So you hold in, it's just a normal conversation. Have you never sleep in the middle? It'll pick us both up. Good morning, good afternoon.
Good evening. Listen to the all talk car podcast, special live drive, US edition, joining me today. Well, hosted by Peter owners, but joining me today, I've got Mr. Rob Blender from HDT, who's also in America, visiting Cimmer and other shenanigans.
And we're inside, you can say hello, I love your space. Hi guys. Welcome to the world. And then basically, we're inside a Ford Mustang convertible EcoBoost.
We had a bit of a debate whether or not it was. And you'll soon find out why later on. But America, what do you think? Wow.
Wow. Massive. Absolutely massive. We're going to do a proper rundown with the HDT team later on, then another episode.
But at the moment, it's basically on the live drive. So we just focus on Vegas and the roads and just America in general with the way the roads are. It's just, it's crazy. I definitely want you to notice here that everybody can talk about traffic.
But actually in Vegas itself, the traffic is absolutely horrendous. It's horrendous. So we're going to sort of take it out. We're just leaving the strip now.
We're going to sort of head out proper, because it's fucking crazy. That's sometimes you drive like young roads here. Well, everybody else knows. I noticed that there's no giving way.
The stop sign is just a suggestion. It's definitely different to what we say in Australia. It's an idea from a counsellor, isn't it? Oh, and the fast lane is the cruise lane apparently.
Wow. So lane, this is my wife's wagon about this 1,000 times. So basically, the lane discipline is atrocious on the freeway, especially when it's two lanes. Because it's called the fast lane, the slow lane.
Every car, everyone's in the fast lane. And not every is doing 10 to 15 miles at the limit. They're not going slow. But there's people that want to overtake.
So what you have to do is you've got to undertake. So overtake. And then you catch up to the trucks. And then you have to cut back into the overtaking lane, which is the other slow lane, pass the truck.
And then you've got to undertake again and get a good run. And then it opens up. And it gets to like three lanes. You can sort of play with it and jiggle your way through.
Got to say, having a trip with an experienced season driver makes it a hell of a lot better. Peter our boss. He's been here quite a few times. And it's been fantastic.
He actually knows his way around. And his last time here was 11 years ago. And he hasn't lost a thing. Let me tell you.
And I've got to say, Peter's done well too. He knows every back street that there is here. I'm guessing Peter's been here more than once. More than once this year.
This is basically it. And on that last occasion, we did a live drive in a Ford Transit with about 15 drunk people in it with my brother driving. So yeah, it's all agreed. It's all pretty easy once you get the hang of it.
We also have the road closures for the F1. The F1. So that's now putting up barriers and lighting, which is for another one to spanner in the world. We sort of navigate our way through.
So with the F1 tracks, what they've done is the main straights down the main sunset. The main Las Vegas strip. Las Vegas Boulevard. But I thought I'd be about the media strips that make it one full lane.
So what they've done is they've sealed brand new tar on one side of the road. And they've set up the light system like they're doing Singapore. So they must have gone to Singapore and sussed it out. And the other side, we don't know what debate about what it's going to be, whether they're going to go.
They're kind of traffic going through. Because it's going to be the other side's in the center of the ring. So you can't get traffic in or out. Because when they do take the corner onto the main straights, there's no other way for cars to go.
So it's going to be quite interesting how they're going to do it. But then we're getting ready. We saw the home straights the other night, the pit lane. And that's sort of that's not part of the road track.
That's being built from scratch. So it's quite interesting how they've part of it. He's not really a road circuit. They've made the chicane part around this fee.
That's not part of the road, probably like empty vacant lane. And they've created the track. So we're in the Mustang. What do you think?
Is there a hold a guy? Oh, no. This is why what is the company? This is definitely different.
And like with four of us in it, it seemed to go quite well for a four-cylinder, which we had to open the bonnet just to confirm what our suspicions were. It was not a fee, but it does go quite well. It's just been quite comfortable for two people. It is.
Four of us a bit of a struggle. I wouldn't recommend it for a growing family. No, no, it's not a family car. No, definitely not.
The last two seats are emergency. Suggestions are best. And I had to move my steering. I had to move right up to the steering wheel.
Like a little old lady driver. But it doesn't rattle. Like I found the last time I had a Mustang convertible was 22 years ago. That was a bucket of bolts falling apart.
Well, this is quite good. The roof, you've got the lever where you've got to yank it shut. It doesn't shut fully automatically. You've got to sort of grab a lever.
You've been dealing to use the European cars, mate. You reckon? We're keeping it super low. Yeah.
Yeah. You've just got to remember, you've done it down a little. These cars aren't top of the tree, but it's comfy enough for us, but it's not an AMG Mercedes. No, it's not.
That's for sure. It's not. So we're just fucking stuck in traffic. We might have to pause this to creep it on the crank.
But like the interior, it's like standard Mustang. If you've ever seen a Mustang, it's got those two sort of cop-kit- elevated dash. The dials do what they say. You've got your taco and your speed over.
It's funny how they kept this ground speed and revolutions per minute, literally written on the art. So they make it look like you're in a pilot in a cockpit or something. It's just quite funny. I noticed it says ground speed.
We don't have anything for air speed. So I'm guessing that'd be a pretty poor pilot, wouldn't it? Well, but who has ground speed on their speed, though? I thought Mustang.
I thought Mustang. You've got your hand controls, you've got your apple car play. But unlike the Ford's in Australia, these ones light up at night. So you can see what the buttons actually say and do, where the Falcon ones were a bit of guesswork, the old steering wheel controls.
You've got your push button start. You've got it is an automatic. Now, it's got everything you need. You know, you're on our lights.
It's got one switch for the back windows. And on the back of it, there was a switch if you're out coming out of the back. You know, the hand will run. I took it to the canyons from LA.
Make the canyons. Everybody talks about Angelus Crest Highway and the tarmac was so smooth. It sneaks its way through the mountains. They've got like a meter high wall, so you don't go off the edge.
But there's also bikes there. And I know in Australia when you go on the old Pacific Highway with his bikes. You've got that bar on the ground. What's that?
You know what I'm trying to describe? Crash bar? Yeah, but it's on the ground. So if you slide off your bike.
Yeah, I'm going to stop you. The on-co. We're here. They've still got the old traditional on-co.
It's a meter up. But it's got all the poles down the bottom. So if you're on the bike and you slide, you only get cut in half by one of those poles. But it did handle.
And I knew it was a force in on it, because I was expecting this thing to understand. It didn't. So obviously it wasn't heavy up front. It's got the EcoBoost engine.
But mate, it got up and boog you in and handled all right. So it was a not bad little automobile. How the fuck am I going to get? Wow.
We pressed record too early. We'll go to later. No, I'll just thrash the bug out of it. But the traffic here doesn't fucking go away.
We've also got the sphere. Have you seen that fucking thing? Massive. Is that one more meter?
I don't know who runs it. It says it's the bottom meter. Maybe they sponsor the... What a big thingy.
What a hight. So they're going to run it. They're going to run it right. I'm going to go green one here.
Damn. So now we're going to have to turn on the circuit. And it's just a fucking nightmare. That's without a F1 car.
That was a sound of a bus. So here the other way we'll use you can turn right on red. Whenever you're ready. Yeah.
That's what I was like you. It's free for all. So someone did in front of a bus and the bus wasn't happy. So anyway, the speed, it's this massive structure.
You two played there last night. I couldn't afford the 600 US dollar ticket. And it gets me a 15,000 people to apparently... Like the outside.
It's like a big fucking ball that lights up. And one stage was like an eye. It does some weird stuff. At one time it was the moon.
It looked like the moon was a city in Vegas. And apparently I read an interview with you too. Usually when I take... You've got a million-a-one semi-trailers moving the stage on all your props.
Well, this thing goes inside all the electronic as well. All you need is a little USB stick. You plug it in and there's your concert. So it relies on like a visual type effects.
It's a shame that Cina is on the same time with just before the Formula One. Because of the amount of setup they need for the track that then causes the chaos that we have here today. But how quick do you reckon they can put the wall up? Because it's all temporary.
You've got the concrete block and the mesh fence with the tilt at the top, right? And it's all like one massive screw in to... We're staring at the fence there in front of us. You reckon they can knock that off in a night or two?
They just close everything the week leading up to, say, Fridays the day they do first practice. Yeah, I'd say this wall would be gone in two days. They'd want to get rid of it, eh? Well, Adelaide was, I'm sure, Melbourne is the same.
But Melbourne is a park, you know, and there's no real-through traffic. You're not disturbing anyone in other park. In Adelaide, it was literally... It was a street-stopper street circuit through a park, but the 90-degree turns it was through Adelaide proper.
And Singapore is in the middle of CBD. So there must be a way to give these up and out. And then through that, like we said about the lighting, you've got gaps in between the intersections. So they've got to connect the lighting up and I'm guessing test it and see if it bloody works.
Well, then I wonder also if they're going to run the monorail, while the race is on, because you can see the monorail, is that going to affect the drivers that they can see in their vision? I think that's going to affect them. Or did you see the monorail just gone past this day? And if they come in the unhear, it'll be the pedestrians crossing the road, I think.
That'll be the problem. You would hope that they're not crossing here, where right on the racetrack. Where they speak. Where they drink and their big-gop cups.
Yeah, even the small coffee in Vegas is large. Wow. This is a monorail. We're going to pause it and come back to you later.
Yeah, we're back on. The main straight. Okay, probably wouldn't get poll, but that would go at least front row. We just framed it down at one end of turn right, but it's not off there.
So now we've got to run. That's what we said earlier. You just heard the sound. I think it's speakers.
The sound's coming through the speakers because this is an eco-boost engine. It's trying to sound like a big eight. It's close. I'm thinking, we might have to test it one more time, please.
Just to see. Yep. Yep. Could you feel it squirming at the back?
It wants the brake traction. That's the brake. It's like it's letting you slide like a little bit. So it's letting you go back to the eighties out of the north to the ninety-naughtier.
That was a 5.6 seconds. That was pretty good. It's very impressive for a force on the people know it is a turbo. It's a turbo.
It's not acting like one. No. It's about to get out of the way. So we're going to get more boost out of it.
So, yeah, they're the other one out of the fucking traffic. You can already hear it out, but it's a little bit more exciting. It likes the dance. You can have a bit of fun in this car.
It's really well-dried. You turn the corners. The tyre here is a little bit, because it gets hot in Vegas. It's in the middle of the desert.
But it's sliding, but it's controllable. I mean, obviously it's letting you go a bit. And then it sort of comes back. Does that thing got traction control?
I can't see a button for it. I don't know. I'm sure he's here. He's here.
So you've got a roll of buttons that tracks your control off. Ah. Things might spice up a little now, but. But basically, it's a bit of fun.
I've never driven a naked boost, must I? And it lets you play with it without getting into trouble. It's obviously it's the first one they leave cars and coffee. You know, I've got magnets for people.
The human magnet they call them. Well, it is for a similar one. It's playful. It's a bit of fun.
And it's not nose heavy. You've got full control. It lets you give it a bit. And it's not breaking down next.
It's not. It's napping speed. It's going to be realistic here. We're not setting any land speed for ground speed records.
But it's a bit of fun. You want to feel sure changed if you couldn't afford the V8. Not at all. If you wanted a new Mustang, you can only afford the EcoBoost.
You'd buy yourself. It's a really a whole lot of car. It's not a car. It's entry level, but it's a good car.
It's quite everything you need in it. I can't wait to go greaser. I've got some more fun. I think there's been choices for hiring this one.
Yeah, I'm quite impressed. It's hardly different to the old six that we had back in 20 years ago. It had a full speed order and you hit the Xara. I'll give you a second.
It screams even louder and it wouldn't go anywhere. And you're struggling to overtake where this is a six speed box. You've got to track some off-ractions off. It's pretty much the same.
Has they read like everything? It's all night. I think it's about seven ticket for one. No, it's in New Mexico.
I could do that all day. In America. So it's a thumbs up for me. You've got a smile on your face because they hold them.
It's definitely something different. It's definitely something different. It's definitely something I'd probably consider if I was looking for a new car. There was no...
Okay, hold them all around you all generally. There's no general motors, but the camera isn't coming out in the four-cylinder. I think we're too late, are you? Not sure, but I want to be as fun as these.
I don't even think so. This is a go-bou Stengen. The user of the Focus RS, it's in Fort Transit. It's a very...
It's an engine that they're using in the range-out. Very versatile, yeah. It's a versatile engine. I can tell you why.
They let you play with it. They let you rip out. Robbie, thank you. We're going to have you later on again with the rest of the HDT team.
We'll talk about Seema and America a bit more. This is just a live drive just with the Mustang. You can tell we're driving it like a stolen. Thanks, Emu.
I hope you enjoyed it. I think I can do that. You're not going to go back home. Probably not this week.
Thank you for listening and bye for now. Bye-bye.