B/F: The Drive Thru #46

• Ford sees hybrids as longer-term play, but rival GM says they are ‘not the end game’
• Ford Maverick Hybrid with AWD might finally be happening

Starting Line | Ford

• Renault to develop Twingos priced under 20,000 euros with Chinese partner
• 217 HP Alpine A290 GT Hot Hatch Kicks Off Brand’s Electric Transformation
• Fisker Files For Bankruptcy After All Rescue Attempts Fail

2024 Mercedes-Benz "Trinit-E" Commercial

• The Toyota Supra We All Begged for Is Going Away in Two Years: Report

• Volkswagen Secretly Made a VR-6 Golf with 463 HP
• Fiat Has Enough Inventory Of Discontinued 500X To Last Until 2025
• Man’s Collection of Old Alfa Romeos Forcibly Scrapped After Battle With City
• Cher's 1972 Ferrari 246 Dino GTS Is Today's Bring a Trailer Pick

• Forget About The $25k Tesla, Behold China’s $2.5k Model Y!

• Where’d The Fun Colors Go? 80% Of New Cars Now Grayscale

• The Tazio Nuvolari Originals Collection combines passion for cars and fashion
• Shopping for Pop: Father’s Day Guide!

Iconic Road Race Circuit - Willow Springs is up for sale!

• Fiat Reverses Course, Puts Gas Engine Back Into 500
• Jeep Wagoneer S design details: young designers, aero tricks, cool materials
• Citroen will drop small and large cars to focus on profitability

• Tesla Batteries Only Deliver 64% Of EPA Range After 3 Years, But There’s A Big Asterisk To This Story
• Here’s why a Japanese billionaire just canceled his lunar flight on Starship
• Lightning Strikes! Ford F-150 Crushes Tesla Cybertruck In Sand Drag Race
• WhistlinDiesel Got His Hands On A Tesla Cybertruck And Ford F-150

• Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport debuts this weekend at the 'Ring
• 2025 Porsche 911 GTS Hybrid Is Nothing like a Prius
• VW Will Spend Billions on Gas Engines

Executive Producer Tania: [00:00:00] The Drive Thru is our monthly news episode and is sponsored in part by organizations like HPTEJunkie. com, CollectorCarGuide. net, Project Motoring, Garage Style Magazine, The Exotic Car Marketplace, and many others. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of The Drive Thru, look no further than www.

MotoringPodcast. net. Click about, and then advertising. Thank you again to everyone that supports the Motoring Podcast Network, Grand Touring Motorsports, our podcast, Brake Fix, and all the other services we provide.

Crew Chief Brad: I’m all tangled up in cords. You weird news music. Welcome to drive through episode number 46.

This is our monthly recap where we put together a menu of automotive, motorsport, and random car adjacent news. Let’s pull up to window number one for some automotive news. Eric. There wasn’t anything at all car related that happened this weekend. Was there

Crew Chief Eric: not at all? The month of June is devoid of car things in general.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, this will be a pretty [00:01:00] short episode,

Crew Chief Eric: but welcome back, Brad. We missed you last month.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. Yeah. I had family stuff going on and I could have tried to make it, but it would, it would have been a disservice to the fans. All two of them.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, big shout out to William, big money Ross for stepping in and filling in for you is great episode last month.

So thank you again, William, if you’re listening. It wouldn’t be a drive through episode if we didn’t just kick it into high gear right away. So let’s talk about some Cybertruck updates. Brad, I know you still haven’t got ready of your allotment, but we are seeing more and more of these on the road.

Crew Chief Brad: I’m walking away from it and I have actually seen one in person in my neighborhood.

Crew Chief Eric: I’m going to see your, I’ve seen it in person and I’m going to up you to got a private tour from an owner. So here’s how it played out. Was driving with my eldest daughter. We were going somewhere and I spotted it in the distance up on a hill. And I just. Slammed the brakes, turned in, I was like, I gotta see this thing in person.

Crew Chief Brad: Was it stuck?

Crew Chief Eric: It looked like it was. My daughter goes, Dad, there’s one of these at school now. It’s so ugly. Yeah, I just want to see it in person. So first impressions, right? And I’m in my station wagon, [00:02:00] which by the standards of 20 years ago was huge. But compared to the cyber truck, it’s like pulling up next to a semi truck.

I mean, it is as big. It’s like an F250. It is enormous. Okay, fine. So then I bump into the owner and I’m like, Hey, is this your Cybertruck? He’s like, yeah, he’s an older guy. And he starts telling me about it and how long it took to get it and how long he’s been waiting. He’s got two other Teslas and he just loves it and how fast it is and this and that and the other thing.

And I’m like, Oh, okay. And I’m looking at it for all the things that we’ve critiqued it. Panel gaps and the finish and the ripples in the stainless and just everything that people have made fun of or mentioned are 100 percent true. But he continues on. He’s like, let me show you around the truck. So he’s super excited.

He’s so stoked, right? I’m like, Hey, I mean, good for you. You’re a proud owner of a cyber truck. I’m going to start with that tonneau cover. Should we even call that a tonneau cover? Sure.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. It’s a tonneau cover. Okay,

Crew Chief Eric: not the roll up weird IKEA garage door thing they use to cover the trunk.

Crew Chief Brad: Okay. It’s not a [00:03:00] Tigre cover.

Truck owners know what I’m talking about. The Tigre brand. Oh yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: So get this, the buttons to operate said tonneau cover because it does retract into that rear firewall there, the beginning of the truck bed. The buttons are all long that I don’t know what to call it. Cause there’s no pillars in the Cybertruck.

So let’s say where the D pillar would be, you know, the back of the truck bed, the button is there exposed to the elements. And I was thinking to myself, can I just walk up to any Cybertruck and open the tunnel cover? Cause the buttons are right there.

Crew Chief Brad: You probably need the key,

Crew Chief Eric: which

Crew Chief Brad: isn’t

Crew Chief Eric: a key.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s a credit card.

Well, proximity, whatever. If you’re close enough with the credit card key, Bob, whatever it is. It probably acknowledges, okay, this is the owner. Okay. To unlock.

Crew Chief Eric: I was like, all right, cool. And you know, he’s showing me about how it’s got electric charging. He’s like, I can charge my other Tesla from this one.

If I were to run out of juice and I’m kind of like trying not to smirk because I’m thinking about the Ford F one 50 lightning and some of the other trucks that, you know, have the built in [00:04:00] generators and this, that, and I’m like, wait a minute. So you in emergency will rescue your Tesla. With your Tesla.

I’m like, I guess that’s doable. Sure. Fine. So we make our way around to the front. So the frunk is ridiculous. What I didn’t know is the whole front end basically opens up and those lights that we discovered that are underneath kind of in between the stainless steel and the bumper that are there, the actual headlights, not that wraparound led running light thing that’s there.

That whole clamshell is one piece. And I was like, okay, well, it’s a decent size frunk. And so then we get to the interior and I just cannot help myself but stare at the A frame that is the side of the Cybertruck and like how they designed the window and the door seals and how it all comes together and I’m just like, it’s a marvel of engineering to make a circle fit inside of a triangle and not leak.

That’s what I kept thinking the whole time I looked at this, but when he went to go open the door, which has no door handles, you know, it’s a funny Tesla, put your palm up against and add more fingerprints to the stainless [00:05:00] steel, and then the door suddenly like pops open like magic, but I noticed that the window drops down like two and a half inches.

To be able to clear the angles, you know, how like on a challenger, the old Audi TT, some of the Porsches where they have like frameless doors, you get up to the car, you pull the handle, the window drops down. Well, it does the same thing, but it’s like two and a half inches. It’s absolutely nuts. And I was thinking to myself, so it’s raining outside.

This thing has no gutters. For the water off the roof. The roof is like a ski jump and it’s got to open two and a half inches. It’s going to flood inside the car every time it rains. And guess what’s right there. You know, the limited controls that it has are right there where water would hit it. So I was like, this is genius.

So I start looking around inside of it because it’s so big. The bed is short to me. It looked like a six foot bed. Maybe it’s an eight foot bed. People could correct me, but it looks short. The backseat is huge. But it’s awkward to get in and out of. You know, he’s about six foot tall, the owner of this Cybertruck.

And I said, do you mind getting in? Cause I didn’t want to get in his car. And he gets in and he’s like kind of contorting his neck because of, again, this [00:06:00] church apex that it makes for the two doors to come together. I was like, that just looks weird. And I asked him about visibility and this and that, and there is no back window, again because of the roll up tonneau cover and the firewall that’s back there, but it does have the glass roof just like a Tesla Model Y, which I recently rode in one when I was in Tampa.

So I was like, okay, I’m starting to see some of the design language from the other Teslas in this, this, and that, and the other thing.

Crew Chief Brad: So I’m assuming it’s a two piece roof. To come to a point like that, it’s not molded as a triangle.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s a whole lot of stuff. And when you see it up close, you start to really understand how it’s put together.

And I’m like, okay, fine. The interior reminded me of the Honda.

Crew Chief Brad: Civic

Crew Chief Eric: now the element reminded me the element I looked like I could take a fire hose and just clean it all out whenever I wanted. So it was very rubber made and you don’t need to

Crew Chief Brad: do that because the windows go down,

Executive Producer Tania: but you can’t do that because it’s short circuit.

The whole thing. Exactly.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s true. It looked

Crew Chief Eric: really cheap. Not to say compared to the other Teslas, but [00:07:00] just in general, it wasn’t even like, okay, well, we got those hardened mats and Rhino lines and monster this, and you know, like all pickup trucks have where they got that kind of everything sort of plastic and rugged.

It just felt cheap and old. And I don’t know, I didn’t really like it. But I did key in on something and I had pictures of all this stuff in the show notes. It has a rear view mirror. So hold on a second. We can’t see out the back. How does the rear view mirror work? He goes, Oh, it’s fake. Is it

Crew Chief Brad: an actual mirror?

Is it? It’s not digital. Like the, so the Corvettes, the new C8s have the digital mirror with the camera in the back.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s what they did on the Cybertruck. It’s just a camera. It’s a screen. It’s not a real mirror. So I was like, okay, well, that’s fair because a lot of the ones that we’ve seen don’t have rear view mirrors at all.

Yeah. Can confirm the transmission buttons are the middle piece above the rear view mirror, which is even more awkward with the rear view mirror and the visors attached to it and all that whole kind of thing that we talked about last month. So I was sort of like scratching my head on that. So far, I’m not impressed.

Okay, that’s cool. I’m sucking it all and he keeps [00:08:00] showing me stuff and showing me stuff and check this out, check that out. And then finally, the one thing that got me and that I got to give it props for, it’s a big truck and it’s heavy. We know that it’s on air suspension. I didn’t know. And he’s like, check out how high and how fast this air suspension works.

And I’m like, all right, it’s a button. It’s like, whoosh, it’s up 6 inches. And then it’s like, whoosh up. It goes again. Another 6 inches. Like, it can get up really high. Really fast. And I was thinking, okay, my Jeep’s got air. It’s the old Mercedes air suspension. It’s 10 years old. It wasn’t fast when it was new, but I’ve never seen anything move that fast on an air suspension.

I was like, that’s really cool. Granted, how long is that going to last? I don’t know.

Crew Chief Brad: So questions for how useful is the speed of the air rise, the air suspension elevation, because first of all, can you do it while in motion?

Crew Chief Eric: I don’t think you can. Cause I asked him about that and he sort of diverted his answer to talking about how it rides so [00:09:00] smooth and the adjustments and it’s like a Cadillac.

And I was with you on that. I’m like. In my jeep, I have to be stationary in order to change the height. Now, granted when I’m going down the highway, it will adjust. It goes into aerodynamic mode. He did say that it does have an aero mode where it lowers itself going down the road. I was like, I don’t think it lowers itself more than stock, but yes.

To your point of laughing, I’m like, it’s a brick. I don’t know how aerodynamic it is. How

Crew Chief Brad: does a skyscraper have aero mode? Yeah,

Crew Chief Eric: I was like, whatever. I thought that was cool. I will say the one armed polka dotted purple people eater that is the windshield wiper, man, that thing is nasty looking. That single armed, Monstrosity.

It’s huge. It’s like six feet long. Cause that front glass is enormous.

Crew Chief Brad: The truck is 12 feet wide. So it needs a six foot long windshield. Unbelievably big.

Crew Chief Eric: At the end of the day, I was like, you know what? This was great because I got to see one in person and I didn’t have to deal with a salesperson or listen to a bunch of BS.

And I got it straight from an enthusiastic owner. Now does it change my opinion of the [00:10:00] Cybertruck? Hell no. Oh God. What a farce that thing is. So don’t feel bad that you got to get rid of your allotment or walk away from it, Brad. I don’t think you’d like it. Although I think you’d fit in it. I don’t feel

Crew Chief Brad: bad.

How would I fit in it? Because I mean, you said the guy was the six feet tall, but he still had to scrunch himself to get in.

Crew Chief Eric: In the back.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, in the back. But in the front, you see your

Crew Chief Eric: head would be in the cupola, the steeple of the church. So you have plenty of room there. And then when that leaks, it’ll drip right on your head.

Well, yeah, yeah, it might collapse like Notre Dame too.

Crew Chief Brad: You just get more Home Depot caulk to reseal it, just caulk it up.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, speaking of the French, as you said, you know, June is a boring month when it comes to motorsports. Because, you know, we got no racing happening in June, nothing iconic whatsoever. No, no, no.

Yeah, just, you know. Totally terrible. So let’s talk about France. Shall we? Great country. Love it. 101st anniversary, 92nd running of the 24 hours of Le Mans. So what do we think? Did you guys watch it? [00:11:00]

Crew Chief Brad: I got to watch probably two or three hours of it. I got to watch the start. I got to watch about an hour of rain delay.

And then I got, and then I got to watch the final hour.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh man. Okay. So my viewing of Lamar was really broken up because we did the ACO viewing party in Detroit at M1 concourse. And so we watched it from start to dark European time. So we got kicked off at 10 in the morning. We ran until about 5 PM us time.

And so we got to watch the race. There are big screens and we had a lot of things going on and we’ll kind of dive into that more as we go along here. And then, you know, we had to take a break. Kind of catch it a little bit later. Then it was like, Oh, we got a dinner with these people. This, that, and meanwhile, you’re like, kind of, you know, staring at your phone under the table, trying to keep track of positions and the race and stuff like that.

But to your point, although it’s not new, they implemented it last year, the new safety car protocol, that first hour long, we were like, well, we’re going to dinner as they try to get the dog off the track. And it took them like an [00:12:00] hour with the reformation and the re gridding and all this stuff that they’re doing, which IMSA implemented a couple of years ago, as we noted, when we went to Rolex.

On a track that’s nine miles long and you’ve got three groups of safety cars and all this NASCAR push to the front, we’re going to get around these people and get back on loop or whatever. It was like, it’s nuts. It takes forever. But that big rain delay in the middle of the night, David Middleton and I were together for the race.

And that rain delay was insane because. We both looked at each other and said, you know what? It’s time to go to bed. It ended up being over four hours of safety car. So can you imagine being behind a pace car doing, I don’t know, they’re trying to push it in the rain, but let’s just say they’re doing 80 mile an hour at night at Le Mans for four hours.

Put in every bronze driver on the planet. And let them get all their seat time, at least that way they can’t damage the car when you go back green again, but four hours of rain delay. I mean that really, really put a damper on the situation.

Crew Chief Brad: I think you just answered the [00:13:00] question for me then because it was strictly a rain delay.

It wasn’t because of a big off or a big shunt or anything. It was just a rain delay. It

Crew Chief Eric: started with one of the Cadillacs going off. In the rain and then it just continued and the rain got worse and worse and worse. So they just kept the safety car out. But like I said, there was an hour safety car delay earlier that evening for a dog that had wandered onto the track that they were trying to get a hold of.

And it was just like, okay, so we got five hours of safety car in total, not including a lot of the other yellows that they had, but it was like, Oh God, this is bad. You know, you watch the replays from last year in the rain, and you’re seeing cars spinning off and doing this and doing that, and I’m like, okay, you know, shit happens, but you guys have the most expensive rain tires on the planet, and you want to tell me you can’t get out there and turn laps?

I mean, what are they going to do, be like NASCAR next and just park it if it starts raining?

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, I don’t know. I was wondering the same thing. It was like just having a rain delay. I mean, was there lightning? I mean, what’s the context? What is there [00:14:00] more to the story? Heavy rain, not even like

Crew Chief Eric: a torrential downpour, but just heavy rain.

And they were like, all right, we’re going to put everybody behind the pace car. And because I slept through the safety part and we kind of set an alarm once we heard that it was going to be hours of this, and they were tracking the radar. I kept thinking to myself, In four hours on a track that long, I guess the safety car has to come in for fuel.

How does that work? So I missed all that. Like, I’m wondering, like, if they had to switch safety cars and stuff. So I, you know, I’ll go back and not

Crew Chief Brad: watch the replay. They probably had a team of safety cars and they just, it was like a relay race. They just passed the baton to the next car. Had to be.

Crew Chief Eric: But let’s talk about how Le Mans

Crew Chief Brad: ended.

Well, first of all, I got a question. Speaking of Ferraris, what happened to the 83, the yellow Ferrari? It was in first place when I first saw it, it was like jockeying with, with that in the Cadillac and then all of a sudden he’s out of the race. The Cadillac was just like weighed down. Electrical gremlins.

So

Crew Chief Eric: I had an electrical failure and that was the end of that. So whether it was in the hybrid unit or in the system itself, it took the car out, which brought the [00:15:00] 50 and 51 car back into the fray, but it could have been a Ferrari one, two, three had the other car, the yellow car stayed in, but instead it was a good battle there for a while.

For a while, even Cadillac was in the mix for potentially being at the front. Everybody had high hopes on the nine 63, but I keep saying it’s a turd. Yeah. Porsche was no, would they come in fourth? Yeah. By the end they were in fourth, but there was only one. The other Porsches were way further down and it’s, it’s another bad hand for Penske.

But still I’m like, dude, this nine 63, I don’t think it’s going to make it another year. They got to replace this car. People keep saying, Oh, it’s so good in the rest of the season, but it sucks at Le Mans. So Ferrari one in three at the end, taking the podium first and third. I thought that was pretty awesome with Toyota sandwiched in the middle.

Toyota tried to make a push there towards the end, but again, it was beginning to rain again. It was pretty gross weather conditions compared to last year. They just didn’t have it. It just wasn’t there.

Crew Chief Brad: You’re missing one of the most important parts, or one of the most [00:16:00] dramatic parts. That

Crew Chief Eric: Peugeot put a wing on their car?

Crew Chief Brad: The number, what was it, the number 50 Ferrari, almost practically coasted across the line. Yeah. Because he was so low on energy and fuel.

Crew Chief Eric: And what was really annoying was, and we were getting the broadcast The, uh, the Euro sport feed directly from France and then also HBO Max was carrying the same feed.

So we’re sitting there and they kept showing the virtual energy tank. I’m like, I don’t care. This is make believe numbers. Show me the gap. I want to know if Toyota is closing in on the Ferrari and we’re going to have a situation where suddenly it’s a second and a half behind and he’s going to pass him in the last turn.

Luckily that didn’t happen, but I was like, Damn it. Show me some legitimate telemetry. That virtual energy thing is such garbage. Like, I can’t stand it. Just get rid of it.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s the monster energy graph, the monster energy gauge, how

Executive Producer Tania: much monsters on

Crew Chief Brad: board.

Executive Producer Tania: I was disappointed to hear that. Valentino Rossi didn’t get to do much since his teammate wrecked the car.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, I had really [00:17:00] high hopes for Valentino as well. I was pretty excited. Now, granted the Beamer is not the fastest in GT3. Honors went again to everybody else but BMW. But, you know, same thing is true in, in hypercar BMW brought out their LMP one car and it was looking good. It was looking promising, especially in qualifying and all that kind of stuff.

But then at the end of the day, Alpine ended up looking better than BMW. They were in the top five for the longest time. And then they suffered some issues with the car.

Crew Chief Brad: And what happened to Lamborghini? Lamborghini didn’t look good either. No,

Crew Chief Eric: they were having some issues. They kept spinning the car off and stuff like that.

But the iron links Lamborghini hypercar. Looks really cool. I’m really excited to have something else in the mix compared to maybe the Glicken Haases and the van wall from last year that really didn’t belong in LMP one. That Lamborghini belongs there. And I think with some refinement, some evolution in that program, we’re going to see Lamborghini closer to

Crew Chief Brad: the

Crew Chief Eric: top

Crew Chief Brad: next year.

I will say [00:18:00] aesthetically, I was very. Happy to see the Toyota in black. Yeah, it looks really sharp. It looked like a, like a Knight Rider type.

Crew Chief Eric: Okay, so what did you think of the BMW art car then?

Crew Chief Brad: No, no. The Toyota in black and then of course the Ferrari in red. Just nice looking car. And the Ferrari in yellow too.

I mean, ketchup or mustard, which, what’s your pleasure? Of course. They all look good.

Crew Chief Eric: So, Le Mans wasn’t a total waste. It was a little ho hum compared to last year, but for every negative in the negative column, there were some positives, right? So, I’ll bring up two that I think are especially important into going into next year’s Le Mans.

23 LMP1 cars started. That’s the biggest field in LMP1 for years now. I mean, that was awesome to see all those manufacturers. You mean hypercar, GTP, whatever they’re calling it. I’m gonna stick to LMP one. All right.

Crew Chief Brad: They’re hypercar. Now in, in prior years, the only cars I cared about, I mean, this is like two years ago when it was really just Toyota running against Toyota and then the [00:19:00] Gibsons, all the, yeah, the

Crew Chief Eric: rebellions.

Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: I only cared about the GT three cars. Now I don’t even know who’s running in GT three. I only care about the hypercar. Now ,

Crew Chief Eric: glad you bring up GT three because that’s the other positive. When you looked at the GT three field this year. You thought you were at an IMSA race. You had Corvette and Lamborghini and Ferrari and Porsche and BMW and Lexus, just to kind of name a few of the entrants in GT3 GT3 was looking at me.

I was like, Lexus at Lamar since when, since right now. And that’s exciting. And that’s what we’ve been all hoping for when WEC and IMSA started to get closer and closer together. So those GT cars from IMSA are able to come over and compete at Le Mans. I think that’s awesome. And now granted, Lexus didn’t do great, but who cares?

They were there. Yeah, exactly. And you had the BMWs there too. And it wasn’t the M8 that’s the size of a school bus. So I thought that was really cool. And so again, for every negative that this race was, it’s a positive. Going into next [00:20:00] year’s race. So I’m really stoked for 2025 and more importantly about 2025.

And we’ll talk about this later. You got to double down next year. You’ve got Lamar and you have the Lamar classic. And we’ll talk about that a little bit later. We also have the 24 hours of the Nürburgring, don’t forget that. But we also did an activation for the newest and latest and greatest in the simulation world.

It’s the officially licensed product from the WEC. That’s the governing body behind the series that Le Mans is part of and the ACO itself. We did an activation of Le Mans Ultimate. So we did a competition there with some really cool giveaways that William from Exotic Car Marketplace put together from the new Velari collection and from Tazio Magazine, which, so we had a lot of fun.

We actually live streamed the whole activation. So if we could. Stop in and people would send us chats and we would respond back to them. William kept jumping in and doing these funny, like little commercials and give them play by plays and stuff. And we did a couple of shootouts. I mean, it was a lot of fun and it was cool that we had motion simulators there.

We had stuff that people could divert themselves, you know, when we were waiting for safety [00:21:00] cars or whatever. So that was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. You know, we put a lot of effort into researching. Lamont ultimate doing our own time trials, you know, the calibration, we tried to make it as enjoyable for people as possible.

And we’d interview them as they came off the machines. They’re like, wow, I’ve never done anything like this. This was really cool. You know, how do I get more into this? And mad props to David Milton and MIE racing for sponsoring that and putting it all together. And we look forward to doing more activations like that in the future.

So pay attention to our calendar and to other things going on where Lamont’s ultimate might be showing up. But that wasn’t the only thing we did in the good old city of Detroit. We were in Motown running around. When we got there, we actually got together with another guest of the show, Jack Teeter. He’s the great nephew of Ralph R.

Teeter, the blind automotive engineer that created the cruise control, something that we take for granted in every everyday car these days. We were invited to the premiere of his film, Blind Logic. Which covers 134 years of history, starting from when Ralph [00:22:00] Tito was born in the late 1800s up until when he died in his 90s and how things continued on from there.

So really well done 90 minute film. If you missed it, or you missed any of the screenings that had happened up until the premiere. Have no fear. There will be a version coming out available that you’ll be able to stream and check out. So Jack’s still working on all those details. So I can’t say too much more on that or like which service it’s coming on, but it’s definitely worth the watch.

You’re going to learn a lot. And I think it’s a hidden gem in the automotive world. And it’s a great story to understand like where this tool that we use every day in our cars came from the reasoning behind it and how it was designed and how long it took to get into production too, which was kind of mind boggling.

Very, very cool. So blind logic. And then while we were there, we also met up with two time guests at the show. And little birdie’s telling me maybe three time guests at the show here. Lynn St. James. We met up with her. We actually got her to sign one of her books as she’s promised that she would do in the past.

We had a great conversation with her and some interesting stuff going on there. Maybe some. Other stuff [00:23:00] that we can do in conjunction with women in the future. So looking forward to seeing Lynn again in the fall, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. And then we also got to sit down with evening with a legend and legends liaison of the ACO USA, Rick Newp.

He won at Lamar. 40 years ago in 1984 in a Kremer Porsche 935, very cool to hear his stories. He had been to Lamar one other time before that really nice guy. Looking forward to seeing Rick again later this year. So we got to sit down with other legends of Lamar. When we were at Detroit, we got to sit down with, you know, Indy 500 rookie of the year, Lynn St.

James, also Trans Am winner, all those kinds of things. Got to meet up with Jack Teeter. So we were busy. And then. That wasn’t enough. We ran into guests of the show, Bill Warner, formerly of Amelia Island at the eyes on design, Concord, elegant at the Ford house there on the lake gross point, Michigan, and which is the oldest state of Edsel Ford.

And so they do a annual concourse there every year and it’s based on car design. And this year actually [00:24:00] featured a lot of the Italian greats, the Bertone’s, the Pininfarina’s, the Gandini’s, the Giugiaro’s and things like that. And what’s cool about the Concord is. They pick the designers, they pick the types of cars to bring in and then owners bring their cars to the show.

And there’s one of each of a certain type of the designer in the category. And then they bring the cars up and they talk about them in a very pebble beach sort of way. So that was a lot of fun, took a ton of pictures. There’s actually an article in the clubhouse website where you can check all that stuff out.

But more importantly, it brings us to a. EV and concept car that we talked about in the past. One that we made fun of and I think Brad has changed his mind on. Do you guys remember the Cadillac Celestique?

Crew Chief Brad: Yes, I’ve seen one in person.

Crew Chief Eric: What

Crew Chief Brad: did you think? Yeah, there are a few pretty high dollar electric cars roaming around and the Celestique is one of those.

It’s along with the Cybertruck and God knows how many of the Porsche, the Taycan and Rivians. I mean, you can’t throw a stick without hitting a Rivian. I like it. It’s smaller than I thought it was going to be though.

Crew Chief Eric: Really? Cause I thought [00:25:00] it looked bigger than I thought.

Crew Chief Brad: But in the pictures, I thought it was like the size of a Suburban, but in person it’s more the size of like

Crew Chief Eric: a Suburban.

It’s no,

Crew Chief Brad: it’s like a Volvo V90 on steroids kind of thing. Size wise to me.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. It’s big.

Crew Chief Brad: Big.

Crew Chief Eric: So you know how they say when you like look at a dog, they say you can kind of judge how big it’s gonna be when it gets older based on its paws when it’s a puppy. Mm-Hmm. . Well, the paws on a Celeste, two 80 fives on 23 inch wheels and they look small.

So it’s deceiving how large it is. I took pictures of it from different angles and it was in sort of a, I’ll call it a tomato color. A lot of black accents and this and that. So compared to the pictures, the pictures make it look like a yacht. So I get your point that it looked smaller in person, but compared to some of the stuff that was parked around it, I was like, dude, this thing is huge.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. I saw it just by itself on the road and there wasn’t much close to it. So I didn’t really get it. To see it parked next to a Miata or anything like that.

Crew Chief Eric: It is [00:26:00] unique looking. I mean, if, if I was you and I saw it going down the road, it would stick out like a sore thumb because it is just that back three quarter angle.

I’m still not sold. The front looks like any other Cadillac in some ways. The

Crew Chief Brad: Citroen

Crew Chief Eric: back end. For sure. And that’s what kind of sets it apart from everything else. You’re like, what the hell am I looking at? Exactly. Maybe that tomato red isn’t the right color for it, which I don’t think it is. The only photographs we’ve seen are of that kind of electric blue.

I think all black though, murdered out. Ooh, that could be interesting. Or like a dark gray or something like that. But yeah, I don’t know. Good on Cadillac, you know, whatever, you know, that’s the end of our showcase. And we should probably get back to our regular ranting and regularly scheduled raving. So before we do that, I want to ask you guys, have you noticed the shift?

Especially in the TV commercials lately, like I’ve noticed over this month, Ford and Mercedes, I noted the Ford one and it wrote the quote down, your choice, gas, electric, or hybrid, something for everyone. And I’m like, [00:27:00] what in the heck is going on? I mean, nobody’s buying cars, which leads us into our first article talking about Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche news.

I thought we were all EB and the ID buzz and the this and that we’re going to get rid of the everything and no two liter turbos and

Executive Producer Tania: they’re saying the same thing everybody’s saying they’re sort of doubling down on EVs they’re all going back just kidding we’re going to keep making combustion engines.

Called

Crew Chief Brad: it, right? So it didn’t Volvo, one of the ones leading the charge. Yes. We’re going to be all EV by 2023. Not really, but like all you’d be by 2030 or something like that. They spun off pole star and now they’re just, they’re letting pole star die because they didn’t, they don’t want to. to hitch their horse to that wagon anymore.

And then the same, I think Jaguar said the same thing. They were going to be all EB. I think the municipalities and then the authorities are pulling back on it, realizing, Oh, maybe this isn’t the solution. Maybe we’re being dumb, a little

Crew Chief Eric: [00:28:00] too

Crew Chief Brad: aggressive. A lot of things happen in the U S politically too. I mean, Obama instituted all those EPA rules and carb rules and cars had to be, had to meet a certain.

Mile per gallon threshold across the industry. And you see, they were all in on the EBS and then Trump rolled some of that back. And then Biden is kind of floundering a little bit.

Crew Chief Eric: I think you’re onto something. I think they were chasing the dollar in the beginning because it was a fad for lack of a better way to put it.

Ooh, Evie, I’m going to save the world. And you know, I think a lot of people. finally kind of woke up and said, we’re making it worse because of the rare earth metals that are necessary to put these batteries together. The way we have to harvest them, Elon’s plan of getting the lithium from Mars and bringing it back to earth.

Isn’t really panning out, you know, all that kind of crazy stuff that we’ve heard in the neural net and everything else. I said it a long time ago, hybrid is the answer, despite the death of the manual transmission. Although there’s some rumors out there, Toyota was working on that too, right? Where you could have a manual and a hybrid and all those kinds of things.

There’s like three big factors and correct me if I’m wrong, the [00:29:00] price of EVs, which makes sales down, range anxiety, which keeps sales down. And then this last part, which is the environmental impact of the EVs. That keeps sales down.

Crew Chief Brad: I would almost replace range anxiety with charging infrastructure, period.

Yes.

Crew Chief Eric: And that is definitely in that swim lane. So too much, too fast, too little, too late. First of all, what are we going to do with all these EVs? How long are they going to go? What’s the recycling plan? I don’t think we have a definitive answer on those, but if we roll back and go to hybrids. Okay. We’re getting it right.

Not that it really matters to us, the layman, but how much money has these companies actually lost

Crew Chief Brad: on this investment? You say it doesn’t matter to us because we’re the layman, but it does matter to us because they’re not going to operate at a loss for long. They’re going to pass down those costs for those losses by increasing their prices on the cars that are selling.

Yeah. So we’re, we’re going to end up paying for it eventually, or they’re going to get a government bailout, which is our money anyway. [00:30:00] So one way or another, we’re going to pay for it. To your point, it seems like you say they’re doubling down that it seems like it’s just a rehashing of what happened in the late nineties, early two thousands with the gas crisis.

I guess it was around the, the Iraq war and then everybody was making hybrids. There were hybrid everything’s there was a hybrid Tahoe. Oh, that was a big seller. That was a piece of crap. And they made all these small cars because the gas was so expensive, but then gas prices started coming down. People stopped buying them because ultimately we want.

Crew Chief Eric: What’s the right answer then? Is it keep the gas prices high to force you to buy a hybrid now, but then again, the price of the vehicles are insane because as you know, being on the money side of the house, the price of things go up. They never really come back down unless we’re clearancing and getting rid of something, or it’s extremely cheaply made.

The price of a new car now is 50, 000. Let’s just say the average. Entry level, whatever Impala we’re talking 50 grand. I mean, that’s [00:31:00] insane.

Crew Chief Brad: Which is why a car loan is seven, eight years now because the income levels have not increased with the, at the same level that what a mess

Executive Producer Tania: you can get cars for less than 50, 000, the caveat is, yeah.

The car any of us would want is not going to be something that’s less than 20, 000. You can get a car that’s

Crew Chief Eric: basic transportation,

Executive Producer Tania: 23, 000, 20, 000, whatever. And people are going to be fine with that. They do exist, right? There’s Chevy’s, there’s Kia’s, there’s whatever’s, but an enthusiast isn’t going to want that car.

And that means they’re starting at at least high thirties into forties. Yeah. Whereas. 10, 15, 20 years ago, you were starting at least in the twenties for a GTI or something.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. To Tanya’s point, we are the minority, like the, the enthusiast market. I mean, you see it with everything, you know, when it comes to cars, like the enthusiasts, we’re the loudest ones.

Yes. We need a manual coupe. We need a Toyota super to come back. We need the Nissan 350 Z to come back and we’re going to buy it. You just make it and we’ll [00:32:00] buy it. And then they sit on dealer lots and then they don’t sell any of them because the enthusiasts, we like to talk shit, but we all already have the cars that we want.

So we’re not buying a majority of people aren’t buying those types of cars.

Crew Chief Eric: I would agree with that to an extent but if they made the cars palatable and I continue to argue that the 400z Is in that category, especially with nissan basically having a fire sale on everything including the ultimas to get him off the lot That car is worth fifty thousand dollars all day You Is it a 90, 000 car?

Like the Corvette suddenly became no, but at 50, 000, you can have a sports coupe, a grand tour, whatever you want to call it. It’s good value for money, but nobody’s looking at Nissan right now, but I’m going to put a pin in that because to your exact point, Brad and Tanya talking about the price of cars and what we want as enthusiasts, the GTI has a cult following, but more so than that.

A lot of people buy GTIs. I don’t even know if you can buy a base level Golf anymore. [00:33:00]

Executive Producer Tania: Here’s a better example. Toyota Corolla hatchback. You can get one for 22 grand. That’s not the one that you should want because the one you should want is starting in the high 30s for the same car. Granted for power blah blah blah, but it’s the one you want.

So you’re probably by the time you’re done looking at a 40, 000 Corolla.

Crew Chief Eric: Let me blow your mind here for a second. So according to British sources, the GTI Mark Eight and a half because the mark nine isn’t here yet and we’re doing these half things now Seven and a half and eight and a half and whatever so the mark eight and a half is coming Would you all venture a guess let’s play what should I buy for a second little price is right?

How much is the new gti going to cost?

Crew Chief Brad: Uh, so it’s dsg because they don’t make manual anymore. It’s four doors four doors only front wheel drive And it still doesn’t make 300 horsepower. But see, the Golf R is 40 plus. So I would say the base GTI is probably 32, 33.

Crew Chief Eric: According to British sources, 40, 000 British pounds [00:34:00] sterling.

Do you want to know how much that translates to in U. S. dollars?

Crew Chief Brad: More than that. 45 or something like that.

Crew Chief Eric: At 27 percent uplift, we’re at 50, 800 U. S. dollars for base GTI. And there’s a moment of silence there and I’m looking at Brad’s face because now he’s running the numbers, you know, can you imagine 50 grand for a GTI

Crew Chief Brad: in 2001 granted, you know, I’m going to date myself here and it’s just, this is just the way inflation works.

But in 2001, I bought a brand new 2001 Volkswagen GTI 1. 80. I splurged a little. It had cloth interior, but I got the manual and I got this 17 inch wheels that nobody had seen before because they weren’t available in the car yet. It’s a 17 inch wheels and the monsoon sound system. And that car was 20, 000 on the road.

Tax tags, title, everything. We’re 23 years into the future now.

Crew Chief Eric: What is 20, 000 today’s dollars?

Crew Chief Brad: We got to go back from that. So 40, 000. You said 50, we’ll call it [00:35:00] $50,000 in US dollars, which I do not believe that I’m flabbergasted. $50,000 in US dollars. What does that equate to in 2001, you’re basically buying a Mercedes S class, I would think.

Crew Chief Eric: Alright, so the inflation calculator online says $20,000 in the year 2000 in today’s dollars 2024. 36, 477. 25. That makes sense. But 50, 000.

Crew Chief Brad: Well, I think the British people have their numbers wrong. I think they’re wrong. 40, 000 for a base GTI? That’s really bad. Right

Executive Producer Tania: now on Volkswagen’s website, a Golf GTI.

Build your Golf GTI. Starting MSRP, 31,

Crew Chief Eric: 965. Starting!

Executive Producer Tania: 241 horsepower, 273 foot pounds of torque, Speed manual or a seven speed automatic dsg.

Crew Chief Brad: So you’re saying there’s gonna be a nine thousand dollar price jump from the current car to the new car. That’s fucking absurd. There’s no way. Do not believe. Does not [00:36:00] compute.

Executive Producer Tania: And now I’ve gone down a rabbit hole to build my gti. What are these trims? There’s the s. That’s the starting one at 31. 965. There’s the 380s. Then there’s the SE. Then there’s the 380 SE. There’s the Autobahn and the 380 Autobahn trim. What happened to the trim levels?

Crew Chief Eric: That’s like Audi with the prestige and the premier and the blah, blah, blah.

What the hell is

Crew Chief Brad: 380

Crew Chief Eric: 380? Not 380 horsepower, that’s for sure. Because that would have been cool if it was. Yeah, no kidding. So click on that last one, because I’m sure the last one is the most expensive one. What does that jump you to?

Executive Producer Tania: So the 380 Autobahn is 40, 000.

Crew Chief Eric: Boom, we’re already there.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s only 300 more than the regular Audubon.

Crew Chief Brad: What do you use the comparison on the site for the models?

Executive Producer Tania: So you get a black painted roof and side mirror caps on the 380 both with nine inch alloy wheels. You’ve got the 12 way adjustable seat, climatronic, vented seats, [00:37:00] heated first and second row light assist high beam heads up. So the only difference there.

So you’re paying the extra 300 plus for the black painted roof and side mirror cap.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s the 380. This package is 380 more.

Executive Producer Tania: You’re right. Yeah. Oh, shit. Sorry. I’m getting my mind blown here. It only has 240 horsepower.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. You said that before.

Executive Producer Tania: No, but this is the three 80 Autobahn.

Crew Chief Brad: Yes.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s still only has that much.

What?

Crew Chief Brad: But then a thousand dollars in a chip and a tune, and you’re looking at 375 foot pounds and almost 300 horsepower.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. But 20 years ago, you could guess.

Crew Chief Brad: I have one. I have a 250 horsepower GTI, which also weighs a ton too,

Crew Chief Eric: with all the driving or anything, but that’s not the point. It’s not that much.

3, 500 pounds. That’s a lot.

Executive Producer Tania: It weighs 3, 100 pounds.

Crew Chief Brad: Lies.

Executive Producer Tania: Curb weight. Lies.

Crew Chief Brad: Lies. That’s dry weight. [00:38:00] Then you add fuel and you add oil. 3, 100 pounds.

Crew Chief Eric: There’s no way unless they’re making them out of tin foil that that thing weighs 3, 100 pounds. The Mark fours weighed 3, 000 pounds. They must be getting body panels from Honda.

Gotta be like they’re acid dipped and that’s just it. And it weighs. 4, 500 pounds now, and it’s as slow as your 2001 1. 8 turbo. Whatever.

Crew Chief Brad: So then that begs the question to roll into the next article. How much is the GTI club sport cost?

Crew Chief Eric: So they debuted that at the 24 hours of the Nürburgring, because again, nothing happens in June.

You know, outside of the funky paint job that they have or wrap or whatever it is at the Nürburgring, here we go again. Okay. It’s a Golf R. It makes 315 horsepower. So what? So does the current golf art? Like who cares? Like what’s so special about the club sport other than the funky paint job? Like, I don’t, I don’t understand what’s so important about it.

Crew Chief Brad: Well, the previous club sport, the mark seven club sport. I don’t think it had back seats. It had a roll bar and [00:39:00] scaffolding in the back. It was front wheel drive only. I don’t think the rear doors opened. It was designed to take racing kind of like the Hondas that we saw when we went to that SRO race. I think it was kind of in that vein, although you can only get it in Europe.

Crew Chief Eric: To add another 10, 000 of insult to injury on top of, let’s say what we’ve already been talking about, I wouldn’t buy this, like, I don’t care. I’ll go buy a used. Golf R and put a chip on it and I’ll have the same thing. If not better.

Crew Chief Brad: See, this is the age old question. Do you buy something built from the factory already?

Or do you buy the base model and put the money into it yourself? I mean, Jeep people and Camaro and Mustang guys talk about this all the time. Do I buy a ZL one or do I buy the base model? SS and put all the money into it to make it, you know, what I want, do I buy the Rubicon or do I buy the sport Wrangler, put the wheels, lockers and all that shit on it?

I guess it all just depends on how mechanically inclined you are, if you know a good mechanic or if you feel like you could do it better than the factory and [00:40:00] a lot of times. I’d rather just have it from the factory

Crew Chief Eric: to that point because the scene, you know, air quotes around that the scene has changed in the last five years, especially where the EPA started to crack down on the tuners.

It’s getting harder and harder to get, let’s say, the Volkswagen’s and some of the Japanese cars chipped. You know, Volkswagen always had an open ECU, non encrypted, you know, there were plenty of tuners out there, APR, and, and you could suddenly, you know, turn up the wick on these things. And Volkswagen proper didn’t really seem to care.

They almost invited it from the third party from the aftermarket world. But, you know, the government’s gotten in the way of doing that because obviously there’s ways to defeat, you know, emission systems and a lot of other things by doing that kind of stuff to get more power out of these motors. It’s been.

I think it goes back to your point, Brad, where it’s like, it’s cheaper to buy it from the factory and you’ve got a warranty, you know, you’re within the EPA specifications and all that kind of stuff. But I never thought I’d see the day. I read this headline like 10 times. The 9 11. It’s gonna be a hybrid.

Executive Producer Tania: Mean it’s [00:41:00] better than hearing all electric,

Crew Chief Eric: but let that soak in like the nine 11. All the purists right now are probably keeled over vomiting into their shoes going. The nine 11 is never supposed to be. It’s like, I don’t know how I feel about

Crew Chief Brad: it. But see, not all hybrids are created equal. There are hybrids they’re designed to have the much smaller gas motor and rely on the battery power for fuel efficiency.

But then there are the hybrids like the McLaren P1 and then the Ferrari LaFerrari.

Crew Chief Eric: Or even the C8 Corvette.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, the stingray is the e ray. Yeah. Those are hybrids of a different, they’re not replacing the gas. They’re complimenting, augmenting, supplementing with electric to get, squeeze out more performance.

I don’t have a problem with this.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I do, because I think there’s a point of diminishing returns. You’re trying to squeeze out all this performance by adding more weight. Because the batteries are not light, the hybrid system is not small, and it is not [00:42:00] light. The 911, I remember when finally adopted all wheel drive into the 911s, it’s like, okay, now we’ve added all that.

Just get more performance out of the 911. The Porsches, especially the 911s, were kind of the Lotus principle. It’s like, add lightness first. And now they’ve become heavier, they’ve become bigger. Are

Executive Producer Tania: they trying to make the ultimate performance machine by going hybrid, or are they just trying to offer People in alternative fuel source.

Crew Chief Eric: If this is like I read it and it’s similar to the Corvette E Ray, it’s 100 percent for performance. It’s not for fuel economy.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, it’s, it’s for performance.

Crew Chief Eric: But you already have all wheel drive available in like the Turbo S and all those things. What’s the hybrid really giving you other than electric all wheel drive?

So you can maybe eliminate some of the drivetrain, but then you’ve got this funky Rear wheel drive bias, nine 11 with an electric upfront. I mean, it’s, I don’t know, to me because of the nine 11s configuration, any other car, you could kind of make it work, but the nine 11s, the nine 11 to me, I don’t [00:43:00] know, it’s just something’s not right about this equation.

Crew Chief Brad: It adds about 187 pounds. That’s a lot to your point. What’s the point of the hybrid Corvette?

Crew Chief Eric: So the Corvette makes sense because. Mid engine all wheel drive is a very difficult thing to achieve. So if you look at how complicated a Lamborghini all wheel drive system is, you know, where the motor’s sort of sitting on top of the transfer case and, you know, the shaft goes through the oil pan and all this kind of crazy stuff like they had in the old days.

With the C8 being mid engine, adding the hybrid to the front wheels to give them four wheel drive makes sense. But the 911, basically being a backwards longitudinal front wheel drive with, you know, six reverse gears, it doesn’t add anything. They already had all wheel drive available. They already designed the chassis to accept it.

And to your point, it’s heavier than the previous 911. So to me, it just doesn’t add up. It almost feels like a gimmick. To say, well, we’ve got a hybrid two and then I love it because [00:44:00] Corvette did it or because Ferrari did or whoever did it, but

Crew Chief Brad: I don’t think it works. I mean, it’s no different than adding a turbo or it’s just a different kind of power adder.

They’ve done their market research. Somebody out there wants to buy one, so they’re going to make one. They’re just trying to make something for everybody.

Crew Chief Eric: Talking about making something for everybody and staying on this theme of backpedaling. We need to talk about Stellantis. Just when you thought the Fiat 500 was dead, it’s back with a gas engine.

I don’t really care. They kind of gave it the 500e look in the front and everything, and the wheels, and granted the shape of the 500 hasn’t changed much. They updated the interior a little bit. I think it’s cute, but I’m glad it’s going back to gas. So when’s the Abarth version coming?

Crew Chief Brad: The Abarth will be a performance hybrid.

Crew Chief Eric: See, see, see, that works. That makes sense. It’ll still only make like 150 horsepower, though. Meanwhile, in Stellantis land, Brad, explain this to me. Everybody’s going gaga over the Wagoneer S. Isn’t this just the [00:45:00] Grand Cherokee?

Crew Chief Brad: Let’s take a look. No, it’s very reminiscent of the previous generation Durango to me.

Crew Chief Eric: Which was a Grand Cherokee.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, but this is still based on the Wagoneer flat. Okay, so what? What? I see it now. Okay, yeah, I see what you’re saying.

Crew Chief Eric: Now they’re competing against themselves. Like, are they trying to make Wagoneer its own brand?

Crew Chief Brad: This is a real revolutionary tactic they’re doing here that Range Rover did about 15 years ago.

Crew Chief Eric: Uh huh.

Crew Chief Brad: They’re giving it the Wagoneer name. Like Land Rover gave the Range Rover the Range Rover name, but it was the sport model built on the LR3 chassis.

Ah, so this

Crew Chief Brad: looks like the Wagoner Sport built on the, I guess the Grand Cherokee chassis. That’s my theory. It’s also an ev,

Crew Chief Eric: well, there’s the Grand Cherokee four XE as well.

So that’s no different.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s badge engineering. It’s no different than ES line or. M sport or F [00:46:00] sport or AMG sports AMG like somebody wants a Wagoneer, they can’t afford a Wagoneer. So they buy a grand Cherokee with a Wagoneer badge,

Crew Chief Eric: but it’s got a

Crew Chief Brad: Wang. Do you see that Wang? I see it. What do you think?

Because if it didn’t have the Wang, it would look like a Celestique.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, that back end is wrong.

Crew Chief Brad: It would have this, it would have the same

Crew Chief Eric: angle as a Celestique. No, that wing is goofy though. They call it the R Wing. Okay, like it’s Star Wars or something? Good job, Stellantis. Well, staying on the French theme, and since you brought up the Celestique again, and we’re still talking about Stellantis, you can’t say it any other way now.

It’s kind of like Integra, right? It’s Stellantis. So, Citroën, my favorite French car company, part of the Styliantis group, is dropping its small cars and large cars to focus on profits, and that’s in quotes, to focus on, so I said to myself, what in the hell does that mean? You got no cars equals no profit in my [00:47:00] book, what the hell are they selling?

Crew Chief Brad: They’re going the way of Mitsubishi.

Crew Chief Eric: So terrible, small, crossover SUVs then.

Crew Chief Brad: I love this quote. The C5X won’t be replaced because its segment is deemed non existent. We’re making a cars for a segment that does not exist.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, this sounds like brilliance. I mean, at this point, just kill Citroen or rebadge something else.

But this is pathetic. I mean, what is the point? But you know, hey, great job there guys. Excellent work. Keep it up. But you know, the DS is going to come back too. Just makes my skin crawl thinking about it. All right. Well, moving on with other domestic vehicles, Ford and Chevy have differing opinions. So we know what Ford says.

What does Chevy say? The quote reads, Ford sees hybrids as a long term play, but rival General Motors says they’re not the end game. Okay. So what is?

Crew Chief Brad: Diesel

Crew Chief Eric: Chevy’s bringing us back to the tornado. We’re going right back to like 1978.

Crew Chief Brad: I mean, [00:48:00] Chevy brought about the entire trucking industry and put the locomotive industry almost out of business, you know, with their deals and their trucks and everything like that.

So they’re doubling down on the diesels. We’re going to get an Impala diesel

Crew Chief Eric: and we’ll call it the Toronado. I remember last year we did a whole GM showcase where we’re like, what the hell are these guys doing? They’re so far behind the curve. And now they’re not even in agreement. Not that they’re ever in agreement with Ford, right?

They’re always sort of at odds. But in this case, it’s like, guys, you don’t have very many options. If I read between the lines. Ford, and we saw their commercials this month, you know, there’s a choice for everyone, gas, electric, or hybrid. Mercedes is doing the same thing. You’ve seen it with the black SUV, the white SUV, and the gray one, you know, pick your poison and all this stuff.

But GM is basically saying, you know what guys, we’re going to stick with the push rod V8 till the end of time. And that’s that screw hybrids. And the bolt is playing the hokey pokey, as we know, one minute it’s gone, it’s on the death list and it’s [00:49:00] being resuscitated. And I mean, I just don’t get it.

Honestly, I know competition is good, but I really think the big three need to get their act together and figure out what the direction is going forward and start to lead rather than try to constantly catch up with everybody else.

Crew Chief Brad: Which is a better run company, Tesla or General Motors?

Crew Chief Eric: I think Tanya needs to answer that one.

Executive Producer Tania: General Motors.

Crew Chief Brad: General Motors is a better run company.

Executive Producer Tania: They don’t have an asshole, narcissistic, egomaniac. So

Crew Chief Brad: if you remove Elon Musk, which is a better run company,

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know what’s their car sales.

Crew Chief Brad: Well, apparently they sold 16, 425 EVs, which is down 20 percent because apparently the Bolt EV that they phased out made up 20 percent of their EV sales.

That’s a big hit.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, there might be an answer for you.

Crew Chief Brad: I feel like General Motors is doing what General Motors does. We’ve got this great new [00:50:00] product. It’s called the internal combustion engines.

They’re doubling down and they’re going all in on hydrogen.

Crew Chief Eric: I don’t see that happening at General Motors either. Like I really think General Motors. Is taking the same approach I take at work sometimes if I stand still figuratively long enough while management is running around with their hair on fire, it’ll all come full circle.

And I don’t have to do much. Right? And I think GM is doing the same thing. Literally waiting for the merry go round of Evie to stop. And then they’re going to be like. Well, you fools got rid of your internal combustion engines. We’ve got the

market corner.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, there is a strategy that is last man standing.

So their strategy could be the last person with the internal combustion engine.

Crew Chief Brad: Who’s their CEO? Barra.

Executive Producer Tania: Mary Barra,

Crew Chief Brad: maybe she’s a genius and she’s like, these fucking idiots in Congress can’t figure this [00:51:00] shit out. We’re not going to do a goddamn thing. And when the dust settles, we’re going to be right on top or General Motors is quiet quitting.

You know, you heard about that phenomenon. They’re quiet quitting. There’s bowing out. There’s like, you know what?

Executive Producer Tania: There’s another term too. What was it? It’s something. Retirement

Crew Chief Brad: retired in place. I don’t remember.

Executive Producer Tania: No, there’s a new term I just heard the other day, something like with retirement.

Crew Chief Brad: General Motors is the equivalent of the employee that sits at their computer and moves their mouse every 10 minutes.

So it looks like they’re active, but they’re not actually doing a fucking thing.

Crew Chief Eric: I think that’s why Matt always used to call them general morons. You know, it’s a gross generalization for General Motors, but it is very strange what’s going on over there. That’s for

Crew Chief Brad: Because what’s going on is nothing. The lights aren’t on, but let’s all run out and get an Impala, shall we?

Crew Chief Eric: Speaking about running out and buying new cars, which is not at the front of everybody’s list. Last time we got together, we talked about the Maverick [00:52:00] and how there’s just none available and people want to test drive them. So you can go down to your local U Haul for 20 bucks and try one out. Now they’re saying the Maverick is going to be coming with all wheel drive and a hybrid.

So, let’s head on down to U Haul and

test one out!

Crew Chief Brad: You know what? I like the Maverick. I would never own one, because it’s not, I’m not the market. But for companies like Napa, and like these small delivery people that, they don’t need a full size truck. Get a Maverick and just put around town dropping off parts and doing your little deliveries and shit.

I think it’s perfect for that. I think civilian Mavericks are silly.

Crew Chief Eric: The Ford Transit was perfect for that. I don’t know about the Maverick. Well

Crew Chief Brad: true, because you could get a 10 foot tall Transit.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, you can also do your deliveries in the rain and not have all your stuff get wet.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s true. That’s true.

I stand corrected.

Crew Chief Eric: The Maverick is perfect for everybody that made a mistake buying the Ranger and the folks that don’t want the new F 150, which is the size of the Cybertruck.

Executive Producer Tania: But still need to move mulch.

Crew Chief Eric: Right, exactly. I think the Maverick is a [00:53:00] good size because it’s the size of what the F 150 used to be.

It’s a reasonably sized truck. I think it’s easier to maneuver, especially in the city. If you want to drive a truck, it’s easier to park. Yes, it’s got a shorter bed, but it’s four door. It sort of checks all the boxes. The problem is they can’t keep up with demand for the Maverick and hence going down to U Haul to test drive one.

I like it. I like the way it looks. Like if I needed a truck and I didn’t need to tow, see, that’s always the thing. They’re not going to give the Maverick enough chutzpah to do what we really want it to do. Well, that’s not what it’s for, but the old F 150 of that size you could tow with because it had a V8 or it had this or it had that.

Crew Chief Brad: I don’t think the Maverick is body on frame either. I think it’s a unibody, which contributes to that as well.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: So it’s not designed for that type of work.

Crew Chief Eric: But still better than the Ranger though. I mean, if you gave me a choice between the two, I’d pick the Maverick all day long.

Crew Chief Brad: I just think it’s better looking than the Ranger.

Crew Chief Eric: And the Ranger, unfortunately, it suffered from [00:54:00] legacy problems where the old Ranger was a four cylinder. So they said, you know what, we’re going to put the focus slash Mustang motor in the Ranger and then, you know, D cam it and all that other stuff. And it’s like, dude, that’s pathetic. The thing is heavy.

It’s big. And it can’t get out of its own way. I went and tester of one when they debuted, I went with Tanya to a thing in Texas where they had them and they had like a little test of it and course and go off road with them and all this kind of stuff. And I was like, yeah, it’s great. It’s wonderful. It drives awesome.

Except for the fact that it’s a four cylinder turbo. And I’m like, no, thanks. Good job, Ford. Still better than Chevy.

Crew Chief Brad: I mean, they’re competing with themselves. A hundred percent. I don’t know why. Not something I would buy, but good on them.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, this next one, as we move into Japanese domestic news, is anybody surprised by this?

You said it earlier about how we were begging for cars like the Supra. Well, guess what? By 2026, The Supra will be gone. Is anybody surprised? Do you

Executive Producer Tania: see any?

Crew Chief Brad: No! I see one every once in a while. I’m a little sad. But again, I’m not in the place in my life where I could buy one. Also, I’m not in the size [00:55:00] of my life where I could fit in one.

So it’s just, it’s a car that was cool to build and I’m glad that they built it. But it’s not something I would ever be able to own.

Crew Chief Eric: And I agree with some of the comments about the Supra. Because I said it from day one and I still call it the Zupra because as we know as enthusiasts, it’s a BMW underneath and I hear all the justification about how Toyota retooled the engine and it’s not actually the stock BMW straight six and it’s not this and it’s not that and the Toyota had its hands all over the car blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Okay, great. But you know what? I think Toyota missed the mark. It’s not a Supra. It’s not a 2JZ. It doesn’t have any relationship with the fourth gen car. Toyota could have made this. They could have borrowed from Lexus and said, we’re going to build a Supra and we’re not going to build a tank. That they have over at Lexus, but they could have built something awesome.

They could have built something with a Lexus V8 and it could have been a monster and people would have gone. Hell yeah. And okay. Put the gazoo racing badge [00:56:00] on it and maybe it costs a little bit more, but it could have been a hundred percent pure Toyota. When I look at this, it doesn’t even look. Japanese.

It looks German.

Executive Producer Tania: How much more can it cost in 46,

Crew Chief Eric: 000? That’s pretty cheap. The Lexi are, what, 70, 000, 80, 000? I mean, they could have gone up a little bit. It could have been a 55, 000, 60, 000 car.

Executive Producer Tania: It needed to have the Lexus badge then at that price.

Crew Chief Brad: I feel like this should have been like the RC F. Yeah, they should have rebadged the RCF, changed the looks a little bit, and it made it a grand tour because the original Supra was big.

It wasn’t a sports car. It was, it was bigger. It was more of like a grand tour. That’s what this car should have been. But because they built it in conjunction with BMW, who doesn’t really make those types of cars or just not at that price point.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, if BMW had done it that way, they would have built it upon the six series.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s exactly what I’m saying, which would have cost significantly more money.

Executive Producer Tania: You could have just put the three cylinder in it.

Crew Chief Eric: 300 horsepower out of the Corolla or the Yaris. And not have it

Executive Producer Tania: cost 70, 000. [00:57:00]

Crew Chief Eric: There is supposedly a four cylinder turbo version of the Supra. I’ve never seen one. I don’t know anybody that bought one because apparently you could get a manual Supra with a four cylinder turbo.

Executive Producer Tania: The 2024 comes either as a two liter four cylinder or three liter six cylinder.

Crew Chief Eric: Both BMW powerplants because BMW makes a two liter turbo in the 320. Or whatever it is, that makes sense. But I think there’s too much German DNA in the Supra right now. And I’m not sad to see it go. Granted I’ve coached one and I thought it was fabulous, but I got out of it and I was like, it’s still a BMW despite the body panels.

And with everything, to Tanya’s point, that’s going on at Toyota right now, this seems like they just missed the mark. They could have designed this car themselves. Take the BRZ and put a real motor in it. Instead of that thing that’s in there that’s underpowered for the size of the car. Because the BRZ is just basically a slightly smaller version of this.

I rest my case. Well, Tanya, I guess it’s time we switch gears and talk about EVs and [00:58:00] concept cars. This time we seem to be loaded up with some French stuff. I think that’s a coincidence since we’ve been talking about Le

Executive Producer Tania: Mans.

Crew Chief Eric: So what’s on the docket here?

Executive Producer Tania: Renault is coming out with some interesting EVs with an interesting partner for an interesting price.

They’re bringing back the Twingo. Yes. Yes. For under 20, 000 euros with the Chinese partner.

Crew Chief Eric: Because VW backed out of the project. I like it. I like the original Twingo. It’s so cute.

Executive Producer Tania: This weird. Percentage gauge on the outside of the hood is interesting.

Crew Chief Eric: I have a feeling this might be AI generated because it’s like little weird things like that that just don’t make sense But it says ev concept whatever that means.

Yeah, I like it. It’s got the happy little just accents and flavors and design language of the Twingo. I don’t know if this is Renault’s rendering or if somebody generated it on, you know, ChatGPT or [00:59:00] something like that. But at the end of the day, I would enjoy seeing this on the road. I mean, again, I’m weird and I like the original Twingo.

So this is cool to see something like this come in black.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s cool. But would you want that? Or would you rather have? Oh,

Crew Chief Eric: yeah. An

Executive Producer Tania: Alpine, A two 90 gt.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I mean, there’s no question I want the Alpine A two 90. I want anything that says Alpine on the bonnet. This thing is the R five turbo reimagined and it is just fire.

This thing is awesome and we’re never gonna get one, unfortunately.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, of course not. I mean, we’re never gonna get anything Rene over here. So they’ll have to keep their single 217 horsepower electric motor. 6.4 second zero to six two. Time a battery that lasts 203 6 miles.

Crew Chief Eric: This is square body heaven right here, man.

This is so cool. Sorry, I like little French hatchbacks. I think this is awesome. I’ve said it

Crew Chief Brad: before,

Crew Chief Eric: but

Crew Chief Brad: it reminds me a lot of the Abarth. So just get an Abarth.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes, you could buy a Fiat and have something similar. But if you’re going for [01:00:00] that R5 turbo look, this is it, man. I mean,

Executive Producer Tania: yeah,

Crew Chief Eric: it’s pretty awesome.

Now, granted, the hips are not nearly as wide as an original R5, but it has all the design language of the old car. And I think this is. Absolutely fantastic. And I think they also did a good job of sort of picking up on the Renault Williams Clio that came out after the R5. And so it has a little bit of that in it when I look at it, because again, it’s slightly narrower and a little bit more upright.

I mean, if you’re a fan of those groupie homologation cars, And you’re lucky enough to live in Europe. I would get one of these. I mean, granted I want an A one 10 GT as well. I would drive one of those every day. That’s the throwback to the seventies. Alpine one 10 kinda looks like an out ETT. I think everything that Alpine is putting on the road or Alpine is putting on the road right now is really pretty cool.

So for those of you in Europe, you’re very fortunate. So, uh,

Crew Chief Brad: enjoy just for my. Education. What is Alpine? Is it a standalone company? Is it a branch [01:01:00] of Renault? Like what, what exactly is it

Crew Chief Eric: Alpine? You have to think about it sort of like roof or any of those type of tuners. Okay. So they’re now part of Renault.

And so basically Renault has said, we’re going to spin up our separate line of cars as Alpine. And then they’ll go from there kind motorsport heritage.

Executive Producer Tania: They were their own company. Our company back in the day, like they were their own mark.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Yeah. If you go back to the early, early, early times, but they were using Renault power plants and stuff.

And then they became like a tuner after that.

Executive Producer Tania: Right. And then it became like, it’s like GR.

Crew Chief Eric: Exactly. All good stuff though. I’ll take it all day long. You know, we’ve been talking about buying new cars, Brad, if you had to buy a new car today, what color would you pick? Well, it depends on the car, but red

Executive Producer Tania: really does depend on the body shape of a car because there are some cars like Mercedes that are atrocious when they’re red.

The majority of Mercedes look so bad in the color red. It would depend on the car. [01:02:00] I would like something metallic ish. I know that it’s boring, but like a pewter, not like a silver or something like that, but like a rich pewter that even changes color. light to dark in the, in the color, or I like the color I have, which is like this weird blue that changes between blue and gray, depending on the lighting conditions.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, would you guys be surprised to know that all the colors you mentioned are basically on the way out? Yep.

Executive Producer Tania: How do you replace gray?

Crew Chief Eric: Well, according to a new study in vehicle color market share, Grayscale colors are in white, black, gray, and silver, but silver has seen a 52 percent reduction in cars being painted in silver over the last 20 years, from 2004 to 2023.

So they’re down to 9 percent of the cars on the road are silver anymore. Red is 7%. And then you got some bottom of the barrel colors after that green, orange, beige, [01:03:00] brown, yellow, gold, all

Executive Producer Tania: less

Crew Chief Eric: than 1%. The majority of the cars on the road are white

followed

Crew Chief Eric: by black. There’s not a huge color palette anymore.

And I remember, especially, you know, in the old days where you were like excited to see what the new colors of the cars were going to be and what’s Volkswagen coming out with and what colors are they carrying over and Porsche with all their M and M colors and Chrysler the same way with the Barracudas and the challengers and stuff like that.

But nowadays it’s like, wah, wah. I mean, for how many years was it, would you like your Accord in gold? Gold. Gold.

Crew Chief Brad: Or gold. I would like to see this broken down further to color. By model because majority of the cars being sold, I would argue 80 percent of the cars being sold are going to be cars that only look good in gray scale, like your Camrys and your Corollas and your shit, Paula’s and your Nissan Sentra or whatever, and [01:04:00] things like that.

But if you drill down further by model, I guarantee you 80 percent of Mustangs are not gray scale. Right. 80 percent of Challengers are not grayscale. 80 percent of Camaros, Corvettes, 911s.

Crew Chief Eric: Majority of Ferraris are going to be red,

Crew Chief Brad: right? I mean, that’s sort of a given. The lower volume cars aren’t grayscale.

I think the numbers are skewed. Because of the models like that are being purchased.

Crew Chief Eric: And I agree, especially with white, how many commercial vehicles are included in this?

Crew Chief Brad: How many fleet vehicles? Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. All the Ram vans that are sitting on the mall parking lot here where we live, there must be 200 of them right now.

And

Crew Chief Brad: they’re all white. A lot of that, especially for like construction trucks and like blue collar vehicles, they’ll get their wrap put on whatever color their marketing colors are. They’d start with a base, whatever the cheapest thing the dealer has on the lot, It’s probably white if they’re selling 80 percent of them, you know, they just slap on whatever, whatever their marketing colors are, you know, in their wrap because it’s [01:05:00] cheaper and then just go from there because then they can take that shit off and sell the vehicle when it’s met its useful life.

But I want to see these numbers based on model.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, but they do. They break it down. If you go. Down. They have a sports car, color market share breakdown,

Crew Chief Eric: and the truck market too.

Executive Producer Tania: And it’s still gray, white, and black. However, then red is 22%, but that’s down. So in 2004 was 22%. Now it’s down to 14% and blue is right there with it.

13. And then all the other colors are just like, I mean, they

Crew Chief Eric: call it arrest me red for a reason. Right. I think less people want red. Who the fuck is buying gray sports cars? There’s a lot of gray sports cars if you think about it. Those charcoal grays, those gunmetal grays, silvers and whatnot that they come in.

Executive Producer Tania: There are no purple SUVs. Zero percent. Thank god.

Crew Chief Eric: Zero percent gold sports cars. The color palettes are pretty boring.

Executive Producer Tania: Why are they just saving money?

Crew Chief Eric: I think so, and they’re probably all using very similar paint, and they [01:06:00] call it different names. Like, I remember it was a 944S2 in its last year. They had champagne, rose gold, metallic, and I looked at it and I’m like, it’s pink.

Like call it whatever you want it. It’s metallic pink, you know? And then I think that came available on like the Cadillacs or something. Right. You’re like, all right, you know, you’re getting all your stuff from PPG or whoever it’s coming from. I don’t really care. We won’t get into those details, but I think with the globalization, there’s less paints available.

They’re all coming probably from one source, like the glasses coming from one or two places. You know, your dark blue Tesla might be the same color as a dark blue BMW at the end of the day. It’s probably coming from the same can.

Crew Chief Brad: I think this also kind of points to something we’ve seen over the automotive industry just as a whole over the last decade or two or three last generation or two is just the lack of art in automotive design.

Colors play a lot into the arts of the vehicle. Where’s all the fun? There’s no fun in the design. There’s no fun in the colors.

Crew Chief Eric: I will say when I was at Eyes on Design though, [01:07:00] every Ferrari, except for one, but all the other ones were black. They were sexy. Oh my God. Black Ferrari. That’s nice. That’s real nice.

Real, real nice. So before we close out EVs and concept cars, did you guys hear the news? Did you hear about Fisker? Everybody’s so excited about the ocean. They’re going to make three more models, all this stuff. Hype, hype, hype, hype, hype, hype, hype. Bye. Bye bye. Fisker gonna Fisker? Fisker’s gonna Fisker by declaring bankruptcy and they stopped making cars.

Crew Chief Brad: How many times has Fisker filed for bankruptcy? It seems like every couple years they just file for bankruptcy, wipe out their debt, and then start over. They should just stop.

Crew Chief Eric: And sadly, and ironically, I saw a brand new Fisker Ocean with temp tags while I was in Detroit, and I kept thinking to myself, I wonder how that’s going to play out for you.

Crew Chief Brad: That guy will be driving a Tesla next.

Crew Chief Eric: Let’s move on. Brad, it’s your favorite section, Lost and Found, where we find the newest old supercar on dealership lots.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. I actually wasn’t going to do that this time. No, [01:08:00]

Crew Chief Eric: we can skip

Crew Chief Brad: it. I feel like that segment’s kind of beat. It was fun when we were talking about Chrysler 200s and Dodge Darts, you know, from 2016, they were still being sold in 2020.

It’s

Crew Chief Eric: funny you bring that up because we might start having to do that again. Did you hear about the Fiat 500X? I think that’s our new Dodge Dart. I did not hear about it. Fiat claims they have enough inventory of the discontinued Fiat 500X to last through next year.

So you’re going to be sitting here going in 2028.

So I got a brand new 2024 Fiat 500X for

Crew Chief Brad: sale, 16, 000 available at Gray Chevrolet. I feel like that’s optimistic. The actual number is they have enough to last them until Armageddon, because nobody’s buying these fucking things. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one sold.

And what did we say? Like the last time Fiat sold like 600 cars last year or something like that?

I mean, [01:09:00] it’s pathetic.

Crew Chief Brad: Didn’t they sell a negative car one quarter or something like that? Who sold the negative car?

Yeah, that was Chrysler. Yeah, negative one Chrysler 200s. I feel like this

Crew Chief Brad: is going to be one of those situations.

So let’s do this. We’ll put a pin in trying to

Crew Chief Eric: find the newest old car dealership lots until the 500Xs start to appear.

But there’s some other things that we’ve discovered and lost and found. And you’re a Volkswagen guy. So what do you think of this next one? Oh, I love it. This comes as no shock to me. Secret Volkswagen VR6, 463 horsepower and a Mark 6 and all this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, great. This is literally, literally at the same time Volkswagen put out that W12 mid engine Mark 6 GTI that was on top gear that Jeremy Clarkson was hooning around in.

So, To put a 400 horsepower VR6 in a GTI, that’s not a stretch of the imagination. Why Volkswagen didn’t want to produce something with, let’s say only 300 horsepower is beyond me because [01:10:00] I’ve seen it time and time again, in a tuner space, people were taking the 3. 6 liters out of the Cayennes and throwing them in golfs.

I mean, it’s doable. The factory could have done it if they wanted to.

Crew Chief Brad: I love this car. And see, this is why I love Volkswagen. They’re like playing a round of golf. Majority of the time it’s complete shit. But every once in a while you’ll hit a, a long drive straight down the fairway. Volkswagen will make a W 12 rear engine, all wheel drive GTI, with 500 horsepower.

They’ll make a VR six powered. What is this, a mark six. The motor didn’t even come in the Mark 6. Hans and Franz were just sitting around the factory floor one day. They’re like, what is that over there? That looks like a VR 6. What is that over there? Well, that Mark 6 needs a motor. And I was like, well, let’s put them together and see what the fuck

Crew Chief Eric: happens.

Pretty much. And that’ll be buried in a museum somewhere that no one will ever see as some prototype, you know, mule or whatever.

Crew Chief Brad: Is the real travesty to me.

Crew Chief Eric: It is, and maybe because they’re backpedaling now, as we mentioned earlier, [01:11:00] the whole EV movement inside a Volkswagen is what killed the VR6, because I think the VR6 would still be around today, and I was hoping to see, they got up to 3.

6 liters, where’s the 4 liter VR6?

Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: A VR6 turbo from the factory? Sign me up. My goodness.

Crew Chief Brad: I love that they listed out all the mods for the car because this gives me a blueprint for how to complete my car many years from now.

Crew Chief Eric: With the Lamborghini wheels and all that stuff? Yeah, it’s pretty cool.

Crew Chief Brad: RS6 brakes and Lamborghini wheels and a big old turbo.

Crew Chief Eric: And this next one hit a little close to home for us. So the headline reads, Man’s collection of old Alfa Romeos is forcibly scrapped after a battle with the city. Dozens of old Alfa Romeos landed in a Michigan scrapyard after a mechanic claims the city forced him to junk his parts collection.

Crew Chief Brad: This is where I feel people with too much time on their hands and a little taste of authority think that they can come in and just tell somebody what to do with their shit.

[01:12:00] Who is this guy hurting with his 2000 Alfas?

Crew Chief Eric: It’s not like they were on the mountain, you know, in the middle of the front lawn. These were in a parking lot at a U S auto supply. And the guy, I guess either shares the lot with them or whatever, but he runs an Alfa Romeo specialty shop. So he’s got to have parts cars.

He’s got to be able to harvest from them to service the other ones that are running. And I’m, I mean, I look at these pictures and I’m like, it just looks like a car lot with Alfa Romeos in them. Like Big deal. And there’s some fencing up. So to your point, who’s he bothering?

Crew Chief Brad: So here’s what happened. What happened was?

This is my running theory. He didn’t own the land that the cars were parked on. It was probably leased. And the owner of the land was selling the land for a profit to a developer who’s going to come in and build townhouses because we need more housing. And so the developer was like, well, you got to get this shit off my land so I can start building.

That’s our theory. I guarantee it has something to do with money. Yeah. Money is exchanging hands at some level. And his stuff is in the [01:13:00] way. I don’t know if you’ve been to Montgomery County. They did all that development and everything in Montgomery County, Maryland. And there was the guy who owned the old cider barrel house or whatever, the cider barrel.

All the land around it was sold. That person refused to sell. So they built a huge development. around him, but it was sitting there on the corner at three 55 and now he, he didn’t get any business or whatever. And you know, I don’t even remember. Wow. This money is exchanging hands. Somebody needed that land for something.

And this guy got fucked.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, speaking of that, I guess we would be remiss. We didn’t talk about Tesla.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, didn’t we talk about him enough already?

Crew Chief Eric: I love how it’s all inclusive. It’s the car, it’s the man, it’s the company just all rolled up into one.

Crew Chief Brad: There you go. There’s their new slogan, the car, the man, the company, Musk.

They should just drop Tesla. They should just be Musk. Are you driving your God? I [01:14:00] can’t even say, are you driving your musk? Yes. I’ve got my musk riding in my musk.

Crew Chief Eric: What was the name of that perfume in Anchorman where you like Jaguar bottle and you would open it up and it would like, smell like hell. Like that’s exactly what I’m thinking here.

Executive Producer Tania: Sex Panther. Was that what it was?

Crew Chief Brad: Musk.

Crew Chief Eric: I wonder if we’re going to look back in 20 years, 30 years when we’re all relaxing on our lazy boys and we’re doing drive thru number 537 and we’re going to look back and say, do you remember that Bernie Madoff level Ponzi scheme that was Tesla?

Executive Producer Tania: Which one? Which, which story?

What specifically? I

think we have about six of them in our lineup right here.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. Is anybody surprised again? And there’s been other reports around this too about that they fluff their range and the base case yada

Crew Chief Brad: yada. Elon Musk is a fluffer.[01:15:00]

Executive Producer Tania: The latest one here is that the batteries only deliver 64 percent of the EPA range after three years.

Crew Chief Brad: Wow. They’re on the same mandatory obsolescence or mandatory upgrade that like Apple phones and Samsung phones

are on.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s called battery technology where you use a product with a battery, the batteries degrade over time and you have to replace them.

Do they swell? You

Crew Chief Eric: know how the

Executive Producer Tania: apples like tend to swell. Cause that’d be really bad.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, they just combust.

Executive Producer Tania: The title is somewhat misleading because you have to look at the data and the graph shows them all not starting at a hundred percent battery life. So they’re really, they’re not degrading almost 40%.

They’re really only. degrading 10 to 15%, which is still seems like a lot in three years when apparently Tesla claims that you’d still have 70 percent of original health after eight years or a hundred thousand miles.

Crew Chief Brad: So why are they not [01:16:00] starting at a hundred?

Crew Chief Eric: So that is a problem even with other smaller scale rechargeable batteries.

You get a hundred percent charge the first time, and then they get this weird, I guess, recharge memory or muscle memory kind of thing going on. And they can only really charge up to like 80 percent of their original charge capacity or something. And then they do start to sort of fall apart after that.

So you can translate the consumer batteries and upscale them to the car. So that sort of makes sense. Even in your phone on the Apple side of the house, there’s some gaming going on there too, where. 100 percent is really 80%, you know, or whatever it is that it’s charging up to and it goes from there, but we can put a pin in that.

What’s interesting about this article is it’s a bit of a fish hook in the sense that it’s bringing you in because, oh, here’s some more Tesla stuff, but it actually applies to all the across the board.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, it’s, this isn’t a Tesla specific issue. It’s battery issue.

Crew Chief Brad: No, no, no. This is an EV industry problem.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. And they use the Tesla’s as an example because there’s a lot of them on the road. So I [01:17:00] was like, okay, cool. I was glad to see that as you go through this and read this pretty long article that they pointed out that it does apply to just about everybody. You know, what doesn’t degrade to 64 percent of its capacity, unless I put bricks in the bottom of it is my gas tank.

Just want to point that out. If it holds 13 gallons, I put 13 gallons in, that can always put 13 gallons in it. Just want to point that out.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. Contest that fact.

Crew Chief Eric: Meanwhile, I was listening to NPR and they were chatting with some folks. That bought into that whole SpaceX ride share Ponzi scheme. And so, you know, they were talking to this gentleman from Asia that had bought not one, but eight seats on the loop around the earth’s moon trip that Elon was selling, you know, in his Tesla timeshare package.

And needless to say that individual invested a ton of money. The numbers are supposedly like on the low end, 300, 000 per person. So for a billionaire, [01:18:00] you know, what’s a couple million bucks. Granted, Elon’s getting what, a 55 billion paycheck now or whatever it is that they’re saying that he’s going to get out of this latest boom.

Well

Crew Chief Brad: earned. Yeah. Well

Crew Chief Eric: deserved. So another scam there too. But now this guy is tired of waiting because like the Cybertruck, he’s been waiting since 2018 for his lap around the moon that he was promised, which I don’t think is ever going to happen. So he asked Tesla for his money back and Brad, how does that work again?

It doesn’t happen. It

Crew Chief Brad: doesn’t happen. Okay. Just checking.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, yeah, that money has been spent.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. So this is the Tesla model. We’ve got this great idea. We can’t afford to build it. So we’re going to sell it now. And then we’re going to use the funds from the sale to build it. And then we’re going to come up with another idea and we’re going to sell that.

We’re going to sell the idea and then use those funds to build this other idea. Like Eric said, the Ponzi scheme,

Crew Chief Eric: all of its vaporware. So how many

Crew Chief Brad: Tesla roadsters are going to get built? Do you think? Well, the Tesla Roadsters are [01:19:00] funding the Cybertruck.

Crew Chief Eric: Can you put your deposit down yet? A thousand people or something put down deposits on those things.

And how many years ago was that? We’re talking about the lasers and the cannons and it’s going to be zero to 60 in 1. 9 seconds. It’s going to be that. You remember that episode we did? Was it season one, Brad, like five years ago with Bobby Parks. And he was talking about how they were going to go drag racing with the Tesla Roadster.

And I’m like, yeah, okay. I didn’t believe it then. We’re all cautiously optimistic, but it’s literally been five years. It’s

Executive Producer Tania: never going to

Crew Chief Eric: happen. Well, we said the same thing about the cyber truck. So

Executive Producer Tania: yes, but it’s also a piece of your rife with problems.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes.

Executive Producer Tania: Speaking of problems of the cyber truck, that wiper blade keeps giving them issues.

Something so

Crew Chief Eric: basic.

Executive Producer Tania: And remember I said blade, not blades.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s that six foot windshield wiper.

Executive Producer Tania: They’re delaying Cybertruck orders because the windshield wiper doesn’t work.

[01:20:00] Well, it also takes 37 menu clicks to turn it on. They don’t want you to use it. That’s why it’s buried so far down in the menu.

Executive Producer Tania: Just the supply chain quality issue on the wiper motors.

They’re failing. No big, well, you have to

Crew Chief Eric: imagine the torque. Put on that wiper motor with a single arm. That’s like six feet long. And then the air resistance, how big is that motor? That’s got to move that thing.

Executive Producer Tania: I didn’t do the engineering calc.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s a 2. 3 liter EcoBoost

Crew Chief Eric: just to move the windshield wiper.

It does remind me having seen it in person. If you remember the one 90 E. And some of the other Mercedes of that time period in like the late 80s, early 90s. The scissor wiper. Some of them had like that big scissor wiper.

Executive Producer Tania: Honda Civic had that.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, but they also had a single wiper blade on the Mercedes and it was massive.

It worked then, I guess, you know, history, I guess has a tendency to repeat itself. Speaking of history repeating itself, guess what? No stupid drag race. But this time the Tesla loses. [01:21:00] Loser! Loser. Was this an off-road drag race? It was between an F-150 lightning and a cyber truck. And the lightning leaves the SA truck in the dust.

I mean the sand.

Executive Producer Tania: I was gonna say he dusted them. Yeah,

Crew Chief Eric: he dusted them. Good. Real good. Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh well, you know the tires, all the problem. Supply chain, the manufacturer of the rubber.

Crew Chief Eric: That Tesla got a head start, but that lightning came up quick. It just called it a day.

Executive Producer Tania: Maybe it’s just the way because when you video wheels and stuff, it almost looks like the rear of the F 150 actually locks up and he’s just dragging the rear wheel.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s the camera. I could watch this video all day long and repeat. It is just fantastic. I love the guy. With the American flag, like,

yeah, yeah,

Crew Chief Eric: I absolutely love it. Oh, that’s good

Crew Chief Brad: stuff. Which is a better run company, Tesla

Crew Chief Eric: or General Motors?[01:22:00]

Notice that there was not a Chevy Silverado in this drag race. It was a Ford. That is true. Wrapping out some Tesla news. Our favorite internet idiot, Whistlin Diesel.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t even know why we’re giving this person any airtime. We say like, oh, how do these people get murmur? And then it’s people like us that are like, helping him.

I don’t want to help him. I’m not going to talk about this. You can talk about it. I’m going to stay silent.

Crew Chief Eric: All three of our Arbitron rated listeners. But yeah, I mean, this guy, I bring it up only because he’s beaten cars to death and now he’s got his hands. On a cyber truck. And so there’s no video footage yet.

Just some pictures on Instagram with the hype and all this kind of thing. So I want to see what he does to it.

Executive Producer Tania: He’s going to explode it because he’s probably going to get it into some like benign accident. And the thing is just going to like go into a million pieces.

Crew Chief Eric: And maybe that’s the end of whistling diesel as we know it.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s Okay, what would be more interesting [01:23:00] is we know how Ilan Takes the shit like this.

Oh, yeah

Executive Producer Tania: What is the retribution here because he’s not just gonna like is he really just gonna sit back?

Crew Chief Eric: I don’t know.

Executive Producer Tania: But if this guy goes and like brutalizes his baby cybertruck here Makes a mockery of it, basically.

That’s a lot different than somebody trying to give you an artistic tribute. Yeah, I can’t

Crew Chief Brad: wait. I’m kind of looking forward to this.

Crew Chief Eric: I am too. Yeah, for once. I hate his stuff in general. I think he absolutely just abuses cars for all the wrong reasons. And a lot of the cars are like, man, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t driven that.

That’s like a nice car. Abusing a Cybertruck? I want to see how this turns out.

Crew Chief Brad: In the one picture, there is a tank in the background. Oh, dude, this is going to be great. Bulletproof glass? How about missile proof glass?

Executive Producer Tania: Excellent. That’s probably accurate. That’s going to be awesome.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, now that I’ve thoroughly lowered Tanya’s expectations.

Lowered expectations. [01:24:00] Zah! Zah!

Yeah!

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah! Miracle! I got one more bit of Tesla news for you. You remember the infamous, we’re gonna build a sub 30, 000 scheme, but 25, 000, air quotes, Tesla Model Y is too much for you. How about a Chinese knockoff for two and a half grand?

Executive Producer Tania: Is it actually a car or is it like a model car?

Crew Chief Eric: You

Crew Chief Brad: don’t know

Crew Chief Eric: what

Crew Chief Brad: this is. Looks terrible though. You get inside and you pedal like a Flintstones car?

Executive Producer Tania: That’s what I’m wondering.

Crew Chief Eric: The body panels are straighter than the Cybertruck.

Executive Producer Tania: But the front wheels look like reverse camber, like they’re, they’re out, you know, On the top and in on the bottom.

Crew Chief Eric: They do not have a stance problem here.

Okay, we got a reverse stance. This thing is terrible. I think it’s a death trap. 13 horsepower, 10 kilowatt, 6 foot pounds of torque. I mean, this is a golf cart with a Tesla Y body on top of it. It is awful. But

Crew Chief Brad: two and a half grand, although it looks like it gets about the same range as the [01:25:00] That’s perfect, I

Executive Producer Tania: mean I’d say that’s an expensive coffin, but actually coffins cost about that much

Crew Chief Brad: It’s a creative coffin

Crew Chief Eric: Meanwhile, we do have some rich people firing Sponsored in part by Garage Style Magazine, highlighting all the wonderful things that we can put in our garages, because after all, what doesn’t belong in your garage?

So let’s talk about some things you could put in your garage. Tanya, you brought this one to us. What do you got?

Executive Producer Tania: Oh yeah, I did. It might be sold now, because I don’t know, it’s already been a couple weeks. However, if you are interested in a little piece of history here, I guess, with an iconic female artist.

You could turn back down. You, too, could drive Cher’s 1972 Ferrari 246 Dino GTS. I mean, I’m actually kind of impressed by this. I’m like, wow.

Crew Chief Eric: Cher had good taste. All

Executive Producer Tania: right.

Crew Chief Eric: It was the cheap Ferrari, though.

Executive Producer Tania: Her 1972 Ferrari apparently [01:26:00] showed up on Bring a Trailer.

Crew Chief Eric: Really nice. I don’t know if it’s the photograph, or that Dino is a slightly darker red, but it looks really good.

Executive Producer Tania: Ah, the auction did end on June 10th.

Crew Chief Eric: And?

Executive Producer Tania: Alright, any guesses? How much did this sell for? It did sell, sold on 6

Crew Chief Brad: 10. Eric, before you answer, I will tell you, there is another Dino. Oh. 246 GT set no reserve right now on bring a trailer. The auction has 10 days left. Current bid 127, 500. The share bid is over.

And this one was not shares. This is the GT, not a GTS.

Crew Chief Eric: And that GT did not have shares, but cheeks in it or Sonny’s. I’m gonna say it sold for 357, 000. No. Which one?

Executive Producer Tania: His or mine?

Crew Chief Eric: Shares.

Executive Producer Tania: 350, 000?

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: Higher.

Crew Chief Eric: What? 500,000,

Executive Producer Tania: a little bit higher. [01:27:00]

Crew Chief Eric: Really? What did it come in at?

Executive Producer Tania: 568,000.

Crew Chief Eric: Wow. To have Cher’s butt cheeks on the leather

Executive Producer Tania: Cher’s butt cheek, and three other people’s butt cheeks, ,

Crew Chief Eric: or five and a half cyr.

I take this over five and a half Cyber.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, yeah, of course.

Crew Chief Eric: Wow. Okay. Dino’s have gone up in price. Holy smokes.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Cause they were sort of like 308s in a way, well the predecessor to the 308 and they were always considered like not Ferraris, right? They’re the Dino’s commemorated after Ferrari sun and all this kind of thing, but it’s sort of like, you know, they were the cheap Ferrari, but yeah, obviously they’ve climbed quite a bit in the market space.

Crew Chief Brad: There were 271 Dino, 246 GTs, both of them sold for over 300, 000 current market for a regular Dino. Not shares Dino is between three and five hundred thousand.

Crew Chief Eric: All right, 246, 308, or 328. What would you buy?

Executive Producer Tania: Which would I buy? Oh god, that’s hard. Shit, it would have to be between. Who am I kidding? It’s Magnum’s car.[01:28:00]

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, it’s the

Crew Chief Eric: 308. You know, I’m starting to walk away from the 308. I’ve kind of re engaged the 328. I got a chance to drive a 328 QV many, many years ago. After I saw that black one at eyes on design, I really liked that car. I liked the squarishness of it. And I think it’s underappreciated. Yeah, it’s heavier, but it’s got the bigger motor and all that kind of stuff.

But I kind of liked the 328 and the right color. It’s pretty cool.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, I wouldn’t give it away if someone gave it to me, right? But also Magnum’s car. Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Well,

Executive Producer Tania: yeah. Okay. All right.

Crew Chief Eric: How much are Tom Selleck’s butt cheeks worth?

Crew Chief Brad: Probably

Executive Producer Tania: a lot

Crew Chief Brad: more than 568, 000. Easily 10 times shares butt cheeks. How much is Tom Selleck’s facial hair worth?

The mustache ride. How much is that worth? Oh

Crew Chief Eric: my god. Next up in Rich People Things, and this is destined for our holiday shopping guide, have you all seen the new Nuvelari collection? It’s a line of apparel designed by Andres Graf [01:29:00] out of Europe. It’s commemorating the famous Formula One driver and Ferrari driver Tazio Nuvolari.

Kind of goes along with the Tazio magazine as well. I think the stuff that they have, it was really sharp. And actually, not really too rich people thangs. I think it’s pretty appropriately priced for what you’re getting. It does throw back to the old Tatsuya Nuvolari logos and using, you know, file footage and old photographs and things like that to get inspired from the way he dressed and bring that type of style forward into the 2024s.

So you’re talking like a hundred years. into the future, bringing Tazio Nuvolari back into the scene. I think this is going to be pretty cool, and it’s going to make a really interesting gift for people this coming holiday season.

Executive Producer Tania: Not bad.

Crew Chief Eric: I don’t have any thoughts about it. We have a link to it in the show notes, so you can check it out.

I

Executive Producer Tania: mean, it’s all primarily male centric, though, so

Crew Chief Brad: I’m looking at it, and I still don’t have any thoughts about it. I am not its target market. True.

Crew Chief Eric: But I will say now that [01:30:00] Lamar is over, check out the Lamar official store and you can get a lot of this year’s gear on sale. So you can clean up now that the race is over with.

If you’re an ACO member, especially an ACO USA member, you can get a pretty good discount anywhere between 15 to 25 percent off of the list price, even on top of things that are already on sale. So I was doing a little shopping myself the other day going, Hmm, I think I need some. It’s more Le Mans gear in my wardrobe.

So that’s something else to add to the list. And then if that’s not enough, I know it’s a little late for Father’s Day, but you know, we don’t celebrate anything in June. So if you go back to Garage Style Magazine, Don put together a list of Father’s Day items. You might’ve missed it. So check it out.

There’s something basically for you, for the car or for your garage. On the list. So check out the father’s day shopping guide over in garage style, and maybe use that also as some inspiration for your holiday shopping. If you’re like me and I like to shop early in the year and not wait till the last minute, all ideas are good [01:31:00] ideas.

Crew Chief Brad: I love where his head’s at. Anybody looking to get me a father’s day gift, please use the first one on here. The Mecham auction site and go and get me something from Mecham. That’s what I want for father’s day.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, guys, if that wasn’t enough. Would you like to buy a racetrack?

Executive Producer Tania: Would you like to buy a racetrack?

Crew Chief Eric: How about Willow Springs? A little far.

Executive Producer Tania: Who’s trying to build apartments here? What?

Crew Chief Eric: Willow Springs is the middle of nowhere. It’s where the dirt people live.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s boring to get rid of. Isn’t it iconic? It

Crew Chief Eric: is. It’s been around since the early 50s. It’s one of America’s quote unquote oldest racetracks. Older than that would be Watkins Glen and a few others.

But yeah, it’s been around forever. It’s iconic. You know, you look at Ford versus Ferrari, they filmed it at Willow Springs because races like that took place at Willow Springs where they were testing iconic cars like the GT 40 and things like that. So it is up for sale. Would you guys like to guess how much for millions, right?

I think it’s on the cheap side for an iconic historic racetrack. 5 million.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s too cheap.

Crew Chief Eric: 5 million. Let’s do this. Let’s get it [01:32:00] done. 75 million. A little too high there. So they are offering it up right now. You can own. Classic Willow Springs for the low, low bargain basement price of 30 million. That’s with an M 30 million.

That’s really not bad. Yeah. Let me just go ahead and dip into my coffers, sell your Volkswagen and it’s worth something because used car prices are still insane and you can buy Willow Springs. I would need to sell a few thousand. That’s a lot of shares, butt cheek, to buy Willow Springs.

Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: So it’s been family owned this whole time.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: Who’s gonna, I mean, I guess some rich person, maybe.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s why it’s rich people things, but granted, if you had the money or if you had a bunch of people to go in together to buy Willow Springs, I mean, it’s an active racetrack. Rick Newt, Le Mans legend, he coaches at Willow Springs. It’s not like it’s an inactive track, like it’s dead, like you’re buying lost speedways or something like that.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s Willow Springs. It can’t be [01:33:00] making money. They wouldn’t be selling it if it was making money. What big races do they have there?

Crew Chief Eric: Well, it’s not even that. It’s the other side of the argument, which is 62 years of family ownership. And if the family wants to get out, they just want to get out. Loss leader or moneymaker, it doesn’t matter if you’re done with it.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s true. But to me as an investor. I would need to see the financials and like how much money are you making on this racetrack for my 38 million dollars or whatever.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s gotta be a long payback term before you’ve gotten a return on your investment.

Crew Chief Eric: With the prices of HBEDs now, it’s like two seasons.

You’re done. Yeah, but nobody’s going. Hooked on driving will be there. Trust me.

Executive Producer Tania: Bad investment.

Crew Chief Eric: It is a bad investment, but it’s also, it’s Willow Springs. You could own a racetrack. Come on. Ah, you know, it is what it is. Rich people thangs. Let’s talk about not rich people thangs and go down south and talk about alligators and beer.[01:34:00]

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. Oh man, which one do we start with?

Crew Chief Eric: Florida man.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, maybe we should do a Florida sandwich, so we’ll go out of order.

Crew Chief Eric: What does that taste like? We’re about to find

Executive Producer Tania: out. We’re about to find out, so.

Crew Chief Eric: Beer and tears.

Executive Producer Tania: All right, so there’s a high speed chase in Florida. 100 mile an hour chase that this man sends the deputies on.

What do you think he was driving? You’ll be surprised. Altima.

Crew Chief Eric: Because we don’t open these. These are all reactions, right? I’m gonna say Chrysler Sebring convertible.

Executive Producer Tania: I’ll give you a hint. It’s not domestic, but it’s also not a JDM.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s not domestic, but it’s not a JDM.

Executive Producer Tania: Only

Crew Chief Eric: leaves you

Executive Producer Tania: with

Crew Chief Eric: Something German, right?

So, oh, 100 mile an hour. So it’s gotta be something with a little bit of engine in it.

Crew Chief Brad: Does he have turn signals?

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t think he used it when he made the [01:35:00] illegal U turn, probably, and sped past the deputy. I got

Crew Chief Eric: it. 1984 Mercedes 300

Crew Chief Brad: diesel. 1995 BMW 318 Ti. Oh, that’s a good choice.

Executive Producer Tania: We’re getting way too specific.

They didn’t go into that level of detail. Okay, it was German. It was a

Crew Chief Brad: BMW.

Executive Producer Tania: They did not specify other than it was a red one.

Crew Chief Brad: Is there a video? Let me see if there’s a video.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t think so. That’s like a compilation video of other stuff. But anyway, the man, he does this U turn, speeds past the cops, cops chase him.

He starts weaving in and out of traffic. He gets up to almost a hundred miles an hour. Da da da da. Hits a curb, goes into a dirt embankment, comes to a stop by a retention pond, gets out of the car because it’s Florida and that’s what you do, and you go swim into the retention pond to evade the police.

And then when the [01:36:00] police have set up a perimeter around a retention pond, He’s swimming back and forth. He’s going to outsmart. He’s going to go to one side and you know, the cops, they’re all going to run to that side. And while they’re running, he’s going to turn around and swim to the other side. And then they’ll have to run to the other side and then he’s going to stop and swim.

Yeah. Keystone cops. 20 minutes. He let him swim for 20 minutes. 20 minutes. To get him out of the pond.

Crew Chief Brad: If I was one of those police, I would have got out my track chair and just sat on the side of the pond. And we would just set up every five feet, a police officer sits there with his little chair. You get your beer, you sit there and watch this jabroni swimming around in this fucking gator infested pond.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, I was gonna say, was he swimming like that because the gators were chasing him? Like, little did they know he wasn’t trying to evade them. What’s really important about this story is, If you’re tuning into the drive through for the first time, which I don’t know where you’ve been, but every time you bring up a [01:37:00] story about Florida men evading the police, they either there’s a swap involved, there’s water involved, they’re disembarking from their aqua vehicle, and then they’re running naked off into somewhere.

Is this just like in the playbook for criminals? In Florida, like, I’m gonna abandon my vehicle and I’m gonna go swimming. It happens

Executive Producer Tania: more often than not. I don’t know what it is. Something about the water down there.

Crew Chief Eric: Gator

Crew Chief Brad: piss that they keep drinking when

Crew Chief Eric: they’re swimming.

Crew Chief Brad: He was charged with fleeing and eluding, reckless driving, resisting law enforcement without violence, leaving the scene of the crash.

I have an issue with leaving the scene of the crash. He didn’t technically leave the scene.

He was the scene. Putting in laps.

Crew Chief Eric: So what’s the meat in this sourdough Florida sandwich that we’ve created here? It looks like Michigan meat. Does this happen while I was there? This better not have happened while I was there.

Executive Producer Tania: No. And a bizarre story that the first time I read it, it like took me a couple of times because it was like, I’m about Michigan man, never had a driver’s license. He’s on a zoom court meeting, driving in a [01:38:00] car to get a driver’s license reinstated, but he doesn’t have a driver’s license or something ridiculous like that.

Then he’s like driving on a suspended license, but then not on a suspended license because he didn’t have a license. It was a weird story and now I’m rereading it and not finding it in the same way, but

Crew Chief Eric: Okay, all of that aside, when did we start going to court by Zoom?

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know, because that also is like, really?

Is that a COVID thing? How does that

Crew Chief Eric: work,

Executive Producer Tania: exactly?

Crew Chief Brad: I like how he had to spend two nights in jail. Did they put a computer in a jail cell?

He just can’t leave his seat? He’s just gonna sit there in like, virtual jail? This is the fucking Sims? What the hell’s going on

Crew Chief Eric: here? Oh my god, there’s multiple people on the Zoom, too. And he’s in the car. The whole time. Wow. So the bailiffs, like, all rise and then everybody in the house stands up.

Crew Chief Brad: Does he stand up in the car?

Crew Chief Eric: To make it a right turn into [01:39:00] the 7 Eleven.

Crew Chief Brad: Did he wave at the end of the Zoom call?

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, I mean, that’s the real point of the story is, like, how are you doing a traffic violation Zoom call?

Crew Chief Eric: It’s funny because I heard from somebody recently that said they got a speeding ticket down in Kentucky or Tennessee or something like that and they live like way far away and they’re like, the only way they want you to be there in person.

I’m being like, man, now you could do it over zoom, get it done. You don’t have to drive back down there and get your ticket taken care of and hire a lawyer to go in for you and all that stuff. Just do Zoom. Set it up. Get it done.

Executive Producer Tania: But then how does that work? Because like, isn’t like part of actually showing up in court is you hope that the officer doesn’t show up?

Because if the officer doesn’t

Crew Chief Eric: No! The

Executive Producer Tania: officer’s sitting at Dunkin Donuts with the laptop and the password, he just brings up Zoom. And so I’m saying like in the old days, the whole thing was like, Oh, I’m going to go into the I’m not going to pay. I’m going to go to the court thing because Yeah, because the

Crew Chief Eric: cop doesn’t have time to come.

Yeah. He doesn’t

Executive Producer Tania: show up and then it gets thrown out. But now he can just be [01:40:00] like, Like you said, driving down to the local whatever, you can just doot, doot, doot, zoom it in. Yeah, I’m here.

Crew Chief Eric: All jokes aside, that’s actually a scary reality. In some ways it’s a good thing, but in other ways, you’re not going to be able to beat the system if that was your intention.

But times are changing. They are changing. I never thought you’d be going to court over Zoom.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, man. Alright, let’s put the bread back on the other side of the sandwich. Put a

Crew Chief Eric: little mayonnaise, a little mustard on there too.

Executive Producer Tania: And let’s go back down to Florida. Florida man intentionally drove into a jail, dropped several rubber snakes on the ground.

That’s not it, okay? That’s not even it. That doesn’t even cover everything. You read it and you’re like, you know, oh, he wanted to threaten to kill everybody and all this stuff. And you’re like, whoa, this is getting dark and deep. Then you gotta layer on all the,

Crew Chief Eric: the Florida

Executive Producer Tania: condiments here, because he intentionally drives into the jail.

The rubber snakes thing, I don’t know. But he drops them. He also [01:41:00] pours motor oil on the lobby floor and wants to set it on fire.

Crew Chief Brad: And then he yelled,

Crew Chief Eric: oh, Doyle rules. Do you remember the scene in the transporter where he pours the oil and then he puts the bicycle cleats on his shoes and he is like round house kicking everybody.

That’s where that’s what he was trying to do.

Executive Producer Tania: So he is threatening everybody. Florida you may have already guessed it.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh boy.

Executive Producer Tania: He wasn’t wearing no pants And not that there’s anything wrong with this He was wearing a woman’s blouse. He was poo bearing it up in the jail.

Crew Chief Eric: You remember what I said You evade by leaving your, abandoning your vehicle and you strip down.

But in this case, there was no body of water involved. So he had to pour the oil to simulate the water evacuation.

Crew Chief Brad: And the snakes are the gators.

The

Crew Chief Eric: rubber snakes are the best part of this. [01:42:00] Wait a second. Wait a second. He’s not wearing any pants. Where did the snakes come from? They

Crew Chief Brad: weren’t trouser snakes.

Executive Producer Tania: But he pulled them out from somewhere and threw them on the ground. They must have been in the car.

Crew Chief Eric: Wasn’t there another story about a Florida man that was trying to dress as a woman and he got on a boat?

Executive Producer Tania: Yes. Yes. That might have been the last one. Where he disguised he had put the wig on and everything in a woman’s dress and he was stealing Yeah, yeah,

and he had the beard and the pit viper sunglasses. This must be his cousin Maybe it’s him

Crew Chief Brad: He’s got a book bag that says girl power

Crew Chief Eric: Wow, what a mess But he intentionally crashed into the jails.

It’s like Monopoly. Do not pass. Go do not collect 200 book. Um, Dana, Florida never disappoints.

Executive Producer Tania: See, there’s always that lull at the beginning of the year. Haven’t quite gotten out of hibernation mode yet, but it’s like when the heat starts coming and the swampiness starts, it’s like

Crew Chief Brad: the clothes start [01:43:00] coming off.

Well

Crew Chief Eric: guys, it’s time we go behind the pit wall and talk about motorsports news. Drama Llamas of Formula One, what’s going on? We had Montreal.

Executive Producer Tania: We had Monaco, which

Crew Chief Eric: Was super boring, oh my god.

Executive Producer Tania: We would not have covered that at the last drive thru because it would have been right after it. So we had Monaco, which was a parade lap yet again because the top 10 Drivers all finished in the same spots they started the race in, which means finally Ferrari, Charles Leclerc, gets a podium on number one.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s a hollow victory though, I’m gonna say that.

Executive Producer Tania: He still had to qualify for that position, so he outqualified everybody to get that.

Crew Chief Brad: Is he the first Monogasp? to win at Monaco. I

Executive Producer Tania: think so.

Crew Chief Brad: He was either the first or the first in like [01:44:00] a really long time.

Executive Producer Tania: So it was a pretty big deal for all of them. So good for him.

Carlos Sainz also ended in third. Piastri was second. So good for him.

Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: And then Verstappen was in sixth place. He was unable to do anything heroic and make any sort of passes.

Crew Chief Eric: Because his car is shite now that Adrian knew he’s gone.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, there is something to be said about that because no longer are there 20 second, 40 second gaps at any of these races between him and the next person.

The Canadian Grand Prix, this was a little bit bigger than when they were in Italy, which was less than a second between him and Lando Norris at the very end with Lando making huge moves to try to get into first, but didn’t make it. The Canadians. Under four seconds. I mean, that’s nothing when it used to be 40 seconds

Crew Chief Brad: when they were cheating, you mean balancer performance.

Executive Producer Tania: So that race saw a number of DNFs. I didn’t watch the race. So don’t even know exactly. Both Ferraris ended up out, both Williams ended up out Perez ended up [01:45:00] out. It rained, so I think maybe at least Charles perhaps got sent out on the wrong tires. I don’t know, at any rate.

Crew Chief Eric: Such is life in Formula One. More to come though, but then they go on break in August, right?

There’s like no racing in August, and then they’re back in the fall.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s like a triple header in Europe, so I think they go Spain, Austria, and then Silverstone. And then there’s a bit of a break, end of July, they’re in Hungary. And then once they’ve gone through Spa, then there’s kind of the month break before the next race.

Is that what

Crew Chief Eric: it is? I’m worked in Holland. Yeah. Well, we’ll keep up with all that stuff as we go along. I am still getting caught up on stuff. I talked about it a little bit the last time just to give you guys a pulse on what’s going on. There’s tons of action in this year, which is actually pretty cool.

And like I said before, it’s. When and not if TK wrecks. So I’m always looking forward to that at every stage. That said, we already covered WEC news IMSA this past weekend. If you’re listening to this on Tuesday, when it airs, [01:46:00] there was the Watkins Glen, Salem six hours, which is one of our favorite races to be at.

And there was also some activity in mid Ohio going on as well. And so lots of action in the IMSA world, lots more to come on the IMSA schedule, hoping to get out to an IMSA race this year. That isn’t just petite Lamar. That’s coming up in October, but in that same world, there is a sort of adjacent event to the 24 hours of Lamont.

There’s the last in person evening with a legend event, which is going to be blown away to that’s in San Diego on August the 24th. It’s going to be a three hour tour starting from the San Diego yacht club on the American. Because cup sailing yacht with a plated dinner and a chance to chat with legends of Lamar.

So if you check out the show notes, you can see all the details about that event and how you can register. There’s still plenty of seats at the table available for that event. I’m going to be there as the host for evening with the legend. It’s sort of appropriate that I’m there for an evening with a legend event.

And we actually added another Evening with a Legend guest at the last minute for [01:47:00] the month of June. You can sign up to come and listen to Rob Dyson, that’s team principal of Dyson Racing, and you might be familiar with the Dyson Porsches, who’s going to come on and tell about not only his personal attempt at Le Mans in 87, Behind the wheel of a Porsche 956, but all the subsequent returns that they’ve had with Dyson racing to Lamar over the last 40 years.

So really excited to be behind the mic with Rob Dyson. And then in August, we’ve locked in Andy Pilgrim. Who’s going to come back and talk about his times at Lamar behind the wheel of Corvettes and Porsches and other cars. He’s been on the Lamar podium many times great guy and great driver and we’ve had him on the show in the past.

So check out his previous episode and I’m not going to spoil some of the other guests that are coming on the rest of the year. But those two are coming up real soon here in the summer. So look forward to more information on the Evening with a Legend series. That said our Motorsports News is brought to us in partnership with the International Motor Racing Research Center coming up in September.

You can still buy tickets for the Cameron Argensinger [01:48:00] award for outstanding contributions for motor sports. This year, the honoree is Zach Brown. Yes, that Zach Brown, the CEO of McLaren formula one can still buy tickets to attend the event. So hop over to racing archives. org and click on store to purchase your seat at the table on September the 12th, November the 1st and 2nd.

Is the eighth annual Michael R. Argett Singer symposium on motorsports history. I’m looking forward to being there again this year with the team from the IMRRC live streaming the event. I believe we’re going to have 20 different speakers. I just got word of who the keynote speaker is going to be. So I’m looking forward to seeing them in the fall.

And I don’t want to spoil it just yet because it’s not public information. We’re still trying to nail down all those details, but the cast of characters. And conversations this year are going to be really, really good. I’m also looking forward to John Summers, the motoring historian presenting at the Argus Singer Symposium again this year.

So catch up with all of his episodes on the motoring podcast network. So lots of good things to come yet this [01:49:00] season. And as a

Crew Chief Brad: reminder, you can find tons of upcoming local shows and events at the ultimate reference for car enthusiasts, CollectorCarGuide. net.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s right. The track season is not over yet, and HPTJunkie.

com is your source. For track day, high performance drivers, education, and high performance drivers, clinic events all over North America to include the U S and Canada, you can filter by location and find the perfect HPD event for you. And be sure to keep an eye out on our motor sports calendar, which we’ve actually updated.

We have a more robust motor sports calendar now. At the GTM clubhouse. So check out club. gt motorsports. org forward slash events to learn about all sorts of things going on in our area and beyond in the motor sports world. And we still are maintaining a separate motor sports calendar for big, big national events.

At gtmotorsports. org as well. So sort of splitting up regional versus national between the two sites, lots of great information between both [01:50:00] websites. And remember, we’re also keeping track of other special events and happenings in various different disciplines of motorsport, but on our main calendar, we’re also going to be linking out to concourse.

We’re going to be linking out to other events like that, that are available through our partners at gtmotorsports. org.

Executive Producer Tania: We just crested 355 episodes of Brake Fix while you’ve been listening to this episode. But more importantly, we’ve expanded our catalog as part of our new motoring podcast network, where you can enjoy programs like The Ferrari Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Evening with a Legend, The History of Motorsports Series, Brake Fix, and others.

Search for Brake Slash Fix or Grand No D touring everywhere you download, stream, or listen. And be sure to check out www. motoringpodcast. net For reviews of the show’s new episodes, bios of our on air personalities, and descriptions of the services we offer.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, we’ve got some special announcements as we close out this episode.

Rocks and Revs, which is the newest automotive festival in the country, put on by our friend William Big [01:51:00] Money Ross at Exotic Car Marketplace, is kicking off in November. July 28th weekend in Cleveland. If you are in the Cleveland or in the tri state area there between Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and you want to come out and show off your car and be part of the automotive festival, rocks and revs, cleveland.

com that’s rock in revs. So R O C K N R E B S Cleveland. com for more details. Not only that, guys, I mentioned it earlier. Next year is a big year. Let’s start thinking about Le Mans Classic 2025 because the Le Mans Classic does not run every year. It’s like the Olympics, which are going on this year in France.

It only comes every so many years. So next year, 2025, 4th of July, week and weekend, Le Mans Classic. Let’s go!

Crew Chief Brad: Did you know you can sign up for our Patreon for free? Lots of great extras and bonuses, even on the free tier. But if you’d like to become a break fix VIP, jump over to www. patreon. [01:52:00] com slash GT motor sports and learn about our different tiers.

Join our discord or become a member of the GTM clubhouse by signing up at club. gtmotorsports. org. Drop us a line on social media or visit our Facebook group and leave us a comment. Tell us what you like, dislike, and send us ideas for future shows.

Executive Producer Tania: And remember for everything we talked about on this episode and more, be sure to check out the follow on article and show notes available at gtmotorsports.

org.

Crew Chief Brad: And as always, thank you to our co host and executive producer, Tanya, and to all the fans, friends, and family who support GTM and the Motoring Podcast Network. Without you, none of this would be possible. Outro.

Crew Chief Eric: And on this episode of The Drive Thru, No one says a word. Welcome to the quiet place.

Crew Chief Brad: I feel like that would be a good NPR episode.

Welcome to the drive through.

Crew Chief Eric: Would it be any less boring than some of the NPR episodes? I mean, if they just 45 minutes of silence,

Crew Chief Brad: we need a break, fix NPR tiny [01:53:00] desk moment.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, that’d be pretty good. Who would be our musical guest?

Crew Chief Brad: Well, I mean, I think it would be us. I play saxophone and sing in the shower.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, I was expecting like, I don’t know, Gwen Stefani or Dua Lipa or, so gotta be somebody, right?

Crew Chief Brad: I’ll just call up Dua Lipa on my Nextel and say, Hey, yo, we need you on the show. Is she your five

Crew Chief Eric: now that you switched to T-Mobile?

Crew Chief Brad: She, she, she, she’s in my five now that I’ve switched to T-Mobile. She’s in my five.

Crew Chief Eric: Charles Barkley is always the first one in the five,

Crew Chief Brad: not that Iggy Hoe .

And on that bombshell. We did it! We done did it! Yee haw!

There’s some idiot in a white sun behind me, I lean out the window and scream, Hey, what you trying to do, blind me? My wife says maybe we should[01:54:00]

Crew Chief Eric: We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports. If you’d like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure to follow us on all social media platforms at GrandTouringMotorsports. And if you’d like to learn more about the content of this episode, be sure to check out the follow on article at GTMotorsports.

org. We remain a commercial free and no annual fees organization through our sponsors, but also through the generous support of our fans, families, and friends through Patreon. For as little as 2. 50 a month, you can get access to more behind the scenes action, additional Pit Stop minisodes, and other VIP goodies, as well as keeping our team of creators Fed on their strict diet of fig Newtons, gummy bears, and monster.

So consider signing up for Patreon today at www. patreon. com forward slash GT motorsports, and remember without you, none of this would be [01:55:00] possible.

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Introduction and Sponsorships
• 01:21 Cybertruck First Impressions
• 10:52 Le Mans 24 Hours Recap
• 21:35 Detroit Adventures and Blind Logic Premiere
• 26:41 Cadillac Celestiq and EV Market Trends
• 38:24 GTI Club Sport: Is It Worth It?
• 40:58 The Hybrid 911: A Purist’s Nightmare?
• 44:23 Stellantis Surprises: Fiat 500 and Wagoneer S
• 47:40 Ford vs. Chevy: The Hybrid Debate
• 51:56 The Maverick: A Perfect Fit for Small Deliveries?
• 54:36 The Supra’s Farewell: A Missed Opportunity?
• 58:09 Renault’s EV Revival: Twingo and Alpine
• 01:02:23 The Color Conundrum: Car Colors on the Decline
• 01:07:24 Fisker’s Bankruptcy: The End of the Ocean?
• 01:09:22 Lost and Found: Volkswagen’s Secret VR6
• 01:17:36 Elon’s Moon Trip and Tesla’s Business Model
• 01:18:55 Tesla Roadster and Cybertruck Delays
• 01:19:39 Cybertruck Wiper Blade Issues
• 01:21:04 Tesla vs. F-150 Lightning Drag Race
• 01:22:09 Whistlin Diesel and the Cybertruck
• 01:25:42 Cher’s Ferrari Auction
• 01:31:13 Rich People Things: Buying Willow Springs
• 01:33:51 Florida Man Adventures
• 01:43:06 Motorsports News and Events
• 01:50:49 Closing Announcements and Special Mentions