{"id":4984,"date":"2017-03-28T09:32:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T16:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turo.com\/blog\/?p=4984"},"modified":"2025-10-08T06:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T13:35:07","slug":"ask-a-gearhead-matt-farah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/turo.com\/blog\/gearheads\/ask-a-gearhead-matt-farah\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask a gearhead: Matt Farah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Ask a Gearhead, a new monthly series where we meet enthusiasts and influencers in the automotive space. We\u2019ll be talking to journalists, personalities, and gearheads to bring you varying perspectives on driving and life. Each month will feature a different face but the same set of questions. This is the inaugural Ask a Gearhead, a shakedown if you will, and we are pleased to feature Matt Farah!<\/span><\/p>\n

Matt Farah is an automotive journalist and host of <\/span>The Smoking Tire<\/span><\/a> on Youtube, where you can find his popular series <\/span>One Takes<\/span><\/i> and commentary on all things car-related. Alongside Zack Klapman, Chris Hayes, and Thad Brown, Matt hosts the Smoking Tire Podcast, which is full of unfiltered stories, laughs, and conversation. You can also check him out on <\/span>Twitter<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Instagram<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Matt Farah<\/p><\/div>\n

WHAT WAS YOUR FAMILY CAR GROWING UP?<\/span><\/h4>\n

I\u2019ll start with the car my mom let me pick out for her, which was a Volvo 740 GLE wagon. I wanted her to get the turbo, but she didn\u2019t want to get the turbo. It ended up getting lemon lawed. From that she went to the Mercury Villager minivan Nautica edition. This was a partnership between Mercury and Nautica clothing. If you look it up, it\u2019s heinous-looking. It looks like a windbreaker from 1993. My dad\u2019s first nice car was a \u201892 Lexus LS 400, and that\u2019s sort of when I became an LS 400 enthusiast.<\/p>\n

WORST THING YOU’VE EVER DRIVEN?<\/h4>\n

As far as a car that is just purely terrible from the day it left the factory, my now ex-housemate had a 2009 Dodge Nitro, and it was just the worst car I\u2019ve ever driven. It\u2019s terrible, as far as I can see, in pretty much every conceivable way.<\/p>\n

IF YOU COULD OWN JUST ONE CAR FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?<\/h4>\n

If I am living in Los Angeles as I am now, and have to contend with the level of traffic I do on a daily basis, then the Ferrari 488 GTB would be a perfect forever car. If I am living outside of LA, and can bear the thought of a manual transmission for a forever car, then I\u2019ll have a Porsche 997.2 GT3 RS.<\/p>\n

FAVORITE ROAD TRIP?<\/h4>\n

I have a pretty high standard for road trips. My absolute favorite so far, I started in Sweden at Koenigsegg, drove down across Germany, into the Swiss and Italian Alps. It was in a BMW M6, which was brilliant, and it was lovely. If you love driving, boy are the Alps\u00a0the place to be… Driving sports cars in Europe is really good \u2014 the mountains, the relatively relaxed attitude about speeding (at least once you\u2019re outside of the cities), and giant, beautiful mountains. Every time you go around a corner is just spectacular.<\/p>\n

YOU’RE DIRECTING FAST & FURIOUS 9. WHAT’S THE HERO CAR?\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

There\u2019s a company called Hypercar Engineering out of North Carolina, and they can do a McLaren, a 12c or a 650S, which normally have a twin-turbo V8, and they added a third turbo. So it\u2019s got three turbos, and like 1200 horsepower. So to me, the hero car would have to be a car that has a third turbo.<\/p>\n

WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST ANIMAL RIDE IF IT WERE SCALED UP TO THE SIZE OF A HORSE?<\/h4>\n

A cat. I have three cats and I think if I had my cat \u2014 with its same personality \u2014 but the size of a horse, that would be awesome. It\u2019d probably mess my house up but it would be really cool.<\/p>\n

FLIP FLOPS WHILE DRIVING \u2014 YAY OR NAY? WHAT’S YOUR PREFERRED FOOTWEAR FOR DRIVING?<\/h4>\n

Well, first let me say as someone who lives in Venice Beach, I spend a lot of time in flip flops. That\u2019s pretty standard for me. When I get into a car while wearing flip flops, I take them off and drive barefoot. I think if you can drive with flip flops on effectively, good for you. And I have been in a car with racing driver Leh Keen, on a dirt road in North Carolina in his 911, and he was in flip flops and he drifted the hell out of that car, and I was super impressed. If you can do it, god bless\u2026 Barefoot is good, especially if you have big feet. I can drive better barefoot than with I can with any type of shoe on, including proper driving shoes. I just have better feel with nothing.<\/p>\n

WHAT DO YOU KEEP IN YOUR CAR AT ALL TIMES, JUST IN CASE?<\/h4>\n

I switch cars on almost a daily basis, because I\u2019m testing cars or whatever. So I keep nothing in my cars. Because I hop from car to car all the time, I have a little pouch that goes in whatever car I\u2019m in. That pouch has a phone charger, sunscreen, sunglasses, and a Valentine One radar detector. I have one hardwired into the Focus RS, sort of my daily driver right now, but I also have a portable Valentine One that comes with me for press cars. And one of those cellphone clips, because I use Waze a lot in LA. I\u2019ve developed this pouch over a long time, I\u2019ve gone through many iterations, and many times where I lost <\/span>sh*t<\/span> by leaving it in one car or the next\u2026 I\u2019m not trying to brag about how many cars I drive, it just happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

WHAT’S YOUR MARIO KART CHARACTER?<\/h4>\n

I haven\u2019t played Mario in a real long time. I feel like I was a Yoshi guy. The last Mario Kart I played was on the Nintendo 64, and I was diehard.<\/p>\n

WHO WOULD PLAY YOU IN A BIOPIC OF YOUR LIFE? WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED?<\/h4>\n

Seth Rogen would play me, obviously. Although I\u2019d want him to look like him; I wouldn\u2019t want him to shave his head\u00a0\u2014 I think he\u2019d look dumb with a bald head and goatee. And you can just call it The Smoking Tire, I\u2019d prefer that. I spent a lot of time thinking up The Smoking Tire.<\/p>\n

IF YOU HAD AN ICE CREAM TRUCK, WHAT SONG WOULD YOU PLAY FROM THE SPEAKER?<\/h4>\n

How about \u201cDamn it Feels Good to be a Gangsta\u201d by Geto Boys? I feel good when that plays; it\u2019s nice. When I bought my Aston Martin in 2003, when CD burners were a big deal, I made one mix CD, and track two on it is \u201cDamn it Feels Good to be a Gangsta\u201d. That CD has not left the disc one slot of that car in 13 years. So I hear that song a lot.<\/p>\n

LAST CAR YOU RENTED, ON TURO OR OTHERWISE?<\/h4>\n

I rent cars based on a very specific need and \u2018or similar\u2019 is a real problem. First I booked a Toyota 4Runner \u2018or similar\u2019, and got put in a Dodge Journey, which trust me, is not the same as a Toyota 4Runner. Then I booked a Chevy Tahoe, \u2018or similar\u2019, and guess where I was put? In a Dodge Journey. Which is also not the same as a Tahoe. So we had a lot of problems with that. And <\/span>I wrote an entire column<\/span><\/a> about my hatred of the \u2018or similar\u2019. And then I rented a Tesla Model X from Turo,\u00a0<\/span>and it was great except my rental was short… Besides that I enjoyed the experience very much. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Ask a Gearhead, a new monthly series where we meet enthusiasts and influencers in the automotive space. We\u2019ll be talking to journalists, personalities, and gearheads to bring you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[177],"class_list":["post-4984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gearheads","tag-ask-a-gearhead"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t