B/F: The Drive Thru #65

• Audi Stresses Reliability Focus After Troubles in Barcelona Testing
• Former Alpine driver Doohan joins Haas as reserve for 2026 F1 campaign
• FIRST LOOK: Williams show off their new livery for 2026 F1 season
• That's one quick Safety Car!

• Prelude is a disappointment, and Doug DeMuro adds to the dogpile of negative reviews

• BMW’s Screw That No One Else Can Turn
• The Electic BMW M3 Will Be A Quad-Motor Monster with Fake Gear Changes

• Jeremy Clarkson announces The Grand Tour Successors
• Throttle House (Example #1)
• Throttle House (Example #2)
• Uphill Ski Slope Racing Competition in Germany

This month's "Celebrity" Car Commercial

• Announcing FIAWEC+ streaming service
• Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Celebrates American Greatness with the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C.
• Trump orders up IndyCar race on the streets of Washington for 'America250 Grand Prix'
• Serious crash at the 12H of Bathurst

• Pump the Brakes! StopTech is out of Business?
• In an EPIC reversing of course - the EPA is doing away with the Auto Start/Stop function as a mandate in new cars

• Ferrari introduces EV "The Luce" co-designed with Apple's Jony Ive

• Jeep maker's shares tank on reset announcement

• Tesla Model S and X “two of Tesla’s longest running models” are being discontinued next Quarter

• The Sports Car Accessibility Problem
• Audi was going to get into the Pickup Truck market? aka “The Activesphere Concept”
• Concept C “is still on despite the rumors” claims Audi

• NJMP Press Release: “Anyone planning to race at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) in 2026 should take note of an important helmet requirement. Please note that this applies ONLY to motorsports in New Jersey. Due to New Jersey Administrative Code Title 13, Chapter 62, the Snell SA2015 helmet standard expires on December 31, 2025. Beginning January 1, 2026, all drivers competing in New Jersey must use a Snell SM or SA 2020, or SM or SA 2025–rated helmet. SA2015 helmets will no longer be valid for use at sanctioned motorsports events in New Jersey. This requirement is mandated by state regulation—not by the South Jersey Region or NJMP—and may be actively enforced by state representatives or track management. Competitors found to be out of compliance may be deemed ineligible to compete.”
  
  
• Lime Rock Park is also pushing for people to renew their helmets – “For this season, SA2015 helmets will still be accepted at NEQ track events with the exception of Lime Rock Park. SA2020 or newer helmets are now required by Lime Rock Park. For LRP attendees without valid helmets, a limited number of rentals will be available at our event.”

If it’s time to go shopping, Stable Energies offers a 15% discount to active NEQ member instructors. You’ll need your ACNA membership number to use code AUDINEQINS at checkout. Or reach out to our sponsor Mark Francis at OGRacing.com, mention Gran Touring Motorsports and you heard about this on the podcast and he’ll work with you on pricing.  

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All of our BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) Break/Fix episodes are raw and unedited, and expressly shared with the permission and consent of our guests.

Executive Producer Tania: [00:00:00] Welcome to Break Fixes, Drive-Through News, your monthly recap for everything fast, fascinating, and usually four wheeled. We’re serving up a fresh batch of automotive headlines, motorsports madness, and car adjacent curiosities, all with zero wait time and maximum flavor from Formula One, drama to concept car debuts with Garage built legends to the Quirkiest stories rolling out of the state of Florida.

We’ve got your fix, so grab your coffee, buckle up, and let’s cruise through the latest in the world of wheels with a side of entertainment and just a dash of tire smoke.

Crew Chief Brad: Do we not need to read the intro anymore? Do you just fit it in for, oh no, I guess I need to say drive through episode number 65.

Crew Chief Eric: So you do listen to the show now because we edited that stuff out. There’s a whole new intro.

Crew Chief Brad: I do not listen to the show. ’cause I was just asking do I need to record it?

Crew Chief Eric: Well, yeah, we, we’ve been cutting you short, like the last, I don’t know, four or five episodes like it.

You just say it’s then why have

Crew Chief Brad: I, why have you been making me say it? What the

Crew Chief Eric: fuck? ’cause it’s tradition. Tradition. [00:01:00] No, Brad, you do not need to read the old intro anymore. Tanya redid it. It’s great.

Crew Chief Brad: Welcome to drive through episode number 65. This is our monthly recap where we put together a menu of automotive motor sport, entertaining car.

Jason News. Now let’s pull up to the window number one four Automotive news, blah.

Crew Chief Eric: See, you could do it just because you want to

Crew Chief Brad: speed reading to go along with Tanya’s speed skating.

Crew Chief Eric: There you go.

Executive Producer Tania: Ooh, speed skating. If you were an Olympian in the Winter Olympics, what sport would you do

Crew Chief Brad: outside of hockey?

Executive Producer Tania: Okay, so you’re hockey.

Crew Chief Eric: Can I just do the shooting part of the biathlon?

Executive Producer Tania: You know what they need to upgrade. I still haven’t seen s Schmo yet, but need, they need to upgrade that and add the, the shooting in with that.

Crew Chief Eric: If I did s schmo, they’d rename it to slowmo.

Soon. The Olympics will come to a close as [00:02:00] well.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, don’t say things like that. The juice has been spilled.

Executive Producer Tania: Okay. I just, hockey fights all I think about. I was conditioned.

Yes, I blame the deal.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s terrible. So terrible.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s what I see in my head. I think of hockey fights

Crew Chief Eric: bigger is the Canadian controversy with curling. That is like the hotness right now. I need to dive a little deeper into that. See what’s going on there.

Executive Producer Tania: The push,

Crew Chief Eric: and then the Swedish team recorded them and the Canadians are mad that they record. That’s like a whole thing. It’s hot, it’s ridiculous. But anyway, as the Olympics have concluded, by the time everybody listens to this, there’s a lot of other things that have concluded this season. Super Bowl closing game of the football season, since we’re [00:03:00] talking about sports.

So let’s talk about those Super Bowl commercials.

Executive Producer Tania: There were commercials.

Crew Chief Eric: We mentioned we were gonna talk about them this go round. What have we got, Tanya?

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know how you put so many car related ones here. ’cause I didn’t see any,

Crew Chief Eric: it’s ’cause I, that’s all I paid attention to. ’cause the game was

Executive Producer Tania: so boring.

I paid attention to, but there weren’t any, like, there were sometimes a car in a commercial, but it wasn’t about cars.

Crew Chief Brad: But there was that. Was it a square body or an old Ford During the commercial for Puerto Rico. Right in the middle of the game.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh yes. In the halftime show you mean? Yes.

Crew Chief Brad: Yes. Is that what that was?

Yeah. I didn’t understand. So I.

Crew Chief Eric: There were no subtitles. You were lost like everybody else.

Crew Chief Brad: Well, no, I, I heard, I, I understood it. It was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Is that how it goes? I mean, that’s your new number one single right [00:04:00] there.

Crew Chief Brad: My, my tt. Yeah. Yeah. My Titi. Yeah.

Yeah. Novia. My Titi. Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: So to Tanya’s, to Tanya’s point, there were car commercials and I made note of them. I, I almost felt like I was doing a Steve and Izzy, everything I learned from movies review.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, you’re stretching hard. I see the list now.

Crew Chief Eric: No, no.

Executive Producer Tania: Like a good neighbor. State Farm is here, is car adjacent.

Crew Chief Eric: Okay. That was car related. There was a car and it, Bon Jovi was in it. Yeah. Danny McBride and Keenan Michael Key. It was a car commercial. It was about car insurance. It was actually pretty good. It was pretty funny actually.

Crew Chief Brad: It was kind of

Executive Producer Tania: funny. I feel like in the past we’ve never had to succumb to the flow.

Nationwide Commercials, progressive, I mean, or anything like that.

Crew Chief Eric: I was happy for a State Farm commercial that didn’t have Jake from State Farm for a change. I thought it was good. It was probably one of the better commercials of the Super Bowl.

Executive Producer Tania: Nobody knows who the female was.

Crew Chief Eric: No, [00:05:00] I don’t. Who was it?

Executive Producer Tania: That was Haley Steinfeld.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Who’s that?

Executive Producer Tania: Well, she’s a singer, but also she was Hawk Girl. Girl.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, okay.

Executive Producer Tania: She was also in the,

Crew Chief Brad: she was in Pitch Perfect.

Executive Producer Tania: Yes, she was in Pitch Perfect like three, but she was also in the, um, one of those Bravo Duval movies. I think

Crew Chief Brad: we’ll get to that. Oh, rest, he

Executive Producer Tania: rest in peace. No, no, no. It wasn’t Rest in peace, but no, it was a true grit.

Sorry. He was the one with the other dude.

Crew Chief Eric: Got it.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, I, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: Literally the dude.

Crew Chief Brad: The dude, he was the dude who’s,

Executive Producer Tania: because the commercials suck that much. Continue,

Crew Chief Eric: yes. We’re also overlooking the fact that Toyota was the title sponsor of the Super Bowl

Executive Producer Tania: and Honda in Acura, the title sponsors of the Olympics, every commercials a car commercial.

Crew Chief Eric: So there were Toyota commercials, there had to be Toyota commercials and there were two that were the most important ones. So we had the not Jake from State Farm Commercial, and then we had Toyota where Dreams Begin, which is that commercial that starts off with Bubba Wallace from nascar. [00:06:00] Yes. And the whole underlying message of childhood dreams shaping champions.

And that was very touchy feely.

Crew Chief Brad: I think that one doubles as an Olympic commercial. ’cause wasn’t there the, uh, the Paralympic uh, athlete in there as well?

Crew Chief Eric: Correct? Correct. There was that nice little tie in there. The next Toyota commercial. I called it the twofer ad. Mm-hmm. This is the one that starts with a 1997 RAV4 and ends with the grandson driving a new RAV4.

And the underlying message there is family, nostalgia, safety,

Crew Chief Brad: family, family, family.

Crew Chief Eric: What do we think of the new RAV4? Because this was sort of a, a debut of the new RAV4 as well as part of this commercial.

Executive Producer Tania: There’s a new RAV4. I

Crew Chief Brad: don’t, I don’t remember.

Crew Chief Eric: That was what was in the commercial.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean it looks like everything else.

Crew Chief Eric: Front end was pretty bad.

Executive Producer Tania: It has the weird cheese grater front end now.

Crew Chief Eric: Exactly.

Crew Chief Brad: So, yeah, it looks like a mini Hold on. What does this look like?

Executive Producer Tania: It looks like something else and I can’t think of what that other car

Crew Chief Brad: they’re, they’ve got the Lexus.

Crew Chief Eric: It looks awful.

Crew Chief Brad: They’re kind of taking the Lexus front end sorta.

It looks like a mini [00:07:00] foreigner or Sequoia.

Crew Chief Eric: All right. We had a VW commercial. I thought we were gonna make it through the Super Bowl without one, but we had one this year.

Executive Producer Tania: Yes. It barely featured a Volkswagen.

Crew Chief Eric: It had an ID Buzz and a Tiguan,

Executive Producer Tania: but it was like the fastest drive-bys that if you weren’t paying attention, you never, it was very much a commercial about people, drivers.

Crew Chief Eric: Drivers wanted. That was, they were going back to the eighties. I also thought it funny because we’re talking about things that are closing, things that are ending the end of this is our season finale. By the way, the ID buzz ironically, in this commercial, they’re advertising a card that they’re not going to sell in America anymore.

What is the point of that?

Crew Chief Brad: They’re not selling the ID buzz in America.

Crew Chief Eric: No, they canceled it

Crew Chief Brad: because they didn’t sell any. That’s why

Executive Producer Tania: if you were watching the Super Bowl, you would’ve seen how other countries were also watching the Super Bowl. So maybe they just left it in there for them.

Crew Chief Eric: Whatever. Maybe they did.

Maybe they, alright. Nissan comes to the table with some [00:08:00] car commercials. There were two of them.

Executive Producer Tania: I must have had a different feed than you all.

Crew Chief Eric: No, I was glued to the Super Bowl ’cause I wanted to see

Executive Producer Tania: I never left.

Crew Chief Brad: So during the Super Bowl, were there humans playing or were there puppies because I think there were two different Super Bowls going on.

Executive Producer Tania: I’ve never watched the Puffy Bowl. Thank you very much. I was watching the abomination. That was the Patriot’s offense and

Crew Chief Brad: yeah. Oh my God. Okay.

Executive Producer Tania: Because at

Crew Chief Brad: least their

Executive Producer Tania: defense tried.

Crew Chief Brad: So we were watching, we, we’ve established that we were watching the same game. Okay. That that works.

Crew Chief Eric: I was hyperfocused on the commercials because I was anticipating the reveal of the Cadillac Formula One car, which we will talk about on a different episode than this one.

I was so laser focused on every commercial ’cause I didn’t wanna miss the Cadillac reveal of the F1 car. So that said, there are two. Nissan commercials

Executive Producer Tania: also been a week and a half, and I don’t remember

Crew Chief Eric: Nissan Rogue, the [00:09:00] dip seat ad. Right? You have to protect the dip. He’s driving around, it’s like,

Executive Producer Tania: oh, with the guy from, um, the cooking show.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes. It’s sort of the same idea as initial D. Right? Don’t let the tofu get all upset in the back of the car when you’re drifting down Mount Aquina. It’s like the same idea, right? I’m like, okay, cool. I, I get it. Then there was the other one where they took the Rogue and they were just absolutely. Punishing it off road, the water pressure thing, the Jet fighter backwash, like they still show that commercial, you know, even through the Olympics and stuff.

You guys, you had to see that one.

Executive Producer Tania: Were these like the pre commercials be like before the Super Bowl even

Crew Chief Eric: started? No, these were during, I should have written the timestamps down. They were during

Executive Producer Tania: the, I’m literally watching the Dipsy one and I never saw this one.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh God. I saw all of these,

I’ll say this, at least the car commercials weren’t using AI like the rest of the commercials were not only were their commercials about artificial intelligence, like [00:10:00] name your favorite, whether it’s Claude or Gemini, or Copilot or Chat, GPT, I mean just every other commercial is an AI commercial or it was generated by ai and then we went down this path of massive aging that Dunkin Donuts commercial what.

Was that?

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know. Honestly, I didn’t understand the point of it. The people didn’t make sense together because like Jael White showed up Urkel and I’m like, what does Urkel have to do with friends? Because I thought they were trying to do a friends thing and like the whole breakup. We were on a break.

We on a break.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. But then Carlton shows up and he is like doing his thing. Right. But I didn’t get it. It was like all the nineties sitcoms basically.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. But I feel like, I don’t know, I didn’t get it.

Crew Chief Eric: I didn’t think it was funny. I thought it was actually kind of sad ’cause it was like really? Oh, okay.

But the one that got me though, the de aging done right, that William Shatner Raisin brand ambassador [00:11:00] thing was. Wow. Mind blowing. Wow. And did, I don’t know if you noticed, he was dressed like when he did the Rocket Man music video thing. It was just on so many levels of like inception. It was amazing. And I have to bring up William Shatner because we did that senior moment movie.

So it was like boom, car related. There it is. William Shatner. Done. We’re gonna talk about Formula One later in the other episode of Formula Fanatics. But there was a little Formula One cameo in there. Did you guys catch the 30th anniversary Pokemon commercial that had Charles Le Clare in it?

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. Oh yeah.

Uhhuh.

Crew Chief Eric: That was good stuff.

Executive Producer Tania: That was a good commercial.

Crew Chief Eric: What’s his favorite Pokemon again?

Executive Producer Tania: Aines The Tiger.

Crew Chief Eric: They all flew by really fast at the end when they said which ones they were their favorites. Somebody likes Jiggly Puff. I know that. It’s all good.

Executive Producer Tania: That was Lady Gaga.

That was hilarious though when she was singing the song,

Crew Chief Eric: the car commercials this year. I agree. They were not good. So I’m gonna quiz you guys. I did a little homework. Do you [00:12:00] know what’s considered the top five car commercials of all time for the Super Bowl?

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, no, I wouldn’t.

Crew Chief Brad: I’m gonna guess. One is gonna be imported from Detroit.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s actually number two, so that’s a really good guess. So family feud,

Executive Producer Tania: fried chicken,

Crew Chief Eric: that’s number two.

Crew Chief Brad: Tanya, can you steal

Executive Producer Tania: all time? Like how far back are we going?

Crew Chief Eric: They actually only go back the last about 20 years.

Executive Producer Tania: Did the Eugene Levy one make it?

Crew Chief Eric: It did not. Mm. Got a better guess. Do you have any others that you really remember that are like super good car commercials from the Super Bowls?

Executive Producer Tania: What was that one with the,

Crew Chief Brad: the Nissan 300?

Executive Producer Tania: The three

Crew Chief Brad: dx? It wasn’t as,

Executive Producer Tania: yeah, but I think that was

Crew Chief Brad: older than three years. The

Crew Chief Eric: turbo years

Crew Chief Brad: ago the turbo

Crew Chief Eric: kicks [00:13:00] in.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. Wasn’t that a Super Bowl commercial?

Crew Chief Eric: It was, and it is not considered one of the best. All right. Letterman style coming in at number five Jeep’s Groundhog Day from 2020. That’s the one where Bill Murray returns to relive Groundhog Day with the Jeep Gladiator.

So that’s number five. It’s not

Executive Producer Tania: gonna, it’s not gonna be the singer dude, Bruce Springsteen. No,

Crew Chief Eric: no, no. That okay? Nah. All right. Number four. If you remember from 2014, the Kia commercial with Morphy. Lawrence Fishburne comes back as Morpheus from the Matrix and literally shatters glass, blah, blah, blah, and it’s all the Kia, you know, all the real matrix stuff.

That’s number four. Number three,

Executive Producer Tania: the Kia mice. I’m kidding.

Crew Chief Eric: No, they’re not in there. Number three from 2009, Audis the Chase. That’s the one where Jason Statham did that. Like really cool movie preview. It was like the transporter, but it was a commercial for Audi. I remember that one. It was really good. It was super dark.

Crew Chief Brad: So dark. You couldn’t see the car [00:14:00]

Crew Chief Eric: pretty much. Yes.

Executive Producer Tania: Number two was made in Detroit.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Number two was made in Detroit and number one coming in number one. 2011 Volkswagens the force. Do you remember that?

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, oh,

Crew Chief Brad: with the little boy?

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Yeah. That’s the number one car commercial of all time for the Super Bowl.

Executive Producer Tania: Hard doubt. Do that.

Crew Chief Brad: Volkswagens on there three times.

Executive Producer Tania: Third one from last year was pretty good. Had all the fields, if you remember,

Crew Chief Eric: that’s why I was surprised we, I went so far into the Super Bowl and hadn’t seen a Volkswagen commercial and then when it showed up it was like, that’s it. Really continuing on this theme of things that are closing still an’s dreams of making it in the EV market are closing.

It’s a 26 billion with a B dollar fail.

Executive Producer Tania: Who’s getting fired?

Crew Chief Eric: Everybody’s getting fired at Chrysler.

Executive Producer Tania: You are getting fired. You are getting fired and you are getting fired.

Crew Chief Eric: This conversation [00:15:00] actually came up at work. It was really funny because somebody threw it out there and I immediately was like, I mean I took the hook, I bit and I was like, ah, here we go.

Because I was thinking about the whole phrasing there, Chrysler’s EV entries, and I’m like, what do they really have in the EV market? They had the Pacifica Hybrid, which is made in Canada, and we know why it’s not being made anymore because of whatever’s going on in politics right now. Then we had the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Wrangler four xe, which is something that few people wanted.

I told you guys about the test drive of the Wrangler four xe. It wasn’t that impressed, but that’s a plugin hybrid. Both of those are, so is the Pacifica, so they, those aren’t true EVs. They’re hybrids and then they came out with that charger ev. I’ve seen one in the wild, so somebody bought one, but I brought up the point.

That’s where they lost their way. Like a lot of other car companies who wants to buy a muscle car that doesn’t have any muscle? And it’s not that the Charger EV was bad looking ’cause [00:16:00] it actually looks really nice and it’s really menacing and aggressive and all that. But it’s just like when it sounds like a Hoover, like what is that?

Executive Producer Tania: Well, the people that want the 9 billion horsepower, hell, cat, demon, whatever, Satan reincarnated version, that doesn’t go with ev. Correct. Like that’s not your market audience.

Crew Chief Eric: I’m also discounting the rest of Stellantis portfolio that they have overseas, like the 500 E and a bunch of other stuff that we don’t even really want to consider here in the States because where’s the last Fiat dealer closing in America?

Right? Because they’re all shutting their doors too right now. So there’s not a whole heck of a lot going on. So. Stateside. So I’m, I’m very much focused just on stateside stuff, but we did report a bunch of drive-throughs ago about that Chrysler airflow concept that they were gonna build, which I thought was a pretty good looking.

I was actually kind of interested in that as well. That never came to market. They never made it, it never went anywhere other than the [00:17:00] renderings we saw online. Again, I say, is this really a loss for us here in the States that Stellantis isn’t doing anything with EVs? Who cares?

Crew Chief Brad: I’ve seen mixed reviews on the four xe.

I think it’s a cool concept in the Jeeps and everything, but they’ve got all kinds of electrical problems. Yeah. Your Pacifica and I could gotta imagine other Pacifica has had all kinds of electrical problems. Yep. And just, I don’t want an all electric vehicle from a company that is notorious for having electrical problems.

And the charger, ev correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t they discontinue all other chargers and only release

Crew Chief Eric: Yes.

Crew Chief Brad: The charger ev

Crew Chief Eric: for like five

Crew Chief Brad: minutes? I feel like that was a mistake. Yes. Like I’m, I’m, I feel like had they taken the Ford F-150 route and kept some of the other models and just offered it as a separate or as in addition to the lineup, maybe it would’ve done a little better.

But then again, the Ford F-150 Lightning doesn’t sell very well either. So this would be a very different story if the [00:18:00] political climate was different.

Crew Chief Eric: I think you’re a hundred percent right, but there is a little bit of hope for enthusiasts like ourselves out there because within the last time that we did a drive-through and now there’s been some changes at the EPA, one of the big things that’s changing amongst a bunch of different rules, specifically for auto manufacturers is all of the requirements that they were beholden to, you know, the hybrids and certain amount of this to offset the big V eights and these that and the other things.

And even things like auto stop start, which most of us enthusiasts or otherwise cannot stand, right? And the dual electric system that all the extra stuff that goes along with, they basically said that like auto stop start. Let’s just focus on that. Doesn’t really do any good. It proved out that it doesn’t save emissions.

It doesn’t really save anything. Motors are more efficient when they’re run at constant than when they’re on and off. And they always say, you know, startup enrichments, there’s more fuel being used every time it restarts, all this kind of thing. And so they’re doing [00:19:00] away with that. They’re doing away with a bunch of other stuff like that.

And basically it’s gonna open the doors now for auto manufacturers like Stellantis to come back to the table. With big honk and v eights and supercharged v sixes and a bunch of other stuff. So maybe we’re going to see not necessarily proliferation of Big Motors again, because everything’s been shrinking down to three cylinders.

I’m surprised we didn’t get down to two cylinder turbos by this point, you know, that kind of thing. But I think we’re gonna see the reintroduction of six and a half liter Chrysler chargers and challengers and all that kind of stuff.

Crew Chief Brad: And then the political climate’s gonna change again. We’re gonna get a swing the other way, and they’re all gonna have to stop making all that bullshit again.

The EPA is gonna double down on even stricter guidelines, and it’s just gonna be a pendulum that swings back and forth every four to eight years.

Crew Chief Eric: But see, that gives you an opportunity to buy some good cars, and then the crappy ones will come out and you can skip those and then buy good cars again. You see?

Crew Chief Brad: You wanna buy a good car, buy anything pre 2020, [00:20:00] or I just picked a random year, but buy something older.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, a hundred percent.

Executive Producer Tania: Hump the brakes. Did you all hear the news?

Crew Chief Eric: What’s going on?

Executive Producer Tania: Stop Tech.

Crew Chief Brad: They stopped.

Executive Producer Tania: Stop Tech stopped no longer selling brakes, rotors, kits after 27 years in the brake business.

Crew Chief Eric: Wow.

Executive Producer Tania: But it’s not just them. Buy, buy raybestos

Crew Chief Eric: really

Executive Producer Tania: centric. Yes, because apparently all three are under the same parent company, which apparently also owns FRA filters, Michelin wiper blades, some Reese towing parts and auto light spark plugs. And those people are under federal fraud indictments. And filed chapter 11 bankruptcy and they tried to sell off Stop Tech, asbestos and Centric.

Nobody bought them. So they basically said, done. Stop production. Stop spending money.

Crew Chief Eric: Wow. So that leaves Brembo and Willwood

Crew Chief Brad: for Big Break Kids.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, for aftermarket,

Crew Chief Brad: you can still get Hawk.

Executive Producer Tania: You can still get Durast maybe?

Crew Chief Eric: Oh no. [00:21:00] You might not be able to because I read an article today saying the parent company of Napa and a bunch of other parts companies, they’re divesting and some of them are on the chopping block and some of ’em have for sale signs in the front yard.

So you might not be able to buy Durast because if you look at what AutoZone Pet Boys and all those places, they have a parent company too, right? Car Quest gets all

Crew Chief Brad: mm-hmm.

Crew Chief Eric: Jumbled up inside of that. So there’s a lot of moving and shaking going on there. So I think Stop Tech might just be foreshadowing for more logistics supply chains of auto parts that are falling apart.

So my question became, how long before the Shoe falls and Rock Auto starts falling apart, you know, places like that, are they too big to fail? Probably not in today’s economy.

Executive Producer Tania: How old do you think Raybestos is?

Crew Chief Eric: I’m gonna go with 50 plus.

Crew Chief Brad: Seventy seven, a

Executive Producer Tania: hundred and twenty four years.

Crew Chief Eric: What

Executive Producer Tania: apparently Raybestos has been since 1902

Crew Chief Eric: rhymes with asbestos and we gotta get rid of it.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s [00:22:00] probably what they were made from in 1902.

Crew Chief Eric: They were made from wood in 1902 too.

Crew Chief Brad: And I, I won’t be sad if Duralast goes away. No. You know, here’s a, here’s a P. SA for you, for anybody that goes to the track. And if you use Duralast brake pads, they will last you approximately 20 minutes and then you’ll need to replace them.

Crew Chief Eric: Not gonna last. Duralast not gonna last Dur, last

Crew Chief Brad: built to last. Where? Too fast. Dur last.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s great. Well, since again, we’re talking about things that are coming to a close or closing or are dead. Adding to the dog pile of disappointing reviews on Honda’s New Prelude. I think this thing is dead on arrival.

So Doug DeMuro adds to the list of negative reviews to the new Honda Prelude.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, I mean, people are basically saying it’s slower, more expensive, [00:23:00] terrible interior. Go buy a Civic

Crew Chief Eric: pretty much. And at least you can get a Turbo and the Civic

Executive Producer Tania: and they don’t come in manual.

Crew Chief Eric: The new prelude should have been rear wheel drive.

It should have been out there to compete with the GT 86 and the Supra and everything else in that two door coop fast back kind of thing. They missed the mark because it looks like it should be one of those cars. Nah, it doesn’t do it for me,

Crew Chief Brad: but it’s, they did with this. The same thing they did with the original prelude.

Like the original prelude should have been rear wheel drive. Should have had,

Crew Chief Eric: yeah,

Crew Chief Brad: more power. It should have been a better car. And it wasn’t.

Crew Chief Eric: Sorry, Brian Shaw, it’s just the way it is.

Crew Chief Brad: He doesn’t listen anyway.

Crew Chief Eric: Tanya’s not gonna be sad about these two cars going away. And well, like we said, we’re not gonna talk about them unless we absolutely have to.

But this one, I could not let it go by without saying, according to Motor one, Tesla’s model S and Model X, quote unquote, two of Tesla’s longest running models are [00:24:00] being discontinued by April.

Executive Producer Tania: Correct.

Crew Chief Brad: Really?

Crew Chief Eric: Tanya nods her head in enjoyment of that statement.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, I don’t

Crew Chief Brad: care. Those are the two, the bigger ones, right?

The two

Executive Producer Tania: flashes, the X is the SUV

Crew Chief Eric: with the gall wings.

Executive Producer Tania: And then the S is like the Model S sedan. The

Crew Chief Eric: The original one. The original Tesla,

Crew Chief Brad: yeah. Yeah. But that the X is the bigger one. The Y is the smaller one.

Crew Chief Eric: Correct.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: So they’re gonna just make the Y and the cyber truck. That’s it.

Crew Chief Brad: They still make the three,

Crew Chief Eric: they do

Executive Producer Tania: the model two.

Wasn’t that the one that’s supposed to be like $20,000 free? Basically?

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. No, that’s never gonna happen. The model two is dead. That’s stillborn. That’s That’s terrible. Wow.

Executive Producer Tania: Hey, the cyber truck’s still out there

Crew Chief Brad: sitting on lots, undriven

Crew Chief Eric: things. We thought we were dead and now are raising from it. Like Lazarus, the grand tour is coming back.

Crew Chief Brad: Yay.

Executive Producer Tania: I thought they were done 10 times ago.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, right. It’s like the [00:25:00] Rolling Stones tour. Right. And all those guys, they just keep going forever and as long as you keep paying. We will keep touring.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s the final tour number 25.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, exactly. It’s ridiculous. So Jeremy Clarkson put something out on Instagram talking about, which I had already read this a while ago, like who they had chosen to supersede them and I don’t know, because Clarkson’s bit was okay.

And I’m like, okay, who are these guys? Especially the third guy, the train spotting guy. But then I surfaced some of the throttle house videos, especially from their Instagram and I shared them with you guys and I wanted to see what you thought, like, is this what we’re gonna expect in the new Grand tour?

The new quote, unquote, let’s call it Top Gear.

Crew Chief Brad: I’ve seen a lot of the throttle house stuff on. YouTube and I thought it was pretty good for like a YouTube channel. I’m curious to see what they do with a infinite budget and maybe they do things that are more interesting,

Crew Chief Eric: but it’s an infinite budget on a platform that nobody [00:26:00] watches.

And, and I know I’m doing a gross generalization here, but what other compelling event or show or thing is on Amazon Prime that makes you go, Hey, I’m gonna jump over to Amazon Prime and watch their thing. They got tubi and freebie and all that other junk. You’re really gonna waste your time on Amazon Prime when you could be watching the Olympics on Peacock.

You know, that kind of thing. Like really? I don’t think so.

Crew Chief Brad: Well call patrol. This was

Executive Producer Tania: not a paid advertisement.

Crew Chief Eric: PAW Patrol, my God.

Crew Chief Brad: But that’s not even Amazon Prime. That’s, that’s Amazon Prime through, or that’s Paramount Plus through Amazon

Crew Chief Eric: Prime. Oh my God. Yeah, exactly. The clips I saw, I agree with what you said.

I think it’s good for YouTube.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s annoying these people pretending like they’re caveman jumping around the car. Ooh, ooh.

Crew Chief Eric: Did you see the second video? No. Where he’s got the manual where all he does is shift things. If you put it in his hand, he shifts gears. It doesn’t matter what he is doing.

Executive Producer Tania: These videos aren’t made for me.

Crew Chief Eric: Right. [00:27:00]

Executive Producer Tania: I am not their target audience.

Crew Chief Eric: The people are saying, oh, they’re the natural progression for Hamlin Clarkson and May, and I’m like, I, I don’t see it.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh,

Crew Chief Eric: here’s my problem. So the Amazon Prime is one issue and you, you can take many different sides of that issue. How you feel about Amazon and all that.

I’m not even worried about that. I’m just really focusing on if Andy Willman is just trying to reproduce top gear, there’s a big mistake there because you’re never going to find another Clarkson Hammond in May. They are who they are. And at that time we showed up for those guys and we watched and the car stuff and whatever, but the cars have changed and the people have changed.

Reviewing cars hasn’t changed. It’s still the same thing. Like how fast does it go and what does it do and how does it, they’ve been doing another motor week for like a hundred years, you know, that kind of thing. It’s never going to be the same. And if you’re trying to replicate it, that’s where you’re gonna lose a huge amount of audience because I think what they should have done is taken throttle house.

And made that the new brand name, it’s a great name, and said [00:28:00] Throttle house, coming to Amazon Prime. And then you sort of reintroduce the concept and people go, you know, this is really familiar. It has this like top gear kind of feel to it. But it’s a whole new dynamic. And you can get on board with that, you can subscribe with that.

But if you bring these guys to this table and say it’s the new top gear, it’s the new grand tour, whatever, there’s a certain expectation that goes with that. Yeah. And I think we’re all gonna be holding them to that level and they’re never gonna be able to achieve the same thing. And it’s gonna fail.

It’ll make it a year or two max. And then it’ll be gone.

Crew Chief Brad: And to that point, that’s the same reason why the numerous, uh, iterations of American Top Gear, top Gear, USA, top Gear America, they all failed because they were all under the shadow. And the high expectations of the original top gear, like you were saying, you’re never gonna get another Clarkson Hammond in May.

Crew Chief Eric: You know, the only one that worked, the only spinoff that worked in that series is the one most people don’t even [00:29:00] realize existed, which is Top Gear Australia. ’cause the Australians sort of just did whatever the heck they wanted and it was funny. And it was all about their stuff and their culture and their cars and it just worked.

And then they did a cross, one of the best crossover episodes with Top Gear is the Ashes episode where the Australians come and they do the shootout, the the XJ two 20 powered van and the Maloo and all that stuff. The Australians did it. Right. And they didn’t get enough credit. But to your point, the Americans and all the other spinoffs, because there even apparently was like a top gear Germany.

Yeah. And they just never worked because they were trying to repeat the recipe and you can’t do that. So I unfortunately feel like this is the same thing with the Grand tour and it’s got a lot of cards stacked against it from day one.

Crew Chief Brad: And I think a lot of that also comes from just the way Clarkson, Hammond and May worked.

Like, not even just their chemistry on screen, but the work that they did behind the screen. I mean, I thought, you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought I saw something about where [00:30:00] Clarkson would spend hours writing and rewriting and retaking jokes and checking and like testing. It is like everything that he was meticulous

Crew Chief Eric: Yes.

Crew Chief Brad: With how they did and they, and they made it look so effortless and almost candid, but it was meticulously put together and thought out.

Crew Chief Eric: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crew Chief Brad: And nobody else can replicate that.

Crew Chief Eric: No. Well, speaking of things that can’t be replicated, and on a very sad note, drag racing legend, ed Isky Arian, also known as the Cam father, passed away on February the fourth at 104 years old.

Our condolences go out to the family and to break fix guest Cheyenne Kane. We were very fortunate to be able to have her on the show to Chronicle Isys life and to talk about the new documentary that she put together, which is also called Isy. And it’s making its rounds in the indie film circuit right now and we’re hoping that it gets picked up through a streaming service.

But I believe she is bringing the film to [00:31:00] the East coast. So we, we will be able to go to a showing and see the Isky film firsthand. But if you missed that, go back into our catalog Break Fix and check out the episode with Cheyenne Kane so you can get up to speed on all things. Ed Arian.

Executive Producer Tania: In other tragic and sad news, we’ve lost a veteran legendary actor,

Crew Chief Brad: James Vander Beak.

Crew Chief Eric: That too.

Executive Producer Tania: The greatest racing movie of all time Days of Thunder. We have lost Robert Dugal at age nine five.

Crew Chief Eric: Now he can eat all the ice cream he wants.

Executive Producer Tania: Robin’s racing, baby.

Crew Chief Eric: We need to revisit that movie. That’s what we need to do next with Steven. Well, we

Executive Producer Tania: said we’ve, we’ve said we were gonna do it, but now it’s even

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, we gotta fast forward that.

We gotta get that done.

Crew Chief Brad: Let’s watch it on the 27th.

Crew Chief Eric: There you go. Get together with them that I think they’re a good tribute. Robert Devo, I’m gonna bring out some, I’m gonna get you some ice cream. Come on down here.

Crew Chief Brad: We’ll, we’ll go to the, the Moo or whatever up there by you and [00:32:00] then go Yeah. And go watch these of thunder.

Crew Chief Eric: Can I rub a little sweet and low packet on your leg too while we watch it or what?

Crew Chief Brad: I’ll be sure to wear my short shorts. Stop the car. Cole. Stop the.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I would say that we would move on to our regularly scheduled ranting and raving at this point, but this is like Monty Python, like, bring out you dead. Bring out you dead. And then next we’re like, I’m not dead yet. Not dead yet. Speaking of not dead yet, I thought the boxer and the Cayman were gone.

Like, I’m so confused what’s going on at Porsche right now. But apparently they’re back. Back in a weird way because there’s the Ev Cayman and the EV boxer, but then they’re talking about getting in bed with Toyota and doing this collaboration MR two boxer thing. And I’m like, what? Since [00:33:00] when I, I’m just gonna say since when does Porsche need Toyota’s help to build something like a boxer or a Cayman, which they’ve been making now since the nineties.

Like, come on. Really

Executive Producer Tania: just. Sell something. It doesn’t cost over six figures.

Crew Chief Eric: Even the Caymans cost six figures now.

Executive Producer Tania: Well that’s kind of the point of this is they’re saying they’re basically pushing out younger people that don’t have the money to afford a Porsche anymore. Because where’s the 9 44? That was like the poor man’s Porsche to go buy

Crew Chief Eric: and they only did that ’cause Ferrari had the 3 0 8, so they had to compete in that space.

Right. Also to get themselves outta bankruptcy. I mean, it is the card to save Porsche during the eighties, but yes to to that end. Where is the 9 44? Where is the 9 28? You could make the argument that the Panamera replaced the 9 28 in some respects, but where’s that front engine rear drive? Near perfect weight distribution, grand Tour or Sport Coupe?

I guess that the 9 44 was, but yeah,

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t [00:34:00] know. Is the idea to go to Toyota because lower costs? Yeah, because also, ’cause you’ve already had the Porsche. Volkswagen, you already had the Porsche Audi. Like why would you. Not just go revisit that pool. They’re your same company.

Crew Chief Eric: I don’t get it. It makes no sense

Executive Producer Tania: other than what are you saving with A GTI that’s $60,000.

So

Crew Chief Brad: yeah, because ’cause neither of those companies are making cars that anybody wants. At least Toyota still is

Executive Producer Tania: for now.

Crew Chief Brad: For now.

Crew Chief Eric: You can’t tell me that Volkswagen can’t build a boxer with a GTI engine in it and let’s call it a day. I mean, why are we going to Toyota?

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know.

Crew Chief Eric: It doesn’t make any sense.

It’s not like they produce anoth yet another boxer yet another Cayman. They’re gonna outsource the chassis and all that to Toyota. That doesn’t make, again, it doesn’t make any sense.

Executive Producer Tania: Toyota, a company which currently has three different front engine rear wheel drive based force cars on their three separate vehicle platforms, in addition to performance variants of the Corolla and Yaris, which again doesn’t make any sense.

So Volkswagen, Audi [00:35:00] have plenty of front engine cars. Porsche, you know how to make a rear wheel drive car. You’re telling me you can’t put the two together on your own?

Crew Chief Eric: No. No.

Crew Chief Brad: Let’s unpack that. Toyota has three,

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know which those are

Crew Chief Brad: front engine and three wheel drive sports cars. They’ve got the BRZ

Crew Chief Eric: GT 86,

Crew Chief Brad: the, yeah, the G 86.

Now the GR 86, which they built with Subaru, and then the Supra, which they built with BMW. What’s the other one? They, they don’t

Executive Producer Tania: make the super anymore. Well, I guess they knew how to,

Crew Chief Brad: yeah, but they didn’t though because they built it with another manufacturer.

Executive Producer Tania: BMW.

Crew Chief Brad: When’s, yeah, when’s the last time they built a rear wheel drive?

A front engine, rear wheel drive car themself.

Crew Chief Eric: The third one is a Lexus. That’s the one you’re missing?

Executive Producer Tania: Mm.

Crew Chief Brad: Okay, so then Porsche should go to Lexus.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, why would Porsche not go to BMW or Mercedes? Why would you not stay German?

Crew Chief Eric: That’s verboten

Crew Chief Brad: because fuck those guys. That’s what I, I guarantee you it’s a, it’s a fuck those guys kind of thing.

I

Crew Chief Eric: can you imagine a A GR 86 with like a Porsche body on top of it. How pathetic [00:36:00] is that gonna be? You can’t tell me Volkswagen can’t build this and put a freaking two liter turbo. GTI motor up front

Executive Producer Tania: Volkswagen knows how to make rear engine cars too. The beetle.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. A hundred years ago. I don’t know. I almost wanna be like, this is a farce, but the news came from the Porsche Club directly, so I’m like, well, maybe there’s some credibility to this.

I just don’t, I don’t get it. It actually kind of infuriates me in a way, like, what the hell is Porsche doing? They just wanna sell nine elevens and that’s it.

Executive Producer Tania: They’re like only interested in the m mr two that Toyota’s allegedly coming back with.

Crew Chief Eric: Okay. And you said something to me the other day, which is really important about this particular part of the conversation.

Currently at the helm of Toyota, we have an enthusiast, right? All the Gazoo stuff that’s going on, but what’s about to happen at Toyota?

Crew Chief Brad: But that’s changing.

Executive Producer Tania: They’re putting a bean counter in charge.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: So who’s Porsche gonna get their m mr two sports Coop from?

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, [00:37:00] granted, this article, a guest came out before the Toyota announcement.

Maybe Porsche didn’t know and now they’re gonna have to be like, nevermind.

Crew Chief Eric: Scotty didn’t know. Scotty didn’t know. Scotty didn’t know. Because at

Executive Producer Tania: them two ain’t happening with the bean counter in

Crew Chief Eric: charge. No, it’s not. It’s not. That’s gonna get canceled. That’s probably one of the first things that’s gonna get canceled.

’cause they’re gonna go back to making super boring corollas and CELs and stuff. Now that there’s not an enthusiast in charge of Toyota,

Executive Producer Tania: bring the Avalon back.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh God no, please.

Crew Chief Brad: I’m, I’m reading this. It seems like this is all pie in the sky and there’s nothing going. This is just what this writer has said.

You can’t help but daydream about what a collaboration between Toyota and Porsche on an affordable, vintage, and sports car would look like. So this is all bullshit. We got clickbait.

Crew Chief Eric: So that being said, how many Porsche club owners suddenly got out their torches and their pitchforks? ’cause I’d be pissed off.

Who’s writing for PCA these days? ’cause this isn’t the first time we’ve come across articles where it’s like, [00:38:00] who wrote this?

Executive Producer Tania: Well, first of all, it was written poorly.

Crew Chief Brad: This is Brad. This is Bradley Iger.

Crew Chief Eric: Must be a Brad thing.

Crew Chief Brad: What? When was the last time I wrote an article?

Crew Chief Eric: So speaking of things that, thank God they’re dead.

Did you know Audi was gonna enter the pickup truck market?

Executive Producer Tania: Who?

Crew Chief Eric: I’m gonna say that again. Audi pickup truck. They called it the active sphere concept.

Crew Chief Brad: Active fear.

Crew Chief Eric: Dude, look at this thing.

Executive Producer Tania: But that’s not a pickup truck. That just happens to be a like lift gate that you can stick your bike out the back.

Crew Chief Eric: Tesla redefined what it is to be a pickup truck. That’s a pickup truck. Now

Crew Chief Brad: there’s not a pickup truck.

Executive Producer Tania: I would

Crew Chief Eric: not, doesn’t look like a cyber truck.

Executive Producer Tania: Thank God it doesn’t look like a cyber truck. But also it doesn’t look like a pickup truck.

Crew Chief Eric: It also has the same amount of trunk space as a cyber truck is pretty terrible.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, you can’t even put the bike all the way in The fuck is that shit. I’m sorry. Just put a bike rack on the back. Why are you never? That is the dumbest.

Crew Chief Eric: It looks so stupid,

Executive Producer Tania: useless crap. [00:39:00] What is that? I’m sorry. That’s stupid.

Crew Chief Eric: I just like the fact that it has like a reverse sunroof. Did you see how the trunk opens?

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t wanna see it anymore. This is Ong, like you just wasted any sort of cargo space to hang your bike halfway in. It’s still halfway out. Leave the damn thing all the way out.

Crew Chief Brad: It gets better. If you click on the other article about it, the Audi active seer concept a little further down. It’ll take you to another article.

There’s a picture of it with golf clubs in the back and you can’t close the boot with the golf clubs in the back. Oh, where?

Executive Producer Tania: Where, how do I click that? Where do I click that? I don’t see a link.

Crew Chief Eric: Here’s the best part of all that. All right. As you read this article, you realize this is Volkswagen Audi at its finest because they are competing with themselves because they can’t leave well enough alone.

All of this atmosphere. Comes from the fact that they’re gonna make a pickup truck over at Scout, which is owned by Volkswagen because they can’t just swim in one lane. So now we’re going back to, [00:40:00] well, if, if Scout has a pickup, then Volkswagen has to have one. An Audi has to have one. Next thing you know, there’s gonna be a Porsche badged pickup truck, probably built by Toyota.

It’ll be a Tundra with a Porsche badge on it. But this is stupid.

Executive Producer Tania: Why would you drive around with your golf clubs exposed? Aren’t they really expensive of a good set?

Crew Chief Eric: Yes,

Crew Chief Brad: could be. Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: This is so

Crew Chief Eric: stupid

Executive Producer Tania: dumb.

Crew Chief Brad: So you were asking earlier, why wouldn’t Porsche just go to Volkswagen and Audi? This is why this is the bullshit that they’re fucking making.

Porsche is like, no, thank you. We’ll, outsource

Executive Producer Tania: Porsche is like, I want rear real drive, front engine, mid, mid-engine, super sports car for the people in in Volkswagen, I was like, here’s about this pickup truck that doesn’t actually fit a golf club. This is sad.

Crew Chief Eric: Speaking of things that are bad and apparently still on the table, I’m gonna keep bringing this car up until it goes away.

But unfortunately, it is, quote unquote, the new design language for Audi. Audi [00:41:00] confirms the concept C project still on. Despite the rumors, this ugly heinous eyesore won’t go away.

Executive Producer Tania: What would you rather this AI generated? Crap. It’s not even real. What would you rather this or the pickup truck?

Crew Chief Eric: Am I allowed to burn it to the ground?

Crew Chief Brad: It’ll burn itself to the ground. It’s electric.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s true. God, they’re terrible. They’re all terrible. Oh man. This is bad for some angles and the other one’s bad from some angles. If we could maybe smash them into each other, we could have one decent looking car. ’cause the front of the other one’s not bad, but the, the back of this one’s horrendous.

God,

Crew Chief Brad: I think you mean smash them into each other and destroy both of them. I think that’s what you’re meant to say.

Crew Chief Eric: The end result. Yes. This, they’re just terrible. I do like that one picture of this heinous AI car, and there’s this black hole and it says, this is just the beginning.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. Of the end.

Crew Chief Eric: Pretty much like that is, that’s the shoot where the poop goes.

Crew Chief Brad: [00:42:00] Open butt hole,

Crew Chief Eric: inter,

Crew Chief Brad: inter suppository.

Crew Chief Eric: Again, there’s certain car companies we say we’re not gonna talk about, and then they just poof, come up with something else that we can’t resist talking about and maybe this should be part of the showcase, which as you notice, there’s a theme here we’re continuing to extend throughout the episode.

BMW’s new M three. All I have to say is quad motor and not the petrol kind. Is this the nail in the coffin for the M three? Is this what’s gonna kill it?

Crew Chief Brad: Probably. It

Executive Producer Tania: needs quad motors because it weighs 10 million pounds.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh my God, it’s so awful.

Crew Chief Brad: 5,000 pounds.

Executive Producer Tania: You know what? Honestly, it’s hard to tell what it’s gonna look like since it’s under total camo, this, that, and the other.

The front, what you can see of it, is sort of reminiscent of a 2002 in the grill style with the lights, which if done correctly. Might not even be a bad [00:43:00] thing. Be better than those buck tooth, badger kidney grill things that have been going on recently. But I thought BM BMW was one of the ones that was all about the combustion.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes. Until they’re not when it suits them. Tell me that The back of that doesn’t look like a Pontiac G eight

Executive Producer Tania: from the one angle. Yes. Or Alexis.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s really big too.

Crew Chief Brad: If you go a little further down, there’s a link. It’s the new electric M three lapping the berg ring.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh yeah, I did see that. Uh

Executive Producer Tania: oh yeah, I see that.

Crew Chief Eric: I’m sorry. But to add insult to injury, and we didn’t get to talk about this last time, so it fits right in here with this car’s gonna be put together with that screw, that BMW made. That’s impossible to screw unless you have their special. Have you seen this thing?

Executive Producer Tania: Yes.

Crew Chief Eric: The screw head is a round L. I mean, there’s schwabing tools and then there’s this kind of insanity.

And when that strips, because it will,

Executive Producer Tania: you’re fucked. You just gonna have to get a new car. [00:44:00]

Crew Chief Eric: The whole car’s gonna be put together with these. It’s bad enough when they use torques, the six points like This is stupid.

Executive Producer Tania: What happened to Right. To repair what?

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. They’re gonna find a way to take that away from you without having to do it with the laws.

They’ll make everything some special, ridiculous tool.

Crew Chief Brad: I think this is creating a whole new aftermarket for screws and people. BMW owners are just gonna buy a kit for like $1,500 to replace all of their screws.

Crew Chief Eric: I didn’t think about it that way, but that’s, that’s a good point.

Executive Producer Tania: The new ECS tuning billet screw kit

Crew Chief Eric: for your VW.

Bag of screws. Bag of screws.

Executive Producer Tania: Or you’re gonna get a bunch of people that are gonna 3D print some sort of adapter wrench, screwdriver, or whatever the mechanism is. I don’t know.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, since we’re talking about things that are closing, dying, going away, should remain dead. However you wanna phrase that. We don’t have any new EVs or compec cars.

We don’t have any Asian stuff. We don’t have any bikes. We don’t have any [00:45:00] lost and found. We don’t have any uncool wall. This is a hell of a season closer. We got no Tesla news other than what we already talked about.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, we had the JDM news with the Toyota CEO swap change thing, and then Mazda recently was just awarded, I don’t know if awarded, but apparently they’re now the safest car.

They’ve outshined Volvo in their safety performance record. So look at that. Unexpected.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s awesome. That’s because Volvo’s also run by bean counters and can’t build the safest car, but you make outta tinfoil. You know when they used to make Outta Iron Girders, the same ones that they built the Empire State Building out of?

Yeah. Volvos were safe. That was available on the Volvo, two 40 wagons, iron Bridge girders, but not so much anymore. So moving right along as we fast forward to, seriously what could go wrong. Tanya, I’m gonna ask you this question until you get your Apple subscription.

Executive Producer Tania: Nope.

Crew Chief Eric: Did you watch the F1 movie?

Executive Producer Tania: No.

But apparently they’re already in talks for another F1 [00:46:00] movie.

Crew Chief Eric: Are you gonna wait for the second one and watch ’em back

Executive Producer Tania: to back? What would you call F1 the movie two. F two

Crew Chief Brad: FU.

Executive Producer Tania: We just went backwards from F1 to F two to F three. We’re getting slower.

Crew Chief Brad: God, it would be two F1.

Executive Producer Tania: I have not seen it yet. Pose when the Apple subscription’s unlocked, I suppose I will then Grace the movie with my eyeballs.

Crew Chief Brad: We’ll add it to the list. We’ll watch it after Days of Thunder.

Crew Chief Eric: There you go. I don’t see what a sequel would bring to the table.

Is Brad Pick gonna be in it again?

Executive Producer Tania: No spoilers.

Crew Chief Eric: I want all the spoil. Uh, all right. We started off this conversation talking a little bit about the Olympics and talking about the Super Bowl. So we have some winter sports and obviously, you know, we’re gonna talk about Rolex here in a minute and stuff like that.

So since we’re in the midst of winter sports [00:47:00] enthusiasm, I’ve been watching a lot of the ski jump. Mm-hmm. And I began to realize, you know, the old Audi commercial where he drove up the ski jump and how fun is that? And you know, how real was that? I guess it, apparently it was very real back in the eighties, but we haven’t let that go in Germany of all places.

They do car competitions in the snow up the mountain.

Executive Producer Tania: Amazing.

Crew Chief Eric: With all these whacked out all wheel drive cars and this video is just unreal.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s amazing.

Crew Chief Eric: My favorite though. My favorite is that quantum station wagon. I wanna know what’s in that.

Executive Producer Tania: That thing was awesome. I mean it outdid the sport. Quatro

Crew Chief Eric: Ballistically quick.

And for those that don’t know, the VW Quantum Station Wagon Synchro is actually an Audi 4,000 underneath. So it’s all in the same family now. The Fox is the one that I was kind of scratching my head. ’cause that shares a lot of 4,000 DNA, but that must have been swapped to all wheel drive. But that too was just a beast.

I was like the [00:48:00] two oldest cars there basically were like the fastest ones. It was, it was awesome.

Executive Producer Tania: It had that powered weight ratio,

Crew Chief Eric: that wagon, it’s like a shot out of a gun.

Crew Chief Brad: The RSS four wagon

Executive Producer Tania: yellow one.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: Yes.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s a great, great thing.

Crew Chief Brad: This is an amazing event. It’s like,

Executive Producer Tania: I wanna do this.

Crew Chief Eric: I know. I love it. Peak.

Crew Chief Brad: Peak. But it’s snow.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s the slowmo instead of the schmo. See, they got to go up and they come across the top and then they come back down. Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: But like how stiff is that sport? Quatro? It’s like a board. It just like,

Crew Chief Eric: it doesn’t wanna play ball at all. No, it

Executive Producer Tania: just bounces air under the tires.

No, like it’s so stiff,

Crew Chief Eric: but the sounds, can you imagine hearing all these fire breathing five cylinders just running up the mountain at like 9,000 rpm. It’s amazing.

Crew Chief Brad: We need to find out when this is going on. Next year.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. Right.

Crew Chief Brad: Is that black car? Is that a skyline?

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: Holy shit. That’s amazing. It’s

Crew Chief Eric: not just Audis.

Executive Producer Tania: I’m pretty sure I saw A BMW earlier.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. There was a BM BMW one series.

Executive Producer Tania: [00:49:00] Well, what’s still the fastest up that hill, I think is the snowmobile.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh my God. The skyline was doing donuts and then he hit the

Crew Chief Eric: Yes.

Crew Chief Brad: Did the snow baker? Yes

Crew Chief Eric: he did.

Crew Chief Brad: He did the snow machine. This is awesome.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, it’s good stuff. Last time we had asked time, you know, we’re, we were, we started off talking about car commercials and we were supposed to find interesting car commercials for every drive through.

You found something for us?

Executive Producer Tania: No, no, no. So it’s a deep fake. No.

Crew Chief Eric: Is it really?

Executive Producer Tania: It’s clickbait. It’s clickbait. So I was searching celebrity car commercials, right? And then go ahead. And what did I come up with?

COMMERCIAL: Make your move to Chevrolet’s new celebrity.

Executive Producer Tania: The Celebrity Chev. Oh

Crew Chief Brad: no,

Executive Producer Tania: I got Rick rolled. Watch the whole thing. ’cause this is a 1984 baby, so we gotta shout out to the Olympics at the end.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh yeah. [00:50:00] Oh wow. Look at that styling. Hmm. $8,456. Did we convert that to today’s dollars? What is 8,500 in 1984 In today’s dollars,

Crew Chief Brad: if it’s for a Chevy, it’s.

500

Crew Chief Eric: lemons won’t even take that car.

Executive Producer Tania: $26,516 car.

Crew Chief Eric: Damn.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s actually still pretty affordable for today’s dollars.

Crew Chief Eric: I wouldn’t want it though for that price.

Crew Chief Brad: Well, yeah. I’d rather have an Ultima.

Executive Producer Tania: So I will warn that you can go down a rabbit hole on Celebrity Chevrolet or commercial that exists.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh man. Ha ha.

Again, seriously, what could go wrong?

Executive Producer Tania: And then the celebrity Chevrolet car commercials lead to the Beretta Ooh Chevrolet car commercials. Ooh. And the Beretta was the Heartbeat Chevrolet.

Crew Chief Eric: I drove a Beretta. I know somebody that owned a Beretta. I got her to buy a Volkswagen instead. It was a good move.

Executive Producer Tania: But I have some leads on some actual celebrities in car commercials.

I left this one in [00:51:00] ’cause it Rick rolled me and then it had the Olympics tie in. So full circle moment.

Crew Chief Eric: No book club this month ’cause I’m in the middle of reading a book. We will move on to rich people. Thanks.

There’s a Ferrari ev coming out.

Executive Producer Tania: What a clever day.

Crew Chief Eric: The lu chick, which means

Executive Producer Tania: light and not ’cause it weighs little,

Crew Chief Eric: no, it weighs as much as the Hummer. Evie co-designed by apple’s. Johnny, ive

Executive Producer Tania: Who Just kidding.

Crew Chief Eric: I’m sure William will do a whole episode about this on the Ferrari marketplace. Let’s just do our own little review of what we know about the Ferrari Luce and what everybody’s raving about is its interior.

Executive Producer Tania: The interior looks like a toy,

Crew Chief Eric: right?

Executive Producer Tania: Who made that toy when we were in our generation with kids and you had that little console of a car.

Crew Chief Eric: Don’t say it’s the racing thing where it like moves around on the little black screen with the knobs.

Executive Producer Tania: Not quite that, but there was the other one with the steering [00:52:00] wheel and had like the little like yellow shifter thing.

Oh,

Crew Chief Eric: the Fisher pricey thing. Yay.

Executive Producer Tania: I think it was the Fisher-Price thing. I’m not sure. I don’t wanna offend Fisher-Price, but this reminds, gives me vibes of that Fisher Price store. I don’t,

Crew Chief Brad: Hey, this has the iconic three spoke studio. Hey,

Crew Chief Eric: now. Oh, is that a speak and spell? What is that?

Executive Producer Tania: The steering wheel thing.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, there, see, it’s the modern version.

Executive Producer Tania: This is the modern version.

Crew Chief Eric: God,

Executive Producer Tania: little yellow Ferrari on the center. You’re good to go.

Crew Chief Eric: Like I have mixed feelings about this. I really think despite the fact that the dash is like digital, I think it looks really cool. It’s very like eighties Ferrari with the dials and the way they look, even though they’re fake, but the rest of it is way too iPhone.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, you said it was a dude from Apple.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. It’s just no. What do you think about it from the outside?

Executive Producer Tania: You know, honestly, they’ve made uglier Ferraris, but it doesn’t look like a [00:53:00] Ferrari.

Crew Chief Eric: If you painted this dark green and put some lateral aerodynamic roof rails on it, would this look like the Hyundai?

Executive Producer Tania: Like if you took the emblems off of it,

Crew Chief Eric: would you believe it was a genesis?

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, I would believe this is a Japanese car. If it didn’t have Ferrari badges on it.

Crew Chief Eric: I like the AI Recolored yellow one that looks even.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know if this is actually the final version of it. So who knows what it’ll actually look like.

We all can’t afford it, so there you go.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh yeah, that’ll be 350,000 to start for sure. This goes back to the Stellantis EV thing. Does Ferrari have to make an ev? This is where they lost $26 billion creating this thing that nobody wants, that nobody’s, how well did the Pru Sangwe sell?

Executive Producer Tania: If you can afford a Ferrari, I don’t know why.

You care about the price of fuel,

Crew Chief Eric: right?

Executive Producer Tania: And you probably, not all but percentage. You don’t care about the environment either.

Crew Chief Eric: Smoke, what are you saying? What are you, take that time.

Executive Producer Tania: I’m [00:54:00] just saying sometimes when you have too much money, you don’t care about things.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, that’s rich people things. So, yeah, I’m sure William will do an episode about this in the future, but I also do want to give him a quick shout out.

He got together with Chris Meley from Prancing Horse of Nashville to go behind the scenes and talk about the truth of the Bachman collection and the sale that happened in Mecu. A lot of people are still up in arms about why did they sell for so much, why this, why that, and blah, blah, blah, blah. So William called up Chris and said, Hey, you were the broker behind all this.

Let’s have a real candid conversation about what happened during the sale of the Bachman collection. So that episode is in our catalog. You can’t get any closer to the source of truth than the guy that actually sold the cars. So check it out in our catalog and tune in for other Ferrari Marketplace episodes as we continue Rich people ths.

Do we have an extra value meal this month, Tanya?

Executive Producer Tania: I did not capture one this month.

Crew Chief Eric: All right, well then we’re gonna move right along to fan [00:55:00] favorite. Are you faster than an interceptor?

Executive Producer Tania: I swear we did this one already. ’cause I remember a

Crew Chief Eric: no, no, no. We talked about it, but we didn’t do it.

Executive Producer Tania: Is that what it is? Yes. So remember having the conversation of figuring out what it was.

Crew Chief Eric: Correct, but we never talked about it on the drive through.

Executive Producer Tania: Okay. I literally went and pulled up this last one, thinking we did it already then.

So the first one is a Michigan MAN story, if I have that correct?

Crew Chief Eric: Yes, you do.

Executive Producer Tania: And apparently at the Detroit Metro Airport, McNamara Terminal. Someone decided that that was where the car park was and they blazed through, which is confusing. ’cause then essentially they, the speed at which they were going, we all have been to an airport, the [00:56:00] road and the airport terminal.

They’re parallel to each other. Like it’s really diff it’s not an intersection of some sort. Right. Like, so to carry that much speed and like enter perpendicularly into a building, it’s quite impressive. And I wish there was like an outside camera. There

Crew Chief Eric: is. I found it and then I lost the link.

Executive Producer Tania: Ugh.

Crew Chief Eric: He comes barreling down.

He must like and hooks a hard right turn.

Executive Producer Tania: Handbrake turn into the, into the thing.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes.

Executive Producer Tania: Which is a modern car. So there’s no handbrake to pull on. But man, he must have just yanked all the

Crew Chief Eric: steering wheel. You just cranked the wheel and then stood on it

Executive Producer Tania: and we decided it was a Mercedes.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes, it was a Mercedes.

Maybe he, he had clear plus. Plus. That’s the new perk. You could just drive straight into the airport.

Crew Chief Brad: He thought TSA precheck would curse this.

Crew Chief Eric: I love how they drag him out of there and he is wearing like a Detroit Lions jersey and he’s just yelling like, wow, that guy went to jail. He did not pass, go. He did not collect $200.

Crew Chief Brad: You think he missed his flight? You

Crew Chief Eric: don’t say,

Executive Producer Tania: I think he’s gonna miss many flights.

Crew Chief Eric: You know [00:57:00] how I’ve said before? Where’s that guy trying to park? Is he trying to park in the store? Trying to park in the airport? He did. This guy did it. He’s like, I can’t get any closer than the Delta terminal counter.

Crew Chief Brad: This reminds me of the, I don’t know if you all have seen the videos of people doing this on Instagram when they drive past like an accident or something, or somebody does something stupid with their car as they’re driving by, they’re filming and they say, Hey, you can’t park there at the most inopportune time.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, it goes right along with this next one, which is same, same but different. Brad, this is in your great state of Virginia. I’ll read the headline. Car on Metro TrackX shuts down traffic on I 66.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s

impressive.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. I don’t consider Fairfax County part of Virginia. That’s Maryland adjacent right there.

Crew Chief Eric: Hey, it’s below. It’s on the other side of the river. That’s yours and you can keep it.

Crew Chief Brad: No, no, no, no. We’ll, we’ll take Tiger Woods.

Executive Producer Tania: So if you look, I don’t know exactly where this is on 66. I’m sure I’ve passed it at some point, but they’re basically a ramp. [00:58:00] So he must have like ramped shot over the fence and landed on the tracks.

Crew Chief Eric: He went full Bo Duke.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, this

Crew Chief Eric: is Duke’s a hazard right here.

Executive Producer Tania: Honestly, at first I was like, how do you do that? But then seeing the ramp, you could a hundred percent jump that fence. And end up on the tracks. And what does that look like? A Honda?

Crew Chief Eric: I’m trying to tell by the lights. I think it might be a Hyundai.

Or It’s a Honda. It’s one or the, it’s close. It’s probably a Honda though.

Executive Producer Tania: Can’t tell.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s not an Ultima. Actually, if it had been an Ultima, he would’ve driven away from this. Yes. They would’ve caught him driving down the railroad tracks at like 80 miles an hour. Because it would’ve survived. Because as you said, the Altima is here for all of it.

Executive Producer Tania: Yes. It’s,

Crew Chief Brad: I like how they say it’s an unauthorized car.

Executive Producer Tania: I, you know,

Crew Chief Brad: excuse me, sir. You’re unauthorized. You can’t be here.

Executive Producer Tania: I dare say that. Yes, that was unauthorized. It was not a car with the, uh, train wheels on it that was meant to [00:59:00] be going down the tracks for service.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, Brad, you brought us this next one.

Crew Chief Brad: I didn’t actually read it,

so let’s all read it together.

Crew Chief Eric: Florida man arrested after 13 hit and run crashes on Valentine’s Day.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: Over the course of like five hours. Five and a half hours.

Crew Chief Eric: Police report. The 34-year-old is a Florida resident that lives at him as currently homeless. No, he lives in the jail. That’s where he lives right now.

He covered 80 miles smashing into cars

Crew Chief Brad: and Chevy Colorado is in rough shape. No shit.

Executive Producer Tania: Was this a whistling diesel? No, I’m just kidding.

Crew Chief Eric: It kind of looks like that, doesn’t it?

Executive Producer Tania: You know, they don’t talk much.

Crew Chief Eric: The Florida men or what?

Executive Producer Tania: We don’t know anything. Like why was

he

Executive Producer Tania: drunk? Was he on drugs? Was there an alligator in the car with him?

Crew Chief Eric: It’s, it’s none of that. We just, it’s not a very well written Florida man story, but it was a Valentine’s Day Florida man. Story. Story. It’s [01:00:00] important that we highlighted it. Vehicular nonsense. On Valentine’s Day,

Crew Chief Brad: man. This was in Virginia as well.

Crew Chief Eric: Starting to see a pattern here.

Executive Producer Tania: It was a Florida man in Virginia.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, you’re right. You are right. Sylvania County. Did he crash his way up from Florida?

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, these are just the Virginia cars. They’re still,

Executive Producer Tania: oh man.

Crew Chief Brad: You know the Carolinas in Georgia down there.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh man. This next one is like that song. What’s that song? About how she slashes the seats of the car and the tires and like she vandalizes the jeep.

What? How’s that song?

Executive Producer Tania: Louisville Slugger. That’s how the song goes. The Louisville Slugger to his taillights. Some some something. Something something Something something. Something something.

Crew Chief Eric: Keep Your Day Job.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, carry Underwood song.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah,

Crew Chief Eric: yeah, yeah, yeah. That would, you can sing it for us, Brad. Yeah.

Pancakes and sausage and stuff.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. I, I came, yeah. I can’t sing Gary Underwood. Sorry,

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t remember that song. It’s like god knows how old now. 2005. It’s [01:01:00] 20 years old.

Crew Chief Eric: Play it on the radio. Like if it was just yesterday. ‘

Crew Chief Brad: cause you’re listening to the oldie station.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Right. What is going on here?

Executive Producer Tania: Apparently this dude at the Publix, he mistook the SUV that was parked there thinking it was his ex. And so in a fit of rage of revenge and God knows what are the drugs they were on, basically, I think took a hammer. It started like beating on the car, except it was actually a Publix employee’s car.

It had nothing to do with this person.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh wow. Can you imagine?

Executive Producer Tania: Can you imagine coming outside and it’s like your car is destroyed like this?

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, that’s terrible. What is in the water down there? That’s what I wanna know.

Executive Producer Tania: I dunno.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, on that note, it’s time we go behind the pit wall. Talk about,

I don’t even know what to say about this one. IJ maybe I should just read the headline. President Trump [01:02:00] celebrates American greatness with the Freedom two 50 Grand Prix of Washington DC

Executive Producer Tania: sounds like a terrible idea.

Crew Chief Eric: Indie cars in DC

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, I guess, Hey, DC’s finally gonna get paved the streets.

Crew Chief Eric: No, there’s no chance in hell.

They didn’t pave Baltimore when they ran the Grand Prix there. You think they’re gonna pave dc? Yeah, right. What about the manhole cover? They’re gonna have the same problem that F1 has in Vegas with manhole covers flying off everywhere.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, we’re not gonna make it one laugh of this race

Crew Chief Eric: then. It’s never gonna happen.

It’s gonna be terrible. Well,

Executive Producer Tania: there’s that.

Crew Chief Brad: There’s just gonna race in their dailies.

Crew Chief Eric: Somebody asked what the ticket prices were gonna be for this. And I said, they’re gonna be huge.

Executive Producer Tania: They can pay me to stay away.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, a hundred percent. That’s the day I take a vacation on the other side of the country.

Crew Chief Brad: Wait, were you guys aware that the Daytona 500 happened this weekend?

Crew Chief Eric: I was aware

Crew Chief Brad: we are not going to, we’re not gonna [01:03:00] mention the Daytona 500.

Executive Producer Tania: We’re not gonna mention the massive crass on the last lap that wiped out like half the field or something like

Crew Chief Brad: that.

Oh no, the, the, yeah, the, the complete insanity that was the last lap that basically handed, it didn’t hand. Michael Jordan’s team number 45. The win,

Crew Chief Eric: I can’t name three drivers in NASCAR right now.

Crew Chief Brad: The only reason I know about it’s ’cause I was at a bar watching the hockey game and then it ended and then there were like five laps left.

Crew Chief Eric: So you saw the most important part of the race. Then

Crew Chief Brad: of course it’s the most important part of anything the last five minutes.

Crew Chief Eric: And that’s sad to say because it is NASCAR month and all of our coverage on the empty N is NASCAR related. But I, I haven’t followed NASCAR in a while. Like I, I think I’m just stuck in the eighties with nascar like Rusty Wallace still out there.

Executive Producer Tania: We got what days have done

Crew Chief Brad: had I not been out already watching something else, I would not have known.

Crew Chief Eric: You would’ve missed it all together. Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: I would, would’ve missed it all together. Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: Um, but yeah, congratulations to Tyler Reddick and his number 45 car and the Michael Jordan team for finally getting that big [01:04:00] win at Daytona

Crew Chief Eric: and didn’t Biffle pass or something recently too, like that was in the news as well as with respect to nascar.

Executive Producer Tania: Um, by, you mean die in a plane crash?

Crew Chief Eric: Yes. I was trying to be nice about it

Executive Producer Tania: tragically with his family. Yes.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. That’s the,

Crew Chief Eric: uh, sad news there too. Hmm. Much like the Super Bowl this year’s Rolex, the 60th anniversary race. Oh my God, was it boring? Why is everything on Peacock so boring? There were 900,000 Olympic commercials, which made the coverage just completely meh to go along with their meh commercial that they show all the time for YouTube tv.

It was really hard to watch. I don’t know what it was about this race. And then we had what that fog delay in the middle of the night. So if you went to sleep like I did, ’cause you’re like, man, there’s nothing to watch right now. You didn’t miss anything when you got up in the morning. It was such a bad race.

And then I don’t understand Porsche, well, it’s Penske, right, because Porsche retired the 9 63. But the 9 63 is still competing this year, but we’re not gonna see it at Lamont unless [01:05:00] Penske, you know, it’s like a whole thing. Realistically, the most interesting thing about the whole race. Was that battle between the GT Amateur class, not even the pros.

Everybody was so spread apart. It was the amateurs between the Mercedes and the Aston. And I was like, what are we watching?

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, I didn’t get to watch much of the race.

Crew Chief Eric: You didn’t miss much,

Crew Chief Brad: apparently.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, since we’re talking about Rolex, Tanya, you watched the race. I think the most exciting part was the new Reptile tire technology.

Remember that?

Executive Producer Tania: I didn’t watch the race.

Crew Chief Eric: We talked about the reptile tires. Remember they looked like crocodile print and how Michelin is all about sustainability and it’s made from like 90% recycled materials and, but then they had all those issues when it got cold so the tires wouldn’t stick so that everybody’s like flying off the track.

Executive Producer Tania: Now I remember. Only watched for like an hour.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, you didn’t miss much. So out of the other 23 that were there, it was like me. So anyway, there’s some more news shaking up the endurance car world. The FIA [01:06:00] is bringing about a new streaming service and they’re combining it with wec. So they have FIA we plus streaming service

Crew Chief Brad: because does this mean it’s not gonna be on HBO anymore?

Crew Chief Eric: It says here it’s the goal is delivering a significantly improved streaming service with access to all FIA we content worldwide. So that should include the 24 hours of lamont.

Crew Chief Brad: Did you ever watch any of the Super bike races on HBO?

Crew Chief Eric: No, I didn’t. Did you?

Crew Chief Brad: I tried, but the color was weird. Like wasn’t an HDR or It didn’t, it wasn’t compatible with my HDR tv, so it looked all gray and washed out.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh wow.

Crew Chief Brad: Which may me not wanna launch.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. And it says we are pleased to confirm that all FIA WEC races will be available in the United States in Canada with no GEOBLOCKING restrictions. Most notably the 24 hours LAMA will be available live on FIA WEC streaming platform for the first time ever in the United States.

Marketing in major milestone and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing. I don’t know what this means because isn’t there a lot of shuffling going on at [01:07:00] HBO because it’s partnered with Warner Brothers and all that other stuff and maybe Netflix is buying it so that the FIA say, you know what, we’re not here for this guy as we’re just gonna go do our own streaming platform.

Crew Chief Brad: Maybe.

Crew Chief Eric: Maybe no hobo Max for WEC races anymore. So that was like a two year run, getting outta racing. All right. Well, a quick update on the virtual stuff I’ve mentioned in the past. You know, I’ve got some of the newer titles been trying ’em out. A SETO corset, Evo just got updated to version 0.5. We’re not even a version 1.0.

But 0.5 just got pushed the other day. Bunch of new cars. There’s like seven of them and then there’s two new tracks. Gotta say Watkins Glen is one of the new tracks and it is spot on. It’s the new track, definitely laser scanned. It is really good. Just very well done. Now as far as the cars go, not gonna list all of ’em, you know, new nine 11 new, this new that they introduced the Audi Sport Quattro.

It’s an absolute beast.[01:08:00]

They brought the mark one GTI, and to keep with realism. It is slower than slow.

It struggles to get to a hundred miles an hour. But it is an absolute riot when you’re out there with 25 other ones just beating the doors and, and going bumper to bumper down the track. Now, the surprise of surprises because their little trailer video, which I shared with you guys, which I thought was super entertaining when they revealed version [01:09:00] 0.5 at the very end, there’s this whole kind of initial DA 86 and then they kind of forecast what’s gonna come in the next release, which is gonna be Sebring and a bunch of stuff.

So that a 86, I was like, you know, I’m gonna try that out. I mean, again, these cars are talking to me, they’re all from the eighties. I’m loving it. And so I’m looking through the cars. There’s a couple different versions of the original 80 86. There’s the black and white, there’s the all black, there’s, you know, whatever.

And then at the end there’s the Fuji Tofu Shop, one from initial D, and I’m like, oh, that’s cool. Well, they kind of did the skin and it’s a little blurry so it doesn’t look exactly like, you know, and they don’t get any copyright infringement or whatever it is. I decided, you know, after doing a bunch of laps at Watkins Glen, I was like, oh, I’m gonna go to Laguna Seka instead, and I’ll try the Toyota there.

And it runs in the same class as the Audi and some of the other cars, you know, the BMWM three and the Mercedes 2.3 Evo and all that kind of stuff. I looked down at the dash and I’m like, does that say that? Does that [01:10:00] doesn’t say, no, it can’t. It says 10 10. 10 ISN in 10,000 RPM and I’m like, nah, that’s, that’s a joke.

Light turns green. Drop the clutch.

This sucker is like straight up race car. Like it sounds amazing and you bury the needle at 10 grand because just like the initial D 80, 86, it pulls to 11 and it’s just all of awesome. So I’m like, okay, so it’s the initial D car. Maybe they’re all that way and they’re just skins. Oh, no, no. This is like the jewel that they didn’t tell you about in the promo videos.

This is a special car. It’s not just a skin. All the other regular 80, 80 sixes you get into.[01:11:00]

7,000 RPM. It’s got that nice Toyota twin cam sound, but it doesn’t sound like a formula car like the other one does. The driving experience is awesome. Like you can hang the ass out, you can drift it all over the place and it’s just wicked quick. So I found that to be an awesome surprise and if you haven’t done it and you haven’t tried it yet, cannot recommend upgrading to version 0.5 just for the smile factor that comes from the initial DA 86.

And by the way, they made the F 40 worse, so it’s like impossible to drive. So I’m gonna be having fun driving the Toyota for sure. Kudos to the a Seto course of guys Speed. They might be slow rolling this thing, but it’s, it’s getting better with every release except for the F [01:12:00] 40. In other racing news, I don’t know really where to qualify the 12 hours of bathhurst because it’s sort of endurance racing, but it’s sort of just crazy Australian V eight supercar guys decide to drive something that isn’t a muscle car for 12 hours.

Bathhurst is a mess every year, and I know a lot of people watch it for the crashes. And the crashes are unfortunate. And this year. More so than ever. Mercedes a MG factory driver, Roth Aaron fractured his back in a very serious accident at Mount Panorama. And we have the link to the video and we have a link to the follow on article.

I mean, I watched it and I was completely blown away. I was really surprised that the corner workers didn’t flag earlier. It reminds me of the races at like, it’s like Macau or whatever, where they go those super narrow roads where there’s only room for one car and then they all pile up and the race is over by like lap three.

’cause they’re all, you know, I, I don’t know what the racers are doing. They are, you’re not situationally aware like what the hell is going on. It’s really [01:13:00] unfortunate what happened. Rough. And you know, we wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him back behind the wheel of a Mercedes again soon. But it’s stuff like that that really makes you question the safety of racing in 2026.

Crew Chief Brad: I think it’s amazing.

Crew Chief Eric: I really do believe Bathurst is probably one of the most dangerous tracks that’s out there.

Crew Chief Brad: I love that track,

Crew Chief Eric: but it’s also super sketch.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh yeah, for sure. But I, it’s still amazing.

Executive Producer Tania: So you missed a piece of Rally news.

Crew Chief Eric: I thought we weren’t talking about, I thought I wasn’t allowed to talk about that.

Executive Producer Tania: I never said that.

Crew Chief Brad: No one listens, but you’re allowed to talk about it.

Crew Chief Eric: So what piece of Rally news did I miss?

Executive Producer Tania: A US. Rally stage.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes, you’re right. I forgot. I I am following that as a matter of fact. So WRC is scouting out areas like around Tennessee to see if they can Kentucky, do a WRC America round. And I, and if that happens, I’m gonna go check it out.

I think that’s super awesome.

Executive Producer Tania: There you go.

Crew Chief Eric: Thank you for reminding me. I’ll go

Crew Chief Brad: with you.

Crew Chief Eric: Let’s go meet Terry Neville.

Crew Chief Brad: Yes’,

Crew Chief Eric: be perfect. Well, our Motorsports News is [01:14:00] brought to you in part by Enduro verse, powered by Hyper Dev. Endur Averse is America’s premier endurance racing community. Check it out online today and become a member@www.enduraverse.com.

Alright, well it’s time for the GTM Trackside report, and as promised, we’re gonna give you an update on our unfocused Performance Lemons project. It has stalled thanks to two feet of snow, which turned into permafrost and glaciers boxing the cars in the trailers, and so we haven’t been able to get it out to our fabricator to put the cage in.

But that is coming up quick. By the time we have the next drive through episode, hopefully it’ll be off to get the wrap done and get all the styling stuff done. We do still have a way for you to contribute and be part of the team. We’ll include that in the show notes. You know, we are looking to raise some money if you want to come and help out, hang out, all those kinds of things.

The details are in the link in the show notes with this episode. But since we’re taking on this new project and all of us are checking our safety gear, and there’s been some public service [01:15:00] announcements from various tracks around at least the East coast, talking about how if you’re planning to come to the track this year, they’ve taken a year away from you that you normally have a grace year on your helmet.

Expirations.

Crew Chief Brad: You can correct me if I’m wrong, ’cause you’ve been in the sport a lot longer than I have. Was that. Extra year, that grace year kind of due to like supply chain issues with being able to get access. So maybe the supply chain issues aren’t as much of a problem anymore. So you don’t really have that excuse to lean on.

You just need to stop being a cheap ass and upgrade your equipment when you need to.

Crew Chief Eric: 2020 was really the bad year because that was the COVID year.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah,

Crew Chief Eric: but the grace period had always been there because to your point, when they say they’re gonna make a 2025 helmet, they start making them in 2025 and then they have to have enough supply and it becomes an issue and it takes almost a full year before there’s enough out there that people can actually get that year’s helmet in hand.

So you sort of lose a [01:16:00] year, but you gain a year on the other side. But now the tracks are saying, Nope. We have said that even though the industry says 11 years is fine, it’s gotta be 10 and you have to buy a new helmet. So if you’re going to places like New Jersey or a Lime Rock and you have a SA 2015 helmet.

You cannot use it this year. They’re checking helmets, they’re being strict about it. You need to buy a new helmet. You do not get the grace year through 2026. So if you’re looking to get a good deal on helmets, reach out to our friends at OG racing. Ask for Mark Francis at or mark@ogracing.com. Email him directly.

Tell them the guys from Grand Tour Motorsport sent you. And same is true for Limerock. Like I said, NJMP and Limerock are strictly enforcing the role that you need. A new helmet 2020 or newer rated helmets, even if you’re in New England and you have stable energies nearby, they’re offering a 15% discount to Audi Club members if you’re shopping for a new helmet.

Crew Chief Brad: Also, they usually sell helmets [01:17:00] at the track too. They’ve got the, the pro shops at each track where you can get a helmet if you’re in a pinch.

Crew Chief Eric: I don’t know. I guess you could go either way. There’s no financial gain in it for the racetracks because they’re not selling the helmet. Right. And the pro shops a lot of times are independent of the racetrack.

Like those people actually lease the space from the track and they’re running their small business and all that kind of stuff. Like OG Racing has its shop at Summit Point as well as their main shop there in Sterling. You know, that doesn’t benefit the track. They’re just cracking down and saying, no, you gotta go buy a new helmet.

Because they are safety conscious and they’re safety cautious and we’re litigious country. So it is. It is what it is, right? Yeah. So, but yeah, I mean, I’m still good on my helmet for a while. I know what I’m buying if I buy another one, you know, I’m pretty brand loyal and all that kind of stuff. But for those that haven’t thought about it, as we’re coming out of hibernation and looking to the track season and the schedules are starting to open up, now’s the time to not only check your helmet.

Check your shoes, check your gloves, check your Hans. If you have a Simpson, make sure all the straps are up to date. Like if you co-term all the dates of your stuff, [01:18:00] they’re all gonna be due at the same time. And that goes for your belts in your car. If you’re using harnesses as well as your seats, you gotta check the organizations to make sure the seats are still valid too.

How the seats expire, I don’t know, has to do with the fire safety rating. Go back to our PMX episode with John Koffi. He kind of actually explains how all that works and the dates and and why and whatnot. But that’s pretty far back in the catalog. But yeah, there is rhyme and reason to this whole thing, Brad.

Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: And if you’re not quite ready to hit the track, don’t forget that you can find tons of upcoming local shows and events at the ultimate reference for car enthusiasts, collector car guide.net.

Executive Producer Tania: As we close out this season finale, we want to say thank you and that we appreciate everyone hanging in with us for six seasons, over 600 episodes, but we’re not closing up shop anytime soon.

And we want to remind you that Season seven kicks off in March with our International Women’s Month celebrations and more awesome stories to come. So be sure to jump back into our podcast catalog and check out other programs we offer, like the Ferrari marketplace, the [01:19:00] motoring historian evening with a legend, the racers round table, formula, fanatics, break fix, and of course the drive through.

Crew Chief Brad: And if you enjoy our various podcasts, there’s a great way for you to support our creators on the MPN. There’s tons of extras and bonuses to explore on our updated Patreon page. Learn more about our bonus and behind the scenes content. Get early access to upcoming episodes and consider becoming a break Fix VIP when you visit patreon.com/gt motorsports.

As always, thank you to our co-host and executive producer Tanya, and to all the fans, friends and family who support Grant touring Motorsports, as well as the Motoring Podcast network. Without you, none of this would be possible.

Crew Chief Eric: Remember, Brad, failing to prepare is just preparing to fail. Okay?

Crew Chief Brad: I have to go to the videotape. Let’s see, 2026. Let’s

Executive Producer Tania: pull up the replay.

Crew Chief Eric: Are you muting the [01:20:00] Olympics? Yeah, man. What are you watching?

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know, because I gotta turn it on. I don’t know what’s on

Crew Chief Eric: Earlier. It was the big hill ski jump. Well, actually it was the Nordic combined, but they were only showing the ski jump part.

That’s good stuff.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, well obviously I could just turn the volume all the way down the old fashioned meat way.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s the first time she’s said to go get a snack

Crew Chief Brad: that we’ve seen and consider becoming, shoot. I actually don’t see the outside pictures.

Executive Producer Tania: I had to go to a car and driver article.

Crew Chief Brad: I’ll just Google it.

I don’t know why it went to Yahoo though. Yahoo. Fucking Yahoo. Yeah, no.[01:21:00]

Executive Producer Tania: The drive through is our monthly news episode and is sponsored in part by organizations like Collector Car guide.net Project, motoring Garage Style Magazine, the Exotic Car Marketplace, and many others. If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor of the Drive-Through, look no further than www.motoringpodcast.net.

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

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

• 00:00:00 Drive-Through News #65 Kickoff
• 00:01:27 Olympics Banter: Speed Skating, Biathlon & Curling Controversy
• 00:02:47 Super Bowl Ads: Were There Any Car Commercials?
• 00:11:57 Best Super Bowl Car Ads of the Last 20 Years (Top 5 Countdown)
• 00:14:36 Stellantis’ $26B EV Struggle: Charger EV, 4xe Hybrids & What Went Wrong
• 00:18:01 EPA Rule Swings: Stop-Start, Emissions, and the Return of Big Engines?
• 00:20:04 Aftermarket Shock: StopTech Stops Making Brakes (and what’s next)
• 00:22:35 Cars on the Chopping Block: Honda Prelude Hate & Tesla S/X Discontinued
• 00:24:50 The Grand Tour ‘Returns’: Throttle House Rumors & Why You Can’t Replace the Trio
• 00:30:19 Legends Lost: Ed Iskenderian Tribute & Robert Duvall Remembered
• 00:32:35 Porsche ‘Not Dead Yet’: EV Cayman/Boxster and the Toyota MR2 Clickbait
• 00:38:11 Thank God It’s Dead: Audi’s ‘Pickup Truck’ Concept
• 00:40:50 Audi’s ‘Concept C’ Design Language: The Ugly EV That Won’t Die
• 00:42:05 BMW’s Electric M3 Rumors + The Infamous ‘Special Screw’ Repair Nightmare
• 00:44:47 Season Wrap & Pop Culture Detour!
• 00:51:04 Ferrari’s First EV ‘Luce’: Toy-Like Interior, Not-Quite-Ferrari Looks
• 00:54:52 Are You Faster Than an Interceptor?
• 01:01:49 Behind the Pit Wall: IndyCar in DC, Daytona 500, and a Boring Rolex 24
• 01:05:54 Sim Racing Update (Assetto Corsa Evo 0.5)
• 01:12:00 Bathurst Crash, WRC America Rumors, and the GTM Trackside Lemons Project Update
• 01:14:52 Safety Gear PSA & Season Finale Thanks, Patreon, and Sponsor Shoutouts