It's Been 19 Years

Also, really quick, just a reminder, 19 years of White Roof Radio tomorrow.

Yeah, I know.

That's unbelievable.

If you say it out loud, it sounds even more impressive.

That couldn't be more impressive than that.

DT turned 20 in January.

Dude, right?

Really?

Yeah.

Murderfowl's right there, too, dude.

Murderfowl is going to be 22 January 1st.

Nice.

All right, here we go.

This is wild.

If you're listening to the world-famous White Roof Radio, this is WolfCast number 695, recorded

July 31st.

Yeah, as always, listener supported.

It's our show.

Hey, everybody.

It's DB in Arizona for a new episode of White Roof Radio.

You're listening to this after we recorded it, obviously.

Nobody can listen live.

We're not live yet because we just weren't that organized tonight.

And as a quick reminder, before I introduce Mr. Bridger and Mr. Chad from Detroit2 and

Detroit2.com, that this show marks the 19th anniversary of White Roof Radio.

That's incredible.

I mean, you cheering.

We're not doing a whole lot of shows lately, and I understand that, but still, we've been

doing it for 19 years.

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

I think it's maybe the right time, DB, for me to step in and say that, and we'll talk

about MTTS later, but while I was on MTTS, I was on White Roof Radio.

I was on MTTS.

I heard from a number of our listeners, a big number, many I didn't even know.

So, I mean, I think it's a wide audience.

When are you going to do a show?

We love a show.

Like, when's the next one?

How's it going?

We're concerned it's not coming back.

All these things.

I'm like, no, no.

We're working on our own time.

We may get into a more regular cadence at some point again.

Yes.

But, you know, right now.

There are other things currently at play.

Yeah.

So, that specifically keep me from wrangling the guys to make a show every week, or even

twice a month.

And I will say, for my part, many of the things that get in my way of wanting to do the show,

I would prefer that they didn't, and I would prefer to do the show.

Isn't that always the case, though?

Yes, it is.

But, my kids are getting older.

I feel like, at some point, you know, why are they on television for me?

I feel like there's opportunities ahead.

You need to stop posting pictures of your kids that I can see on the internet, because

they're just too good looking, dude.

Honestly.

I don't, well.

That is like the best looking crew of kids I've ever seen in my life.

I don't post many photos of them, ever.

Yeah, and I know you show the small group, but Jesus, man, that's some good looking kids.

I appreciate that.

They do okay.

Anyway, 19 years of Waterford.

I thought that was cool.

But, I'm glad Todd didn't make it.

Todd was very sick this week.

So, we're not going to get Todd this time.

But, we're going to get him back soon.

I promise.

And, we're trying.

Like I said, there's a lot of things going on that, especially me, I'd much rather be

recording episodes of White Roof Radio than not.

So, we're just going to go ahead and stay right there.

If you follow me on Mastodon, you probably get a better idea of what's happening.

Oh.

There you go.

Because that's my new social media of choice.

Anyway, that's fine.

We're going to talk about Mini Cooper stuff tonight, because that's what we want to do.

Chad started talking about his R53.

And then, that just started.

The whole thing.

I had to make them stop pre-show.

Gabe started talking about MTTS during Black Roof.

You probably caught that already.

We're going to keep talking about that even more.

Gabe also put up a bunch of posts.

And, I'm not sure if you guys saw them or not.

About a Mini going electric.

And, maybe too soon.

He did have a three-part series on motoringfile.com.

We're going to kind of touch on that a little bit.

He also got to spend a lot of time during MTTS in two Minis that you guys want to hear about.

So, we're going to get to all of that.

Like now, I guess.

Yeah.

Because we didn't get to do it.

Where do we start?

We didn't do MTTS.

Let's just start with MTTS.

Yeah, let's start.

You went.

And, we had to celebrate from afar.

Yeah.

So, I can tell you.

I could have went with the X3 and taken it as a support vehicle.

I would have.

We all would have loved that.

But, you know.

So, it is.

But, I can give you a quick view of my experience.

So, I did what they call leg two.

There are three legs.

And, Mini has kind of gotten this down to a science now.

So, you know, if you did MTTS in like 06 or 08, something like that, you know, you will

have remembered not only a sort of, you know, kind of every morning, there's kind of a launch

party, if you will, into the route.

There was also an evening event.

Well, as you can imagine, that absolutely destroyed people who are trying to host it.

Namely, folks at Mini USA and their partners.

And, at the same time, they also wanted to kind of give people a chance.

To have their own experiences at the cities they're visiting.

Because, you know, when it comes down to it, the whole concept here is that you're, you know, you're seeing America.

Right.

Mini takes the states, right?

So, you know, you want to have your own adventures, potentially.

So, you have that opportunity.

So, with that said, we kicked off in Salt Lake City.

And, I should say, I did for leg two.

And, headed north into what is Yellowstone.

Into, you know, the beautiful Paradise Valley area of Montana.

And, the Bridger Mountains into Livingston and Bozeman.

Which was day one.

Let's just make sure that we're clear.

Is Bridger Mountains, Gabe dropped that name on purpose.

Because, his family actually owns the entire mountain range.

No, so that's not true.

It's like the Duttons from Yellowstone.

That's real life, but it's the Bridgers of Montana.

So, that's not true.

I appreciate that, Davey.

So, no, my ancestor, Jim Bridger, discovered the area, mapped Yellowstone, first Caucasian, European human, if you will, of European ancestry to see the Great Salt Lake, Yellowstone, mapped the whole area, was responsible for the Northwest Passage, as we know it today, you know, like, basically, just like the biggest badass possible.

And so, there's a lot of stuff named after him.

The Bridger Tetons, Yellowstone was going to be named after him.

But, they changed it.

And then, the Bridger Mountains.

And there's other Bridger Mountains.

There's tons of stuff.

So, it's fun to go through there with the last name.

I always remind my kids, you did nothing.

You're responsible for none of this.

But, if it gets you in free somewhere, take it.

Right.

But, nonetheless, it was a great, great time.

And, you know, I actually got to ride with...

Another journalist who was experiencing the new Minis for the first time, which is actually really cool.

You know, the thing is, like, it's...

What's really interesting about, like, these experiences as a sort of a journalist, you know, working with Mini and, you know, going on these experiences.

These are press drives.

And you're actually seeing other people experience these cars at the same time, which is actually pretty incredible when you think about it.

But, that's kind of the original intent.

Well, not really.

The original intent for MTTS.

But, it's kind of what it turned into.

Since the original intent was the GP delivery, right?

From the first GP.

Right, right.

Then, it's kind of gone into, well, let's take advantage of having all these people here.

And, let's turn it into a big sales push.

Which, duh.

Why would you not do that?

Right?

Right.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And, I think what's really cool about it is just the simple fact that, you know, you're actually...

Mini is so confident in...

In the cars and the community, if you will.

That they're like, hey, just come check it out.

Just come drive our cars and check it out.

And so, I got to hang out with somebody from TFL, which is a channel on YouTube.

Highly recommend them, by the way.

Fantastic group.

And, you know, these are guys that drive every car.

And, so, it's always fascinating to sort of see these cars in their eyes.

So, you know, sort of side note, but that was a lot of fun.

But, I got to drive the JCW Countryman.

And, if you haven't seen our videos on Instagram, check them out.

They are a good synopsis of sort of what happened on the three days that I was there.

And, it also shows some pretty wild footage of the Countryman, the JCW Countryman.

Well, I'll just say it.

I was railing the shit out of that car.

Down some mountain roads.

It's pretty.

Pretty badass.

In fact, it's actually not a Motorphile because nobody has had time to put it on Motorphile.

But, if you go to Motorphile's Instagram and go to the reels, you'll see some of that stuff.

So, you can see pretty quickly we had a great time.

Everybody had a great time.

Super great.

All the videos are cool.

Check them out.

I'll link them up.

The cool thing about MTTSO, you know, is obviously the experiences of the route.

And, this route was, in my view, in my time there, which was three days, three nights,

was the best route I've ever seen at MTTS.

And, it's not hard to have the best route when you're literally going through some of the best roads in the country.

And, I know the Dragon's amazing.

And, I know Angelus Crest is amazing.

There's amazing roads, you know, everywhere.

But, you know, when you string together a couple, you know, like a thousand miles, basically 1,500 miles through the Rockies,

you're going to have a pretty incredible road trip.

And, that's what this was.

And so, we drove through some incredible scenes.

You know, our Rise and Shine Rallies.

I mean, the first one in Bozeman was in the Bridger Mountains.

It was literally at a ranch.

You know, again, there's videos on our Instagram.

Nice.

It was just unworldly.

It was like, wow, where am I right now?

The sun's coming over the mountains.

There's like a guy lassoing, you know, a bull.

I'm having mediocre coffee.

This is amazing.

Like, what's going on?

Where am I right now?

And, that was kind of the feeling you got every morning when you went to these rallies and when you kind of kicked off the day.

And, you felt, oh, God, it felt so great.

Because, I mean, you had in front of you anywhere from 200, 300, 500 miles to travel and open road.

And, just like whatever the day brought.

And, I think that's what makes this experience so great.

So, I'll end it there as far as my experience at MTTS.

I mean, you know, there's a lot of photos online.

And, go check out Mudder.

Follow, you know, the dot com.

And, go check out our Instagram.

You'll see more.

But, I think what is maybe just as important or maybe more important is I got a chance to drive the new JCW Countryman at length.

So, I got to spend, I got to put like 500, 600 miles on it.

Okay.

And, the.

That's a lot.

That's like an, that's definitely an extended test drive.

For sure.

I got to also drive the Countryman S.

And, I got to drive the Cooper S for quite a while as well.

Very cool.

So, you know.

Here's the, here's the, the, the, the short sort of the high level, if you will.

The JCW Countryman, I've already driven and reviewed.

But, this kind of solidified a lot of the things I felt with a couple nuances.

I think for one, the ride and handling are a step above what came before it.

When I say a step above, I mean you will notice a step above.

Like, it is, it is immediately, immediately evident how much better the ride is.

Really?

But, what's interesting is it's also immediately evident how.

The steering ratio is, is both quicker.

And, the feedback.

Or, I should say, you know, sort of the feel through the wheel.

Feels more progressive and natural.

Nice.

And, I think, you know, when you think about the two big things people have problems with.

With the last generation Minis.

It's the ride is shit.

And, the feedback and the feel of the steering.

Where the sort of the interactivity of the steering.

Yeah.

You know.

Really, kind of like when you're pushing it.

It doesn't feel natural.

It doesn't mean it's, it's terrible.

Doesn't necessarily mean it's bad.

It doesn't mean.

It wasn't great.

Doesn't mean it can't handle well.

Right.

But, what's coming through the wheel doesn't feel natural.

You know, if you go back to the R53.

Which, these cars can't touch.

Uh-uh.

That felt natural.

And, you want.

Even if you can't.

You're never going to have that feel again.

You still want to have that sort of natural build.

And, you want to have the feedback that feels.

Even if it's synthetic.

Like, I understand what this car is doing.

And, that's what we're kind of getting back.

A little bit.

On the JCW Countryman.

And, just the Countryman in general.

The Countryman S.

You know.

What I was shocked about.

When I look at those two cars.

Is, off the line.

Like, zero to 30.

They're the same.

You know, the Countryman S has 295 foot pound of torque.

Okay.

That's the exact same as the JCW Countryman.

Oh.

And, so.

The only difference is the JCW Countryman is tuned up to 313 horsepower.

Whereas, the Cooper S is 241.

So, the JCW will, from 30 onward, will pull away.

The Cooper S.

I'm sorry.

The Countryman S.

Yeah.

But, if you're just driving around town.

You're really not going to notice a ton of difference.

The software is different.

So, the shifting algorithm is a little different.

Right.

But, put it in go-kart mode.

You'll get a little bit of that with the Countryman S.

You know.

So, it's.

You know.

It really is.

It's surprisingly effective.

You know.

As a quick car.

Zero to 30.

And, very similar.

To the JCW.

In fact.

I mean.

If it had shift paddles.

Don't get me started on this.

We don't get them in the end states.

You know.

Because, we don't have the JCW style.

Using air quotes here.

Right.

On most of the cars.

Except for the F65.

If it did.

I mean.

You would be able to like.

You know.

Kind of play with it enough.

Where it would feel pretty damn near close.

So, I was impressed by that car.

For sure.

It's heavier.

It's slower.

Yeah.

Than the previous generation.

It's better.

You know.

But.

And, here's the weird thing.

I was.

I was wrestling with this the whole time.

I kind of enjoyed it more.

Hmm.

It just.

Just the feedback.

The way it reacted.

It just.

I just kind of enjoyed it more.

Everything was.

Was just a little.

That little bit better.

Yeah.

If you're going to be.

Yeah.

If you're going to be big.

Just make it feel better.

Right.

And.

We're steering.

You know.

Yeah.

So, I think that was interesting.

Now.

This is where I have a real pregnant pause.

While I have a sip.

The Cooper S was the interesting thing.

Yeah.

And.

While you're having your sip.

I want to.

Just mention.

And.

And I don't know.

So, this is.

I know this is just a me.

This is totally a me problem.

But I can't get over the.

The way these cars look.

In.

Sure.

Yeah.

In comparison.

And I haven't seen any.

In the wild yet.

Any of this new.

I haven't stopped by the dealer.

I haven't even seen any wild.

But.

The whole.

And it's not me in general.

But.

It's.

Cars now.

All look.

Like.

They've got this look going on.

And I don't know if I like it.

It's the.

Well.

You're talking about the Countryman.

Right.

I'm talking about the Countryman.

It looks like.

It looks like it might be electric.

It might be a Lexus.

It might be a Hyundai.

It looks like everything else.

That's turning electric.

On the road.

And it's got that giant.

Gaping.

Maw.

Yeah.

Which just makes me insane.

You know what I'm saying?

Well.

One of the problems is.

Well.

There's two problems.

I think for one.

I think.

You know.

Some of the cars we have in the United States.

They don't have in Germany.

Yeah.

And so.

They literally don't see them.

Right.

So.

It's not part of their.

Calculus.

Like.

Ooh.

This might look a little close to this Hyundai.

Right.

But.

They have the Ioniq 5 though.

Yeah.

I hear that.

Like.

I think.

I think the other problem is the shape of the car.

Is actually dictated.

The front.

Yeah.

Angle.

It's.

Maybe.

From.

It's too.

Too masculine.

Gabe.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Maybe.

Well.

The styling.

I can't.

Like.

I totally.

I totally hear you.

And I.

There's no excuse for it.

Like.

I mean.

I don't have an excuse for it.

Like.

Yeah.

I mean.

I think.

I think it's a fair point.

Yeah.

I'm not looking for an excuse or anything.

I'm just like.

Going.

This is kind of where cars are going.

And I don't know.

Yeah.

If I'd like.

You know.

Big trucks are looking like this.

And Toyota's taking that look.

A lot of people would agree with you.

And it's just.

It's weird.

Yeah.

I think a lot of people would agree with you.

And here.

And here's my thought.

Like.

I think.

You know.

To some degree.

They have to.

The.

This is crazy.

But.

Yeah.

The angle.

From the.

Sort of the midpoint.

Of the front of the car.

Back.

To the wheels.

If you're looking down on the car.

From the top.

Yeah.

The angle.

Actually.

Is dictated by.

EU law.

For pedestrian.

Safety standards.

Exactly.

Which is nuts.

100%.

It's absolutely crazy.

But it's true.

I get it.

That they have to build the cars.

To safely crash into people.

I understand.

But.

They did that with the R53.

And the R50.

And they did it with the R56.

And they did it with the R60.

And those cars all looked the way those cars did.

Yeah.

But.

That was.

I know that was.

That was a long time ago.

So.

That's just me being an old guy.

And things that.

So they.

And struggling to change.

The R56 didn't.

Didn't fall under those rules.

Oh.

I thought it did.

The R53 did not at all.

I thought it did.

So the rules really hit with the F56.

And that's why you saw the growth.

Of the.

Overhangs.

The substantial growth.

My bad.

And many was against it.

In fact.

If you can go back and look at articles.

Written in 2007.

And like.

Oh.

Basically they're like.

Oh shit.

Yeah.

These new rules.

Are going to mean these cars.

Are going to have huge overhangs.

People be like bulbous.

Because it's dictated by law.

Because what happened.

That's what happened.

You know.

Yeah.

That's just me being a crazy old guy.

Don't.

Let's just move past that.

So it's totally fine.

We don't need to.

No.

But it's.

It's.

It's good.

I mean.

I think it's.

But I think it's.

A lot of people have that same thought.

And I think it's.

You know.

It is what it is.

And if you don't like it.

Then like that's.

It's a bummer.

It really is.

And the only other thing about that.

That I don't like either right now.

Is whoever they're employing to design wheels.

They need to fire this person.

All manufacturers.

Yes.

Need to fire whoever's making.

Whoever's doing the wheel design these days.

And I'm just like going.

Wait.

What?

Why?

How are these.

Which wheels?

You pick.

Let's start with.

Let's start with the yellow mini wheels here.

On the homepage of Morningfile.

We could look at the wheels off the Countryman.

We could look at wheels on anything.

From Kia, Hyundai, Ford.

Toyota.

Oh, I like those wheels.

The yellow mini.

The Cooper S.

No.

There's only one.

Oh, I love those wheels.

Wheel mini I like anymore.

Right now.

Which one's that, Chad?

It's kind of like a.

It graduates out.

So it goes darker to lighter.

And it's like an eight spoke.

Oh, uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

I think there's some.

I think there's some great looking wheels.

I think actually the.

The Aisman's wheels.

The.

The big ones on.

I think they look awesome.

I think there's some good.

All right.

I don't love them all.

I think.

I think they've.

They've got out of hand.

And listen, I could critique a bunch of stuff.

So.

Yeah.

I mean, I can do.

The wheels are horrible.

I could be the angry guy on the internet all day long.

I don't like.

Well, the cool thing about those wheels.

Why?

Okay.

So I'm going to start talking about the Cooper S.

Okay.

Why those wheels.

One of the reasons those wheels are cool is because what they did with the Cooper S.

And Chad, you'll.

You'll know this well.

Like the.

The.

The geometry of the F56.

And especially on the.

On the J.

F56W.

But any F56.

Like the way the brakes are.

It didn't allow for the wheels to have any kind of dish.

Yeah.

A front wheel drive car has to have a wheel that is on the face.

There is no dish available because you have huge brakes.

And it's.

Because you have brakes.

And all of that stuff.

So I get that there's not.

Well.

But they fixed it.

That's.

It's different now.

So they.

They extended the width.

So they extended the track.

On these.

On these cars.

They changed the geometry of the wheels.

And if you look at those wheels.

You'll see.

It's not like a full on.

Like huge dish.

But they actually go inward now.

They actually have some kind of.

Dimension to them.

Versus what they had before.

And you'll see it on the new JCW wheels.

As well.

Like they.

They don't.

They're not bulbous.

Because literally.

If you look at the JCW wheels.

Especially the.

18th.

17 inch wheels.

They literally curve out.

On the F56.

Because they have to clear the brakes.

The caliper in the front.

And the way they've designed it now.

With the track.

They've designed it.

They don't have to do that.

Because the wheel sticks out further.

Because the entire car is a little bit wider.

And so.

That's not just a style thing.

But it helps.

I'm looking at some of them.

And for the most part.

They're fairly flat to the face.

I mean.

There's.

You know.

When people are looking at dished wheels.

They're like.

I need at least an inch.

To be a dished wheel.

And an inch is not a lot.

I mean.

It's.

You know.

Yeah.

Look at.

I think she said.

Look at this.

I wasn't going to go there.

But DB did.

Come on.

So.

Yeah.

I just sent you guys.

I just sent you guys a photo.

Don't mind the fact that there's bullhorns on this car.

But I sent you guys a photo of the previous JCW from MTTS.

And you'll see those wheels.

How they literally bow outward.

On the old JCW.

And if you look at the new.

On that yellow car for instance.

They actually have.

You know.

They're flat.

They bow inward.

Yeah.

Which is.

Which just looks way better.

And so.

But I'm building up to something.

Because.

Not just the wheels.

See.

I'm pivoting.

I'm pivoting, DB.

The.

If you're playing the White Roof Radio Home drinking game.

Apparently.

Pivoting is now on the drinking game.

So drink.

Yes.

It is.

But the reason I say that is because.

You know.

I drove the Scuba Rouse.

It was bright yellow.

DB.

You know how much I don't like the old Ikea yellow.

I know.

That was your favorite color.

Liquid yellow.

I hated that color.

That was your favorite.

This color.

Of all time.

Is what liquid yellow should have been.

I'm not.

I would never buy this car.

This isn't.

I wouldn't buy a yellow car.

It's just not me.

But.

If you want to get yellow.

This is the best yellow that many has ever made.

In my opinion.

I think it's awesome.

And.

It's very, very striking.

Okay.

But.

More importantly.

I get in this car.

I'm like.

Okay.

You know.

There's two strikes against it.

Right away.

There's no manual.

And it's got the crazy new interior.

Well.

Which I.

I like.

I don't.

I don't have a problem with it.

You know.

At a high level.

I don't have a problem with it.

I have some.

You know.

Some.

Little things here and there.

Anyway.

Everything's perfect.

So.

I get in the car.

I'm like.

Okay.

Right away.

The two problems I have with it.

Is there's no manual.

And that just.

That to me is unforgivable.

But.

Just note it.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then second.

There's no shift paddles.

Which is.

Wait.

What?

Insane.

Like.

That's.

That's insane.

What.

What's interesting to me is.

Is.

Almost every journalist.

That drove this car.

Had that same question.

But they didn't know all the backstory.

And they were simply asking.

Like.

So.

Why aren't there shift paddles in this car?

Is that.

Is that like an option?

And just didn't get it.

Oh wait.

You don't offer them?

Wait.

Right.

What?

So.

I gotta tell you.

Many got an earful.

Sure.

From journalists.

On this trip.

An earful.

And I can tell you pretty clearly.

From my.

Reading between the lines.

Of the responses.

They're going to come back.

They're definitely coming back.

But.

So.

As I get in this car.

Two strikes against it.

Right?

Right.

I start driving it.

And I've driven it before.

And I.

And you can read my.

My initial take on it.

You know.

I was impressed.

I'm like.

Okay.

It's got a quicker steering.

Sure.

The suspension feels better.

For sure.

It feels just more alive.

But.

I didn't put four.

Five hundred miles on it.

Well.

I did.

In this trip.

Sure.

And.

The.

This.

Cooper.

This Cooper S.

It.

It was incredible.

On the highway.

For starters.

I mean.

Okay.

You would never say that.

About any other.

Small many.

You know.

I've driven.

If you.

All of them across country.

If you look.

At the.

At the image.

That I'm using.

For this week's.

Show.

Not show art.

Which is the.

Full side view.

And you can tell.

Look at that car.

And go.

That car looks like a car.

That would ride good.

On the highway.

Yeah.

I mean.

It.

It was.

Versus the.

The F.

Fifty six.

Yeah.

This car was night and day.

So.

The suspension.

The damping.

Just.

The.

The way it transmitted.

Imperfections.

And bumps.

Into the cabin.

Yeah.

Was.

Night and day.

Difference.

Compared to what the.

F.

Fifty six.

Had.

Yeah.

The way.

The steering.

Loaded up.

In corners.

Yeah.

Produced.

Feedback.

Again.

This isn't.

You know.

I'm not saying that there's.

You know.

Lotus like levels of feedback here.

That's not true.

That's not the case.

It's.

It's still not.

Perfect.

By any means.

But it's better.

But it's so much better.

Especially.

I mean.

It feels natural.

That makes sense.

Not drive by wire.

It's EPS.

It's just electric.

No.

Got it.

It's the same.

System.

From a.

Sort of mechanical perspective.

This is still mechanical.

Got it.

It's boosted by an electric.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

So.

But it feels natural.

Yeah.

Keep going.

It feels natural.

And so.

You know.

Number one.

The highway.

Like cruising this.

In this thing.

With adaptive cruise.

Yeah.

Was delightful.

I mean.

It was like.

Oh my God.

I could.

Like this.

This.

This went from.

And I mean.

I just spent.

A.

Winter.

With an F56.

Waiting for my club.

And I drove that thing.

On the highway.

A ton.

And it is not a relaxing car.

To drive on the highway.

And I.

I know people think it can be.

I remember that.

Trust me.

It was not.

It's not.

You're correct.

It.

It's okay.

And if you've been used to driving an older car.

It might be.

But.

If you drive a modern car.

You'll recognize it's not.

Yeah.

And it's not.

And it's fine.

You know.

That's not.

It's.

You know.

It's not a stated purpose.

But.

This new one.

Fixed the problem.

So.

It's.

Nice.

Delightful on the highway.

Relaxing.

All right.

Not taxing in any way.

Then the second you get into the corners.

There's more feel than there was before.

There's.

There's quicker steering.

You know.

There's the ability to soak up imperfections.

Without.

Taking away.

Kind of the.

You know.

The data that's coming through the steering wheel.

I mean.

Mini did a great job.

Changing the.

The.

You know.

The feel of this car.

Yeah.

Even though the car.

Like the chassis didn't really change.

So they completely changed the suspension.

Not completely.

It's the same geometry from understand.

But it's different components.

They've tuned it very differently.

They've tuned the steering very differently.

There's a different rack.

Okay.

And it.

It's a.

It's a big change.

I mean.

Man.

Wish I could have done this before.

I mean.

It.

It is very.

Very welcome.

All right.

I was really impressed by it.

Amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.

Well.

And Chad.

It's amazing what you can do when you.

I'm sure that many people would say this after a couple of years.

When they get a budget to actually fix some problems.

Oh yeah.

There's.

There's that too.

Yeah.

I mean.

Honestly.

I think it's.

Because I mean.

You know this.

And I.

And I've.

And I've experienced this in my car.

My.

My clubbing.

I mean.

You can change the steering feel.

You can right these wrongs.

With the aftermarket.

You know.

You can go.

Yeah.

And solve these problems.

A lot of them.

With the aftermarket parts.

Because.

Guess what?

Like.

It's not rocket science.

But.

You know.

These cars are.

They're engineered.

And they're engineered for the masses.

And let's be honest.

They're engineered.

To achieve a certain performance objective.

But also.

Engineered to cost.

Right.

And they also have to have a.

A certain repeatability.

Because of.

Customer X buys car A.

And then customer X.

You know.

Gives car A back.

And gets car B.

Oh.

It almost feels exactly the same.

It's just different.

Because it's a JCW.

Or whatever.

And they have a.

A repeatability.

That they have to have.

All the time.

You know.

Yeah.

So.

Gabe.

You spent 500.

I'm.

I'm looking at the.

Interior picture of this car now.

You spent 500 miles there.

There.

There's no shifter to speak of.

And the new stuff.

How was it living with that.

For.

For an entire.

Full.

Road trip.

Day.

Or two.

I mean.

You know.

Yeah.

Without a manual.

It sucked.

I.

I don't know how to say it.

Like.

I.

I really love manuals.

If.

If you're going to take my manual.

You might as well just give me an electric car.

You know.

Like.

That's always been my.

My take.

And.

Not that an electric car is bad.

It's just.

If we're going to go that route.

Let's just go all the way.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Let's just get rid of everything.

And let's be faster.

More efficient.

You know.

Because I.

I think electric cars are.

Can be so fantastic as a daily.

Um.

And so that.

You know.

I.

I definitely missed it.

But the.

The thing that sucked was without the.

The paddles.

I mean.

You know.

You're right.

Like.

You're.

You're just.

Literally doing just two things.

You're.

You're just kind of along for the ride.

In this car.

Sort of.

Yeah.

That's why.

That's what I said earlier.

I said.

Yeah.

You feel like you're.

You're a passenger in a sense.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I mean.

In retrospect.

I don't know if I'd go that far.

But.

You know.

Listen.

They.

They're going to bring the paddles back.

Right.

They.

They know they.

They messed up.

And I know that Mini USA.

I'm just.

I don't know this.

I.

I can.

I can pretty well guess.

That they have been beating this drum.

With Mini Global.

Mm-hmm.

I think it's Mini Global who said.

You know.

It just doesn't quite.

I think.

Understand the American market.

Which is to say.

Listen.

You know.

We're not.

Like.

As a market.

We don't necessarily expect.

You to be able to make your Cooper.

Look like a JCW.

But we do expect your Cooper.

To be able to be fun.

Right.

And I think there's a difference.

Yeah.

And I don't think that's something that.

That Mini.

In Germany.

Quite grasped.

Right.

Or.

Remember.

About the.

History of.

Mini.

In the U.S.

Since 2003.

Right.

And I think that's the thing.

Like.

I mean.

And you know.

Chad.

You.

You can talk about this forever.

Like.

The great thing about these cars.

Is until.

Until this car.

Yeah.

You could get a bone stock Cooper.

The manual.

Yep.

And.

Have.

Almost as much fun as a JCW.

So much fun.

Yeah.

100%.

So much fun.

I got so many.

I got so many hours in a track.

In an R50.

So many hours.

There are.

There are people that are.

As fast in an R50.

As they are in an R53.

Based on.

How they have it set up.

And how they drive it.

And.

That's me.

Again.

That's also.

Somebody who is more.

Of a skilled driver.

But.

It was a.

The 53 was a raw car.

I mean.

So great.

You had.

The handling.

Handling.

And the capabilities.

In that.

That type of situation.

Maybe Germany doesn't recognize.

How.

Certain American drivers.

Want to be.

And they.

Dumped it down.

Throughout the years.

And now.

They're finally starting.

To get back to that.

Oh.

Well.

We should do this.

We should do that.

Yeah.

And I.

You know.

Yeah.

100%.

You know.

If you're going to make it.

Only automatic.

You need to have paddle shifters.

100%.

Yeah.

I would imagine.

Our brethren.

To the.

In the UK.

And.

Any other.

All through that whole region.

They probably are going.

We could.

Dig on some paddles.

Yeah.

So.

Any place.

Or F.

Oh.

They do.

Yeah.

So.

Here's the.

Here's the thing.

That sucks to be like.

So.

We don't get F1.

No.

So.

No.

Well.

We do now.

We're actually bigger fans.

But no.

I know.

No.

Why.

That is.

Is because.

And again.

Like this is.

There's a bunch of stories.

On Motorfowl.

About this.

Yeah.

Many of German.

Many global.

Essentially looked at this.

And said.

We're going to tie.

The paddle shifters.

To the JCW trim.

And that trim.

Right.

No.

Is an option.

That you can get on.

Any car.

It can be a Cooper.

With zero options.

But you can get the trim.

You can make it look like a JCW.

Down to the logos.

Like.

It has everything.

Looks like a JCW.

All right.

Except for like.

A couple red.

Highlights.

Which.

We haven't even seen yet.

But I know that they're going to be there.

Okay.

So.

You've got.

You've got that.

Which is very egalitarian of them.

Of course.

This is.

Okay.

That's nice.

Anybody can look like anything.

But.

You know.

What that means.

Is they've tied.

The paddle shifters.

To that.

And.

You know.

There's.

There's no option.

To get them in.

The other.

Trim package.

So.

Simultaneously.

Many USA is like.

Well.

Wait a second.

Right.

We're not going to offer the JCW.

Trim.

Because.

Why would we do that?

That undercuts the JCW.

Model itself.

Like.

Anybody could.

Make their car look like that.

It devalues the JCW product.

The people who buy it.

They're not going to like that.

And.

You know.

We really want to make the JCW special.

Which I think is great.

Like.

Actually.

I agree with that.

I agree with that too.

Well.

The problem is.

Mini Global.

Wouldn't bend on the.

Shift paddle.

Situation.

Got it.

And.

Here we are.

We've got.

You know.

One of the largest.

Markets.

Of minis.

That does not offer shift paddles.

At all.

Doesn't offer a manual at all.

And.

And you.

You went from having.

The ability to buy a manual.

Right.

And shift paddles on any car.

To now having no way to shift.

Yeah.

Your mini.

Yeah.

That's.

And that's.

Really so.

Bizarre.

I mean.

There was an R50 today.

And.

I know we keep falling back on the old cars.

We're old guys.

That's what we do.

But there's an R50 today.

At the grocery store.

I have no idea what year it was.

The windows were tinted so dark.

I wanted just to see.

If.

It had a manual.

And I'm pretty sure that it did.

Because there was no sunroof.

Which means.

Manual.

Almost every time.

So it was great.

I love those cars.

But.

I don't know.

That.

Kind of just said.

It's that interior.

Just looks so.

Spartan.

And.

An interior like that.

Looks super cool.

Let's go back.

And use the Ioniq 5.

Because it looks like the car of the future.

Right.

It looks like a freaking spaceship.

On the inside.

Yeah.

And this looks like that too.

And if I'm going to have an interior like that.

I want an electric motor.

Yeah.

So.

If that makes.

If that makes any sense.

Well.

The interior of this car.

So I got to say.

So let me.

Let me hit this.

Two points real quick.

Number one.

The software was different.

Every single one of these cars.

So.

Weird.

This is a.

Like.

This isn't just a.

Like.

You know.

This is a.

All.

New.

Model range for many.

Yeah.

And there are going to be teething problems.

So there's.

There's.

There's good news.

Right.

And there's bad news.

Let's talk about the good news first.

The good news is.

The teething problems I experienced were all software.

The good news is.

Just like the.

Software.

Just like the F-66.

It was software trouble right from the get go.

The F-56?

No.

66.

That's the car that I'm talking about.

The new Cooper.

Sorry.

I'm.

Keep going, Gabe.

Okay.

So.

But the good news is.

These are all cars with 5G.

And they are going to have over-the-air updates.

Oh, nice.

Every three months.

All right.

And so they're already working on fixes.

To fix these issues.

So the good news is.

Again.

Like this is stuff that actually will be fixed.

So.

You know.

And I noted that in my review.

Yeah.

You know.

It's not great.

Yeah.

There's a lag.

Like.

Every one of these cars is different.

They all had different builds.

Yeah.

Within the software I noticed.

So the JCW Countryman was the newest.

Yeah.

Had almost no lag.

In the system.

Which was great.

Really?

But.

The shifting.

Yeah.

In the paddle.

Because it did have paddles.

Uh-huh.

There.

I mean.

Oh my God.

Like there were.

There's sometimes it'd be quick.

Sometimes.

Most times it was quick.

Every once in a while it'd be like.

One 1,000.

Two 1,000.

Boom.

Oh.

That's how my car is now.

The lag was insane.

Oof.

And.

And so yeah.

I asked questions about that.

And yeah.

That was sold.

That's totally not normal.

And then others like.

I don't know if I can appreciate a car that's going to iterate like this.

I don't want a car built using agile methodologies.

Well.

You know what.

You know what I mean?

They are.

They have been.

And they are.

And I know that's where they're coming.

But boy.

That just sounds like trouble to me.

I.

So I actually think.

I welcome it.

I think it's perfect.

You know why?

Because there are.

There are software issues.

In cars I own.

That are.

12 years old.

And how easy would it be for them to be fixed?

You know.

And they can't be.

Yeah.

The other problem is.

The other thing is.

Everything now is.

Is.

Is software.

And so if you can update it.

Great.

Especially great.

If you can crack it.

Which we're all.

Hoping will happen.

Right.

So.

I think it's actually a good thing.

If they nail it.

And I.

They didn't nail it this first time.

This is the first time they're doing it.

Right.

I give them some.

I give them some leeway.

A little bit on that front.

Yeah.

But things were laggy.

The Cooper S.

You know.

The thing rebooted once.

Great.

You know.

Yeah.

It could be worse.

I've had that happen before in a car.

Sure.

But I mean.

When it comes down to it though.

Like generally speaking.

The driving experience was a.

Like.

Like decidedly better.

Take away this transmission thing.

Which I know we've talked about.

Yeah.

It was way better.

All right.

If you say so.

Mr. Bridger.

Oh.

We didn't even talk about the speed.

More power.

More torque.

The DCT.

Is not as quick as I want it to be.

Yeah.

It's not bad.

Oh.

One thing.

A small thing.

The.

Seven speed DCT.

Of course it is.

I mean.

Well.

It shouldn't be.

Like it should be.

It should be the other way around.

But it was.

Yeah.

I was.

I asked that question too.

And.

Yeah.

I got some knowing responses from.

So many folks.

Like.

Yeah.

We.

We know that.

Okay.

So.

I.

I think it'll be improved.

All right.

That was the.

Sort of.

You know.

Reading between the lines.

A little bit there.

Got it.

Super great.

And then the last thing.

I know it's getting late.

And we need to kind of.

Worry about shutting this down.

Is.

And we wanted to talk about this.

Is.

Gabe.

You put up that three part series.

I'm running.

I'm going to link up.

I'm going to put a link to him in the show notes.

So don't worry if you didn't read it.

But you need to.

Go back.

And read it.

Because it's actually.

It's really good.

I started reading the first one.

And just mini going electric.

And then you do it too soon.

Yeah.

I mean.

So.

You know.

I think.

And I'm.

I'm.

Curious to hear people's thoughts.

A lot of.

Comments.

And messages from folks on this.

Because.

I started writing this.

A while back.

And.

And I think.

What I was.

What I.

Realized I was doing is.

You know.

I started just kind of having fun with it.

It's kind of telling the story.

Of what happened over the past 15 years.

And why mini is.

Where it's at today.

And.

And so.

I thought the question.

Did mini.

Did mini go electric too soon.

Was almost like a.

No pun intended.

A vehicle.

For.

Several different articles.

To talk about.

What has happened.

Over the past 15 years.

And why mini is out.

Where it's at.

And it's not to say.

Where mini is out.

Is bad.

You know.

Or.

Or the wrong decision.

Necessarily.

Right.

But it's a really peculiar one.

You know.

Like.

Okay.

So we've got a car.

That's being made in China.

Yeah.

Two cars.

That.

Can't be imported.

The United States.

Yeah.

Because it's about to get.

A hundred percent tariff on it.

If it did.

Yeah.

It's about to get.

A 37 percent.

Tariff in Europe.

I don't know how many.

You know.

Minis.

Gonna make money on the car.

And.

And they bet the farm on that.

Meanwhile.

They.

Twinned.

The.

New countrymen.

To the X1.

Which they did before.

But now it's made in Germany.

Okay.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

And then they took.

A 10 year old car.

And they.

They.

They heavily refreshed it.

To turn it into the F66.

And they're gonna sell that.

For another seven years.

Like.

Wait a second.

Man.

What the hell.

Like.

This is a German company.

They don't.

They don't do things like.

You know.

That aren't.

Heavily.

Regimented.

In seven year cycles.

Like.

This is crazy.

Yeah.

And so.

You gotta back up and ask.

Like.

Wow.

How the hell did they get here?

And again.

It's not to say it's wrong.

Like the F66.

I thought it was great.

And I actually think.

You know.

In a way.

It's like.

Well.

Why.

Why spend so much money.

On a brand new chassis.

When you can.

Modify the one you've got.

And make it so much better.

That's what they did.

But it's still peculiar.

So.

I wanted to go back in time.

And talk about it.

So part one is.

It's really about like.

Why?

Why are they going electric?

And how are they going to do it?

Like.

What's the plan?

Right.

And I.

You know.

I kind of break down.

Three different segments.

You know.

The petrol powered.

Cooper.

The electric Cooper.

Paceman.

And then the countryman.

Kind of talk about what's coming.

Which I think a lot of people.

Find interesting.

And the second is.

You know.

They made this bold choice.

And then they got bit in the ass.

Right.

With.

Global politics.

And tariffs.

Crazy tariffs.

And how do they respond to that?

And what is that?

What has that done to them?

And the third.

Is really about.

You know.

Did.

Did many go electric too soon?

Well.

Or did they.

Not do it soon enough?

And.

It's.

This one.

Where I actually dropped.

Some pretty cool info.

That I haven't really talked much about.

Before.

Yeah.

That.

Many actually.

Seriously considered.

In fact.

Had a concept.

Internally.

To turn the BMW.

I three.

Into a.

Mini.

See.

Now.

That would have been.

Kind of an amazing.

Countryman.

I think.

Of some.

That would have been an amazing.

Mini.

Period.

Yeah.

It would have been.

Incredible.

Right.

And it's not even a countryman.

Because it's actually.

It's not an SUV.

It's just a.

That's true.

Full.

Patch.

It's just kind of tall.

Yeah.

But.

So.

You know.

What.

Where I go.

Is like.

You.

You have the Mini E.

In 2010.

Yeah.

And.

I mean.

You guys probably remember that.

Yeah.

So.

It got.

100 miles.

You know.

A charge.

Charge slow.

It was like a.

Essentially.

It was a test car.

It was super expensive.

And everybody who was leasing one.

Loved it.

Right.

So.

There were 450.

Mini E's.

And they were trying to figure out a way.

To keep.

To keep the car.

And not give it back.

At the end of the lease.

Right.

And you had to.

And it was.

The lease was 850 a month.

Yeah.

It's not cheap.

And that's a lot.

And guess how many people signed up for this thing.

450.

It's like.

It's super expensive.

Right.

Yeah.

Almost 10,000 people.

It's insane.

Wanted to lease that thing.

Yeah.

It was insane.

And this is 2010.

Jay Leno even drove one.

He said it was great.

Think about how far Mini was ahead.

And then.

Nothing happened.

Then they just like stopped.

Just.

But what did happen is like.

You know.

Meanwhile.

BMW.

Built.

A.

This is.

This is going to sound.

You know.

Familiar.

A small.

Funky.

Highly.

Highly designed.

Highly innovative.

City car.

Yep.

Well.

Wait a second.

You're like.

Wait a second.

That sounds like a Mini.

Shouldn't that have been a Mini?

And you go on.

You know.

And you go on.

And look at.

Look at that further.

Oh.

And by the way.

The.

The i3.

Which we're talking about.

The i3.

Yep.

It had a carbon fiber chassis.

It had like.

You know.

The wood in it.

Was from a BMW.

Owned forest.

That was.

You know.

It was like.

Eucalyptus trees.

That would regrow.

Every like.

Seven years.

And it was like.

Completely sustainable.

The carbon fiber was created.

In a plant.

In Washington.

State.

Where it was 100% powered.

By hydroelectric.

Like.

They did all these things.

To make this car.

So incredibly sustainable.

And so interesting.

It was rear wheel drive.

It had.

You know.

Skinny tires.

Which actually made the thing.

Handle incredibly well.

It was fast steering.

It was incredible to drive.

And yet.

It only sold 250,000 units.

Right.

Meanwhile.

During that same exact time frame.

The F56 Cooper.

And Cooper S.

Sold a million.

And.

Like.

Wouldn't it.

Have made a lot of sense.

To have just changed the shape.

Enough.

Yeah.

That you could have made a mini version.

Man.

How great would that have been?

So anyway.

The last article goes through that.

And it goes through.

You know.

Not just that.

But also.

You know.

What.

How that has sort of.

Translated into the current model range.

Yeah.

Because the.

The I3.

As much as like.

It wasn't a mini.

And it sucks.

It wasn't.

There were a lot of learnings.

I mean.

You know.

The F56.

Cooper S.

He.

Had the I3 engine.

In it.

For instance.

Or the.

I can't say engine.

But the.

Motor.

Yeah.

The power plant.

Yeah.

So there's.

There's.

There's stuff that.

You know.

Is interesting.

Go read the articles.

They're.

They're different than.

What is usually a motor file.

Essentially.

It's like.

You know.

Imagine it as a chapter in a book.

That's.

That's basically what it is.

Exactly.

And like I said.

I'm going to link these up.

Just start it.

You start wherever you like.

But if you click over to part one.

All three parts are linked up.

In all of them.

So it doesn't matter where you start.

Really.

But definitely go.

I've just been reading them myself.

As we sit here.

Because I'm catching up on.

Catching up on motoring file.

And part of the reason why I'm not.

Up on my motoring file.

Is some of the reasons why.

I said.

Why we're not making a lot of shows lately.

You're too busy DB.

It's just.

We don't like when you're busy.

None of us do.

No.

It's not that we're busy.

It's just.

It's other things.

We're not worried about it.

Well regardless.

Yeah.

I.

It was fun to write.

I'm excited for the electric stuff though.

I really am.

The next car that I own.

Is going to have to be.

I would really like it to be electric.

It's probably going to end up being.

Hybrid.

But I.

Yeah.

If I could get.

If I could make it electric.

Just because it's the big car.

Right.

My car is now the big car.

Because my wife's got the commute.

And I don't.

So.

Well.

She needs the electric car.

Technically.

But she has a car that gets.

40 miles to the gallon.

And you also live in the land of the sun.

So you're going to have solar for forever.

Well yeah.

But we.

Yeah.

We don't have solar at the house.

That's next up too.

Anyway.

But.

I think.

I think it's what.

What's interesting.

Not to bring this back again.

Yeah.

I three.

But.

I mean the I three had you covered.

Yeah.

They had a hybrid.

It was.

They had a little tiny.

Two.

Like a little motorcycle engine.

That would power.

The batteries.

Yeah.

Charge the batteries.

Yeah.

That would give you.

More range.

Like.

And.

And guess what.

Guess what the new trend is.

Now in hybrids.

That's forthcoming.

Exactly that.

Yeah.

You know.

So.

I mean.

I don't know.

I just.

I just feel like.

Had that happened.

You could.

Only.

Imagine if many.

Like.

Had done that.

And been successful.

We could now see.

A second version of that.

Where you would have.

A 200 mile range.

Electric car.

With.

You know.

A hybrid.

Like a little engine.

That powered.

The battery.

That powered the car.

Powered the battery.

To give you an extra 200 miles.

Yeah.

Like.

And that's way cheaper than.

Than the batteries themselves.

Like it.

It.

It solves so many problems.

Right.

I just think.

I just think it was such a huge miss.

And.

I.

Know for a fact.

That people.

Inside.

Many in BMW.

Feel the same.

I'm.

I'm lucky.

I just.

Just because I'm being silly.

I pulled up.

And I pulled up an auto trader.

Here's a 2017 i3.

With 35,000 miles.

They're asking 12,500.

Yeah.

You know.

It's.

It.

That probably is the all electric one.

It is.

Because it only has 114th mile range.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

So the interesting thing is that.

The 160.

H.

Is the one you want.

Because it'll get 160 miles of range.

Ah.

But it's.

So I was looking at these pretty seriously around COVID.

Oh yeah.

And.

They have gone up.

In.

In value.

Like some of the.

Some of the later ones with the.

The hybrid in them.

Yeah.

It's.

It's really frustrating.

Because I was.

All set to get one for.

My daughter.

Yeah.

And.

Yeah.

I mean for one.

She thinks they look weird.

So that's a problem.

But.

You know.

And listen.

They're funky man.

They're funky.

They are.

It's like the last.

Like what's the last BMW that.

Was made.

Was designed by engineers.

And I.

I love that.

You know.

Yeah.

Like.

I remember the old five series I had from the 80s.

The.

The tailpipe.

I just saw.

Was.

Just.

I just saw like a.

Or like a late 90s five series.

Not long ago.

And I just like.

It looks so nice.

It was white.

This is mid 80s.

Sure.

I know.

Mid 80s too.

So.

This is different.

This is.

Yeah.

This is different time frame.

Because this is when engineers ruled everything.

Yeah.

And so the tailpipe for instance.

It wasn't dead center.

No.

It was about an inch off center.

Two inches off center.

Yeah.

And the reason for it is because that's.

That was the optimal place to put it.

Yeah.

There was no marketing involved.

It's like.

No.

That's.

Like mechanically.

That's the right place to put it.

Right.

And so when you look at the i3.

That's like kind of how it was.

It was like.

No.

It needs to be tall.

Yeah.

You know.

We need to have suicide rear doors.

Like we're going to.

We're going to do this.

We're going to do that.

Yeah.

And yeah.

Yeah.

I love it.

That's kind of how the R50 and R53 were built too though.

Right.

It was kind of engineered different, I guess.

Well, they designed it.

Well, you can, you can read all about it.

They designed them and then they, they had to figure out how to engineer them.

Yeah.

That's true.

Crazy balls.

But it's a.

Yeah.

It's a.

Chad can tell you stories.

I'm sure.

Nice.

All right.

I don't have anything else.

I feel like I'm at work when I say I don't have anything else.

Oh man.

Should we circle back?

We should definitely circle back.

And did we already wait?

We pivoted too.

Didn't we?

We pivoted once.

All right.

So we've covered all the bases.

Yeah.

Next, next, next show chat.

I do want to talk about what a thousand dollars will do to a mini.

Cause I, I have a whole story I'm going to post on motor file next week.

That's good.

That's a detailing.

That's a huge question.

Well, what a thousand dollars, what I spent on my car, my, my JCB club and I spent a thousand

dollars on these parts installed on myself.

And I got a bone stock.

JCB club and in 2024, exact same car and compared them back to back.

All right.

And wow.

I'm going to say the chat.

I'm just, I'm going to start by making up a list of all the things from JC Whitney that

Gabe probably ordered for his clubman.

Yeah.

And then we'll compare lists.

Chad knows what I ordered.

I mean, it was, I ordered through Chad.

That was all.

No, no.

It was all suspension and all suspension.

And yeah, it was all suspension.

Really nice.

Yeah.

All right.

Cool.

Excellent.

Gabe.

Thank you very much.

As always, we're going to go and shut this down.

I'm done.

I'm for real.

Yeah.

We have anything else now?

We didn't talk about weather, nothing or anything.

Good.

We're going to be done.

We can talk about, we can talk about weather.

We can talk about the shuttle.

We can talk about hot and full of rain.

The weather, the weather is just hot.

Mass flooding and hot.

I am loading up a mid engine car in the front and the trunk and driving up into the wilds

of Wisconsin all weekend.

So yes.

I am.

That sounds delightful.

I'm heading.

I'm heading right, right into the, the, the beast that is Midwest weather and a, and a

powerful real drive.

Take some like a bug spray or something.

I'd say, yeah.

An eighth of the, about an eighth of the frunk is full.

I've got different flavors, Chad.

If the, the cotton candy doesn't get the, the, the, the, the cherry will.

You know what?

Speaking of this really quick.

And I just thought of this.

I don't know why.

Recently I was in the great state of Vermont and I don't know if anybody here has been

to Vermont, but Vermont is very interesting, very interesting state.

The second lowest population of any state in the United States, the smallest, biggest

city in Burlington, which was just an amazing place to go to Burlington was so great.

But the one thing I was noticing in Vermont, number one car, obviously Subaru, right?

You would expect that.

Cause it snows always there, but you know, the number two car was just about minis.

I'm not kidding.

Our whole bunch of our five cars, it's 53 is 56 is there were some, a lot of countrymen

are sixties, like the older ones, a lot of the newer ones too.

It was amazing.

This is a ton of minis in Vermont in summertime.

Yeah.

And I found that interesting.

Great place for a road trip, road trip.

Anybody on the East coast, anybody Northeast?

I mean, you probably already know it, but.

Vermont.

I highly recommend it.

Yeah.

I get a lot of emails from that whole Northern section of like, where should I go?

Yeah.

And I will, you know, I spent a lot of extra time just doing emails and I'm like, Hey,

take your car to this place.

And they're like, Oh, I didn't even know that place was here.

I was like, yeah, I know.

Google is your friend.

We can make this stuff work.

And you know, we help people like, Hey, I will sell you the parts, take it to this place.

They'll install them.

It's great.

See, look at that's like, that's like better than Tyrek level service you get from DT.

DT.

Of course, being Detroit.

Detroit tune, Detroit tune.com.

You're buying all your stuff from Chad, right?

Everything.

Speaking of, and I know I didn't, I didn't buy my stuff from Chad, but I did buy it from

our, our, our, our friend, our mutual friend, um, Aaron and I'm motoring, but yeah, that's

okay.

I have to chat.

I have to ask you a question.

What do you think about the rumor that WRC is coming to the U S and they're going to

be in, it's going to be a rally in Tennessee near the dragon.

No, it's not.

I mean, I think that's awesome.

I mean, it's, uh.

The, the, the area needs, you know, economy, uh, the WRC is always great.

And I mean, there are already, uh, time attack, uh, hill climb type things down there.

So normally the weekend after the dragon is a, uh, time attack hill climb down there where

they close the road off and they're like, yeah, it's full on WRC down there would be

whatever you can do.

So, um, uh, I'm all about all.

Types of motorsports types of things, you know, whether it's Pike's peak or WRC or F1

or whatever, you know?

Yeah.

Make it happen.

Can you imagine if they close the dragon for WRC race and that was one of the legs of the

WRC rally?

That's what's, that's one of the rumors.

There's a couple of different things, but that's really, they, they just paved it and

it's very nice.

I will say since I've driven on the new surface, it is very good.

There are a few fixes that they need to do, but overall it's, it's a good thing.

It's a very nice, that would be repave.

That would be a crazy, insane.

Well, I mean, uh, rally was a monster and I want, and I want to go, I mean, already

close.

I know me too.

Close the dragon and did a Jakana type.

That was probably right.

They did it this year.

It was actually in June.

They, they closed it and did an exhibition.

Yeah.

So yeah, that's right.

I read that.

You can, you can kind of see what that would be.

Uh, you know, again, the dragon only has very limited safety features.

Well, and that's just, well, it's got, have you, you've seen WRC that there's no safety

features in the rallies, but I mean, that would just be one of the stages.

That's, that's the beauty of it.

Like literally the dragon would be one stage and then there'd be like, you know, 12 others.

The, the problem would be, uh, communication for any type of safety, you know, because

something always goes wrong.

It goes wrong in any type of rally, whatever it is.

Um, cause there's no, you know, you'd be like corner two to corner three, you know, car

went off, you know, tell them corner three tells corner two, Hey, you know, it would

be a, a relay race to, you know, for safety.

But again, you know, I'm sure somebody will have satellite phones at some point, you know,

so.

Yeah, no, that's true though.

It's like, you almost have to set up your own cell towers for God's sake.

And there are, um, more cell towers down there and while you're on the dragon, you don't

actually have a signal, but when you're around the, the Fontana and or other areas, you have

a much more amazing signal now, which pros and cons, you know, uh, good for safety, good

for being able to do a few more things, but not able to disconnect from the, the world

that is nice.

Nice.

Swallowing you whole and trying to make you their bitch.

If I can use that word, just got to, if you're going to the dragon, just put your phone in

airplane mode.

It'll be fine.

Yeah.

Just enjoy yourself.

Just go airplane mode.

It's better anyway.

And then everything's fine.

And then turn it on, turn your phone back on like two days later and then you have all

your pictures to go through.

You can blast them all on Instagram.

You'll be fine.

There you go.

Done and done.

Uh, why are you afraid to, to your assistants again?

Do you want to get that?

Do you get the door?

Okay.

Really?

All right.

Yeah.

No, that was my dog saying I need to go outside.

All right.

Very good.

Well, DBSR, I, I, I killed your ending, but I just want to throw that out there.

Yeah.

Totally fine.

We're, we're done anyway.

So thanks everybody for listening as always.

Motoringfile.com, Detroit2.com, Mountmotoring.com, Cravensbee.com.

Anyway, thanks for listening guys.

As always, this is DB.

This is where I like to make the funny clicking sound.

I haven't done this in a while, so I forgot to end the show.

This is where I like to make that funny clicking sound.

Then I say, questions, comments, or concerns, go ahead and click back over to whiteroofradio.com.

There you can leave a note in the show notes.

You can also email us, feedback, whiteroofradio.com, and email us or something.

Let us know that you missed us at the dragon or at MTTS.

That would be super cool.

Anyway, until next time, gang, this is DB.

I'm done.

Cheers.

See ya.