March 2, 2025 • 54 mins
Back for more! James talks about his recent adventures with 991.2 exhaust mods with Soul Performance components going on and off and back on again in various combinations. Andy talks about his 10th Alpine Range Rally. We’ve got an absolute cracker for Video of the Week and much, much more! Welcome to Curb and Canyon.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
hold on.
Is that you?
Is that you, mr james mcgrath?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
yeah, andy gaunt, it is, and I'm actually looking at
you.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
The viewers can't tell this, but I am looking at
you and I have missed yourslightly odd looking hairdo and
your beautiful face well, it'sfunny you talk hairdos because,
uh, that's the first thing Inoticed with you, and I noticed
it on your most recent video.
You've had a haircut, you'reback to tinting.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I am back to tinting.
Yeah, my 90s friend's Chandlerdo didn't really pass the Ruthie
Baker test, my wife, she mademe get a cut in the end,
basically.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, do you know what?
They hold a lot of sway, don'tthey?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
cut in the end basically, yeah, do you know
what they?
They hold a lot of sway, don'tthey?
They really do?
Yeah, they really do.
I didn't mind it.
But you know what, after thelast couple of months of doing
numerous exhaust mods to my car,even I was getting fed up with
the old you know middle partflapping in my face when I was
getting hot and yeah, it lookedlike you were trying to do,
stefan Edberg, but it was reallygiving, just hibernating
(01:09):
through winter energy.
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
That's pretty much it.
Well, we're back, curvingCanyon, baby 2025.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Isn't it good?
It's so good, and do you knowwhat?
So James and I were talking toeach other prior to this and we
know we get out of practice whenwe don't record, so we're going
to try today.
You're good, you're justdrinking a coffee, what is that?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's a coffee.
It's a coffee in a Yeti mug.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Okay, no, fair enough .
I was just about to say we'regoing to try today to be
professional.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Dude, it's Friday afternoon.
It's been a long week.
I need a good slap in the facewith a coffee and on that
bombshell, welcome to kirbancanyon.
I've missed you saying that.
(02:09):
I've missed you saying that.
It's funny, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
It is so when we use FaceTime.
Sometimes we just use FaceTimeaudio, but not to get too inside
baseball on how we record thisthing that we do once every six
months.
But today we're on video andit's working.
We can see one another.
Yeah, it's on.
Yeah, it's on.
Very cool, like Donkey Kong,very cool.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Dude.
So I've got to admit somethingbefore we really get into the
agenda.
About a week ago and I thinkthis is just a product of how
busy I've been recently with youknow, just life, but I felt
like I was cheating on you agood, a good week and a half ago
.
So here's the scenario AndyBrooks of Nineworks fame sends
me a note over one of the Idon't know 20 WhatsApp Nineworks
(02:56):
feeds that I get pinged atconstantly.
I need to figure out how tostay up more.
You know, stay more up to date.
But Andy hit me up saying hey,you want to record with us on
the pod.
Here are some details blah,blah, blah.
Next Tuesday.
One, I assumed it was the NineWorks podcast, it wasn't.
And two, I assumed you weregoing to be there.
(03:17):
As we got started, I suddenlyrealized it was just going to be
the James McGrath solo showwith Andy.
Even Sibley didn't turn up.
It was just me and Andy talkingcars.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
What the hell Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
It was fun, but without my podcasting partner
there taking the piss out of meand saying intelligent things, I
kind of felt a little bit leftalone.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I feel a bit like Zelensky right now.
I feel like you've come at mein public so I can't really
respond in the way that I wantto.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It was the bad.
Positive we do the best podcast.
It's the best podcast.
You know everyone's going tolisten to our podcast.
It's going to be brilliant.
It was a fantastic, amazingpodcast.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So hold on.
So was it the Nineworks podcastor no?
What was it?
No, was it the Nine Workspodcast or no?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
What was it?
No, Speaking of Inside Baseball, it's just an additional
podcast reporting that Andy'sdoing for the Nine Works.
You know, God status, people,the hero status, what have you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it only gets released onPatreon and it's H-O-W Head Over
Wheels.
So it's basically Andy and Italking about my Porsche
(04:25):
ownership story and honestly, itwas loads of fun.
I mean, you know, Andy Brooksis a really nice guy.
He was sitting in his garagewith his new quote unquote SE
behind him, which was gettingall of my attention, and yeah,
we just spent, like you know, 45minutes talking about my world
of Porsches.
Really, I was quite flatteredthat they invited me on, but
(04:46):
sibley didn't turn up just youand him just having a good, a
good time, huh I'm telling you,man, since the end of uh 9-11,
sibley's gone big time and I'mjust too small time for him
obviously.
Yeah, andy was probably like hey, we got james on from, also
amateur, and sibley was likechump, you do that solo and
that's.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
That's the thought.
I better get a haircut for this, what like?
It looks like you took itseriously, exactly.
Well, okay, well, uh, I justneed to process that for a
minute.
Uh, it does.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I don't want to use words like betrayal but you know
the the good that has come fromit, andy, is that just you know
.
A week later, here we aregetting Curban Canyon started
for 2025.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Okay, so I'm impressed with that coffee.
I mean, here's my classicMelbourne latte, but it looks
comparatively it's not the usualbucket size that you go for.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, you haven't seen my drink, Minnesota bread.
What is that?
A big gulp, Dude.
So this actually is a big gulp.
I didn't buy it.
Ruthie brought it home.
To be fair, Ruthie brought ithome from the gas station.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Don't, don't hold up, hold up, hold up.
You can't go putting this onRuthie.
She brought it home from a gasstation because she knows that's
what you like.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, but this coffee is actually in a smaller Yeti
mug it is.
Yeah, it's good for like asmall size Starbucks coffee and
it keeps your coffee warm forhours.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
That doesn't look like it would fit in the classic
Porsche cup holders, thoughright?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
No, it doesn't To be fair, it doesn't fit in any cup
holders.
Actually, it's useless Great.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, hey, so we've not recorded, obviously, since
november.
My god, has the world changedin that time, uh?
But the way we figured today isyou know what it's just like
for for you all listening in.
It's like just catching up witha porsche mate you haven't
spoken to in ages.
That that's kind of whattoday's conversation is going to
be about.
Right, like what have we beenup?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
yeah, yeah, exactly, you know, I mean I I don't want
to say you were too lazy to doshow notes, but but yeah, let's,
let's just play it that way,shall we lad?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
okay, I'm reasonably sure I sent through show notes
including a video of the weekwhich I'm sure you have pulled
over from end to end.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I have watched the video of the week and it's
another video, Andy, that justkind of gets me excited but also
kicks me in the nuts at thesame time, because it's a very
visually appealing video of theweek.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we are definitely going to talk
about that.
But you know what?
We do have an agenda.
I'm going to flip it a littlebit.
Last night so it's Friday nighthere.
Last night in melbourne, andoften on a friday night, we'll
do, we'll get pizza.
I go to my local pizzeria pickup a couple of pizzas, and if
there's one thing I reallydislike in the world, it is the
(07:58):
person who sits in a publicplace, be it outside a store, in
in a cafe, on a train, watchingYouTube or something else, or
TikTok on their iPhone withvolume that the rest of us can
hear.
Right, like?
That is completely obnoxious,right?
Agree?
Yeah, that's just rude.
So I was sitting outsidewaiting for my pizza.
(08:22):
I was watching your latestexhaust video in public, so can
you imagine all these peoplelooking at me as I listened to
just sequence after sequenceafter sequence of revving with
different valves?
open valves closed.
(08:43):
Hybrid revving just the Porscheone revving and then the sole
sports exhaust revving.
People were looking at me justready to absolutely strangle me.
But are we at the end of thepipe videos and do we have a
conclusion?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You must be so sick of whipping on and off exhausts,
man, Well, you know.
So, first off, I think that'snow my trademark, If I have any
kind of trademark.
You know, prior to this it wasstabbing airbags.
I think that was my trademark.
Now it's making exhaust videos,where the action just does not
stop.
I've gotten so much feedbackfrom people interested in
(09:28):
exhausts about how they likethat rapid style and over and
over, however, you can hear it.
But no, the journey is not evenclose to completing.
So when John Gaydos at SoulPerformance reached out to me in
late autumn last year so likeOctober time frame and came to
me with this idea both veryexcited about it we talked about
(09:51):
what the progression of videoscould look like and, long story
short, we came to about a listof six or seven, six or seven
combos.
That would make a lot of sense,and the idea was let's try and
put together a series of videosthat really help people make a
decision do I just get cats ordo I get the headers?
Yeah, do I get both?
You know, we wanted to helppeople figure out what kind of
(10:13):
configuration makes sense.
Um, but it was based on theassumption that I was ultimately
going to end on valved exhaustwith sport cats, where in the
last couple of months peoplehave been so excited about the
x-pipe I'm having to make morevideos with the x-pipe and then
we also threw in well, how aboutthe the cat bypass as well as
(10:34):
the cats?
So it you know if you canimagine like a three, three
dimensional puzzle.
I'm just continuing.
It's exponentially so.
I'm like six videos in now andthere are probably going to be
another six Because, also, withevery combination like take the
(10:59):
cats, we want to hear what thesport cats sound like against
the cat bypass.
Okay, well, that's fine, thatfine, that's.
You know two differentconfigurations.
But you also want to hear whatit sounds like with the stock
muffler and the stock headers,and you also want to hear what
it's like with the valvedexhaust and with the x pipe.
So actually comparing those twopipes means, if I was to do it
(11:22):
properly, 12 videos, and that'sbefore I get onto the headers.
So no, that's, that's getting alittle bit insane.
But, um, yeah, there's probablygoing to be at least another
four or five, maybe six videoscoming in this series and I hope
at some point before the end ofa year I actually settle on
what I want.
(11:42):
Um, but it does.
It keeps changing.
Like I was convinced that, asmuch as I'd like to have a full
sole exhaust, I think I'd settlewith the, the factory valve
muffler, with the cats and maybethe header.
But then I put the sport catson with the valve exhaust and
dude, it just sounds so good.
(12:04):
It sounds so good.
I'm now like convinced.
Okay, well, if I put theheaders on, I'm gonna get all
three, I'm gonna, I'm gonnastick with the, the original
hypothesis, which is all threeparts.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So I, I just don't know, I don't know so a question
for me, as as as an audiencemember playing along when I was
watching it night, one thingthat struck me was the
difference in volume between,say, version A and version B,
whether that's stock cats orsoul cats or whatever.
Is that purely a function ofthat's, an actual representation
(12:40):
of the volume difference, or issome of that based on what mic
you used on the day or howyou've mixed it in in
post-production, or do you thinkthat's a somewhat accurate
reflection of the of the volumedifference?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I well, I know for sure it's not.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
It's not perfect, yeah, because I'm involved
because I'm not trying to pickapart your video production.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Oh, no, no no, it's a really good question, because
every time I go to the editthere are a few things I'm
changing like.
So I'm, I'm filming it in thesame location and typically on
days when this, when the windspeed is below four miles an
hour, right, so the days whenit's super windy I won't go out.
So the the wind speed has to bebelow four or five miles an
hour.
Um, I'm using the same mic, I'musing the same camera there.
(13:25):
I'm using the same camera.
I've got like little Sharpiemarks, you know, on the volume,
so I know exactly how my micshould be set up.
I have noticed that I have beenrecording slightly further away
or closer or to the left, so I'mnot recording at the exact same
(13:46):
distance to the car, but it'sall all within like a meter.
Yeah, it's reasonably goodscience, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I'm trying to factor allthose things in um, and then
when I go to the edit, I'mmaking sure that, uh, the, the
volume doesn't go up and downtoo much.
So I am I am, you know,manipulating the volume a little
bit to make sure that itdoesn't go over a certain
decibel level, but I think it isa pretty accurate
(14:07):
representation of what the caris actually putting out and just
thinking back to the butt dynotest where I'm actually driving
them.
I think the only thing thathasn't really come through
properly on the videos is thatwith the X-pipe it is noticeably
louder in the cabin Right, likeyou're driving around and
you're thinking oh yeah, I'vegot the X-pipe on and I can't
(14:29):
shut it off.
You know, right, right, right,but it's not so loud that it's
annoying.
But if there's something thatstands out from the crowd it's
definitely the X-pipe.
Right, right, especially whenyou've got the cats.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Okay, has.
Has there been, with any of thecombinations so far, any kind
of drone?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
um, the the only thing that came close to a drone
, uh was was just the straightup x-pipe, yeah, on the factory
cats and the headers, um, andactually, if you, if you look at
the um, the valved x pipe nextto the regular x pipe, um, it's
not just uh, it's not just thecase of there being valves and
not the actual.
(15:12):
The design of the x pipe isslightly different and they've
they've tried to create thesespecial resonance tubes that
cancel out any drone, yeah, um,and and I think they're working,
but I don't notice that.
I mean, if, on a scale of oneto ten, your average exhaust
might drone a one or a two, evenwith the valved exhaust, it's,
(15:33):
it's a two.
The x pipe's probably like athree and a half.
So it's, it's not unbearable,but it is noticeable.
But I don't, I don't know howelse they would remove that.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Frankly, I'm hearing from people who own second-gen
991s and it's such a greatseries that you're doing,
because I think the quitesignificant difference that
exists between that first-gen991, the NA car and the
(16:02):
second-gen car, I should say interms of exhaust volume it's not
insignificant and you know,having driven first gen 991s and
knowing that even with thestock Porsche sports exhaust,
when you get on it the exhaustsounds great.
Yeah, not necessarily theloudest, but enough volume there
(16:25):
versus I.
I had a, had a drive in myfriends.
Uh, I've driven two, two secondgen 991s, now a gts and a
carrera t, both justspectacularly good cars, but
both cars where I really feltlike the exhaust was
significantly more quiet, to thepoint where it just didn't feel
(16:50):
like you were, you didn't havethat.
You know, you think about thesenses that get involved and
come into play when you'redriving through the twisties and
when you're on it and how theyall combine to create an overall
experience.
And you know, know, so oftenyou do things like you will
shift, not based on watching,watching the tack, but actually
(17:12):
from hearing the exhaust andknowing, yeah, there we are, I'm
basically at red line.
And to have that removed, whichI felt in both second gen 991s
that I've driven with sportsexhaust, that I just didn't have
enough exhaust volume and Iknow the owners of these cars
sort of have the same challenges.
So it's great that you'veundertaken what you have in such
(17:35):
a methodical way where youreally do get that side-by-side
comparison in as much as it'spossible to do that on a video.
Well, thanks, man.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
That means a lot because, like you say, it has
been a lot of work.
And this is where I've got togive a massive shout out to my
friend, chris Carbon Fiber Chrison Instagram, with his GT3
Touring.
That guy has shown up for mepretty much every time we've
done it and he knows that thework involved is more than what
(18:07):
a typical shot would do, becausefor a lot of these parts you
don't really need to remove thebumper, you don't really need to
remove the rear bumper frame.
But for the sake of getting iton video and making sure that if
you're following along anddoing DIY you get all the views,
we've taken the bumper offevery single time, so I've
started actually taking thebumper off before he arrives.
Knowing this dude's like takenmy bumper off six times now he
(18:29):
doesn't want to do it again.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Are you at the point, though, I noticed on the video
the most recent one where Ithink you made the point that,
hey, you know what?
If you've been watching alongwith this series, you've got the
DIY component covered now inprevious videos, so you don't
need to keep demonstrating that.
Are you at that point, at least, where you can just whip
through that component?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, well, almost, I'll do a DIY video on how to
take off and put on the headers,which I haven't done yet, and
then I'll probably also do atleast a mini DIY segment on the
cat bypasses, because you've gotto figure out what to do with
the O2 sensors.
And I haven't quite figured outwhat I am going to do with the
O2 sensors yet, like, am I goingto duct tape them to the side
(19:13):
of the frame or actually takethem out?
You know that sort of thing.
But yeah, hopefully, aftermaybe one more video, I'll be at
the point where the videosgoing forward will just be a
straight up comparison andactually I'm going to try and
fit maybe two or three or fourdifferent configurations into a
single video, as opposed tospreading it out over four.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
No wonder your hair got long.
It sounds like you've just beenliving in the garage like some
kind of hermit for the last sixmonths.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, you know, work's been full on six months.
Yeah, you know, work, work'sbeen full on and, uh, actually I
think, um, what's really helpedactually is that, for whatever
reason, my kids have sort of gotto the age where the boys can
come in and go out and they justwant to see and say hello, yeah
, my daughter's now three, uhfor one video.
There are in fact actually, um,I can't remember which one it
(20:03):
was, but there were severalshots where, if you look in the
lower left corner, you can justabout see her sitting on the
floor of the garage laying outher barbie dolls isn't that
great yeah.
So I'm doing all this filmingand talking to the camera and I
turn around and there she istalking to barbie, you know.
But it's cool because it allowsme to, you know, get on with a
(20:24):
lot of work without having tostop constantly yeah, yeah,
that's brilliant that'sbrilliant, and actually I don't
like to toot my own trumpet, butI've got something special to
celebrate today I just hit 20ksubscribers on youtube ah,
congrats, that's awesome, thatis awesome I didn't think I'd
get there.
Honestly.
I kind of I got to five, I gotto ten and then it's been a
(20:45):
little crawl basically from 10upwards, but in the last three
or four months I've gone from 15to 20, yeah, which is
phenomenal.
That's more growth than I'vehad in three, four years yeah,
youtube loves regular, regularcontent, doesn't it?
I'll, uh, I'll have a big gulpsip, you know for that cheers
100 we need.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
We need like if.
If I'd known I would have had,uh, the two blow up balloon
numbers behind me, I could havehad 20k behind me.
That's awesome, though, man.
Well done, congrats.
Well, well deserved, thank youyeah, thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
So, um, speaking of achievements, I'm looking at you
wearing your very nice alpinerange rally t-shirts.
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
You're this one, so this is from number eight.
And we had, uh, when I did thisone, you and I had just
interviewed darren fister on thepod, yeah, and he'd done the.
He'd sent us both a deutschespritz tour t-shirt very, very
kindly.
I love that t-shirt and so Ireached out to the artist he
(21:48):
used and created this and youknow, it's the first Alpine
Range Rally t-shirt I've donewhere I thought you know what
fuck it, I'm putting a 964 onthis one.
Yeah, good lad, but we did justhave.
We had Alpine Range Rally 10 inNovember, which I can't believe
we've done 10 of these eventsand it was the longest one we've
(22:12):
done.
We actually did it over fourdays rather than three.
Yeah, drove some entirely newroads.
One of the things we do on therallies is they're typically
just in Victoria, so we stay inone state, is they're typically
just in Victoria, so we stay inone state.
But for this one, we actuallydrove up into New South Wales,
which is, for anyone not fromAustralia, a state just to the
north of Vic, and did it overfour days so we could drive some
(22:35):
new roads, which was a reallygood and interesting experience.
It meant that there was some ofour favourite roads that we
didn't get to do, but we got todo some other great roads
instead.
To be honest, I think in doingit that way, there was some
excellent driving that we got todo.
(22:55):
We drove through an area calledJindabyne in the Snowy
Mountains in New South Wales,which was spectacular, and some
of the roads through there wereterrific, but overall there was
a lot more kind of trudgingalong highways than I would have
anticipated, and some of theroads that I'd heard of or seen
(23:16):
on maps actually turned out notto be as twisty as they looked
or perhaps we'd heard.
And there's a YouTube channel Ifollow called Ride Day, and it's
a guy on a touring motorbikewho just does videos of all
these great roads and he's beenthe best source of information
(23:38):
for me in terms of researchingroads to drive and there was one
road that he'd done that we gotto drive on day two in New
South Wales, but the interestingthing was all of the twisties
in New South Wales had a 60kilometer an hour speed limit on
them 60, you know, that's likeI don't know what that is 35
(23:59):
miles an hour or something.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
35 miles an hour.
Yeah, yeah, you guys have gotreally, I guess, stricter
enforcement of traffic code overthere, right, your coppers
don't like you speeding yeah,over here yeah, it's really not.
I mean, if you got, if you gotcaught, it's usually because
there's a cop sat in the middleof a small town, yeah, in the
middle of absolutely nowhere.
(24:20):
Getting the guys who've been onthe highway and now haven't
slowed down to 35, where mosthighway cops, um, if the speed
limit's 50, they'll let you do65 or 70 without pulling you
over, unless you're driving likea dickhead yeah, no, we are the
, the, the police.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
enforcement of speed here is is incredibly strict.
They will do exactly what yousaid.
They'll sit in small countrytowns and you know I'm always at
pains pains to say on the firstday briefing hey, when we drive
into towns, first of all wedon't want to be dicks, we don't
want to be those guys inPorsches driving through a
country town like idiots, solet's just respect those speed
(24:57):
limits.
But also, for exactly thatreason, it'll either be a cop or
just a speed camera.
But you know, the problem hereis if you go 25 kilometres an
hour over the speed limit, youlose your licence.
Oh, wow, done.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Like it's just done, Just like straight up.
Yeah, it's like that in the UKyou go over 100, chances are
that's it.
Game over Licence gone.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
And they're really, they're really tight on it,
tight on it.
So, um, that said, on thesetwisty roads that were 60 the
one, the one thing we sometimeshave in the back of our minds
and I I'm not going toincriminate anybody here, but um
, is that on a super tight,twisty road I, police, don't
(25:38):
tend to hang around those typesof roads waiting to to bus
people for speeding that they'retypically what they do is
position themselves where theyknow cars are likely to overtake
other cars on highways, knowingthat cars will speed to
overtake and they'll get themthere.
So, look, the 60 kph roads were.
We still managed to have somefun, which were great.
(26:02):
I mean, look, I had, it was wasfunny.
Actually, day two on one ofthese roads, I had one of the
greatest moments I've ever hadin any of the rallies we've ever
done.
We were driving yeah, we'redriving up this I think it's
called mount browning or mountbrown or something and the road
surface was just incrediblysmooth, one of the best road
(26:25):
surfaces I've ever driven on,and I was behind my friend Steve
, and Steve recently acquired aZanzibar Red 996 GT3.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Zanzibar Red.
I don't think I know that one.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Zanzibar is like it's a metallic, almost coppery
orange red.
It is such a spectacular color.
It's stunning, absolutelystunning, and he's running gold
BBS LM's on it and it's such ait is such a good looking car
and it was the first time thiscar had been out on a rally and
(27:02):
I was following Steve up thisroad and just loving the view.
We weren't pushing all thathard because, again, there were
low speed limits.
But then there was this onesection where the road opened up
and our lane opened up into twolanes, and so I decided to
overtake Steve and I pulledalongside him and there's this
(27:23):
moment we're driving around ahairpin and I'm next to him and
I just I'm in the driver's seatand I look across at him and he
looks across at me and it wasjust this incredible.
We're going around this cornerlike arms fully locked over,
just looking at each other going.
How fucking good is this it?
was just it was just phenomenal.
(27:44):
And then, prior to that, we'dpulled up in this little town
for lunch and you know we weregetting ready to leave.
It was hot man it was.
It was baking hot all threedays like, uh, high 30s, which I
don't know what that is infahrenheit, like 200 or
something it's about 100, it'sthat's hot as balls yeah, yeah,
yeah, and it was.
(28:04):
You know, being in an air-cooled911 with, you know,
questionable air conditioningand a whole lot of glass is is,
is not necessarily the mostcomfortable place, but but we
were pulled over in this townand parked under all these trees
just relaxing for a minute andthis kid came down with his,
with his dad and his grandfather, and was just looking at all
(28:25):
the cars, just couldn't believeit.
So we had him, you know, he gotto sit in all of the cars and
stuff like that and he was justhaving the time of his life.
And my mate Trev, who has thishis car is a car that formerly
raced in what was called NationsCup here in Australia.
Raced in what was calledNations Cup here in Australia,
(28:47):
so it raced at Bathurst andSandown and all these places and
then became a car that I thinkgot second outright in the Targa
, tasmania.
So it's a car with actual motorracing history and he's redone
all of the race livery that usedto be on this car.
He's done it himself by hand.
(29:07):
It looks amazing.
So he's got all his pet foodsponsors all over.
It just looks incredible.
It's a race car on the road andso this kid gets to sit in that
, and you can just imagine howstoked this little dude was.
So, no, look, it was a greatrun.
I got to drive my mate Ger uh,my mate Gerard.
(29:27):
He's got a Carrera T that he'snot had for that long uh 991.2,
uh, with manual and gee, thatwas a fun car to drive.
That is a lot of fun, that car.
I really really enjoyed it,drove that on some great
twisties in New South Wales andactually one of the moments of
the rally was also on day two.
(29:48):
We actually took a wrong turnso I'd done the nav.
And something I hadn'tanticipated was this one road
that was supposed to take us toour final destination that
afternoon ended up being agravel road and it kind of felt
like it was going to become agravel road as we drove it.
(30:09):
But we had I think it was 10minutes of driving this road.
We turned off the highway andthis road looked like it was
driving off into.
You could see mountains beyondand it was kind of flat.
Then there were, there were, uh, wind turbines everywhere and
it looked like something fromthe cover of an evo magazine,
(30:31):
just this weird kind ofmoonscape you know, like you
might have in I don't know someof the stuff I've seen from like
places like scotland and stuffand for whatever reason, it was
like everyone just we turned offthe highway, this road was
entirely ours and everyone just-, again, I'll be careful what I
(30:51):
say, but everyone just opened upand it was just amazing.
And we're just driving along inthis kind of tight formation
and then suddenly we get to theend and realise it was gravel,
so we all had to turn around,which wasn't so bad.
Because it meant we then got todo it in reverse, which was
magnificent as well.
So, no, that was good and itwas funny.
(31:12):
The second last day we had, wegot up, we're in this hotel and
my mate Trevor, who's got therace car, comes limping into the
breakfast area.
His knee has locked itself out,like it.
He's like, basically his leg isstraight and can't bend, so
(31:33):
we're trying to work out okay,well, that's, that's not going
to work with a clutch, so we'retrying to work out okay, who's
got an automatic car, could hepotentially swap with someone?
And he says, oh, listen, there'sa, there's a thing I can do.
If I lie down, I can kind oflie on my stomach and mel gibson
, lethal weapon, yeah, like archmy back and it just kind of
(31:55):
goes back into place.
So he, somehow he manages to dothat and it's and it's all good
.
I'm like, oh, thank god, that'sa relief.
And then my phone rings and Isaid I look at my phone, it's my
mate anthony, who's with us,and I answer the phone.
I'm like, hey, man.
And he's like, hey, dude.
I'm like what's wrong with youand he's like I've got food
(32:18):
poisoning.
So he'd spent the whole nightvomiting and was in a really,
really bad way, like literallycould not drive.
There was no way he was goingto be able to drive.
So we went to the hotel and wesaid, listen, this has happened.
He's eaten here and he's gotfood poisoning.
(32:39):
You guys need to look after him.
So they said, yeah, we'll keephim in his room, we'll give him
the room for another night.
So so the rest of us then tookoff and and had this great day
of driving, actually anincredible day of driving.
But, um, yeah, anthony couldn't, couldn't drive.
But then he messaged.
But he messages me at like uh,three o'clock and he's like all
right, I'm coming, like allright so he did he did the drive
(33:01):
.
He kind of did a bit of ashortcut, but he did most of it
on his own, just-.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Did he slap on an adult diaper?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, I don't know.
I may surprise you to learn, Ididn't ask.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
That would have been the first thing I asked yeah,
yeah, of course, but anyway.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
So he made it, which was great.
I had one mechanical issue onthe trip With Little Green.
Yeah, it was great.
I had one mechanical issue onthe trip With Little Green.
Yeah, it was a bit of a weirdone On the first day we'd hit.
There's this great road that wedo, but coming it's sort of an
out and back, and driving thatroad on the way back, there is
it's not even a pothole, it'slike a dip in the road and you
(33:44):
have there's just this temporaryroad hazard sign that warns you
it's coming up, but the roadhazard sign is positioned I
don't know two meters before thedip.
So you're coming around a bendat full noise.
You see the sign, you go wait,what Cool?
And when you hit it it's andit's an impact.
(34:09):
It feels like it's ripped thefront end off the car.
It's that bad.
And so, anyway, I hit that andit was nasty, everyone did.
And then we stopped a little bitlater on and suddenly I noticed
that I was parking the car andevery time I was maneuvering it
and turning the steering wheelto the left, I could hear this
like groaning oh no, and that,just that, got in my head a
(34:34):
little bit.
It didn't.
I don't think it felt anydifferent, but I must confess
that on the subsequent days Ithere were times where I just
thought I don't know what'sgoing on there and it and it
kind of just mess with myconfidence in the front end of
the car a little bit.
So one road that we love.
I just sort of sat at the backand trundled along, just not
(34:55):
wanting to weight it up too much.
To be honest, I think it wasjust a bushing or a rubber or
something, so I don't think itactually was anything to be
worried about, but it wasplaying on my mind for the
remainder of the trip,unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
And have you had it checked out since, or it's sort
of gone away?
Speaker 1 (35:12):
well, yeah, so no.
So I I had, uh, I I got home,took the left front wheel off to
have a look and there's a,there's a rubber boot that goes
over the cv joint and I couldsee that that boot was torn and
I could actually grab it, pushit in and out and it would make
the exact noise, right.
(35:32):
So I'm like, oh, that's all itwas.
So I took it to my friends atNine Auto.
They replaced that, that was noproblem, got the car back and I
was happy.
But I didn't listen for whetheror not it was still doing it or
not, because I was so convincedthat I'd identified the cause.
And then, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed it was actually
(35:52):
still doing it and it was doingit consistently every time I got
in the car and I couldn't workout what it was.
So I took it back to Nine Autoand the day I took it to them I
get in the car that morning it'snot doing it and I'm like, of
course it's not, of course it'snot.
So I take it to them and I saidI said, listen, good luck
diagnosing it, because forwhatever reason, sod's law, it's
(36:16):
not actually doing it today.
So they've gone over it top tobottom, gone over everything on
the front end.
There's nothing they can see oridentify that would do it.
I I'm not surprised by that.
I think it's virtuallyimpossible to diagnose something
like that if you can't evenhear it.
Right, uh, so anyway, um, we'lljust uh, I'll just keep driving
(36:38):
it till a wheel comes off midcorner.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Well, so you said earlier that you know.
I mean, it's been severalmonths since we recorded the
last pod and that was with Tommyin November.
Ish, um, the world has changeda lot since then.
But there's been quite a lot ofmovement and things happening
in the Porsche world, the 992.2,you know, electric vehicles
here and there, maybe actually areverse slight reverse in
(37:05):
policy on some of the EVs.
But before we get into that,what I've got to ask you is have
you looked at any of the carsrecently?
Are you still as in love withLittle Green and committed to
her or him as you have been?
Because when these things startto happen in the Porsche world,
like the 992.2, I don't want a992.2.
But for whatever reason, in thelast couple of weeks I've been
(37:28):
thinking, well, maybe I'll goand see what's out there.
Couple of weeks I've beenthinking, well, maybe I'll go
and see what's out there.
These other people are gettingnew cars.
Maybe there's something in myfuture, but there isn't going to
be.
But like what about you?
Speaker 1 (37:42):
oh no, look, always looking.
I I'm definitely I'm in thisspace at the moment, where
little green is is is occupyinga space in my world again of I
will never let that car go.
Yeah, sometimes I vacillate onthat, but I just can't see that
happening.
I agree with you.
(38:03):
So two things.
First of all, when you look atpricing on second gen 992s,
second gen 992s I, I just can'tsee value in those cars versus
buying something else.
You know, for us something likea gts.
Yeah, I've seen the reviews onthe new gts.
It looks amazing.
(38:25):
You know I watched lee's I, Iwatched catchpole and you know
they're all talking about howgreat it sounds, how incredibly
well that hybrid system works interms of delivering power.
It doesn't.
You know, there's no turbo laganymore.
It doesn't feel like a hybrid.
I love it all, but for us herethat car's close to half a
(38:49):
million bucks, bloody hell.
And here's the thing right.
For half a million bucks Icould theoretically get a 992
GT3 for less than half a millionbucks.
Oh, really bring that up is?
(39:19):
I recently had a ride in a firstgen 992 GT3 touring Australian
70th anniversary special edition, which is a special edition car
that really just has some aslightly different color, I
think, and some badges on it.
But I got this ride, not justout on the street, but actually
this dude, john, who came on adrive with us, great guy, and I
chased him up Mount Donabuang,which is a stunning road, and we
got to the top of the hill andI said, hey, john, how about you
(39:42):
take me for a run back down thehill?
And I'm a terrible passenger,right, I hate being a passenger,
but going in this GT3 touringback down the hill and then
obviously back up to the topagain, honestly, man, the
difference between.
I didn't quite realise thedifference between a GT3 and a
(40:04):
regular Carrera.
It is such a differentexperience.
Every single sense was justsynapses popping.
You know, just, I'm sittingthere, the sound, the brakes,
the acceleration, the cornering,the turn in all of these things
(40:24):
just absolutely blowing my mind.
And so the idea that I would goand buy a brand new or near new
carrera s versus a couple ofyears old gt3, or even, you know
, my, the dream is still asecond gen 991 gt3.
That me too.
Yeah, yeah, that's the, that'sthe car for me, yeah yeah, that
(40:48):
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
and uh, this this summer is hopefully the summer
I'm gonna to get to driveChris's GT3 Touring.
I've been giving him shitrecently, actually because I
still haven't yet got behind thewheel of that, but you know, if
I was in his shoes looking atme, I probably wouldn't want me
driving that car anyway.
So he's completely forgiven.
What's he done to that?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
car.
What mods has he done to thatcar?
Speaker 2 (41:13):
anything, um, yeah, I mean, he's not not too many,
doesn't need much right likewell, that's the thing straight
out of the box he did a bunch ofmods on his, on his 991.1 turbo
and they were, all you know,very tasteful and really cool.
So far on the touring here, um,he's installed the sole x pipe
and he really or the or the xpipe delete right, basically is
(41:34):
what it is muffler delete, um,and he's really happy with that.
He's got a numeric shifterwaiting to go in.
Oh cool, um, he's playingaround with the idea of um
getting some new wheels, likepainted wheels, to go with the
car and then he's also playingaround the idea of getting like
a racing livery and youmentioned that earlier about
(41:54):
your friend, yeah, puttingputting one on that car before.
Chris has got the idea of it,not the martini stripes, but you
know the liveries thatessentially they're very uniform
and they go front to back andthey, you know they sort of
deviate in the middle.
They go across the doors.
Even a couple of differentshades of color change as you
get to the back, kind of likethe RSR.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
You know he's been playing around with a couple of
different designs there and hegot a quote from a local shop
the other day.
They wanted like nine grand toput on a racing livery and they
said we'll throw in free ceramiccoating afterwards.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Well, actually he's already got, you know, a $1,500
ceramic coating job on.
So to do that, they've got toscrub off $1,500 from his car,
basically, and then put thelivery on and they'll put it
back on for free, I mean, andsomething that's going to be
temporary.
Anyway, long story short, he'sgot some decals online and this
(42:51):
summer he's going to try andhave a go doing them himself,
and I've got nothing but respectand also dread and fear for him
doing it, because the timesI've tried to put decals on well
, didn't they blow?
off in the wind those did thosedid um, but uh, no, just like
doing the porsche door decalsthat I've got now.
I tried to do those first.
I followed all the instructionsfrom all the YouTube videos.
(43:15):
You know the lubrication, thesqueegee, blah, blah, blah.
Could not, for the life of me,get rid of the bubbles, just
couldn't do it.
And imagine putting those notonly all over your car but on a
GT3 Touring.
I mean, if I put them on myCarrera, like I did the Yellow
Stripes, and they were a fuck up, I just pulled them off right
there and then, before Cars andCoffee, I couldn't care less.
(43:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But if that had been a GT3Touring with nine grand's worth
of livery on, oh my God, forgetit.
No, no, not doing that, yeahabsolutely not.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
So you asked me the question, I'll put it back to
you.
What me the question?
I'll I'll put it back to you.
What about you?
Are you thinking, maybe,something in the future?
What's, what's it?
What are your plans?
Look like well, or hopes anddreams, maybe?
Speaker 2 (43:59):
well hopes and dreams .
In all seriousness, the more Idrive this 991.2, the more I am
just like confident that it isthe car for me, unless a 991.2
gt3 touring or a a GT3 drops outof the air and arrives at my
door.
I'm not going to be getting ridof it anytime soon.
But the new owner of Blueycontacted me recently.
(44:21):
So I sold Bluey just over ayear and a half ago at auction.
It went to an owner on the EastCoast.
That owner, a year or so later,having tracked it, has now sold
it on to somebody else at thetrack and that owner got in
touch with me.
And just the fact that he gotback in touch with me and I was
talking about bluey andreminiscing about bluey, I half
(44:43):
wondered if he was going tooffer to sell it back to me.
Right, honestly, I might betempted to buy Blurry back or
get another 996 or an older carto do you know for another
project.
Yeah, but it's I mean, ofcourse it's a money thing, but
it's more a practicality ofspace.
(45:04):
Yeah, I've got a three cargarage, which now I've got a
lift in it it's really a two cargarage.
Yeah, you can park the two SUVsside by side in the two-car
carriage.
Yeah, you can park the two suvsside by side in the two-car
space but you can't really openthe doors anymore, so I park my
kind on the street or on thedriveway.
But I'm really half seriouslythinking about a garage condo,
one of those, yeah, off off-sitespecial condos.
(45:27):
I can put a loft in there, Ican watch tv, I can work you
know, because I work from homeand down below the loft is
enough stall space for maybethree or four cars, and if that
is the case then maybe another996 project or something similar
will be in my future.
But as far as an expensivepurchase on a you know, a
Touring or a GT3 or what haveyou, that's not coming anytime
(45:49):
soon.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
It's interesting the idea of buying back a car you've
had before, isn't it because it, you know, there's such a
nostalgia there, such a desireto to relive it.
You know, it's like gettingback together with an ex um.
Yeah, I think that's what it isI wonder.
I I wonder if it would deliveror not, or or if you'd just get
it back and be like, yeah,that's right, I had my time in
(46:16):
this and I moved it on for areason.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
If my ex had, you know, traveled the world and
shagged a hundred strangers, Iprobably wouldn't be too excited
about getting back togetherwith her.
But if my ex had just been to ayoga retreat for a few months
and had come back in bettershape, maybe I would be tempted
to give it another go.
Ruthie, if you're listening,I'm sorry it's taking this, oh
(46:45):
goodness, uh needs.
I don't know.
I think, um, it would depend onthe condition, of course, but I
wouldn't be interested inbuying back any of my other cars
, apart from the 997.1.
That still holds a reallyspecial place in my heart and I
know the owner of that one aswell and he's been taking great
(47:06):
care of it, and he took mylobster claw wheels off.
But apart from that, it's stillexactly the same.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
I love lobster claws on a 997.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Michael Bath pulls it off.
I love them.
He's one of yours.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Lobster claws on a 997, that's perfection to me.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
I just think they're such a oh you like no, I love
them, I love them.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
I think they're such a great wheel.
I hate seeing them on anythingelse.
Like you see, people put themon like a 996.
I always think that looks weird.
But yeah, on a 997, I, I, I,absolutely love it.
Do you know what?
I'm the same with my GT4.
That car was, yeah, I had tohad to move it on to to use the
money for other things.
So I have I've got unfinishedbusiness loved that car.
(47:50):
It was such a good thing.
So, yeah, I would take that carback, Although, do you know
what?
No, I won't say that I wasgoing to say something
disparaging about the guy whobought it.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Let's just say that wasn't the most enjoyable sale.
You're right with your big golfhead.
Excuse me while I take a sipfrom my big gulp.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Do we want to take a break?
Do you need to go to thebathroom?
Anything else you need to getdone.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
After that big boy, I might need to go for a slash in
a few minutes.
I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Hey, so listen.
When I sent you the show notes,which you suggested I didn't, I
was really worried that theagenda was a bit scant, but
thankfully we've managed to fillsome time.
I do want to get on the videoof the week, though.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yeah, yeah, let's do it, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
So there's a dude named Stefan Merkel who's
launched this channel, soulDrives.
I don't think it's been runningthat long on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
I've never come across it before, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
So I've seen his videos for the last, uh,
probably six months and you knowit looks to me there's, I'd say
, reasonably clear influencefrom, from people such as cars
with luke.
But yeah, I love his style.
You know he really benefits,obviously, as luke does and and
other content creators do whoare based in Europe.
(49:12):
You know really benefits fromthe scenery.
You know most of his videos arefilmed in the Black Forest in
Germany.
I mean, fuck even the name theBlack Forest.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
Come on, I was going to say I mean, we've said this
before the setting makes such adifference for these videos.
We've said this before thesetting makes such a difference
for these videos.
Yeah, I'm I'm kind of temptedto actually recreate the first
30 seconds or a minute of thatvideo, driving around the frozen
tundra of minneapolis with allthe same shots and just see
(49:44):
which one is more visuallyappealing, because I can drive
around a corner, I can, I candrive in a straight line and
capture the audio on the, butwith the trees and the moss and
the, the atmosphere, yeah, yeah,that's completely different.
Yeah, it's not taken away fromthe video or the car.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
No, no, no, no, no, god, no, I agree.
And and this the scenery is is,yes, a stunning backdrop, but
his cinematography's choice ofcomposition etc.
I'm really a big fan of.
I also really like his style.
He just it's like he drivesalong in the car with the camera
on and occasionally remembersthat he needs to talk to you.
(50:21):
It's like you're just sittingin there as a, as a passenger,
and what I think he has donereally well in this video.
So the video is him driving a992 GT3 PDK through the Black
Forest on a reasonably wet,misty day.
It's so nice, it looks so goodand he's done a really great job
(50:41):
.
In the back end of the video,where it's just basically in-car
footage of him driving, he doesa great job of capturing the
sound but also the sense ofspeed that you feel.
He doesn't look like he'sdriving, um, in an irresponsible
way.
He's.
He's blurred out the the speedoin in in some of the footage.
(51:01):
So obviously he may or may notbe fracturing a speed law or two
, but he doesn't look like he'sdriving.
He's not being an idiot, right,he's, he's just on a spirited
drive yeah, but you really get asense of it.
You get it.
That's to me.
I was watching it thinking,yeah, that's kind of what it
feels like to me when I drive inthe twisties.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
It feels like I'm pushing on yeah, yeah,
definitely, and you knowwatching it again here as we, as
we talk.
He's definitely ripping poorold luke off.
I mean it's, it's basicallyyeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
It's basically yeah, there's influence there, there's
influence there.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
There's a shot of him in a gorgeous car in a gorgeous
forest and the footage is ofhim walking around the car
taking photos with a giant DSLR.
I mean, the only thing thatcouldn't be more cars with Luke
is if there was an espressostore in the background handing
out coffee.
Hey, you know what?
(51:59):
We all wear our influences onour sleeve somewhat right.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Yeah, that's true, like it's funny, there's another
.
There's another content creatorI've seen in uh, out of
switzerland actually, who'sdriving things like the susten
pass, and uh in in uh second gen991 gt3s and a lot of his
footage is very reminiscent ofCars with Luke.
But you know what?
It's a good format and it works.
But I actually like Stefan.
I've watched a bunch of hisvideos.
(52:20):
Now, like I say, I really likehis way of speaking.
I like the way he talks aboutwhat he's doing.
He doesn't.
I like people who contentcreators who don't try and make
themselves look like heroes.
He's recently just dropped avideo with a 996 turbo and he
talks about driving it and howit lets him practice heel and
(52:43):
toe and you know he's likethere's one corner he comes into
he's like oh yeah, that wasactually a good one.
You know, he kind ofacknowledges that he's not the
greatest, he's not Chris Harris,and he's okay with it.
You know, I like ofacknowledges that he's not the
greatest, he's not chris harrisand that he's okay with it.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
You know, I like that , I like his stuff yeah, yeah,
well, I mean in all seriousness,there is nothing to that I can
say that should really detractfrom this video because it's,
it's excellent.
Yeah, it's really.
It's a really good video, uh,so yeah, I haven't come across
him before and I've just hit theold subscribe button, so, uh,
I'm looking forward to gettingmore content from him in my
inbox.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Yeah, yeah, and we will put a link to this video on
our Instagram.
If you remember where that is,it's Kerbin Canyon.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
You remember that podcast?
Speaker 1 (53:23):
It was getting quite a lot of hype.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
Last year it was Said the person making all the hype.
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
Well, my friend, this has been good yes yes, yes,
definitely.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
I'm looking forward to 2025.
I've got, I've got a plan.
I've got all sorts of plans.
I'm excited.
Are you excited?
Speaker 1 (53:39):
for the year ahead.
Do you know, I am, uh, really,really excited.
I got another rally coming upsoon.
Uh, I got hopefully some bigmoves going on this year.
This, this could be.
This could be a big year for me.
All right, my man all right.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Well, thank you everybody for checking in.
This has been carbon canyon,I've been james at auto amateur
and andy has been andy of lastrasp yeah, I still am, and uh,
we'll see you on the next onecheers guys, bye, take care.
hold on.
Is that you?
Is that you, mr james mcgrath?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
yeah, andy gaunt, it is, and I'm actually looking at
you.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
The viewers can't tell this, but I am looking at
you and I have missed yourslightly odd looking hairdo and
your beautiful face well, it'sfunny you talk hairdos because,
uh, that's the first thing Inoticed with you, and I noticed
it on your most recent video.
You've had a haircut, you'reback to tinting.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I am back to tinting.
Yeah, my 90s friend's Chandlerdo didn't really pass the Ruthie
Baker test, my wife, she mademe get a cut in the end,
basically.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, do you know what?
They hold a lot of sway, don'tthey?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
cut in the end basically, yeah, do you know
what they?
They hold a lot of sway, don'tthey?
They really do?
Yeah, they really do.
I didn't mind it.
But you know what, after thelast couple of months of doing
numerous exhaust mods to my car,even I was getting fed up with
the old you know middle partflapping in my face when I was
getting hot and yeah, it lookedlike you were trying to do,
stefan Edberg, but it was reallygiving, just hibernating
(01:09):
through winter energy.
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
That's pretty much it.
Well, we're back, curvingCanyon, baby 2025.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Isn't it good?
It's so good, and do you knowwhat?
So James and I were talking toeach other prior to this and we
know we get out of practice whenwe don't record, so we're going
to try today.
You're good, you're justdrinking a coffee, what is that?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's a coffee.
It's a coffee in a Yeti mug.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Okay, no, fair enough .
I was just about to say we'regoing to try today to be
professional.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Dude, it's Friday afternoon.
It's been a long week.
I need a good slap in the facewith a coffee and on that
bombshell, welcome to kirbancanyon.
I've missed you saying that.
(02:09):
I've missed you saying that.
It's funny, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
It is so when we use FaceTime.
Sometimes we just use FaceTimeaudio, but not to get too inside
baseball on how we record thisthing that we do once every six
months.
But today we're on video andit's working.
We can see one another.
Yeah, it's on.
Yeah, it's on.
Very cool, like Donkey Kong,very cool.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Dude.
So I've got to admit somethingbefore we really get into the
agenda.
About a week ago and I thinkthis is just a product of how
busy I've been recently with youknow, just life, but I felt
like I was cheating on you agood, a good week and a half ago
.
So here's the scenario AndyBrooks of Nineworks fame sends
me a note over one of the Idon't know 20 WhatsApp Nineworks
(02:56):
feeds that I get pinged atconstantly.
I need to figure out how tostay up more.
You know, stay more up to date.
But Andy hit me up saying hey,you want to record with us on
the pod.
Here are some details blah,blah, blah.
Next Tuesday.
One, I assumed it was the NineWorks podcast, it wasn't.
And two, I assumed you weregoing to be there.
(03:17):
As we got started, I suddenlyrealized it was just going to be
the James McGrath solo showwith Andy.
Even Sibley didn't turn up.
It was just me and Andy talkingcars.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
What the hell Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
It was fun, but without my podcasting partner
there taking the piss out of meand saying intelligent things, I
kind of felt a little bit leftalone.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I feel a bit like Zelensky right now.
I feel like you've come at mein public so I can't really
respond in the way that I wantto.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It was the bad.
Positive we do the best podcast.
It's the best podcast.
You know everyone's going tolisten to our podcast.
It's going to be brilliant.
It was a fantastic, amazingpodcast.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So hold on.
So was it the Nineworks podcastor no?
What was it?
No, was it the Nine Workspodcast or no?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
What was it?
No, Speaking of Inside Baseball, it's just an additional
podcast reporting that Andy'sdoing for the Nine Works.
You know, God status, people,the hero status, what have you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it only gets released onPatreon and it's H-O-W Head Over
Wheels.
So it's basically Andy and Italking about my Porsche
(04:25):
ownership story and honestly, itwas loads of fun.
I mean, you know, Andy Brooksis a really nice guy.
He was sitting in his garagewith his new quote unquote SE
behind him, which was gettingall of my attention, and yeah,
we just spent, like you know, 45minutes talking about my world
of Porsches.
Really, I was quite flatteredthat they invited me on, but
(04:46):
sibley didn't turn up just youand him just having a good, a
good time, huh I'm telling you,man, since the end of uh 9-11,
sibley's gone big time and I'mjust too small time for him
obviously.
Yeah, andy was probably like hey, we got james on from, also
amateur, and sibley was likechump, you do that solo and
that's.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
That's the thought.
I better get a haircut for this, what like?
It looks like you took itseriously, exactly.
Well, okay, well, uh, I justneed to process that for a
minute.
Uh, it does.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I don't want to use words like betrayal but you know
the the good that has come fromit, andy, is that just you know
.
A week later, here we aregetting Curban Canyon started
for 2025.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Okay, so I'm impressed with that coffee.
I mean, here's my classicMelbourne latte, but it looks
comparatively it's not the usualbucket size that you go for.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, you haven't seen my drink, Minnesota bread.
What is that?
A big gulp, Dude.
So this actually is a big gulp.
I didn't buy it.
Ruthie brought it home.
To be fair, Ruthie brought ithome from the gas station.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Don't, don't hold up, hold up, hold up.
You can't go putting this onRuthie.
She brought it home from a gasstation because she knows that's
what you like.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, but this coffee is actually in a smaller Yeti
mug it is.
Yeah, it's good for like asmall size Starbucks coffee and
it keeps your coffee warm forhours.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
That doesn't look like it would fit in the classic
Porsche cup holders, thoughright?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
No, it doesn't To be fair, it doesn't fit in any cup
holders.
Actually, it's useless Great.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, hey, so we've not recorded, obviously, since
november.
My god, has the world changedin that time, uh?
But the way we figured today isyou know what it's just like
for for you all listening in.
It's like just catching up witha porsche mate you haven't
spoken to in ages.
That that's kind of whattoday's conversation is going to
be about.
Right, like what have we beenup?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
yeah, yeah, exactly, you know, I mean I I don't want
to say you were too lazy to doshow notes, but but yeah, let's,
let's just play it that way,shall we lad?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
okay, I'm reasonably sure I sent through show notes
including a video of the weekwhich I'm sure you have pulled
over from end to end.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I have watched the video of the week and it's
another video, Andy, that justkind of gets me excited but also
kicks me in the nuts at thesame time, because it's a very
visually appealing video of theweek.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we are definitely going to talk
about that.
But you know what?
We do have an agenda.
I'm going to flip it a littlebit.
Last night so it's Friday nighthere.
Last night in melbourne, andoften on a friday night, we'll
do, we'll get pizza.
I go to my local pizzeria pickup a couple of pizzas, and if
there's one thing I reallydislike in the world, it is the
(07:58):
person who sits in a publicplace, be it outside a store, in
in a cafe, on a train, watchingYouTube or something else, or
TikTok on their iPhone withvolume that the rest of us can
hear.
Right, like?
That is completely obnoxious,right?
Agree?
Yeah, that's just rude.
So I was sitting outsidewaiting for my pizza.
(08:22):
I was watching your latestexhaust video in public, so can
you imagine all these peoplelooking at me as I listened to
just sequence after sequenceafter sequence of revving with
different valves?
open valves closed.
(08:43):
Hybrid revving just the Porscheone revving and then the sole
sports exhaust revving.
People were looking at me justready to absolutely strangle me.
But are we at the end of thepipe videos and do we have a
conclusion?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You must be so sick of whipping on and off exhausts,
man, Well, you know.
So, first off, I think that'snow my trademark, If I have any
kind of trademark.
You know, prior to this it wasstabbing airbags.
I think that was my trademark.
Now it's making exhaust videos,where the action just does not
stop.
I've gotten so much feedbackfrom people interested in
(09:28):
exhausts about how they likethat rapid style and over and
over, however, you can hear it.
But no, the journey is not evenclose to completing.
So when John Gaydos at SoulPerformance reached out to me in
late autumn last year so likeOctober time frame and came to
me with this idea both veryexcited about it we talked about
(09:51):
what the progression of videoscould look like and, long story
short, we came to about a listof six or seven, six or seven
combos.
That would make a lot of sense,and the idea was let's try and
put together a series of videosthat really help people make a
decision do I just get cats ordo I get the headers?
Yeah, do I get both?
You know, we wanted to helppeople figure out what kind of
(10:13):
configuration makes sense.
Um, but it was based on theassumption that I was ultimately
going to end on valved exhaustwith sport cats, where in the
last couple of months peoplehave been so excited about the
x-pipe I'm having to make morevideos with the x-pipe and then
we also threw in well, how aboutthe the cat bypass as well as
(10:34):
the cats?
So it you know if you canimagine like a three, three
dimensional puzzle.
I'm just continuing.
It's exponentially so.
I'm like six videos in now andthere are probably going to be
another six Because, also, withevery combination like take the
(10:59):
cats, we want to hear what thesport cats sound like against
the cat bypass.
Okay, well, that's fine, thatfine, that's.
You know two differentconfigurations.
But you also want to hear whatit sounds like with the stock
muffler and the stock headers,and you also want to hear what
it's like with the valvedexhaust and with the x pipe.
So actually comparing those twopipes means, if I was to do it
(11:22):
properly, 12 videos, and that'sbefore I get onto the headers.
So no, that's, that's getting alittle bit insane.
But, um, yeah, there's probablygoing to be at least another
four or five, maybe six videoscoming in this series and I hope
at some point before the end ofa year I actually settle on
what I want.
(11:42):
Um, but it does.
It keeps changing.
Like I was convinced that, asmuch as I'd like to have a full
sole exhaust, I think I'd settlewith the, the factory valve
muffler, with the cats and maybethe header.
But then I put the sport catson with the valve exhaust and
dude, it just sounds so good.
(12:04):
It sounds so good.
I'm now like convinced.
Okay, well, if I put theheaders on, I'm gonna get all
three, I'm gonna, I'm gonnastick with the, the original
hypothesis, which is all threeparts.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So I, I just don't know, I don't know so a question
for me, as as as an audiencemember playing along when I was
watching it night, one thingthat struck me was the
difference in volume between,say, version A and version B,
whether that's stock cats orsoul cats or whatever.
Is that purely a function ofthat's, an actual representation
(12:40):
of the volume difference, or issome of that based on what mic
you used on the day or howyou've mixed it in in
post-production, or do you thinkthat's a somewhat accurate
reflection of the of the volumedifference?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I well, I know for sure it's not.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
It's not perfect, yeah, because I'm involved
because I'm not trying to pickapart your video production.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Oh, no, no no, it's a really good question, because
every time I go to the editthere are a few things I'm
changing like.
So I'm, I'm filming it in thesame location and typically on
days when this, when the windspeed is below four miles an
hour, right, so the days whenit's super windy I won't go out.
So the the wind speed has to bebelow four or five miles an
hour.
Um, I'm using the same mic, I'musing the same camera there.
(13:25):
I'm using the same camera.
I've got like little Sharpiemarks, you know, on the volume,
so I know exactly how my micshould be set up.
I have noticed that I have beenrecording slightly further away
or closer or to the left, so I'mnot recording at the exact same
(13:46):
distance to the car, but it'sall all within like a meter.
Yeah, it's reasonably goodscience, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I'm trying to factor allthose things in um, and then
when I go to the edit, I'mmaking sure that, uh, the, the
volume doesn't go up and downtoo much.
So I am I am, you know,manipulating the volume a little
bit to make sure that itdoesn't go over a certain
decibel level, but I think it isa pretty accurate
(14:07):
representation of what the caris actually putting out and just
thinking back to the butt dynotest where I'm actually driving
them.
I think the only thing thathasn't really come through
properly on the videos is thatwith the X-pipe it is noticeably
louder in the cabin Right, likeyou're driving around and
you're thinking oh yeah, I'vegot the X-pipe on and I can't
(14:29):
shut it off.
You know, right, right, right,but it's not so loud that it's
annoying.
But if there's something thatstands out from the crowd it's
definitely the X-pipe.
Right, right, especially whenyou've got the cats.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Okay, has.
Has there been, with any of thecombinations so far, any kind
of drone?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
um, the the only thing that came close to a drone
, uh was was just the straightup x-pipe, yeah, on the factory
cats and the headers, um, andactually, if you, if you look at
the um, the valved x pipe nextto the regular x pipe, um, it's
not just uh, it's not just thecase of there being valves and
not the actual.
(15:12):
The design of the x pipe isslightly different and they've
they've tried to create thesespecial resonance tubes that
cancel out any drone, yeah, um,and and I think they're working,
but I don't notice that.
I mean, if, on a scale of oneto ten, your average exhaust
might drone a one or a two, evenwith the valved exhaust, it's,
(15:33):
it's a two.
The x pipe's probably like athree and a half.
So it's, it's not unbearable,but it is noticeable.
But I don't, I don't know howelse they would remove that.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Frankly, I'm hearing from people who own second-gen
991s and it's such a greatseries that you're doing,
because I think the quitesignificant difference that
exists between that first-gen991, the NA car and the
(16:02):
second-gen car, I should say interms of exhaust volume it's not
insignificant and you know,having driven first gen 991s and
knowing that even with thestock Porsche sports exhaust,
when you get on it the exhaustsounds great.
Yeah, not necessarily theloudest, but enough volume there
(16:25):
versus I.
I had a, had a drive in myfriends.
Uh, I've driven two, two secondgen 991s, now a gts and a
carrera t, both justspectacularly good cars, but
both cars where I really feltlike the exhaust was
significantly more quiet, to thepoint where it just didn't feel
(16:50):
like you were, you didn't havethat.
You know, you think about thesenses that get involved and
come into play when you'redriving through the twisties and
when you're on it and how theyall combine to create an overall
experience.
And you know, know, so oftenyou do things like you will
shift, not based on watching,watching the tack, but actually
(17:12):
from hearing the exhaust andknowing, yeah, there we are, I'm
basically at red line.
And to have that removed, whichI felt in both second gen 991s
that I've driven with sportsexhaust, that I just didn't have
enough exhaust volume and Iknow the owners of these cars
sort of have the same challenges.
So it's great that you'veundertaken what you have in such
(17:35):
a methodical way where youreally do get that side-by-side
comparison in as much as it'spossible to do that on a video.
Well, thanks, man.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
That means a lot because, like you say, it has
been a lot of work.
And this is where I've got togive a massive shout out to my
friend, chris Carbon Fiber Chrison Instagram, with his GT3
Touring.
That guy has shown up for mepretty much every time we've
done it and he knows that thework involved is more than what
(18:07):
a typical shot would do, becausefor a lot of these parts you
don't really need to remove thebumper, you don't really need to
remove the rear bumper frame.
But for the sake of getting iton video and making sure that if
you're following along anddoing DIY you get all the views,
we've taken the bumper offevery single time, so I've
started actually taking thebumper off before he arrives.
Knowing this dude's like takenmy bumper off six times now he
(18:29):
doesn't want to do it again.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Are you at the point, though, I noticed on the video
the most recent one where Ithink you made the point that,
hey, you know what?
If you've been watching alongwith this series, you've got the
DIY component covered now inprevious videos, so you don't
need to keep demonstrating that.
Are you at that point, at least, where you can just whip
through that component?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, well, almost, I'll do a DIY video on how to
take off and put on the headers,which I haven't done yet, and
then I'll probably also do atleast a mini DIY segment on the
cat bypasses, because you've gotto figure out what to do with
the O2 sensors.
And I haven't quite figured outwhat I am going to do with the
O2 sensors yet, like, am I goingto duct tape them to the side
(19:13):
of the frame or actually takethem out?
You know that sort of thing.
But yeah, hopefully, aftermaybe one more video, I'll be at
the point where the videosgoing forward will just be a
straight up comparison andactually I'm going to try and
fit maybe two or three or fourdifferent configurations into a
single video, as opposed tospreading it out over four.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
No wonder your hair got long.
It sounds like you've just beenliving in the garage like some
kind of hermit for the last sixmonths.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, you know, work's been full on six months.
Yeah, you know, work, work'sbeen full on and, uh, actually I
think, um, what's really helpedactually is that, for whatever
reason, my kids have sort of gotto the age where the boys can
come in and go out and they justwant to see and say hello, yeah
, my daughter's now three, uhfor one video.
There are in fact actually, um,I can't remember which one it
(20:03):
was, but there were severalshots where, if you look in the
lower left corner, you can justabout see her sitting on the
floor of the garage laying outher barbie dolls isn't that
great yeah.
So I'm doing all this filmingand talking to the camera and I
turn around and there she istalking to barbie, you know.
But it's cool because it allowsme to, you know, get on with a
(20:24):
lot of work without having tostop constantly yeah, yeah,
that's brilliant that'sbrilliant, and actually I don't
like to toot my own trumpet, butI've got something special to
celebrate today I just hit 20ksubscribers on youtube ah,
congrats, that's awesome, thatis awesome I didn't think I'd
get there.
Honestly.
I kind of I got to five, I gotto ten and then it's been a
(20:45):
little crawl basically from 10upwards, but in the last three
or four months I've gone from 15to 20, yeah, which is
phenomenal.
That's more growth than I'vehad in three, four years yeah,
youtube loves regular, regularcontent, doesn't it?
I'll, uh, I'll have a big gulpsip, you know for that cheers
100 we need.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
We need like if.
If I'd known I would have had,uh, the two blow up balloon
numbers behind me, I could havehad 20k behind me.
That's awesome, though, man.
Well done, congrats.
Well, well deserved, thank youyeah, thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
So, um, speaking of achievements, I'm looking at you
wearing your very nice alpinerange rally t-shirts.
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
You're this one, so this is from number eight.
And we had, uh, when I did thisone, you and I had just
interviewed darren fister on thepod, yeah, and he'd done the.
He'd sent us both a deutschespritz tour t-shirt very, very
kindly.
I love that t-shirt and so Ireached out to the artist he
(21:48):
used and created this and youknow, it's the first Alpine
Range Rally t-shirt I've donewhere I thought you know what
fuck it, I'm putting a 964 onthis one.
Yeah, good lad, but we did justhave.
We had Alpine Range Rally 10 inNovember, which I can't believe
we've done 10 of these eventsand it was the longest one we've
(22:12):
done.
We actually did it over fourdays rather than three.
Yeah, drove some entirely newroads.
One of the things we do on therallies is they're typically
just in Victoria, so we stay inone state, is they're typically
just in Victoria, so we stay inone state.
But for this one, we actuallydrove up into New South Wales,
which is, for anyone not fromAustralia, a state just to the
north of Vic, and did it overfour days so we could drive some
(22:35):
new roads, which was a reallygood and interesting experience.
It meant that there was some ofour favourite roads that we
didn't get to do, but we got todo some other great roads
instead.
To be honest, I think in doingit that way, there was some
excellent driving that we got todo.
(22:55):
We drove through an area calledJindabyne in the Snowy
Mountains in New South Wales,which was spectacular, and some
of the roads through there wereterrific, but overall there was
a lot more kind of trudgingalong highways than I would have
anticipated, and some of theroads that I'd heard of or seen
(23:16):
on maps actually turned out notto be as twisty as they looked
or perhaps we'd heard.
And there's a YouTube channel Ifollow called Ride Day, and it's
a guy on a touring motorbikewho just does videos of all
these great roads and he's beenthe best source of information
(23:38):
for me in terms of researchingroads to drive and there was one
road that he'd done that we gotto drive on day two in New
South Wales, but the interestingthing was all of the twisties
in New South Wales had a 60kilometer an hour speed limit on
them 60, you know, that's likeI don't know what that is 35
(23:59):
miles an hour or something.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
35 miles an hour.
Yeah, yeah, you guys have gotreally, I guess, stricter
enforcement of traffic code overthere, right, your coppers
don't like you speeding yeah,over here yeah, it's really not.
I mean, if you got, if you gotcaught, it's usually because
there's a cop sat in the middleof a small town, yeah, in the
middle of absolutely nowhere.
(24:20):
Getting the guys who've been onthe highway and now haven't
slowed down to 35, where mosthighway cops, um, if the speed
limit's 50, they'll let you do65 or 70 without pulling you
over, unless you're driving likea dickhead yeah, no, we are the
, the, the police.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
enforcement of speed here is is incredibly strict.
They will do exactly what yousaid.
They'll sit in small countrytowns and you know I'm always at
pains pains to say on the firstday briefing hey, when we drive
into towns, first of all wedon't want to be dicks, we don't
want to be those guys inPorsches driving through a
country town like idiots, solet's just respect those speed
(24:57):
limits.
But also, for exactly thatreason, it'll either be a cop or
just a speed camera.
But you know, the problem hereis if you go 25 kilometres an
hour over the speed limit, youlose your licence.
Oh, wow, done.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Like it's just done, Just like straight up.
Yeah, it's like that in the UKyou go over 100, chances are
that's it.
Game over Licence gone.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
And they're really, they're really tight on it,
tight on it.
So, um, that said, on thesetwisty roads that were 60 the
one, the one thing we sometimeshave in the back of our minds
and I I'm not going toincriminate anybody here, but um
, is that on a super tight,twisty road I, police, don't
(25:38):
tend to hang around those typesof roads waiting to to bus
people for speeding that they'retypically what they do is
position themselves where theyknow cars are likely to overtake
other cars on highways, knowingthat cars will speed to
overtake and they'll get themthere.
So, look, the 60 kph roads were.
We still managed to have somefun, which were great.
(26:02):
I mean, look, I had, it was wasfunny.
Actually, day two on one ofthese roads, I had one of the
greatest moments I've ever hadin any of the rallies we've ever
done.
We were driving yeah, we'redriving up this I think it's
called mount browning or mountbrown or something and the road
surface was just incrediblysmooth, one of the best road
(26:25):
surfaces I've ever driven on,and I was behind my friend Steve
, and Steve recently acquired aZanzibar Red 996 GT3.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Zanzibar Red.
I don't think I know that one.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Zanzibar is like it's a metallic, almost coppery
orange red.
It is such a spectacular color.
It's stunning, absolutelystunning, and he's running gold
BBS LM's on it and it's such ait is such a good looking car
and it was the first time thiscar had been out on a rally and
(27:02):
I was following Steve up thisroad and just loving the view.
We weren't pushing all thathard because, again, there were
low speed limits.
But then there was this onesection where the road opened up
and our lane opened up into twolanes, and so I decided to
overtake Steve and I pulledalongside him and there's this
(27:23):
moment we're driving around ahairpin and I'm next to him and
I just I'm in the driver's seatand I look across at him and he
looks across at me and it wasjust this incredible.
We're going around this cornerlike arms fully locked over,
just looking at each other going.
How fucking good is this it?
was just it was just phenomenal.
(27:44):
And then, prior to that, we'dpulled up in this little town
for lunch and you know we weregetting ready to leave.
It was hot man it was.
It was baking hot all threedays like, uh, high 30s, which I
don't know what that is infahrenheit, like 200 or
something it's about 100, it'sthat's hot as balls yeah, yeah,
yeah, and it was.
(28:04):
You know, being in an air-cooled911 with, you know,
questionable air conditioningand a whole lot of glass is is,
is not necessarily the mostcomfortable place, but but we
were pulled over in this townand parked under all these trees
just relaxing for a minute andthis kid came down with his,
with his dad and his grandfather, and was just looking at all
(28:25):
the cars, just couldn't believeit.
So we had him, you know, he gotto sit in all of the cars and
stuff like that and he was justhaving the time of his life.
And my mate Trev, who has thishis car is a car that formerly
raced in what was called NationsCup here in Australia.
Raced in what was calledNations Cup here in Australia,
(28:47):
so it raced at Bathurst andSandown and all these places and
then became a car that I thinkgot second outright in the Targa
, tasmania.
So it's a car with actual motorracing history and he's redone
all of the race livery that usedto be on this car.
He's done it himself by hand.
(29:07):
It looks amazing.
So he's got all his pet foodsponsors all over.
It just looks incredible.
It's a race car on the road andso this kid gets to sit in that
, and you can just imagine howstoked this little dude was.
So, no, look, it was a greatrun.
I got to drive my mate Ger uh,my mate Gerard.
(29:27):
He's got a Carrera T that he'snot had for that long uh 991.2,
uh, with manual and gee, thatwas a fun car to drive.
That is a lot of fun, that car.
I really really enjoyed it,drove that on some great
twisties in New South Wales andactually one of the moments of
the rally was also on day two.
(29:48):
We actually took a wrong turnso I'd done the nav.
And something I hadn'tanticipated was this one road
that was supposed to take us toour final destination that
afternoon ended up being agravel road and it kind of felt
like it was going to become agravel road as we drove it.
(30:09):
But we had I think it was 10minutes of driving this road.
We turned off the highway andthis road looked like it was
driving off into.
You could see mountains beyondand it was kind of flat.
Then there were, there were, uh, wind turbines everywhere and
it looked like something fromthe cover of an evo magazine,
(30:31):
just this weird kind ofmoonscape you know, like you
might have in I don't know someof the stuff I've seen from like
places like scotland and stuffand for whatever reason, it was
like everyone just we turned offthe highway, this road was
entirely ours and everyone just-, again, I'll be careful what I
(30:51):
say, but everyone just opened upand it was just amazing.
And we're just driving along inthis kind of tight formation
and then suddenly we get to theend and realise it was gravel,
so we all had to turn around,which wasn't so bad.
Because it meant we then got todo it in reverse, which was
magnificent as well.
So, no, that was good and itwas funny.
(31:12):
The second last day we had, wegot up, we're in this hotel and
my mate Trevor, who's got therace car, comes limping into the
breakfast area.
His knee has locked itself out,like it.
He's like, basically his leg isstraight and can't bend, so
(31:33):
we're trying to work out okay,well, that's, that's not going
to work with a clutch, so we'retrying to work out okay, who's
got an automatic car, could hepotentially swap with someone?
And he says, oh, listen, there'sa, there's a thing I can do.
If I lie down, I can kind oflie on my stomach and mel gibson
, lethal weapon, yeah, like archmy back and it just kind of
(31:55):
goes back into place.
So he, somehow he manages to dothat and it's and it's all good
.
I'm like, oh, thank god, that'sa relief.
And then my phone rings and Isaid I look at my phone, it's my
mate anthony, who's with us,and I answer the phone.
I'm like, hey, man.
And he's like, hey, dude.
I'm like what's wrong with youand he's like I've got food
(32:18):
poisoning.
So he'd spent the whole nightvomiting and was in a really,
really bad way, like literallycould not drive.
There was no way he was goingto be able to drive.
So we went to the hotel and wesaid, listen, this has happened.
He's eaten here and he's gotfood poisoning.
(32:39):
You guys need to look after him.
So they said, yeah, we'll keephim in his room, we'll give him
the room for another night.
So so the rest of us then tookoff and and had this great day
of driving, actually anincredible day of driving.
But, um, yeah, anthony couldn't, couldn't drive.
But then he messaged.
But he messages me at like uh,three o'clock and he's like all
right, I'm coming, like allright so he did he did the drive
(33:01):
.
He kind of did a bit of ashortcut, but he did most of it
on his own, just-.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Did he slap on an adult diaper?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, I don't know.
I may surprise you to learn, Ididn't ask.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
That would have been the first thing I asked yeah,
yeah, of course, but anyway.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
So he made it, which was great.
I had one mechanical issue onthe trip With Little Green.
Yeah, it was great.
I had one mechanical issue onthe trip With Little Green.
Yeah, it was a bit of a weirdone On the first day we'd hit.
There's this great road that wedo, but coming it's sort of an
out and back, and driving thatroad on the way back, there is
it's not even a pothole, it'slike a dip in the road and you
(33:44):
have there's just this temporaryroad hazard sign that warns you
it's coming up, but the roadhazard sign is positioned I
don't know two meters before thedip.
So you're coming around a bendat full noise.
You see the sign, you go wait,what Cool?
And when you hit it it's andit's an impact.
(34:09):
It feels like it's ripped thefront end off the car.
It's that bad.
And so, anyway, I hit that andit was nasty, everyone did.
And then we stopped a little bitlater on and suddenly I noticed
that I was parking the car andevery time I was maneuvering it
and turning the steering wheelto the left, I could hear this
like groaning oh no, and that,just that, got in my head a
(34:34):
little bit.
It didn't.
I don't think it felt anydifferent, but I must confess
that on the subsequent days Ithere were times where I just
thought I don't know what'sgoing on there and it and it
kind of just mess with myconfidence in the front end of
the car a little bit.
So one road that we love.
I just sort of sat at the backand trundled along, just not
(34:55):
wanting to weight it up too much.
To be honest, I think it wasjust a bushing or a rubber or
something, so I don't think itactually was anything to be
worried about, but it wasplaying on my mind for the
remainder of the trip,unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
And have you had it checked out since, or it's sort
of gone away?
Speaker 1 (35:12):
well, yeah, so no.
So I I had, uh, I I got home,took the left front wheel off to
have a look and there's a,there's a rubber boot that goes
over the cv joint and I couldsee that that boot was torn and
I could actually grab it, pushit in and out and it would make
the exact noise, right.
(35:32):
So I'm like, oh, that's all itwas.
So I took it to my friends atNine Auto.
They replaced that, that was noproblem, got the car back and I
was happy.
But I didn't listen for whetheror not it was still doing it or
not, because I was so convincedthat I'd identified the cause.
And then, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed it was actually
(35:52):
still doing it and it was doingit consistently every time I got
in the car and I couldn't workout what it was.
So I took it back to Nine Autoand the day I took it to them I
get in the car that morning it'snot doing it and I'm like, of
course it's not, of course it'snot.
So I take it to them and I saidI said, listen, good luck
diagnosing it, because forwhatever reason, sod's law, it's
(36:16):
not actually doing it today.
So they've gone over it top tobottom, gone over everything on
the front end.
There's nothing they can see oridentify that would do it.
I I'm not surprised by that.
I think it's virtuallyimpossible to diagnose something
like that if you can't evenhear it.
Right, uh, so anyway, um, we'lljust uh, I'll just keep driving
(36:38):
it till a wheel comes off midcorner.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Well, so you said earlier that you know.
I mean, it's been severalmonths since we recorded the
last pod and that was with Tommyin November.
Ish, um, the world has changeda lot since then.
But there's been quite a lot ofmovement and things happening
in the Porsche world, the 992.2,you know, electric vehicles
here and there, maybe actually areverse slight reverse in
(37:05):
policy on some of the EVs.
But before we get into that,what I've got to ask you is have
you looked at any of the carsrecently?
Are you still as in love withLittle Green and committed to
her or him as you have been?
Because when these things startto happen in the Porsche world,
like the 992.2, I don't want a992.2.
But for whatever reason, in thelast couple of weeks I've been
(37:28):
thinking, well, maybe I'll goand see what's out there.
Couple of weeks I've beenthinking, well, maybe I'll go
and see what's out there.
These other people are gettingnew cars.
Maybe there's something in myfuture, but there isn't going to
be.
But like what about you?
Speaker 1 (37:42):
oh no, look, always looking.
I I'm definitely I'm in thisspace at the moment, where
little green is is is occupyinga space in my world again of I
will never let that car go.
Yeah, sometimes I vacillate onthat, but I just can't see that
happening.
I agree with you.
(38:03):
So two things.
First of all, when you look atpricing on second gen 992s,
second gen 992s I, I just can'tsee value in those cars versus
buying something else.
You know, for us something likea gts.
Yeah, I've seen the reviews onthe new gts.
It looks amazing.
(38:25):
You know I watched lee's I, Iwatched catchpole and you know
they're all talking about howgreat it sounds, how incredibly
well that hybrid system works interms of delivering power.
It doesn't.
You know, there's no turbo laganymore.
It doesn't feel like a hybrid.
I love it all, but for us herethat car's close to half a
(38:49):
million bucks, bloody hell.
And here's the thing right.
For half a million bucks Icould theoretically get a 992
GT3 for less than half a millionbucks.
Oh, really bring that up is?
(39:19):
I recently had a ride in a firstgen 992 GT3 touring Australian
70th anniversary special edition, which is a special edition car
that really just has some aslightly different color, I
think, and some badges on it.
But I got this ride, not justout on the street, but actually
this dude, john, who came on adrive with us, great guy, and I
chased him up Mount Donabuang,which is a stunning road, and we
got to the top of the hill andI said, hey, john, how about you
(39:42):
take me for a run back down thehill?
And I'm a terrible passenger,right, I hate being a passenger,
but going in this GT3 touringback down the hill and then
obviously back up to the topagain, honestly, man, the
difference between.
I didn't quite realise thedifference between a GT3 and a
(40:04):
regular Carrera.
It is such a differentexperience.
Every single sense was justsynapses popping.
You know, just, I'm sittingthere, the sound, the brakes,
the acceleration, the cornering,the turn in all of these things
(40:24):
just absolutely blowing my mind.
And so the idea that I would goand buy a brand new or near new
carrera s versus a couple ofyears old gt3, or even, you know
, my, the dream is still asecond gen 991 gt3.
That me too.
Yeah, yeah, that's the, that'sthe car for me, yeah yeah, that
(40:48):
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
and uh, this this summer is hopefully the summer
I'm gonna to get to driveChris's GT3 Touring.
I've been giving him shitrecently, actually because I
still haven't yet got behind thewheel of that, but you know, if
I was in his shoes looking atme, I probably wouldn't want me
driving that car anyway.
So he's completely forgiven.
What's he done to that?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
car.
What mods has he done to thatcar?
Speaker 2 (41:13):
anything, um, yeah, I mean, he's not not too many,
doesn't need much right likewell, that's the thing straight
out of the box he did a bunch ofmods on his, on his 991.1 turbo
and they were, all you know,very tasteful and really cool.
So far on the touring here, um,he's installed the sole x pipe
and he really or the or the xpipe delete right, basically is
(41:34):
what it is muffler delete, um,and he's really happy with that.
He's got a numeric shifterwaiting to go in.
Oh cool, um, he's playingaround with the idea of um
getting some new wheels, likepainted wheels, to go with the
car and then he's also playingaround the idea of getting like
a racing livery and youmentioned that earlier about
(41:54):
your friend, yeah, puttingputting one on that car before.
Chris has got the idea of it,not the martini stripes, but you
know the liveries thatessentially they're very uniform
and they go front to back andthey, you know they sort of
deviate in the middle.
They go across the doors.
Even a couple of differentshades of color change as you
get to the back, kind of likethe RSR.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
You know he's been playing around with a couple of
different designs there and hegot a quote from a local shop
the other day.
They wanted like nine grand toput on a racing livery and they
said we'll throw in free ceramiccoating afterwards.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Well, actually he's already got, you know, a $1,500
ceramic coating job on.
So to do that, they've got toscrub off $1,500 from his car,
basically, and then put thelivery on and they'll put it
back on for free, I mean, andsomething that's going to be
temporary.
Anyway, long story short, he'sgot some decals online and this
(42:51):
summer he's going to try andhave a go doing them himself,
and I've got nothing but respectand also dread and fear for him
doing it, because the timesI've tried to put decals on well
, didn't they blow?
off in the wind those did thosedid um, but uh, no, just like
doing the porsche door decalsthat I've got now.
I tried to do those first.
I followed all the instructionsfrom all the YouTube videos.
(43:15):
You know the lubrication, thesqueegee, blah, blah, blah.
Could not, for the life of me,get rid of the bubbles, just
couldn't do it.
And imagine putting those notonly all over your car but on a
GT3 Touring.
I mean, if I put them on myCarrera, like I did the Yellow
Stripes, and they were a fuck up, I just pulled them off right
there and then, before Cars andCoffee, I couldn't care less.
(43:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But if that had been a GT3Touring with nine grand's worth
of livery on, oh my God, forgetit.
No, no, not doing that, yeahabsolutely not.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
So you asked me the question, I'll put it back to
you.
What me the question?
I'll I'll put it back to you.
What about you?
Are you thinking, maybe,something in the future?
What's, what's it?
What are your plans?
Look like well, or hopes anddreams, maybe?
Speaker 2 (43:59):
well hopes and dreams .
In all seriousness, the more Idrive this 991.2, the more I am
just like confident that it isthe car for me, unless a 991.2
gt3 touring or a a GT3 drops outof the air and arrives at my
door.
I'm not going to be getting ridof it anytime soon.
But the new owner of Blueycontacted me recently.
(44:21):
So I sold Bluey just over ayear and a half ago at auction.
It went to an owner on the EastCoast.
That owner, a year or so later,having tracked it, has now sold
it on to somebody else at thetrack and that owner got in
touch with me.
And just the fact that he gotback in touch with me and I was
talking about bluey andreminiscing about bluey, I half
(44:43):
wondered if he was going tooffer to sell it back to me.
Right, honestly, I might betempted to buy Blurry back or
get another 996 or an older carto do you know for another
project.
Yeah, but it's I mean, ofcourse it's a money thing, but
it's more a practicality ofspace.
(45:04):
Yeah, I've got a three cargarage, which now I've got a
lift in it it's really a two cargarage.
Yeah, you can park the two SUVsside by side in the two-car
carriage.
Yeah, you can park the two suvsside by side in the two-car
space but you can't really openthe doors anymore, so I park my
kind on the street or on thedriveway.
But I'm really half seriouslythinking about a garage condo,
one of those, yeah, off off-sitespecial condos.
(45:27):
I can put a loft in there, Ican watch tv, I can work you
know, because I work from homeand down below the loft is
enough stall space for maybethree or four cars, and if that
is the case then maybe another996 project or something similar
will be in my future.
But as far as an expensivepurchase on a you know, a
Touring or a GT3 or what haveyou, that's not coming anytime
(45:49):
soon.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
It's interesting the idea of buying back a car you've
had before, isn't it because it, you know, there's such a
nostalgia there, such a desireto to relive it.
You know, it's like gettingback together with an ex um.
Yeah, I think that's what it isI wonder.
I I wonder if it would deliveror not, or or if you'd just get
it back and be like, yeah,that's right, I had my time in
(46:16):
this and I moved it on for areason.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
If my ex had, you know, traveled the world and
shagged a hundred strangers, Iprobably wouldn't be too excited
about getting back togetherwith her.
But if my ex had just been to ayoga retreat for a few months
and had come back in bettershape, maybe I would be tempted
to give it another go.
Ruthie, if you're listening,I'm sorry it's taking this, oh
(46:45):
goodness, uh needs.
I don't know.
I think, um, it would depend onthe condition, of course, but I
wouldn't be interested inbuying back any of my other cars
, apart from the 997.1.
That still holds a reallyspecial place in my heart and I
know the owner of that one aswell and he's been taking great
(47:06):
care of it, and he took mylobster claw wheels off.
But apart from that, it's stillexactly the same.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
I love lobster claws on a 997.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Michael Bath pulls it off.
I love them.
He's one of yours.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Lobster claws on a 997, that's perfection to me.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
I just think they're such a oh you like no, I love
them, I love them.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
I think they're such a great wheel.
I hate seeing them on anythingelse.
Like you see, people put themon like a 996.
I always think that looks weird.
But yeah, on a 997, I, I, I,absolutely love it.
Do you know what?
I'm the same with my GT4.
That car was, yeah, I had tohad to move it on to to use the
money for other things.
So I have I've got unfinishedbusiness loved that car.
(47:50):
It was such a good thing.
So, yeah, I would take that carback, Although, do you know
what?
No, I won't say that I wasgoing to say something
disparaging about the guy whobought it.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Let's just say that wasn't the most enjoyable sale.
You're right with your big golfhead.
Excuse me while I take a sipfrom my big gulp.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Do we want to take a break?
Do you need to go to thebathroom?
Anything else you need to getdone.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
After that big boy, I might need to go for a slash in
a few minutes.
I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Hey, so listen.
When I sent you the show notes,which you suggested I didn't, I
was really worried that theagenda was a bit scant, but
thankfully we've managed to fillsome time.
I do want to get on the videoof the week, though.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yeah, yeah, let's do it, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
So there's a dude named Stefan Merkel who's
launched this channel, soulDrives.
I don't think it's been runningthat long on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
I've never come across it before, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
So I've seen his videos for the last, uh,
probably six months and you knowit looks to me there's, I'd say
, reasonably clear influencefrom, from people such as cars
with luke.
But yeah, I love his style.
You know he really benefits,obviously, as luke does and and
other content creators do whoare based in Europe.
(49:12):
You know really benefits fromthe scenery.
You know most of his videos arefilmed in the Black Forest in
Germany.
I mean, fuck even the name theBlack Forest.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
Come on, I was going to say I mean, we've said this
before the setting makes such adifference for these videos.
We've said this before thesetting makes such a difference
for these videos.
Yeah, I'm I'm kind of temptedto actually recreate the first
30 seconds or a minute of thatvideo, driving around the frozen
tundra of minneapolis with allthe same shots and just see
(49:44):
which one is more visuallyappealing, because I can drive
around a corner, I can, I candrive in a straight line and
capture the audio on the, butwith the trees and the moss and
the, the atmosphere, yeah, yeah,that's completely different.
Yeah, it's not taken away fromthe video or the car.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
No, no, no, no, no, god, no, I agree.
And and this the scenery is is,yes, a stunning backdrop, but
his cinematography's choice ofcomposition etc.
I'm really a big fan of.
I also really like his style.
He just it's like he drivesalong in the car with the camera
on and occasionally remembersthat he needs to talk to you.
(50:21):
It's like you're just sittingin there as a, as a passenger,
and what I think he has donereally well in this video.
So the video is him driving a992 GT3 PDK through the Black
Forest on a reasonably wet,misty day.
It's so nice, it looks so goodand he's done a really great job
(50:41):
.
In the back end of the video,where it's just basically in-car
footage of him driving, he doesa great job of capturing the
sound but also the sense ofspeed that you feel.
He doesn't look like he'sdriving, um, in an irresponsible
way.
He's.
He's blurred out the the speedoin in in some of the footage.
(51:01):
So obviously he may or may notbe fracturing a speed law or two
, but he doesn't look like he'sdriving.
He's not being an idiot, right,he's, he's just on a spirited
drive yeah, but you really get asense of it.
You get it.
That's to me.
I was watching it thinking,yeah, that's kind of what it
feels like to me when I drive inthe twisties.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
It feels like I'm pushing on yeah, yeah,
definitely, and you knowwatching it again here as we, as
we talk.
He's definitely ripping poorold luke off.
I mean it's, it's basicallyyeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
It's basically yeah, there's influence there, there's
influence there.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
There's a shot of him in a gorgeous car in a gorgeous
forest and the footage is ofhim walking around the car
taking photos with a giant DSLR.
I mean, the only thing thatcouldn't be more cars with Luke
is if there was an espressostore in the background handing
out coffee.
Hey, you know what?
(51:59):
We all wear our influences onour sleeve somewhat right.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Yeah, that's true, like it's funny, there's another
.
There's another content creatorI've seen in uh, out of
switzerland actually, who'sdriving things like the susten
pass, and uh in in uh second gen991 gt3s and a lot of his
footage is very reminiscent ofCars with Luke.
But you know what?
It's a good format and it works.
But I actually like Stefan.
I've watched a bunch of hisvideos.
(52:20):
Now, like I say, I really likehis way of speaking.
I like the way he talks aboutwhat he's doing.
He doesn't.
I like people who contentcreators who don't try and make
themselves look like heroes.
He's recently just dropped avideo with a 996 turbo and he
talks about driving it and howit lets him practice heel and
(52:43):
toe and you know he's likethere's one corner he comes into
he's like oh yeah, that wasactually a good one.
You know, he kind ofacknowledges that he's not the
greatest, he's not Chris Harris,and he's okay with it.
You know, I like ofacknowledges that he's not the
greatest, he's not chris harrisand that he's okay with it.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
You know, I like that , I like his stuff yeah, yeah,
well, I mean in all seriousness,there is nothing to that I can
say that should really detractfrom this video because it's,
it's excellent.
Yeah, it's really.
It's a really good video, uh,so yeah, I haven't come across
him before and I've just hit theold subscribe button, so, uh,
I'm looking forward to gettingmore content from him in my
inbox.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Yeah, yeah, and we will put a link to this video on
our Instagram.
If you remember where that is,it's Kerbin Canyon.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
You remember that podcast?
Speaker 1 (53:23):
It was getting quite a lot of hype.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
Last year it was Said the person making all the hype.
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
Well, my friend, this has been good yes yes, yes,
definitely.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
I'm looking forward to 2025.
I've got, I've got a plan.
I've got all sorts of plans.
I'm excited.
Are you excited?
Speaker 1 (53:39):
for the year ahead.
Do you know, I am, uh, really,really excited.
I got another rally coming upsoon.
Uh, I got hopefully some bigmoves going on this year.
This, this could be.
This could be a big year for me.
All right, my man all right.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Well, thank you everybody for checking in.
This has been carbon canyon,I've been james at auto amateur
and andy has been andy of lastrasp yeah, I still am, and uh,
we'll see you on the next onecheers guys, bye, take care.
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