Cars & Coffee - Sept. 30, 2023

This show was recorded outdoors and has sub-standard audio. However, the content is great.

Are you ready for an automotive adventure? Hop in, fasten your seatbelts, and let's hit the road for a journey into the realm of luxury cars and electric golf carts. We've got firsthand insights from die-hard Porsche and Tesla club members as they share their passion for these elite vehicles. Also, we're lifting the hood on cutting-edge autonomous driving features, including supercharged insights on Tesla and a sneak peek at the upcoming 2024 Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Buckle up as we chat with various car club members, who share their unique perspectives from the Open Forum in the Villages podcast.

But it doesn't stop there, we veer off the beaten path and delve into the electrifying world of golf carts. Unravel the complexities behind their electric circuits and meet the proud owner of an Atomic Four Door Atomic, no ordinary golf cart and a birthday gift that truly stands out. We're also having an informative discussion with a Tesla Model S owner, diving into the nitty-gritty of battery life, charging processes, and a personal racetrack experience. This episode is a must-listen for any car enthusiast or anyone with a penchant for high-tech rides. So, turn the key, rev up those engines and join us on this thrilling ride.

Transcript

Emily: 0:11

Welcome to the Open Forum in the Villages Florida podcast. In this show we talk to leaders in the community, leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in the villages to give perspectives of what is happening here in the villages. We hope to add a new episode most Fridays at 9 am. We are a listener supported podcast. You can become a supporter for as little as $3 per month or you can choose to pay more. To become a supporter, go to openforminthevillagescom and click on support in the black box. There will be shoutouts for supporters in episodes. In season 4, we have made some dramatic improvements and changes. First is a clarification of the podcast's title. It is open forum in the villages, florida. To make clear that this is a regional show, independently produced for folks who live in central Florida and the villages areas. It is a dramatic increase in the use of AI in the creation of each episode. In fact, the show's announcers are now all AI voices, including me, emily. Hope you enjoy.

Mike Roth: 1:07

This is my cloth on open forum in the villages. Today's show is going to be a little bit different. Today we are going to be going out to the cars and coffee behind fidelity investments in the Lake Sumter area. I'm going to be talking to first a couple of Porsche people about the cars they brought. Then I'm going to have an interesting conversation with a couple of members of the Tesla Club about the Tesla cars that they brought I think it was a Model Y and the SUV. Then we're actually going to be able to hear that Tesla play happy birthday, as all the doors and go up and down and the windshield wipers and lights flash. It's a nice little trick.

Mike Roth: 1:45

We talk about some of the autonomous driving features that are now available on Tesla and are going to be coming on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class for the 2024 Model year. As I was recording this event outdoors with a portable digital recorder, the sound quality is substantially below the sound quality which we get here in the studio. However, I thought the information was quite valuable and therefore I'm including it in the show. This is my cloth on open forum in the villages. I'm talking with Timber Kirby.

Porsche Member: 2:17

Timber, Tell our listeners about your boy I'd say a 2021 base boxer that I have changed a little bit. I just upgraded to 20-inch wheels. I've put 6,000 miles on it last summer, doing 16 states and six driving days. The car is smarter than the driver, especially when you get around the bendy bits.

Mike Roth: 2:39

What is the smarter than the driver?

Porsche Member: 2:40

It knows where to go. It just glued to the road. Wherever you steer it, it's going. It's amazing. So it has self-driving features. No, it doesn't. Self-driving is actually the pilot taste, but it knows how to get away from curbs and everything else will all be pretty. It's got about 44 miles to a gallon on the road. Probably get around 24 round town. Is that a six cylinder or a four? It's a blown four twin turbos. It only has 300 horsepower, but I'm probably going to upgrade to the sole pipes and I can get another four to power out of that, just for a little deeper sound. Those who don't know what a sole pipe is it's an exhaust made for all the sports cars. It's one of the big manufacturers that are very reliable.

Mike Roth: 3:17

Great Scott, any others you want to tell our listeners about your car?

Porsche Member: 3:21

No, just come to our last Saturdays and come meet everybody. It's a great group of people here.

Mike Roth: 3:26

Yeah, we're talking about the cars and coffee yes, last Saturday of the month and the parking lot that's directly behind the fidelity investments.

Porsche Member: 3:34

I think we have enough groups. Mercedes has a huge group, right. Right, we have a BMW Corvette Group. I know.

Mike Roth: 3:41

Yes.

Porsche Member: 3:41

Porsche Group. Right, we have a very active. The Porsche Group is growing by leaps and bounds this year compared to last year. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Mike Roth: 3:49

How many members of the Porsche Group?

Porsche Member: 3:50

up to. We had 80 cars go last Saturday for lunch over in Cistl.

Mike Roth: 3:54

River. Yeah, where did you have lunch that had? It can accommodate 80 people.

Porsche Member: 3:58

Caesars car Cedar Seafood right there on 19 in Cistl River. We've been to Plantation. We've been to McEnoby. Yeah, we've been to the old train station up in. Yeah, in McEnoby. We've been to Polacka. I'm not from around here, so I'm guessing at these names. Pardon, to pronounce them. I've been to probably some other place I can't pronounce.

Mike Roth: 4:19

Okay, thanks, this is Mike Roth with Dr Craig Curtis for today's Alzheimer's tip. Dr Curtis, is there any type of treatment today for patients with Alzheimer's which would reverse the prognosis, the progression of the?

Dr. Craig Curtis: 4:34

disease. Mike, unfortunately we do not have any medication today that can reverse the progress of Alzheimer's disease. What we are showing is that the newer medications can help slow the progression by approximately 30%, but we do not currently have any way of halting the progression of Alzheimer's disease, nor reversing Alzheimer's disease. That's why we're still doing research.

Warren: 4:59

Mm-hmm, thank you, you're welcome. With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis' goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website craigcurtismd. com or call 352-500-5252 to attend a free seminar.

Teslas Club Members: 5:16

Pretty nice. Yeah, my neighbors are crazy about and I like I play. The boom box works, but only mark. I wish they would have left it and with the different horns it plays. Yeah, I need that. I need that safety department.

Teslas Club Members: 5:29

I need that antique horn for to get the walkers out of the way. Yeah, because the car is so quiet. You, you come up behind people and they don't hear you coming by the way, I'm talking to your name.

Mike Roth: 5:39

I'm Pat Pat Nick Willen and we're talking about open forum in the Villages podcast.

Teslas Club Members: 5:44

Okay, I kind of guessed that thing, that or your fancy cell phone.

Mike Roth: 5:47

No, it's not a cell phone. You'll be able to listen to it there about a month.

Teslas Club Members: 5:52

Oh, okay.

Mike Roth: 5:54

So so, package you could you play that run your plate again.

Warren: 5:56

Yeah, yeah, my daughter's on.

Teslas Club Members: 5:58

You're talking about the radio here in the village.

Teslas Club Members: 6:00

No, no, no, no. This is on the internet.

Teslas Club Members: 6:02

This is on the internet. It's on the internet, okay.

Teslas Club Members: 6:05

Okay, yeah, watch your head. I gotta close everything up.

Mike Roth: 6:09

Start fresh. Yeah, this will make a biker fall.

Teslas Club Members: 6:12

Oh, this is a six-meter, mine's a five. Oh yeah, we have two seats. Oh way, in the back there and going yeah yours doesn't have to go wings. No, mines, and mine is an SUV actually. It's a little higher off the ground than his and it's you could sleep in the back of it, so big and it's got the most storage of any other Tesla's right.

Teslas Club Members: 6:31

We'll have to maybe go. This has auto close to walk away that door. On its own but just give it a push, would you? Oh, it even need to get you.

Teslas Club Members: 6:43

It was ready to go.

Teslas Club Members: 6:44

Yeah, it opens all right when you walk up to it. There you go, oh.

Teslas Club Members: 7:16

Oh.

Mike Roth: 7:32

Go wing doors open and close the front doors open.

Teslas Club Members: 7:36

Oh yeah, the mirrors actually move in some way.

Mike Roth: 7:39

So what? That's the the doors from hitting a car that's adjacent to it in a tight parking lot. It knows, it knows how it knows how close it is the wing doors.

Teslas Club Members: 7:48

They'll either they'll either come out and up or they'll go up and uh, depending on what's called. Yeah, this is a television car and this one has cell full self-driving. I was explaining, I came here from Belvedere and didn't didn't have to take off the self-driving till I got to the Intersection you mean it's?

Mike Roth: 8:05

it's a level two self-driving.

Teslas Club Members: 8:07

I sure what level it is, but it's uh, it's the highest. I have the beta, the latest beta version of the self-driving?

Mike Roth: 8:14

Yeah, I don't. I don't know what that means.

Teslas Club Members: 8:17

Well, for me it's a version number.

Teslas Club Members: 8:19

It'll pretty well take you to the place you want to go in a city, no problem Well uh, there are only two places in the country that self-driving approved legally on the road.

Mike Roth: 8:29

San Francisco, san Francisco, no, actually it's California. And in the bottom, okay, yeah, so if you, if you turn your car on full self-driving mode here.

Teslas Club Members: 8:38

Yeah, you still have to keep your hand. You have to keep your hands on the wheel.

Teslas Club Members: 8:41

Yeah, you have to keep your hand on the wheel or within so many seconds in fact self-driving those states where it's so called legal.

Mike Roth: 8:48

You can't go more than 40 miles an hour, yeah this is a different thing.

Teslas Club Members: 8:51

Uh, we can go up to 85. You've got to have your hand on the steering wheel, but with the latest update, because people were cheating, they'd hang something on the steering wheel. Yeah, they monitor it with the internal cams and that can't do your eyes.

Teslas Club Members: 9:03

So if you're, yeah, if you're screwing around, if your eyes are closed and you're in trouble, yeah, it's not good and I, when I first got it, I took my cell phone and I picked it up and it just went bananas, beeping red lights flashing it's. You do that four more times and we shut you off. So they're very close.

Mike Roth: 9:22

The Mercedes has self-driving feature. You know, at level two.

Teslas Club Members: 9:26

Yeah, enhanced cruise control, I think.

Mike Roth: 9:29

Well, no enhanced cruise control, but it's also self-driving. It'll keep you within the lane lines. Yeah okay, problem is when the lane lines fail. Car may try to drive off the road.

Teslas Club Members: 9:41

Yeah, we had when I first took delivery. I've had it 18. I first took delivery that was pretty much what they considered, that full. But every four to six weeks I get a new update and now it'll go down. I remember the name of that road, but it moved down a road with no lane marking and Normally what it does, it stays in the center of the lane until there's oncoming traffic.

Mike Roth: 10:04

It pulls over until they pass what happens on a road like 44, where the right lane markings Disappear in many places?

Teslas Club Members: 10:12

Yeah, it's 44, the one that goes south off. We're only makers. It goes west really oh, this is a north. Oh I don't, I don't um, there's one so rolling acres doesn't have a right lane, oh. I'm sorry, not rolling. Here's a rainy trail. Rainy trail is fine, but as soon as I turn, left on 301 no, before 301. It's a dirt, it's. It's not a dirt road, but it's an.

Teslas Club Members: 10:36

I know what you're talking about.

Teslas Club Members: 10:37

I've been there. Okay, that it will handle that. Yeah, there's no lane markings at all and it will go down the center until someone's coming. It'll move over, they pass. So, yeah, it can do that.

Mike Roth: 10:49

These self-driving features are an area of development for the next model year on my Mercedes s-class they're gonna have they have level three, okay, which fully autonomous self-driving below 40 miles an hour.

Teslas Club Members: 11:02

Oh, I see I can get like, as the mining can go up to the before I forget. I want to tell you a story.

Mike Roth: 11:06

Go ahead.

Teslas Club Members: 11:07

This happened at one of the Tesla. Well, one of the car shows that brown wasn't about. I was less than a year ago, it doesn't matter less. Anyway, I was talking to father, son and grandson and I said when your grandson is our age, he's gonna be down here. He's gonna tell his grandchildren. When I was your age, my father's car had a steering wheel and this kid pipes up. Yeah, and it was on the ground. The car was on the ground. He's anticipating hoverboard hover cars.

Mike Roth: 11:35

That's a whole different animal. Well you don't have frictional brakes.

Teslas Club Members: 11:43

I don't use a brake at all here.

Mike Roth: 11:44

No, no we don't use the brake. It's in one pedal mode In Mercedes that's called high recuperation and brake pedals are still available, right, but for most stops they're not necessary. Exactly, that motor holds, the motor holds it. It will actually hold the car at a stop. It's on a creep mode, so that's pretty good.

Teslas Club Members: 12:06

Yeah, that's amazing. I talked to a gentleman over at the fitness center. I saw him there about two months ago. I had the car hit a motor site. He said sorry to ask me questions, well, I take delivery of mine tomorrow. He literally was one. So now I see him two months later in the fitness. I asked him how I would like to get the Model S. He said well, we drove it on, never Go Back to another car.

Teslas Club Members: 12:30

And that's pretty much what I'm feeling about this one that the president of the Felsen Club, the past president he used to drive his on the racetrack in Siebert.

Teslas Club Members: 12:39

Oh yeah, Because he was saying how many tires he had to re-brew?

Mike Roth: 12:44

That's an interesting question. So you take your Tesla out to the racetrack and put it on the racetrack. You're going to burn the battery down a lot faster. How would you recharge?

Teslas Club Members: 12:54

Oh, that's right, you have about three, about three runs, and your battery close to dead. But, he was talking about what it does higher because he's well. I saw him in a new set of tires.

Mike Roth: 13:02

Well tires and other story all together now.

Teslas Club Members: 13:05

You never have to worry about getting stuck. Tesla. I just took a trip up to Kentucky. It'll plan it all out for a few. Let it do the planning. Yep, it'll take care of it all, and how low do you let the battery go? 20%. If you let it decide, it usually takes between 20 and 80, normally 20 and 80%.

Teslas Club Members: 13:24

You know they think that's the official way to travel. But I let it go down purposely because I plan my own stops. I do it doing that. And I was headed to Alabama and then up to Kentucky and it started warning me and said wait, there's a, tell me where there was a supercharger. And I just kept driving because I was going to. I use a home charger, I carry a mobile charger in my frunk in the front here.

Mike Roth: 13:50

And I was going to 110 volt charger.

Teslas Club Members: 13:53

Yeah, it's 110 or 230. I can do either one, 240. Rather it's 120 and 240. So anyway, it says you're about to pass the point of no return if you don't turn on the such and such. So it's looking out for you. But I knew no problem. I ran it down to 10% but I plugged it into their home because I was going to stay there two days and that works. Let it charge back up.

Teslas Club Members: 14:17

Yeah, I call that the brother in law. Yeah, it's perfect. I went out and bought a hundred foot heavy, really the heaviest construct cord extension cord I could get, and when I travel I throw that in. Yeah, there you go.

Mike Roth: 14:30

See well, it's not a heavy duty cord.

Teslas Club Members: 14:33

No, mine's, mine's super heavy yeah.

Teslas Club Members: 14:36

But still here. This will take 30 amps at any RV center here. Yeah, go ahead. This right here is about as heavy as you can buy. For a cord, this should be 12, 3.

Mike Roth: 14:47

That's probably only a fifth game.

Teslas Club Members: 14:49

That's a 15 amp yeah it's got a 15 amp receptacle, but it's a. It's actually a 20 amp. Well, yeah, capability, but yeah, maybe the connectors would get hot. But you can limit how much current it takes by this or by the car. So if I'm plugged up with somebody's home, I'll plug into 15 and make a charge at 12 amp, which is, with that, 80% of what you're allowed to go in a receptacle. And if they've got other things on the circuit that they're using, I can kick it down to however low I want.

Teslas Club Members: 15:18

Here everybody's got a golf cart outlet right in their garage, which is what up with. Here's the other thing.

Mike Roth: 15:24

Not everyone has a golf cart outlet. We have an electric golf cart and we paid $150 to have a separate 15 amp circuit brought to where the electric cable is going to be shot.

Teslas Club Members: 15:38

No, okay, we got, we got. I got the wife the atomic four door atomic for her birthday two, three years ago. Yeah, that's an amazing if you ever look at him. Yeah, I mean, I wanted it for the crash, I think remember our next episode will be released next Friday at 9am.

Emily: 15:54

Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at Mike at Roth voice. com. This is a shoutout for supporters Greg Panjian, Tweet Coleman, Dan Kapellan, Ed Williams, Alvin Stenzel and major supporter Dr Craig Curtis at K2 in the Villages. We will be hearing more from Dr Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at Mike@ Roth voice. com. We thank everyone for listening to the show. The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth voice 2023. All rights reserved.