A Road Trip Through the Midwest: A Personal Account

I recently embarked on a road trip through the Midwest, and I must say, it was an experience I will never forget. We didn't stick to the highways; instead, we took all the country roads that we could find. It was a great way to see the countryside and experience the beauty of the region. The Midwest is a wonderful place, especially during sunset. Kansas, in particular, has some stunning sunsets and picturesque roads that made for a perfect road trip.

As I reflect on my journey, I realize that it was the longest road trip I've ever taken. Despite its length, it was an adventure I'll always cherish. The experience allowed me to see things that I wouldn't have seen otherwise, and it broadened my perspective on the world. I felt like I discovered a new part of the country, one that's often overlooked by travelers.

I do like going to this part of the country because of its natural beauty. The Midwest is home to some incredible landscapes, from rolling hills to vast fields of corn and soybeans. The region's history is also rich and fascinating, with many museums and historical sites that offer a glimpse into the past. My road trip was a great way to experience this history firsthand, and it made me appreciate the region even more.

Ferrari: A Luxury Car That's Out of Reach?

Airy from Facebook recently asked if I'll ever own a Ferrari. While Ferraris are certainly luxurious cars, they're also quite expensive. Unfortunately, they're not within my budget at the moment. However, I do have a soft spot for other luxury cars like Lamborghinis and Aventadors. These cars are truly exceptional, with their sleek designs and impressive performance capabilities.

If I had to choose between a Ferrari and another car, I think I'd opt for an Audi R8 or a Lamborghini Huracan. Both of these cars offer an incredible driving experience and are certainly more affordable than a Ferrari. That being said, if I ever find myself in a situation where I can afford a Ferrari, I wouldn't hesitate to consider it. After all, owning a Ferrari would be a dream come true for many car enthusiasts.

The Least Favorite Car: A Matter of Taste

Jacob Grisbox from Facebook asked me about my least favorite car. While I don't have a strong dislike for any particular make or model, there is one car that has always grated on my nerves – the BMW 540i. This car was unreliable and often gave me issues during our test drive. However, as I learned more about the car's capabilities, I realized that it's actually a great performance bargain.

In fact, many people would argue that the BMW 540i is one of the best-looking cars in its class. Its design is sleek and sophisticated, making it a head-turner on the road. The car also handles remarkably well, making it a joy to drive. While I still have my reservations about the 540i's reliability, I can appreciate its many strengths.

The Smart Fortwo: A Car That's Not for Me

I must admit that I've never been a fan of the Smart Fortwo. This tiny car is often criticized for its lack of space and awkward design. While it's certainly an interesting concept, I'm not sure I'd want to own one as my primary vehicle. The idea of driving around in such a small car just doesn't appeal to me.

That being said, if someone were to modify the Smart Fortwo by swapping out its engine for something more powerful – like a Hayabusa motor – it could potentially become a very interesting car indeed. Just imagine having that much power in a tiny package! It's a concept that I think is worth exploring further.

A Hatred of Single Clutch Automated Manuals

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my dislike for single-clutch automated manuals. These transmissions are often criticized for their lack of smoothness and precision. While they do offer the convenience of not needing to manually shift gears, I think they're ultimately a compromise on driving experience.

If you can find a car with a proper manual transmission, I would always recommend opting for that over an automatic or automated manual. The tactile connection between driver and vehicle is just too important to give up. But hey, being a minority of one in my dislike for single-clutch automated manuals doesn't make me wrong – it's all about personal preference!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhow's it going guys my name is divorce and welcome to the sunday show this is the part of the week where I ramble on about stuff that's on my mind and I answer a few of your questions so sit back relax enjoy this is gonna be fun before we start I want to make sure you guys know that I'm gonna be donating every cent I make from the shirts that I've designed in my teespring store down below to hurricane relief efforts Irma Maria and Harvey have devastated the u.s. and Caribbean and they need our help so let's let's get those people some help let's get and make sure that they get power they get food well I'm not sure about the power but who definitely supplies medical supplies all that stuff they need so all that money is going directly to those hurricane relief efforts so let's help them out and also you'll get a shirt in return so it's a win-win-win today's topic is gonna be something near and dear to my heart they're engine swaps that I desperately want to happen the first one is something that I've wanted to do but I've never had the balls or money or both to do and that is an Aston Martin v8 Vantage which I do have but with the drivetrain from an AMG GT now a few of you are probably saying isn't the Aston Martin DBS v8 basically that yeah yeah it is but I don't like the look of the BB eleven I think it's ugly and I love the look of the Aston Martin v8 Vantage but I think that it needed a little bit more oomph I think it needed a little more power and yeah they make power adders for that car but it still is essentially the same v8 and it still doesn't have too much torque unless you put forced induction on it and even then it's a supercharger which takes PSAPs away some of the power of the engine to make that boost so I think the twin-turbo engine from the AMG sounds great it performs great I love the transmission in that it has a 7-speed dual-clutch MCT made by Mercedes and it's a trans axle in the rear rather than a traditional transmission that goes into a drive shaft and a differential so it's very very close to what Advantage really is but I'm sure that there would be a lot of fitment issues as far as torque tube and engine placement all that stuff but that's something I'd love to do just imagine an Aston Martin v8 Vantage with some nice wheels in a drop or something and the soundtrack of an AMG GT with that burble and the the pops and farts and and all that stuff that makes a car are really good and also that really good response of transmission instead of Aston Martin's whatever sports shift crap that they have obviously the car would be manual because the AMG GTS weren't manual but I think that AMG GTS would probably be worse with manual so I don't know if I'm in the minority on that but that car would be freaking spectacular I think that you can probably get a crash GT and get a decent enough or maybe like a flood salvaged Aston Martin v8 Vantage make the two together and for let's say 40 to 60 grand you can have something that's really unique and good if you can get it to work now that is a really big if I have no idea if the dimensions of the engines fit I certainly don't think the transmissions would what would made up at all but yeah I mean it's it's just a pipe dream but I'd love for it to happen another engine swap that I think nobody has done and I'm not sure why because it is a quite a low dollar swap and I think it would be a kind of low dollar but high value swap as far as performance is a Honda Civic like a 96 to 2000 Honda Civic maybe a four-door but with a VQ 35 front-wheel drive engine from a Nissan Maxima so that would essentially be a civic you civic but spelled weird and I've actually measured the dimensions of this of both engine bays and and the engine and it looks like it fit I mean all the mounting points are somewhat the same so I don't see why it wouldn't happen I mean I've seen j32 swaps which is the v6 that comes from the honda accord with a vq engine is super cheap you can find one for like 500 bucks and right off the bat they have like 265 horsepower so i don't know why they wouldn't they wouldn't have swaps for that particular setup because you could get an h LSD which is a helical LSD from a later model maxima you could bolt right on and it actually is they have 6-speed manual so I think that in the future if I'm looking for a civic project and I'm looking for an engine swap I think this would be a really good way to go so after the fact that the VQ can actually take a bit of boost it can also take a bit of nitrous and a bit of super charging as well so for not a lot of money let's say you buy a Civic for you know a thousand or two thousand bucks with a blown engine and you buy a crashed Nissan Maxima or you just buy the engine itself you'd be in it for not a lot of money and the car would run circles around anything I'm not sure how how good handling wise it would be because I think the VQ is a little bit heavier than the stock engine that's in the Civic but it still should be pretty formidable in the power department and especially if you wanted to stuff like quarter-mile racing that would be a really really good way to get some cheap torque the less engine swap I'd love to do and it's one that I'm actually considering doing next year if somebody does this and doesn't credit me for it then I will be very angry and I'll send you a strongly worded email but the swap that I'm talking about is a Mazda rx-7 FD with a maserati 4.2 and a BMW 7-speed DCT now essentially this would be a Maserati now a Maserati the Maserati that is known around the internet is by roadkill and they basically have a Mazda rotary pickup but they have like a 455 olds in the back so it's mid-engine and they call it a Maserati even though it doesn't have any Maserati parts but my car would it would have a 4.2 liter from a Maserati coupe a or renter ismo or a Quattroporte now the reason why I'd love the 4.2 is because first of all it's cheap well it's cheap for a Ferrari engine you can find one like a long block with all the components all the accessories for run five thousand dollars which is a lot of money for an engine like a bear engine but for a Ferrari engine it's not bad it's not a flat plane crank it's a cross plane crank so that's why it sounds a little bit different than say a Ferrari f430 which actually has a very similar engine I think it's the f1 36 engine they do have different internals and and whatnot but it still is a very good engine it's actually dry sump and dry sump is interesting because it's one of those things where it allows the engine to sit lower down and an rx-7 you don't have a ton of height so the fact that this engine gets it really low down and it will fit just between the frame rails so I think it's it's a worthwhile swap to do I'll have to make stuff like the headers and mounts and stuff but that shouldn't be too much of a problem I mean it's it's the same thing on any engine swap where there isn't a bolt on solution now the issue that I probably have is mating that 7-speed DCT to the Maserati engine and I mean you can you can always do stuff like adapter plates and and whatnot and I think that's probably what I'd have to do I think there is a company that has a four point two adapter plate and you can adapt it to basically anything that they'll make custom custom adapter plates to any transmission I'm thinking that trans tunnel is probably too small so trans tunnel will probably need to be reinforced or or widened and also the big problem would be having a standalone that can handle both the engine and transmission now Cybex s6 has Cybex s6 is an ECU it's an aftermarket standalone ECU that can handle the BMW DCT and it can also handle a v8 naturally aspirated by the Maserati it's just basically a regular coil on plug v8 but I think that that is also going to be a really high dollar solution because Cybex is quite expensive and I think it's the only it's the only thing on the market that can handle that transmission so it would be a very involved project that would be way more involved and say my sl55 with the manual or something else like swapping a 2jz into you know name your car here it basically get a high-revving torque happy 4.2 liter v8 internet Mazda and make it into a really light very good handling car with just the right amount of horsepower I don't need a million horsepower from an rx-7 but I think 400 horsepower naturally aspirated is just right for that car and especially with the the flappy paddle gearbox that will make it that much better as far as cornering and and weight distribution all that stuff I think I think it could be a really really good project that is basically a pipe dream for me but I hope and get it done all right it's time for questions and the first question comes to us from Twitter by Shane and Shane says when you get a factory vehicle to test it they give you rules on what you're allowed to do now I'm assuming Shane means our press cars so when I get a press car it's it's basically you give them well sometimes it's this is most of the time this is how it happens you give them a rough rundown of what you'd like to do with the car basically as it pertains to them so let's say you get a charger hellcat there's a real good chance that you'll be doing burnouts or go to the track or something like that and you'll want to tell them because that way they'll have an extra set of tires that maybe they can give you or they'll have an extra set of tires when you give the car back you know just because they need to get that car out to a lot of different people and you don't want to give cars out to different people when they have no tires left so stuff like that when a car goes off-roading I remember I did I think with Jalopnik with Andrew Collins where we took a jeep basically a stock XJ Willy's wheeler Wrangler and we took it to Moab and it got a little bit crunched up I mean we actually didn't have any damage to the car other than some scratches on the tailgate but it was you know it was it was a good good performing car but we told them in advance just so they wouldn't be surprised with what they saw and they didn't think that we were being reckless with with a car but generally you don't really have to tell them much if it's just like a regular car of you then they'll just give it to you with no strings attached but I remember when I got stuff like a c63 AMG from Mercedes and I had it in Florida they basically just didn't tell me anything they just handed me the keys and and said okay you know you'll be back in a few days and and that's it and a lot of times they deliver the car to your house and they pick it up and that is also a service that a lot of fleet press cars or press car fleets do for for journalists so it is it is pretty cool but then again it's not like you can go out and just just thrash on cars and and whatnot you you usually have to tell them first and get an okay because it is it's not your car you know and you want to you want to be courteous to so not only the people who are rent or renting it but people who are getting it next but also the free car because you want to have a good relationship with them as well but when you go and press trips that that's that's a little bit different because the manufacturer usually controls everything as far as the routes and as far as you know what the cars will be designed to do so let's say a press trip I did a press trip where I went to San Diego and I drove the Infiniti q60 and that is the all-wheel drive 400 horsepower version and we did a drive from San Diego did some like Canyon roads and stuff but there was a very strict guideline as to where we could go and we had to ask me and my partner in the car there's another journalist we asked to take the car out after the drive was over just so we can get some more shots and just so we can get some more driving impressions because sometimes it's necessary sometimes what they give you isn't enough time to actually get a good idea of what the car is like and sometimes you just want to stray from the group because maybe there's somebody in front of you that's not going very fast so on press trips that's a different thing altogether but generally if they're delivering cars to your house then you don't really have any any marching orders as far as what you do with the car next question comes to us from Twitter and it's by Anthony Teta and he says what is your dream car are you thinking get one day so with dream cars there's two types of dream cars right there's the unobtanium dream car that this would be the I sell a business for many many millions of dollars and then I can maybe afford it and then there's the attainable dream car which is like I'll work really hard at my level now how much money I'm making now and then I can afford it I think he was talking about the ladder so my attainable dream car probably be an Aston Martin DBS and that car is about a hundred grand now and maybe it'll go down a little bit maybe it'll go up a little bit but I think that is probably the best looking a smart never made in my opinion I know as some people think that the Vanquish is better some people who think that the DB 11 is better but they're clearly wrong but that car is the last big body Aston to have a six-speed manual and it has 510 horsepower v12 and it sounds great with a lorina exhaust system it sounds like it's it's an f1 it's just it's insane I love the way that car looks I love the way that I mean I've never driven one I'm sure it handles great but it just looks like it's a million dollars every time I see one on the road which is a hand a lot of times in my life I just have to stop and stare it's a it's just a gorgeous looking car and one day hopefully one day soon I can afford that car and you guys will go along for the ride as well so yeah that's that's the answer that our next question comes from Twitter from Michele Michele I'm Mitchell Mitchell Baker Mitchell writes how did you manage to get the silver elephant for so cheap and why did you buy it so I think I might have answered this question before but I bought the s600 silver elephant from Tyler Hoover from who fees garage you guys all know him and if you don't then you should subscribe to him right now I bought it for $12,000 and I managed to get it from from him for so cheap just because I asked him hey do you want to sell it and he gave me a price and the price was pretty cheap and because hoovy is extremely reasonable and he knows that the car has like 150,000 miles and he knows that some people might be turned off by the stuff he's done with it but not me I love a car with a lot of history I love a car with a story and the fact that this has basically millions of views already I think I wouldn't be wrong in saying that this is the most famous s600 ever made and I like I like cars like that I mean master Martin that I have has millions of views and a lot of people have seen it and it's kind of cool when it's being referred to in in different videos that don't have anything to do with you but it's I don't know I I like that I like like a car with history and the story but the reason I bought it is just because I needed the other driver and the s500 I am selling it after I get done with it so I'm not sure if that video is out now because these are pre-recorded so that either has come out already or it will be coming up so we'll see how my upload schedule is but yeah the s 600 is gonna be a daily driver I'm gonna do a few things with it but they're just minor things it's not gonna be like a full build I'm not converting it to manual or anything it's just gonna be something that I can drive every day and not worry about it and be in the lap of luxury and heated and cooled massaging seats so yeah that's why I bought it our next question on Twitter comes to us from rocket man and he says can you call me daddy moving right along to Facebook our first question from there is from Sean Hoffman he says what is the longest road trip you did and did you do cross-country driving now I've done cross-country once from New York to LA and it was it took me about well seven days obviously I stopped in a bunch of places and I went with my wife and this was with Matt Farah's Million Mile Lexus and it's actually the first time I actually met Matt Farah because I I just started writing with Jalopnik and I got into that whole world and I asked about Matt Farah and I got his information and asked him if he was open to having me drive his Lexus across the country he said yes so that cross-country Drive was the first time I met Matt Farah and that was to deliver his car to his house which was interesting it took me a few days and yeah it was not not a bad Drive at all that car was spot-on perfect except for one time that it broke down and I think it was just because the battery ran low for some reason or another but I got a jump-start and it was it was good to go so the longest road trip I did in terms of time was likely the road trip between Detroit and Moab Utah and I did that with David Tracey of Jalopnik and I was tailing him he was in his 1948 Willys Jeep as Willie cjt way and I was tailing him in a Ford Raptor so for those who don't know about the Willie CJ 2a it was actually famously a world war two jeep and it was made by Willy's willys-overland and it was also made by Ford in that era now the jeeps in world war ii were a lot different from the civilian Jeeps and the world war two Jeeps they had overdrive gears which means that they could go highway speeds civilian jeeps did not have this so what David had was civilian Jeep and he had what was basically a farm implement and since he didn't have that overdrive gear his top speed was 38 miles and sometimes I mean if you go in downhill you can get up to 40 to maybe 45 if if we have some wind behind us but imagine doing 2,000 miles at 38 miles an hour at the entire way so we're doing 12-hour days and walnut covering 300 miles it was it was pretty brutal especially when I'm when I have a truck that can do 90 or 100 miles an hour with no problem but it got really tedious and it took a long time it took like you know seven or eight days to cover that cover that distance but I saw a lot of the country we didn't go on any highways we went on all country roads and it was it was really interesting I do like going to that part of the country the Midwest is very very beautiful especially at sunset Kansas has great sunsets and Kansas actually has some some really good picturesque roads so yeah I got to see stuff that I'd never got to see before and it was the longest road trip I've ever had so I guess hope that answers your question our next question comes from Ares and aler that's hope that that's how you pronounce that name on Facebook and airy says will there be a Ferrari so meaning like if I'll have a Ferrari in my fleet man hopefully I really I would love Ferrari but they're a little bit out of my price range at this point I'd love the cheap Ferrari like say a basket case through 55 and then stuff like a better engine in there or maybe a cheaper engine or appel maybe an LS but to be honest I've never really been a Ferrari guy I'm more of a Lamborghini lover I like the guy yard oh I like if that is the the least Lamborghini you can get for the money but it still is really really good but with a Ferrari you know there are things like 360 and a three for eight which we're okay but they're not really as fast as you think that they are so I think I would most likely get something like an Audi r8 or Lamborghini before a Ferrari but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't want one and if I find a good deal on one then I wouldn't pull the trigger because I definitely would next question on Facebook and last question on Facebook comes to us from Jacob Gris box he says not the smartest question but I'd be happy if you answer it what is your least favourite car if there's any car you generally hate for some reason would you run it over in a giant yellow SUV well I don't think that I'd hate a car that my that I'd run it over with a giant yellow SUV of course referring to doug de Muro he famously ran over PT Cruiser and also an Audi Allroad with the cars that he had but my least favorite car it would depend on the week you know the day of the week they're talking to me because I hate a lot of different cars for a lot of different reasons but not to the point where I'd say anything is irredeemable now I had a BMW 540i and I really hated that because it was unreliable and it kept on giving me issues but I know that at its core if it's working really well that car is a hell of a performance bargain it sounds great and it's it's a good runner it's fairly comfortable and it actually looks really good I think it's one of the best BMWs looks-wise that they've ever made but I mean I drove a smart fortwo and I really didn't like that car but if you swap out that engine for a Hayabusa engine then you have basically the phone that's calling the planet so I'm not sure I mean I don't really hate any cars for for any reason because everything is everything is relative and I could hate aspects of a car like I hate cars that have single clutch automated manuals there's just none of them work none of them are very good but if you swap over a proper manual than that car just becomes a hundred times better so yeah I mean I don't know how to answer that question I'm not sure I would hate any car and I certainly wouldn't run it over with an SUV I actually felt really bad for that PC cruiser and also that outie Allroad I like the Audi Allroad I think it's actually a really good value for what you get if you can get over the the massive hurdle which is reliability also a PT Cruiser is kind of cool I'm I'm in a minority of one here but I I think I like the PT Cruiser so on that note it is it's time to end I had a lot of fun and if you'd like to ask me any of your questions you can email me at asta bars at gmail.com if you want to contact me for any reason ask me questions tell me what I'm doing wrong tell me what I'm doing right or you want to comment on my hair which is which is has seen better days you can contact me on Instagram and Twitter that is at the root of our SH and facebook.com slash asked of ours you can also hit me up on the wheel I think this is a wheel well sure and hit me up in the DMS there you can check out all my builds and and whatnot but until next time this is me telling you that this is a lot of fun you can ask me anything you want and I'll see you guys next time youhow's it going guys my name is divorce and welcome to the sunday show this is the part of the week where I ramble on about stuff that's on my mind and I answer a few of your questions so sit back relax enjoy this is gonna be fun before we start I want to make sure you guys know that I'm gonna be donating every cent I make from the shirts that I've designed in my teespring store down below to hurricane relief efforts Irma Maria and Harvey have devastated the u.s. and Caribbean and they need our help so let's let's get those people some help let's get and make sure that they get power they get food well I'm not sure about the power but who definitely supplies medical supplies all that stuff they need so all that money is going directly to those hurricane relief efforts so let's help them out and also you'll get a shirt in return so it's a win-win-win today's topic is gonna be something near and dear to my heart they're engine swaps that I desperately want to happen the first one is something that I've wanted to do but I've never had the balls or money or both to do and that is an Aston Martin v8 Vantage which I do have but with the drivetrain from an AMG GT now a few of you are probably saying isn't the Aston Martin DBS v8 basically that yeah yeah it is but I don't like the look of the BB eleven I think it's ugly and I love the look of the Aston Martin v8 Vantage but I think that it needed a little bit more oomph I think it needed a little more power and yeah they make power adders for that car but it still is essentially the same v8 and it still doesn't have too much torque unless you put forced induction on it and even then it's a supercharger which takes PSAPs away some of the power of the engine to make that boost so I think the twin-turbo engine from the AMG sounds great it performs great I love the transmission in that it has a 7-speed dual-clutch MCT made by Mercedes and it's a trans axle in the rear rather than a traditional transmission that goes into a drive shaft and a differential so it's very very close to what Advantage really is but I'm sure that there would be a lot of fitment issues as far as torque tube and engine placement all that stuff but that's something I'd love to do just imagine an Aston Martin v8 Vantage with some nice wheels in a drop or something and the soundtrack of an AMG GT with that burble and the the pops and farts and and all that stuff that makes a car are really good and also that really good response of transmission instead of Aston Martin's whatever sports shift crap that they have obviously the car would be manual because the AMG GTS weren't manual but I think that AMG GTS would probably be worse with manual so I don't know if I'm in the minority on that but that car would be freaking spectacular I think that you can probably get a crash GT and get a decent enough or maybe like a flood salvaged Aston Martin v8 Vantage make the two together and for let's say 40 to 60 grand you can have something that's really unique and good if you can get it to work now that is a really big if I have no idea if the dimensions of the engines fit I certainly don't think the transmissions would what would made up at all but yeah I mean it's it's just a pipe dream but I'd love for it to happen another engine swap that I think nobody has done and I'm not sure why because it is a quite a low dollar swap and I think it would be a kind of low dollar but high value swap as far as performance is a Honda Civic like a 96 to 2000 Honda Civic maybe a four-door but with a VQ 35 front-wheel drive engine from a Nissan Maxima so that would essentially be a civic you civic but spelled weird and I've actually measured the dimensions of this of both engine bays and and the engine and it looks like it fit I mean all the mounting points are somewhat the same so I don't see why it wouldn't happen I mean I've seen j32 swaps which is the v6 that comes from the honda accord with a vq engine is super cheap you can find one for like 500 bucks and right off the bat they have like 265 horsepower so i don't know why they wouldn't they wouldn't have swaps for that particular setup because you could get an h LSD which is a helical LSD from a later model maxima you could bolt right on and it actually is they have 6-speed manual so I think that in the future if I'm looking for a civic project and I'm looking for an engine swap I think this would be a really good way to go so after the fact that the VQ can actually take a bit of boost it can also take a bit of nitrous and a bit of super charging as well so for not a lot of money let's say you buy a Civic for you know a thousand or two thousand bucks with a blown engine and you buy a crashed Nissan Maxima or you just buy the engine itself you'd be in it for not a lot of money and the car would run circles around anything I'm not sure how how good handling wise it would be because I think the VQ is a little bit heavier than the stock engine that's in the Civic but it still should be pretty formidable in the power department and especially if you wanted to stuff like quarter-mile racing that would be a really really good way to get some cheap torque the less engine swap I'd love to do and it's one that I'm actually considering doing next year if somebody does this and doesn't credit me for it then I will be very angry and I'll send you a strongly worded email but the swap that I'm talking about is a Mazda rx-7 FD with a maserati 4.2 and a BMW 7-speed DCT now essentially this would be a Maserati now a Maserati the Maserati that is known around the internet is by roadkill and they basically have a Mazda rotary pickup but they have like a 455 olds in the back so it's mid-engine and they call it a Maserati even though it doesn't have any Maserati parts but my car would it would have a 4.2 liter from a Maserati coupe a or renter ismo or a Quattroporte now the reason why I'd love the 4.2 is because first of all it's cheap well it's cheap for a Ferrari engine you can find one like a long block with all the components all the accessories for run five thousand dollars which is a lot of money for an engine like a bear engine but for a Ferrari engine it's not bad it's not a flat plane crank it's a cross plane crank so that's why it sounds a little bit different than say a Ferrari f430 which actually has a very similar engine I think it's the f1 36 engine they do have different internals and and whatnot but it still is a very good engine it's actually dry sump and dry sump is interesting because it's one of those things where it allows the engine to sit lower down and an rx-7 you don't have a ton of height so the fact that this engine gets it really low down and it will fit just between the frame rails so I think it's it's a worthwhile swap to do I'll have to make stuff like the headers and mounts and stuff but that shouldn't be too much of a problem I mean it's it's the same thing on any engine swap where there isn't a bolt on solution now the issue that I probably have is mating that 7-speed DCT to the Maserati engine and I mean you can you can always do stuff like adapter plates and and whatnot and I think that's probably what I'd have to do I think there is a company that has a four point two adapter plate and you can adapt it to basically anything that they'll make custom custom adapter plates to any transmission I'm thinking that trans tunnel is probably too small so trans tunnel will probably need to be reinforced or or widened and also the big problem would be having a standalone that can handle both the engine and transmission now Cybex s6 has Cybex s6 is an ECU it's an aftermarket standalone ECU that can handle the BMW DCT and it can also handle a v8 naturally aspirated by the Maserati it's just basically a regular coil on plug v8 but I think that that is also going to be a really high dollar solution because Cybex is quite expensive and I think it's the only it's the only thing on the market that can handle that transmission so it would be a very involved project that would be way more involved and say my sl55 with the manual or something else like swapping a 2jz into you know name your car here it basically get a high-revving torque happy 4.2 liter v8 internet Mazda and make it into a really light very good handling car with just the right amount of horsepower I don't need a million horsepower from an rx-7 but I think 400 horsepower naturally aspirated is just right for that car and especially with the the flappy paddle gearbox that will make it that much better as far as cornering and and weight distribution all that stuff I think I think it could be a really really good project that is basically a pipe dream for me but I hope and get it done all right it's time for questions and the first question comes to us from Twitter by Shane and Shane says when you get a factory vehicle to test it they give you rules on what you're allowed to do now I'm assuming Shane means our press cars so when I get a press car it's it's basically you give them well sometimes it's this is most of the time this is how it happens you give them a rough rundown of what you'd like to do with the car basically as it pertains to them so let's say you get a charger hellcat there's a real good chance that you'll be doing burnouts or go to the track or something like that and you'll want to tell them because that way they'll have an extra set of tires that maybe they can give you or they'll have an extra set of tires when you give the car back you know just because they need to get that car out to a lot of different people and you don't want to give cars out to different people when they have no tires left so stuff like that when a car goes off-roading I remember I did I think with Jalopnik with Andrew Collins where we took a jeep basically a stock XJ Willy's wheeler Wrangler and we took it to Moab and it got a little bit crunched up I mean we actually didn't have any damage to the car other than some scratches on the tailgate but it was you know it was it was a good good performing car but we told them in advance just so they wouldn't be surprised with what they saw and they didn't think that we were being reckless with with a car but generally you don't really have to tell them much if it's just like a regular car of you then they'll just give it to you with no strings attached but I remember when I got stuff like a c63 AMG from Mercedes and I had it in Florida they basically just didn't tell me anything they just handed me the keys and and said okay you know you'll be back in a few days and and that's it and a lot of times they deliver the car to your house and they pick it up and that is also a service that a lot of fleet press cars or press car fleets do for for journalists so it is it is pretty cool but then again it's not like you can go out and just just thrash on cars and and whatnot you you usually have to tell them first and get an okay because it is it's not your car you know and you want to you want to be courteous to so not only the people who are rent or renting it but people who are getting it next but also the free car because you want to have a good relationship with them as well but when you go and press trips that that's that's a little bit different because the manufacturer usually controls everything as far as the routes and as far as you know what the cars will be designed to do so let's say a press trip I did a press trip where I went to San Diego and I drove the Infiniti q60 and that is the all-wheel drive 400 horsepower version and we did a drive from San Diego did some like Canyon roads and stuff but there was a very strict guideline as to where we could go and we had to ask me and my partner in the car there's another journalist we asked to take the car out after the drive was over just so we can get some more shots and just so we can get some more driving impressions because sometimes it's necessary sometimes what they give you isn't enough time to actually get a good idea of what the car is like and sometimes you just want to stray from the group because maybe there's somebody in front of you that's not going very fast so on press trips that's a different thing altogether but generally if they're delivering cars to your house then you don't really have any any marching orders as far as what you do with the car next question comes to us from Twitter and it's by Anthony Teta and he says what is your dream car are you thinking get one day so with dream cars there's two types of dream cars right there's the unobtanium dream car that this would be the I sell a business for many many millions of dollars and then I can maybe afford it and then there's the attainable dream car which is like I'll work really hard at my level now how much money I'm making now and then I can afford it I think he was talking about the ladder so my attainable dream car probably be an Aston Martin DBS and that car is about a hundred grand now and maybe it'll go down a little bit maybe it'll go up a little bit but I think that is probably the best looking a smart never made in my opinion I know as some people think that the Vanquish is better some people who think that the DB 11 is better but they're clearly wrong but that car is the last big body Aston to have a six-speed manual and it has 510 horsepower v12 and it sounds great with a lorina exhaust system it sounds like it's it's an f1 it's just it's insane I love the way that car looks I love the way that I mean I've never driven one I'm sure it handles great but it just looks like it's a million dollars every time I see one on the road which is a hand a lot of times in my life I just have to stop and stare it's a it's just a gorgeous looking car and one day hopefully one day soon I can afford that car and you guys will go along for the ride as well so yeah that's that's the answer that our next question comes from Twitter from Michele Michele I'm Mitchell Mitchell Baker Mitchell writes how did you manage to get the silver elephant for so cheap and why did you buy it so I think I might have answered this question before but I bought the s600 silver elephant from Tyler Hoover from who fees garage you guys all know him and if you don't then you should subscribe to him right now I bought it for $12,000 and I managed to get it from from him for so cheap just because I asked him hey do you want to sell it and he gave me a price and the price was pretty cheap and because hoovy is extremely reasonable and he knows that the car has like 150,000 miles and he knows that some people might be turned off by the stuff he's done with it but not me I love a car with a lot of history I love a car with a story and the fact that this has basically millions of views already I think I wouldn't be wrong in saying that this is the most famous s600 ever made and I like I like cars like that I mean master Martin that I have has millions of views and a lot of people have seen it and it's kind of cool when it's being referred to in in different videos that don't have anything to do with you but it's I don't know I I like that I like like a car with history and the story but the reason I bought it is just because I needed the other driver and the s500 I am selling it after I get done with it so I'm not sure if that video is out now because these are pre-recorded so that either has come out already or it will be coming up so we'll see how my upload schedule is but yeah the s 600 is gonna be a daily driver I'm gonna do a few things with it but they're just minor things it's not gonna be like a full build I'm not converting it to manual or anything it's just gonna be something that I can drive every day and not worry about it and be in the lap of luxury and heated and cooled massaging seats so yeah that's why I bought it our next question on Twitter comes to us from rocket man and he says can you call me daddy moving right along to Facebook our first question from there is from Sean Hoffman he says what is the longest road trip you did and did you do cross-country driving now I've done cross-country once from New York to LA and it was it took me about well seven days obviously I stopped in a bunch of places and I went with my wife and this was with Matt Farah's Million Mile Lexus and it's actually the first time I actually met Matt Farah because I I just started writing with Jalopnik and I got into that whole world and I asked about Matt Farah and I got his information and asked him if he was open to having me drive his Lexus across the country he said yes so that cross-country Drive was the first time I met Matt Farah and that was to deliver his car to his house which was interesting it took me a few days and yeah it was not not a bad Drive at all that car was spot-on perfect except for one time that it broke down and I think it was just because the battery ran low for some reason or another but I got a jump-start and it was it was good to go so the longest road trip I did in terms of time was likely the road trip between Detroit and Moab Utah and I did that with David Tracey of Jalopnik and I was tailing him he was in his 1948 Willys Jeep as Willie cjt way and I was tailing him in a Ford Raptor so for those who don't know about the Willie CJ 2a it was actually famously a world war two jeep and it was made by Willy's willys-overland and it was also made by Ford in that era now the jeeps in world war ii were a lot different from the civilian Jeeps and the world war two Jeeps they had overdrive gears which means that they could go highway speeds civilian jeeps did not have this so what David had was civilian Jeep and he had what was basically a farm implement and since he didn't have that overdrive gear his top speed was 38 miles and sometimes I mean if you go in downhill you can get up to 40 to maybe 45 if if we have some wind behind us but imagine doing 2,000 miles at 38 miles an hour at the entire way so we're doing 12-hour days and walnut covering 300 miles it was it was pretty brutal especially when I'm when I have a truck that can do 90 or 100 miles an hour with no problem but it got really tedious and it took a long time it took like you know seven or eight days to cover that cover that distance but I saw a lot of the country we didn't go on any highways we went on all country roads and it was it was really interesting I do like going to that part of the country the Midwest is very very beautiful especially at sunset Kansas has great sunsets and Kansas actually has some some really good picturesque roads so yeah I got to see stuff that I'd never got to see before and it was the longest road trip I've ever had so I guess hope that answers your question our next question comes from Ares and aler that's hope that that's how you pronounce that name on Facebook and airy says will there be a Ferrari so meaning like if I'll have a Ferrari in my fleet man hopefully I really I would love Ferrari but they're a little bit out of my price range at this point I'd love the cheap Ferrari like say a basket case through 55 and then stuff like a better engine in there or maybe a cheaper engine or appel maybe an LS but to be honest I've never really been a Ferrari guy I'm more of a Lamborghini lover I like the guy yard oh I like if that is the the least Lamborghini you can get for the money but it still is really really good but with a Ferrari you know there are things like 360 and a three for eight which we're okay but they're not really as fast as you think that they are so I think I would most likely get something like an Audi r8 or Lamborghini before a Ferrari but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't want one and if I find a good deal on one then I wouldn't pull the trigger because I definitely would next question on Facebook and last question on Facebook comes to us from Jacob Gris box he says not the smartest question but I'd be happy if you answer it what is your least favourite car if there's any car you generally hate for some reason would you run it over in a giant yellow SUV well I don't think that I'd hate a car that my that I'd run it over with a giant yellow SUV of course referring to doug de Muro he famously ran over PT Cruiser and also an Audi Allroad with the cars that he had but my least favorite car it would depend on the week you know the day of the week they're talking to me because I hate a lot of different cars for a lot of different reasons but not to the point where I'd say anything is irredeemable now I had a BMW 540i and I really hated that because it was unreliable and it kept on giving me issues but I know that at its core if it's working really well that car is a hell of a performance bargain it sounds great and it's it's a good runner it's fairly comfortable and it actually looks really good I think it's one of the best BMWs looks-wise that they've ever made but I mean I drove a smart fortwo and I really didn't like that car but if you swap out that engine for a Hayabusa engine then you have basically the phone that's calling the planet so I'm not sure I mean I don't really hate any cars for for any reason because everything is everything is relative and I could hate aspects of a car like I hate cars that have single clutch automated manuals there's just none of them work none of them are very good but if you swap over a proper manual than that car just becomes a hundred times better so yeah I mean I don't know how to answer that question I'm not sure I would hate any car and I certainly wouldn't run it over with an SUV I actually felt really bad for that PC cruiser and also that outie Allroad I like the Audi Allroad I think it's actually a really good value for what you get if you can get over the the massive hurdle which is reliability also a PT Cruiser is kind of cool I'm I'm in a minority of one here but I I think I like the PT Cruiser so on that note it is it's time to end I had a lot of fun and if you'd like to ask me any of your questions you can email me at asta bars at gmail.com if you want to contact me for any reason ask me questions tell me what I'm doing wrong tell me what I'm doing right or you want to comment on my hair which is which is has seen better days you can contact me on Instagram and Twitter that is at the root of our SH and facebook.com slash asked of ours you can also hit me up on the wheel I think this is a wheel well sure and hit me up in the DMS there you can check out all my builds and and whatnot but until next time this is me telling you that this is a lot of fun you can ask me anything you want and I'll see you guys next time you\n"