[Intro music]

00:00:08 Hannah 

Hi, I'm Hannah. 

00:00:10 Rachelle 

And I'm Rachelle! And this is Box Box F1 Pod! And today, we're going to mix things up. Y'all voted last week on our episode topic, where we will be doing a Formula One-01 on NASCAR vs. F1 through the lens of Cars and Cars 2. This was supposed to be more technical, but after watching Cars and Cars 2, we decided that more focus should be devoted to the plot of both films because they are treasures. So, we will be inserting information and fun facts about NASCAR and Formula 1 as we go through the movies and review them. 

00:00:48 Hannah 

Before we get into the movie, I do want to mention the NASCAR and F1 histories. So, NASCAR was actually, it originated during the Prohibition era in the US when alcohol was illegal and there was a lot of bootlegging, like making and distributing alcohol illegally and underground going on. For transporting this illegal alcohol, the bootleggers needed small, fast cars to evade the police. And so that's kind of how people in the South and like the Appalachian region got into small like race car type vehicles. But then even after prohibition was repealed, a lot of people in the South still really liked the taste of moonshine and so drivers were running ‘shine illegally because they wanted to evade taxes, so they still kept this system where they use small, fast cars to get alcohol around. They decided to race one day and then NASCAR was born. 

00:02:00 Rachelle 

Hopefully they weren't drinking the moonshine as they started racing. Very American. 

00:02:05 Hannah 

Yes, I think it's very emblematic of the culture of NASCAR. I mean, this explains why it's so prominent in the South. It's just like, your everyday car, and that's why the term stock car is used. Because these are just everyday cars and you know, there are some modifications but really, it's just what they had at the time. On the other hand, Formula One originated in Europe, where motor racing was more of a thing in the 1800s and then between World War 1 and World War 2, Formula One as an organization got its start and it was more established. And that's kind of the time where Grands Prix were first officially held. They have always been more about actual race cars, not stock cars, which is why brands like Ferrari or Aston Martin are the more prominent cars in Formula One. 

00:03:02 Rachelle 

And very European in the sense that it doesn't serve a purpose other than to relax. Watch a sport, you're not delivering or evading or anything else.

00:03:13 Hannah 

Yes, exactly. So, I think those are very symbolic starts and really explain the context in which both these sports were born. Which really translates well to Cars. 

00:03:28 Rachelle 

Cars opens at the Piston Cup where they are racing and Lightning McQueen is the protagonist who is a hotshot rookie and he's about to be the first rookie to ever win a Piston Cup. And he is racing against Chick Hicks, a lean mean green driving machine. 

00:03:50 Hannah 

He is mean. He's the antagonist, he's Lightning McQueen's rival in this film. 

00:03:55 Rachelle 

And then there's the old one, the one who's like a legend. He is the Fernando Alonso of…

00:04:02 Hannah 

Actually yeah, cause his name is Mr. the King. So, like I said, there's no humans in the car, it's just the cars are anthropomorphic, so they're like people and it's extremely. 

00:04:15 Rachelle 

Woah, fancy word. 

00:04:20 Hannah 

I'm sorry if I've lost half the audience, but that just means the cars are like people and it's kind of appalling because in the race there's crashes where parts the cars are destroyed and essentially murdered. And it's a lot. 

00:04:41 Rachelle 

It's like when you see a crash in like an actual race, you’re like, ooh, that must have hurt. But like, you physically see the pain on the car in Cars. Which is truly extra traumatic. 

00:04:53 Hannah 

They're like grimacing, it's just…

00:04:55 Rachelle 

Like, imagine if the Ferrari car went ooooh. Like it would be... 

00:05:02 Hannah 

Like they all piled on top of each other, and like in a Grand Prix, in real life, there's debris, but that's fine. It's just like random parts. But this is like their internal organs. 

00:05:12 Rachelle 

Body parts! It's like an arm, a leg, a kidney. What’s a safety car gonna do picking that shit up?

00:05:17 Hannah 

Just dance around. I can’t. But yeah, I was a bit horrified. Also, that kind of brings in a difference between NASCAR and F1 because the reason why all these crashes were happening is because Chick Hicks bumped into one of the cars or deliberately created like a disaster. Which I guess you're kind of allowed to do in NASCAR? Or, there's just a little bit more leeway as to like what a reasonable bump is. 

00:05:51 Rachelle 

Basically, NASCAR is glorified bump bumper cars whereas Formula One it's more exposed. So if you bump, and they're much gentler creatures, so if you bump into a Formula One car that’s bad. You get super duper penalties. 

00:06:07 Hannah 

Yeah, you would get a penalty. At the very least, yeah. 

00:06:08 Rachelle 

Yes, and also costs like 2 million dollars to repair whenever a crash happens cause things fall off. Whereas in NASCAR they're a bit sturdier. 

00:06:19 Hannah 

Lightning is a little behind and to save time he wants to avoid a pit stop. Yes, which is really stupid. 

00:06:27 Rachelle 

Which it's really stupid cause other NASCAR races are much longer than Formula One races. So, in a Formula One race you'd have one to two pit stops, although I guess theoretically you could go the bulk of the race without stopping and NASCAR. It's like a four-hour race. It's like 300 laps. There's like an average of six pit stops per race. So your tires are completely done, so you need to pit stop. And of course, it backfires.

00:06:54 Hannah 

Yes and well, the thing is, he did do a pit stop but only to refill on gas, which I guess in NASCAR is what you do. But I'm like if you're already stopping for gas. just get the tires. It was one thing if he just didn't stop at all, but he stopped and then left and then one of the pit crew members said “you need tires, you idiot.”

00:07:19 Rachelle 

They all quit like, you don't want my tires, you don't get me. 

00:07:24 Hannah 

I mean I agree with them. 

00:07:25 Rachelle 

But it backfired on poor Lightning McQueen who lost two tires towards the end. And so he... 

00:07:33 Hannah 

Made it with his tongue. 

00:07:35 Rachelle 

On two tires.

00:07:43 Hannah 

Well yeah, and but he tied with the other two cars by sticking his tongue out and they counted that as part of his car on the finish line. 

00:07:50 Rachelle 

Yes, if only real cars had tongues. 

00:07:53 Hannah 

They should all be sticking their tongues out then. 

00:07:56 Rachelle 

It's a strategy. It's a strategy that no one appreciates. 

00:08:00 Hannah 

It was absolutely ridiculous. 

00:08:04 Rachelle 

They did a three-way tie. Which apparently is unheard of. I don't know if it's actually unheard of, but it's pretty unheard of here, so they had to do an extra race between the top three to see who actually won the Piston Cup. 

00:08:16 Hannah 

It becomes even more apparent that Lightning has no team-work mindset. He's a one-man team. He does not care about his pit crew, but they're kind of essential. 

00:08:30 Rachelle 

Yes, and so this introduces one of the themes that we get throughout the film, which is that teamwork is essential to motorsports. And it carries over between both Formula One and NASCAR. You need your team because you need your tires. Otherwise you can't race. 

00:08:43 Hannah 

Yeah. Also, apparently, I don't know if this is what NASCAR really calls it, but in the movie, a crew chief essentially is like the team principal in F1. So, kind of like the team manager and Lightning was so difficult to work with that two crew Chiefs already quit on him and he didn't have one at the beginning of this movie. 

00:09:06 Rachelle 

Yeah, he said he didn't need one. But again, crew, it is called a crew chief in NASCAR. But they help you establish strategy. Which might seem pointless in NASCAR when you're just going in a god damm circle, but it's still important. Because like you need to know when to stop, you need to know when to get new tires, you need to work together. And Lightning McQueen thinks that him and speed are all that is necessary. And boy is he about to learn a tough lesson. 

00:09:33 Hannah 

And The King says

00:09:35 Rachelle 

“But you're stupid, you ain't going to win unless you got good folks behind you.”

00:09:39 Hannah 

Yes, very true Mr. King. To do their tie breaker, they are headed to California, which requires a really long road trip.

00:09:50 Rachelle 

Lightning McQueen travels across the state with the only team member he has left which is his truck his transportation truck. 

00:09:54 Hannah 

Mack.  

00:09:57 Rachelle 

Mack, yeah. So, they drive overnight and Mack falls asleep. 

00:010:01 Hannah 

There's a neon car gang. It comes out of nowhere. 

00:10:03 Rachelle 

Yes, and think it's really funny that this truck is asleep so they. 

00:10:06 Hannah 

So they keep messing with it and like bump the truck around. It like makes it so the back of the truck opens and Lightning is a very deep sleeper and doesn't wake up from all this shaking and the door opening and so he falls out of the truck. 

00:10:22 Rachelle 

Yep, he's still asleep. And then he suddenly wakes up and is going against traffic and doesn't know what to do. He seems to think that any direction he chooses will take him to California for some reason, but it's not California. 

00:10:37 Hannah 

Nope, he ends up in Radiator Springs. 

00:10:40 Rachelle 

And it's glorious. 

00:10:42 Hannah 

It's quite glorious. We're introduced to a cast of characters. We wake up the next day with McQueen in the impound, and that's where we meet Mater. 

00:10:56 Rachelle 

Mater, his soon to be best friend who was a tow truck who looks like he lives in Radiator Springs. 

00:11:03 Hannah 

Right, he's a rusty. 

00:11:04 Rachelle 

Yes, he's a very rusty, bucktoothed tow truck with no hood. 

00:11:10 Hannah 

With no intelligence. 

00:11:13 Rachelle 

Aw, don't be so mean to Mater.

00:11:16 Hannah 

No, but they say it. A lot. 

00:11:19 Rachelle 

They do say it. 

00:11:20 Hannah 

I'm just stating a fact. 

00:11:20 Rachelle 

that's true, though Mater is unaware. 

00:11:22 Hannah 

Yeah, well, that's because he has no intelligence. So, they end up in court because McQueen like destroyed the town, I guess. And that's where we meet Sally the Porsche. 

00:11:39 Rachelle 

Yes, who Lightning immediately assumes is some hot babes sent from his like manager’s office that is going to help him get him out of this mess. Little does he know she's a local so. 

00:11:50 Hannah 

She's a refurbished Porsche. Who is the town attorney she really wants McQueen to clean up and fix the town that he's ruined. 

00:12:03 Rachelle 

Because, as we later find out, Radiator Springs used to be a hot spot for travelers going across country. And then they built the freeway and there's always the big men ruin everything and the small town fell off the map and no one comes there anymore. So, they need a nice road so that maybe more people will stop on by. Lightning McQueen is not happy with this turn of events. He says he is a “precision instrument of speed and aerodynamics”, which, I would like to point out from my research, that NASCAR cars are not precision instruments of speed and aerodynamics. That is a Formula One car. 

00:12:37 Hannah 

No. 

00:12:40 Rachelle 

He is a hunk of metal that is driving alcohol across this country. 

00:12:46 Hannah 

Exactly. We also get to meet the best pair of characters. Yes, Luigi is a yellow Italian Fiat. And he runs a tire shop called Casa Della Tires, which is the home of the Leaning Tower of Tires and he has a little apprentice named Guido . 

00:13:06 Rachelle 

Guido, who likes to do a pit stop. 

00:13:09 Hannah 

When Lightning McQueen, cause no one knows who he is in this town cause I guess they don't really watch racing. But Lightning McQueen introduces himself as like a race car then, Luigi says

00:13:24 Rachelle 

Do you know how many Ferraris? 

00:13:27 Hannah 

And McQueen says “no, they race on the European circuit. I'm in the Piston Cup”. 

00:13:32 Rachelle 

And Luigi turns his nose up, like the Italians do, and said, “Luigi follow only the Ferrari.” Turns around and rolls away. 

00:13:42 Hannah 

Yes, it becomes increasingly clear throughout the movie that Luigi and Guido are enormous Ferrari fans. 

00:13:52 Rachelle 

Yes, and who can blame them? Obviously, who would want to be a fan of Lightning McQueen when you can be a fan of Ferrari? Which has history and prestige and speed and aerodynamics.

00:13:54 Hannah 

And glamour. 

00:14:12 Rachelle 

And glamour. And red. Well, so we got another little mini lesson is that the guy who runs the town basically, Doc, says that you can leave, but I will race you first and then if you beat me, you can go and Lightning McQueen is like pshh OK. And does not do the track walk which, as we know, is essential to race day. He jets off and Doc just chills at the start line until he turns wrong, and he falls deep into a canyon. 

00:14:36 Hannah 

I guess the moral of that story is, speed isn't everything. You need strategy. You need patience. 

00:14:44 Rachelle 

Quick strategy interlude, that NASCAR and Formula One have very different strategies, but they both still need strategies. So, NASCAR has two different cars because there's two different tracks, a long track and a short track, so you need a different car for each, but you also need different strategies for each. But you still need to take pit and tire strategy into consideration in both, which Lightning McQueen does neither of. And that's his biggest problem. Anyway, next, we find out that Doc’s a racing champion. 

00:15:13 Hannah 

Yes, he's a Hudson Hornet, which I guess is legendary and he's won three Piston Cups. 

00:15:20 Rachelle 

Yes. And Lightning McQueen obviously suddenly wants to take all his strategy tips and Doc tells him to f off. 

00:15:28 Hannah 

Yeah, because we learned that like at some point towards the end of his career, he got into a big crash and after he got repaired, he wanted to obviously come back, but his sponsors left him to sign with the rookie car at the time, and so Doc was kind of abandoned by the whole sport and now he has a grudge. 

00:15:51 Rachelle 

Anyway, so he calls Lightning McQueen super selfish, and he only does things for himself.

00:15:56 Rachelle 

Which is true

00:15:57 Rachelle 

It is true he needs to. Like take it down a notch and like learn some humility. And he does. He fixes the road overnight and then he stops by every little shop on their street to get fixed. He gets a new paint job. He gets gassed up. He gets this. He gets that. Because he wants to put them and their businesses first because Lightning really supports local. 

00:16:21 Hannah 

Well he has to because he's trapped there. But yes, it made everyone really happy. Which is most important and my favorite place he goes is Casa Della Tires, where Luigi and Guido’s tire shop is filled with Ferrari posters all over the wall and Luigi says 

00:16:46 Rachelle 

“Grazie, grazie. I'm filled with tears of ecstasy.”

00:16:49 Hannah 

Cause I guess Lightning was their first customer in years. And they unveil a new set of tires for him called Fettuccine Alfredo white tires. 

00:17:04 Rachelle 

Clearly written by an American, he's like what Italian words do I know? Fettuccine Alfredo. 

00:17:10 Hannah 

Yes, the most bland Italian pasta. But very accessible for an American audience. 

00:17:20 Rachelle 

Yes, they knew they were catering to NASCAR fans. 

00:17:22 Hannah 

And this is where we learn Guido's hidden talent. 

00:17:28 Rachelle 

He is the fattest pit stop in history.

00:17:33 Hannah 

 You mean fastest? 

00:17:35 Rachelle  

What did I say? 

00:17:36 Hannah  

Fattest. 

00:17:39 Rachelle  

No. Fasted.

00:17:43 Hannah 

Yes. He can do a pit stop in 2.5 seconds by himself. That's unheard of. 

00:17:49 Rachelle 

It’s insane. Yes, in NASCAR. I think it’s heard of elsewhere.

00:17:55 Hannah 

But, no. By himself. 

00:17:57 Rachelle 

Oh, that's a good point. Yeah, there's usually one person per tire, right? 

00:18:01 Hannah 

I don't think this is human.

00:18:02 Rachelle 

To be fair, he is also motorized. Big fan of Guido and Luigi over here. 

00:18:07 Hannah 

I just think his talent is dying in Radiator Springs. 

00:18:14 Rachelle 

They're both dying in Radiator Springs. They belong elsewhere entirely.

00:18:19 Hannah 

They belong with the Ferrari team. 

00:18:22 Rachelle 

They do, they do, and you know, in 2020, Ferrari could have really used them. 

00:18:26 Hannah 

Oh yeah, they needed this pit crew very badly. 

00:18:31 Rachelle 

So badly. And then disaster strikes. Emotionally, for McQueen and the whole town, because the Paparazzi find him. By the way he's been missing this entire time, the entire country has been searching for him, and they finally found him. And how did they find him? Doc called them. 

00:18:51 Hannah 

Yeah, Doc wanted McQueen out of his small town. But, it's fine because he realizes the impact that McQueen had on their little community and also Mater, the tow truck didn't have a chance to say goodbye. So once McQueen gets to California for this like tie-breaking race, the whole crew ends up there. 

00:19:17 Rachelle 

And Mater says goodbye and he's ready to go at that point. But the rest of them have a race to finish. 

00:19:23 Hannah 

And actually Doc becomes his crew chief. Which we love.

00:18:29 Rachelle 

Yes, and when everyone registers that the Doc Hudson, wait that’s not his name, the Hudson Hornet is his crew chief, man, oh man, do they get looks but the best part of this movie is Guido showing the other mechanics who's boss. Cause they're all laughing at him. They're like what are you gonna do, you tiny little thing. And then Luigi's like stopping him like, no Guido, you will have your chance. You will have it. And then McQueen pits and he does it so fast those other guys’ bumper mustaches just dropped to the ground. 

00:20:08 Hannah 

Yeah. Yes, my question though, is why didn't McQueen use the fettuccine Alfredo tires in the race?

00:20:16 Rachelle 

He did!

00:20:19 Hannah 

No, he didn’t. They were black. 

00:20:20 Rachelle 

Cause everyone was commenting… Oh. Well, I guess he was too embarrassed to wear Fettucine Alfredo tires in a real race. 

00:20:28 Hannah 

Well, I was really happy for Guido, but I was very saddened to see the fettuccine was abandoned.

00:20:37 Rachelle 

Poor Luigi.

00:20:38 Hannah 

There's a lot of bumping in this race, mainly initiated by Chick Hicks who 

00:18:45 Rachelle 

Is a hick. 

00:18:46 Hannah 

Yes, he is. And he wants to win at all costs. And he bumps The King, the old car, so badly that it he spins and is like on the side of the track. 

00:20:57 Rachelle 

Like, dying. Which, by the way at least like Europeans, are polite enough to like, stop the race when someone’s like on their death bed. Not here!

00:21:06 Hannah 

Nope, and so McQueen is about to win the race, but then notices that The King is dying basically and so he, right before the finish line, he stops and goes backwards and helps The King finish the race. Meanwhile, Chick Hicks is like celebrating, but no one cares.

00:21:29 Rachelle 

Literally no one. He's like why don't you guys care and they're like you're a dick. 

00:21:32 Hannah 

Yeah, he nearly murdered someone. 

00:21:35 Rachelle 

Yes, exactly for winning and that really, like you have to have a go-to attitude. But that’s a little too go-to.

00:21:43 Hannah 

Yes, but we love seeing this character arc in Lightning McQueen because he gave up the Piston Cup to just help an old timer out. 

00:21:52 Rachelle 

Which is beautiful, but not very effective in terms of being a world champion, but anyway. 

00:21:57 Hannah 

Well, but The thing is, Dinoco, the big sponsor, wanted McQueen to take up their sponsorship because they were so inspired by his kindness so. 

00:22:07 Rachelle 

Yes, they said there's a whole lot more to racing than winning. 

00:22:10 Hannah 

At the end of this movie is, where we go back to Casa Della Tires and Luigi and Guido are in there. And all of a sudden, Michael Schumacher, the Ferrari. shows up in their little shop. Like Michael Schumacher!

00:22:28 Rachelle 

It’s actually Michael Shumacher, I checked

00:22:31 Hannah 

Yes, yes, it really is. I think we were all gonna pass out, but Luigi especially and he says to Guido. 

00:22:39 Rachelle 

“Punch me Guido! Punch me in the face!” 

00:22:42 Hannah 

So Michael Schumacher, the Ferrari, and these two Maserati show up and they want a new set of tires. And literally Luigi and Guido pass out and tip over. 

00:22:54 Rachelle 

I don't know if they ever got their Alfredo tires, but. 

00:22:57 Hannah 

I sure hope so. 

00:22:59 Rachelle 

Yes, same. So anyway that was Cars one. And we learned that teamwork is everything and so is strategy. Speed is not all that matters. 

00:23:10 Hannah 

Yes, great lessons. So, then we move on to Cars 2 which is globalized. We see Aston Martin that's a British cop, I mean a British spy. 

00:23:21 Rachelle 

And he's on a mission because there's some cars doing bad stuff and he's trying to find out why. And all these cars, by the way, are on some random boat in the middle of the ocean, and they're all ugly cars, so take from that what you will. 

00:23:34 Hannah 

Well back in Radiator Springs, so Doc passed away and so we don't get any more of him in this movie. But we do see Lightning McQueen visit Radiator Springs after winning like three or four Piston Cups, so he's like legendary at this point, no longer a rookie. Also, Luigi and Guido are there and Guido’s, his off-season job is a bartender making martinis for everybody. 

00:24:03 Rachelle 

What a great use of his skills. 

00:24:13 Hannah 

Yes. So there's this car named Miles Axelrod, and he created a new biofuel called Allinol, which was inspired by American ethanol, which is a fuel used in NASCAR races. Miles Axelrod creates a whole

other championship series called the World Grand Prix where all the cars racing there have to use Allinol.

00:24:29 Rachelle 

Yes, and it's all the all the cars from all the motorsports across the world. So that's F1…

00:24:34 Hannah 

I guess like one of the most prominent, or like famous, Italian race cars, his name is Francesco and he starts talking shit on McQueen. 

00:24:44 Rachelle 

Yeah, he says when I want to go to sleep, I watch one of his races.

00:24:49 Hannah 

Because I mean, I guess this is kind of a widely-held view, NASCAR drives in circles and is therefore slightly more boring. 

00:25:01 Rachelle 

Yes, it's they have some that are longer and some that are shorter. But really, it's an oval. And that’s it. Meanwhile, in Formula 1, every track design is different. That means that the cars have to be designed to handle straights and corners, not just like swoop around in a circle. 

00:25:21 Hannah 

So, the first race to kick off the World Grand Prix is in Tokyo and

00:25:27 Rachelle 

Yeah, I don't know why we're in Tokyo when we just had so much Europe versus America banter. And then we went to Japan. 

00:25:32 Hannah 

Right, it was a culture shock for these Radiator Springs people. 

00:25:38 Rachelle 

Yes, and Mater got to go this time. and there was a whole thing where Mater never goes to races with Lightning McQueen cause he's obviously a little embarrassed by him. But personally, I wouldn't want for Mater’s first race to be one across international waters. I feel like he'd be much more at home at a NASCAR race. 

00:25:56 Hannah 

Yes, OK Mater should have started just going to the American races, like in NASCAR. Or at the very least, started in England if he were to go overseas because at least that's a little bit more understandable. Yeah, because he has no culture, class, or ability to research. 

00:26:17 Rachelle 

No, or ability to read a room which would have actually helped a lot.

00:26:21 Hannah 

Just any sort of social awareness was completely devoid. And so also he's such a freeloader, they were at a party and Lightning McQueen mentions that the drinks are free so he just gets tons and tons of free drinks and starts storing them in his tow truck. 

00:26:40 Rachelle 

To be honest I don't blame him, I just might have been a bit more subtle about. 

00:26:43 Hannah 

Right, I love free drinks, but I'm not going to take 50 of them at once. 

00:26:48 Rachelle 

And store them in my open car.

00:26:50 Hannah 

And so he sees that the little Japanese server has green goop that looks like pistachio ice cream, but it's actually wasabi. Mater asks if it's free and he says yes. He asks for the wasabi and 

00:27:06 Rachelle 

Eats it like pistachio ice cream. 

00:27:08 Hannah 

And of course, freaked out and embarrassed McQueen crazily running around. And then he goes to the bathroom where he finds. 

00:27:21 Rachelle 

A bidet!

00:27:22 Hannah 

I can’t get over this whole thing.

00:27:25 Rachelle 

It's like, it’s not just a European bidet, it’s a Japanese bidet. For cars. So, it's basically like a mini car wash and there's like a TV and like singing anime characters and then he gets squirted from every direction. Which for the record, I kind of understand Mater, not to feed into the stereotype of Americans being complete idiots outside of America, But I went to a bathroom in London and they had one of those bidets that are like hoses. And I was really confused cause I'd never seen one of those before. I thought you just sat down, and it did its business for you. So, I picked it up and I was like what's this? And then it squirted all over me and I had to go out into this fancy ass restaurant sopping wet. 

00:28:06 Hannah 

Oh no.

00:28:08 Rachelle 

I guess what we forgot to mention is all this is like a party for all of the cars competing. So, Francesco is also there and he gets told by Luigi that McQueen’s girlfriend has a crush on him and Francesco says that he “Francesco's familiar with this reaction to Francesco. Women appreciate a car with nothing to hide.”

00:28:28 Hannah 

Yes, we couldn't agree more with Francesco. 

00:28:31 Rachelle 

Yeah, we totally agree, but it also speaks to the mechanical differences between Formula One cars and NASCARs. F1 cars are open wheel, open cockpit, open everything because they're honest. And NASCARs are trying to bootleg a whole bunch of alcohol, so they're closed wheel, closed cockpit situations and they have different engines and also, they're all built the same. So like while Formula One cars have say in their design and structure and that goes into their strategy. NASCAR cars are all pretty much made by Chevy, Toyota, or Ford. 

00:29:11 Hannah 

Yes, and I guess there's a saying, “win on Sunday, buy on Monday” because since these car brands are actually like pretty affordable for like everyday people like people can actually buy like a similar car to what's in their race, whereas for F1 obviously you can't just like go out and buy a Ferrari on Monday. 

00:29:34 Rachelle

You could try.

00:29:37 Hannah 

You could try, you could try but you'd have to be a billionaire. OK yeah, so the first race in Japan does not go well, because Mater is on like the team radio with Lightning, but of course because Mater’s very dumb, he gets distracted and he keeps talking into the radio and Lightning is just doing crazy things cause he's trying to interpret what Mater is saying. 

00:30:01 Rachelle 

And it doesn't go well. He got second place to Francesco. 

00:30:04 Hannah 

Yes, and that kind of pauses their friendship because McQueen, first of all, he was really embarrassed at the party and secondly, he's just really annoyed that he's getting so distracted. Which is all due to Mater’s, lack of ability to assimilate into a new culture. It really is, he just he's like ooh karate and he gets super distracted. 

00:30:30 Rachelle 

OK, but I think you're missing a large plot point is that he accidentally gets caught up in like world espionage and is completely unaware. 

00:30:42 Hannah 

Right, OK, there's a lot of spy stuff in this movie which I just don't really find very compelling. 

00:30:50 Rachelle 

They just wanted to put an Aston Martin in. I think is really what it was. 

00:30:53 Hannah 

And they wanted to make it more action packed than the first Cars movie, which is a little slower and down to Earth. This one is crazy. 

00:31:01 Rachelle 

I know they're appealing to the people who don't care about racing, but like this is Cars 2. It should be only about racing. But just to quickly recap, we met the Aston Martin at the beginning who was like intercepting some weird spy crap. He ran away cause they saw him and then he was at the Japanese sushi wasabi pistachio ice cream party and was trying to pick up some intelligence from an American car who got caught by all these ugly cars that are the bad guys, and so he pinned the secret intelligence under Mater who was in the bathroom getting his ass cleaned. And when so they found the tracker and so this pink car, which is another British car that we are not introduced to, her and the Aston Martin think that Mater is extremely undercover and are thoroughly impressed because he's so stupid and dumb and sticks out like a sore thumb that he is very clearly a brilliant agent. 

00:31:52 Hannah 

So, there's a mix up and Mater gets caught in the middle and a little scene that I really liked is, so the Aston Martin, his name is Finn McMissile. So, when he meets Mater he says Finn McMissile, British Intelligence and Mater says Tow Mater, Average Intelligence. 

00:32:16 Rachelle 

Basically, I think this plot point just serves to emphasize the vast difference between Europe and America. Average intelligence. British intelligence. So when the radio was being intercepted and Mater was saying weird crap on the radio, he was in the middle of a karate fight between the Aston Martin and all those ugly cars that are the bad guys. Because he thinks he's dating the pink car and doesn't know he's part of a spy situation. 

00:32:42 Hannah 

Nevertheless, the point still stands that Mater is acting stupidly, and Lightning isn't having it. And so he's just like I don't want your help anymore. 

00:32:52 Rachelle 

And so Mater tries to go home, but ends up in France.

00:32:54 Hannah 

But he can't, cause he's intercepted by spies. Then we go to Paris, we see cars kissing on bridges. We also see, for some reason, OK cause cars don't have hands, when cars have to do things, they use their wheels to kind of like nudge around, but they're not the same thing as hands. And so, for some reason this movie wanted to put in a mime car, even though hands are essential for miming.

00:33:24 Rachelle 

Easily can be replaced with wheels.

00:33:27 Hannah 

So this mime car is just sliding around.

00:33:31 Rachelle 

It gets the point across. 

00:33:33 Hannah 

I don't understand what they were thinking. That’s Paris!

00:33:37 Rachelle 

It's basically just more spy crap they meet with an informer who's a three-wheel car and he gives them information. The information is that all the bad cars in this movie… 

00:33:48 Hannah 

Are having a meeting. 

00:33:55 Rachelle 

They're all the ugly cars, so Gremlin, Pacer, Hugo and Trunkovs. 

00:33:56 Hannah 

And they’re called lemon cars because basically lemon cars are like cars that are substantially defected. Yeah, they're trash, but in this movie they're like the mafia. 

00:34:07 Rachelle 

Yeah, they're rising up. Against their oppressors. 

00:34:09 Hannah 

Yes, so the heads of all the lemon families are meeting in Italy soon. 

00:34:15 Rachelle 

Which, conveniently, is where the next race is. 

00:34:18 Hannah 

And we meet Luigi's family, Uncle Topolino, and they're all Fiats. 

00:34:26 Rachelle 

Yes, they’re out somewhere in the Amalfi Coast and everything there,  Fiats are carved in all the mountains. I don't actually know where Fiat is based.

00:34:33 Hannah 

Their dinner is chugging olive oil. Because they’re cars. But I do believe that the olive oil in Italy is substantially better, so they say, “how do they do it? These are the same ingredients as back home, but it tastes so different.” 

00:34:50 Rachelle 

Except it's true. Everything in Italy tastes better. 

00:34:53 Hannah 

Yes, it is, it's accurate. 

00:34:54 Rachelle 

Did you know? Fun fact, good people who are gluten free can usually eat the pasta in Italy, cause it's that much higher quality. 

00:35:03 Hannah 

I did hear that once, but and I believe it cause it's very like homemade, pure ingredients. 

00:35:11 Rachelle 

Yes, and the flour… the ingredients. Yeah it’s just so much better.

00:35:13 Hannah 

It's like more semolina.

00:35:16 Rachelle 

Yeah, we prefer Italy personally so. 

00:35:18 Hannah 

Very much like I really wish this movie just stopped in Italy. And then we just hung out with the Topolinos and all the Fiats for the rest of the movie. And, actually, Uncle Topolino gives us a little bit more backstory to Luigi and Guido, cause I guess they used to work at Topolino's tire shop in Italy. 

And became best friends, except they used to fight all the time. But over like trivial things, like which Ferrari is the best Ferrari, which one of them looks more like a Ferrari, and non-Ferrari fights. 

00:35:53 Rachelle 

Yeah, it was a very wholesome friendship. They covered everything. Which one looks more like a Ferrari? Neither of them. 

00:35:59 Hannah 

Ne one’s a yellow Fiat, the other is an even smaller blue car. Yeah, it just made me think like I want to know more about their backstory and why in the world they would leave this wonderful village in Italy to live in Radiator Springs and manage a dying tire tower.

00:36:23 Rachelle 

I agree, I feel like it was a terrible business decision. Terrible personal decision, on every front they messed up. 

00:36:31 Hannah 

They need to go back. And I need a spinoff with Luigi and Guido. 

00:36:35 Rachelle 

Also, uhm, Uncle Topolino gives Lightning McQueen a lecture that you're supposed to accept your friends for who they are no matter what. With which I firmly disagree, you should call your friends out if they're acting like an idiot in Europe, or Japan, or literally anywhere. 

00:36:55 Hannah 

Yes, like I mean you don't need to excommunicate them, but it's totally fine to call them out and to take a break. 

00:37:02 Rachelle 

I just think this is a two-way situation and someone should really sit Mater down and explain to him, don't just be yourself. You could really work on it. And like be a little different. Being yourself is not the end all be all. 

00:37:15 Hannah 

There's always room for improvement with anyone, so tell them what they need to do. 

00:37:22 Rachelle 

We sound like great friends. 

00:37:26 Hannah 

Yes. Well yeah, I can't handle Mater at this point. Like in Cars 1 I was like, OK, he's cute cause he was like, you're my best friend. But now it's just like, why is he a main character in this franchise? He was just best on the side as a tow truck. 

00:37:43 Rachelle 

Agree. Too much Mater in the wrong places. Anyway, moving the story along, Mater dresses up as a Russian truck and he goes and intercepts a lemon mafia meeting where he finds out that they're shooting at all these sports cars during the races to kill them because screw the pretty cars. Feels like a very negative uprising.

00:38:08 Hannah 

So I think, yes, part of it is like a class thing, where they don't like the pretty like luxury cars. But also, it's because in this Grand Prix, all these races they're using Allinol, the biofuel. And they want to make biofuels look bad by shooting the cars and making it look like it’s because of the fuel. 

00:38:31 Rachelle 

Yeah, cause they're sitting on the huge gas reserves, so they want the money. 

00:38:34 Hannah 

Yes, they don't want any alternative fuels. They just want gas to be used. But also the place where they race in Italy is called Porto Corsa. And it's basically like Monaco but Italian. I mean like in terms of a Grand Prix. 

00:38:49 Rachelle 

Yeah, they just they just extracted the Monaco track and plopped it on the Almafi Coast.

00:38:55 Hannah 

Yes, there's so many yachts and they call it they call Porto Corsa the playground for the wealthy. Anyone who's anyone is here, and it's for the ultra-rich, super famous and world leaders. And then we see… 

00:39:10 Rachelle 

Like the pop. 

00:39:14 Hannah 

We see the Pope mobile. So anyways, the lemons do successfully call into question Allinol. And so, then they think that it's not going to be used anymore. But then McQueen says I'll still use it. And so then the lemons put a hit on McQueen, cause he's the only one like kind of keeping Allinol still alive. 

00:39:33 Rachelle 

And then Mater tries to warn him, but they get to Mater first, cause he wasn't able to stay a Russian truck forever. And he gets him, and the Aston Martin and the pink car all get trapped in the Big Bentley.

00:39:45 Hannah 

Which is a pun for the Big Ben clock tower in London. 

00:39:45 Rachelle 

And they also renamed Tower Bridge Tyre Bridge. 

00:39:58 Hannah 

I love that. Also, the Queen is there. Queen Elizabeth is a Rolls Royce and she looks pretty blinged out. But yeah, so in the actual race in London a lot's going on because this is where the lemons want to kill McQueen. And so they strap a bomb to Mater. And Mater, knowing he has a bomb on him, goes to find McQueen.

00:40:24 Rachelle 

Oh no, he found out after he found McQueen.

00:40:26 Hannah 

OK well. 

00:40:27 Rachelle 

He went and told him the bomb was at the pit and then they're like, oh you're the bomb. And he's like whoops and then he's like get away for me. 

00:40:35 Hannah 

But then McQueen keeps saying, cause Mater’s like I'm the bomb, I'm the bomb, get away. And then McQueen says, yeah, you are the bomb. I'll never take our friendship for granted again. And he keeps following Mater. And so the race you know isn't really happening cause there's this whole side plot going, but the Queen, the Rolls Royce, is like who's winning the race on her throne. She clearly doesn't have a good radio broadcast cause the race is not really happening here. 

00:41:02 Rachelle 

But anyway, they land in front of the Queen, cause Mater is like I'm gonna accuse the guy responsible, who is Axelrod. Which I predicted from the beginning, just saying.

00:41:11 Hannah 

I think a lot of people knew that was going to happen. 

00:41:14 Rachelle 

Alright, whatever Hannah. 

00:41:18 Hannah 

I mean, who else would it be? 

00:41:20 Rachelle 

The Queen!

00:41:24 Hannah 

Actually, that would have been much better.

00:41:28 Rachelle 

Yeah, so he accuses Axelrod. And Axelrod is like it's not me. It's not me. It's not me. But then he has to say disable to disable the bomb so he doesn't die and everyone knows it is him and Mater is knighted. Literally impossible because he is American. Or is it? Or is it a hypothetical one? 

00:41:42 Hannah 

Yeah, a hypothetical knighting. I mean yes. 

00:41:47 Rachelle 

No, I meant honorary.

00:41:49 Hannah 

Yeah, honorary. This whole movie is hypothetical, to be clear. But yes, I think it was honorary. So clearly Mater should have started out in England, cause this is where he's thriving. Instead of going to Tokyo and like embarrassing this entire nation. 

00:42:05 Rachelle 

And I just I'm really not a fan of the moral of this story is that an American should just be themselves in Europe.

00:42:11 Hannah 

Yes, that's the wrong message we need to be sending to our children.

00:42:15 Rachelle 

Don't be yourselves in Europe. Or don't be American. Whichever one is easier.

00:42:20 Hannah 

Just assimilate. Like if you're going somewhere new, learn about it and fit in. So, then the movie ends in Radiator Springs, cause they're actually holding a Grand Prix there, but more for fun. Not like as like really part of a tournament. Francesco is clearly a thirst trap because Sally, McQueen’s girlfriend, and Flo, the gas station lady, they love Francesco's open wheels. 

00:42:50 Rachelle 

But they don't tell McQueen this, even though they're like lusting after this open-wheel situation. I'm confused is this like a guy walking around with his dick out? Like how is this attractive? 

00:42:59 Hannah 

I think the analogy might be kind of like three buttons off on a shirt, like you could see their chest versus all buttoned up. Cause that's like covering too much and you look too uptight. Yeah, it’s like a hot…

00:43:07 Rachelle 

Ah, OK. Why didn’t I think of that?!

00:43:16 Hannah 

Yeah, hot Italian man with like 1/2 button shirt. I don’t know why… No we don’t need to go further on that. Alrighty.

00:43:34 Rachelle 

That was that was the end of Cars 2. 

00:43:37 Hannah 

Yep. We thoroughly enjoyed these movies. 

00:43:41 Rachelle 

Yes, and we personally got, it's very informative in terms of Formula One vs NASCAR, as was this podcast, I am sure so. 

00:43:49 Hannah 

Well, next week we'll be going to Monaco to cover the Grand Prix there, and we're very excited. 

00:43:56 Rachelle 

Yes, and we've got some preshow shows, including a trip down memory Lane in Monaco. We're gonna be cooking some Monégasque food. 

00:44:04 Hannah 

Follow us on @boxboxf1pod on Instagram and Twitter to follow along. 

00:44:12 Rachelle 

Box Box! 

00:44:13 Hannah 

Box Box!