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Hard to believe it is already Thursday again. My how time flies when you are having fun. I hope you enjoyed the experience that was Episode 037 of the TopSpeed Podcast and the experience of the madness that is this year’s LA Auto Show.
We start out with Weekly Wheels; Mark is in the Chrysler 200 S, and I spent a week with the Volvo S60, and once again Justin is sitting this segment out.
From there we jump straight into news as there is a lot to cover thanks to L.A. Ford finally unveiled the new GT350, Cadillac made the ATS-V official, there are a bunch of new Jaguar F-Types for sale, Volkswagen proved the existence of a Golf R Wagon, and Toyota went nuts with a hydrogen powered car. There is also the new Mazda CX-3, the Audi Prologue concept and the “concept” Bentley Grand Convertible. We also have spy shots of a basically undisguised Porsche Cayman GT4 as well.
Thanks to you guys, we have a nice collection of questions to answer about the LA show, about podcast guests and about Ken Block and his special brand of hoonage. We also have a new Own, Drive, Burn that features some Italian supercars and one American sports machine.
This week’s show was a blast, and we did really good about sticking to our 1-hour target on time. If there is a car from L.A. that we didn’t cover, and you want to hear our thoughts, make sure to drop it in those comments with your other questions. We will be sure to answer it on next week’s show. Now have a great weekend, and we will see you next Thursday.
The TopSpeed Podcast is always full of fun and exciting stuff, but this week we really blew things out with a huge amount of news and questions. And we did it all within our usually scheduled hour time limit. This is Episode 036 and it is awesome.
First things first, thanks to everyone who stepped up and gave us a question for this week’s show. We all really appreciate it, and every question was great. It added some great content to the show. Keep it up this week.
We get the show started with our usual Weekly Wheels segment. Mark comes in hot and heavy with the exciting and angry Mercedes-Benz GLA 45 AMG. We spend a fair bit of time discussing this awesome little machine, and then we touch on my next press car, the Volvo S60 for just a moment.
From there we jump straight into the news with my recent test of The Crew video game beta. From video game fantasy we move to real world fantasy with the official details of GM’s incredible ATS-V Coupe. At least 450 horsepower, and three pedals; what a dream machine. Somehow, we don’t spend the entire show talking about the ATS, and we move on to the death knell of the rotary engine, the Lexus LF-C2 Concept and the new naming scheme for Mercedes-Benz. Mark also takes some time to talk about the potential revival of the GMC Jimmy (never gonna happen, Mark). We even find some time to touch on the DirtFish Rally School, the Rolls Royce Wraith Sport spy shots, and the spy shots of the upcoming Maserati Levante mule.
I told you, there was a lot of stuff to cover.
Again, thanks to you awesome listeners, we had a nice full Questions and Answers segment that involved a look at our favorite cars form the 90s, how we would spend 20 grand to have a race car, the most beautiful engine bays we have ever seen, and we have a discussion about high-end tuned cars versus showroom racers. Oh, we also take a quick look at Volkswagen’s awesome 268 horsepower TDI engine and the 10-speed DSG gearbox.
We wind out our show with a nice Own, Drive, Burn that features the a trio of fast small cars; the A45 AMG, Audi RS3 and the BMW 1 Series M.
The TopSpeed Podcast is always full of fun and exciting stuff, but this week we really blew things out with a huge amount of news and questions. And we did it all within our usually scheduled hour time limit. This is Episode 036 and it is awesome.
First things first, thanks to everyone who stepped up and gave us a question for this week’s show. We all really appreciate it, and every question was great. It added some great content to the show. Keep it up this week.
We get the show started with our usual Weekly Wheels segment. Mark comes in hot and heavy with the exciting and angry Mercedes-Benz GLA 45 AMG. We spend a fair bit of time discussing this awesome little machine, and then we touch on my next press car, the Volvo S60 for just a moment.
From there we jump straight into the news with my recent test of The Crew video game beta. From video game fantasy we move to real world fantasy with the official details of GM’s incredible ATS-V Coupe. At least 450 horsepower, and three pedals; what a dream machine. Somehow, we don’t spend the entire show talking about the ATS, and we move on to the death knell of the rotary engine, the Lexus LF-C2 Concept and the new naming scheme for Mercedes-Benz. Mark also takes some time to talk about the potential revival of the GMC Jimmy (never gonna happen, Mark). We even find some time to touch on the DirtFish Rally School, the Rolls Royce Wraith Sport spy shots, and the spy shots of the upcoming Maserati Levante mule.
I told you, there was a lot of stuff to cover.
Again, thanks to you awesome listeners, we had a nice full Questions and Answers segment that involved a look at our favorite cars form the 90s, how we would spend 20 grand to have a race car, the most beautiful engine bays we have ever seen, and we have a discussion about high-end tuned cars versus showroom racers. Oh, we also take a quick look at Volkswagen’s awesome 268 horsepower TDI engine and the 10-speed DSG gearbox.
We wind out our show with a nice Own, Drive, Burn that features a trio of fast small cars; the A45 AMG, Audi RS3 and the BMW 1 Series M.
Well that was our show! We hope you guys enjoyed tuning in and checking it out. We will be back next week for another car-filled podcast extravaganza. If you didn’t happen to catch the show live, you sure missed a lot, but thankfully you can press that play button and watch it back, or listen to the audio feed below.
We started out the show with Weekly Wheels where we talk about the cars we have been driving lately. We cover the new Acura TLX, the Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid and the Range Rover LWB Autobiography. We have quite a lot to say about all of them, especially the fast one.
For news we had a ton of stuff to cover starting with the official announcement that the US version of the new Mazda Miata will indeed be powered by the 2.0-liter Skyactiv-G engine. After that we jump straight into the biggest news of the week, the spin-off of Ferrari from parent company Fiat. We also find time to talk about the new Audi A8, the newest version of the R8, a Fiat 500 that is going to SEMA, updates to the current GT-R and Subaru’s teased Forester STI. Oh, we also cover rumors about the upcoming BMW M2’s engine and our best look yet at the Ferrari LaFerrari XX.
We wrap up the show with our signature Own, Drive, Burn segment that sees us deciding between three of the most expensive and luxurious cars on the market; the Bentley Mulsanne Speed, the Rolls Royce Ghost and the new Aston Martin Lagonda.
We didn’t have a Questions and Answers segment this week because we didn’t have any questions from you guys. If you have a question that you want answered on next week’s show, just drop us a comment below. You can also ask us questions on Twitter @TopSpeedPodcast, or reach us by email at [email protected]. As always if you want to chat with one of the three of us directly, you can reach us on Twitter. I am @Moeferd, Mark is @MarkMcNabb and Justin is @TheCarJunkie.
Have a safe and fun weekend, but please stay safe and we will see you all next week.
Well that wraps up another episode of the TopSpeed Podcast. We hope everyone enjoyed listening to us for another hour.
For Episode 033 we start things out with a band by giving a shout-out and congratulations to the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team on their first ever Constructors’ Championship. We immediately jump into our Weekly Wheels which is full of three cars that are actually fun and exciting. Mark has been driving the Lexus GS350 F Sport, Justin had the only crossover worth buying, the Mazda CX-5, and I was bombing around in the Porsche 911 Carrera 2.
For news we have a full collection of exciting stories. There is video evidence of the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS on U.S. soil, the new Aston Martin Vantage has been spied on the Nurburgring, and we discuss our super cool new renders of the upcoming Corvette Zora ZR1. On top of that, we spend some time speculating about a new Acura ILX, the new Ferrari 458 turbo, and the potential for a Hyundai sports car. We can’t forget about Mark, who spent time in basically every SUV and truck you can buy in the States today, as well as his recent drive of the new Toyota Yaris, Camry and Sienna.
Our Questions & Answer section is full of some great stuff from you guys. We get to talk about the potential for Ford to put a diesel in the F-150, the sports car we would buy for under $100,000, what car we would make with the Lamborghini Asterion’s drivetrain and we finish with a quick question about video games.
In traditional TopSpeed Podcast fashion, we wrap the show up with an Own, Drive, Burn. This week’s choices are a trio of super sedans from Aston Martin, Mercedes and Dodge. We hope everyone had a great time watching, and we can’t wait to see you next week. Don’t forget to leave comments, questions and Own, Drive, Burn suggestions for us to use over the next few shows.
If you want to reach any of us directly, you can find us all on Twitter. The podcast account is @TopSpeedPodcast, I am @Moeferd, Justin is @TheCarJunkie and Mark is @MarkMcNabb.
Have a safe weekend, and we will be back next week. Same TopSpeed time, same TopSpeed channel.
33 weeks ago, I convinced my boss to let me sit in front of a microphone with two other hooligans and yell at each other for an hour or so about cars. We called it the TopSpeed Podcast and it was good. It was so good in-fact that 225 days later we are still doing it. We are glad that you guys keep listening, commenting and allowing us to continue doing this thing every week.
With that out of the way, I do have to apologize because there will be no show this week. Mark is out driving some cool new cars, Justin is trying to catch up from his vacation time, and I am taking a little bit of time to sit on the beach and relax. That means that Episode 033 of the TopSpeed Podcast will have to wait until next week. I know a lot of you guys have become regulars and can’t wait for the show every week, but occasionally we just won’t be able to make a show or two. I do apologize, but I promise to make it up to you.
It will be a week late, but the next show should be incredible. I have been driving the Porsche 911, Justin had one of the sportiest crossovers you can buy, and Mark spent a few days beating on basically every single truck and SUV you can buy in the USA. Plus Ferrari announced a brand new car, we have renders of the upcoming Zora ZR1 Corvette, and there have been a whole collection of exciting spy shots to come out over the last week.
Thanks for sticking it out with us for the last seven months. Now take a week off and enjoy yourselves. We will see you next Thursday.
We hope everyone enjoyed the party. We know it was kind of a long show, but with all the great questions, and of course all the huge news from Paris, we had plenty to talk about. As always, we want to send a huge thanks to everyone who listened live, and to everyone who gave us questions after last week’s show.
This week starts with a small sidetrack to look at some technology that will make sure that we have even higher quality video content in the future, but right after that we jump into the good stuff. For Weekly Wheels, Justin was in the Honda Odyssey, I was in the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport, and Mark was bombing around in TWO off-road monsters; the Jeep Wrangler and the 4-Runner TRD Pro.
For the news section we start off with a bang by talking about the Chevy Z06 and Challenger Hellcat’s insane sub three-second zero to 60 sprints. After that I touch on how awesome the new GoPro Hero 4 is, and then Mark tells us about his recent experience driving the all-new 2015 Ford F-150. From there we jump straight into the Paris Motor Show. With the 900 horsepower Lamborghini Asterion, Ducati powered Volkswagen XL Sport, and Nissan Pulsar Nismo, there was plenty to talk about. We also touch on the Audi TT Sportback, the Infiniti Q80 and even take a quick look at the future of Audi with a potential R10 supercar.
Our Questions and Answers segment was jam packed as we covered safety regulations and the shuttering of car brands, the MT Best Driver’s Car competition, future Mazdaspeed models and we even talk about our picks for best and worse safety technology.
We finish the show with Own, Drive, Burn and a look at three of the most exciting cars to arrive in decades; the Jaguar F-Type Coupe R, Mercedes-AMG GT, and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06. It was a good time.
Don’t forget to leave us your questions and suggestions for Own, Drive, Burn in the comments below. We look forward to seeing you next week. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Hopefully everyone enjoyed the show. We had a great time putting it on, and maybe it will brighten up your day when you hear it. As always, we appreciate anyone and everyone who listens and watches. Don’t forget to leave us your questions and Own, Drive, Burn suggestions below in the comments.
This week we have Justin back, and he has a new car for Weekly Wheels, so we let him start things off with a look at the Acura ILX. After that I get to talk about how the new 2015 Subaru Outback is a great SUV, but a terrible Subaru. Mark finishes us off with a look at the new Audi A3. Small spoiler, I like it more than he does, even if it is missing a door.
For the news segment of the show I spend some time talking about my new review for Forza Horizon 2. I think that is the only important part of our whole show really, but the other two figured that we should cover other news as well. In the end we talked about the Lamborghini Asterion, the death of the Lotus Evora, and Infiniti’s desire to build a car that it kind of already makes. We also have some truck talk with Mark as we discuss the fuel economy ratings of the new Canyon and Colorado trucks before we all get angry at GM’s latest “sport truck.”
We didn’t have any questions from last week’s show to answer, so we skipped the Question and Answer section to head straight to Own, Drive, Burn. Our own Ciprian provided us with a trio of the worst cars Ferrari ever made to choose from. I’ll be honest; it wasn’t a super great or entertaining ODB. Sorry about that.
As always, we all hope that everyone has a super great Friday and a wonderful weekend. We will be back next Thursday with another awesome episode. See you guys then.
Well, that was our show. As always, a big thanks goes out to anyone who watched live. We appreciate you chatting with us. We sadly had to have the show without Justin today, however. Google was not cooperating with us, and he couldn’t log onto the call.
After sorting through the technical problems and deciding to leave our man behind, Mark and I jumped straight into Weekly Wheels. I spent some time discussing the surprisingly good Lexus GS450h, and Mark was driving around in the three-row QX60 from Infiniti. Justin will just have to tell us about the ILX next week.
News was a rather full segment with lots of interesting pieces. We talked about the $100 Lego Mini Cooper, an Audi SUV based on the TT sports car, some Australian Miata specs and a bit about aftermarket parts from Hennessey. We also spend some time talking about how good the Challenger Hellcat is, how good the 2015 Mustang isn’t, and we also delve into the mess that is Ferrari right now. Oh, we also mention the multi-million dollar, 60th anniversary, special-edition Ferrari that is coming soon.
Our Questions and Answers portion this week is one of the best we have had in a while. We spend some time talking about what is next for Ferrari’s departing chairman Luca di Montezemolo, take a look at what we would name our cars if we owned a car company and then we talk about the best cars to take on epic cross-country road trips.
There may also be a mention of Forza Horizon 2 in there somewhere.
We wrap things up with a quick Own, Drive, Burn that sees us choosing between three of the original ultimate sports cars from Jaguar, Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz.
Make sure that you leave us a bunch of comments, questions and Own, Drive, Burn suggestions for the next show. Have a safe weekend and we will see you all next week.
You can go ahead and mark another successful TopSpeed Podcast in the books. Thanks for everyone who hung out with us live. We really appreciate it. If you missed the live show, don’t worry. You can watch or listen to the entire show right here.
We start things off with Mark’s week spent with the Hyundai Sonata Turbo. I take some time to talk about how incredibly well-designed the new 2015.5 Volvo XC60 is, and Mark comes back to talk about the incredible fun that is the Lexus RC and RC F.
When we make it over to the news portion of the show we spend the start of the show discussing the departure of Ferrari’s chairman, Luca di Montezemolo and what it could mean for the brand going forward. After that we move on to some Viper talk with the announcement of the new price cut, and we look at our beautiful rendering of what a new Viper Roadster would look like.
We keep up the excitement of new car news with a discussion about how great the new Mercedes AMG GT and Jaguar XE look now that both have been officially announced.
In this week’s Viewer Questions we talk about the V-8 engines we think sound the best and we discuss what happens if we get a press car that we don’t like. Do we still drive it, or does it sit in the driveway while we enjoy our personal cars?
We finish things up with an Own, Drive, Burn segment that consists of three legendary cars from Nissan’s past.
As always, we appreciate everyone who watches or listens. Don’t forget to leave your comments below. We love any and all feedback; good or bad. We also love to get questions and Own, Drive, Burn suggestions for next week’s show.
Stay safe and have a wonderful weekend, everyone. We will be back to see you next Thursday!
Well that was a blast, I hope everyone enjoyed it. It was filled with lots of Miata talk so if you are a big fan of fun to drive roadsters, this may be your favorite. If you aren’t a fan of the new 4-th generation Miata, no worries. We have lots of cool stuff for you too.
We start the show with a look in our driveways for the Weekly Wheels. Mark talks about the very large Lexus GX460 and I spend some time talking about towing a horse trailer with the 2014 Toyota Tundra. Oh, you also get the chance to see a cool new Lego Mini Cooper.
For main news stories we talk about the recent sighting of the new Audi TTaround the Nurburgring, a pretty blue Dodge Viper, the all-new Land Rover Discovery Sport announcement and we finish things with the upcoming Kia Optima we just spied in camo.
If you did come for the Miata, well then we have lots for you. We cover all the information we know about the machine from overall size to wheel and tire dimensions. We discuss the design, potential drivetrains, what the weight savings really means and more. We also talk about some of the fun stuff that Keith Tanner from Flyin’ Miata was able to glean from a talk with one of the chassis engineers.
After the Miata madness and the news, we move as always to the Q/A portion of the show. We spend some time discussing winter tires, why you need them, and what you should look for when buying. We also take a few minutes to answer a question about the most recognizable cars in the world.
We wrap things with an Own, Drive, Burn that sees us trying to pick the lesser of three evils; it’s a trio of family-hauling crossovers.
As always, a huge thanks goes out to everyone who listens and watches, with an extra special little thanks to our live viewers. We hope you all have a great weekend and we will see everyone next week.
Don’t forget to leave us questions and Own, Drive, Burn suggestions for later eipsodes!
Well that was a wild and exciting Podcast. As always, we want to send a super special thanks to everyone who tuned in live, and to everyone who gave us questions to answer. If you didn’t happen to catch the live show, let me inform you of what you have waiting for you after you click that play button.
We start the show off in the usual manner with the Weekly Wheels segment where Mark talks about how good the Scion FR-S is, even though it had an automatic transmission. I then proceed to tell him he is incorrect, and then we move on to talking about my time with the long wheelbase Range Rover. Spoiler: it’s like driving a house made of $100 bills.
We had a pretty busy news week and so there was a lot to cover. We move from the Range Rover straight into Mark’s choice for the five best off-road machines, talk about a worthless BMW that someone tried to sell for $18k and we even talk about the new pointless Mercedes SUV… sort of.
In other car news, we cover the shiny new Volvo XC90, the upcoming Focus RS rumors and the potential for a Ford Mustang with a 10-speed transmission. You know, like a mountain bike.
We finish the show with a fairly lengthy Q&A followed by our signature Own, Drive, Burn. For the viewer questions we discuss when the new NSX might finally arrive, what our current dream long term test car may be, the potential future of the Mazdaspeed3 and whether it is a good idea to buy a nice used car or a cheaper new one. For Own, Drive, Burn we decide between three legendary classic Hot Hatches.
The show did run a little long, but since it was the six month anniversary of our first podcast, we figured you guys wouldn’t care too much.
A quick parting note to all our US viewers. This is a crazy holiday weekend, and traditionally there are lots of incidents involving motorized things and the use of alcohol. We want you back next week, so don’t do anything stupid like drink and drive.
Don’t forget to drop your questions and Own, Drive, Burn suggestions for next week’s show in the comments below.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Another live episode of the TopSpeed Podcast has come and gone again. We hope everyone enjoyed this extra-large episode celebrating 25 jam packed casts of automotive mayhem.
We start this week out with the return of Mark, and a little talk about pumpkins and drunken hand grenade safety. It’s a strange story, but we are sure you will find it entertaining. Once the show proper gets started, we get things moving with Weekly Wheels. This week we cover the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel, the Toyota Rav4 and the Fiat 500c Abarth. Two of the three are considered to be amazing, and two of the three are considered to be kinda terrible. Good luck figuring that out without watching the show.
For the news we start with the new Shelby-bodied Renovo supercar, and discuss whether or not this electric car deserves that supercar title. After that we move on to a BMW that is covered in bullet holes, a Corvette system that records your valet’s every move, and the return of the mid-engined Vette rumors. We also take just a second to touch on the possibility of Hyundai making a luxury SUV to compete with Lexus.
The Question and Answer segment of this show was pretty amazing thanks to some incredible questions from you guys. We talk about what kind of dream car we would build if we could put any engine and any interior inside of any other car’s body. We have some pretty varied responses. After that we talk about what cars we would buy if we only had $40k; the catch is we have those cars for the rest of forever. Finally we talk about some of VW’s greatest creations that they refuse to bring to US shores, and talk about why that is.
We finish things out in our traditional manner with an Own, Drive, Burn that features three limited run cars from the 1970s and 1980s. One of them is so awesome, it can go back in time.
Thanks again to everyone who listens and watches us banter about cars every week. We really appreciate you. Make sure to let us know if you like the show, and if there is anything we should change. We also need more questions and Own, Drive, Burn suggestions for every show, so keep those coming. You can reach us in the comments below, on Twitter @TopSpeedPodcast, or by email at [email protected].
Have a great weekend, and we will see you next Thursday.
As always, we want to thank everyone who tuned in live for this week’s show. We hope everyone enjoyed it.
IF you missed the live show and want to catch up, just click the play button on the video or the audio feed here. If you want to make sure you never miss a show, you can subscribe to the feed on iTunes and get new episodes every week automatically.
In this week’s show we are down one man, as Mark is on vacation, but Justin and I held strong to deliver a great show without him.
For the Weekly Wheels segment we have the might Jeep Wrangler Rubicon X, the super-fast V-8 Miata “Elvis” and the track day special Exocet. It is quite the fun time. When we break into the real news we start with the Hellcat powered Charger and the Jaguar E-Type Lightweight. We then move on to video games with a full list of announcements from Forza and the team at Turn 10 Studios. This includes some new cars that have been added to Forza Motorsports 5 as well as a full roster update for the upcoming Forza Horizon 2. We finish out the news with a little talk about the Ferrari F12 at the Nurburgring and the eye-watering price tag of the Bentley Continental GT3-R.
We didn’t have any questions this week, so we just wrapped up the show with Own, Drive, Burn and a trio of very expensive two-doors.
Thanks for watching and listening. Don’t forget to leave us your questions and Own, Drive, Burn suggestions in the comments below. We hope everyone has a great weekend and we will see you next Thursday.