well as it

22:50

does. The fact that it's like rear

22:52

engine, it sort of helps and whatever.

22:55

Even in the Cayenne though, the turbo

22:57

GT we drove, their rear steer was calibrated really well

22:59

and pretty much invisible. And the

23:01

Hummer EV also. I

23:03

was shocked, but like I drove that S-Class

23:06

and it felt you could feel the back moving around. The

23:09

Aston people said it made a difference when

23:11

you were like making U-turns. But

23:14

for everything but that scenario,

23:16

it handled just fine without it. And

23:19

they didn't want to add the weight and the complexity

23:21

when there wasn't, it didn't seem like there

23:24

was a lot of return. Which I agree

23:26

with that decision. That's fine. No

23:28

problem. No problem for me there. And

23:32

the new tire, you know, it's got the new Michelin

23:34

PS S5. Not 5S. S5,

23:38

which is a

23:39

real nomenclature fuck up from Michelin.

23:41

I mean, why you- PS4S. PS4S

23:44

to PS S5. Oh, it's

23:46

PSS 5 now? Yeah, not 5S. That's

23:49

weird. Yeah, it's dumb. Did they

23:51

get sued by PlayStation? I don't know. Oh,

23:54

that would be interesting. It's

23:56

a different genre of product,

23:59

so I don't know.

23:59

But I don't know why they did it, but it stinks and

24:02

I messed it up in the first take in the video I had to

24:04

redo it, but

24:06

The new tires very nice tons of grip You

24:09

know I wasn't like sliding the thing around, but

24:12

it was It had a lot of grip.

24:14

It felt really nice. It was quiet road. Well

24:17

21s on a sports car good And

24:19

still still road well. I mean I feel

24:22

I say good because I feel like we've driven a bunch of cars

24:24

in the last

24:25

Month that had 22s and threes Mm-hmm

24:28

I think the s-class did like the more the more we

24:30

delve into luxury or of course SUVs They

24:33

put the breaker brakes on but yeah put the bigger wheels on

24:35

and then the ride usually suffers Yeah, so but

24:38

overall I think as I said in the video Pretty

24:41

much the most well-rounded Aston

24:44

I've driven in a very very long time

24:47

since like the

24:49

2016 vanquish Which

24:51

was a naturally aspirated, but then when they

24:53

put the eight-speed gearbox that was very

24:55

well rounded This is the best

24:58

since that And

25:00

and I agree with your point you made in the video that the 2015

25:04

16 vanquish had a really pretty center

25:06

console Yeah, it was a nice mix of like

25:09

buttons that look capacitive and knobs and stuff

25:11

and then after that it fell apart Yeah, so

25:14

please go watch the video it is up on

25:16

the channel right now, and I think

25:18

I told a nice little

25:19

story about the

25:21

Aston and and driving it around

25:24

the south of France and

25:27

so there's that also What

25:29

else happened oh fuck me I Think

25:34

I feel the need to address

25:37

The change that we made because I've

25:39

gotten a couple very angry

25:41

letters From people and

25:43

granted it's not a huge percentage of people,

25:45

but I think People

25:48

don't understand why we switched

25:51

to mid-roll ads on

25:53

this pot. Oh, okay for 12

25:56

years the first 12

25:59

years of the show

25:59

I made a decision to put

26:02

the ads upfront and I did

26:04

that for a very obvious reason So

26:06

they'd be easy to skip so always

26:09

it was a charity piece to all of

26:11

you guys My thought process was where we're

26:13

being paid to put these here We'll

26:15

put them here, but we're gonna make it easy for

26:17

the audience if they want to skip them great

26:20

Slowly over time almost

26:23

all the other podcasts not almost all

26:26

the other podcasts that I listened to Went

26:28

from upfront to mid-roll

26:31

Which I believe was driven by advertisers that

26:34

know that people were skipping the first seven minutes

26:36

correct It was a combination

26:38

of people who would go in the YouTube comments

26:40

and post the start time Who

26:43

I must have banned 500 of those people from

26:45

commenting that they people didn't

26:47

get the hint They kept doing it, but also

26:50

advertisers have detailed analytical

26:52

tools now Which is how we

26:54

get ads in the first place We have to

26:57

enter our feed into this system

26:58

which our ad sales people

27:01

do for us It's a hands-off thing and

27:03

they know not just how many people

27:05

download the show but what they skip

27:07

what they listen to Which parts

27:09

of the show

27:11

are listened to and which parts are skipped and

27:14

fucking shocker? They realize

27:16

that people were skipping the whole ad blocks well

27:18

like three months ago All

27:20

of our advertisers left all of them

27:23

a hundred percent of the ads were

27:25

canceled

27:26

Because of this specific thing so

27:29

if there's no ads there's no show I hope people

27:31

understand that like we enjoy our

27:34

work But like it's work

27:37

it needs you you if you deliver

27:39

something for free there needs

27:41

to be ads that's how that's

27:43

what the social contract is of modern

27:45

media and We

27:48

we tried as long as we could

27:51

to make it the ad something that were you know?

27:54

upfront and as easily you know and and

27:56

there were and and and we did it as long as

27:58

that would would

27:59

sustain itself, but it sustained

28:02

itself no longer. So

28:04

they are ad sales people came back

28:06

and said, look, the only way these advertisers

28:09

are going to come back is if you do mid-roll.

28:12

That's it. No ads

28:15

and you have a hobby or ads

28:17

mid-roll and you can have

28:19

a job. And so we said, okay. It

28:22

wasn't like, hey, Matt, you can

28:24

get 10% more money if you do mid-roll.

28:27

It wasn't like, hey, Matt, you can get 50% more

28:29

money. You can have

28:32

a career or you can have a hobby. That

28:34

was the choice. So that's why we did it. We

28:36

waited until the very last minute until literally

28:39

everyone left. And

28:42

it's like breaking embargo. We're not going to be the first

28:45

person

28:45

to break an embargo, but if everyone else

28:47

breaks the embargo, we're not going to be the last

28:49

people either. And so whether

28:52

it's not Rogan, because Rogan

28:54

has his Spotify thing now. But Spotify drops

28:56

them in. Spotify drops them in the middle. And if you skip

28:59

them and then try to rewind to the

29:01

part you missed, they're very clever. They make you listen.

29:03

They will then drop you back into a new ad. Right. That's

29:05

the Hulu. Hulu does that too. Segura,

29:09

the Dollop, AYG, Spike. I

29:12

mean, literally every podcast I listen

29:14

to does mid-roll.

29:15

So if people,

29:17

and again, the majority

29:19

of people understand this, but

29:23

I've gotten just enough emails from

29:25

people that have just enough vitriol

29:27

in them. People are fucking angry

29:30

that

29:31

we're doing this. And

29:33

you need to understand, we only do stuff

29:35

like that. Same thing with multiple

29:38

ads on YouTube. Or

29:41

it's like, we didn't choose

29:43

to do that system. That system

29:45

decided, the software said, we're

29:47

going to give you less money per

29:49

ad, but you can now place five

29:52

ads throughout the video.

29:54

And we weren't the first people to do it. It wasn't

29:57

until we were like, hey, fucking

29:59

Freddy.

29:59

VinWiki and blah

30:02

blah blah blah blah, they're all doing this

30:04

already. And then we're like, oh, well if everyone

30:07

else is doing it, we're not gonna be the fucking

30:09

martyrs over here. Yeah, because we were

30:11

worried that people, like we didn't like it

30:13

and we were worried that people would not like it and watch other things.

30:16

And then our YouTube analyst said, well

30:19

it hasn't hurt the viewership of these other channels.

30:21

It's just because if you watch any YouTube

30:24

channel anywhere, you're gonna go, oh, this is just what's

30:26

happened. You could just implement this. This is how the system

30:28

is. And so like with podcasts,

30:31

like I don't like listening to ads. No one

30:33

likes listening to ads. Like nobody does.

30:35

Everyone wishes they could have a totally ad-free

30:37

experience, which we offer with the Patreon,

30:40

by the way. No YouTube ads, no

30:42

me yapping ads, no ads

30:44

with the Patreon. But

30:46

I just,

30:49

not that everyone needs to know the

30:51

nuts and bolts of how the job works

30:53

to every little bit, but like what

30:56

seems pretty obvious to us, which

30:58

is just that this is how this, this

31:00

is how content delivery works now. And

31:03

it's like a systematic thing. It's not just

31:05

like our choice to be greedy.

31:08

We're so rarely

31:10

greedy. We're like pretty minimally greedy.

31:12

Yeah, we're pretty bad at that part of the job. Yeah,

31:15

like we don't like sneak

31:17

sponsored content in and

31:20

try to pretend like it's editorial, like everybody

31:22

wants us to do. We

31:25

don't make the guests sit here while

31:28

I read an ad like other

31:30

people do. Like I understand that some people

31:32

might find that to be less quote jarring

31:35

than cutting away to an ad, but like I'm not gonna

31:37

make the guests sit

31:38

there and listen to an ad. And

31:40

I'm not gonna take away from a good conversation and

31:42

go, let me stop the show right now to read this ad.

31:45

And oh, by the way, where were we?

31:48

It's just, I just

31:50

hope that by explaining it, people

31:53

will understand that like the

31:56

systems, the software, the people

31:58

who pay.

32:00

always want to get the most

32:02

for their money, whether that's YouTube or these

32:04

other advertisers. And so, yeah,

32:06

it's annoying for you. That's because the

32:08

advertisers want it to be. They

32:11

don't want you to skip the ad. They want you to listen

32:14

to the ad. And, like, they're gonna figure

32:16

out that we need their ad

32:18

money. Otherwise, we can't do the show. And

32:21

so all I'm saying is, if there's a

32:23

content creator that you like, but

32:25

you don't like the format of their

32:27

ads, and if otherwise

32:29

they're doing pretty good by

32:32

you, like, just

32:35

don't complain to them about it. They're doing

32:37

their best. Like, we're just trying to

32:39

pay the bills over here. And, like, we don't

32:41

need sympathy. Like, we don't, it's

32:44

not like we're like, oh, poor us, but it's like, this

32:46

is just how this system

32:47

works. I know I have fancy

32:49

cars. You don't need to feel bad for me.

32:52

But, like, there's a, but, like,

32:54

literally the advertisers left. We

32:57

went from, like, a record ad sales

32:59

year to zero

33:01

in a matter of about three months. And that's

33:04

why. That was a little scary. Yeah, because all those

33:06

advertisers that were buying all that shit were like,

33:08

we bought all this shit, and, like, oh, by the

33:10

way, everyone skipped over it. So that's,

33:14

you know, if you really want to be

33:16

supportive, listen all the way through. Somebody will

33:18

see it. It will move the needle. Or join the Patreon.

33:20

Or join the Patreon. It's cheap, and you don't have

33:22

to listen to any ads ever.

33:25

So I don't know if that's a

33:27

rant or an explanation. I'm

33:29

not trying to be a bitch, but,

33:32

like, I just, I've

33:34

dealt with the same angry email

33:36

enough times now that

33:39

I feel like there isn't

33:41

a clear understanding about how the system

33:43

works. Because I don't know, because

33:45

I'm on the inside of the system. So it seemed kind of

33:47

obvious to me that that was what was happening. But

33:50

maybe not.

33:51

Maybe not. Um... Shout-out

33:54

to Joey Diaz. Joey Coco Diaz.

33:57

I just finished his book. Tremendous. I

34:00

finished it in 24 hours. That's

34:02

how great of a fucking book it is. 225 pages, I finished in 24

34:04

hours. Blasted

34:07

through it. It is tremendous.

34:09

He's a fucking maniac. His

34:11

life is crazy. It is insane. He

34:14

has the nuttiest stories that he tells

34:16

very well in all of his comedy, but holy

34:18

shit. He didn't just do a couple of crimes.

34:21

He did a lot of crimes. He

34:24

talks about in the book, there's

34:26

probably 50 or 60 individual

34:29

robberies he mentions. Holy shit.

34:31

The details of in the books. No way. He

34:33

stole a lot of things from a lot of people.

34:36

He's like the most honest criminal

34:38

ever. It was a

34:42

very interesting story of him going

34:44

from ... It's

34:45

not like he was a criminal because he was

34:47

a bad guy. He was a junkie.

34:50

He just kept getting that cycle

34:53

of being- He was on Coke? Oh yeah. All

34:56

the Coke. I mean he talks about Coke a lot, but I didn't know if

34:58

he was also on heroin or something else.

35:00

Okay. Yeah. There was one point, it was

35:02

very funny in the book, where he's trying to figure out how to

35:04

get off Coke, and he realizes that

35:06

if he snorts heroin, he doesn't want Coke. He

35:10

actually wrote some letter to the FDA

35:13

talking about how he thinks heroin should be-

35:16

That's the most cocaine letter I've ever heard of. The shit he

35:18

did while on drugs was crazy. He

35:20

called the cops on himself five times.

35:23

Can I borrow that book from you? Yeah. I

35:25

got it from the library. Okay. I

35:27

can get a library. Yeah.

35:29

Hannah ... I was buying so many books, and I like

35:32

buying books. I like supporting the authors

35:34

and all that kind of stuff, but Hannah was like, you're

35:37

buying so many fucking books. She

35:41

was buying books too. The

35:43

books that she was buying, 50% of

35:46

them she didn't like. She'd

35:48

feel bad about bailing on them, 50 pages in.

35:51

She was like, this book sucks, but I bought it.

35:53

But I paid for it, some class fallacy. And so she joined

35:56

the library, which not rocket science

35:58

to do.

35:59

So now we've been getting books from the library.

36:02

I almost had a fucking

36:04

panic attack because I thought Henry

36:07

Graybar, who we're having on the podcast tomorrow,

36:09

who wrote Paved Paradise library

36:12

book, brought it to France, thought

36:14

I left it in the hotel room. I was

36:16

like. That would finally be thousands of dollars. I

36:18

thought I would. No, it wasn't, it would be

36:20

like 40 bucks. But still, my

36:23

biggest problem is that I treat all inconveniences

36:26

as equally deserving of a panic attack. Hannah

36:29

reminds me of this all the time. And I was like, I fucking

36:31

left the book. She's like, if you did, it's

36:33

like 40 bucks.

36:34

It's okay. It'll be as if

36:36

you bought it. And then, you know. Right.

36:39

But then the librarian would never let you in the building again.

36:41

Or like. No, the library by us,

36:44

it has a due date, but there's no late fees.

36:47

So if you bring it back late, they're like, huh?

36:49

Like, did you read? Good. Yeah, pretty

36:52

much. That's nice. I know

36:54

that some library memberships in California

36:57

also give you free access to state

36:59

parks. There's a bunch of, yeah, there's

37:01

a bunch of other stuff. There's a bunch of benefits. Yeah, there's side benefits

37:03

to the library card. Yes, there are. And free

37:05

audio books, of course. Yeah,

37:07

it's good stuff. Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff you can get with

37:09

the library card. I recommend the library

37:11

card. There was like

37:13

four people in line for Tremendous. The

37:17

intersection of Joey Diaz fans with

37:20

library cards, you ever think you'd find that?

37:22

There's a cocaine residue in the pages. You

37:24

shake the book out. Why is this plastic cover so scratchy?

37:27

Open in. Yeah. I left, it's

37:30

like a pay it forward thing. I left the gram

37:32

in there for some reason. Sisterhood of the traveling cocaine.

37:37

That guy is something else. Oh God, it's

37:39

a funny ass story. I cannot recommend

37:41

it highly enough. A

37:44

couple other people emailed

37:46

me, somewhat

37:48

pedantically, in my description

37:50

of the Audi Q8 e-tron

37:53

from last week. Apparently

37:55

I said that

37:56

the Audi doesn't have regen

37:59

breaking. which I meant

38:01

in a casual way, what I meant

38:03

literally was, it doesn't have

38:06

a one pedal drive mode.

38:08

So it does recuperate

38:10

some power when

38:13

you hit the brakes. It has a regenerative

38:16

capacity. And when you brake

38:19

using the pedal, it recovers

38:22

some energy. But it does not

38:24

have a one pedal drive. I

38:27

casually, this is one of the things

38:30

with EVs, is the terms,

38:33

you can't use casual language

38:35

with an EV.

38:36

You know, if you say kilowatt instead of kilowatt hours,

38:39

or if you say it doesn't have a regen

38:42

instead of saying it doesn't have a one pedal

38:44

drive, you can't be casual

38:47

with some of this stuff. And like, I get

38:49

it, but like, leave me in the fuck alone. But

38:51

it's not- I mean, when you said it, I also thought

38:54

it just didn't regen at all. I was like, that's an interesting choice.

38:56

No, that's like all

38:58

AC powered EVs, like a

39:01

basic old school DC.

39:04

Like when I drove the electric DeLorean

39:06

prototype, the one that's now in the lobby

39:08

of Google, that was a DC

39:11

motor. DCs do not have

39:13

any regen. It's just

39:16

battery to motor to out. All

39:19

AC powered pretty much

39:21

does have some kind of regen. It's just, does

39:23

it have a one pedal system where

39:26

it defaults to recover when

39:28

you take your foot off the gas, or does it have

39:30

a coast and it regenerates

39:32

when you hit the brake?

39:34

Audi and Porsche- So the Audi and Porsche, they don't

39:36

activate, you don't reduce your

39:38

speed until you touch the brake pedal. Correct. That's

39:40

what I meant to say. If I use the wrong

39:43

words, I'm sorry,

39:45

but I was being a little more casual in

39:47

my conversation, and some of the

39:49

nerds

39:51

took that as offense. All modern

39:53

electric vehicles that you can

39:55

buy have a regenerative

39:58

capacity.

39:59

It's just, is it activated by the brake?

40:02

Is it activated by taking your foot off

40:04

the accelerator pedal or some combination

40:07

of the two? Right. And

40:09

then some will not slow you down to zero even when you lift off the throttle

40:12

pedal. So that's like a third option.

40:15

Yeah. Going back to the Ford after the Audi,

40:19

one pedal driving is

40:21

such a nice thing to have in an electric car.

40:24

I was talking to a bunch of the journalists

40:26

on the Lotus thing because we were just talking about what

40:29

we like in EVs.

40:31

And a lot of

40:33

us like the one pedal driving thing, but someone was

40:35

commenting that their mom has an EV and

40:37

doesn't use that system very much. Like they like

40:39

going to the brake pedal. Have you talked to either

40:41

Hannah or your parents? Hannah turns

40:43

it off. Every time I get in the car,

40:46

I set my seat, I set the mirror, and

40:49

then I activate one pedal driving. So why does

40:51

she not like it? I'm just curious. No judgment.

40:53

She just doesn't. It feels

40:57

too different from what she's used to.

40:59

She wants electric driving

41:02

to

41:02

come to where she's at. She doesn't

41:04

want to change her behavior.

41:07

And it's one toggle switch. It's

41:09

great that both are available. So

41:12

it's not a big deal that the car has both. I wonder

41:14

if it's a thing where people that drive cars with manual

41:17

transmissions more frequently are into

41:19

one pedal because you're used to downshift,

41:22

let off both pedals, reducing speed.

41:25

We're kind of used to that timing and sensation. I

41:27

don't know. Or we just like the game of, ooh,

41:29

can I time it right where I lift my foot and it comes

41:32

to a stop.

41:32

Yeah, I'd love to see what the cross section

41:34

is of people who prefer

41:37

one pedal and what their history

41:39

and experience is with cars versus

41:41

people who don't like it and

41:44

what their experience has been with

41:46

cars.

41:47

I think

41:49

that could make sense.

41:52

People who use the gearbox

41:54

to slow the car down who are used to that

41:57

might like it better. I just think if we're

41:59

going to go...

41:59

computer driving,

42:02

like let's just go all the way. Let's

42:04

go all the way to computer driving. I just, I

42:06

like it. I don't know why I like it. I think it is a little,

42:08

it's a little bit of a game of will I time this correctly?

42:12

And I hope I'm not using the brake

42:14

pads, brake dust, carcinogens,

42:16

all that stuff. And also just reducing wearables

42:19

is awesome. The fact that you can slow down without

42:21

having to change out your brake pads every six months is

42:23

sweet. But in the Ford and

42:25

in Teslas, it's, the

42:28

regenerative braking is very predictable

42:30

and it's very easy to

42:32

get, I almost never use the brakes in

42:34

the Ford at all.

42:36

It's very easy to judge your

42:39

slowing down, how

42:43

fast it scrubs speed and where it will

42:45

come to a complete stop. I

42:47

could easily come to a complete stop

42:50

right where I want to without

42:52

using the brakes. It's not very hard,

42:55

but yeah, Hannah just doesn't like it because

42:57

it's just different from the other

42:59

stuff she drives. So cool.

43:03

Okay. That's all I really

43:05

have on my list. You had some links

43:07

up on the show. Was there something about the military Hummer

43:09

that you had? No, that's old. Oh, that's just

43:11

old. But, did you have some update of something?

43:14

Well, there's a Mercedes story.

43:17

Oh, yeah. You saw that. Yeah. And

43:20

then the irony of this Mercedes, the new S-Class.

43:23

It could have a yoke and more

43:25

physical buttons at the same time. It's

43:28

like two steps forward, one step back, right?

43:31

That's Brussels sprouts with bacon. I

43:34

use that reference too much, I just realized, but this

43:36

is a funny thing of one step forward, one step

43:38

backwards. I like the button look though.

43:40

We will probably get to a point

43:43

where, and

43:44

probably not very far away,

43:46

where variable ratio steer by

43:49

wire is a reality and

43:51

safe and dependable. Yeah, probably.

43:54

We've stopped talking about brake by wire.

43:57

Yes. We bitched about brake by wire

43:59

for like. a year or so and then

44:01

kind of stopped. And now most

44:03

people, even enthusiasts, are

44:06

not likely to know if their car

44:08

has a brake-by-wire system or not. True.

44:11

And I mean, like the NSX, the new NSX has it

44:13

and the new Type S has it. Yeah, I think the Corvette

44:15

has it. Yeah. And it like,

44:17

you have consistent pedal feel, or sorry, pedal

44:20

pressure, not necessarily feel, but

44:23

they can tune it to make it feel like the brakes grab really

44:25

early or really late and all that shit. It's the same with steering.

44:27

You can program all these things. But even,

44:29

I guess, we'll see as they

44:31

develop it,

44:35

if it gets good enough where all you have to do is turn your

44:38

hands 90 degrees and never do hand

44:40

over hand, I guess the question is,

44:42

is that better somehow or

44:45

is it worse or does it not really matter? Is it just the

44:47

way you operate? It's the way you operate it. Yeah. I'd

44:49

love to try a prototype and

44:51

see if it's intuitive

44:54

or not.

44:55

I'll try the one Toyota made, right? To me, it seems

44:57

like solving a problem that doesn't

45:00

exist, but

45:04

Mercedes is also the first company

45:07

to come out with a level three system.

45:11

And so, at least if you're going

45:13

to imply that you don't need

45:15

to steer so much, that

45:18

at least they're the only ones who

45:20

are selling a system where you don't have

45:22

to pay attention for periods of time.

45:25

So there's that.

45:27

But that's the same thing Tesla did. Tesla

45:29

system wasn't as good, but Tesla was

45:31

like, you won't need to drive this. Well, they

45:33

implied that, but in the fine print,

45:36

they said you absolutely need to drive that.

45:38

And they implied you won't have to in the

45:40

future, but the tech wasn't remotely

45:42

there. Mercedes is actually putting the horse

45:45

before the cart. And then, yeah, and then telling

45:47

you about the cart later. That's true. So if

45:50

they go fleet wide level three,

45:53

and then they start taking the normal

45:55

steering wheels away with full steer by wire,

45:57

at least that's the correct order.

46:00

Yeah, it'll be weird like

46:02

you know if you're on if you're going 30 miles an hour

46:04

and you need to take a left bend You

46:06

just turn the wheel like 15 degrees But then if you

46:09

come to a stop and have to turn into a parking lot

46:11

Right you then just turn it like 20 degrees in it

46:13

adjust by speed I assume it does and

46:15

someone mentioned correctly Lexus has this

46:18

in one of their cars I don't know if it's a prototype fence key.

46:20

It was it was a prototype. Yeah. Yeah, it's not

46:22

it's not actually for sale right

46:25

now He said it was imperfect, but you know they're taking

46:27

steps And Fensky is very charitable

46:29

with his criticisms of stuff too He

46:31

will not call

46:32

something a flaming shitbox and but

46:34

if he says it's imperfect. That's what he means No,

46:36

yeah, he pointed out very specifically like this is good.

46:39

This is bad He had some really good

46:41

shots showing the difference in degrees, and how it wasn't

46:43

consistent It's a really good video, but

46:46

it's a problem with variable ratio steering where you're

46:48

never designed to go more than 90 degrees

46:51

is that There's gonna

46:53

be an inherent limit to where you can't Go

46:56

more if you reach 90 degrees and the system

46:59

is programmed so that it's not

47:01

Quote safe to turn the wheel more

47:04

than a certain number of degrees right at

47:06

the f for your speed like

47:09

in a regular car like let's

47:11

say you wanted to for some reason

47:14

Crank the wheel super hard to avoid

47:16

something or if you're at a racetrack

47:19

And we're talking about you know yes

47:21

You're gonna induce understeer or what

47:23

you're not gonna have an effective response

47:26

But it's still you doing a thing you're still

47:29

you're still pushing the car past

47:31

that limit But

47:33

if they put artificial limits

47:35

to steering angle Based on

47:37

well it has to work with this 90 degrees

47:40

to 90 degrees at this given speed There

47:42

will be a limit beyond which you

47:45

will no longer have control Yeah,

47:47

I don't and I throw out 90 as

47:49

in just without any sort of Evidence,

47:52

but I was just thinking if you were gonna go beyond

47:55

that why wouldn't you keep it round? Because I

47:57

like you know reaching across into the in finding

47:59

a gap is kind of

47:59

strange, but

48:01

I don't know if they'll have speed limits

48:04

on the thing or if it will just, it'll

48:06

do what you say. Like if you were driving in the snow,

48:08

let's say you're going 40 miles per hour on a snowy road

48:11

legally and all that stuff, and all of a sudden it kicked out and

48:14

you have to countersteer, I would

48:16

hope that they think about that, I'm sure they will,

48:18

and then the car will let you

48:20

countersteer. Yeah, and the

48:23

intuitiveness of it has

48:25

to be perfectly dialed in because

48:28

it's,

48:28

you're literally changing

48:31

how people interact with this machine

48:34

in a way that is not necessarily

48:36

natural. Yeah.

48:39

But all of these things, I

48:42

think they probably look at the number of cases

48:44

of countersteer required

48:47

versus miles driven, and it's like,

48:49

well, if 0.004% needs

48:51

countersteer and this

48:54

saves us money or makes us a

48:57

leader in the space with this new technology, et cetera, et

48:59

cetera, then they're going to go with it. I think it's solving

49:01

a problem that isn't a problem. The

49:04

argument that I've heard for eliminating mechanical

49:06

steering is that the physical steering

49:09

column could injure you, whereas

49:12

a total steer by wire system offers

49:14

a better crumple zone and a crash, which,

49:17

okay, I'll

49:19

hear that, that's fine, you're making the car

49:21

safer in terms of a crash,

49:24

but God, do I

49:26

hate when they take away intuitive.

49:29

I mean, just think about the

49:31

recent Audi RS5 we drove

49:33

and then the S7, which was not

49:36

steer by wire, but it was super electric

49:38

steering, highly variable ratio

49:41

versus the fixed ratio of the RS5. You

49:44

don't need to be an

49:46

enthusiast, really,

49:48

to drive those two cars and know which one is

49:50

better and more intuitive.

49:52

I think with our

49:55

palette, or maybe that's the wrong way to say it, what

49:57

we like in a car, yes, but if

49:59

someone's

49:59

Let's just, little

50:02

ages, but whatever. Someone who might go, I like

50:04

this, the effort's lower on this car, on this

50:06

steering wheel than on this other one. There's some people that like

50:08

that. They want the thing to be, like LS, LS

50:11

400s and 600s, those things

50:13

are super over boosted. And we might

50:15

go, oh, there's not a lot of steering fuel here, but the

50:17

shopper doesn't give a shit. They want it to be really easy to

50:19

turn.

50:20

Yeah.

50:21

It's funny though, it's interesting

50:23

that we look back at the cars in the early 1900s, like 1902,

50:27

three, four, five, six, and oh, the pedals are

50:29

over here, and we're like, isn't that weird? Look at

50:31

how it changed, and then we've kind of

50:33

had this steady system and

50:35

layout for 80 years,

50:37

maybe 100 years. Since

50:40

the 30s? Yeah, since the 30s, and now it's like starting

50:42

to shift again a little bit. Yeah,

50:45

I think they should make the machine come

50:47

to where we're at and not make us relearn

50:50

how to drive for a new machine. I

50:52

don't think that's too much to ask, and I don't

50:54

think that I'm being like a grouchy old man

50:57

by saying that. I wonder, it'd

50:59

be cool to talk to an engineer or find out what

51:02

the stats are on front end collisions,

51:05

and where the level of injury

51:07

is deemed very high due to, because

51:10

we have collapsible steering columns. That's been a thing

51:12

since the 50s? That's fucking, Ralph, that's

51:14

unsafe at any speed, is where that comes

51:16

from. They used to have things

51:18

that looked like torpedoes in the center

51:21

of the steering wheel. Yeah, like remember the

51:23

Spiker wheel, granted collapsible steering

51:25

column, but that was incredibly dangerous. You

51:27

looked at that and you were getting cut into four slices

51:29

and put into an orange juice machine.

51:31

Yeah, it was like 11 peelers. Exactly,

51:34

it's an apple core. But

51:37

yeah, I wonder how much injury

51:39

this is promised

51:42

to reduce. I don't know, because we have airbags and all that shit,

51:44

but I'm sure it's still an impact, it still hurts.

51:47

Yeah, don't know, don't

51:49

know. Very interesting stuff, please don't

51:51

do it. The last story I had up is my buddy,

51:54

Avin, who has a Alpha

51:56

Julia quad, and I make

51:58

fun of him a lot. That's the dude I met at-

51:59

Yeah, yeah, he was cool. I like

52:02

him. Shout out to very nice guy But I make

52:04

fun of him a lot because he has a car that he's supposed to

52:06

break down frequently Yeah, and he loves

52:08

it and every time I see those cars I'm like god,

52:10

that's pretty but so of course he sends

52:12

me positive stories about Alfa

52:15

Romeo when they come out and One

52:18

of the ones he had sent over Need

52:21

to find was basically Stellantis

52:23

moved up 23 places

52:25

in the last year in terms of JD

52:27

power initial quality So

52:30

okay, they were they were like a lot

52:32

of cars How do

52:34

I make a lot of cars as out where is alpha

52:36

is alpha? Singled out there

52:39

they were they were just part. They were singled

52:41

out as also moving up They they did

52:43

they move up specifically because they stopped selling

52:45

fee-ots in America

52:51

It was because I I opened those Lincoln I'm like he's

52:53

gonna send me something some bullshit and

52:55

this will be wrong and they did to their credit

52:57

increase their score and move up 23 spots

53:00

because they had dismal initial quality

53:02

before that so now they went from 24th

53:04

to 3rd, I don't know

53:06

Jeremy

53:11

Clarkson just wrote his Whatever

53:14

at times our review of

53:17

Julia they have some new powertrain in

53:19

it that Alpha Romeo takes

53:21

top spot spot. Wow.

53:24

This is from a couple days ago.

53:25

Really? How interesting? Yeah

53:29

So it was what was

53:30

interesting. They asked one of the bosses like

53:32

how you know How did you do this because

53:34

you guys were terrible? And they said

53:36

one of the ways is they reduced the number

53:39

of options on cars and then they

53:41

reduced it which reduced the number Of combinations

53:43

and fail points. So they went from like

53:46

20 what is it? That's

53:48

interesting. Yeah So

53:51

JD power, okay, it doesn't just measure

53:53

things that actually went wrong or broke It also

53:55

considers as problems things that customers

53:58

just don't like even at this

53:59

if they're working fine. So,

54:03

that's interesting.

54:04

Okay, in Alfa Romeo's case, one of the biggest steps was

54:06

reducing the number of different versions and option

54:09

combinations for each product. We

54:11

drove down from hundreds of thousands of combinations

54:14

of Stelvio's and Giulia's to less than 2,000 of

54:16

each, greatly reducing

54:18

challenges for the factory and sharing the quality

54:21

of each vehicle built. Well, that's smart. That's a wild

54:24

ratio of simplification.

54:26

Who even knew there were that many possibilities

54:29

for it? It's not like I see Alfa's in

54:31

crazy color combinations or anything.

54:34

I thought there was a couple trims

54:36

in a couple of colors and that was really

54:38

it. I mean, I think- Every Alfa I see

54:40

is black, white, red, gray, or blue. Right.

54:43

But I think,

54:44

well, my hunch is that they also

54:47

learned that people were only ordering

54:50

from a certain- Black, white, gray, gray, or blue. A few baskets

54:52

and they went, why are we offering 100,000 different combinations

54:55

of interior stitching in this and this and this and this? Those

54:58

are all fail points or problem points. That's

55:01

interesting. I did clap back at him that like,

55:03

well, then you should get a new Alfa because this

55:05

is a couple years old. When they built yours, it was

55:07

a 37th out of- Yeah. And

55:11

so this is JD Power's initial quality

55:14

study, which is like when you first get your car. But

55:17

cars are getting more complicated in general. So

55:19

it seems like

55:20

people that buy other brands, regardless of what brand

55:23

it is, there's so much complication and

55:25

layout and screen and all this stuff. If

55:27

they have trouble finding something in the screen menu,

55:30

that can go on the scorecard. So it's

55:32

like, everything's getting more complicated. Even

55:34

if it's a Lexus or a Toyota, that's super reliable.

55:37

Cars are in a lot of ways too complicated.

55:40

At times, yeah. There's

55:43

so many ways to do stuff. It took me,

55:46

I'm more

55:48

or less an expert, and it took me

55:50

like 25 minutes to figure out how

55:52

to turn off the lane departure

55:54

thing on the Q8. Why

55:57

did that take so long? That should be very easy

55:59

to do.

55:59

Just little stuff like that. And

56:03

they really need to have dealers train

56:06

really well and

56:09

also encourage

56:11

people to take the time to

56:13

sit there with the dealer and learn how to

56:16

do that kind of stuff. Because it's

56:18

complicated. Yeah. When I drove the S-Class,

56:21

I

56:22

was shocked at how quickly

56:24

I was using the menu and then I realized

56:26

it's because I've driven two other Mercedes

56:28

before it. And I'm like, oh,

56:31

I'm starting to understand how the system works. If

56:33

you're an owner, you'll get it after

56:35

a little bit. But initially when we

56:37

get in these, some of them are much more complicated. The

56:39

SL was like, pfft, there

56:41

was way too much going on there. And

56:44

the EQE's and S's, like the

56:46

hyper screen, it makes it more complicated

56:48

for me. Yeah.

56:50

I really hate, to go back to the

56:52

Mercedes with the Yoke, I hated it

56:54

when Tesla said it and I hate it that it was in

56:56

this article with Mercedes. One

56:59

of the reasons for going with the Yoke is

57:01

to make

57:02

the screen easier to see. Like

57:06

if you need to take off the top half

57:08

of the steering wheel to see the gauge cluster,

57:11

you've designed the gauge cluster badly.

57:13

Like other people don't have a problem

57:15

with this.

57:17

I've drive cars with round steering wheels

57:19

all the time and I can see everything I need to see

57:21

in the gauge cluster. It could be an Audi, it could

57:23

be an Aston Martin, it could be a Range

57:26

Rover, it could be a Hyundai. And

57:28

I can see through the round wheel in the gauge

57:30

cluster. But

57:32

the business case is that now they,

57:35

regardless of your height,

57:37

you'll be able to see everything. Because sometimes we've driven cars

57:39

where I can't see something and you can or vice

57:41

versa. That's true. Also, a badly

57:44

designed gauge cluster. You

57:46

can fix the problem of designing

57:49

the gauge cluster better without

57:51

having, it's one of the actually, one

57:53

of the things I find to

57:55

be very nice about the Tesla Model 3. You

57:58

hear that Tesla people? They say.

57:59

something nice about a Tesla is

58:02

actually because there is no gauge pod

58:05

because I like my steering wheel real low because

58:07

I have short T-Rex arms, long

58:09

torso, short, so I like a low steering

58:11

wheel. I can put that steering wheel wherever

58:14

the fuck I want and it does not affect

58:16

the vision of the speedometer

58:19

and those other things. Now granted, they're not in

58:21

the right place. They're over here on the side. Well,

58:23

that's why I think the Mach-E move is smart

58:26

and the Lotus Electra, which these are photos,

58:28

I'm not breaking a bar go, has the same thing. Most

58:31

information is on the big screen in the middle, but

58:33

Mach-E and Lotus, you have the little thing in front of

58:35

you that

58:36

can never be hidden by the steering wheel unless the airbag

58:39

is deployed. Yeah. And you just

58:41

hit there. That's your speedometer, your speed

58:43

limit, and your cruise control. Yeah. And

58:45

that's great. Yeah, and your range. And your

58:48

range. Yeah. That's

58:50

fine. I'm okay with that.

58:51

Screens are cheap and

58:55

it's like, and you can fill a dash with

58:57

them and people go, wow. But

58:59

you're actually saving money because you're building

59:02

less

59:02

physical gauges and dash and aluminum

59:05

work and stuff. And so by emphasizing

59:08

more and more screens,

59:10

you get to actually cheapen out by

59:12

not having to build other

59:15

things there. And then you would think

59:17

that,

59:18

I'm sure there are people that work in these interior departments

59:21

and their only job is to arrange the

59:23

layout of that gauge cluster. So

59:25

what information is the most important

59:27

and needs to be seen by the widest spread of

59:30

people regardless of their height? And

59:32

so most of the time, we all can see the crucial

59:34

stuff. But every now and then we'll get in the car where

59:37

the speed limit, which

59:40

it's supposed to detect as you pass these signs, sometimes

59:42

it's hidden behind the steering wheel. And you're like,

59:45

that is one of the most crucial pieces of information

59:47

that this car can't present to you. And so the Lamborghini,

59:49

when I had the Urus Performante,

59:52

they have a digital gauge cluster in the middle. All

59:55

Lambos have a digital gauge cluster. But

59:57

the temperature and the fuel

59:59

level... are outside the digital

1:00:01

cluster on the very edge of

1:00:04

the binacle and in fact are totally

1:00:07

hidden by the steering wheel, which is how

1:00:09

I ended up almost running

1:00:11

the car dry

1:00:13

because someone and it's

1:00:15

not a big deal. Usually these cars come full of gas.

1:00:18

Somebody fucked up at Lambo. They

1:00:20

didn't fill it before they brought it to me and the

1:00:22

thing was like on

1:00:24

like 10 miles to empty but

1:00:27

because I didn't that's like one highway

1:00:29

blast it was yeah It was it was not great

1:00:31

and like the fact that the steering wheel

1:00:33

blocks the the fuel gauge

1:00:35

Mm-hmm. I didn't notice it at first

1:00:38

and then Hannah took the car out and she's

1:00:40

like there's like no gas in this She's a guy she almost

1:00:42

ran and dry And

1:00:45

it's I wonder like I'm sure the car has a warning

1:00:47

that pops up But it may have popped up on the drive over

1:00:49

yeah, or you guys got and you hit okay Yeah,

1:00:52

it did not clears that away. It didn't

1:00:54

yeah, so whoops Yeah,

1:00:56

that's funny. Yeah, so you got to make sure the

1:00:58

fuel gauge or your range gauge There's so many

1:01:00

things because then because now you can change You know the

1:01:02

right side gauge you can like select you want to see your GPS

1:01:05

or your range and your trip Trip information

1:01:07

and what I'd rather just give me one

1:01:10

screen

1:01:11

To do the things that need to be on a screen Real

1:01:14

gay and they're never going back. I'm

1:01:16

beating a dead horse right but like God,

1:01:19

I just I really just I want a

1:01:21

regular ass gauges I don't want a glowing

1:01:24

thing in my face at night. Yeah,

1:01:26

I

1:01:27

feel like it's fucking my eyes up.

1:01:29

Yeah, it could be

1:01:30

Compared to compared to old-school gauges

1:01:33

well our time with because I went and saw the optometrist

1:01:35

like two months ago And it's my proximity

1:01:37

to screens and the frequency and duration at which I

1:01:39

use them She's like yeah your eyes are having to focus

1:01:42

at very close distance a long time of being

1:01:44

exposure and the the brightness of a screen

1:01:46

with Darkness behind it that contrast

1:01:49

challenges your eyes a lot, too I

1:01:51

feel like it was nice when heads up displays nice And

1:01:54

then maybe in the beginning when they had two analog

1:01:56

dials and like a little screen in the middle that could

1:01:58

show your turn-by-turn

1:01:59

And I was like, that was enough. Yeah,

1:02:02

I don't need a glowing screen in front

1:02:04

of my face, especially when I'm driving at night. Yeah,

1:02:08

and if you can't dim it significantly,

1:02:10

it is really annoying. And if the blacks aren't

1:02:12

black, you need a good screen

1:02:15

for the blacks to be black. Aston

1:02:18

Martin was all about the blacks

1:02:20

of their new screens on there, which

1:02:22

I didn't drive it at night, so I couldn't actually verify

1:02:25

their claim. But they say

1:02:27

that the blacks are very black.

1:02:29

So let's go

1:02:32

to the Patreon, of course, patreon.com

1:02:35

slash the Smoking Tire podcast. Get the

1:02:37

show early, get it without ads, folks.

1:02:40

Get it without ads. We're offering it to you cheap.

1:02:42

Never sit through an ad again. And

1:02:45

of course, ask us questions for the live show

1:02:47

and be the first to be able to purchase

1:02:50

the Smoking Tire watch collab

1:02:52

with Notice Watches, which I'm wearing right

1:02:55

now. This beautiful mint green. Mint

1:02:58

green, baby,

1:02:59

for the winter. I

1:03:02

talked about it on the Pro Driver Show. I

1:03:04

also have some Instagram posts about this watch.

1:03:07

Limited to 100 pieces, individually

1:03:09

numbered. And we're gonna be giving

1:03:11

one away with a trip to Los Angeles. It's

1:03:13

gonna be fun.

1:03:14

All right, oh, we got a bunch, huh? Yeah,

1:03:17

okay, cool. Christian,

1:03:20

update on replacing the Mach-E. Lease

1:03:23

isn't up until first week of April 2024.

1:03:26

Both Ford,

1:03:29

we may replace it with another Mach-E. We

1:03:33

were looking at possibly the new

1:03:36

forthcoming Acura EV, but it's

1:03:38

not gonna be available yet. Volvo

1:03:41

XC60 Recharge. They

1:03:44

said if I wanted one for April delivery,

1:03:46

I should order it by the end of September.

1:03:48

So we still have a little bit of

1:03:51

decisions to make and

1:03:53

time to make it. Nothing else on the leaderboard. Lotus Electric.

1:03:57

Can you talk about the price of that vehicle

1:03:59

yet? No, it's expensive, right?

1:04:02

They had announced it as pricing. Yeah, it's expensive.

1:04:04

It's expensive. It's at least twice what you paid for the budget.

1:04:06

Oh, yeah. Okay. That's

1:04:08

not ... I threw it out as kind of a joke. Even if we get this Volvo,

1:04:11

it would be at the upper end of what

1:04:13

we are willing to pay for a daily driver.

1:04:15

In order to get the recharge with

1:04:18

the air suspension and the wool

1:04:20

interior,

1:04:21

you have to buy the top trim one,

1:04:23

which is like $75,000. It's expensive.

1:04:27

It's really more than I would want to spend

1:04:30

on a daily driver

1:04:32

compared to replacing the Mach-E,

1:04:35

which we'd get the same one, which is like $55,000, significantly

1:04:38

cheaper. Still

1:04:40

a lot of money, but

1:04:44

those are on the leaderboard now. God, I love

1:04:47

that air suspension and that wool interior.

1:04:49

That shit is nice. Yeah, looks good. Right,

1:04:52

it's nice. It's real nice. Although

1:04:55

interestingly, if I get the XC90 ... You could sell 500 watches.

1:04:58

Right. If we got the XC90 recharge,

1:05:01

not the 60, which we do not need.

1:05:02

Right. You don't. We

1:05:05

don't need three-row SUV. Tax deductible.

1:05:08

I could take advantage of the tax thing that I

1:05:10

complain about. With that first year depreciation. The sixth out,

1:05:13

yeah, you could depreciate the entire purchase price

1:05:15

in the first year.

1:05:16

That's insane. Which given that I've opened a second

1:05:18

store, would be maximally beneficial,

1:05:21

but I don't want to do it.

1:05:23

It's more car than I need. I don't

1:05:25

believe in buying more car than I need. I do not

1:05:27

need a three-row SUV. Do you know why that law exists

1:05:29

if you're not buying it as a company? You have to buy

1:05:31

it as a company. Oh, you have to buy it as a company. Yeah, you have to

1:05:33

buy it. It's a business expense. Oh, okay.

1:05:36

But we're a business here. Right. Business

1:05:38

owns the fucking Ford.

1:05:39

Oh. Yeah. Yeah,

1:05:41

yeah. But it's not because it doesn't have the weight thing.

1:05:44

You can't depreciate the first year. I thought if a business owned it, it had

1:05:46

to be only used for business purposes. Or you have to

1:05:48

log your miles for this is business, this is not

1:05:50

business. It's

1:05:52

kind of a gray area. You

1:05:54

do have to submit a report every year

1:05:57

that shows how many miles are for business and

1:05:59

how many miles are for business.

1:05:59

for personal use,

1:06:02

but it's not

1:06:04

something that they

1:06:06

are capable of tracking all

1:06:08

the time. And they just pull a lot of funding out of the IRS for

1:06:10

that new bill. And

1:06:13

so much of our work is business

1:06:15

anyway. It's whatever.

1:06:19

Nobody beats the whiz says, using

1:06:21

Turo for the first time in San Diego

1:06:24

to rent a high-end EV. The

1:06:26

Skeptic, we'll come back to that other one. The

1:06:29

Skeptic side of me keeps remembering. I've

1:06:32

read some Turo horror stories, such

1:06:34

as owners fabricating renter damage,

1:06:36

car being misrepresented, et cetera, et cetera. Owner

1:06:39

seems nice. I prepaid for charging

1:06:41

and added extra coverage. Beyond that, tips

1:06:43

or thoughts on Turo?

1:06:46

Turo is a great thing if you want to drive

1:06:48

a specific vehicle that is not normally

1:06:50

available from a rental car agency.

1:06:53

But it's like just like Airbnb, wherein

1:06:56

you're dealing with a person and a

1:06:58

specific thing. And so if it goes

1:07:00

wrong, it's not like you can just go,

1:07:03

the tires on this Ford Mustang are flat.

1:07:06

I'm leaving it. I want that Ford Mustang and say,

1:07:08

okay, and give you another one. There's

1:07:11

not a lot of recourse. If

1:07:14

the car's misrepresented, Turo,

1:07:17

the service will probably refund your money,

1:07:19

but now you don't have a car.

1:07:22

So it's not like,

1:07:25

you go to a hotel room and

1:07:27

it smells funny. You go, I want a different room. And

1:07:30

they go, okay, they switch to a different room. It's not like,

1:07:32

well, then get out of the hotel and you're out on

1:07:34

the street with your suitcase. So

1:07:37

check over the car, make sure the tires

1:07:39

are good. Take photos of

1:07:41

the car before and when you drop it off. That's

1:07:44

the way you prevent yourself from being dinged by

1:07:46

damage that they find after you've left.

1:07:49

So do that.

1:07:51

The only real issues I've seen before

1:07:54

as a ... I've never personally experienced someone who

1:07:56

got blamed for damage that they didn't do, but

1:07:59

the photos first ...

1:07:59

sure, but check the tires. I've

1:08:02

definitely had people who come to Westside, they want

1:08:04

a tour, they're in LA, they've rented

1:08:07

an M3 for the weekend on Turo and

1:08:09

they want to stop in for a tour and there's three

1:08:11

different kinds of tires on the M3 and

1:08:13

it's like, you know, whatever, it's

1:08:16

just shitty and they go, well, you know,

1:08:19

I'll fix it later, but like

1:08:21

you now have this shady experience, so

1:08:23

that's pretty much what I would be concerned

1:08:26

about. Tim

1:08:28

A. said Zach's S63 review prompted

1:08:32

the question, is it preferable to make a

1:08:35

sports car luxurious,

1:08:37

oh, is it more preferable to make a sports car

1:08:39

luxurious than make a luxury car

1:08:42

into a performance vehicle?

1:08:44

I would say it's preferable

1:08:47

to make a sports car luxurious because sports

1:08:49

cars are often light

1:08:51

and agile and

1:08:54

pretty and you could add luxurious

1:08:57

materials and better seats and stuff

1:08:59

like that,

1:09:00

where if you make a luxury car into a performance

1:09:03

vehicle, you start with a heavy car and

1:09:05

then you have to spring it really stiff,

1:09:08

you have to put a ton of power, a ton

1:09:11

of brakes, a ton of spring rate in there

1:09:13

to make it do what you want to do and you've ended up with a very

1:09:15

heavy car. I think you also,

1:09:20

if you start with a really luxurious

1:09:22

car, it's hard to remove

1:09:24

the things that make it luxurious in

1:09:27

the process of trying to turn it into a good sports

1:09:29

car, like

1:09:30

the S-Class has, you know, amazing

1:09:32

massage seats and all these things people have come to expect

1:09:35

from a luxury sedan and if you

1:09:37

want to try to make it really sporty, what you need

1:09:39

to do is take the weight out, but then people go, well,

1:09:41

it's missing all these things I like, whereas if you take,

1:09:44

you know, like a 911, I

1:09:47

think the car is actually a good example. You've taken

1:09:49

this thing that has a good structure, it's got a really

1:09:51

solid structure because it's a good sports car and

1:09:53

then you have turned it into something that is quite

1:09:56

different from what it originated as by

1:09:58

adding suspension and adding these different

1:09:59

like a Kootremont to it, but no

1:10:02

one's,

1:10:03

few people are gonna complain that you took the sportiness

1:10:05

out of it because you really just added some more things. They

1:10:08

don't like that it's heavier, they still sell the

1:10:10

light one over there. But I don't

1:10:12

think you compromise the vehicle as much going

1:10:14

the direction you said, as if you try to go from

1:10:17

luxury to sporty. Yeah, I'd rather

1:10:19

own the

1:10:21

luxurious version of a sports car

1:10:23

than the sporty version of a luxury car any time.

1:10:26

Yeah, I'd rather have a 911 with

1:10:28

comfort seats and extended leather package

1:10:31

than an

1:10:33

SL Mercedes or

1:10:35

an S-Class coupe with 700 horsepower

1:10:38

and a stiff suspension and 22-inch wheels. And

1:10:41

like, if you took the S-Class and then took

1:10:44

out all the nice stuff to make it

1:10:46

a really sporty sedan for some reason, well

1:10:48

now I just have a gigantic sports car that's

1:10:50

too big, and so I'd rather go get something smaller

1:10:52

anyway. Yeah, yeah. Aaron,

1:10:55

oh, no, Aaron was responding to the other

1:10:57

guys' tarot question. Lucas

1:10:59

says, nostalgia drives classic

1:11:01

car purchases. Do you think younger generations

1:11:04

will be less nostalgic for the past, being

1:11:06

that their young lives are so much better

1:11:08

documented than ours? No,

1:11:11

I don't really think so. I

1:11:14

think that the nostalgia

1:11:17

for a car is driven by

1:11:23

either the car you wanted when you were a kid

1:11:25

and couldn't afford, and I think that's

1:11:28

still the case. I don't think Instagram and phones

1:11:30

and multiplayer video

1:11:32

games and connectivity

1:11:36

negate that. If you're a young enthusiast

1:11:38

who can't afford a car at 16, you'll

1:11:40

probably want that car when you're 40 or 50. And

1:11:44

or getting an idealized

1:11:47

version of the car you did have when you were a

1:11:49

kid. So if you're a young person right

1:11:51

now and you've got a

1:11:53

three or four year old Honda Civic Si,

1:11:56

you may want the mintest Honda Civic Si

1:11:59

around in

1:11:59

that many, and also

1:12:02

like, if manual transmissions

1:12:05

are totally gone by the time you're at car collecting

1:12:08

age, you may want a manual transmission. If

1:12:10

V8s are totally gone by the time you

1:12:13

may still want to have nostalgia for the

1:12:15

V8,

1:12:16

if you might want the car that your dad took

1:12:18

you home from the hospital in. Yeah, nostalgia

1:12:21

I think is just based on

1:12:23

like the, I mean

1:12:26

really it's like dopamine you got when you had an experience

1:12:29

when you were younger and you have like a strong

1:12:32

association with that experience. So like riding

1:12:34

in a car with your dad or we went to certain

1:12:36

concerts when we were 16 and

1:12:38

our brains are like, this is the best music ever. And

1:12:40

that's why so many people tend to listen to music

1:12:43

from a certain part of their age or when

1:12:45

they were a certain age versus finding new stuff

1:12:47

because it's just like, you loved it so

1:12:50

strongly like literally chemically with your brain

1:12:52

that you're not gonna like the new thing as much

1:12:54

unless you're a very unique person. So

1:12:56

that's why I think we see people buying original

1:12:59

Nintendos for like way too much

1:13:01

money on eBay because they're like, oh, I get to have

1:13:03

the thing that I liked as a kid or

1:13:06

this card game or this weird toy or

1:13:08

whatever the fuck. Like I don't think, I

1:13:10

don't know if the advent

1:13:12

of social media and like having,

1:13:15

I don't know if having a document, like a photo

1:13:17

of the thing you like will replace

1:13:20

owning the thing. I don't think it will. I think if you have a

1:13:22

positive memory with something, whether

1:13:24

it's a car or something else, even if you have

1:13:27

photos or videos of it, like

1:13:29

that's not gonna take the place of wanting to actually

1:13:31

experience that thing. Ivan

1:13:35

says, in your opinion, what defines a

1:13:37

true sports car? What compromises

1:13:39

are needed to fulfill the recipe? All

1:13:42

cars are now luxurious and fast with

1:13:44

seemingly no sacrifices in order to enjoy

1:13:47

taking rawness out. Is it true or just

1:13:49

me who refuses to accept that's how progress

1:13:52

works? Well,

1:13:54

you certainly had to make more of

1:13:56

a sacrifice in the past

1:13:59

to drive a sport. car. People with

1:14:01

money who can afford an extra

1:14:04

car don't want

1:14:06

to make certain sacrifices anymore. I don't think

1:14:09

there's anybody who's gonna spend

1:14:11

a hundred grand or even fifty grand on a

1:14:13

sports car right now that will

1:14:16

buy something without air conditioning, you

1:14:19

know, or buy something without

1:14:22

power door locks, you know, or

1:14:24

basic stuff that that has become

1:14:28

kind of a given in our

1:14:29

in our world. You could

1:14:32

still buy a relative

1:14:34

and there's also mandated safety

1:14:36

equipment whether it's impact zones or certain

1:14:39

types of lighting and airbags or traction

1:14:41

control modules etc etc

1:14:45

and so like even a even Lotus

1:14:48

they're not gonna sell you like a 2,200 pound

1:14:51

car today because you cannot build that car

1:14:53

with all the modern stuff that it needs to

1:14:55

have. Like Caterham will but that's because

1:14:58

they're... That's like blue-poly shit. Yeah

1:15:00

exactly. So like there

1:15:02

are true sports cars the

1:15:05

Boxster and Cayman are true sports cars

1:15:08

and they have almost no compromises.

1:15:10

They don't have a back seat okay

1:15:13

they don't have... What

1:15:17

doesn't the Boxster Cayman? I mean they

1:15:20

have everything.

1:15:21

I think this is a the

1:15:23

problem is using a definition

1:15:25

that was made before this equipment was available

1:15:28

like so if the term sports car really came

1:15:30

into its own and it's the 60s and 70s then

1:15:32

we have this idea that a sports car

1:15:35

must be something you

1:15:37

know you have to have for you have to

1:15:39

hurt for because AC didn't exist or

1:15:42

barely existed and because power steering didn't

1:15:44

exist. Sucked a lot of power out of the car. Any

1:15:46

of those things and it's like well if they could do this back

1:15:48

then they probably would have because people were still

1:15:51

hot when it was hot out right cold when it was cold

1:15:53

out yeah so I think now we are there

1:15:55

is a little bit more overlap like the M2 the

1:15:58

new one is big and...

1:15:59

and has every comfort you could want,

1:16:02

basically. Is it a sports car or

1:16:04

is it a sporty GT car versus

1:16:07

the Cayman? It is still,

1:16:09

it's also growing, but it feels like it has a little

1:16:11

bit more compromise than something like an M2. I

1:16:14

just think we can get, I think we can tick

1:16:16

some of these boxes in more vehicles than ever, but

1:16:18

that's a good thing. I don't think it's a bad thing. Yeah, the

1:16:20

closest thing you can get, you've

1:16:23

got Boxster Cayman, you've got the 86, you've

1:16:25

got Corvette. And

1:16:29

these are cars that,

1:16:31

granted, they're limited

1:16:33

by their price points, but the 86 doesn't

1:16:35

have to, is

1:16:38

not compromised in any way in

1:16:41

order to be a sports car, really.

1:16:45

It doesn't have quite as much fancy

1:16:47

equipment as other cars, but it's got power

1:16:49

windows and keyless start and power

1:16:51

brakes, power steering, GPS,

1:16:55

a stereo that works, it doesn't leak

1:16:58

water. There are very

1:17:00

few compromises in order to make a true sports

1:17:02

car today. And

1:17:04

that is how progress works. People

1:17:07

do not, would not put

1:17:09

up with what they had to put up with, except

1:17:12

as a virtue. The

1:17:15

Ferrari Monza SP1

1:17:18

has no winch, for 3 million

1:17:21

bucks, you actually have to pay more. Right. If

1:17:23

you want that level of sacrifice now, you

1:17:26

gotta pay more, BAC Mono, McLaren,

1:17:28

what's it called? Ariel Adam, the McLaren Elva,

1:17:31

SLR, Sterling Moss. If you

1:17:33

wanna have that type of experience, it actually

1:17:35

costs more. There's

1:17:38

a middle ground that won't put up with it, but

1:17:40

the very focused, the fucking

1:17:42

junkies, the people that have

1:17:45

had the craziest, fastest shit, they

1:17:47

go, I now need the

1:17:48

next, I even said this in my fucking

1:17:50

review, I need the heroin

1:17:53

now. The Coke isn't doing it anymore.

1:17:56

I have done every car drug I can do.

1:17:58

I am now shooting heroin.

1:17:59

That's what the Elva is.

1:18:02

Eight-hour horsepower, no windshield. Did

1:18:04

that exist in the 60s or were cars

1:18:06

like... Sure. Were people like, I need

1:18:08

this Duesenberg because these new cars are

1:18:11

too light or too comfortable or something?

1:18:14

Oh, I don't know. You know what I mean? No,

1:18:16

because the idea of nostalgic for

1:18:18

collectible cars, that came

1:18:20

up in like the 80s.

1:18:22

That wasn't a... They fucking threw

1:18:24

GTOs into fields.

1:18:26

Well, yeah,

1:18:28

in the decade those came out, they were throwing them in

1:18:30

the field. So like, and then these days, if someone

1:18:32

races a GT3 car and they don't win, I mean,

1:18:35

it gets thrown away. And now the

1:18:37

ones that win get kept because they've looked back and gone, well, those are

1:18:39

worth a lot of money. Yeah, yeah. This might be worth a lot of money,

1:18:41

but...

1:18:42

There were people that drove cars

1:18:45

from the 20s and 30s in the 60s and 70s. And

1:18:49

for a variety of reasons, history,

1:18:52

collectability, their grandfather had

1:18:54

it, whatever. But, and

1:18:56

yeah, and there's people who were like,

1:18:58

there was like, I'm synchros,

1:19:02

four on the floor. There's

1:19:04

definitely those types of people. I don't have to adjust my timing while I drive.

1:19:07

This is too easy. Right, right, right. Yeah,

1:19:09

it's just funny the way the definitions

1:19:11

just change, the bar just moves. But not, I

1:19:13

don't think it's the way that...

1:19:16

I don't think people paid

1:19:19

extra to have an experience

1:19:21

like the 30s in the 60s. Because

1:19:25

in the 60s, it was like more speed, more luxury.

1:19:29

Because the cars were still very analog. Nobody

1:19:31

was looking for more analog from

1:19:34

that level. Yeah. Right? There

1:19:37

was no loss of analog nostalgia

1:19:39

in the 60s. It wasn't until everything

1:19:41

was computer controlled that we started

1:19:44

looking backwards for that level. The

1:19:46

only thing you'd pay

1:19:46

more money for in the 60s was just a more exotic car.

1:19:50

Because if your neighbor had

1:19:52

a Camaro Z28, it had a four speed manual. But

1:19:56

you could go out and buy an E-Type or a Ferrari, one that's

1:19:58

a little bit more expensive.

1:19:59

Now you have a manual transmission as well, but they're

1:20:02

both very analog. They just have very different

1:20:04

brand representation. Okay. Prashant

1:20:07

says, in your last show, I feel you guys

1:20:09

fundamentally misunderstand how military

1:20:12

budgets work. Yes. I'm

1:20:14

sure I do. That's probably true. I

1:20:17

work with people involved in military logistics

1:20:19

and the military is actively pushing hard to

1:20:21

electrify because of Biden's executive

1:20:23

order.

1:20:24

Now, I think that's different

1:20:27

from them wanting to electrify

1:20:30

because they care about being green. I

1:20:32

want to point that out. Prashant says Biden's

1:20:35

executive order, not because the

1:20:37

military actually cares about

1:20:39

being green. Correct. That

1:20:41

was what you said. These are different. Yeah. So

1:20:44

unlike what you said, this is Prashant, unlike what you said, the military is actually accountable

1:20:47

to a shitload of people. Fine.

1:20:50

Even if their budgets are bloated and most

1:20:52

base vehicles drive very routine

1:20:55

routes and spend a lot of time idling, making them

1:20:57

perfect for electrification. Only a handful

1:20:59

of charters need to be installed in key locations.

1:21:01

That is what I thought, by the way. Now

1:21:04

that's possibly true. If it's

1:21:06

vehicles on established bases,

1:21:09

sure. I was thinking about vehicles

1:21:12

that are used out in the field in

1:21:14

places like Iraq or whatever

1:21:17

where that would not be a practical

1:21:19

solution. But sure, vehicles that just drive

1:21:21

people around a base, okay,

1:21:24

electrify those. The people

1:21:26

that I know who I've talked to in the military,

1:21:28

and I'm talking about active

1:21:31

duty type of people, have described

1:21:33

to me such a

1:21:36

shockingly wasteful culture

1:21:39

by policy, such as dumping

1:21:41

jet fuel into the air rather than landing

1:21:44

with some still in your tank, such

1:21:46

as burn pits, such as other stuff

1:21:48

like that. While I'm sure

1:21:51

that the military is accountable to a shitload

1:21:53

of people,

1:21:55

it doesn't seem to be doing anything. They're not

1:21:57

reducing their budgets. Whatever that accountability

1:21:59

is. It has not resulted in us

1:22:02

spending less money on the fucking military

1:22:05

despite our Appalling track

1:22:07

record of failing it fucking

1:22:09

wars since the 16th. I think our statement

1:22:11

on that came from

1:22:13

the Pentagon's repeated Failure

1:22:16

of audits. That's like where that's where our statement

1:22:18

was coming from Like we don't speak to the naval

1:22:20

director and go do you do

1:22:22

all of your counting internally like internally? They

1:22:24

might know all the numbers But I guess what we were

1:22:26

speaking on is that the Pentagon Does

1:22:29

not publish the numbers and seems to fail these audits

1:22:31

and not know where a lot of money goes and we it's

1:22:34

been proven That

1:22:35

parts that are sold here for X dollars are

1:22:37

sold, you know to the military for 400

1:22:39

X right, which seems like Cash

1:22:42

grabbing a lot of time. So that's where we

1:22:44

were coming from. Yeah,

1:22:46

I mean what he's saying isn't

1:22:48

wrong But he's not necessarily countering

1:22:50

what we were saying, right?

1:22:52

Yeah, he's making slightly different

1:22:54

points But your point about using

1:22:56

vehicles on base and electrifying those

1:22:59

sure. Okay, electric like same as

1:23:01

the Postal trucks and and delivery

1:23:03

to vehicles and vehicles that drive the same route

1:23:05

every single day. Yeah, electrify

1:23:08

all that shit Yeah, a lot of airports are using more

1:23:10

and more electric vehicles. Yeah, the

1:23:12

tugs and the luggage thing Which makes tons of sense.

1:23:14

Yeah, tell you the fucking power over there those

1:23:16

things drive real short distances over and

1:23:19

over Yeah, and you need the torque

1:23:22

SG 90 says what are your favorite

1:23:24

headlight and tail light designs? They

1:23:26

don't have to be same manufacturer

1:23:30

Which is the? What are

1:23:32

my favorite is headlight and tail light

1:23:34

designs? That's an awfully specific

1:23:36

question and I'm not prepared with an answer

1:23:38

for it. Tell you what it's not It's not pop-up hip pop-up

1:23:40

headlights. Yeah, I'm not pro pop-up

1:23:43

headlights either What

1:23:45

are my favorite designs? I don't

1:23:47

know. I like the Tucker that had the center

1:23:49

turning headlight. That was cool. That was fun

1:23:51

But I think it looked weird. I like

1:23:53

just cuz it's very different three lights

1:23:55

in the front I like in Germany the laser headlights

1:23:58

that where you can have your high beams on and

1:23:59

selectively block out the oncoming

1:24:02

car so it doesn't blind them. That shit's cool. When

1:24:05

it's like the top 27% turns off but the bottom

1:24:07

laser's still going, that's just impressive. I

1:24:09

like the round, the tail lights on

1:24:11

the Ferrari 812 that look kind of like

1:24:14

torpedoes. Oh, right, they went back

1:24:16

to the round ones. The round. The Ford GT lights

1:24:18

are similar. Yeah. Those are sick. Yeah,

1:24:20

the torpedo. Looks like fighter jet shit. Yeah, does air go

1:24:23

through the middle of those? I think the exhaust goes through. No, wait, that's

1:24:25

a different car. No, that's a different car. There's a car that has that.

1:24:28

Yeah.

1:24:28

What was that old car where the tail light,

1:24:30

it was maybe a, it might have been a Bel Air or

1:24:33

something of that period where you'd flip up the

1:24:35

rear tail light to fill it with gas?

1:24:38

That was kind of needlessly complicated. Oh,

1:24:40

yeah, but also super cool.

1:24:43

DeLorean

1:24:46

tail lights for the time, very iconic.

1:24:48

GT-R tail lights, four round ones, those are

1:24:50

just nice and simple. Those are good. Yeah,

1:24:52

the old Skyline ones.

1:24:55

Somehow with the E30, they made

1:24:58

four round circles have a little attitude

1:25:00

only because the hood curves down just

1:25:02

enough. It's got the eyebrow. But it's not as much eyebrow

1:25:05

as Jeep people. It's subtle. It's

1:25:08

just that focus. Oh,

1:25:11

the Ford GT, it's heat extraction.

1:25:13

It's not exhaust, but it's just like it's a flow through. Oh,

1:25:15

it's just a flow through. Yeah,

1:25:17

that's cool. Benjamin says, I own

1:25:19

a 2013 FRS with 10K

1:25:21

worth of mods, including suspension

1:25:23

wheels, tires, exhaust, and tune, making

1:25:26

about 30 extra horsepower with 130,000 miles. Should

1:25:30

I upgrade to the new generation of 86 or

1:25:33

turbo charge my current 86?

1:25:37

If

1:25:43

it's your only car, I

1:25:46

would get the new one. Right?

1:25:50

I wouldn't want my only car

1:25:52

to be a 10 year old FRS

1:25:55

fully modded with a turbo on it.

1:25:58

No. That's just me. It seems risky.

1:26:01

I don't... I don't know. I

1:26:03

was about to say it seems like it'd be unreliable and risky,

1:26:05

but I don't want to speak out of school and have the forums

1:26:08

go... They'll go forever like this,

1:26:10

but it just seems bold. I drove an 86

1:26:12

with a Rotrex supercharger on it. It

1:26:15

was like 8 PSI. And that seemed pretty

1:26:17

nice. It seems like a great amount of power. That

1:26:19

was a very good balance. I enjoyed

1:26:21

it a lot. It was great to drive.

1:26:24

But you're also talking about a money question here.

1:26:27

Yeah.

1:26:28

Do you upgrade to the new one or turbo charge? Driving...

1:26:32

You know what? Turbo a new one if you can. Yeah.

1:26:34

And if... Because I think the new

1:26:36

one with the new engine and all that stuff might feel

1:26:38

like yours does with this extra horsepower, but it'll

1:26:41

have a lot of new tech and new comforts and things. So

1:26:43

maybe you'll just like that enough. But if what you're seeking

1:26:46

is a lot more speed or power,

1:26:49

I think you could go different directions. Like

1:26:51

just get a Camaro SS. An

1:26:54

SS1 LE handles just as

1:26:56

good as your FRS. It'll feel heavier, but

1:26:58

it's great handling and it has way more horsepower.

1:27:01

Yeah. I mean, 10-year-old

1:27:04

FRS

1:27:04

is getting on there in year... I don't know

1:27:06

what these things are like very long-term. Me

1:27:09

neither. And also there's

1:27:12

these issues with the brand new ones that

1:27:14

might... That seems very real.

1:27:16

Yeah. It seems like a problem. It

1:27:18

seems like a thing that might lead me to not want a...

1:27:20

130K, your other one's

1:27:22

probably pretty good.

1:27:24

Yeah, we've made it so far. These

1:27:26

new ones seem to have... What is it? Oiling

1:27:28

issues on right-hand sweeper turns?

1:27:32

I don't know. I would wait until they update that. I

1:27:34

think that story is still developing. All right. Michael

1:27:38

says your Ease S63 video

1:27:41

was great. With that experience, what would each

1:27:43

of you individually pick in that sedan-sizing

1:27:46

class that balances luxury and performance

1:27:48

for long-distance highway driving that

1:27:51

can comfortably fit two six-foot-tall

1:27:53

boys in the backseat, money no object?

1:27:56

I mean, money no object,

1:27:58

Bentley Flying Spur.

1:28:00

or Molsanne. Yeah. I

1:28:02

haven't driven a... Or the new Phantom. The

1:28:05

new one. I mean, the Molsanne,

1:28:07

like, it didn't have the cornering ability that the

1:28:09

S63 had. Long distance railway drive

1:28:11

it. Yeah, if you're just doing that,

1:28:13

Molsanne. Or, I mean, if you want cornering Flying

1:28:15

Spur. Or an S8. Flying Spur.

1:28:18

Yeah, the Flying Spur, though, is... That's

1:28:20

fire. That's very cool. But Molsanne

1:28:22

is what's up. That thing was so funny. Mm-hmm.

1:28:25

There's a new Molsanne. MR2D2,

1:28:28

good name.

1:28:29

For my next watch, I would like a watch

1:28:32

that makes a statement of taste and

1:28:34

responsibility under $1,000. Durable

1:28:38

enough for daily wear, but unique

1:28:40

and memorable. Tissot PRX,

1:28:44

Maine, Manhattan, and

1:28:46

Prisista Bronze PRS30.

1:28:51

I have never heard of two

1:28:53

of the three of those. The Tissot PRX

1:28:55

Powermatic 80 is

1:28:57

a pretty solid watch for $1,000.

1:28:59

Pretty solid. I like it. Tissot

1:29:04

makes a decent watch. I've

1:29:06

literally never heard of the other ones, and I

1:29:08

don't...

1:29:09

I could not speak to their

1:29:11

durability for daily wear. I just don't know.

1:29:14

Never heard of them. I would say you may want to

1:29:16

wait

1:29:18

for our notice watch. You're

1:29:24

asking questions. You're obviously a pro driver. The

1:29:28

price point of this watch will

1:29:30

be close to that, and this

1:29:32

watch is nicer than a Tissot. Just saying.

1:29:35

In terms of

1:29:37

hardware and in terms of durability

1:29:39

and all that kind of stuff, this watch has more capability. You

1:29:44

may want to hang on for that,

1:29:47

but of the three you've put there, the Tissot

1:29:50

is the only one I've heard of. Sean

1:29:54

Stewart

1:29:54

says,

1:29:59

a status where they will get invited to major

1:30:02

events like your recent European

1:30:04

trips? Are there quantitative requirements or is

1:30:06

it more of a case by case basis?

1:30:09

I have absolutely no idea.

1:30:12

There is a human, it's not

1:30:14

algorithmic, there is a human whose

1:30:16

job it is, is to invite people. And

1:30:19

so if you

1:30:21

make a name for yourself, now

1:30:24

you probably won't just be invited to Monaco

1:30:27

on the first trip. You'll

1:30:29

probably be recognized

1:30:32

locally and given press loans and

1:30:34

if you're smart, you will figure out

1:30:37

how to contact the PR people from manufacturers

1:30:40

and tell them why you deserve a car and

1:30:43

they'll get you one locally and then if you

1:30:45

do right by them. And by

1:30:47

that I don't mean give them a positive review.

1:30:49

I mean if you say you're going to make four

1:30:52

TikToks with the car, you actually make

1:30:54

four TikToks with the car. I mean you don't

1:30:56

break it or treat it like shit or whatever.

1:31:01

But yeah, it's a person that decides.

1:31:04

Yeah, I think there's a lot of factors today. Some

1:31:06

of it's your numbers but then are you

1:31:09

making content that they want to be associated with?

1:31:11

Are you making content they think is fair?

1:31:14

Is your reputation in the industry

1:31:17

good? Are

1:31:18

you a reliable, responsible person?

1:31:20

Like that's why, like you

1:31:22

said, that's why it goes through a human or a bunch of

1:31:24

humans because they might go, well this person has all

1:31:26

these subscribers and they go, yes, but we brought them on this thing

1:31:29

and they actually didn't deliver what we wanted or

1:31:31

it didn't actually do anything for our sales

1:31:33

or name and so they'll go with somebody else. For Aston,

1:31:36

I was on the influencer wave. I was not

1:31:38

on a journalist wave and there was a couple people

1:31:41

who were very nice but all

1:31:44

they did is Instagram. That's it.

1:31:46

They did like two

1:31:48

or three Instagram posts for the whole

1:31:51

thing and that was enough

1:31:53

to go. They didn't have to review the car at all.

1:31:55

They didn't have to comment on it at

1:31:57

all. It was pure lifestyle.

1:31:59

style, I'm in Monaco

1:32:02

with Aston Martin, look at this pretty car.

1:32:05

That was it. And so,

1:32:07

and a lot of press

1:32:10

launches for cars now, especially at

1:32:12

the high end, will have an influencer wave just like

1:32:14

that, where they don't expect you to really

1:32:16

create any meaningful content.

1:32:20

You just do the thing you do,

1:32:21

which is, in some cases, is very basic. Flannel

1:32:25

Bob says, revisited some

1:32:28

older OneTakes, and you wanted to hear me

1:32:30

talk about the Honda N600 with

1:32:32

the VFR motorbike engine on the podcast.

1:32:35

Favorite video. What

1:32:37

a car. It was a crazy car. It was built

1:32:40

by a guy named Dean Williams,

1:32:42

who does not currently own it.

1:32:45

It still lives in LA. I've seen

1:32:47

it around before. Yeah,

1:32:49

it's a little lightweight Honda

1:32:53

N600 with a motorcycle

1:32:55

engine in it. It's a V4. It

1:32:58

is rear wheel drive. It has a sequential

1:33:01

gearbox. It does not have reverse, or

1:33:03

at least it didn't,

1:33:04

which was a problem. You were pushing with your foot? Yeah. You

1:33:07

Fred Flint stoned it backwards. Yeah. What a car.

1:33:10

But other than not having reverse, it

1:33:13

was incredibly well built

1:33:15

and finished and really well sorted, and

1:33:18

it sounded insane. It

1:33:20

had an exhaust dump, so it had a regular

1:33:22

muffled exhaust that sounded very good, but

1:33:25

then you'd open the dump and it sounded like an F1 car.

1:33:28

It revved to like 12,800

1:33:30

RPM, and it was a full

1:33:32

sequential ... It was a motorcycle gearbox, so it

1:33:35

was fully sequential. The

1:33:37

fit and finish was really good. I drove another

1:33:39

car that this guy, Dean Williams, built. He did

1:33:42

a Volvo, a P1800 with

1:33:44

a Cobalt SS engine

1:33:46

in it, or something like that. The Chevy,

1:33:49

the turbo Chevy motor. Oh, the EcoTek? Yeah,

1:33:51

which was also a very nice car. This

1:33:53

guy was a really good ... For like a home

1:33:56

brew dude, this guy was a great builder. Cool.

1:33:59

Yeah.

1:33:59

I had a standing offer with

1:34:02

the owner. If he ever wanted to sold it to

1:34:04

sell it, I said I would buy it. And

1:34:07

if I did buy it, I'd wanna put a

1:34:09

small battery in the back

1:34:12

with an e-motor for reverse, just

1:34:14

like have it on a button so you could

1:34:16

reverse the car. Cause not having reverse

1:34:19

in a car sucks. Yeah. But

1:34:21

if you haven't seen this video, go

1:34:23

watch it because the car sounds amazing.

1:34:26

It sounds insane and I had an amazing

1:34:28

time driving it. It was a really, really

1:34:29

cool car. It was like,

1:34:32

it was a very unique experience. And I think one

1:34:34

of only two cars that I've ever

1:34:36

driven that I offered to buy on

1:34:38

the spot.

1:34:39

Forget what the other one was now that I think about

1:34:41

it. The

1:34:45

other one I drove that I should have bought and didn't

1:34:47

was the twin turbo Ferrari 348 from tuned.

1:34:50

Oh yeah. Which I could have gotten for cheap.

1:34:53

Cause that was for sale. So they hit you up

1:34:55

soon after. The guy wanted out of it and I could have

1:34:57

bought it for like cheap

1:34:59

and I didn't and I should have. It

1:35:02

was a 348 challenge with twin

1:35:04

turbos by built by Steve Maxwell.

1:35:06

It was crazy fun. I'm trying to remember what the other

1:35:08

car was. I don't remember what the other one was that

1:35:10

I offered to buy. Anyway. Oh,

1:35:13

oh, it was the E30 with the S54 motor.

1:35:17

Oh yeah. And it was fucking tits.

1:35:20

Best BMW I've ever driven. Aaron

1:35:24

says, have you ever driven a Toyota Sports 800? No.

1:35:28

And I have no idea what that is.

1:35:34

What is the Toyota Sports 800? Oh, it's like a little

1:35:37

two seater.

1:35:38

Oh, it looks like an even smaller 2000 GT.

1:35:42

How about that? It looks like they shrunk it long

1:35:44

ways and made it narrower,

1:35:46

but it's the same height. There's no way I'm

1:35:49

fitting in that.

1:35:50

I mean, I can't, I tried to fit, oh,

1:35:52

there's a 2000 GT in that photo right behind it. I

1:35:55

tried to fit in a 2000 GT and it was not

1:35:57

happening. I wonder if this was made to compete

1:35:59

with the open.

1:38:00

What would then be the third car that we would

1:38:02

cheat on the cars with? I think so. Is

1:38:05

that what that means? I think that's the question, yeah. If I

1:38:07

remember this question, she asked us, they're

1:38:09

doing like a three-person road trip in Vermont and we

1:38:11

were like, oh, rent a convertible 128i or something

1:38:14

like that. And so it went from

1:38:16

three people on a trip to two. Oh. It

1:38:19

went Miata. But I think you're right. If we had a two-car

1:38:21

garage, what would be the third wild car?

1:38:24

The third wild... I

1:38:27

mean, my two cars are

1:38:29

a practical

1:38:30

everyday car, probably

1:38:32

electric, and then if I only got

1:38:35

two, and then a modern or

1:38:37

semi-modern sports car. Yeah. Fun,

1:38:40

but like reliable enough to deal with. So

1:38:42

my third car from there is something

1:38:44

Italian from the 80s,

1:38:47

where I don't need to rely on it for anything.

1:38:49

So it could be the Countach, it

1:38:51

could be the... That's the third car for

1:38:53

me. My third car would be, unless

1:38:56

I owned a Corvette, my third car would be something

1:38:58

60s American,

1:38:59

like cheap,

1:39:01

cheap pro touring, like Zach's Mustang. Something

1:39:04

I can beat the fuck out of and just do

1:39:06

burnouts in, and that's what I would do.

1:39:08

That would be my red... We'd

1:39:10

call it the red flag car, I think. Anthony

1:39:13

Webb, if this question is about your actual

1:39:15

life and not a hypothetical, congratulations.

1:39:19

You've had a big come up and your job requires

1:39:22

you to be in three very different locations

1:39:24

throughout the year, Seattle, New

1:39:26

York City, and Munich.

1:39:28

You need a car for each, and

1:39:30

you have $150,000 to $200,000 per car. You

1:39:35

never know when you'll be in any of these cities, so

1:39:38

the car should be four season appropriate. If

1:39:40

this is actually your life, it's

1:39:43

not bad. You're doing all right. I

1:39:46

suspect it's a hypothetical, but

1:39:48

good for you. Let's

1:39:52

just say, if this is anyone's life, good for you, because

1:39:54

that sounds kind of fun.

1:39:56

First off, I would

1:39:58

say for New York City...

1:40:00

I would not buy a car. I would join

1:40:02

the Manhattan Classic Car Club

1:40:04

and I would get their highest tier of

1:40:06

membership, which gets you a lot of points

1:40:09

to drive the cars in their fleet.

1:40:12

And then you also have a social club attached to

1:40:14

it and a restaurant and a place to hang out when

1:40:16

you're in New York City. If I spent a third

1:40:18

of the year in New York City, I would

1:40:20

not wanna deal with having a car

1:40:23

in New York City for that amount of time.

1:40:25

Because even if it was an expensive fucking car, you're

1:40:28

probably talking $1,000 a month just to park it.

1:40:31

The battery's gonna die, right? If you don't drive

1:40:33

it for eight months, then

1:40:35

you show up, the battery's dead. But Manhattan Classic

1:40:38

Car Club,

1:40:39

you get their membership, they've got a fleet of interesting

1:40:41

and cool cars, they maintain them, they keep

1:40:44

them, you use them when you need a car. And

1:40:47

even if you're in New York a third of the year, you

1:40:49

don't need the car in New York for most

1:40:51

of the year.

1:40:52

So I would do that. Seattle, 150

1:40:54

to

1:40:56

200K per car in Seattle. That's

1:41:01

a lot of money, that opens a lot of doors. I

1:41:03

would get a Macan GTS

1:41:06

that's under budget by quite a lot. I

1:41:08

was gonna say RS5, but that's also under

1:41:10

budget by a lot. That's under budget, 150K is like a lot. How

1:41:13

do we spend more money? Targa 911,

1:41:17

Targa GTS,

1:41:21

and two sets of

1:41:23

wheels and tires. That's

1:41:25

a pretty cool car. I would probably do the same shit in

1:41:27

Munich too. You could get an M3

1:41:30

like the one with X-Drive, and then you could pay 50 grand

1:41:33

to have some of it rebodied. Munich, you

1:41:35

get the M3 touring.

1:41:37

Of course. Right? Yeah.

1:41:39

That would be good. Or the E63 wagon. Or

1:41:41

Munich Alpina is right there, you get the Alpina

1:41:44

B8. $175 grand, flying up the Autobahn.

1:41:47

That

1:41:50

could be delightful. What is sold

1:41:53

in Europe that we can't, I mean you could get the Alpina

1:41:55

A110, but that's too small. That's too cheap for

1:41:57

what this person's doing. Maybe in Seattle, you

1:41:59

can't.

1:41:59

You get a Taycan GTS

1:42:02

Sport Turismo, or

1:42:05

cross-Turismo, because you put

1:42:07

the snow tires on there. Taycan S,

1:42:10

4S, cross-Turismo, that would

1:42:12

be delightful. That'd be very good. Yeah, that'll

1:42:15

get you right in the sweet spot there. And

1:42:17

then in Munich, I'd get the BMW M3

1:42:19

Touring, or the Alpina. Alpinas

1:42:22

are pretty... You may get mad respect

1:42:25

in Germany if you drive Alpina. I'd get M3 Touring

1:42:27

because you want to go to the Nürburgring, or you want

1:42:29

to go to the track days, because you're there, so you can

1:42:31

still haul ass on the freeway. Because you don't need super

1:42:33

cushy suspension, because the roads

1:42:34

are good. The roads are good in Germany. Yeah, yeah.

1:42:38

Yeah. That's a good answer. If that's your

1:42:40

life, Anthony, good for you. Shout

1:42:42

out to them. Thanks patrons. Appreciate

1:42:47

your questions on this one. Did

1:42:50

you post the event for Henry Graybar yesterday,

1:42:52

yet for tomorrow?

1:42:53

No. Okay. Five

1:42:55

people. We are back tomorrow, Thursday

1:42:58

at 11am Pacific with Henry Graybar.

1:43:00

He is the author of Paved

1:43:03

Paradise, How Parking Explains

1:43:05

the World. I fucking love this

1:43:08

book. I thought this book was great.

1:43:11

It really helped me understand

1:43:13

a lot about our

1:43:15

current crises in

1:43:18

terms of affordable housing, in

1:43:20

terms of

1:43:23

why some downtown

1:43:26

areas are very depressed.

1:43:30