If you love supercars and don’t have $500,000 to buy one of your own, the best way to see them in the wild is to show up early on a weekend morning at a “Cars and Coffee” meetup. As a resident of Los Angeles, whenever I feel a hankering to gawk at some insane supercars, I drive up the PCH to the Malibu Country Mart on a weekend morning.
On Saturday and Sunday mornings, dozens of the most incredible supercars gather at the Malibu Country Mart for what has to be the best Cars and Coffee meetup on earth. You’re pretty much guaranteed to see dozens of Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis, McLarens, and the occasional hypercar that would otherwise only be seen at an ultra-high-end car show in places like Pebble Beach or Monte Carlo.
And because this is Malibu, the crowd often includes people like Jerry Seinfeld or Jay Leno casually sipping coffee next to several million dollars in metal. You might even catch the infamous Ferrari collector David Lee. David earned his fortune thanks to a jewelry empire in SoCal’s inland empire. He has used his fortune to buy what might be the most insane Ferrari collection outside of Modena. You know the Ferrari F40? He owns two. The F50? He owns two of those as well. He also owns a LaFerrari Aperta, which will set you back $7-10 million if you can find one that’s actually for sale. David is believed to be the only person known to own Ferrari’s five flagship supercars, also known as the “Big Five”:
- 288 GTO
- F40
- F50
- Enzo,
- LaFerrari
Oh, and he owns all five in BOTH RED AND YELLOW.
Anyhoo. Every time I’ve been to the Malibu Cars and Coffee, and very frequently whenever I’ve spotted an exotic supercar in the wild, something always puzzled me. A huge percentage of extreme high-end cars have Montana license plates. These people could not all be Montana visitors in LA for the weekend. I never understood what was going on. Until now. And I can thank a YouTuber named Cody Detwiler for the education.
Cody Detwiler is a YouTuber who operates a channel called WhistlinDiesel. He has around 10 million followers. The description of his channel reads:
“Are you tired of clicking on a deceivingly clickbaited video only for it to be someone doing the same boring crap you saw last week? Yeah me too. Thats why i never waste time uploading a stupid boring video. OK maybe they are stupid lol. Enjoy”
His most popular videos have titles like:
- Cybertruck Durability Test #1 – 35 million views
- Monstermax Drives in the Ocean – 27 million views
- Hellcat on Horse & Buggy Wheels goes to town and does burnouts – 23 million views
- Buying a Firetruck and destroying it in one day – 20 million views
And from two years ago:
- I bought a $400,000 Ferrari just to destroy it – 21 million views
I vividly remember that last video because, as someone who famously loves Ferraris, several friends texted me the link when it first came out. Here it is if you’re curious:
Even though it breaks my heart to watch, it’s undeniably fascinating to see someone take a brand-new Ferrari and intentionally try to run it into the ground. But — spoiler alert — he doesn’t actually destroy the car in that first video. He destroys it in a follow-up video titled:
The Fastest Way to Lose Half a Million Dollars
In that follow-up, which is embedded below, Cody races a 2020 Ferrari F8 Tributo through a dry farm field. As he barrels across the field, the low-cut vegetation appears to get sucked into the wheels and engine bay. The debris ignites, and the Ferrari is consumed in a massive fire. So is the rental minivan that was following alongside to film everything.
At the 1-minute mark of the above video, eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed Cody’s license plate is from… Montana:
Cody Just Got Arrested
Unfortunately for Cody, that Ferrari not only cost him $400k, but it also just cost him his freedom. Last week, Cody was arrested in Williamson County, Tennessee, and charged with two felony counts of tax evasion tied directly to that very same Ferrari F8 Tributo. According to the indictment, prosecutors allege that Detwiler “unlawfully and willfully” attempted to evade more than $500 in taxes owed to the State of Tennessee on the January 2023 purchase of the car. That $500 figure is simply the minimum threshold for a felony. In reality, the tax liability on a $400,000 supercar purchased by a Tennessee resident would likely fall somewhere between $28,000 and $40,000 once state and local sales taxes are factored in.
Detwiler was booked into the Williamson County Jail, had his mugshot taken, and was released later that afternoon after posting a $20,000 bond.
Williamson County Sheriff’s Office
The charges were filed not only against him personally but also against his business entity, WhistlinDiesel LLC. His first hearing is set for November 19. Detwiler immediately addressed the arrest on Instagram, posting photos and video footage of himself being escorted in handcuffs, along with the caption, “Won so big they thought I was cheating. (100% real not AI).” In a follow-up post, he claimed he had “ALWAYS paid ALL of my taxes” and insisted he had received no notice of any issue prior to six officers showing up at his door.
The indictment doesn’t mention YouTube, the farm field, or the fiery videos that made the Ferrari infamous. It focuses purely on taxes. But prosecutors didn’t need to explain the backstory. The car was publicly documented, its use was documented, its destruction was documented, and its Montana plates were documented. In other words, the entire chain of events that normally requires investigators, subpoenas, and months of legwork was already laid out in high-definition video for tens of millions of viewers to see. And that brings us to the part of the story that explains why I always saw Montana plates at Malibu Cars and Coffee — and why those plates can trigger criminal charges like these.
The Montana Tax Evasion Scheme
As it turns out, Montana allows anyone — including non-residents — to form an LLC with almost no friction. Once the LLC exists, that LLC can “own” a vehicle. And if a Montana LLC owns a vehicle, that vehicle can legally be registered in Montana, even if the real owner has never set foot in the state. For exotic-car owners, that creates a buffet of financial incentives. The most obvious perk is tax savings. Because Montana has no sales tax, a buyer, like Cody (allegedly), can avoid paying their home state’s massive levy. Instead of handing over $30,000 to $40,000 in taxes on a $400,000 Ferrari, they pay a Montana LLC service a few hundred dollars a year and stick Montana plates on the car. The taxes on a $7 million LaFerrari Aperta would run between $500,000 and $700,000, depending on the state.
But tax savings are only part of the appeal. States like California impose strict emissions requirements, biannual smog testing, and significant penalties if your car can’t pass. Older Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, and imported supercars often fail California’s CARB rules or require expensive modifications to comply.
Take a Ferrari F40, for example. An F40 was never built to meet California’s modern emissions standards, and many cars that were imported decades ago only passed with temporary exemptions. Today, an F40 that fails a smog test might need catalytic converter retrofits, updated oxygen sensors, evaporative system repairs, or a full aftermarket emissions package. That kind of work can easily run tens of thousands of dollars… or more. And actually, that’s the best-case scenario. With some cars, there’s simply no guaranteed path to compliance at all. A Montana registration conveniently sidesteps all of that. Montana doesn’t require smog checks, and it doesn’t care where the car is physically located.
Here’s the crucial detail most people either misunderstand or deliberately ignore: you are legally required to register your car in the state where you live and the state where the car is primarily kept. If you live in Tennessee or California, or Florida, and your Ferrari spends its life in your home garage, that car must be registered in that state.
For years, this loophole flew mostly under the radar because exotic cars were a niche hobby and social media didn’t exist. But now every supercar, every plate, every VIN, and every garage location is documented online. Many of these cars have their own social media accounts tracking their every move.
The moment a car appears in a YouTube video, an Instagram reel, a TikTok clip, or a drone shot from a Cars and Coffee event, it creates a trail of evidence. Tax authorities no longer need investigators. They need Google, social media posts, and a cup of coffee. And in Cody Detwiler’s case, they needed exactly one piece of content: a video showing a Tennessee resident driving a Montana-registered Ferrari through a corn field before it burst into flames.
On paper, the charges against Cody are serious. Each count of felony tax evasion carries a potential sentence of one to six years in prison, along with fines, civil penalties, and full repayment of any taxes the state determines were intentionally avoided. In reality, though, Cody is far more likely to face a financial reckoning than an actual prison term. Because this is a non-violent, first-time financial offense, and because he has the means to repay the tax bill immediately, Tennessee will almost certainly push for a plea agreement rather than incarceration. That would probably involve paying the full tax amount, covering interest and penalties that could double the total, and agreeing to a period of supervised probation.
But the bigger consequence may be what his case triggers next. Cody may have inadvertently just set the Montana license plate loophole on fire for everyone in the US. And for that, I bet he will not be welcomed at any Cars and Coffee meetups anytime soon.
