Formula One has rules that control how the car’s engine system works. “50-50” here means the regulations are trying to split the contribution of different parts of the power system in a controlled way, so teams can’t just chase one advantage.
The Hungarian Grand Prix is a Formula 1 race in Hungary. In this episode, it’s used as an example of a race where the racing felt more interesting than expected.
Overtaking just means passing another car during the race. The speaker is saying some tracks make overtaking hard, yet those races can still be more entertaining than others.
Monaco is where the Monaco Grand Prix is held—one of the most famous Formula 1 races. It’s known for being a tight street circuit, so overtaking is hard, but the race can still be exciting.
“Current era regulations” refers to the present set of Formula 1 technical and sporting rules that govern car design and race procedures. The host argues these rules are having a negative effect on the racing product—specifically by reducing the situations where cars can meaningfully pass.
2031 is the year mentioned for when Formula 1 plans to switch to a new set of rules. The host is basically saying we still have several seasons left under the current rules.
2030 is the year suggested as an earlier start for new Formula 1 rules. The point here is that it still means several more seasons of the current rules.
Silverstone is a famous Formula 1 circuit in the UK. The speaker is criticizing it (and Spa) as among the worst tracks for racing quality, implying the layout or rule effects can reduce overtaking.
Delta in lap time is just how much faster one car is than another per lap. The host is saying you might not need a big speed gap to pass if the rules make racing closer.
Topic
rained halfway through
If it starts raining halfway through a race, the track gets slippery and everything changes. The host is saying that kind of weather shift made the racing more dramatic.
Term
skidding off
Skidding off is when a car loses grip and slides out of the lane. In rain, it happens more because the tires can’t bite as well.
Breaking down refers to mechanical or technical failure that forces a car to retire or stop running. The speaker pairs it with rain and skidding to emphasize how disruptive conditions were in that race.
Aston Martin is a famous British car company that also competes in Formula 1. Here, they’re talking about how Aston Martin improved their race car with big updates.
In Formula 1 qualifying, Q3 is the last and fastest part of the session. If a driver makes it out of Q3, it means they were quick enough to fight for the best starting positions.
Midfield is the middle of the pack in Formula 1. “Bottom of the midfield” means they’re not at the very front, but they’re also not struggling at the back.
“Mobile chicanes” is a joking way to say a car is so slow it makes faster cars keep adjusting their driving to get around it. They’re saying Aston Martin used to be that problem, but not as much anymore.
In Formula 1, a “Honda engine” refers to the power unit supplied by Honda (or Honda-branded components) used by a team. The segment implies a new Honda power unit is scheduled to debut at the next race, which could improve performance and reliability.
Zanvoort refers to the Formula 1 track in the Netherlands (Circuit Zandvoort). It’s where the next race is happening, and that’s why they’re timing the new engine for it.
The Dodge Challenger is a performance car with a strong engine and a sporty, old-school design. People talk about it because it’s known for power and for being a popular choice in its category.
Term
exclusive works engine deal
This is about who builds the engine for an F1 team. A “works” deal usually means the engine maker is directly involved and supports the team more closely than a generic supplier. “Exclusive” suggests the team gets a special arrangement.
A wind tunnel is like a giant indoor fan setup used to test how air flows around a car. Teams use it to improve handling and speed by reducing drag and increasing grip from the car’s aero shape.
Adrian Newey is one of the most famous race-car engineers in Formula 1. People bring up his name when they’re talking about teams that should be performing at the very front.
Fernando Alonso is a highly successful Formula 1 race driver. If he’s not getting the results people expect, it usually points to problems with the car or its development—not just the driver.
A “learning curve” means it takes time to figure out the best way to make the car work. Even with good people and resources, a brand-new setup usually needs a period of trial, testing, and adjustment.
Topic
Zenville
This sounds like the name of the next race after the summer break. The speaker is using it as a timeline point for when new engine updates might show up.
Term
car's design process
This is about how the race car was engineered and built from the start. If the design process goes wrong, the car can end up with problems that are hard to fix later with just small tweaks.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most successful Formula 1 drivers in history. Here, the hosts are comparing his driving approach to what works in different racing conditions.
George refers to George Russell, a British Formula 1 driver. The hosts argue that his results this year are affected by how well his driving style matches the current car’s behavior.
Max Verstappen is a top Formula 1 driver from the Netherlands. The conversation is comparing how different drivers are doing this season and how their styles match the car.
Jenson Button is a former Formula 1 champion from the UK. The hosts are saying George drives in a smooth way similar to Button, and that kind of driving matched how cars behaved in a past technical era.
“Ground effect” is a time in F1 when the car’s shape under the floor helped it stick to the track using airflow. The hosts are saying that smoother driving helped the car stay in the sweet spot where that grip worked best.
The Audi S5 Avant is an Audi wagon that’s meant to feel sporty, not just practical. It has a turbo V6 engine and all-wheel drive, which helps it feel confident and smooth rather than rough.
A turbo V6 is an engine with six cylinders arranged in a V shape, plus a turbocharger. The turbo helps the engine make more power by pushing extra air into the engine.
Four wheel drive (4WD) means power is sent to both the front and rear axles, improving traction. On a sporty wagon like the Audi S5 Avant, it can help the car put power down more consistently in wet or low-grip conditions.
This is how efficiently the car uses fuel—how many miles you can drive per gallon on average. The host’s point is that good fuel economy doesn’t offset the cost and hassle of the problems.
ADAS means the car’s driver-assist safety tech—things that help you stay in your lane or manage driving. The host is saying those systems kept malfunctioning and throwing warnings.
Driver assist systems are the car’s semi-automated features that help with driving. In this story, they were working except cruise control wasn’t available when the warnings appeared.
The Porsche Panamera is Porsche’s fast, four-door car. It’s meant to feel like a sports car, but with real back seats and everyday practicality. Here, the host says it’s a “sleeper” because not many people discuss it compared with other Porsche models.
A “sleeper” is a car that seems unremarkable, but is actually very fast or capable. Here, the host means the Panamera is a Porsche that doesn’t get talked about as much as the flashier models.
The Porsche Cayenne is a luxury SUV that’s meant to drive more like a sports car than a typical family SUV. It’s often mentioned because it sells in very large numbers compared with many other Porsche models.
“Residuals” are basically how much the car is worth later on. If the Taycan holds its value well, that can make leasing and long-term costs look better.
They’re talking about how heavy the car is—around 2.2 tons. Weight can change how the car feels and handles, but they’re saying it still drives like a Porsche.
A “hybrid drive” means the car uses two kinds of power—an engine and an electric motor. The electric motor can help the engine, especially for smooth starts and stop-and-go driving.
Term
linearity of the steering
This is about how predictable the steering feels. When you turn the wheel a little, the car reacts in a consistent way, so it’s easier to drive accurately.
A “slow rack” means the steering wheel turns more before the wheels turn the same amount. It often makes the car feel steadier and easier to control, especially when driving fast.
Term
the way the car is damped
“Damping” is how the shocks control the car’s movement over bumps. When it’s done well, the ride feels controlled and the tires stay planted instead of bouncing around.
The Porsche 911 is Porsche’s famous sports car. It’s known for a very distinctive driving feel, and here the host is basically saying it would be the one car they’d choose if they wanted a 911.
Residual value is what a car is expected to be worth in the future. If residual values drop, it means the car is expected to lose value faster than people hoped.
“Powertrain agnostic” means the same car “base” can be built with different kinds of engines or electric setups. So the company can choose EV, hybrid, or gas without starting over.
The battery is the big rechargeable pack that stores electricity. A bigger battery usually helps the car go farther before it needs charging.
Term
proper electrics
They’re talking about the car running on electricity only, without the engine doing the driving. That’s what determines how many miles you can go before you need to switch modes or refuel.
Term
crankshaft never turns
The crankshaft is part of the engine. If it “never turns,” it means the engine isn’t running at all, and the car is being driven electrically.
Concept
canalization of sales
This phrase means pushing buyers toward certain choices or paths instead of letting them freely compare everything. Here, the host is saying that the way brands are marketed and sold is becoming more “funneled,” and that could change.
Volkswagen is a big car brand from Germany. Here, it’s mentioned alongside other brands to say that some cars can feel different outside, but share the same underlying design.
“Under the skin” means what’s going on inside the car, like the main engineering parts. The host is saying that different brands can look different, but be built on the same basic stuff.
Skoda is a car brand from the Czech Republic. In this discussion, it’s used to show that some brands in the same group build cars on similar basic designs.
Stellantis is a big company that makes lots of different car brands. The host is saying that when one company owns many brands, the lineup can get messy and cars can start to feel too similar.
The Volkswagen Tiguan is a bigger VW SUV/crossover than the smaller T-Cross-type models. The speaker is listing VW’s SUV options to show how the lineup is organized.
A crossover is a car that sits higher like an SUV, but it’s usually built more like a regular car. Here, they’re talking about electric versions of that style of vehicle.
Audi’s TT RS is a high-performance version of the TT. It uses a turbocharged five-cylinder engine, and the hosts are saying this engine is getting phased out because new emissions rules (like Euro 7) are coming.
Euro 7 is a new set of stricter emissions rules in Europe. The idea is that some older engines will be harder to keep compliant, so manufacturers may stop using them unless they redesign the hardware.
Audi’s RS3 is a sporty compact car. In this part, they’re talking about using the RS3’s drivetrain setup—especially how it can control power to the rear wheels—to enable things like drift-style behavior.
Term
torque splitter differential substitute
A torque-splitter differential is a drivetrain component that divides engine torque between the driven wheels. The hosts call it a “substitute,” meaning this car uses a different implementation (based on the RS3’s approach) to achieve similar rear-wheel torque control for drift-oriented behavior.
Drift modes are settings that help the car behave in a way that makes sliding easier. They typically change how the car manages traction and power so you can steer while the rear wheels break loose.
Adaptive dampers are shocks that can change how stiff they feel. “15-way” means there are many different settings, so the car can feel more comfortable or more controlled depending on what you choose.
The Golf R is a sporty version of the Volkswagen Golf. The hosts mention it because it can have the same type of adjustable shocks (adaptive dampers) that help the car feel different depending on the driving mode.
The “modern car conundrum” is the problem of making cars that still feel exciting while also meeting strict rules and trying to satisfy lots of different buyers. The hosts are saying this can dilute what people love about older, simpler engines.
“Off boost” means the turbo isn’t really working yet. So the car feels slower to respond until you press the gas enough to get the turbo to build pressure.
“Kick down” is when you floor the gas and the automatic transmission immediately drops to a lower gear. It’s meant to make the car accelerate faster right away.
An engine map is how the car’s computer decides what to do when you press the gas. In different driving modes, it can make the throttle feel calmer or more responsive.
“Individual mode” means you can customize how the car behaves. You can usually adjust things like suspension and throttle response, but some systems may limit what you can change.
Term
dampers right
The host is talking about setting the shock absorbers so the ride feels right. The goal is to avoid a bouncy, floaty feel.
A five-cylinder engine means the car has five cylinders working together to make power. It’s often chosen because it can feel smoother and more “alive” than a typical four-cylinder, depending on how it’s tuned.
Term
flickerable modes
“Flickerable modes” refers to selectable driving modes that you can switch quickly (often via a button or dial) to change how the car behaves. These modes commonly alter throttle response, steering weight, shift behavior, and sometimes engine mapping and traction control calibration.
“Comfort” is a driving setting meant to make the car feel smoother and calmer. It usually reduces how aggressively the car responds so the ride is more relaxed.
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is a luxury car that’s meant to be comfortable for daily driving. In the podcast, it’s used to point out that you can still have good space and usability without choosing an SUV.
The Volkswagen Golf is a small everyday car, usually a hatchback. It’s commonly used as a comparison point because it’s a standard size in the compact-car world.
The Audi A3 is a compact Audi model. The host is saying the SUV is taller than an A3, which helps with getting kids in and out and general everyday space.
They’re talking about driving in the mountains of Wales. The point is that the car’s settings and power can be used on winding roads in real life.
Term
Coupe Promote
That sounds like a drive mode name (a setting you pick in the car). Drive modes change how the car behaves—like how sensitive the throttle is and how much traction control intervenes.
The rear differential(s) send power to the back wheels. When they’re “locked out,” both wheels are forced to behave more similarly, which can make it easier to slide the car through corners.
The Range Rover is a large luxury SUV made for both comfort and serious driving ability off the road. It’s the top model in its family, so new versions tend to get a lot of attention.
The 2 Series is a smaller, sportier car line that’s designed more for driving on the road than for SUV-style practicality. The podcast is using it to explain that it’s sleeker and more “grand tourer” than an SUV.
Electrified Modular Architecture is a “platform” that JLR uses to build cars. It’s meant to support electric drivetrains, and the hosts say it’s also being adapted so hybrids can be built on it too.
This just means the specific vehicle-building platform JLR uses for their electrified cars. The hosts say it can support both electric cars and hybrids as the lineup expands.
The “Type 01” sounds like a vehicle that’s been made to sit higher off the ground and is described as having some driving range. The podcast is basically trying to help listeners understand what it is by comparing it to a similar “Type 01” idea.
The Jaguar F-Type is a sports car made for driving enjoyment. In the podcast, it’s brought up mainly to help describe the look and feel of another vehicle by comparison.
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Welcome back to the Intercooler podcast, everybody, episode 324 of the podcast powered by car finance specialist JBR Capital.
Full compliments actually this week, Dan Proser, Andrew Frankel, and Jez Medinger with you.
There's a whole load of stuff that we want to talk about this week, guys, but should we start by talking about us
and the event that we've got on next week?
Jez, actually, I'm going to task you with telling everyone about our event on Thursday evening next week.
Which is what? August 6th?
Yeah.
Correct. How desperately exciting.
So it's going to be happening at Bistermotion, running from 5pm to 8pm,
and we are expecting many, many hundreds of cars to come and join us for our inaugural Concours Depreciation,
where we are going to celebrate a motoring life well lived.
So this is not the standard kind of concours where we are expecting to see absolutely straight out of the factory stickers
and, you know, plastic grommets and an engine bay detailed within a whisker of its life.
These are cars that have been used and enjoyed and loved and looked after.
Proper cars.
So we're really excited. We're really, really excited to welcome everybody there for a fantastic TI event.
Yeah. So this is, it's been a fun, right? We're calling it Concours Depreciation.
Depreciation?
You've probably got to see it written down, haven't you?
It's a bit of fun, right? So it's a Concours, but it's a tongue-in-cheek Concours.
And the whole point of it, as Jess says, is to celebrate the cars that are used as intended,
driven lots, driven hard, but also looked after, you know, sound mechanical condition.
We are actually judging this Concours, so there will be 15 or 20 cars entered into the Concours.
And if you've already bought a ticket, you will now, via email, have been invited to enter your car into the Concours.
We're going to choose 15 or 20 of them. And then the judges, including us and a whole bunch of TI writers,
they're going to be out in force, will be awarding prizes to the three cars that we think best embody the spirit of the occasion.
But actually, I think most of all, it's just a bit of a laugh and an excuse to get together and chat rubbish about cars already.
Tickets cost £10 each, so it's very, very affordable.
There'll be a link in the description. Go and click that link and you can find out a bit more about the event and you'll be able to buy tickets as well.
You might have to register with Bista Motion to buy tickets, but it's free and it takes seconds.
And so I'm sorry, is the ticket per car or per person in that car? So if somebody turns up with five people in it?
I'm glad you asked that, Andrew, because I don't know. But all the information is available at the link in description.
So you'll be able to go and figure that out, I'm sure. It'll be really good fun.
There's, as Jess said, we are expecting hundreds of cars and people to come along.
The last few tickets are available. So if you're at a loose end on Thursday next week, the 6th of August, 5 to 8pm,
why don't you buy ticket and come along? And if you think your car is appropriate for our tongue-in-cheek concourse,
enter it and you might just win a prize. Anything to add to that, guys?
I've got just something, because it is fun. That's why we're doing it, it's what we're about.
But I think there's a slightly serious point to it, because, and I've said this many times before,
my problem with the traditional concourse, where everything turns up as, frankly,
so often in better condition than it would have been when it first came out of the factory,
is those sorts of events, although the cars look absolutely wonderful, they actually encourage people not to use their cars.
These cars become works of art. They become things to admire rather than things to get out there and drive.
And this is the opposite of that. We don't care how many scratches and dings or war wounds,
we actually kind of are looking for that. We're not looking for sheds,
we're not looking for cars that are absolutely on their last legs and have to be dragged to it
or are in such poor condition that they've got to be trailer there.
We look at and we can tell. We've been doing this for long enough to know a car that has been loved and used.
And that's what it's really all about. And there's nobody else doing that at the moment.
There's nobody else celebrating actually the cars that we all want to know about,
not the show queens, but the cars that we all love, the cars that we all want to own and drive ourselves.
So that's what it's all about. So please, as Dan says, please go and follow the link.
We'd love to see you there. We've already sold hundreds and hundreds of tickets.
We are capped at something, but there are still a few left.
So if you hear this and you're knocking about next Thursday afternoon, there'll be food there,
there'll be food stalls there. We'll all be there.
We're actually going to have a little display of TI contributor cars as well.
So we've each been tasked with turning up in something suitably interesting, I guess.
Jess, I'm guessing I know what you're going to turn up in.
I'm not saying what I'm going to turn up in, but it will definitely be worth looking at.
Dan, have you got any ideas in that direction?
Yeah, it's a bit of a cheat, but I think it'll be worth displaying anyway.
Excellent. So come and see us.
We've got, I think there will be sort of like a 10 or maybe a dozen TI contributors there.
Most of us will be wearing TI polo shirts, so you'll know who we are, even if you don't recognise our faces.
Come and say hello. It'll be a lot of fun. There should be an awful lot of cool cars there.
And yeah, please, please, please come along and we'll look forward to see you there five o'clock next Thursday, August the 6th.
Absolutely. Yeah, well said. I'm looking forward to it. I think it'll be really fun.
We haven't done anything like this before. We've done lots of events, lots of live podcasts.
Yeah.
But this is something different, isn't it, with hundreds of people coming along.
We've certainly haven't done anything at this scale before.
And who knows if it goes well, we might do it again.
Indeed.
Listen, there's tons that we need to get through this week.
But let's do a little bit of Formula One because we are now in the Formula One summer break, halfway through the 2026 season.
I mean, there are a few different sort of themes that we can pick over.
I do want to start with the regulations, though, these much-vaunted new 50-50 power unit regulations.
Andrew, sort of summary thoughts on how it's been so far.
I'm going to guess that he's going to say bar humbug. Let's find out.
I'm not going to say that. I'm going to say this is the worst season of Formula One that I have seen in half a century of watching Formula One.
It is the first time in my memory that I cancelled my SkySubscription.
Did you?
I didn't notice how long I've had that for. I've cancelled it.
So what I do now is I either watch it on Channel 4, the highlights, or if it's really important, like it was Silverstone or Spa, that was a mistake, wasn't it?
I'll go on to now and you can buy 24-hours access to that channel for 15 quid.
Oh!
Yeah.
So you can watch the race live and you can stop it and you can rewind it.
You can't record it, but you can watch it, stop it, rewind it, do all the things that you do on your SkyBox and it costs 15 quid.
And I was paying Sky like 70 quid a month and it just wasn't worth it.
And yeah, I can't remember. I mean, some people take a completely different view.
I'm not saying I'm right and they're wrong because they see lots and lots of overtaking, but it's not the drivers who are doing the overtaking really.
It's the electronics and it's what they said at the beginning of the season.
That phrase, I think it was David Croft who said it, it's a high-speed game of chess.
That is what is wrong with it.
It is, it should, anyway.
And I think the thing that struck me most, I tuned in to watch the, I spent 15 quid and I watched the Hungarian Grand Prix live yesterday.
Not because I particularly thought it was going to be a great race, but because I knew we're going to be recording this podcast and we're going to do a kind of like an end of season review.
And I felt the need to be up to speed for that.
And I found myself enjoying it more than any other race I've seen this season.
Despite the fact, and I've said this before, if there was one race on the calendar, I would cancel.
It would be the Hungarian Grand Prix because I don't think the circuit is very interesting.
You never get any overtaking and blah.
And so I thought to myself, why did I enjoy watching that race so much?
And the reason is, it was the race to which the rules had least effect.
It was the, I mean, I guess Monaco would have been the same.
And so you have this situation where to watch a half-decent motor race, you've got to go to the worst track on the calendar because it's the only track on the calendar where there's ridiculous business of cars just running out of juice.
It doesn't happen.
And I just thought that was such a damning indictment of the entire current era regulations.
And they're sort of saying, well, the new one's coming in 2031.
Let's bring that forward to 2030.
That still means we've got another whatever it is, four seasons of this rubbish.
And I just, I just despair, I really do.
It has made me do the one thing which I thought could never be done.
It has made me fall out of love with Formula One.
There you go.
But that bar humbug enough for you, Jess.
Well, I have some thoughts on this too.
And actually you sort of came round to sort of come adjacent to them, which is that I don't like the regulations, but I'm quite enjoying this season.
And I don't quite know how to reconcile that in my head.
It does seem that the energy rich circuits, i.e. the ones that don't necessarily serve up overtaking are the ones where the racing is most authentic.
And as you say, Monaco and Hungary have been good races as a result of that.
As soon as you've got big long straights.
But they're the two worst tracks on the calendar.
But now they're the two best.
I know.
Doesn't that tell you all you need to know about how stupid these regulations are?
I don't know.
And the worst circuits on the calendar are Silverstone and Spa for goodness sake.
But that's how F'd up this all is.
So let's just delete the past and imagine that you're an alien who's flown in and you're watching F1 for the first time this season.
And just forget all of the baggage that we bring into it.
You can look at where we're going with this and see a future over the next four years where they sort out some of this deployment issues and the high speed chestness.
And you end up with cars that simply follow closer and are able to do overtakes without needing a huge delta in lap time by virtue of being able to use boost here and there.
And there is a world there where that could actually create some good racing.
Look at the Stappens overtake on Hamilton yesterday as he was getting caught up behind one of the racing balls.
I was one of the best moves I've ever seen.
Yeah, exactly.
To do that to a seven times world champion who was in a quicker car.
Yeah, so there is still legitimate overtakes happening.
We just need to filter out some of the nonsense.
Some of the Super Mario Kart Swaperoo.
And I think we'll actually be in a reasonable place.
Now that's not to say, but the YouTube algorithm gave me the 1995 Spa Grand Prix last night and I watched half of it and it was amazing.
You know, it rained halfway through.
Everyone's skidding off.
Everyone's breaking down.
You've got incredible overtakes everywhere.
You know, that you do watch that era and it does feel nostalgic and brilliant, but I don't know.
There is a world in which we have a new future that could be equally exciting.
So I don't know.
I'm an optimist.
I don't like the new rules, but maybe we can make them work as long as we don't get too burdened by the past.
That's why we need you on this podcast, Jess, because you could be tickled to my ticker to my ear.
And I think that's probably quite important.
There is some potential in them because, as Jess said, the cars do seem to follow pretty close.
And we have seen some cracking wheel to wheel stuff this season.
We've also seen the ridiculous yo-yo racing where they just overtake one another because they've pressed a button.
But also, as we've alluded to, some of the best circuits have been really muted because the cars just run out of energy at the end of the straights
and then big hairy-chested, scary corners that used to be epic are now just non-events.
And it's such a pity.
And I just don't understand how it has been allowed to happen because several years ago, people were saying exactly this was going to happen.
Well, we did talk about it last week, didn't we, Andrew?
Yeah, we did.
It's money and it's about Audi coming into Formula One and honestly, who cares?
As a fan, who cares?
We've got another manufacturer there running around in the midfield.
I don't even notice them during a race weekend.
With all due respect to all the people, all the excellent people who work there and are working tirelessly to make that competitive team,
it brings, so far, it brings nothing to Formula One as far as I'm concerned.
Instead, we've got these, frankly, pathetic power unit regulations that just should never have happened.
Should never have happened.
Absolutely.
It's so frustrating.
Yeah.
Good.
I think, Andrew, you wanted to talk a little bit about Aston Martin.
Well, yeah.
I just wonder what you guys think.
So this was meant to be Aston Martin's, the point at which they started to turn around their season.
And the operative word in that sentence is started because it is a process and it's not over.
And I think, whereas a normal big upgrade for a team might be bringing six or seven changes,
I think they brought 16.
And I think most of the talk was that this is an all but new car.
It's certainly a lot lighter.
And clearly it's working better because, you know, Fernando got out of Q3 for the first time this season.
And he was, okay, I think he ended up 16th on the grid.
So I think if you also look at the times, you know, there have been times when they've been four or five seconds off the front of the grid.
And I think it's now about two and a half.
So they've almost halved the deficit.
So I thought that was actually very good to see.
And although neither car particularly did much during the race, they were kind of up there at the bottom of the midfield.
They weren't the sort of mobile chicanes down the back anymore.
So that's big progress.
And we know, don't we, that there's a new Honda engine that's going to come out at the Zanvoort at the end of next month.
So the next race, because we're going into the summer break.
So let us say that that works too.
Let us be hopeful and optimistic.
I think you could see by the end of the season Aston Martin as a solid midfield challenger.
And you can look at that two ways, can't you?
You can think to yourselves on the one hand, wow, that is amazing, given where they started the season.
But on the other hand, you think to yourself, well, hang on a second, you know, exclusive works engine deal, brand new factory, brand new wind tunnel.
Adrian Newey, Fernando Alonso, why aren't they at the front?
Yeah.
And I do incline to give them the benefit of the doubt.
And this is not me being brilliant with the benefit of hindsight.
I said long before this season that anybody who thought that Aston Martin would just come in at the front would be deluding themselves because that's just not the way that it works.
And that everything was so new for them.
They had their learning curve was going to be an awful lot steeper than anybody else's.
So I think if they end this season, you know, looking to get both cars in the points most weekends, I think they'd think that was a right result.
And given where they started the season, it absolutely would be.
So I think next season is altogether more important and indicative.
And if they're still there at the end of next season, then I think you can say that the whole project is not working.
And you might need to do something about that.
Yeah.
At the end of the summer break, the first race back is Zenville, isn't it?
And Honda has got a new engine coming there.
So again, there could be another meaningful step forward.
But this is not a bad team.
The car that they have produced so far this season is far beneath their own standards.
I don't think this should reflect on the team as a whole, but something clearly went terribly wrong during this car's design process.
So maybe some time last year.
But I put the point being, I suppose, is that I do back the team to claw its way out of this rut.
You know, this is not their true position, is it?
No.
They should be.
No, exactly.
They should be.
And they were actually yesterday.
They were better than the Cadillacs.
So they're not that they are not, you know, they are no longer.
I mean, they were far and away the slowest team on the grid.
They're not even the slowest team on the grid anymore.
So there has been real and genuine progress.
And they beat both Haas and they beat both Williams and both Cadillac and Piastri who blew up after driving over a curb.
So, you know, that's huge progress, really, to not just be four teams off the bottom now.
Yeah.
I mean, okay, you have to put that through the lens of Hungary, which is not a representative circuit.
You know, it's one of those sort of outlier tracks, isn't it, where the normal rules don't apply and where you'd always expect, you know, that was one of the big surprises of the Ferraris weren't, you know, streets ahead.
Because if there was one circuit at the year, which played absolutely to the strength of the Ferrari, it was, it was Anvort.
And that's what it was out for.
It was the Hungara ring.
But that's not what happened.
So let's see when they get the new engine and, you know, give them, I don't know, 23 races to bed that in.
And then, yeah, it could be really, really quite interesting.
You know, I do not think that this season need necessarily be a rise off for Aston Martin yet, certainly.
Do you do you think it's Kimme Antonelli's championship to lose?
Well, yes.
Okay, the answer is yes, isn't it?
But can you see him losing it?
No, I don't think so.
He is 50 points ahead now of Lewis, which is too full.
I mean, he can DNF twice and Lewis can win both those races.
And, you know, then even that's not going to happen.
Mercedes needs to spend their entire summer break getting on top of their reliability.
I think the car, particularly looking at the circuits, they're going to be going to, I think the car has enough inherent speed.
He, despite being 19 years old, clearly has a very grown up head and his shoulder.
I wasn't that knocked out by him last season.
And I thought that George was really going to put some manners on him.
But I think George, or I mean, anybody real regular to this will know that I've always been a big George fan.
I know that lots of people aren't.
And I thought that this was going to be his year.
He has been really shown up.
Okay, fine. You can say, well, there have been problems with the cars and with the car and, you know, and maybe.
But, you know, they're meant to have been sorted for this weekend and, you know, and Kimmy was just better than him.
So I think it is his to lose.
I think something quite unexpected will need to happen for him not to be.
I also think that the chasing pack are going to be, you know, if there was one person, his teammate or Lewis or Max,
who were clearly vying for that title and nobody else was, and that would be a different thing.
But they're going to be squabbling amongst each other, nicking points off each other all the time.
And, yeah, so I think I think it really is.
And wouldn't that be extraordinary?
If that young man became, would he be the youngest Formula One World Champion?
He must be mine by now.
By several years.
By several years.
Yeah, I think the youngest is 23 or 24 at the moment.
He's 90.
Wow. Who would that be in Vettel?
Well, Lewis was 23, wasn't he?
I think it's, I think it's Vettel and Lewis, I think.
Yeah.
Gosh.
It's just unbelievable.
Honestly, you know what, I mean, he just seems to come across as being a really nice lad,
which people may know actually really counts for something in my head.
So I wish him all the very best.
Absolutely.
Yeah, just on George, I think he has been disappointing this year.
He has.
And I bet, I bet he's more disappointed than anybody, but I don't think it's that he's
suddenly been shown up or he's lost something or he's not actually as good as we all thought.
I do just think particular cars suit particular styles.
I think, I don't know what it is, but he...
I mean, this has always been the argument of Lewis, hasn't it?
He has been, he has been, Max has been spinning off all over the place, hasn't he?
I think with George, I think he's got that Jensen Button smooth driving style that really
worked in the ground effect era.
It really worked there.
And here it's just not working as well.
Yeah, maybe.
Did you see Lando's comments?
Slightly snide dig, which I saw saying, I've had to change my driving style every year.
That's just what you have to do.
Maybe George has worked for him for 20 years.
It's a pity it's not working for him this year.
Will you say that?
Wow.
Well, I saw...
Look, I need to double check myself.
I saw that quote on social media.
Now, it may be made up, but I don't know.
I can imagine Lando saying that.
Another thing that Lando said was...
He said, what did he say?
He said, I'll put 10 seconds on Oscar with no tyres.
Yeah, and he did.
And then he did.
I mean, he was just a league of his own yesterday, wasn't he?
He was absolutely on fire.
And I think that's a world champion talking it.
That's a bloke who's been there, done it.
And now they finally, with these upgrades,
given him a car which actually can work out at the front.
And again, it's hungry, so who knows what happens next.
But I thought he was unbelievable yesterday.
Yeah, he was.
They were on the radio with him all the time,
just saying, for goodness sake, mate, slow down.
And somebody had to come on and go,
we think going all over the curbs is what caused Oscar to retire.
So you stop it now.
But I thought he was just absolutely mega.
OK, well, we'll look forward to Xanthor
and the second half of this slightly bizarre 2026 F1 season.
I want to talk about my long term, which is now gone,
the Audi S5 Avant that I've been running since January.
I've written my last report for our magazine.
It's on the website now.
And you can go back and read all my reports if you want to.
It was a brilliant car.
I really enjoyed having it.
It's the best sporting family car that I've lived with.
So it's a sort of compactish, three series size estate.
So an estate car, good size, but not massive.
And it's a sporty kind of car.
362 horsepower, turbo V6 four wheel drive,
look smart, lovely interior, actually comfortable as well.
You know, it's not it's not a sort of bone shaker in any sense.
It's really comfortable and refined,
but actually also really good to drive when you get onto a decent bit of road.
It's not like how these of old.
It's not like that sort of nose, heavy, very flat footed kind of thing.
And actually, I was thinking about this morning.
I have reservations about the way it steers,
but the rest of the chassis is actually more like a modern BMW than an Audi,
which I think there are quite a few Audi models actually that I've driven recently
that have felt more that way.
And so I think this old I this old impression of what an Audi is
is sort of fading now 30 miles per gallon average,
not particularly good sort of hits you in the wallet quite hard.
The only issues I had with the car were persistent ADAS problems
that, you know, the ADAS would out of nowhere just fail
and it would leave you with a warning bong and a dashboard full of yellow lights
and you would have no driver assist systems fine,
but no cruise control, which is annoying.
And these issues went back to Audi once to try and have these resolved
and it came back and it behaved itself for quite a while
and then just started happening again.
Not every time, you know, every third or fourth time I drove the car.
So a bit of a sort of blot on this copybook, but by and large, a fantastic thing
and I'm really, really going to miss having that car parked outside.
In five years time, Dan, when those are down at 20, 25 grand, would you buy one?
Well, who knows, but I would absolutely, if I could just keep it now,
I would love to, you know, it is the perfect car for us really.
There are times where we're going on a family holiday and the thing is packed to the rafters,
but I wouldn't want a bigger car for those couple of occasions a year
where you need something or you could use something with a bit more space.
So size-wise, you know, it's right-sized for us,
but just had all the attributes that I want from that kind of car
and I would be delighted to keep it or to have one a few years from now, absolutely.
And in terms of the sort of domestic dynamics inside the family,
was there ever any pressure saying an SUV would be better, easier with two small kids?
Well, yeah, Imogen, my wife does want an SUV
and I think that's what's going to replace it because it's, you know,
it's replacement will be her car.
But I, she actually loved this though, she loved the S5
and she was very sorry to see it go, which does...
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Say a lot.
I've been knocking about in a couple of cars.
Go on then.
Well, okay, I've just, people will know that,
well, people who listen to the podcast and subscribe to the website
and app will know that I'm doing this series
where I live with various interesting cars for a month.
There have been a few of this so far
and I've just come out of a month in a Porsche Panamera.
And it's been really interesting.
There have been a couple of cars that I've run,
Bentley R-Nage and a 997, second generation,
911 GT3 RS, which I've absolutely loved.
Didn't love the Panamera at all.
But my goodness, it's good.
It's kind of, it's to me, it's the kind of like the Sleeper Porsche.
It's the Porsche that you never hear people talking about
because they're either banging on about, you know,
McCowns and Cayennes, which sell, you know,
gazillions at least traditionally.
Or it's all about, you know, 9-Elevens or, you know,
what the next Boxter and Cayman's going to be like
or what Taycan residuals are doing.
So you never hear about the Panamera.
And I think that's because people who have them,
not just very quiet about them, because they just know,
I think it's like a sort of secret society.
I think people who have them just know how good they are.
So this was, this is a Panamera for E hybrid.
So it's got 470 horsepower.
It'll do 60 miles an hour, four seconds flat.
But it also, during the time that I had it,
it did 50 to the gallon.
Wow.
Which is absolutely unbelievable.
Okay.
Of course, I am topping it up with cheap rate electricity
for next to no pence at all overnight.
And that's not just all doing local journeys.
You know, that includes all the long trips
that I've done in it as well.
And it's just such a, an easy place to be.
I've never known a Porsche, which is easier to take
for granted than that.
It's just one of those things.
You just slip it on like a pair of old shoes
and they fit and it's comfortable.
And it's just a really good, solid place to be.
There's no emotional involvement in the car at all.
You know, you don't feel the need to pat the steering wheel
after you've had a decent drive in it.
You come back, you park it, you plug it in and off you go.
But I think we all need cars like that in our lives.
And what I would say makes it different is that when the time
does come and the road opens up, it still drives like a Porsche.
Now it weighs 2.2 tons because it's sort of 2.1.
It's 2.1, I think.
Because it's got, you know, quite a lot of it's got,
it's got batteries in there and hybrid drives
and good snow floats.
But that, those sensations which really distinguish
the way that Porsches drive, the linearity of the steering,
quite a slow rack, the accuracy of the car,
the way the car is damped, it's all quality stuff.
Everything feels like it belongs to everything else.
All the control weights are beautifully matched.
You know that people who appreciate and understand
the sensations of driving set that car up.
And it's just been, it's just been a, I was about to say a joy.
I'm not sure joy is quite the word.
It's been a pleasure to have it.
And it is, I think it's an understated, underrated car.
And Jess, you asked Dan whether he'd have an S5.
If you asked me the same question, would I have a,
I mean, it would certainly be on the list.
I think the thing is it would be my, it would kind of like be
my only everyday car.
And I might want something a bit more exciting.
And I don't really need the rear seats.
So I'd probably still end up, well,
surprise, surprise with a 911 or some of the description.
But if you are the sort of person who ideally would like a 911,
but your circumstances don't allow it,
because you need a big boot and you need some rear seats or a
char actually are rear seats.
I don't think it's anything better out there at the moment.
Do you think it's a great engine away from it being the kind of car
you could love?
No, I don't.
No, I don't.
I don't think that at all.
I almost don't want it to be a car that I love,
which I know sounds like a strange thing.
But to me, it's one of those cars that fits into the sort of
transport category.
And because of its size and because of its weight,
I don't think it's ever going to be a car to fall in love with.
But what it can be is for a particular sort of person,
the best way to get a particular job done.
And what I'm really interested to see,
really interested to see is what they do next with that car,
because I think Porsche has a big decision coming up.
I don't know if we're going to have time to talk about this later
on in the pod, but Volkswagen have announced that they're
starting 50% of their model ranges, which is extraordinary.
That's the Volkswagen group.
So Porsche comes within that.
And we know, don't we, that the Taycan has really,
really struggled of late because of oversupply, residual
values, tanking, and so on and so forth.
Why would you not make the next Panamera a Taycan Panamera
hybrid for want of a better word?
So you come up with a car that can be ice or it can be a hybrid
and you merge the Panamera and the Taycan ranges into one.
That's what I do.
They're so similar in size.
They are designed to do quite similar jobs,
but they're obviously built on completely different platforms.
There are massive disagreements because of that.
And that's what I would do.
I would merge the Taycan and the Panamera into one
and I do what, you know, what JLR do, I do what BMW do.
And you have one platform that can take an EV powertrain,
so your phrase, then powertrain agnostic,
stick whatever you like into it.
That's what I would do.
But in the meantime, I've not loved the last month in the
Panamera, but my goodness, I've appreciated it.
How big is the battery on it?
Glad you asked.
Well, I think it's late, in the late 20,
I think it's like 27, 28.
What I do know is you get about 50,
well, you get about 53 miles of proper electrics out of it.
So, you know, all my local journeys,
if I'm going into Bristol, if I'm going into town or whatever,
it's like, that's, that's,
oh, I'm going to see the in-laws.
That's all the crankshaft never turns.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There are impressive cars.
It's been a little while since I've driven a Panamera,
but I always just sort of settle into them and think,
oh, this is quiet and comfortable.
And then, as you said, Andrew, when you get it on a good road,
it really takes you by surprise.
They get the job done.
Yeah, they really do.
And I have been asking myself whether I wouldn't secretly
rather have a VA in it.
And of course, you know, that's an entirely possible thing
you can do.
But I don't think I would because I just, I just,
I just, it's silly, isn't it?
You know, on average, the car would go 800 miles between fills.
I like that.
And I like 50 to the, you know, someone who has to pay
for their own fuel and as, you know, we will all notice
fuel prices aren't exactly on the floor at the moment.
These sorts of things matter.
Now, maybe, you know, I don't profile probably very well against
the typical Panamera, certainly financially owner.
So maybe they care less about such things,
but I bet they don't.
I bet they appreciate that as much as anything.
Did you want to get stuck into the VW thing?
Well, I mean, it is a sign of the times, isn't it?
And I think the other manufacturers will be paying a lot
of attention to this.
So, yes, as I just said, Volkswagen has said that they're
going to cut 50% of their model ranges.
I don't think that means that they're going to take,
you know, I don't take the Volkswagen group and all the
things they make, and they're just going to stop making
half of those cars.
I think what they will do is that they will massively cut down
on the number of individual cars within the model range.
So, you know, they're probably, I don't know,
27 different sorts of Tiguan you can buy.
And I think those are the things they're going to get
really scaled down.
I mean, I know that they've noticed that there's a huge amount
of canalization of sales because they're selling a
Volkswagen and a Seya and an Audi and a Skoda,
essentially, which are all bar indistinguishable
under the skin.
And I think that's going to get massively cut back.
But I think you will see some complete model lines go,
I don't know which ones.
But, you know, it's a sign of the times, isn't it?
The car ranges have become too big, too complicated.
I mean, we get confused, don't we?
We have to really, really think hard about the specs of cars
and models and what name means which spec and then there's
all the options and then all the option packs.
And the poor old consumer must just be thinking,
oh, my goodness, I don't know which way is up with this stuff.
It'll be interesting to see how other manufacturers react
because they're not the only ones with huge ranges of cars,
you know, across multi-brown portfolios,
which could probably do with a bit of tidying up.
I think they're probably the, I'd say worst offenders,
don't really mean that.
I think they're probably the most exposed.
But Stellantis, you know, look at all the stuff they've got,
you know, across Foxall and Persho and Citroen and, you know,
and Alfa Romeo and Jeep and all these things
which all sit on exactly the same plate
and basically all you're doing is you're taking an entity
and just putting different clothes on it.
I don't think the era of doing that is over,
but I think it is going to change and I think it has to.
Yeah, I just wanted to comment on the VW crossover lineup
as an example of this.
I was just trying to pull it up, actually,
because it's utterly, utterly baffling
and that's to people who, as you say, work in the business
and we are supposed to be on top of this stuff.
So, yeah, okay.
So they're called, they're all T's, aren't they,
the crossovers and SUVs.
Can you tell your Tygo from your T-Cross?
So, the small one is the T-Cross
and then there's the T-Rock, which is new.
You can still get T-Rock Cabriolages.
I know you'll be pleased.
Oh, yeah.
And then slightly bigger is the Tiguan
and then there's the Teyron
and then there's the Toureg.
And then there are, you know, countless different versions.
Hang on, have I just invented the Volkswagen Tygo?
No, there is a Tygo as well. I missed that.
Good for that.
And then there are things like the ID Cross.
So there are more crossovers that are electric.
It's just utterly, utterly baffling.
And, you know, they went mad companies like VW,
feeling every little niche that they could.
Here's the niche that's built something.
Here's the niche that's built something.
And I think it just confuses people.
Especially when you've got equivalent models from Skoda,
the N-Yac and the every other kind of E that you've got
coming from Skoda that pretty much map directly across.
I don't know how many Seat and Cooper have got
that match across as well.
Audi's model range is perhaps slightly easier to get your head around
because it's just on numbers.
Yeah, I struggle with that.
It's absolutely nuts.
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Yeah.
Well, how did you just mention Cooper?
Do you have anything to say about Cooper just?
Well, funnily enough, I do.
I have just taken delivery of a Cooper 4-Mental VZ5.
And if you're not entirely sure what that is,
that's forgivable because they've only just landed in the UK.
If you think of it as an Audi RS3 with a half-way to SUV body on it,
you're not a million miles away.
So it's got the 2.5-litre turbocharged engine.
The 5-cylinder.
Yeah, 5-cylinder.
Yeah, it was also in the TT RS.
It won Engine of the Year in 2017 and 2018.
It's quite an old engine, and they haven't done a lot of hardware updates to it
in the last 10 years, and it's kind of on the cusp of retirement due to Euro 7.
The only updates they have done to it over the years are adding gas particulate filters,
which no one's really a fan of because they just make...
They, you know, they delete 50% of your 5-cylinder warble,
and you want to keep all of that if you possibly can.
So, yeah, it's kind of a last hurrah for the engine,
and Audi have very kindly let Cooper use it in this.
So they've whacked it in along with the RS3's torque splitter differential substitute,
which means that you can lock out each of the rear wheels
and get drift modes and all of this clever jazz.
It's also got the 15-way adaptive dampers that you'll see on Golf R
and as optional on the RS3, and it goes quite fast.
So 385 horsepower, 354 foot-pounds of torque, 0-60 in 4.2 and a top speed of 174.
So it is quite rapid.
I'm still getting my head round it as a car,
and I think this is just the modern car conundrum, right?
Because it's part of as much as manufacturers are like,
let's fill every single niche with a new SUV.
They think everybody wants choice.
There's a little bit of the same approach that goes to how they set cars up.
So you've got myriad different driving modes
and then customizable mode individual
where you can choose what you want for each of your various different dampers,
your steering, your engine, your exhaust flaps, all the rest of it.
And you end up with this confusion of choice
and none of the preset modes are maybe actually right.
So you end up dithering around an individual
trying to find the correct configuration
that really should probably have been set out of the factory.
But is that not fun?
Is that not just a recognition that everybody is different
and then it's giving you the choice
and then once you've found your ideal setting,
then you've got it as if it had just come straight from the factory.
I guess it's just not that straightforward to work out what the ideal setting is
because normally if you've got a car that's just set up just so,
then you've had an engineering team and a test track
and 40 engineers and test drivers working on it for a year
to work out exactly what the dampers should be,
what the throttle mapping should be and all of that.
It shouldn't be left to Bob Bobbins,
just pressing a button as he bounces down the high street
to try and work out what's best.
And I guess you can just sort of feel that.
So if there's three sort of primary modes in it,
you've got Comfort, you've got Performance, then you've got Cooper.
Now Comfort you'd think would be the one for just knocking about him,
but the problem with Comfort is that the ride is a bit too boaty
for my tastes even around town
and it wants to change gear at 2,000 revs
and below 2,000 revs you're completely off boost
and the engine's actually quite laggy beneath that.
So it's really tardy, you put your foot halfway down the travel
and it's like, come on, get into this gap, nothing happens, nothing happens
and then suddenly you go past the point where it kicks down,
now you're in the boost and bloody hell off your chutes.
So that's not really the smooth kind of town navigating experience you want,
so you put it into Performance
and then suddenly everything firms up and it's great,
but now it'll leave it revving at 4,000 revs
when you're just turning left into a cul-de-sac
and you don't really want that either.
And then you're like a typical RS3 driver aren't you?
Exactly.
So I'm still, and I think the trick might be
to set up your individual mode to get the dampers right, the engine map right,
you can't change the gearbox in that individual setting,
you've got to go down, you've got to manually put it into Sport or Drive
and I think I'm honing in on a setting that is more all-round
for just general ambulatory progress,
but I'm not there yet and I've done 500 miles in it,
so I don't know, I'm enjoying this iterative process of fumbling about with it,
but I think a lot of people wouldn't, they just would put it in a mode
or just be in whatever it is and just go, this isn't very good.
Is this not Cooper just recognising that everybody's different
and as you said, it was too boaty for your taste,
but it might be lovely for other people's day.
And is there not a bigger picture here
because people will be listening to this thinking,
Cooper 4-Mental VZ, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Is this actually the first car from,
so Cooper is the sort of performance sub-sub-brand
because you've got Volkswagen which has Seat,
they used to be Seat Cooperers
and then Cooper was launched as its sort of own sporting brand,
I guess you'd kind of call it Spain's answer to what Alfa Romeo should be.
But this thing with this slightly strange Cooper 4-Mental VZ 5,
is this actually a car that people, that really enthusiasts,
because it's got that five-cylinder engine
and because it's clearly got some very trick bits on it,
is it a car that people who love cars should be taking seriously?
So I'm going to argue with my previous point here by saying,
the advantage that these easily flickerable modes give you
is an ability to be all things to all men and women.
So you might have a version of this car where you get in,
it starts to be in comfort and you can run your kids to school,
you can fill the boot up and it's just as liveable
as any other SUV, you know, C-class car,
you know, that's maybe a little bit lower than some of the SUV alternatives,
but it's a bit bigger than a Golf and it's a bit taller than an A3,
so it's practical for taking the kids seats in and the rest of it.
That's wonderful.
But then, you know, when you're out on a work trip
and you went find yourself in the Welsh mountains,
you can put it into Coupe Promote,
you can lock out the rear diffs and you can drift it around hairpins
and you've got 385 horsepower and it's, you know,
and it'll turn in with alacrity and fizz and all the rest of it.
So, yes, there is an argument that it's,
and maybe this is correct in the first place,
when you consider the kind of car that it is,
is this, because it isn't an RS3, which you could argue is a bit more focused
in its appeal of what it's trying to be.
As soon as you try and do the same treatment to a quasi SUV,
well, that's a family car with a bit more of a family car brief,
so maybe it does have to sort of fit into both boxes
and it's appropriate then that you should have this diversity of experience
between the two, because just turning it into a pure RAS machine
would be, well, why have you done that to an SUV?
Because it's never going to be as good as the hatchback.
So, it should arguably have this ability to be the one family car
that could be the car for the enthusiast
and the car for the other half of the family
who just wants to take the kids to school.
So, maybe it is the sweet spot of the Swiss Army knife
that will do everything you want it to.
It's a long term of this, isn't it? You've got it for a while.
Well, the jury's out on it.
I think I haven't had the opportunity yet to drive it for fits and giggles
and I'm looking forward to that this week.
We're doing a shoot with it out in Wales
and I'm really looking forward to actually getting my teeth stuck into it
and I think that might be the point to which I go, ah, I get it now.
And I just haven't had the chance yet as I bumble around London
and do the odd motorway trip.
But this is a car that's going to be with you for what, the next six months?
About that, yeah.
Yeah, so plenty of time for that.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And sometimes, you know, there are cars, sorry, Dana,
but there are cars that you understand the more time you spend with them
and that's the whole point of these long term tests
is that I think there's a whole, especially a car like this
that actually in a three hour test drive on a launch,
you might not actually work out what it's trying to do
because the way you're driving it from that launch
isn't indicative of the way that it's going to be used in the world
by the kind of people who'd buy it.
That's why we run these long termers.
Yeah.
So I just want to wrap up by talking briefly about the new Range Rover,
Range Rover GT,
which is another model line within the Range Rover family.
And this is, it's quite different, isn't it, for Range Rover?
It's sort of the most car like looking model,
a bit love, a bit sleeker,
more grand tourer, hence GT than SUV.
So it is really trying to appeal to a different audience, it seems.
It sits on the EMA, JLR's EMA platform,
which is Electrified Modular Architecture.
That initially was electric only, but now it's electrified,
so there will be hybrids produced on that platform as well.
Now it's, you sort of look at it and you just think,
what is that, the Jaguar Type 01 lifted a little bit with some range.
So it's not the same platform.
No, so that sits on the JEEA, Jaguar Electric Architecture platform.
So no, it's not just a rebadged version of the Jag,
but presumably there'll be plenty of sort of hardware,
software crossover, won't there?
I guess so.
I mean, I have had a sneak peek at it
and I can't remember what I am and I'm not allowed to say about it,
so I better keep my mouth shut.
But why would you have to, I mean,
it's fair to say that both cars are, you know,
large, long-distance, grand touring cars
on completely different platforms.
I think it's different market segment though, isn't it?
So I think the idea is that the Range Rover GT
is going to slot in a sort of V-lar-ish kind of,
or just not much more than V-lar,
which is probably going to be half the price of the Type 01.
Yeah, but, you know, Volkswagen are very happy to have one platform
which can be used for a 50 grand Tuareg
and a 150, 170 grand Bentley Bentayga.
It just struck me with being slightly unusual
and going back to economies of scale
and Volkswagen binning half their ranges and that sort of thing.
I just wonder whether, in the future,
it's going to be seen to be a completely smart thing
to have two entirely different essentially electrified platforms.
Don't know, don't know, but it just shows, doesn't it?
I think, to me, there's the confidence that is abounding
within Range Rover in particular.
And I think they think that there are more directions
that brand can go in than those that it has been in already.
And this is one example of that.
I suspect there'll be more.
Yeah, I think so.
All right, we need to wrap this one up.
So, I am just going to remind you all that we are gathering
for what we think is going to be a really fun,
really special event on Thursday next week at Bistermotion.
5 to 8pm the event runs and there are still tickets available.
So, if you want to come along and meet us and a bunch of our writers
and look at, we hope, dozens or hundreds of really great cars.
There'll be a link in the description.
You can find out everything you need to know about the event
and buy tickets through that link as well.
So, please do consider doing that.
And if you've got tickets, we're looking forward to seeing you there.
Come over and say hello.
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About this episode
A tongue-in-cheek concours takes center stage with “Concours Depreciation” at Bicester Motion on August 6 (5–8pm), celebrating used, cared-for cars over pristine factory examples. The hosts then pivot into Formula One gripes and rule talk—50-50 power unit regulations, energy limits, and why overtaking can suffer—before shifting to real-world car reviews and ownership notes, including an Audi S5 Avant long-termer and a Porsche Panamera E hybrid “sleeper” take.
Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel are joined by Ti contributor Gez Medinger, to discuss the inaugural Ti Concours d'Appréciation, the Budapest GP and the state of F1 in general, Dan's long term Audi S5, Andrew's Porsche Panamera e-hybrid, and Gez's new Cupra Formentor VZ5.
Here's the link to buy tickets (£10) for the Concours d'Appréciation at Bicester Motion on 6th August:
Use coupon code pod20 at checkout to get 20% off an annual subscription to The Intercooler's online car magazine for the first year! Listen to this podcast ad-free, and enjoy a subscriber-only midweek podcast too. With a 30-day free trial, you can try it risk-free – https://www.the-intercooler.com/subscribe/
