The Grey NATO – 165 – Rock Crawlin' In The Iron Range¶
Published on Thu, 14 Oct 2021 06:00:47 -0400
Synopsis¶
In episode 165 of The Grey NATO podcast, hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacey reconnect after a brief hiatus during which they pre-recorded several episodes. James discusses his recent vacation to Squamish, BC, where he visited his brother and watched the popular Netflix series "Squid Game," which he highly recommends despite its violent content. Jason shares his viewing of "Drive to Survive" season three and his attendance at the new James Bond film "No Time to Die," which he ranks in his top five Bond films and praises for its cinematography and bold narrative choices.
The main topic focuses on Jason's experience attending a two-day off-road driving course with Iron Range Off-Road in Northern Minnesota. Driving his 1993 Land Rover Defender with a manual transmission, Jason and his wife Ghashani tackled challenging terrain including steep hill climbs, rock crawling, and narrow trails alongside ravines. Despite the Defender lacking front and rear locking differentials (only having a center diff-lock), the vehicle proved highly capable throughout the weekend. Jason emphasizes the educational value of such courses for anyone interested in overlanding or off-road driving, noting how instructors Mark and Jim provided expert guidance and spotting throughout various technical obstacles. The episode concludes with final notes including JE Brickworks' custom LEGO car kits and a documentary about shark diver Ron Elliott at the Farallon Islands.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Grey NATO, a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode one sixty-five, and we thank you for listening. James, boy, it's been a while. We've been uh both been different places uh gone and offline and all that for a couple of weeks. We'd pre-recorded those few episodes, which which people probably hopefully enjoyed. But now we're |
| James Stacey | quote unquote live again together. Yeah, we had planned out all of these episodes so that I would have this uh so that I would have this sort of week-long vacation, like a ch a chance to essentially but because of the timing of the vacation, it was kind of like two episodes. Yeah. Um, and then we had the the Corey Richards offer from Vashron, which is very sweet and we're super thankful, but that meant a third episode. So I ended up making four episodes in a week, which is a lift, especially with you know other work and everything. Uh but I hope that everybody dug it. Uh it was really nice to have kind of some time to not really do that much. You know, flew out to BC to visit my brother. He lives in Squamish. Uh we just kind of laid low, walked in the mountains, watched some TV. It was a it was a good vacation. Um a squid game came out while I was in there. Jason, I don't know if you got on the squid game train or not. You gotta tell me about that. I mean I well I guess I'm probably one of four people that don't know what it's about, but uh I keep seeing hints about it. Yeah I'm sure like uh I guess I guess we can I guess we can t chat about it because if you haven't seen it, I figured that It's a uh Korean I think it's an eight part or seven part uh T V show drama yeah in which um people who are in like huge amounts of debt are contacted to take part in a game. Oh a little over four hundred and fifty people are brought to a an island and uh and they they have to survive six games and the games exist in in a manner where if you fail to do this task and they're all based on like childhood playground games from Korea. Yeah. And if you fail any of the tasks, you die. Or you're killed. Jeez. And each person has a dollar value, like everybody has an equal dollar value for playing. Yeah. And when they die, their amount is given to the big pot, essentially. Oh. And and it's uh it's uh yeah, it's a really fantastic sort of i in the same vein as if you ever saw Battle Royale, uh, which was a pretty fantastic, but this has more of a point, more of a structure. And I I'm I was really impressed by it, but obviously everybody was. I think at one point it was like the top Netflix show in ninety countries or something like that. So wow. Uh if you haven't seen Squid Game, I highly recommend it as long as you're not averse to violence and and uh you know a, pretty sort of depressing consideration of life. Yeah. Not not through the whole film, through the whole series, but through definitely parts of it are pretty sad and and kind of difficult to manage. But I mean, for me, I it felt like uh it's same sort of buzz I got from watching you know Parasite. It's not as good as Parasite by any stretch, but it is really good. It's well acted, it's well written. The uh the art direction and the cinematography feels very kind of strange and in inter andesting, especially the parts that are within the gameplay. Yeah. And then the the character study, it takes me back to sort of my my sociological years in university, uh, you know, looking into you know the the prison studies and the the guard versus prison mentality and and all that kind of stuff. And I I really enjoyed it. Right. You know, I I think it was a little bit too much for some of the people in our party. Found it a little too intense, wanted something a little lighter. Yeah. Yeah. Uh but I I ate it up and and really enjoyed it. Watched uh w finished it once I once I got home, just the day I got home. And uh yeah, it's uh it it was good. It was nice to have something kind of exciting to watch. It it I feel like the last time we all did this was uh Tiger King and uh I'll say this has a lot more merit than Tiger King. I think that's kind of where I would leave it. |
| Jason Heaton | I I I'm not sure I'll check that I it sounds intriguing. Uh I'd have think I'd have to be under the right frame of mind to uh to watch it. You know, speaking of um kind of death defying Netflix uh backstabbing competitiveness, I I launched into the third season of of Drive to Survive last night, the Formula One series. I I we talked at length about it earlier, but Gashani was um working late uh doing some uh for uh day job stuff, so I had some time to kill and I was like, I had never started the third season. I was I binged the first two while I was convalescing after my And so I started the third season, which which is all about the the twenty twenty Formula One season, which you know, racing aside, it was so kind of weird to see, you know, the first couple of episodes were at the very beginning of the coronavirus uh pandemic and kind of how they were all coming to terms with that and it was uh kind of made my skin crawl to like see the those early days and kinda gave me this weird sense of dread remembering how you know we were all kind of wrapping our heads around you know how to deal with |
| James Stacey | it. But uh I thought about this a couple times, just a little off topic from Drive to Survive. I haven't seen the third season yet. Um but I thought about this a couple times. Like back when we had to cancel our get together, which would have been March eighteenth, yeah. Um in New York City of uh twenty twenty. Right. Uh I I remember having conversations and I'm just thankful that it wasn't a point where we were recording an episode. Yeah. Whereas like this is just a flu, like people are really over like overreacting to this. It doesn't this seems like not something we should be canceling hangouts because of. People should just like, you know, be careful or wash their hands and m I I mean look, you couldn't have been more wrong than I was. Goodness sakes. Yeah. So yeah, lucky I didn't you know record that in the moment. I can eat crow looking back on it, but it would have been tough to have had that as your yeah. Kind of p public statement. Uh I would have been backpedaling for the last eighteen months. But it's it's been an interesting time and it is strange to watch anything that's been made through this. The documentary stuff is weird, but then a group of people that I really like made a movie for Netflix that I actually don't like. Did you see the guilt the ads for the guilty |
| Jason Heaton | ? Um yes, I have and and I I guess it uh someone told me to watch the uh the Danish original as well. I haven't seen either. Did you wat |
| James Stacey | ch it? Oh, I I did watch it. I didn't realize that it was a remake. Yeah. Um, but it's uh you know, it's Antoine Foucault who's who's known for I mean End of Watch with Jake Jillen Hall and uh you know, his work with um Denzel Washington. Yeah, right, right. Yeah. And the screenplay is by Nick Pizzolato, um, who's the guy that did the first season of True Detective, which I think is probably the best TV ever made. Yeah. Everybody has their own opinion, but that's absolutely mine. That's the finest bit of TV I've ever watched. Yeah. So I I was really excited. I'm a huge Jake Jill and Hall fan. Uh certainly and he's also a producer. Ethan Hawk is in it. It's uh and then uh it was very clearly, you know, filmed during COVID and it's sort of um it's sort of a bottle style film almost like if you remember phone booth. Yeah. It has a similar but it it lacks some of the same tension or theater of of phone booth. And I in the end I just don't think it worked out that well. Um I I watched it and it didn't really I feel like it didn't engage that well. And and it could be some of it was just, you know, Jalen Hall acting to a set of big monitors. Oh yeah. Uh to the to the to the most part. And it you know, probably a really hard movie to make because of COVID. Yeah. Yeah. Um but so that was one that uh there's an example from and that was also a a Netflix one um that I I just thought didn't didn't work that well. What how did you how far did you get into season three of Drive to Survive? Gosh, |
| Jason Heaton | I think you know they're they're pretty short episodes, I realize they're less than forty minutes, most of them. And I think I got through four or five of them. Um definitely it's it's equally good. The the first episode's a little strange, you know they canceled the Melbourne Formula One at the beginning of COVID and then and then it kind of picks up from there once you get into the the intrigue of drivers switching teams and all of that kind of stuff it's a little soap opera-ish. I mean, if somebody commented on uh when we were talking about it on the previous episode, someone commented on our substack that, you know, don't don't take it at face value. He said it's probably a lot of uh kind of theater for or you know, edit and creative editing from Netflix to kind of make it more interesting. And I you know, I get that. Uh I think sports in general, you know, high-paying sports uh do bring out uh a lot of uh truths about uh people's personalities and and that sort of thing. So um yeah it's it's a lot of fun. And uh I'm sure you know from the casual observations about the current Formula One season, I'm sure next year's uh drive to survive will be equally good because it's it's shaping up to be a pretty pretty interesting season with the back and forth uh at the top of the rank |
| James Stacey | ings. So yeah. Yeah, it it is looking like a pretty interesting season season this year. I've I've been enjoying kind of following along. Uh I haven't been watching the races in their entirety, but it has been uh a more kind of dynamic season than I think we've had for the last couple years. |
| Jason Heaton | And I noticed you uh speaking this this is turning into like a mini uh film and TV episode here, but I noticed uh in the notes here that you watched Sorcerer. I did, yeah |
| James Stacey | . I I I bought a copy of Sorcerer and watched it and uh really well like Tim could not have been more right. Uh that's episode 161. My brother Tim came on for our film club and recommended uh this movie Sorcerer that I had tried to watch in the past and it didn't work out. And then uh I got a proper a real copy with proper subtitles and it's just fantastic. It's just an absolutely amazing movie. So, so good. Oh, that's that's amazing. Yeah, I gotta check that out. You know, d taking it a step further, you also saw a movie that we've been pretty excited about. I haven't seen No Time to Die, but you have. We haven't really talked about how to cover the new Bond movie. Uh may maybe let us know in the comments. Yeah. If you want a bond episode, if you want one with a bunch of spoilers, maybe that would have to be like a surprise episode or an extra episode so that people who haven't seen it could save it for later. But let us know in the comments on Substack. We would like we'd be happy to do something like this and even try and see if we could reach out to people from the film or maybe through Omega and and see if we could have on somebody to talk about it. But we'd I'd be interested to see how much people want us to talk about a brand new movie. Um so let us know in the comments if you'd be keen on that and we can um we can probably look into it. But uh Jason in a spoiler, I guess in a spoiler free manner, because I probably won't get to see this for a few more days anyways, by the time this comes out it,'ll be Thursday. I might be able to see it Sunday. It's been like insanely busy, and uh and and I just I haven't really been leaving the house. I'd just been working and trying to catch up on sleep and that kind of stuff. So uh where where'd you stand on on Bond? Boy, it's it's I would say it's in my top five |
| Jason Heaton | um Bond film, uh Bond films. I I think uh you know it it's hard from in my mind to beat Casino Royale. I I actually as I look back and I did this recently, started thinking about which was my favorite overall. And I so often kind of just sort of my pat answer is always, oh, the Connery films, you know, Thunderball, Dr. No, whatever. But I don't know. Casino Royale was pretty much almost a perfect Bond film. Um and I I was always let down by, you know, Spectre, Quantum of Solace, uh Skyfall. They all had their their high notes uh in terms of cinematography, music, theme songs, uh certain scenes and whatever, but this this really has a a real standalone like proper film with with good Bond elements that will make, you know, diehard Bond fans happy. Um, and then there are some seriously interesting developments and and uh twists that that will shock people, I think, in the movie. And I think that's that's good. I'm you know, hats off to them for taking some chances and you know, Fukunaga, you know, we talked about true detective earlier and and he's he's a great di uh director and uh I've read interviews with him and with others about the movie and and you know how his his kind of obsession with filming at sunset uh caused some some uh hurried moments and and kind of uh complications on set when they were making the movie, but boy, it really comes out in the end. It's uh it's a tremendous film. And I I need to see it a second time. I need to, you know, I think with any of the new Bond films. I there's so much anticipation and and there's just so many little nuggets to kind of capture that I need to see it a second time before I can really properly weigh in. But uh yeah, in a nutshell, uh I loved it and uh yeah I can't wait for you to see it and and then we can compare not |
| James Stacey | es. Yeah, I think I'll I think I will make an exception to my you know, I don't really go to the theaters uh even even before the pandemic. I I really didn't care for the theater unless it was a movie I was really crazy about, like uh Blade Runner is the example I've used in the past. I saw that a couple times, like midnight showings where there'd be three other people in the theater. Yeah. I'll probably do something similar for for this. Find a nice late showing and and check it out. Um that'd be nice. Maybe maybe that maybe I can make that happen Sunday so that we can chat about it in some depth on the next episode or or we'll see what people say in the comments if they want more yeah. More James Bond talk. But I mean if it's even in loosely the same category as Casino Royale. Yeah. Then I I'm already I'm even all the more excited for it. You know, I think Casino Royale is one of the most complete Bond movies. Like if you only saw one, that's a great one. Yeah. Yeah. You could you could watch Casino Royale and then go like all right, I mean m some of the content wasn't really for me. Maybe I'm not a Bond person, but I'm glad I picked that one. Yeah. It has a complete story. It has an arc. They have characters that develop. And it has all the great action and the rest of it. Me, it Skyfall will always be so high on my lift list because of how it looks. Yeah. Yeah. Um, there's moments of that movie that seem kind of anemic, like they don't really they if it feels like they they there wasn't a lot of development throughout the film necessarily. And it could be because you have in Skyfall, and then this is a spoiler if you haven't seen Skyfall yet, but the the proposed Bond woman really dies quite quickly in the film. Yeah. And it leaves this sort of vacuum in the second act that that kind of you know Judy Dench fills in towards the end but in some ways um casino royale is more of a thriller and a bond movie mm-hmm uh with the with the you know the the gambling and the the you know opening sequence in the bazaar in in Madagascar I think and all this and then with Skyfall it's more of a straight down the middle action film mm-hmm you know it's it's two guys kind of that came from the same world kind of deciding who's the strongest. Yeah. And uh it's a different energy for sure. Um I you know, there's just something about Deacon and and Mendez working together on uh on something like Skyfall is is uh pretty special. So yeah, and you know, um before we kind |
| Jason Heaton | of move into uh risk check and and the main topic today, I I do want to give a quick shout out. You know, we since we had a couple of weeks uh of not recording this, I I was invited to to be a guest on the Spirit of Time podcast with uh Matt and Greg. And boy, they they turned that around in a hurry. They were that was up the next day after we recorded. And uh it was uh it was a lot of fun. So uh you know Matt and Greg, thanks for having me on. It was a it was a good chat. You know, as the name of the podcast suggests, uh, you know, it's it's a pretty heavy um kind of in watch content, um, but that's what you go there for. And and we talked about a lot about uh uh Greg was wearing kind of a stealthy bond watch that he didn't watch and and then we uh we talked about uh everything from Frank Miller to Braymont to everything in between. So it was uh it was a lot of fun. So I appreciate uh your having me on guys and uh and check them out. Spirit of Times on uh I think it's on Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud and whatever. We'll put a link in the show notes to that one. Ye |
| James Stacey | ah, very cool. Glad to uh glad to hear you made it on there. I'll I can check that out. I don't I d wasn't aware of this show, but uh ye Oh and lastly, I would just shout out to anyone who's in Vancouver because I was there uh last week as I mentioned. Uh I was able to swing by the Rolldorf location in Gastown. Absolutely worth your time. Got to see some Seiko's. I haven't seen in person ever. He's got a really good stock of like sporty Seiko's, the ones that people actually want. Yeah. Nice to see some Braymont stuff that Anne Ordain stuff, uh I was sadly I was probably a day or two too early to see their latest drop of Anne Ordain stuff but apparently it was almost all entirely pre-sold. Yeah. Uh that been a very popular brand for them. So that's pretty exciting. But the store's killer. It's in a really nice really like interesting and good part of town. There's some great food and sightseeing to do around there. So just a heads up for anyone who who maybe makes a Vancouver a travel destination in the next little while, swing by Rolldorf and uh and be sure to say hi. The the new store is absolutely gor |
| Jason Heaton | geous. Yeah. I I mean you know, I I saw your photos and and of course I've met Jason at at Hodinky Ten event and and know him you know well through your associations when you lived in Vancouver and um you know Jason's an interesting guy anyway, he's a he's a Brit with a defender and uh he's a very accomplished technical diver and a watchmaker. And um and then the brands that that Roldorf carries. Uh you know, I'd I'd love to have a shop like that in town. I mean, they don't they carry gnomos and and Bremont Gnomos Zinn Laco it's like |
| James Stacey | a legitimate reason to cross the border and like make an actual pilgrimage. Um yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And they do a lot of the assembly for Halios. So cool. Uh, you know, when they when they need help with uh putting the watches together. So yeah, it's a great shop with a really killer lineup. Uh they carry a lot of good brands and nice people and it's a nice part of town. You can sit and like enjoy some space there and then there's like five or six amazing places to get lunch right nearby. Wow. So cool. So yeah. Uh just another one of the many treats that are uh that await anyone who heads out to uh the perfect city of Vancouver. |
| Jason Heaton | Uh how about some wrist check? I uh I'm still wearing my Seamaster, uh the the white dialed C Master Pro. I mean it's uh I've I've changed it a few times uh for a day or two here and there in the past couple of weeks, but uh it remains uh firmly on my wrist and I've been having fun with with strap changes. Uh you know, today I've got it on on the Artem uh sailcloth with the the gray stitch and uh the fold over clasp. So, you know, uh Artem was kind enough to I I had bought an Artem sail cloth strap a while back and then um they reached out and and asked if if you'd be interested in checking one out and and if I'd like to try out one of their foldover clasps. And so they were kind enough to send us each uh some samples and I moved the Omega onto one with the foldover clasp. And you know not just saying this because uh because they they gave us these samples, but uh these are just tremendously good straps. I I the my only quibble would be I really want other colors. Yeah. But you know, what do you think? I mean I think I I think they're they look good on so many watches |
| James Stacey | . Yeah, I it's a largely similar story with me. I'm wearing my Braymont S302. I've only taken it off to take some photos of the Vostok, which I I'm the review will be live the day before this goes up. So if you want to read about the uh Vostok amphibian. It's uh I had said on a previous episode it was a 42959. It's a 42380. It just took me a little while to figure it out. I did buy a 42959, but as these things go, uh what I received was a 423.80, which is a scuba-dooed version of a very similar overall thing. Anyways, that's not that important as I'm wearing my Braymon Esther 2. I'm I've had it on every day, all day. It was the only thing I wore through vacation. So since I got it, it's you know, it's pushing up on about two weeks now uh that I've had it on. I absolutely adore it. And I came home from uh from traveling and I had this package from Artem and and to be honest, like I don't wear black straps almost ever. Yeah. I have a couple black rubber straps, like a black tropic, I don't mind. I have a nice like um Hirsch pure in black, which I like as well. Uh and I got this and and sail cloth for me it it's all a question of how how easily it it eventually molds to your wrist. Yeah. 'Cause you have to deal with that span of time where the the durability of the strap makes it kind of rigid. Yeah. Yeah. And and it's not always comfortable. Sometimes I have a bony wrist and sometimes it kind of pinches the flanks, the outer edge. Yeah. You know, with this one, it took uh maybe a half hour to settle in a little bit on my wrist. And now after say four or five days, yeah, I find it quite comfortable. I really like this um fully spring loaded sort of uh double butterfly foldover that they've got on it. It's like very secure and strong and has a clip in it. Yeah. Uh but is easy to take on and off. This is a black twenty millimeter with the gray stitches. Mm-hmm. Um similar to what you had um you had mentioned you you've got on there. And yeah, uh like you, I think the only thing I would change is I'd love to see it in gray, obviously.. Yeah Like I think it would just be uh if they only do one other color I'd love to see a gray one. And and you know m maybe that's something that we could uh who knows, maybe we could kind of make something with them in the future, as we're we know our way around a gray strap here there. Um uh but otherwise, I mean, uh color aside, and that's so personal, most people adore black straps. So this isn't like a normal opinion that's worth carrying on. Yeah. I really like the strap. It's really well made. I would say it's very close to any other like OEM sail cloth I've ever come across. Yeah. And of course what it might lack over a seven or eight hundred dollar option from who knows, uh IWC or Omega, I guess. Yeah. Uh this is 85 bucks with a buckle. Yep. I'm really impressed by it. They make a l they make a nice thing. It looks really good on the watch. It's definitely comfortable. I could see it being a really good summer strap because of course you can get it wet. You can yeah, you can really kind of uh you know get it sweaty and all that kind of stuff. So uh I would say for the for the money they seem to have made a good strap. So it can be hard to find what feels like a high end strap for under a hundred dollars. Yeah. Uh and I I think they've done a nice job with it. So I would say uh kudos to Artem on the uh sailcloth strap uh and yeah let reach out if you if you want to talk about other colors. Not that they need our help but a gray |
| Jason Heaton | one would be red. You know I had initially bought one for for my Blanc Pon because uh the it actually comes on a sail cloth but it was always too short for me and I you know I tried to punch a new hole and that didn't go all that well and whatever and so when I looked into it, somebody had written in one of our listeners and said, oh, you should try Artem. So, you know, thanks uh thanks to uh our listener who who suggested Artem uh way back when, but um that kind of turned me onto them. But I I have to wonder, you know, uh sometimes like a a strap like this will sort of fade out or discolor a little bit. Maybe that'll happen if we wear them enough. Maybe it'll kind of bleach out a little bit from salt, sweat, sun, water, etc. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. Look good. But yeah, solid straps. Uh I love the Omega. I love seeing the pictures of it. And I I'm just obsessed with this S302. I simply adore it. Yeah. Such a nice watch. I love that it's a a like a a chunky enough, like tough dive watch that I can sleep with. Oh, yeah. Like I could just have it on my wrist. I don't have to take it off. Yeah. It's good on a NATO. It's it's incredible on a on like a light leather strap. Yeah. And I'm just kind of getting used to the the sail cloth, which is kind of a different th |
| Jason Heaton | ing altogether. One day I'll rant about um people complaining about divers on leather straps, but I'll I'll with |
| James Stacey | hold that for now. But that is one diver that doesn't matter. I don't I don't either. I I don't get it. But uh that that is one that looks tremendous on leather. If you're about to go diving, yeah. I agree. Right. But like it's real easy to change watch straps. Yeah. Yeah. I c I can put it on something else before I go diving, don't worry. Yeah. I don't just suddenly find myself scuba diving. Like if I if I plan to go out for a coffee with somebody, I don't usually end up also just underwater. Yeah, right. Right. So I think it'll be okay. Like if the cons if the consideration is like it's it's like you shouldn't put street tires on a on an SUV. Yeah. Yeah. I thought right I I drive it on the street. Yeah. Yeah. I'll put winter tires on it when winter gets here. Yeah. Who cares? What a weird what a weird thing that is like some strap isn't shouldn't on some watch. Yeah. Yeah. Leather on a diver's fine. Yeah. Yeah. No rubber on chronographs, you know, heaven forbid. How how would we all survive? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, with Rift Check out of the way, I think it's time for some main topic, and we've got to kind of fun one because uh while I was uh hanging out in BC looking at mountains and laying on a couch a lot, um you uh went out and and did uh an off-roading course that we've talked about a few times on the show, but now we get to actually hear how it went. Yeah, finally. So uh this is through uh Iron Range off-road. And why don't we start with like like the basics? Um maybe what it costs and what you need if you wanted to take part in it. Yeah. So |
| Jason Heaton | um this is uh this course is offered, as you mentioned, by Iron Range Off-Road, which is a a private company. It was started by a guy named Mark uh who lives uh he used to be local to the Twin Cities. He's since uh moved somewhere up onto Lake Superior and uh started this business. I think he said gosh, I think he said twenty years ago. So he's he's a pretty avid off roader. Um and just kind of saw a need for um instructing people that that, you know, have have Jeeps mainly, um, but basically any four by four that that you want to, you know, get a little bit more comfortable with off the beaten path, so to speak. And so he started this class. It cost three hundred ninety-nine dollars for a two-day class and he holds these classes up at the Iron Range off Highway Vehicle Park. And this is a it's a dedicated, gosh, I think they said 160 acre uh area of the the iron range in northern Minnesota, which is where they used to mine for iron ore, and it's kind of this heavily forested, rocky, hilly uh part of the state, kind of perfect for this. And um he I think there were about a dozen vehicles, and I think that's about his max. He said that was a big class. And it's it's over two days. So you kind of book your own lodging and and go up there and and uh and then you meet for it's not quite two full days. It's about a full day and about a half a day. And he he he calls it, you know, distinctly like this is not for extremists, this is for uh beginners, you know, people that just want to get comfortable with their vehicle. Um, the only requirement really is that you have a proper four-wheel drive vehicle. So, you know, taking our Volvo XC60 with all-wheel drive would not have cut it. You need something that has low range four-wheel drive. Some ground clearance. Some ground clearance. Uh is kind of the the only requirement. So uh as you might expect, by and large our class was made up of um Jeeps, Jeep Wranglers, mainly modern ones, I'd say within the past five years. And uh there was there were only two outliers. There was um us with with our uh nineteen ninety-three Defender. And then there was another guy and his wife who came with uh Toyota Tacoma TRD uh pickup truck? And modern one? Modern one. Yeah. I think he was brand new actually. I think he'd just gotten it uh within the past year. And um so, you know, that's what it took and and it was great. Mark is uh he's a fantastic instructor. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this. I thought, you know, off-roading is w is one of those those pastimes that that um kind of runs the gamut in terms of of you know the the types of people and the ambitions and expectations that people have. And and I I I didn't want to get into a course with with a lot of big, you know, mutt mutters or or guys that just want to go wheeling and and you know bash up their vehicles and whatever and and it turned out to be a really pleasant group of of folks that that really just wanted to learn how to how to do this kind of thing safely. And so you know we we just had uh really good fun. It was there were some certainly some some scary moments, some anxious moments. I I had gone into this without really any off road experience. I had I had been a passenger off-road a few times and I had um taken you know the defender and and some past vehicles on kind of fire roads or forest roads. Uh but nothing nothing to this uh to this extent. It was great. And uh you know uh I one of the other guys in the class, this is funny, we we we broke for lunch both days, so you had to pack a lunch. Uh, we just made some sandwiches and and a flask of tea and and brought it along, and then we would take a break halfway through. And I was sitting at a table with a guy who had a white dial uh explorer two on, like yours. And turns out his name's Peter, and he's a he's a TGN listener. Um, no way. Yeah, which is like you know, like what are the odds? You know, I mean, now I've met TGN listeners in the strangest places, but uh the Northwoods of Minnesota at a four by four class was uh was a new one. And uh and he was there with Alyssa and and he had a a Rubicon uh Wrangler, beautiful truck. And uh yeah, he said he was a TGN listener and and he he said his uh his polar explorer may or may not have been influenced by you with yours. So uh yeah, Peter, if you're listening to this episode, uh it was great meeting you and and uh we were we were divided into two groups uh the the way that the class had had split up. Mark, the the founder of the of the group, um had uh I think two or three other instructors working with him and they split our our group into two groups of about six or seven trucks each. And the one group was the Rubicon group, and I'll explain this in a second. And then the other group was the rest of us. And Peter, this TGN listener, was in the other group because he had a Rubicon. And the reason Mark split it up that way is because uh if you're not familiar with Jeeps uh lexicon, um and James, I know you are, the Rubicon uh is a is a more extremely off road oriented vehicle that has locking differentials uh front and rear so that you can lock left and right side wheels uh at front and back together, which makes it a a a more capable off-road vehicle because it it won't uh spin a wheel that is uh on slippery terrain. So our group was the the non-Rubicon group. So it was the the other Jeeps, it was the the Saharas and the uh I guess kind of the base model, Wranglers. And so the the even though the Tacoma has locking differentials, the TRD version, um, which is a a pretty cool truck, actually., no, no It still had lower ground clearance and a less experienced driver. So he was with our group. And then Mark himself was actually driving, and this is the coolest vehicle of all. It was a 1981 Jeep CJ8 scrambler. Uh and he'd had this truck for many years. Uh it was a four-speed stick shift. He had a locking differential only on the rear. Um, and he had, you know, no roof, no doors. And and uh, you know, he's he said he's replaced the chassis like two or three times and and the tub was a was a custom fiberglass uh actually body that he had swapped years ago with a straight six uh uh motor in it. Um just a beautiful old battered old old truck. But it's super cool. But he was with our group, and I think it's because you know he given his his vehicle, he he on paper at least would not have been able to keep up with a Rubicon. And so our group with the sort of the lesser outfitted trucks uh went with him. It was some measure of comfort to me because I when he asked us at the beginning who all here is driving a stick shift. Mine was the only hand that went up, and then of course, uh, him with his uh with his old old jeep and so it was nice to have somebody that could at least commiserate with uh you know with with a stick shift ol |
| James Stacey | der vehicle l like our defender. Yeah, that's fun. With the with the lockers, it is an interesting thing. And if if if you're listening, you don't know what a locking differential is. So differential is decides where which uh wheel gets power. And typically cars have uh normal vehicles have an open differential. So the most power coming out of the transmission uh and going to the wheels will go to the wheel with the least resistance. But if you're off-roading, that's a big problem because you could have a wheel in the air. You could have a wheel that's slipping on rocks, right? Yeah. And so the idea is if you have a um a locking differential, what it's going to do is it's going to lock the drive line together so that the wheels rotate at the same speed. So you you'll'll see some vehicles have um locking differentials under certain scenarios. Some vehicles have e-lockers, which is an electronic differential. And some people, some vehicles kind of have a mix of that. The gold standard in many ways is the G-Wagon, which has uh you know independently controlled three-way lockers, so front, back, and down the middle. And it just gives you more flexibility to decide how your wheels are managing the power. And you get a lot of the same the you get a lot of the same things from in in higher end sports cars. They're just put it put to different use. They're typically you know, to keep the axle spinning at the same speed. Yeah. And it can it can change the way that a car handles or operates. But for off-roading, it's really uh considered to be essential, especially in terms of the rear axle if it's a rear-wheel drive vehicle. And and there's certain considerations in which you want the ability to have it unlocked or locked, right? Turning circles, things like that. Uh but that that that would be why that's kind of crucial to off road driving. And um and a lot of different manufacturers handle that in different wa |
| Jason Heaton | ys. Yeah, and it was it was interesting to kind of see that in practice. Uh the Defender um, you know, all old Land Rovers uh did not have front and rear locking differentials. They do have a center locking differential, um, which uh is controlled by a a lever in the in the cockpit there. You know, driver ability does uh you know, and and I suppose other factors come into play as well, and so you know that's not to say that without the lockers you can't get through things. And the defender certainly was plenty capable for everything that we did. And I was quite happy with it and pleasantly surprised. But it did make sense for the group to kind of split up along those lines. And you could see, and Gashani has put up uh she edited together a nice video of um of our experience and and it was in uh an Instagram story. Uh and uh we can link to that. But uh you can see some situations where particularly when we were doing a rock crawling segment where um you can actually see the the front right wheel of the defender kind of spinning in air trying to to kind of grab something um and kind of spinning freely while the left wheel was not turning at all. Uh that's because of the of the front differential being an open differential. But um the other added challenge was was this idea of having a a manual gearbox because um the it it does have some advantages, but on there was one sort of situation where we we were practicing hill ascents and descents and uh one thing that Mark had had told us to do is that, you know, if you get committed up a very steep hill and you realize either you can't make it or you've encountered an obstacle or you need to take a different line, you should know how to safely back down the hill because if you just mash the brakes, um you're gonna, you know, slide sideways, you could roll the vehicle, etc. So the idea is that you get halfway, three quarters of the way up a very steep hill, you should be able to put it into reverse and back down. And keep in mind you're in four-wheel low, so the the the engine compression is actually what kind of slows the vehicle, not the brakes. Um you should be able to put it in reverse and go back down or and then even restart on a hill, you know, s stop halfway up and then and then get going again based on just tire grip and and low range uh gearing. Well, you know, anyone who's driven a stick shift knows that even on a steep city street, it it can be a challenge to kind of get going again without the vehicle rolling backwards. And and so we did this exercise where we went, we were doing these hill climbs, and then he said, you know, okay, I want you to stop halfway up and then kind of get going again. I want to demonstrate to you that your vehicle can do this. Well, I think he had forgotten that I was in a stick shift and so I stopped halfway up, you know, must have been like a thirty degree incline. And um and then he's like, okay, you know, now come back to the top. And I was like shaking my head, like, uh. And you know, I I mean I've driven stick shift since the mid-80s, so I'm I'm pretty good at it. And I, you know, I just kind of did it quickly and got it going again. And you know, certainly all the tires spun and grabbed and I didn't roll back too much and and made it to the top. But uh when you when you're doing like rock crawls where like you get bashed up against kind of a boulder or something and you want to kind of creep over it. Um the modern Jeeps with automatics, uh some of them have, you know, a crawl feature or hill descent or, you know, these features that will just allow the vehicle where you can just sort of take your foot off the the brake and it will just very slowly kind of creep over without rolling backwards at all. Well, you know, I I don't have that option. So you spend a lot of time kind of feathering the clutch um or timing your approach. Momentum is very key with with an older stick-shift uh truck like this to kind of keep going up a up a hill while you're also trying to find the correct line to take over and around rocks. And um uh but I was I was pleasantly surprised I was able to I was able to do it. There was one particularly big rocky climb that I thought there's, you know, I I saw it from the bottom. I thought it was very daunting. Um and you know, we'd heard that uh even Rubicons and the other group were getting hung up and stuck in the mud and ruts and on rocks. And so I thought, okay, this is gonna be a challenge. And and a couple of the vehicles went first, and and Mark and and his other instructor, Jim, were up ahead of us, kind of spotting for people, pointing out which way to go, which rocks to avoid, or which rocks to crawl over. And um a couple of the other vehicles had had difficulty, the Tacoma really, really struggled, um, despite the lockers, you know, it just didn't have the greatest ground clearance. And then he had kind of road tires on as well. Um and so when it was my turn, I, you know, I just I kind of picked a line and just had it in four wheel low first gear and I just kind of cr I don't want to say cruised to the top, but uh managed to kind of dance my way around the rocks and get all the way to the top and and it was it was really satisfying. It was a very empowering kind of experience to have moments like that. Even the rock crawling was cringe worthy. You know, you hear something scrape or bash or or whatever, or you get stuck. And it's like that that's what it's all about. It's a it's a I h you know, it sounds a bit goofy and cliche, but you know, it's kind of a team sport. You know, Gashani was doing a lot of the spotting, pointing out, you know, which way to go. She had to be my eyes and kind of look underneath to make sure I wasn't gonna bash my differential or any of the steering rods on on rocks. Um but uh yeah, in that way, I mean you learn about the capabilities of your vehicle. And I just found that the the defender's way more capable than I'll ever be. I mean, this is a legendary kind of camel trophy Darien Gap kind of uh kind of truck and I'm just this novice city dweller. Um but it did okay. |
| James Stacey | Well yeah I'm I'm glad that I'm glad that it it worked out well. I mean I guess I kind of expected as such. I mean the the may maybe the holdback for the Tacoma is you know the the locker in that is only rear, I believe, and it's electric. Oh, okay. That could be that could be it could be something that's changed or you can upgrade it from the factory, but in my understanding for four wheel drive tacos, the rear is a locker, then there's a center limited slip differential. Okay. Um, but then with an E locker, it's not mechanical. That's what that's the E part, right? So they're using something to retard the wheel with sure less grip, usually the brakes. But again, I don't know the specifics of the Toyota system. If you're to if you're a Tacoma driver and I'm getting this wrong. Uh one, it's probably not super important to the conversation, but two, I'm I'm doing my best. Uh in my experience with uh you know like donut just built out two Tacoma from a previous generation, yeah. And uh one of those had an e-locker, it's built into the rear axle. And then to go a step, if you want to go a step beyond that, they installed like ARB pneumatic lockers, like hydraulics. Yeah. And um I think with bigger tires and ground clearance, this guy would have done a lot better too. Tires make a huge difference for sure. It's funny with the manual thing because I I was kind of hoping that you'd have at least a couple of the other Jeeps there. Yeah. Would have been one of these unicorns that buys a JL with the stick. Right. Jeep has made it so they really don't seem to want people to buy the stick. I mean, I think the take rate's less than four percent. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but then I believe and again this could change where you live, it could be different, but in at least in Canada and I think in the States, you can only get the six speed manual on either the kind of not the base gas engine, but the least interesting engine, the the six cylinder, and or the diesel. And the diesel with the stick is probably an absolutely incredible thing to drive off road. Yeah. But I think m most people, yeah, are it seems are going with the uh with the automatic. And and I you know, i if you're if you're Rock Clarlen and you just want to be out there and enjoy yourself, it makes sense to go with the automatic. Like I get it. Yeah. Yeah. Only by the manual if you think it's going to be more fun because that's the only scenario in which you'll you'll be right. Right. The rest of that time, like automatics have just gotten so good and uh and capable and strong and and the rest of it. But yeah. It's exciting, you know, because I've done a couple like little off-roady roads around Toronto, unassumed roads, rudded out off-road roads, but nothing with like the crawling or the really steep stuff. Yeah. And it's fun that you had to sit at the bottom of a hill and look up and be like, I don't know about this. I remember I went um I went on the the launch, the press launch for the current generation Range Rover Evoke. Oh yeah, right. Yeah. And when we were there, it was in London, they had set up like this course in what was kind of I think an abandoned train yard somewhere in central London or nearly central London. Yeah. So they had this whole course and it was it was wood that you were driving on kind,a like those those ramp walls that you see for single track mountain biking. Oh, sure. Yeah. Those big steep things that you're meant to rip across. And there was a guy standing in front of you doing the hand signals. Yeah. They had a radio in the door in case you really messed it up. And you basically just had to very slowly crawl along and and let let's face it, like the evoke, especially if you put some tires on it, like any modern Land Rover or Range Rover is a seriously capable vehicle. Yeah. It mostly comes down to tires and ride height. And the Evoke kind of has both. It's not a rock crawler, but it was more than comfortable. Like we we drove it through a pool, like very deep water. Yeah. And uh and up and down these weird ramps and then up these but the one that got me the worst was that it was like a certain degree of like leaning to the side. Yeah. Yeah. And it was passenger wheel up. Yeah. Yeah. And I was just driving. I'm like, I'm gonna roll it. I'm gonna it's somebody else's car. I'm gonna roll it. Um it's gonna go over. Yeah. And then like we finished it, and the guy was like, Hold wait here, you know, the next car is not moving as quickly. So I had my window down. I was chatting with him, I was like, How much steeper would that have to be to to roll it? He's like a lot. You're not even close. Like w we just pick an we pick enough incline that it makes people feel scared if they don't know what they're doing. I was like, Well, I don't know what I'm doing. That was scary |
| Jason Heaton | . There was a there was a trail system that that we did on the second day called On the Edge, and it was aptly named because it was a it was a trail that was gosh, maybe two feet wider than the defender, and on one side was a on the right side of the vehicle was a sheer drop into a r ravine with a lot of big boulders at the bottom. And then the left side was the hill coming down quite steep on that side. And so there was r really no room other than the width of the vehicle. And before we set off on it, Mark said, you know, what you don't want to do here is is get too far to the left, compensating for that drop, because then you'll start to get further and further up the slope with your left tire and the vehicle will potentially roll. And uh it was a little daunting. You know, I was, of course, the only one in a right-hand drive vehicle, and so I was on the ravine side. So I was actually, it was kind of an advantage because I was able to kind of peer out the window and see just how much room I had. Um, but it also gave me a view right down into the ravine. So it was a little spooky. Um and we all had radios, you know, just two way radios that that were clipped onto the visor and and at one point somebody said, Okay, stop, you know, we got a problem and so we all kind of stopped on a line and I walked back two two jeeps behind me uh and another uh student in a in a wrangler had really gone up the side of the of the incline and was at a I I I I I don't know if all Wranglers have this as a as a as a feature um or if it was something aftermarket, but it was the it was the uh the angle um it told the uh the pitch or the I guess the roll angle. Yeah, yeah. And it it was uh I think she said it was a thirty-four degree angle that she was c hung up on a on a rock she had gone too close to the embankment um on the left side. And there she was with in the driver's seat, and her passenger, you know, poor passenger was like looking down into this ravine. And it was a pretty precarious angle. And everybody was like, okay, this is this is kind of serious. And Mark and Jim, the two instructors, very quickly, you know, said, Okay, roll down the driver window. Um, we're gonna, you know, put a tow rope around a tree up the slope, um, put it on one of your recovery points and and then winch slowly winch it with with Jim's Jeep behind to um while you reverse off this this slope slowly. And so we all kind of watched while this happened. And, you know, it was one of those like mildly like scary situations where you you kind of see what could happen if you do things wrong. And then the other group in the Rubicons, someone actually rolled rolled one of the Wranglers, and it was a Wrangler with a soft top, and it kind of crushed in the rear. All it did was actually damage the rear frame of the of the soft top at the back and then at something about rolling it on its side, they had to crawl out the roof and then they righted it and were able to finish, but it was it was kind of pouring uh smoke. That's n gnarly. But um you know, I this is not to say that this this class is death defying, you can certainly opt out of anything you want and and everybody kind of emerged unscathed and and still smiling and happy. But uh you know, it was kind of a little little window into you know how how serious uh this kind of thing can be. So I didn't have any lasting damage on the defender, fortunately. Uh despite the kind of clunks that I was hearing when I was doing the rock crawl, I did manage the the the trailer hitch is kind of a weak spot. It's kind of a low point on this, unfortunately, and it had these built in kind of aftermarket steps so you could climb into the back more easily and that got bent up and then there's like these two small bumperettes on each rear corner that got bent, but it I just had to kind of kick them kick them back into into proper orientation after the fact and and they were all fine. But uh other than that it it did okay |
| James Stacey | . So when you're doing this, is there is is it kind of like the the lead car is the first one um going going along and then someone gets out and they do the hand signal thing or is it all on the radio? How's |
| Jason Heaton | it work? Yeah, so so Mark was in the front of our group and then you know five or six of us and then Jim the other instructor was at the back and he had like a 99 Jeep I don't know if that's a TJ um but uh that that he'd done some modifications to over the year but a pretty pretty basic basic jeep but, he he also took a lot of the photos and he did a nice job of that. But he was um a good calming presence uh doing follow-up and and then we all had radios in our vehicles. So Mark would say, Okay, coming up here, there's a bit of a tricky section, try to stay to the left, whatever. But then Mark would kind of navigate a section and then he would park and then he would come back and kind of spot for us. Um and then along the way, you know, I mean you're going so slowly. I mean I never got out of first gear the whole the whole weekend. Um uh Gashani would jump out and kind of direct me around rocks or or through through water or whatever it was. Um so yeah the the instructors kind of flanked the group or bookended us as we were moving through. Um and they did they did a really nice job. And you know, I would say, you know, it's funny because uh at the end of all this, Mark handed us all a bunch of like these postcards and kind of ads for his business. And he's like, you know, if you're ever at the grocery store and you like park next to kind of a cool jeep like stick one of these under the under the windshield wiper like a lot of people have have jeeps or land rovers or or you know land cruisers or whatever that like want to do something a little more ambitious, like they want to get out of the parking lot, out of the, you know, the city streets, but they're a little intimidated. I mean, that's exactly how I was. And and I I would absolutely 100% recommend something like this. If you're in the Midwest, this uh Iron Range off-road park is kind of the premier location in this area. But you know, uh certainly out west you're gonna find all sorts of stuff like this. But yeah. I I can't recommend it highly enough. And I I actually want to go back um next year sometime and and you know put together a little group of friends. You know, Mark will do private classes and um you know, I even thought you know it'd be fun to do like a TGN thing or something. I mean just kind of just get some folks to kind of road trip there. We we ended up staying we rented like a a condo at an off season ski resort place that was a pretty quiet and pleasant place to be. It was about fifteen minutes from the off-road park and um it was just a blast. It was just so much fun. Like it was it it really, you know, glad to hear it. Sitting in the vehicle for eight hours, you wouldn't think would be would be uh exhausting. But I mean, I'd go to bed that middle night, you know, that Saturday night, like just worn out from and but still kind of jacked up from the adrenaline. I mean it was it was it was proper fun. It was uh it was really good. One one little tip that we did take away from this, and you know, I've heard of this before, but I'd never actually seen it in action was m was Mark and a couple of the other instructors in the group for the lunch break. They they'd strapped uh food onto the exhaust manifolds of their vehicles all morning while they were driving around. They called it manifold meat, but one guy actually zip-tied a can of you know Chef Boy RD soup or spaghettios or something to the exhaust manifold of his of his Jeep, and then at lunchtime you just snip it off, open the can, and you've got like piping hot soup or Mark had done like smoked pork shoulder or something like that that he wrapped tightly in tinfoil and and lashed that onto his uh to his exhaust manifold and then just put it into like tortillas at lunch and had a hot I mean I Gashani was just blown away. She's like, oh, when do we go camping next? We're definitely gonna do that. And it's a it's a cool idea. |
| James Stacey | It's a I always got a laugh on top gear, they would do that, but half the time they would just put like a piece of bacon on the engine. And then they'd be like, you know, this doesn't taste great. Yeah. Yeah. I think you the the key is to seal it up from any uh spatter and and whatever else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well I mean even even uh you know the uh a great car is gonna be dirty after a few miles when it comes to uh what's on the engine. But yeah, that's super fun and it sounds like it sounds like a real blast. I've had some experience doing that both at a paid level and at like a press level in serves with like driver instruction courses. Yeah. And not a ton of off-road. I know they had an off-road rally course set up when I went on the Lamborghini Uris launch. Oh yeah. Um so they allowed you to do two laps kind of in anger, but it was a single track. It was just as wide as the as the Urus is a big vehicle. If you imagine like driving a really big Subaru like STI, that's kind of how this feels like triple the power. Yeah. So that was fun and and kind of scary. And they they definitely had it designed so there wasn't any actual technical challenge. Just kind of powered out of everything in the all-wheel drive. Yeah. Uh but a lot of that stuff is when it comes down to like when you're learning, I think that adds a lot of it. Like it's one thing to find a road and go for a drive, but the whole time you're kind of hoping like, oh I hope I don't snap a control arm and then I'm stranded out here. Right. Uh you know, I don't know if CAA or AAA is is gonna drive down an off-road road to come get me. Yeah. Uh that kind of thing. But to do it in a course where yeah, when when you do put your wheel in the wrong place and you might roll your vehicle if someone's there to figure out how to do the the you know the recovery safely and that kind of thing. I I I can't support this enough. I think it's a great idea. I think it's a great way to experience a vehicle. Like a lot of people these days own SUVs, and to your point, you know, don't that they it's more about the space and the the comfort of winter driving and that sort of thing. Yeah. But the a lot of these can do some stuff off-road and you get out into nature. And I don't think it has to be rock crawling. Like I've driven down some unassumed roads that are really lovely. Yeah. And uh I would say that the challenge for the most part is finding a place where you can do it where you're not like, am I maybe trespassing? Is someone about to get really angry? Right. Yeah. Uh because that's always my concern. I'll drive around even the area up by my cottage and I'll see roads that are marked as unassumed by Google. But then you know they have no trespassing. And then you look up the municipality and you're like, well, the road's mostly on you know public land, so I should be able to drive on it. But you don't know if the person who maybe lives at the other end of the road or off an offshoot of the road feels the same way as you they might not they probably don't yeah uh so I think that's some of the challenges what I always liked about uh venture forward venture four-wheel drive you know Chris Sean's YouTube channel is he he uses some apps, you know, Gaia GPS and such to make sure that he can really get around. And it seems like there's areas where there's tons of that, uh, you know, uh BLM land, etc. Yeah. Um, and there's some where there's less. And I I should definitely um uh see if there's a similar like maybe guy's got the same sort of thing for Ontario. I've just never tried. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, our our goal of of doing this was was really to get comfortable with less than comfortable tra travel situations. So if if we do want to you know, we've done some camping in the Defender and we want to do more of that and potentially some light overlanding stuff and, you know, inevitably you're going to get into some, you know, rougher terrain. And and even if it's just a fire road that has some washed out sections or some rocky bits or or water crossings or whatever, you want to be able to know you know how to get out of it, what what your vehicle can do and can't do and what's safe and not safe. And I I you know, this this was just great. And I like you, I mean I fully endorse stuff like this, whether it's an off road course or you know, a winter driving class, you know, driving on ice or performance driv |
| James Stacey | ing or track driving or anything like that. It's just fun. Yeah, I've d I've done Porsche and um Mercedes uh winter driving. Uh Porsche's is more like track driving in the winter. Yeah. And Mercedes is a a lot more about car control. It's on a frozen ice. Uh it's on a frozen lake in Manitoba. Yeah. Both are incredible. I highly recommend either. You know, I when I was younger, I went through three, maybe now it's two, but at the time I think it was three courses, maybe four days total over the course of the while of the BMW performance driver sort of program. Yeah. And so that starts with like a half day, you sit in a class for an hour and then you go out and you do some skid pad stuff, kind of get an idea for car control and then it accelerates from there. Yeah. And I never got to the part, you know, eventually you can apply for your race license, you can go do like a a weekend at Montreum Blanc with open track driving and that kind of thing. And I'm sure that's incredible. It's also just like five grand. Oh. Um sorry I, didn't I never got that far. I think I've probably topped out wherever the the course maybe is around a thousand dollars, maybe a little bit more. Yeah. Um I really enjoyed all those. So I agree. Whether whether you're curious about driving your vehicle off road or you've always thought like, hey, I, you know, I I'm a capable driver. I'd love to see how I fare on a track. Um, all this kind of stuff with an instructor, whether it's a radio or right seat, is um is very valuable. I think it's super worth it. It's gonna increase your confidence behind the wheel especi,ally in bad scenarios. Yeah. Uh which is when you need it the most. I I think this is super. And I I'm thrilled you had a good time and and I'm not at all surprised that the um the defender was more than capable of it, but uh glad there wasn't any damage or anything like that, which can happen at these things, like you said with the the rollover. Ye |
| Jason Heaton | ah, cool. So, you know, hats off. Thanks to Mark and and Iron Range off road and and you know, certainly if anyone has any uh specific questions or comments about your own off-roading experience or about this class in particular, drop them in the in the uh comments under the under the notes for the episode. |
| James Stacey | Absolutely. You want to get to final notes? Yeah. Let's uh let's do it. Why don't you go first? Yeah, I'm happy to go first. So um mine this week is actually one that uh Jason you sent to me. I haven't really been up to that much. Uh we already talked about Squid Game, which was possibly the only other thing that would have would have kind of worked here. Um but this is uh uh an Instagram page and a website called JE Brickworks. So on Instagram it's J E underscore Brickworks. And it's essentially uh Lego sets, both complete sets or just instructions that will allow you to build a range of um of cars. So they're smaller cars closer to what we've seen with like the speed champion stuff I've talked about before. Yeah. So you're not talking about these giant things that are going to take hours. The idea is they're more in line with a small model in terms of size. Oh, sure. And, you know, they're $20, $30, $40. Yeah. Uh for the most part. Uh completed kits uh would include things like he's got this incredible Datson 240. I'm looking at that. Like a vintage one. So cool. Uh I think the Koontosh looks incredible in Lego. It's all hard angles and straight lines, so that it works beautifully. Yeah. Weirdly, he's made a beautiful mirror, which I'm gonna have to buy. All of these ones were it's the kit with the instructions, it's thirty five pounds.. Yeah So it's more money than a than a speed champions, but it's a different sort of thing. And I would say they're almost almost all of them, if not all of them, are better executed designs of the original car than the Speed Champions are. Not or at least equal to. Yeah. Like the 308 looks incredible. That gua the I I have the S1 Quattro from Speed Champions and he has a Quattro Group B kit car here. Really fun. Really cool SL three hundred, a killer Toyota two thousand GT, not a common car, you know, a really, really cool collector car. Uh I I'm I'm really thrilled by this. And then if if you even if you don't have any inter inested buying and and and building a little Lego kit go go to the website or or the Instagram and just look at the instructions because each one has a photo of the of what he's built. Yeah. And it's like some really cool stuff. There's a Julia GTA, there's a there's a defender uh,, a blue uh long body uh two-door defender, old like a series three, I guess. Yeah, Cayman GT4, 930 turbo, uh VW transporter, uh a really cool the you know the the two-door Range Rover series ones, a nineteen seventies Range Rover. Yeah. There's I I really like this. This is super fun. They're really cute. There's like a a a really awesome um Volvo wagon with like a roof rack. Yeah. I could see this. You know, the the instructions are something like seven and a half pounds. Yeah. Which seems fair. And then in the little about section here, it's saying that you can use a service called BrickLink, which I guess is where you order raw Lego and it's this self populated list. So you can get all the pieces you need and then order it. So you do the the instructions from him and and all of the pieces from BrickLink and you've got yourself a kit. Yeah. Um I I think that makes a lot of sense. I think it's super cool and uh yeah, I love this. Uh super, |
| Jason Heaton | super fun. Yeah, and I've got to give uh credit where credit's due. This came to me from Matt Nundorf, uh, old uh old gear patrol buddy of mine, uh fellow Canadian. Um good dude. Up on your side of the border. Uh Matt's great, uh little car and motorcycle buff. Anyway, he he sent me uh yesterday on Instagram the uh the blue Land Rover, and said, Oh, this might interest you. And then that sent me down the rabbit hole and I sent it to you. But yeah, I mean this stuff's so affordable and it's so cool. I I think I talked about in a past episode that Histobrick, which make uh this uh equally niche uh custom Lego guy who does um like Great Lakes ships and the Titanic and Britannic and some of these these custom uh ship models. But uh yeah, these are these are cool and so affordable. |
| James Stacey | I mean it's dangerously affordable. So yeah. And then did you speaking of Titanic, did you see the new Titanic Lego? No. Uh yes, I did. Yes. Yeah, that looks amazing. Nine thousand ninety pieces. Yeah. Six hundred and thirty dollars is the price I'm seeing. I think that's yeah, US. I'm seeing US price. So that's like that's an eight hundred and fifty dollar Canadian. And I think it's gigantic too. I don't think I have space. It's gotta be um let's see. Dimensions fifty four inches long. Okay. Yeah. That's like eighteen high and seven inches wide. Yeah. And it comes with like the little plinths that a boat would sit on. So you can like put it on your on on a table. I guess you need a big table. Fifty four inches, that's a that's yeah. Yeah. Six hundred and thirty dollars. But I know you mentioned the Titanic and if we didn't mention this we were gonna get a lot of emails being like you can get a Lego Titanic. Yeah, I I saw it. It's insanity. That's a full-time job. With expenses. Yeah. Sakes. Yeah. Right. So funny. Uh but yeah, so JE Brickworks again, that's uh JE Brickworks.com or J E underscore brickworks on Instagram, Jonathan Elliott. Uh great work, man. Uh if if we ever cross paths, I I'm I'm I'm thrilled by these. Yeah. Super fun. Yeah. And what |
| Jason Heaton | do you got? Well, I've got a uh uh I guess it's uh two part sort of thing, but it's it's uh a story or a a video called Devil's Teeth. This is on YouTube and it's uh I don't know, ten ten, fifteen minutes long. It's uh it's some kind of archival uh film footage uh s uh edited together with some some kind of modern underwater footage of a guy named Ron Elliott who is uh he's a former urchin diver. So he would uh kind of a commercial urchin diver uh in Northern California who would use a surface fed hookah system to to dive in the Farallon Islands off of uh outside of San Francisco Bay, off the coast of California for for sea urchins. And this area, if you're familiar with it, is known for a pretty high population of great white sharks and I think it's elephant seals that seasonally roost there and swim around there and and that's what draws the great whites. And and Ron is a fairly fearless guy who during his urchin diving took a fascination with these sharks and and started making um films of them and then working with the researchers that live on the island there to research the sharks. And so this video came from an article I saw in the New York Times by Bonnie Tsui. And she's a really great writer. I think I've read her work in Outside Magazine over the years, and she's written a couple of books about open water swimming. And she wrote a book about Ron and kind of his fearlessness and his his interest in diving with the sharks. And then there was a link to this video. So uh I'm gonna put in a a link to this New York Times article and hopefully you can read that um without a paywall. Um and then uh also the the YouTube video, which is which is just great. I mean I I love I love the kind of the quality of this video and and I think you know we've we've took you know we certainly talk about diving enough and and sharks to a certain degree, but uh I've long had a fascination with the Farallon Islands. I remember reading a book years ago by Susan Casey called Devil's Teeth, which is the old nickname for the this set of islands. And it it's just such a spooky, ominous place. Um and then knowing that the waters around it are populated by by great whites, it's always just kind of sent a shiver up my spine. And then then there's this guy who who kind of has this understanding. And he's, you know, he he survived an attack that almost took off his hand um by a shark, but he's like you know that we're we're in their territory you respect them he he's learned uh you know how to how to kind of uh work among them uh and film them and and i don't know. It's just uh it's just a really interesting read uh in the article and then and then the video is definitely worth worth seeing as well. Um this kind of murky water and these and these big sharks and and then this guy uh kind of diving among the kind of the the kelp and and gloomy waters out there. So yeah, definit |
| James Stacey | ely I clicked on that while you were talking and just muted it. It's it's creepy to watch with no with no sound. Yeah. Yeah. Man, the Fairlons, like if you needed uh if you just needed in your mind to draw or imagine a place where there's great white shark, this is it. I mean the water's beautiful, but uh on the darker side, you know, dark blue, green, and then these like really kind of jagged, sparse peaks essentially coming up out of the water. And you're like, this is just a place where things are are, you know, gnarly. It looks very pri |
| Jason Heaton | mal. It looks like right out of you know, like a Harry Potter or something like this is where the you know the evil villain lives or something like that. Yeah, it's uh it's good. It's a bit spooky, but uh it's a good re |
| James Stacey | ad. Good, good, good read. Cool. Yeah. Well yeah, so we'll be sure to have both of those in the show notes. And if any of you end up getting uh one of these kits, be sure to tag us in the photo you put on Instagram for the Lego and uh and yeah, try not to if you get to Fairlone Islands, you know, stay away from the sharks if you can. As always, thanks so much for listening. You can subscribe to the show via notes.thegray NATO.com or check the feed for more details and links. You can also follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton at J E Stacy and at the gray nado. If you have any questions for us, please write thegraynado at gmail.com and keep sending us those voice memos. We've been getting a bunch of really good ones for the next QA. Finally, if you're enjoying the show, please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcast. Music throughout is siesto by Jazdar via the Free Music Archive |
| Jason Heaton | . And we leave you with this quote from Jack London, which happens to also be a subtle nod to No Time to Die for those who have seen it, who said, The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. |