46. Broken Axles, Rally Goblin, Tickets, and C8 Corvettes w/ Travis Stewart

All right, so, Sean, don't mess up this time, gosh. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Minnoxide podcast. I'm your host, Harris, aka Minnoxide, man of many automotive aspirations. And I am here with my co-host, Sean.

Hey, guys, my name is Sean Bryant. I'm your average car enthusiast, maybe a little bit more so. But I drive a 2011 BMW 1M and a 2021 Dodge Durango Hellcat. You might have seen me around at a few of the shows this year. And if you didn't, then come up and say, hey. But this is the Minnoxide podcast where we introduce or take you beyond the meat and introduce you to some of the people that make our community so great.

I really wish you when he was getting plates for the Durango, I had a bunch of ideas, a lot of bad ideas. I think one of them was Blue Ball. And it would have been great, like the Flying Blue Ball.

No, you never sent that. You never said that.

I'm sure it's somewhere to text. I said I had a lot of bad ones, but nonetheless, he has a big blue hellcat.

Well, I don't think that one would have been approved by the DMV, because they give you like three options, right?

You just gotta have a good description on why. That's all you need.

I've seen some where people do like the backwards spelling of like some words and then they'll say like, oh, it's like the name of my company, but you know, in the mirror, it looks like it says like a****** or something.

Or like boobies or something. Yeah, by the way, before we introduce our beautiful guest, I gotta be angry at Wisconsin for a second. I fricking hate Wisconsin, because they have those amazing Rode America plates. You know, it's a black plate, which everybody wants a black plate. Like black plates are awesome. And then they have the Rode America track on there. So Dan got his today.

Nice.

Yeah, I'm so mad. I need to move to Wisconsin.

Oh.

I'm sorry. Dude, you know what? Dude, he paid like $80 for registration over there.

Oh yeah, Wisconsin's incredible for owning cars.

Yeah, I think they do it based off of weight over there. But that-

No, no, all cars. All cars cost $80 to register.

No, but I think there's a different one for like trucks and stuff.

Oh really?

I think so.

Well, good thing we don't drive trucks.

Yeah, like my buddy, Aero, a number of years ago, he paid like, I think $80 for his-

All right, forget about the license plates. Why don't you introduce us to our guest today?

No, I just gonna set off a topic for later. No, this is the longest we've ever had.

I know, this is the longest it's taken to introduce a guest, so why don't you get into it?

Yeah, do you wanna keep talking? No. All right, today we got Travis Steward, man of, I don't know how to describe you. We've had a bit of tomfoolery, especially this year, we started chatting a little bit more, but you've done a lot of rallies in the past year, big, I think you've done, how many crown rallies in the past? Just a handful?

I think five.

Five, okay, so a little bit more than the average person, which the average person takes, what, 0.02 rallies a year. But nonetheless, you've had a lot of fun stories. You're a big Viper guy. I really hope you sell yours soon so you can get a Gen 5, which I think is the ultimate goal.

I think currently that's the goal. I don't know it, but it changes daily.

Here's a question for you. Would you ever consider like a salvage title one?

Oh yeah.

Would you actually?

I was very close to buying a, it technically had a rebuilt title, but there was a TA. Remember that was the one I sent to you.

Which color was that one?

Orange TA, that was the company that your dad bought his car. That had a rebuilt title.

Yeah, that.

It was a 17,000 mile TA. And the only reason it was rebuilt was because they swapped the motor on it for the recall that basically all Gen 5s have had.

So it was a lemon title?

Yes.

It was a lemon title, or does it end the stage?

I think it was listed as rebuilt, but it was essentially a lemon title. But it was like, oh, they had it listed for 117, which is extremely cheap for an TA.

What do TAs go for right now?

Anywhere? Well, it depends on the packages included, and if it's a regular TA or if it's a TA1 or TA2, which can go for about 140. I've seen as high that they go.

I pissed off one of the cheeseburger customers when I said, oh, just a regular TA or whatever, in the AJ episode. Yeah, he was not happy because he's like, this guy doesn't know s*** about vipers. I'm like, well, I don't know about regular TA, sorry. No, there was almost another cheeseburger, by the way. Are you in the cheeseburger group or no?

I don't think you know about them. I mean, is there a whole group of them?

There's a group chat. It's got like a bunch of viper owners across the coast.

No, I'm not in that.

It's interesting. Yeah, we might be doing a cruise tomorrow, but we'll see what happens with that. So I want to kick it off, because I always do that at the end of the episode. I always f***** this up. I always ask people what got you into cars late on. What kind of got you into cars, I guess, early on in the episode?

I guess for me, it was, I grew up racing motocross. So I started at really three, four years old going fast.

Broken collar bones at all?

I've broken both my legs. Really, that was it, racing motocross. I've had a lot of injuries though, but both broken legs. But so grew up racing, riding snowmobiles, stuff like that. And then when I was in high school, actually kind of the first fun car that my dad bought was a Viper.

Like a first gen?

Yep, he had a 95 Hennessy 600 Viper. So, and then he put nitrous on it, cause why not?

Yeah, I was actually watching the Joe Rogan episode with Hennessy. I didn't know that Hennessy started with Vipers.

Oh yeah.

Funny enough. That was like his first thing. And then I think, I wonder why he got out of it. I know there was like a bunch of issues with the Viper community back in the day.

Well, there's a whole backstory on it. It sounds like he did some not so morally right things. Not so ethical.

Yeah, which is a bummer. I had to look up into it cause I've been burnt on misinformation facts before. But yeah, like honestly, I liked the episode with him though. Like he seemed like a genuinely cool dude. Like he's a car guy still.

Oh yeah, a buddy of mine actually was just with him and talking to him the other day. He was up here in Minnesota and said, yeah, he's an awesome guy, you know, he builds sweet cars.

He was up in Minnesota recently?

Yeah.

Oh wait, no, I think I heard about this actually. But yeah, no, like he's still, I mean, without a doubt builds fast cars. Now maybe somebody can confirm this for me, but one thing that I've heard is, for example, you get a 1200 horsepower Hennessy package, right? It's advertised as 1200 horsepower or whatever, but you cannot use it without voiding the warranty is what I've heard. So basically you can only use like MAP1 or whatever, that's 800 horsepower, 900 horsepower, whatever. And that's within warranty, but if you go on 1200 horsepower, it's not warrantied. That's what I've heard. I'm curious to see if that's actually true.

I've actually never heard of that.

Me neither, I'm interested now because I've never heard of something like that.

Yeah, I mean, I've looked at Hennessy's website because they sell their packages and you see everything that they offer, and it's a really nice layout. It's nice to just browse and check it out, but I've never went into the warranty and read. I know it does have a warranty for their work. I think it's three years or something, and pretty good miles too.

Which, I mean, at the same time though, I get it from the shop's perspective too, because let's say you had, I don't know if UGR does this, but let's say you have a UGR build that's like 2,000 horsepower, and you're constantly driving around on kill. You know, just a full beans. I imagine at a certain point, they'll be like, dude.

Yeah. Yeah, like you're trying to break the car at that point. But there's a huge difference between like 2,000 and 1,200. I feel like you could, like if the car can handle 1,200, then you're probably throwing parts at it that can probably support over 1,200 horsepower. You're not riding that line. Whereas 2,000 is gonna be really difficult to keep those parts at that level and not be spending for more.

Yeah, there's not a higher level of, oh yeah, I have my car built for 3,000, but I only run it at two.

Yeah.

There's just not such a thing that's not, and you need to replace them often.

Yeah.

It's so sweet to see how fast cars are getting. I'm gonna be going to a drag strip this weekend for some testing with someone. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to disclose or not. I'm not sure if it's under the radar or not, but nonetheless, we're gonna go out there and see what this thing can do. So it's got a fancy schmancy auto in there now. I mean, it's all over social media, but.

It's on social media?

A little bit.

Tell us about it then.

No, no, no, I'm not allowed to.

You signed an NDA?

I didn't, but I will talk about it when it is necessary.

Oh, dang it.

Yeah, I mean, it isn't all that crazy, but nonetheless, it's crazy. But okay, so would you ever like, cause like here's the deal, like I think there's one like Enthimoto car, the blue one. I think that one was a salvage title too, is what I've heard. The blue submarine is what they called it.

I don't know which one that is.

I haven't seen that.

He's not local. Well, I guess it's all technically local cause Enthimoto is right here, but nonetheless, yeah. It'd be really cool to see you get some twins on a car one day, but.

I don't think I'm ready for that. I like Reliable. I drive, I mean, like the Viper, I drive the heck out of it. I mean, the first year I owned it, I bought it in September of 21, I think. I think it put 3000 miles on it before I put it away for the winter. And then the next year, I put 10,000 miles on it that summer. And this year, I mean, the car's kind of been in and out of me working on it, but I think I've still put 5,000 miles on it. So, I mean, I've driven it a ton.

That's one thing I can definitely appreciate is when people actually drive their cars, because like, there's, I guarantee you, there's a bunch of, you know, Gen 3, Gen 4 Vipers out there that are just Saran wrapped still, which is a real bummer, you know? It's like, oh, only see 500 miles a year or whatever. But I got a little bit off topic there. So yeah, your dad got a Gen 1 Viper.

Yep. So really that was, I mean, that was kind of the first fun car. And I remember, bought it from a guy out in California. It got shipped here and the Gen 1s, I mean, no windows, no exterior door handles, no roof. And first day he got it. I couldn't tell you how old I was, but me and him just drove to Target to like go buy a toy dirt bike or something, like something dumb. I was a kid still. And I remember just coming out, we had parked way in the back and there was already a group of people surrounding the car. And I was like, okay, this is cool. I knew we were in a cool car, but I don't know, you don't really realize it as a kid right away. And I guess that probably started it. And then from there, he had an old Porsche, he had an old five saline, old Corvettes, which I still someday think I might try and get back. I know who owns it now. I mean, just an old Corvettes that they're nothing special, but just kind of, it was a family car. So I'd want it back.

Did it have the cradle in the back too?

The cradle.

The Corvettes, just because they had like the, what's it called? The ability to rock a baby in the back.

I have no idea.

Yeah, so I can't remember if it was specific years or not, but the Corvettes, what they basically had. So first of all, it's a mid-engine car, or a rear engine car. Rear engine.

Air-cooled?

I think so.

It's like a Porsche.

Yeah, it's basically a Porsche, but way worse. Yeah, me and Sean saw one in pretty clean condition for the first time. What's it called? The Motorplex. There was a blue one over there. Really nice looking. I mean, it's a cool car. It's unique. You don't see it. I mean, it's probably a hunk of junk for all we know, but yeah, it's rear engine, and then in the back seat, or behind the back seat, there's a place where you can put your baby to be rocked. It's like the baby slot. Like for example, like you know how trucks early on used to have like that back seat, but it's like a sideways facing seat?

Oh yeah.

Yeah, it's kind of like that. Like just a spot to shove the kid in.

No, ours had a whole bench seat.

Whole bench seat.

Yeah. But it was just like, I mean, it was just something that like, I'd like to have back, just cruise around town every once in a while as something that's not a very loud car like the Viper is.

Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, that was kind of what got me into it. And then I mean, I've liked fast stuff my whole life again, racing dirt bikes. It was, you always got to be the fastest. So then my first truck was supercharged, just cause I guess that was what I found.

Which truck was that again?

I had a 02 GMC Denali. Okay. Quad steer, which you don't see those.

What's quad steer?

It had four wheel steer. Really?

Even back then?

Yep. It was one of like the, I mean, they got rid of it, I think, in 04, and it's never come back because it was not great. It worked great until it didn't, and then it was really tough to figure out why. But I mean, in terms of, yeah, whipping a U-turn, it was fantastic. Yeah. And whipping s******* like a monster truck, it was fantastic. It worked great, because that's what I used it for, because it was all wheel drive too. So getting it to spin wasn't easy, but huh, that was fun.

It's freaking rowdy. That's the thing, like when you do U-turns, like sometimes, like even the AMG, even though it has four wheel steering or whatever, or rear wheel steering, sometimes I've got to lay on it, just floor it, just to get that extra U-turn power, but that's freaking nuts. What else? I'm trying to think, when's the first time I did four wheel steering? I think it was like seeing one of those like four door sedans. It must have been like a Mercedes or something. And I was like, oh, that's pretty cool first time hearing about that. But now they're putting it in like full-blown race cars. Like again, like the GTR.

I didn't know that has that.

Yeah, yeah, yep. So I think it might be just the GTRs. I don't know if the GTCs have it, but yeah, I found that out early on. I think it's like up to, I think it was five degrees or 5%. But nonetheless, like it's tiny compared to like, you know, the front steering.

But it's still, it makes a big difference.

It's huge because like I took somebody out for a ride along once. This is my first time like really driving the car. Like push, sort of pushing it. And it was like some turns or whatever. And like you could be fully turned and then it's like, oh wait, but there's more. So it's just, it's such a, I've never driven a car like that. Like I've driven cars that are rear wheel drive.

I want to go for a ride now because I want to feel that. I've never driven a sports car that has four wheel steer.

Yeah, yeah.

It's because I know like, I mean, Porsche came out with it years ago, but I didn't really know many other.

Does Porsche have it?

Yeah. But I didn't know many other had it.

I know a lot of like four wheel steering only kicks in at like low speeds, like I think like less than five miles or less than 10 miles an hour. So does it work if you're like racing at like 80 to a hundred miles an hour? Does it have that rear wheel steering still or?

That's a good question for ChatGBT because this idiot says probably not.

Okay, because I'm sure in the manual, it says somewhere like, oh, four wheel steering available at like, you know, max 20 miles an hour or something. So because it's really only meant to make, you know, making like a U-turn easier for these sports cars, because a lot of times like they have really short steering racks, so you're ending up like taking like two to three point or three point turns where like a normal car wouldn't have that issue.

Yeah, but at the same time, like if you're putting in something like, let's say a GTR where weight's an issue, why would you waste all the extra weight to make a rear wheel, I guess? Which by the way, it makes me, I'm so f****** mad about the new one. I, a lot of current GTR owners are so-

Are you talking, okay, you need to specify AMG GTR, because every time you say GTR, my mind immediately goes to Nissan. I always think of Nissan. You've done, you do this all the time. You never say it's an AMG GTR. And I'm like, why are you talking about the Nissan? And like-

All right, so the GTR.

You're not even gonna address it?

No, you addressed it enough.

Blows right past it. So the problem is if he just calls it an AMG, then that's gonna mess with people too.

Well, yeah, that's kind of, you have to say the whole thing, which sounds a little bit almost, not like-

Be that guy. What do you drive? 2020 AMG GTR. Let me tell you about what day it was built on.

Yeah, kind of like Corvette owners. Ugh, ugh. I know they're listening. I know you're listening, Caleb. But what's it called? Yeah, because that's the thing when you say AMG, because it can mean AMG, there's so many. 43, it could be the f****** hatchback.

Well, that's why I say the AMG GTR.

But that's so much, that's six. Six letter acronyms are so excessive.

Yeah, that is pretty intense. That's a lot. That's a mouthful.

Yeah, it's a mouthful. AMG GTR, okay, we'll just do that, but anyways, where was I going with that? Oh, the Purists, they're not Purists, but the current generation owners are kind of frustrated because what they're doing with the next one is they're kind of making it like a Porsche. Like, cause they added the, so the current one has, it's just two seats. It's just a normal coupe. Now Porsche, they have the two plus two or whatever, whatever it is. So that's what they're doing in the new one. So it's like four or 500 pounds heavier than the previous generation. And the hood is shorter and then they made it more rounded. So it's kind of like a Porsche knockoff. And it's like, why? It performs worse. Nobody cares about those useless seats.

Is that on the GTR too? Or is it just the like GT, GTS?

They even come out with the GTR.

It's probably like, you know how like Mopar kind of, or even like any, I guess Corvettes or whatever. Like they announced the GTR versions last like a few years into it. But nonetheless, like the frame is there. They're still gonna use the same body, which is heavy as s***. When you start breaking that 4,000 pound thing, it's an issue. Like the-

Oh, how much is the weight?

It's gonna be like in the 4,000 range.

Ooh, that's a pig.

That's also a big car.

Pig, like okay, the GT500's phenomenal.

What is it?

I think it's 4,000 on the dot or something, like 4,010 or whatever. But it's got the power to back it up. It's very well designed, but it's still, you can feel its weight.

Oh yeah, that was, I just got to drive a Hellcat for the first time.

Oh really?

I had never driven one, a buddy owned one. And so I let him drive the Viper and I drove his Hellcat. And I was like, I'm literally driving a boat. Like it was just from going straight from the Viper to that. I was like, this thing is so big. Like I could feel the wind pushing me, just a side wind. And it's like, that's terrible. I'm in a sports car.

Well, you're just stupid, dude. You forgot to put the sails down. No, I remember the first time I drove a Hellcat I was just through the neighborhood, like 30 miles an hour. And I just blipped the throttle, and I'm like, oh, I'm sideways.

It's a fun car, but I mean, they have the power to back up all the weight, but just in terms of like, we were up in Brainerd and ripping kind of the back roads, and it's like, this thing is a beast.

Yeah, which was it a wide body or no?

No.

Yeah, the wide body ones, they handle a lot better, but it's just, I feel like once I got, so once I got the GTI, which is a really light car, it's not a ton of power, but it beats Corvettes, it's fun. I realized like, dude, there's something behind this lightness thing. Like if I could get, if I had to choose between like a Hellcat, which is 700 horsepower, or let's say a Viper, which is a lot lighter, and only 640 horsepower, whatever it is, I take that.

That was, I learned really quick. So the Viper was super fun. My dad's Viper was a super fun car when I was a kid, but then his next car, he kind of got them at the same time, but he actually bought, it was a 76 Porsche, but it had a 2003 body kit on it. So it looked newer, but it was an old car. So it wasn't super fast.

That's funny. Usually you see that the opposite, like a newer Porsche, like a 2003, with like a 1976 Shell on it.

Yeah, so, but that car, so like it wasn't fast. Like it didn't have a lot of power, but it was just so lightweight that, I mean, I just realized this car sticks, you know, almost as good as a Viper. Like I can take corners as fast as the Viper, which has humongous tires. And it just stuck versus then like when he got his salient Mustang, it's like, okay, this is another big car. And so I actually have always had a thing for small lightweight cars. I'm not a small lightweight guy though.

Yeah, no, I'm not either.

But even like straight out of, I mean, when I graduated college, the first thing I did was either I'm buying a car or I'm investing in, I ended up buying a townhouse, which is a much better idea than a car. But at the time, like I was looking, I either wanted a Lotus Exige or a Lotus Evora. Cause I knew either, cause they were lightweight cars.

Oh yeah.

And I was like, when did you, when did you graduate college?

2017.

17. So, okay. So the Evora was out.

So really 2018.

Okay. I was just curious if the Evora's were out. Cause I had no idea how old you are. Like you, yeah.

I think Evora's came out in like 2013, 14.

Yeah. Which is, it's an amazing car. What was the one that we saw at Road America? I think that was like the Evora 400 GT or something like that. Like the highest.

They've come way down in price.

Really?

Like when I looked, so when I was looking for them, at the time, the 400 was like brand new. And I think they were like 80 to 100 K. And I just saw the other day, you can get one now for like 60. I was like, that would be a heck, cause I remember when I was looking at them, I'm like, it's a heck of a sports car. And now for them to be that price, I was like, maybe I should look at those. But I'm really curious to see how their new, what is it, the Emira, the one that-

Emira, right? I think.

Is that the electric SUV?

No, no, no, no. It's like the, it's the successor.

It's the successor of the Evora.

Oh, okay.

And it's supposed to hit the states here in a couple months. Yeah, but yeah, I'll be curious to see how they do.

It's super backquartered. I remember seeing an article though that, here's what confused me. Everybody, like I had a few friends cancel their orders. They're just like, I'm not gonna wait this long. And then like in the same week or two, I saw a article, I think it was like Motor Trend or something. It's like, oh, Lotus fires 400 people. I'm like, shouldn't you be doing the opposite? We got some f****** cars to build here, dude. Like, so, but supposed to be a phenomenal car. So basically it has, I think it was, I know for sure it has the AMG four banger in one of the trims, which is freaking awesome, dude.

And I think the other one is like a Toyota motor. So super, super reliable.

Oh yeah, I remember what you're talking about now.

Yeah, so it's a super cool car. Performs like a bat out of hell.

And they're offering a manual.

And the manual, which, oh, so what was it? I think we talked about this as well a few episodes ago. The sales and manuals are starting to jump again.

Oh yeah, that doesn't surprise me.

Yeah, which was, what was it? I think it was like 1% of buyers the previous years, and now it's like, oh, 2% of all car buyers are manual. So like, oh, we're going up, but why doesn't it surprise you though?

I don't know about like new car buyers. I feel like that's a statistic, probably just buyers in general. I feel like there's a lot of people our age and up, I guess. I'd probably stop at our age, you're younger than us, but our age where it's like, we got to drive manuals as kids and know how to drive manuals and realize that they are going away. I mean, they just are.

So there's an appreciation.

How can I buy it now before they're just gone?

Yeah, I think you brought this up too, Sean, like how the BMW, whatever CEO is like, it's stupid, I don't know why we're making them, but we're going to keep making them because people like them basically.

Yeah, well, yeah, the CEO of M division is like, we want to basically phase these out just because the only reason why we're keeping them is because of our heritage. Like there's, in a racing standpoint, the manual doesn't make sense if you want to have the fastest car anymore. And I think that's why a lot of people are, they want an automatic because then they see like, oh, but if I get a manual, like I'm not going to be the fastest as I possibly could be. So I'm just going to get the automatic. And whereas like the pros of getting a manual is like, you're actually connected to the car and it's a much better driving experience.

Have you driven any cars that have a dual clutch? I guess the R8, right?

The R8, the C8. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I am, I'm on that train. Like the only car that I probably would buy at a manual is the Viper. Just because I love the Viper, but otherwise, if I'm buying a different sports car, it's, I prefer an automatic. Just, I don't know. There's so much, it's so easy. And for how much I drive, again, it's, I've taken the Viper through traffic. It's not fun. No. And I've been on the track, both in the Viper and in the C8. I mean, I went on a track in the Goblin, and that was a manual. And like, I'm not a race car driver. I don't know how to heel toe. Like, I will never be that fast versus when we were at Road America with Crown, I jumped in the C8, and it's like, no, you just go. I mean, when you slow down, it downshifts. When you hit the gas, it upshifts. This is great. And it's like, you know, it's better than you are, better than you would ever be. So, I mean, I look at even the Vipers pretty close. I was before I supercharged it, but the Viper is pretty close in power to the C8. And it's like, yeah, in a straight line, they'd be close. They were close. On a track, I honestly think the Viper might have been a better like cornering car, but my driving skill, the C8 would for sure be way better.

Yeah, dude, that's, by the way, that C8's a felony waiting to happen because it's not a very high power car. It's like what, high 400s, I think.

Yeah, I think to the wheels, it's like 450, 460, which isn't a ton.

I could put flex fuel in the Golf and I'd be right there, neck and neck, horsepower wise. But dude, that car's so deceivingly fast. Because first of all, I think it's a 3.0, zero to 60, I think it is, on the dot. Yeah, it's like, do you remember years and years ago, Porsche started spying on Nissan to figure out how the hell they made their GTR so fast? I feel like they should start spying on the Corvettes now because it doesn't make sense. Because I would literally just floor that car. It's like, oh, I'm at a hundred, how? Like, I don't know. It's a fun car considering the power. I'm excited for the Z06. Is your pops gonna get a Z06 or no?

He was actually on the list. So when he ordered his first Corvette, he really ordered three at the same time or signed up for all three. So he has the Z51. And then he was on the list for the Z06 and was supposed to be kind of one of the first ones in the state. But he had kind of just gotten his Z51 or like just made it the way he wanted it. So he's done a few little small things to it to make it his own. And even when he got it, he had the full like carbon fiber package and everything, and they couldn't get it to him. So they were like, you can either have your car with none of this, or you can wait X months. And so he ended up taking the car with none of it and bought it all aftermarket and we just installed it ourselves. But he had like just gotten it done when time to order the Z06 was. And it was before you ever heard the engine, ever anything, no statistics were out. So he canceled his order and was like, no, let somebody else have it. I think he somewhat regrets it now.

Yeah, well, especially considering how much the market is flipping them for, what is it, 100K over stick or whatever they're trying to get for them?

It's down from that. It was right off the bat.

Right off the bat, yeah.

Yeah, right off the bat. I mean, anybody who was trying to sell them for 200 plus were getting laughed out the door. Cause I mean, like, so-

But still, you could have made money if you had one.

Oh, definitely. But somebody's gonna buy it for 200K or around that price. But I think a lot of people, what they were seeing was literally just the name Corvette and a $200,000 price tag. They weren't associating the Z06 or anything else. Like, no Corvette should cost that much to, like, people in that price range, they're looking at, you know, brand new Porsches, McLarens, stuff like that.

No, brand new Porsches are so ridiculous now. Okay, first of all.

GT4 RS, those are going for like 200K. I'd say that's worth the 200K.

That's an insane car, though. That'd be so cool.

Really, 200K for the GT4 RS? You think it's worth it?

Oh yeah.

Most definitely.

Look at them.

And that one has a similar price tag to a Corvette Z06. I think base is around the $150K.

If you can get one.

Yeah, right. And then you option it out, and then it ends up around the $170K, depending on, well-optioned, $170K to $180K. But then you got people flipping them for $200K plus. And I think they're 100% worth it, actually.

Look at their statistics. They're literally almost neck and neck with Porsche's GT3 RS, which is insane. But everybody said, as soon as they did that, that the GT4 RS is the car everybody's been waiting for.

They look amazing.

Ever since the GT4 came out, they're like, when's the RS coming in?

Correct, when are you giving us the mid-engine car? We have the rear engine, we want the mid-engine.

Yeah, I think if you're going to spend $200K, you're either wearing New Balances and buying Corvettes, like this is number one of 250 in this color of this year and from this plant, or you're a Porsche enthusiast, or just somebody who really enjoys car stats, and you're like, this is actually the best car that you could buy for this amount of money.

Oh yeah, I think Chevy did really good with the C8 in terms of getting the new market, because even I'm looking at them like, yes, I want a Gen 5 Viper, but they're still very expensive, probably more than I should spend. And literally looking at like, okay, what's that? Let's just say like an 80, $85,000 price range. The Corvette is in that now, the Z50 ones, first gen ones, and it's a hell of a car. I mean, they really are, when you're comparing it to anything else for that price, for you know what, 21, 22, 23 car that you can get for 80,000 and has 10,000 miles on it versus go buy an AMG GTS that's a 2016 and it has 30,000 miles. The AMG, sure, yes, it's an AMG GTS. Like they're awesome cars.

It looks the part.

It looks the part, correct. But like the Corvette is probably better in most ways. It doesn't have turbos.

Yeah, well, I feel like the CA, the whole point of them going mid-engine was because they literally could not make the C7, a front engine Corvette. They couldn't perfect that anymore. That's basically the perfect front engine Corvette. And then they're like, the only other thing we can do now is move the engine back behind the driver. So that's the natural progression with their, we're making the best American sports car.

They f****** nailed it with the ZR1. The ZR1 from the C7 is such, I mean, dude, they're commanding what? 220, 250K aftermarket?

It's essentially the ACRE. I mean, yeah, those, like those two cars, it's amazing to see what they, what their MSRP was versus what they're selling for now.

Right.

That is such, I mean, but yeah, the ZR1, even MSRP, I think it MSRP'd higher than the ACRE extremes too.

I think so.

By a little bit, not like a ton, but like, you know, a few 10,000, something crazy.

It still blows my mind that Vipers literally couldn't sell. Like the old ACRs and ACREs like, no, we're basically giving them away.

Yeah, they're like highly discounted, like 20 grand off of a, you know, $120,000 car.

Especially with like their customization program of, hey, literally pick anything you want and we'll make it for you, any color wise. And they still couldn't sell them. That's insane.

Dude, I gotta say though, there's a lot of really good colors that came out of that program.

Oh yeah.

Like, I mean, Porsche does it amazing. Like, and I think that's what they're trying to do is just kind of match like the supercars of the world, like how they have these paint to spec programs. And it sucks that only what, I think 500 ACRs were sold ever. I think something like that. Like it's-

Honestly, I don't even-

Something like that. I'll have to look at the stats again, but it was like, I think it was like 3000 Gen 5s or something like that. I can't remember what it was. I really should refresh my Viper knowledge, but it was a really low, absurdly low number because the fact, this one I know for a fact is more Corvettes are made in a year than Vipers were made ever, which is an insane fact, dude.

I don't believe that.

Yeah, so it's like, it's such a bummer because there was a lot of really cool colors that came out of that program. Like for example, the Lamborghini Balloon White, like that car that went out to the East Coast that also has an Enth Moto build, what an amazing car.

Dude, and what's amazing too, that I love it, you could look and search Viper custom colors, and you still wouldn't find all of them. The other day, I was just scrolling Instagram and found like a UAE Vipers page, and started looking at that, and it's like, oh look, more colors I've never seen before. I mean, there's so many custom colors, it's awesome.

Those Middle Eastern guys in the UAE, man, they got some rowdy builds. You remember, was it Top Gear? No, it was the Grand Tour when they went over there, and I think they brought, oh, what was it? I think it was a crazy hyper car. I think it might have been Bugatti or something, and they drag raced that Nissan truck.

The Nissan Patrol.

Yep, yep.

That they built like crazy. Stuffed a R35, or what is it? What's the engine in an R35?

Is it the 2JZ?

No, no, no. No, the VR38.

No, I meant more the one that they're throwing in the trucks. Because I know they've built, I mean, they build that nuts stuff with all those trucks, but I think there's a few with 2JZs in them.

Oh, okay. I always thought they just threw a GTR motor in them, because I think they also kept it all wheel drive. Like they're crazy. They push them to like 2000 horsepower.

I'll have to double check, because again, I think you're right. Like they put like 2JZs in some of those things.

And they do anything. Yeah.

Well, dude, I just saw one get, a Huracan gets sent off over there. No, no, no. What was it? AMS Performance posted about this. They're building a car to send out there. It's gonna be like 2000 horsepower. Like those guys are just like, here's a s*** ton of money. Build me something fast. I gotta be faster than my cousin, you know? So just ridiculous. But I know guys out in Florida, they do that too, right? Like on like billionaire island or whatever. They just get into this like backwards, like, or not backwards, but like this dick swinging competition. Like, oh, my car's faster than your car. My boat's bigger than your boat. Cause like, what else are you gonna do?

I hope I have that problem someday.

I've thought about this. I've thought about even reaching out to people who have that problem or whatever. Be like, hey, like, what do you do?

How did you get there?

I don't care how you got there. We know how they got there. It's just like, you know, just bribe the right people. No, own Amazon. Have you taught, you idiots, what were you doing in 1999? You were all being what, four year olds?

I messed up when I was in seventh grade and didn't buy houses. You're in the market crash, how dare I?

Yeah, you idiots. To kind of pivot a little bit, so I kind of got to meet you when you had the Goblin, or whatever the Goblins, or whatever that you took on Crown Rally.

It wasn't mine. It wasn't my car. It was Zach's car. But yes, that was a phenomenal car.

So what are those things?

So it's a kit car. DF Goblin is what it's called. DF is the manufacturer. It is a kit car. It's literally a tube frame chassis that they build. They're out of Texas. And then they shove a Chevy Cobalt drive train in the rear. Cobalt, their front wheel drive, but they reverse it. And basically everything else is built by them. And so you can do, I mean, that's essentially it. And then it's what motor do you wanna shove into it? And how much power do you wanna build? I know there's one guy, he's been on even 1320 a few times, but he's got like a 650 horsepower Goblin. I think Zach's car drive was only like 1800 pounds. And then you stuffed our two fat bodies in it. It got really heavy really quick, but that car, I mean, we took, I mean, Zach did all the work to it and got it running really, really nice and even set up. I mean, when he first got it, it was honestly kind of sketchy to drive. Like you, over a hundred, you started to worry. And I mean, he put new tires on it, messed with the suspension and stuff and got it set up. And then we decided we should rally it, which was a phenomenal idea. Lots of people would say otherwise.

And were these two seaters or single seaters?

Two seat.

Two seaters, okay.

And we were, I mean, you're basically sitting on the ground in racing seats, harnesses and everything, at least ours were. So Zach bought the track version, which is a full cage. They also make a street version, which is like a half cage. It looks, I mean, it still looks like a Goblin, but almost like an Ariel Adam where it's, I mean, it's all tube frame coming up to you. And then just, there's a tube frame behind you as well. But yeah, it was fun.

Do you have to drive those with a helmet then?

Nope.

No.

It's got a windscreen?

Yeah. Let's call it that.

No, it's called a...

We made one on a plexiglass. Called it our windscreen. When he bought it, so he bought it already done, already built, the guy in Arizona built it. And it had like a half windshield, almost like a golf cart essentially. But then when we decided to do the rally, we were like, well, if it rains, we're gonna at least want a full windshield. We didn't have windshield wipers, so that was a secondary problem. Our plan was to stop at a gas station and borrow for an extended time period. One of their squeegees, and I was just gonna be out the window squeegeeing the windshield.

My brother has done that before with microfibers.

Yeah, so gladly we didn't have to have that problem. But yeah, I mean, so we made one out of plexiglass, but literally, so. But no, you don't have to have a helmet. We did end up, he bought a set of aviation headsets, just so we could talk. I mean, otherwise you just have so much wind noise. I mean, you're essentially, it's like a motorcycle, right? You're doing 60 miles an hour, and there's no doors, no windows, like it's just loud.

Exposed engine right behind your head.

Correct. So aviation headsets, and they worked phenomenal. And then he put boat speakers and hung, I mean, two-frame jazzy, right? What do most boat speakers hang from? A tower. So he bought boat speakers, cause they're waterproof too, hung those right behind us. And then we just turned the volume way up, and you could hear it over our headsets, but we could still talk to each other.

Okay, that worked. That's freaking, oh my.

Yeah, that sounds like an awesome rally car.

I mean, it worked awesome.

Well, how was your a**?

Actually really comfortable. It had a set of Corbeau racing seats in it. Oh, okay. But like comfortable ones.

I was thinking you were just in some bare naked carbon buckets, little weight as possible.

I mean, they're still race seats, but they were like the padded comfortable ones.

Okay, so you had some padding.

I mean, honestly, it was comfortable to ride in. I know a lot of people don't like bucket seats. I really like being tucked in, so I guess I was comfortable at least.

In that kind of situation with only just tube framing around you, yeah, I'd want to feel as protected as possible.

Yeah, and I mean, it had five-point harnesses too, so you knew you were in the car.

Yeah, yeah.

You weren't going anywhere.

That's so wild. Like, I'm trying to comprehend the absurdity of this now that you... Because I've seen the pictures, right? Didn't you guys wear Mario and Luigi outfits too?

Yeah, so the first year he got it, we were like, all right, we're going to take this on the rally. And then we decided, well, if we're going to do it, let's go all out. Nobody's ever taken anything this dumb on a rally. Let's go all out and make it fun. Like, it's essentially a go kart. So yes, we decided to do Mario and Luigi or that theme. We couldn't find Mario, I think it was we couldn't find Mario and Luigi costumes that fit us, but we found Wario and Waluigi costumes, which was just as good, just different colors. Or no, that's what it was. The car was purple and had a purple frame. So we were like, well, let's match the purple. So we went Wario and Waluigi, did a normal Crown Rally wrap, but then Zach's wife had just gotten a cricket. And so she custom cut like vinyl of the little mushrooms and mini Mario and Luigi style, Wario and Waluigi stuff. And then probably one of our greatest investments was, I think we came home from bowling. We were not sober. It was like 2 a.m. at Zach's house. And we decided, dude, you know, it'd be awesome if we had pocket rockets, like in the racing games. And so at like two or three in the morning, Zach went on Amazon and ordered two pocket rockets. They showed up like a week later.

What are pocket rockets?

The little mini Mopet, mini crotch rockets.

Oh, okay.

Like the kids ride. Little 50 CC.

He's strapped it to the back.

Not made for full size man. I think they literally set on them like 130 pound weight limit. Yeah, so we ended up, we got them. Of course, they were like blue and green. So I took them apart, fully apart. And they just use like a little weed whacker motor. Took them fully apart. I literally just spray painted them. And then Zach left the car at my house like a week before the rally. And he had bought a roof rack. I think it's made for like a jeep or something, like some sort of roof rack that fit on top. Cause we also had no roof. It was just open. We were like, again, if it rains, we're screwed. So we should do something about this. So had the roof rack. And then we just used 8020, if you know what that is, building material. So it's like a channeled aluminum that you can add stuff to really easily. And I literally made it. So it was essentially two posts for each bike that came up. And then the foot pegs on the bikes was a bolt. And I just took the bolts out and used like a trailer hitch pin. And so then like when we'd ride, you'd have the foot pegs on. And then when we'd take them off, we'd literally undo the pin, set them in, and I drilled a hole in the 80-20, and you'd lock it in with that pin. Good to go, bikes are solid. So we put the pocket rockets on the roof.

Oh my gosh.

And I actually found a photo the other day. It was like probably two days before the rally. Again, I had Zach's car, and I literally took it out on the freeway, and I tested that I could do a corner at like an entrance ramp at 60 miles an hour, and then got her up to like 120. And I was like, well, they're solid. It's good enough for the rally, I guess.

So you took like a clover at like 60?

You gotta remember the car weighs nothing like-

Right.

And it had, he had put R888s on it. So I mean, a way sticky tire for that small of a car.

As if the fear of rain wasn't crazy enough, you also had R888s. Dude, I've driven into rain on R888s. I don't want to do it ever again. It's sketch, dude.

I mean, we essentially knew like, if it started raining, we're probably pulling over, right? We don't have a windshield wiper. We don't have windows, don't have doors. Like the kind of bottom side was even partially open. Like it had like aluminum on it, but it's not like it was sealed or anything. So we were getting wet. There's no doubt. There's no fenders blocking the front tires. Like the few times we did drive through rain, like, yeah, we were getting soaked.

Oh, so you did end up hitting rain?

A few times. I mean, just light sprinkles. Like it was never bad, bad rain, but we had times where like, okay, the road's still soaking wet. You're just sitting there getting, like your whole side of your body, whichever side was out, was soaked. And you just accepted it.

So basically just being on a roller coaster during a hurricane, basically.

Yeah, but it was a blast. You didn't care.

Oh yeah, well, dude, if I could just, do you have any like footage from like inside the car by any chance? Like while you're like riding, did you take any video?

I do.

Cause I would love to see, not right now, but I would love to see what that looked like. Like just from like a first person POV of you riding in this little rocket.

Yeah, I can find some.

Dude, what if your phone flew out? Like, what if you're just texting and then just catch a little wind and just.

It was thought about. It's gone.

Did you guys lose anything?

Axles. No, I don't think we ever actually lost anything. Nothing of value at least, but yeah. I mean, we strapped everything pretty good. So for the rally, we also made a, we bought a helium tank. Because once we did the pocket rockets, we were like, well, you got to do the balloons, you know, like they have in the game. So, well, how are we filling balloons? Well, we need a helium tank. So we bought a helium tank, painted it like a turtle shell because you got to go with the theme. And then we mounted that in between the bikes. And then for our clothes, we bought, or we had like the wet sacks for fishing. And it's a fully waterproof sack that it's Velcro on top, and then you just fold it over itself and it clips together with the regular clip. But so it's fully waterproof, and we just strap those down to the roof as well in between the bikes. So, I mean, we were good to go.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't helium highly flammable?

That wasn't on our list of priorities.

Safety? Safety third.

It was far down on our list. Again, we were hoping to make it.

Yeah, did you get, I'm just curious. Did you guys win best theme that year or no?

No, we did not.

Do you remember who did?

Larry got it with his...

What was his theme that year?

I think that was the year they did... I can picture it. I just can't, I don't know the movie name.

Your whole scheme seems so over-engineered. It's hard to believe that somebody outdid you.

So they had... I think that was the year he took an RS6, like the year it came out, and they wrapped it like the...

Was it the tank one?

The station wagon.

No, no, I mean, was it the tank wrap or is that somebody else?

No, that's Carter's.

That was Carter's car.

No, what is the movie? It's an older movie, but the car was green and they made it look like it had the wood paneling on the side. And in the movie, the kids ride backwards, like the old station wagons.

Oh, I see it. I can't think of it.

And whatever it was, that's what they did. We ended up winning most memorable. So it was a different theme, and that was, I mean, it was still cool. We were still plenty happy to win that.

Yeah, the themes got weird there in the last few years. There's a lot of like fun ones. Like I remember, what was it, was it a TTRS or whatever? I think it was. They had the Austin Powers theme or whatever. You remember, I think it was two of the guys, they shaved their heads fully, like full scented with the mini me and everything theme. It was super funny. They were surprised they didn't win, I know, but yeah.

Yeah, I mean, people go all out, and they have some great, it's amazing how creative people are. I love it.

So yeah, like Jesse's Porsche, was the Dogecoin millionaire or whatever one, like just a full, crazy, like Dogecoin, like crazy rap. Like it was, oh man, throwback. The themes on Crown were just.

I still think my favorite car I ever saw that had like, it had a theme, but also still looked just incredible. I don't know whose car it was, but the waste management Porsche.

Oh, Jesse's.

That was also Jesse.

That best looking like themed rap. Like it was thought out to still look like a really nice rap, even with the theme.

Yeah, wasted management is what it was set on there. It was such a super cool rap, and it had a nice exhaust set up on that too. I, that was, he misses that car. That was such a cool car. But yeah, then he ended up gaining that turbo S afterwards. So we'll see what future rally cars look like. Cause like he's definitely had some of the best themes, but yeah, you said something about, you broke an axle on the rally. You told me this story, but I honestly, I forgot like half of it. I think we said save it, but.

We ended up blowing three axles on one rally. It was all the same axle. So the first one, we had left. We were driving crown stock, driving spiritedly. And we made it almost to Winona. So we'd probably been driving for about two hours. And we were almost, I think we were like 15 miles out of Winona. And all of a sudden we just hear boom. And I was in the passenger seat, and it was the passenger side rear axle that blew. And I got coated in like bearing grease. So we pulled over. Luckily had, my dad and brother were rallying with us in my dad's R8. So they stopped with us. We got out. Yep, I mean, it was clear as day. We blew the CV joint on the axle. So, called the tow truck, of course it's Saturday morning. You know, good luck getting a tow. I think, no, it was Friday, because it was a Friday. They always started on Fridays. But got a tow truck, literally towed us to the nearest auto shop. And it ended up being a great story. And I'll get into that. But got it towed there. And then it was, okay, well, let's get an axle. Called Napa. They brought us the axle that said it needed for, remember, that year Chevy Cobalt. Wrong axle, wrong size. Called Napa again, bring me this axle, this part number. Brought it, wrong size. Okay, now we like know what we need. Called around and there was nothing. Nothing in the area. The nearest one was all the way back in the cities. So, we ended up getting a hold of my aunt lives in Invergo Heights. And I called her, hey, can you go pick this up? It's already paid for. Actually we bought two, because, you know, safety first. Can you go pick this up? So she picked it up. And then I said, well, I'm probably going to drive faster than she is. So me and Zach jumped in, my dad's R8. And we just said, we'll meet you wherever we meet you. And that's essentially what we did. Got there, got back to the auto shop, and they threw the axle in within, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes, and we're good to go. I think one of the coolest things about that, though, was the auto shop we were at was Crown Auto, which first off, like, what are the odds? And then, so as we're sitting there waiting, we're talking to the guy. And big thing about Crown Rally, one of the biggest, I guess, things we donate to is the Epilepsy Foundation. That guy's daughter has epilepsy. So, like, as soon as we told him that, mind you, now at this point, by the time we figured out all the bad axles and everything, it's like six o'clock at night on a Friday, and there's two guys still here, just us, waiting for us, and they're like, yeah, if you can get us the axles, we'll stay open for you and get it in. So it was just a whole group of things that came together, and he was so happy to be doing this, and got pictures for his daughter and everything. And it was just how things line up with the world. I think it's incredible.

That's crazy.

That's a heartwarming story right there.

It really was. And that was, we were telling him about Crown and what we're doing and why we're doing it. And then he started tearing up. And it's like, you know, why? And then he told us that. And it's like, yeah, it really kind of grabs you. So it was amazing. And they were awesome guys. Again, shout out Crown Auto and Winona because they took care of us awesomely. But we got the car back on the road and then everybody else was already in Cedar Rapids, Iowa was our stop that night. And I think the straight route for us to get there was still like two and a half, three hours.

It's not horrible.

And at that point, we're like, okay, we're in Winona. We can either drive back home and just be done with the car. Or do we keep going and hope we make it? We got a spare axle. So we drove straight to Cedar Rapids. I think we showed up at like nine at night.

That's not bad.

Considering dinner started at like seven, we were severely late. We got there and normally you go kind of shower and change before dinner. And Zach and I were like, screw it. I think we put like, at that point, we were out of our costumes, but we were like, screw it. Let's put the hats on. And we took the pocket rockets off and rode the pocket rockets through downtown Cedar Rapids. Just cause. And we showed up and they had a Black Sheep, the restaurant there. They had it rented out just for Crown. And we showed up and these little things, you know, we and people like stood up and cheered. And I was like, oh man, we made it. We walked inside and like, it was so funny. Like people cheered at this point. I think it was my third year rallying in Zach's second. Like I didn't know that many people. And so that was the night I would say we met a lot of people on Crown Rally, which was awesome. You know, unfortunate circumstance, but it was awesome. But so next day woke up and we went to Hock I Downs, which was fun, took the car out, super good time. And then we left there and we're headed to Chicago. We made it like, again, hour, hour and a half, Odyssey to Rapids. And all of a sudden, and we just, boom, same thing. And both of us just like look at each other. Well, this is great. And so we pulled over and this is really where we started meeting people. Jake Serac pulled over and he's a mechanic by trade. And so he was like, well, we're like, well, we have an axle. Do you have a jack? No. Do you have tools? No. We were useless. And then John Huber pulled over as well in the Jeep. He had their Hellcat swap.

He had a Hellcat Jeep?

Yep. He's like, well, I have lift for the Jeep. This will work. So we jacked up the Goblin and Jake's like, well, here's what I'll need. It's this tool, this tool, this tool. So John took me back into town as they started pulling the car apart. I just bought all the tools we needed and came back and Jake's literally yanking on the axle, pulling it out of the transmission, put it back in. All right, we're good to go. It was literally probably like two, three hours. And we were back on the road, but we were like, all right. We have like, I think to Chicago was like four hours, the straight drive, not even including the rally drive. And so Zach and I were like, we're just gonna putz to Chicago. We want to get there. At the time, we kind of thought it was the high speeds is what was doing it. Cause we, I mean, when Zach bought the car, he had put probably two to 3000 miles on it, just driving it around, you know, the cities. And so, but you're never driving at speeds like we were consistently, you know, over time. And so that was kind of our guess. We were like, well, we'll just get on the freeway and, you know, 60 miles an hour all the way to Chicago. And again, Crown family coming in clutch. So we posted on the Crown page, and somebody who lives in Chicago goes, hey, I own an auto body store or auto shop. Tell me exactly what part number you have. I will bring you another one, you know? And so we got to the racetrack, and I never met before. Hey, here's another axle, like good to go. And so we had a blast. That was awards night, woke up the next day. The next day was a whirlwind as well. So we leave Chicago, we're not even fully out of Chicago, and the R8, this is on a Sunday, the R8 blows a rear tire. Yep.

It's never ending.

Nope. So, okay, what do we do? First, let's try and find somewhere that's got a tire. Good luck. You know, a low profile 315 or whatever rear tire for a R8. Yeah, good luck. Then it was, can we get a U-Haul trailer and truck, and we'll like rent one, drive it all the way home. Nope, couldn't do that. Ended up getting super lucky. Again, we posted in our Crown page, and one of the guys, part of Crown, goes, hey, he had an RS5, but it had the same bolt pattern and size wheels. And he said, I can bring you the wheels off that. And so he brought the wheels off his car, and of course, ended up needing spacers that he didn't bring with him. So he brought the wheels, we tried to fit them on, they didn't fit, he had to go get the spacers. But long story short, so once we saw that that was gonna work, he left to go get the spacers, and we were like, all right, well, we took the rear wheels off the R8, mounted them to the top of the Goblin. So now we have Pocket Rockets and two R8 tires on the back, which it literally looked like desert trucks, like the off-road desert trucks, which is just hilarious. We're like, all right, well, we're gonna start driving just in case, because we're gonna drive slower than they can in the R8. We were trying to drive like 60, 65. Obviously, you can go a lot faster on the freeway. We made it, we're probably halfway through Wisconsin, and boom, heard the third one, knew exactly what it was. And at this point, we have all the tools, we have another axle, we didn't have a jack. And so luck, for some reason, the freeway had a curb, like literally a curb. It was weird. But so we pulled the front tire up on that, and kind of started going, well, what are we gonna do? And there was a fence, you know, like freeway has a fence around it. And one of the fence posts was kind of laying on the ground. So I walked over, found the fence post, pulled it out and walked over to the car and went, well, there's a curb. So Zach grabbed the fence post, I grabbed the car and I was like, no, I can't lift a car, but I can lift a portion of a car. So I just dead lifted the car up and Zach shoved the fence post between the frame, tube frame of the chassis and the curb. And it got up and off the ground enough that the tire was free. And so from the time we parked until we were, like the time we stopped till the time our car started moving again, 47 minutes.

That's impressive.

I was pretty proud of us. And it also happened to be literally as we started going, my dad and brother caught up in the R8. So it was like perfect timing. And then, yeah, I mean, at that point, okay, it's six o'clock at night. Like we're still halfway through Wisconsin's. We still got probably four or five hours left. And we're like, we don't have another axle. What are we gonna do? So as we were driving back, got ahold of my mom and my uncle. He set, my uncle set my mom up with a trailer and she met us basically in Hudson. Cause we just said, I just want to get home. So yeah, I mean, the Goblin still made it, made it all the way to Hudson. It was still running and driving.

That's basically home.

Yeah, but it was still like, at this point, I think when we made it to Hudson, it was probably 10 o'clock, 10, 15. So it was like, if we blow another axle on a Sunday at 10 at night, now what, right? And you've just been rallying for a whole weekend. It's like, I just want to be home. So got it on the car or got it on the trailer, brought it home, good to go. But honestly, even after all of those issues, it was 100% worth it. Like we had so much fun on that with that car, made kids' days. I mean, that was the other big thing about, I mean, that's why I love rallying is, it's for other people really.

Well, nobody's done it like Crown has. Like there's a lot of rallies out there, but only a handful of them really bring the communities into it. You know, like Crown with all the hospitals, was it Shriners?

Shriners, yep.

Like it's, you don't see that often, which is really awesome. Like yeah, if you show up to like a hospital or whatever or a small town with the Wario and Luigi dude, they're gonna freak out. Like what is, I've never seen that on the street.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome.

And that was, I mean, honestly for me, like even the Viper, like I love having the Viper and it's super cool. And as people, I think, and we always want better, right? I want a cooler car, a faster car, but really I still think there's nothing better than you pull up to a gas station and some little kids oogling at it. Hey buddy, jump in. Like, I don't care. And the parents are like, no, no, no, that's a fancy car, don't scratch it. And it's like, I don't care. If this makes your kid's day, take photos, do whatever. Cause we were all that kid someday, right? And it makes his day, it makes his week, whatever it is. So I love that part of it. And the Goblin definitely took a lot of it, or did a lot of that. So it was a blast.

Especially, the Goblin's very, very different. But even if you have a normal Audi S4 or something, that's all stickered up with rally stickers and everything, it gets attention. People are like, oh man, that's freaking awesome. What are they doing? Oh, okay, to a kid that has no idea the difference between a Lamborghini and an Audi S4, they think they just saw a race car. That's it. You could put a bunch of stickers on a Civic Type R and a kid's gonna freak out. And they'll be like, I want that one day. It's like, no, no, no, we only buy, we don't buy Honda in this family, Jimmy, but that's freaking nuts. Okay, but I'm curious. So why, you had a third axle prepped then, basically. Like just like, we should probably get a third one.

Well, that was, so we blew the, you know, we got the first one. We bought two when we were at Crown Auto.

Correct.

So my aunt brought us two axles. We put one in, had a spare. Then when we left Cedar Rapids, we blew that second one.

Correct.

And then that other guy, the guy in Chicago got us the third axle. So yes, that's where we had the third axle.

That was a spare, like in preparation for the next haul. Okay, gotcha. Here's the big question that everybody's asking. Why did they keep f****** blowing?

That's a really good question. So we planned, Zach kept the car, and like once we had that next axle on there, again, drove it around the cities, didn't have issues. I mean, he had bought a spare axle and always had it with, but drove it around the cities again and never had issues. But before the next, we knew we were gonna rally in it again. And so he did a lot of different stuff to the car. So really, I don't know. Like even before the rally, he didn't, we did an at-home alignment like ourselves. Great idea. Hey, I'm gonna go take the car on 2000 mile rally. We should align it ourselves.

All right, I'll bite. How do you do an at-home alignment?

You don't wanna know.

Oh, I need to know now.

I think you can do it with a piece of string and cardboard.

Yep.

So do you do it like how they used to take kids' teeth out back in the day, like a little string and tie it to a doorknob? Is that how you did it?

We're not going into details. Let's just say it wasn't the greatest thing. It was like, this will work.

Like that's great for getting it to the alignment shop.

Correct.

Like you just put on a whole new suspension, whole new wheels, and it's like, it's absolutely, numbers are everywhere, and you need to at least get it close to like zero, so you're not getting pulled in every direction and trying to get to the tire shop. Like that's when you use a home alignment. But you did it, so you could go on a rally.

Yeah. I mean, I thought it was gonna be fun.

It's so crazy, you over-engineered the Goblin for the rally, you're like, pocket bikes, we're gonna put a roof on it, plexiglass, all this stuff, and then you're like, we don't have time for an alignment. We'll do it at home ourselves.

Well, and again, it was like, the car was already set up when he bought it, and he had put, like I said, thousands of miles on it before we went on the rally. But he had just kind of just gotten the R888s, and so it was, all right, let's just, you know, kind of reset everything up straighter-ish. But back to what actually caused it, we don't entirely know because I think he ended up buying new rear suspension. I know he bought all new A-arms bushings, everything. He also bought like 800 wheel horsepower-rated axles. So, like, if we blew one of those, there's something severely wrong and got a real alignment. So what actually fixed it, I don't know. But we took it on the rally the next year, and it ran great. It made it all the way everywhere, and again, we had a blast.

Sean, you know more about cars, which one of those two things is more likely?

What?

What fixed it?

Yeah.

What fixed it?

The higher rated axles or what was the other thing?

I mean, all new bearings and bushings and an alignment.

Yeah, I guess there's a number of things in that one.

I don't know.

I was thinking weight. You threw so much weight onto the rear of that thing, probably.

You know, we thought about that, but it really wasn't that much. I mean, not-

I feel like you doubled the weight with how much you added, you know.

Yeah, but look at us two guys ourselves are, I mean, already a lot of weight. The pocket rockets were only probably 50 pounds a piece. I mean, they really weren't a lot. So you say add another 100 pounds plus our clothes. I don't know what, 20, 30 pounds. I mean, we only added 130 more pounds. But it's not a ton.

No, not double, it's just 1,800.

Well, I guess, yeah, but then I wonder what, like the, what is it called? The gross vehicle weight would be, how much can it handle?

Yeah.

Like that's where it's maxed out.

But it's still less than a stock.

The payload capacity. I wonder what the payload capacity would be.

Yeah, and again, we messed with the suspension too once it got back because that was the other thing is, you know, you look at a Cobalt, like most cars, your axles kind of sit upright going into the transmission, right? They come down. The Goblin actually with how low that car sat, they almost went negative.

Oh.

Or even just straight. And so it was like, is that throwing it off? And so we stiffened up the suspension, kind of tried to raise it a little bit. I mean, like I said, did a lot of stuff.

Yeah, Mickey Mouse science.

What fixed it? I don't know.

I don't know.

Yeah, that's fricking rowdy, dude. Oh my God.

Yeah, that's amazing. That's, you know, one of the things like, you get this a lot. I think you talked about this in the last episode. People always ask, you know, oh like, you know, why would I go on a rally? Why would I do this? And I think your story sums it up like perfectly. You will never get that from going to your local car meet. You'll never get that from going on just a cruise around the city with your buddies. You can only get that kind of experience on a rally, going across to the country, driving, you know, pushing your car, you know.

How many people would be happy about blowing three axles?

Not a lot of people in a normal circumstance.

In a normal circumstance. Like if you told somebody, oh, by the way, I blew up three axles this weekend driving to car shows, they would not be happy. We had a blast.

I think a lot of that has to do with your personality though. You're like, oh s***.

Well, that's like Dan. Dan is, you know, constantly breaking down, or at least he was in the past few rallies.

Oh yeah, he made it through a rally without breaking down this year.

Yeah, first one that I think.

Dan, congratulations.

So I think, but he still had a blast. And I feel like, you know, it's almost like a part of the experience is your car breaking down and it almost adds to it. You know, it builds character and it, you know, throws, you know, things for a loop.

It's making the best of the situation that you're in. Like, hey, I'm out here with a whole bunch of awesome people. I want to be on this event. I mean, the events and the roads, everything is phenomenal. And the people around you is really what makes it. Whether it be even other rallyers or again, like I said, just being in public and you have this group of like, yes, like you said, basically race cars or they look like them. I mean, you pull into gas stations and it's just a blast. And so it's like still wanting to be a part of that. Yeah, what can I do to make my car work to still go get to do that? And like, you're just gonna do whatever it takes to keep going.

It's a different mentality when you're on a rally, right? Cause like you said, your options were like, do I go home or do we fix this thing? I mean, like you said, Cedar Rapids is like two, three hours away. It's like, we can go two hours home or three hours that way.

Well, and even for us, like we had the option of another car. I mean, at the time, my dad had a 2013 Camaro, that that is what we took on the rally the year before. And it was, I mean, it's a fully built, it was a show car that was also fully built. I mean, it had a Liver Noise built race engine, 2.9 Whipple on it. It was 8.20 at the wheels before Nitrous. So it was just over 1,000 at the wheels on the Nitrous. Never really even hit it. But I mean, we could have gone home and gotten that car, but it was like, no, we're doing this in the Goblin. Like, let's make it happen. And so that's what we did. And it was a blast.

So then you ended up taking it the following year too?

Yep.

Did you bring axles?

We did have an axle, yes. And all the tools, just in case. Because again, it's like, we assumed everything got fixed with all the different stuff that was done, but go find me somewhere that you can test the car at those speeds for those periods of time. You won't. Again, it kind of rally mentality. You just have to be, when you're rallying, you just know you're risking it, but you're just kind of going, okay. And I mean, risking it like with police. I mean, you have radar detectors, but you're just, yeah, I'll be okay. It'll be fine. It's just a ticket.

Nobody did it better though than Blake, who we had on the podcast. I want to say it was like episode 16 or something like that. So he had all those countermeasures. You remember all those?

In the Viper?

Yeah.

Oh, it's insane.

He had the freaking eyes.

It's so cool.

Yeah, did you know about the show?

Hold on, what?

So Blake, with the orange ACR that was on the episode. So basically he would come up with these countermeasures. So yeah, he had all those GPS things, but he was also tapping into local. Was he tapping into local?

Yep. And I think he was, he had, I think it was him that had a, he was watching airplanes overhead too.

Yeah, he was watching. Yeah, he was literally on top of every countermeasure. Like he literally had antennas, was tapping into things. I mean, he had like a radar jammer. I don't know if he had a jammer, because I think that's where you start thinking about, like that's where it starts getting a little sketchy and illegal, but yeah. Yeah, because jammers are like, it doesn't matter.

Jammers are technically illegal.

I think, I'm not sure if they're legal, or I'm not sure if they're illegal in all states, but I definitely know in some. Yeah, Minnesota, you get into some serious trouble, but like the purpose, so some people think that radar jammers are to completely get away from the cops and all that, which that's not the case. The goal is to just buy you time to slow down.

Correct. And it's not even like a lot of time. It's another second, maybe.

A second or two, yeah.

But still, I mean, you can save a lot of miles per hour in a second if you're hard on your brakes.

Yeah, yeah, no, I know. Yeah, like, cause I remember one time, I reacted a little bit late when the radar was on, cause I was cruising at the windows down and all that. I was waiting to shift and all that. And yeah, I brought it down a significant amount. Let's just put it that way. So yeah, every second counts for a slot. Cause like, also they have to lock in the speed or whatever too, I think, on radars or whatever. But Minnesota is weird though, cause I believe they passed a law a year or two ago or some different thing where basically they can't just keep running KA. Like they have to actually like flip it on or whatever the case is. Cause like, I remember the day after they passed out or whatever, all of a sudden my radar was just silent all the time. Cause like I remember I'd be literally just driving and my KA would always be like freaking out. But yeah, I think in Minnesota, I think they literally just, they're like, hey, let's rain it on the KA boys.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, I'll have to see if I can find the article or whatever, but I remember seeing something about that. So that was interesting.

But I need to update my radar detector is really old, like really old. And I need to just shut off my K band because it picks up like any new Hyundai. It picks it up. And so my radar is just always going off. Yeah. At this point, like I've picked up on the sound difference between when it's K or KA, and I'll be cruising here, go off, and like don't even think about slowing down. Just, ah, that's K band. It's fine.

That's so weird. The other day I was driving and my radar detector goes off. It's KA. It's just lit up. Like whatever it's showing me right behind you, like there's somebody running KA. I look behind me, no cops. I didn't pass a cop in the median. I didn't see a cop on the shoulder, not even passing the other way. But I'm looking behind me and it's like a Maserati. It's like a newer Maserati. And they eventually, like I slow down because I'm like, I don't know where this cop is. So I'm just slowing down. And then the Maserati passes me and then it shuts off. Like now some of these new cars are using KA. And it's so annoying.

I have heard about that too. Yeah, like, yeah, cause like, what is it? The usual ones like KA?

Laser, a lot of Volvos use like laser for the cruise control or for whatever the-

The adaptive cruise.

The adaptive, like the sensors that they run, they use laser. So a lot of times I would notice like the laser would light up and I'd always see a Volvo like right behind me. It was always a Volvo, but now it looks like they're starting to use KA for some new cars.

Yeah, cause it was so funny. Like every time you'd pass like a target or something, like while on a rally or whatever, like your radar would just like light up.

Or a bank. Yeah, banks always get you too.

Anything with a sliding door, they use the K-Bands.

Yep.

Yeah, I would love to land a radar company as a sponsor. I reached out to a couple. I'm like, hey, cause I, so I run two different radars, right? In different cars. Actually, my brother just picked up a Uniden R8, and that's what we have in the AMG GTR.

Please keep doing that.

With the sarcastic tone. We want that too.

But yeah, the Uniden R8. And I actually, the first time ever was around the Uniden, was actually in Chaz's Jeep Trackhawk when we went down to Texas 2K and he had an R7. I'm like, dude, this thing's freaking sweet. Like it's legit. And he compared it cause they also had an Escort. I think it might've been slightly better, but dude, these radar detectors nowadays are just so freaking good.

Oh, you can't leave out Valentine.

Nobody cares about them.

I love Valentine.

I've heard that nobody cares about them.

They're like the underdog, cause you can go into a Best Buy and you can buy a Uniden or Escort, but you can't buy a Valentine. You have to know about them to get it.

Yeah, cause I heard they were the s*** back in the day. Like Valentine was the best in the early 2000s. I think they fell off for a while.

Oh, V1, but now they have a V2. So the V2 is really nice.

You know, but that's what makes me nervous though. It's like, oh, you only have two versions. And it's like...

Cause the first one was so good. I still rock the V1. I have a V1 and V2. The V2 is better, but the V1, it's still, it's awesome.

It's so good you forgot to put it in your 1M for your last ticket.

How dare you?

Did you get that resolved yet by the way?

We're working on it. Shout out to Martin Azarian, attorney at Law. You're representing me, and I really appreciate all the hard work that you're doing for me, because I gave you some hard work.

Yeah, that dude, he's helped a lot of my friends.

You've never met him, and you've sent so many people to him.

Does he do out-of-state tickets?

I can ask, actually.

I got a good story for on a ticket. I received two speeding tickets in the same pullover. Two speeding tickets, same pullover.

He just clocked you once, and he's like, all right, let's see if he does it again, clocked you the second time.

I mean, I know what he said. I ended up getting out of both of them. Well, I got out of one, and I took a driving course. This was out in Arizona, again on Crown. And we were on a highway, and it was really weird, because this highway, I've never seen anything like this in Minnesota. It was a highway, doing 65, I think maybe even 70. And it came out of kind of the mountains or hills wherever we were in. And it literally just came on, swooped and merged onto the freeway. No other entrances, no nothing to this road. But before the curve, it slowed to like a 60. And so he says, so I took that faster and was following an R8, and then got on the freeway. And he, I don't know where he was. I'm pretty sure he was on the freeway and just making stuff up. Because he pulled us over and said, I got you on the crossroad on the 60 mile an hour highway at whatever. And I got you on the freeway speeding. So he gave me two tickets in one pullover, but he was dumb on my two tickets and rode them both for on the freeway, two different speeds, but on the freeway for both of them. So when I called the court and said, can I speak to the judge? I don't know why I got two tickets for the same road. And they dumped one of them. And then in the state of Arizona, you get it's one free pass, they call it, where you take a driving school, an online driving class, and they completely wipe your ticket. So my ticket was like 380 bucks and the driving school was 350. I was like, I'll do the driving school.

But $350 for driving school? I just took a course. It was like 30 bucks.

State of Arizona.

You had to take a state of Arizona mandated one?

Yep.

Well, I guess in Minnesota, you can choose like from a list and they're generally.

They were all expensive.

They're generally about like 20 to 40 bucks, depending on who you go with. But there's a lot that you can choose from.

While I loathe the state of Arizona. No, I'm kidding. Hold on. What was the officer's demeanor? Was he like a total like, was he just?

Yes. Very. He was not.

Yes to what?

He was a dick. I mean, he just, he was so mad at us. He gave both me and the R8 tickets, both of us, two tickets. He wrote the R8 correctly. I don't actually know what ever happened with that. I should ask. But we both got two tickets. He was not happy. I can give you a little more details, but I'll do those.

You can do that off camera too.

You already got acquitted of your crime. You can talk all you want now.

It's about other stuff. Yeah. I'll tell you that.

That's an off camera story. You know it's good when it's an off camera story.

God, you know our listeners love to hear that.

I'm sorry, everybody.

Well, but nonetheless, well, that's why you get to know people. Dude, you know what's wild is I've started having people that come up to me at shows, like people that I've never met before, and it's like, oh, I saw the podcast or whatever. It's like, it might be like, for example, actually one of the guys that works for Ratified, thanks for hosting us, Ratified.

I've never been here. This shop is sick.

This is brand new.

It's awesome. It's really nice.

I think they have an open house on the coming up.

It's gonna be the day before this podcast airs.

Oh, okay, dang.

Yeah, so I should probably post about that. But anyways, yeah, so Sam, who works at the other location. No, no. So Sam, who works at the other location, funny enough, his dad actually came up to me at a show, and I was like, all right, do I know this person? Because again, hats, sunglasses, I have no idea who you are, I'm face blind. He's like, yeah, I really like the episode. I think he said, oh, he doesn't even talk that much for whatever, but on the podcast, he opened up or something like that. I don't know, but it was super cool, because I was like, oh, I don't know this person, but they came up to me, they knew me already. So I was just like, all right, cool. And it's happened a number of times now, so it's kind of a fun part of this podcast.

You're famous now.

I'm famous, thank you very much. No, my point being, it's like, if you want to hear the off-the-camera stories, you walk up to Travis, be like, hey, tell us a story.

I can tell you the story then.

But man, yeah, that's the thing, dude. When they come in, I actually like super hot. Like, did you ever see the, when Houston from Royalty Exotics got pulled over that video? He got pulled over. So the guy who owns the rental company out of Vegas, he's super, I think he hangs out with like Stradman or whatever. I don't know, that part I'm guessing. But nonetheless, he got pulled over in his Bugatti or whatever, in Vegas, and he was like a total hothead or whatever, because he just, I think it was like a b******* pullover. Like the cop got him for like switching lanes too fast or something in front of him. I don't know, but cop was like a total hothead. They were just like going at each other. It was just wild. But yeah, sometimes they come in at you like super hot, dude.

Well, and that was like, with that one even, I've always tried to be on the, I'll just be nice, be as polite as possible and hope I get out of it. This cop, cause like talking with, so again, we had on this last rep, this was on West, we had me and the Viper, Zach and his AMG and my dad and his Corvette, and we were with his RA. All four of us had radar detectors. None of them went off. So my guess is he didn't radar us at all. He just wanted to pull us over and give us tickets. So honestly, I don't think he even radar us, but I wasn't going to question, oh, show me the radar. Some people do that.

Yeah, I see those guys got some cojones on them. I'm like, what are you doing? You were antagonizing this.

We guaranteed a ticket if you asked that and he's got it.

We just freaking, I'm not going to say who it is, but we just rallied with someone who got into it with a freaking sheriff. Were you around for that story? Okay, I'm sorry, listeners, forgive me. This one I'm telling you off the story because this guy loves to be low key, but I'm going to tell you this one off camera. It's freaking ridiculous, dude. I got into it with a sheriff and it worked out fine, but it was basically one of those situations like, show me. You can't be holding me here. It was one of those.

I've never been that way. I've always tried to just, how nice can I be? Will I get away with it?

And usually, the thing is, the last one I got, which was a b******* ticket, so I got one for no front plate. Minnesota is one of those states that's-

Oh, you finally got that? You got one of those?

Yeah, so I got one of these no front plate tickets. Minnesota is a b******* state. Also, we can't have tint in Minnesota. Pretty much every other state in the Union, this great Union of America, you can have tint.

No, you can have tint, just not pitch black on your windshield.

You just need to talk to your eye doctor and say that you need tinted windows.

Funny story, actually. I can't remember which friend of mine this was, but funny story. There was one instance where somebody did get a prescription from their eye doctor for their tint. So they got the tint, they got the prescription, they carried it in their glove box, and one time they actually got pulled over. I can't remember if it was for tint or speeding or whatever, but nonetheless, they were like, Oh, your car is tinted. So they're like, I got a prescription. They give it to the cop, the cop ripped it.

Really?

Yeah, so the next time, they literally just got the thing laminated, so they can't rip it. So I was like, all right, cool, problem solved. But yeah, in some instances, that's where it's like, sometimes you give a prescription, you're good to go. Other times, get your prescription ripped.

But in that case, yeah, the cop ripped it and probably felt really good about himself and still gave the ticket, but you're getting out of it. You could fight that and you're going to win.

Yeah, you're going to go to court. I actually tried to, and you're just going to win in court. I tried to get a prescription. I asked my eye doctor or whatever, and they're like, why? I'm like, because I want to have a tent. They're like, I don't know if that's a good enough description.

No, you don't say you just want tent. You say, oh, the sun hurts my eyes. You don't go into an office, a doctor's office and go, hey, I want to do something illegal. Can you help me? I want drugs. Can you prescribe me drugs? That's basically what you did. You're like, hey, I just want tent. Hook a brother up.

Well, I'm just saying, if the entire nation can be hooked on oxy, I should be able to get tent too, because that's only what you could do, be like, ah, my back hurts. Really? Here's some oxy. That's where we're at. Give me my tent. This is the part of the episode where I have a mental breakdown.

That's all right.

So where was I? Oh, yeah, so I got a ticket for No Front Plate, and he was about to give me one for not having insurance in the car. I'm like, I can literally just pull it up. I'm just waiting for my mom to send me the passport because we still share it.

Do we have to have an insurance card with us?

No, no, no. In Minnesota, you can have it on your phone. You can have a digital copy.

I was going to say, because when we got pulled over in Arizona, both of us, I was freaking out because I'm like, I don't have my insurance card in my car. Just not thinking that I never really got one, because I knew I had it on my phone. And the cop went and talked to the guy in the R8 first, and he came back to me, and he's like, license. And I was like, I can't find my insurance, but I have it on my phone. And he's like, yeah, that guy said Minnesota doesn't issue paper anymore, which honestly, I guess I don't really know.

Well, you can still print it all yourself.

But I don't think it's required for us to have a paper copy anymore.

Which is why I was fuming, because like, so I basically told him like, hey, dude, like I'm in a rough spot in life right now, which, you know.

By the way, this stuff's really good.

The Jaco?

Yes, I never had it.

Sweet.

Yeah, and you can use code Minnoxide for 10% off.

Yeah, check out these amazing flavors right here. These are some of our favorites.

Shameless plug. No, honestly, like this is like one of my dream sponsors, because I just genuinely love the product, and that's why America, dude, like it's all made in America for like what they can. So that's a whole separate rant. But anyways, let's see, third attempt to tell the story.

Sorry. I'm just as bad as you.

No, I blame Sean for everything. So okay, so let's just go all the way to the beginning. So I'm crossing from Shakopee into Chanhassen, right? That roundabout over there where it's Chanhassen, Eden Prairie, Shakopee. And the cop's sitting in the middle of the roundabout, and I'm doing fine. This is one of those days where I'm actually not doing anything delinquent. It was actually the day I was going to go scout the route for swapping keys too. So I was going to go do something delinquent probably. But anyways, and then all of a sudden, he pulls out from the roundabout. He's following me, and I'm just like, I'm looking down. I'm like, I'm not speeding. I'm like, there's no f****** way I'm about to get pulled over. I get pulled over. There's really no where safe to pull over. So I literally am just sitting in the turn lane. I'm just like, you know what? I'm going to do my best here, but do I wait another half mile, make it look like I'm running, or just pull over immediately? So I pull over immediately right in a turn lane, I know roundabout. Parked on the grass or whatever, but comes up to me. He's like, hey, I had to get you for no front plate, and your tint is really dark. I'm like, yeah, I got the car with tint. Like, it's like, you know. So I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm in a tough spot, blah. He goes back, runs it, because I got pulled over for no front plate like three weeks prior to that, too, in my own neighborhood. And they literally did an illegal U-turn over a double yellow to come get me. I'm like, hey, you just did something illegal to come get me for no front plate. Really? So anyways, he's like, I'm going to give you a break because you didn't have your insurance and for the tint. I'm like, you're choosing to give me this ticket right now. I don't know how much of a break.

It's not a break.

I get it. You're giving me less, but at the same time, it's like, you could choose to not give me all of it. Like, what's going on here, dude? So I was really bummed about that, but I'm just sitting here thinking like, any other state, this would not be a problem.

It's so funny because it's super selective. Like, the front plate thing especially, and really you could talk about tint in the same category of there's no supercars that run front plates, and almost all of them are tinted, and nobody gets pulled over for it. But if you're in a normal car, and you don't have a plate, and you have window tint, you're getting pulled over.

Here's what infuriates me the most. I have a Band-Aid on the front of my Golf, literally, because I have a chip or whatever. I was like, all right, let's see how long this stays on. It stayed on almost a year, by the way, after I hit a 2x4. I'm just sitting here thinking like, dude, I can't afford to fix my bumper over there. The tint is peeling off this car, and you're giving me a ticket? How selective are we gonna be here, dude? I'm driving a pretty much damn near base GTI. Yeah, it's tuned up to the gills, but it's like, bro, Karen over here just passed me in her brand new Genesis G70, going 1,000 miles an hour. Give her a ticket. But anyways, I can rant about that.

And you know what's actually the worst part? Is Minnesota doesn't have fix-it tickets. You know, in a lot of states, if you get something that's fixable, let's say like, oh, your car is too loud. All you have to do is take it to a muffler shop, have a muffler put on, and then you drive it down to the courthouse and be like, look, I fixed it. You don't have to give me this ticket anymore. And then they strike it. And they do that for tent, they do that for, I'm trying to think, mufflers, so noise, headlights. You can do that with headlights. Like if you have a burnt out bulb and they still give you a ticket, you can go and fix it and show up to court and be like, look, I fixed it. You don't have to, I don't have to pay this ticket. But here in Minnesota, they don't do that. They'll still, if it's something-

I gotta fix a warning one time.

You gotta what?

Fix it warning.

Oh.

So when I bought my first truck, I mean, it had the supercharged race motor and was literally straight piped. No exhaust whatsoever. Like headers, pipes out. And I got pulled over within seven days of having my license. And the cops literally like, and I'll preface this with, my brother had a big lifted truck that was red and stuck out like a sore thumb. And this was the high school cop who, I mean, it was Roger's cop, but also he was our high school cop.

Oh, the liaison.

Yeah, and so, and he was a dick, went out and measured my brother's truck during school hours and gave him a ticket for being too tall and his tires sticking out too much. Like, so he was a dick of a cop. And when he pulled me over, he's like, I know your family, I know like, you need to get this fixed or I will pull you over and give you a ticket next time. He's like, I can see you just got your driver's license. You better get this fixed. So went and bought a set of like Magnaflow mufflers. It was still loud, but not as obnoxious.

It's kind of a bummer sometimes, dude, cause like, you know, like granted, sometimes kids need a little bit of correction in high school. Like, you know, you need that slap on the wrist, but at the same time, it's like, I know your family. It's like, whoa, Liam Neeson, calm the f*** down. I don't know. It's just like, I don't like, I know some people may not agree. Like I had a bunch of people in my comments being like, a cab or whatever. It's like, whatever loser, I don't give a f***. Like I respect law enforcement and all that, but it's like, sometimes you get that occasional guy just being a dick for no reason. It's like, come on. It's like, I want to help you. Like I actually have thought about getting that, because like we have a really cool plate in Minnesota too, where it's like the law enforcement plate or whatever. It's like a black plate.

That's like our black plate.

That's our black, like it's cool, but my only worry is like, if I go to Minneapolis, I don't want to get my tires slashed. So there's that too. But so it's like, I'm all for it. Like obviously, you know, police have a space, but it's like, dude, a front plate ticket. Like you're, it's really hard to root for you right now.

Yeah, I mean, it's, everybody has their days, right?

There's that too.

You just got stuck on that guy's day.

There's that too. There's people too. Cause I have a lot, I have a number of friends that are cops too. So it's like, I know that they have bad days too. So it's like, it's whatever. So that's why I try not to mouth off, but one time I did mouth off. Like this is the first time I ever got pulled over for tint. This guy followed me for a number of turns. I'm like, ain't no way, bro. And he's like, and he was super nice, by the way. This guy was not challenging at all. He was the nicest cop ever. And I was just hangry because I was like, literally I could see canes. I'm on my way to canes. I could f****** see it. I missed the turn. I'm already like, I'm at a level 10 angry. Cause like, you know, when you miss a turn, you're just like, I hate life. So I'm hangry, level 10 angry. And he's like, I had to, I saw you had some really dark tint and no front plates. I just wanted to pull you over. Like super nice, by the way, total sweetheart. And I'm like, angry Harris. You pull me over for tint? I had the tone and everything. And I'm like, this is going to be the day I go to jail. But thankfully Eric, who we found on a podcast a couple of times, is in the car with me. He's like, hey officer, how's it doing? Yeah, he's a little crazy. Yeah, so I think he deescalated me that day.

It's always anything, no matter what it is, is just a little worse when you're that close. Like to wherever you're going. We did another blown tire on a rally story, but my second rally ever, we did it in that Camaro, Zach and I. So we were headed into Chicago. We had like a 45 minute ride into Chicago the night before it was over, like the last night. And as we're driving home, kind of wet out, and we're driving, my brother calls me, and he was behind us again and says, hey, like pull over, there's something like shiny under the car. Thinking we were dragging something, pulled over at a gas station, and you can see the cords. We're like, again, okay, it's 10.45 at night on a Saturday in Chicago. What are we gonna try and do? Should we try and drive all the way back to Minneapolis in the morning? Or try and find a tire, which again, go find it between a 305 and a 315 tire on a Sunday morning in Chicago. So we decided to try and drive it back. We made it all the way to, well, Minneapolis. Made it all the way to Lowry Tunnel, and I remember this was so sketchy. So the time we made it to Lowry Tunnel, I mean, we had been kind of stopping and checking, and the tire was bald, and it started to drizzle. So the road was just a little wet. Lowry Tunnel is also concrete. You know, the road is, I literally came down that little curve into the tunnel at like 15 miles an hour, and the car started to break loose. Like it was so sketchy. And so, but we're so close to home. Like we needed to make it to the Hanover area. And so I ended up getting off on, I think that we got off on 55, because I was like, okay, we're gonna putz home. I'm not even gonna try the freeway. Like let's just putz. As I get off, my low tire pressure light comes on. I'm like, oh no. And so it's at like, okay, now it's at 20. I turn, start driving, now it's at 15. And it's like the right rear tire is at 15. So I put my mirror over and Zach's in my passenger. And Zach, stick your head out the window. Like, see a load, it really is. He's looking up, dude, it looks good. It looks completely fine. You're good. Let's drive a little bit longer, you know, stoplight. You have 10 PSI. Zach, look at the tire. No, dude, it's good, I'm telling you. Drive a little longer, five PSI. Dude, it's still good. I went, wait a second. Did we not fix the TPMS sensors in which tire they're on? I look in my mirror, scroll down, tire's flat. We are exactly like 20 miles from home. I'm like, we just did a whole rally and I'm 20 miles from home and have a flat tire. Call the tow truck, like, okay, we were gonna be home at like six, seven o'clock. I think I made it to my house at like 1130. I was like, gosh, just a complete waste of your day, right? But it was so much worse, cause we were right there. It's like, I almost would have just been stranded out in Wisconsin again, like, no, it's fine. But we learned our lesson after that and always had new tires.

Yeah, dude, that's exactly kind of what happened. That's exactly kind of what happened. What a weird entry sentence. It's exactly, but not really. So the three weeks before or whatever, when I got that no front plate warning or whatever, and I got pulled over like right in my neighborhood, I s*** you not, I went to Target, which you can walk to. I just drove because I'm not carrying six gallons of milk back home.

Why are you buying six gallons of milk? I, serious question.

You don't get to beat this big and strong for no reason.

You must have the most dense bones.

Yeah, I was gonna say, you don't get that big bones from me.

You have no muscle, it's all bone.

All right, f*** both of you. Bruce Lee did not break those logs for no reason, bro. All right, wax on, wax off. Well, f******, I'm mixing up movies now, I don't care. But literally, it's just one stoplight. I'm turning into my neighborhood. It's the shortest distance. I didn't wanna go that day to go do anything else. I was done for the night. And it's just the dumbest pullover. It's always the dumbest pullover circumstance, dude. So, you know that we got these like Tesla, what's it called, cops around here now too? Yeah, I think it was, for the last year or two, we've had Tesla cops. And I've seen a number of trucks and all that stuff too.

I have not seen that.

Yeah, be on the lookout.

Good to know.

Dude, that's one of the worst parts when you go rallying. It's like when you go into different states and they have different police vehicles. Cause like, you know, up here, we have chargers and Durangos for the most part.

Yep.

And you know, like some Fords as well, like the, what is it?

Explorers.

Explorers, there we go.

But then you go to like, shout out to Wisconsin for still having the big bulb on top. Really easy to pick out. Your crew is like, yep, I see you.

But then you'll go to like, I don't know, some middle of nowhere town. And it's just like, they still got Crown Vicks. It's like, what dude?

Well, like the F-150 is always get me, cause you never know if it's, is it a roof rack? Cause it just, you know, somebody's got a front bumper on it.

Oh, same. Yeah.

Like the small towns have them.

Explorers with roof racks, that should be banned. Also, if any of them have bull bars, also banned.

Yep.

They should just not be able to auction off police vehicles. I think it's such BS that they basically sell them with like everything about them looking like they got like the little lamp.

Especially the lamp. The lamp is like, come on.

The bull bar, the steelies with like the center chrome caps. And it's like, this screams cop car. And I, you know, as I like pass them, I look in the window, it's just like a 30 year old bald man. Just, you know, it doesn't, not wearing cop uniform. It's just bare naked, like on the inside. I'm like, oh, you suck.

I slowed down for this, really.

You don't see a laptop. It's like, God damn it. But that's the other thing though. It's like they auction off those cars. So you have to pay less in taxes. Cause like, imagine if you had to replace those cars, you know, with your taxes, but at the same time, it's like, I'm gonna pay for that with tickets now anyway. So it's like, I would pay extra just so they don't, like send that f***** to the crusher, dude.

Or just make cop cars like they do in like Europe where they are neon colored and-

Oh my gosh.

Like come on.

And they're, yeah, they make cop cars like in like stealth black and they have like the reflective where you can only tell if you're going directly at them. Like I don't think, I thought I saw like those kind of cop cars, the stealth undercover ones aren't allowed to pull you over because it's basically entrapment.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Yeah, but that's-

I'm not going to test that.

No, don't. But I thought I heard that at one point, but I highly doubt that because what court is going to be like, well, you were still speeding.

Well, yeah.

Are you admitting guilt?

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, I guess.

Yeah, I was only speeding because I thought he was a normal car.

Which friend was it? I had a friend at one point, like, or I was on a rally or whatever, and they were like, yeah, I usually set my cruise control to above 10 or whatever. So when they got pulled over, they told the cop that, and he's like, well, wait a minute, you're still doing 10 over. He's like, yeah, that's fair. But yeah, I think down in like Texas or whatever, like especially during Texas 2K, they get pretty rowdy with their undercover cars because like, you know, they seize a lot of cars. So you can get pulled over by f****** like a 1200 horsepower CTS-V down in Texas. Like, you know, because they're in Texas 2K, it's wild. But they also have, I've seen them do like white Camaros, and then they have, you know, that shadow vinyl. It's like white vinyl that says sheriff and it's like, dude, really? It's like you took that son of a b**** to a vinyl shop. You're like, I want a match. Like just makes me so mad.

Who's the company that makes the all-wheel drive Hellcat 1000 horsepower? Is it Carbon?

Speedcore.

Speedcore. Speedcore made the one for a Colorado sheriff. It was like special made 1000 horsepower all-wheel drive charger. And they're like, we're not making this for anybody else. We're only making this for the police department.

Oh, I remember this story.

Yeah, you remember this was like back in 2017. Like it's a while ago, but everybody was like, I want this so bad.

I think it was more recent than that, dude, because I think it was a wide body too.

Was it a wide body?

I think so. I think it might have been like just before COVID.

Maybe.

Because that's the thing, like all of our brains are kind of just segregated into two sections. It's COVID or pre-COVID.

Yeah, pre-COVID feels like it was so long ago.

It really does.

Yeah.

It's such a different life, dude.

Yeah, right? It's like a whole another lifetime.

It blows my mind. So, I mean, I work in Rogers, and Miller Chev is in Rogers. Like, are dealerships ever going to be full again? I mean, their parking lot got to hold 500 cars, and they maybe have 100. It's like, is there ever going to be a thing again where dealerships are full?

It depends on a dealership.

I think right now, there's a lot of dealerships that have a butt ton of inventory. Like you can drive...

BMW even, and that's a four, five-story dealership.

Yeah, I think there's... Especially in California, too, there's a lot of dealerships that are stacked with inventory. I think it's just a matter of the sales and the volume that they move and take in. So maybe the dealership by you, they push a lot, but they don't take in as much anymore.

So a lot of it also depends, just to have a little bit of insight into this world, too. It depends on who's buying the cars at the dealership, too, right? Because if you have a guy that... I forgot what the official title is, purchasing manager, whatever the f***. If they aren't very competent at their job and they're overpaying for every car, that means the dealership is making less profit, which makes it harder to do everything. So it's like, you know, just being able to buy the right cars, even off auction. I remember one time at my pops dealership, they had like a yellow Ram, and it's like, it sat for a long time, because there's a reason there's not many yellow Rams on the road. It's not very desirable. You look like a f****** Tonka truck. So it's like, it sat for a while. Like, yes, there's a seat for every a**, but at the same time, it's like, that car should not have been bought. But it eventually sold. But especially in this market, right? So that's where we saw a lot of issues during COVID too, right? Because cars shot through the roof, and now we're seeing this period where they're losing value. So it's like, you might be losing money. So it's like, it's weird. But then at the same time, you weren't able to get cars for a while too.

I just look at it and go like, or our dealership's just getting to the point of... I mean, it's almost... I mean, car prices were so high. It's almost better to just go custom order a vehicle than to go try and find the one I want. When you're paying a $5,000 difference for me custom building a car on Chevy's website or whatever, and it'll be here in three months, whatever. Or go try and find one for a good deal. Why would I not take the custom built one? That's exactly what I want.

Yeah, well, that's as long as the dealership, you have them say in writing, we're selling this to you at MSRP. And then you're also waiting those three months. A lot can happen in three months where it finally shows up, and you're like, things have changed. I can't take this anymore. Versus at that time when you were looking at it, and then you're like, oh, this is the perfect spec, it's exactly what I want, but it's marked up 20,000. It's like you're almost paying a premium because it's there right now.

Yeah, it depends. We saw that with a lot of Porsche dealerships, and I think Chevy was a big one, but Porsche was the one that was in the hottest of water too, because we saw a bunch of articles around that too. It's like, oh, we're going to try to stop our dealerships from marking these f****** up 200,000, which never happened, by the way. It's ridiculous, but yeah, it's interesting, because now we're seeing the... It's starting to balance out. Cars have dropped a lot in the last six months.

I heard... I don't know if this is true at all. I just heard it. I heard Chevy with the ZO6... I think it was with the ZO6 when they first came out. It was not necessarily against the dealerships, but against their customers flipping them. It was like if you sold your car within one year of delivery, the warranty is gone.

I think it was six months.

Or something, yeah. Which is like... I guess that's kind of a big deal for...

Preventing resellers to flip cars.

Why would I buy a brand new car that doesn't have a warranty? Especially at first year. Correct. That would worry me. It was a good way for them to do it because it's person to person, not a dealership anymore. So it's like, yeah, you're really putting risk on the person.

That's why in July, you started to see a lot of Z06s come on sale on auction sites because a lot of people who got them in December of last year, they waited it out. They waited the six months, and they're like, okay, now I can flip them. That's basically all they did was had these flippers just have to hold on for six months, but they still sold for more money.

They still made a lot of money, but the goal was what they were trying to do is just kind of buy time for the factories to catch up so there'd be less profit to be made on the flipping. And dude, honestly, that's a big risk you're taking as the second-hand buyer to not have the warranty, because I remember seeing a number of articles like when those first started hitting the road, like engines were blowing.

Engine failure before like 500 miles.

Yeah, because the thing is, that's the highest power naturally aspirated V8 ever. Really?

I mean, I guess everything's always been boosted in some way, shape or form.

Yeah, it's always been supercharged, right? So if you're making, well, is it 630 or whatever, whatever horsepower number from an NA car, and it's flat-plane crank and all that stuff. So it's like, this is Chevy's, one of their first times doing a flat crank. I don't know if they've done it before, or flat-plane crank, sorry. And then it's in a mid-engine car, just all these new things that they've never really done before. And it's like, hmm, I think I'm going to take that f****** warranty, dude. Like, I don't know, it's sketchy. But same thing with, like, I guess it depends on the year of car, right? Because I feel like sometimes when manufacturers fix a car, another problem shows up. Like, I know certain years of the new Supra, right? Like, oh, the 2020, that's tunable, but this is what's wrong with it or whatever. But then the 2021 and 2022 or whatever, we have oil consumption issues. And it's like, well, now you have to decide which devil do you want to fight with.

There's always going to be the next, right, the next edge.

I don't think anything beats, was it the S65, though, the BMW V10 that you had to do the bearings on or whatever, and it's like, just nukes the engine or something like that. Yeah, like, that's the other one that, the one that Reid has, the widebody M6.

That one has a V10 in it?

Yeah, yeah, the old, yeah, the M6 is in the M5s. They had the V10 in it.

I didn't know the M6 had a V10.

Yeah, yeah, we rallied with somebody that did that. So when we went to Niagara Falls, the BMW V10, that was a V10. The V10 was a V10. God damn it, you can tell them the entire time.

That's wild. What, bro?

That's still one of the greatest sounding engines, though.

Yeah, too bad it's broken all the time. Yeah, because it literally costs, it's the price of the car to fix the engine or to get a new one or whatever it is. It's just absurd, because you can pick it up pretty cheap, I think like 15 grand or something.

I'm really curious to see, speaking of engines and cars, what either A, what Porsche does, or B, how much values drop on the GT3s. So the... None at all. No, the 991.1s, the 20, I think they started them in 13 or 14. The 1.1s had a giant issue with their engines failing. And Porsche, I don't think ever actually, they never recalled it. This is all from my internet knowledge. They never actually recalled it. But from what I saw, like a whole bunch of Porsche Club of America people went to Porsche with like a full presentation of all their findings and everything. And Porsche ended up pulling a 10-year unlimited mile warranty on every single car. And most of them are starting to be up this year. And the cost to replace the engine is like $65K.

So I wonder, because I see a lot of those GT3s going on sale.

Yeah, so like a lot of them, like if you're watching Bring a Trailer, if one goes for sale, I would say within the first five questions is what motor does it have? Because they made a fix for it, and like everybody knows what it is, so everyone will always ask. But like the cars that don't have that fix, and some people say, yeah, no, I have 40,000 miles on it, car runs great, it's stock motor. But just kind of, you always have that risk, right? So I'm curious to see if either A kind of Porsche just keeps replacing motors and doesn't say anything, or I mean, if they make people start paying for it, those that don't have the fixed motor, they've got to just tank in value.

Yeah.

That's so sketch.

That would be nice though, because that would be a really affordable GT3.

Seriously. I mean, if you're willing to take the risk, if a GT3, I mean, most of them are $130 right now. If you can get one under $100, and you're risking yourself, it's a big risk.

Yeah. And in manual, what about just buying an extended warranty?

Yeah, you can do that too. What would that cost? Do you think like $8, $9, $10, $10K?

I think people have said they've been getting them for like... Yeah, $5, $6, $7 a year.

That's a lot of money.

That's where you want to know it, guys.

But at least you have that like, you know, safety.

Correct.

Like you got it in the back of your head, like if I take it out today...

It still means I got 10 years of paying for that before I hit the cost of that engine.

Yeah.

Right? Like...

I think either a lot of these cars are going to get sold and they're going to just sit as like collector pieces or they're going to get driven and have that extended warranty option. And that's what you're probably going to see is a lot of these GT3s with extended warranties.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm curious to see what happens. Because like everybody that, like from what I see that is selling them, like everyone just says, hey, if you buy a car with this engine right now and your warranty is about to expire, go take it to a track and just hold it at Redline and hope it blows up.

Get that new engine. It's going to actually add value.

It does. They're literally like, go try and blow it up. Or like even people are saying like, the car won't fully fail, but you can go pay Porsche to, I mean, it's two, $3,000 to, I don't even know what they do. I forget what they do, but they can inspect it for like two, three grand. And if they see the issue, they'll replace your motor. And they like guys have said, oh yeah, Porsche knows about it. It takes five days to have a whole new motor shipped from Germany to you and in your car and you have your car back in five days.

That's incredible.

That's pretty nuts. Like obviously they know they have an issue.

They're just ready to rock. They got a warehouse full of these engines right now. They're like, it's coming. They've been stocking up for this day.

So I'm curious to why, because that's, like you asked me before, what's my next car? Gen 5 Vipers, 911 GT3s. And honestly, lately I've been looking at race cars, which is probably not smart, but radicals are just awesome. I would love to own a radical and go get my track fixed.

I love Derek's Z06. I've been looking at Z06s a lot. So that's lots of...

I saw on my way here, you know, the C6, that light blue color, like the light blue metallic with the chrome. I saw one of those, the C6 ZR1 with the chrome wheels in that blue. It's like, oh, it's sexy, it's such a sexy car.

Those chrome wheels are actually so nice. Yeah. It's like some of the best chrome wheels I think they've ever made.

Yeah, no, those are, they're phenomenal cars. I mean, that's the thing. And well, you said it earlier. I mean, car for value, to be honest, you're not beating a Corvette.

Yeah.

What? C6, C7, C8, you're just not.

It really depends. There's tears to this, right? So you have to look at like, as a consumer, right? Like, what's your budget? Okay, 10K, 20K, 40K. Each one of those classes has a respective like bang for buck. I think 20K, you don't beat a f****** GTI all day long. Like I'm in that camp all day long. If you go like 10K, some old a** Honda, whatever. Okay, let's just round up. 50K Supras, amazing bang for buck. Or you can go like the Beamer route, the 340i's or whatever, with the xDrive, the B58's. And then you get into 60s, then you're talking Corvettes, like Z06's, even, yeah, I guess 40K, you get the 5.0 Mustangs. Just nuts, dude, all over the place. It's crazy.

I'm really curious to see. We were talking C8's. So my dad passed on his Z06, but he is, I think he's number six in Minnesota for getting the Zora when that comes out. Which I'm pumped for. I hope he doesn't back out, but nobody knows the price yet. And I have a feeling that's gonna be a $200,000 car.

Well, what's a Zora?

So they have the Z06 as the flat plane. I think the ZR1, most people are guessing it's gonna be a twin turbo flat plane. And then, so same motor with twin turbo. And then the Zora is supposed to be, again, full speculation, the ZR1 with electric front assist.

That's the speculation.

Essentially an SF90.

Okay.

Which would be an insane car. So like even if they're 200K, which I fully believe they will be.

Is that before Markup or after?

I'm saying MSRP.

MSRP, wow.

Which is, for a Corvette, I mean, that's insane. But they're talking, they're talking, you know, with the electric front assist, a thousand horsepower.

Easy.

That's insane. And now when you're looking at it and go, what's an SF90 cost? 700? And I can get it for two in a Chevy? I'll pay the two.

And there's parts too, because the SF90, I saw somebody, literally on my Facebook posted yesterday. They were like, hey, can anybody get this, like, what is that? Like a low voltage battery, whatever they're saying. They're out of stock in the entire country. It's like, and there's been other problems. I think, I think it might've been Schmi or whatever. Like basically where the hybrid system stopped talking to the rest of the car, so the car was just bricked.

Oh, that's good.

So it's like, oh, yikes. Like I think they're working out some of the details on those, but at the same time, like that's the cost for innovation, because at the end of the day, it's a freaking sweet car.

Oh, for sure. Well, and that's like, okay, you look at, yeah. A, it's a Ferrari. You still have insane build quality, like I mean, the quality of everything, the interior and everything. And I'm not gonna try and compare the two because Chevy's car isn't even coming out until 2025, and the SF90's been out for what, two, three years now. So to say that they're also four years ahead of Chevy, yeah, they can have their car cost more.

Yeah, I don't think Ferrari's thinking about Chevy.

No, it's more so I'm curious, if Chevy is able to come out with a car for that cheap that has that much power, I mean, how is, I mean, even to say a company like Lamborghini, how are you gonna stay in the market at these crazy high priced cars?

Just keep selling Huracans.

Yeah, but why would I want a Huracan for, I mean, what's a new Huracan cost? 260, 270?

Three, no.

Are they over three?

Like the STOs, those are like 400, then you got the Evos and all the-

The Evos, the base, those are like 300-ish.

Yeah, well, that's what I mean.

Why do I want a $300,000 Lamborghini that's, what are they, 650 horsepower versus 1,000 horsepower all-wheel drive Corvette?

I'm gonna go ahead and say people that buy Lamborghinis aren't essentially looking at the stats, and they're more looking at the brand. They're also probably wearing-

Their Lamborghini gear.

Yeah, that's probably who's buying Lamborghini and keeping Lamborghini alive.

It really depends on the person too, right? Because some people get a Lamborghini because they're-

19 and own an Amazon drop shipping company.

Right, or in some instances, you want to build a f****** race car that's 3000 horsepower. How many STOs did UGR get this here? It's like, oh my God, dude. It's like, I don't know, dude. I think it depends. People are so different, dude. When you think about it, we have what, 400 million Americans in this country? Well, and then whatever else they are. Got to throw that out there. 2024 is coming up, real quick, fellas, no jokes aside. I got to finish it, nice and spicy. But no, it's like, we have, people are very different. So it's like, I don't know. I feel like some people will want the Corvette, because it's a Corvette, they're gonna wear their new balances. Some people want a Lamborghini, because it's a freaking Lamborghini. I don't know, it's gonna be weird, but you make a really strong point on a value proposition. It's like, well, why?

I mean, the biggest thing is like, supercars are just becoming so affordable. I look back to, what was it?

What? You did not just say that. You cannot say those two words in the same sentence, unless there was a is not in between them.

I'm talking for a reliable, incredibly performance car. I mean, when you look at back when, I would say probably the most affordable, cheap supercar, air quotes there for anybody not watching the video, was probably like, oh wait, when Audi came out with the R8. It was kind of the first affordable supercar.

No, that's what it was touted as. It could keep up with Lamborghini and Ferraris and McLarens at the time. Actually, I don't think McLaren was out then.

Not quite yet, yeah.

But just kind of to see how much these companies are bridging the gap between... Like if you were to say... And Audi, the R8 is still probably one of the most affordable supercars.

MSRP now is...

For a new car.

Is still at like 200K though.

I know, but what... If you're looking at MSRP of new supercars, there's still not many that are gonna be under 200K for that amount of performance and looks and everything. And I think some companies, I mean specifically the Chevy with the C8, are really getting close to bridging that gap and to say, but it only costs you 100K. That's half price. I mean, you're getting really close to the same performance that that was just never there. I mean, you look at 08 when the R8 came out, there was nothing even near the performance of that car that also had looks, unless you were building your own car.

Right, yeah.

Like, it had to be a built car. You weren't getting a 600, 700 horsepower car.

Yeah, well, I just think, I mean, you go back to 2008, and the Corvette was still the cheaper option to getting an Audi R8. Like, the Corvette's always been the budget sports car, the American sports car.

Well, I think even the ZR1 back then, I think it was kicking the a** at a Gallardo or something like that. I saw an article about this pop up the other day. I should have read it now, I hate it.

That's where Chevy's always been placed, and that's just like every other American car company, and that's kind of where the Dodge Viper was also kind of competing for that spot, but because they just had sold very low volume, it just wasn't as up there as a Corvette. So many more Corvettes on the street. So I think that's where Chevy and the Corvette will always be at that position. So for them to jump to like 200,000, now they're up there with supercars, and they're fighting in a whole out of their weight class.

But they kind of fill the gap of, you can also buy a stock Z51, C8, and they have everything in between that gap. Yeah, they're filling the whole gap themselves versus like, I mean, there's just nothing else really in between.

Yeah, you couldn't do that with like an Audi R8. You can't buy the V8 version with this.

Yeah, it still wasn't cheap. Yeah, that's the thing.

Yeah, I'm too small to fill any gaps. Anyways, Sean, since we are plucking along well past two hours now, by the way, time flies. Yeah, dude. Yeah, I don't have a clock in here for that reason. I'm the only one that sees the clock. I look down, I'm like, oh, sick.

Good job, us. Yeah.

No, dude. Freaking phenomenal podcast. But have you listened to the show before, Travis?

Yeah.

All right. So Sean.

Well, a little. I have a feeling of what you're going to ask me.

All right. Well, then you know exactly what's about to happen because you have listened to this show before, and we like to ask our guests at the end just to kind of get to know a little bit more about where you are with your personal taste in cars. So you just have to pick three cars for us. One's a daily, one's a show car, one's a track car.

Unlimited budget.

There you go.

And the only limitation is your mind.

A daily, a show car and a track car.

And what do you currently daily? Is it the Viper?

No, I have a 2019 Ram Limited.

Oh, okay.

I mean, in the summer, I basically daily the Viper. It's for sale, so hopefully we can get a new Viper soon.

Yeah, I'm trying to sell a lot of Vipers for a lot of people. Like I'm trying to help AJ sell his two Vipers, like the Calvo, which is 1500 wheel, and then the Enthamoto Gen 2, which is 1250 wheel. So I'm guessing I might answer one of your questions with the Viper question. Would Viper be in the question of any of those three? Or no, unlimited budget?

Honestly, probably not.

Oh yeah, unlimited budget. It seems like you can go pretty crazy.

Yeah, I mean, like I kind of thought about this. I remembered one was gonna be a race car question. I was kind of thinking about this last night. Honestly, race car? I'm surprised I don't think anybody said it. I haven't watched all of your podcasts, sorry.

It's okay.

Why would you not want an F1 car? Like, come on.

F1?

It's the fastest car you can get on a racetrack. Why would you not want an F1 car?

We had exactly one person answer that. He rattled, dude. So we had Jacob on here. What was it? Episode 43 or 44? Anyways, he came on, and we told him unlimited budget. He rattled this s*** off quick, dude. One of them was an F1 car, so I asked him, all right, well, which generation F1 car? Do you want a Screamin V10 in there?

Oh man.

Like, it's not gonna be as fast as the current ones, but.

That's the thing. I would probably say no. Like, I appreciate new technology a lot. Just, I mean, and so to see new F1 cars and what, like how much better they are. Like, yes, the old ones, the sound, there will never be anything that touches that. But the performance of the new ones, I'll take performance. It's a race car. Why would I want a slower version? I want the fastest version.

Yeah, like, oh, it's so much slower.

Still, you want to talk real race car that was maybe be affordable someday. I would probably say a radical. Like, I don't know that there's many cars.

F1 car, we're sticking with that.

All right, F1 car.

Unlimited budget, you said affordable. I'm like, no, no, no, stop right there.

Yeah, you went out and you buy F1 Red Bull racing.

I own Red Bull.

Yeah, exactly. That's how you afford an F1 car.

I'll go buy a race team.

All right, so Red Bull F1 car. Max, max, max, super max.

Show car. Honestly, probably like, I'd like it to be a daily too, but we live in Minnesota. Show car, probably like a Koenigsegg. I mean, I just think the build quality, I've never seen one, never sat in one, never seen one, but from what I read on the internet, because the internet's 100% true. They're at the top of their game in terms of technology and quality. They build super nice cars. You look at a Pagani, they're beautiful.

Yeah, works of arts.

But I just look at them and go, they haven't changed in how many years.

I don't think they need to.

Cause they're works of art.

Yeah.

But they're not as fast as a lot of these new super cars, hyper cars. They're beautiful. I absolutely love them, but they just don't. So I would say a Koenigsegg.

You're the type of guy that'll put a smiley face on the Mona Lisa, aren't you? It's like, I mean, it's a work of art, but I mean, why is she frowning?

If I have a different option. So I'd probably say a Koenigsegg just because they look.

So which Koenigsegg?

I mean, again, go new. Might as well get the-

The latest, so like a Jesko.

Yeah, the Jesko and probably the Attack. I want the big wing.

And then-

That would probably be my Shokar. A Daily?

All right. He's two for two with Jacob, by the way. It's a different Koenigsegg. Yeah, cause he, yeah, he said he wanted a Koenigsegg for a Shokar too.

Good job, Jacob.

This is a tough one for a lot of people.

A Daily for around Minnesota, just cause F it. Brabus, six by six. Love it. Like, I live in Minnesota. I'm going to drive this thing everywhere.

It's literally the only G wagon that I actually like. Every other G wagon I look at, I'm like, what the actual, like why are people spending this much money? But when I see the six by six, I'm like, I will give you everything.

Correct. And they're outdated now, but so cool.

Still, one of the coolest Mercedes Benz G wagon, the only cool one that I like.

Yep.

Sick.

So that to me, I think would just be like, I would drive my Jesko in the summer and then all winter. I'm for sure driving the six by six.

Oh, you wouldn't drive it in the winter? Cause I mean, Connick's thing drives their cars in the winter. Why? Because aren't they like Finnish or some, some of those Northern countries? So they test their s*** on the ice.

I think they're Swedish, right?

Sweden?

Sweden, yeah, I'm pretty sure they're Sweden.

I love seeing their videos when they are just like testing on the ice roads and everything. It's like, dude, they're such a crazy company. It's amazing.

Oh yeah.

But sweet, Sean, so we're gonna put a ribbon on it. Do you want to, shall we make the announcement?

Well, I'll go last.

You'll go last?

I don't want to have him follow me off.

Okay, cool. So first of all, Travis, thank you for coming on to the old podcast. It's been, I've been wanting to have you on for like the last 15 episodes. I'm glad time finally worked out. And being at this location at Ratify, it is fricking sweet. Ratify Motorsport North, where they build some seriously fast Audis, which I hope is going to be someone's consideration for their track car in the future, or a daily or a show car. But yeah, man, thanks for coming on. Some really fun stories. I haven't laughed like that in a while.

Thank you guys for having me. It was awesome. I'm glad we were finally able to get it done. Because we've talked about it quite a bit.

Where can people find you? Do you have an Instagram or anything?

I have an Instagram. I think the name on it is travis.steward41. I don't know, go on yours. I know the R8. Every time I see you post, it makes me happy, because the R8 is still your profile picture.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

Just go on Harris' Instagram and find the orange R8.

The orange R8 or the Gen 3 Viper with a beautiful sunset in a location that I get kicked out of regularly.

Undisclosed.

Undisclosed location. Sean, where can people find you after your contract expires?

You can follow me on Instagram. It's at 1mn at Mopar. I just post my cars on there. That's basically all it's for. But I have an announcement for everyone that's made it this far. This is going to be my last episode. So thank you so much for allowing me to be on and talk about everything in the car world with so many wonderful people. This has been probably one of the best things that I've done. It's been just an amazing experience. And as to why this is my last episode, I am moving out of state, so I won't be able to commute and do the podcast anymore. So, I just really appreciate all the things that have happened because of this. And I look forward to continuing to support the podcast and seeing where it goes. Wow, I thought I was gonna cry, but I don't think I will. So.

No, people usually don't cry when they leave me. No, so yeah, the reason that we're kicking Sean off, it's not because he's moving, it's because his contract expired, he's currently a free agent to be a part of whatever podcast. You should go join Tavares or somebody.

I don't think he lives in California.

I don't know. Yeah, you're gonna have a great time in California. So he's gonna be near like the Huntington Beach area.

I'll be in the SoCal area, south of LA, Huntington Beach. If you're in the area, hit me up. You know how to get hold of me.

Yeah, and you'll be coming to Minnesota periodically. So we'll have him back on the podcast, whether the co-host thing happens or not. Well, that's up for discussion come the future.

I better get my own special episode if I come back.

I don't want to be on this side of the table.

Yeah.

Well, I actually thought about that too. So we actually were supposed to have a podcast yesterday, but it didn't work out because the person just ran into some issues and they couldn't come here. And I was like, well, I could do, we could do a Sean special. I'm like, that'd be interesting. Because like we've never really like, nobody really interviews us. Yeah, like time to time, we'll get a couple questions, but like not a full blown thing. So it's like, there's more to that. But at the same time, next time you pop into town, we could do that too.

So nonetheless, at least ask him his three cars.

Oh, I did that episode five. And I've thought about this. I think, yeah, when I have my special episode, you know, my own episode, then we'll see if things have changed. But for now, I think we'll leave it be.

All right, so the free agent is going to sign off. As for me, so real quick, if you actually made it this far, because usually the last five minutes, people are usually just like, all right, and next. Make sure to follow the Minnoxide podcast everywhere. YouTube, make sure to subscribe, all that fun stuff. If you want, how'd you like that jacco? You said you liked it?

It was really good.

That's the 50 50 lemonade tea one.

And I don't normally drink energy drinks at all. So it was very good.

That's one of my favorites too. We got the sour apple sniper and all that too. So yeah, I'd highly recommend if you like energy drinks, give it a shot at least. Some flavors are better for people than others. Like not everybody's gonna love every flavor, but nonetheless, and then I will be taking on a new, I guess, affiliate sponsor, whatever next episode, which more stuff about that. But anyways, I've ran it for too long.