It's podcast time, and we have some old friends as guests this week. Steve Ewing shares his experience with the Porsche 911 Dakar. John Neff describes the last several months of his life traveling the country in a Ford F-150 Hybrid towing a camping trailer. Plus, we check out the Land Rover Range Rover Velar and Mazda CX-90 debuts. If you want to watch, check out the video above or audio below. All of the past episodes are on our YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Deezer, and more. We take emails at podcast@motor1.com.
We kick off the show with a brief look at the debuts. The Mazda CX-90 brings the brand's long-awaited inline-six engine to the United States. But, is it too little too late? The company puts an "inline-six" badge on the flank, but we aren't sure who that is appealing to.
We then turn our attention to the Land Rover Range Rover Velar. The refreshed model looks similar on the outside but gets a big upgrade in interior tech. Neff loves when automakers create an attractive vehicle and then improve the other systems to keep up with the times.
Our guests' experiences are the meat of this week's show. Ewing describes Dakar as a vehicle that feels like the folks at Porsche having fun. It's loud and can slide around. Plus, despite sitting higher than normal, the suspension is still surprisingly firm. We get into a discussion about whether this might actually be the ideal 911 for daily driving.
Gallery: 2023 Porsche 911 Dakar: First Drive
Neff is loving the van life, but it's not all smooth sailing. At one point, he says he feels like he needs to keep moving because when he stops for too long there's trouble. He's had packrats eat the F-150 Hybrid's wiring, two break-ins while the trailer was in storage, and sheared-off bolts on the truck.
Neff isn't giving up, though. He's planning to drive the rig through Canada and visit Alaska.
Rambling About Cars Preview:
There's big news on the horizon for Rambling About Cars. We are going to start doing the show live, rather than recording on Wednesday and posting on Friday. You'll find us at 7:30 PM Eastern on Wednesday. We have a date in mind to make this change, but we can make that announcement quite yet. Stay tuned!
