October 15, 2009
Amir Rosenbaum Spectre Performance
Adam Carolla and Amir Rosenbaum of Spectre Performance. Adam and Amir talk about Slammed Mini Trucks, F40 Salt flat racer, and a whole lot more. They then roll out to take a look at Spectre Performance’s custom 1970 El Camino. Built with the healthy LS7 Corvette motor, it’s sound will delight. Special treat Adam Carolla and Jeff Gordon catch up at the Hollywood Roosevelt Pepsi 500 party. Adam and the Professor pick up some Skype calls and then off to check out Adam’s Porsche 911RS Clone. Then we wrap up with comedian Larry Miller’s first car. Enjoy the ride!
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Quick Links
Quick Link to The Guest Car Spectre 1970 El Camino
Quick Link to Larry Miller’s First Car
Quick Link to 911RS Clone
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I really wants the marmalade, goddamnit! How dare you.
So your the one 🙂
and i am the bastard that takes the grape Jelly
“Man boobs are front wheel drive.”
Loved this Carcast, have Amir on again.
One of the best Carcasts yet. Amir was not only interesting, but could almost (I said “almost” you haters) go toe to toe in the comedy department. This episode is the reason why I listen to Carcast. Fun, funny, and horsepower. More! More!
Amir is always funny, one of the best guys you will ever meet in the car industry. Definitely need to have him back on soon.
Their Spectre Speedliner just set a world record in Bonneville, have him back on soon to talk about that accomplishment……………….
Amir was one of the smartest guys you’ve had on so far. Interesting about people interests change on car culture. I see more guys driving Z3 & Z4 BMWs, Solistice’s and Miata’s these days, “another old guy in a miata.”.
I think everyone can agree that RWD is generally more fun to drive than a FWD but there are always exceptions. Coincidentally a Volvo C30 FWD just wont the STCC over RWD BMWs. It’s not always the drivetrain but how the car is built.
Is the STCC a real race? Nice pull, you found a winning FWD car 🙂 Not saying it can’t be done but looked at the STCC Wikipedia for some historical stats, and again, not sure if the last 10 years were AWD, RWD or FWD but I’m guessing not much in the FWD department based on the cars makers.
In reality it is a lot more then just RWD/FWD, its prep, team, driver skill, some luck, etc.
Good stuff!
Sandy
If anyone is interested in the STCC races I have a link here for the 2009 season. Looks like the videos disappear on october 25th. Its all in swedish too but “Del 1 av 9” means Part 1 of 9 “Del2 av 9” Part 2 of 9, etc. You don’t need to understand the commentary to enjoy racing though in my opinion. Hopefully someone else will enjoy this. I can’t be the only one that hates oval racing.
damnit, i really need to proof read my own posts. Link here: http://svtplay.se/v/1543824/stcc
Adam….have you ever driven a well built front wheel drive car? Not all of them instantly flip over and put the car seat under the spare tire in the backseat. While I will concede that RWD is a better choice, FWD has awesome potential as well. If you are ever in minneapolis, let me know, and I’ll get you a ride in a 500whp (750whp on race gas) volkswagen golf. Its set up, and it might change your mind… not all FWD is for pussies.
Kris –
Got the images of the VW Golf very cool car (post some links when you can as well), and it’s good you concede the FWD argument 🙂 Nothing wrong with FWD cars at all, just not optimal from a handling perspective. And no, FWD are not for pussies as I drove a 84′ Cadillac Eldorado FWD at some point in my bad car history, and like every other FWD car had the torque steering going on 🙂 Well the Caddy is not a good example. Remember the FWD design is mainly driven by the economics, it’s generally cheaper to build a FWD car (except in Cadillac’s case) and more efficient so that is a good reason we have them. Would you buy a WRX or Evo if only available in front wheel drive trim? How about a front wheel drive S2000? No I think not. The old mini-cooper is an exception to this rule.
As the saying goes “If you have lemons make lemonade” really applies to the FWD cars 😉 All kidding aside work on what you got and have fun with it FWD, AWD, RWD doesn’t matter just as long as it not Pep-Boys bullet hole stickers, blue led marker lights, yellow speed stickers and a fake NOS bottle with a speaker in it, that is the problem more then anything…
Sandy
What about lunar surface stickers? You CAN’T hate that! lol
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/4921/dscf02377oq.jpg
Yes, I personally found this gem and snapped the shot.
Oh, sorry to double post but I also meant to add that you can get rid of the torque steer with a good LSD. I’m sure you know already but for all the FWD haters out there, torque steer is one of their argument against FWD. Then there is oversteer which can be solved by a few inexpensive suspension upgrades. Anyway, yes I get the hate for the Hondas and Acuras, that crowd gave car enthusiasts a bad image very quickly.
NP on the post, it’s not only the torque steer, but what about this mass of metal over the front wheels, sometime in front? Not sayin’ you can do a cool FWD just different. For the track, I’ll venture a guess that same HP a guy in a FWD Civic vs. S2000 RWD, the S2000 would carve them up. Just a guess but would be a good shoot out.
BTW Good stuff and good discussion.
Sandy
Absolutely, I agree with you, theres more than one reason that most professional race cars are RWD. Not just regulation but because they are superior handling. If I had the choice of the exact same car in FWD vs RWD vs AWD I would take the RWD 6 days out of the week and the AWD on the seventh, heheh. Just wanted to defend the FWD a little because it doesn’t always have to suck.
Anyway, yeah good conversation, I love talking about stuff like this. Thanks for your time on the podcast, I really enjoy it!
LOL.
I also enjoy the FWD rally cars. They are wicked.
Since Ace is from SoCal I think he has this wrong perception about FWD. I went to college in upstate NY and in the winter, you either want AWD or FWD. We had some races up there in the frozen farms. We’d laugh our ass off when somebody would show up with a RWD car to race.
So, all are good and they have their strengths and weaknesses. But yeah, posers that put their money on neon and fake NOS and such instead of actually getting work done to the engine or suspension are extremely lame.
new camaros, challengers and mustangs are whats going on ? maybe in the old guy circles , truth is they get crappy mileage and have not proven to be reliable yet . so at best im giving them investment car of the week because they wont be building them much longer with the government take over . adam your the man and i respect you very much but i had to rant back on your slammed acura comments haha . then you wheel out an el camino ? yuck!! . the import scene has cheap parts ,engine swaps and more bang per buck than all this other crap your slingin . by the way ive owned 911s , cudas , roadrunners ,z28s,mustangs, etc
U were talking about that 2.9l making 478hp or so with twin turbo. A Honda/Acura motor can make 150hp per liter… N/A. Why do u hate Honda so much? They deserve some respect so WTF Adam
I don’t think it is a motor issues it is a FWD and poser issue. BTW S2000 smoking hot car, RWD and Honda it is very high on my list anyway, same for the TL. No, you won’t find a Civic on my list and it is not due to the Honda engine. On the F40 Ferrari, could have pumped out a few hundred more HP out of the motor so we are both aligned on that thought 🙂
If you have not seen this video this says it all
http://www.motorator.com/videos/469
Don’t be ‘That’ guy…
Sandy
Amir was really cool. He needs to come back soon. I really like Concord Grape Jelly. The strawberry is good too. Everything looks good in the jelly photo to me. I have problems with many food variety packs but I like a variety of jelly. I think Adam does not like grapes. I heard him rant on raisins, grape ape and now grape jelly. Sorry Adam you’re wrong, grapes rule!
Saw this car in person at autocross last month…It’s wild and looked like a real handful on course. BTW…my FWD 89 Honda Civic was several seconds faster.
How did you finish in the pack? Any AWD’s do better? Quoting you did better then an El Camino has not much credibility, it’s like me saying I ran the cones in my Excursion against a Semi-Truck and beat it by a few seconds. If it’s your thing, really cool truck. But does anyone really expect an El Camino to do better the a small car of any drive line type?
Sandy
Great show. It did hit a nerve, with me being a Honda fan and all. I do agree that FWD has an inherent disadvantage, the two main points being weight distribution and front tire wear. However, depending on the circumstances and car setup the effects can be minimized. 1988 to 2000 year Honda Civics and Integras are known for being the best FWD platforms with their 4 wheel independent wishbone suspension and low drivetrain loss compared to other FWD cars. Look at how well the Realtime Racing Acuras have done agains the BMW’s in the Speed World Challenge. Even the Tri Point Mazdas have done well.
I have a 1994 del Sol (yes, go ahead and make fun) that’s set up for autocross and track days that I have a blast in and often times I’m bumper to bumper with some RWD cars like Miatas, Elises and Mustangs to name a few. My investment?: $4000 on the car and $5000 in go fast mods.
Do I still want a propper sports car? Yes, of course. I’d like to own a Honda S2000 or NSX some day. But to say FWD cars are like man boobs? Ouch?
Great podcast as usual by the way. I just recently found out about it and am catching up on all the old episodes.
Hey Manny –
Don’t take it too badly, it’s more for the crazy tuner guys that give the fwd a bad name. And more power to ya’ and the Del Sol, I dig cars like that messing with the more established cone racers. I still don’t want a fwd car excep and old Cadillac Eldorado 😉 but race what you got, then get into the S2000. I think that is a super sleeper car that people will forget about in a couple of years then they will come down in price a bit. BTW S2k and NSX are great cars, often underrated for some reason.
Sandy
Its nice to see the RWD vs FWD war is still raging. The cars change but car guys never do. I agree with both of you (Manny and Sandy). I have driven the same 1.5L 94 Civic DX sedan for ten years now so I’m a HUGE Honda/FWD fan. The car has over 310k mile on the original bottom end and its seen four seasons of autocross. But first and foremost I’m a car guy so I’m mostly in to the fastest cars on the streets. The fastest cars are always RWD so I’m stuck. My point is, I love my Civic, but when can afford one I’ll get a RWD.
Even though Adam burned the whole import tuning community in this Carcast and sincerely hates us, I still listen to all the Carcasts and I love em so keep up the great work.
I also have to say- not everyone has a budget like you and Adam, some people have to “make lemonade with lemons” and make a FWD work for what they want in a car, so give us a break!