Bicester Scramble, Alpine A290 v Renault 5, the cyclorn

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Hello, welcome to the Autocop podcast, My Week in Cars with Brian. Steven there, morning Steven.

Morning mate, how are you? I'm very well mate. Where are we today, Steve?

Well, we're looking out over the sea from Beachy Head, where we are about to get on with

another Christmas event, namely the Autocar Road testers lunch. We're booked into the Beachy

Head pub for lunch in about two hours, is it? So for the next hour or there about,

Steve and I are going to be talking our respective columns and a bit more besides,

including the fact that this podcast is brought to you in association with Anderson EV, makers of

high quality domestic chargers. And I don't have the script in front of me, Steve, but I think

what we both agree is that what they have EV owner needs more than a good EV is a high quality

domestic home charger. Yeah, I proved it. In fact, I proved it this very morning by

bringing a plug-in Porsche to this event. And of course, it was charged at my house,

from my Anderson EV charger, which is guaranteed for seven years. Mine is two and a half years old,

which means I've got, what is it, four and a half left on feelings.

Your warranty is pretty generous. Oh, I think it's great.

On an electrical thing. Anderson-ev.com is the place to go to have a look at their chargers.

And if you mention the My Week in Cars podcast before the end of October,

when you speak to a sales agent, they will give you £50 off your order.

It's good, isn't it? It is good. That is good.

Queue here. Rob Lightbody wrote the other day to me. We know I was talking about the Audi A2

and what to do with the radio. Do you remember that? Oh, I do.

How I would get sounds. Rob Lightbody said, I recommend getting one of these little FM

transmitters that you plug into the 12 volt socket. And then it's broadcasts on FM and the car's

stereo picks it up on the FM frequency and it bluetooths to your phone. So the phone talks to

the little gizmo which talks to the car audio and you don't have to do anything else.

And they cost about £15 online and I tried it and it's amazing.

It's perfect. And that's it. It's done. It is transformed. So thank you, Rob.

When you get in the car, it all just hooks up. Yeah, the bluetooth talks to the gizmo.

The gizmo starts broadcasting and the stereo picks it up on FM. That's just great, isn't it?

It's magic, isn't it? Yes. And it needs nothing. I haven't had to plug in,

you know, I haven't had to remove anything or sold or anything or plug or unplug anything.

It just slots into the 12 volt socket. And then it's also got USB outlets in it as well.

So you can still charge your appliances. Hard to beat. Just amazing stuff.

Steve Carter writes as well to say, I have long harboured the idea of a road trip to Italy.

And now into my sixth decade, it feels, this is the time, I'm working on convincing

my wife, which will take a little time, but plans are afoot. As this is a treat to myself,

I will be buying a car for the trip. Yeah. That I can use as a daily driver afterwards,

although it will be limited mileage when back at home. Nothing new, something to savor with a

little go and ideally a manual slash convertible. I recognise this will bring it, bring age with it

and a budget, good budget, 40,000 pounds. How many for 40,000? 40,000. Yeah. The question for

consideration is what would you choose and where in Italy would you go? My current thought is a

2014 to 16 Mercedes SL 63 AMG. The luggage might be a problem, perhaps compensated by the exhaust

note. The location, the lakes, then the Amalfi Coast, question mark. I don't know my Italian

geography amazingly well. Well, the Amalfi Coast is not to be missed, but

it's very dense in summer, in high summer. It's very dense for traffic and it's very

difficult to stop anywhere. I once most, in fact, the only time I ever lingered in the place was

on a motorbike and that was brilliant because he could stop anywhere. That's the point. But

I would either go out of Italian school holidays or take something small, I suppose.

I was just thinking, given the Italian nature of this, you slightly wonder whether he shouldn't

be buying an Alfa or something. I don't know what you think of them, but do you remember

the Alfa Spider with the little quad headlights? Yeah, I remember those, sort of late 90s.

Crikey, something potent. That is a Ford Mustang being moved into position for a photograph.

Did Ilya bring that down? He seems to have done, yeah. Looks quite good, doesn't he? It does look

quite good. Listen to that. It's a Ford Mustang moving. I would be thinking about some Alfa.

Yeah, that's not a bad shout, is it that? Because, I mean, that's well under budget,

but that's okay. Yeah. But that's fine, mate. I saw a bloke on the M25 this morning

and he was driving a Peugeot 207 Coupe Cabriolet, not the world's most fantastic car.

I think that's fair, to say. Roof down at 70 miles an hour, singing, dancing, time of his life.

And I thought, why not? You're absolutely enjoying your car on an Octo, not a gray

overcast October morning. They're having a great time. So, I think the price of the car doesn't,

you can enjoy it at much less than 40 grand. If he was, I just don't know whether there are any

Alfa convertibles sold in this country that conform to the budget except for something

old like a, you know, a duetto or something like that, which I think would be problematic.

But you wonder whether he could consider getting something with a tin roof and going for quite

a modern Alfa, you know, a, you know, Giulia. Oh, yeah, Giulia Quadrifalia. You would be within the

budget, wouldn't it? And it would be, it would be in character, wouldn't it? But then I guess the

Benz is a good idea. When you get there, what you really want as a fit man, because you can park it

and people will bash it and it doesn't matter. Yeah. I, it's a, it is a quandary, Steve Carter.

Tell us what you do. Tell us what you do. I quite like your idea. Yeah. Well, also, I

like your idea of the small, the small car because I just seem to have spent quite a lot of time

driving about in Renault Fives and Renault Fours and things lately and, and, and the Alpine

we're going to talk about. And, and size has become important to me. I've driven down here

today in a Porsche Panamera and thinking, isn't this a laudable car, but wouldn't I rather be in

something smaller, you know, on these little roads that lead to beachy here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I spent,

I am spending a lot of my time in the Audi A2 for that reason. I just jump in it and go,

and don't, but it's so easy. And that is even better than the moderns because it's a little

bit narrow, I don't know. Yeah, it's very narrow. It's about one point. Yeah. I want to say it's

one point six something meters wide. It's a big advantage. So what about flying to Italy

and then having a few days on the beach, because Steve Carter's wife prefers that side of

Hollywood apparently, then buying a car and driving it back. Yeah, that'd be amazing, wouldn't it?

Because then you could get, because they'd less, very unlikely to be,

then it's sort the roads out there, do they? So lower corrosion, you could get,

Oh, no, the car. What's the, what's the, what was the left hand drive only Fiat?

Barcetta. Barcetta. Yeah. Our company, back in the day, our company did some

shonky deal with Avis because they brought in a load of these cars and couldn't sell them.

So half the car park was full of these cars, these things because they were bought for six

pence each. And for a couple of years, various ad reps were driving around in, in Fiat Barcetta,

left-handed Fiat Barcetta. They're a good little car, surprising, good little car.

Were they Punto based or something at the time? Yes, early, might have been Uno based actually.

Oh, cranky. I remember thinking they all got good fun, but I was very young at the time and I hadn't

driven them. No, no, I think they were good fun. I mean, it depends on your, your feelings about

left-handedness, but it didn't seem to be a problem in a little car.

Yeah. Actually, Steve does say he wants to use it as a daily driver after the trip. So maybe something

slightly newer. Yeah, I think we're, we're probably not ringing his bell, are we?

By a Porsche Boxster. Steve, that's probably your best bet because they've got two boots,

roof down, manual gearbox, great engine, yep, colder value. Colder value, good market in the

things too. Easy, easy trip across Europe. Yeah, that's the, that's the sensible answer.

Yeah. And there's a lot of different ones so you can afford to, you know, move up the scale a little

bit, especially at that money. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get a good engine for that, wouldn't you?

That's what I would think. Yeah. So let's talk the A290 that you alluded to a minute ago.

Well, you and I, of course. Well, we recorded last week's pod in one. Yeah.

As we set off home from N Sport. I can't remember. Did we do any rattling on about

the A290 in that pod? I can't remember. We hadn't stopped to fuel it at that point.

Oh, okay. We talked about it a bit. Yeah. But I don't think we,

well, your column this week, you have the question five or 290, Renault five.

Yeah. And I had them together because my long term is a five,

sort of higher power, high, the one with 150 horsepower. And I found myself saying I would

have the five any day. And it's for three reasons, lower road noise,

slightly more supple ride, but still good body control.

But the range, I mean, the Renault five at this time of the year,

we'll offer you, you can depend on 200 miles. We could not depend on 200 miles, could we?

No, and it was quite a long way back, wasn't it? It was. It was three,

but it was a 600 mile day, wasn't it? Yeah. It was about two,

two something from mine to, to Cumbria. And it was windy. The start of Storm Amy,

wasn't it? A bit of a headwind on the way back. And it was,

Yeah, really not. I've had better journeys. Yes. But I think the, I think the Renault five with its

extra 30 to 40 miles in each leg would have been better and, and no slower. So I, unless, unless

you're somebody that really would use the extra performance, but about a second and a half off

the North to 60 time and so on, I think I'd go for the Renault five and save some spawn as well.

But, and the, and the, the thing that hit me over the head was,

it's not often that you can, when you're trying to make comparison as

between cars as close as that, that you can sit, you can step straight out of one into the other,

literally park one beside the other, go and do the same route, familiar roads around my house,

and then stop, get straight out, do it again. And you can really, you really know what you're

talking about, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And the five is, I mean, they're both quite good value,

aren't they? But the five is even better value. Yeah. And you still get all the interior stuff's

much the same. The, the eight to 90, we were in, I think was a premiere edition, which had,

you know, very flash seats and stuff, but the seats are, you know, yellow seats in the Renault

Five are nice anyway. Yeah. I've got a letter, because I've mentioned

the Mini and that exhaust pipe that I thought had come off of a Coca-Cola can.

Our friend Rob Hallaway writes to say,

he's heard the same and was briefly introduced to Frank Stephenson and he confirmed it.

Apparently when they finished designing the clay model after 48 hours of straight work,

they realized they'd forgotten the exhaust pipe. And while drinking a celebratory can of Budweiser,

thought that'll do. So they sanded off the logos, stuck it on the rear of the car. The radius of

the bottom of the can had to be changed for pedestrian impact regulations. And I believe

he apparently got told off for wasting company resources by using high quality machined parts

on clay models. But when the car went into production, he told the board it was actually

a beer can and they thought it was quite amusing. I love it. So yeah, that is, thanks Rob for that.

I thought that was the, I thought that was the case. That is a cool, that is a great story.

It'd be glued to all the early Minis now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Check them out underneath.

I think Iliad, our road tester, has got one. He has, right. With that generation of

Zorst on it. I think so. I think it's early. Yep. Yeah. It was Bister Scramble, Bister

Scramble. Well, we were both there, weren't we? It was the last one of the year. And I just,

having, we seem to have, Mrs. and I seem to have done, gone to lots of things on the weekend

in this vein. But that was, I think the best yet. I just love the density of the cars and the variety.

The thing that doesn't happen there, which does happen in other places, is that

you, in some places you go and you see a line of 15 cars all the same. And it's nice

that they're there and that, you know, that people are enjoying one another's company. But

I just like them when they're mixed up. You just walk around the corner of some, you know,

you know, out of the shade of some tree and there's a car you haven't seen for 40 years.

I love that. It's brilliant. Yeah. And the variety of cars, the breadth of cars that are there.

I didn't walk around the car park and people always say, Oh, you should do that because they do,

you know, they do put stuff together. And I should have done that, but didn't. But

my favorite favorite cars. Oh,

that's the Morg starting up. That is a Morgan Super Sport. I've been at the factory a couple of times

recently to chat to them about various things. And I've driven that car down here this morning.

I really love that. So it's got the hard top on it. Do you see the size of that rear window?

Yeah, yeah. Briefly. I love that. I love the wheels too. They're so good at wheels, aren't they?

Yeah, they are. Yeah, they really are.

Favorite car. The thing that I always liked the, this is the best that we're going back to.

I like the things that are, you just don't expect, there was a absolutely superb Peugeot 504 there,

a car that I drove early on in my road test career. And there aren't any in this country

for two reasons. One, they turn to red oxide and two we're used to. And those that remain got

swept up and taken to Africa because they work really well in Africa and very popular.

So this thing was, it looked like it had done about 15,000 miles. It turned out I had a people in the

oddometer. It was 101,000 miles. It was just one of those cars that had been

owned by some sympathetic person that put it in the garage every night. And it was,

I would have loved to go in it. Oh, God. But stuff like that, stuff like that was,

Jack is pointing at you. So, Alphatographer, what's a set of keys off of Steve Crockley,

listener? He's got this t-shirt, this jumper, sorry, which is this dark brown t-shirt. I'm

going to, I'm just going to set the scene for you. No, I just need the, sorry mate.

It's, they're buried in the pocket. Listen, we're doing a photo down in Beechey Head.

Jack Harrison has come young photographer in his jumper, which is a sort of brown jumper, but it's

got a sort of light yellow and orange flowers over it. It's very 70s, isn't it? It was described

by Victoria here, Vicky Parrott, as a strong jumper. A strong jumper, she said, yeah. And then

Ilya, our road tester, is looking a little bit 70s as well, isn't it? He's kind of got the sort of,

what, the car key trousers, I suppose? Yeah. With a sort of brownish jacket. She described

it as big trousers. Big trousers. And Vicky herself has got a 70s adjacent jumper. They do look like

a, they could, they could look like they're from a retro drive drama. Could have arrived at a long,

long drive magazine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll put, I might put a post on the, I'll put a picture on

the socials to go with that. Where were we? We were, I was rattling about cars I liked. Oh,

others though. The trouble is, every turn around, as I say, you walk around the corner and see

something else new. But I love them. I love being surprised. Model A, Ford, that was it.

And there was a bit of a lineup of, of nice hot roddy kind of cars too, right? Did you see those?

Yeah, I did see some of those. And I saw a couple, I saw a couple of old Beatles that I was very

fond of. Oh, lovely. Yeah. And then a, and then a, there was a type two van with a Honda 750

motorbike in the back, in the back of it. Yeah. And they were nice Honda 750 on it.

It's just, I'll never forget that bike. I'll never forget it. I was working on a newspaper in

Adelaide, South Australia. We had a bloke that used to road test bikes. I was sitting, my typewriter

trying to turn out some nonsense. And suddenly there's this noise from down outside, down in

that alleyway. Normally you get in those days, all motorcycles made a sort of noise, didn't they?

You know, sort of one or two cylinders. And this thing, there was just this noise and just sort

of went wap because of the four cylinders. And I had to rush down and see what it was.

Excellent. I've really loved that. I've owned a few, but not that old.

We haven't talked motorbikes recently on this part of it, I don't think. No, massively recently. I

keep checking out the auctions for, okay, I'll get a daily email about some of the sort of

surplus auctions that sell off some of the military and government issued stuff. And quite often those

BMW police bikes, every auction seems to have one or two in them. And I don't know.

Pretty cheap, maybe one day. Yeah, they get, yeah. Well, they have to remember there's 20%

buyers premium plus 20% VAT. So you've got to add quite a lot to the price. But I did bump into a

traffic policeman in a car park and he was chatting to me because I was on an electric

motorbike and he stopped to chat about that. And he said, I know they are, we really look after

them incredibly well and they do go for much less than they would go retail. I bought an ex-police

Triumph 650 many, many years ago, went around Ireland. And every time I stopped, people would

want to engage you in conversation and they, remarkably often the torque would turn to oil leaks.

And I say, this one doesn't leak oil. And they said, because it was police, you know. Oh, I see.

As they said, can't have any oil in there. That must be none in there. Excellent.

There is going to be some news soon, I believe, from Norton.

Oh, really? Yeah, I think we should watch out for that. And I know this is a car podcast,

but we might bring some of that when it happens, I think. Yeah, because it's an interesting

company. It was made very high-end motorbikes. And then a few years ago,

they had a bloke in charge who was not so good. Yeah, he attacked the pension funds, didn't he?

Yes, he did get some comeuppance in the end. Oh, I believe it, yeah. But now the place is run by

Ralph Speth, isn't it? Is it? It's Indian owned. Right. And he's the chairman, I believe. Oh,

interesting. So it's much more orderly. And he loves bikes. Oh, does he? So in fact, interesting

marketing strategy, they have deliberately targeted Morgan dealers for Norton motorbikes.

Okay. So you often go to a, there's a Morgan deal in the Araskall Williams, and they've got

a whole little separate showroom full of Norton. That's interesting. I don't think they sell in

mad numbers because they're pretty pricey. But as you say, the range is about to expand.

Yeah. There's, I went to the Morgan London showroom to pick up that Super 3. Oh, yeah. And I said to

people, do you get former motorcyclists buying Super 3s? And he said, yeah, quite a lot. Actually,

that's quite a popular thing to do is people decide, actually, they'd like a bit more

sociable driving experience. You don't have to dress up all the time, you know. And so, yeah,

I can, I can see that. I think, I think that's not unusual with stuff like

catering scenarios and things as well a bit, isn't it? I think you have to

come out of motorbikes and get into them. Well, people have bought a toy and they sort of,

they think, well, hell with it, I'll buy another one. So that's the last scramble of this year.

Yeah, I was really, yeah, early January, I believe. Yeah. But I was just reflecting on the fact

what a great year it's been this year. I've really enjoyed, I've been to a lot of things I haven't

been to before, like Race Retro February. Oh, yeah. And I want my son and he was in orbit the whole

day. We're going to go back with a whole team of his mates this year. Because they get excited by,

you know, old escorts going sideways. Oh, cool, yeah. And they do a fair bit of

live action. It's a grim location in, oh, God, I've forgotten the name of the place now,

halfway up there. It's sort of below Warwick and Coventry and all that stuff.

It's not the outdoorsy place that they also do some kick car shows and stuff, and I can't

remember the name of it. But yes, I know the one. It's a bit of a grim place, but they do have a,

they use the grounds tracks for rally demos. And you can get a ride, pay a tenner, get a ride.

Oh, really? Yeah. That's cool. That is cool. Oh, and there's the other thing is a fantastic

auction, much more interesting than most auctions to me, you know, that are full of old Aston's,

which this one tends to be, you know, cast off rally cars. Oh, really? Yeah. Really good.

Oh, well, I'll look at that. That's early next sometime. Yeah, so I think it's February. Yeah,

there'll be a date already, race retro. Oh, I'll look out for that. I will try and, I mean, not

that I have any intention of buying anything from an auction, but you know, I'd like to have a nose

around. Yeah, well, it's good fun watching other people do it. Yeah. Let's take a quick commercial

break to tell you that Anderson-EV.com, Anderson, the makers of excellent home car chargers,

electric car chargers, will give you £50 off of an order between now and the end of October.

You have to phone them up, though, and tell them that you've mentioned my weekend cars.

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Did you see that our office car park is now equipped with Anderson chargers?

I did not see that. And that's in the basement car park.

Yeah, in the basement, yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a pretty terrible place

for everything except the charger. Well, and also make the automotive storeroom,

which is where we record our podcast. I haven't been, I haven't been to the office for somebody

sitting, lots of people are sitting on the top deck of the Eastbourne sightseeing bus

as it goes past us. And I'm not being funny, but it's quite cold for that today.

Yeah, I reckon. Good view, though.

I haven't been to the office for, I don't know, three weeks, two weeks.

I'm going in on Monday. I'm missing the storeroom.

Yeah, I don't, I don't, I am a bit. Maybe we need to do a pre-Christmas visit.

Maybe we do. We've got some, we've got a few pods coming up in various places, haven't we?

Yeah, we've got, actually, while it's, while we're on our middle commercial break, this

weekend, actually the weekend just gone by the way this podcast comes out,

Rachel Burgess, our magazine editor, has met Volvo UK managing director,

Nicole Malilo-Shaw in an episode of the AutoCarmMeets podcast. And in a couple of days from this one

going live, Steve and I meet Malcolm Wilson of Emsport fame.

Yeah, he's really interesting, wasn't he? Talking about, I thought the way he

explained the fact that he's become the deputy president of the FIA was amazing.

You know, because it obviously controversial because various other Brits have denounced the,

or been pretty sneaky about them. The organization as it's run at the moment.

And Malcolm, of course, has moved in as they've moved out, and his reasons for doing it are

really interesting, I think. They are, they are. And he was, well, he's got interesting

stuff to say about it, isn't he? But he's rather more positive than some other people.

Sure is. Yeah.

Another letter, Steve Banbury of Toaster. Two towns very, quite near each other, I think.

That's quite cool. But anyway, like you, I'll miss the sound of internal combustion engines

as EVs take over, says Steve. But I wonder how the new horseless carriages were received by

road users well over a century ago. Did they miss the sound of clip-clop as they progressed,

or the sound of clippity-clop, clippity-clop in performance models, says Steve Banbury from

Toaster, not Steve Toaster from Banbury. Well, Steve, if you go to themagazineshop.com,

the first of August 1896. Did you look this up?

I looked this up yesterday. I thought I'll put sound into the archive, and I'll search by the

oldest result for the word sound. And it's an editorial. This is when the magazine was edited

by Henry Sturmey. Wow. As we made daily, they almost hourly expect the royal assent to be

given to the auto car bill, says the editorial. And British auto carists must be made free of

their country's roads. We may expect as an early sequence the appearance of many auto cars upon

our streets and highways. As many of these will, especially the lighter and more speedy ones,

doubtless be fitted with pneumatic and India rubber tyres, their progress will be more or less

unaccompanied by noise. The necessity for some form of signal will soon present itself.

On the continent, the difficulty has been solved by the adoption of that instrument of torture,

which a few years ago was unsuccessfully attempted to be introduced to the English cycling world

under the name of the cyclone. This fearsome instrument is as common in France upon bicycles

as bells are in this country. And the advent of an auto car is generally made known by a rattle

over the pave and and an aggravating squawk squawk of the horn. So basically, I think a cyclone is

the rubber, rubber, rubber ended thing. So the auto car didn't didn't like those very much.

So it's our own idea tends toward an adaptation of the bicycle bell, says the editorial, which may

we think be made with advantage. Nowadays, the cyclist likeness carries great weight to use a

hibernianism. And a two ounce bell is about as much as he can bring himself to carry. So with

so small an amount of metal, no great sound can be produced. But we remember the time in the days

of the solid tied tricycles, when cyclists use large gongs of considerable weight, which gave

forth a great volume of sound. And as a few ounces does not make much difference upon an auto car,

we think that a special gong, say with a six inch dome made of such a pitch and metal is to give

forth a beep, deep booming resonant sound could like the bicycle bell be attached to the steering

handle and actuated by the finger or thumb, thus providing a form of signal which would at the

same time be effective and distinctive. Wow. But it has predicted there the car horn. Yes.

That is basically the car horn. You have a it's it's a large dome making a noise that you push

it with the hand on the steering wheel. And it predicts the same the same problem that is talked

off today, you know, electric cars are too quiet. Yeah. But it's funny, you know, if you go to the

start of the bright run, you know, for pre 1905 cars and listen to them all get going, they're

not exactly silent. Are they? I mean, I don't know if they're any quieter than a horse person.

It's a good laugh, though. And also, listen, there is still time to while I'm still on

part this this is commercial break dragging on there. There are still doing a well book tickets

to see Steve and me talking to Callum and design speak. Yeah. Yeah. David Fairbent and Ian Callum

at the Royal Automobile Club. And that is on Monday, the 26th, seven, seven years. Yes. Sorry,

Stephen. We're, um, yeah, I'm looking forward to that because they're they can talk new and old,

can't they? I mean, they're set up into business. They're trying to cater for the modern car market

as well as having, you know, revised Jaguars. So they've got such a lot to talk about. Ian, Ian,

he always denigrates his ability to speak, but he's, but he's absolutely fascinating when he

opens his gob, I think. Yeah, I think so too. Really good bloke. Anyway, that you can find

more details on that. And actually, if you if you go to the on the archive front, if you go to

the magazine shop.com, there are early bird Christmas offers. But if you go to AutoCard at

UK, you should be able to find out more about our night at the Royal Automobile Club.

That business about the, you know, Henry Sturmie referring to, you know, auto carists and auto

cars is a amusing thing because Henry Sturmie's bet was that a motor car or an automobile would

come to be called an auto car. Oh, really? And that runs right through the early issues. Yeah.

But unfortunately, he was wrong. He was wrong. They became motor cars or automobiles.

Yeah. Should we rename ourselves the auto car like back in the day?

Something. Yeah, well, I wouldn't, I wouldn't knock it. I wouldn't mind that. I wouldn't mind

that. I think that would be okay. But maybe we'll just refer to it as the auto car.

Indeed. Why not? Yeah. Your Alpine, a welcome to part two of the podcast listener,

your Alpine A110 Steve is home. Yeah. I collected two or three days ago.

Hmm. You've taken the Volkswagen T-Rock back.

Yes. Very glad to hand over the keys and say goodbye. Not, not fair to the car. Perfectly

refined and smooth and nice and all that. But a real, you know, boring car really drive to school

job. Anyway, my Alpine went away because some Alpenes, possibly a lot of Alpenes,

suffered from a problem of corrosion in the four

wings because steel clips were used to hold the liners into aluminium

body panels, you know, wing panels. And obviously, there's a galvanic reaction and

after four years, which is the age of my car, started to show through. Luckily, it was fixed by

warranty claim. But the thing is, what I'm so delighted by is the level of the repair.

Oh, really? It's a really beautiful job. The car's been repainted. The whole, both sides

have been repainted, but you can't, there's nothing to see. Honestly, it looks like it's

come out of a showroom. No. And I looked very thoroughly because I didn't want to.

Well, I didn't want to start telling people that the repair was wonderful if it wasn't, but it's

been looked at by friends of mine who know what they're looking at. And they say this is a piece of,

you know, real, real piece of skill. Yeah. Is it new wings or have they repainted the wings?

One, two new front wings, small repairs on the rear. The rear wasn't as much of a problem,

but it needed to be stabilized. And they've changed the clips, presumably.

Oh, the clips have gone, yeah. The plastic ones are aluminium ones. Yeah, I think they're,

I think they're plastic. But the car's bacteria. And I'll tell you what, I'm so delighted. It's

really good. Yeah. Whereas, you know, we're going for a celebratory thrash around the

two-day strop somewhere or other in the car this weekend. Oh, very good. Did you have any

thoughts? Because you spoke to David Poop, didn't you, about who does life 110, who does

upgrades and components and modifications to Alpine's? Yeah, he came to an event that I was at

not so long ago. And we got talking about it. And I was saying, look, I'm never going to stiffen

up this car's suspension because we've done track days and it rolls a little bit, but it's

nothing bad. And I like the ride. But the thing he does do, his technicians have got a cunning way of

sharpening up the geometry. They just make some adjustments to the standard

camber caster settings tow in. And they just make the car steer slightly better. And if you

once you hear people criticise the straight ahead sensitivity of the steering, you can sort of feel

it. It's not exactly a disaster compared with almost everything else, but you could imagine it

being a little bit better. So I'm going to take it to him and get that done. And also, his people

make paddles, better paddles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are they titanium or aluminium or something, but

they're a nicer feel, aren't they? What are they at the moment? Are they plastic? I think they're,

yeah, they're plastic. Not sure. I think they might be metal. They might be metal, but I think

it's the shape. But they're improved, aren't they? Yeah, they're improved. But the other thing is,

he said that was interesting, is that he's got a few tweaks planned for the A290, you know, the Renault

5 clone. That'd be interesting. And there'll be more of those around, you would think. Yeah,

yeah, I think he's, you know, he's intense to work on. Good. What's happening on the Jeep Wrangler

front? Oh, well, two things. I've just, you know, in the Christmas issues, we're required to say

which car of all the stuff we've been driving this year, we'd keep. And I saw that you've nominated

the Wrangler. I thought, well, it's not because it's a good car, really. It's just that I've had

good times in it. Yeah, I get that. I get that. Yeah, I feel that. I ran, I ran one as a long

term during, well, I don't know, sort of early 2020s, when we were allowed and not allowed to go places

and do things. Yeah. And I drove one out to the do the Christmas road test. I just, Friedrich Salfon.

Oh, yeah. And it's not, it is not a car designed for that sort of, well, I say that people in

America drive in great distances all the time. And it's only to, you know, I think from here to

Germany is the size of some American states. So I think people do drive them that distance, but

it's, I find it perfectly, perfectly fine. The thing I like is that it's, it just seems to stand

apart from other, I don't see it as something with a load of rivals at all. I just see it,

the rest of the world and the Wrangler. And even the rest of the Jeeps and the Wrangler are so

different from all the other, you know, slightly mums-y, sorry, forgive me, probably the wrong

word there. No, that's right, mate. I thought that I was, my Audi A2 was described as looking more

mums-y by a woman. So it's, so it's okay. When I put those 15 inch alloys on it, and it, from the

17s, she looked at it and went, it's quite mums-y now, isn't it? It's a slight dismissive.

It was meant slightly dismissive, but anyway. But I just love the Wrangler. Anyway, the story goes,

because we've done so many miles on a Wrangler, something like 15,000 miles in a car,

and, you know, succession of us liked it because you were nice about it. Jack, the photographer,

who was in it, was nice about it. We've all enjoyed it. And so we've had a fair amount of

correspondence from Wrangler owners and a bloke wrote to us just a few days ago saying,

Wrangler, I've got a Rubicon, which is the hardcore off-road version, knobbly tires and,

you know, slightly tweaky suspension. And he said, it's all great except that you claim 26

MPG and I've been getting 16. 16. Yeah. And I said, boy, and we had a bit of a back and forth

about it. And he was describing his driving style and I was telling him that I, you know,

how I drive, which is not particularly fast. And I ruminated on this and I finally said to him,

I wonder if your, your car has got something wrong with the trip computer. You know, it might be

set for smaller American gallons. And it seems that that's what's happened. You know, he's done

some manual consumption tests and found that he's getting 23, 24, which is about what you might

expect from a Rubicon with its higher rolling resistance tires. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think,

because that's what mine, mine, inverted commas mine was. And I, from distant memory, I think

low to mid twenties is what I was getting as well. How long did you have that? I don't know.

I mean, it was a couple of months, wasn't it? Yeah, three months, probably, I guess, I guess.

We've done a lot of piles. Yeah. And I like it. But when I remember talking to an engineer from a,

probably won't thank me for saying it. So I'll just say, an engineer from a different company

when they were developing an SUV of their own. And he said, we've had a Wrangler in

and it's not the car that we're going to make. And we don't necessarily think it's an amazing car,

but we really like the honesty about it. And I think that's what I like about them is they are

very, they are a very straightforward car. If I lived in the States, it may well be what I'd have.

Yes. Depending on which state I lived in. Yeah. Because they're not too big over there,

actually. And they're not too expensive over there. And I find them very pleasant on long journeys.

Yeah, me too. They're just something about the flat windscreen and the nice,

you know, that amazingly compact fascia they've got with quite a lot of switchgear in a small

space in the center console, above the center console, but it's, it works. Yeah. It's just,

you know, we've always had a few cars in the old, in the household. And I could imagine a Wrangler

being one of them, especially, you know, after, I could imagine still having it around a place

after 10 years and it would still be perfectly good. And it just makes you feel good with that car.

Yeah, I think so. I'm thinking about, I might have said this before, putting a soft top on

my Land Rover Defender, just to make it a bit more fun, I suppose, a bit more, a bit less of a

somebody had one and said, a friend of mine had one and said, they're just as well insulated as a

hard top, really, because, you know, they don't get any colder. And they're not really, they're

not really that much noisy. They're just, they're just more pleasant. And then you can, you know,

wind up the, roll up the windows when you want to roll back and rolling up the sides of the canopy.

Yeah. In the rear, you know, so that now there's a, I've seen the appeal and of course they look

rather good, don't they? Yeah. And it's never going to replace the car. So we might as well,

I might as well try and make it the sort of car that I want it to be as it falls out of

daily use into being something else. Yeah. And you can stash the hard top somewhere in your garage.

Yeah, probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so. My column mate, did you hear, did you see

the, in the news, a mention of a T plate, T number plate, like a, like a, like an L plate,

but with a T on it. Yes. Yes. So there's a, it was an idea of a Scottish hotelier called Robert

Marshall, who was driving around Tenerife, feeling a bit stressed, local traffic giving him quite

a lot of grief. And he just thought to himself, I just wish I could let other drivers here know

that I was a tourist, and then maybe they'll give me a bit of slack. So he came home,

and it's quite, particularly in Scotland, where most of the world doesn't drive on the same

side of the road that we do. So people come to Scotland to drive the

North Coast drive under it, say, and they just drive, they might be in an unfamiliar car,

they might be on the wrong side of the road, they might be on the wrong side of the car.

So he's come up with an idea of a green T on the back, says tourist underneath,

stick those front and back, and people know that you might not know what you're doing.

It might be a good idea. Yeah. It probably is a good idea. Yeah. But my slight

worry about it, reticence about it, is that I just sort of think, if you can't do it,

don't take the bus. I mean, just if you, if you're not, it's just, I don't know. I just think

when they give out driving licenses, you don't cut them out the back of a zero

packet to, you know, have to prove that you are capable of doing that thing.

That's true. And like, if I go into a French fish munker and go, I can't quite remember the

word for prawn, but I'll figure it out and we'll figure it out between us and it'll be a bit weird

and a bit awkward, but we'll get there in the end and I'll try and that's okay. But that's very

different from jumping into a two tonne SUV and going, well, I'll take it down this dual carriage

where it's 70 and I don't really know what I'm doing or quite where the roads that I go and

blah, blah, blah, but I'll figure it out and I'll put a plate front and back just to let people

know that I don't know what I'm doing with this, with this 1.8 tonne piece of metal. I'm a bit more

redstone about it. I just think, I just sort of think, well, I don't know. I don't, because I also

worry that if people go, well, I've got a plate front and back, I've warned you that I don't know

what I'm doing and that I might drive erratically. Maybe actually, maybe it would be better if they

had the pressure on them to conform with local laws and regulations. I was just trying to think

how I'd feel if I were in foreign parts and all that. I think I'd rather just blend it. The big

thing, of course, is that with your tea plate, you park outside a hotel and it's immediately clear

that your car is the one that probably contains valuable luggage. Yeah, probably. Yeah, it's

a motor every night or you're in trouble. Yeah, and I was thinking, if it was a fight in the

sort of touristy area in Scotland, it may be one thing. Now imagine deciding to put tea plates on

a car in London. I would feel very differently about that. I'd go, hang on a minute, but why

on earth if you weren't comfortable driving, would you try to drive in London? Yeah, I love

and the same should apply. And the same should apply wherever. I agree. So I don't know how I

feel about them. It's probably a good idea, but I'm slightly recent about it, I think. Yeah,

there are definitely some downsides. You can describe the the the the proposer of this as

well-intentioned. Yes, I think so. I feel a bit the same about those green L plates or the P

provisional plates for new drivers. I saw one of those on one of those on the M40 this morning

and the passenger side of the passenger side of the car it was on was basically all stovety.

Okay, yeah, right. Maybe you're not the world's greatest driver, but I don't know. I mean, if

you're you've just you've just passed a theory test, you've just had loads of lessons with an

instructor and examiner has literally just signed you off. You've read the highway code

and been familiarised with the road with the road laws with a with an expert passenger

for the past X number of months. Yeah, the idea that you would therefore be worse than everybody

else around you or somehow somehow need molly coddling through it, I find a bit. Actually,

that as a bloke that kind of clings to a pilot's license, I slightly wonder how I would view getting

on an airplane that had a large P on the nose. Yeah, exactly. You know, they are off to Malaga

with a bloke that doesn't quite know the way. Yeah, it's the first time I've done this, but I'm

sure I'll figure it out. It's just because when you get a the first time you do a motor the first

six motor races, you have to have a novice cross. People are desperate to get rid of them, aren't

they? They do not they do not want them at all. I just yeah, I just think if you just if you're

not worried about it, get the bus. Yeah, or just look up the highway. Okay, fair enough. Yeah, but

it's probably a good idea. Anyway, I think probably best to assume that everybody else is

maybe it works on the north coast 500. It may well do. It may well work out there,

might it, where it is a bit quieter and but but you can probably spot a tourist anyway, can't

you on the north coast 500. I would have thought because they'll be in a fear. Oh, yeah, what's

that cut? What's the? Oh, this state that the hatchback in a state that I honestly forget that

they still sell. Yeah, is it a Kramer? Is it a Maria? I don't know. Oh, God, I've forgotten. No, I

saw one on there. There was a thing that these stages be called a weekend, didn't they? They did

the Maria weekend. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but there was a I saw one, but anyway, they sold it. I think

they sold a lot to higher car fleets. Yeah, you see him with that, because they get the

you know, when they arrive in Bristol and they get registered in the docks down there. So they get

a particular number of letters on the start of the registration plate, don't they?

And I can't remember what it is. Mitsubishi's were also registered now. Okay.

No, I've forgotten. I've forgotten. But anyway, you can spot a

spot high car because it will be one of those. Yeah. That brings us sailing towards the end

of this week's podcast, where I don't know, I feel like I've banged on about stuff. Well,

good luck. Yeah. Excellent. Old man yelling at cloud in most of the time. What have we got coming

up? We've got, well, Steve and I will be back this time next week with a regular podcast.

There are videos online. What have we just had? I just put up the Zenos E10 video yesterday.

I don't know what this week's coming video will be, but as of yesterday, by the time this was

videos published, we're shooting a video Tuesday, where I'm going to try and get 100 miles to the

gallon out of my Audi 80. Oh, excellent. Good. You need to succeed. I hope so. I got a very kind

letter from a listener saying, I work for this racing team. If you need a lorry to sit behind,

let us know. And find, when we're going somewhere, come and find us and sit behind the lorry. And

we won't mind if you slipstream. Yeah, there's sort of 50 miles in there. Well, that'll make a

hell of a difference. That would make a big difference. Are you going to polish it or any

foolish? I'm going to clean it. Yeah. So this weekend, I'm going to clean it and polish it.

And I am going to take out the rear seats and anything else, any loose change or anything

else to try and, and then I suppose I'll pump up the, I suppose I'll pump the tyres up. Yeah.

I had thought about trying to sort out the tracking to make it sure it was going completely straight.

But oh, actually, your advice on this, mate, it's got those little plastic

wind deflectors that run over the edge of the windows. So you can run with the windows slightly

ajar and you don't get so much buffeting. Do you reckon they make the, while they,

while they're better for buffeting inside the car, do you think they make the drag coefficient worse?

I suspect so because the car wasn't built with them. No, that's my thought too.

Yeah. So I might take those off. I might take those off. But I'll leave all the mirrors on.

Oh, big. Everything else. Are you, so you've got a route planned and all that kind of thing?

No, I need to plan that between now and then. But I think I can pretty much trust the trip

computer because I did a, I did a trip the other day where I calibrated it, basically,

to make sure it was about right. And it could be just under or just over, but it's pretty,

it's pretty close to spot on. That may change when I pump the tyres up. So I'll have to do

another calibration run from that point of view. So we'll do a hundred miles for the purpose of

the video and feature. We will do a hundred miles and see over that hundred miles, whether it's

used a gallon. But because of the nature of filling and non-filling, and you could end up with

two petrol pumps not being totally calibrated in the same way as the way they click off and

stuff like that. So I will do a longer run to calibrate the thing, but to make sure I can

trust the trip computer as well. But yeah, it'll be, I'm looking forward to doing it.

I'll bet you are. Yeah, that'll be it. What a fascinating thing it'll be if this is...

I mean, if it can do it, I'll be well pleased. I'll be well pleased.

But so that's coming up soon. And then in the next few weeks, we've got Malcolm Wilson Chat,

we've got it's Skoda's 130th anniversary, so there's a few features and videos coming up for that.

We've got chats with... Just trying to think, I mean, more guest stuff we need to organize.

Well, hang on, we've got... We're going to do this pod in the RAC Club with Ian and David, aren't

we? Ian Callum and David Fairbaird. That's a little way away, but then we'll go online, right?

Yeah, and then Felix Page has met some people, and Mark Tishor has met some people,

and they're going to run on the odd Saturdays too. So there's quite a lot going on.

And then there's all... And then, I hate to say it, the Christmas issues will be upon us.

Yes, they will. We better have some ideas. But the My Week in Cards podcast will be

with you every week, regardless, every Wednesday. That's the deal, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah. That's what we do. Yeah, wouldn't miss it.

No, same. Highlight of my week. Steve, thanks for joining me. Cheers, I'm one.

Thanks, listener. See you next week.

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