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March 28, 2025 - The Tucker Carlson Show
01:15:05
How Casey Putsch Built the Most Efficient Car in the World, and Why the EPA Hates Him for It
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casey putsch
45:57
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tucker carlson
27:27
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Speaker Time Text
tucker carlson
Okay, so here's my theory.
The death of the U.S. auto industry was a bigger deal than, I think we realized, maybe a harbinger, hopefully not, but perhaps a harbinger of what happens to the country going forward.
So Detroit dies, and people are like, oh, Detroit's such a mess.
My wife is from there, so I've been there a lot.
But you never thought that would happen to the rest of the country.
casey putsch
Oh, no, we're going similar ways.
tucker carlson
We are.
That's exactly right.
casey putsch
I live in the greater Toledo area, and that's baby Detroit.
tucker carlson
Toledo. Exactly.
Home of Champion Sparkplugs.
Yeah, no longer.
unidentified
*music*
tucker carlson
So, I guess the question is if we want to prevent I would say largely regulation and the nature of trying to find more profit and where you ship things.
casey putsch
It was a lack of pride in having a workforce in the future tomorrow.
And those are the two things I would stick with.
Because since, you know, in my opinion, I've been a car guy for a long time.
tucker carlson
You mentioned the unions.
Everyone blames the unions for the destruction of Detroit.
casey putsch
I think that's a secondary symptom.
I mean, that's a big thing, but I think culturally it has to do more with where we're going and what happened.
I mean, the automotive industry right now, if you look at new cars, I don't own a new car.
The newest vehicle I own is early 2000s.
Really? The newest.
Yeah, and honestly, I've been thinking like that.
tucker carlson
And you're a professional car guy and you have no use.
casey putsch
Yeah, no, I work on all my own stuff from exotics to building race cars, helping students building airplanes to vintage stuff.
Like, I know automotive history.
And honestly, kind of the sweet spot for cars to daily drive are the 1980s and 1990s.
What? We've just gotten worse since then.
tucker carlson
In what ways?
casey putsch
Consumer culture.
You know, they try to find new ways to make money, give something to buy a new model year.
But cars haven't really gotten any better since the 1990s.
They're coming in more like a cell phone.
And then you get more and more and more regulation, which just stymies the automotive industry into building just the one thing.
That's why all the cars look the same.
That's why there's no real innovation.
That's why anything interesting ends up being wildly expensive.
And then the two things that are always used as, shall we say, the scapegoat is either the environment, the EPA, or safety.
But it's not always about that.
And if you're really worried about safety...
tucker carlson
Wait, wait, those are scapegoats?
casey putsch
Well, not scapegoats, but reasons to force things in to be a certain way.
Because if you speak up and question anything, they'll always say, environment, safety.
It seems like that's always the way.
But we're always just quagmired in this regulation and direction.
tucker carlson
Well, you're blowing my mind.
So, I mean, getting older is a process of realizing how many of the lies you've internalized and believed.
And I guess if you had asked me when I woke up this morning what destroyed Detroit, I would say, I mean, I'm not actually even that against unions, to be honest with you, but I would say, well, everyone says the unions and EPA and safety.
Ralph Nader and the EPA and the UAW.
True. But no.
True. It's deeper, you're saying.
casey putsch
Well, it is.
And, okay, you know, I'm an individual.
I build stuff.
I think about the nation, individuals, community, my family, my friends.
Like, we want a car that gets us there, that we can fix, that we can afford, right?
But it's not what we're making.
Another thing which I want to mention, two points.
The other thing that's happening nowadays is we don't really innovate or make anything new anymore that people can afford, really.
And I'm finding another, it seems like...
A symptom, a cross-culture of just everything now is about money from one pocket to another.
It's not about really creating something new or building tomorrow.
And I started to see that in the automotive industry with the nature of hybrids to electric.
They have a purpose, but they're not a solution for everything.
But the political push and powers are trying to make it a solution for everything.
And I look at this and go, no, no, no, no.
This isn't about...
This isn't about what's best for everybody or even the environment or anything.
This is money from one pocket to another and a power play.
tucker carlson
What does that mean, money from one pocket to another?
casey putsch
So, it's a deeper discussion that led to when I built what I called the Omega car, which I built that high-efficiency diesel car that I thought would be more recyclable, lower environment impact, affordable, and a good car and a direction to go.
And if I make...
Can I just...
Back up a second, kind of what I saw.
So, you know, in my teens and 20s, I'm just a normal car guy.
I liked fast cars and going on dates with pretty girls.
That's pretty much all I cared about.
tucker carlson
So fast cars and fast women is what you're saying.
casey putsch
Well, they say in Kentucky, what is it?
They say beautiful horses and fast women.
No, I meant beautiful women and fast horses.
Something like that.
But, no, that was kind of all I cared about.
But my grandfather always talked about politics and things going on in the world.
And while I didn't really care so much to look into it, things stuck with me.
Yes. Was it 2008 when Obama was running?
People are all excited.
I'm like, okay.
And I remember watching all the presidential stuff.
That was kind of the first time I really started paying attention to politics when I was a younger guy.
And we're watching the Democratic National Convention and Obama's talking.
And I remember thinking, this guy's full of crap.
That's just my gut feeling.
I didn't know where he came from.
I didn't really know that much of politics, but I'm just like, this guy is full of crap.
tucker carlson
You didn't think he was black Jesus?
casey putsch
No. No, I mean...
tucker carlson
You sound like a racist.
casey putsch
I don't care.
I don't care.
So, I just thought he was full of crap.
And so I'm listening, get to the point, and he goes, and I'll help Detroit retool so the energy-efficient cars of tomorrow will build here for the sake of the nation and world.
I'm like, bullshit.
You're not gonna.
You're not doing a Kennedy speech like we're going to the moon before the decade is out.
You're not gonna do it.
It just ticked me off, and I've remembered it to this day.
And, of course, we have the...
tucker carlson
Why did you know he was not going to do it?
casey putsch
Because Detroit's not going to change.
He's not going to change that.
Like a politician changes their own oil, let alone know how a car works or the industry or what to do with it.
Fair. Respectfully.
tucker carlson
Fair, fair.
No, with no respect, I would say.
casey putsch
No, you know, and I can think of some, you know, military leaders and such saying things that I'll be a little kinder about.
We don't want to take advice from, you know...
Pantsuits in Washington.
It's like, what do they know about it?
Respectfully. But things like that go across the board.
So I'm thinking, he's not doing anything.
Well, the other thing that interesting happened was the financial crisis, 2008-2009, right?
Now, I didn't fully understand what was going on.
Again, I cared more about going on dates and fast cars than politics and things going on at the time.
But the family business we had was a small-town public golf course in the Midwest.
You know, 18 holes, worked our butt off.
My father worked seven days a week, 6 o'clock in the morning, 10 o'clock at night, every day.
Throughout the entire season.
So we worked.
I know, like, being in a small town, everybody makes fun of you.
Oh, you're rich.
You just sit on a golf course all day.
I'm like, no, we're changing oil in, like, diesel tractors and back-lapping mowers and mowing and putting on banquets and doing family business, right?
tucker carlson
What does it mean to back-lap a mower?
casey putsch
Oh, sorry.
That was...
So, if you mow a fairway or a green, it's not a rotary blade that cuts by kind of, like, whacking the...
It's actually...
It's a reel, which comes through and slices on a blade.
Yes. Well, they get dull.
And so you have to sharpen them, and it's dirty, and you beat up your knuckles, and that's kind of the work you actually do in the winter with the golf course.
tucker carlson
By hand, like with a file, or?
casey putsch
Oh, no.
You have to run them backwards with a dirty compound with, like, grit on it, and you have to adjust it.
tucker carlson
Oh, you laugh it, like you laugh your mouth.
casey putsch
Yeah, you laugh it.
Exactly, exactly.
Thank you.
tucker carlson
Sorry to interrupt.
casey putsch
No, it's all right.
I just kind of bring that up because that was my world at the time.
We worked hard, and we saw that.
But at that time, I started to see how it was affecting people in?
Little tiff in Ohio.
On a daily basis.
Loans. Housing loans.
Business loans.
And I also saw how that affected eventually when the family was thinking of selling the business.
You couldn't get lending for something like that.
And I started to see how that hurt everything.
But where I was going with it in relation to the overarching things with the automotive industry.
So now we're bailing out the automotive industry?
Tax dollars?
Huge amounts of money?
Okay. Huh.
Paying attention.
And I'd lived in Columbus, Ohio at the time.
Head of my little shop working on vintage race cars and things like that.
And riding my motorcycle around.
And after we were bailing out the automotive industries, I kind of remember back and I'm like, so I wonder, is Obama going to try to make everything efficient now?
Are they going to do anything?
And I see us, we just kind of doubled down on making bigger trucks and muscle cars and things, which I have to tell you.
I love big trucks and muscle cars and fast cars.
If you can afford the fuel and do what you want, don't get in my way.
You can pry my sports cars out of my cold dead hands.
I agree.
But it doesn't mean I don't necessarily want something that could be better for the daily driver.
I can't think of something that might be more efficient.
So I was noticing that.
And I'm thinking, this is wrong.
Something's wrong here.
And just in what I was doing and researching various materials and thinking of building cars, and it's kind of what I do, you know?
I started to realize there's a myriad of ways that we can mass-produce cars, automobiles, that will be less toxic, less environmental impact, cheaper, more efficient than what we're doing.
Because in a sense, all of our cars are stamped metal boxes with chairs bolted in them.
We've been doing that since the mid-1930s.
We have.
Not much has changed.
unidentified
And it's been a long time.
casey putsch
And I'll say this also, which I think you might enjoy as a history guy.
So, SR-71 Blackbird, right?
CIA spy plane, Mach 3. They came up with that in the late 1950s.
We had to go to the trouble of getting all the titanium, I think, from Russia at the time, which required a zillion shell companies and orchestration just to get the material to build it.
And we built an aircraft, effectively, in the late 1950s, 1960, that'll do Mach 3 and can map.
Hundreds of thousands of miles of the Earth's surface, and before GPS existed, be able to plot the stars through broad daylight and through clouds in the late 50s, and we're still making cars like the 1930s now?
I think that's BS.
tucker carlson
To be fair, you've also seen the death of innovation in aviation as well.
casey putsch
That's true, too.
tucker carlson
I mean, the 747 came out in 1969.
True. Tell me we've made it, and I was born that year, 55. Yeah.
Six years ago.
When was the last time we built a plane that cool?
1969. We haven't.
casey putsch
And to be fair, there's a lot of things that we still, like the B-52 bomber, it's still around.
Buff is eternal, they joke, you know?
And so there's a lot of great designs from back when that are still perfect designs now and can be upgraded.
It doesn't mean that we have to have innovation for innovation state.
Some things just work.
But sometimes you need new things.
But as a younger guy at the time, I was...
I was frustrated by all this.
And I'm like, you know what?
I'm going to build a car.
I got a point to prove.
And my thinking at the time was, it can't be electric.
Because nobody knows what the heck a kilowatt hour is back then.
We're not accustomed to thinking like that.
We think miles per gallon.
How fast is it?
Zero to 60. You know, things like that.
That's kind of the two things that matter most to people.
And can you use this?
And how much does it cost?
So I was like, okay.
I want to build a car that'll be representative of something that can be mass-produced that, let's say, would cost about $20,000 or less.
I made it diesel, turbo diesel.
So I looked around for what I felt was about the most efficient engine, reasonably available, and built the car.
Now, I said something like 11 years ago on video so I can prove it.
I said it will get over 100 miles a gallon and it will do zero to 60 in under five seconds.
Now, I built the car.
I even showed it at a...
Private-like car event with sports cars and exotic cars and told everybody about my concept.
But when I got it all together and done, I realized I don't have a voice.
Like, what am I going to do with this thing?
If the world doesn't know it exists and nobody hears about it, it doesn't exist.
tucker carlson
You felt like Nikolai Tesla at this point, I'm sure.
casey putsch
Perhaps. I don't, maybe.
You know, he's an interesting character.
tucker carlson
Yeah, for sure.
casey putsch
Certainly. And I sat on it.
I just put it in my garage for the better part of a decade.
Because I didn't have a voice.
But other things going on in life, I was doing my non-profit Genius Garage, which I really believed in, because we can go into some big problems with the American educational system, especially higher education.
I think we're stymieing our youth to families in the future, and I think it comes from predatory lending and loans you can't default on.
And I think the schools are creating this vacuum monster that is not the real world, with majors that are not providing jobs and creating an environment for political radicalization.
But that's another topic.
But the reason I say that is...
tucker carlson
Everything you just said is obvious, and it's crazy that it still exists.
But let me just back up to the vehicle itself, if you don't mind, without getting boring on the subject.
Explain how you get 100 miles to the gallon on diesel, and it goes 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds.
What is that?
How big is the motor?
Tell us about the car.
casey putsch
Let me ask you a question.
I don't know what you drove here, but let's pick your average car or SUV.
Put it in neutral.
How hard is it to push it?
tucker carlson
Pretty hard.
casey putsch
Pretty hard, right?
Yeah. Like, I know it sounds silly, but when you work on cars, if you spend your day pushing around cars, you start thinking about how efficient they are.
Look at a car and a SUV going down the road, or a semi.
How aerodynamic do you think that is?
tucker carlson
Not super aerodynamic.
No. I drive a Silverado, not aerodynamic.
casey putsch
There's nothing about our cars that are remotely efficient at all.
So, how do you get that?
You just make the actual car, not so much the drivetrain.
You're not looking for a magic bullet.
Everybody wants a magic bullet.
You make the car more efficient.
Lower coefficient of drag.
Somewhat lighter weight where you don't need weight.
Just less rolling resistance.
You make it actual, efficient, good design.
We don't do that with the automotive industry anymore.
And the reason I chose diesel is because people would understand that.
Diesel is also a very flexible fuel.
We can make biodiesel.
You can make...
Diesel, effectively, out of what's left over from the meatpacking industry, the wine-making industry, agriculture, you name it.
And this is fascinating, too, because, and I've got to get into why I talked about the car, but since that time, I got word back from people kind of more in traditional automotive media and whatnot, no one would talk about it or write about it.
And it kind of pissed me off.
Because back when I was in a concept, and I just talked about it a little bit on my YouTube channel, some places would report about it.
But why is it when it was just a concept and a YouTuber was trying to do something efficient and maybe eco-friendly and whatnot, they'd write about it, but then when it actually did what I said it was going to do, they wouldn't.
tucker carlson
It actually gets 100 miles to the gallon?
casey putsch
Yeah, first time out, I didn't even have all the fairings on it.
I haven't even tuned it.
It was 104.72 miles to the gallon just driving through the countryside normally with stop signs and turns and such.
Just jumping in without even tuning it more.
The first time I took it out, we were just idling and doing hard pulls and everything else.
I looked at it and I'm like, we just got like 88 miles to the gallon and we're not even trying.
tucker carlson
That's crazy.
casey putsch
Well, and the other thing...
tucker carlson
Considering gas is pretty...
It's like three bucks or something.
Yeah. Right here, yeah.
casey putsch
Yeah, I mean, it's expensive.
It's more expensive in Europe.
And like, okay, I have some gas guzzlers for sure.
I like V12s and stick shifts and straight pipes.
tucker carlson
So tell me about the engine in this vehicle.
casey putsch
It's largely conventional.
It's turbo.
Which is good for diesel because it allows you some flexibility to cruise more.
But if you want to make power, you can crank in the boost and do some things to make it efficient.
And I experimented even with some catalytic converters and such that will even be better.
So there's nothing crazy about the drivetrain.
There's no magic bullet there.
tucker carlson
What about?
casey putsch
The other thing, I've got to point this out.
That drivetrain, when I started, had 130,000 miles on it.
It's no spring chicken.
tucker carlson
What was it from?
What did you pull it out of?
casey putsch
Volkswagen. Pre-dieselgate.
Dieselgate's an interesting thing to talk about, too.
tucker carlson
What's dieselgate?
casey putsch
That was the big scandal that Volkswagen went through with allegedly cheating their emissions.
Oh, I remember this.
That was back in 2015, I think.
That was a big scandal.
Which is interesting, because in looking back on it now...
It seems to tie into more with not regulating a car company so much for the betterment of all, but an attack.
That's the way it kind of looks like to me.
tucker carlson
An attack on Volkswagen.
casey putsch
I would say diesel.
Because Volkswagen was in, I don't know about now, but certainly was the best and most efficient.
The engine I used was from back in like 2000 when they made it.
Volkswagen. Yeah, good engine.
And it's manual, more efficient that way.
tucker carlson
The transmission's manual?
casey putsch
Yeah, manual.
Less parasitic losses.
Really? It's cheaper to produce, gets better miles to the gallon.
And, you know, back in the day, sports cars, if they were manual, would have better zero to 60 times and such.
tucker carlson
No longer true.
casey putsch
Yeah, no longer true.
Our automatics have gotten a lot more interesting and whatnot.
tucker carlson
But manual transmission still makes for more efficient driving.
casey putsch
Yeah, because there's less parasitic drag.
There's less losses in the drivetrain.
tucker carlson
Huh. Interesting.
Like meaningfully more efficient?
casey putsch
Well, especially in that time, in the 2000s, probably could be five to seven miles to a gallon on the highway.
tucker carlson
Oh, wow.
casey putsch
Maybe only like three, but it's still a lot.
When you consider millions of cars over years.
tucker carlson
For sure.
Or even your car over years.
casey putsch
And it doesn't all have to just be about like, oh, we have to do this for the sake of environment.
These are costs that hit people's pockets.
tucker carlson
That's the whole point.
I wasn't thinking about emissions even.
Yeah. Well, that's amazing.
And what about emissions on this vehicle?
In regard to mine or the whole scandal?
casey putsch
It's the basic stuff that diesel would have.
I mean, you've got a pretty serious catalytic converter.
You've got the exhaust gas regulation and such.
Without getting an overly nitty-gritty, diesel does have some things about it that the EPA likes to go after.
But it's kind of strange, and I'm curious to see what happens in the future.
So, you probably, I'm sure you saw this.
The Supreme Court ruled differently on the Chevron deference.
tucker carlson
Of course.
casey putsch
Which I'm really fascinated to see how that changes the nature of the way laws are interpreted.
tucker carlson
So, the question before the court was, can federal agencies create legislation when the Constitution says, no, Congress creates the laws?
casey putsch
Right. On how it's interpreted.
tucker carlson
Right. But for generations, the federal agencies, including EPA, but all of them from the Department of Education to the Department of Defense, have come out with regulations that have the force of law that no one ever voted for.
And that no elected official had a hand in, so it's anti-democratic, right?
casey putsch
That's probably the reason why so many friends complain about the ATF.
I think they're pretty good at making laws.
tucker carlson
Well, the ATF has all kinds of other problems, like shooting innocent people.
But yes, no, absolutely.
Yeah. But they create regulations that no one voted on and that no elected official administers.
So it's like, as a citizen, I have no recourse, so that's not democracy, that's tyranny.
casey putsch
Yeah. Exactly.
tucker carlson
So that's the conceptual explanation.
casey putsch
Exactly right.
And, you know, it's not looking for a way around something or a loophole, but, like, what is right?
Like, what are we actually doing here?
Where are we going?
tucker carlson
Also, if you want a law, vote on it.
Yeah. And the beauty of the Congress is they have two or six years between elections, so they're pretty accountable to voters.
And if voters don't like the way they vote, they can turn them out, at least conceivably, right?
casey putsch
One hopes.
One hopes.
tucker carlson
But the undersecretary of douchebaggery is...
Completely beyond the control of any voter.
So, like, that's, again, tyranny, right?
casey putsch
Yes. Yeah.
And that affects things greatly.
Because when you over-regulate things, it just makes it difficult to innovate or go anywhere.
You know, and the thing of it is, so going back to the car, the car I built, so I mentioned to you, got 104.72 miles to gallon.
And I video recorded the whole thing, because I want to know, what does this thing actually do?
Because last year was a very important year.
It was an election year.
One thing that also drove me nuts, so if you look at, so the Biden administration, and even Gavin Newsom's pushing it, electric vehicle mandates.
Like, large electric vehicle mandates.
Not like back to the Clinton era when it was like, I don't know, 1-2% of vehicles sold by certain times need to be electric.
No, they're big ones.
And I had a huge problem with, you know, Biden's administration doing that.
Because I'm like, this destroys innovation.
You know, and the other thing you go into, and I don't want to beat up on electric because it, you know, it has its purpose in places.
I think all kinds of drivetrains and energy do.
I don't mean that as just like political BS rhetoric.
I mean that genuinely.
But it's not a band-aid fix.
tucker carlson
Well, so how are we going to charge them?
casey putsch
Our grid?
tucker carlson
Yeah, how?
casey putsch
I'll tell you this.
So I did some math with all this.
Let me tell you this.
So the next day, I'm coming right back to this point on the math.
The next day after I did the initial mile-per-gallon testing on my car, I did zero to 60 times with it.
So I put accelerometers and GPS in this car, also my 93 Dodge Viper RT-10, C7 Corvette Grand Sport, and my neighbor's Tesla Model 3 rear-wheel drive with the full charge.
My car, the 104 miles a gallon, beat the Dodge Viper by two-tenths of a second and exactly matched the Corvette Grand Sport and the Tesla.
Damn! That's without, like, computerized track control.
It's me just driving it.
tucker carlson
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So what was 0-60 in that?
casey putsch
4.61.
I probably could have done better, but honestly the tires are over a decade old now, because I built the car a while ago and such, but that was real-world driving.
And yeah, I gave it.
And I got videos of it if you look me up.
tucker carlson
How did you beat the Tesla?
casey putsch
It matched the Tesla.
But that was only with the Tesla to full charge.
It would consistently get a little slower every time as it would lose juice.
tucker carlson
Just because the nature, obviously, of an electric vehicle just gives you massive advantage.
casey putsch
Yeah. And the Tesla is simple.
You just stick your foot down and computers.
That's the best it's going to do.
My car would actually probably beat it if I gave it some clever traction control and such in it, to be honest.
But that's not the point.
The point of it is, so I'm like, I'm going to run some numbers.
Just out of curiosity, what is the carbon footprint of burning one gallon of diesel?
Oh, interesting.
Okay, EPA's got numbers for that.
Okay. What's the carbon footprint on average, the United States electrical generation, whether it's nuclear, wind, coal, whatever, national average of the carbon footprint of a kilowatt hour of electricity?
Say like you're in a perfect world charging your electric vehicle at home.
And then I just did the basic math on, okay, what's the carbon footprint of my car on diesel getting over 100 miles a gallon versus the electric car charged at home, national average, over 100 miles.
My car beat the electric car at a lower carbon footprint.
And it has a much lower one to manufacture, and it's easier to fix.
So that's when I went, okay.
I also did some other fun math.
Respectfully towards Cole.
tucker carlson
But hold on.
Just to be fair, can it be turned off by remote by a politician who doesn't like your politics?
casey putsch
Thank you.
No, it can't.
tucker carlson
Oh, it can't?
casey putsch
No, it can't.
tucker carlson
Then I don't feel comfortable with it.
casey putsch
Oh, you don't?
tucker carlson
Well, how are we going to control you?
I don't care.
casey putsch
You're not.
I'm just going to say that way.
tucker carlson
I like your spirit!
casey putsch
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
No, thank you for bringing that up.
That's very important.
Because the other thing about...
tucker carlson
That's why I drive a 1987.
casey putsch
Well done, sir.
tucker carlson
Yeah. For real.
casey putsch
No, I get it.
tucker carlson
With a gun in it.
casey putsch
Yeah, good.
tucker carlson
Good. Sorry, I shouldn't say that.
casey putsch
I get too excited on this.
But it's true.
You remember the days at school, like, you could have a gun rack because people were reasonable human beings in the community.
tucker carlson
I grew up in LA, California.
We didn't have a lot of deer hunting there.
Right. We had surfboards.
casey putsch
Yeah, exactly.
But now you can still do it.
I kind of get my independent spirit.
I'm like, I'm going to put a gun rack in my Viper.
Not because I need it, just because.
Yeah. You know?
tucker carlson
I totally agree.
casey putsch
But... And that's the other thing about the electric car.
So when I look at it, all the governmental control and what it appears to me globally is going on with much of that and the push.
And the other thing that doesn't make any sense.
So the Biden administration doing the big electric vehicle mandates and such and push, but excluding Tesla from their meetings at the White House and summit and all that?
Really? So what you're telling me is the thing that you want to do with industry and cars and transportation is super important, but not as important as the...
I don't like that either.
tucker carlson
Well, they're just criminals.
I mean, we know that now.
That was a criminal organization running our country.
casey putsch
I know.
I think a lot of my grandmother, who's married to my World War II vet granddad, of course, she always said, give him a fair trial and hang him in the morning.
And that phrase has been ringing in my mind a lot lately.
tucker carlson
She sounds like my kind of woman.
But let me just back a little bit.
So you create this vehicle in your shop, right?
Yeah. And you think that you could build it for $20,000?
Is that true?
Okay, $20,000.
So it gets 104 miles per gallon.
It matches the Tesla off the line.
You get to 60 in under 5 seconds.
So that's like kind of the dream package right there.
And it runs on a readily available fuel that you can buy at any...
unidentified
Yeah, and I only put a...
casey putsch
And we have the infrastructure for it.
tucker carlson
Well, yeah, you can fill it up at a gas station.
casey putsch
I only put a five-gallon tank in it.
Because at 100 miles a gallon, like, I'm going to need to get out and, you know, have a call of nature or stop at a gas station before.
unidentified
But if I put a bigger gas tank on it, I can drive from New York to L.A. On one tank?
casey putsch
Yeah, of course.
tucker carlson
Okay. Now...
casey putsch
I have to point this out because there's lots of smart people watching.
They'll get it.
Okay. Things like crash testing, airbags, climate control, all that jazz.
Okay, great.
It'll add a few hundred pounds more to it.
Maybe it'll make the car a little bit better.
But the other thing that happens when you actually develop and build something like that, you tune it better.
I still can get those numbers and meet all of those same requirements.
tucker carlson
At that point, it's like if you invent something that is truly useful, And that, you know, at $20,000-ish, a new Suburban is, like, pushing $100,000 right now.
Like, the cars are out of control.
unidentified
Who can afford that?
tucker carlson
I couldn't agree more.
casey putsch
If you're spending that much money on a car, go buy a vintage Ferrari or something, you know?
tucker carlson
I don't know that I've ever bought a new car in my life, and I don't plan to.
But people want to.
Whatever. Leaving that whole aside.
But what you just described is something that, like, almost by definition wouldn't be successful.
So why can't you find someone to build it at scale?
casey putsch
Well, it's 2025, and we live in a wonderful country, but one that has evolved into a lot of industrial complexes, and they don't like change.
tucker carlson
Yeah, but I mean, you know, no one wants AI.
casey putsch
We're getting it anyway!
tucker carlson
Right? We're getting massive change.
casey putsch
That's power, and control, and money, and they can do it, and they will.
I have to say one thing, which I think you may appreciate.
AI, effectively, is a synthetic god that we're creating.
tucker carlson
Oh, of course.
casey putsch
How much of a biblical warning disaster is that?
tucker carlson
Oh, you don't have to dig too deep to be...
casey putsch
We're destroying the entirety of the human experience?
unidentified
I just wanted to say that.
tucker carlson
And people themselves, right?
We're replacing human beings.
I know that'll end well.
casey putsch
The apex of the golden calf.
tucker carlson
And by the way, I've done, I don't know, how many interviews on the topic of AI around the world.
I've been to a lot of different countries to learn, just for myself, more about what's happening there.
And the one question that no one can answer is, what's the benefit of this?
casey putsch
Power? Control for others?
tucker carlson
Yeah. None of the benefits...
Yeah, whatever.
I don't want to sound like an old guy.
But I feel like when I hear this topic.
But anyway, just back to the point.
So you've been talking about this on your podcast, on YouTube.
casey putsch
Yeah, my YouTube channel.
tucker carlson
Which has a lot of viewers.
And why has no one called you to say, you know, I'll friendship a couple hundred million bucks and we'll just build a facility.
casey putsch
The difficulty with things like this is...
Okay, first of all, you think, how do you do that?
Okay, with what I'm talking about is not something that can be reasonably just scaled from a garage.
Like, what am I going to do?
Just build a few little ones here?
tucker carlson
No, I got it.
I would buy one if you're selling one.
What's it look like?
I'm such a bad interviewer.
I haven't even asked the basic question.
casey putsch
No, you should.
It's pretty cool.
tucker carlson
Can you describe it?
Give me a word picture.
casey putsch
I'm trying to think of anything that quite looks like it.
It's slippery.
It looks like a cross between an exotic car and a little bit of a Bonneville Salt Flats car.
tucker carlson
Wow. You didn't mention Cybertruck.
Does it have hard lines?
No. Really?
casey putsch
Well, I'd like it to be efficient.
Oh. Rather than just interesting for aesthetic stake.
Respectfully. I don't mean that as a dig.
tucker carlson
No, I'm not attacking the Cybertruck.
I personally think it's incredibly unattractive.
unidentified
The Cybertruck?
casey putsch
Yes. I just like the meme.
tucker carlson
And I respect the Cybertruck, by the way.
I did a Cybertruck review.
Yeah. I think it's a really interesting vehicle.
I'm glad it exists.
But I'm just saying, aesthetically...
casey putsch
Yeah. It's pretty good looking.
It's a little different, because we're accustomed to seeing what we're seeing.
tucker carlson
Too many angles for me.
unidentified
Oh, no, I was talking about my car, not the Cybertruck.
tucker carlson
Okay, sorry, I'm obsessed with...
casey putsch
No, the Cybertruck, the best meme, is there's a DeLorean.
And an F-117 Nighthawk, right?
Yeah. An F-117's like the military guy, and the Glorian's kind of like the mom.
And the Nighthawk's like, what do you mean he's my son?
He doesn't look anything like me.
And they show the Cybertruck, and he's like, whoa.
You know?
tucker carlson
I'm more like 1935 Packard.
You know, just soft lines.
casey putsch
I have a 31 Buick Phaeton.
tucker carlson
Is it pretty?
casey putsch
Yes, very.
tucker carlson
Yeah, of course it is.
So, anyway, I keep interrupting you.
Tell me what it looks like.
What would you compare it to?
Something that...
casey putsch
Well, it's mid-engine.
So the engine's within the wheelbase but behind the cockpit.
It's two-seat.
It has butterfly doors similar to a McLaren F1 in that regard.
It's efficient.
It has something of an open tail because it was very important the way the air flows around it but also underneath it so that I can make it highly efficient.
So the bottom of the...
It's a monocoque structure where it's not like...
A tube frame with a body stuck on it.
The whole car is itself the structure as well.
So the air, the way it flows over it through the radiator in the back, also to the heating of the motor, and the way that then intersects the trailing edge and the way the air flows around it.
It's just all designed to be design efficient.
tucker carlson
It sounds amazing.
casey putsch
And you can even use the structure of the chassis or the structure so I can even make the stereo system very small and effective and efficient because naturally, acoustically, it works out well for that too.
So it's a lot of fun with design.
I just...
Every once in a while you need somebody who looks around at the world and goes, this is wrong.
We can do better.
I can do better.
I'm going to do better.
And that's just...
tucker carlson
So you build this thing.
Can you register it?
Yeah. Just, like, go to the DMV and register.
casey putsch
Yeah, it's registered no different than, like, an assembled vehicle or a kit car.
There's a lot of ways to do it or a modified vehicle.
tucker carlson
It's just, like, a make car I made.
Yeah. Huh.
unidentified
Amazing. Car guy stuff.
tucker carlson
What do people say when you drive it around?
casey putsch
I keep it relatively under wraps because, respectfully, for as much time as it took me to build and what it represents, I consider it kind of valuable to trust out there in the wild with people on their cell phones and stuff.
So, I kind of go with a low profile, but people are definitely interested and enamored by it.
tucker carlson
But they're not beating down your door.
casey putsch
Correct. And that was the other interesting thing.
So, nobody reported on it.
Even though, you know, I got a few hundred thousand views on it when I said everything I wanted to say and show it and it did the numbers, right?
I would think if somebody builds a...
Diesel car that represents being affordable and recyclable mass-produced, that gets great fuel efficiency and has a low carbon impact, and all people would be into that.
Well, one word I got back from an automotive media was telling.
They said, we don't report on dirty diesel.
And the other was, diesel's dead.
And I thought about that, and I go, hang on.
Diesel's like one of the most used fuels there are.
tucker carlson
Wait, who wrote that?
casey putsch
It was said.
It wasn't written.
It was said to us privately.
tucker carlson
These are like professional car reviewers?
casey putsch
Correct. They won't touch it.
They won't write about it.
tucker carlson
This is obviously a much deeper question, but why do the worst people in the world, the most small-minded, the stupidest, the meanest, the people with the most unbalanced, unhealthy personal lives, why do they all go into journalism, do you think?
casey putsch
That's a better question for you, but I have a theory.
unidentified
I don't know.
tucker carlson
I've been pondering this for like 35 years and I don't understand it.
casey putsch
There are certain personality types.
And I see the worst ones as kind of, we talk about like the dark triad personality traits, which is like, you know, psychopathy and Machiavellianism and narcissism, etc.
You know, these kinds.
I'm going to get in a lot of trouble for this.
tucker carlson
No, I love it!
I totally thought about this.
casey putsch
No, I've been around.
So, in the normal car world, sports cars and such.
I'm going to get in trouble.
I love exotic cars.
I really do.
Okay? Like, when I was a kid, my dad showed me the movies Grand Prix with James Gardner and Le Mans with Steve McQueen.
Please tell me you've seen at least one of these movies, right?
tucker carlson
I don't know.
casey putsch
Okay, well, watch Le Mans with Steve McQueen.
Just get in a good vibe.
It's Steve McQueen being himself.
And just La Molle-San straight in La Molle, early 70s, Porsche flat 12 against a Ferrari V12, just singing it and like as a kid, I'm like, I love exotic cars because, for me, something like a V12 Lamborghini is like, yes, I can't be Steve McQueen at Le Mans, but I can drive this.
You know what I mean?
But nowadays, they're paddle-shifted, and anybody that wants to flex can buy them.
So if somebody ever said to me, I need you to find me the most narcissistic sociopath possible.
I'm like, no problem.
Let's find the most Lamborghinis.
And the reason I bring that up...
tucker carlson
And you say their paddle should...
Meaning the...
casey putsch
Anybody can drive them.
They don't take any more...
Right. They don't take any more skill or appreciation for the machinery, respectfully.
tucker carlson
How were they...
Were you, like, double-clutching them?
Like, how hard were they to operate before?
casey putsch
I mean, like a...
tucker carlson
When there was standard transmission.
casey putsch
Yeah, things like that back when, you know, carbureted.
Like anything, you got to treat a muscle car right.
A little bit.
Something that's carbureted.
tucker carlson
Or an old Harley Davidson.
You have to know how to operate it.
casey putsch
If you get the privilege of driving something like an old Lamborghini or Ferrari from the 70s or earlier, you've got to be a little sympathetic.
You've got to understand the transmission.
You've got to be able to rev match gears and such.
You're not going to be doing wild burnouts and such.
You've got to understand the carburetors and letting it warm up and appreciate it.
We're in an industrial age where you don't have to do that.
But to answer your question relating to journalism, I make that joke about certain things.
Attract certain personality traits because those personality traits can do well.
So, you know, they also say Washington, D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people.
tucker carlson
That's for sure.
casey putsch
And I think a lot of the traits of Hollywood to Washington, D.C. to journalism are the same kind of manipulative sociopath tendencies.
That you can lie to somebody with a smile perfectly and find the structured crazy chess game to ruin people's life and power play your way up.
Find power and money.
tucker carlson
Yeah, I mean, everything you're saying is true, but it's just disappointing to see it in journalism, not because crappy people with weird personal lives go into journalism, and they're cowards, of course, most people are, unfortunately, but they have no curiosity.
casey putsch
I know.
tucker carlson
And that's what drives me insane.
casey putsch
Thank you.
tucker carlson
If there's one quality that...
It defines journalism, and a journalist, it's the desire to know more.
Right, and they spend their whole lives trying to, you know, attack you, call you a racist for wanting to know more.
It's insane!
So somebody called me, well, actually, you did call me.
And you're like, I built this car that gets 104 gallons, I mean, miles to a gallon.
I'm not even a car guy, really, but I'm like, well, that's kind of crazy.
On a diesel motor, really?
Engine? Yes.
And, you know...
casey putsch
I tried to be polite and qualify myself.
tucker carlson
It was amazing.
I was like, really?
Is that really true?
I guess you get video of it, so I guess it is.
So, I don't know why, if I was a professional car viewer, I'd be like, I'm coming to your house.
I want to see what this is.
casey putsch
And to be fair, in a manner of speaking, I didn't really invent anything.
I just designed something better and thought about the world independently.
And, like, I'm doing this.
It needs to represent what we actually can do and where we can go.
And I just, I have to do this.
tucker carlson
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Were you obsessed?
casey putsch
I don't think obsessed.
tucker carlson
No, but I mean, was it the kind of thing that occupied your thoughts in bed and like, were you really fixated on it?
casey putsch
I mean, yeah, because I designed the things in my head.
I'll do like a drawing or an engineering drawing or something just to communicate and show somebody else, but I'll run all the simulations and design the entire structure and everything in my head.
My wife gets on my case sometimes.
We go on a date and she's like, I can see the hamster wheel turning.
I'm like, I'm sorry.
tucker carlson
That's how creativity works.
It germinates in your head.
casey putsch
But no, the journalists, I appreciate you saying that because they follow along.
They want their power within their bubble.
But the thing that's kind of crazy to me when I say they're gutless...
You would think they would actually get better views and more clicks if they broke the mold to show something interesting that maybe goes against popular narratives.
But they don't.
tucker carlson
Oh, they spend their lives dutifully ignoring things.
I mean, there are megaliths around the world, including in the United States, huge stone structures.
And nobody, including any structural engineer in the United States, has no idea how they were built in the pre-internal combustion age.
In the pre-industrial age, there's literally not even a good guess as to how this was built.
And of course, I don't know the answer either, but I mean, that's such an amazing thing.
When were the pyramids built?
Nobody knows.
How were they built?
Nobody knows.
I can't get that out of my head.
And again, I'm not pushing a conspiracy theory.
I'm just noting what we don't know.
And I don't know why everyone's like, shut up!
Shut up!
casey putsch
What? Now, I'm glad you said that.
And there's a lot of other structures that are popping up more nowadays in archaeology.
And there's even guys that do, like, surface LIDAR, and they're seeing things in fields and such.
And as silly as it is...
tucker carlson
Can you explain what that is for people who don't know what you're talking about?
casey putsch
To be perfectly honest, I don't know it as well.
But I think through the satellites and stuff that we can use now, like, nerds, and I mean that in a nice way, spend the time, like, looking over...
It shows the exact topography of the ground.
Exactly. Without...
tucker carlson
Vegetation. And suggest what's underneath it.
casey putsch
Yeah, so if you start seeing geometric shapes and stuff, it might be something.
tucker carlson
It might be man-made, or at least made.
casey putsch
Yeah, and the other thing is, so maybe not too long ago, 10, 20, 30 years ago, we think, oh, we've discovered everything, we're brilliant, we know everything.
unidentified
It's just the opposite of the truth.
tucker carlson
It's not true.
I know, I know.
casey putsch
I really, I don't know if I'll have time or what the future will bring, but I really want to do some videos where you go to interesting places in the world to see and find these things.
And one thing I'd really like to do is motorcycles around Saudi Arabia.
Yeah. Because it is a fascinating kingdom with some really interesting history.
tucker carlson
I was just there.
casey putsch
Oh, yeah?
tucker carlson
Yes. And I was out in Al-Aula, which is a truly ancient.
Right. Yes.
That's the place you want to see it.
casey putsch
Yeah, one of them.
tucker carlson
Right out from Riyadh.
It's quite...
They're building a whole new society.
Yeah. And I don't know that they are, you know, focused on, like most emerging nations are not focused on archaeology.
All of the archaeological sites of significance in the Middle East and then, you know, the Near East, the Levant, were discovered by the Brits and the French.
Right. All of them.
They'd sat there for thousands of years.
The locals were like...
Too busy trying to stay alive to notice.
casey putsch
Well, they knew of it.
I don't want to say normal to them, but that's their home.
tucker carlson
But it took people from the outside to be like, wait, what the hell is that?
You know, where was whatever?
Sodom and Gomorrah, you know?
casey putsch
Yes, yes.
I mean, how much of that is biblical land?
Like the land of Midian, you know?
Which they know.
tucker carlson
But the point is, that process of discovery and of creativity is driven by a common impulse, which is curiosity.
Yeah. And so when you don't have curiosity...
You're never going to discover it or create.
But more important, I think, for the moment we're living in, it's like, why don't you have curiosity?
Why is curiosity discouraged?
And I don't know the answer, but I find it scary.
There's something sinister about that.
Don't ask questions.
Well, why?
casey putsch
Social media is doing it to us.
tucker carlson
Yeah, but why?
What's the...
Well... I mean, I don't even have very interesting, crazy views on...
Anything. But I know, just from talking about World War II, there are people alive who are in World War II.
It's like, it just happened 80 years ago.
People, like, denounce you as some Nazi.
I couldn't be more against the Nazis, just for the record!
But it's like, what was Rudolf Hess doing in Great Britain?
That's like a really interesting question.
No, not a lot.
They murdered Rudolf Hess in Spandau.
In his 80s, I think it's really clear that he was killed.
So he wouldn't say why he flew over.
casey putsch
People just won't talk about things.
tucker carlson
But it's like, but why?
Why is that scary to anybody?
And the megalith thing and the archaeology thing, why are these scary questions?
What's the answer?
I don't understand.
unidentified
I'll say it.
casey putsch
So you said relating to your car is about control, right?
Yeah. I don't want this because they can't control it.
It's the same thing of like saying you can pry this whether it's a sports car or firearm out of my cold dead hands.
If people don't ask questions and they're not interested in their own history or culture or the past or any others and they can't relate, it's easier to keep them in one place and your thumb on them.
tucker carlson
I think that's, I mean, look, but I don't begrudge people a lack of interest in anything.
I mean, every person makes his own decisions about what he cares about.
Yeah. And, you know, his beliefs, his religion, all those things.
I'm, like, very, I guess, liberal in that sense.
I just, I'm worried when people attack me for being curious.
casey putsch
Yeah, I don't, I'm not into that myself.
tucker carlson
And all these people on the so-called right, you know, whatever, a lot of which is, like, totally fake.
There's nothing right about it.
They're leftists.
Or they're, you know, obeying the same masters.
Sort of attacking you for asking, oh, just asking questions.
It's like, yeah, I am just asking questions.
Like, that's okay.
In fact...
That's like the core of Western civilization.
That's what Martin Luther did.
casey putsch
And the thing that, frankly, is so dangerous about...
No, it's perfect.
And frankly, that's what I think is so dangerous about AI.
The journey, the life journey to find the wisdom, to learn, to seek the truth.
Will that stop it?
And then who's controlling it?
tucker carlson
Well, the iPhone has not made us better informed.
You know, the internet has not made us better informed.
In fact, it's centralized control over information.
In effect...
Wikipedia is the first search result, and Wikipedia is completely controlled by the U.S. government, by the intel agencies.
Fact. And the results in Wikipedia are shaped subtly, sometimes not so subtly, to produce a worldview that is inherently dishonest.
It's not true.
And if you get your history through Wikipedia, I look at Wikipedia every day.
There are certain great things about Wikipedia, but...
But big picture, you're going to have no idea what happened in the past if all you do is read Wikipedia.
casey putsch
No, how can you?
I mean, we can think of so many popular things through history that are just that way, where people only know one superficial level.
tucker carlson
The internet did that to us.
casey putsch
No, it has.
Are you kidding me?
It has made everything more extreme and pigeonholed everything.
tucker carlson
But it's a dumber.
Like, people don't read books.
casey putsch
Well, here's something I noticed.
tucker carlson
Sorry, now I'm really good.
casey putsch
Oh, no, you're right.
Well, just from doing automotive YouTube.
It still works the same as every other YouTube and human interaction and all that.
It's kind of a funny way to put it.
So I was a car guy before YouTube, right?
I built cars.
I did all that sort of thing.
A lot of people that become more prominent in the automotive region of YouTube, they weren't as big a car guy.
They kind of just rose up as an interesting character.
And they're happy to be somewhat famous, make some money, do their thing, get acknowledgement.
And as I...
I grew that, which is funny because the entirety of the reason I went on YouTube was just to try to get some exposure for the nonprofit I was doing because I couldn't get any with traditional media.
I was kind of pissed off.
So I ended up there for that reason but kept it going because it's like, okay, I have something of a voice.
This is good for the nonprofit to give it exposure or just try to have a life and go somewhere, you know?
But what I noticed is they call the people that are creating the content the influencers.
They're the influenced.
Because they're always chasing an algorithm.
And the algorithm wants to keep you in one place.
It doesn't let you evolve.
It doesn't let you do anything.
tucker carlson
No, no, it's totally right.
casey putsch
It's a pseudo-reality.
And I see how that affects the culture in young people.
I don't like it.
tucker carlson
No. It's a snake in the ant's tail, for sure.
I wonder that, like, I'm sure this has occurred to you, and I'm terrible at business, so don't take my advice, but, like, since you have designed something that has inherent utility and obvious mass appeal, And I'm naive enough to think that still matters.
Like, if you make a great thing, people want it, and they'll pay for it, especially if it's cheap.
Why not just do, like, a crowdfunding situation where, like, all right, you know, I designed this vehicle.
It's 104 miles to the gallon on diesel fuel, which you can buy anywhere, and that, you know, can match an electric vehicle off the line.
Like, who wants to send in money, and let's make this thing?
casey putsch
Well, it's how you scale it, right?
So, in my thinking, if you do a crowdfunding type of thing, that's very grassroots, respectfully.
And I would have to go a different direction with the car, where they'd kind of almost be like self-assembled prototype type things, and that's cool.
But honestly, the thing I kind of worry about doing that, starting a small scale versus something else, is that I don't want to do something, in a sense, too good to where they try to change the laws and ruin the ability for people to build their own cars.
I know that sounds a little kooky, but...
The other thing is if you think of like private equity guys and such, typically they want a faster return on such.
And the problem is when you're thinking of something that frankly upsets an industry and relates to the automotive industry, how do you integrate it?
Can you use the processes to make smaller parts that can be profitable in industry?
Do you start smaller like that?
Do you want to do all big scale and create a car company from the ground up?
Because that's no small task, monetarily speaking.
tucker carlson
No, it's not.
casey putsch
And there's only so many idealistic rogue billionaires in the world, you know, and that's generally what it takes unless you have a government that wants to make something happen.
tucker carlson
There's got to be a way to get it out there.
casey putsch
Well, Elon's first car with Tesla, the Roadster, was a Lotus Elise chassis with a different body and electrified.
And the guys that I knew who had those originally were rich guys.
They had Ferraris and Lamborghinis, and that was their cool toy to start with.
tucker carlson
What's this car called, by the way?
casey putsch
The Tesla Roadster?
Your original one.
Oh, mine.
The Omega car, I called it.
tucker carlson
The Omega car?
Yeah. I'd like an Omega car in forest green.
Could you do that?
casey putsch
Oh, yeah.
tucker carlson
Actually? Yeah, why not?
I'd buy it in a second.
Can you ship them?
casey putsch
You can.
You can.
We'd have to talk if we want to prototype something, though.
Maybe we'll make something special.
Yeah. Hold your fly rods.
tucker carlson
Yeah, for real.
casey putsch
If you can't use it, what good is it?
tucker carlson
I'm getting one.
So I just want to go back to something you said in the very first moments of this interview.
You said that you don't own any...
You're obviously a car guy.
You build cars.
casey putsch
My happiness is way too wrapped up in the ability to just...
Drive my own car.
tucker carlson
Yeah, I love it.
casey putsch
Whether anybody's around or not, I don't care.
Just let me drive my own car.
tucker carlson
But you, like, wrenched on them, too.
casey putsch
Yeah, it's rewarding.
I don't necessarily want to do it all the time.
tucker carlson
No, no.
casey putsch
It's awful.
My hands have healed up enough I won't bleed on my white shirt today.
That's nice.
tucker carlson
But can I ask, like, you said that you don't have any vehicle older than early 2000s.
casey putsch
Newer. Newer than early 2000s.
tucker carlson
Rather. Yeah.
Newer. I beg your pardon.
What's bad about cars made in the last 25 years?
And please be very specific.
casey putsch
Oh, I will.
The first problem with new cars is you lose money hand over fist to depreciation.
And then if you have to take out a loan for it, you're also paying interest on that.
And one of the fastest ways I see normal people in general lose money is on new cars.
And they do it because they're afraid they can't work on it or service it.
tucker carlson
That's exactly right.
casey putsch
That's basically the only real difference.
tucker carlson
Exactly right.
casey putsch
But then you get dealerships that just find new ways to not do their warranty work because that's where they make a lot of money, and that's a separate thing.
So a new car, I mean, that's nice if you can afford it, but rather than buying a new $100,000 truck or SUV, I'd rather buy this nice used one for, I don't know, $15,000 or $20,000 and spend the rest of the money.
If you got it, go buy a vintage Ferrari or a muscle car, something cool.
At least keep your money and have some fun.
But it's more than that.
Cars, I would say, in the last...
20 to 25 years.
The evolution is not for the sake of the car and the person and so much of the experience.
It's more for the sake of the nature of dealing with regulation and keeping a profit margin and building it.
And when you do that, you make things that are inherently more prone to failing in the future and less serviceable.
And that's not good for ownership in our actual lifespan.
tucker carlson
So everything, I mean, I grew up working on a motorcycle with a carburetor and rebuilding the carburetor, adjusting the flow bowl, you know, timing light, adjust the points.
I mean, all that stuff, just like really super basic mechanics.
And, you know, there are lots of downsides to that.
They break a lot.
But you could understand it.
My feeling is the vehicles that I have had that are newer, I mean, I have no idea how they work.
I don't...
Fuel injection is still kind of a mystery to me.
I'm sorry to say that.
It is.
casey putsch
It works the same way as a carburetor.
It's just metered and more complicated.
tucker carlson
Well, I guess this trend toward making everything electric...
I bought a truck last year.
A Chevy truck, which I've always had.
And I was at a gas station, and all of a sudden on the dashboard it says, stop, we're downloading information from the internet?
casey putsch
While you were driving?
tucker carlson
No, I was stopped.
casey putsch
It just specifically wanted you to stay stopped so it can...
tucker carlson
So it could, I don't know, download software.
I sold the car immediately.
I brought it back and sold it.
casey putsch
They wanted all your data to provide it to insurance companies to wreck your life, I'm sure.
tucker carlson
Is that true?
casey putsch
Okay, insurance companies will be the downfall of cars and driving.
I guarantee it.
And the other thing is, all the cameras that are out there, everybody's putting cameras on their car.
I'm like, okay, you guys...
tucker carlson
Cameras on their car?
casey putsch
Well, I'm sure you've seen it.
Like, people are buying little cameras, too.
See what happens.
If somebody does something stupid on the road, you can use that to protect yourself legally, right?
That's why they sell it.
tucker carlson
It's never occurred to me, but yes.
casey putsch
Okay. What happens when those are mandated in every car everywhere?
What happens when you're completely mandated control?
Car shuts off at exactly 55 mile an hour speed limit, no matter what.
It's just another method of slippery slope of control.
And it'll come from insurance companies.
tucker carlson
And the law enforcement can turn off your car from afar, correct?
Yeah, and they do.
casey putsch
Well, with certain cars.
tucker carlson
Yeah, certain cars.
So when's the last year you could have a car that can't be controlled?
casey putsch
That's a good question, because I don't mess around with those cars very often.
Or ever.
tucker carlson
Is it fair to say?
casey putsch
Ones that are connected to the internet or a satellite in some way.
You know, OnStar kind of came about with your mirror, and I don't really know much about it, but that was kind of the first, I think, mainstream way when we saw cars were being specifically connected to something beyond yourself.
tucker carlson
So would you say pre-9-11 cars?
casey putsch
They're a lot safer in terms of that.
The other thing, too, in the early 2000s, a system called hand bus system came out.
tucker carlson
Hand bus.
casey putsch
It was to make wiring more efficient.
You theoretically have less wires, but everything is tied together through almost like a spinal cord of the computer, and it has to speak to each other.
And that was something else that was kind of a beginning of the end and being serviceable in the future and not creating cars with a lot of glitches.
tucker carlson
It does feel like everything.
You're going to have fly-by-wire cars.
casey putsch
We already do.
The other thing is, a couple small points that are also happening were the right to repair your own private property is under attack.
That's for farmers.
tucker carlson
What does that mean?
casey putsch
Well, I think there was a big thing going on with John Deere tractors where farmers couldn't service their vehicles.
They have to take them to the dealership and have to plug in with the computer that only the dealership has through the company.
And forgive me if I got this wrong.
I think it was John Deere.
But that's something that's happening everywhere.
Because if manufacturers or dealerships want more money, well, they want you to service with them.
If they make it so you can only service with them no matter what, well, then they're going to, in an authoritarian way, force you to let them make the money, which is, frankly, another method of control.
And when you start adding all those things up, you just keep taking away all the power for the people before eventually you get to a point where, will you even be able to own your own car anymore?
And will you driving it be a liability to where if we have self-driving cars, it just takes you there at the most efficient time that whatever the it wants you to, wants you to.
tucker carlson
So that's like an attack on human autonomy, obviously.
casey putsch
Yeah, it's where that's going.
tucker carlson
So I had a Harley Davidson since I was in college in 1971, which I could kind of understand.
Great bike.
But I bought a new Harley last year, and they delivered it.
You know, big, fun bike fast, you know, like six speeds, which is crazy to me.
And just the transmission is like great.
I mean, my bike, you downshift, you got to pop the throttle, no return spring in the throttle, you got to pop it like that to get it down.
And so the shifting in this thing was just like beyond belief.
But when they delivered it to my barn, I said, let's talk about how to change the oil.
Obviously. And they go, you know, we actually recommend bringing it to the dealership.
And I was like, yeah, but it's changing the oil in the motorcycle.
It's not hard.
And they're like, well, you know, there are gaskets and gaskets.
Why would you have to replace a gasket to change the oil?
Anyway, I brought it back to the dealership.
Didn't want it.
casey putsch
Oh, really?
You're like, and now I'm done with you guys.
tucker carlson
I did.
They were great.
I don't mean to attack them in any way.
They were awesome people.
Motorcycle people are great people, and they definitely were.
But I didn't want a motorcycle where you had to replace a gasket.
I mean, like, pop the jugs off, okay, but...
casey putsch
I mean, maybe, like, you might have a little, like, copper O-ring or aluminum O-ring or something on the drain plug, but, like...
tucker carlson
Well, of course, you always have copper O-ring on the drain plug.
casey putsch
Is this one of those crazy modern manufacturing thing where you have to disassemble half the engine?
tucker carlson
And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I was like, I'm not rebuilding the lower end.
I just want to change the oil.
unidentified
And they're like, you know, most of our customers bring that back to the dealership.
tucker carlson
And I was, and I don't know, I didn't like that at all.
And I felt like there was a scam involved, which is the one you described, right?
casey putsch
Yeah, it just triggers something kind of in your, in the back.
It's like something's wrong here.
Yeah. Well, and I don't say those things in a, like, kooky conspiracy, conspiratorial type of way, but it's literally where we're going.
And, you know, when I see things like that, and I mentioned about, it'll be insurance companies that ruin it for everybody.
Because the other thing is, what?
tucker carlson
Do you ever feel like you can't trust the things you hear or read like every news source?
Is hollow, distorted, or clearly just propaganda lying to you?
Well, you're not imagining it.
If the last few years have proven anything, it's that legacy media exists.
To distort the truth and to control you, to gatekeep information from the public instead of letting you know what's actually going on.
They don't want you to know.
But there is, however, a publication that fights this, that is not propaganda, one that we read every month and have for many years.
It's called Imprimus.
It's from Hillsdale College in Michigan.
Imprimus is a free speech digest that features some of the best minds in the country addressing the questions that actually matter, the ones that are not addressed in the Washington Post or NBC News.
The best part of it, it is free.
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That's TuckerForHillsdale.com.
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You can't fight tyranny if you don't know what's going on.
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So I always felt that Cash for Clunkers, do you remember that program?
casey putsch
Yes. That was a little early before I started paying attention to the words on the world.
tucker carlson
So the federal government basically paid clunkers, like perfectly fine cars, built before a certain date, you could redeem them for cash.
And then they just, they melted them.
And I felt like there was something pretty sinister about that, but maybe I'm just like one of those paranoid wackos who don't think Randy Weaver deserved to be killed.
I don't know.
Maybe I'm just on the fringe.
Far right!
casey putsch
No, if an industry is no longer about innovation, and it's so big that it can't fail, and it's pushed to go a certain way, well, then the best way to ensure that it succeeds is force you to buy something new, even if it's not in your own best interest.
tucker carlson
But it does, you know, you raised the question, which is, how do you service vehicles made before 9-11?
And that is why people don't want them.
And I must say...
Made before.
casey putsch
The ones made before are easier to service than the ones made after.
tucker carlson
Well, no.
I mean, it's like if you buy an older vehicle, and I drive an older vehicle, so I know, it's like you can't just...
I mean, you have to know someone who can fix it.
casey putsch
Yeah, of course.
To an extent.
tucker carlson
Yeah. But are we entering a world where there won't be any mechanics who can...
Who know what a carburetor is, for example.
casey putsch
I don't know about that so much.
It's specialized, but they're simple.
You can look at it and know the basic principles that are going on.
It's the newer stuff that's crazy.
For instance, my father-in-law recently got my mother-in-law this nice, newer SUV.
I think it's a BMW.
I think it's a hybrid SUV.
She likes it.
And my father and I look at it and go by and we're like, there's a lot of servos and things whirring and buzzing.
And I don't want to say it, but I guess I'm saying it now.
It's kind of like, when is this thing going to break?
And how much is that going to cost?
And no, you're not going to reasonably fix that.
And then when that thing is older, that all these highly specialized little mechanisms and circuit boards and servos or whatever go bad, who's making that?
And is it worth making it anymore?
Or is it just another giant, complicated, toxic?
Wasteful thing that we go on in this vicious consumer cycle.
tucker carlson
No, they just crush it.
casey putsch
Well, some older cars you can still fix.
That's a goofy story maybe, but I bought a, for $8,000, I bought a 1996 Rolls-Royce off Facebook marketplace, kind of as a joke.
I'm like, I don't know, this might be kind of cool.
I loved the car.
And I ended up fixing it up for almost nothing.
And I got a car that in 1996...
tucker carlson
Did it run?
unidentified
Yeah. It's a great car.
Taking off family trips and all in it.
casey putsch
I didn't have to do that much.
tucker carlson
And a Rolls-Royce?
casey putsch
Yeah. It was like $170,000, $80,000 in the 90s.
But where I'm going with it is...
tucker carlson
What's the way you roll?
casey putsch
Hey, look.
I may not be wealthy, but I can live well if you've got a toolbox and some know-how and you think for yourself, you know?
But where I was going with it is, that car's fixable.
The way it's constructed...
tucker carlson
What kind of engine does it have?
casey putsch
It's got a V8.
It's all aluminum, naturally aspirated V8.
The transmission's General Motors-based.
So when I needed stuff to fix it, I just...
Got it locally.
It was no big deal.
And sure, there's some things that are old Rolls Royce on it, but it's built differently.
It's built to where you can actually repair the part, not just be a parts-changing type of mechanic like modern things.
And people get into technology for technology's sake nowadays, but it's the philosophy of design that goes behind it.
We're locked in this consumer industrialized, only new is better, more complicated, more expensive, more regulated.
When the mentality and the know-how, should we say, of the first half of the 20th, We built things that could actually be repaired.
We built things that can be serviceable, that can last to an extent.
So why are we not still using good design and engineering mindsets and technology, you know, direction with modernity in a way that's actually useful for people and communities and a nation and rather than just an industry?
unidentified
agree.
tucker carlson
I'm most struck by, I mean, because we've de-industrialized, is part of it.
So that makes sense to me.
You know, why can't we build this or that thing?
Why haven't we been to the moon, you know, in 50 years?
Assuming we went in the first place.
I kind of get that because there are fewer competent engineers.
Everyone's a marketing major.
Okay, that makes sense.
What I don't understand is the decline in design, and not just in automotive, but across the society, the civilization, actually.
casey putsch
We're making things uglier, aren't we?
tucker carlson
Why is that?
casey putsch
That's a cultural issue.
tucker carlson
I was in another city, I won't name it, but a nice kind of tertiary city, but a growing city with a lot of nice people in it, affluent.
And I was driving through, this was last weekend, I was driving through an affluent neighborhood with one of my children who's a design person and I said, that house is black.
This is new built.
It's a brand new house.
casey putsch
Normally that would have meant in Europe you got the black Peleg, don't come here.
Yeah. Back in the day, right?
Like if you're in Amsterdam.
tucker carlson
A black house?
Like what?
Amsterdam. And then I saw another.
And then I saw like three more.
casey putsch
Like do these people hate themselves?
tucker carlson
What is this?
She goes, it's disgusting.
I felt that way, but why would you ever paint a house black?
What the hell is going on with design?
What's your theory?
casey putsch
Actually, I went in college and went to Ohio State, third generation there, and originally I was going in for automotive design or product design.
I really should have gone into engineering, that's my forte, but what I'm going with this is, it's housed within fine art in colleges.
I generally dislike modern art, okay?
tucker carlson
You think?
casey putsch
I think that if you don't have the technical skill to do something actually beautiful, then I don't care about your hoo-hoo abstract ideas, right?
But where I'm going with this is so-called art and design and product design has been influenced over the 20th century going back to like the Frankfurt School in Europe, which frankly was a lot of...
tucker carlson
Well, sure, it's anti-Western civilization, anti-Christian.
It's anti-beauty.
casey putsch
It's the simplest thing.
In fact, I gave you this small detail.
I ended up hating my experience there.
I ended up quitting after like a year and a half and designing my own major just to get the hell out of school because I was kind of pissed off, actually, because there was one specifically I remember in this one class we get to design something for the whole semester, right?
unidentified
And we're going to design a bathroom scale.
casey putsch
I'm like, okay.
I thought about it.
I'm like, this sucks.
With the way they're teaching us to have an aesthetic, do the simplest thing possible, which is somewhat communistic in a way, you know?
It seems almost solely...
tucker carlson
That's the imperative?
Make it as simple as possible?
casey putsch
The simplest, most boring thing possible.
I'm like, what is the point?
Let's just have a white room with one Wassili chair in the back of it.
We'll just sit there and hate our lives.
Like, anything beautiful, anything classic, they shied away from design.
Literally pushed away.
tucker carlson
What about natural?
casey putsch
Natural beauty?
That's not their thing.
tucker carlson
It does seem like there's a very intense, almost visceral hatred of nature coming off design people.
casey putsch
Strangely, yes.
Strangely. But in regard to this story, I have to tell you.
So, the bathroom scale.
I thought to myself...
This is going to take a semester.
It doesn't even have to function.
And if they just want to make the simplest thing possible, okay, here, here's a round piece of glass with an LCD display on it that tells you to go eat a salad.
Like, well, I don't want to do this.
And so I met with the academic advisor and I said, I will meet all of your academic requirements for this class, but please let me design something at my level right now.
Let me design a car.
And they said no.
They would not let me design anything.
tucker carlson
Just because there's too much initiative and too much creativity?
casey putsch
They wouldn't let me do it.
tucker carlson
Did you pay for this experience?
casey putsch
Yeah, sadly.
And that's a problem with the American educational system.
You know, libraries are free.
Yeah. You know, there's a lot of nice people out there that can help you learn.
But, so, I stayed around in that program for another semester.
I didn't do anything the whole semester.
The night before the exam and presentation, I just Ferris Bueller'd a bunch of stuff together and ran around.
I don't know, got a B+.
And I just design cars and things on my own.
But how insane is that?
That in college, when you're actually paying to be there, and there's supposed to be design and product design, that they won't actually let students do what they're capable of doing or push a boundary or go anywhere.
They literally keep a thumb on you like that.
I quit the program after that.
And I stopped caring.
Fortunately, when I was in high school, and hopefully people...
Have teachers that actually care that matter.
I had art teachers that made the world of difference for me and a lot of other people.
Yes. That was huge.
And people write things off now in, you know, pre-college.
Things like shop, home ec, vocational, art, engineering, drawing.
Those are some of the most important things you can possibly have.
But we got rid of all of those things to push college prep.
tucker carlson
Way more than, I don't know, third-wave feminist literature?
I don't know.
Rethink what you just said and ask yourself, do I really mean what I said?
Well, that, I don't know, that architectural draftsmanship is more important than, say, The Color Purple by Alice Walker?
casey putsch
You mean the things that actually make you contributing, functioning, individual members of society?
tucker carlson
That elevate beauty and truth over, like...
Garbage by some low IQ unhappy chick?
casey putsch
Yeah, they go into an academic vacuum that's not the real world, that's fueled by loans you can't default on.
Whether there's going to be a job for you or not.
tucker carlson
You know, I would say beneath your car design exterior lies a fairly incisive and bitter critique of the society.
casey putsch
I think and look around.
I don't like liars.
I don't like being lied to, and that goes culturally too.
tucker carlson
I don't either.
I completely agree.
I just have to be clear on this.
How, if there are other eccentric people out there who would like one of these vehicles that you've designed, would you be willing to make them to order?
casey putsch
Yeah, I could do that.
You have to think about the structure of who wants to do what.
Early adopters are usually people that can afford something.
It's going to cost more than $20,000 when you're building something.
But certainly, that can be done.
I could make lower production numbers.
And you could build something and a bit of a movement, too, from the ground up.
tucker carlson
It would be cool to build it with a gas tank sufficient to get coast-to-coast.
casey putsch
It's very doable.
And the other thing is, I like to do amateur race driving and vintage racing.
I like to make cars that are fast.
And for me, it's kind of fun, the idea, to make things that get over 100 miles a gallon that beat Dodge Vipers and Corvettes and Teslas.
You know, that's what we did back with Bustle Cars.
tucker carlson
So how do people find you if you made it this far in the interview?
casey putsch
I'm shockingly easy to find.
You are?
Perhaps a little scary.
So maybe find a nice method rather than I just look out the window one day and go, ugh.
tucker carlson
So you're not giving your home address?
casey putsch
Not at this moment.
tucker carlson
But are you open to kind of custom build?
casey putsch
Of course I'm open to doing things.
I mean, you know, I have a nice enough life.
I have a wife, I have a cute daughter, a nice neighborhood and neighbors.
Toys to play with.
But there's more to life than that.
tucker carlson
Can you find men to work for you?
Of course.
casey putsch
In fact, I've been mentoring college students for the last decade plus.
I can call up half of them.
They've got great jobs out there.
tucker carlson
So I guess it gets to a larger question.
I mean, the trades are not dead, correct?
casey putsch
No, they're not dead, and they're vastly important right now.
More people should be going into them.
tucker carlson
I know.
casey putsch
You wouldn't have all the student debt.
tucker carlson
But in your life, if you all of a sudden got an order for 15 of these vehicles, could you find the people necessary?
casey putsch
Yeah, I can put that together.
tucker carlson
Wow. Okay.
casey putsch
Well, even if there's something that I don't know, I'm going to find it.
Yes. Like, you make it happen.
But, you know, one man can't do everything by themselves.
You know, if you're building something and nobody wants it, well, that's a problem.
You need to build something somebody wants.
And if it requires a team of people coming together, whether that's with talents or resources or finances to do it, then you find a way.
tucker carlson
Do you think if you started doing this, the government would jump on you?
casey putsch
It depends on how you do it.
It is a game.
And to be honest, when I look at the car and what I've done with that or with the educational nonprofit or anything else in life, I look at how do I have the biggest positive impact I possibly can?
You know, and right now the biggest impact with regard to the car is talking about it.
So people do know what's possible.
So hopefully maybe they kind of, you know, wake up for a second from the cell phone, look around and think.
That's a vastly important thing to do.
So I think it has tremendous value there.
But, you know, I want to build something.
You know, I'm an America first kind of guy.
Like, why in the heck are we not building these things here?
Yeah. Why?
We should.
You know, and I'll give you an example.
I've been around the sun, I don't know, 43 times in my life, right?
When I was younger, and we were working in a little town golf course that's a family business, and a lot of the guys that golf at our golf course were blue-collar.
Everybody there is largely working class.
Old World War II vets, that sort of thing, right?
tucker carlson
Yeah, it's Toledo.
casey putsch
Yeah. Yeah, well, and that was even Tiffin.
But the point I'm making is, or if I'm like riding a motorcycle around Toledo or something, I'm like, nothing's changed.
Nothing's changed in the last 50 years.
There's people out here.
They want to work.
They want a job.
They want a community.
But what's going on out there in the world that doesn't allow people to have that anymore?
And that's what frankly ticks me off.
And usually I get ticked off and then I think and plan and do something.
tucker carlson
Well, there's an instinctive hatred.
Coming from our leaders for those kind of people.
casey putsch
I know.
tucker carlson
It's pretty obvious.
casey putsch
I know.
tucker carlson
Casey, I really appreciate you taking all this time.
Amazing. Thank you.
And I'm going to order a vehicle from you.
casey putsch
I appreciate it.
It'd be fun.
tucker carlson
Thank you.
So it turns out that YouTube is suppressing this show.
On one level, that's not surprising.
That's what they do.
But on another level, it's shocking.
With everything that's going on in the world right now, all the change taking place in our economy and our politics, with the wars on the cusp of fighting right now, Google has decided you should have less information rather than more.
And that is totally wrong.
It's immoral.
What can you do about it?
Well, we could whine about it.
That's a waste of time.
We're not in charge of Google.
Or we could find a way around it, a way that you could actually get information that is true, not intentionally deceptive.
The way to do that on YouTube, we think, is to subscribe to our channel.
Subscribe. Hit the little bell icon to be notified when we upload and share this video.
That way you'll have a much higher chance of hearing actual news and information.
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