Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Drive Thru News #70 - Vidi, Vino, Volo!
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to Brake Fix's Drive Thru News, your monthly recap for everything fast,
- 0:04fascinating, and usually four-wheeled.
- 0:06We're serving up a fresh batch of automotive headlines, motorsports madness,
- 0:10and car-adjacent curiosities, all with zero wait time and maximum flavor.
- 0:15From Formula 1 drama to concept car debuts, with garage-built legends to
- 0:19the quirkiest stories rolling out of the state of Florida, we've got your fix.
- 0:22So grab your coffee, buckle up, and let's cruise through the latest in the world
- 0:26of wheels with a side of entertainment and just a dash of tire smoke
- 0:33What's up, Bradley?
- 0:35Oh, you know, just dealing with pink eye, having my kids having pink eye.
- 0:41Wait, your eye is pink?
- 0:43Yes.
- 0:44One of them.
- 0:45I can't tell.
- 0:46It must be the quality of our cameras.
- 0:48They're just not that good.
- 0:49Hm.
- 0:50Just don't look too deeply.
- 0:54I'm a good, I'm a good, like, foot and a half, two feet from my
- 0:57camera, so it works out that way.
- 0:58There you go.
- 0:59What, uh, what, what do they say about a ba- uh, like some paint
- 1:02jobs are like a five-foot paint job?
- 1:04The paint job on my station wagon is like a 25-yard paint job at this point.
- 1:08Hm.
- 1:09That's okay.
- 1:10The paint job on the Beetle is a doggy style paint job.
- 1:12It only looks good from behind.
- 1:14Have you seen those products on Instagram where you can pour some Mervin's magical
- 1:21mystery oil on there, and suddenly all your clear coat problems will go away?
- 1:25The one where you're just wiping something on it, and suddenly
- 1:28all the scratches are gone?
- 1:29Yeah, yeah.
- 1:30There's that one.
- 1:31You know, that's sort of like the … What was that stuff in the '80s, New Finish?
- 1:34Remember the guy would go to the junkyard and he would just start buffing a car?
- 1:37I'm like, "Come on, man." Like, really?
- 1:39I don't think I've seen that.
- 1:41They still sell that, I thought.
- 1:42Oh, yeah, yeah.
- 1:43I saw one today where a guy was like, I don't know what he was doing.
- 1:47He wasn't really sanding the car, but he had that same
- 1:50clear coat peel that you had.
- 1:52It was on a Mercedes, one of those, like, cinnamon colored Mercedes.
- 1:55He does all this rubbed up scrub thing, and then he pours on two
- 1:59bottles of, I don't know what it was.
- 2:01It was magic in a, in a vial, one on one side, one on the other.
- 2:05Maybe it was some J-B Weld or UV sealant or something.
- 2:08Anyway, next thing you know, they must have driven in another car, 'cause
- 2:11you're like, "Wow, that is not the same paint that I saw five minutes ago as we
- 2:16accelerated that five-month process that it took you to get that car repainted."
- 2:19It sounds to me like that spray that they used to sell late at night for bald men.
- 2:26And you basically just painted your bald spot whatever your hair
- 2:29color was, and poof, it's gone.
- 2:31No more bald spot.
- 2:32That's the same thing that, um, Trade and Paints guy, John Travolta
- 2:36got hair out of a can, remember?
- 2:38It was literally just spray paint.
- 2:40Well, we should probably get serious and start talking about
- 2:43drive-through news kind of stuff.
- 2:45You know, we talked about it the last bunch of episodes that we
- 2:48were gonna go to the Midwest.
- 2:49We were gonna be in South Bend, Indiana for Automotive History Live.
- 2:53Well, we went a little bit further than that.
- 2:55We went to the great state of Wisconsin.
- 2:59We put over 2,000 miles on my wife's space shuttle.
- 3:02That's why it's throwing an engine code.
- 3:04Uh, yeah, right?
- 3:08It did not like that at all.
- 3:10You surpassed its, uh, useful life.
- 3:12I mean, it's a Chrysler product, so what can you say?
- 3:14Yeah.
- 3:15I'd never been to Wisconsin.
- 3:17It was one of the few states I have not visited in the United States.
- 3:20And I have to say I was left going, "Huh, looks exactly like everything I've ever
- 3:26seen on TV or on the postcards." It's like, here's a farm, barn and a silo.
- 3:31Here's a whole bunch of green for a bunch of miles, and here's another barn
- 3:35and a silo and a bunch of green, and a barn and a silo and a bunch of green.
- 3:38It's very flat.
- 3:39It's very much dairy land.
- 3:41I mean, obviously until you get up to, like, the northwest corner- You
- 3:45get closer to Minnesota or whatever, and you start to get into the Canadian
- 3:48shelf and all that kind of stuff.
- 3:50It's really flat.
- 3:51It's very green.
- 3:52It put into perspective what Road America must be like.
- 3:55I haven't been yet.
- 3:56It's on my bucket list.
- 3:57That's, that's what I was gonna ask, like, did you get a
- 3:59chance to stop by Road America?
- 4:00I wanted to.
- 4:02And then the last turn and then the, the straight, the start and finish-
- 4:04It's uphill … that giant hill.
- 4:06Exactly.
- 4:07I was like, "There is some elevation in Wisconsin." It's all at Road America.
- 4:12Yeah.
- 4:13We made it all the way to Madison, so the capital of Wisconsin, so that was cool.
- 4:17Their capitol building is beautiful.
- 4:19It's sort of like a miniature version of the Capitol Building
- 4:21in DC, but you can go inside.
- 4:23You can go all the way up in the cupola and all this kind of thing.
- 4:25It's very, very cool.
- 4:26Neat little city.
- 4:27I mean, most of the city is the University of Wisconsin, so, you
- 4:30know, neither here nor there.
- 4:31We didn't get to Milwaukee.
- 4:33We didn't get to Green Bay, you know, some of the other bigger cities.
- 4:35We had a bigger loop that we were doing Chicago and… Have
- 4:38you been to Wisconsin, Tanya?
- 4:40No.
- 4:41We've not
- 4:41had any interest in going to Wisconsin.
- 4:43Sure, why not?
- 4:46We'll get some cheese.
- 4:47We went to the place that apparently is rated the original best place
- 4:51to get Wisconsin cheese curds.
- 4:53They live up to the hype.
- 4:54It is the cheesiest.
- 4:55And then I sort of got burnt out on cheese curds, 'cause everybody has them.
- 4:59I'm sure they do.
- 5:00So then you're sort of like, do you compare them?
- 5:02Like, do you keep eating cheese curds until you're saturated and you can't…
- 5:06I don't wanna see another cheese curd.
- 5:08'Til your intestines clog.
- 5:10I've really only had cheese curds at Buffalo Wild Wings.
- 5:13Are they really that much better in Wisconsin?
- 5:16Yeah, they are, they are the cheesiest, just like the commercials say.
- 5:18They are the cheesiest.
- 5:20So continuing on our way back, we closed the loop on an episode
- 5:26that we had recorded four years ago, season two of BreakFix.
- 5:30We hooked up with Jim Woidilla from Volo, and he gave us a virtual
- 5:35tour of the museum because it was during COVID and they were under
- 5:38construction and a bunch of other stuff.
- 5:40Next time I'm out that way I'll do it.
- 5:41How far is it from Chicago?
- 5:4245 minutes to an hour, depending on how you drive.
- 5:45It's not really out of the way.
- 5:46For us it was just a slight detour, 'cause it's the way we were, we were
- 5:50headed anyway, so it didn't really matter.
- 5:52Oh, it's north of Chicago.
- 5:53It's like northwest.
- 5:53Okay, northwest.
- 5:55Okay.
- 5:56Yeah.
- 5:56Because it wasn't that big of a detour as we were, you know, on our way through
- 6:01Chicago both ways, we were like, "Let's stop off at Volo and go check it out."
- 6:05And the weather wasn't too great.
- 6:07It was kinda rainy anyway, so we're like, "What's a day at a car museum,
- 6:10right?" My kids are dragging their heels.
- 6:11They're like, "Ugh, ugh." Of course.
- 6:15"We're bored." Ugh.
- 6:16Yeah.
- 6:16Whatever.
- 6:17I wrote an article about it.
- 6:18It's on the club website.
- 6:19But I wanted to share some pictures with you guys if you
- 6:21hadn't had a chance to see it yet.
- 6:24This is why I say all of a sudden we walk in the door and their
- 6:28attitudes changed completely.
- 6:31Wow.
- 6:32Huge Batman diorama as soon as you come in.
- 6:36'89 Keaton Batmobile and the Batcycle and the sidecar, and you keep going
- 6:40around and there's more stuff, and the life-size Joker, and the Joker mo- it,
- 6:44like, is absolutely bonkers awesome.
- 6:47This place is unlike any other museum I have ever been to.
- 6:52So check this out.
- 6:53This is as soon as you come in you see Batman.
- 6:56So you can see down here you've got the Transformers Camaro in the back.
- 7:00That's Eleanor.
- 7:01Here's the Falcon XB GT from Mad Max with a wax recreation of Mel Gibson.
- 7:08It doesn't really look like Mel Gibson.
- 7:09I think it's too tall.
- 7:11Isn't he, like, four feet tall?
- 7:12But the Falcon is so, that is a mean looking car.
- 7:16I love that thing.
- 7:17I fell in love with that as a kid.
- 7:19I think it's absolutely amazing.
- 7:20So check this out.
- 7:21So we got the Interceptor from Mad Max.
- 7:23You can also see the Michael Andretti Indy car over there, which my daughter sat in.
- 7:27You can actually, the kids can climb inside that and take
- 7:29pictures and stuff like that.
- 7:31Whoa.
- 7:31Here's one of the Ferraris from Ford versus Ferrari with the sister car
- 7:36to Max Kaiserman's GT40 that was at Simeone back for the Le Mans event.
- 7:41So they, it has its own room.
- 7:42It's all Ford versus Ferrari stuff.
- 7:44I thought this was super cool, although the cutouts are a little weird.
- 7:47Check this out.
- 7:51'66 Lincoln Futura Batmobile signed by George Barris.
- 7:56This is a legit Batmobile, and it is a, it's monstrously big.
- 8:00It is absolutely huge, but it's also awesome.
- 8:02And the bat computer in the background, that William Shakespeare head thing
- 8:06that they would pop open to go into the bat cave, that's legitimate.
- 8:09That's from the show.
- 8:10There's like all these props and stuff like all over the
- 8:12place with all these dioramas.
- 8:13Look at this.
- 8:14Look at this.
- 8:15Hot Pursuit Jump Mode Kit.
- 8:19Knight Industries 2000 from Knight Rider.
- 8:22Wow.
- 8:22Yeah, th- I mean, this stuff, this stuff is awesome, right?
- 8:25One of the coolest things, we're at Volo, and they don't do this all the time.
- 8:29I don't know if you guys heard about this.
- 8:31They have the world's fastest outhouse.
- 8:34You seen the videos of this thing?
- 8:36It's posted in the article about the Volo Museum trip.
- 8:38My wife took a video of it.
- 8:39I'm not gonna play it here.
- 8:40I'm just gonna show you picture of this rocket powered toilet.
- 8:44Look at this thing.
- 8:45I feel like I've seen something like that on the mountain.
- 8:49Too many ques- too many questions here.
- 8:52Yeah, but it's a square body on fire at the mountain.
- 8:55You know what I'm saying?
- 8:56And that's a square body practically on fire, too.
- 8:58You like that?
- 8:59Yeah.
- 8:59In s- instead of emptying the tank when it's full, they just burn it.
- 9:05It's an incinerator toilet.
- 9:06That's what this is.
- 9:07Yep, exactly.
- 9:09Hilarious part is Jess took the video in like three pieces, and
- 9:12the third part, unfortunately, I, I couldn't stitch it back in.
- 9:15It wasn't that great, 'cause she kind of almost dropped her
- 9:17camera as she was doing it.
- 9:18She was trying to get closer, 'cause there was a guy at the fence.
- 9:21I don't know where he got it or where he was hiding it.
- 9:24He literally busted out this telescoping forked marshmallow thing, and he's, he
- 9:29was holding marshmallows out trying to roast them in, as the flame was going.
- 9:33But I mean, this thing shot flames well beyond the edge of the picture.
- 9:36It was bonkers.
- 9:37Absolutely nuts.
- 9:39Absolutely.
- 9:39It seems unnecessary.
- 9:42But awesome at the same time.
- 9:44Like, come on.
- 9:45Is it, though?
- 9:46I think it is.
- 9:48I think it is.
- 9:49I thought overall the experience was pretty cool.
- 9:52Now, they have buildings full of cars, like muscle cars and
- 9:55classic cars that are for sale.
- 9:57They've got three different antique malls.
- 9:59They've got a dinosaur park.
- 10:00They've got a Titanic exhibit full of cars from like 1912 that were on the
- 10:04ship or cousins of the ones that were on the ship, you know, the same era,
- 10:08same model, all that kind of thing.
- 10:10They've got the train from Inception.
- 10:12They've got the train from Wild Wild West with Will Smith and Kevin Kline.
- 10:16They've got an RV museum in there going back to like 1920s, like campers.
- 10:22They've got a tractor museum.
- 10:25They've got a Coney Island- carousel inside of a building and it still
- 10:29works, with, like, all the penny arcades and all that ki- it's super cool.
- 10:33So it's very eclectic, it's very different, it's very interactive,
- 10:36like, and it's very family-friendly.
- 10:38So highly recommend if you happen to be in that neck of the woods or if
- 10:42you're listening to this and you're in the Chicago area and you've never
- 10:45been to Volo, I mean, it's, like, 45 minutes outside of downtown Chicago.
- 10:48It's like why not go, check it out, see some of the superstars from TV
- 10:52and movies and all that kind of thing.
- 10:54I think it's super cool.
- 10:55It's, uh, well worth the trip.
- 10:56Good to know.
- 10:57Yeah, very much so.
- 10:58All right.
- 10:59Let's talk about South Bend, Indiana, another place I've never been.
- 11:03It's a cute little town, also a college town.
- 11:06Notre Dame is right there.
- 11:07There's a lot of history, especially in the automotive industry.
- 11:10It's like a mini Detroit, right?
- 11:11You had Studebaker there and you had other companies, that some of them still
- 11:15survive to this day, that augment and supplement Detroit's automotive industry.
- 11:19And it's not that far from Michigan, to be honest with you.
- 11:22It's in that upper, upper, upper part of Indiana.
- 11:24So cute little town, very welcoming.
- 11:26Everybody's super nice.
- 11:27The weather was good.
- 11:28The concours was beautiful.
- 11:29You know, they did the Concours of Lemons and they also did
- 11:32the big fancy concours as well.
- 11:34But I wanted to point out, Concours of Lemons, you know, we have a lemons car.
- 11:38We're gonna talk about that as we go along.
- 11:40Yeah, we do.
- 11:40This must be a lemons thing with Ford Focuses.
- 11:43Check this out.
- 11:44Does this look familiar to anybody?
- 11:48They didn't put a bandaid on there They didn't put a bandaid on it.
- 11:50We put a bandaid on ours.
- 11:51It's much cuter.
- 11:52But so holding the car together, we have the same thing on our
- 11:55Focus that we had to do to hold the rear bumper onto the fender.
- 11:58Well, I was like, man, if this car was at Concours d'Lemons, we could
- 12:01have certainly taken ours there.
- 12:03I mean, it doesn't run anyway, so might as well, you could just park it there.
- 12:05It'd be great.
- 12:06Perfect.
- 12:07So anyway, Automotive History Live, how can I sum it up?
- 12:10I think I'll just sum it up by saying this, my favorite picture.
- 12:15Tanya, you watched some of it.
- 12:16What did you think?
- 12:17I watched some of it.
- 12:20I watched, watched it on mute.
- 12:23Ah, geez.
- 12:24Unfortunately, I had a busy day at work, but I was working from home, so
- 12:28in between meetings I tried to catch a couple minutes here and there, but
- 12:31it seemed like it was a nice event, a little differently organized.
- 12:35Was this you?
- 12:36Was this you?
- 12:36That was, uh, indicative of maybe how it really was.
- 12:44Still my favorite.
- 12:45Shout out to Bob Casey.
- 12:46It wasn't boring at all.
- 12:47It was actually a lot of fun.
- 12:49I think the keynote speaker, if you haven't heard of him
- 12:51before, we had Tom Cotter.
- 12:52He presented twice.
- 12:53He presented both days.
- 12:55Now got absorbed by Hagerty.
- 12:56He's the Barne fine guy.
- 12:58He goes all over the country looking for cars.
- 13:01He drove across the United States with Coleman, who
- 13:05lives outside of Summit Point.
- 13:06Well, he, remember that Model T that would run around Summit Point, the yellow one?
- 13:10And you're just like, "Oh, it's all chitty chitty bang bang," and
- 13:13whatever, and you c- you show up in the paddock one day, an older guy.
- 13:16They took that car cross country following the Lincoln Highway, and it took 'em like,
- 13:20I don't know, 17 or 20 days or something like that, and he wrote a book about it.
- 13:24So that was super cool, and he's done some other cross-country
- 13:26trips and all this kind of stuff.
- 13:28So Tom Cotter was a super interesting guy.
- 13:30And then, you know, all the other speakers that were there talking about stuff.
- 13:33But then, as promised, we delivered.
- 13:36We were on stage, the whole Bianco Speciale thing.
- 13:38I think it went over really well.
- 13:40Our slide deck was very visually appealing, we were told.
- 13:45Very picture heavy.
- 13:46The car's gorgeous, too.
- 13:47But one of the other things William surprised us with when we were there, and
- 13:51now I am the proud owner of one of these, I, too, can say I own a Bianco Speciale
- 13:55because did you know Hot Wheels put them out in their vintage racing series?
- 14:01Look at that.
- 14:01Right.
- 14:02So I haven't been able to find these anywhere.
- 14:04They were teased that they were gonna be made, and these are very specific
- 14:08to the car that we were talking about.
- 14:10What does William do?
- 14:11He buys up as many of these as he can.
- 14:13I think he found like 35 or 37 of them, and then gave 'em all away.
- 14:18It was like the coolest thing.
- 14:19So people are like, "What?" I'm like, "Yeah, you're not gonna see these anywhere
- 14:22bec- I don't know how he got ahold of 'em.
- 14:24I don't know who he called or what deal he made, but it was super cool.
- 14:27So I'm, I'm really excited to have one of these.
- 14:28So Brad, if you spot one, you better nab one of these.
- 14:32Well, good, good, good luck, I guess.
- 14:36And I will say, I posted a link in the show notes to all of the
- 14:39presentations, so if you didn't get a chance to listen to it the first time
- 14:42around, or if you're like Tanya and the signal dropped midway through some
- 14:45of the presentations, don't know why, uh, you can watch the fully recorded
- 14:49versions up on our YouTube channel.
- 14:51You can actually access it from our YouTube, the Society of
- 14:53Automotive Historians YouTube, or Studebaker National Museum.
- 14:56It's been simulcast across all of them, so you can get access to those files.
- 15:01All right.
- 15:02Let's talk about the Focus a little bit, shall we?
- 15:04'Cause I … You know, we don't ha- we don't wanna wait
- 15:05till the end of the episode.
- 15:06Everybody's been waiting to, you know, what's been going on with the car?
- 15:09Obviously, we know the car is dead.
- 15:11So before we went on our Midwest tour, the wiring harness that took weeks and weeks
- 15:16and weeks to find for the Focus actually showed up, like, right before we left.
- 15:19So a lot of people were bugging me, "Hey, did you get it done?
- 15:22Did you get it done?" And I'm like, "No, because I haven't been home, so I
- 15:26will work on it as soon as I get back." That's exactly what we did, right, Tanya?
- 15:30Yes.
- 15:31And how was the experience?
- 15:32Did it live up to the YouTube video that you found?
- 15:35Yes, it did.
- 15:37It was as simple.
- 15:38It's amazing the amount of thought they put into making that
- 15:42part of it really, really easy.
- 15:43Everything lays on top of the engine.
- 15:45Yeah, I mean, unlike other manufacturers, where it would've been a spaghetti
- 15:50western mess or tied together and running behind really difficult places and you
- 15:55gotta disassemble half the front of the motor to fish it out, there really
- 15:59was nothing other than taking the air box out, which is, like, two bolts.
- 16:04Nothing in the way.
- 16:04It was very simple.
- 16:06And the result was?
- 16:07Car's still not running, but-
- 16:12Now,
- 16:15the result was that wiring harness coupled with our new ECU- 'Cause the old
- 16:20one doesn't work … because the old one definitely is dead and does not function.
- 16:28So we, we slowly started ticking off one issue at a time.
- 16:33So now we have an electrically functioning car.
- 16:37It starts up, it idles.
- 16:38Although it idled poorly at first.
- 16:42Yes.
- 16:42Yes.
- 16:43And then we had some weird battery gremlins that were making it flash and
- 16:47do weird things, but we fixed that.
- 16:49Uh-huh.
- 16:49'Cause you re-grounded it, but then then we were still having battery issues,
- 16:53and then we think we realized the battery actually had a internal issue,
- 16:57'cause we put a different battery in.
- 16:59It was basically brand new, and everything was gold.
- 17:01Thank you, Brad.
- 17:03Thank you, Brad.
- 17:05Pumpkin spice, the donor vibes.
- 17:07But I took it for, quote, "the test drive" up and down the street, and you might
- 17:13have out-accelerated it on a bicycle.
- 17:17I mean, it goes, but it goes slowly.
- 17:20And it doesn't go past 5,000 RPM.
- 17:23At best.
- 17:24At best.
- 17:25Because from your house to two houses down, completely floored,
- 17:29it took, like- Forever … those two, three houses to get to 4,000
- 17:37RPM.
- 17:37Oh.
- 17:37In first gear.
- 17:40Terrible.
- 17:41Terrible.
- 17:41Terrible.
- 17:42Needless to say, hmm, I think there's still a problem here.
- 17:46Y- you think?
- 17:47Let's read some codes.
- 17:50So we discovered it's, what's holding it back at the moment from learning
- 17:54the throttle Is that it's a Ford.
- 17:56Well, there's that.
- 17:57Found on Road Dead, right?
- 17:59Well, we are fixing and repairing it daily right now.
- 18:01We, we are.
- 18:02It's, yes, we 100% are.
- 18:06It's all emissions stuff that's getting in our way.
- 18:08If we could get rid of the emissions stuff, 'cause the car's not road legal
- 18:11anymore anyway, it would run fine.
- 18:13But we can't, because it's completely integrated into the system.
- 18:17And what Ford has done, unlike the German stuff that we're accustomed to, if
- 18:21anything in that chain fails, it has no redundancy where it'll continue to run.
- 18:29The car literally turns into a brick.
- 18:31I'm surprised we don't drive down the road and just see shoals of Ford Focuses
- 18:37lining the shoulders and the medians.
- 18:40No.
- 18:40No.
- 18:41When was the last time you saw a Ford Focus on the road?
- 18:44'Cause they're all dead.
- 18:45Exactly.
- 18:46It's unreal.
- 18:47These gen threes have… Like, and then every time we turn around, "Well,
- 18:50this is a known fail part on these models. Oh, this is a known fail
- 18:54part on… Oh, and this one had a recall." Like, oh great, wonderful.
- 18:58Like, everything's wrong with these gen threes.
- 19:01Needless to say, as we were going through the wiring, things got better, and
- 19:05we're like, "Oh." So suddenly the error became very much more clear what it was.
- 19:09It's emissions-related.
- 19:10We thought it was this emissions purge solenoid thing at the
- 19:13engine, and we looked at it.
- 19:15It had the original date of July of 2015 when the car was built, so we're like,
- 19:19"Oh man, that's got 237,000 miles on it and it's just giving up the ghost." So we
- 19:25order a new one on Amazon, because that's where you order car parts these days,
- 19:29'cause you can't find them anywhere else.
- 19:30Put the part on.
- 19:31It was like a five-minute fix, and the car idles, like, beautifully.
- 19:36All the problems it had with idle and stuff, gone, right Tanya?
- 19:39Yes.
- 19:41For how long?
- 19:42Still not accelerating.
- 19:44It throw an engine code.
- 19:46Goes into limp mode.
- 19:47And if you try too hard, then the pedal just dies.
- 19:50So here we are.
- 19:51We're literally rewinding the clock to Memorial Day.
- 19:54We're like, "Oh, shit, we're back in the same boat we were in, like, two
- 19:59months ago, and what do we do now?"
- 20:01We've replaced the pedal cluster, the throttle body, the
- 20:04engine loom, this EVAP thing.
- 20:07ECU.
- 20:07The ECU's new.
- 20:08Like, what is there left to change?
- 20:11Turns out, what, what is there left to change that we haven't changed yet,
- 20:15Tanya, other than the mass airflow?
- 20:17The car.
- 20:18Two other emission sensors.
- 20:21Uh-huh.
- 20:21And where's the other one located that's connected to the ECU?
- 20:24Well, they both are, according to that- Uh-huh … that wiring diagram.
- 20:28Uh-huh, uh-huh.
- 20:28The one, I have no idea where it is, because I've yet to find out
- 20:31where this charcoal canister is.
- 20:33Uh-huh.
- 20:33The other one is on the fuel tank.
- 20:36Uh, oh, yeah.
- 20:37But there is, unlike German cars, or at least Volkswagens, or at least Volkswagens
- 20:42of certain eras, there's no access panel from inside the car to the fuel tank,
- 20:48so we have to drop the fuel tank- Yep
- 20:50to be able to find the sensor.
- 20:51But- According to a 54-second YouTube video, it's three bolts and that's it.
- 20:57Three screws.
- 20:58This is the scary part about this car.
- 21:00When you realize how it's assembled, you're like, "Wow, that's super easy."
- 21:04And then you take a breath, and you go, "Wow, it's a piece of crap."
- 21:08Like, it's held together by nothing, like Scotch tape, and, like, push
- 21:12pins is what holds this car together.
- 21:15Talk about penny-pinching auto manufacturers.
- 21:17Hey, but it's actually easy to work on.
- 21:20It is.
- 21:21But the stuff that's breaking shouldn't break.
- 21:24I got 25-year-old emission stuff on VWs that still works, but you
- 21:29can also delete it after a certain point, so it's like, who cares?
- 21:34The next step, to Tanya's point, we have to drop the fuel tank.
- 21:37It would be nice to read a part number off of it so we know what we're ordering.
- 21:40And why is that?
- 21:41Why is that exactly?
- 21:43Because no two Focuses are… The same, apparently.
- 21:47I have no idea.
- 21:48'Cause some things say they have this charcoal canister, and other things say
- 21:51they don't have the charcoal canister.
- 21:53I have yet to see it.
- 21:54Maybe it's hidden somewhere we haven't seen.
- 21:57I don't know.
- 21:58Even that solenoid in the front, Brad, I kid you not, there was, like, 12
- 22:02different part numbers for it, and it was, like, different variations.
- 22:05S- so we, thinking about the fuel tank stuff or whatever, and the, the, you
- 22:10need the part and everything, we ran into that with Pumpkin Spice, where
- 22:14it was like, does it have the plastic O-ring or does it have the metal- Yeah
- 22:17O-ring?
- 22:17Like, which one do you get?
- 22:18You gotta take it apart to know.
- 22:20But at least you could get to it from inside the car.
- 22:22Yes.
- 22:22And Volkswagen's notorious for a midyear split.
- 22:25Like, we're all- Yeah … sort of used to that.
- 22:27We're like, "Well, were you built in the early part of 2001 or the late part
- 22:30of 2001? 'Cause, you know, they decided to change this, that, and the other."
- 22:33This is just like, well, if it was built in Canada, they put it together this
- 22:37way, and if it was built in Mexico, it was built upside down and sideways,
- 22:41and half the stuff's in the front and the other stuff's in the back.
- 22:43And those Gen 3s, there's, like, three different front ends.
- 22:47The motor can be oriented differently in the sense that the intake can be
- 22:51on the back and not on the front.
- 22:52And the ones they built in the UK are completely different,
- 22:56even though it's the same car.
- 22:57You're like, "Oh, this is unreal." So there's too many variations.
- 23:01And then you got the, the nuances between the automatic, and the manual,
- 23:04and the sedan, and the hatchback, and the turbo, and the non-tur- It's
- 23:07like, oh, God, forget it, right?
- 23:09And it's like, ugh.
- 23:10So anyway, a little bit at a time.
- 23:12Two steps forward, four steps backwards, but, you know, it is what it is.
- 23:16We've got time.
- 23:17Summit Point is in October, you know?
- 23:19So.
- 23:20And I, you all are aware, obviously, but I will not be
- 23:23driving for Lemons, unfortunately.
- 23:27Not with my arm being in a sling.
- 23:30Yeah, that's not gonna be good.
- 23:32No.
- 23:33I'll have your suit and Simpson on backup just in case they have a, they
- 23:36have a conniption about anything, right?
- 23:38I mean, I'll bring it with me, yeah.
- 23:40Just in case somebody's like, "Ah, I, I, uh, my suit's out of spec."
- 23:43Or Dan just comes in Dickies.
- 23:45You know, that's, 'cause that's what he's gonna… Tractor Supply.
- 23:47Yeah, because my suit will definitely fit Dan.
- 23:52You know, baggy is as baggy does.
- 23:54S- I mean, y- yeah.
- 23:55It, it is, the, he'll have a lot of extra material in the leg department.
- 24:00So by the way, we did have a groundbreaking moment.
- 24:03I was messing around with the car, and I did something that probably
- 24:06wasn't supposed to do, but I've done it on VWs, so I figured why not do
- 24:11it on the Ford and see what happens.
- 24:13We know that these emission systems, a lot of them, they do continuity
- 24:16checks when, like, the car first fires up and whatever, and so if it
- 24:19finds a fault, then you're hosed.
- 24:21So what I did was I did an in-flight check engine code clear.
- 24:26Like, I went into modules and I started, like, just wiping stuff
- 24:29out while the car was running, and at that point it hadn't recycled
- 24:34through checking, like, continuity of, like, sensors and stuff yet.
- 24:38Dude, it suddenly woke up and ran like a scalded cat.
- 24:42And Tanya's like, "What happened?
- 24:43Huh?
- 24:43Was that red line?" I'm like, "Yes, multiple times." Zero to red line it
- 24:48was there, and then suddenly it caught up with itself, and it was like,
- 24:52"Ugh, I don't like you." It was over.
- 24:54It was done.
- 24:55Ugh.
- 24:55I love how your voice, your voice is like the, the AI from Resident Evil.
- 25:00"You're all going to die down here." No, no.
- 25:02It's, remember Droopy Dog?
- 25:03"I don't like you." Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 25:06I didn't, I di- "Come on, Gripple." I, I didn't, I didn't get that.
- 25:12So that ruled out the pedal, the ECU, the throttle body, the
- 25:15master, because suddenly everything worked the way it was supposed to.
- 25:18So if we can solve this sensor problem, I think we're gonna be golden, and
- 25:22then we can button up, like, three remaining things we need to do,
- 25:25like put the wiring back in for the radio and stuff like that, the radio
- 25:29headset for the paddock and stuff like that, for the helmets and whatnot.
- 25:32But yeah, that's all that's left, so crossing our fingers we'll have
- 25:35this thing figured out here shortly.
- 25:37Just for my own education- Uh-huh … a standalone ECU would eliminate
- 25:42all of this bullshit, right?
- 25:44It would.
- 25:44I understand that it, it costs a lot of money and everything like that, but, but
- 25:47just, just if we had a standalone ECU, it would eliminate all of these issues.
- 25:52It would, but it would also require us to stand in front of Walmart
- 25:55like the Salvation Army people and just, like, start ringing bells.
- 25:59Pocket change, because it is a five-figure investment to put a
- 26:03standalone ECU on this motor, so.
- 26:04Got it.
- 26:05Okay.
- 26:05Yeah, well, that's stupid.
- 26:07Yeah.
- 26:07We're trying everything we can.
- 26:09Plus, if we can pinpoint, hey, this is a known fail part, we can have extra
- 26:13known fail parts on the truck and then know the procedure of switching it out.
- 26:18But cross our fingers.
- 26:20Maybe these sensors haven't been changed in 10 years, 237,000 miles.
- 26:24I have to keep reminding folks of that.
- 26:27Maybe it won't happen again.
- 26:28So be it.
- 26:29So we'll figure it out.
- 26:30But luckily none of the stuff is super expensive, other than the fiasco
- 26:34we went through with the computer.
- 26:35But in the end, we needed a new computer, because something's
- 26:38wrong with the old one.
- 26:39So to that end, we had a surprise visit.
- 26:42Mountain Man Dan showed up.
- 26:44Ooh.
- 26:44Yeah.
- 26:45So we gave the old engine loom to Mountain Man Dan with the computer
- 26:49and said, "Here, take it to your Amish magicians in Pennsylvania and see if they
- 26:53can figure out what's wrong with it."
- 26:54So maybe we'll have a spare engine loom just in case something goes wrong there.
- 26:59But he did work on the car, Tanya.
- 27:01What is it that he did?
- 27:02So you could say he worked on it.
- 27:05It was part of the, I think it was the cable, the pull cable for the hood latch.
- 27:09He put it back in the- In the slot.
- 27:11And he says, "See, now I worked on it."
- 27:13And I was like, "Oh my God." But Brad, you'll be impressed.
- 27:16He showed up in a vehicle, not blue like yours, but blue, metallic blue.
- 27:20I've never seen Dan drive a car like this.
- 27:23What do you think it was?
- 27:24And he makes fun of me, 'cause I was a custodian, I was a caretaker
- 27:27for a Pontiac Aztek, as we know.
- 27:29See, I never took ownership of said Pontiac Aztek.
- 27:32Would you venture a guess as to what Dan showed up at my house with?
- 27:35It was not a truck.
- 27:36It, it's a truckette, you could argue.
- 27:39He did not show up in an El Camino.
- 27:41No.
- 27:42No, no, no, no.
- 27:43Cruck?
- 27:44No, he wouldn't do a cruck.
- 27:45Then what would be a truckette?
- 27:47Like a bread van.
- 27:48An HHR?
- 27:49Worse.
- 27:50Worse than an HHR.
- 27:52No, an HHR would be so good.
- 27:53They're so fast.
- 27:54BT Cruiser.
- 27:55Yes.
- 27:56He showed up in an electric blue BT Cruiser.
- 27:58Ah!
- 27:59I threw up a little in my throat.
- 28:01Was it the turbo one at least?
- 28:03No.
- 28:04It's the slug one At first I didn't, I was like, "Who's in the…" I
- 28:08hadn't seen your text message, but you were like, "Oh, come here.
- 28:12Move the tires." And I was like, "Okay."
- 28:14But I hadn't seen your message yet, and so I was looking out, I was like, "Who's over
- 28:18there?" Thought it was the Amazon guy.
- 28:21I mean, who drives a PT Cruiser anymore?
- 28:23I can't remember the last time I've actually seen one on the road.
- 28:27Well, you could look at Dan's, 'cause it does drive.
- 28:29Apparently it has some issues.
- 28:31No surprise there.
- 28:33Right?
- 28:33Again, I haven't seen a PT Cruiser in the wild in forever, but to
- 28:36have one in my driveway is like- Why did he get a PT Cruiser?
- 28:39Apparently it's his daughter's, which I don't believe it.
- 28:42First of all, why doesn't he just fix that Neon that's up there and drive
- 28:46that if he needs all these cars?
- 28:48Dude, there's a whole story there about how he money shifted the
- 28:52diesel, and it's now it's making noises that it's not supposed to, and
- 28:57this and that and the other thing.
- 28:58Well, man.
- 28:59Well, he talked to me about the diesel a while ago, and I told him to park it.
- 29:02He didn't say it was… I didn't understand that it was a money shift.
- 29:05Yeah.
- 29:05I heard he over-revved it is what he did.
- 29:08'Cause I was like, "If you're going down the road I'm going and your cam's
- 29:11going bad, you need to park it. It's a ticking time bomb." 100%, yeah.
- 29:15But if you did something else… It sounds self-inflicted.
- 29:19And then his trucks are down, and then this one's rotted and that one's falling
- 29:23apart, and blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 29:25So he's driving a PT Cruiser.
- 29:26Boom.
- 29:27Mountain Man Dan and the PT Cruiser.
- 29:29I've never seen someone have so many vehicles and so few of them work.
- 29:34I think if you take all 30 of his vehicles, you may be able
- 29:39to put together three- That actually run … good vehicles.
- 29:43Yes, three actually running, driving vehicles.
- 29:46I have to add to this, because you know Dan's modus operandi is always spend
- 29:52as little as possible, try to get stuff for free, or get it negotiated down
- 29:56to where it's, like, next to nothing.
- 29:57So he's got, like, 900 square bodies that he all paid $4 for.
- 30:00He just picked up another square body, and he spent a
- 30:04substantial amount of money on it.
- 30:06It's an, an amount of money that he said he would never
- 30:08spend on a vehicle like that.
- 30:11It's actually really nice.
- 30:11I saw pictures of it.
- 30:12No offense, Dan, I don't like the color.
- 30:14I don't like orange.
- 30:15It's orange and black, and it has a 500 cubic inch built motor in it.
- 30:17So it's five figures.
- 30:17But does it… It, it runs?
- 30:17When parked.
- 30:17Okay.
- 30:17So I'm coming off the five figure price tag now.
- 30:18No, no, no.
- 30:23Y-
- 30:30no, no, you were right.
- 30:31You were right, 100%.
- 30:32Okay.
- 30:32100%. So what'd he pay, 15 for it?
- 30:35Yeah, in that neighborhood.
- 30:36Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 30:37Yeah.
- 30:37It's nice.
- 30:38It looks very nice.
- 30:39I just, I- he said he's gonna put it in his garage.
- 30:42You all have been there, so.
- 30:44I mean, I guess if he empties his garage.
- 30:47But where is that stuff gonna go?
- 30:49'Cause the garage is full.
- 30:51I'm really, I really hate to say it's gonna end up like
- 30:54that white truck that he had.
- 30:55Oh.
- 30:55That white truck was so nice.
- 30:57I mean, I'm not a square body fan, but that white square body dually- Yeah
- 31:01… that he destroyed because it just sat and just collected moss and funk and mold and-
- 31:08It's green now, and it wasn't repainted.
- 31:10Yeah, exactly.
- 31:11Exactly.
- 31:12We're not hating on Dan.
- 31:13We all love Dan.
- 31:14He's a great guy.
- 31:15He'll give you the shirt off his back, literally, whether
- 31:18it has holes in it or not.
- 31:19But the whole thing, it's… I was baffled.
- 31:21I was like, he's driving a PT Cruiser and he bought a new square body.
- 31:24I mean, holy smokes.
- 31:25Wow.
- 31:26All right.
- 31:26Good for you, man.
- 31:28So basically what you're saying is it's just more of the same.
- 31:31I feel like it's Dan's midlife crisis.
- 31:33It's really the PT Cruiser that I'm taking issue with.
- 31:36The square body, it's like it's another square body is square
- 31:38body is a square body, right?
- 31:39Yeah.
- 31:48Oh, boy.
- 31:49Let's get onto the meat and potatoes of this episode and talk about other
- 31:54people that have lost their mind.
- 31:56Let's switch gears and talk about Volkswagen, shall we?
- 31:59First up on the list, all the cars that Volkswagen is getting rid of.
- 32:03Some of these are European, like the Skoda Fabia, the Cupra, the Q6 e-tron Sportback.
- 32:10I've never even seen a Q6.
- 32:12Right?
- 32:13The Q5 Sportback.
- 32:15Oh, that must be a European one.
- 32:16They don't sell that in America.
- 32:18No.
- 32:18Internal combustion engine Porsche Boxster?
- 32:21They've been going back and forth with that.
- 32:23So they're getting rid of it before it even comes?
- 32:26Yes.
- 32:27How about the Cayenne Coupe?
- 32:28Didn't we just talk about this?
- 32:30And this is from a reputable source.
- 32:31This is from Motor1, so I trust that what they're posting is probably real.
- 32:36But we just talked about these Cayenne Coupes, like, either the last episode
- 32:39or the one before, how we thought they were funky looking and who would
- 32:42pay $200,000 for a low-roof Cayenne?
- 32:46The Taycan, well, we already knew the Taycan was going away.
- 32:49The Taos?
- 32:50Really?
- 32:51That's shocking.
- 32:52But this also says these are the cars that Volkswagen may kill.
- 32:57So this is, this is all theorizing.
- 33:00'Cause they, they didn't get any confirmation or denial
- 33:03from Volkswagen about this.
- 33:04We've just heard that Volkswagen wants to kill 50% of their lineup by 2030.
- 33:09Mm-hmm.
- 33:09But there's nothing that actually says that these are the cars
- 33:12that they're going to kill.
- 33:13These might be the only cars in the lineup.
- 33:15Can you mention any other ones?
- 33:17I wanna focus on this Jetta here more in a minute, but the Jetta's
- 33:20on the list according to Motor1.
- 33:22Well, if that's true, if they got rid of the Jetta and they
- 33:25got rid of the Taos, what's left?
- 33:28The Golf?
- 33:28My point.
- 33:29What else is there?
- 33:31'Cause the ID.
- 33:31Buzz is gone.
- 33:32The Passat's been gone.
- 33:34ID.
- 33:34Buzz allegedly coming back, but the Beetle's gone.
- 33:36The Passat's gone.
- 33:38The Taos is now the Tiguan Touareg, so there's nothing
- 33:40else if they get rid of it.
- 33:42Well, and the Touareg might come back as an EV, but it might not,
- 33:45because then you have the Atlas.
- 33:46And then the e-Golf isn't due back for a bunch of years.
- 33:50So there's the GTI and allegedly that five-cylinder Golf R,
- 33:54which we'll probably never see.
- 33:56So they've got two cars?
- 33:58Are they just gonna leave the US market?
- 34:00Nobody's gonna… I mean, you have the group of people that will buy, quote, "the
- 34:03hot hatch," but I'm sure the majority of their sales are the bigger cars, right?
- 34:08Like, families aren't gonna all crawl into hatchbacks.
- 34:11A Golf.
- 34:11Yeah, exactly.
- 34:12They're still selling the Atlas, right?
- 34:14Yes.
- 34:14Oh, yeah, the Atlas.
- 34:16And did the Taos replace the- The Tiguan.
- 34:20The Tiguan took over the Touareg in terms of size.
- 34:23Okay, so they have the Atlas and the Tiguan.
- 34:26So they're going the way of Mitsubishi.
- 34:28They're just gonna sell- Three cars at the end … crossovers.
- 34:31Yeah.
- 34:31Yeah.
- 34:32That is still that nobody's gonna wanna buy.
- 34:34Exactly.
- 34:35And then they'll have cut some of the Porsches, except for the 911 and
- 34:38the Panamera, and then you'll be left with the Audis, the A4, the Allroad.
- 34:42And they were talking about getting rid of the A8 already, so that's gone, so
- 34:46the big luxo boat's out of the picture.
- 34:47So you'll have the A6- And then that's kind of it.
- 34:50'Cause if they don't bring any of their wagons over, then
- 34:53there's gonna be a lot of cars.
- 34:54There's maybe gonna be, like, 10 across the brands?
- 34:57Why bother keeping the A6?
- 35:00I don't know.
- 35:01The A6 is like the Buick LeSabre of Audis.
- 35:06Tell me I'm wrong.
- 35:07No, and I haven't seen- Yeah, I, I can't remember the last time I've seen a new A6
- 35:11and was like, "Man, that's a nice car."
- 35:13No, it's- You know which A6 was cool?
- 35:15You remember the RS6 with the V8 back in the early 2000s?
- 35:18Yeah, they haven't made that in… They haven't made that in, yeah,
- 35:21like 2002 or something like that.
- 35:22Yeah, 20 years.
- 35:23It's ridiculous.
- 35:23Yeah.
- 35:24Yeah.
- 35:24That was a nice car.
- 35:26You know what else is not a nice car?
- 35:28I mean, I… It could be a nice car.
- 35:29Tanya, you just rented a Jetta, and that's why, uh, you know,
- 35:32we got it up here on the screen.
- 35:33Tell us about your recent rental experience with a Jetta.
- 35:36It left me- Disappointed.
- 35:40I mean, the car itself was fine, like in terms of, I mean, it went down the road.
- 35:45I felt like sitting in that, that a 20-year-old plus Volkswagen had nicer
- 35:53interior I've been saying this They went backwards and they made it chintzy, and
- 35:58coming off all of the recent Japanese cars that I also got to test drive,
- 36:03let's say already almost a year ago now.
- 36:05But nonetheless, I went through the Altima and, and the, uh, Hyundai and the Elantra,
- 36:11the Kia, and all that, and it's like, wow.
- 36:14I mean, there's always been a notion in the past that like the Japanese
- 36:18cars were a little bit inferior in that department, and I'm like, "Well, now I-
- 36:23you guys have switched roles," and- Yeah
- 36:25like for the price… And I haven't sat in a Golf, and this was a
- 36:30Sport, which I didn't even realize till I saw the little word on the
- 36:33pillar on the outside of the door.
- 36:35That's all it was That it was like, it was the Sport jet.
- 36:37I was like, "Oh, I had no idea." So I'm like, "If this is also what a Golf is
- 36:41like, and you're gonna charge somebody 50 plus thousand dollars by the time
- 36:45you've optioned it out, close to 60 if you got like the Autobahn Golf version,
- 36:50like this is what you're giving me?"
- 36:52That's really disappointing in my opinion.
- 36:55Yes.
- 36:55I'll even take that icky, 20-year-old Plasti Dip crap soft touch stuff.
- 37:01Well, I know how to fix that now, so yeah.
- 37:03You know, over the new stuff?
- 37:05Ugh.
- 37:05Give me the soft touch back, I'll deal with it in 20 years.
- 37:09I still need to deal with it in my car.
- 37:10So we'll move on from that because Tanya, you said something last month.
- 37:14We were talking about Volkswagen's demise at this point, and you said
- 37:19something to the effect of like, "Well, it would be like a four-door Beetle."
- 37:23I don't even remember saying that.
- 37:24Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 37:25I remember.
- 37:26It stuck in my head for some reason.
- 37:27I was like, "Four-door Beetle." And then we sort of laughed about
- 37:29it and I said, "Oh, you know, call that the Panamera," right?
- 37:32'Cause you smash the Bug and four door, and all that kind of thing.
- 37:35Uh, maybe it's because Big Brother is always listening.
- 37:37China said, "Hold my Xingtao" Xingtao … because Yes.
- 37:42That's… What was that thing called?
- 37:44It was called the, uh- The Punk Cat is the two-door one … Punk Cat.
- 37:48And there was like the Doja something, something else.
- 37:50Yes.
- 37:50And this is, this is the Ora Ballet Cat.
- 37:53Ora.
- 37:55Oh my God, it's ugly.
- 37:56And they made it a four door.
- 37:59Ugh.
- 37:59Look at this thing.
- 38:00It even has a little tail on it.
- 38:03Look.
- 38:03It's heinous.
- 38:03It's like pieces of different cars just put together.
- 38:06Screams Doshavo to me.
- 38:08A little bit, yes.
- 38:09The first thing I thought was Doshavo.
- 38:10I have to say, this is gonna be a very unpopular opinion.
- 38:14You like it?
- 38:15If it was a different color, if it was all one color with tinted windows, slammed.
- 38:21Oh my God I could see it being something somebody would want to buy.
- 38:27You have lost your mind.
- 38:28Actually, if it was all black, it would be like one of those British cabs.
- 38:31The interior's really nice, though.
- 38:33I'll give it that.
- 38:34I, yeah, I think the interior's terrible.
- 38:36I like the retro-y-ness of it.
- 38:38It's very Fiat.
- 38:38But here's the thing.
- 38:40How do we know, because Volkswagen does have factories in China, and
- 38:45they sell the Quantum from the '80s.
- 38:47They still make it today over in China.
- 38:50How do we know that ORA isn't like a Cupra or a Skoda, and VW is actually
- 38:56building these Beetles in China, and they're not just knockoffs
- 39:00like everybody says they are?
- 39:02You don't think Volkswagen would've gone after them by now?
- 39:04No, Volkswagen does not own ORA.
- 39:06ORA is a dedicated electric vehicle brand owned by Great Wall Motor, a
- 39:10major Chinese automotive manufacturer.
- 39:13They probably are going after them, we just don't know it.
- 39:15I mean, if they were, outside of losing money in Formula 1, this must be the
- 39:19other way they're losing it, too.
- 39:20But you would think that the Beetle's one of those things, like a Mini
- 39:24Cooper or any of those iconic cars from that time period, like, you wouldn't
- 39:28be able to make a clone of them.
- 39:29They're so iconic.
- 39:31It's like, why would you go there?
- 39:33Why would you try to copy it?
- 39:34And this doesn't even try to hide the fact that it looks like a Beetle.
- 39:38Either way, I think VW is missing out, and if they aren't going after this,
- 39:42they should, and they should just say, "We'll make it better," and then start
- 39:46selling it, because a- as we've argued… And actually, speaking of argued about
- 39:50this, I saw an Instagram post, and I didn't have time to go pull it up,
- 39:55but Richard Rawlins, the guy from Gas Monkey Garage, he did a post about VW.
- 40:00Normally, I kind of skip over that stuff, 'cause it's always classic
- 40:03cars and muscle cars, and yeah, yeah, yeah, beat your chest, and
- 40:05motorcycles, and all that kind of thing.
- 40:07But it was specifically about VW, and they got his opinion on it.
- 40:10It was sort of like hot take.
- 40:11He's on his soapbox, and he lays it out.
- 40:15And he's like, "You should've kept building the Beetle.
- 40:17If you didn't build anything else, keep building the Beetle.
- 40:19You could've built the Beetle for 1,000 years, and people would've
- 40:22continued to buy it, but you took away the one car that everybody wanted."
- 40:27And the point of his rant at the end was, "VW, you're a bunch of dummies.
- 40:32Start building cars that people want." How long have we been saying that, right?
- 40:36So to hear it from a celebrity, he's not wrong.
- 40:39But then, to follow that, I actually met MotoMan from MotoMan TV when I
- 40:44was at Revs back in January, and I got to talk to him, and this and that.
- 40:47So you know, I follow him on Instagram, and he posted something.
- 40:50And again, people are talking about VW.
- 40:52It's in the news because it's too big to fail, as we've already mentioned.
- 40:56And he's like, "VW's solution to their financial woes is
- 41:00the Tiguan R-Line." What?
- 41:03"GTI power in an SUV at $45,000." And I'm like, "What?
- 41:08Who, who's gonna buy that?" That's so stupid.
- 41:11In today's market, your mom's minivan makes the same power as a GTI.
- 41:16Everything makes 300 horsepower these days.
- 41:18For the GTI to still make less than 300 horsepower, it's
- 41:22actually kind of pathetic.
- 41:24For as heavy as it is, and the amount of power it makes, with an
- 41:27unreliable two liter engine, as we already know, who's gonna step up and
- 41:31say, "Yeah, I want an even heavier vehicle with the same power as a GTI"?
- 41:35Okay, I'm gonna throw, I'm gonna throw a scenario at you.
- 41:38Please.
- 41:39You know, one, one of the, the classic Brad's would you rather this or X?
- 41:43Yeah.
- 41:43Uh-huh.
- 41:44So would you rather a brand new VW Tiguan R-Line- No … for 45 grand, knowing what
- 41:52you know about VW electronics and all the- Uh-huh … recalls and stuff that
- 41:56they've had on these cars and everything, or take that same 45 grand- And burn it
- 42:01and buy a used BMW X3M- Oof … with the three liter twin turbo.
- 42:08Oof.
- 42:08They're getting monster power out of them.
- 42:10You can have them for the 40, 45, 50K range.
- 42:13Is walking an option?
- 42:15That could be walking money.
- 42:16Your 50K walking money.
- 42:17No, what I mean is I'm gonna be walking in either case because
- 42:19they're both gonna be broken down.
- 42:21So I've, I've heard that BMW's reliability is better now than it was, than it has
- 42:27been in recent history or whatever.
- 42:30So that is the would you rather.
- 42:33I wouldn't touch a BMW with a 10-foot pole No?
- 42:36Mm-mm.
- 42:37Tanya, would you get a Tiguan R or would you do a BMW X3 M?
- 42:42I'd ride the bus.
- 42:43For the same money.
- 42:44I could get a lot of Ubers for $45,000.
- 42:48You, you could get at least 10.
- 42:50I can still probably afford to repair the Volkswagen.
- 42:57Yeah, because anything with an M badge is, like, bad news.
- 43:02True that, true that, true that.
- 43:03God, I cringe.
- 43:04All those X5 M owners.
- 43:06Like, I have a friend that has an X5 M with that inverted V8.
- 43:09Ugh, God, so … No, thank you.
- 43:12Yeah, but the X3 M is just the standard three liter twin turbo
- 43:15that's in all the other cars.
- 43:17It's just got more power and- BMW should have never done turbos.
- 43:20That was not their thing.
- 43:21Well- So BMW plus turbo is bad.
- 43:24What about the 2002 turbo?
- 43:26That was not good either.
- 43:29Okay.
- 43:30The, all that to say Volkswagen's earnings have dropped massively.
- 43:35There was a recent reporting down to 8.9.
- 43:39That is more than 50% decrease.
- 43:42You're the money guy, Brad.
- 43:43Is that the sign of a healthy company, they've lost over 50% of their earnings?
- 43:47Wow.
- 43:48You know, I had not seen that number actually.
- 43:50When you see it written out like that, it is actually very sad.
- 43:56I mean, they're in trouble.
- 43:57And $8.9 billion isn't anything to sneeze at.
- 44:00You're like, "Oh, woe is them."
- 44:02It's just shy of 10 billion.
- 44:03But we- if you think about all the operating costs and operating
- 44:06expenses that they have globally, to then suddenly lose half of your
- 44:11profitability- Over what length of time?
- 44:14Like, is this a year over year comparison?
- 44:16This is a year over year.
- 44:17I mean, this, this just happened?
- 44:18Yeah.
- 44:19Wow.
- 44:19This was just reported.
- 44:20I saw this, like, last week.
- 44:22Wow.
- 44:22Are we sure this is true?
- 44:24Volkswagen reported a Q2 2026 operating profit of 3.47 billion euros, down 9.5%
- 44:31year on year, leading the company to slash its full s- year sales revenue outlook by
- 44:35lowering expectations up to a 3% decline.
- 44:38So something's not adding up.
- 44:40It's still a lot.
- 44:41How much of that is Formula 1?
- 44:43That's what I wanna know.
- 44:44Their net profit plunged 32.9% to 1.54 billion euros, impacted by
- 44:50a 500 million euro charge related to ending ID.4 production in
- 44:55Tennessee and negative mix effects.
- 44:57I mean, they're on the decline.
- 44:58It's not good, but I don't know that they just lost 50%.
- 45:02According to Gemini, Volkswagen Group's net income for fiscal
- 45:06year 2025 was 6.9 billion euros, approximately 7.55 billion US.
- 45:11This represented a 44% decline compared to their 2024 net profit of 12.4 billion.
- 45:18Sales revenue was 321.9 billion, remaining flat compared to 324.7 billion in 2024.
- 45:25Operating result, 8.9 billion, down 53% from the previous year.
- 45:29Yep.
- 45:29There it is.
- 45:30If you're on their website, volkswagengroup.com, and you can
- 45:34read their s- profit numbers.
- 45:36Everything is fine.
- 45:37It's glorious.
- 45:38They're down 8.4% in sales.
- 45:41Their sales revenue is 158 billion euros in the first half so far, 2026.
- 45:48But the first half 2025 comparison, they were at the same number, actually.
- 45:52So they were also at 158.
- 45:54They are down slightly, 'cause it was .4 versus .1.
- 45:57Yeah, but how much of that is also jockeying around the fact that they
- 46:00just sold Bugatti, they got rid of their controlling interest in Rimac.
- 46:04Obviously they're hemorrhaging money in Formula 1.
- 46:06They've gotten rid of other things.
- 46:07They've gotten rid of plants.
- 46:08They've shut things down.
- 46:09So- I mean, they are down … Brad, you work these profit and loss statements.
- 46:14They can maneuver this so it looks like everything's fine
- 46:18even though it isn't, right?
- 46:19Well, yeah.
- 46:20I mean, you can… Accounting is an art I mean, you can make things
- 46:24look good by, like you're saying, selling assets and things like that.
- 46:28Yeah, but they have to report their earnings to their
- 46:31stakeholders and yada, yada, yada.
- 46:32They can't just bullshit numbers.
- 46:34Well, of course.
- 46:35Yeah, but if you sell Bugatti for $5 billion, isn't that an earning?
- 46:39It is.
- 46:40So you can make up the difference of your sales.
- 46:42De- depending on how the sale is structured, yeah.
- 46:44Right, yeah.
- 46:45Exa- that's so my point, right?
- 46:46Yeah, but that's not a decline then, so their operating profit should be higher,
- 46:50'cause they have, you took out, if you took out the failing- That would not
- 46:53be considered part of operating profit.
- 46:55No, it wouldn't.
- 46:56That would be, like, not a retirement, but a, like a d- a sale of an asset.
- 47:00Correct.
- 47:00Right.
- 47:00A sale of fixed asset or whatever.
- 47:02They, 'cause operating is strictly, operating should
- 47:04strictly be, like, sales and stuff.
- 47:06This is all just rich people things, 'cause it's well above our
- 47:09pay grade how this is working in a massive conglomerate at Volkswagen.
- 47:13But we can tell, even as innocent bystanders, that things are not
- 47:16good and things are unhealthy.
- 47:18Sales are down.
- 47:19They're getting rid of factories.
- 47:20They're getting rid of brands.
- 47:22They're getting rid of people.
- 47:23Yeah, uh, 100,000 people being laid off?
- 47:25Like, holy smokes.
- 47:27Maybe now wasn't the right time to get into F1.
- 47:30I've been saying that.
- 47:32Hmm.
- 47:33Hmm.
- 47:34But they're committed at least for the rest of the year.
- 47:37But let's talk about happier things.
- 47:39Let's talk about, let's talk about dreams.
- 47:41In a world where Volkswagen is king, we can build stuff like this.
- 47:46'Cause this is straight fantasy, folks.
- 47:47I know Tanya sent this to me.
- 47:49These are the recreation HSR Manufacture 851 Audi Sport Quattros, blah, blah,
- 47:55blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 47:57I mean, allegedly, they're gonna sell 84 of them for a mere $570,000.
- 48:03You know, they haven't built a single one of these.
- 48:06These are all renderings.
- 48:07You know, when you go to the bottom and they've got the
- 48:10orange, purple, green, and red one together, man, that purple is nice.
- 48:14That's exactly… I was just thinking that.
- 48:16Ooh, that purple.
- 48:17It's all renderings.
- 48:20Do I wanna buy a house or do I wanna buy one of these?
- 48:23I mean- It makes for a great screensaver.
- 48:25Like, I wanna put this as my desktop wallpaper, for sure.
- 48:28I mean, if they actually make these, I mean, I wish I was a
- 48:31milli- multi-million billionaire.
- 48:33I'd have one.
- 48:34So first of all, there's not that many UR Quattros in existence to begin with.
- 48:39So unless we're doing the roof thing, we're making chassis from scratch,
- 48:43this means that they're doing the singer thing, and they're gonna be
- 48:46buying up chassis at a loss because they'll be in any old condition.
- 48:50They'll- That's why it costs $570,000.
- 48:52You know, they're all 40-plus years old at this point, but here's the deal.
- 48:55Everybody thinks this is new and revolutionary.
- 48:57Dialynx, a company in the UK, was doing this in the '90s where they were taking UR
- 49:02Quattros, at that point which were only 10 years old, and they were shortening them,
- 49:07and they were re-raking the windshield by cutting Audi 4000s and putting…
- 49:11You know, all the stuff they had to do to build replica Sport Quattros.
- 49:15That whole company died off by the 2000s, right?
- 49:18Because obviously it wasn't profitable.
- 49:19It took too long.
- 49:20It was super expensive and, you know, it, it was 30 years ago at this point.
- 49:24But here we are trying to reboot that whole idea of the Dialynx Sport Quattros.
- 49:30I don't ever see a single one of these ever coming to fruition.
- 49:34I'm sorry.
- 49:35It's wishful thinking.
- 49:36They're beautiful.
- 49:37I too, like you, Tanya, have hope.
- 49:39But even if they do make 'em, who's gonna buy a $500,000 Audi that still
- 49:44handles like a 911 going backwards?
- 49:47Yeah.
- 49:47But I, I digress.
- 49:48You just, just … Thinking about AI renderings kinda
- 49:51got me thinking about that.
- 49:51Well, you know, I'm glad you brought that up because I found one too, and people
- 49:55are trying to pass this off as legitimate.
- 49:57And I knew this was bullshit from the word go because it said Passat.
- 50:01Never seen it.
- 50:02It's not real.
- 50:03It's completely rendered.
- 50:05And there's other pictures, like from the back and all.
- 50:07And people are like, "Nice Audi.
- 50:08Better looking A5 than the A5.
- 50:10Oh, that's really a BMW," blah, blah, blah. Like, the comments were
- 50:13hilarious, but most people were like, "Guys, you know the Passat
- 50:16isn't being made anymore, right?
- 50:18Like, you know this is fake, right?" And like, oh my God.
- 50:21Oh, yeah, 900,000 likes though, so, you know, good for you.
- 50:26What about this?
- 50:27This… See, Brad, you said, "Where would I spend my money?
- 50:29What would I buy?" Obviously it's not $45,000, but how about this?
- 50:34Yes.
- 50:35Find of the day, 31 miles, Audi RS6 Avant GT seeks a real enthusiast owner.
- 50:40Okay, great.
- 50:41Scrolling down, all these wonderful pictures.
- 50:44It's basically brand new.
- 50:46This is the problem.
- 50:47$200,000?
- 50:49$202,000 was the original sticker price on this.
- 50:53So what's it gonna sell for?
- 50:54250,000. And then you're still left with an Audi that has potential
- 50:59V8 issues, 'cause I've heard these cars have had problems with the
- 51:02motors, even the models below these.
- 51:04What Audi hasn't had problems with the motors?
- 51:07It is a Volkswagen.
- 51:07What modern Audi hasn't had problems with the motors?
- 51:10But it's, it's pure awesomeness though.
- 51:13I do not like this interior though.
- 51:15It looks very, very cobbled together, right?
- 51:18Am I wrong?
- 51:18It's clunky.
- 51:19It's blah.
- 51:20It's not elegant.
- 51:21For the price that that costs, for $200,000, I wanna feel
- 51:24like I just walked into luxury.
- 51:26I don't want it to be a Bentley, but I agree with you.
- 51:28I think it needs to be better than this.
- 51:30I know what this feels like too, this hexagonal center cushion.
- 51:34This is not nice.
- 51:35This is like a step above those beads you put in a taxi cab,
- 51:38you know what I'm talking about?
- 51:41You know exactly what I'm talking about.
- 51:47Let's switch gears and talk about a car that we're never gonna get, but this
- 51:51is way nicer than that RS6- Yeah, we're good … and probably costs a lot less.
- 51:54This is the Alfa Romeo Brutale.
- 51:57That means brutal.
- 51:59And it's not real.
- 52:00I'm like, that's AI, right?
- 52:01Bullshit, that's AI.
- 52:03This is at Goodwood.
- 52:04Look at this.
- 52:04The Alfa Romeo Brutale is a striking retro modern concept car
- 52:08designed by digital creator Simolue.
- 52:12No.
- 52:13No.
- 52:14It looks fake.
- 52:14All of that looks fake.
- 52:15It looks like a video game.
- 52:16You can tell, like, when he- that turn right there.
- 52:19Like, he's taking the turn, he's heading straight off into the wall, and all of
- 52:22a sudden he's, he's making the turn It is not an official production model.
- 52:27The viral digital design imagines a two plus two shooting brake
- 52:30coupe featuring the iconic 2.9 liter twin-turbo V6 Quadrifoglio
- 52:34engine, aggressive aerodynamics, and the classic Biscione Alfa grill.
- 52:39Okay, AI's gotten really good, but this is really good-looking.
- 52:42I mean, if they made something like this, would you not salivate over it?
- 52:47I mean, this is hot.
- 52:48This is hot.
- 52:49The reason I went to look and see if this car was real is because
- 52:53it looks too good to be true.
- 52:54Yes.
- 52:55It, it is.
- 52:56It's too hot.
- 52:56But the, the, the weird thing, the front end with those two, like,
- 53:01like circular headlights, it's str- it's very, like, E30 to me.
- 53:05It's sexy.
- 53:07It's amazing.
- 53:09Why can't we make more cars that look good like this?
- 53:13What is wrong with people?
- 53:14They all gotta look like Subaru Foresters now.
- 53:16Bleh.
- 53:16Bleh.
- 53:18We talked about BMW earlier, Brad, and you're ta- you asked me if I
- 53:21should buy an X3M or that, whatever it was, the Tiguan, or whatever it was.
- 53:27We don't talk about BMW recalls very often.
- 53:29We know BMWs have problems, but we don't hear about recalls, but
- 53:32BMW recalls 29,000 hybrid sedans.
- 53:35First of all, I didn't know they had a hybrid sedan.
- 53:38Like all other hybrid vehicles, they warn you to park outside because it
- 53:41might melt your house to the ground.
- 53:43Awesome.
- 53:43Good stuff.
- 53:44ICE cars had, like, I don't know, 99 problems.
- 53:48None of them were this.
- 53:49Do you ever have your starter melt your car and then light your house on fire?
- 53:53Not on its own.
- 53:54Okay.
- 53:55Just checking.
- 53:56I've seen car fires of ICE engines, but usually not when parked.
- 54:01Like, not when not running.
- 54:03I did see a square body try to burn down the forest once.
- 54:06That's true.
- 54:06That is very true.
- 54:07Yes.
- 54:07Well, let's go across the ocean the other way this time.
- 54:10Let's talk about Asian domestic cars, you know, Japanese, Koreans, and so on.
- 54:14This article from Motor1 actually got updated 'cause when I originally put
- 54:18it in our show notes, it was talking about Nissan killing off the Altima,
- 54:24and I said, "Man, this is clickbait."
- 54:25I said, "First you're telling me the Jetta's going away, now the Altima's
- 54:28going away?" And then it says, "Wait, wait, the Altima is not dead yet."
- 54:32Nissan is reshuffling their lineup.
- 54:34I was like, "How can you kill the cockroach of cars? Why would Nissan stop
- 54:40producing their best-selling vehicle?" Did we decide it's clickbait, or is this real?
- 54:44I decided that it's clickbait because you know what?
- 54:46Nissan would be stupid because, again, why would you kill off your best-selling car?
- 54:51Yes, the Nissan Altima is officially scheduled to be discontinued after
- 54:54the 2026 model year, ending a 34-year run for the popular midsize sedan.
- 54:5934? Hasn't been around that long, has it?
- 55:02The Nissan Altima's been, like, forever.
- 55:05Since 1992.
- 55:07That's a long run.
- 55:08Why would you kill off this car?
- 55:10Yeah, you don't remember the early Nissan Altimas?
- 55:12They looked like the… You never could tell an Altima from
- 55:14a Maxima, but they were like the little round Sentra-looking ones.
- 55:19Oh, yeah, this one.
- 55:20Like, that, the old Altima.
- 55:22I know what you're talking about.
- 55:23Yeah.
- 55:24You never see those on the road anymore, the really bulbous-looking ones.
- 55:28Yeah, they finally all died.
- 55:29Why am I looking for Altima pictures?
- 55:31Just go to Wikipedia.
- 55:31Go to Wikipedia.
- 55:32I could.
- 55:34I could, yes.
- 55:35We've reached a new low on this show.
- 55:38Searching for Altimas.
- 55:38We're, we're researching Nissan Altimas?
- 55:40Here we go.
- 55:41Here we go.
- 55:41That takes me back.
- 55:42I forgot about these.
- 55:43Why the 2026 model is your last chance to own this midsize icon.
- 55:47If you've heard the Nissan Altima is being discontinued, you're not
- 55:50imagining things, but the story is more complicated than a simple yes or no.
- 55:54The key fact is this: the Altima is officially continuing into the 2026
- 55:58model year, even after earlier reports suggested it would end after 2025.
- 56:02What's confirmed?
- 56:03The Altima continues for 2026.
- 56:05Car and Driver reports, blah, blah, blah, "The '26 Altima is reduced
- 56:08to the SV or, and SR trims with S and SL removed," blah, blah, blah.
- 56:12Why the, quote, "Altima is ending" rumor started.
- 56:15The rumor had real fuel behind it.
- 56:17Major outlets reported that Nissan had indicated 2025 would be the Altima's final
- 56:21year, then later coverage described Nissan reversing and bringing it back for '26.
- 56:25On top of that, Nissan has been actively trimming its sedan lineup in recent
- 56:28years, which makes the discontinuation narrative feel believable to shoppers.
- 56:32So is 2026 truly your, quote, "last chance"?
- 56:36Here's the honest answer.
- 56:38Nissan has confirmed the Altima for 2026, but there's no definitive
- 56:42official statement in the sources above that 2026 is the final model year.
- 56:47What we can say confidently is that the Altima's long-term future has
- 56:50been uncertain enough that reputable publications have covered potential
- 56:54end-of-line plans and reversals.
- 56:56You said a lot of words and said nothing at the same time.
- 56:59I just wanna point that out.
- 56:59I am so frustrated as I was reading that, to be like, "Why are you contradicting?
- 57:05Why is this even a headline, then?" Mm. Why would you say it's your last
- 57:09chance, then you go on to say that Nissan has not officially said anything?
- 57:14Yeah, that's terrible.
- 57:15And then you have Edmunds going, "No, the Nissan Altima isn't dead
- 57:18for 2027." Did you see the link I just sent, I just put in the chat?
- 57:21Yeah, I did.
- 57:22That is the, I, the oldest Nissan Altima you can find online right now.
- 57:29That's sort of- Is a- Let me see … well, this is the next one, a '95 Nissan Altima.
- 57:33Hey.
- 57:33$29.99, look at that.
- 57:35See, the problem is when you see these, it's so confusing to
- 57:39know if you're seeing a Sentra.
- 57:40Yeah.
- 57:41'Cause the Sentra looked just like that back then.
- 57:44Fine quality machine right there.
- 57:45$3,000. Wait, hold on, it says low mileage.
- 57:49Let's investigate this.
- 57:50Holy crap, y'all.
- 57:52Y'all, this is a deal.
- 57:54This is a car that's gonna live, outlive you.
- 57:57It only has 78,000 miles on it.
- 58:01God.
- 58:01This is barely broken in for an Altima.
- 58:04This has so much life left in it.
- 58:06It has so much to give you.
- 58:07I've got another would you rather.
- 58:09Oh, boy, here we go.
- 58:11A '95 Nissan Altima or a '95 Toyota Corolla.
- 58:18If they were the same price, which one do you think's gonna last longer?
- 58:21I gotta refresh myself what the '95 Corolla looked like.
- 58:24Oh.
- 58:25Oh, man, it's this one.
- 58:27Oh.
- 58:30The Altima's got 50 horsepower on it.
- 58:32I think that Corolla will outlive the Altima.
- 58:36I don't think so.
- 58:37These were junk, and they looked terrible.
- 58:39They were cheap.
- 58:40I swear to God I just passed one on the road the other day.
- 58:43How many other Corollas was it made from to keep it going?
- 58:45I don't know.
- 58:46The air condition didn't work 'cause his windows were down, so that's for sure.
- 58:49That's terrible.
- 58:51So anyway, speaking of the kids and speaking of Japanese cars, my littlest one
- 58:55literally just yesterday, walking through a Walmart parking lot, she takes my hand.
- 58:58She's like, "Dad, we need to go look at this other car over here." And I'm
- 59:01like, it's very rare that my littlest one wants to go see a car in person, right?
- 59:06So I walk up.
- 59:07It is a second gen metallic green Hyundai Veloster.
- 59:12And not just whatever Veloster, it's the one with the three doors.
- 59:16I had forgotten that those second gens, they're like a AMC Pacer.
- 59:20It's got a long driver door, and then it's got like a short passenger
- 59:23door, and then a rear door.
- 59:25So it has three doors, not counting the hatchback.
- 59:28She walked around it.
- 59:29She was looking at it.
- 59:30She's like, "Dad, I really like this." I'm like, "I guess there's a car for everybody
- 59:34out there." I was like, "All right."
- 59:36She is the one that didn't want you to unload the Aztec after all.
- 59:40Mm. That is very true.
- 59:42She was upset by that.
- 59:43She thought that thing was really neat Oh There's something to that I feel
- 59:47like the perfect car for her is gonna be that new Honda Element That might be
- 59:51true, or an old Honda Element for that matter Or an old Honda Element, yeah.
- 59:54She might like that.
- 59:56Not to get too far away from Nissan, this partnership thing,
- 1:00:01uh, they're still talking about it.
- 1:00:03I don't know why.
- 1:00:04They're dead.
- 1:00:05I don't even know why The Drive is talking about this.
- 1:00:07And the way this is written, you know, Nissan got cold feet.
- 1:00:10I thought Honda did their due diligence, and they're like,
- 1:00:12"Man, we're not touching that."
- 1:00:13I thought the deal was, like, until Nissan could show that it was moving in
- 1:00:16the direction of profitability, that they weren't gonna invest any money in it.
- 1:00:20And if you read this, it's all like, "Ugh, Nissan is the one that backed
- 1:00:23out." And I'm like, "I don't think so," 'cause they're in trouble.
- 1:00:27Any rate, what else we got here?
- 1:00:28Oh, I heard this.
- 1:00:29I was not listening to NPR, Brad, but I heard this on the radio.
- 1:00:32Japanese neuroscientists have said that manual transmissions
- 1:00:38are good for your brain.
- 1:00:40I mean- I mean, duh … let's let that sink in for a minute.
- 1:00:43Anything where you're stimulating your mind is good for your brain.
- 1:00:48The act of having a manual requires you to be able to do more than one thing at once.
- 1:00:52It's like being a drummer, yeah.
- 1:00:54I, I'm all for it.
- 1:00:55Heard that handwriting stimulates your brain.
- 1:00:57It's supposed to help its development.
- 1:01:00Even at our ripe, old age?
- 1:01:01They say as you get older, playing mind games and sudoku and crossword
- 1:01:05puzzles and all that is all healthy things for your brain to keep it active.
- 1:01:08Basically keeping it moving as opposed to just vegetating and doom scrolling through
- 1:01:13TikTok, Instagram, and whatever the heck.
- 1:01:16It would make everybody safer, too.
- 1:01:18It would help, because you definitely can't be as distracted, though there
- 1:01:22are mofos who would still not pay attention, so it doesn't really matter.
- 1:01:26A mofo is gonna do what a mofo is gonna do.
- 1:01:29That's an official statement.
- 1:01:30I love it.
- 1:01:33And I know that this would normally be classified as Florida Man or
- 1:01:38Are You Faster Than An Interceptor?
- 1:01:40But since we're talking about manual transmissions and we're
- 1:01:43talking about Japanese cars, did you guys see this thing on Instagram?
- 1:01:48I, I didn't understand what was happening here.
- 1:01:50I kinda felt like this was that Jackie Chan movie that we
- 1:01:53reviewed with Steve and Izzy.
- 1:01:54The cop is literally gonna impound the car and he's gonna drive it
- 1:01:58away, and this is in New York City.
- 1:01:59So I don't know if there was some street racing going on.
- 1:02:01But he's, like, confused.
- 1:02:03He doesn't know what to do.
- 1:02:05Doesn't know how to drive it.
- 1:02:06And then and then he finally kinda gets it going at one point, and then he just,
- 1:02:11if you listen to it with the audio, he makes it, like, 10 feet and then stalls
- 1:02:14out and then it just, like, blah, and that's, like, the end of it, and it dies.
- 1:02:17It's, then he's done.
- 1:02:19I would've been so pissed 'cause I'd been like, "Don't grind my
- 1:02:21gears and burn my clutch." Well, that was one of the comments.
- 1:02:25He was like, "Car got impounded.
- 1:02:26Needs new clutch." I was like, "Oh, Jesus." I was like, "That's
- 1:02:29terrible." Does it say why it was being impounded in the first place?
- 1:02:33I think it was, it was illegal street racing, I think- Yeah
- 1:02:35or something.
- 1:02:36The very beginning of the, the video you see, like, tons of cars
- 1:02:39out, so I think, I'm assuming it had something to do with that.
- 1:02:41Some Fast and the Furious stuff going on.
- 1:02:42But it's nice to see a, a wide-body first gen RX-7.
- 1:02:45That's what I was excited about.
- 1:02:47But it wasn't the illegal street racing.
- 1:02:48He was parked because that's what a lot of those peop- they're just all parked.
- 1:02:52He didn't have a hood on that car.
- 1:02:53That's the problem.
- 1:02:54In New York, that's probably illegal.
- 1:02:56It's unsafe to drive around without a hood on.
- 1:03:04All right, let's talk about Toyota.
- 1:03:06I'm really confused.
- 1:03:07Tanya, it was really funny.
- 1:03:08I posted something and then you posted something, like, right behind me.
- 1:03:11Is it the Celica or is it this Yaris MR2 thing?
- 1:03:15What are they doing?
- 1:03:16Are- do we have two mid-engine cars coming?
- 1:03:18Yes, technically, but then there's a whole other rendering that looks
- 1:03:21like something else completely.
- 1:03:24Yes, the black one that was at Fuji, right?
- 1:03:26Mm-hmm.
- 1:03:27So I don't understand which one's which because the one where they're like,
- 1:03:30"MR2 development car spot," I'm like, "I'm sorry, that's a Corolla." That's
- 1:03:34a Yaris right here, whatever this is.
- 1:03:36Why we're calling that, I have no idea.
- 1:03:39I've seen several different things.
- 1:03:40But yes, to that end, they are supposed to be bringing back the Celica, which
- 1:03:44was something that was mentioned several drive-throughs ago, and then they're also
- 1:03:48allegedly trying to bring back this MR2.
- 1:03:50And they debuted something Celica-like during one of the WRC trial stages, too,
- 1:03:57that Toyota was messing around with this larger car and they were like, "Oh, it,
- 1:04:00it might be the Celica, it might not."
- 1:04:02I'm really confused.
- 1:04:04I have no idea.
- 1:04:04I don't know what Toyota's doing.
- 1:04:05But why are they doing this?
- 1:04:07Because I thought all their enthusiast people at the head of the company
- 1:04:10had sort of checked out and left because they put the bean count.
- 1:04:13Why would they be doing this?
- 1:04:14Like, who is their target market?
- 1:04:16It seems foolish- No idea
- 1:04:17unless they're just trying to keep people's attention.
- 1:04:19I mean, I hope they make 'em.
- 1:04:21I, I… Like, 'cause Volkswagen's not making cars anybody wants to buy anymore.
- 1:04:25And the Boxster's going away, so there's another mid-engine runabout.
- 1:04:29You gotta shore that up.
- 1:04:29But then there was talk about that article from PCA where Porsche might get in bed
- 1:04:33with Toyota to make this mid-engine.
- 1:04:35I'm like, what?
- 1:04:36Whatever.
- 1:04:36I, I'm sort of over it.
- 1:04:38But I do wanna talk about other mid-engine cars for a second.
- 1:04:42The new Lotus Emira 420 Sport was, I guess, leaked or released.
- 1:04:47I don't know if these are real or renders.
- 1:04:50I don't understand these scoops in the hood.
- 1:04:52I think they're terrible looking.
- 1:04:53It's too McLaren and Ferrari.
- 1:04:55Like, the- Yes … why do all the cars need to look all the same?
- 1:04:58As Matt used to say, there's only one design that cheats the wind.
- 1:05:03I like a lot of Lotuses, and I don't like this one.
- 1:05:05Like, I find myself just l- staring at the background in this picture
- 1:05:08and trying to ignore the car.
- 1:05:10Awful.
- 1:05:11I don't know why this came to mind.
- 1:05:12We're talking about British cars, but really I wanna talk about Swedish cars.
- 1:05:15Last month we made a comment about Polestar going away
- 1:05:20because the Chinese ownership.
- 1:05:21Mercedes is still on the table.
- 1:05:22We're not sure what's going on there.
- 1:05:24Maybe they're gonna exit stage right with Volkswagen and all that kind of stuff.
- 1:05:27But we were kind of speculating as to why Volvo and not Polestar.
- 1:05:32It sort of didn't add up, and it didn't make sense, and it dawned
- 1:05:35on me after the episode why Volvo, why they would keep Volvo around.
- 1:05:40You know what it has to do with?
- 1:05:41It has nothing to do with the cars.
- 1:05:44It has 100% to do with the trucking industry.
- 1:05:48I had this light bulb moment.
- 1:05:50Volvo semi trucks, that's what it is.
- 1:05:53Because the trucking industry relies on Volvo, and Volvo heavy equipment, you
- 1:05:57know, big stuff like JCB-sized stuff or earth movers and stuff like that.
- 1:06:01Polestar isn't in that market.
- 1:06:02It's easy to get rid of the cars and an EV that isn't, uh, is
- 1:06:05underperforming and underselling.
- 1:06:07Who cares?
- 1:06:08But it's harder to get rid of Volvo because of where they've implanted
- 1:06:12themselves in our infrastructure.
- 1:06:14Getting rid of Volvo would have a huge impact.
- 1:06:17And I'm not saying that Freightliner or International or Mack couldn't
- 1:06:20step up to the plate, but there's a lot of Volvo semis.
- 1:06:24When you start paying attention, there's a ton of them on the road.
- 1:06:27Are you saying they're too big to deport?
- 1:06:29Uh, yeah.
- 1:06:30Instead of too big to fail?
- 1:06:32We'll forgive some Chinese ownership to keep Volvo semi trucks on the road.
- 1:06:35And by the way, they're extremely popular in the racing paddock.
- 1:06:40If you were to walk up and down an IMSA paddock, a lot of those race
- 1:06:43cars are towed by Volvo trucks.
- 1:06:45It, it, it affects us deeply on the motorsport side of the house.
- 1:06:48All right.
- 1:06:49So Brad, I know your favorite section of the Drive Thru is always lost and
- 1:06:53found, and you found that Ultima for us.
- 1:06:55I mean, what a great deal that was.
- 1:06:56I found something for you this month.
- 1:06:59Oh my God.
- 1:07:00How about a 1998 Cybertruck?
- 1:07:03And you might say to yourself, "1998?
- 1:07:05Wait, wait, but, but Tesla wasn't even around in 1998."
- 1:07:09This is the Plybertruck- What?
- 1:07:10… and then some.
- 1:07:11Look at… This is- Oh, my God … like a Ford van at one point.
- 1:07:13What?
- 1:07:14Yeah.
- 1:07:15Did Daniel build this?
- 1:07:19This thing is awesome.
- 1:07:20What are you talking about?
- 1:07:22Look at that craftsmanship.
- 1:07:23I bet those windshield wipers even work.
- 1:07:25It looks like it might not leak.
- 1:07:27Oh, my God.
- 1:07:27What is this built on?
- 1:07:29I think it's a Ford Econoline.
- 1:07:31I don't know.
- 1:07:32The front end is screaming Dodge Dakota to me, or Mazda B2000
- 1:07:38or 200- whatever the truck was.
- 1:07:39It's gotta be beefier than that because these are six-bolt wheels, so
- 1:07:43those little trucks weren't six-bolt.
- 1:07:45That's true.
- 1:07:45This looks like a Ford 'cause it's got a short nose, so it's gotta be a
- 1:07:48van that they cut, and they took the roof of the van and slammed it down.
- 1:07:53Where's the- where's the original post?
- 1:07:55It was on Facebook.
- 1:07:571998 Cybertruck, McDonough, Georgia, $5,800.
- 1:08:01I have more, more details.
- 1:08:03Oh, do you?
- 1:08:03Yes.
- 1:08:05Again, thanks to Gemini.
- 1:08:06I'm, I'm just plugging Gemini here and there.
- 1:08:08Uh-huh.
- 1:08:09It is a 1998 Mitsubishi L200.
- 1:08:15I didn't even know that was a thing.
- 1:08:16And it has 225,000 miles.
- 1:08:20I love it.
- 1:08:20I don't know if I've ever seen one of these in the States.
- 1:08:23Every time I try to click on one of these, it tells me it's, like, a bad site.
- 1:08:26You know, "You're gonna get a virus by clicking on this picture," kind of thing.
- 1:08:29Very ugly truck, but it is a truck.
- 1:08:33Well, there you have it.
- 1:08:34It's a funky, funky little truck.
- 1:08:36Yeah, okay.
- 1:08:37It's like these hard body Mitsubishis from back in the day.
- 1:08:40I don't know that I've ever seen one of these.
- 1:08:42All right.
- 1:08:43Well, there you go.
- 1:08:43The more you know.
- 1:08:44Do-do-do-do.
- 1:08:46So would you buy this or a Nissan Altima?
- 1:08:49See, I think I'd take that $45,000 you, you lent me earlier
- 1:08:53to buy a Tiguan or a BMW.
- 1:08:54I'd buy this.
- 1:08:56Tanya's dying.
- 1:08:57No, sorry.
- 1:08:58I'm watching something and I'm, I'm trying to decide if,
- 1:09:01if I'm gonna share this later.
- 1:09:04Please do.
- 1:09:05This is NSFW.
- 1:09:07Oh, boy.
- 1:09:07It's gonna be a good one.
- 1:09:09Well, speaking of NSFW, how about this?
- 1:09:11I love this picture.
- 1:09:12I kept this only because of the picture.
- 1:09:14Look at this, Tanya.
- 1:09:19Oh, God.
- 1:09:21This is my favorite thing of AI.
- 1:09:24This is like the Spider-Man meme where they're all pointing at each other.
- 1:09:27It's just Elons hugging each other and handshaking.
- 1:09:30This is the best thing I've ever seen.
- 1:09:32This is so great.
- 1:09:33But in all seriousness, Elon hints at Tesla, SpaceX merger.
- 1:09:39Is that even really a merger?
- 1:09:41I mean, to the point of the picture, when it's all the same owner?
- 1:09:44I know.
- 1:09:44I mean, this is the sort of buffoonery when you have that
- 1:09:47kind of money that you can do.
- 1:09:48You know what I mean?
- 1:09:49Yep.
- 1:09:50All right.
- 1:09:50Well, my expectations are thoroughly lowered, but I also think at the same
- 1:09:55time I found the cause of global warming.
- 1:09:59Just take a look at this video.
- 1:10:00What is the fascination, what is the point of running your exhaust through
- 1:10:05your hood and then blowing smoke- So that the rest of us can't have
- 1:10:09nice things … Is that what it is?
- 1:10:11Yes.
- 1:10:11Just wait, look at th- look at this.
- 1:10:13Look.
- 1:10:14So the rest of us can't have nice things.
- 1:10:16It looks like a factory in Gary, Indiana.
- 1:10:18Look at this.
- 1:10:19So stupid.
- 1:10:21And when you drive down the road with your exhaust in front of your
- 1:10:24windshield- What the hell do you see?
- 1:10:26You're smoke screening yourself … and if you happen to open your sunroof or
- 1:10:30your passenger window, exhaust is meant to exhaust behind the driver, right?
- 1:10:34Yeah, into somebody else's mouth, not your own.
- 1:10:38It would be funny, though, if it had one of those little
- 1:10:40flappers like a tractor, you know?
- 1:10:42I'm talking with the boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop,
- 1:10:43boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.
- 1:10:44That's ridiculous.
- 1:10:46And that stack is, like, six inches easily.
- 1:10:49I don't get it.
- 1:10:50Well, with that said, I guess it's time for Florida Man.
- 1:10:54Oh, no.
- 1:10:55Are we there already?
- 1:10:56We are there already.
- 1:11:13Here we go Tanya, before you take us on a trip around the United States and maybe
- 1:11:18around the world Big is on the journey … around the world, I brought you one.
- 1:11:21Found this very interesting.
- 1:11:22Where in the world is Florida man?
- 1:11:26Montana is where we're going.
- 1:11:28Ooh.
- 1:11:28To the most pulled over man in the United States.
- 1:11:33He drives a giant banana.
- 1:11:35Ooh.
- 1:11:36Good Lord.
- 1:11:39A 23-foot long banana with the license plate split.
- 1:11:44Oh.
- 1:11:45Come on.
- 1:11:45That's dad jokes and then some.
- 1:11:48Look at this thing.
- 1:11:49But why does he keep getting pulled over?
- 1:11:51I mean, wouldn't you wanna pull over a 23-foot long banana?
- 1:11:54No.
- 1:11:54Why not?
- 1:11:55The last time he was pulled over was for an issue with his license plate.
- 1:11:59Here's a quote from the police officer.
- 1:12:01"We've stopped speeders, distracted drivers, and even a few unusual vehicles,
- 1:12:06but this one definitely stands out.
- 1:12:07The big banana car was stopped cruising near Billings, Montana today.
- 1:12:11While it may be appealing,"
- 1:12:15"traffic laws still apply to fruit.
- 1:12:18Safe travels, Montana."
- 1:12:21Used to be a Ford F-150.
- 1:12:23That's, that's legit But look at the joy that it brings.
- 1:12:27The big banana.
- 1:12:28B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
- 1:12:30Oh my God.
- 1:12:31All right, what do you got for us?
- 1:12:32Well, there's been some weather down in, uh, in Texas.
- 1:12:37This looks like your old neighborhood.
- 1:12:39Well, every neighborhood looks like… No, it does not.
- 1:12:41But a Houston area driver gets creative to avoid the floodwaters.
- 1:12:45Just wait for it.
- 1:12:50I mean, ha.
- 1:12:51I don't see a problem.
- 1:12:52I mean, Mercedes can't get wet.
- 1:12:55I mean, good for him.
- 1:12:56Wow.
- 1:12:57Wow, look at that.
- 1:13:00I mean, eventually he has to get down in it, but you know.
- 1:13:03He avoided a good portion of it.
- 1:13:04There's enough news that tells you to turn around, don't drown.
- 1:13:09But, you know?
- 1:13:10Look at that Altima coming through, or was that a Passat?
- 1:13:13That's a Volkswagen.
- 1:13:14Oh yeah, it's a Jetta.
- 1:13:15Can't tell the difference, they're all the same.
- 1:13:17I mean, these people should not be driving through that, but hey.
- 1:13:21Where's the Tesla dead in the middle of this water?
- 1:13:24That's what I wanna see.
- 1:13:25Oh, God.
- 1:13:26And she's just standing there like it's nothing happening.
- 1:13:29Oh, it's another Tuesday in a storm.
- 1:13:31Texas, where are we going next?
- 1:13:33Now we're going to Missouri.
- 1:13:35Oh, boy.
- 1:13:35And this one, this is, like you gotta get to the video.
- 1:13:38Boy.
- 1:13:39You gotta get to the video.
- 1:13:40Car's rolling, he's getting pulled over.
- 1:13:42He jumps out, the car's still rolling.
- 1:13:43Whoop, yes.
- 1:13:44Yes.
- 1:13:47Oh, man.
- 1:13:48That guy gets a 10.
- 1:13:49That's like an Olympic dive.
- 1:13:51Holy crap.
- 1:13:52Wow.
- 1:13:54And his name is Gavin Thor Lundgren.
- 1:13:59And look at this.
- 1:14:00Boom.
- 1:14:00Whoop.
- 1:14:02He doesn't even know if there's water down there.
- 1:14:05He just- Would you jump off a bridge?
- 1:14:07Obviously this guy does.
- 1:14:09If everybody else is doing it.
- 1:14:10I'm sure he was on something.
- 1:14:15Boom.
- 1:14:16Bloop, bloop, bloop, like I'm pretending I'm a dolphin.
- 1:14:18Bloop.
- 1:14:20That's awesome.
- 1:14:21But they did find him.
- 1:14:22So obviously he survived, 'cause they caught him, right?
- 1:14:25They did catch him.
- 1:14:25Of course.
- 1:14:26They did apprehend him.
- 1:14:26Because they always do.
- 1:14:27The French judge only gave him seven points.
- 1:14:29I gave him an 11 to make up the difference.
- 1:14:31That was a great dive.
- 1:14:33That was amazing.
- 1:14:34So this next one is also in, all the rest of these are in Florida.
- 1:14:37Quite frankly, it's been a busy month.
- 1:14:38So this was 4th of July, and this MFer was going down 95.
- 1:14:43Yes.
- 1:14:43And watch, look.
- 1:14:45Watch.
- 1:14:45Do woop, woop, boop.
- 1:14:50Looks like a video game.
- 1:14:52I mean, it's not funny Boom.
- 1:14:54It's not funny, actually Wow.
- 1:14:56Can you imagine if you got hit by a firework?
- 1:14:59Talk about vehicles catching on fire.
- 1:15:02What is he towing behind him?
- 1:15:04Is that, like, hay?
- 1:15:05I don't fucking know.
- 1:15:06Is that a boat?
- 1:15:07It's a boat.
- 1:15:08Well, it's Florida.
- 1:15:08Of course it's a boat.
- 1:15:10Could've been a lawnmower.
- 1:15:11Wow.
- 1:15:13And they were in the helicopter following him for 10 miles.
- 1:15:16He got arrested and charged, so the passenger in the vehicle was arrested
- 1:15:21and charged with shooting a deadly missile from a moving v- vehicle.
- 1:15:27A deadly missile So when you shoot a firework out of your
- 1:15:31car, it is now a deadly missile.
- 1:15:33That's a bit extreme.
- 1:15:34I mean, it's not a Tomahawk or a Scud or something like … I
- 1:15:37mean, come on, deadly missile.
- 1:15:39Hey, people get seriously injured every 4th of July setting off firework.
- 1:15:43Wow.
- 1:15:45They lose body parts.
- 1:15:46They get third degree burns.
- 1:15:48Do they lose brain cells too?
- 1:15:51They didn't have many to begin with.
- 1:15:53I mean, this is actually a serious thing.
- 1:15:54I mean, if that hits somebody's car, can you imagine?
- 1:15:58You just set something that's fire into, like, if it hit somebody's
- 1:16:02car, you could, you could explode it.
- 1:16:04Imagine if it hit an EV.
- 1:16:06Again, a Tesla.
- 1:16:06That's what I'm saying.
- 1:16:08Like, bad things could have happened.
- 1:16:10Okay.
- 1:16:10Yeah, so this one's great too.
- 1:16:12So Florida Man, they pull him over 'cause he's crashed into the side of a building.
- 1:16:18Of course, he's not wearing a shirt because why would you be wearing a shirt?
- 1:16:21Hold, hold on, hold on a sec. Hold on.
- 1:16:22Wait, wait, wait.
- 1:16:23Brad, you gotta be th- why do these two look like they're posing for a dating app?
- 1:16:27Like, what is happening in this picture?
- 1:16:29It's the, it's the SNL skit, the ambiguously gay duo.
- 1:16:36All right, keep going.
- 1:16:37"Nah, I, I wasn't driving.
- 1:16:38Not my car." That's, "The, the drugs aren't mine, officer." "I'm not with
- 1:16:42them, Superman." And then it's, "It was the car's alignment's fault." What?
- 1:16:47"The alignment was off, and-" Oh, okay … "and I hit the building." Yep.
- 1:16:51And then it was, "Well, I had two shots that night." And then, "Well, see,
- 1:16:57I'm not great at math, so counting drinks isn't really my strong suit."
- 1:17:01So it was the car's alignment and his poor math skills.
- 1:17:04This reminds me of the lady, did you see that article of the lady
- 1:17:08in New Mexico that drove into the side of a building because it
- 1:17:11was the mural of, like, a tunnel?
- 1:17:13Like, kind of like Looney Tunes.
- 1:17:15So she turned and drove into the building and just, like, crashed into it.
- 1:17:18It was pretty hilarious, actually.
- 1:17:20Maybe her alignment was off too, or maybe her math skills weren't that great.
- 1:17:24Good God.
- 1:17:25This last one.
- 1:17:26What do we got?
- 1:17:26Another Fl- man, you're racking up Florida Man this month.
- 1:17:29This last one, however, I recommend not to sh- please watch it first by yourself.
- 1:17:37It, there is explicit shit in it.
- 1:17:39You kinda gotta watch it the whole way through.
- 1:17:41It's gonna, like, catch you off guard the first thing, but if you watch the
- 1:17:45whole thing through and then he circles back to it at the end, then you're like,
- 1:17:48"Oh, my God." So he's in the cop car.
- 1:17:51You have to be listening to the cop.
- 1:17:53What is he doing?
- 1:17:54Did he just…
- 1:17:55What was that?
- 1:18:02What?
- 1:18:03Apparently, this guy was apprehended for driving on a suspended license, and he
- 1:18:09was on his way to his court-ordered drug class- Oh, no … um, because of that.
- 1:18:14Apparently he had something called a Whizzinator.
- 1:18:19Which is a fake bladder- Oh my goodness … with I don't know what liquid in it,
- 1:18:24and then it's wired to a heating pad with a faux pizzle connected to it- Wow.
- 1:18:32Okay … to make it convincing.
- 1:18:34Did Snoop Dogg come up with this?
- 1:18:35The, the, the Wizzle, the Whizzinator and the Wizzle?
- 1:18:38The Wizzle.
- 1:18:39This is this news recording's polite way of- Uh-huh, uh-huh
- 1:18:43of saying it.
- 1:18:44Uh-huh.
- 1:18:44Uh-huh.
- 1:18:45I saw another one where they were more blunt.
- 1:18:47Wow.
- 1:18:48Yeah.
- 1:18:49Yeah.
- 1:18:50So needless to say, the guy's in the back of the cop car.
- 1:18:52He pulls something out of his pants discreetly, he's being videoed by
- 1:18:57the onboard footage the whole time.
- 1:18:59Chucks it across the seat, it falls in between the door and, like, the seat.
- 1:19:03The cop comes around, opens the door.
- 1:19:05He's like, "What the hell is this?" "I don't know." "What do you mean?
- 1:19:08What's what?" "I don't know what that is.
- 1:19:10I don't know where it came from." He's like, "Bull-fucking-shit."
- 1:19:12It's the Whizzinator.
- 1:19:14He's like, "Bullshit, I clean this car every day. I know what's in
- 1:19:16this car. You just threw a pee bag."
- 1:19:21Wow.
- 1:19:22Ah.
- 1:19:22Wow.
- 1:19:23Florida.
- 1:19:24Florida.
- 1:19:25God.
- 1:19:26I hope that person gets the help they need.
- 1:19:28You know, ugh.
- 1:19:31Well, with that, it's time we go behind the pit wall to
- 1:19:35check out your sports news.
- 1:19:38Ooh.
- 1:19:39I didn't post about this, but you found it yourself.
- 1:19:42I did.
- 1:19:42Tom Cruise officially says Days of Thunder sequel moving forward.
- 1:19:48Paramount has- Well- … apparently green-lit it.
- 1:19:50Tom Cruise will reprise the role of Cole Trickle, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
- 1:19:53and you know, all this kind of stuff.
- 1:19:55Jerry Bruckheimer's coming back.
- 1:19:56I mean, they're gonna try to bring back, I guess, as much of
- 1:19:58the original cast as possible.
- 1:20:00Well, okay, hold on.
- 1:20:01We're gonna bring back as much of the original cast as possible.
- 1:20:04May he rest in peace- Yes … will not be there.
- 1:20:07Do we really think Nicole Kidman's coming back?
- 1:20:10They said as much as possible, you see.
- 1:20:13Because then I wanna be like, "Who's left of the cast?" John
- 1:20:17C. Reilly, he'll come back.
- 1:20:18He will, but he wasn't really huge, so other than if they
- 1:20:24don't get Mike Rooker back.
- 1:20:26But wasn't John C.
- 1:20:27Reilly Duval's son or something like that?
- 1:20:30So he would take- No … over for the fact that Du- or he was, he was Duval's,
- 1:20:33like, second in command, so he would take over for Duval since Duval's gone.
- 1:20:37I guess he could.
- 1:20:38They could bring back Carl You- Use, I guess.
- 1:20:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:20:43I don't know.
- 1:20:43We'll see.
- 1:20:43Anyway, continue.
- 1:20:45Basically, the long and the short is the sequel is in development,
- 1:20:48reported to include research on the modern NASCAR world, bringing it
- 1:20:52into t- you know, 2026 and beyond.
- 1:20:54And Jeff Gordon has expressed interest in being part of the movie, so there you go.
- 1:20:58Boom.
- 1:20:58Good.
- 1:20:59I'll watch it.
- 1:21:00Moving on from NASCAR- Our, I just wanna point out, we had our
- 1:21:04first Voices of Endurance episode.
- 1:21:06We called it Saving Sebring.
- 1:21:07It was with Charles Mendez and Dave Cowart, and if you haven't
- 1:21:11watched it, check it out.
- 1:21:12It's available on Patreon right now.
- 1:21:14The remastered version will not be out for a while, but it's super cool.
- 1:21:16Charles came on and did his Le Mans story when we were still running Evening
- 1:21:20with a Legend, and Dave Cowart is the guy who won the GTO Championship in
- 1:21:25the famous red lobster BMW M1 back in the s- late '70s, early '80s.
- 1:21:30So really cool to hear their take, their part in keeping Sebring alive during
- 1:21:35one of its darkest times, basically setting it onto the path that it is
- 1:21:38on today, which is very, very cool.
- 1:21:40So interesting story there.
- 1:21:41I do wanna talk about virtual stuff for just a moment, because
- 1:21:45I bellyached for a long time.
- 1:21:48It was Assetto Corsa's fault.
- 1:21:48It was Assetto Corsa's fault.
- 1:21:51Transmission in the F40 is fragile and blah, blah, blah,
- 1:21:54all this stuff, remember?
- 1:21:54I've been bellyaching about it for a while, right?
- 1:21:57Well, it turns out this hunk of junk is the real problem with my setup My Moza
- 1:22:05HGP shifter finally gave up the goat.
- 1:22:08Once it started to rear its ugly head with the same issues in other software
- 1:22:12where it had never had the problem before, I decided to put it to the side.
- 1:22:15I gave David Middleton a call at MIE Racing and said, "What do I do next?"
- 1:22:19And he said, "You go get yourself a Simagic." And I was like, "Ooh," and
- 1:22:23I did exactly that, which I can buy off the shelf at Micro Center, and
- 1:22:27Micro Center price-matched with the manufacturer, so shout-out to them.
- 1:22:30I saved a bunch of money because the manufacturer was running a promotion.
- 1:22:33They matched the price.
- 1:22:35You still had to pay tax, but I didn't have to worry about the shipping,
- 1:22:38'cause the new shifter's super heavy.
- 1:22:39But it's very, very nice.
- 1:22:40Adjustable feedback as well, and it can be an H pattern or a sequential,
- 1:22:44so very, very happy with it.
- 1:22:46D- different build, because the old one was basically little micro switches, so
- 1:22:50every time the shifter would hit a micro switch, it would tell it what to do.
- 1:22:53The new one uses a Hall sensor, so it's all magnetic, and it's very, very precise.
- 1:22:58It's really, really nice.
- 1:22:59I'm very happy with doing that.
- 1:23:00I should've probably switched to it a long time ago.
- 1:23:02But I will say, been using the sim more to practice and, you know, sit
- 1:23:07down for a couple hours at a time, just racing Road Atlanta or Mid-Ohio,
- 1:23:11whatever it is, kind of getting ready.
- 1:23:13I mean, it's not the same as endurance racing, but you gotta get
- 1:23:15yourself in the mindset of staying focused for a couple hours at a
- 1:23:18time when you're behind the wheel.
- 1:23:19So I've had zero issues, been able to run the sim for hours on end, and it's been
- 1:23:24absolutely fantastic, so can't say enough good things about the Simagic there.
- 1:23:28Your initial complaint was about the programming for the actual F40 race car.
- 1:23:34Yes.
- 1:23:35Do you still have the same problems?
- 1:23:37The F40 is still a little fragile, but can make it to the end of
- 1:23:41a race without it blowing up.
- 1:23:42I haven't tried to drive the F40 for an hour.
- 1:23:45I've actually been driving the Hyundai i30, which is… it's
- 1:23:49not necessarily a Veloster.
- 1:23:51It's, like, the one that they didn't sell here, because I wanted
- 1:23:53something that was a hot hatch, similar power to a Focus, kind of,
- 1:23:56you know, to just be more realistic, even though a Focus isn't available.
- 1:24:00So I haven't gone back.
- 1:24:01I've done some sprints with the F40, and it's been fine.
- 1:24:04You can still hear it every now and again, where it's like, and you're
- 1:24:07like, "Oh, come on," you know?
- 1:24:08So there's a little bit of calibration there that you can still do and can
- 1:24:12tweak all that stuff, but six of one.
- 1:24:15So here's something I found interesting.
- 1:24:17The Goodwood Road Racing Club of America.
- 1:24:20Just feels like an oxymoron saying it.
- 1:24:22Say it again.
- 1:24:23The Goodwood Road Racing Club of America.
- 1:24:26You can become a member starting in January, and it's based out of California.
- 1:24:31It's all about road racing in the style of Goodwood.
- 1:24:36I get it, but I don't get it.
- 1:24:37Pose a que- become a member of the Goodwood Road Racing Club or
- 1:24:40become a member of Enduroverse?
- 1:24:41What do you think?
- 1:24:42I guess it would come down to cost for me, cost and benefits.
- 1:24:45Enduroverse is one of our sponsors, so it'd be, uh, ideal.
- 1:24:48I choose Enduroverse.
- 1:24:51I think that would be a great option.
- 1:24:53You know, vintage racing isn't always what it's cracked up to be.
- 1:24:56I will say this is NSFW, sort of like Tanya's thing.
- 1:24:59I don't know if you guys watch this, but check this out.
- 1:25:02There are some vintage cars I just will not find myself ever in.
- 1:25:06Ooh, did he die?
- 1:25:08I don't know how he survived.
- 1:25:10I guess he did survive.
- 1:25:11This isn't a video game.
- 1:25:12This is Goodwood.
- 1:25:13This is not AI.
- 1:25:15So white helmet, l- it's this car right here, whatever this Alfa Romeo is or
- 1:25:19Formula Junior or something like that.
- 1:25:21So here he is, white helmet guy.
- 1:25:22Goes off backwards, hits the wall, and gets flung out of the car like a rag doll.
- 1:25:26Oh, man.
- 1:25:28Yeah.
- 1:25:28Brutal.
- 1:25:29And sent back almost completely across the track.
- 1:25:32There he is, white helmet, walking around.
- 1:25:34He's, he's concussed.
- 1:25:36He's dazed.
- 1:25:36He doesn't know anything.
- 1:25:37He's running off pure adrenaline right there.
- 1:25:39I'm amazed he didn't snap his neck.
- 1:25:42Absolutely unreal.
- 1:25:43But I don't know about you guys, there are no cars that scare
- 1:25:46me, but these cars scare me.
- 1:25:48I don't think I could run and operate these kinds of cars at speed.
- 1:25:52I'm sorry.
- 1:25:52Like, there's risk and then there's that.
- 1:25:54Those are just foolish.
- 1:25:55No, I, I'm good.
- 1:25:58Oof.
- 1:25:58No, thank you.
- 1:25:59That being said, our motorsports news is brought to you in part by Enduroverse,
- 1:26:03powered by Hyperdev, America's premier endurance racing community.
- 1:26:07So check it out online and become a member at Enduroverse.com.
- 1:26:12So if you're not quite ready to hit the track, don't forget that you can
- 1:26:15find tons of upcoming local shows and events at ultimate reference for car
- 1:26:19enthusiasts, collectorcarguide.net.
- 1:26:22If you're hearing us for the first time, be sure to jump back into our podcast
- 1:26:25catalog and check out other programs we offer, like The Ferrari Marketplace,
- 1:26:29The Motoring Historian, Voices of Endurance, Automotive History Live, The
- 1:26:34Racers Roundtable, Formula Fanatics, BreakFix, and of course, The Drive Thru.
- 1:26:39And if you enjoy our various podcasts, there's a great way for you to
- 1:26:42support our creators on the MPN.
- 1:26:45There's tons of extras and bonuses to explore on our updated Patreon page.
- 1:26:49Learn more about our bonus and behind-the-scenes content, get early
- 1:26:52access to upcoming episodes, or support our 24 Hours of Lemons team when you
- 1:26:57consider becoming a BreakFix VIP by visiting patreon.com/gtmotorsports.
- 1:27:04As always, we would like to thank our co-host and executive producer, Tanya,
- 1:27:09and all the fans, friends, and family who support Grand Touring Motorsports,
- 1:27:14as well as the Motoring Podcast Network.
- 1:27:16Without you, none of this would be possible.
- 1:27:20No outro?
- 1:27:21Outro.
- 1:27:24There it is.
- 1:27:27Brad, w- you missed an opportunity last month because you no longer
- 1:27:30announce the episode numbers.
- 1:27:32I don't?
- 1:27:33You, no, you, you don't, you haven't done that since, for a while.
- 1:27:37Oh.
- 1:27:38Do you even know what episode this one is?
- 1:27:40I thought, I thought I did last month, though.
- 1:27:42But you didn't.
- 1:27:43I thought I said, "Welcome to Drive Thru Number 69." No, you missed
- 1:27:47every opportunity to take a crack.
- 1:27:49I'm pretty sure I actually said that.
- 1:27:51Nah, nah, nah, nah.
- 1:27:52I'm pretty sure you cut it out.
- 1:27:53You, you, you cut it out.
- 1:27:55Oh, wow, we went Dave Coulier on this, wow.
- 1:27:58Yes, we did.
- 1:27:59Cut it out.
- 1:28:02Everywhere you go.
- 1:28:04Number 70.
- 1:28:05Can you believe we have 70 news episodes?
- 1:28:07It would actually be 72 if we hadn't missed two months out of the last
- 1:28:12six years, but that's more than some podcasts have by themselves.
- 1:28:16We have 70 news episodes.
- 1:28:19This is certainly longer than I thought we would be going.
- 1:28:21Hey.
- 1:28:22Hey, now.
- 1:28:22Hey, now.
- 1:28:23Hey.
- 1:28:23It's only up from here, my man.
- 1:28:23It's only up from here.
- 1:28:25If only we had 70 listeners.
- 1:28:30We have, we, we actually have a lot more than 70 Arbitron-rated listeners.
- 1:28:35We're doing better than- It does not count if you listen
- 1:28:37to it 70 times during editing.
- 1:28:40I gotta do something when I'm on my walks.
- 1:28:55The Drive Thru is our monthly news episode and is sponsored in part by organizations
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- 1:29:03Exotic Car Marketplace, and many others.
- 1:29:05If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of The Drive Thru, look no
- 1:29:08further than www.motoringpodcast.net.
- 1:29:12Click About and then Advertising.
- 1:29:14Thank you again to everyone that supports the Motoring Podcast Network, Grand
- 1:29:18Touring Motorsports, our podcast Brake Fix, and all the other services we provide