Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / The Man, The Myth... and the little blue Miata

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The Man, The Myth... and the little blue Miata · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  Grand Touring Motorsports started as a social group of car enthusiasts,
• 0:04
  but we've expanded into all sorts of motorsports disciplines, and we
• 0:08
  want to share our stories with you.
• 0:10
  Years of racing, wrenching, and motorsports experience brings
• 0:13
  together a top notch collection of knowledge and information
• 0:17
  through our podcast, Brake Fix.
• 0:22
  But before we get into it, I'd like to introduce our
• 0:25
  newcomer to the show, Rob Lors.
• 0:27
  Well, we got eight o'clock on the dot is what I see on my clock.
• 0:30
  Bum, bum, bum.
• 0:31
  That's great, Rob.
• 0:32
  We can't hear you.
• 0:33
  Rob,
• 0:42
  in this Pit Stop episode, we're going to get.
• 0:45
  The rest of the GTM crowd to get to know you a little better.
• 0:48
  And so I think a lot of folks don't realize that you're a second year member.
• 0:53
  You've been around since 2015 and, you know, they see your name pop up
• 0:57
  on slack and other places like that.
• 0:59
  And it's been a minute since you've been out on track and we'll
• 1:01
  get to that a little bit later in the conversation, but you.
• 1:04
  Also have an interesting background as a car enthusiast, lots of knowledge there.
• 1:08
  You've grown up in New England and we'll talk about that as well.
• 1:11
  But you're also part of the reason why we have a fantasy football league in GTM.
• 1:16
  And that's been going on for almost like forever.
• 1:18
  It feels like a lot.
• 1:20
  I think the only GTM event that's longer is the virtual racing league.
• 1:24
  That's true.
• 1:25
  So I guess the first question is, Are you a Pats fan?
• 1:29
  Patriots?
• 1:29
  Oh my god.
• 1:30
  Nothing wrong with Patriots.
• 1:31
  I live in D.
• 1:32
  C.
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  but I grew up in, uh, just outside of Boston, so.
• 1:34
  I was a fan when they sucked, so just to be clear.
• 1:40
  And as people get to know you better and talk, I mean, you
• 1:42
  bring up New England a lot.
• 1:44
  Have you ever thought about going back?
• 1:45
  We've had extensive conversations because of partially COVID of
• 1:49
  moving to like, Vermont, basically.
• 1:51
  Some place where we could ski all the time and go play in the mountains all the time.
• 1:55
  Just, and I was like, if we did that, I'd have a place with a two or three
• 1:57
  car garage and I'd keep it and drive it over to New Hampshire Speedway and over
• 2:00
  to Watkins and Thompson and all those.
• 2:03
  Yeah, yeah.
• 2:03
  Yeah, Thompson's not far and it's a I think a four hour drive to, um,
• 2:07
  to Palmer, like club motorsport.
• 2:09
  Yeah.
• 2:09
  You got some stuff up there.
• 2:10
  A bunch of tracks.
• 2:11
  There's a lot of tracks I can get to from there if we did something like that.
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  But I mean, yeah, that she'd have to find a new job is the problem.
• 2:18
  There's no jobs in Vermont and the coast guard.
• 2:21
  Yeah.
• 2:22
  Yeah.
• 2:23
  Right up there is like.
• 2:24
  The one 80 year old guy who's, you know, an ex captain of the planet type of thing.
• 2:29
  So as we kind of already alluded to, you're a big sports and football guy.
• 2:33
  So I think it's important that we talk a little bit about your
• 2:36
  crazy drafts and things like that.
• 2:39
  And before we really dive deep into your motor sports and car background.
• 2:44
  So let's talk about that for a second.
• 2:45
  So one of the ridiculous dynasty leagues I'm in.
• 2:48
  is 48 teams, and it's a, and it's a dual copy league, so there's two of everybody,
• 2:54
  and there are 42 rounds of the draft, because it's also, it's also devi, which
• 2:59
  means you can draft college players and sit on a taxi squad until they get to
• 3:03
  the NFL, and so, we started the draft, like, three weeks ago, I think, we're on,
• 3:08
  like, round 30, we still have, like, 12 rounds to go, and we're, we're starting
• 3:12
  to get into the, like, the, I don't know who these people are, sort of category.
• 3:16
  Like, I don't know these names anymore.
• 3:18
  Wow.
• 3:19
  I thought, I think the best draft we had was when Rob paid somebody.
• 3:26
  My god, that was awesome.
• 3:27
  I didn't, I didn't pay him, but he sucked.
• 3:30
  He did.
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  He was terrible.
• 3:31
  I hope you got your money back for that.
• 3:33
  Exactly.
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  You ended up as a toilet bowl, I think, with with that team.
• 3:39
  That was pretty funny.
• 3:40
  It's like, I got my substitute drafter, like, Okay.
• 3:43
  You'd have been better off with Autodraft.
• 3:46
  Well, now that we've covered football, Brad, I think it's time we probably
• 3:49
  ask some of those hard hitting questions, like Best car of all time?
• 3:53
  I feel like that's gonna require more thought than a quick response.
• 3:55
  Yeah, it depends on what the requirements are.
• 3:57
  Alright, alright, alright.
• 3:58
  Number one poster on your wall as a kid.
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  959.
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  The other car that was always on my wall was the Lotus Esprit Turbo.
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  Nice.
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  But I got a chance to drive one.
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  Like I almost bought one.
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  There was one like at like Criswell or something in Tyson's
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  Corner and it was like on sale.
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  I went to go drive it and like I couldn't fit in it.
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  Like I got behind a wheel and I was physically unable to drive it and
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  literally like my childhood dreams shattered because it was one of
• 4:21
  the two main poster cars for me.
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  And I was like I'm in a position I just got my first tech job and
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  it was like sort of the NFL thing.
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  I was like I could actually own a Lotus Esprit Turbo and I get it and I'm like,
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  but I wouldn't be able to drive it.
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  And like everything just crashed.
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  I was like, God damn it.
• 4:36
  This is the, this is the earliest Esprit Turbo then.
• 4:39
  Yeah.
• 4:39
  This is the earlier one.
• 4:40
  I just, I couldn't fit it at all.
• 4:41
  Yeah.
• 4:42
  I, I, I didn't like the V1 and I can't fit in that one either very well.
• 4:47
  Like same thing with the NSX.
• 4:48
  I don't fit very well in an NSX.
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  Like it's, my knees are too high in the steering wheel.
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  It just doesn't, it's not, it doesn't work.
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  For me, it's all, there's only been ever one car.
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  There was.
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  Really up on my wall that I just drooled over constantly.
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  And that is, I know what it is.
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  Do you?
• 5:04
  Yeah.
• 5:06
  The F40.
• 5:07
  Yeah.
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  I think because, because my dad was German, I grew up with like
• 5:10
  the 959 was the pinnacle that like my dad's got a 1980 SC.
• 5:14
  I think it's phenomenal looking.
• 5:17
  Um, just the way the lines, the way the lines look from the driver's
• 5:20
  seat are, like, one of the few cars that's beautiful from the driver's
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  seat, just the way the haunches go.
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  I mean, I had F40s and Koontox and stuff, like, on the walls, but, like, the 959 was
• 5:30
  the one that was the The, the noticeable one and like for, for attractiveness,
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  the Lotus was the second one.
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  It was the nine, nine for the two.
• 5:37
  Well, the 9 59 was the F Forty's rival there for quite a long time.
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  So I mean, it was everybody's rival.
• 5:42
  It became like the, the Kosh rival too.
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  And then it was like the DIA's rival as well.
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  Like, it just sort of just stayed as like the rival.
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  Like I remember being at the, what's it called?
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  The, whatever the, the museum is in Boston, the, the Museum of Transportation.
• 5:56
  There.
• 5:57
  And I was there with my dad for like a Ferrari show.
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  We were just looking at everybody's Ferraris and like, you know, you
• 6:02
  name a Ferrari, it was there.
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  It was, you know, everybody brought up their best stuff.
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  And then this 90 year old guy, and I think I told some of you guys
• 6:09
  a story in person before drives in in a Countach, like a mint.
• 6:13
  Koontash.
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  And every head just, everything stopped.
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  Every conversation, people, you know, pining over this little
• 6:19
  stitching in their Ferrari, etc.
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  Everything just stops as they just watch this thing rumble down the street to
• 6:26
  come in, because it just had a different level of presence than anything else.
• 6:30
  It was just, and the guy who got it, I guess, was somebody who had driven
• 6:33
  nothing other than, you know, whatever, Honda Accords for his whole life.
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  Right.
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  When he retired at age 68, bought his first Ferrari.
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  And then every three years would get rid of that Ferrari
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  and buy a different Ferrari.
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  Cause he was like, that's what he wanted to do.
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  And he was like, I think it'd be 92, 93 years old.
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  I forget.
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  Whatever age he got to, he finally switched and got a Countach.
• 6:54
  And so he brought it in.
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  And it was one of those, the guy took five minutes, no joke to get out of the car.
• 6:59
  It was like, yeah, the door went up and he slowly eked his way out of it.
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  I was like, Maybe 16 at the time, and he ended up letting me get
• 7:09
  in it and drive it up and turn it around and drive it back down.
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  It was like my one time I've ever driven anything Lamborghini.
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  But the, the guy was awesome and the guy was like, the jokes he made were awesome.
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  He's like, oh, I wish I had this car 10 years ago.
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  It pulls chicks like nobody's business and everyone there was like, you
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  were like 83 years old, 10 years ago.
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  What the hell are you talking about?
• 7:29
  ? Yeah.
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  Right.
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  I just remember the presence though, like the, in a world of Ferrari, I mean there
• 7:34
  was a couple of Testarossas there, there was some of the older stuff there, there
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  was, uh, uh, an F, uh, a 512 Scalietti, I mean there were some beautiful
• 7:42
  machines there, but everybody just froze just to see a Countach coming in.
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  We just had a different, it was back when, when Lamborghini did nothing but build
• 7:49
  crazy weird angles and edges, and it just, it just was like, Captivating to see.
• 7:54
  Again, it wasn't beautiful, so it doesn't fit that.
• 7:56
  All right, so let's pivot this question into another one.
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  What's the, in your opinion, the best looking car of all time?
• 8:03
  Oh, dang.
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  It doesn't have to necessarily be the best performing car, but
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  just the car that gives you the feels, best looks, best look.
• 8:12
  Most of those newer McLarens are pretty, like, when you see them in
• 8:14
  person, they're pretty gorgeous.
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  Yeah.
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  Like, the amount of, like, they have, they have just the right
• 8:18
  negative space in the right spots.
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  Like, that was it.
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  Union market and there was, uh, just one of the lower level ones, like a, a five,
• 8:25
  whatever it was, five 60 or something.
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  It's just the lower level.
• 8:27
  Just the lower, just the lower level McLaren.
• 8:29
  It wasn't a six was like thousand dollars.
• 8:31
  It was a, yeah, it a budget.
• 8:33
  Budget.
• 8:33
  McLaren.
• 8:34
  I was, I was riveted to it.
• 8:35
  I was like, oh my God, this thing is just gorgeous.
• 8:38
  That was also for a long time in my, my, my pantheon of cars was a, you
• 8:42
  know, uh, a V8 Aston Vantage, just because I finally heard one in a tunnel.
• 8:46
  And it's like, just amazing sounding.
• 8:49
  I mean, that thing just sounds ridiculous.
• 8:52
  Like they knew what they were doing with that.
• 8:54
  I mean, some of those really old, like Delahays and Bugattis though,
• 8:57
  are just a different caliber.
• 9:00
  Yeah, I wouldn't want to drive them, but they are just works of, like, pure works
• 9:04
  of art with nothing else behind them.
• 9:06
  There's some really good looking Packards, too.
• 9:08
  I mean, yeah, all those, yeah, all those.
• 9:09
  I mean, like the, the Clyde Custler, I call them cars, right?
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  The stuff that, uh, Ralph Lauren always, you know, would have a whole show of
• 9:15
  nothing but ridiculously gorgeous cars.
• 9:18
  Hand built, that car is.
• 9:20
  Yeah, it's just ridiculous.
• 9:22
  That's like the Penguin's car from Batman.
• 9:25
  It is, but the lines are just amazing.
• 9:28
  It looks like a Harley with saddlebags.
• 9:33
  Look at that interior though, that's really cool.
• 9:35
  Look at that, it's sexy.
• 9:36
  Look at that!
• 9:38
  Talk about flexing.
• 9:39
  I think that it's just like again a dick tracy car or early batman It's
• 9:45
  a giant penis and it's awesome On a I mean different level of pretty
• 9:53
  Rob, have you ever driven anything that old like back from the 30s?
• 9:57
  Um Not in memory.
• 9:59
  I have not i've driven a couple the most recent one I got a chance to
• 10:03
  drive a 37 packard and I tell you what it was an experience Because
• 10:08
  the mechanics of driving are the same as driving a modern car.
• 10:11
  The problem is, you know, the steering wheel is like four feet around and
• 10:15
  it's like, everything's awkward because the suspension is just like gross.
• 10:19
  And I don't mean gross isn't disgusting.
• 10:21
  I mean, it's like gross motor movements, you know, like big swings rather than
• 10:26
  like fine adjustment that we're used to and you know, that kind of thing.
• 10:29
  So it was a little awkward, but you know, it was, it was interesting.
• 10:32
  They're very soft, you know, they're very comfortable, very luxurious.
• 10:36
  I see the appeal.
• 10:37
  I've had a chance to, yeah, I'd love to, but I think with the oldest
• 10:40
  thing, I mean, I've driven like a 1950s bus, but that's about it.
• 10:45
  Greyhound or?
• 10:48
  No, it was, um, like a 25 passenger thing.
• 10:52
  It was an international, if I remember correctly.
• 10:53
  It was one of those things like UMass had, I drove.
• 10:56
  UMass Transit when I was in school, and so like we got our bus driver's license and
• 11:00
  they had like a couple old ones they used for ceremonial crap or to drive professors
• 11:05
  for a convocation or whatever, and I got to drive one of them, like the thing that
• 11:09
  was sort of in the garage at all times, I got to drive one of those shifts.
• 11:12
  I think it was the mid 50s.
• 11:13
  I think that is the weirdest internship I have ever heard, Robby.
• 11:17
  It was an internship, no, it was the highest paying job
• 11:19
  on campus for underclassmen.
• 11:21
  So all of Western Mass.
• 11:23
  So there's five colleges out there.
• 11:25
  So you have like Holyoke, Hampshire, UMass, Amherst, Amherst College, and
• 11:29
  then, um, the all women's school.
• 11:31
  I can't remember the name of it.
• 11:32
  But that whole five college area, all of sort of Pioneer Valley, as they call it.
• 11:36
  So the, the PVTA, Pioneer Valley Transit Authority, for all the Western
• 11:40
  Mass, was owned by, The same guy who owns Peter Pan and it was stationed
• 11:46
  out of UMass, out of UMass Amherst.
• 11:48
  And so the highest thing, so like I went to school in, in whatever year that was
• 11:52
  like 96, let's say I was in college.
• 11:54
  And it was like 19 bucks an hour to drive school, drive buses once a year.
• 11:57
  And they like, they paid for you to get your license.
• 12:00
  And after I got a license, I became a trainer, which paid like 22
• 12:03
  bucks an hour and you could drive like seven or eight hour shifts.
• 12:06
  And so you've made serious money for a college care.
• 12:09
  I mean, it was like, By far the highest paying job on campus.
• 12:12
  And if you wanted to make more money, every so often the, the guy who ran,
• 12:16
  like they wouldn't, they wouldn't have a driver would call in sick for like the,
• 12:19
  the Peter Pan bus lines down to like New York City and, and sort of back up to
• 12:23
  Worcester and Springfield and everything.
• 12:25
  And so they'd call like, they'd call the shop and they'd be like, Hey.
• 12:28
  Anybody there, uh, free for the next six hours and want to make,
• 12:30
  you know, like a thousand dollars, and we'd be like, oh, we'll do it.
• 12:33
  So we would drive the actual, like, Peter Pan bus line buses with, like, regular,
• 12:37
  like, have to make regular tourist stops and stuff, because we're all,
• 12:39
  you know, we're licensed for them all.
• 12:40
  We all had CDLs, and we had spent our whole time driving buses of that size.
• 12:44
  It was a pretty sweet job, actually, in terms of, like, the We did like,
• 12:49
  we used to do, you'd love this stuff, we used to do, um, uh, bus rodeos,
• 12:53
  which was like ridiculous slalom courses and, uh, like obstacle courses
• 12:58
  and things you had to like work on like three point turns on stuff.
• 13:01
  And the guys who were good were like legit, cause the first time,
• 13:05
  the first time as a bus driver you try to do, uh, a bus driver rodeo
• 13:09
  course, you would hit every cone.
• 13:11
  Like you'd be trying to try to do a slalom and you'd be like, this thing doesn't fit.
• 13:15
  It just doesn't fit.
• 13:17
  And you get somebody who knew what they were doing.
• 13:18
  It'd be like, they just whipped through it.
• 13:21
  And you're like, how did you make it fit?
• 13:23
  This doesn't make sense, but it was super fun.
• 13:26
  But yeah, paid lots of money.
• 13:28
  That's the only reason I did it because it paid a lot of money.
• 13:30
  Cause holy cow, he's autocrossing buses, all sorts of stuff.
• 13:36
  Holy smokes.
• 13:39
  Setting up those courses was weird.
• 13:42
  And then we would do, like, the, the way, when I was a trainer, the
• 13:44
  way we'd kill people, like, so all the buses we drove normally were
• 13:48
  automatics, but everybody had to learn on a full manual transmission, full
• 13:51
  double clutch uh, old school buses.
• 13:54
  And so you'd get these, like, freshman kids who were coming in, like, you know,
• 13:57
  five foot two women who were like, oh, best paying job on campus, I'll try.
• 14:01
  And you'd put them in this big ass school bus with, you know, teaching them.
• 14:04
  They'd never driven stick before and trying to teach them how to double clutch.
• 14:06
  And like by day three, you'd have them on like some hill in the
• 14:09
  middle of like the athletes part of campus where they're trying to
• 14:13
  like go up a hill and not stall it.
• 14:14
  And you'd make them stop every like 10 feet.
• 14:16
  So they have to start again on a hill just so they were comfortable and just
• 14:19
  getting laughed at by all the students.
• 14:20
  It was awesome.
• 14:21
  The kind of crap we did, but.
• 14:23
  So were these front, were these front engine buses or
• 14:26
  rear engine, I'm just curious.
• 14:27
  Both, uh, a little bit of both.
• 14:28
  So the school buses, the school buses were all front engine.
• 14:31
  The, uh, tour buses are all, uh, rear engine.
• 14:34
  They all have the engine underneath the rear seat, like you go to the airport and
• 14:36
  stuff, those kind of shuttles and things.
• 14:38
  Um, but all the school buses were front engine and we had, we had
• 14:41
  like really ancient school buses.
• 14:43
  And then we had like two really nice, like the ones that they Uh, used for
• 14:47
  official campus functions that had like, you know, beautiful colors on
• 14:50
  the side were perfectly maintained.
• 14:52
  And those were actually, those were automatics, but they were just, I
• 14:55
  mean, they're really nice school buses.
• 14:56
  They drove really well.
• 14:57
  Then we had like this old, what year was it?
• 15:00
  It might have been a 60s.
• 15:01
  It wasn't the old 50s, but we had like a 60s, we called the Bug Eye.
• 15:04
  So it had like, the front was these two sort of bulbous windows.
• 15:07
  It was this really old school bus.
• 15:09
  Uh, and we'd all like fight over the chances to take it on shifts.
• 15:12
  And so like we'd be yelling at the, the dispatch guys were all career, You
• 15:15
  know, worked for the transit authority, but they were stationed on the campus.
• 15:18
  So they're used to their drivers changing out every year, basically.
• 15:22
  And we'd all, the main guy was a guy, Glenn, who just retired.
• 15:24
  We'd all be like, Glenn, can we take the bubble bus?
• 15:26
  Like, you'd be like, Oh, I have a shift.
• 15:27
  It's 5 30 in the morning.
• 15:28
  Let me take the bubble bus.
• 15:29
  Cause it's like a little shorter, but it was this ancient thing.
• 15:32
  And like, it just, it shifted beautifully.
• 15:34
  It was to your point, it was like an old bus, but like the
• 15:36
  mechanics were awesome on it.
• 15:38
  It was just, it was actually fun to drive.
• 15:41
  Rob's college adventures are very different than the rest of ours.
• 15:48
  We did silly stuff.
• 15:49
  We drove buses.
• 15:50
  I played ultimate frisbees.
• 15:51
  It's different up there in the colder states.
• 15:54
  Yeah, it is.
• 15:55
  Now that it's been out for a while, what do you guys think of the new Corvette?
• 15:58
  Eh, I think it's like parts of like, I think the previous, the previous one,
• 16:03
  but this one is better looking, I think.
• 16:05
  I don't, and I realize that, and I'm in the, I'm in the minority,
• 16:08
  I feel like, on that opinion.
• 16:09
  But having seen the new one, it just looks like it's trying to copy six other
• 16:13
  types of, of sort of high level cars.
• 16:16
  Whereas the one before, it looked like they were trying to do
• 16:18
  a Corvette, but kind of cool.
• 16:19
  And I'm not normally a Corvette guy per se, but the previous one, I was like,
• 16:24
  I would like, one of those previous Stingrays, the first time I saw one,
• 16:26
  I'm like, I would drive one of those.
• 16:28
  That looks awesome.
• 16:29
  And the new one, and I was like, uh, well, I'd drive the previous one.
• 16:33
  I'd be happier with it, the appearance of it.
• 16:35
  So Rob, growing up in New England, that means as a car enthusiast, you're
• 16:38
  into probably two things, right?
• 16:40
  Swedish cars and wagons.
• 16:43
  Like, my favorite looking wagon of sort of that 2000 or 2000, 2010
• 16:47
  2015 world is the Saab wagons.
• 16:49
  9 5 wagon would be pretty slick.
• 16:51
  Yeah, those 9 5 wagons are really attractive cars, they drive pretty
• 16:54
  well, you could still get them with a stick if you wanted, you don't have to.
• 16:57
  But they had tons of space, they have like, a little bit of the quirkiness
• 17:01
  with the key on the floor and stuff.
• 17:03
  And they drove, drove really well.
• 17:05
  And those Sobwagons are, are, I think, really, really attractive.
• 17:08
  I'm not a big fan of the, the, the, the old, like, 1920s robber headlights.
• 17:13
  It looks like a raccoon on those, those three model Sobs.
• 17:16
  They're weird.
• 17:16
  I thought they were fly cars.
• 17:17
  I like the, uh, uh, I'm trying to look up what years they had those wagons.
• 17:21
  But those, those Sob What, what does fly mean?
• 17:25
  One of my favorite cars in sedan form is the last 9 5 Arrow that they made.
• 17:30
  It's just a slick looking car.
• 17:32
  I had a buddy who bought one of those, um, when he had his first kid and
• 17:36
  like got it like one year old but brand new on the lot sort of thing.
• 17:40
  And with a stick.
• 17:41
  And I was like, if you saw that the next two years, you better
• 17:43
  call me first, phenomenal car.
• 17:46
  He didn't, he still has it and he still loves it, but that's a good looking car.
• 17:49
  I will say the, this, I have worked on a lot of cars over the years and
• 17:53
  I have never used so many expletives.
• 17:57
  As when I work on a Swedish car.
• 17:59
  Well, and it's just one of those things that as good looking as they
• 18:03
  are and whatever, I just can't, right.
• 18:06
  And it's the old ones were so easy to work on though.
• 18:10
  Like I remember driving somewhere where the buddy and an old 900 and like the
• 18:15
  shift Lincoln broke and we nursed it in third gear to some like truck stop and
• 18:20
  bought like literally I think a string.
• 18:23
  A couple things of bubble gum and some paperclips and we rigged up the shifter
• 18:27
  so we could get like three or four of the gears for the rest of the way home
• 18:30
  and we did it from inside the car like you take off one panel and you're like
• 18:34
  there's the whole linkage we'll just fix it I mean it's so easy to work on
• 18:38
  I find it interesting as a car guy But it's definitely more car guy interesting
• 18:43
  than traditional decent looking car.
• 18:45
  So I know for like for my family, we had a Jetta that my wife loved
• 18:49
  and we finally got rid of it and got her a Subaru Outback, which the
• 18:53
  Outbacks are I mean, we love ours and everybody who owns one loves them.
• 18:57
  I mean, there's a reason everybody who has an Outback buys another
• 18:59
  Outback because they're great.
• 19:01
  And just in the last eight months or almost a year, you can get the,
• 19:06
  whatever they call it, the XT model that has the turbocharged motor.
• 19:09
  So instead of dealing with that 178 horsepower, you
• 19:12
  get the 268 horsepower one.
• 19:14
  And it's only like a three or four mile per gallon hit.
• 19:17
  And so it's actually gets out of its own way.
• 19:19
  But the, the one complaint from anyone who's driven one, and I've
• 19:22
  had them as rental cars a few times, cause I'll, I'll seek them out cause
• 19:25
  they feel familiar, which is nice.
• 19:27
  And they're much better than most of the crap you can get is
• 19:29
  just that CVT drives you insane.
• 19:32
  I mean, you just, you're driving it and you're like, everything about
• 19:35
  it just annoys me as I'm driving it.
• 19:37
  Well, we've actually talked about, you know, like scaling down the number of
• 19:40
  cars we have, because we live in the city.
• 19:42
  I don't have a garage.
• 19:43
  It just is what it is.
• 19:44
  And so one of it was like combining the Pathfinder and
• 19:46
  the Outback into the new Ascent.
• 19:49
  And the new Ascent at least has like the better version of that motor.
• 19:51
  So it's like a CVT, but it can get out of its own way.
• 19:54
  And most of the tuners have a, like actually make chips for it
• 19:58
  now, which is pretty nice for that motor based on what it is.
• 20:01
  So, cause it's, you can actually, you know, get it up to a decent spec pretty
• 20:05
  cheaply, like, you know, whatever the Cobb tuning or something has a couple
• 20:09
  that are pretty well tested on those.
• 20:10
  One of our members has one of those, uh, lug, lug, lug mat.
• 20:14
  They're big Subaru fam.
• 20:15
  Yeah.
• 20:16
  Does he like the Ascent?
• 20:17
  Yeah, I've seen it in person.
• 20:20
  I mean, it's an SUV or whatever.
• 20:23
  I just wouldn't, I mean, I know he's gonna tow with it, and I'm just like,
• 20:27
  yeah, I don't know how to feel about that.
• 20:29
  I tow with my Pathfinder, but my Pathfinder has, like, 1, 500 pounds
• 20:32
  more headroom than Ascent does.
• 20:35
  Well, it also has 1, 500 more foot pounds of torque compared to that Ascent, right?
• 20:40
  True.
• 20:40
  And it's body on frame, it's also, it's a truck chassis, basically.
• 20:43
  Yeah, so I'm like, eh, I mean, cause, I don't know.
• 20:46
  I'm not, I'm not sitting here trying to knock Japanese motors, but it's,
• 20:49
  I don't know, I feel it's probably another torqueless wonder, you
• 20:52
  know, why don't we talk about how you got into road racing and track
• 20:57
  and HPD and all that kind of stuff.
• 20:58
  Well, so like the guy who got me into track stuff originally is, is Ian
• 21:02
  McFarlane, which some of you guys know, who's a pretty fast GTI driver.
• 21:06
  And so like, I've always been sort of jealous of the fact that like,
• 21:10
  Hey, when that, if, if I'm not using the Miata on the track, if I had a
• 21:12
  GTI, I could actually take the kids for fun drives and on short, and I
• 21:16
  can't do that with the Miata at all.
• 21:17
  Like my wife doesn't even fit into the.
• 21:20
  Like, most people, I should say, don't fit into the passenger seat.
• 21:23
  It's, it's pretty, like, I'm a big guy, but I have very skinny hips, and
• 21:26
  so the seats are, like, for me, and they don't fit bigger people very well.
• 21:29
  I think Eric hated driving it that one time.
• 21:31
  It was not the most comfortable thing in the world.
• 21:35
  Tanya would slide into it and be like, this is fun, I don't care, but yeah.
• 21:38
  And so it's like, I can't take the kids, I mean, I take them around
• 21:41
  the block once in a while at the, against my wife, better wishes.
• 21:44
  I'm like, it's a six point harness, but yeah.
• 21:46
  Um, but like, I can't do anything with it.
• 21:48
  And so it's like, if I'm not going to the track, it's, it's useless really.
• 21:52
  I mean, part of our issue is like, I don't have space to have a trailer.
• 21:55
  And so like, I haven't gotten to the track recently enough.
• 21:57
  And that was like the original reason I bought the Pathfinder, right.
• 21:59
  It was like the first weekend or within the first three months I had
• 22:02
  it is when I met Crutch and his wife and I drove from here with the whole
• 22:05
  family up to Palmer for a track day.
• 22:08
  It was great because like I could have all four people and all my
• 22:10
  extra tires and all the luggage.
• 22:12
  And your trailer at the time and, and the Miata on it.
• 22:16
  It had no problems at all.
• 22:18
  Like I still got 20 miles to the gallon and I drove happily from DC to Connecticut
• 22:22
  and up to Palmer and all the way back.
• 22:24
  And then like.
• 22:25
  Three weeks later, drove down to VIR with it.
• 22:27
  I mean, it was awesome, but I haven't, I haven't towed with
• 22:30
  it now in a couple of years.
• 22:31
  And it's like, I don't need body on frame SUV for driving kids around.
• 22:37
  And those are becoming, those are becoming few and far between anymore too.
• 22:41
  They're all, all unibody now.
• 22:43
  It's like the Forerunner and that's it.
• 22:46
  Which was, which is one of those funny things.
• 22:48
  Like they have the Ranger and the Canyon and all those other, you know, sort
• 22:51
  of the mid size, smaller truck stuff.
• 22:53
  They haven't made decent SUVs on top of those, those frames yet.
• 22:58
  Which is one of those weird things.
• 22:59
  Which is basically what the Pathfinder is, right?
• 23:01
  I mean, the Pathfinder is a Frontier that they made into an SUV.
• 23:05
  The, the Subarus are coming with that thing, what do they call it, EyeSight.
• 23:08
  But I drove when I thought the car was going bad because it would randomly
• 23:12
  like until you don't turn everything off every time you start the car You go to
• 23:16
  merge on the highway, and it's like, No, you want to be over here, or over here.
• 23:19
  And you're like, let go of my damn wheel, car, let me just drive.
• 23:22
  So annoying.
• 23:23
  Everything about it sucked.
• 23:25
  Um, but our Outback is a manual, so it's actually a ton of fun.
• 23:29
  And the dog loves being in the back of that thing, and the kids
• 23:32
  love sliding around in it too.
• 23:33
  I mean, ours is a 98.
• 23:36
  We've had zero problems with that.
• 23:38
  I've had to do a couple of like, the valve cover gaskets I've had
• 23:41
  to do, but I've done them myself, because they're a joke to work on.
• 23:44
  I drove up a pair of ramps, and half an hour later, they were both replaced.
• 23:48
  In a week, I'm replacing the power steering pump, and mine's
• 23:52
  got 170, 000 miles on it.
• 23:54
  And that's like, the first three things I've had to replace are those things.
• 23:59
  My holy grail of wagons is still like a, I'd rather have like a Volvo 850R.
• 24:04
  You get one of those tinted up and nice wheels and tires.
• 24:07
  That thing is phenomenal looking.
• 24:09
  Brown with a manual?
• 24:10
  Exactly.
• 24:11
  I mean, you got a manual.
• 24:14
  Brown with that weird blue color.
• 24:20
  Like you can get the, what's the other one?
• 24:21
  The V70R or something.
• 24:23
  Is the other one that's like the six speed and 300 horsepower.
• 24:26
  Uh, I think if you go to the Volvo, it starts edging into that, like, you have
• 24:30
  old money sort of feel, as opposed to just looking nice, it looks like you're loaded.
• 24:35
  A close friend, classmate's parents recently got rid of their Mazda 3 and
• 24:40
  picked up a pre owned, you know, V70 wagon, and literally the first joke on
• 24:44
  the first camping trip was like, Oh, who died and left you a pile of money?
• 24:47
  Because it just seemed like that was the joke to make when you get a Volvo wagon.
• 24:51
  So the Buick wagon, we saw it at one hiking trip and it is gorgeous
• 24:56
  when properly outfitted, like we walked up to it and my wife and I
• 25:00
  literally stopped in our tracks and both of us were like, what is that?
• 25:03
  Cause at a distance across the way, it actually has a little bit of a look of
• 25:07
  the, uh, the Jaguar wagons they made for a while that were pretty sweet
• 25:10
  looking, even though they wouldn't necessarily want one, but they were
• 25:12
  pretty sweet looking, so it has a tinge of that Jaguar wagon look, a tinge of
• 25:17
  that Volvo wagon look, but it's a Buick.
• 25:19
  So no one thinks that you're rolling in dough.
• 25:21
  And it looks pretty fly and has meets all the criteria.
• 25:24
  So it's tough to beat that option.
• 25:26
  So I, I would agree with you there, Rob.
• 25:28
  I really thought the Regal was a handsome car until I saw it in person and the
• 25:33
  photographs of it were much better than when I first saw it at the DC auto show
• 25:39
  a couple of years ago when it debuted.
• 25:40
  And the reason I say that is the concept Regal Torex was different in the rear and
• 25:46
  what really turned me off is I didn't like the chrome and I didn't like the way it
• 25:50
  felt like the artist's pencil broke as he got to the d pillar and it's like well I
• 25:55
  don't really know what to do here so I'm just going to continue this chrome from
• 25:58
  the front all the way to the taillights so Styling is, is a personal thing.
• 26:02
  It's very subjective.
• 26:03
  I still think it, at the right angles, it is a good looking
• 26:06
  car, but it is deceivingly large.
• 26:09
  Yeah, definitely.
• 26:10
  It was, it had been backed into a spot, so that, that front three
• 26:13
  quarter view, it is a gorgeous vehicle.
• 26:15
  I mean, it's one of those, you definitely, you know, you stop yourself in a parking
• 26:19
  lot to look at it, which is, Amazing to see let's let's call a spade a spade
• 26:23
  We're saying this about a buick which is kind of ridiculous for a buick made
• 26:26
  in the last 20 years Like that's the car like your grandmother happened to have
• 26:29
  bought that you kind of laugh at that's about it It's like your grandfather's
• 26:32
  grandfather's volvo I got a neighbor with a cross door and that has not aged.
• 26:38
  Well looks wise.
• 26:39
  Yeah, I I agree from a from a Usability standpoint.
• 26:42
  It's perfect, right?
• 26:43
  It's balloon tires.
• 26:44
  It's it's they use it to putz around you know a few thousand miles a year
• 26:47
  at most in it and You know, they have, uh, they have a dog and a daughter.
• 26:51
  So like, right.
• 26:51
  The difference in my brain for a wagon is if you have a dog that's bigger than
• 26:55
  a shih tzu, a wagon helps a ton because then you can actually have a passenger
• 26:59
  and a dog if you want to go out camping and stuff, or keep at least your interior
• 27:03
  slightly clean, but yeah, that's the, the Crosstower, like it's a very usable
• 27:07
  functional vehicle, but it's, it's looks have not, I mean, I see it every day
• 27:10
  when I walk my dog outside and it's.
• 27:12
  It hasn't aged well.
• 27:13
  But you also have stuff like the Cadillac CTS station wagon.
• 27:17
  Which, I mean, if you're a car guy, that's the holy grail of wagons.
• 27:22
  But they're also tiny, itty bitty cars.
• 27:26
  They're teeny weeny cars inside.
• 27:27
  They're, they're normal size on the outside.
• 27:29
  Every auto show I would go sit in those things.
• 27:32
  Because I was excited as an enthusiast to get in one.
• 27:34
  And I'm like, I wouldn't, even the passenger seat was too small,
• 27:37
  and I'm barely six feet tall.
• 27:39
  It's a tiny, tiny car.
• 27:41
  No, and I normally can squeeze, I mean, I have a Miata, it is what it is, but
• 27:44
  like that car just felt claustrophobic coming out of any other vehicle I sat
• 27:48
  in, including like a Boxer or Cayman.
• 27:51
  Like you sit in that CTS V and it's like you're in, You're in
• 27:54
  like this weird little shell.
• 27:55
  It's the weirdest.
• 27:56
  It's it's too small.
• 27:57
  It's comically small.
• 27:58
  Go travel in Europe enough, especially over the last decade.
• 28:02
  Wagons were everywhere.
• 28:04
  It was the hot commodity.
• 28:05
  It was the thing that everybody had.
• 28:08
  And it all diesel.
• 28:09
  Yeah, and if you didn't have a wagon, you had a hatchback.
• 28:12
  I mean, a sedan, and especially SUVs, that was not a thing, you know, so.
• 28:17
  Even recently, that, like, my dad was over there with, uh, on a trip with,
• 28:20
  uh, my parents with another set of parents, and they had rented a, uh, a
• 28:24
  Tiguan with the diesel and a six speed, and my dad was, would kill for one.
• 28:29
  He came home and he's like, why can't I have a car that gets, you know,
• 28:32
  40 miles to the gallon, perfectly drives up hills all over the place,
• 28:36
  easily fits four adults with all the luggage in the world, and was awesome.
• 28:40
  Because it kills people, allegedly.
• 28:42
  Yeah, but he, he was like, I wish they would sell it over here.
• 28:44
  Instead, he bought the final generation Forester that you could get with a stick.
• 28:49
  So he has a six speed Forester that he loves.
• 28:51
  He's driven it down to Florida and back up.
• 28:53
  He lives in Massachusetts, so he loves his Forester wagon, but he
• 28:56
  bought like, the final year he could get a stick on it is what he bought.
• 28:59
  That one.
• 29:00
  Because he refuses to ever own a car that has an automatic, so only manuals for him.
• 29:04
  A4 manual, like a newish A4 manual on the Forester, and then he
• 29:07
  has his 1989 11SC from Europe.
• 29:11
  Dream Wagon, I want like Tomas's, you know, the, you see Brad Donning, that
• 29:16
  thing is a friggin rocket ship and sounds amazing at full chat and you gotta get
• 29:22
  rid of the doll back stickers to get some level of sort of sleeperville, that thing
• 29:26
  is just on a different planet of awesome.
• 29:28
  Dream Wagon.
• 29:29
  And I believe Rob is talking about the A6 Allroad with like 1, 500
• 29:33
  horsepower that that can get through half a session on track before it
• 29:37
  overheats and needs to come off.
• 29:39
  But in that half a session, no one can keep up with it.
• 29:41
  I mean, he's exactly fair, but the thing just halts.
• 29:47
  Eric, you're on mute if you're chatting with us.
• 29:49
  I mean, shit, I'm a diehard VW guy, right?
• 29:52
  But.
• 29:54
  It's weird.
• 29:54
  Like I didn't, yeah, I know.
• 29:56
  I saw that Rob.
• 29:57
  So I don't know that that's just me.
• 29:59
  I guess I like euros.
• 30:01
  Same here.
• 30:01
  I got my, um, my wife's parents, best friend had a, uh, three 28, I wagon
• 30:07
  with a manual that they own forever.
• 30:09
  And.
• 30:10
  Every time I saw it, I was like, Are you gonna get rid of that?
• 30:12
  Are you gonna get rid of that?
• 30:13
  Are you gonna get rid of that?
• 30:14
  And they, you know, No one ever, they were like, Ha ha ha, no, we love it.
• 30:17
  And then one Christmas, we go up there, and they came over for
• 30:20
  Christmas, and they pulled up in a GTI.
• 30:22
  I was like, What, what happened to the wagon?
• 30:25
  And they're like, Oh, we, We decided we didn't need a car
• 30:27
  that big, so we got rid of it.
• 30:29
  Of course, it's not that big.
• 30:30
  Yeah, yeah.
• 30:30
  We got rid of it for the GTI.
• 30:31
  I was like, why didn't you call me?
• 30:34
  I'm like, you probably traded it in and got like three grand for it.
• 30:37
  I was like, goddammit, I would have totally taken that car
• 30:40
  because I'm the same way.
• 30:41
  I'm like, I grew up driving around in Volkswagen buses and stuff and
• 30:44
  Sciroccos and Rabbits and everything.
• 30:45
  And, and I, yeah, I just, yeah, wagons is sort of where it's at.
• 30:49
  You know, it's, Big slap, slap sides and a box in the back.
• 30:53
  It just makes me happy.
• 30:54
  And the newer ones, the newer ones don't do anything for me unfortunately.
• 30:57
  No, they're, they're too rounded.
• 30:58
  Yeah.
• 30:58
  And then also, go ahead.
• 31:00
  And, and this, this speaks to like my pathfinder over Cherokee sort of thing
• 31:04
  too, is like the, the reason I like that old, like the Volvo V 70 R and those
• 31:08
  things is it's, it's the boxiness of the back, which is like of the new SUVs.
• 31:13
  Why I like the new Bronco, the new defender, even from Land
• 31:16
  Rover, I think looks great because instead of going with this like.
• 31:20
  What all the BMW is doing and Cadillac of like, oh, let's have a
• 31:23
  great roofline and then just sort of chop it to make it look funky.
• 31:26
  I'm like, I don't want that chop, like fill out the damn box.
• 31:29
  So I had like, I just like the clean look of the full
• 31:32
  boxiness to me is so much nicer.
• 31:34
  It's similar to those sort of, you know, the Mark IV Golfs and Rabbits
• 31:37
  and GTIs and such same thing.
• 31:38
  Is they, they fill out the box.
• 31:40
  They're not trying to bulb a size that are cut off angles.
• 31:43
  Weird.
• 31:44
  It's just make it a box, have some slab sides.
• 31:46
  Makes me happy.
• 31:47
  My Scirocco is the same sort of thing.
• 31:49
  So I'd like my 16 Scirocco.
• 31:51
  I was going to college and I picked up like a, what it was a 42 inch
• 31:54
  television, like old school television with a whole back and everything.
• 31:58
  And I went to whatever it was best by whatever place I bought it from on sale.
• 32:02
  Back it up and they're like, This is a tiny little red two door
• 32:04
  car, what the hell do you think?
• 32:05
  And you open that trunk and you're like, Just slide that shit in, what's the point?
• 32:08
  Like, I put that in, I'm like, Oh, I'm also buying that and that, like, And
• 32:11
  suitcases next to it, like, I drove it to college with all the shit I needed
• 32:14
  for the whole year, Like, in the back of a Scirocco without any problems at all.
• 32:18
  It's a, like, it's basically the same shape.
• 32:20
  So, they're huge inside.
• 32:22
  The other car that's huge for its size, of course, is the Honda Element.
• 32:25
  My brother and his wife bought one because she's a music teacher and she
• 32:28
  needed to be able to transport like two timpanis and two tubas at a time.
• 32:32
  And so this is before they had kids, so she bought an element and she could slide
• 32:36
  all that shit right in, no problem at all.
• 32:38
  Now, of course, going back to tie it back in, you know, they have a whatever,
• 32:41
  a Grand Voyager or whatever, some big minivan that fits it all even easier.
• 32:45
  But at the time the element was like the smallest car that had the most inside
• 32:50
  space was basically the there's two there's two things that I don't want to
• 32:53
  steal Matt's joke, but there's two things about the element for one I've ridden in
• 32:57
  one and if you've never ridden in one, I swear to God, there's a needle like out
• 33:02
  of minority report that hits you in the back of the head and anesthetizes you.
• 33:06
  'cause it was one of the most mind numbing vehicles I've ever been in.
• 33:10
  And the seats might as well be out of a church because they're about as , they're
• 33:15
  about as comfortable as a pew can be.
• 33:18
  But, but you can recline it, Dr.
• 33:20
  And to make matters worse, it's not a light vehicle.
• 33:24
  It's built on top of a civic, and it's still powered by a civic engine.
• 33:28
  And you're like, when the hell is VTEC ever gonna kick in?
• 33:33
  Which is the third of never, right?
• 33:36
  But, to steal Matt's joke, the Honda Element is the ultimate, ultimate
• 33:42
  Halloween vehicle when you purchase it in silver and put two pieces of brown foam on
• 33:47
  top because it becomes a rolling toaster.
• 33:50
  A lot of people, a lot of people did that.
• 33:52
  It used to go like, my wife used to do triathlons and stuff, because the
• 33:56
  weird sunroof in the back, you could just pop out and do the same thing.
• 33:58
  So you could have your head down.
• 33:59
  Yeah, exactly.
• 34:00
  You could stand up and like, you put your head out and still change.
• 34:04
  Yeah, you change your bottoms, no problem at all.
• 34:06
  And actually they built in the rack where you could just slide your bikes
• 34:08
  in standing up and you could have like, whatever bikes you need all standing up.
• 34:12
  So we're in Wildwood, New Jersey.
• 34:14
  My buddy's Element, we had taken there for a frisbee tournament.
• 34:16
  And no joke, we put 22 people in there to drive to the restaurant to get food.
• 34:23
  Just just stacked them all up like everybody's standing like all lined up.
• 34:29
  Which was funny to me because so I have a buddy who has like a three
• 34:32
  or four, he's the final general, the final outback you get with a manual.
• 34:36
  So like there was only nine left in the country when he went to
• 34:39
  a dealership and ordered his.
• 34:40
  And so it's the same body style as mine though.
• 34:42
  And the key with those though is if it rains, you could sit the
• 34:45
  hatchback up and he's like six, three, he and I could like sit with our
• 34:49
  backs inside the trunk and our legs sort of stretched out comfortably.
• 34:52
  And so we were in Colorado for a Frisbee tournament and I had the
• 34:56
  rental out back and I opened the trunk and the two of us went to sit
• 34:59
  in it and immediately we're like, why is this half the size of our car?
• 35:03
  Like.
• 35:03
  It doesn't fit anymore.
• 35:04
  It was like a bigger trunk from a number standpoint, but we, it no
• 35:09
  longer was sized such that like an adult could just sort of sit back to
• 35:12
  hang out in the middle of a rainstorm.
• 35:14
  It was one of those weird where the numbers didn't match the
• 35:17
  actual way the space was laid out.
• 35:20
  You'd laugh at this.
• 35:21
  Every holiday, I, the amount of, and Eric knows this, the amount of crap you
• 35:25
  just sort of end up with with two kids.
• 35:27
  So like when we go to visit my family, my wife's family and my family for Christmas.
• 35:31
  Like, I have a full size Toulé box that goes on the roof rack, that like, I mean,
• 35:36
  fits my skis and tons of other crap.
• 35:39
  Like, we have the roof rack filled, and a lot of that is, so when my dog
• 35:42
  was younger, he'd curl up between the seat between the two kids.
• 35:46
  Now he's like 14 and so the trunk is like his dog bed and then we surround him
• 35:51
  with stand up, you know, uh, The luggage whatever but all the little crap you got
• 35:56
  to bring for kids like, you know Bundles of toys because we're going for a week.
• 35:58
  That's all in the roof box So last year around this time, maybe a month
• 36:02
  or two before this My wife and I went with another couple that has two older
• 36:06
  daughters, but we dropped the two older daughters off in Pennsylvania, I think.
• 36:10
  And we drove up to the Finger Lakes to go to a bunch of wineries.
• 36:13
  It was, it was our friend's, the wife's like 40th birthday.
• 36:17
  And we had plenty of space for the, the, the girl stuff that we dropped off at
• 36:20
  grandma and our stuff in the, in the minivan, you know, big Chrysler minivan.
• 36:23
  But we get up there and we bought, I have a picture of it somewhere,
• 36:26
  probably over 10 cases of wine.
• 36:28
  And we ended up with like, Layers of wine off the whole thing and
• 36:33
  I was like, well, how how are we gonna get all this crap home?
• 36:35
  Like we got to pick up your daughters too.
• 36:37
  It was the same thing It was like oh out came this like little tiny pouch
• 36:40
  and this huge and we literally loaded all the suitcases just bang bang Bang
• 36:44
  bang bang bang up into the huge bag and strapped it onto the the roof rails.
• 36:48
  We're like Done!
• 36:49
  Yeah, it was pretty awesome, so we used one of those things.
• 36:51
  And, like, the amount of stuff we fit in there is pretty similar to
• 36:54
  what I fit in the giant Thule box.
• 36:56
  And, like, the Thule box was a Christmas gift from my parents, because I wanted
• 36:59
  to be able to hold all my skis and such.
• 37:01
  Is that how you pronounce it?
• 37:02
  It's not Thule, or Thule, or Thor, or whatever?
• 37:05
  Thule?
• 37:06
  Okay.
• 37:07
  Yeah.
• 37:07
  How dare you go to the Fingerlates and not go to Watkins Glen?
• 37:11
  I went to Watkins Glen.
• 37:12
  I did the hike in there.
• 37:13
  I went to the shop.
• 37:14
  I bought a couple of t shirts.
• 37:14
  No, no, no, that's not Watkins.
• 37:16
  That's not Watkins Glen.
• 37:17
  I know.
• 37:18
  I've driven, as we all know, I've got, I have pieces of Watkins Glen still in a
• 37:23
  bumper cover on the back of my trailer.
• 37:24
  So, um.
• 37:26
  What a weekend that was.
• 37:27
  It was also like 900 degrees while we were there.
• 37:30
  It was so, oh, and the amount of The crap I got from the
• 37:34
  um, the event guy was there.
• 37:36
  Oh, the Audi Club guy?
• 37:37
  Yeah, yeah, whoever it was like tried to yell at me.
• 37:39
  He's like, why are you on R comps?
• 37:41
  And like, and Anthony is there like, 'cause I told them to, 'cause
• 37:43
  there's no reason to be on these.
• 37:45
  And like I threw back on the non R comps and basically just
• 37:47
  drifted all of Watkins Glen.
• 37:49
  I was just like, all this is more fun.
• 37:50
  I'll just slide it around everywhere instead on, you
• 37:52
  know, the res I had or whatever.
• 37:55
  That was silly we hit like and everybody analyzed like crazy.
• 37:58
  It was just like car was doing fine All of a sudden it was like, oh we're
• 38:00
  backwards like, you know, it was such a weird incident So do you think
• 38:04
  you're gonna get rid of the miata if I can get the right money for it?
• 38:08
  Yes, if I can't
• 38:11
  I got I got 50 bucks.
• 38:13
  So exactly andrew.
• 38:14
  We got a track car for you If I had a garage Then i'd keep it without any
• 38:18
  question because I could like right now I could be going outside and working on
• 38:21
  it and doing little Things to keep it where I want to keep it But like, during
• 38:25
  COVID, the only yard my kids have, you've been at my house, Eric, before, is like a
• 38:30
  little concrete pad behind my row house.
• 38:32
  And the Miata took up a quarter, you know, a third of that space.
• 38:36
  And so my neighbors, um, went away to, like, a parent's, uh, lake house in North
• 38:42
  Dakota, and they've been gone for months.
• 38:43
  So while they're gone, the Miata's living in their backyard, so
• 38:46
  my kids have a bigger space.
• 38:48
  But at some point they're coming back, and then I gotta put the Miata
• 38:51
  back into my little concrete pad.
• 38:54
  I mean, not if a bear got him.
• 38:56
  Exactly.
• 38:57
  Can I introduce you to the GTM storage facility, Stauffer Mountain?
• 39:02
  That's true.
• 39:03
  I mean, you got 30, 35 acres up there that you can park on, so you're alright.
• 39:09
  Got three lots.
• 39:10
  It's, that's the issue, right?
• 39:12
  If I had a garage, I'd be fine.
• 39:14
  It's just, it's not fair to the car.
• 39:16
  I'll put it that way.
• 39:17
  It's not fair to the vehicle.
• 39:18
  I mean, what are you looking to get for it, Rob?
• 39:20
  In all honesty, what do you think?
• 39:22
  So, the problem in my head, right, because it's a Miata, the problem is
• 39:27
  I can take all the parts apart and I can get five grand for the parts.
• 39:31
  If I just started because it's like three or four sets of rims and all this all
• 39:34
  the other stuff Yeah, but then the guy that the guy that wants it's got to spend
• 39:37
  five grand on all your parts, right?
• 39:41
  If I threw 200 bucks at it to clean it up and everything, I could probably
• 39:45
  get between 3 and 3, 500 for it, all in, if I, if I had to guess, and,
• 39:52
  but that would be somebody who wanted basically a turnkey track package, right?
• 39:56
  It's like, here it's got everything, and if I wanted to get rid of everything,
• 40:01
  and I still have a really nice autocross trailer with, you know, an extra set
• 40:04
  of tires on it, and a huge, you know, conical box on it, And all that other
• 40:09
  extras and it's like I also have Stuff that like on the miata forums goes for a
• 40:14
  few hundred bucks for each thing I have the original bilstein still even though
• 40:17
  I replaced the suspension But a lot of people love those because they just
• 40:20
  revalve them and they're better than a lot of the crap you could buy so like I
• 40:23
  still have the originals of those I still have the Like the trailer itself is like
• 40:27
  goes for 250 bucks is what people are selling used Like well done autocross
• 40:31
  trailers for so like there's money there.
• 40:33
  I have the hardtop on it.
• 40:34
  That's worth a thousand dollars just Like, I could take it off
• 40:37
  tomorrow and sell it for a thousand bucks on Facebook without blinking.
• 40:41
  And then, like, Kerwin offered to buy, like, one of the sets of rims.
• 40:45
  And I was like, yeah, but part of the way I'll get, you know, 3, 500
• 40:48
  or something in that realm is the fact that it's, like, all the rims.
• 40:51
  You know, you want a set of rain tires and a set of track tires and a set of, leave
• 40:54
  it out in the snow and sit in a pair of, you know, rubber band tires, whatever.
• 40:58
  Here's three sets, have fun.
• 41:00
  So it's like, it's more of that kind of crap.
• 41:03
  Do I want to put the time into selling everything piecemeal and just getting
• 41:07
  it down to the point where I have a car?
• 41:08
  Cause I sold the original seats and everything.
• 41:10
  I mean, so I could arguably put it back to mostly stock interior wise.
• 41:15
  But I feel like it's that weird, you know, there's too many choices to make.
• 41:19
  The other reason I ask me is I keep teasing Sam that we need to put that mzr
• 41:24
  that he just pulled out of his formula enterprise And put it in a miata because
• 41:27
  it bolts right in but that's a 200 horsepower Miata racing engine, right?
• 41:32
  And I'm like, yes, this needs to happen.
• 41:35
  Right.
• 41:35
  Cause he's like, I'm just going to junk it.
• 41:36
  I'm like, junk it.
• 41:37
  Are you, are you nuts?
• 41:38
  That's a good motor.
• 41:39
  Let's drop it in something and go have fun.
• 41:42
  You know?
• 41:43
  And like, and Mike, the, the thing about the Miata too, is it's literally other
• 41:46
  than, you know, stupidity it's been faultless, like it's one of those, like
• 41:51
  you, you, you put it away wet and it wakes up the next morning and it drives great.
• 41:54
  I mean, the biggest problem I had is when the battery exploded at
• 41:57
  summit, Bain Because it hadn't been recharged enough time.
• 42:00
  Like, I literally started it and the whole trunk, like, popped up.
• 42:03
  And I stole Ryan Compton's Jeep and, like, drove to some West Virginia auto
• 42:07
  store and picked up a new battery.
• 42:09
  And I missed, like, 30 seconds of my first session.
• 42:11
  And that was it.
• 42:12
  Like, the car was like, whatever.
• 42:13
  And it drove beautifully the whole time.
• 42:15
  And, like, it, I mean, I have the whole, like, hidden hitch package on it.
• 42:18
  So, like, I towed the autocross trailer down to VIR multiple times,
• 42:21
  up to Watkins the first time I went.
• 42:23
  And the car is happily, you know, in a rainstorm, towing a trailer, drives
• 42:28
  along at 85 miles an hour comfortably, like it's, it's done nothing wrong.
• 42:34
  It's just, like, I have a four year old and a seven year old, and so the amount of
• 42:38
  time it's going to take before they're old enough that I can take them to the track.
• 42:41
  suddenly that Miata is 10 years older.
• 42:44
  But on the flip side, as you said, the hard part about getting
• 42:46
  rid of it is in 10 years, 3, 500 bucks won't get me the same car.
• 42:51
  I won't be able to get a fun track car for 3, 500 bucks ever again.
• 42:56
  And so getting rid of it.
• 42:58
  Exactly.
• 42:59
  But it's also what's the right decision, right?
• 43:02
  And so if I get rid of it and turned it into something I enjoy,
• 43:05
  it's a little easier, right?
• 43:07
  Like if I immediately say, okay, I'm going to buy myself a, a GTI the way I want it.
• 43:11
  And.
• 43:11
  Be able to drive the kids around, you know, maybe do a little suspension, a
• 43:14
  little chip or something, just little, you know, standard sort of enthusiast stuff.
• 43:19
  And then if I, if I get the opportunity for a track day, great.
• 43:22
  And the Miata's getting, I mean, it's a 99, right?
• 43:24
  So it's not, it's that old, but at this point, if I like, let's say
• 43:27
  next weekend was suddenly free and I wanted to take it to the track.
• 43:31
  I need to spend three days going through it to have any chance of that, right?
• 43:35
  Like there's there's so much just stuff that needs to at least get touched
• 43:39
  and tightened up and tweaked That if I had a garage I could do that, you know
• 43:43
  every night for half an hour an hour or whatever But the way it is now like
• 43:47
  while we were talking we had a rainstorm blow through And everything every work
• 43:51
  i've done in this car is the you know Bring the toolbox out of the basement
• 43:54
  get everything out of the shed jack it up Get it on jack stands put the tires
• 43:57
  over here You Start working on it, and then, oh crap, we're gonna have dinner
• 44:01
  soon, okay, put it all down, put it, like, it's, it's an hour of setup and an hour of
• 44:05
  takedown to work on the car for two hours.
• 44:07
  Yeah.
• 44:07
  And as you know, the kids are old enough where it's like, halfway
• 44:10
  through, it's, there's some other event happening, we gotta take, you know,
• 44:12
  go for a bike ride or go do something.
• 44:15
  It's opportunity cost, like, I, I love driving it, I mean, I've even just
• 44:18
  taken that around the block, it's like, this is the best car ever, because
• 44:21
  it's just so tight and fun, but I could get the same fun out of a, 5, 000 GTI
• 44:29
  that I could then put a pair of car seats in and take the kids places.
• 44:33
  Exactly.
• 44:36
  That's more than I expected.
• 44:37
  Yeah.
• 44:38
  Just don't Google, don't Google TBR wagon.
• 44:40
  There's some crazy ass stuff out there.
• 44:42
  Go away.
• 44:51
  If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM,
• 44:54
  be sure to check us out on www.
• 44:57
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• 44:57
  org.
• 44:58
  You can also find us on Motorsports.
• 45:02
  Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, You can call
• 45:06
  or text us at 202 630 1770, or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
• 45:13
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• 45:14
  We'd love to hear from you.
• 45:16
  Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here.
• 45:18
  We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted
• 45:21
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