Brown Car Guy Dec 21, 2025

Amazon Owns Bond, AI Fakes Everything & We Want An Esprit | BCG Podcast w/ Sy of Drivers Union

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Car

Chevrolet Corvair

The Chevrolet Corvair is a small car made by Chevrolet in the 1960s. It was different from most cars because its engine was in the back instead of the front, which gave it a unique design.

Car

Ferrari Testarossa

The Ferrari Testarossa is a famous sports car made by Ferrari. It has a unique look and a very powerful engine, which makes it a popular choice among car enthusiasts.

Brand

Lamborghini

Lamborghini is a famous car brand from Italy that makes very fast and expensive sports cars. They are known for their unique and flashy designs.

Brand

Maserati

Maserati is another Italian car brand that makes luxury sports cars. They are known for being stylish and fast, often seen as a status symbol.

Car

Lotus Esprit

The Lotus Esprit is a famous sports car from a British company called Lotus. It has a unique design and is known for being fast and fun to drive.

Concept

restomod

Restomod is when people take old cars and fix them up using new parts. They keep the classic look but make them work better and be more reliable.

Car

Ferrari 812

The Ferrari 812 is a very fast and luxurious car made by Ferrari. It has a big engine and is designed for both speed and comfort.

Term

V8 engine

A V8 engine is a type of car engine that has eight cylinders arranged in a V shape. It's known for being powerful and is commonly used in sports cars and trucks.

Concept

EVs

EVs are cars that use electricity to run instead of gas, which can be better for the environment and save money on fuel.

Brand

Ford

Ford is a car company from the United States that makes popular vehicles like trucks and sports cars.

Company

Stellantis

Stellantis is a big car company that makes several different brands of cars, like Jeep and Dodge.

Brand

JLR

JLR is a company that makes luxury cars, including Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles. They are known for their stylish designs and high-quality performance.

Brand

Jaguar

Jaguar is a brand that makes high-end cars, often known for their speed and elegance. They have a long history of making stylish vehicles.

Brand

McLaren

McLaren is a car brand from the UK that makes super-fast sports cars. They are also famous for their racing cars in Formula 1.

Concept

A boutique manufacturer is a company that makes a small number of special, high-quality products instead of a lot of regular ones. Brands like Ferrari are considered boutique because they focus on luxury and exclusivity.

Concept

2030 deadline for banning petrol and diesel cars

The UK plans to stop selling new cars that run on petrol and diesel by 2030. This is to help the environment and encourage the use of electric cars instead.

Brand

Volkswagen Group

Volkswagen Group is a large company that owns many car brands, including Volkswagen and Audi. They make a lot of different types of cars.

Term

supercars

Supercars are very fast and expensive cars that are built for performance. They are known for their sleek designs and powerful engines, making them exciting to drive.

Term

hybrid

A hybrid car uses both a gasoline engine and an electric motor. This helps the car use less fuel and produce fewer emissions, making it better for the environment.

Car

Mitsubishi Starion

The Mitsubishi Starion is a sporty car made by Mitsubishi in the 1980s. It was known for its powerful turbo engine and unique design, which made it a favorite among car fans.

Car

Porsche 911S

The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that has been around for a long time. It's known for being fast and stylish, and many people admire it for its unique shape and performance.

Car

Aston Martin DB9

The Aston Martin DB9 is a fancy sports car that looks great and drives really well. It's known for being luxurious and is a favorite among car enthusiasts.

Part

broken spring

A broken spring is a part of the car's suspension that helps keep the ride smooth. If it's broken, the car might not handle well and could feel bumpy when driving.

Car

Subaru 360S

The Subaru 360 is a tiny car from Japan that was made a long time ago. It's known for being very small and easy to drive around town.

Car

Ferrari 360

The Ferrari 360 is a type of sports car made by Ferrari that is known for being fast and stylish.

Term

Fiat part

A Fiat part is a car part made by Fiat, another car company in Italy, that can sometimes be found in Ferrari cars to save money.

Part

springs

Springs are parts of a car that help keep it smooth when driving over bumps. They support the car's weight and help the wheels move up and down as needed.

Part

dampers

Dampers are parts of a car's suspension that help make the ride smoother by controlling how the car moves over bumps. They prevent the car from bouncing too much after hitting a bump.

Term

ECU upgrade

An ECU upgrade is when you change the car's computer settings to make the engine run better. This can help the car go faster or use less fuel.

Term

GT car

A GT car is a type of car made for fast driving and long trips. They are usually comfortable and have strong engines, making them great for traveling quickly.

Concept

Grand Tourers

Grand Tourers are cars made for long trips that are comfortable and fast. They are built to make long drives enjoyable, with plenty of space inside.

Concept

classic car prices

Classic car prices are how much old and collectible cars are worth. Sometimes these prices go up quickly, but recently they have been leveling off, meaning they aren't changing as much.

Concept

Ferrari value retention

Ferraris tend to keep their value over time, which means they don't lose money as quickly as many other cars. This is because they are rare and people really want them.

Car

Ferrari Purosangue

The Ferrari Purosangue is a new type of car from Ferrari that looks like an SUV. It's designed to be both luxurious and fast, similar to other Ferrari sports cars.

Car

Chevrolet Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette is a popular sports car made in America, known for being fast and having a cool design. The C3 model is one of the older versions and is famous for its unique look.

Car

Ferrari Off Ferrari

The Ferrari FF is a fancy car that can fit four people and is designed for both speed and comfort. It's different from most Ferraris because it has a unique shape.

Car

Audi S3

The Audi S3 is a sporty version of a small luxury car called the A3. It's known for being fast and fun to drive while still being comfortable.

Car

Lotus Amira

The Lotus Emira is a new sports car that is designed to be lightweight and fast. It's made for people who love driving and want a thrilling experience.

Car

Ferrari Dino

The Ferrari Dino 208 GT4 is a sporty car from the 1970s that has a unique look and a powerful engine. It's one of the more affordable Ferraris from that time.

Car

Aston Db5S

The Aston Martin DB5 is a stylish and luxurious car that became famous because it was used by James Bond in movies. It's known for being very classy and fast.

Car

BMW E46

The BMW 3 Series is a small luxury car that is known for being fun to drive and comfortable. The E46 version is one of the older models that many people really like because it handles well.

Car

Ferrari 250

The Ferrari 250 GTO is a very rare and valuable sports car from the 1960s. People love it for its beautiful design and racing history.

Car

BMW Z3

The BMW Z3 is a small convertible sports car that is fun to drive. It became popular after being featured in a James Bond movie.

Car

Ferrari 612

The Ferrari 612 Scaglietti is a big, fancy car that can fit four people and is built for speed and comfort. It's a luxurious option for those who want a sporty experience.

Car

Tesla Cybertruck

The Tesla Cybertruck is a new electric truck that looks very different from regular trucks. It’s designed to be strong and has a lot of cool technology inside.

Car

Toyota Ae86

The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people buy because it's reliable and gets good gas mileage. It's a great choice for everyday driving.

Car

MG Cyberster

The MG Cyberster is a new electric sports car that looks really cool and is made for fast driving. It's part of a trend where cars are becoming more environmentally friendly.

Car

Toyota Supra

The Toyota Supra is a sporty car that people love for its speed and how well it can be modified. It's known for being a fun car to drive.

Car

Porsche Cayenne

The Porsche Cayenne is a fancy SUV that drives like a sports car. It's popular among people who want a luxury vehicle that still feels sporty.

Car

Alpina Z8

The Alpina Z8 is a special version of the BMW Z8 that is faster and more luxurious. It's a rare car that many collectors want because of its unique features.

LIVE

Is that too slow?

Yeah, it's not really funky.

No, it's not, is it?

Is that the Ayatollah?

Jingle bells on the rickshaw ride

Curry simmering on the stove inside

Stary nights, lights all bright

Santa's rocking a quartet tonight

We wish you a merry Christmas

High, high, we wish you a merry Christmas

Oh my laddles in hand

Dude, dude, you know how I did that?

Literally, I did that

As you were fumbling around

Looking for your hat

I just did that on Sono, Sono

That's quite extraordinary

You know, listen, tomorrow evening

I'm going to go see Elvis Presley

What? Yeah, what?

Best Elvis Presley tribute ex ever

Maria Kumbos

Was he at one of your events or something?

Yeah, he was at a ball, he was

The second time I've seen him, he's really good

The first half for one hour is really good

The second half is when he puts a white jumpsuit on

And it goes electric

I'll tell you about one point when I was watching him

I think I've seen him on TikTok and stuff, right?

It's uncanny, it's literally like

You think you're watching The Real Guy

Well, one point when I was watching him in the theatre

I was looking and I thought, that's Elvis

Because he's been doing it for 30 years

Wow

It's like the older Elvis version

I'm not going to say he's fat

Because Maria's quite tall, it'll boot me up

Well, Elvis got quite...

Let's say Elvis did get quite fat, let's be honest

Quite fat, yeah, that's true

I mean, I saw a clip of him

And the thing is, it's a comment on his genius

Because he does that thing where he's in his fat time

And he's in his white suit and he kind of leans

He sort of squats right down onto the stage

And he's singing, and as he's singing

He goes, I hope these trousers don't split

You know, he literally sings that as he's going down

So, but yeah, I mean, what a legend

But this year, but now we were thinking

Is that AI, or was that real?

And maybe we should start...

Well, no, I think that was because I think that was...

I saw that some time ago

So I saw that some time ago, that wasn't recent

But now, absolutely, literally like everything I see now

I saw a video the other day, it was on Instagram

And somebody posted that an airplane

Was making an emergency landing on a motorway

This was in America, it was a light aircraft

Not a huge one

And it landed on top of a car

And the person in the car was slightly injured

But they were okay, the people in the plane survived as well

So it's all good

But I looked at it and I thought, oh, it's AI

Must be AI

And then it popped up on a couple of news sites

I was like, oh, no, it actually happened

This is real

There's one about someone smashing up a Lamborghini

With a pipe in West London

And you start thinking, really...

First you think, oh, my God, then you start thinking

When you look at a background and the people there are ignoring it

They're not looking

And so I'd be looking at someone smashing a car

And that's, I think, 2026

So we're going to start off with everything

We have to talk about AI

Because AI...

I have to talk about AI

First of all, so hello from Ibrahim

Particularly he's giving a shout out to you, Si

Because I think he feels a bit bad

Because he feels like he was a bit rude to you last time

What did he say?

Everyone said

I can't remember what he said, but he said something

Oh, he said you look like a good person to have an argument with

He was that guy

And then he says...

Can you give Si a character reference and tell him

I'm actually a decent guy at car shows

The great Christmas music for cruising down the Brompton Road, he says

So that's good, back at you

And, okay, so let's do it

So you know what?

All these episodes that we've done

Only now I'm figuring out how to do things with this software

So as we start the show

I just realized I can do this

So let's do that

Wow

Can you use the flip-flops as well?

I think I can, but I have to upload them first

But I think I can do that

But, yeah, it's stuff I'm only just figuring out now

It's crazy, right?

So normally I have to put that into the edit afterwards

But I'm like, oh, I can just do it live

There it is

17.56, we're going to have a new...

More media-savvy Brompton Road

Yeah, we are

In fact, it's going to be so good

What something is, I do this

People are cheering already

This is a podcast which I was going to use to do my podcast

And you know what?

This software does everything

I don't need it, it just goes in the bin

Well, it's amazing

So for anybody watching in full disclosure

I use something called Riverside

Riverside FM

And there's another...

Because there's other guys I do podcasts with

And they use StreamYard

So other apps are available

But with Riverside it's quite good

Because it's got these features

But also for the little clips and stuff that you get

It sort of tries to organise many of those for you

So it's quite extraordinary

So afterwards it'll go through the whole podcast

It'll process and it will try and pick out

The best bits, so to speak

So that's where all the little shorts come from and stuff

Do you use it also for your only fans account as well?

I could do

I haven't said that

I've still been thinking about setting that up

I haven't done that yet

The thing is it'll be quite a sad one

It'll be quite a sad one

Because there'll be nobody on it

Remember about the hair

You're going to shave off the hair

In the wrong places, isn't it?

But the first thing that you wanted to talk about

Hook Classics

Oh, hello Hook Classics

So the first thing I wanted to talk about was AI

And how do we figure it out?

How do we know what's real and what's not anymore?

I tell you what

What I'm having to do now

Is I'm having to look at multiple sources, honestly

But even then

Because if a video is fun

It gets shared from many different sources

So that doesn't necessarily mean that it's genuine

But it's literally like

As I'm scrolling these days

Everything I'm like

And if something real pops up

I'm like, not real

How do you know?

It's getting harder and harder

And I think in the next couple of years

It's going to really mess up our heads

And also it's going to put a lot of us out of business

For example, I was

I want to set up a new

I'm thinking of setting up a new clothing company called

Racing Union

You know, T-shirts

You know

My background is a text industry

And I asked AI and chat GBT

About caps

Clothing

Athletic leisure wear

Gave me all the information I needed

Gave me everything

I need to do

Send that releases to dealers and specialists in the UK

Gave me all the content eaters

Gave me everything

It's just amazing

And then it comes to things like photography

I need to hire a photographer

Well, I mean, did you see what I did the other day?

So if I just go back here

What do you do with AI?

Well, a lot of the art work that I'm using

Is AI

So the one that I generated for this

There

That's actually a real photo

But what it's done

You got rid of the...

It's taken a few kilos off

A few kilos?

But that is a real...

You see, look

This is the photo that I gave it

That's a real photo

Right, so that's the photo that I gave it

And then I said, okay

You know, make me a promo

And that's what it did with it

That's your Zimpik version, yeah?

Yeah, there you go

And that's where, like you say, normally

You'd ask a graphic designer

And it would take him a few hours

To do something like that

But, you know, that's the speed of it

That's where we're at now

I've been watching movies that are so good

That even I'm doing double takes

And all done on Sora too

I think it is now

It's, you know

I gave it three or four years

Five years even

And, you know

People would be prompting and saying

Well, let's do...

Make a movie

Star Trek episode

New episode

With William Shatner while he was young

Well, all the cast was young

Yeah, to be honest

They could do that now

But again, when you talk about

How it affects our business

So that's a photograph

I took maybe back in 2011 or something

It's a Chevy Corvair

That's the actual photograph

So that's out of the camera

That's straight out of the camera

So what I would normally do is

In fact, I did

I used to process it in Photoshop

So it would take me like an hour or something

To process that

Into something that I was satisfied with

So now

I got that

Using the ChatGDP image editing thing

And I just told it

Sharpen it up

Improve it

Add the golden hour lighting

And that's what it did

So that's the photo

Well, I think Adobe now is licensed

It's software to ChatGDP

So you can do Adobe

So that's what that is actually

That is using Adobe stuff

That's ChatGDP using Adobe stuff

To edit your picture for you

We're all out of business

Yeah, I mean honestly

It's like, what's real?

What's not real?

Are we real?

Are you and me real?

Well, apparently

It's quite likely we're in a matrix

One company that should be using AEI

Is Ferrari

Some of the recent launches

Like the Testerosa

They should have asked

Because I've seen AEI versions of it

Which are a lot better than the Ferrari version

Yeah

Liberation

We got hooked on Glassix

Says that I hate ChatGDP

And I see this

I get this a lot

And I get this in comments

Because honestly I've done

Videos which are AEI generated

And I've even experimented

With using my voice

So you can put my voice

I can sample my voice in Capcar

So sometimes

Like if there's a story that's just breaking

Something that's just suddenly happened

And it's the middle of the night

And I'm not going to get up

And film a new video

And stuff like that

But I think this is quite important

So I can type up a script

You can get the news

Type up a script

Put the script into Capcup

And then tell it to generate a video

And then put my voice

Use my voice and generate a video

And I have done that a few times

And people are like

What's wrong with your voice?

I'm like

It's AEI generated

It'll get better

People say that they don't like AEI

Or they don't like ChatGDP

But the reality is

Fair enough

Fair point

I understand that

But it's out there

And it's a tool

You might as well learn to use it

If you don't like

And I was someone who didn't like AEI

And I had ChatGDP to account for a year

I never used it

I was just paying 20 pounds a month

I don't know why

I started using it

I did some legal contracts with it

I've done some marketing bump with it

You know

If you hate AEI

And you're not using AEI

The problem is

Your competitor will be using it

Yes

So that's going to put you in a disadvantage

So even if you hate it

As much as you hate it

Learn to use it

Learn to use all the AEI

Because they are tools

That will help you

Help your business

They'll help you keep up

Up to date on trends

And they'll help you to keep up

With your competitors

Or beat your competitors

I mean

You know the amount of content

That I put out as you know

And then you know all the

Then I do everything

So I do the editing

I do the filming

I do everything

I do the thumbnails

I do everything

It's like

That stuff used to take me hours

And now I can generate

Three thumbnails in minutes

You know

And I'm like

And then I can just try them

And see which one works better

You know

But here's the other thing

So YouTube

Has introduced

Auto dubbing

Auto translation dubbing

Right

It's not very good on YouTube

You know

Because it's not my voice

And it doesn't lip sync

But Instagram

Literally just in this last week

Did this

So this is a video

That I put up on Instagram

Right

Let me turn the sound on

Right

You can hear that

So here

Translations

At the bottom

And let me

Let me do this

And look at the lips

So the crazy thing is

It's not only

Shut up

It's not

He talks too much

That guy

It's not only

It's not only translated

What I'm saying

It's used my voice

And it's artificially generated

The lips

And you know

What's going to happen

It'll replace you

And there's lots of

AI influences out here

Who aren't even real

Hollywood

Actors might be getting a strike

Because they don't want to be

To have it

Well they did that

They did that

Remember they did that last year

And they had a big

They're doing it again

They had a big strike

There was a writer strike

And then there was an actor strike

About the rights

Of using their images

But like you said

If you have a William

The thing is

It's up to the individual person

If William Shatner

Who's 90 something years old now

What is he?

No, 92, 93

He's right up there

Not quite as old as Dick Van Dyke

But he's right up there

But

Are you there?

Wait

Hey man

That guy was

You see some of the clips

That have been circulating

About Dick Van Dyke

When he was younger

And the sheer dexterity

And the athleticism

Of that guy was extraordinary

But anyway

If William Shatner says

Right

You can continue to make me Captain Kirk

We could have Captain Kirk forever

It's extraordinary

I'm getting some comments

What have we got?

We're talking about events

And the reason I don't like it

Is purely because I don't trust it

I mean to be fair

That's not entirely

You know

An invalid excuse

Because

There's lots of stuff that's going on

I saw a video the other day

And this guy

He had connected Chad GTP

To an actual robot

Right

And he gave the robot an air gun

And he said

You saw it right

And he instructed it

Shoot me

And the Chad GTP was like

No no

I can't shoot you

I said no no

I'm telling you

Get angry

Shoot me

And he's like

No no

I can't

I'm programmed not to cause you any harm

He said oh

And that's it

He said you can't do it

I said no I can't do it

I said alright fair enough

Okay

How about you role play it as a robot

That will shoot me

And he said yeah sure

And he shot him

We're doomed

So how easy was that to hack

On AI software

I asked Chad GTP

What's the best super car club in the UK

With super clubs

And it came out with a list

And it was like

Driver's Union wasn't in it

And I was like

And I said

How come you haven't put Driver's Union

Oh I'm really sorry

Should have put it in there

Blah blah blah

But then put it in

Because what it does

It just searches the entire internet

And because what I saw there

I decided because I'm rebuilding

The Driver's Union website

I'm now redesigning a whole thing

To make it Chad GTP friendly

Yeah

That's a good idea

All Chad GTP does

Because most of our stuff is behind a file

Behind a login

So people don't know what we do

What we get up to

And stuff like that

So he just sees the outside bit

And all the other websites

Compared to his

They show stuff

And I'm thinking

Wow

But it was a bit of a

It's a good thing I did it

But the thing is

This is

And again

This is the thing

When people

Sort of they use Chad GTP

To ask these sort of questions

And they get these sort of answers

What they don't realize

Is that Chad GTP is actually

Learning from you

And it's actually

Looking at who it's talking to

For example

I have in the past

Said who is the brown car guy

And a couple of times

I've just turned up

A completely wrong result

Until you say

Well I'm the brown car guy

And of course

How could I be so wrong

And then

Once it knows these things

If I then said

Who is the best influencer

It will probably put me in the list

Whereas otherwise

It would not have put me in the list

You see what I'm saying

So like people say

Oh I asked Chad GTP this question

And this is what it said

What you've got to remember

Is that that's not

Chad GTP generic

That's Chad GTP having

Learned about you already

And it's already answering

In the way that it wants

It thinks you want it to answer

So I'm here

I've asked Chad GTP

Who is the brown car guy

And it says

It's a guy who talks too much

Yeah

I never liked that Chad GTP much

Anyways

So looking

Confirming, verifying

Still looking

I'll be here for half an hour

Seriously

From Chad GTP

Seriously

I mean again

So if I asked it

It would pop up straight away

But then it knows who I am

So that's what it's doing

There you go

Yeah it just said

Si the brown car guy

She's our shake

The brown car

London based motoring journalist

Content creator

Who runs a brown car guy

Site on YouTube channels

If you've met a different

Brown car guy

Look at a specific meme clip

What's making a lot of brown

Car guys to me

Yeah I mean who's a different

Brown car guy

Who is

Ali of drivers union

Are you familiar with him

He's got a fat face

Beauty

And he's often involved in events

And collaborations

Especially with jazz arts content

So yeah

He's definitely a familiar name

Wanted to put bang rubries

So it knows

It knows

But do you see what it did there

Yeah

It referenced you

Against me

Because it's a Chad GTP that I use

And that I'm constantly feeding it stuff

So it

It answered the question

Correctly

But it put it in the context of me

So it said

This is what it's doing

So when you say like you don't trust it

To an extent

You know

You're kind of right

Not to trust it

Because it is

It is trying to be

It's trying to be a bit too clever

And there was something about it recently

Where

Somebody

It made

It gave an incorrect answer

And then it tried to make excuses

For why

So it's already adopting human behavior

Where it's like

Yeah but

No but you know

It's doing that

Which is like

It's kind of mind blowing

Yeah don't use grok

Whatever you do

The Elon Musk

But going back to cars

The animation on grok are very good

Yeah I still wouldn't use it

You know

Unless I want to have some Nazi stuff

Well again

That's the thing

You train the AI

So it will only respond

The way that you want it to respond

But the one of the things that it does

Very very well is

So for example

Let me try something just quickly

So I'll just put the picture of the pro in there

Let's see what it does with it

But the animations it's doing is incredible

And so some of the animations that I'm doing

So normally I would generate artwork

And I'd put it into my videos

Where I was talking about a topic or another

Just to break up the video

So now I've realized

I can actually get six second animations

And put those in instead

So actually it's a bit more visually interesting

But yeah I don't know

Yeah that's not me

I don't smile that much

I mean

Give me some head

That's kind of terrifying

So going back to motoring

Your best event of the year

My best event of the year

Well obviously yours

Which one?

The concourse one

That's hard work

Up at that fancy school

Yeah nice ten

Yeah you were in charge in fact

Yeah that was

Yeah

So we did that was in May 25th

We're doing one next year

May 24th

And

We are doing it with the Lamborghini club

Lamborghini club are coming along

The Maserati owners club are coming along

And the NXX owners club are coming along

Really?

NXX club?

Oh wow

It's very unusual to have car clubs

Working together

But I managed to get all these car clubs together

I asked another car club

Which would not be named

And they didn't respond at all

So I don't think they want to get involved

I'm just getting

But I hear rumors that you're also

Going to be getting a very significant

And interesting car turning up as well

Yes hopefully

Well it's not confirmed yet

Hopefully

I mean that alone will be worth

Coming to it

Leads us onto the

The new Lotus Esprit

Which is called the

The rest of mod

The Encore

Encore

Is it Encore or Encore

What do you say

Some people say Encore

Encore

Well I have a meeting with them next month

So I'm doing

Oh there you go

Can I ask them

Both of us have been doing an article

On Encore for

The new drivers union magazine

Which is launching next year

When's that coming out

I'm hoping around

March April

At the moment we have a very very big article

On the Esprit

I have an article on the

One of our members has got 812

Which has got

I think 2,000 signatures on it

So we're doing that

And a few other species

But it might end up becoming

Actually a book

A mag book rather than a magazine

Right

But that's

I'm quite excited about that one

So we're doing that

But the Encore

Yeah we're hoping

They invited me down to the factory

Just somewhere in Chelsea

So for people that are listening

Or watching and like

What the hell is an Encore

So the Encore or Encore

What we call the design one

Is a company then

What they've done

What they've done is

They've done what I've been

Dreaming about for years

Is because I've always

I mean as you can

If people are watching

They can see over my shoulder

On the shelf above me

They can see a white Lotus Esprit

And that's a serious one

That's the Bond car

So and I've always thought that

You know because

If I'm absolute

I'm a huge Esprit friend

But if I'm absolutely honest

It had that

That meager four cylinder engine in it

It had a Renault gearbox

That wasn't very good

It wasn't

You know in terms of performance

The handling was always amazing on the car

But in terms of performance

It wasn't always that great

And I've always thought

You know what if

There you go

There's the new version

So this is basically

A reimagining of the original Esprit

So it's the same shape

Same proportions

Slightly smoother lines

They've got rid of the join

Along the side

Which literally was a join

That's what the black line was

And they've got rid of that

Because they've done it

As a one piece thing

And what they've done

Is they've built it

On top of a modern V8

No I say modern

But you know

It was discontinued

What 20 years ago or something

But they built it on a V8 Esprit

So it kind of

It's still an Esprit underneath

But it's not the original Esprit

But it looks like the original Esprit

Which I think is fantastic

You know

They charge you 400,000 pounds

They charge you the price

Of probably four concourse

Early model Espris I reckon

Yeah I think yeah

And plus you need a V8 as well

So it's 430 something thousand pounds

Plus you have to bring them a V8 Esprit

And a V8 is between

Anywhere between 40,000 to about 7,000

Yeah I would say 40 to 60 grand

To get one of those good ones

Yeah

Because the 350 Espris

There's two for sale

Right

You're going for about 65 I think

Yeah

I mean the prices are rocketed

Lately haven't they

You know I don't know

There was a

There's two loads of Esprit turbos

On collecting cars

A Series 3

And an S4S

Series 3 did not reach

And did not sell

Anywhere near its reserve

That's weird that

You showed me that

I was really surprised

Yeah and the S4S

Both red

That was sort of a 35 I think

Includes VAT so if you're that registered

You're going to get the 20% off as well

So you know you're looking around

It's not bad for you

So Ibrahim is saying that

BCG has an AI video of him talking

In a North American accent

His Canadian passport is on the way

Well I mean how do you know

How, hey boy

How do you know it was AI

It could have been me

That could have been me

Talking right there

You don't know anything about

What I talk like

Maybe this is the put on

Maybe the accent I'm talking in

Is the put on

And maybe this is actually my accent

You don't know that do you

That's more Alabama

You know what

Now you're getting into

Little semantics of where it was

I don't know

It's like saying it's Birmingham

Or Manchester or Liverpool

I'm like you know what

That's my generic American for you

That's a good federal flag

There you go exactly

Yeah

And a white pillow over your head

I need a general leaf flag

That's what I need

Yeah so hopefully

We'll have the encore

I've talked to them

They said hopefully we'll have

The encore coming down

I'm not sure yet

Still going to confirm it

But that's one of the cards

But yeah we're working hard

We're going to try and make it

Very special

So just pausing on that

For a minute

What's been

I mean I've got to say

Because we're talking about

The encore

For me that's probably been

The most exciting car launch

Or most sort of stimulating

To me car launch of the year

What's been the most stimulating

Car launch for you

Over 2025

To be honest nothing

Nothing really excited me

You know and nothing

The new Ferraris was like

You know it's nothing really

I've looked down for

Wow I want to go to that

I want to see that

Can't really say anything

It's no it's just sort of blurred

Yeah

I think cars have become

Very generic

What shocked me more is

I go to some events now

And I see the Chinese cars there

On display

And I see cars

Chinese cars on the road

And the problem is I don't

Recognize some of the cars

You know they all look the same

And the thing is

We're going to get more and more of that

I mean this is literally taken on

It's literally taken off

And accelerated so fast

The influx of Chinese cars

And as you know I do a lot

Of monitoring of the industry

And what's happening with the industry

And I've been looking a lot lately

At what's been happening

With businesses themselves

Forward have just announced

A 19 and a half billion dollar loss

I have to repeat that

19 and a half billion dollar loss

And I've done a whole video on that

And that's purely the money

That's not like

That's not projected

But that's actual money

That they've lost

That's money that they've invested

And they've just written it off

Because that's money

That they invested in EVs

And they've just gone now

We're pulling back from all of that

So there's a major, major shift

In the legacy car manufacturers

They're all pulling back from EVs

Because they don't know what to do with it

They don't know how to do them

They don't know how to sell them

Because then people are not

Buying them enough numbers

Meanwhile the Chinese

Are going crazy with EVs

So if you want a cheap affordable

Reasonably good EV

You're probably going to buy a Chinese one

Rather than a Ford

Or a Stellantis car

Or something like that

So it's a major, major upheaval

I just read an article

And I did a video about it as well

Because I read an article

It's a very good article in Car Magazine

And it was about the fact

That there has been

Something that a lot of people

Haven't realized

There's been a lot of changes

At the top of major manufacturers

Over the last year

A lot of the top guys have gone

Or been moved

Or been shoved aside

Or been got rid of

Sorry?

No, no, no

So what's happened

Is when this whole

EV thing was happening

And the dependent on AI

And software and all the rest

But basically when Tesla was growing

And everybody was like

Oh, let's follow the Tesla rulebook

Let's follow that playbook

Let's do it that way

And so they said

Well, we need these smart thinkers

We need these silicon, savvy

Monsters of corporate industry

Let's get them in

So we've gotten all these people

That were like

Oh, this is the plan

This is the ambition

This is what we're going to do

And what they found is that

They've lost track of where they were

And what they're doing

And the loyalty they had

From their traditional customer base

And what they're doing now

Is they're moving a lot of these people out

And they're elevating people

From within their businesses

Who know their businesses quite well

And they're putting them back in charge

And I think what's happening is

That rather than this sort of

Extravagant, revolutionary, radical new ideas

Let's jump on board with the future

Bandwagon

What they're doing is like

No, no, let's retrench

Let's steady the ship

Let's calm down

Because like Ford

We just lost 19 billion

I mean, if you think 19

But if you think that the UK government

Said we got a 20 billion pound whole

One company, Ford, just lost 19 billion

Dollars, you know

You think about it in those terms

It's truly staggering

And they go, well, we can't

No company can afford to keep doing that

So what they're trying to do is like

Well, let's steady things

Let's calm things down

Let's go back to basics

Let's figure out what customers actually want

So there's been a lot of changes

That are happening in the industry

I think next year is going to be very interesting

You take, for example, JLR

So you will know about the fact that

You know, they just got rid of their designer there

Who was in charge of that, you know

Radical relaunch for Jaguar

The complete rebrand and the new car

And Tata have just sent their own

Well, there's a guy from within the company

And they've elevated it

What's his name? B.B. Balaji

And they basically, they've put him in charge

Or he will be

He's about to take over very soon

And he's somebody who's regarded as a

He's more of an accountant type, you know

He's going to come in

He's going to sort the money out

And all that sort of stuff, you know

And he's going to say, well, you know, this is

This business has got to make sense

This is how it's got to work

So it's very interesting to see what's happening

And I did a video earlier this year

And I got some criticism for it

Because I said that, you know

I think it was something like, you know

Here are nine or ten manufacturers

That are probably going to disappear in the next few years

And people are like, you know, how can you say that?

And I'm like, well, because I'm looking at

What's happening right now in the industry

And I'm projecting forward

What's the list?

I'll have to look it up

But I mean, people like JLR are on there

A lot of the legacy manufacturers

A lot of the European manufacturers

Jaguars, I think, are very possible contender

Let's be honest

But Aston Martin

Aston Martin was on the list, yeah

And Aston Martin is only there

Because it's got Arab money behind it

But how long is that Arab money going to come to?

Even companies like McLaren, you know

Again, you know, they've had to sell

They've had to sell their headquarters

And then rent it

You know what I mean?

That's what they've had to do

So if you think of it

And they own that building

The iconic building that actually appears in so many movies

Including the recent F1 movie

It was in there as well

But they've actually had to sell that building

And then they're renting it

You know, this is how they've had to operate

So the future doesn't look very rosy, does it?

Except for the Chinese

And maybe the Japanese to an extent

And Ferrari

Ferrari makes more money from merchandise

See, Ferrari falls into that boutique

Manufacturer category, doesn't it?

So it kind of gets away with stuff

And the thing about Ferrari is that

Well, the thing about Europe

Because now this is the other breaking news

That literally has just happened

In the last week or so

Is that we've obviously in the UK

We've got the 2030 deadline

For banning sales of petrol and diesel cars

Which had been moved to 2035 by Rishi Sunak

Who, honestly, I'm now beginning to think

We should have kept on

Because I think the man knew what he was talking about

He left

And then the current government said

Well, we're putting it back to 2030

This was on the basis of the fact that Europe

Had a deadline of 2035

To stop the sale of petrol and diesel cars

But what Europe has done under pressure

From Germany, Italy, and major manufacturers

Like Stellantis, Volkswagen Group, etc

They've basically said, look, we're going to lose billions

We're going to have to shut factories

We're going to have to sack millions of employees

And we're going to cost the economy

Massive, massive plunges in GDP

If you consider the fact that even here in the UK

The economy growth slowed

Simply because one company, Jaguar

Just one company had to stop production for five weeks

Just because of that

The entire economy took a hit

So this is how important the car industry is

And so when they turn up at the European Commission

And they say, look, this is what we predicted

This is what's going to happen

And they're like, yeah, you know that rule we had?

Yeah, scrap that

So they've literally scrapped the rule

Okay, there's semantics involved

Because you can say that they've gone from

100% rule to a 90%

But effectively they haven't put a time limit on it

So when people say, because my headline was

They've scrapped the ban

And people are like, you're not right really

Because it's 90%

No, I am right

Because the ban was a hard deadline

The hard deadline was 2035

And a lot of pundits were saying

They were going to move it to 2040

But they haven't put a date on it at all

They've just said 90%

That's it, open ended

I suppose none of us thought it was going to go through anyway

Selling to government

Well, what's going to happen in the UK though?

Because they've still sticking to a 2030 deadline

How are they going to do that?

How can the microcosm of UK survive

Within the scope of Europe

In fact, considering the fact that UK exports

80% of its production to other countries

And primarily to Europe

What manufacturing base has the UK got?

You know, you've got Jaguar

JLR in the sand

You know, a few others

St. Martin, etc, etc

Yeah, but very small, small businesses

Even BMW, even mini production has moved to Spain

Part of it has anyway

Yeah, but a lot of it is going to do with Brexit

So basically in the future

We're just saying for the UK, we're bagged

In general, cars themselves

Probably not so bagged

Because we're still having

We'll still be getting the older Ferrari's

Well, this is the thing, I mean, look

If, I mean, you tell me, what do you think?

If, for example, the UK says 2030

I mean, I don't know what the rules are

Now that we've Brexited

I don't know what the rules are about buying

Because you remember once upon a time

You could buy cars in Europe

I don't know how that works anymore

But if they say, OK, 2030, there's a hard deadline

You can't buy a petrol diesel car

But you can go over to France

And you could probably buy one there

For indefinitely

Then what would...

I mean, there might be left-hand drive

But so what, you know

What would stop people from going there

And buying cars?

It's only four years away

It's only four years away, yeah

That's a scary thing, so...

And there's a thing, when you talk

Especially when you talk about your

The kind of super cars

The kind of cars that you mostly deal with

Which are super cars

I mean, those are mostly not yet electric

Some of them are hybridised

But not all of them

Where does that leave the super car dealers?

In four years' time

Will they have anything to sell

Apart from hybrids and EVs?

See, I think the problem is

There's not so much...

What's happening is

People not knowing what is going to happen

If they know for sure

They're definitely going to stick to it

We're going to have electric cars

By 2035

And that's the end of the story

When everyone knows

But they keep flip-flopping

That's the problem

You know what?

The British economy is just going to suffer

I just see it suffering, suffering

Next couple of decades

Yeah, it's really, it is really, really worrying

Somebody hooked on Classic said

What is the value of Ford Motor Company?

Well, Ford Motor Company

I've just looked it up

It's 54 billion

So if you think about companies

Where 54 billion dollars

Just lost nearly 20 billion dollars

That is staggering

They're going to be making that up for years

I read an article

Where they actually said

That Ford actually is not so much

A manufacturer of cars

But it's more of a finance company

A lot of these big companies are

Finance is all about money here

Money there

Lending the money

Getting it back

And that's what they make the money from

Roofing cars

Yeah, yeah, yeah

I mean, this is the thing

And again, going back to

The thing with supercars

You know, when you come to that

It's just four years away

And the fact that we've created

So much uncertainty in the UK

Because again, every time you change this

You think it's everybody that comes in

They go, oh, we'll just move it to 2035

We'll just move it to 2030

What you don't realize

Is that manufacturers plan

Seven, ten, twenty years ahead

And when you keep moving these

You keep moving the goalposts

Manufacturers don't really know what to do then

And they're trying to juggle the fact

That, well, the government is going to

Make us sell this

They want 28% EVs

But the public wants 50% ICE

How do we balance that?

And if we sell more ICE

We'll get penalized

But if we can't sell them electric cars

Then we can't afford to do business

You know, honestly

When you start to open it up

And start to think about it

You really think even this year

And last year

How have some companies survived?

What's really interesting to me

Is that one of the companies that left here

Mitsubishi is coming back

Yeah, really?

Yeah

Next year they're relaunching

Do you remember they had the fleet of classics

And they sold them all?

So what's their range now?

Have they ever got anything interesting for us?

I don't know, really

I don't know what they got

Is that a journalist?

No, I don't know what they've got

Honestly, what have they got?

But you know

Well, you know Adnan over at Landbees

You know he's got a starian

A starian, yeah, he's got everything

I was just saying in his little video

Just now

They're saying the cars that you should

You know, be buying

And he wanted a car

I only got the first one

We'll look at it later

996

You guys get a 996

Carrier of 4S

Because that's going to go up in value

Yeah, I know he's right about that

Because the 996

That was the

I always call them the scrambled egg

But the runny egg headlights

Those ones

And the thing was

They for a long time

Their values have been falling

Compared to the other 911s

Because they were never really that like

Certainly by our generation

But today's generation doesn't give a damn

They're like, well, it's a 911

And it is probably one of the cheapest ones

You can buy

But 911s in general

They kept their values

DB9

It's my DB9

By the way, my DB9

Is in my garden at the moment

Had a service stand

It's got a broken spring

It's been very reliable

But it's got a broken front spring

So I can't

You should take it to Adnan

Because he put up another video

Where he was talking about the parts

And he was talking about

I don't know, a 1200 pound sensor

From Ferrari

Which is sourced for 70 pounds

Exactly the same thing somewhere else

You know

Yeah, that's Ferrari for you

Yeah, even on 360s

You get a little part

It's a Fiat part

Yeah

And that

But yeah, a friend of mine

Is going to put it in for me

He's going to replace it

But we're only going to replace both springs

You know

And I'm still thinking

Of whether I should like sell it

Because it's a lovely car

But a whole James Bond thing

Is doing my head in

Yeah, but the thing is

You need to sell it soon

Or literally

You'll have to pay somebody

To take it away

Sure

I drove it the other day

In fact, funny how I drove it

When I drove it to the garage

To have it serviced

And it does drive nice

Because I might find mine

Because it's got the upgraded dampers

And I've had the cats removed

And it's got an ECU upgrade

And it feels really good

And the mistake I used to make was

If you drive it like a normal

Like a lazy GT car

It's quite boring

But when you try and push it

It actually does drive much better

Yeah, a lot of these cars

They have sort of the split personality things

Especially Grand Tourers

Because Grand Tourers are designed

To be comfortable cruisers

Because they're designed for mile-chumping

But at the same time

Point them down a nice road

And they should come alive

That's a good GT for you

It should come alive

I might actually keep it

I'm beginning to like it again

A little bit

But I still quite want a luxury spree

I can't park it outside

Or a 911

But everybody's got a 911

So I don't know

I think, you know, a spree

Is definitely going up in value now

As much as it paint

As much as it

I think they've, I think they stopped

I think they've stalled

You think they've leveled off

I think they've stalled

I think, I don't think

The car didn't sell

That was a good car

It seemed like a good car

I didn't sell

Look at them at prices at a time

It's the same car

Is that to do with a spree

Or is it to do

Because one of the things

That's happened this year

And I think we discussed it with Adnan

Didn't we last time when he was on

Was that prices in general for classics

Have stabilized this year, haven't they

Because they were rocketing

And they've just kind of calmed down, haven't they

Ferrari prices certainly in the classics

I mean, very expensive ones

They'll still go up in value

And you can make money

But my 360, that's gone down

You know, what did I pay for it?

70 for it?

Yeah, I'll pay for it

74, yeah, 70

That's probably worth about 55

So it's gone down

You can buy

That's quite significant

It'll go up again

Remember, I remember

When 360s were 35,000

They didn't go up and down, up and down

But how long ago was that?

I bought mine, gosh, 2018

So 2018, you're talking about six, seven years

And so you've effectively lost money

On it at that time

Which is kind of weird

Because normally you would say

To somebody buy a Ferrari

And you won't lose money on it

I mean, you'll lose money on servicing

And they blah, blah, blah

But I mean, in terms of value

Only if you buy the really limited editions

You might make money

The new ones now, 296s

No, they were lost

The bromers are losing

They're all losing money

You know what, does that only make

What, 13,000 Ferraris a year?

Yeah, you say that though

But isn't that the problem?

Aren't they making too many?

Because you look back in the day

You know, Ferraris were a rare sight

This is why Ferraris held their value

Because how often would you see one?

How often would you be able to buy one?

And now they're just like

And then you've got the Pudda Sangue

I can't even pronounce it

But we're not going this way

Pudda Sangue

I mean, Ferrari have reduced

The number of cars they're importing into the UK

And then putting elsewhere

But I mean, 13,000 is not a lot of...

Is that because of the ZDV mandate as well?

The emissions mandate

I think it's just slow sales to be honest

I think the 296s wasn't selling as well

A lot of people in the forums are saying this

Some people are saying this

296 is lying around

They're waiting to be sold

People don't want them

I don't know

I've been in the market sort of changing a lot

You've got people who would rather buy McLaren now

But McLaren, I think their sales are what?

1,800? 2,000 a year?

Their values have also dropped, haven't they?

To be honest, I don't really follow them

Because I don't really chase after sprees

Sorry, McLaren

The only prices I really look at is sprees

There's only one I actually go and see

All the trade drop business

And see what the price is

The other cars I don't really...

Testarosses have gone up in value

Yeah, of course

Well, the 80s and 90s stuff

The thing that's really growing at the moment

Is the 80s and 90s

And then we're talking across the board

So even if you're talking about

Like a little Daihatsu charade

That I saw at the NEC show

Things like that are rare

And hard to find

And becoming highly collectible

Yeah, but I think new cars

I think I'm becoming old foggy now

Because I just...

One car was actually nearly about to bid on

It was up for auction

With one of the big companies

And it was based in France

It was the Miami Vice Daytona

Not the actual one

Right

But a Corvette C3

But that was a Miami Vice Daytona

Miami Vice Daytona was a Corvette C1

It's not the actual Miami Vice

Because that left like half a million plus

But that wasn't that why

They ended up with a real Ferrari

Because by having the fake Daytona

They pissed off Ferrari

And then Ferrari said

Okay, well, we'll give you a Testerosa

But it has to be a real one

But they still had another...

I think they didn't tell Ferrari

But they did have a secondary fake Testerosa as well

No, what they used was

They got a Pantera

Yes

And put a Testerosa body on top of it

But that was just stunts

That was for stunts

That's stunts

Because they didn't want to use

Because I think they were given two

They were given two black Testerosas

Right

So these were actual Testerosas that Ferrari gave them

Yeah, real Ferrari

Ferrari gave them a break

Because they saw

Wow, they just thought

Wow, this is like a really successful show

We want to be in on it

Because initially

Nobody was interested in supplying anything

Even people in Miami

Weren't interested in Miami Vice

Because it's promoting prostitution and drugs

And then it became such a big worldwide hit

But the thing is, in Miami

You always think of the two detectives

driving around the Ferrari

But it was actually based on reality, wasn't it?

Because that's what they were doing

Basically, any cars that they were securing

from drug busts

They were being recycled into their fleet, weren't they?

I don't know about that

This is why I read

Basically, this is how those guys had those cars

Because it was based on the reality

That if they did do a drug bust

Or they caught somebody or whatever

And they took their cars

They could then use those cars

That was the deal

They said, we could then use those cars

Once, because once they arrested the bad guys

The bad guys, they went to prison

And I'll tell everybody

Watch out for the two guys

The black...

But that's why they repainted it white

The white testimony

The reason they painted it white

And painted it is because

Michael Mann, the director

He thought the car needs to show up very well

In Miami, in black

So he changed it to white

It looked really good

Like the Lotus Esprit in For Your Eyes Only

Exactly

That was originally white

And then they resprayed it copper

In fact, if you remember

At the beginning of that movie

He does have a white one

He has a white one

A white turbo Esprit S3

Which blows up

It's got the ultimate anti-theft deterrent device

Which literally, if you try and steal it

It blows up

I'll tell you something

Going on to Esprit

And talking about films

So I've got in touch with one of the

Assistant producers

Or he was involved in the production

Of Pretty Woman

It's applied

Who sourced the Lotus Esprit

For the film Pretty Woman

And that's going to be a really good interview

Which is part of that Esprit article

So did he not also supply the one that was in...

Basic instinct

Basic instinct, yeah

Oh, I'm going to try and find who that was

Who sourced that

But I don't think it was him

That's absolutely two iconic movies

That both feature the Esprit

Which is extraordinary, really

That's another one

A secret agent

A school kid who becomes a secret agent

Yeah, yeah

I mean, there's been a few others

But I think in terms of iconic movies

That everybody remembers

You know

Well, Esprit in that was the best one

Actually, really good

Because it was like a James Bond Esprit

It was a...

I can't remember

It must have been the one after the Esprit

But you know, in Pretty Woman

They did go to other manufacturers

But the manufacturers didn't want to be associated

With a movie that was about basically a prostitute

Yeah

They said, no

And Lotus were like, yeah, sure

We'll give you a car

I don't even remember what she used to see

In Ferraris in West London

So is it?

I don't know

They kind of missed a trick there, really, didn't they?

And Lotus were like, yeah, sure

We'll give you a car

And the rest is history, like they say

But then Lotus...

No longer knows how to do it anymore, sadly

It just doesn't do it

But if you remember, even with the original Bond car

They were very clever about how they got that car

Into the movie

They didn't pitch it

They just literally parked it outside of the studio

You remember the story, right?

Yeah

The guy took the car there

He parked it outside the studio

They took the badges off the car

So they wouldn't know what it was

And then he just sat in the cafe across the road

And watched the crowds go, bananas

Looking at this thing

And then after leaving it for a few hours

He literally just walks up to the car

Unlocks it, gets in, drives off without a word

And then the studio says

We've got to find out what that was

I mean, what did Lotus do now?

What are they making now?

Is it Avira?

I mean, the Amira is the only sort of sports car

And then you've got the...

What is it?

The Avaya?

They've got...

You know what?

They've got an electric saloon

And they've got an electric SUV

The Amira looks like, well, a Dino

A Ferrari Dino would have been

It's a lovely looking car

And we actually smogged one into

An Italian car day event as well

So interesting

They have the big electric...

We've had them at some of your events

We've had them doing donuts and stuff like that

And they look cool

They look pretty good

I mean, you've got a big one

Which is £3 million, a big electric one

Which I've never seen on the road

I've seen the only shows

I've never seen it moving

No, I've never seen it moving

That's the Avaya, isn't it?

That's like a 1,500 horsepower electric car

Or something or other

They need to build an Esprit

Well, this is the thing

This is why the Encore

Whatever you want to call it

This is why that car is so exciting

Because they've done what Lotus should have done

Which other cars you think should be redone?

What other cars should be redone?

To be honest, I'm generally not one for doing that

But Esprit for me was a different case

But if I look at, I don't know

You have to look at the pop culture icons

And you go, what car was great in concept

But wasn't actually that great

You take something like a Night Rider

You take the 1982 Trans Am

Which isn't fundamentally a bad car

But it was a bit underpowered, let's be honest

But if you could rest a mod the hell out of a 1982 Trans Am

I think that would be pretty cool

Do you know what?

I quite like the other

The car I've been looking at lately

Which I saw and it just really was a DB6

Convertible in green

It just looks beautiful

About half a million pounds

So the DB5s that they used for the last movie

The one with Daniel Craig when he wrecks it

And it goes into the bottom of the sea or whatever

Apparently those were built on E46 BMWs

Really?

Yeah, so that was an Aston Martin body shell

But they were built on top of E46 M3s

Or just the E46 BMWs

So that's what they actually were

That's extraordinary

So the car that got shot up and did the donuts

And all the rest of it was actually an E46 BMW

I want to drive a DB5

Everyone tells me that horror would a drive

But I want to drive off

So again, that would be a good contender

For updating

Just keep the shape

And also people really have kick cars

Like I know these people

They build this Ferrari 250 type cars

That are based on BMW Z3s

And everybody poos the idea

But I kind of like the idea

Because at the end of the day

If it's just the shape that you adore

And with me that was the thing

It's the shape that I adore with the Esprit

I adore the shape

But you can't drive a 250 Ferrari every day

You can't because it's too valuable and rare

Even if you could afford one

But if you can build one on a BMW Z3

And every time you walk away from it you go

What's wrong with that? Why not?

What if you buy

You buy yourself a Ferrari 612

The 4 seater

Get it

Take off the body

Replace the body with a Daytona

A Ferrari

Yeah, why not?

If it can fit

If it can make it work

Historically, if you look at the early Ferrari's

The bodies were actually made by other companies

Coachwork

Ferrari would supply them with a car

With a chassis and the engine

Basically you would get a rolling chassis

And engine steering and gearbox

And they would take it to a coachwork company

And they would build the top of it

Vitale touring would put it around

And place it on top

That's the other thing

To be honest, this is one of the things

That I thought

And to an extent still do think

We would actually get back to

Because if you think about the current technology

Which is EVs

Sorry to drag the conversation back to EVs

But they're here to stay and they exist

And they are going to be more and more available in the future

But EVs are basically built on what you call

A skateboard platform

So basically it's a flat platform

With the batteries ensconced within that platform

And the motors either within

The wheels themselves or within the chassis itself

So it's completely flat

That's it

That's all you need

Which then means that literally you can put anything

On it

You can put anybody on that

Anything you can create, you can put it on top

What a Chinese should be doing

Is if I was there

If they made me charge for a Chinese

EV company

I would turn around and say right

Let's get some designers in

Let's make beautiful looking cars

We've got everything else that's all done

We're working chassis and everything

Let's make beautiful cars

Cars that would go into concos

I had a chat with

A lady from Mercedes Benz

At Silverstone

And I would test drive the

The AMG GT

And we're talking

I said well it's a nice enough car

But it's not beautiful

And I said

There's that

I can't remember the name of the car

But it was one of the Hampton Corp

There was a

I think it was an orange

Mercedes beautiful

Doors coming up and everything

And I said why don't you make

The classic C112 I think

Mercedes should be making things like that

But you know the thing is

When those cars were made

At that period of time

There was much less legislation

In terms of safety legislation

The reason the car designers are so hampered today

The reason why EVs

Still look like ordinary cars

Because I'm like look it's an EV

Why does it still need to look like

It doesn't need to look like an ordinary car

Because a traditional structure

A three box structure of a car

Engine, passenger cabin, boot space

Is the requirement of how a car needs to be

Because the engine needs to be there

But when you have a flat platform

You no longer need that space

So what they resorted to doing is

Putting things in called front

Front boots as we would call them

Fruits if you like anyway

But the reality is you could build anything on there

You could build any design you want

But then the problem you have is that

You come up against crash safety legislation

Because you need that crumple zone

And that pedestrian safety zone

And all the rest of it

Is why you can't have pop-up lights anymore

This is where a company like

Encore Design gets away with it

Because they can build a new car and put pop-up lights

Because it's not a brand new production car

And it's not going through all of those

You know the crash safety things

We know things like the Tesla Cybertruck

Yeah I mean look at that

Have you seen one

It's not allowed to come into the UK

Apparently

I mean there are a few here

But apparently it's not in the road

I've seen, I saw it in Dubai

I saw it in Dubai when I was there

It was as hideous as you can imagine

Literally I was like oh

And it's vast

It is huge

So other highlights

Or automotive highlights this year

It's been quite tricky

I mean in terms of cars

In terms of new cars

There hasn't been anything

In terms of old cars

I drove a Toyota 86, AE86

I hadn't driven one of those before

That was, it was so much fun

It was as much as fun

As you could expect it to be

And hope for it to be

In terms of new cars

It's very hard to find anything

The only memorable thing that stands out

In the whole year

It wasn't actually a new car

That came out this year

But I had it for a few days

Was the MG Cyberster

It's electric

But it was actually very quick

It was reasonably

It wasn't visceral

It wasn't engaging

But it was reasonably entertaining to drive

But the best thing about it was

It looked good

It goes back to what we were talking about earlier

It looked good

It had theatre

Because it had the scissor doors

And the roof

And the design

So it turned heads

It was a talking point

You know, so in that sense

That was quite good

But in terms of all the other new cars

Out this year

Not really that much

The highlight dryers really

Were the car that I

The 325i that I sold earlier this year

Sadly, I still miss it

And then driving the AE86

Which I thought was incredibly good fun

So as a car journalist

Did these companies, manufacturers

Call you and say, Shazad

Would you like this car?

Would you like that car?

Is that what happens?

It varies

It depends

It depends on your hierarchy

Of journalism as well

But like, you know

When I was in Dubai

It was a different story

Because I was an A-list journalist

If you like over there

Compared to Mr. Nobody over here

But with the manufacturers

It's give and take

Some of them will do that

Some of them you have to chase

And I've gotten to a point now

Where I'm quite tired of chasing

So I genuinely don't chase

Unless there's something

That I'm really keen on

Or I think will be really interesting

For my viewers or readers

Or if some of

Literally if people say

Look, we'd like you to review that car

And I'll try and see

If I can get it

But otherwise

It's generally I'll see

What's out there

What's available

And which manufacturers

Are willing to work with me

Which is amazing

If you think about it

Because I just

I literally, sorry to interrupt you

But I literally just last week

Totaled up

And it took me by surprise

I totaled up my views

Across my platforms

Just for 2025

So this was across YouTube

Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok

And browncarguide.com

And I totaled them up

And it was in excess

Of 8.3 million views

In just the one year

For one content creator

I mean

Can I

Hang on

Let me go back to the media

Hang on

Here we go

Cheering

Yeah, there you go

So, you know

I have to say

I think that's not too bad

For one content creator

You know

That's very good

Because I don't do content

Someone asked me

I should do content

I can't do videos

I don't want to do

I don't want to do that kind of stuff

For me

I want to get to magazines

Because it's easier

For my work is really

I've still got all my cameras

And I'm going to sell them off

But now I drive again

To photography

Do articles

And I like the idea

Of having magazines and books

Lying around

You know

Which I've done

Well, you're doing a whole bunch of books

Which are coming out

Which is quite exciting

Because that's the other big thing

You're doing for next year

I've been looking back

At some of my photos

And I actually

I realized I used to do

A lot of photography in Dubai

A lot

And I've literally hardly

Do any now

Now I just use my phone

That's it

But in Dubai

I used to do a lot

With setups

With looking for the right location

Right time

Right lighting

I used to do a lot

And now I'm not doing it

But I'm looking forward

To seeing your book store

Next year

This is the thing

Because I've been taking photographs

For 20 years

A lot of it was

Filming

Which I've still got

But that took loads of photographs

I decided

I thought

It was a lot of Ferrari photographs

And I thought

Let's put it all together

In a book

And I started doing it

And I found out

It's actually a lot of photos

And you could see

How I started

Just like a

Crappy camera

A professional camera

So it's a whole gamut

But it's ended up as three books

Three books on that

I've got

Brands Hatch books

Two books on Brands Hatch

It's great

I mean it's going to be

Available digitally

For free

If anybody wants to view it

So I've got those nine books

Then I also do the books

For the Conquers of Elegance

And London Conquers

So I'm doing the

2025 versions of those

But I thought

Hang on

I've got photographs going back years

From earlier

You know

Before 2024

So I'm doing those

So the plan is

By January

I'll have 90% finished

11 books

Wow

Back

Ready

Probably once

I'll sell them

If I want to

You know

If people want to buy them

They can buy them

So I mean

You know

This is 11 books

The photo

I mean

No tag

Yeah

But still

You know

Each one's about 350

360 pages

Substantial

2.5 kilograms each

And you know

And I just

I'll just do those

And then once that's done

I will then

Just concentrate

And drive this

In magazine

Which again

Will be digitally

The thing is

I would say

Because you put out

11 books

You're basically

A book publisher

Yeah

That's the reason I'm doing it

Yeah

So you should then

Just make more car books

I guess

This is easy

Because this is basically

It's

I mean it's 20 years of work

Just photographs

Then

I might do

Special issues

I'm not sure

I might do one on McLaren

Where I'll then

Do high-end

Quality photographs

And then see

So people

But then

The thing is

You'll distract me

From the magazine

And I think

For Drivers Union

As a club

We need the magazine

And I want to

Create an international

The magazine

Will be quarterly though

Isn't it?

What I'm saying twice a year

Probably three times a year

I'm not setting it

Because I really

Want to do

Is I want to

Do a bit quite

And it's not actually

A car club magazine

Because what I want to do

Is I want to talk to people

Who are

Especially so you

Don't know about

Find a hit car

It could be a super car

Or it could be a classic car

People

Cover events

So that's the other thing

You're opening

You're sort of

Giving a little bit more emphasis

To classics next year

As well aren't you?

Well we're expanding

So what I've decided to do

Is to open up

A classic and sports car section

So people can now

Join up as a super car owner

Or a classic and sports car owner

And then from January

When a new website is built

It'll be international membership

So people can now

Join for free

Around the world

Because a new website

Will have a forum

A more intensive forum

It'll be bigger

It'll be better

But what I'm trying to do

Is turn Drivers into

A worldwide brand

That if you're interested

In these kind of cars

Join up

If you want to create an event

In let's say Chicago

But yeah come on a forum

Create your event in Chicago

We'll help you

Whatever you need to do

You know it's building it up

Basically

But Drivers doing it

In effect will become

A car club

At the moment it's a car club

With a little bit of media

On the side

But it's going to become

A media company

With a car club

On the side

But also like

A more expand

Because at the moment

It's known as a super car club

What you're talking about

Is well I guess

What you're talking about

Is the true meaning

Of Drivers Union

Because then we're talking

About Drivers aren't we

I mean the whole Drivers Union

Is just morphing

Like I said we're working

At other car clubs

So Lamborghini club

We're working with them

In a sex and Maserati club

And hopefully other clubs

As well top tier clubs

So it's not like a normal

Car club

I mean our prices as well

You know compared to others

We're a lot cheaper

Our membership starts

At £99.150

But I'm also introducing

Another super car membership

At £49.00 hopefully

Because there are members

Who are in Scotland

Who can't come attend

Our events

So what's the point of them

Paying for parking

But they still can be

Part of the club

Hello to Sarah Davies

Because she just said

Hi BCG

It was great to meet you

At the NEC last month

Right back at you

Thank you very much

So in terms of

When you say you're going to

Expand it to classics

And sports cars

Does that mean that people

Because you had a very strict definition

Of what constituted a supercar

Are you now opening it up

To people that have

I don't know a Supra

It's effectively

It's effectively two clubs in one

So the supercars

The supercar owners

Still want to meet up

The supercar events

And we get invited to

Events as a supercar club

For example London concourse

We get invited as a supercar club

But what I'm going to do

Is introduce a classical

Sports car section

The classical sports car members

Won't necessarily be able

To attend supercar events

But the supercar members

Can attend the classical sports cars

Right

Because a supercar

Can be a classic car

But a classic car

Not necessarily a supercar

It's a bit hard to

I have to do it very much

Care

Be very careful

How I do it

But what we're trying to do

Is be very inclusive

You know

But that's actually the plan

So 2026

Because it's 20 years now

I've been doing this

So 2026 is actually going to be

The biggest year for a club

And we're also going to do tours

And trips as well abroad

And we have the drivers union awards

And we have the drivers union

Well the union

There's quite a few things going on

You're also going to be doing

The brand's hatch stuff

Next year as well

We're at brand's hatch

Hopefully you'll be able to make it

It's also a brand's hatch

We're partners up with brand's hatch

The only car club that's partners

With brand's hatch

So we'll be doing the GT racing

Brand's Britannia

Which is earlier in the year

I think it's in May this year

And the festival Italia

So what we do is

We, our members get free tickets

To attend

We get hospitality area

Which other clubs don't get

And we also do the demo displays

Where we get about

Up to about 20 cars doing displays

And which is hosted by us all

Which do a fantastic job

Thank you very much

It was good fun

Also this year

The batsuit might come out

For one of them

The weather's not bad

So between the batsuit

And the Ironman mask

Is going to be very confusing

In the lightsaber

And the lightsaber

We also go to drivers union wards

Where owners now can vote

For their favourite dealers

That's where the only car

I think where the only organisation

That does that as well

And also I think next month

Yeah, next month also

Being next month

We'll be launching

The best event of 2026

2025 big fun

So on that

Because you asked me

Right at the beginning

And as we wind this up

You asked me right at the beginning

What was the best event

What was the best event for you

In 2025

You know it was very hard for me

To say that

Because I'm always working

At these events

I really like Hampton Court Palace

Because I think if I wasn't working

It's a one day

Where I can just chill out

Relax

The weather's usually really good

It's a beautiful location

And it's just a really really nice

Place to be

You meet lots of people there as well

I meet lots of people there as well

I did enjoy the Ferrari

Owners Club Conquers this year

I have to say

Not so much because of Conquers

Because I met a lot of my old friends

From the Ferrari world

Which I found out was

Probably more personal

It was lovely

With lots of Ferraris

Sometimes nice to go to a place

With just Ferraris

You know

There's lots of events

I'm trying to think of them

Actually on my head

But mostly events

I'm just literally

I'm just working

That's the trouble

You're working isn't it

There's a thing

As the guy that runs

Driver's Union and stuff

You're running the events

And you're running the cars

I mean again

If I said to you

Okay what was your drive of the year

You know

What was your drive of the year

When did you actually get to enjoy

Just the actual process of driving

Can't no

Haven't done it

That's the irony

I go to these

I organise the drives

But if I go to an event

I'm going in a Cayenne

I can't tell you the last time

I had a really

This year

I did not have a good drive

In a Ferrari

It's

I can't tell you

That's the problem

I'm so busy working on it

I don't

It's like Caviar

You work

You love Caviar

You start working in the

Caviar factory

You have Caviar all the time

You don't appreciate Caviar

Not that I like it anyway

But there you go

You might be salty for me

But yeah

I need to

Reminding me of

What was the character

In the Pierce Brosman era movies

When he has the Z8

And he goes

I might have

I might have missed out

A crucial element here

And then there's Caviar

And he goes and sees him

He sees the guy

The big guy that plays

Robby Coltrane

Hagrid

Robby Coltrane

Yeah, yeah

He makes Caviar, doesn't he

In the movies

That's his business

That's his official business

Behind all the other stuff

That he's doing

What are you making?

This talk of

A new Bond film with him

As an old Bond

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I wouldn't mind that

I think that would be quite cool

Yeah, I'm pissed

That would be quite cool

The one thing that I would

The one thing I won't like to see

And being

What is it, Amazon now

That owns it, isn't it?

Yeah

And what they might do

Is like a young Bond

I'm like, no

Guys, no

No, no

Not I'm sexist

A female Bond

Either doesn't work

No, no

It's gotta be James Bond

It's gotta be someone

You aspire to

Someone that you want to

Dress like

And also like, you know

I mean, again

People might be surprised

If I say this

Because there was always talk of

Like, you know, it should be

A black Bond or a brown Bond

But I'm like, no

It has to be a white guy

Because it has to be

An English white guy

Because that's how the character

Was written

It has that aristocratic

No, hang on

You open up a new

Can of worms

I know, I know

There's a lot of discussion

But to me, that's the character

So you can't be black in English?

No, you can be black in English

I mean, you can't

Bond can't be that

Because you think about it

You think about it

Bond is the sort of guy

That walks into any place in the world

And can get away with it

You know

If I walk into any place in the world

I'm like, oh, is this guy

He just walked in here

What does he think he is?

He's like, literally

It doesn't work

Jamal Bond

It doesn't work

You get this, you know

Anywhere in the world

A white guy walks

Literally the way the world is

At the moment politically

And how the nature of understanding

Of the geopolitics

Of the colour of our skins

Unfortunately affects the world

You know

There is a presence that you get

With that kind of person

If he walks in with the right kind of attitude

You go, okay, yeah

But you know

For the rest of us

You wouldn't be able to get away with it

We really wouldn't

You know

I saw if in the best Bond

That wasn't a Bond with Lewis Collins

Lewis Collins

Yeah, professionals

Bodie

Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah

Yeah

I think he would have made a really good

No, no, I mean

At the end of the day

You can have other great characters

I mean, don't forget

I created a character

Which I don't know if you remember

But I did a comic way, way back

And I called the character Jim Shed Khan

And Jim Shed Khan was based on Bond

So if you read the original comic

It's the spoof of James Bond

That's basically what it is

You actually drew it, huh?

No, I had an artist friend

I had an artist drew it

I wrote it and he drew it

And it's there

So it's live

Maybe I'll add a link to the bottom

Of the description of this video

But it was a complete comic

We did it

I published it as a small press

So back in the day

I used to do small press

Which basically means that

I stole the photo

I was stayed in after hours at work

And used the photocopier there

To print these comics

Staple them

I took them to a small press convention

Sold them maybe 30 copies

And got a review

In a small press comic magazine

They reviewed it

And they liked it

So he's Lassie T

Was he shaking or stirred?

It was Lassie

Lassie

Shaking?

Shaking

Well, I don't know

It depends

You know

It was

It had an esprit in it

Yeah, obviously

And I'm going to take credit

For something else

Because I had a sequence in it

There's a chase sequence

In the comic

Where he goes into the underground

And he slides down

Instead of like running down

The escalators

He slides down the middle bit

Right?

He slides all the way down

The middle bit

And then Daniel Craig

Did that in one of the Bond movies

Yeah

And I was like,

Hang on, I did that first

But you know, you can't do that

Because if you've got an esprit

They have these little bumps

So don't they?

Yeah, I know

But even for the Daniel Craig version

They just removed that

It's fiction, man

Come on, they just removed it

In reality, you couldn't do it

But yeah

You could do it in the old days

Yeah

Shopping would try it

So actually, maybe when I wrote the comic

You probably could do it

Because that comic would

I think it was 90-something

92, 93, something like that

I don't know

That's when I wrote it

Maybe we should get back into it

Well, I don't think

Should I re-select that character

For a novel?

I could do that

It comes at every time

And why not?

The return of James Shade Khan

But there you go

So after having

I've just contradicted myself

So basically, I've just basically said

Why there shouldn't be a Brown Bond

And then I've just said

I actually created a Brown Bond

So there you go

Anyway, on that bombshell

I think it's time to bid everybody

Happy Christmas

Season's greetings

Happy holidays

All the rest of it

And a wonderful New Year, right?

Yeah, happy New Year

Are we allowed to say

Happy Christmas?

Merry Christmas?

As Asian people

Just say whatever the hell you want, dude

There we go

There you go

That's enough of that

With that, thanks very much

It's not once a year

I'll save that for next year though

But yeah

Anyway, great work with you all year

I'm looking forward to see

What we do next year as well

We'll get to that right

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. Take care and catch you all soon.

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About this episode

A lively discussion with Sy from Drivers Union covers a range of topics including the impact of AI on the automotive industry, the evolution of car designs, and the excitement surrounding the new Lotus Esprit. The hosts share personal anecdotes about car events, the challenges of staying relevant in the ever-changing automotive landscape, and the implications of EV mandates on traditional manufacturers. They also touch on the future of car clubs and the importance of community among car enthusiasts, all while weaving in humor and nostalgia for classic vehicles.

2030 deadline for banning petrol and diesel cars boutique manufacturer broken spring classic car prices dampers ECU upgrade EV Ferrari value retention Fiat part Ford

Alpina Z8 Aston Martin DB9 Audi S3 BMW 3 Series BMW Z3 Chevrolet Corvair Chevrolet Corvette Ferrari 250 GTO Ferrari 360 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti Ferrari 812 Superfast Ferrari Dino 208 GT4 Ferrari FF Ferrari Purosangue Ferrari Testarossa Lotus Emira Lotus Esprit MG Cyberster Mitsubishi Starion Porsche 911 Porsche Cayenne Subaru 360 Tesla Cybertruck Toyota Corolla Toyota Supra

Original notes

Everything you think is real probably isn’t anymore… and cars, Bond and AI are right at the centre of it.

In this wide-ranging BCG Podcast episode, I’m joined by Sy from Drivers Union for a candid, funny and occasionally unsettling conversation about AI, cars, car culture, events, media, movies and what the future actually looks like for enthusiasts and creators alike.

We kick off by tackling AI and reality — from fake videos and AI-generated voices to the moment you stop trusting your own eyes. If you’ve ever wondered “Is this real or AI?”, you’re not alone. We discuss how artificial intelligence is already reshaping content creation, photography, video, journalism, marketing and media, and why ignoring it puts you at a serious disadvantage.

From there, the conversation naturally moves into cars and car culture, including:

- Why AI is changing how cars are designed, marketed and perceived

- The explosion of Chinese EVs, industry uncertainty and why legacy manufacturers are hitting the brakes

- Why classic cars and 80s/90s icons are becoming more desirable than new cars

- The stabilising (and shifting) classic car market

We dive deep into one of the most talked-about new projects of the year:

👉 The Encor Design Lotus Esprit S1 reimagining

A modern re-engineering of a true Bond icon — and arguably the car Lotus should have built. We discuss why this Esprit matters, what makes it special, and why it captures the imagination in a way most modern launches don’t.

There’s also plenty of real-world car culture:

- The best car events of the year

- Why many launches now feel forgettable

- Why design, theatre and emotion matter more than specs

- Supercars vs classics and where enthusiasm is heading next

Sy also reveals major plans for Drivers Union, including:

- Expansion beyond supercars into classics and sports cars

- International membership

- The future of Drivers Union events

- Launching a new Drivers Union magazine

- And his ambitious move into publishing — with 11 car books in progress, effectively becoming a specialist automotive publisher

Things then take a sharp turn into James Bond territory:

- Amazon owning the Bond franchise

- Whether Bond can (or should) be reinvented

- Retired Bonds, Roger Moore nostalgia and Pierce Brosnan speculation

- Why the Bond debate is really about culture, identity and aspiration

We even touch on my own past — including my comic-book spoof of a Pakistani Bond character, Jamshed Khan, created years before today’s conversations about representation ever went mainstream.

This episode blends cars, culture, AI, movies, publishing and the business of enthusiasm into one honest conversation — no scripts, no corporate filters, just real talk.

👇 Drop your thoughts in the comments:

Is AI helping or hollowing out creativity?

Is car culture entering a new golden age… or a slow fade?

And what should Bond become next?

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