Adrian Newey Aston Martin Team Principal! | The Car Podcast #63
The Car Podcast with Chris Harris & Friends
Adrian Newey Aston Martin Team Principal! | The Car Podcast #63
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
69:09
Concept
Formula 1
Formula 1 is a type of car racing that involves fast cars competing on special tracks. It's known for its exciting races and high-tech vehicles.
Term
gearbox
A gearbox is part of a car that helps it change speeds. It connects the engine to the wheels and allows the car to go faster or slower as needed.
Term
petrol
Petrol is the fuel that cars use to run. It's what you fill up your car with at the gas station.
Term
EVs
EVs are cars that run on electricity instead of petrol. They can be charged at home or at charging stations.
Term
service station
A service station is a place where you can stop to fill up your car with fuel or charge it, especially when you're traveling on the highway.
Term
fuel grade
Fuel grade is how we measure the quality of gasoline or diesel. Higher grades mean better performance for your car, especially if it’s a fast or powerful one.
Car
Alpina diesel
Alpina is a brand that modifies BMW cars to make them faster and more efficient. Their diesel cars are known for being powerful and good for everyday use.
Term
Euro 6 compliant
Euro 6 is a rule in Europe that makes sure cars don’t pollute too much. If a car is Euro 6 compliant, it means it’s cleaner for the environment.
Car
BMW M5
The BMW M5 CS is a special, high-performance version of the M5 sedan. It's designed for speed and agility, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
Car
Land Rover Defender
The Land Rover Defender is a tough vehicle made for off-roading and adventure. People love it for its strong build and ability to handle rough terrain.
Car
Ford Capri
The Ford Capri is a classic car that was made by Ford. It has a sporty look and was popular in the 70s and 80s.
Car
Rover 3500
The Rover 3500 is a luxury car that was made in the 1970s. It had a powerful engine and was sometimes used by the police.
Car
Rolls Royce
Rolls Royce makes very expensive and luxurious cars that are often seen as a status symbol. They are known for their quality and customization options.
Car
Lamborghini Jarama
The Jarama is another Lamborghini that is a bit more comfortable for longer trips while still being fast. It has a powerful engine and can carry more people than some other Lamborghinis.
Car
Lamborghini Countach
The Countach is a famous sports car from Lamborghini that looks very unique and is known for being very fast. It has doors that open upwards, which is quite unusual.
Car
Lamborghini Espada
The Espada is a Lamborghini car that can fit four people and is designed for long drives. It has a strong engine and is quite different from other Lamborghinis that are usually two-seaters.
Car
Ford Granada
The Ford Granada is a car that was popular in Europe. The Mark II is the second version of this car, known for being comfortable and stylish.
Term
three-litre
'Three-litre' means the engine size is three liters, which is a way to measure how much space the engine's cylinders take up. Bigger engines usually have more power.
Car
Jaguar XJ
The Jaguar XJ is a fancy car made by Jaguar. It's known for being stylish and having a strong engine, especially the versions with a V12 engine, which is a type of powerful engine.
Car
Ferrari Daytonas
Term
V12
A V12 is a type of car engine that has twelve cylinders arranged in a V shape. This design helps the engine run smoothly and produce a lot of power.
Term
four-stroke engine
A four-stroke engine is a kind of engine that works in four steps to create power. It's a common design used in many cars and helps them run efficiently.
Car
Daimler 250 V8
The Daimler 250 V8 is a luxury car that was made in the 1960s. It has a V8 engine, which means it has a powerful performance and is known for being very comfortable to drive.
Car
Jaguar Mark II
The Jaguar Mark II is a classic British car that was popular in the 1960s. It's known for its stylish looks and good performance, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
Car
Rover SD1
The Rover SD1 is a British car that was made in the late 1970s and 1980s. It was popular for its stylish look and had a powerful V8 engine option.
Car
Ford Cortina
The Ford Cortina was a well-known car in the UK, and the XL and GXL are versions of this car that came with different options and features.
Car
Citroen Ds
The Citroen DS 3 is a small, stylish car that was made from 2009 to 2019. It's known for its unique look and the ability to personalize it with different colors and designs. People like to mention it because it stands out and is fun to drive.
Car
Citroën DS
The Citroën DS is a famous French car that was made a long time ago. It is known for its cool design and special features that were very advanced for its time.
Term
carburetor
A carburetor helps engines get the right mix of air and fuel to run. It's like a kitchen mixer that blends ingredients together, but for your car's engine.
Concept
Formula One
Formula One is a top-level car racing series where teams race high-performance cars. They often study each other's vehicles to improve their own performance.
Brand
Aston Martin
Aston Martin is a brand that makes fancy sports cars, often seen in movies like James Bond.
Car
Citroen Bx
The Citroen BX is a car made by the French company Citroen. It was known for its unique design and was popular in Europe in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Car
Mazda Mx5
The Mazda MX-5 is a small sports car that seats two people. It's known for being fun to drive and is often praised for its handling and performance.
Car
BMW E34
The BMW 5 Series is a larger, more luxurious car that has been around since the 1970s. The E34 model, made in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is known for being comfortable and fun to drive. It's often mentioned because it's a good mix of luxury and performance.
Car
Porsche Boxster
The Porsche Boxster is a two-seater convertible sports car that is fun to drive. It's known for being lightweight and having a good balance, making it enjoyable on the road.
Car
Porsche Cayman
The Porsche Cayman is a sports car that offers great handling and performance, making it fun to drive. It's well-regarded for its design and engineering.
Car
BMW E36
The BMW 3 Series is a type of car that is known for being sporty and fun to drive. The E36 model, made in the 1990s, is special because it had a version that ran on diesel fuel, which is less common for sporty cars. People often talk about it because it combines good performance with practicality.
LIVE
Hi, it's Sarah Gibson, title of the founder of Alvin June.
Can I tell you the one thing that always makes my day better?
A fresh manicure.
But here's the thing, who has the time or budget to go to the nail salon every week?
That's why we created the Alvin June gel mani system.
It gives you that same glossy, long-lasting mani you get at a salon for so much less.
It comes with everything you need, a pro-level LED lamp, salon grade tools,
our damage-free gel polish that lasts up to 21 days.
Just prep, paint, cure, and you're good to go.
And the best part?
It's so easy and super affordable.
So skip that $80 salon appointment.
Get that salon quality look at home on your schedule.
Head to oliveandjune.com slash DIYgel20 and use code DIYgel20 for 20% off your first gel mani system.
That's oliveandjune.com slash DIYgel20 code DIYgel20 for 20% off your first gel mani system.
Grief doesn't keep a calendar.
Anxiety doesn't clock out after five.
Depression doesn't care if it's your busy season.
But support can still fit into your life.
With Grow, you can find a therapist who meets you where you are.
They connect you with thousands of independent licensed therapists across the U.S.,
offering both virtual and in-person sessions.
You can search by insurance, provider specialty, treatment methods,
and more to find a therapist who works for you.
And if it's not the right fit, switching is easy.
There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments.
You just pay per session.
Find therapy on your time.
Evenings, weekends, and cancel up to 24 hours in advance at no cost.
Whatever challenges you're facing, Grow Therapy is here to help.
Sessions average about $21 with insurance,
and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan.
Visit growtherapy.com slash accast today to get started.
That's growtherapy.com slash accast.
Growtherapy.com slash accast.
Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.
Hey, Ryan Reynolds here, wishing you a very happy half off holiday,
because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited.
To be clear, that's half price, not half the service.
Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price.
So that means a half day, yeah?
Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.
Up front payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required.
New customer offer for first three months only.
Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of networks busy.
Taxes and fees extra.
See mintmobile.com.
Hello and welcome to the car podcast with Chris Harris and his friends.
It's been an interesting day so far because I failed to turn up this morning for the recording.
For episode 63.
There you go, Mr. Goob.
But if you wait, I will give the information.
It's not my first rodeo.
So here we go, 63, which is mathematically an important milestone for us.
Because in a previous life, we did 62 podcasts.
And in this new life, we've done 63.
So it feels like we've got further than we did before.
Patience is a grace.
Virtue is a grace.
Grace is a naughty girl who didn't wash her face.
So let's begin this week.
I've got the agenda somewhere.
Where is the bloody thing?
Here we go.
Got a picture of my dog.
And I've got the agenda, which is a thorny issue.
Salt spreading.
The warning light that comes on on the motorways.
The dreaded end of year enjoyment.
It's all gone.
Can you take your car out again because it's going to rust?
What can we do to keep up the pleasure in these dark times, these early nights?
I'm going to go to Neil Clifford first.
Well, this was my little idea because 515 on the M25 about a week ago,
and it suddenly all got cold.
And it suddenly all, I haven't seen a salt spreading machine yet actually,
but you start to see those yellow, horrible warning lights.
And you're like, fuck, that's the end of pleasure.
You get super paranoid about even driving your car anywhere.
You think the next day you're going to go out
and there's going to be a little pile of rust and shit where your car was.
The truth is, maybe it's not that bad.
I don't know how to think about this.
Oh, hello.
Maybe there should be a car wash.
I wish there was a car wash that you could drive through
and it cleaned all the bottom and the underneath of your car
because I'd feel much happier about driving around in the winter
because it's really bloody annoying.
And I thought maybe we're the only country to do this salt shit thing.
And I Googled it or actually chat GBT'd it now.
And it seems like everybody does it.
But when I was chatting to my friend...
There's one country that doesn't do it.
Well, my friend Massimo told me they don't do it in Italy
but then I, when I, when I, they do, I think.
They do.
There's one country famously that doesn't
and that's why you should, yes,
you should always buy cars from Japan
because they don't salt the roads.
That's right.
Point of housekeeping, just if you're not watching it or listening to this,
the amazing and lovely Francis Bourgeois just joined me
because I'm recording this on location
from our trained television program
because I failed to make it this morning.
Production has given me an hour to record now.
No pressure whatsoever.
And Francis is here as well.
He's just made me a cup of tea and he's sitting next to me.
He's going to chime it because he was a bit of a star last time.
You do look like you are dressed for Guantanamo Bay.
Yeah, well, so you can say that about Francis.
With me, that carries some problems because of the way I look.
You've got to be careful there.
So Clifford, finish off your little salt ramble.
Well, I just think it's a really, I'm always an optimist
and always tried to be upbeat
and always tried to be happy because we could be dead.
But actually, when you see that sign on the M25,
it does give you that little old shit.
That means I've got to, you know,
I've got to worry about my cars
because they're all going to fall to pieces.
But I don't know whether it's true,
whether they do or not.
Maybe Mr Cooper can help us.
I thought they both looked like porn star car wash attendants, actually.
What do you spend your time watching for God's sake?
Salt spreading.
Can I say, I actually find the expression salt spreading
sort of wrong.
It sort of conjures up this sort of rather
malignant sentient being that is a swarm of salt
that all by itself has decided to go and do something.
I don't think it's false that clever.
Spreading salt.
Someone, you know, we are spreading salt.
It's a bit like the thing I tried telling the other day.
There's something, this might just be a peculiar British thing
where they just, the syntax is all wrong.
Where I was driving around the M25 the other day
and there was a sign overhead gantry
where there's lots of pixels.
You could put lots of little letters and stuff.
It wasn't like an economy drive of pixels.
Big thing that said, A1 closed Sandy.
And I thought, why have they closed the A1 because it's Sandy?
Where's the sand come from?
What is, what they meant obviously was for those not in the UK
or Bedford, Cecilia Shire is there is a town called Sandy.
But like one, anyway, so I kind of, I don't like it
because it sort of, it does convey this slightly
unhelpful, unpleasant, hostile sort of sense.
There is a technique which we can all use
which is when you see it, you know,
you're probably going to be faster than the truck that's doing the
And under that heading, those trucks doing the
the back where this little thing is rotating like that.
Actually, that's exactly what it does, isn't it?
Like that, and it rotates the salt out.
As you get closer, you can start to hear it in the wheel arches.
Go and get a cup of tea.
I haven't seen them though.
I think they put the signs up before they send the trucks out.
Well, if they are in front of you, you will start to hear it in the wheel arches.
And at that point, you're getting closer because what you don't want to do these
days is get closer.
You cannot overtake a truck distributing salt because it's now ballistic.
It's like somebody firing a shotgun out of the back of your porn star car wash
or Guantanamo Bay bus drive.
So, no, if you feel it in the wheel arches,
pull off in service station, have a cup of tea,
you get back on, you can complete the journey work.
Do you think new cars are all prepared anyway so we're okay?
It's about the old cars.
We should worry about more or is it?
I think with new cars, they've got so many things at the front.
These automatic assistance things, they're all going to get shattered.
All those little big eyes in the front of the car for your cruise control and stuff.
This is going to get pinged.
So, I don't think you...
I think these...
I think we're conflating two issues here.
On the one hand, we're talking about corrosion.
I think Neil's coming from the underside corrosion aren't arguing.
I am.
Chris, they're two of the important points.
And Chris is coming from the sort of the damage to the body work and the bright work.
Autocar would have called it in 1982.
And I think they're the two things we worry about.
And I think they're different because the one is an immediate concern.
Like when you're driving down the motorway,
imagine you're driving down the motorway in Lola.
She's all beautiful, eyelashes have been done, is that a facial?
And then you're presented with a truck that's potentially giving you bits of grit
with the closing speed of 70, 80 miles an hour in front of your car.
You don't want that to happen.
But also, what you don't want to do is use the car once in December
and think, I'll put it away for the winter now.
You've not washed the underside.
Yes, that's...
When you come back to it in April, you would not...
It's like you would not believe the damage that can be done to the car.
You'll think, oh my God,
someone's been in here spraying it with saline solution every week.
But if you don't wash that salt off, it's terrible.
It's important to know.
You can't really get into the middle, or can you?
If you use your jet wash, do you think the jet wash is capable
to just get rid of all your salt?
You need a device.
If you've seen that thing, you can Google it.
It's like a attachment for your jet wash,
which has got like a bend in it.
It's got a little rolly wheel.
So you can roll it under the car with a little upward jet
and just like do an upside down raking thing with your new gadget
Who's been on an off-road driving day thing?
I did it with that in-yacht.
So what you need is a proper chassis wash rig.
So what you do, what they do is you drive the car up a ramp
and it's a high ramp so you can get right underneath
and do a proper chassis wash.
Yeah.
And that's why, Neil, you should have one of those at home
because it's the peace of mind.
If you give it a good wash underneath,
you don't need to worry too much.
I think that might be a business opportunity, though.
Which is to set one up.
Yeah, yeah.
So Manish, would you drive Lola in December?
What's funny, I've read this a slightly different way.
We're just going back to podcast.
I mean, as you pointed out that we basically have two seasons now,
wet and hot.
So the first thing is, I don't think December now
is December when I was 10 years old at all.
I mean, I can't remember the last time I actually saw a salt spreader
certainly coming out of central London.
I haven't been up north a lot.
And I like the last part of the question which is,
what can we do to keep up the pleasure?
And for me, you know, there's,
I think if you're quite heightened and you say,
okay, I really want to drive my car this winter when I get a moment,
you know, we get these beautiful anti-cyclonic days in the winter.
You know, the sun comes up.
It's a cloudless sky.
It's freezing cold, but it's dry.
And I think, you know, you get your sunglasses.
You go and sit in the car.
You let it warm up so it's nice and warm inside
or she's nice and warm inside.
And you go for a drive that actually,
I would go for a daytime drive as well.
You try to get back before it gets dark.
You go on a lovely, you know, go for a couple of hours,
maybe a little one-hour pit stop to grab out.
Do you know there's not salt on the road that's been...
Well, I mean, I think that, you know,
you're smart enough to have read the weather forecast
a few days in advance.
You know, if it's snowed or if they've been ice warnings.
And I think, you know,
but you have to take a chance as Chris says,
especially something like Lola,
this is my first winter with her.
And I have thought about this.
I mean, I have thought about this.
Part of the service that looks after her,
cleans her.
You know, once a month, I get a complete valent.
And this was the conversation I was going to have.
I've got a 25-year-old car.
You know, imagine, you know, she's been inspected.
There were a couple of little points
that I hope have been addressed,
but you're quite right.
I think if I go out,
if I'm forced to go out for whatever reason,
after there's been some snow or, you know,
roads have been sorted, you bet.
I think Chris is exactly right.
What I can't do is just leave her in the garage
until, you know, we get that kind of march.
That's the worst-case scenario.
Yeah, yeah.
You can generally tell if the road's been gritted,
because the salt absorbs moisture.
So if the road is actually properly dry and not dusty,
it's not always not rigidurally damp.
You probably know you're safe
because there's no salt on it,
which is keeping that moisture.
Which is one of the reasons why I generally think
gritting roads is often self-defeating,
because unless there's actual falling snow,
which would help you with all,
or freezing rain or actual black ice,
the grit just makes the road slipperier more of the time,
because you have to wait for the rain to wash it off,
because otherwise the grit in the tarmac
just attracts moisture,
and it's slippery as a slippery thing.
Can I just ask you a question, Mr Cooper?
We've been on a convoy with you.
I know I didn't make it all the way,
but you have this habit of every time you stop for a cup of tea,
taking a whole shed load of cleaning materials
out of your boot,
and cleaning your car from headlight to there.
Do you do that in the winter as well?
More so.
So every time you stop,
you will just clean your car?
Yes.
I had the links problem this morning,
when the car's all frosted up.
It's very, very early in the morning.
You've got to get very early into the office,
because you're doing a podcast.
I know that feeling.
And then the windscreen's all frozen.
So you defrost the windscreen a bit,
because you don't know where the spray shit is.
You're sat there for 10 minutes,
trying to wait for it to warm up.
But then the headlights are frozen,
and you fucking can't see anything for the first four miles,
because there's ice all over the bloody lights.
Yeah.
I think I've got a few things to summarise this.
First of all, I'm pretty gung-ho when it comes to using cars,
and I've somehow got a reputation
for not caring about bodywork and stuff.
Some of that's fair, but I'm scared of salt.
I have had a vehicle that I used.
No, it's worse.
I came to get the car out of a shed one spring,
and was horrified at the condition the bodywork was in,
particularly the sort of the rough edges of the bodywork.
And I blamed everyone.
I blamed the landlord of the unit.
But then I had to think back to when I last used the car.
And I'd pulled it out and used it inadvertently in December,
not thought about it.
I didn't wash it off.
So you're absolutely right to be terrified
of leaving salt on the underside of a car.
It is.
It does unbelievable things to components.
It's so aggressive.
So the two ways around that are,
I agree with everything Chris Cooper said,
and Neil had managed to say,
but a really good session of rain is great.
If all you need to do is know
that it rained really hard for a couple of days,
and you can go out.
That washes all the salt off the road.
You can go ahead.
So rain is your friend.
As for the, I used to quite like playing
what I would think in my head was pretty jeopardy.
You've got to be careful with how that works.
But if you're really thinking hard,
so you actually don't move.
My internet's just gone.
Can you hear me or not?
It's frozen.
He's back.
You're there.
You're there.
We're back.
Yeah, you're back.
I told you so, but rain is your friend.
The rain is your friend.
Come in.
And I think the second one is Gritter Jeopardy, obviously.
Gritter Jeopardy, which is, I used to play it.
I still play it now, which is, if you get,
you know, an inch off the bumper of the car in front
and just cheat as far across the right as possible,
can you save the funds of your car?
Totally responsible.
I wouldn't say that I've ever done it.
But I have to say, I have, you know,
you try and get behind something in an HGV or something.
Normally the outcome isn't as bad as you think,
but I've done a few windscreens in my life, I have to say,
on the back of a Gritter.
So, but it does signify,
I don't think it signifies the end of fun,
but it signifies the beginning of a time
when you need to be a bit ingenious, you know,
just to think about what you might be able to do.
Sorry, I'm a bit obsessed with this.
If you've got a car, like a four by four,
that is sort of your winter car
and you put your nice car away and you drive your thing,
should you still, you still really should be,
this is consumer advice,
be jet washing that once a week, if there is salt around.
I'll answer that.
So, if you've got an older car,
what you should have done is prepared the car
and just waxed old it, or if you get someone
to do a proper coat of wax underneath the car,
you really have no worries, just do it once a year,
but you really do need to have done that.
And it's an overcompone as well, springs and stuff like that,
every roll bar, just get everything covered in that stuff.
And it does it worth WU-RTH to a very good spray on product.
They do.
It's fantastic for this kind of stuff.
Paul, you can go to the Paul Mann's Jet Wash
after a really, really big dump of rain,
which is usually under a railway bridge
or a railway arch where the drain's got filled.
So, it's a good, like, couple of inches.
And just drive it through that big puddle,
so the water's over,
just because eventually it'll be cleanish water
and it'll do most of the undersigning,
won't be so claggy and so forth.
And another one I was taught is find a local ford.
If there's a local ford...
I was going to say ford, yeah.
You could just drive through and just, you know,
up to the middle of your wheel
and just drive through slowly
and that will clean all the salt off.
So, there are little tricks out there.
Right.
Yeah.
Are you eating a chocolate?
That's the most crunchy noise I've ever heard.
I've just been...
So many productions have worked out that I just handed me
either a not-fuck-a-twirls or an individual star bar.
That's my favourite star bar.
But you had the ultimate commestible there a minute ago.
You had a tonic's teacake.
I did see that, tonic.
It belongs to one of the guys.
This is a charity, this place.
It belongs to one of the guys that works here.
It became here and working for free
on the locomotive we're restoring.
And I nicked his tonic's teacake.
I think he'd probably kick my head in.
So, he's Scottish.
Because it's like having a Scottish passport.
One of those.
It is, it is.
It's what he makes.
They're awesome.
They're all through.
Imagine how strong they are.
They're Scottish, and they use implements like this.
Yeah.
That is a spanner.
For those of you who can't see, that is a kingdick.
And if that was your...
aforementioned, you'd be a very lucky boy indeed.
Look at the nuts on that.
I know.
Right, let's move on.
I've seen a girth.
Someone sent me a piece of a Formula 1 car.
No.
Neil Griffith is holding a wooden box
used for just...
Holding wine.
That's a gearbox.
Siren sent me this.
Is that a gearbox?
I think it's a bit of a gearbox, isn't it?
Right.
Petro prices.
No, petrol prices.
Right, I'm just going to say petrol prices.
We're recording this the day after...
I shouldn't say it, but Rachel, who might work in the accounts department,
has delivered a magnum opus.
So let's go to Manish.
Tell me what you think, Manish.
Well, I'm going to make very few comments about the budget,
other than to say, I love listening to Evan Davis.
I listen to PM basically every day.
And he tends to do Mondays and Thursdays,
occasionally he does Fridays.
Today, he was talking about the budget.
And the one point he's been making for a very long time
about the switch to EVs
is that petrol gives the Chancellor £25 billion a year.
In duties, that is the hole you've got to plug
if you decide tomorrow
that all petrol cars and diesel cars
are going to be banished forever.
And I'd like to talk about the flip side of that,
which is the three pence per mile on EVs.
It doesn't plug the petrol hole,
but he thinks that this is obviously the beginning of the wedge
that is going to come and have to plug that petrol hole
as we reduce the number of petrol cars and replace them with EVs.
Now, I have no idea how long that's going to take,
but Evan at least was positive about the fact that
although it's unpopular,
although we were discussing on the group chat,
how do you measure it?
Although a couple of people I know said,
well, isn't that a license to just sort of clock cars digitally?
Because it's going to be very difficult to police it.
I guess you're going to have to,
you're going to have to self certify
and presumably they'll check with your garage when you MOT it.
There'll be some digital way of checking.
Who, I mean, who knows, honestly, who knows?
So complicated.
That won't be expensive at all to administer.
No, no, not at all.
Not at all.
You'll be like the NHS digital software
we've all been waiting for for now 35 years.
I think it's, look,
of course it's an absolute injustice.
I live in central London.
I see what we pay for petrol in central London.
You go out 10 miles
and you're paying 20 pence less elite.
You go on a motorway, you're paying way more.
I've heard the same argument applied to EVs.
You know, if you can plug it in at home overnight
on a sort of low tariff, you pay X.
You do it on a motorway, you know, service station,
you pay 10 X.
It's, I guess, you know,
it should we let the question was,
you know, it's a piss take.
But I mean, you know, should we legislate
should government regulate this?
I think it's really difficult.
I think governments kind of prove repeatedly
that whenever they chuck a bit of regulation at something,
they basically completely screw it up.
It's whack-a-mole with them.
They whack something and, you know,
something else appears somewhere else.
So the short answer is I don't think
they should regulate, you know, at the pump prices.
I don't think they should.
I don't think they should.
I'm going to chime in with something here
and it sounds crazy.
I think this is the best thing in the budget.
And I'll tell you why.
It's ill thought out.
It doesn't make any sense what together.
I'm not sure how you police it,
but it's not the alternative,
which is having to have a box in your car
that says how far you've gone,
what you're doing, what your name is.
And that's the greatest fear for all of us, I think.
It's the moment they do that.
You could end up being that, but you're right.
Right now it's not.
The fact that it's not that,
we should all be very, very grateful for, I think.
Because in China, they wouldn't even have the conversation.
The car would already be talking to the administrator
and the state today, probably is happening today.
So that's my opinion.
What do you think, Neil?
Well, there's a few little strands here.
This commenced this point, discussion point,
before the paper mile electric thing.
This commenced Chris Cooper filling up his sausage, as they say,
in St Albans.
And he was, I think, on 158 per litre.
And I was at a shell.
And I was also at a shell in Cheshire.
And he said, oh, my God, you're 175 per litre,
and I'm 158 per litre.
And we're nine miles apart, not central London,
not on an M25, not on a motorway.
That's quite...
I was actually probably closer to the M25 than you were,
which is why I was so shocked.
Yeah.
And actually, and I didn't catch the detail on it,
but obviously I was listening to the budget, as most of us were.
And Rachel did announce something around the control
and studying of potential rip-off pricing on petrol, actually.
Some sort of commission or some sort of process
about ensuring that the petrol prices are managed in a better way.
I don't know what that detail is.
I'm sure someone will tell us in the comments what that said.
It's probably 2029 anyway, so who really cares?
But I think the price control is obviously very difficult.
And I'm a capitalist, and I'm a retailer,
and therefore I'm sort of...
It should be supply and demand in general,
but the thing is with petrol, it is a total essential.
Yeah, and it's a product.
And I do get the feeling that maybe some companies or stations
do take the piss a bit, and you've got no choice, have you?
You can't drive and lose a tank of petrol
to go and get petrol that's a bit cheaper.
So I do wish, and maybe Rachel's introduced this,
there was a process where we can manage it a bit better.
I mean, the cost of petrol on the motorways sometimes
is really quite ridiculous, isn't it?
Those two or three on the M1, I almost don't look.
I'm a bit like a dog that's been told off.
I don't look at the price because I'm like,
I'm just going to be so angry and pissed off.
And I don't like being angry and pissed off
if it says £2, or whatever some of these prices are.
On the issue of the electricity thing, I probably am got a choice.
And if you do 10,000 miles, what's that, 300 quid?
I suppose that's half the price of tax.
I'm sure it's going to every single year
going to go up to 4P, 5P, 6P, 10P, 20P.
I don't suppose they have got a choice, really.
Chris Cooper.
So, I sort of think there's a bit of asymmetry here, isn't there?
We talked a while ago about the FCA's investigation into car finance.
And the FCA has recently opined to say that essentially half of all agreements
since 2007, in its opinion, are probably illegal.
And therefore, harm has been done and compensation is due to the customer.
And there's a big fight going on right now behind the scenes
between the big lenders, many of which are owned by big banks,
and the FCA to say, that is not what the Supreme Court said.
Part of the details is that and we're out of land for a minute.
But all of that says there's an extraordinary amount of time and money and effort
being expended by the FCA to try and bring the tiniest margins of fairness.
Meanwhile, down the road at the bloody filling stations, it's a total free for all.
It's a total free for all.
And if the test is harm, in other words, somebody has paid more than they needed to
because of a distance and expectation and less than perfect information.
If you took the FCA's arguments about car commission, what you would see,
I think the comparison would be when you went to the one in St. Albans or Chesterton,
it would say there's one in St. Albans, there's 158.
You could go there instead if you wanted to.
Don't say I didn't tell you.
That is the logical comparison.
And of course, in the absence of that, in fact, a few years ago,
on the motorways of Great Britain, there used to be signs saying,
here's the price in this, before you go off the motorway, here's the price,
this one, and here's the one on the one down the road.
Funnily enough, there was sort of all the same.
In France.
When did they do that in the UK?
I don't remember that in the UK.
What was that?
A few years ago, I'm sure.
I might have dreamt it.
Is it in France?
I hope you do it in France, but I've never seen it in the UK.
It might have been when I was with Brian Blessed the other day.
In France.
In France.
So if you take that comparison of what you'd see if the FCA has weight on everything,
then you say, actually, it is a bit of a piste.
Big dick.
Big sorted out.
I mean, the fuel sounds, I don't look at the cost of fuel.
I just don't look at it.
I think it's so...
Is it like a pint of milk?
Yeah, I just don't, it's a cost of my life that terrifies me and I need it.
You say it's a commodity, I need it.
History tells you and experience tells you that if you go and hunting for fuel prices,
you'd probably spend as much on the fuel that you use trying to save money than you did
on the saving of finding cheaper fuel.
I've also become a fuel snob.
Since this podcast, doing this podcast, I've become so much more sensitive to fuel grade.
And I don't buy the green British petroleum product anymore, unless I really have to.
It's just not as good.
If you're already buying good quality petrol, you're paying a premium anyway.
And I think the other bit that's interesting for me is I've got this Alpina diesel,
which just becomes more and more amazing as a daily car.
Euro 6 compliant, under £25,000, 170 miles an hour, the right size.
Do I... Should you use that performance diesel or not?
I just stick any old derp in it and it seems to go like stink.
What does the fancy diesel bring me?
It makes you feel better.
I'm sure that's the same as the petrol.
If you've got something like a really, you know, an M5 CS and you put the BP,
whatever, 97 in and then run it on a V-Power shell, do you feel the difference?
Yeah, not surprisingly, it's got low petrol.
You couldn't be more wrong, you'll keep it on that.
I love you to bits, but it's just so much quicker and urgent.
It's like having different tyres, Neil.
Yes, exactly.
Diesel's a bit different.
I actually would like somebody to write into us to say,
is there actually a scientific, people in lab copes have written about this stuff,
to say, because the rating on it, if you look at the super un-ledded is E5.
And non is E10.
It's got more ethanol in it.
There's a different BS number on it as well.
Diesel, super diesel and normal diesel, all the same number.
So it can't technically be that different.
I think the super diesel has got more stuff in it, which cleans the engines.
I don't know.
But I, even in my Defender, because I love it, when I have to fill up,
I will go somewhere where I know there's a delicious supply of super diesel,
because it makes me feel better.
I've done right by my Defender.
Yeah, I get that.
I was led to believe it was about detergents and other things.
That's what I think.
It might make your engine last longer, but I'm not sure I believe that.
Right, let's move on.
Now I drive it.
You can never shake the car addiction.
It's there forever.
Why is this?
And how did it start for you?
Let's go to Manish first.
I think it's a beautiful question, actually.
For me, it really began with moving to England.
You know exactly how I did it now.
But it didn't manage.
Exactly.
Uh-oh.
That was me vanishing.
That was me vanishing.
Neil is wearing a blouse.
The thing about India was a lot of motorcycles when I was a kid,
and basically just Maruti's and Mara Soxford's ambassadors.
And the sheer wonderment.
Can you just imagine being almost five,
and you see every single car in London that you can just imagine.
So, you know, you're completely used to two shapes.
That's it.
Those are all the cars.
And there was no observers book of automobiles or top trumps in India at the time.
I just remember being utterly fascinated by the shapes of the cars.
I mean, it was just, you know, every single.
I told you about Dad's Morris.
But I remember the first time I saw Ford Capri on the road.
I remember seeing, you know, the Rover 3500, the old police version.
I remember the one before that.
The one before that.
P6.
The P6.
Exactly.
I remember the first time I saw a Mercedes that was near Baker Street.
And I mean, I just, I couldn't believe this.
And then the very, very first time I saw a Rolls Royce on the road.
And the thing that absolutely killed me when my stepmother took us to the
the Earls Court Motor Fair in 1976.
And I saw a Countache and an Espada and a Noraco.
I could not tear myself away.
And then after that, the Observers Book of Automobiles,
the first one I had was 1976, the top trumps that arrived after that.
Then as we've absolutely, and then as we've talked about,
brochures, just car brochures, the smell that touched the gloss.
And then the crazy bit, either your dad or your friend's dad or mom would buy a new car.
And, you know, when you saw a new car, they just got inside it, the smell.
You just have this flawless paintwork.
I mean, it was just a, these things become, these things become elemental.
These things become the tiny building blocks that will just never ever change.
And it's really funny that the older I've become, you know,
almost the harder sometimes it is to reach that wonderment.
But occasionally you do reach that wonderment again.
And it is, it's for me, it's like being four years, 11 months old.
That period from basically five to when I was 11, it was, you know,
it was the formation of my universal set of concepts of what is a car.
You know, that one looks quick.
That one doesn't.
I think that's why I'm so obsessed with, with wedge cars.
It's just, you know, they're the I dream of genie, the Barbara Eden.
They're good looking.
Yeah, look at that.
Next to glass.
Just, there is just something about, about that.
And it's an addiction.
There's no doubt about it.
And, you know, it does,
from someone saying last, Francis was saying last week that, you know,
that leads to car spotting.
And car spotting is a lot easier than plane spotting.
You can have a little notebook.
You can sit down, write down registration numbers and the engine size
if they do badge them at the back.
And oh my God, I just, you know, literally sitting around going,
what's the difference between a Daimler and a Jaguar, you know,
and sitting down and looking at that bonnet and looking at the grill
and looking inside.
I mean, it was just, it was just, and also the final thing,
I guess, was also when we were kids, we watched television in a different way.
And we've talked about it.
TV cars, goodies and baddies, you know,
what did the professionals drive?
What did the Avengers drive?
You know, what do these people drive?
Starsky and Hutch.
You know, you could just build a show on cars kit.
It, you know, these are the things I think that they get inside you,
they sit in your blood and it just never goes.
They're like good plastic micro particles, aren't they?
They're inside you.
And I don't want them ever to be leached out.
Neil.
We've touched around this subject before, haven't we?
And it, you really start to sort of search a bit serious
and a bit deep inside yourself a little bit, don't you?
Because where did it all start?
I've only really had one shit thing happen in my life.
And I ended up without a father age four,
which was quite a pain in the ass, actually.
But ever since then, you know, life's been good.
And the reason I mentioned that is because
I did, I did end up having a few, what were called uncles.
That's so, that's so good.
And my brothers will kill me for this.
But, you know, bless my mum.
She had a terrible fucking few years.
And, you know, she met people at the bingo and they were uncles.
And they used to come round with all these cars, right?
And it was before top trumps,
because my obvious memory is top trumps.
But I remember a three-litre Granada coupe.
Oh, the gear coupe.
Yeah, I think it was a Mark II.
Because it wasn't a console, it was a Granada.
Yeah.
The metallic blue with the vinyl roof.
And the windy sunroof and the velour three-litre
with the extra dials in the car.
And I sort of thought, I don't really want to fucking know you,
Mr. Uncle, whatever your name was.
But I really would like to go in your car
because that is really exciting.
And I suppose it's all about, we are all dreamers a bit, aren't we?
And we like to take ourselves to our own little places
and dream.
And in Portsmouth, you couldn't really go car spotting.
There wasn't very that.
And there was a lady with a lavender XJ, no, any type,
you know, with that V12 badge and the four exhausts.
So I used to walk the long way home
just to see whether she was parked outside the house
and it wasn't in the garage.
Basically just to see that V12 badge
and watch an extra bloody 15 minutes home from school
just so I could see the bloody car and the badge.
What did the speedo go up to?
160.
That's just so cool.
But it's something like that.
So I think it really is something that,
I don't know whether you're born with it,
the sort of love of mechanical things or you're a dreamer or,
you know, the fact that there are two Ferrari Daytonas,
one plexiglass and one non-plexiglass inside this packet of top trumps.
That for me, I could spend hours looking at those numbers
and the speed and the revs and the V12.
I didn't really even know what V12 meant for Christ's sake.
I'm not sure I do now really.
Four stroke.
I mean, what does that mean?
But I used to sit under my bed with my torch under the covers
looking at this age seven, eight, nine dreaming of 50,000, 100,000,
what cut 10 cars will I buy?
It is an addiction, but it's my third space in life.
You know, I've got my lovely family, lucky, lucky.
I've got my bloody job that is wonderful.
But in the middle, I've got this car thing
and I can just go away and dream and I adore it.
I think, yes, both managed in Christmas.
I need to summarise it well, though.
Mr Cooper.
Tuck, squeeze, bang, blow.
Four stroke.
Sucks it in, squeezes it, ignition goes off, bang,
and it blows out of the exhaust.
What's the two stroke, then, suck, bang?
It's squeeze, bang, suck, suck, bang, squeeze, blow.
Yeah, at the same time.
That's why it's sort of less efficient and messier because
it's sort of sucking in exhaust and, you know,
something will tell me I've got that completely wrong.
For those of you who've just joined the podcast,
this is a podcast about cars.
Chris Cooper, can you please answer the question?
I, my earliest, it's funny this one.
I don't know that it's, well, I can't tell
because, you know, I said before,
my brother and I were adopted when we were very, very young.
So I don't know.
What I do know is that even though my father was an engineer,
very, very interesting and interested engineer,
he wasn't really that into cars.
And I always remember my mum and dad saying
that my brother and I were standing at the back seat of a car
on the days when the law didn't really concern itself
with the position you assumed in the car
or the direction you were facing,
or the extent of restraining or otherwise
that was being applied.
And we'd point out the window and just say buy goes, buy goes.
And they worked out that we were pointing at cars.
They thought because they're going by or whatever,
whatever we were doing.
So mum and dad always said to me and my brother
that we'd, we were obsessed with cars.
I wrote down this morning.
I said, can I remember all of the registration numbers of,
because lots of complicated reasons.
And my father died a couple of years ago.
And I lost all the photographs that he had.
And he had, sorry to interrupt another day.
So I don't have any photographs of any of this stuff.
But I can remember the number plates 860 GLK.
That was a Mark II Jag but the Daimler version was a 250 V8.
Poor man's GTO, I guess you'd call in now.
TKN 281N was a Fern Green Ford console
2.5L estate.
WKJ849S was a Mark II Granada with the wedgie bit at the front.
In that beautiful sort of bronzy ready sort of colour.
GKN77V was a four Granada gear.
I thought we'd all dine and gone to heaven.
It was 2.8, not injection.
So the small, it was like Bahama Gold.
I think with chocolate, chocolate velour.
Mark II.
Mark II.
So the pointy front square boot.
Not the Sweeney one.
And then RKM113W was an SD1 Rover 3.5.
Just and then A297JWD just before he retired.
Was the facelift, not quite so nice looking.
And the pod for the instruments was bigger.
Yeah, didn't look as cool.
The thing about when your mate's got, when your uncle's got a new car.
I got, just look back, you think you never understand anything when you're younger, do you?
I got really badly bullied when I was younger.
Quite a lot.
And I hated going to Scouts.
Hated going to Scouts because I got bullied.
But I went to Scouts because I wanted to see the car
that whoever's dad was giving us to lift home that Friday night was driving.
And it was the high point of my week was who's got a new car, a new company.
Is it a Cortina XL or GXL or is it auto or manual and which one?
Because you're 10 years old.
You don't know what gearboxes are or what it's like to push a pedal or all those kind of things.
So we must have been obsessed because that was kind of the high point of the week.
We're seeing and just seeing the dials and how different cars smell,
not just because they were different people, but they just almost the colors of the dashboard
and the lights would have all that's different.
It sort of almost smells different.
So I don't think it is there forever.
I mean, it's a great question.
It's just a Neil's question.
It's a great question.
It's in there forever.
And I, Lin and I had a week off, week four last.
We're going to have to call them.
We're both completely naked.
So we just watched Netflix and Apple TV stuff.
It was dark in the afternoon.
It was really, really lovely.
Just sitting there doing nothing other than watching.
And there's a series on at the moment.
It's called Cemetery Road.
It's Mick Herron, the guy who rides Slow Horses.
It's on Apple TV.
It's got Ruth Wilson and Emma Thompson on it.
It's quite good.
We haven't finished it yet.
Emma Thompson's character drives a Citroen DS.
What a cool car.
It actually looks quite a nice one.
I've tried Googling to learn more about this DS.
And she said, are you Googling to find out what happens here?
So no, I'm Googling to find out more about Emma Thompson's character, Citroen DS.
And she said, you are terminally beyond help.
I think we all are.
Long may continue.
I wrote a book a couple of years ago.
And I remember the publisher saying,
I'm not going to really ask you to do too much here.
But maybe you need to tell the audience where it came from.
You know, the genesis of this obsession with cars,
which you sort of made a living out of.
So I did.
And yeah, come in, boss.
And I think I managed to define it, really.
It was toy cars.
I think a lot of us, it begins with toy cars.
Yeah.
Top jumps is a similar situation.
But toy cars, brum brumming, was massively important to me.
And then how that would translate into other behaviors.
I just remember always wanting to be in a car,
wanting to be sitting in one of my parents' cars
when it was on the driveway.
You know, pretending to push the pedals,
always used to push the pedals.
And when they were carburetor fed,
obviously they'd go, can you stop doing that?
We can't start the car when you come back to it.
I'd flood everything by pushing the throttle pedal down.
And I just wanted to be around them.
The reason I'm here is this is an extension of cars for me.
It's my safe space.
I'm safe in a car.
I love being in a car.
I'm more likely to be happy in a car.
So I know where it came from.
And I know how it exists now.
I know that if you're one of us,
this love for cars can even flow.
It can be very intense when you're buying a car,
you're looking to buy a car.
That's how many it's had its most intense
in your researching and your living.
You're totally immersed in buying a car.
That's when you have the strongest reminder
of why you love cars and those early memories.
But it wanes.
You know, as you get older,
you have distractions in your life.
You have families.
You have difficult times.
And sometimes it can become more distant
and it takes a back seat.
But the crucial thing is,
for those that are fully addicted,
it's always there.
There's a vestige of it always in you.
And if it actually leaves,
then actually you don't have the bug.
Maybe you're lucky.
And you might go on to rugby or sailing
or something else.
And you will completely forget about cars.
In which case you were never infected.
And I think you can...
That is correct.
That's the rate.
That's the test.
That's spot on.
I think it's always there for me.
It's just...
And sometimes it becomes more complicated
when it's your job.
Because if you have a shocking week at your job,
you start to resent the motor car.
But it's always been there for me.
It's a great thing.
And it's the reason why we're here, isn't it?
So let's move on to...
This is really another emergency
within the podcast.
Okay?
So we're a bit confused this week.
We've actually discussed this week's racing.
But subsequent to that,
someone's been announced as team principal
of one of the major F1 teams.
I didn't think any of us saw it coming.
So Manish, tell us why you think
A New Year's Squire is either an inspired
or a worrying choice of team principal
faster than Martin Racing.
I was...
Again, on our group chat,
you raised...
I can't remember which of you raised the fact
that this perhaps wasn't a good thing.
And I was genuinely perplexed by that.
Because I...
Formula 1 for me is all about
reacting very, very quickly.
Now, we've just gone through a very
strange period in my opinion where
I think it's been very stagnant.
The rules have been pretty stagnant.
The drivers until this year...
I remember how stagnant that was.
We had the first time I could ever remember.
We had two seasons back to back,
two years ago, where there were no driver changes.
I mean, even the teams just remained completely static.
And we have a lot of races.
And I do sympathize with Mr. Kupo,
kind of feeling like there is this kind of
quiet malaise in it.
And I think next year is going to be
an extraordinary year for lots of reasons.
Now, it may well be somebody who discovers
the magic bullet and they're gone.
But I think what's more likely is
we're going to see a lot of changes
throughout the season.
As you go in with your blueprint
and your computer simulations
and you go in with your version one of the car
and you start to realize,
oh, hold on.
If I tweak this, if I do that,
if I do this, if I do that,
my car gets quicker.
And I think there's going to be a lot
of friendly spying, if you like.
We often see that in Formula One
where people look at other people's cars.
People analyze the data as much as they possibly can.
And I sort of answer this question
within that context.
Not taking away anything from Andy Cowell.
I mean, there is no doubt he has proven himself
to be one of the great engine engineers.
And people sometimes,
I think a little bit unfairly say about Aston Martin,
they're like a modern football club.
I think the one they liken it to is Tottenham.
They're constantly changing their manager
and they're not bringing home any silverware.
But I think the last 12 months
for Aston have not been great.
I think this year is going to be their worst
position since they were racing point.
So that may or may not be down to Andy.
But what I think next year is about
is adapting fast.
And I think that this is an inspired move
because I think Adrian is...
I don't know him well.
I know him a little bit.
The conversations I've had with him
are just insanely interesting.
Once we were on a plane
and he started to ask me about neurology
and I know so little about neurology.
And the conversation very quickly moved to
what he thinks is a load of bullshit
about AI versus machine learning.
And he can differentiate the two
and understand the two, see the limits of each.
You're just dealing with one of the most
apprehensive minds that is out there.
And you need to feed Adrian.
It's like putting coal into a steam engine.
And I think two brilliant things
about this maneuver.
One, I mean, about this change of personnel.
One, as team principal, he has no one to answer to.
If they want to do something,
he's going to phone Laurence Stroll and say,
here's a quick business plan.
This is what we need to do,
whether it's acquiring a piece of land
or a piece of kit.
He's going to be able to do that.
So I think it's going to deal with the resource side.
Yes.
Do you not think that he has such power anyway
that that would have been the case
regardless of his time?
No, I think no, no.
I think the point is he's an operational team
principal now.
I think what they've done is they've turned him
and that was my second point.
The point is his boots are on the ground.
If he is looking at everything,
understanding everything,
it's my usual long-winded way of saying,
I think it's inspired.
I think he'll be on the ground.
He's sensitive to everything
and he'll be able to make changes extremely quickly.
So no matter where Aston are
at the beginning of next season,
look, they've got the Honda engine.
Everyone's going around saying,
oh, you know, the Mercedes,
it's a done deal.
Petronas have got this fantastic fuel.
Who knows?
But all I'll say is that I would bet
a very, very serious chunk of change
that that will be the most improved car
over next season
because he is just that brilliant.
He just understands everything.
He understands the implications
of turning this little dial.
He knows exactly what that's going to do
to the tires, Neil, or to the exhaust.
You know, this is the kind of guy he is.
And I think it's inspired.
And it's great.
Give him some, give him some back.
He's been building cars, brilliant cars
since the 80s.
This gives him something new as well.
You know, I don't think it's a responsibility
that takes him away from making the team better.
I think it's a responsibility
if you make the team better and him better.
And Neil Clifford thoughts.
I think Manish is pitching for the movie.
He's already doing it.
He's already doing it.
It's a joke, it's a joke.
I don't know anything about this.
So I'm going to totally make something up
that was just what I thought
in my stupid little mind.
It looked to me a bit rushed and a bit panicked.
But I don't know why I'm looking.
I can tell you why.
That's the thing I sent to us every last night.
Yeah.
Tell me this has been hasty announced
without telling me it's been hasty.
We'll put this thing up on there.
So Lawrence is sad there with his hand in his pocket
with a folded up piece of paper
not very neatly folded up.
He thought they've done this in a hurry.
I think Adrian is Elvis Presley.
I mean, I think not as if I know anything
but I'm sure that car is going to be much better
because he's a genius.
I don't know what is.
You know, there are different skills
in being a team principal, right?
In terms of people and doing press interviews
and after smooths people
that you actually think is a bit of a tosser or whatever.
You know, there are different skills
that and hopefully he's got all those skills
that he's left brain and right brain.
We don't know that.
You know, I'm useless at many things.
Hopefully he's good at everything.
But I'm not.
I don't know.
I've never met him, unfortunately.
But I imagined there was some sort of like
situation where Lawrence had had a few people saying,
you know what, Lawrence?
You should give Christian the fucking job.
You know, he's a winner.
He's really good.
You should get him back.
The one thing you've got missing,
Lawrence is a winner at the top.
And he's walked in to Adrian's office
and gone, I've got a fucking great idea.
Let's get Christian back.
I reckon we could get him for 10 million quid.
He hasn't got a job.
We could give him a little bit of equity.
Give him a bit less than he wants.
Pretend it's 1%, but really it's not.
It's only sweet equity.
So we won't make that much money.
We could, he could be on and Adrian's gone.
Are you fucking joking?
If you don't, you'll not bring it.
By the way, now we're on the subject, Lawrence.
I want that fucking job.
And if you don't give it to me,
you know what?
I might go to Ferrari and you can all fuck off.
And Lawrence has gone,
oh, I made a bit of a schoolboy area
because I really need to keep hold of Adrian.
So now I've got to give him the bloody job, haven't I?
I think it's happened.
I think there might be some truth in that.
Chris Cooper, I have to hurry this along a bit.
So what's your thoughts?
So that's what I thought,
which is when I turned that thing last night,
when I saw it come up yesterday,
that Adrian had got it,
and then the Aston Martin thing came out
with Lawrence standing there with this,
the least well-prepared.
We know how Lawrence likes to do things,
and this is not how he likes to do things.
And I sent this to a few people in the know last night to say,
hmm, they got the heat quite quickly, haven't they?
I was at a breakfast dinner on this week
with some people in the industry at Silverstone,
and Adrian was there.
And I sort of, the conversation briefly touched on,
interesting in your place right now,
not a flicker, not a flicker.
Nobody knew that they did,
they were hiding it very, very well.
So I think it probably did happen really quickly.
Really interesting because clearly for a while,
that the idea of Christian being one of the candidates,
that's been going for about a week.
So something must have happened quite quickly,
either Adrian thought, fuck it, I'll do it.
I know, it's a really interesting idea,
and it's not unprecedented.
Ross Brawl, he was a great team principal,
other engineers, team principals.
It's not a mad idea.
Maybe then just thought, hang on a minute,
I haven't done that.
How can it be?
There are talk, there is whispers that
Andy Cowell, the erstwhile CEO and team principal,
and Adrian didn't quite see eye to eye,
I think probably, possibly I'm making this up,
a bit like Neil.
Adrian thought, I'm not sure I want you telling me how to do so.
I've done this before.
I have, you know, scribbling, shading stuff on pizza.
I've done all that, I've kind of done so.
I think it's amazing, it makes next year look
really, really interesting.
The only thing I've got to say is,
I had a chat with somebody yesterday,
I've never seen, I really feel for Lewis.
He's living an absolute appalling agony
in, in Technicolor right now with Ferrari.
I think we all feel for him and he's wearing it on his sleeve
and he's really, really upset and it's horrible to see,
particularly thinking about 21 and what should have happened
or could have happened and where he is now.
You really, really feel for him.
The other thing is, I think Vegas has had its moment.
I think all the people that went there in the first year,
all the high rollers in the US, they've ticked that box,
they won't go back because it's seven degrees in the paddock,
it's fucking cold.
And the track shit, it's really, really bumpy.
There's no corners.
It's 17 hour flight, blah, blah, blah.
If you take your wooden Formula One car, it will get shaved off.
I didn't know they were wood.
No, so what I'll take from that is Neil's quite right.
I'm a luddite, but maybe there's a skill set required
to be a team principal that is different to being a designer
and we're going to find that out next year.
When he's first put in the pen
and has asked an utterly ridiculous question,
will he be able to respect it with an answer
the way a toto does?
Think how many ridiculous questions James Vows
or a toto answer respectfully without going,
you fucking kidding me, don't ask me that, you idiot.
That's gonna be interesting to see whether he can do that.
I think that it does, to see Lawrence stood there
with a folded piece of paper with his hand in his pocket,
is not the way he normally presents anything.
So that does indicate it wasn't necessarily
the way he wanted to do.
It all adds to the story and the excitement
to Formula One, which is great.
And you're right about Lewis.
The one thing, however bad a season he's having,
he's always the last resort to name calling, isn't he?
He could so easily be complaining and really moaning,
but he doesn't do that publicly.
He does his disappointed dog face, didn't get the bone.
But he doesn't, you know, other drivers,
not mentioning any names, are much, much faster
to criticise the team.
And he's not done that.
Right, moving on to the two car garage.
So this is from Mark, who owns an Alpina D for Derrick 3.
Good lad.
£10,000 budget per car.
First car is the daily.
It's got to do 40 miles to the gallon,
be able to carry four, be fun to drive,
and a little out of the ordinary.
That's a tough one, that one.
Second car needs to be something that you can drive
for the next few years, have some fun,
and maybe do the odd track day.
But in three years' time, when your daughter turns 17
and wants to drive, she can learn to drive
and then have it as her first car.
I mean, that's a difficult one.
So, you know, we'll be outside the parameters here,
so I need to hurry things along
because I'm being shouted at at the moment.
So if we go to Manish quickly, please.
Okay, so I found it rather beautiful.
1992, Citroen BX for my slightly out of the ordinary car.
It actually does 38 miles to the gallon.
It's beautiful. It's the 1.4.
And you're not going to believe it.
It's got less than 14,000 miles on it.
And someone's looked after this baby.
It's not an auction.
And I would actually be super tempted to buy that
because I think they're beautiful cars.
I know it's not the 1.8 or the 1.9, but it'll do.
And the second car, I do love this car.
I've always loved this car.
It's a 2010 Mazda MX-5.
It's the early one.
So about 125 horses, 1.8.
I think you'd have a lot of fun in that car.
I think your daughter would be very safe in that car.
So there you go.
They're my little breaks.
Thank you, Manish.
Well done, the budget.
Chris Cooper.
So Mark was one of the 350-plus people
who very kindly responded to our invitation
to send us two-car garage scenarios.
So that's about seven years' worth of podcast.
So we might not be able to get through all of you,
but thank you very much.
All is wonderful.
I feel like Tony Hart.
And all the things on the wall, on play,
whatever it was you're doing.
The first, I didn't know this car existed.
It is a Peugeot.
This goes on the auction 5th of December.
Peugeot LNA.
I remember the Torbett Samba,
which is the version of that,
because there was a family next door,
had a girl I was quite into when I was growing up.
They had one of those.
They had Torbett Samba.
I reckon that would easy do 40 miles to the gallon.
And it's a bit out of the ordinary,
because I didn't even know existed.
And then I think the bit of fun, track days,
gentle track days, 17-year-old daughter,
nothing says a little bit of fun more than a Frog-Eyed Sprite.
I wonder those.
You love them so much.
I love them.
We should.
No, I couldn't fit it.
So, and that is actually, it's in the auction at the moment.
So it'll be probably a day or so after,
two days after we come out.
That's what I do.
So thank you very much, Mark.
Neil Clifford, remembering that all these vehicles
are chosen from the wonderful car and classic
where I spend most of my spare time.
Carry on.
Actually, I might bloody buy this.
I don't know if any of you guys saw this.
The E34 estate.
Saw that.
In Orient's blue, non-harmonic blue,
I love the fact that it's the very rare non-sum roof.
Obviously, you'd prefer the sunroof,
but this is the very rare non-sum roof one.
And it's in the auctions.
And what a pretty car that E34.
Fuck me.
It's only on for $6,000 at the minute.
Everyone's looking at the budgets and no one's bidding,
so they're probably going to get it for $7,000.
And then, I didn't know that.
And you'll do $40,000.
You'll do $40,000, Adam,
as long as you drive, like, in sixth everywhere.
And then I couldn't really decide.
So the option, obviously, when you don't know what to do,
the choice is always a little Boxster.
I know you'd have to put your daughter on your insurance.
Forever, yeah.
Get our own insurance.
It's a little 2.7.
It's not the S. It's not going to be that much insurance.
Only about $9,000 for a four grand car.
But nevertheless, Boxster.
Winner.
I've been similarly lazy to Neil
and totally ignored the second question.
So I've allowed myself a remarkable insurance premium
because I'm going for, I'm going for the cheapest.
I just typed in cheapest camey.
There's a picture of it with this bonnet up.
I just think we're going to do so much driving before
she has to get her driver's license.
She's getting a special deal or she'll go on my insurance.
But there is one Cayman that's at 10,450 pounds,
but under 100,000 miles.
What a car that is.
The steering on those is remarkable.
And I'm being a bit cheeky.
The second car, actually, I'm quite pleased with.
So this was a rarity in the UK.
The E36 325 TDS was the sixth in the diesel.
Sounds like diesel in the UK.
Yes, they were really fast when they came out.
I think that if you really tickled it along,
would do 40 to the guy.
And four seats, 72,000 miles for six and a half grand.
If you love an E36, that's a great car, isn't it?
That's a lovely car.
Very niche.
Going up on classic, I've spent too much time on there this week.
I got absolutely lost in a wormhole at an airport.
So I feel like my search history has been dominated by car and classic.
Now, let's try a little bit of music before we go.
Let's go first.
I have a very bad taste side to my music, like everybody else.
I keep it quiet.
And I just do like some 70s kitsch, especially if it's really,
really bad in British.
And this song is so catchy.
It's called Airport by the Motors.
Yes, I love that.
Do you remember that?
Massive song.
Anyway, please listen to that in the car.
Airport, exactly.
It's got about two lyrics and they are airport and airport.
Can I just, by the way, manage to say how reassuring that is?
Because you are perceived quite rightly as the voice of sophistication
when it comes to music.
So when you occasionally drop one of those, the rest of us go,
OK, thank God, I don't feel so guilty about my basic taste in music.
Thank you.
Neil.
For me, it has to be a Stone Rose's song.
Rest in Peace, Gary, Manny, Mountfield.
Without the Roses, we wouldn't have Oasis.
And every single song, I've really, really, really struggled,
even spent 15 minutes talking about my wife.
Which song should I do?
I'm going first album.
I am the resurrection.
I mean, it's everything.
It's for me, whatever it was, 1989.
It's got the who in it.
It's got the jam in it.
It's got Oasis in it.
And they were still at school at the time.
It's just an amazing album.
They only did two albums.
And we should all listen to the Bloody Stone Roses
on full volume this week.
I'll second that.
I'll second that.
Chris Cooper.
The song is Everlasting Love.
It's just such a banging, lovely.
It's right for our pod today
and our love affair and our addiction to cars.
I think the original one was the band Love Affair.
There's a version of it in the movie Belfast
where it's sung by Jamie Dornan.
I think actually sung by Jamie Dornan.
And he's singing it too.
I forget the actress's name.
She was the one who played Ken Miles' wife
in the Ford and Ferrari film.
They're both done.
It was lovely.
Lovely, lovely.
So, I don't want to go to Stone Roses.
I'm going to go...
I'll listen to this album in America,
which is Naz's first album, Illmatic,
which is quite a piece of work, isn't it?
I'm going to go for The World Is Yours.
Get that album out.
I know it's controversial at times,
but it's an extraordinary piece of work.
So, there you have it.
That was episode 63, which beats our previous...
Eventually we did it.
...2.
So, yeah, hopefully there won't be any great changes
in the foreseeable future.
We might have to start again at North.
But if we do, we'll have to get to 64 to beat this one.
I'd like to publicly apologise to my fellow podcasters
because I stepped through two alarms
and someone bashing on my door this morning
and I really fucked them about.
They're such lovely people that they've returned
to do this podcast.
They could have told me to Foxtrot Oscar,
but they didn't, which means they're lovely.
Can we do both?
And we love you all.
So, this is the end of episode 63.
We will see you for 64 next week.
Bye-bye.
Oh, no, we've just ended.
No, come in.
What's that?
We just finished.
Is that a bear?
I was coming in here to throttle you with a bear.
With a bearing spacer.
Okay, that's a bearing spacer.
Well, let's see it.
That's a bearing spacer.
Look at that, isn't that lovely?
Jesus Christ.
But I'll be troubled with one.
I'm going to go and film now.
Okay, bye-bye.
That is the end.
Bye-bye.
For just $199 a month.
For 36 months with $29.95 down.
These deals won't last.
And neither will our inventory.
Over 200 new vehicles available.
Act fast and schedule your test drive today,
or shop online at rontonkendodge.net.
This requires approval with SFS.
Not everyone qualifies.
On select models for 36 months.
$29.95 down.
$5,000 per year.
$0.30 each additional mile.
Visit dealer for details and eligibility.
Offer ends January 2nd.
Deck your home with plies.com.
La, la, la, la, la, la, la.
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
Free design consultation.
Free, free, free, free, free, free, free.
Plus free samples and free shipping.
Free, free, free, free, free, free.
Head to blinds.com now for up to 50% off
with minimum purchase, plus a free professional measure.
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
Rules and restrictions may apply.
and he needed to get the word out to busy professionals looking to stay fit.
So I turned to Acast. I used their smart recommendations feature to easily find shows
that talk about health and fitness. Booking sponsorships through their platform was a breeze
and just like that, my app was in their ears during their morning run.
Sounds like a smart move, Russell. How's business looking now?
Sweat is pouring and so are the installs.
Spread the word about your business with podcast ads on Acast.
Start today at go.acast.com slash advertise.
About this episode
Adrian Newey, the legendary F1 designer, takes on the role of team principal at Aston Martin, stirring excitement and debate among the hosts. They discuss the implications of this move, the challenges of winter driving, and the importance of maintaining cars during the colder months. The conversation also touches on the rising costs of petrol and the future of electric vehicles, alongside personal anecdotes about their lifelong passion for cars. The episode wraps up with a segment on listener submissions for ideal two-car garages, showcasing unique vehicle choices.
Original notes
Download Car & Classic’s app today to see our 2CG’s, and our weekly pick of our favourite listings: https://candc.li/App_Download_
This week, its been a tumultuous time behind the scenes but we have an epidode out! Another special guest… We hope you enjoy.
(00:06) “Salt spreading” warning... The dreaded end of enjoyment for the year? What can we do to keep up the pleasure
(18:35) Should petrol prices be government regulated?
(30:55) You can never shake the car addiction - it's there forever - why is this and how did it start for you?
(47:53) F1
(59:58) 2CG
(1:05:22) Music
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Car Podcast with Chris Harris & Friends
Chris Harris
0:00
69:09