Curb and Canyon: A Porsche Podcast
Curb and Canyon: A Porsche Podcast
Back for more! Curb and Canyon returns! Car culture, driving and two knuckleheads talking about Porsches...
Andy and James are back! We've missed you, but after some hilariously over-the-top scheduling snafus, we're back and broadcasting from Minnesota to Melbourne for the start of our FOURTH season of this podcast for Porsche enthusiasts by Porsche enthusiasts.
Buckle up as we share our Porsche escapades from over the last few months, from the laughable to the downright heart-pounding.
Revel in our tales of the high seas and high stakes with the Felicity Ace saga, where luxury cars met a watery grave and sparked conversations about the future of electric vehicle fires. Feel the pride as we showcase our latest projects, including those slick custom automotive tach faces that are sure to add a personal stamp to any Porsche interior. But it's not all smooth sailing—there's the tale of Andy's missed rally due to a surprise injury, a testament to life's unexpected twists, and the unyielding spirit of the rally community.
Lastly, we get real about our undying love for the 964 models, painting vivid pictures of Tasmanian drives and the pulse-quickening excitement of dodging disaster at car events. We swap stories with fellow Porsche fanatics and look ahead to the legendary Tail of the Dragon. So, start your engines and join us for stories that fuel our shared passion of Porsche.
Hello, this is Andy speaking Andy.
Speaker 2:Andy, who was I calling Andy? Andy who?
Speaker 1:Is this a prank? Call Andy Gawnt James McGraw. My ears do not deceive me. I am talking to you and you are talking to me.
Speaker 2:Dude, seriously, how long has it been? It's been a while.
Speaker 1:Not long enough.
Speaker 2:I have been getting requests like not non-stop, but certainly every day, from at least one person saying hey, when are you and Andy going to record again? When is next? What are you doing? What are you doing? I have even been telling the same people the same lie, like week of week of week, we are going to record this Friday, there will be another episode any second, and then we ultimately don't record on Friday. And then I have found myself lying.
Speaker 1:I have been telling them I died. Have you not heard, andy? Andy is no longer with us.
Speaker 2:You know, at one point I was considering some kind of prank like that, just so I could record something and get it out there.
Speaker 1:Special Memorial Edition podcast.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, we are back. We are back. Well, so it is 2024. We are back. It is Kerbin Canyon. Porsche Infusia asks talking shit on a podcast and hopefully someone is going to listen.
Speaker 1:That's it, guys, and hopefully this is hopefully you are back with us, but it might be that it is your first time as well. This is a Porsche podcast by Porsche Enthusiasts. We are just a couple of knuckleheads who love these cars. We are not automotive journalists. Most of the time, we don't even know what we are talking about, to be fair.
Speaker 2:We are talking about the way to tears up Awesome Half the people that were considering hanging up. Already it's stopped and they have gone back to their Taylor Swift album.
Speaker 1:Hey, nothing wrong with that. Welcome to Kerbin Canyon. All right, so it's been a minute. Huh, it's been a minute, yeah it has.
Speaker 2:It went from being a couple of weeks to a month, to a couple of months, and now it's nearly springtime. Here in beautiful Minnesota it must be gearing up for winter down under right.
Speaker 1:Well, yes. So tell me what is the temperature in Minnesota today?
Speaker 2:All right. Well, technically it's freezing, but it's nowhere near as cold as it has been the last 10 years I've lived here. We usually under two or three feet of snow at this point and colder than the Arctic Circle, but actually we've had snow once or twice this season and it's melted pretty quickly. So you know, it's just bright blue skies, it's dead grass and it's not so cold that it'll kill you and even some of my die hard. You know winter fobes, like my mate Chris, who put their cars away all winter and tortured themselves. Even he actually got it out before the end of February, which is a miracle. Yeah, Mr GT3 touring.
Speaker 1:So yeah it's good, it's good, good, good. So we're back here. Today is going to be 39 degrees Celsius, which is 102 Fahrenheit, just shoot me. So it is hot as balls. We should probably talk about just, I guess, by way of explanation of why it's been such a break for the two of us. You know it's tricky. James is in Minnesota, I am in Melbourne, in Australia, and you know the time difference is tough and sometimes life just gets in the way. You know, we've got families, we've got jobs. This is something we look forward to, but I was going to tally up the amount of times we'd each canceled on each other because we have got to record this podcast so many times and there was a period where I was pretty certain that you had canceled on me more than I'd canceled on you.
Speaker 1:But I think, towards the end, I think I came home strong.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny. I've been sort of keeping a mental tally along those lines and I think we're pretty close, come on. I don't know.
Speaker 1:You canceled on me plenty.
Speaker 2:There have been a couple of times where I've thought, ok, andy's canceled like three weeks in a row, now We've got to start recording, just so I can take the piss out of you for it.
Speaker 1:That's true, because when you get a run on of cancellations, it's like if you would cancel on me a couple of times in a row. I started to feel a little bit like I'm the only one committed. This motherfucker keeps letting me down. It's all him.
Speaker 2:So I've got to admit this All right. So, for those who don't know, our recording window is like Friday afternoon Minnesota time and Saturday morning kangaroo time, and I'm now at the situation where you know I'm working from home All three kids are out of the house on a Friday at school and my meetings are pretty light on a Friday. So there have actually been quite a few times when I've decided to like take an afternoon nap and I've set my alarm like 20 minutes before would you just start recording. And there have been quite a few afternoons where I've woken up, looked at my phone and you're like, oh mate, I can't make it. You know whatever reason. And I reply back going.
Speaker 2:Oh you dickhead, I can't believe it. And then just like turn my phone off and go straight back to sleep.
Speaker 1:There was one a few weeks ago where I think we both just flat out forgot I had no message from you, you had no message from me. And then, and then you, still, you still took the moral high ground and messaged me later and said I can't believe you forgot about us.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. Do you have any idea how much I was laughing as I was writing that text message to you and not only that, taking screenshots of our conversations and posting them on social media.
Speaker 1:What the hell?
Speaker 2:I don't, you know, I actually don't remember the substance of that particular exchange, but I was so appalled. I have so, so appalled by what you were telling me, and and and appreciated my, my response so much that I just had to share it with the world. Oh, brilliant.
Speaker 1:Well, you know it is, it's, it's. I mean I've got to say it's great to be chatting to you. I feel like we haven't, because we don't really speak when we're not podcasting. We message each other off and on but we don't actually have a chance to talk. So this is great and you know we've got. We've got some stuff to get through. And again, if this is your first time listening to the Kerban Canyon podcast, we'll do a little bit of news. We tend to talk about our cars a lot. They they bring us fun and heartache. And then and then stuff we've been doing drives, we've been on events, We've been to anything that kind of tickles our fancy. And then we'll finish with our video of the week, which this week I think is a cracker.
Speaker 2:I'm excited and I've actually watched the video of the week. In fact, not only have I watched the video of the week, I knew which one it was when you sent it to me, because I saw it when it landed about a week ago.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And then, after so long, I you know, start to take care of business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who did the show notes for today?
Speaker 2:You as always. And guess what? I read them, did not read them. You wait, did you send them over? I got the show notes Look look, I, I appreciate the professionalism, I appreciate the organization, but at the same time it's borderline, you know, kind of controlled fun, and that's where show notes just sort of you know itch me a little bit. But yeah, let's, let's follow the show notes, all right.
Speaker 1:Topic number one I'm so glad we're going to get into this.
Speaker 2:You know like let's let's talk about how we run our podcast on the podcast. That's the sort of inside baseball.
Speaker 1:People tune in for.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm going to.
Speaker 1:I'm going to straight away deviate from the show notes because we do have topic number one, but there was a thing that came out maybe three weeks ago that Delta is a. Delta Airways are using a GT3RS to get people who are desperately late for their plane onto the plane driving across the tarmac. Now, have you seen?
Speaker 2:this Dude. I have seen that and actually that's not the first time I've seen Delta collaborating with Portia, because there are quite a few airports in the US where you're looking out of the window waiting for the skybridge or whatever it is. You know it's going to get you off the plane and there is a Delta branded take-am or a Delta branded Cayenne turbo, just you know, down below waiting for, like I wonder, you know what's going on. So now we know a little bit more, I guess.
Speaker 1:But so is every one of those examples you just used made makes sense to me. Now I get that In having a vehicle of the nine eleven variant sitting on the tarmac that gives maximum opportunity for exposure and kind of that wow factor right like this is how seriously we take getting you onto your plane on time. But the fact that it's a GT3 RS, at least just go a GT3. So you've got the Frank like this. Literally no way to put anything in a GT3 RS. So unless you are traveling with your passport and your wallet and nothing else, not even a laptop bag, you can't screwed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, also there are speed limits in airports, so right, you know, you're right there.
Speaker 1:so and everything slow.
Speaker 2:No, exactly, and I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US, every airport has its own police force, basically, and they actually have cops sat around the airport with speed cameras catching baggage towers who are driving too fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so good luck getting to your plane at 15 miles an hour and you GT3 RS Imagine eventually they'll be selling that car and it'll be the car that has all of the all of the mechanical issues, because it's never been driven over 20 miles.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Yeah, I think that's a bit ridiculous yeah.
Speaker 1:It is. Although, that said, if I was traveling Delta and I managed to score myself a ride at 20 miles an hour across the tarmac in a GT3 RS, I'm sure I'd be just videoing that whole thing and saying check me out my phone's on social media. That still be pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Just so many things wrong with that picture. Like, have you also ever tried to go out onto the tarmac? Once you've on an airplane, you gotta get off the plane, you gotta walk up the jet bridge, you gotta go through a secure door, you gotta walk back down through a bunch of stairs along a corridor and then out onto the tarmac. By that time you could have gotten to the gate you were trying to fucking drive to in the first place. It's ridiculous. Can you tell how much I'm against this idea? It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Am I the only one thinking of Jim Carrey? And dumb and dumb, it's okay driver? No, I agree. When you, when you, when you traveling by plane, there is nothing worse than when they pull up and you have to go down the stairs onto the tarmac, and even worse if you have to get into one of those damn shuttle buses. It's like can I just where's the average? Just take me into the airport. I do not want to be outside right now. So yeah, I agree, I'm against it. I think it's kind of goofy.
Speaker 2:I get it, it's a publicity stunt, but you know, I think I'm we're gonna sound like two, two old men are just whining, but I'm gonna rearrange some of the words in that last sentence of yours, which is quite literally this there is nothing worse than traveling by plane. I fucking hate air travel. I hate it. I've been doing business travel for so many years. This last month I've gone to Phoenix three times from Minneapolis and I just I'm done that. You know, tsa check in it's still bad. Pre check alright, it's good, you don't have to take shoes off, your belt off and all that bollocks. But I just I'm not gonna go through all the reasons why I hate it, because there are lots of them, but like, I'm done if I can just like stay in my hometown or drive to wherever I need to go. Game on.
Speaker 1:Flying to the grumpy old travelers podcast.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:know I once I once got I used to fly to Toronto a lot and Toronto customs they're pretty tough, they're oh yeah, I've been there many times yeah, dude, and if you I mean if you fly in a vancouver, they're like yo come in, you fly into Toronto and they're tough. But I had, I had a bit of a routine down. I would always get in line where the customs official was younger and female and then I play the role of the kind of tired Australian traveler, right.
Speaker 2:I'd be like Can I?
Speaker 1:hey go, and I'd really ham up the whole Australian thing this one time I get there and I was so tired and there was one line that had nobody waiting but the guy, the customs official. He looked like a US Marine and I thought no, he'll be fine, and I tried my whole you know goofy tired Aussie stick with him and it was not washing at all. He looked at me single raised eyebrow like hey, sunshine, I didn't just come, I didn't come down in the last hour of seeing your type before, so I put the little mark on my customs entry form.
Speaker 1:That said, I had to go into the next room, right, and I'm thinking, oh great, so I'm expecting to go in there and hear the thwack of the rubber glove and all that sort of business. Why go in there? Do you know who's standing there? Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi? Yeah, so I don't know. Talking to you, sam, or is amazing?
Speaker 2:This is so cool three fingers in a rubber glove shift up your ass and I must have a wonderful conversation. I did, I did. I said how did you write living on it?
Speaker 1:Whoa anyway, good look, good times, good times. So we do have an actual news article on my very well prepared show notes, which is motor. One is reporting via Bloomberg that you remember the. You remember the Felicity Ace, the whole, the ship that sank, with all of the. I had a hundred and eight porches on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and that was not during the pandemic, when there was already a shortage of cars, and all of these beautiful cars that people have been waiting for were just got scuppered to the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 1:The start of twenty twenty two maybe, and it was. I mean it was. It was a lot of cars, it was a lot of porches and in fact, but it was like a stack of outies. There's the four hundred outies, there's bentley's, lamborghinis, all sorts of stuff, vauxwagens. Well, so it's emerged that they believe the fire that brought the ship down was started by a battery in a Porsche. Yeah, so yeah, what a bummer.
Speaker 1:It's gonna happen, it's gonna happen is this but is this the future that the head of us now, when we're gonna have fully electrified camons and boxers that is gonna be burning down people's houses?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'm sure they will absolutely, and I bet you they have done already about you. I've seen at least half a dozen articles about Tesla's catching fire in the last you know sort of four or five years. That Leave me to believe that it happens all the time yeah, I'm not fear mongering about a visa.
Speaker 1:No, no, no and actually, yeah, absolute bummer.
Speaker 2:It's a pity for the Porsche brand that it happened, but it's not gonna be the last, and there are gonna be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them of those scenarios which don't make it into the press, but I think it's just part of life, you know? I mean, how many, how many cars have blown up or had wheels falling off or yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, gas tank of gas fumes getting in the cabin and it. You know, shit happens. But unfortunately they're in the news and There'll be the spotlight on for a little while. But hey, if it sparks some innovation and you know Porsche, come out with a better battery that cools and last longer than you know, it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 1:Did you deliberately use the word sparks?
Speaker 2:Is that no?
Speaker 1:So apparently they've known about it for ages. So, because what's happening is that the shipping company and their insurance company a suing Porsche, and this is Since the start of last year, apparently, but we're only just hearing about it now. So, anyway, interesting, whatever, all I know is there's a hundred and eighty something. Porsches at the bottom of the sea?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's there. I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere. I mean, you know the lawyer joke. There must be. I don't know what's. What's? One person, porsche taken and 400 out. He's in the bottom of the ocean. Good start, thank you for eventually laughing at that joke. Thank you for eventually laughing at that joke.
Speaker 1:Hey, now I see you've got down. You've been pumping out Taco, different tack faces. There's some really cool ones can say tacos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was in Phoenix the other week and I had a lot of Mexican food.
Speaker 1:It was great tacos burritos, breakfast burritos so tell me, tell me, tell me about these tech faces, because I do. They look really good, like great quality oh yeah, I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 2:So I you know of all the things I've dabbled in in my auto ammage journey so far there have been two or three months that have been really successful. At the joy auto car play, one was Like a booming success. I've sold a bunch of those units and I've done now it's gotta be over 50 jobs myself personally around the country into other people's cars. So that was, that was a big one. And then my my deviated. My colored Tag faces were massive. They were really popular, but unfortunately my supplier was doing business with a third party. That third party went under.
Speaker 2:Long story short, the quality just dips unfortunately took a massive dive towards the end. So I just kind of pulled them from my website and I thought you know, if it's not something I'm willing to put into my own car, I'm not having someone else put it into their car, you know. So I saw, so I pulled them and it's been about a year now maybe since some I've designed any insult any, but I just happen to come across a new supplier. That's a bunch of R&D into the materials, the designs. They've got this really slick printing process which I don't want to bore you but basically prints and reprints all of the stuff like multiple times on multiple layers, and it's just that they are excellent quality, just really super quality. So, yeah, I'm really excited.
Speaker 2:I've got a bunch of Custom styles that are available on my website and I'm no longer just doing them for 99 ones and the more modern kind of cars that share the same instrument, cluster size, but First generation and second generation chi ends, the 996, the 997. I got for the nine actually happened for the 964, if you're interested in the other, the 993. But yeah, super cool and I'm actually gonna be installing seven in my own car this weekend. I've got these black ones with green letters, you know green numbers and these retro kind of rings around the outside. They look so sharp and pretty excited.
Speaker 1:That's really interesting. Tell me more about the printing, wow just kidding. No, they look. I have to say. I looked on your socials and you could just tell you the quality is great. I don't want to turn this into an auto amateur store ad, but but yeah, I was. I was super impressed If I was into the world.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. Why aren't you into that kind of stuff? I'll get you a green one for little green. I'll put your face on it in the middle.
Speaker 1:I'd rather have your face, and like your eyebrows, go up every time the car revs. That'd be good.
Speaker 2:Oh god.
Speaker 1:No, I'm only in plus. I'm in plus, mm-hmm. So, speaking of mods and updates, how is Bluey 2e? I see some stripes Now again for people who perhaps haven't tuned into our podcast before what is Bluey?
Speaker 2:2e. Bluey 2e is a Porsche A 911, 991.2, carrera Coupe Blah-dee-blah-dee-blah. It's lovely. I'm so happy with it. Very nice, it's really cool. Yeah, I'm really glad I got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got rid of original Bluey, my 996 Project car, last summer, and within a few weeks I picked this one up and I it's. In many ways it feels very similar to my 991.1, unsurprisingly because it's the same generation. But the subtle changes and the differences between the two generations really make this car very special and very different to drive the turbocharged engine, the lower torque, just some of the some of the refinements here and there and the styling and the body. Yeah, I'm super excited and the color keeps growing on me. It's graphite blue, metallic, which was one of the special colors that they offered in that generation. Some days it kind of looks like a gray, some days it sort of looks like a steely blue, other days it looks completely different again, depending on the light.
Speaker 2:I got a lot of compliments actually about the color and I guess I feel like I really haven't had a chance to work on it very much so far. I've owned it for just over six months, seven or eight months now, but I was looking back over the list of things that I have done, and it's quite a lot, and I've still got more to do, more to go. So, yeah, it's going to be a fun summer and a fun spring if I can just get myself in the garage and get myself out on the road. My videos have gone from, you know, sort of one a month to one every kind of three months, and so I'm really slacking on the video front, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:You've moved into the last rasp? Yeah, but you see the problem.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you what the problem is. There and actually some of my friends I was at a Porsche event the other weekend. We were talking about you and we were talking about last rasp and we're talking about some of the really good content creators out there and I can't remember what they said, but I'll boil it down for you. Basically, you go away for a couple of months and then you turn out this absolutely breath taking, beautiful, stunning, you know sort of epic five minute video and just wow everybody. I don't put a video out for a couple of months, but then I come out with a video and it's basically the same old shit, is the same standard.
Speaker 1:Everyone wants that for me. That's why it works. It's so good.
Speaker 2:Oh God, yeah, I don't know. It's not like I spend the months in between releasing my video, you know, really trying to up my craft and up the game. I do, I do try a little bit, but God damn it. Andy Gawnt, yeah, every time you put out a video I just sit back and sigh and put my head in my hands Funny is?
Speaker 1:I don't. Most of what I watch on YouTube isn't like that, like lately I've been getting into. Is it Adam LZ? Yeah, he's a drifter, he's. He's. He's got some some.
Speaker 1:He's had some Porsche content on his channel but he's bought this mint nine six four coupe which was a tiptronic, and he's been, he's done some kind of deal with eBay motors and he's converted it to manual and he's done a rebuild on the engine and he's done all of these things. And I'm loving watching his content because he goes in deep on what he's doing on the car and what's really interesting is I think and someone might correct me, but I think he's somewhat of an air cooled portion novice and so he's really working this stuff out as he's going and it's it's great to watch and, honestly, the modifications he's making to that car he's not done anything goofy Like they've all been really well curated and thought through and each time he drops a video, which is maybe once a week, it's like 20 minutes of OK. Today the engine's going back in the car and we're going to drive it for the first time like big steps.
Speaker 1:Yeah really really cool. And it's not. It's not high production values, it's just really super interesting.
Speaker 2:That's good, all right. I'm feeling a little bit better about life, so you know it's not the end of all.
Speaker 1:It's all about the personality, dude. It's all about the personality.
Speaker 2:Hey, now speaking of drifters, I was in Florida last weekend at Works Reunion. I actually shipped my car down there so that I could put it in the the corral and drive around.
Speaker 1:You just had to shit your car.
Speaker 2:Shit, oh right, sorry P for penis.
Speaker 1:Just speak a little more clearly.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's. It's the Friday morning morning, in the event. I'm there with Jay Reed and Michael Wooten, michael Motsom meets and the three of us are going in convoy to to the show. They're in front of me, they get out into the road first, and then there must have been oh God, I don't know like 20 Porsches in a row driving really close together. So I'm waiting my turn to get out after these 20 beautiful Porsches leave this souped up. I think it was a, it was either a Honda Accord or it was a Subaru and Prats up, but it looked like it had a spray paint kind of paint job. They had a big wing on the back, it was lowered, you know, the windows were down, the music was blaring and you could just see this thing come in a mile.
Speaker 2:So I'm waiting at this roundabouts and the guy puts himself into a drift to go round the roundabouts and misses the front of my car by like Must have been millimeters. It was like I was basically thinking to myself oh, that's it, that's my front bumper gone. I hope it's just my front bumper that goes. He was so close so he drifted past the front of my car and and you could just hear them laughing out of the window as they were doing it, which really, really pissed me off, missed my car, managed to get it back under control but then as they went and took the exit off the road, they slammed into the central reservation drifting the other way and I think like his rear wheel came off and there was this massive there was this massive like YouTube fail army kind of level bang and he and he sort of just drifted off into the side of the road.
Speaker 2:I was, I was so ready to like get out of the car and just go and beat the piss out of them because I was so close to my car and I drove by and had my window down and the dude was like in the front seat, steam you know, like coming out of the engine and you could tell like he wasn't injured.
Speaker 2:But he was a little bit dazed and confused and I put my window down and part of me wanted to like ask him if he was OK and I was thinking about stopping and pulling over and seeing if he was OK, but I just instinctively screamed at him you know, dumb fuck. I just screamed at him, you, dumb fuck. And drove by and, quite literally, about three seconds later, the car behind me and the car behind that person, also driving Porsches. It was like we were singing an echo of dumb fuck, dumb fuck, you, dumb fuck. Everyone was just laying into this poor kid. But, jesus, I swear to God, I probably would have broken a bone if he'd have actually hit my car. I'm not a violent person, but Jesus.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, there's a lot to unpack there, Because I mean secretly, yeah, like when we see someone do something that dumb, there's absolutely that moment of well, hey, there's justice.
Speaker 2:You just you just yeah instant karma.
Speaker 1:Yeah, love that, but then the chorus of dumb fuck or everyone harmonizing. I'm sort of hearing a Bee Gees kind of vibe yeah, no compassion. You should have helped. You should have helped.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no what I should have done.
Speaker 1:Someone. Probably there wasn't a YouTube fail video going on of the dude crashing. There'll be a video on YouTube of Porsche owners pricks all yelling poor guy who's crashed? His car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe, maybe I haven't yet seen it arrive on YouTube, but you know, I think you know I, you know, like to kindly ask him to step out of his car and lay down in traffic, and let me just reverse over him a couple of times.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that sounds fair.
Speaker 2:Like, if you're going to do something stupid in your car, do it on your own, when there's no risk of doing anything.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah. So if you don't have, if you don't I mean, it's been a good few months that you've had the car. Now have you done any good drives? Have we like tell the dragon anything?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm about five or six weeks away from going to tell the dragon with with all the guys, but but actually yeah. So I went down to Florida for this show, was there for a couple of days. It was always planning on driving it back, but I was. I was going to take my time and spend a few days kind of driving it back. I ended up doing 1400 miles in 21 hours.
Speaker 2:I saw and drove all the way back to Minnesota in a single day, I think it was. I think it was nine in the morning when I left, when I left Amelia Island and I got home just before six am. But anyway, on on the trip.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty much must have smelled.
Speaker 2:Smell like Diet Coke and coffee 24 cups of coffee.
Speaker 1:It probably didn't smell as bad as kiss, kiss, hello, she's like. Oh why?
Speaker 2:It probably didn't smell as bad as my trousers, you know, lock a lot of time for farting in 21 hours in a car, Anyway. So so I intentionally set my GPS to keep me off the interstates. So, yeah, man, the, the, the roads out of Florida were, you know what were, they weren't too special, but once I got into Georgia and into Kentucky, I think it was, and into Missouri, loads of really cool twisty turnies pretty much for hundreds of miles. Actually, you know, not nowhere near as challenging as the tale of the dragon, but really, really entertaining.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think for these long road trips I'm going to try and stay off the interstates as much as I can, because the, the county roads here in a lot of those kind of central states that you know have mountains running through them, or you know a lot of the Mississippi running through them, which cuts you know really nice contours. That was really enjoyable, Awesome, and actually I came to a couple of you know really kind of spectacular scenes, like on the tops of bluffs and across bridges, that I probably never will have ever seen or thought to look at in these tiny little, almost ghost towns in all of these different counties and states, pulled over for roadside barbecue once or twice, which was really good. You know, just some random dude with a barrel on the side of the road slow roasting ribs, and then you know he's just had some British guy in a Porsche pull off and be like Hello, can I have some barbecue please?
Speaker 1:He'd be looking around just thinking where the hell am I? Who is this?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, totally. And Gatorville, louisiana or wherever. It was Six foot six, you know ginger head English guy asking for ribs, but really good, yeah. So you know, I did that and I did a similar kind of strategy on the way back from the, the, the Rocky Mountains when I tried to make it out to rent sport reunion. Basically took the, the, the, the, the twisty Tony roads all the way back through Colorado and Wyoming and the Dakotas until you got to Minnesota and then it's all straight roads and just boring as shit.
Speaker 1:But what is the difference between twisty and turning? Is it like country and Western? So so so it's like chit, chat.
Speaker 2:You know, you know that's yeah, like what is chit and what is chat. Yeah that's a great question so. So to me, a twisty road is where you know it's. It's almost like chicanes and you just you glide and you twist a little bit from left to right and you can you know you can pick a path and you can just go for it. A turning road is like a switchback, where you actually have to crank the wheel and get into second and interesting. Come on, Andy, you know this.
Speaker 1:Everyone just calls them twisties. You're the only person I know that calls them twisty turnies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'm super.
Speaker 1:You always start saying oops, a daisy.
Speaker 2:Hey, maybe I will.
Speaker 1:You probably already do. Actually, that reminds me, I always said it when you pulled up with with old mate on the side of the road. You're getting out of your car and you're stepping a puddle. Oops, you daisy. May I have some?
Speaker 2:room. Oops, you daisy. So my I'm. I'm famous for my potty mouth, I guess with my friends, and you know, maybe I'm not proud of it, but I certainly drop the old swear word every now and again. However, around my kids I am good as gold. There is never a bad word that slips out of my mouth when I'm around my kids.
Speaker 2:The other day, the other day, my little five year old Adam. I asked him if he could come into the living room so that I could talk to him and as he got up off the couch and put his iPad down, he actually just sort of muttered under his breath oh for fuck's sake, and I swear to God, you didn't get that from me. You did not get that from me. And I've noticed I've noticed now because that that one thing happened and I was like Adam, what did you just say? And he's like just said what mommy says.
Speaker 2:Both Luke and Adam have started to say like a couple of things that my wife will say, and I know I don't want to throw my wife under the bus, but I know that I know that these things have come from her, because only she says these things in the very particular way that she says them. There you go. Brilliant, how about you? So what's? I've got a couple of things you know, like how's Choco, my favorite chocolate colored dog? It looks like you've been tidying your garage, or at least putting posters on the wall. I mean, who are you? Where's the mess gone?
Speaker 1:All right. So so, first of all, your first question is really confusing. So, Sully, my black Labrador is absolutely fine, rocco my good mate who I drive with. Happy birthday, rocco. By the time this comes out it'll be, I think, the day after your birthday. But happy birthday, good sir. Rocco is fine. In fact, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make a big shout out to Rocco. So last weekend was Alpine Range Rally nine, the ninth running of the Alpine Range.
Speaker 2:Rally nine Wow.
Speaker 1:And yeah, yeah, and I was so excited for this one and we had Rocco and I had done a recce drive mid last year to have a look at a road that we wanted to include in day one we decided to add it into day one, making day one the biggest single rally day we'd ever done. But you know, this road was well worth it. I was so excited. So we leave on Friday morning. Now you mentioned my garage being a little bit tidier on Sunday, the Sunday before. So five days out I was tidying my garage and I was. I happened to be kneeling down and there were two slabs or cases of beer and.
Speaker 1:I slid them together from sort of left to right whilst kneeling down, which my physiotherapist would tell me is a really bad thing for somebody with vacations to do. So the next morning I felt a little sore in my back and I thought, okay, that's from what I did yesterday in the garage. That was dumb. Well, tuesday morning, as I put, my shoe on my back just went, and so I couldn't stand, I couldn't walk, I was, I was in big trouble. And now. So this is, this is Tuesday, and I've now have what? Is it? 72 hours to heal my back before day one of the rally being Friday morning. So late Thursday I messaged Rocco and I said dude, there's no way. I've been trying. I spent three days on my back, but I just couldn't, couldn't make it. So the rally actually happened without me, which was oh, good thing, Good thing.
Speaker 1:Now I'll say one thing, I think because Rocco and I have organized it so many times now it was something where I was able to not go and it still went smoothly. The maps were all great, that you know. There weren't any issues with that. So I think we've got it a pretty well-oiled machine going. But yeah, Rocco, just he's like, don't worry about it, I'll swing by your house, I'll pick up all of the merch, because we had these cool T-shirts made. I'll pick up all the merch and yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1:And all he kept saying to me was just try and meet us somewhere, just do that. We just want you there, and unfortunately I couldn't. I thought about driving to meet them on the Saturday morning, but there was no way. It's really only now, a week later, that I'm able to really move or drive my car, so there was no way I was doing six and a half seven hours a day driving through the twisties with everybody and, as anyone who's a long time listener or anyone who will have seen any of my videos on Alpine Rage Rally knows, we always have catastrophic weather conditions.
Speaker 2:Always, oh yeah, it always rains More sooner. What do you think the weather was like on this one Perfect Perfection?
Speaker 1:Absolute perfection.
Speaker 2:So I guess, you're going to be uninvited to future rallies now.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, because my plan to phase my relevance out is complete. I'm not needed, but it's you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Well, because I was in the lead up to this rally. I was so excited because and I was saying to people, this is great it's the first rally in a long time where I don't feel like I'm rushing to get my car ready. I don't have to rush because. So last year, my last rally prior to this was Tasmania, and for that rally I took little grain, my 1990, 964, c4 Coop, and right before it it turned out I needed to replace the clutch, and which is not a small job. And then and to be honest, I'd taken my car into my local Porsche specialist, had them looked at it. All I wanted them to do was was change the clutch pin, because sometimes the clutch pin fails in my car and I didn't want it to fail while I was away.
Speaker 1:Well, that clutch pin turned into the clutch, then valve covers, then timing chain housing. It turned into an engine out. Massive job. And I picked the car up two days before the rally with a brand new clutch and the engine just put back in it. So I was, I must confess, to being somewhat concerned as I loaded my car onto a boat to travel to an island state and have three days of hard rallying, with the engine only having just been put in the car two days prior.
Speaker 1:And other than a other than a small, there's a. There's a cable that connects the reverse light, something which came undone on on day one of the rally and was dragging along the ground. So we managed to just tape that up, and other than that, it was fine. So I had three days of rallying with, with, with all my mates, on incredible roads in the nine six four, which was phenomenal, and then Kath actually flew down and met me, and then we did another four days of touring in the nine six four around Tasmania. I did something like three and a half thousand kilometers. Bloody hell, the car was incredible.
Speaker 2:Absolutely incredible Like did.
Speaker 1:It did not miss a beat. But yeah, that was a. That was one hell of a mad rush to get it ready. And yeah, this, this, this rally. I was thinking I don't need to do anything. I'm so set. The car was even clean and detailed two weeks prior. I thought I don't even have to wash it. I can just relax. All I need to do, all I need to do is charge up the battery for my camera, charge up the battery for my radio, and I'm set I'll be able to jump in the car Friday morning and happy days. And then age sort of got away and said hey, listen listen old timer, not so fast.
Speaker 2:Oh mate, that sucks, that sucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Do you know what, though, I've got to say? The lads were sending me photos every day and the, if I'm honest, I had a few low points where I was looking at the photos just thinking you can all fuck off, but but honestly, it was really great and it looked like everyone was just I don't know, it made me it was. It made me happy just seeing everyone was just clearly really enjoying it. It looked like it was just a really good time. There was some mind you, there was some mechanical issues. There were two cars that didn't actually finish the journey, which is oh really.
Speaker 2:What happened?
Speaker 1:So my understanding is that on the new road that Rocco and I had wrecked back in July, everyone drove in. It's an in and out kind of road, right, you drive in it's like 40 minutes to this tiny little town with a general store and nothing else, and then you drive back out on the same road. And so they had a great drive in and my buddy, simon, who has a 911 SC that is very hot-rodded it is a very, very cool car he parked and some, some guy who I don't know was staying in the town, just asked him if he could move his car. I think he was parked in front of a petrol tank or something. He said yeah, no problem, he gets in the car, goes to start, it puts his foot on the clutch. The clutch cable snapped.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:It's like there's nothing you can't, there's no coming back from that. You know you can't cable tie it, you can't do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so and then. So, as they waited for the, for the tow truck to arrive, in the middle of nowhere, pj, who was sort of coming a few of the guys had come, had left a little bit later than the rest of the team. Pj rolled in in his 944, which had, he'll tell me, I'm wrong, I think something wrong with a ball joint maybe. So both cars ended up being taken out of there on on a flatbed tow truck. Now, simon, credit to him. He rode back with the tow truck and he owns he daily drives a Gen 1 997. So on Saturday morning he got up at 430 in the morning, drove to Lake Centrance, which is three hours away, to meet everybody before then doing the six or so hours of rallying.
Speaker 2:So he, he, yeah, he rejoined the group.
Speaker 1:Now, I did that a few years ago. I did a very similar thing, but on that particular day we didn't drive near as far in the actual rally portion. So yeah, he definitely gets the MVP, I think.
Speaker 2:For he's so. He's too keen for my liking. I just that's. That's keen on a whole new level.
Speaker 1:I'm suspicious. 36 hours straight, didn't you Like that's keen.
Speaker 2:No, that's just stupid.
Speaker 1:So there's my question Is there a difference?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sure there probably is.
Speaker 1:Hey, so tell me about Amelia Island. You did that was last weekend, right?
Speaker 2:It was, yeah, and actually you know perfect kind of segue talking about little green, because I spent a lot of time this weekend in Amelia Island, just like really trying to. It's gonna sound really maybe a little bit in either here or there, but like just just really trying to be present and Not worry about, you know, shooting videos and not worry about what we're doing in the evening, just like I'm there for four or five hours or however long it is. I'm just gonna try and enjoy this as much as I can, and especially, you know, being away from work and family or whatever. So I think I've had a realization as I've looked and spent a lot of time this past weekend looking at pretty much every Generation and variants of Porsche 911 ever released.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think the 964 might be the perfect 911.
Speaker 1:I Think yeah and I first I.
Speaker 2:Didn't think I would ever say that I mean, I love the 964, don't get me wrong. I always thought that I liked the 993 a bit more than the 964, and the more you know the modern Porsches, the 991.2 in particular, I just absolutely love. But this weekend I think my heart was. I think my heart was taken with, at least what, what was? Four or five, nine, six, fours.
Speaker 1:What was it what?
Speaker 2:Well, I think, first off, there was a singer there. Okay, and it's not hard to fall in love with a singer. It was. I think it was like a chocolate brown color. The interior was, you know, just completely done High-end, tweed kind of, or houndstooth, whatever sort of interior it just it was just absolutely gorgeous in the paint, the. The paint itself was enough to sell that car for a million dollars and everything else is just icing on the cake. It was just incredible.
Speaker 2:And then I saw a number of 993s next to each other and, like I took a long, hard look at the 993 headlights and the sort of the way the, the body, contour around the lights and the hood, you know, kind of come together. I just like I had a 993 on my right and a nine six four on my left and I'm just going backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards and I kept on wanting to just look at the at the nine six four. And then I saw a bunch of 997s and I still absolutely adore the first generation 997. I think that is also one of the best Porsches ever released. Maybe I was just, you know, high on the Florida air. I'm now starting to see similarities between the nine six four and the 997 dot one.
Speaker 2:I'm probably crazy, but I Saw a bunch, I just saw a real bunch of nine six fours and dad, and just thought, you know, dude, if I could fit in one, if I could afford one, that would just be such a nice car to own. But yeah, there were. I mean you being a nine six four owner. There were so many nice versions that there were old ones with the paint kind of peeling off and they still look great. There was a singer, there were a couple of special editions. They just there must have been a dozen there that were just absolutely breathtaking and I could have spent all my time Just looking at those nine six fours but it's great.
Speaker 1:It's funny, though I don't you think that that whole thing of you know what is your favorite 9-11 or what is your favorite generation of 9-11? I think that, literally, just depends on what day you ask me Literally and what car I'm looking at in that particular moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see if I see a.
Speaker 1:G body car on the road. That's it. I'm like that's I, that's what I want. Now I want I want an SC or a 3-2 Carrera. I love it I. I never used to like the impact bumpers, but these days I love them. If I see a 992 on the road, I'll message my friend Anthony and Sarah. It's finally happened. The 992 has overtaken the 991 for me, as as the better-looking car. I want the 992 now and then I'll see a 991 about. That's the car I have to have like literally.
Speaker 1:I am like a four-year-old being confronted with candy, which ever, whichever is in front of me, that is the one I'm. I'm desperate to have in that particular moment. Although my friend Gerard messaged me on on Saturday, he owns a 991, a first-gen Carrera S, which he took to Tasmania and had a great time in, but he also owns a 964 and you know he was messaging me on Saturday afternoon. There is a road, a particular road, that we drive on the rally to a little town called Mitter, mitter, and and he was just messaging me after that drive, just saying this car is just the most incredible thing. And, yeah, he was leading everyone, there was modern cars behind him, all sorts of stuff. But when you set a 964 up, well, they are on a particular type of road. They're they're pretty hard to beat. They're very hard to beat.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I love them.
Speaker 1:I obviously love them, but I'm biased.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I've got this. Yeah, I think I think you're right. You know you get you. If you'd have asked me maybe seven and a Half minutes ago, I would have told you it was the 991 Touring that I just saw drive past my house. But yeah, there was something about the 964. The contours I think the color combo is actually that I saw this weekend were probably most impressive. There was. There was like this sort of I Don't know like a ruby kind of red, pink sort of color.
Speaker 1:And you just couldn't take your eyes off it yeah, something like yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there you go and there was, there was like a turquoisey kind of teal color Could be. There was, there was. There was one I think was actually Repainted, because the the sign on it said Miami blue I don't know if they had Miami blue 964s, no, and and it had the ducktail on the back and it had the fucks wheels and it had the, the, the, the really big kind of handwritten Carrera decals on the side of the, on the side of the doors. That that might have been my favorite car actually from the whole, from the whole show. This is so good, so good. I'm talking to these owners and they're like oh yeah, what have you got? And I showed them you know my car and like I really like your car, I was like just give me the keys, let's trade. I'm like I can't fit in yours, but let's just, let's just trade.
Speaker 1:Anyway, you need a 964 target. You.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, so I've said it before, right, you know. You said if I could pay Porsche any amount of money, what would I get them to make me? Well, no more am I gonna ask them to make me a 993 turbo. In the dimensions of the 992, it's gonna be a 964 with a ducktail.
Speaker 1:But that's a roof right like cuz, cuz, the, the, the SCR, that that's that's. It looks like a 964, but it's big I.
Speaker 2:Want one? So bad Andy, we just get me one. I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't think I can be amazing, get me one. Yeah, I'm not sure I can make that happen. To be honest, even if I had the the funds to make it happen, I still don't think. I still couldn't make it happen.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I'm sort of bunch of people I. There was a Lady that we met the previous year at the last works reunion called Cindy. She's on Instagram. I think it's P 9, not P 9 11 girl. She has a 991.1 turbo and it's I can't remember what type of blue it is, but it's basically like a navy blue Absolutely gorgeous. She does mods to it all the time. She drives it all the time. She's always on Instagram. She's super nice. She brought her husband, who's also into, into Porsche, so we bumped into her, bumped into a bunch of people that had very nice things to say about my videos, which was kind.
Speaker 2:Tried my best to irritate Jay all weekend as much as possible, especially because his son was there. He had one of his two boys Barney came with his last summer to the tale of the dragon and and Louis came as this time. Just actually such a cracking lad, really good. I just, you know, wanted to pat him on the shoulder and say I'm just so sorry, jay's your dad, you're a cool kid, but you know good fun and games. And now and now, you know, I'm just counting the days down to Tale of the dragon. Bring it on, that's like end of May.
Speaker 1:It's funny what you say about being present. You know, I I Did the same thing in Tasmania. I had all my cameras and on day one I started recording and I was shooting. You know, on our drive away from the boat to get breakfast I was filming and then we arrived at breakfast and I thought, no, I'm not gonna, I'm not doing this, I'm actually. I just enjoy this trip. I want to turn the cameras off. Stop thinking about making sure they're both running, making sure I'm I've got the microphones Turned on and I just turned it all off and it was, it was the best thing.
Speaker 2:I, yeah, yeah yeah, it's good you got to do it every once in a while, definitely. So um video of the week. Dude, I'm excited because I've at least watched it.
Speaker 1:So you've actually seen this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like a video on YouTube about Porsches. It was brilliant.
Speaker 1:All right, well, look, I'm gonna. I'm gonna assume you've seen it. It's a film called Echoes, which follows the story of a guy named Ed Mills and he's I think it's a mid-70s, 9-11, unless it's been backdated but he talks about that, that mid-70s era, as being his absolute, you know, sweet spot in terms of terms of what he wanted from a car. It's, it's beautifully shot. The whole thing's been shot on a red Komodo, which is a stunning camera, and I don't know just, it's just one of those nice little Porsche stories. It's a quick watch, three minutes. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really nice. And it was also another video that kind of made me want to cry, because the drone photography in it was beautiful and the, the sort of the storytelling of the. You know he started off. I think it was in his living room, kind of looking out at his car, and he's in his car, yeah, yeah, and then he's out on the road and then he's kicking it up a gear and I think the music as well was like quite, quite kind of intense music. Yeah, for a fact, you know, it's like building up to something. Yeah, really well shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah you can.
Speaker 1:You can tell when someone has put effort into their craft. So this is, this is on a channel by the channel's J J, kieran J, how you doing. Hopefully you'll hear this, you probably won't, but you know, like the rolling shots, the tracking shots of the car, you know those lovely front three quarter shots just great, perfectly crafted it's. It's one of those ones where, yeah, like you say the, the storytelling is lovely and so is the cinematography and I love what he says. He talks about, you know, waking up at 3am and then calling his wife and saying, and she's like where are you? And he's like I'm in Scotland.
Speaker 1:I just love that idea that you can get up in the morning and not really have the intention of, you know, making some epic road trip, but the car just once you're in it, it just it'll just drag you there. I love that yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, you know that that was my experience on the way back from Florida. You know, that was supposed to be a three day, three day road trip and I was in that car and every minute I was behind that wheel, listening to the exhaust or, you know, putting it into the corners. I just well, okay, another 50 miles, another 50 miles. You know what? Let's just go until six o'clock, let's just go until nine o'clock, and before you know it, I've been behind the wheel for 21 hours. Yeah, I can totally see that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. He I love as well. The owner, ed talks about, you know, modifying cars and the idea that you know your wallet dictates how fast you can go with that process. Totally.
Speaker 1:And he you know he made the decision, there was no need to rush, and I loved hearing that, because so often when I see videos on YouTube or builds on Instagram, you know it looks as though somebody bought the car and then they've done, in the space of three months, four months, five months, everything. It's been repainted, the engine's been rebuilt, punched out to 3.8 liters, a whole new interior, and it creates this sense of oh man, my car's not good enough, I need to.
Speaker 1:I need to get this done, I have to have it done now. And it which is ridiculous, because anyone else would look at your car and think that car's amazing, what are you even talking about? But it creates this, this artificial and inflated need to to upgrade and modify. And so you know, I've been talking about doing the interior of my car forever and it was like, yeah, you know what? Just you can do it when you can do it, you can afford it when you can afford it.
Speaker 1:And yeah, my plan with that actually is to just kind of do it bit by bit, like buy the leather just when I can buy the carpet, when I can just gradually do it, so that it doesn't feel like such a massive thing that I have to just bite off a huge mouthful and chew forever. I can just work my way through it. But I love that. Someone said in a video hey, you know what? Just you just do it as you do it. And yeah, you don't need to feel that impatient and no one else is thinking about your car the way you think about your car.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah. You're the only one putting pressure on you to do anything to your car.
Speaker 1:Literally be grateful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, dude, I think that's it. We're back. Another episode in the can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what do this again in? We reckon four, five months.
Speaker 2:Let's say six, just to be safe. And if we're, if we're, if we do a Mr Scott and deliver a you know ahead of time, then it's just going to be good for everybody.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny because we did just over and no, we did talk about actually recording two episodes in one hit, just in case.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's right, remember.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I've only done show notes for one, and also my back is is not loving sitting down, so it's saying, hey, let's wrap this up so we can get up right again, you poor old fucker.
Speaker 2:All right, dude, you have a great time down under and the curb and Canyon listeners. Thank you for hanging in there with us. I promise there'll be more content coming soon. I'm not sure Andy's promising as well, but at least one of us is, and I'll see you in the next part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't promise I'll do my best. That's it. I'll pinky swear, I'll pinky swear, but hey, make sure you check us out on Instagram. To a curb and Canyon. Check out James auto amateur. Check out Andy Last rasp Anyone else. They need to check out James, your mother. We'll see you guys on the next one.
