In this episode, we're joined by two car aficionados, Magnus Walker and Alex Ross of Shark Works in Los Angeles, California. We talk about their cars, their love of cars, and the crazy things they've built in their cars. We also talk about the new car Magnus built, the crazy stuff he's built, and some of the craziest things he's done in his cars. Also, we talk about how to make your own 911s, and how you can build your own custom 911s. If you don't know who they are, then you're in for a treat, because they're two of the most badass car guys in the world! Subscribe to our channel! Subscribe on iTunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Rate, review, and subscribe to our new weekly car podcast, Car and Driver. Enjoy this episode and spread the word to your friends about the podcast! Cheers, EJ & Rory. See you next week for the next episode of the Car & Driver Podcast! See linktr.ee/caranddriverpodcast Subscribe? Subscribe? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts! And don't forget to rate, comment, review and subscribe on your favorite streaming platform so you can be notified when a new episode is released! next week we'll be picking a new car and getting exclusive ad-free version of the podcast next week! Thanks again for listening to the podcast, Rory and Rory are looking out for new episodes! Ralden McElroy Enjoy, Rory McEl Dorian Thanks, Rory, Ej and Ej - The Car and Rory, The Car And Driver Podcast - EJ, and EJ is & Ej is . Thank you, Rory Ej & Rory - Thank you for listening, Rory & EJ (and EJ - , Ej, and Eredivisio Rachael is a very cool podcast, and much more! - Vayde, Ralph, Rachit, and Alex, Raldee, and Rachie, - P.A. - Thanks for listening? - Tom, Raffy, and Alyssa, and so on and so much so much love, R.J. & Alex, etc., etc., R.M.
00:00:05.000We're live with two fucking psychopathic car fanatics here in the lovely valley of Los Angeles.
00:00:13.000Magnus Walker and, of course, my friend Alex Ross from Shark Works, who I drove his car yesterday.
00:00:19.000I know you've driven his new creation.
00:00:22.000That was, without a doubt, the scariest car I've ever driven.
00:00:25.000It wasn't the best environment for it, because it was on the canyons, and it's got so much power, you can't really use it on those canyons, because it's just so, by the time you hit the gas, you're hitting the brakes.
00:00:36.000Like, you hit the gas, it's like something around 800 horsepower.
00:00:39.000Around there, yep, give or take, depending what gas you use.
00:01:13.000Well, officially we saw 147 somewhere yesterday and we were not out of fourth gear.
00:01:18.000So it's probably got to be close to 200. Oh, it goes over 200. Actually, the way that kit works, it's already, just in a turbo car, it already does about 202 in the mile.
00:01:29.000So in a lighter two-wheel drive car, it's above that.
00:01:33.000I mean, it'll trap 140 in the quarter easy.
00:01:35.000It's like a, it does everything, you know?
00:01:37.000You know, there's always this thing about cars where people always want to add more power.
00:01:41.000And as you guys both know, we're in this weird horsepower war now in the world where every year cars have to, if you have a car that makes 400 horsepower, next year it's got to at least make a little more.
00:01:53.000Yeah, 400 horsepower is like a Camry right now, right?
00:02:08.000I describe it as like Mad Max meets Burning Man on steroids, and it's essentially a DIY drift fest, but essentially these guys, 800 to 1,000 horsepower in a Volvo wagon, and they're drifting sideways around the whole track.
00:02:22.000So yeah, the days of 400 horsepower sort of being a benchmark are gone, but I'm sort of the opposite.
00:02:29.000Yeah, well that's why I thought it was interesting that you take these really cool, old classic 911s, and if you haven't seen the documentary, Urban Outlaw, you gotta check it out.
00:03:26.000But your documentary about those old classic 911s and you rebuild them and add your own touches to them.
00:03:35.000But your cars, you're working with some of them less than 200 horsepower.
00:03:39.000Yeah, I mean, most of my cars are small displays, you know, for those that don't know my collections, basically early 911s from 64 through 73, you know, and that really just covers two litre up to 2.4.
00:03:50.000Unlike this mad dog and Englishman right here, Alex, where, you know, too much is never enough.
00:03:55.000My background was sort of the opposite, you know.
00:03:57.000It was more the sort of giant killer trying to chase down the cars with twice as much power.
00:04:02.000It was, to me, a bit more exciting rather than just sort of, you know, flooring it in a straight line.
00:04:07.000And you can still get a lot done if a car's set up pretty well, because 277, that's a car I've tracked on and off for 12 years, done a lot of club racing stuff, and it's so dialed in that 220 horsepower is pretty usable in a car that only weighs, let's say, 2250. Weight is such a key thing.
00:05:02.000It's not just traction, it's a stability management.
00:05:04.000It was the first time on a 997 that it had, well, on a GT car.
00:05:09.000So your car, being an 07, 08 Mark 1, it actually has a more simple traction control system that you can turn off, but it doesn't have stability management like the GT2. So it actually has two buttons.
00:05:24.000One is, you know, are you fucking nuts?
00:05:27.000And are you gonna fucking die right now?
00:05:30.000It says that on the button or it just says pass them or something?
00:05:32.000It says, like, SC plus TC equals death, right?
00:05:36.000It doesn't even tell you what those things are when you buy it.
00:05:39.000This orange light comes on, you know, and, yeah, you know it's sort of like...
00:05:43.000It gives you a chime as if you've got a problem with your engine.
00:05:46.000You know, that same, like if you have a check engine light on a car, you know, it's got this ding and you're like, you know, you're driving and you have this like, you know, orange amber, you know, warning sign.
00:06:25.000And most people aren't aware of how much computer-generated stuff is going on behind the scenes of a lot of these modern, high-powered horse cars.
00:06:34.000Like, I got to drive the Challenger Hellcat recently.
00:06:38.000Even though it's 707 horsepower, it's very manageable when you're driving it around because they have all this stuff going on behind the scenes.
00:07:04.000You don't let your valet guy park your car, do you?
00:07:07.000Yeah, but if you leave a valet guy with a 500 horsepower car, he could kill himself for wrapping around a tree just as easily as he can in a 700 horsepower car.
00:07:36.000Yeah, it's probably just a throttle map controller and obviously it doesn't allow you to dig deeper and go higher up to 700. There's a lot of rev limitations too.
00:07:50.000Even when you just rev the car up just to have some fun with it.
00:08:04.000I've never let any valet touch my GT3. Well, I had a valet key with one of the first cars I had, which was, you know, like, at the end of 99, it was a supercharged Jaguar XKR. And it was a convertible.
00:10:00.000It's like being in the 818 or 213. I'm a 213 guy.
00:10:03.000There's the South, and then there's the North.
00:10:05.000I grew up in the ritzy cool part, which is the South.
00:10:08.000That was the grim northern steel town, Sheffield.
00:10:10.000But even in the South, you know, if you said, you know, to your school counselor or career person, you know, I want to be a fucking astronaut, they'd be like, tone it down a bit, you know, or I want to be a baker.
00:11:34.000But I think the point I was making is England is a sort of class divided country, whereas coming to America for me at 19, you could sort of do whatever you want.
00:11:42.000Yeah, but even class divided, even in the South, I mean, when you come from England, I mean, let's face it, we don't have much of a space program.
00:11:49.000We don't have, I mean, you know, no career person is going to tell you.
00:14:28.000Imagine going to the biggest, you know, gaming magazines or whatever, if you're a nerd.
00:14:33.000Gaming magazines and PC magazines back in the 90s and saying, hey, there's this really cool new technology that I'm playing with, and it's sort of early on, I know, but it's going to make all these video games better.
00:14:45.000And then, you know, the editor-in-chief, you know, who's been there since, you know, 1985 just goes, no, that's not going to fucking work.
00:14:52.000And so you've got nowhere to, like, express, you know, something cool and new.
00:14:56.000So, yeah, the Internet was pretty freaking amazing for me.
00:14:58.000You know, I just threw it up there, and then people start reading it, and...
00:15:02.000You know, then what's funny is that same company, the publishing company, tried to buy my website like fucking four years later and I said, nah.
00:15:11.000We're seeing something similar in America where the Midwest and there's a lot of parts of this country that don't have urban centers and don't have, you There's a lot of people that are there that have, like, really limited ideas of how people should act, how people should dress, what people should do,
00:16:36.000But it is amazing that the internet offers up all these opportunities, and the internet is essentially how I found out about both you guys.
00:16:43.000I found out about you because of the Urban Outlaw documentary, which is, look, how else would you have ever watched that documentary if it wasn't for the internet?
00:17:10.000It's the sort of classic Porsche go-to online forum and parts supply place.
00:17:16.000I had a thread going there called Porsche Collection Out of Control Hobby.
00:17:20.000And to me, it was a Canadian film director who was sort of dissatisfied with doing Bud Light commercials.
00:17:26.000And more importantly, he was a Porsche owner.
00:17:28.000And sort of connected with my story and figured maybe there's a little bit more to it than had been told through my post.
00:17:34.000And talking of the Internet, shot me an email, and a couple of emails later, we had a sort of online verbal handshake, and he flew down on his frequent flying miles to L.A. Hired a sort of very talented crew for nothing.
00:17:47.000And from my point of view, it was like, what's the worst that can happen here?
00:17:50.000I'm going to drive around for four days and get some great footage.
00:17:53.000We didn't know what was going to happen with that film.
00:17:56.000You know, and we released a trailer, probably...
00:18:15.000It's amazing how global that thing became, because I think people connected to the story.
00:18:22.000You know, the film Urban Outlaw is not purely about Porsche.
00:18:25.000It's about my story of following my dream, which everyone can relate to.
00:18:29.000And we touched on it a little bit growing up in England and then coming to America as a 19-year-old Not knowing anybody, but just sort of following your passion.
00:18:39.000And that's ultimately the great thing about America.
00:18:41.000And I think that's what Tamir captured in the film Urban Outlaw was my sort of spirit, which is a common spirit of trying to follow your dreams and do what it is you like to do without taking no for an answer.
00:18:53.000And the past two years since that film came out, It's just been a whirlwind of travel for me and meeting great people.
00:18:59.000And I've realized this sort of common bond with all car guys.
00:19:02.000It doesn't matter whether you're driving an 800-horsepower GT2 or building a VW in your backyard or you're a Mopar guy.
00:19:10.000We all share that same common bond of Loving to tinker with cars, getting out and driving and basically trying to express yourself through the styling of the car and the passion of the car and everything that evolves.
00:19:23.000And it is a language, you know, I say Porsche is a language, but I think all car guys share that same common bond.
00:19:29.000And I think that's the connection why people sort of related to the film.
00:19:32.000Well, your passion and your enthusiasm is really addictive.
00:19:36.000And that's one of the things I love about people.
00:19:38.000I watched a documentary recently, a short piece, on a guy who makes knives.
00:20:08.000He used to have a regular job, and then I think his company's called Brooklyn Cut, and he just started, like, you know, he was like in a funk, and he started making knives almost as a hobby, and then it became his job.
00:20:20.000But as he's making these knives, it's like you're really interested in the craftsmanship and his passion and enthusiasm.
00:20:33.000It's pretty fucking cool to see someone that's just, you know, he's obviously, that's his life and passion and he's putting everything into it.
00:20:41.000I think passion goes further than street smart, than book smart.
00:20:45.000So I often describe myself as a street smart guy because I left school early without a lot of education.
00:20:50.000You were talking earlier on about the path people go down where they're in school, university, college, you know.
00:20:56.000They come out when they're 22, 23, and they've got no idea what they want to do, but they've got all these degrees in education, and then sometimes they just sort of float around.
00:21:05.000For me, it was the complete opposite, but just always trying to enjoy life and find things that you enjoy doing.
00:21:12.000You know, it's like the guy with the knives, you know, turns what seems to be a hobby passion into what sounds like a pretty successful business.
00:21:19.000I mean, when I came over here in 98, I didn't even have a driver license.
00:23:02.000You know, instead of having like 30% throttle or a 3 out of 10 on the volume knob, you know, he was more at 7 or 8. And he's like, yeah, this needs some time, you know?
00:23:13.000And yeah, so I left it with him for a month.
00:23:15.000It must be something that you also have to get accustomed to when you're coming from these cars that are essentially most of your cars are somewhere around 200 horsepower.
00:23:23.000And then all of a sudden you're driving I mean, that thing's almost got four times the amount of power, so I'm used to sort of getting in these 277 type cars and you just keep your fuck planet all the time.
00:23:33.000I call them flat fuck cars where pedal to the metal is sort of my slogan.
00:23:37.000GT2 with almost 800 horsepower, you can't do that.
00:23:42.000Yeah, well, gradual pedal to the metal, you know, to me, it's a lot about variety, and the challenge with that car is trying to get comfortable with it, where you feel confident, where you can push it more and more, and, you know, brake later, get on the gas earlier type of thing.
00:23:55.000And it's a challenge to be able to modulate and try and get the most out of that car.
00:23:59.000The flip side to it is, you know, driving around town under 4,000 RPM is Pretty docile, just like any other car.
00:24:07.000But again, it's the whole passion thing.
00:24:09.000I'm addicted to his passion, basically.
00:24:11.000From the first time I met him, really it was about a year ago with the blue car, to the point where I'm crazy enough, I guess some people think, to just go, hey man, can I leave the car with you for a month?
00:24:23.000Some guy that's got a video like that up in the canyons.
00:24:26.000Well, not only that, you're leaving a car where it's one of one and a modified one of one, but essentially one of 200 that Porsche ever built.
00:24:35.000But I couldn't think of anything better.
00:24:36.000Like, I'm not going to bring a, you know, I'm not going to bring a dolled up.
00:24:39.000You see, for me to clarify, I've owned a lot of early 911s, a lot of them.
00:24:44.000But my collection's my own collection.
00:24:47.000I think there's a bit of this misinterpretation that people think I'm a tuning shop or a performance shop building customer cars.
00:24:55.000I get these emails all the time from guys wanting me to build cars for them or can they drop their car off and I've had quite a few people approach me wanting to do collaborations with other tuners.
00:25:07.000So, you know, just to clarify, I'm a collector and I like to get out and drive.
00:25:12.000I've helped my buddies out occasionally.
00:25:14.000So when Alex approached me with the car and just sort of left it and he gave me the classic line, like what I think is going to become the all-time classic line for me, he goes, just treat it as if it was your own car and do whatever you want to do with it.
00:25:28.000You know, so now I'm down with what I call OPP, other people's Porsches.
00:25:33.000You know, for me, this was just a real fun collaboration to be able to put my sort of artistic, stylistic interpretation of the 60s and 70s sport purpose era onto a new car, which is something that hasn't really been done.
00:25:47.000You know, no one's really took that 60s, 70s styling and put it on a new car.
00:25:51.000And the Porsche world is a little bit black and white, in a sense, just to sort of be real broad.
00:25:57.000You're either an air-cooled guy or you're a water-cooled guy.
00:26:00.000You know, in a generic term, the two don't necessarily mix, even though they really do.
00:26:04.000For folks who don't know what we're talking about, just explain the era.
00:26:06.000This is not a Porsche forum we're on right here.
00:26:19.000And when that happened, all Porsche guys that were fanatics for 30, 40 years Let's start at the beginning.
00:26:26.000The 911 came out in 1964 and was air-cooled, so we'll start there.
00:26:30.000We'll start there, all the way up to 98. Literally, people that were Porsche guys wanted to jump off a cliff because they thought it was over because Porsche announced they're going to water-cooled, and they were just like, that's the end of Porsche.
00:26:42.000And they went to water-cooled because it was the only way to really get more horsepower.
00:26:45.000That, and I think it's cheaper to, you know, in a way, it's cheaper to mass-produce because when they were air-cooled, they were making fewer cars.
00:28:46.000Okay, that was a really common problem.
00:28:48.000If you looked at it, you would laugh because you're thinking like, A hundred and, you know, whatever, $30,000 car, and it's got this plastic piece of shite, basically, linking the floppy, you know, shifter to the cables on the transmission,
00:29:04.000and that thing would break on cars from 97, because it's the same part in a bog-standard boxer to a turbo, and yeah, we always had to make, like, a billet part for the early cars.
00:29:14.000Oh, so you made something much stronger.
00:30:54.000That when you drive a car like that on a crazy, windy canyon road with no one anywhere near, that's when you really understand what those cars are all about.
00:32:25.000My wife and I took a UK tour right before Christmas.
00:32:29.000We did an event with Porsche in London and then went to see my mum in Sheffield and then went up to see my sister who lives in Aberdeen, Scotland.
00:32:39.000So, you know, I'm a big fan of messing up interiors in cars, but Porsche had been putting plaid interiors or Tartan interiors in these cars since the 70s.
00:33:00.000You know, they pull it up and show their willies or their arse, that thing.
00:33:02.000I was just there for the tartan fabric, but I managed to find this tartan that is almost the same colours that are on the car, so I couldn't resist just putting the inserts into the seat just to give it a little bit more character on the inside as well.
00:33:15.000I mean, when you open it, you just go...
00:33:17.000Doesn't make it drive any better, but it just sort of looks like it's got a little bit more style and personality.
00:33:42.000I like those three color combos, you know, and just sort of trifecta, I call it.
00:33:46.000And like I say, it's an acquired taste, but it's sort of a late 60s, early 70s, race-inspired livery interpreted onto a new car, which is, I don't think you'll see another car like that out there on the road.
00:33:57.000And you know, you see the privateer teams, you know, from the 70s, 80s.
00:34:02.000That to me is, when I see that car going down, You know, as opposed to just being like a stealthy white 911 with a sort of big wing on it.
00:34:10.000That to me is the glory days of Porsche, because 911 came out in 64, they won Le Mans in 1970, so that first 10 years, you know, Porsche just started winning everything in the 911, 917, and that's just like the iconic sort of era, the beginning of everything.
00:34:26.000It's become this automotive legend that has gone on for 50 years, and there's only two other cars that have been in production as long as the 911, the Corvette, which got there 10 years before.
00:34:36.000Yeah, I've got a 65. Well, you know what I'm talking about then.
00:35:11.000The 911, in a sense, is sort of a similar thing, and I think the owner and enthusiast of the two cars share that common bond of the cars are easy to sort of upgrade from a performance point of view, personalize them from an aesthetic point of view, and they've both been in continuous production For 50 years,
00:36:22.000And I think what this did for Ford, in a way, is bring a whole new fan into Ken Block's world and also the Ford world through this Mustang, which to me just looks like Darth Vader meets Mad Max on steroids.
00:36:35.000It's the baddest looking Mustang I've ever seen in my life.
00:36:36.000It's a 65. Look how And the fact that they chose a notchback, you know, a notchback as opposed to a fastback.
00:36:42.000Yeah, notchback and wide-ass fender flares.
00:40:01.000That's going to ruffle a lot of feathers because guys are going to go like you or 991 GT3 guys are going to go...
00:40:07.000How come I can't get a manual in 991 GT3? They just ripped the soul out of the GT3 program when they, you know, said it's PDK only.
00:40:15.000You know, I get that they have to compete with, you know, the Nissan GTR, the M3s, and all these cars that are basically, you know, automatic, and you just push a button and it does everything for you.
00:40:58.000Don't get me wrong, it's a great car for a first-time Porsche buyer, I suppose, but that's who's buying them, usually, and not the hardcore GT3. Well, it's rich guys who don't really know how to drive a manual.
00:41:08.000I have a friend who's wealthy who doesn't know how to drive a manual, and I go, listen, I go, rent a fucking car.
00:41:33.000That, to me, is the great thing about driving.
00:41:35.000I think, ultimately, it doesn't matter what car you drive, but what matters is being engaged and involved in that experience, which covers sight, sound, feel, touch, you know, two hands and two feet.
00:41:47.000You know, in the canyons, once you get bored, just all you would do is put, because you probably not even push buttons anymore, but you just push the gas and you're going around and it's like, okay, now what?
00:44:14.000And literally the entire country stopped as if it was a royal wedding, right?
00:44:19.000And the very first program was this thing called Countdown, which was like a game show where they'd pick letters and you'd go, I'd like a vowel, please, or I'd like a consonant, please.
00:44:30.000And they'd put it up and you'd sort of have to fill in the blanks.
00:44:33.000And they'd have celebrities and stuff and they'd go, okay, well, give me an A, give me a letter, and you'd make a word out of it.
00:44:41.000And that was the first program to launch Channel 4. And you're like...
00:45:16.000You know, my thing growing up was, I'm from Sheffield, so Sheffield was sort of, I portray it grim northern steel town, but it was also a great music town.
00:45:24.000You know, Joe Cocker, who recently passed away, was from Sheffield.
00:45:30.000But when I was a teenager, you know, late 70s, early 80s, Sheffield was known for its new wave bands, Human League, Heaven 17, ABC, Cabaret Voltaire.
00:45:39.000But the flip side to it was Def Leppard, Saxon, heavy metal music.
00:45:44.000So Sheffield's always had a great musical vibe.
00:45:47.000I guess the current pinup band from Sheffield's Arctic Monkeys, which are sort of really big and popular.
00:45:53.000These northern environment towns, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, I think they breed creativity because people are just looking for a way out, something different.
00:46:03.000Back then in the 70s, it was pretty depressed, steel mills closing down, coal mines closing down.
00:47:02.000So in London, and, you know, they were activists and they were thinking, well, nobody's taking us seriously, but we have something in common with these miners in the middle of Wales.
00:47:29.000But they are, you know, being beaten on a daily basis and, you know, just...
00:47:36.000We're penalized for being, you know, gay.
00:47:38.000And they're like, well, we have a lot in common with these coal miners right now.
00:47:42.000What we're going to do is we're going to form this coalition called Gays and Lesbians for Minors, you know, coalition.
00:47:49.000And we're going to raise money for them.
00:47:51.000And so what happened is, you know, they would raise money since all these miners were out of jobs and striking, you know, on the streets.
00:47:59.000So you can imagine in, you know, the 70s, sorry, in the 80s, the early 80s, you know, gay people on the streets going, hey, would you like to donate to the miners of Wales for gays and lesbians?
00:48:10.000You know, we're gays and lesbians, would you like to donate?
00:48:11.000And the kind of looks and things were like...
00:48:17.000So then, you know, they get all this money, and they end up actually getting a lot of money for these miners, and they go visit them in Wales.
00:48:24.000They get in a bang bus, basically, and go visit them.
00:48:28.000And when they get there, you know, you have to realize that, you know, these are coal miners.
00:48:33.000There's probably homosexuality there underneath, but...
00:51:04.000I remember that Top Gear episode where he's testing one of those weird-looking TVRs with the paint from the mid-early 2000s, and the windshield wiper actually just flies off.
00:51:33.000And then along with that, they listed the desire to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite sex and people who wear clothes of the opposite sex in order to experience temporary membership of the opposite sex.
00:52:42.000No, but she got kicked out of the former Soviet Union.
00:52:45.000I remember seeing that Fear Factory episode you did down at the American Apparel facility down there in downtown LA. Speaking of which, our t-shirts are made by them.
00:52:53.000And printed in Fremont by the same guys that make it for Tesla.
00:53:15.000You know, stores everywhere and, you know, all over the world.
00:53:18.000Well, it's all teenagers in their underwear and wood paneled in the basements.
00:53:22.000Well, the cool thing is actually about that company is that on the labels, you know, we can specify what we want.
00:53:29.000So, like, you know, that blue, that bright blue thing, you know, it's not that one, because that's a demo, but we're going to have labels that say, you know...
00:53:39.000This was made by, you know, people over the age of, you know, 12, you know, that didn't, you know, earn one cent a month, you know, it wasn't exploited, you know.
00:53:49.000Well, that's a whole big thing, fully vertical.
00:53:51.000They knit the fabric in L.A., they cut it, they sew it right there on Alameda and 6.3.
00:54:15.000Yeah, but see what happened, this is going back to the geeky thing, sorry, but when I, you know...
00:54:20.000Are we still talking about England and four channels?
00:54:21.000We're talking about whatever the fuck we're talking about.
00:54:23.000No, but when, so 1998, you know, I'm out of university, 97 actually, I'm out of university and I'm doing this website thing and I'm going to, you know what CES is right now?
00:55:21.000All they're doing is taking these things and boxing them, and there's like dust that thick on the equipment and on the tables, and you start to realize actually what they're doing is they're making it in China for way, way less.
00:55:32.000Sorry to break that, but it was disappointing.
00:55:34.000Oh, so they make them in China and they box it up.
00:55:36.000Yeah, but it looks like they're made in...
00:55:38.000So I was just saying, I hope it's not like that with those t-shirts.
00:55:50.000Well, I feel bad for, you know, 12-year-old kids or whatever in Honduras or wherever it is, you know, earning a dollar a month, you know, to work 20 hours a day to make a t-shirt that I can sell for, you know, whatever, 30 bucks.
00:56:23.000Oh, you couldn't have picked a better one.
00:56:25.000You know, I flew into New York, took a trailways bus from New York to Detroit, worked on a summer camp with kids, that was how I got to America in 1986, and then spent some time in Detroit, which looks great from Windsor if you go across the, you know, into Canada.
00:56:37.000Truth be told, as you would say, you didn't have your driver's license either, did you?
00:56:41.000No, no, I didn't drive in England either, you know, as a kid growing up.
00:56:43.000Nobody had, we couldn't afford one, first of all, that was our thing.
00:57:01.000I will say, though, just for the record, the first car I ever bought, I bought it here in L.A., passed my driver's test in L.A., I think in 1987 when I was 20, at the Santa Monica DMV in a 1977 Toyota Corolla 2TC that I paid 200 bucks for.
00:57:17.000So that was the very first car I owned.
00:57:19.000The second car was a Sob Turbo 900 SPG, and the third one was a 911. What do you guys feel as Englishmen living in America?
00:57:29.000Top Gear, the number one television show of all time when it comes to cars, but Jeremy Clarkson is pretty adamant about being like anti-Porsche.
00:57:39.000Yeah, he's known to be a bit of a knobhead about Porsches, and that's okay.
00:57:44.000He actually, there's this episode, I believe it's...
01:01:50.000No, Matt sort of got it towards the end of the day too, because at first he was like, holy shit, holy shit, this thing's like, you know, and then I said, just ease in, just ease in, and the more time you spend with that GT2, such as a month...
01:02:03.000Ease in pretty quick, because before we got to the Canyon, I was in the passenger seat when he was driving, and we did do the 147. Well, he's also like...
01:02:19.000Matt Ferrer is also one of those guys that really loves cars.
01:02:22.000When you're around him, it's the same sort of infectious sort of energy.
01:02:26.000When he's driving those cars in those videos, I mean, that's how I became friends with him, is watching his videos and then reaching out to him.
01:03:10.000I ran into him at the LA Auto Show not long ago, the opening day, and he just happened to be parking in the same spot underground at the convention center, but he pulled into the handicap zone.
01:03:19.000He didn't park there, but he pulled into there.
01:03:22.000Opened up the door and I took a photo and of course I had to put it up online and of course within like three minutes is all this hate of, why is that asshole parking in a handicapped zone in the DeLorean?
01:03:31.000It didn't take long for that to sort of get punchy.
01:03:34.000Mentally handicapped for owning a DeLorean, that's what it is.
01:06:26.000I got a good green card story when you're done.
01:06:28.000So I take the green card back to them, the original one, and then I'm supposed to come back in three months and pick up the second version of the green card.
01:06:36.000I don't get to the appointment on time because, you know, I'm supposed to make an appointment within six to nine months, and I'm so busy with SharkWorks that I don't.
01:06:46.000So I come there, the officer there, you know, eventually is like, hmm, well, we're never going to find it.
01:08:24.000Yeah, Karen's all upset because we're like, how long is this going to take?
01:08:27.000You go, well, you may have to stay here a week or two and go to the embassy and blah, blah, blah.
01:08:30.000Anyway, long story short, we got a 24-hour extension just to fly back into the States.
01:08:35.000Got sort of hammered when I came into LAX because, of course, they thought this was some Mickey Mouse 24-hour extension.
01:08:41.000But long story short, don't let your green card expire.
01:08:46.000In 2015, it's really hard to become a US citizen, right?
01:08:50.000It's much harder than it was back then.
01:08:52.000I think for a white English guy that has, or had a posh English accent, it's probably not as hard as it is for people of other ethnicities.
01:09:00.000You mean for a guy with a northern accent?
01:09:02.000No, I'm talking with a different skin color, a turban.
01:09:06.000You're saying it's all right if you're all white?
01:09:08.000Have you heard about the Turban Outlaw thing we're doing?
01:09:17.000Doesn't start in a corner shop, does it?
01:09:19.000No, the band corner shop, no, does not start in a corner shop.
01:09:22.000Have you ever thought about doing something like what Sanger's doing, but doing it with, like, the actual classic shape, you know, 1970s, late 1960s car, and, like, No, you know, I think I touched on that earlier on about I don't build customer cars.
01:09:39.000I know you don't, but goddamn what a demand there would be for your car.
01:09:42.000There's a demand there for sure, but you know, then it goes for me from being a hobby and a passion to a job and a business, which means responsibilities.
01:09:51.000It's like if you come to me and say, hey, I love your car, but...
01:09:57.000It might have some tweed on it, and it might be pumped up.
01:10:01.000All of a sudden, it's got your personality, which is fine.
01:10:04.000But then I'm sort of under the pressure, I believe, to make you happy, to build the car to your expectations, your timeline, your deadline.
01:11:26.000So I think from a story point of view, why I got a lot of sort of momentum was a couple of things.
01:11:31.000Timing, not looking like your typical Porsche guy.
01:11:33.000And also the cars that I build, instantly recognizable as 911s, but just slightly tweaked.
01:11:40.000You know, it's the little details that I think separate my builds from the countless other people building cars.
01:11:46.000And the one common thread between the fashion, the clothing, and the property and the filming that we do is just putting our own little style on it, which became personality.
01:11:54.000And for me, I never set out to say, okay, Here's the 1973 RSR that left the factory, the Porsche factory, and everyone that replicates that car just duplicates exactly what the factory did.
01:12:05.000Well, and I want to make this point, too, because a lot of people are going to ask me, how did this happen?
01:12:10.000You know, he hasn't made a single cent from, like, what happened is, you know, we sat down by the fireplace, had a love affair, and had a baby.
01:12:18.000You know, which is a GT2, Outlaw GT2. Oh, you mean you two together?
01:12:36.000Actually, the only thing he's gotten out of me was a 1-18th scale white GT2, which I just happened to send him the day I got the car.
01:12:45.000And the funny story is that Dan, who was here last time, him and I, the first day we got that GT2, we're like, Well, it's not as pretty or flashy or crazy as that blue and orange car.
01:13:53.000Yeah, it rained for a long time in LA. But I finally connected with the car, and then it just made sense to put my personality on that car.
01:13:59.000Because for me, this is not about money.
01:14:01.000I'm not making money off this collaboration.
01:14:03.000It was just a fun project that, wow, this is great.
01:14:06.000I've got this awesome car that I can keep for a little bit, hence the OPP, other people's Porsches.
01:14:13.000And I can do with it whatever I want to do.
01:14:15.000For me, it was really exciting to put my interpretation on a new car.
01:14:20.000I'm sort of moving forward in the Porsche years.
01:14:23.000I often talk about variety and wanting to experience more of what Porsche's got to offer.
01:14:28.000So for me, my original goal was having one of each year from 64 through 73, which covered short-wheelbase and long-wheelbase cars.
01:14:36.000Now you need one from 2007. No, my new goal now is to have one of every generation, the seven generations of Porsche, you know, through the G series into the 993, 964, 996, 997, 991. So I want to experience everything that Porsche has to offer in the 911 range so far.
01:14:58.000I've driven all those cars, but I've never owned them.
01:15:00.000Well, let me ask you about this, then.
01:15:02.000You really love those old cars, and one of the things you love about those old cars is the tactile feel that you get when, you know, you're dealing with a car that weighs 2,000-plus pounds.
01:16:54.000You know, and that's one of those things that unless you, you know, I've got really big bolts or really talented, I think you've got to grow into that.
01:17:01.000So to me, that's the challenge of trying to get the most out of that car.
01:17:05.000You know, and I've sort of been lucky through these guys to be able to drive various variations of the GT3. You know, I've driven in stock form.
01:17:16.000I've driven that GT2. This year, I got to drive a lot of my dream cars, the 911R. I drove a 74 RSR, but I drove three of Porsche's iconic super hyper cars, the 959, the Carrera GT, and the 918. And they all offer,
01:17:32.000I keep going back to variety because they all do the same thing differently.
01:17:36.000And that's sort of what's great about the GT2. It does the same thing, but it just delivers it in a different form.
01:17:43.000You know, and the challenge there is, truth be told, that car is done by 7,000 RPM. You're on the limiter, you're bouncing off the limiter at 6,800 RPM and it's done.
01:17:52.000Step into 277 that's got a quarter of the horsepower, that thing will rev over 8,000.
01:17:56.000Step into the GT3 3.9 or 4.1, those things go to, what, 86, 88?
01:18:03.000We're kind of just talking about numbers here, but what my point is is like there's two different schools of thought and two different philosophies that you're dealing with.
01:18:10.000You're dealing with, in one school of thought, the cars that you are famous for, which are these really lightweight cars that are very tactile and there's some sort of a strange character to those cars.
01:18:21.000Like even when that Urban Outlaw video, when you get into that silver car and you rev it and you're looking at the gauges, it has a feel to it that you just do not get from a modern car.
01:18:30.000But there is a, there is, I mean, you've admitted this too, there is like some level of connection between them.
01:18:40.000You know, it's a little heavier, it's a little more modern, it has a cup holder, but it's still got that, that's why I said the golden era is 2007 to 2011, those GT cars, they have, they're all manual.
01:18:51.000They still have that link to the real 911. That's why that car has gone up in value so much, you know, all the GT cars, because people that know, and there aren't many of them, unfortunately, and that like to drive, they get it, and they've had older cars, or they want older cars,
01:19:07.000you know, or their parents have had older cars, and they drive these new ones, and it's like, you know what?
01:19:12.000Okay, it does all that stuff a little more comfortably and has nav and all that shit, but it's still a 911. I think the GT3 up to what you've got, the 997, is the connection to what I've got from the 6s and 7s.
01:19:25.000Yeah, it's like a baby GT3 because that throttle response, the lightness, the way it feels the road, the way it turns in, it's back to that, I keep talking about it, the five senses, the connection, the sight, the sound, the feel, the smell.
01:19:43.000I'm trying to get a 996 GT3, so I think that's the most bang for the buck.
01:19:47.000I mean, truth be told, I've been collecting these early 911s for over 20 years when you could find them in auto trader.
01:19:54.000I bought 277 at the Pomona Swamp Meet in 1999, and it's the second Porsche I ever owned, and it's evolved into what's become, I think, the car that I'm most connected with.
01:20:06.000You know, all my memorable moments and everything you talk about, that tactile feel and the connection and sort of what I think to me got across in Urban Outlaw, the documentary, is it's a common thread that everyone relates to.
01:20:17.000You've always got your favorite car that you go back to.
01:20:19.000And I describe that being like my old favorite pair of beat-up jeans or your old shoes because you're just comfortable in it.
01:20:28.000And it's funny, you know, you spoke highly about Matt Raven about the car.
01:20:31.000You know, he got comfortable in that car.
01:20:34.000Within half a mile where, you know, he was pushing that car.
01:20:37.000So the limits are not that high where, yeah, the car's fast, but it's not GT2 fast where, you know, you're not going to get way over your head really quickly.
01:21:16.000That's my physical and mental workout is behind the seat of that car because nothing else matters when you're there.
01:21:23.000You're not thinking about what you might be pissed off about or something that's sort of bugging you.
01:21:27.000When you're behind that wheel, it is this sort of almost out-of-body sensory type of expression of man and machine on the open road in the simplest form.
01:21:46.000I think what they're dealing with is the difference between a modern commuting car and what you're driving, which is essentially like a ride.
01:23:31.000When I go surfing, I mean, there's better things to do with your time that are less risky, probably.
01:23:39.000Because it is kind of risky to do that.
01:23:41.000So driving a crazy, weird, low production car that doesn't make a lot of sense, it's challenging.
01:23:48.000But then, you know, why do people, you know, I mean, not to make it sound glamorous, but, you know, why do people bungee jump or why do they You know, I want to do something that's sort of challenging and takes time and it's rewarding.
01:24:01.000You know, you get one out of ten shifts correct.
01:24:04.000That's what Max is talking about, senses.
01:25:32.000And then finally my Motorola Razr died and I literally had no choice other than a real sort of throwaway crap burner phone or bought the iPhone.
01:25:40.000The ones for grandmas that only have three buttons?
01:25:51.000So barely had the iPhone two years and that's sort of how my life changed in two years was never on Facebook, wasn't on Well, he's still not on Twitter.
01:26:00.000Yeah, I'm trying to set him up with that.
01:26:03.000He's probably already got Magnus Walker.
01:26:17.000He abandoned his iPhone and went to a flip phone.
01:26:21.000He does all of his social media stuff either on a computer or not.
01:26:25.000He doesn't check his Twitter on his phone.
01:26:27.000He's like, I was getting too wrapped up and like I would be talking to someone and I go...
01:26:31.000Dude, I fell asleep last night on like literally that my iPhone hit my forehead three times and I finally gave up because I was like, what the fuck am I gonna post?
01:26:53.000There's something about iPhones that drag people in, right?
01:26:56.000There's something about being able to look at videos, and you're interacting with your phone.
01:27:01.000The interaction that you get with those old cars, the feel that you get, the addiction that you get to getting in those things is very different than the new cars.
01:27:09.000And is there, and I wanted to ask you this because you're the expert on those older cars, is there like a point where it crosses this line and it's not the same experience anymore?
01:27:19.000And was there like a sweet spot in the production of cars?
01:27:22.000Is there a spot where All the technological advances and all the advances in suspension, although they may allow you to get around a racetrack a little bit quicker, especially with like PDK transmissions with dual clutches working at the same time, they do allow you to get places faster.
01:27:39.000Is it missing all the stuff that gets people excited about cars?
01:27:44.000I mean, because I know that driving an automatic car is fun, it is satisfying, but I also know it's not as satisfying as shifting your own gears, as the feel that you're going to get from a car like yours.
01:27:57.000And I think that that's something that's missing.
01:28:00.000I think ultimately, moving forward, The manual may become a lost art, because you look at kids growing up today that don't know how to drive manual cars.
01:28:09.000So their point of reference is completely different.
01:28:13.000Most of us here, I think, learn driving a manual car.
01:28:16.000And everything you said is perfectly true, that it's the interaction between man and machine which gets you down the road differently in a manual than what it does in a new car, in a PDK or automatic.
01:28:28.000And as to trying to nail down a real answer to what is that sweet spot, I don't really know what the answer is to that question.
01:28:34.000I've driven almost every Porsche out there.
01:28:39.000I've driven the new Cayman, which is a phenomenal car.
01:28:43.000I've driven the 991 in manual and PDK. And the new manuals are not the same as the old manuals.
01:28:50.000It's hard to heel and toe the way the pedals are set up, especially if you've got ceramic brakes.
01:28:55.000Explain heel-toe to people who don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
01:28:58.000Well, it's sort of an odd thing when you're downshifting, you know, you want to be basically on the brake and ripping the throttle at the same time, doing it with one foot, so covering two pedals with one foot.
01:29:07.000And the early cars, it's really easy to sort of modulate the brake and the gas pedal.
01:29:12.000You know, I've often put little blocks of wood on the gas pedal to bring it further up, so when you're all the way down on the brake, you can just sort of squeeze the brake with your right toe.
01:29:21.000And roll over to the throttle to blip it, so you're matching the engine refs when you're downshifting.
01:29:27.000That essentially is what heel and toe is.
01:29:29.000It's a smoother transition between the gears.
01:29:32.000So as you're shifting gears, you're revving the engine at the same time.
01:29:42.000The early cars don't have that, but what these guys are doing is super throttle responsive lightweight flywheels.
01:29:47.000Yeah, lightweight components, it just makes it like...
01:29:49.000You know, in a new manual 991, it's a little bit different, because you've got those ceramic brakes that travel on the brake pedal.
01:29:55.000Let's say you're coming down Angelou's Crest Highway in fourth gear, you want to make a right or left-hand turn, you've got to go down, let's say, third or second, you've got to go down one or two gears, and you're all the way hard on the brakes.
01:30:07.000The travel difference between the brake pedal and the throttle on those new cars is almost too big to roll over in heel and toe.
01:30:13.000So, you know, they've sort of come around that with that Sport Plus mode where it automatically blips the throttle for you.
01:30:20.000So when I first got in the car, you know, I can get it where my foot's almost on a 45 degree angle, knees sideways, where I can roll off, you know, keep my foot on the brake but still modulate the throttle at the same time.
01:30:20.000That's what I wanted to ask you about.
01:30:35.000I'd blip, and then almost the exact same time, the computer would automatically blip the throttle to match the revs, assuming that Porsche thought most people don't know how to heel and toe.
01:30:45.000Now, the rev matching, they're doing that on new cars now.
01:30:49.000I think the Nissan 370 was one of the first cars to do it.
01:30:52.000Yeah, there's actually the newest Porsche, which is sort of known as the We're Sorry Edition Porsche for GT3 guys.
01:30:59.000What they did is, as I said, the 911 GT3 came out only in PDK. The GTS now has a proper manual transmission, not like the fake manual transmission with the 991. Well, it was actually, you could get a manual, a 7-speed 991 if you really,
01:31:16.000really tried, but it was essentially just a PDK box, that's all it was, with a freaking gear shifter.
01:34:33.000I got visited by BMW, I got visited by Volvo, I got visited by Bent, believe it or not, the guy from Bugatti, but yeah, other than Porsche, no one's ever loaned me cars.
01:36:10.000You talk to people at Porsche and they won't tell you anything about it.
01:36:13.000You know, it's essentially a Cayman GTSR on steroids with supposed GT3-esque performance in the mid-engined, already great handling Cayman package.
01:36:26.000Well, that's the thing about the Cayman.
01:36:28.000For people who aren't aware, 911s are a rear-engine car and there's certain inherent Flaws in having all the weight in the back of the car.
01:36:37.000And you move it forward to the middle for the Cayman.
01:36:39.000The Cayman, which is a mid-engine car, is better balanced, but they have purposely...
01:36:44.000Porsche has underpowered that car in order to keep the 911 at the top of the food chain.
01:36:49.000Yeah, it's always sort of been handicapped because, as we know, the 911's top dog, been around for 50 years.
01:36:55.000Essentially, the Cayman handling capabilities are really, really high.
01:36:59.000I mean, you can get in the Cayman, you know, and go fast really, really quick.
01:37:06.000For a week, and my favorite go-to road is Angelese Crest Highway.
01:37:09.000And I had two of them, manual and PDK. And I'm pretty comfortable in Angelese Crest Highway.
01:37:15.000I drive it all the time in 277. I was amazed at how much quicker it was, or I was, in the Cayman with less effort.
01:37:24.000So back to the original question, you know, the reward, you know, the payoff versus the effort put in.
01:37:30.000I'm quicker in the Cayman But the drive's not quite as rewarding, because I'm not quite as involved with it.
01:37:36.000We had the first year at Cayman S. So it's personality, really.
01:37:39.000Yeah, but we built the first year at Cayman S as a shop car, and then it got tracked a lot and went up through the canyons.
01:37:46.000And I'll say, it's an 06 Cayman S, and we added a bunch more power, lightweight flywheel, better suspension, better brakes, tried to make better seats, tried to make it like a canyon carver.
01:37:57.000It was easier to drive fast and it was also like anyone could get in it because it was just really well balanced and drive it fast.
01:38:05.000But it was missing, you know, the special engine, the whole connection, you know, the steering wasn't quite the same, the feel wasn't the same.
01:38:12.000I mean, it's really nice to have that engine over the back because it's always like tugging at you and you've got to think about it.
01:38:18.000Whereas when you're in the Cayman, you can just drive like an idiot.
01:38:37.000I mean, that's why 902 put power down.
01:38:40.000You are in that GT2. Well, yeah, 800 horsepower you're spinning, but car number 277 with a quarter of that, that power's just biting into the ground.
01:38:48.000And you can come out, you get a much better corner speed exit, you know?
01:38:51.000You know, which is why I'm still a believer in a sense of less is more, because you've got to put more in.
01:38:55.000I keep going back to rewarding experience.
01:38:57.000Well, that was what I was going to get to.
01:39:21.000I do see in my future a space in the garage for a newer Porsche 911. Probably some form of 996 or 997 GT3. But I also just said earlier on I want to get one of every generation.
01:39:36.000I also recently bought a 924. Let's talk about Porsche's unloved cars, 924. I bought a 1980 924 front-engine turbo.
01:39:46.000That was Porsche's first production front-engine water-cooled turbo.
01:39:49.000So my new goal is to have one of each of the three, let's call them, ugly duckling Porsches.
01:39:54.000924 944 and 928. 928's a weird one, huh?
01:39:59.000Yeah, I mean, you know, to me, it's just back to variety.
01:40:02.000It's like I've been so focused on early, early Porsches, and I've driven, you know, 40, almost 50 of my colors have been early Porsches.
01:40:10.000So I've sort of covered that base, you know, I've covered, I've got one of the first year, 1964, and I've driven the tail end, buck end, let's call it, the iconic 73 RS Carrera.
01:40:22.000And they all sort of drive, in a sense, Same but different is how I describe it.
01:40:27.000So, you know, now I'm back to variety.
01:40:29.000You know, what is more variety than a 924, a 944, and a 928?
01:41:30.000Obviously, people liking the cars, but my favorite sort of category of emails that I receive is from non-Porsche people that have Maybe seen Urban Outlaw, maybe followed my builds, and all of a sudden are being turned around from being Porsche haters into all of a sudden looking at Porsche a little bit differently.
01:42:26.000I believe he actually has a part, I met Jack over 12 years ago when he was first developing that car and it's gone through several phases and I remember giving him car number 277, ironically I had AC when I first got it and Jack Olsen was looking for an AC compressor and I actually gave him my compressor that I think is in that car.
01:42:46.000But cool guy and has really fine-tuned and developed that car.
01:42:50.000Spent a lot of time at Willow Springs.
01:42:52.000I think what you're getting at here, though, is pretty much every person you mention here with a Porsche is a wacky son of a bitch.
01:43:20.000And the modern car, which is 475 horsepower, PDK transmission, the automatic transmission, the whole deal, all the technological innovation, all the suspension and traction control, and a professional driver.
01:43:37.000Jack's driving his car, which is the 1972 car.
01:43:39.000But what's interesting to me is Olsen is obsessed with his one track, with his one car, and tweaking everything, constantly trying to shave seconds off of his car, trying to hit the perfect line every time.
01:43:51.000And in doing so, He's able to drive faster around Willow Springs, which is one of the fastest racetracks in America.
01:43:59.000And he's able to drive faster with his 1972 lightweight, low horsepower car than the most modern, most spectacular version of the 991 GT3. That is a lot of power, though, for that car.
01:44:14.000I mean, they never came with that kind of power.
01:44:29.000If it's a T, it would be 130. If it was T, it would be 160 or 180. Yeah, well, he's definitely added more horsepower, but it's still 1997 technology.
01:44:39.000I mean, at the height of whatever he's got.
01:44:41.000It's 1997 technology along with some tweaks.
01:47:53.000Yeah, and it would have been a fun sort of Elise-esque kind of effort, but no, instead they decided to release another Panamera or another Cayenne.
01:48:00.000And when you get to the Cayman, which is a very lightweight car for modern standards, it's about 3,000 pounds for the GTS, right?
01:49:06.000I've sold them at the absolute worst time.
01:49:08.000Yeah, you've got great timing when it comes to volume of cars.
01:49:11.000I see them now and they're worth way too much.
01:49:14.000But I've driven them enough too, and older cars, you know, because everyone at Sharkworks, everyone at Sharkworks has had, you know, either a 912, like the absolute base, base, you know, oldest model, you know, or, you know, James has had a phenomenal amount of old,
01:50:03.000For me, driving my 1970 911T or my Speedster replica 356, it was nice.
01:50:13.000And there's still something there that connects all the way up to the GT3. And I do get that the modern cars are losing it.
01:50:21.000And the fact that you can have one of the best-known collector of air-cooled cars, and he pushes the button, You know, to his garage, and he's got, you know, two water-cooled cars in there.
01:50:54.000Before I met Alex, I was already, you know, working towards water-cooled, but my heart and soul is air-cooled.
01:50:59.000You know, I'm going to own one or two water-cooled cars just for variety.
01:51:03.000Do you like the sound of the air-cooled cars better?
01:51:05.000There's a weird sort of a raspy quality to those cars.
01:51:08.000You know, air getting sucked in through the carbs or the MFI. It's just a different visceral, sensorial feel that the new cars, they don't deliver the same way.
01:51:17.000Is there an issue with those cars in traffic?
01:51:38.000The early turbos run hot, but my early air-cooled cars never get above 210, 220. Let's say I'm in my turbo, my 76 turbo, and I'm driving to my buddy Marty's, who's at Roscoe and Reseda, I'm on the 101, it's 100 degrees.
01:51:53.000That gauge is crawling 240 just because you're sat in traffic.
01:52:16.000You know, to me, some of the parts of 277, there's nothing...
01:52:19.000If I give you the bill sheet on what that car is, there's nothing really special about it.
01:52:25.000But I think the uniqueness of the car is it's developed its own personality.
01:52:29.000You know, it's not like it ever raced at Daytona, but, you know, I used to do 40, 50 track days a year in that car with the Porsche Renault Club between 2002 and 2007. But there's no real significant race history to the car.
01:52:42.000But I think the connection people have to the car really is a real simple theme and message.
01:53:34.000Jack's 72 black beauty car thing is what he calls it, is also pretty unique and got personality.
01:53:40.000You know, the two cars are similar yet different.
01:53:43.000That's ultimately the great thing about early Porsches, is they develop character and soul over time, just like Patina.
01:53:51.000You know, some people like shiny cars.
01:53:53.000I always say, dirt, don't slow you down.
01:53:54.000I'm not worried about rock chips and scratches, because to me, Those are memorable moments that are earned over time, and they're earned by getting out there and driving the car.
01:54:03.000You never meet a guy at a Porsche event, or sorry, at a Cars and Coffee event, and he proudly proclaims, you know, I've got 305 miles on my 2007 GT3. Quite the opposite.
01:54:18.000Ralph has like 68,000 on his 3.9 GT3. They're built to be driven.
01:54:26.000And that's how you get connected with the car.
01:54:28.000You don't get connected by it by leaving it in the garage.
01:54:31.000Sure, there's some nice sort of curves on it and it looks cool.
01:54:34.000But every time you drive it, stuff happens, you know, if you're driving that particular car.
01:54:39.000I think ultimately it's not necessarily about, again, for me to be the quickest.
01:54:43.000You know, it's more about enjoying that journey.
01:54:45.000And just sort of being at one with the car.
01:54:47.000Yeah, and these things, that's the great thing about all car guys.
01:54:50.000It's really the great thing about Porsche guys is it is this language.
01:54:54.000I've had people visit me from all over the world.
01:54:56.000It doesn't matter whether you speak English, German, or Japanese, you speak Porsche, and that's that connection.
01:55:01.000And truth be told, yeah, I'm an early air-cooled guy, but I also like these, you know, high horsepower, water-cooled things.
01:55:07.000And to me, it's not a case of which is better.
01:55:10.000They've both got Soul, but they're both slightly different.
01:55:13.000But they've both got personality, and to me, I think that sort of sums up everything that's great about the Porsche 911. Well, and James, you know, who was up, he's the guy that built your engine, and the other half, well, the other third of Sharkworx, he got to drive the 277,
01:55:28.000you know, when they went off in the GT2, and I was sitting with him, and he's a man of few words.
01:55:34.000And, you know, I just slowly, like, a few corners in, you know, he starts out slowly, because it's the 277, and we're like, oh, we're in it.
01:55:42.000It's amazing how many people want to get in that car.
01:55:44.000His face is going like this, and I just turn around and go, you're having a good time, aren't you?
01:55:51.000And he drives every day $200,000 or whatever, $150,000, $200,000, whatever they're worth, and builds GT3 RSs, and he gets back in your car, and it's set up nice, it sounds good, it drives properly.
01:56:07.000And he's just having fun in the canyons.
01:56:09.000Isn't there something about those old cars too?
01:56:11.000This knowledge that you're in, something from another era, and it's almost like a bit of a time machine.
01:56:32.000And there's a finite number of those cars as well.
01:56:35.000They will never, no one's ever gonna build another 1971 911. It's just, it is...
01:56:41.000One of my favorite cars is my Irish Green 66 911. And it's pretty much almost in stock form that it would have been in 1966. The brakes as well?
01:56:52.000I've changed, you know, obviously pads are new, but, you know, the point to my story is the car's 49 years old and it's the best way that you just described it that I could step back in time to 1966, even though I was born in 1967. It's like you get in that car and it just...
01:57:07.000It's the smell of these early air-cooled, oil-cooled 911s.
01:57:29.000Right there, that's something modern cars will never give you.
01:57:33.000You know, we've sort of talked for a couple of hours about the difference, but ultimately if I can home it into, you know, Five sensors of sight, sound, smell, and feel.
01:57:42.000That is the time capsule that I think you just sort of brought us full circle into what is great about these early air-cooled 911s.
01:57:49.000And truth be told, it's probably the same thing all the VW guys experience.
01:57:52.000Because it is like this living, breathing, time warp, time travel entity that ultimately doesn't matter really how fast you're going.
01:58:02.000Yeah, it's antiquated, but it's also pretty exciting and pretty special.
01:58:05.000I found it really great, you know, picking up my car that was, you know, from 71, and it's like I'm on the road, you know, in rush hour traffic, you know, with things whizzing by me and a bright yellow, you know, it was like an RS clone.
01:58:19.000And I'm sitting there, I've got no AC, no nothing, no cupholders, nothing.
01:58:25.000And I'm just, you know, stinking up the place.
01:58:41.000You sort of come in, smell him with it.
01:58:43.000You know, you've got that sort of sweat and oil and fuel smell.
01:58:46.000I mean, you either love it or you don't, really.
01:58:49.000You know, it's an acquired taste for sure, but...
01:58:52.000It's like a Chanel No.5 for us, right?
01:58:54.000Every time you drive one of those old carburetor-driven cars, even an old muscle car, you smell the fucking gas.
01:59:02.000Yeah, well, always the leaky carburetors.
01:59:04.000I mean, James helped me rebuild the carbs on mine, and it's like I spent like three days on it, you know, rebuilding the carbs on that engine.
01:59:32.000You know, he's that joke about if you're not early 9-11 is not leaking oil, there's no oil in it.
01:59:37.000These things are sort of living, breathing, you know, pieces of machinery that have got soul.
01:59:43.000Well, that's with your 1965. But with the new with these ones that you've built yourself, has there been new technology that allows those things to be a little bit more reliable, have less issues?
01:59:53.000Most of the cars that I've built, like the SDR or, you know, being involved in the process of these cars, I'm still sort of keeping them period correct.
02:00:01.000You know, I'm not putting newer motors in those old cars.
02:00:04.000You know, you touched on a little bit what Singer's doing.
02:00:06.000You know, the difference is they're taking a 964 and sort of backdating it to resemble an old car with modern technology.
02:00:13.000For the most part, other than updating, for what I do, torsion bars and stiffer suspension, which, yes, newer components, but yet it's still running, for the most part, the original motor that's been rebuilt, maybe at a higher spec, but it's still, if it was carbureted,
02:00:29.000then it's probably still carbureted now.
02:00:31.000What about gasket technology or any of those things?
02:00:36.000But, you know, it's still, you know, It's like right now I'm building a 67S. It's a car that I've got the louvered fenders, which is my follow-up build to the SDR. I sourced a 67S case and bought some new Mali pistons and cylinders.
02:00:49.000And as crazy as this story sounds, I'm shipping all the components to my buddy, Matthias, who's got a shop in Hamburg, Germany.
02:00:57.000And I'm going to have him assemble the motor in Germany and ship it back.
02:01:02.000And it's going to be punched out from 2.0 to 2.5, but it's still a 67S motor going in a 1967S. Well, isn't that something that Porsche's doing now?
02:01:11.000They have, like, an entire factory dedicated to rebuilding old cars.
02:01:16.000Well, it's a Porsche classic restoration facility that they've actually had for some time, but what's happened recently over the past three to five years is...
02:01:25.000You know, these cars have just escalated in value to the point where now a lot of these cars that, let's say, would have been trashed five years ago because it wasn't worth spending 50 grand to restore a car that might be worth 30, now that 50 grand car or 100 grand car could be worth triple that.
02:01:42.000What's the name of the Porsche restoration facility in Germany?
02:01:45.000It's just called the Porsche Classic Restoration Facility.
02:03:17.000Well, I remember when they were 253. Meanwhile, if you drove that and then drove your car back-to-back, you'd be like, fuck this old...
02:03:23.000Like I said, I drove Helmet Box Prototype 959 that Brumos owned.
02:03:29.000And really, you know, it was no different to any other 911. It wasn't this brutally just crazy car that they built, the GT2, which is just nap-snappingly, brutally fast.
02:05:44.000You know, I feel like you should be able to figure out every turn, and if you go off the side of the cliff, that's part of the fun.
02:05:50.000So, you know, we were talking about this program called Grandstand, which, you know, on a Saturday afternoon in England on one of the three available channels, and they had this...
02:05:59.000Have you watched any Isle of Man racing before?
02:07:39.000Tell me about your Hesketh sticker on the GT2. Oh, yeah.
02:07:42.000So, you know, remember last time when we came here with the 4.1, you know, we showed up at Leno's place and Dan was wearing a Hesketh t-shirt, you know, and then we showed up right to his place.
02:13:04.000Anytime there's anything nasty or disgusting, you watch Jeremy Clarkson compare a car's suspension to Piers Morgan banging him in the rear, and he's like, you know?
02:13:28.000But it's like, we are a weird sucker for English accents, which is why those infomercials, when they're trying to sell you something, they're sponsored.
02:15:01.000And, you know, at 12, the differences between certain, you know, nations, because there'd be schools from Tonga and Samoa and New Zealand, and they're like big, gnarly guys.
02:15:11.000And some of them definitely weren't 12. They'd like reset a few years.
02:16:06.000Tell me about your martial arts background.
02:16:08.000I mean, I remember seeing you on these UFC fights.
02:16:10.000I go around to my buddies and watch, and I remember seeing you on Fear Factor, and I've heard all about these black belts, but I don't really know your story.
02:16:18.000I started martial arts when I was a little kid.
02:21:29.000About 10 years ago it took off because the ultimate fighter that was 2005 when I came along I came along in 97 I was the post-fight interviewer this is like a long before it was big we used to fly into places like Dothan, Alabama and we do these shows these little what is UFC on now fight number you know if you watch it on TV this is you we just said UFC 182 Wow so the next one's 183 I believe which is a lot of events but you've been with them since fight one No,
02:21:56.00012. I came along UFC 12. But I only worked for them for two years.
02:22:00.000It was a different organization, different people owned it.
02:22:03.000Worked for them for two years, and then it was just getting too crazy.
02:22:52.000He's going back and forth about Porsches with me on the interweb.
02:22:55.000Who are the crazy guys that I'm sort of loosely sort of seeing visually that were involved with, what was the guy's name, Dana or something?
02:25:28.000They keep pushing and pushing and pushing until finally they don't even realize how far they've crossed the line until other people react to it.
02:31:09.000M3 have one, too, for like, Jeremy Clarkson always says, you know, like, M3 drivers are constantly on Bluetooth and that's the big thing, you know?
02:31:22.000I think anyone growing up anywhere in the world in the 70s or 80s, chances are if you were a car guy, you had a choice of one or three posters.
02:31:29.000Porsche Turbo, Lamborghini Countach, and probably a Ferrari 512 Boxer or a Testarossa.
02:34:06.000So go back to the, remember I spoke earlier on about doing something with Tiff Nadell, that's it right there for his 50. Oh, let's see that, man.
02:37:22.000The guy that shot these photos for Speed Hunter, Sean Klingenhofer, we're actually going to be doing a photo shoot with him in about an hour in downtown LA. Oh, really?
02:37:31.000Yeah, we're meeting him at 3. So how cool is that?
02:38:27.000So, let me tell you my Mobile One story real briefly, or my SEMA story.
02:38:32.000Two years ago, I snuck into SEMA on someone else's pass.
02:38:35.000And if you go back to that, this year I got invited by Mobile One to display two cars in their booth which had three cars.
02:38:43.000The other one was a pro-touring sort of 67 Camaro.
02:38:47.000That's just how crazy my life had become in the past two years, from sneaking into the SEMA show in Vegas, which is the biggest sort of aftermarket specialty equipment show, to being invited by Mobile One.
02:40:05.000Yeah, putting around in the 4.1 GT3 RS. And Dan, who's in the passenger seat, you know, is telling me later, yeah, he's going like, yeah, just one more lap, just one more lap, just one more lap.
02:40:16.000And right before he got in the car, right before he gets in the car, sorry, this is going to throw you under the bus a bit.
02:40:20.000He's talking to his wife, Karen, and going, oh, I've just got some stragglers in.
02:40:24.000They're the last ones of the day, I swear.
02:40:43.000She's my Georgia peach and she just allows me to be this crazy fool sort of, you know, Enjoying my life, but without her, I don't think we'd be here today.
02:40:53.000You're not henpecked, is what you're trying to say.
02:40:55.000I'm just saying I love my wife and she's super supportive, is what I'm saying.
02:41:00.000My wife for my birthday, before I even had a shop, This is what she got me, was a set of the first Brembo GTR brakes that I could put on my really fast turbo.
02:41:11.000And she helped me install nitrous lines when I was, you know, drag racing it.
02:41:20.000Is there another way to take those naturally aspirated engines and get them anywhere near as powerful as that 800 horsepower that you have in that GT2? Is there a way?
02:41:32.000I mean, have we reached the limitations?
02:41:34.000I mean, the limitations essentially on the air-cooled cars, it gets up to like 450 and it's like, didn't Neimeister get, they got a 993 engine up to like 450 horsepower?
02:41:44.000I mean, it's really pushing a round thing through a square peg, you know, or whatever the frickin' thing is.
02:41:49.000I don't think you need 800 horsepower with an early...
02:43:26.000And then you probably need an early car in your stable, I think.
02:43:32.000And that way you can sort of see how the less is more lightweight, smaller displacement, work a little bit harder approach to getting the thrill out of driving gears.
02:43:40.000And then you'll probably have the best of both worlds.
02:46:29.000Well, this is a really interesting conversation, and a lot of people, um, Probably are ignorant to the joys of these lightweight, exciting cars like what you have, and certainly to what you're building, these extreme versions of the race-bred 911s.
02:46:48.000They're fascinating cars, and it's a group of people that enjoy them, that it generates such incredible loyalty and passion.
02:46:57.000You know, it's really unlike most cars, in that sense.
02:47:02.000Yeah, well, I mean, you hadn't even...
02:47:05.000I'd not even met you, and the first phone call we pretty much had, like, I was like, man, he gets it.
02:47:11.000You rattled off all this stuff about GT3s, you know?
02:47:15.000Because you had the 2010, and I'd had it, so I'd had that connection.
02:48:58.000Yeah, a lot of people don't sort of give him credit because he's a drift boy or whatever, but he beat Michael Schumacher in the Race of Champions.
02:49:07.000And I've driven with him on the track in my cars that I've built, and I didn't even know they could go that fast.
02:49:12.000I didn't know that he wasn't going to use any brakes.
02:50:16.000It's so precise and surgical, the way he's taking Corvette.
02:50:19.000Well, on that TV show, it was called Battle of the Supercars.
02:50:23.000It wasn't the world's greatest show, but like I said, they shut down a stealth, you know, that's where they fly all the UAVs that kill all the terrorists.