Performance Car Ownership with Gary
Performance Car Ownership with Gary
Why I FINALLY Started Kurtskis Garage (and What I've LEARNED Already)!
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🔥Ever wonder where all the money goes when you own a performance car? In this video, we dive into the real costs, including how one owner went through 10 car tires in a single year! We talk about repairs, personal finance and car buying, offering a practical car buying guide for enthusiasts.
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Kurtskis Garage https://www.youtube.com/@KurtskisGarage
📋 CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – INTRO
09:59 - THE ORIGIN STORY
27:44 - PERFORMANCE CAR OWNERSHIP REALITY – MISTAKES & MONEY
37:24 - STARTING THE CHANNEL
44:22 - MINDSET & REALITY CHECK
49:59 - FUTURE PLANS
53:48 - NEXT STEPS
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About: I create fast, honest, and practical car detailing and car ownership videos for real enthusiasts who drive performance cars. If you’re looking for clear, step-by-step guides on how to detail, maintain, and protect your car—without the fluff, hype, or clickbait—you’re in the right place.
And if I could drive one car for the rest of my life, Gary, I remember one year with that CLS, I went through ten tires.
SPEAKER_01You're with your history with performance cars. Where did the money go?
SPEAKER_00And I got roasted. It was roasting Kurt.
SPEAKER_01Welcome, Kurt. Welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_00Hey, thanks, Gary. Great to be here.
SPEAKER_01So you've been uh you've owned performance cars and you've been wrenching on performance cars for many, many years, but you've done something different lately, and that is you started your own performance car uh YouTube channel. And uh so in this series that uh you you're participating in, uh my goal is to um to track your your your progress uh over the next uh year or so of uh this YouTube channel, and this is going to be the first episode. We're gonna be talking about the the what works well, what doesn't work so well, the money side, and the whole bit. And uh are you game for this uh this process? You have my consent. All right, great. So most people who love cars um are uh they watch YouTube and you know they have for years, and I I I know you have, you've mentioned that to me before, I have for years, and that kind of thing. So, what made you make the move? What made you now decide to start uh a YouTube channel of your own, Kursky's Garage?
SPEAKER_00So there were a number of factors that came into play. I had started doing uh podcasts and then going into video podcast uh YouTube channel for my core business, my plastics business. And quite frankly, you were really the inspiration for doing that. The the videos you did for yeah, you were. And I thought, well, this makes a lot of sense. There's a lot of knowledge. I I've uh I've been in the plastics industry for 40 years. Let's try and capture it and build up a bit of a library of these things that I've learned over the decades. So I I was kind of going down this path from a business standpoint. I had the equipment, I was learning how to use it. What I wasn't happy with was the delivery style. I was still pretty, you know, sort of uh formal and stiff. And some of that had to do with the fact that as a child, and I don't think I've shared this with you, or maybe I have, I can't recall. Um, I was formally trained in, well, elocution lessons. I was on TV. I was not a child actor, uh, but I would be on TV doing monologues and poetry and all that. Very practiced, very polished, perfect stuff, but that creates a certain style of speaking, and that was the complete antithesis to what I wanted to do in the business videos. I wanted to loosen up. So it's like, well, how do I do that? I need more practice. Oh, wait a minute. I love cars, I have the equipment. And then the third variable was I really want to buy a project car this year. So I bought that 1990 Mercedes, and that that purchase really did not go over very well with someone I'm very close to. So I said, okay, I'm gonna do this as a YouTube channel. Uh, the initial goal being I'll fix it, I'll flip it, I'll get another one, and let's generate the money and see if I can uh get you, my my fiance, uh, you know, an SUV or whatever she. Well, I know what I want for her, and that may or may not happen, but um, you know, to work up and have a goal of doing that. So these factors came together. Uh, the the Kirksky thing was just simply a nickname I had as a teenager and into my 20s, thanks to uh um a couple of family members that put that on me. I thought, well, let's reuse that uh that name, pull it all together and have some fun with it. But that's really how it started.
SPEAKER_01Great. So, what's Kirksky's garage all about?
SPEAKER_00So it takes the focus of me just really working on this vintage Mercedes, this 1990 S class, and the the majority of it is going to be the things I do to fix that car. And at the same time, I'll find people who have interesting cars, we'll do mini reviews, uh, but it's not gonna be a review channel. It's just, oh, hey, here's a friend of mine that has something interesting. Let's talk about it, let's go for a ride, sort of capture the feeling and the fun and the community of that. Um, but really it's gonna be about fixing this old Mercedes and trying to do it with uh, you know, just a little bit of humor along the way and make it real.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, no, I uh I totally get it. So um who's this channel for? Like if you saw someone um sitting across from you that would be your the ideal person for your content, describe them.
SPEAKER_00So I think it would fall into two camps. Uh the first and and probably the most obvious would be the vintage Mercedes enthusiast, uh someone wanting to be in that community or is already in that community who just wants to find out information about that particular platform. And since it was in production for 11 years and they made almost a million of them, there's still a good population of them out there, and people are doing work on them. The second I would say would be the person who's on the fence about classic car ownership and they're trying to research, you know, the real deal. What's it really like to have something that's 35 plus, you know, I've got other cars too that are older. What's it really like? Is it something I want to commit to, or is it just sort of a pipe dream? So I think that would be the two the two broad classifications.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah, it makes perfect sense. So when someone clicks on uh Kersky's Garage for the first time, what do you want them to come away with? What do you want them to feel after they've watched one of your episodes, especially compared to like the big YouTube channels that are out there, car YouTube channels?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I think I would want someone to say, hey, this is a regular guy who is passionate about you know car X that he's working on. I think I could do that too. I I'll be careful, I'll learn, but I think I could do that too. That's what I'd really like to be is the takeaway.
SPEAKER_01Got it. So are there channels that influenced you? Like are there channels that uh that that you've kind of modeled yourself after? And maybe there's some other channels that you said that I'm not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00So the two I think that had the strongest influence, you know, one of the biggest ones, uh Tyler Hoover, Hoovy's Garage. Yeah, I I like his model of just finding these sort of tired cars that uh no one should really be buying, but he does. And you see his pain, but and he works with his mechanic, the car wizard. And you know, I've got my own car wizard here at Barrie that um helps me out with uh with all my my fleet, actually. I I kind of like the mechanics of working with this ensemble cast, you know, and he's got the car ninja for the BMW and the Rolls-Royce and whatnot, and it's just kind of a neat window into this process, and he's he's got the right personality, he's very entertaining about it. Uh, the other guy that I like, and I've I guess I've been watching his stuff for three years or so, is Monkey Wrench Mike. Uh, he's he's another American fellow. I would say he's about the same vintage I am, and he really grooves on these Mercedes from the late 60s to the early 90s. Uh and he shows that these are projects that are approachable, and if you just apply some logic and reason to it, you can work through the problems. And he just has this sort of great, you know, laid-back attitude. He doesn't let anything worry him. It's it's all okay, but he's just super down to earth and and a lot of fun to watch.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I can kind of see how those guys would influence you and uh in terms of what you're doing uh with your your channel. And uh so tell tell me, share, share, like what does it cost to start up a YouTube channel? What did it cost you to get going, other than buying your car?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, as I said, I I had the equipment uh for my business YouTube channel, and I started that with uh a road road uh the Procaster, Road Procaster 2. I think I paid $1,200 for that, a couple of mics, the arm booms, I already had the computer and and whatnot. Um, so the audio-only podcast, probably under $2,000, all said and done. When I made the transition from recording on my iPhone to going to the Nikon mirrorless and buying the lenses and and all of that wonderful stuff, you know, that maybe added another four to five thousand dollars on top of that. You know, so where are we at? Maybe $7,000 Canadian dollars. Yeah. Do you do you have to do that? No. Um, my approach, rightly or wrongly, has always been when I'm into something, in for a penny, in for a pound, we're doing this. Um, so I probably went a little too heavy on the tech, but I feel I bought um I bought pieces that would allow me to grow into them over time rather than buying something lower end and outgrowing it in maybe 12 to 18 months and effectively wasting that investment only to get what I really would have wanted in the first place. Got it, got it.
SPEAKER_01So what do you think you're in for altogether?
SPEAKER_00Seven, maybe eight.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. But again, that a lot of that wasn't necessary. It's just that you already had it for other purposes, and obviously you're just gonna repurpose it, which makes uh perfect sense. All right, let's shift gears. Oh, geez, I can't believe I said that. Uh anyway. Um yeah, it's all it's already been said, you know. So uh anyway, um, so let's talk about uh cars and performance cars uh specifically. What got you into performance car? What was what was what you would consider your first performance car? And uh why did you want that other than you know something more economical or something more serious or reasonable?
SPEAKER_00So um a couple of facets to that to that question as well. Um, my parents would tell me that I could name just about anything on the road by the time I was a toddler, like three or four. So there's something in here that was geared towards cards um in a very unusual or rational sense. It was just a part of my DNA almost. So I think I would have gone down the road of at least very interesting cars, um, regardless. But everyone that seemed to be in my immediate family and friend zone, uh, they were into, well, performance or high-end luxury cars. There was always something interesting in the driveway. Uh, you know, if it was visitors or again going to see family and whatever they were driving. I would say though, the first real performance car I had, uh, it was my third car. I bought a 1983 Toyota Supra, Mark II Supra, the GTS.
SPEAKER_01Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_00Well, it was not a particularly nice example of a very nice car. I mean, I was in university at the time, and I I think I paid $3,200 for it. Um, the color, it was terracotta, which was a beautiful color, and it was rust, uh, which is good because the car was rust as well, uh biodegradable car before it became really trendy. Um, but I love that vehicle. Um 2.8-liter double overhead cam in line six, five-speed, uh, good independent rear suspension. It handled much better than I think the sum of the parts might lead you to believe. I like the size of it. It was a two plus two, not quite in the grand touring mold that the Mark III Supro would be, but it was a really super enjoyable car to uh to drive. And, you know, commuting to university from home, I spent a lot of windshield time in that car, and I loved every minute of it. I really did.
SPEAKER_01So tell me, were you always mechanically inclined, or did the cars teach you to become mechanically inclined?
SPEAKER_00I think there was a feeding in. Uh as a kid, I I took apart way too many things and was completely unsuccessful at putting them back together. But I I had this crazy curiosity about how everything worked. I I remember again as a child getting this bizarre robotic clockwork giraffe made with see-through plastic, and I was just blown away by the clockwork mechanism that would make the legs move. And and of course I took it apart and broke it, but I learned how every single little bit worked. So there was this natural curiosity about uh about how things worked. So if you couple that natural curiosity with the natural curiosity for cars, it was inevitable. Um, my second car was a Hyundai Stellar. Uh, you might remember most people would.
SPEAKER_01I do remember that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. It it was the contemporary to the Hyundai pony, it was a slightly bigger sedan. It was designed by Giugetto Giorgiario, so fancy Italian styling.
SPEAKER_01Um it was an Audi clone, right? Very close. A lot of folks said it was it looked like an uh Audi uh 5000.
SPEAKER_00Well, I made mine look even more like an Audi 5000. Um, my dad at the time had just bought an 84 5000. That was the first, you know, the swoopy one with the 0.29 drag coefficient, and he had the European headlights put on, the composite, and I took the quad headlight assembly, cut it down, and made it fit on the stellar, and then I painted the whole thing white. It it remains the first and only car I've ever painted. I was coughing up white paint for a week. I was not painting, I don't think I'll paint another car, but um I had I had the inside of the car in pieces over my mom's yard, you know, vinyl dyeing the inside white. I was sort of doing the Gambella tuner looking before every OEM developed the the monochromatic treatment. So yeah, it was inevitable.
SPEAKER_01So tell me about a time, maybe it was that time, but maybe tell me about uh maybe another time where you got in way over your head in a project. I don't mean like it took longer than you thought, or you had to take the bus to work the next day or something like that. I mean a project where it was way over your head, and you thought to yourself, I don't know what's gonna happen now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I had one of those, and I don't think I ever told you about this one. Um probably in the mid to late, mid to late 1990s, maybe 96, 97, I bought a 1969 Mercury Marquee Brome convertible. And wow, yeah, it it more or less worked, like the convertible top worked, and I think most of the power accessories worked. Anyway, this family had owned it for I I don't think since new, but they had had it for maybe the last 30 years, 25 years, something like that. And I bought it for $1,500. It looked all right, it had a a reasonable respray in red. And um Gary, what what I did, I bought a parts car. And I learned that the hard way when I started disassembling it. And you know, it it had the Swiss cheese floor, and um, you know, those cars then certainly didn't have the value to tolerate a restoration, they still don't. Uh so I looked at it as $1,500 in automotive tuition paid, and that car, that car eventually went to a scrapyard.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes, yeah, I could see I can see that that happening. Yep, that's for sure. But it was a lot of fun. Yeah, I'm sure it was. Maybe not at the time, though. So tell me, what's in your garage right now, and how did each one of those get there? Like, what's the story behind how they ended up in your garage? Because you have several.
SPEAKER_00I have six cars, so the bug has bitten very hard. Um well, we may as well start with the garage queen. That was the the first collector car. Uh, I have a 1974 Pontiac Trans M. It is an all-original survivor car with 14,300 miles. It is red, it's red. It's red, buccaneer red with uh white and uh combination of different red inside, like dark red dash, bright red carpet. It's the real disco thing with the screaming chicken on the hood. Yeah, uh, it's still on the original 1974 Uteroil Tiger Paw Radials. So, needless to say, I don't really drive it, it's a museum piece. You just I just go and look at it, you know, for the most part. Uh, but I will be recommissioning it. That will be on the channel this year. So that car I inherited from uh my uncle, my mother's brother. He bought it brand new in August 1974. It still has the dealership tag riveted into the rear spoiler, Forbes Motors. I I don't think that dealership exists anymore in in Waterloo, but uh yeah, it's there. And um it's it's a lovely car, total total time capsule. Total time capsule. So that was that was number one collector. Number two collector, uh 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 Cabriolet. That's uh a G50 transmission equipped car. The 911 was really my adolescent dream car. And uh when when I had the ability, I I had an inheritance from my grandmother, and I said, Well, I'm gonna take a little bit of that and find the dream car. So this car I found in Barrie. I was out just running errands one day. I think I had to get some uh some supplies for the hot tub, drove by a Power Sport dealer, you'd know St. Auge Recreation, and this thing was out in the parking lot, so obviously it's like crane my neck over and see it. There was no license plate on it. It's like, hmm, that's interesting. So I I drove in. So, what's the deal with the 9-11? Someone had traded it in on one of these uh three-wheel tricycle power tricycle can em.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00So I said, Well, this is all very nice. I I think I'm gonna need to drive this car. I want to bring my my uh wife with me to to drive it. We drove it that night and I put a deposit on it. Nice, like just that's it. And you know, at the time I was considering a 930, and I had found one that was highly modified, but had all the original parts, and I could have bought that too. I'm kind of kicking myself a little bit for not buying the 930 from purely the financial gain. But this particular car without the issues at the turbo and turbo leg, it's such a fun car to drive on the back roads listening to the air-cooled, you know, flat six soundtrack with the top down. It's it's a great car for up here. So no complaints about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and what's that what else is lurking in there?
SPEAKER_00So, next, um, a 2006 Mercedes SL500. I bought that car three years ago from uh from my dad, who had it for 10, 12 years, something like that. So he bought it used, and he he did a great job looking after it. But um, that particular generation, for those of you who know the cars, they have a lot of complex systems in them. They have the active body control, which is really a completely hydraulic suspension. And between that, the retractable hardtop, the brake-by-wire system, which was also uh, well, that really debuted in the McLaren SLR, but it went to the SL and S-class sedans of that of that time period, and the battery charge module, which has been known to put these cars on fire. Uh, he just at one point said, No more, uh, bought a Lexus, and the dealership offered him five grand, and he said, You want it? I said, five grand. Yeah, yeah. So I paid wholesale for it. Uh over the years, I know I've done a bit of a rim upgrade, uh, front and rear spoiler additions, new headlights, redyed the seats. Uh, I've done my due diligence on the active body control system, replaced hydraulic accumulators, valve block. Yeah, I'd probably have 12 or 13 into it. But as far as I'm concerned, for what it is, uh, a two-seat luxury grand touring car, you can't beat it for value. It's an amazing car. Absolutely amazing. So next. Next. So we'll we'll do uh the other three company cars. Um I have a 2017 Mercedes CLS 550 formatic. Uh so for those who don't know, that's the swoopy four-door coupe that they they call it. Uh lovely car, 4.7 liter twin turbo V8. This one's 403 horsepower and 445 pounds of torque. The all-wheel drive.
SPEAKER_01Does that have the frameless windows? The frameless, yeah, yeah. So, like you say, it's like a four-door coupe, right?
SPEAKER_00Yep. Super comfortable, lovely car. Uh, I drove it as my daily driver for for company, and at 280,000 K on the clock, uh, I wasn't really comfortable with some of the sounds it was making, and I knew it was going to take a lot of work. And yes, I had to replace both airshocks. I did one up front. My mechanic did the other, but I've given the car to my fiance because she had a pretty rested out car, uh, rested all through the rockers and it just wasn't safe anymore. So I gave her that, and you know, she thankfully does not drive very much, so we could probably get another 12 to 18 months out of that while we wait. Uh, so I replaced that car with another 2017 Mercedes, but a much lower mileage, uh, the S550 formatic coupe, which is a very rare car. Uh it's it's basically a shortened S-class uh sedan platform, and it has the same 4.7 twin turbo V8 engine, but they changed the the boost on it and a few other things. So it's 449 horsepower, 516 pounds of torque. And that to me, it's the ultimate daily driver. I I'm alone in my car like 99% of the time. Yeah, I don't have kids, my fiance doesn't have kids. We're not hauling stuff. So to have this sort of luxury grand touring car as the car, it works. And yeah, if I could drive one car for the rest of my life, it would be that. I'd buy five or six of them, put them in a warehouse, and every decade pull out a new one. Like it's it's just so good. It's so good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's uh it's uh it's an amazing luxury performance car, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and I think in in my personal approach, that's sort of the space I like to be in. Luxury performance. Uh, and then the last one, the car I bought last year, a 1990 Mercedes. I got a thing for Mercedes, I guess. Um 300 SEL. So that's the S-class long wheelbase. That's the W126 platform, extraordinarily popular and loved worldwide. Uh, that's uh one of the cars that their chief designer Bruno Sacco was responsible for. Uh, so you know, the 123 he had input on, uh, the 124, 126, 140, R129, and input on the R230, which is you know the SL that I have. Uh, that guy had just such a sense of style. And he really came to Mercedes-Benz as an engineer in the safety department first, and then they just by chance put him in charge of this you know, body styling, whatever, just do it. And he he masterminded some of the greatest Mercedes of the modern era.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, no, no, I I get it. So, six cars. Um, if you could take one, just one for a drive tomorrow, because they're let's say they're all running perfectly, they're all set to go, you're good taking for an you're going for a nice drive tomorrow. Which one would you take?
SPEAKER_00Well, tomorrow I think the weather's gonna hold up, so I'm taking the SL tomorrow. And as long as as long as it's above 1415 Celsius, that top's going down.
SPEAKER_01So that's the one tomorrow. All right, all right. So let's talk about dream cars. What's what's what what would be your ultimate dream car and what would be your somewhat realistic dream car?
SPEAKER_00Well, I've got to say I'm fortunate enough to have the somewhat realistic dream car with the the S550 coupe. I did look at the AMG variant of it, and that would give me about another 1545-5 horsepower. Yeah. The insurance premiums on that, uh, I was looking at quotes of 6,000 a year to insure it.
SPEAKER_01My God.
SPEAKER_00And like the one I have, I pay $3,800 a year. It's an ouch, but it's tolerable. But still, I don't care if it's business money or not. I still have to earn the money to to run it. And it's six grand, and and really having a thoroughbred car that I would run all year, that it just didn't make sense. So this one strikes a happy medium for me of having everything I would want, and um, it's a beautiful car to my eye, anyway. So that's that's the realistic one for me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then the ultimate dream car?
SPEAKER_00Ah, I have to split this between pre-war and post-war. That's World War II for for you listeners out there who are too young. Um, if we talk post-war, um, the Mercedes 300 SL Goldwing, hands down. I I could not think of another car I would want to uh to be the caretaker of. Hands down. Now, if we go pre-war, uh I I've probably said enough about my taste in cars that it shouldn't be a surprise. I like land yachts. So if we're, you know, let's let's pretend I would have the money to actually afford to keep these things up, but uh a Dusenberg J or SJ, uh a V12 Packard, V12 or V16 Cadillac, I wouldn't care if they were fully enclosed, uh, or a dual cal Phanton or whatever the case. I I just love that era from about 1929 to about 34-35, uh, where you still had open fenders and um coach-built cars. You know, nothing was really off the rack. Um if you were talking European, I mean Bugatti is beautiful, but again, I kind of like cars of bigger proportion. So things like Isata Frascini, uh, Delahay, Bentley or Rolls-Royce, like a Phantom, probably a Phantom 2 Rolls-Royce, that type of thing. Um yeah, that that or of course a Mercedes-540K and whatever configuration. So that would be the pre-war dream car.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Okay, back to reality. Yeah. Okay. Now this is going to be brutal reality. So in terms of performance cars, in terms of your what's the biggest mistake you've made in terms of performance car ownership? I I don't mean necessarily financially, I just mean the biggest mistake you ever made, something that you would definitely love to rewind.
SPEAKER_00So, uh, because I buy the Mercedes as used cars, you get what you get, and you accept that going in. With the CLS, it had very low profile tires. Uh, I I believe they were 19s, and they really filled out the wheel well nice. I mean, they look sexy, but you know, you got tread life, maybe 20,000 kilometers. Oh boy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01For a daily driver.
SPEAKER_00For a daily driver. And like I was running Perelli P0s for the all season or for the performance. And then because I'm a little slow, I had Prelli P0 winter tires, which didn't do much better. And all of these performance cars have negative camber rear suspension, so the inside of the rear tires wears prematurely. Gary, I remember one year with that CLS, I went through 10 tires. Oh my, you're kidding. It was the worst run of luck. Um with these low profiles, and I assume it's with every car that is a low profile. If you take a bump, you know, a little too aggressively, the sidewall bulges out. The tire's shot. And I had that happen on more than one occasion. Uh, very annoying. So uh with the S-class coupe that I have, they're 19-inch rims, they're more reasonable sidewalls, better wear characteristics, they're high performance all seasons with about a 60,000 kilometer tread light. So the whole tire situation, that's something I would be very careful of going forward.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So we all know performance cars are expensive. We just talked a little bit about tires, uh, to uh, and this is a good segue. But in terms of in your with your history with performance cars, where did the money go? I I mean, I'm just not talking about the purchase price and things like that, but generally speaking, other than the tires, where does the money go?
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, you're not going to confuse this genre of car, loosely speaking, with say uh a Honda Civic or a Prius or anything else. Um, they are a little thirstier. But I look at driving not only from the standpoint of yes, I have to do this as part of my business, going out to meet clients and whatnot, driving is an enjoyable activity to me. So if I'm going to have a budget of leisure or fun money, even if it's within the confines of the business, I'm happy to spend it on driving. And yes, I know none of the cars I have have great mileage. So what? It's okay with me.
SPEAKER_01How many of the cars use uh premium?
SPEAKER_00Uh let's see, five out of the six are premium. The the transm actually gets a little angry if you put premium in, so that's mid-grade.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So let's go back. Back before you bought your first performance car. Um, what advice um or what do you wish you would have known before you bought that first performance car that would have you would have made wiser decisions, um, not just in terms of buying it, but in terms of owning it, uh, that whole experience?
SPEAKER_00Sure. Well, because I bought that, you know, the the Mark II Toyota Supra as my university daily driver, you don't really have the luxury of running two cars. But I ultimately did run two cars. Um, I bought my father's BMW 735 uh 1985, it had a quarter million K on it. I bought it and drove it for another four years, and I did all the work on it. And that allowed me some time with the Supra just to treat it as a fun car. So I guess my takeaway would be if you want if you want a performance or fun car, you're better off to wait a little bit until you can have the cheaper daily. Um, now, not that a aging BMW is a cheaper daily, especially a seven series. Yeah, I think it got 16 miles to the gallon, something like that. Man, and I did not drive it slow. Any rate, that's a whole other story. Um, I think the idea of having an the economical daily and maybe something a little bit more reasonable. Like when you and I uh met for lunch uh last week, we talked about a Miata. That's a great entry-level, reliable, uh, enthusiast car. I would say if you really want something to enjoy that you can run, that's a better choice than maybe a classic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, that's that's that's great uh common sense, that's for sure. So, what's the least glamorous part about uh performance car uh ownership hobby? Uh you know, the stuff that that uh content creators don't talk about, that most people don't talk about. You know, what's the least glamorous side of it?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, you know, a couple of things. If you're driving cars that sit a little bit lower, that's a real pain in the neck in Canadian winters. Uh you're you're gonna hit snow banks and you're gonna be prepared, you're gonna do some damage. I had to replace one little bit of uh chrome trim on my S coop. But it's you know, aside from that, you know, people are gonna think you're a little nuts, but okay, you you can always say, well, what do you do for fun? You know, you you surely have to have something that's irrational too. You're like, we're not robots, we're humans. We like we like different things. Um and this happens to be my thing. I think in terms of what I could be doing, I I'm I'm at home, I'm having fun, I I'm it's not exercise by any means, but I'm moving, I'm active, I'm engaged, and I think that's a positive. And I hope others, after watching what I do, kind of understand that.
SPEAKER_01So, what's a myth about performance car ownership that uh maybe you thought uh a myth that you believed, and then after you got into performance car ownership, you realized, yeah, that just wasn't true at all. It's just all in my mind.
SPEAKER_00So I was thinking about this. This is a challenging question. Uh and I think there's a there's an element of human nature here that we can tend to romanticize, whatever we like, whatever it is, and fall in love with the idea a little bit more than the actual activity or thing. And I would just, you know, for for people who are interested in getting into a collector car of any nature, really, really spend some time considering and walking through in your mind what this experience is going to be like. Talk to a lot of people, and you may come away with it saying, Well, I really just want to collect scale models, or I'm happy with going to car shows and participating in the community in that way. I may not actually want to take on the responsibility, and that's okay, perfectly valid answers, but really differentiate falling in love with the idea versus the actual.
SPEAKER_01I think that's got it, got it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So so can you share uh a failure that turned into a turning point for you? Something that at the time was just awful, but then in hindsight you realize that sort of shaped things to come, and uh, and because of that, things uh probably went better as a result.
SPEAKER_00Sure. So I'm still finding my way with these videos that I'm doing. And one of them that I did last October, I I think it turned into about a 50-minute episode of me trying to fix a myriad of small things on this 1990 Mercedes. And I put it together. I don't like editing very much. I threw it together, posted it. Yeah, don't do that. Um and I I had the the pleasure of watching it with three of my friends that I've known for well over 40 years each, yeah, and I got roasted. It was roasting Kurt. Like, what are you doing? You can't do it like this. No one wants to watch that. Like, yeah, this is painful. Okay, okay. So I I changed my approach. It's basically going to be one repair per episode.
SPEAKER_01I think that was actually good advice. I think that uh that truly was. So, what's an unpopular opinion you have about performance car ownership? Something that uh most uh people that have performance cars uh wouldn't necessarily uh believe well it you know it's uh it's interesting.
SPEAKER_00We talked a little bit about this too when we met last week. Um I I think you have to try to avoid a stereotype that you may have about an owner of a certain brand of car. I mean, ster stereotypes are there because there are some people that will fit into that mold. But by and large, car people are pretty decent people. We we tend to geek out over what we're excited about. And um most people are pretty open and willing to talk about their vehicle and their experiences. It's it's part of the community thing. So really don't buy into the fact that if you drive brand X, you must be this kind of person and brand Y that kind of person. I I'm yeah, I'm not sure that's really true.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, no, no, that that uh that makes uh perfect sense. So, what's genuinely harder about starting a YouTube channel um than you thought it was gonna be? Not just that it takes a lot of time, what what was just more difficult? Like you had a obviously had a picture of it, the whole thing, and then you went and did it. What did you find? Oh, I didn't realize it was going to be like that.
SPEAKER_00It's doing the work behind the camera and the editing. Uh, I wouldn't consider myself to be tech savvy. You know, I because of the nature of my work, I'm in front of a computer all the time. I'm on email and you know, looking things up and whatnot. The last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer editing videos. It's it's not fun for like for me. It's I I want to be out working on the cars and enjoying that part of it. So it's been a tremendous learning curve, learning the technology, um, everything from gimbal scary. I got that uh GoPro gimbal, I bought it this week, and that's another thing to learn. But it's gonna be a good tool. Uh so having the practice behind the camera and being efficient with editing, learning an editing package. That's that's for me, that was the hardest part and continues to be.
SPEAKER_01Got it. So, what's been your biggest win so far with the YouTube channel? Was it something that you expected or something that totally came out of the blue?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So I I still don't get a lot of views on these videos, but the ones that surprised me where I do tool reviews. Um, I'm I'm in the Milwaukee ecosystem, and I like getting these 3D printed inserts for tool storage. And the first video with over a thousand views, I think it 1.3 or 1.4, like 13, 1400 now, um, was a review of a pack-out 3D printed insert. Like, okay, well, I guess the interweb is spoken and that's what they want.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_00So that was a surprise.
SPEAKER_01Got it, got it. But have you had a time where YouTube genuinely disappointed you? Like you definitely thought, no, I I I thought it would be better than this.
SPEAKER_00The second episode that I did, again, sort of cobbled together because I was trying to find my way, and I I just didn't quite pull it together tight enough, had an abysmal amount of views. And you know, maybe it was justified because I was still very much in that learning phase. But after the opening episode, which which had an okay showing, uh 300 views or two, whatever it was, to go to that to almost nothing. But I did a couple of things with that. I think I changed the title, I changed the uh the thumbnail, and and it started getting views. So the takeaway there would be you really have to you gotta make it appealing if you're gonna do a thumbnail taken from the actual video. Pick a good one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, no, for sure, for sure. So there's a tension that every YouTuber goes through, and that is you start making videos and you make videos of what you like, and then after a period of time, you try a few different things, and all of a sudden you see there that some of the videos that are getting a lot more views and a lot more comments, etc., are ones that uh you really hadn't planned on going there. So it's kind of leading you in that direction. How do you feel about that tension between what making what you would like to make and making what you think is going to be more successful?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's interesting. Uh, you know, in terms of just straight YouTube videos, I think the uh like excluding shorts, the one I had the most success with was interviewing a fellow who had a tractor collection, a fellow I've known for many, many years. Uh one video on that, and one video going in as Model T Ford. Uh I was not expecting that. I like the interview process, but you know, here I am launching a car channel, and I get massive pulls from uh tractor talking about tractors. Okay, I'm not expecting that, but maybe it speaks partly to the level of content in automotive versus less content in tractors, and people are hungry for that content. I don't know. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's sometimes difficult to analyze, isn't it? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Sell to the algorithm. There you go.
SPEAKER_01That's right. So if you could send a message uh back to yourself 10 years ago, before you started the channel, um, you know, when you maybe had five cars instead of six cars, uh, whatever. Uh what message would you send to yourself uh that would would have helped you get to where you are right now?
SPEAKER_00Although it was a little bit more challenging at the time because I had different business commitments and other things in my personal life, um uh 10 years ago, I wish I would have paid more attention to the mechanics of YouTube and the technology. Uh it's inter I wish I would have done that and gotten more involved. And I actually did do videos in 20, 2017, 2018 for my business, just filming off of my iPhone. And it it was interesting, and they have views, and some of them still have views. It's it's kind of mind-boggling, but I wish I would have gone a little deeper with it. Um, I think I I felt like I ran out of things to say for business, and I wish I would have let the car bug kind of go at that point and jump into it because it would have been obviously much easier to start 10 years ago than to start you know last year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so you know, other people that are interested in uh the car hobby performance cars and things like that, is there a book or a channel or a resource uh that you wish um more people had access to to learn more about um performance cars and uh the whole car experience?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so again, another good question. I really had to think about that. I I I have a modest library of car books. Uh I do have um every issue of collectible automobile from April 1984 to about two or three years ago, I stopped buying it. They were a tremendous resource for you know classic cars and probably more in the direction that that I like. Um now, in terms of just general performance, I mean you can you can do an inter internet search for anything you want, and you'll find owners' clubs, forums, you know, things that 15, 20 years ago were were kind of underdeveloped and maybe a little sketchy. Um so I I can't really think of one single source, but we live in a world now where All the information that has ever been accumulated in human knowledge is a few key clicks away. So that's a good deal.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. No, no, for sure. And by the way, if our uh viewers are enjoying this podcast, I certainly encourage them to like this uh video podcast and subscribe for more great uh performance car ownership uh content. So, Kurt, do you think that most people that are drawn to performance car ownership really understand what they need to getting themselves into, or do they just have a picture in their head and they just want to fulfill that uh that dream that they have in their mind?
SPEAKER_00I would say unless they know people who already own that type of car or that genre of car, no, they don't know. I I think it's the idea that they've they've gotten excited about, but no, they don't know.
SPEAKER_01All right. So for you, is it worth it? Has it been worth it and uh during this part of the journey? And is this journey can continue on for you into the near future? Uh performance car ownership?
SPEAKER_00It has been worth it. Uh for me, a love of cars is as natural as breathing. Like I said, it's it's been with me since I was a little kid. That's not an accident, that's part of who I am. So if I didn't do it, there would be something very significant missing. So yes, it's it's worth it. It's worth it now, it was worth it then, and I don't see a sign of stopping. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So that leads us to the next question. So a number of your cars are fairly high mileage. And uh so when something goes wrong, and I mean something seriously goes wrong, what's stopping you from just saying, uh forget this, I'm out of here. Sell the bunch. I'm gonna go to one Camry.
SPEAKER_00I I'm sorry, I I think I hurt misheard.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I'm sure you did.
SPEAKER_00No, that will never happen. Um I I have a line in the sand, like with that uh CLS 550 that's approaching 300,000 K. If it required engine work, no, that's it. It's done. I I won't go further with it. Uh the SL500, if there was a major system failure in the hydraulic suspension or the topper, I I think I would stop with that car and probably part it out. Um the others, I mean the the 911 is only got a hundred thousand miles on it. Uh that's that's probably one-fifth of its life. I'd have an engine rebuild done and keep it going. The Trans M, what's gonna 14,000 miles? And you know, the other ones, uh the S coupe, it's a company car. When the lease is up, the lease is up. Or if I could buy it for cheap, I'll do that. But yeah. The CLS is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01So it sounds like it sounds like to me that you haven't fallen in love with every single one of these cars. You're just enjoying them while you have them, but you're you're you're sensible enough um that when you realize when the time has come to move on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would say that the true hobby cars, the trans M and the Porsche 911, those will be with me, barring you know, some serious personal financial crisis where I'd have to sell. No, they'll be with me. The others, they can they can come and go. And that's just a function of a modern car. They don't last. They just don't.
SPEAKER_01No, no, that's that's true. They're uh ultimately disposable, right? Yeah. So um, so when you're not working on your YouTube channel, when you're not working on your performance cars, when you're not running your business, um, what does a day look like for for you when you're you're having a day off? What are the interests and hobbies do you have?
SPEAKER_00Well, I uh I have a sailboat on Georgian Bay, actually very close to where you live. Um and I love sailing. I've been a sailor since the age of 12, so that's my other passion. Uh don't ask me to pick what I would pick if I could only do one activity. That would be very difficult. Uh but sailing, I do enjoy photography, uh, a little bit of hiking here and there, some travel. My fiance has got me excited about traveling the world, so you know there's going to be more of that in the future too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So in terms of the new technology, there's uh electric, hybrids, all kinds of new technology coming out. What new technology genuinely excites you about cars um uh going into the future? And and is there any aspect that thinks in terms of performance car the best is yet to come?
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, it's interesting with a performance car, I I think in terms of absolute pushing the envelope, it will only get better with time. Um but as we continue to push the envelope, and you know what Porsche does with her 9-11, you know, the Turbo S and GT3 and GT2 series or GT4 adding more and more electronics to push that envelope, uh I don't know, it it sort of takes a little bit away. There's a trade-off between interfacing with a machine and having a computer do things for you. So um is the best yet to come in absolute numbers? Yes. Is it going to be the absolute best in terms of interacting with a mechanical device? I think that time's past. We're in we're into different stuff now.
SPEAKER_01Okay, fair enough. So if you had unlimited sources, sorry, if you had unlimited resources, unlimited time, and unlimited money, what project would you ideally like to take on performance car-wise? Restoring a 300 SL Gullwing?
SPEAKER_00That is not for the faint of heart. That one's best left to the professionals, either Mercedes Classic or some of the independents like HK Engineering or or wherever. I'll tell you my favorite Porsche of all time, it's completely analog, and that's the 934. Uh, I love that car. Up to 500 horsepower in a car that weighs about 2,400 pounds, old school turbo that pretty much wants to kill you. Um, sounds like a good time. I uh you know that would be one I would take on.
SPEAKER_01Okay, got it. Where do you want your garage to be in the next 12 months? We know where it is today. Where do you want it to be 12 months from now?
SPEAKER_00So physically in a different house with more space. That should be coming.
SPEAKER_01There's there's that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, I I went from a triple garage to a double. I want to go back to at least a triple, if not more. Uh so physically that's where it would go. In terms of the channel, I do want to increase the quality of production a little bit more refined, more road tripping, just generally get more comfortable with the the the gear, like the the electronic gear, the camera gear, and deliver a better experience for those who are watching.
SPEAKER_01That's the goal there. Sounds good. What's your next uh big car move? Either selling or buying?
SPEAKER_00Well, I still have to work out a few more Mercedes uh you know bugs. Um the the SLs I really like. Um the R129, so the one that came before mine, um, the V12 SL600 would be high on my list. Uh, the one generation before that, the R107, that everyone understands. If you say, hey, I've got an SL, they'll probably think of that. That's the Bobby Ewing car. I mean, it's been in so many TV and movie shows, but that is probably one of the last traditional Mercedes cars. Um, and I would love to do on a sort of a resto mod. Um, the engine, you got 5.6 liters of displacement, it'll do more than 230 horsepower. You know, you can have some fun with that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, no, uh, for sure. So, in terms of the YouTube channel, what does success look like for you? Like, is it a certain number of um subscribers, a certain number of views, is a certain number of videos, um, or is it just a certain satisfaction of the quality of the video? Like, what's success?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think first and foremost, I want the satisfaction of putting out content that's really good, that looks good, that flows, the editing's good, and I've got a long way to go on that. But first and foremost, make me happy. Um in terms of monetizing it, I really don't understand where you it picks up where you have to have so many subscribers, and then you get I don't understand that. So I I guess I would say I would like it to pay for some of the hobby. That's that's that's good.
SPEAKER_01Okay, no, and uh that makes perfect sense. So, in terms of feedback you've gotten from viewers, I mean, other than your three or four buddies sitting around uh roasting uh Kurt on his second video, but what kind of feedback have you received from viewers that have helped you shape your channel?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so generally positive, uh on everything from the Milwaukee packet reviews to uh you know video I shot at the um uh the Concours and Owen Sound last uh last, I guess, when was that? Last August or September? September. Uh I had one viewer actually properly call out that I didn't describe a certain repair. He was on adjusting the throttle linkage on the at the W 126. And he said, Hey, I came here because I wanted to see this, and you kind of glossed over it. And I just said, Thanks for the feedback. Give me a day or two. And I put up a short with you know some extra work on that. So that's good. It's a lesson, you know, show the details.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think too, your buddies, um, although they you know they did a bit of a roast, and I get it, but I think one thing you came away from that, and you mentioned uh earlier uh during this uh video podcast that you want to now concentrate on one thing per video and maybe go into more depth as a result of that other feedback you received on that one thing. Um and uh and I think uh yeah, uh, you know, I I certainly uh I certainly get that. All right, Kurt. I appreciate you sharing uh all this uh great information with us and being honest about uh where you are with your uh YouTube channel. And like I say, this is a series. So we're uh planning to uh uh meet again with you in a couple months. Does that sound about right?
SPEAKER_00Sounds right to me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and uh, but in the meantime, we've got something else in the works. So I've been uh doing a series of uh performance car honest owner reviews, and I'm doing an honest owner review with you on your uh Porsche Cabrio, and uh which I'm hoping we're gonna do within the next uh three to four weeks. And uh that's something that I'm definitely looking forward to. And I'm gonna encourage all of our viewers to check out your channel, Kurzkey's Garage. I'll put a link in the description down below so you can check that out. And I'm also gonna encourage you to uh check out uh some of my uh I'll put a link to a playlist of my honest owner reviews that I've done so far with other owners uh that uh people can check out. And I also hope that uh our uh viewers uh check back uh um over the next uh few months and uh hopefully over the next few years to uh check on uh Kurt's Kurt's progress uh with his channel and uh and we'll wish him the best of luck.
SPEAKER_00So thank you, Kurt. Thank you, Gary. Thank you. A lot of fun. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it certainly was, and we'll talk soon.