Motor Hood by Unique Classic Cars
Live from the Gearbox above Unique Classic Car's showroom in Mankato, MN; Jeremy and George sit down and talk shop, current events, and bring on guests to continue to share about the Unique day-to-day experience.
Motor Hood by Unique Classic Cars
7. Chiefs/Eagles Upset, Unexpected Conversations, and Supercharged Sim Racing
Have you ever wondered what happens when sports fandom collides with the worlds of music and classic cars? Join us in the Gearbox at Unique Classic Cars as we navigate the unexpected twists and turns of recent NFL games, particularly the puzzling performance of the Kansas City Chiefs. We also dive into the swirling conspiracy theories about officiating and the growing media interests of Travis Kelsey. And if Taylor Swift's game day appearances piqued your curiosity, we've got some amusing takes that blend sports, celebrity, and a touch of humor.
As our engines rev, we flip back through the pages of musical history, recalling the hauntingly brilliant cover of "Personal Jesus" by Johnny Cash. Ever fantasized about owning a piece of history like Johnny's last Lincoln? Our discussion weaves through the sentimental tales tied to classic cars and their surprising appearances in modern spectacles like the Super Bowl halftime show.
The conversation accelerates with tales of high-octane performance cars like the upcoming 2025 Mustang Shelby GT350 and the joys—and challenges—of bringing such powerhouses home. There's a comedic twist as we strategize ways to sell our significant others on the idea of owning such beasts. Our chat continues with the whimsical world of household cats, their wild antics, and the immersive realm of sim racing. Wrapping up with the famed synchronicity between Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wizard of Oz," we promise laughter, curiosity, and the kind of camaraderie that defines our Motor Hood community.
Produced by Unique Classic Cars
Mankato, MN
How long have you been racing? Oh gosh at least. Uh, what three times now, dylan, I've been over there Four, something like that, is that?
George Blais:that's it. I think I can take you with the joystick. Excuse me, he's hot Meanwhile. That's gonna be a hard one.
Jeremy Thomas:Oh no, I didn't even say oh shit.
George Blais:Real cars, real guys and real talk Live from the Gearbox at Unique Classic Cars. Welcome to Motorhood. All right back for episode seven. Seven. This is the lucky number. This is it. Yeah, could be, but it's not lucky for you, because your Chiefs took an absolute dump on national television last night, in front of the whole world. It was global.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, we used your name in vain quite a few times yesterday for a couple of reasons. Number one your whole oh, it's rigged and the ref's this and rigged that it's like stop it. Number two I told my wife it's like if I was the type of person that would do the oh, I'm going to call in sick, I would have called in sick just so I didn't have to listen to you gloat and give me shit about the game.
George Blais:Well, Jay is not here today and he obviously works in marketing and over in our detail shop and he just happened to have the day off. Do you think he was anticipating having to deal with this?
Jeremy Thomas:Well, I think, either way, he was probably anticipating having a little hangover, because, whether you celebrate or drown your sorrows, the net result's the same.
George Blais:Let me go back to your number one, the conspiracy theories. I'm going to stick with that. Let me go back to your number one, the conspiracy theories. Right, I'm going to stick with that. And I think it got to such a feverish pitch that the NFL officials actually had to weigh in and call it nonsense and I think yesterday, knowing the spotlight that was on them, they were like Jesus, we've got out, we've got it, we've got to scale back the first two calls in that game.
Jeremy Thomas:Both were hideous and, as I think it was one against each team, was ridiculous do you think? They were even the announcers right away, brady and the other guy. They're like yeah, I don't like that call it was.
George Blais:They were both terrible right, right, right out of the gate, right, and I think that they even have to address it. That's how much of an issue it has become. Right, yep, and I think the rest of the game was played fairly wide open. But, like you said, the chiefs didn't even show up. No, I think they were exposed.
Jeremy Thomas:The offensive line was exposed. That's the biggest thing. And, yeah, those, that was the graphic. The the average of the defensive line of the Eagles is like 338 pounds and like 6'6" or something like that was the graphic.
George Blais:I'm like, oh my gosh, they're monsters and they make it work, big guys getting it done, there's no doubt about it. So I think, if you recall the last podcast, there was a wager. Does Dylan remember it? How much was it? It was like 20 bucks 20 bucks.
Jeremy Thomas:that's right, but we're going to put that in the kitty.
George Blais:We're going to put that in the kitty. Okay Is what we're going to do, and then we're going to resume this little operation as we move along. All right, because I think that you're going to wind up just giving me one of these cars.
Jeremy Thomas:That's what's going to happen. Here's what we should do then. So the $20 goes in the kitty and every time the kitty gets to $100, then it's got to get paid off, We've got to do something with it. There you go.
George Blais:Maybe that could be dinner or something.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah.
George Blais:But I think that it was a bomb, I think it was not what people were anticipating and I think that the run that the Chiefs had is probably coming to an end.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah that the Chiefs had is probably coming to an end. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if Kelsey comes back.
George Blais:I'm going to be surprised if he does.
Jeremy Thomas:Are you a Kelsey fan when he's playing? I can do without all of his other BS that he's got going on, but you know, whatever I mean, you can't take what he's done as a player, take away from him. But you could literally see, I feel like this year and even last year, man, the guy just I mean, granted he's a tight end, but he's still man. He looks like he's got a piano on his back when he runs. It's like he's.
George Blais:I'm telling you he wants to be more of a movie star, oh yeah, than a football player. Yeah, that was. I think that was the reason he initially hooked up with uh t swizzle, I will call her. Did you see her reaction when she got booed? No, because they brought the president up place, went crazy, right. Then they pan and they bring her up and she's relentlessly being booed and she got this look on her face and you could see her mouth. What is going on? Oh right, yeah, exactly, and I'm like, well, there you go.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, what is going on was the phrase that every Chiefs fan In fact it's going to cost me. I've got a friend of mine that we friendly bet back and forth pretty much all season and he takes everyone who isn't the Chiefs Really.
George Blais:Of course.
Jeremy Thomas:Every week Takes everyone except that. And then, of course, including the Super Bowl. We bumped it. So it's like okay, you know what Big time let's do $100 on the Super Bowl, okay, great. So at about at halftime I start getting the text from this guy right, Sure, oh, you know he's sending me like the dollar sign emoji and all this kind of stuff and I'm like you know, good for you, you won one game. Whatever, dude, I'll pay you, I'll pay you. Is he an Eagles fan?
George Blais:No, he's just not a Chiefs fan, so he always takes 20 bucks on the other team, just because I actually have a client of mine that's from the Philadelphia area and he was on the phone yesterday going this is what we've been waiting for for so long right. Because I don't think that Mahomes is as big a villain as Kelsey is right now. I really believe that that's why I think he's done.
Jeremy Thomas:Hey, you know, and maybe this is a touchy subject, but what is your take on when coaches and players and everything, they start out their interview to praise God and thank Jesus and all that kind of stuff? I am in no way shape or form making fun of it, right? Does the public perceive that as oh wow, there's a Christian guy, or do they think it's just BS and that's what it's talked about? I?
George Blais:think that they just say that. A lot of them, unfortunately, say that because it's become the thing to do.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah right. I don't think that a lot of them See honestly that's what bugs me about it is, if that's true and that's how they feel, that's fantastic, right, but I feel like so much of it kind of to your point. We got a rumbler going through your Chevelle.
George Blais:I love the sound of that motor.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, but don't use it as a cliche. That's not cool in my opinion. Speaking of Jesus, I've got to bring this up. Speaking of Jesus, did you catch one of the commercials? And Johnny Cash I'm a huge Johnny Cash fan. I don't know if that's come out on the podcast here or not. Giant Johnny Cash fan. I don't know if that's come out on the podcast here or not. Giant Johnny Cash fan.
Jeremy Thomas:So right away the first three or four chords of this song started, I'm like, hey, and it's Personal Jesus, that's the name of the song. So I was like I'm all jacked because you think about it, was it a couple of years ago? Johnny Cash, the intro to the whole Super Bowl process? I think it was Ragged Old Flag, it was bowl process, I think was ragged old flag. Sure it was johnny cash, right? So I love that they're still incorporating johnny into these things, or whatever, sure so? So two things. So this, this song comes up and I'm like, yeah, sweet. Well, what I didn't know. And george popped my bubble like a jackass this morning. That's what I do. He goes, he goes, oh uh, who did the original version? I go what do you mean? I thought johnny did it. And he's like no, no, no. So I'm sitting here and I google it. I'm like are you kidding me? Depeche mode? Yeah, this song originally I didn't know it was a remake.
George Blais:Yeah yeah so does that make it less manly? Now, a little bit. It kind of it ruined it for you, didn't it? I?
Jeremy Thomas:mean it just made me wrinkle my nose, but I mean you know, he redid uh, nine inch nails. Of course, famously, yeah Did hurt, yes, and that doesn't bother me for some reason, but take Depeche.
George Blais:Mode, depeche Mode. Come on, man, that's a little less down that road right.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
George Blais:But on that note, let's talk about a car that we had in here that actually belonged to johnny yeah, we still have it.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, um, uh. Yeah, we have. Uh, it's johnny cash's last car, um, and of course I saw it and had to have it because, again, I'm a johnny cash nerd. So we have johnny cash's last car, um, it's the car that he took to took june in her last ride, unfortunately, to the hospital when uh, and then she never came home after that and uh, less than a month later he sold the car, um, as the story goes that he didn't.
Jeremy Thomas:He his health wasn't good either at that time right, um, but uh, but yeah, we've got all the paperwork and everything documenting that. That was the car. You know june died in the in may and you know John didn't even barely make it six months. He passed away in September. Where is that car now?
George Blais:It's in our storage, gotcha, gotcha.
Jeremy Thomas:But you know I try to drive it a few times a year just to keep it limber and everything. But there's a cassette tape in there of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson when they did kind of the equivalent of MTV Unplugged or whatever. So it's an acoustic thing and in the round kind of little thing they did. That cassette's in there, so it's cool. You kind of feel like you're almost one-on-one with them and listening to that tape and everything else it's kind of fun.
George Blais:It has to feel cool to sit in the driver's seat knowing that Johnny Cash sat in that driver's seat and drove that car.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, and I don't know. I mean, it's a Lincoln, it's a stretch, it's not a limo, but it's the sedan that's stretched. Do you think he drove it or did he have somebody?
George Blais:I think he had a driver my guess is he would have had a driver for that. Those are the real men. Speaking of cool cars. What did you think of the halftime show? I'll tell you what you wanted to talk about it. The first thing that stood out to me was that GNX that was on stage as soon as they pulled it out.
Jeremy Thomas:I couldn't believe it. And here's why, a couple weeks ago, we had an advertising agency. Call and talk to one of the salespeople. We had an 86 and an 87 Grand National, this advertising company, they're kind of tight-lipped about it, but you know they were interested in it and all they would say is that it was going to be used for a super bowl ad. Well, and they, we started negotiating, or you know, they started negotiating rather, and okay, yep, they, we had a deal, send us the paperwork. Well, by the time they got the paperwork, they said that they had gone in a different direction and they didn't need the car anymore. Well, I think it's because this car got, you know, committed to before they got committed to ours, right? So, yeah, imagine my surprise when Super Bowl halftime shows up and I'm like that could have been our car on the stage.
George Blais:But they had already secured one.
Jeremy Thomas:So yeah, kind of a we get calls like that quite a bit from advertising agencies, movie prop companies, that kind of thing for all these cool cars.
George Blais:So it's kind of fun. Isn't it funny that you see the trend in advertising? Pay attention to it.
Jeremy Thomas:I tell people Taka does.
George Blais:Yeah, they stole our idea. Yeah, the Chevelle. Yes, exactly, but anyways, it's funny to watch and I told my wife yesterday I said pay attention to all of these ads and anything that's going on. And they are inundated with classic cars Right, I mean inundated. And it's the younger generation as well. They think those are cool cars.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, 100%.
George Blais:I was having this discussion with Jason this morning and we were talking about he brought up some pictures of guys actually designing these amazing bodies years ago and how they did draw them out on the wall. They're down on drafting paper and doing all that, and now with computer automation and everything, I think that's where we're losing it yeah, they throw it in cad and spin it around and okay go makes me mad.
George Blais:It makes me mad speaking of mad, I I gotta bring up this road rage thing. So I'm out running a few errands in the morning. Here's me Knowing kickoff is supposed to be at 530. Oh right, and it never usually comes until about 6. At 10 am yesterday I'm like I got to get everything done. I can't miss kickoff. It's eight hours. I live five minutes away from everything, yeah, but I would like to make a public service announcement right out of the gate PSA coming. A PSA is coming here. Roundabouts are not a four-way stop. Does that drive you crazy?
George Blais:Oh, my God yes, I know there's a lot of people that visit us and they're not popular in every state yet, but they're getting there. The whole idea of a roundabout is to make traffic flow more freely. Yes, that's the idea. It is not a four-way stop. Do not pull up, look left, look right and then, if you're clear, go, because you're wasting your time and, more importantly, you're wasting mine. Yeah, because I'm sitting behind you, exactly right.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, that drives me nuts. Oh yeah I. I the opposite of that. I'm going through the roundabout and I'm, you know. Once you're in it, then you have the right-of-way and here comes and granted they're probably 80-year-old, look like they're 80-plus-year-old people driving a Buick, LeSabre of course it has to be, they're rocking the stereotype.
Jeremy Thomas:It has to be and I'm kind of halfway through the roundabout and I see him coming and I just kind of speed and, like this guy I don't know if he knew that he could even slow down I literally thought they were going to rear-end me in the middle of the roundabout because he was just on it, right, I'm like holy hell man, simple traffic stuff. Another one is do you have anybody in your family that is a backseat or passenger seat driver, everyone in my family and everyone in my family.
Jeremy Thomas:It drives me crazy, everyone in my family. We had hockey this weekend, right. So I've got kids and other people in the car and everything else and we're on the way. We're going to go get something to eat. We had time before the game and we get there.
Jeremy Thomas:And somebody made some comments about like, oh, I feel so sick, I hope I can eat, or seasick, or whatever the comments were, and I can eat, or or seasick, or whatever the comments were, and I'm like look, I'm at point a, right, I need to get to point b, right? That in between is a waste of time. Yeah, it drives me nuts. I want to get there as soon as I can and as efficiently as I can, right. So, rolling through a curve at seven miles per hour? No, no, if it says speed limit 20, that's merely a suggestion. I happen to drive a vehicle that can handle it faster than that, so I'm going to Right, you know, keep your head away from the window if you don't like it. You know, you get a little thump here and there, maybe I don't know. But God, dang it, man, if you don't like it, get out and walk, Follow this rule when reasonable and prudent.
George Blais:Isn't that what they had actually on stop signs out west in the 60s? I think it is Maybe I've heard the old guys talk about it. They were like that was the listing in states. I think they brought up Montana and a few of those others. And that's how, if you can handle a little faster speed, then I think that I'm capable of determining whether that's safe or not?
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, one of my family is like you know. The only time I ever get car sick is when you're driving.
George Blais:I'm like stop it. Are you that bad of a driver? I'm not that good of a driver.
Jeremy Thomas:They're just not used to getting. This just reminded me of my mother-in-law. She was in the back seat a while back and we took off. We were like 15, 20 minutes into the drive and she taps me on the shoulder, she's in the back seat and she goes hey, can you maybe drive like there's 70-some-year-old people in the back? I'm like, okay, so all the way home? I'm like creeping up to a stop sign from a half mile away, gently accelerating, and I'm like ready to pull out what little hair I have left, because in my mind, you know, I could have been there and gone into the next town by the time. I'm rolling away from the stop sign, driving that way were you driving the escalator?
Jeremy Thomas:oh yeah, tell people that aren't familiar with what your escalator is, not your average escalator so I'm lucky and blessed to be able to have found one of these first off and be able to have one. But so it's an escalate v, the v series, right? So, um, that takes a. I mean, a quick glance looking at the truck, other than the v symbol on the doors you really can't tell. So it's kind of a sleeper. That's the one first thing. That's cool, uh. Second thing it's a supercharged 6.2. It's, uh, just under 700 horsepower and it acts like it. It sounds like it if you want it to want it to. The exhaust note is amazing. And it's zero to 60 and three point something in a 6 000 pound suv I've never been able to understand how those things handle the roll center with that, yeah.
Jeremy Thomas:So there's a button in there, it's called v mode and it allows you. So if you push that and you're driving it, literally the truck's got air suspension, so the whole center of gravity, the truck will lower itself. Okay, how far does it drop? Oh, like 10 inches no, I'm just kidding um, a couple inches and um. But you can adjust the transmission shift points, the steering sensitivity, the braking sensitivity. You can change the exhaust note, uh, if you want them all the way open so it breathes, or you can tone it down. You can literally. If you have it all the way open and you let off the gas and you're decelerating, it sounds like a popcorn maker, I mean, it sounds like a hot rod coming at you and people look and it's a new truck and they're like what the hell is that thing? So of course I love it, it's awesome.
George Blais:That lift up and down. It's funny you bring that up. There's a customer brought us a vehicle a while back that the techs are working on and it's a French Citroen, right, and I had no idea. But Wyatt was like he's one of our techs, he's like you want to see something cool, goes out there, he fires it up and the thing lifts into like an off-road mode Almost. I'm like are you going to take this? I think that's what it's labeled as Right. Is that what?
George Blais:it is, I don't know You're not taking this thing off-road, yeah right, but it did come up about 6-7 inches, yeah Right, and I was like, oh, that makes no sense whatsoever.
Jeremy Thomas:Now, when you say 6-7 inches, is this the six, seven inches? You tell your wife Four, four.
George Blais:Listen. I made this comment the other day to somebody I said, speaking of the halftime show in the GNX last night and Buick Grand Nationals, I said Buick proved that six is greater than eight. Well said Well said Can we go down that road, especially with a blower? I mean no, your man tools Okay.
Jeremy Thomas:Whoa, where the hell is this going? Let me rephrase that.
George Blais:Any of your power equipment at your home? Does it all have names your blower, your lawnmower, Mine do? I have names for every piece of equipment in my garage and the reason I bring that up is I live in a neighborhood that has real mature trees. I have 150-year-old oak trees, so every fall I probably get eight inches of leaves all through my yard. So I went out and looked for the biggest backpack blower I'm talking volume of air that could move and I bought that thing and it blows like anything and I named it tammy. Wow, and people always ask me they were like why do you? Why is your blower named tammy?
George Blais:Uh, we're going to talk a little bit about fu cars today. By the way, the new gt350 for 2025 is, uh, set for production I second quarter of this year and you know how I love Mustang Shelby GT350s. That's one of my favorite cars Over 800 horsepower. They're teaming up with Whipple again, because the one that we had in here last summer it was the 2016, actually had that two-stage Whipple in it. Yeah, and that wouldn't have been put on by Ford.
Jeremy Thomas:But it was after the fact.
George Blais:But to to have a whipple, don't you have to bring it to their factory? You don't have to do that. It's not in the case of the one, the old one, you're talking. Oh okay, so that wasn't put on at whipple uh, probably not.
Jeremy Thomas:I mean it was put on at a performance shop, I'm sure.
George Blais:Oh no, kidding. Well, anyways, they've teamed up over 800 horsepower with the gt350 and you can still get that base model. That's about 480. But I looked at the car and they claim that they have improved suspension handling, even more so than what we've seen in the past. So do you?
Jeremy Thomas:think with the 800-horse version do you suppose you could do your patented 66 miles per hour 66?
George Blais:miles an hour. I want to drive one of those.
Jeremy Thomas:You can push it hard.
George Blais:How can I talk my wife into letting me buy one of those GTRs?
Jeremy Thomas:Well, I would start with stop talking about Tammy.
George Blais:Start there. Let's take a quick trip down the aisle.
Jeremy Thomas:Speaking of your wife, I don't know if she watched the one. Did she appreciate your flex about the age thing here on the other episode?
George Blais:I don't know if she did watch that yet, okay, all right. I don't know if she did watch that yet, okay, all right. I don't know if that's a flex, it just happens. It just happens right. Because for so many years I just was like I'm never getting married again, I'm never getting married again, I'm never getting married again.
Jeremy Thomas:And then I think you and I have both down that road, then you find the right one, right, yeah exactly.
George Blais:She could be 90. She could be 18. Wow.
Jeremy Thomas:What movie is that? The older I get, but I keep getting older, but they stay the same age or something like that.
George Blais:There's some movie line anyways. All right, let's take a trip down the aisle. Let's talk about some of the FU cars we have sitting in here right now. Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy Thomas:There's a couple of them. There's well right over our shoulders that Hellcat, that just came in and are you.
George Blais:Let me ask you this, just to put you on the spot Of all of the modern and I'm talking 2010 and beyond Okay, which one of those is your favorite? When I'm talking Corvettes, Hellcats, Mustangs, things like that, Do you have a favorite of the new?
Jeremy Thomas:models. That's a. I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before. I probably would go to a C7. Vette is probably where I would go. Do you like those better than the 8? I do, I do, I've driven. Last summer I drove a C8 for a few months just to get to know them a little bit and had the salesman drive it too. I bought one for the store, strictly so that we could have one in, everybody could touch it and drive it and feel it and know what it's like and everything else, so that our team can speak intelligently on them when we get them Right. So we kind of let everybody drive them and that sort of thing. Yeah, I mean the C8, I mean it's a fantastic car. But man, I don't know the C7. I honestly I like the looks better. It's still. You know the rear, you know obviously it's rear drive and all that. But you know front engine configuration and I don't know. It's just hard to not like that.
George Blais:Well, I think the with the c8s there's a lot of guys that feel they betrayed the original look of the corvette right and the original build and they're like trying to move towards that European look with the Ferraris and stuff. But I do know guys who have them and they say that they're super comfortable ergonomically to take long rides in and do anything else.
Jeremy Thomas:But the biggest gripe with the C8s is the passenger experience sucks. Why? Because of the way they've got got, I mean, when you're the driver, you are, I mean, you're surrounded, it's a cockpit, right, yeah, but the passenger feels alienated because everything is tilted in towards the driver. So you know whether it's, you know, a spouse or kid or buddy or whatever. You feel like you're on your own planet in the passenger seat, right. That's one of the biggest gripes I've heard since day one when that car came out and that was when you're the driver right, it's fantastic because it's built like a cockpit.
George Blais:Yeah, right, if you're in an airplane, right, you want all your controls. Everything is aimed at you ready right passenger.
Jeremy Thomas:You're just like it's's almost like that console acts. It feels like it's a wall built up. So that's one of the negatives that some people have said. Right.
George Blais:Well, I tell you what the funny thing is. You bring that up because I got off Corvettes for a while. I'm also not to sound like I'm trying to butter you up but C7s are my favorite.
Jeremy Thomas:What I'm not making that up.
George Blais:I'm not making that up, We've got. I mean, they come through here on a regular basis.
Jeremy Thomas:Tell me, if they didn't come out with a new body style, el Camino, you wouldn't be that guy.
George Blais:I might be the guy Again. I posted that one, that 78 that we have back there. I sold that to a guy in maine, loved it. He even did some modifications to it right, sent it back because he wanted a challenger that showed up. Yeah, this is the hell that car guys go through. The hunt is never over.
Jeremy Thomas:The hunt is never over and, and that's the best that's. By the way, that's one of the coolest things, uh, about this hobby is that most of the time, especially in the classic cars I mean you can get something. And we have customers all over the place, that that place that they might have a car for two or three months, they might have it for two or three years, right, and they get their fix and maybe it's everything they dreamed of and they got the experience and they're happy, right. Maybe they got it and they're like, okay, well, that was fun, but I'm over it.
Jeremy Thomas:And we get people trading cars back in all the time. And it's funny. People that aren't in the hobby. They think, oh, that guy must have traded it back in because there's something wrong with it. No, he traded it back in because he wants to play with something else, right, and so, yeah, we love trading our cars back in because we know the history. Now, we know the story, we know the service history, because we keep that on file. I mean it's, it's great, right I.
George Blais:The one thing I hear a lot from guys is they ask me how do these guys keep buying cars? I, I've figured it out. Not I mean, if you're a collector, you're a collector, but guys who just want to have a car once you're in. You're in because that vehicle that you buy you could either bring back to us we'll sell it on consignment for you, or you can do whatever you want with it. Yeah right, but you have. You have funds to deal with right out of the gate. So all they're doing is upgrading or just moving around.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, once that initial price of admission is paid. You're kind of it's almost like you got a lifelong membership in the motorhood because now you're in, right, and that's the other thing. One thing we do that a lot of. I mean, there's classic car. We're not the only classic car dealership, obviously, yeah, but a lot of them do not take trade-ins or accept trade-ins. We do, and I try to explain to people.
Jeremy Thomas:There's, you know, like you say, once you get past the initial price of admission to get your first classic car, now you, you know, and whether you spend 20,000 or 10,000 or 50,000 or whatever the number is, you've got that pot of money, so to speak, right, right, so now if you want to upgrade, you don't need to write a check for $60,000, but maybe you've got your car that you've bought a year ago and maybe you've saved up another $10,000. How do you move up? You trade, right, and people ask us all the time where do you get your cars? Is it from the auctions? It's like the auctions is the teeniest, tiniest piece of it Right. Highest percentage is trade-ins, and we love that, we do, we love it.
George Blais:So we're talking about FU cars. I don't know how this, because well, that's just kind of the mood we were in when we came in this morning. But we do have that Hellcat that's got a supercharged Hemi V8.
Jeremy Thomas:Yep, yeah, that thing. 5,000 miles on it, the Hellcat Right, I mean it still literally opened the door. It smells brand new. Tags are still hanging on the seat. It looks yeah, and that's 700 horsepower you could have some fun with that Supercharged versus turbo.
George Blais:We were talking about this earlier this morning, but there's some guys that don't even know the difference between that. I know serious.
Jeremy Thomas:You were one of those guys like four days ago, right? That is the honest-to-God truth.
George Blais:The serious car guys do so. I've learned this in this building. If I have a question about something like that, I'm lucky enough to have access to the guys in the shop and Pat was explaining to me the draw, because of the supercharging is actually run with power off the engine.
Jeremy Thomas:Right, yeah, the supercharger is belt-driven or pulley, so you could change the size of that pulley, correct, yes, and now you're playing with fire you can well, and in a little side note on that, we see that happen where people you know whether let's just say it's a, a mustang, and they want to, they take a stock gt mustang that is, you know, 350 horse. Let's say out of the box, right, and they want more power so I'm going to put a supercharger on it. Well, they do that and maybe they put some headers on it so it can breathe better and everything else, and now it's 560 horsepower or whatever. And then they're going to program it and chip it and change the fuel system and now it's 600 horsepower. But here's the problem you bolt all that stuff on and you don't do anything with the internals. So you got to remember that the connecting rods and the pistons and all the internal stuff that's built for 350 horsepower, Right, and now the motor's doing 650, and then people wonder why there's engine failure.
Jeremy Thomas:So I had that happen with a customer of mine. He bought a hopped-up Mustang and I kind of warned him about it and he bought it anyway because it was cosmetically, it was everything he wanted and all this sort of thing. And I'm like, okay, I said there's no forged internals in that car and it's got high horsepower. You're asking for it and unfortunately and unfortunately I did not get any joy out of it, but unfortunately I was right. He had the car for not even six months and it blew up. That's insane.
George Blais:So when they design these cars, like, for example, I was talking about the Shelbys that are coming out this year, you can get the GT350 base, which is 480, versus the 810 with the supercharged Same motor. Or do they do other things when they add that Whipple?
Jeremy Thomas:Well, it may be the same block, but then everything else is different, and that's where you run into problems, right?
George Blais:Speaking of Mustangs, we just had a bullet roll in, yeah yeah, so it's an 08 bullet.
Jeremy Thomas:It's only got like 30,000 miles or something like that, and of course that's a tribute or a throwback to the original bullet movie car, which was a 68.
George Blais:Oh, you're so smart. Well, actually we were talking about this at this point, so I'm not that smart.
Jeremy Thomas:I'm trying to give you a pat on the back.
George Blais:I know, but I'm a transparent guy. I don't know a whole lot, but for some reason I could not remember the year of that. That's not my favorite. I actually had that discussion with a few guys online when we were talking about it a few weeks ago, and the one that stands out in my mind for movie cars is the Challenger and Vanishing Point.
Jeremy Thomas:Yeah, I did add that to my need to watch movies. I've never seen that movie.
George Blais:It's a cult favorite and it's kind of weird, but it's the sound of that motor yeah, I know you mentioned that Just screaming across the desert, right, all right. Also we were just talking about this the Corvette's coming in.
Jeremy Thomas:We've got a 2015 3LT down there, yeah, and that car's only got 10,000 miles. So I mean, of course she's bright red and the thing looks fantastic. And the nice thing about that car is, again, only 10,000 miles on it and it's not a $100,000 Corvette, no, I mean, it's affordable in the world of sports cars.
George Blais:That's an extremely affordable Corvette with hardly any miles on it. For guys that want to dip their toes in the water, we find a lot of them that come in and they want a Corvette. I say this to people all the time they're great cars, yeah, they look cool and they handle like a dream. Of course you would go down that road right what's ridiculous is they're even fuel efficient.
Jeremy Thomas:I mean, if you don't drive them like a complete a-hole, right, you'll get almost 30 miles of the gallon with them, right, and they are all of what I just said and you can get them fairly affordable.
George Blais:We had a lot of nice Corvettes in here last summer that were between $20,000 and $30,000. Yeah right. Some of the older models fantastic cars yeah. Speaking of a-hole A-holes.
Jeremy Thomas:After the last episode, people are probably getting an idea that there's a lot of pranking and joking and stuff that goes on around here, right? So one of those things that goes around is somehow years ago, I don't even know where it started, but there's this infatuation or prodding about cats around here and specifically the south end of a northbound cat. There's a couple of the guys over here. It started with just me and Ryan. Well, then Jay got involved and Jeff got involved and there's other guys, you know, whatever. And now everybody kind of knows that this it's a funny cat thing, right, like I think it started.
Jeremy Thomas:I was at, I was at a friend's house and their cat. I was sitting in their garage and their cat's rubbing on my leg. You know how they want to get petted, you know, or whatever. And right as I looked down, of course he's standing there. That's a male cat with his tail straight up in the air, back hunched, and his business is hanging out in the back. So I quick took a picture of it and I sent it to Ryan, right, just like you know. Just no comment, no, nothing, just a picture of this back end of the cat, right? Well, so now that's blossomed. However, many years later, we've got this running cat joke thing going on all the time. So for Christmas I got Ryan. I grabbed one of these. So I don't know if the camera can pick this up or not, but they're magnets, right, so it sticks. It's just the butt end of a cat with his tail up. So Ryan's got these on his file cabinet, right? Hey, I wonder if that'll stick here. Maybe we can put that there for the rest of the episode.
Jeremy Thomas:Oh my yeah, so we have these cat butts and things going on and we leave um little cat things. In fact we were on the way to the iola car show. We stopped at some roadside thing and they had a sign there and a little five dollar sign and it said check me out, m-e-o-w-t. I gave that to ryan. He's got that hanging on his desk, so you get the gist right. He has a collection of cat butts.
Jeremy Thomas:He does, he has a collection of cat butts. So now imagine my surprise when new guy relatively new guy, george, been here a year or so I'm scrolling on Facebook. So, because of this running joke of the cats I've added or joined, or it shows up in my feed on Facebook, these different, you know different funny cat memes, or my cat, and it shows the cat jumping out the window or any of that kind of funny stuff, right? So I'm scrolling here on Saturday and here's this one page called the name of the page is my Cat's an A-Hole. Yes, that's the name of the page. So right away I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to get in there. I joined it, you know whenever, and, and all of a sudden I'm scrolling through and here I look, I do a double take and you know, because it says my cat's an a-hole. And then the person that posts in it you know their name is smaller there's george there's me, there's me his two of them in my cats an a-hole post.
Jeremy Thomas:I'm like serious, I didn't know you're into it. Buddy, tell me how you landed there.
George Blais:The funny thing? Well, these are two that I bought for my daughter a year ago for Christmas and they basically taken over the house. And if you know anything about cats, they don't. They're just wild beasts that live in your house. You can't train them and they're only tolerant of you because you're bigger than they are.
George Blais:That is true, I had mentioned this to you earlier, but scientists believe that if cats weighed 200 pounds, they would eat their owners. Probably would. They would literally kill you and eat you. But on that note, I stumbled across that page and we actually have a few guys in the building here that have cats. Jay has cats. Jay, yep, dan, dan, yep. Myself, you do not like cats because you don't want them in the house. I don't.
Jeremy Thomas:I can't. I like cats just fine. I grew up on the farm. We had farm cats out in the barn and a dog out there or whatever. The older I got, I tried doing it with my daughter too. She had a cat. She earned it, you know, did something or whatever. And I, I can't stand pets in the house. Man, the fur you want, I, I can't. I can't do it. I'll snap it. I can't stand the fur. I don't want the piss or puker. I don't want a freaking dog biscuit laying in the hallway.
George Blais:I don't know no pets, no pets in the house. Another thing cats are really bad at is they feel like they're entitled to jumping up on the counter and the dinner table and they get near food and they'll get into it if you don't watch them. Oh yeah, so it's. It's basically like having, like I said, a wild beast living in your house yeah, that's.
Jeremy Thomas:I can't stand that. So the cat comes, they come out of the litter box where they just got done, covering their crap and their urine, yes, and then they jump up on the counter and oh, it's so cute, right, right. And then he steps on your silverware or steps on the plate that you're about to eat off of and oh, it's so cute, you're bad, you're bad Give him a treat? No, he's got crap on his feet.
George Blais:Are you kidding me? I get it, because I grew up in the country too, and my dad was like no cats in the house, specifically you know one meme that just popped in my head.
Jeremy Thomas:I saw on that thing here a couple weeks ago. It was just a still picture of a cat standing by a litter box. Right, you know what this house needs? A box of shh. Yeah, let's get a cat.
George Blais:Right, that's how I wound up in that Facebook group. I saw a meme pop up and it was a cat shoveling his litter out of his box, just like they occasionally do, and the caption was because F you. That's why. That's why I'm like that's the attitude of a cat, right, I agree.
George Blais:So we're going to get together and we're going to try, maybe, some sim racing. We're going to do that tonight, finally. No, I think dylan and I were talking about it, so we're like we're. We want you to make sure that you uh pop in and display your skill set.
Jeremy Thomas:I, um, I'm just gonna say that, whatever, I'm certain that the boasting after tonight will happen on the next episode. So, um, I'm just gonna tell you in advance I, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you, but it's. You know how long have you been racing? Oh gosh, at least what? Three times. Now, dylan, I've been over there. Four, something like that.
George Blais:That's it. That's it. I think I could take you with a joystick. Excuse me, listen, it almost goes down that road. But I was telling him because he has quite the setup and we're going to get we'll see some pictures. Oh s***, you believe you're going to die. Right, I'm sure We'll see some pictures, because there's. I started going down that rabbit hole and you can get tens of thousands of dollars deep. Oh man, in a hurry, yeah, Right. And the great thing about that is you can just completely go to complete shit and just get right back on the track. Also, it's right-hand driving, in case you didn't notice. Yeah, also it's right-hand driving. In case you didn't notice.
Jeremy Thomas:Do you think rabbits get offended by? Everybody uses the phrase going down the rabbit hole in a negative way. Do you think they get?
George Blais:offended. I don't know, but isn't that a reference to Alice in Wonderland? Oh wow, I don't know. I think that's what it is. Is it really Joe Dillon's nodding his head up and down, but I think it is Guess what I've never watched that movie.
George Blais:You're kidding me? No, you're kidding me. No, you clearly didn't do enough drugs in college. On that note, before we go, have you ever taken the Wizard of Oz? Have you heard about this with Pink Floyd's money? No Money, uh-uh. Initially, when the second lion roar comes up before the Wizard of Oz starts, hit play on Money by Pink Floyd, okay. And follow that through the sequence of Shut up, I'm not. Actually, money kicks in. When she opens the door to Oz, you start the whole CD Dark Side of the Moon. Start the CD Okay, right at the very beginning, and you tell me if there was not something those guys were doing as that movie moves along and it sequences with the movie how the hell did you find out about this.
George Blais:Listen, I've been just hanging out doing weird stuff.
Jeremy Thomas:Okay, no questions asked asked. If you it will freak you out really.
George Blais:It's like he set that up to time it.
Jeremy Thomas:Uh, I'd like to see if anyone else tries that or knows what the hell he's talking about. Put it in the comments, if you would please. I'd love to see it.
George Blais:Pink floyd dark side of the moon. Wizard of oz, the second roar of the lion. Just start, boom, right there, it'll follow the. You can turn the volume down and just follow the sequence of the lion. Just start, boom, right there, it'll follow the. You can turn the volume down and just follow the sequence of the music through. And when she lands in oz and she opens the door, just as she grabs the handle and pulls it open, money kicks in and you hear that, oh my gosh, it'll it. Once you see it and you experience, it.
Jeremy Thomas:I feel like I need to try this we're gonna have.
George Blais:Maybe we'll have to get that done as well. All All right. Maybe we'll have a night where we all get together and do that.
Jeremy Thomas:Wow, this is starting to sound like a sleepover, George. I don't know if I'm comfortable. A pajama party.
George Blais:Could we have a guy's pajama party? I wanted to have one last Christmas. Oh, by the way, pause.
Jeremy Thomas:We need to add that to George's least masculine thing he ever says?
George Blais:Did he just ask me if?
Jeremy Thomas:we could have a pajama party. Really, would you want me to bring my flannel so you can feel it again?
George Blais:Yes, I'm not opposed to that. Who's got the right fabric? Oh boy, it's all about the fabric. All right, so we'll have an update on sim racing and maybe Jay can come in and we'll get him at some point, because he's got to settle down. Yeah, he's got to settle down.
Jeremy Thomas:He's got to get his equilibrium back.
George Blais:He's the Chiefs fan. We'll give him a chance to come up here and defend himself. Yeah right, when in doubt, gas it.
Jeremy Thomas:There you go, hey.
George Blais:George, when in doubt, when in doubt gas it.
Jeremy Thomas:Watch out for that ghost up there. This guy I got it right in my head. Watch out for that ghost up there.
George Blais:I think you broke George. I think you broke him.
Jeremy Thomas:I threw him from flat screen to.
George Blais:VR.
Jeremy Thomas:It's kind of a jump. It's a little bit of a jump, Especially with the wheel and pedals. It's pretty cool.
